More Crafts for the New Year

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Friday the 31st marked the first day of the Chinese New Year of  the Horse. As you may already know, one of the traditions of this celebration is the passing out of red envelopes filled with money. These envelopes or "lai si" are fairly inexpensive to buy and nowadays come decorated with some of the cutest designs that I usually don't bother spending the time to try to make them.

But after seeing Leanne's super cute and clever New Year hidden message tag holders, I thought they would make great lai si  as well. Had to give it a try! Plus this was the perfect chance for me to finally ink up one of my favorite Sister Stamps images.

I used washi paper for the front of the tag holder and used a Spellbinders nested die to cut the round window for the stamped image to peek out of. Pulling the tag out of the holder reveals a "hidden message" on the inside of the holder. What a neat idea, Leanne!

I colored the Sister Stamps Lion Dance image with Copics and gold Smooch and placed it on a circle cut slightly larger than the window. Added the Chinese character for "good luck" cut on the Silhouette just above it. Then I added a little pocket on the backside of the tag to hold the lai si money. Got these done just in time to mail to my daughter and niece for New Years!

I have a couple more crafty New Years projects to share...

My sweet friend Lorna wowed us once again with her amazing creativity!

Her New Year surprise this year was a stalk of Heavenly Bamboo in it's own little box filled with candy. How cute is that! She used a plastic florist tube to hold and keep the Heavenly Bamboo alive. And I love how she embellished the "box" to look so festive! Can you see the tiny beaded charm hanging from the bamboo on the back of the box? Take a closer look...

Yup! It's a stack of Japanese New Year "kagami mochi" with an orange on top! How does she come up with these things? Simply amazing!

And finally, this last crafty New Year of the Horse creation is from my plastic canvas stitchin' mom...

This is one of those fun block style perpetual calendars, made from plastic canvas stitched with yarn. I apologize for the bad photo and cluttered background...had to snap this picture on my phone since I forgot to take a photo of it before I brought this to work. I think these block calendars are so cool...am thinking of trying this with paper one day...

Till next time, best wishes to all for a year of good health, prosperity and much happiness in 2014!