Happy New Year! I'm finally getting back to posting again after a long winter's nap!
For my first post of 2021, I'm sharing these Year of the Ox mini calendar magnets I put together. They say the Year of the Ox symbolizes hardwork, honesty, diligence and perseverance; positive attributes which will hopefully help pull us through to recovery from all that 2020 threw at us.
I typically make several dozen of these Chinese zodiac calendar magnets every year to donate to my mom's senior citizen group for their annual craft fair. Unfortunately the craft fair was canceled due to Covid 19 safety precautions, so I decided to send the calendars in a New Years card to family and friends instead.
I tried to keep the card simple by having the Silhouette cut a fan shaped window on the front of the card so the top of the calendar would be visible. "Happy New Year" greeting was added using the print and cut function and the sentiment on the inside was stamped using a stamp from
Mama Elephant Lunar Extras set. I added text weight Stardream gold paper on the inside. Then a small Heiko cellophane sleeve was trimmed to fit the bottom of the calendar and adhered to the card as a pocket. This way the calendar would be the embellishment on the front of my New Years card and can later be slid out by the recipient to use as a calendar.
The inspiration for my calendar this year comes from a clip art image by illustrator Sayo which I purchased from
Pixta. I used Sayo's leaping ox image to create a paper piecing cut file and added pine, bamboo and plum blossom icons as well as a fan background embossed with the Rainbow Wave embossing folder from Couture Creations. Gold metallic and pearlized papers were used as shadows for the cut images and washi paper as a mat for the mini calendar from Impress Cards.
2020 was a long hard journey for many but I'm hoping the New Year of the Ox brings the strength, tenacity and perseverance we all need to thrive. Please continue to stay safe and healthy!
I was so excited to see your first post of 2021. I kept wondering if you were okay. Glad to see the gorgeous card/calendar in your excellent, clear photos. I think you were very clever to create a duo project and did a fantastic job of designing the images. As I mentioned in my email, I am very grateful to have one of your Chinese calendar creations. I luckily can look at it often for inspiration throughout 2021. Mahalo and Happy Year of the Ox!
ReplyDelete