Chinese New Year of the Ox

Gung Hee Fat Choy! I put together 15 of these boxes to fill with homemade almond cookies and share with family and friends for Chinese New Year.

According to the Chinese lunar calendar, 2021 hails in as the Year of the Ox, bringing lots of positive vibes; hardwork, honesty, and determination to help us move forward. 

I found  this template for a simple but elegant box with a unique bow tie closure on Pinterest and tried to recreate it in Make The Cut by welding square and rounded square shapes together. I wanted my box to be large enough to hold a dozen cookies so I broke the template apart into 3 separate pieces cut on 2 sheets of 8.5x11" cardstock. After gluing the pieces together, the completed box measured 5.75 inches square with a depth of 2 inches.

I chose a simple illustration of an ox found on Pinterest and the Chinese character for "Ox" and  rendered them into a stencil cuts using Make the Cut Design program. Metallic foil board and text weight Stardream Jupiter papers were used for the stencil cuts and layered to create the medallions for my cookie box. The Chinese ornamental corners were cut from glittered cardstock using Wiki Caps' Asian Design Die.

I used glitter cardstock and an Elizabeth Craft Designs to add the Happy New Year sentiment onto the inside flap.

And here's a peek at the Almond cookies inside!

Here are the Year of the Ox Lai See (lucky red envelopes) I put together for friends and family. 

I used an image of a cute ox vinyl decal to create a cutting file for the paper pieced ox head, adding washi paper for his outfit. The medallion with the Chinese character "Fu" for good luck was cut from gold metallic foil and red glitter cardstocks using Wiki Caps Good Luck Asian die. Stamps used on the back are from Happy New Year set from Dandelion Designs and Classic Sentiments from Waffle Flower.

Happy New Year everyone! Good luck and best wishes! Things have already begun looking up as we patiently wait our turn to get vaccinated and watch our infection rate numbers go down. Take care and continue to keep safe!