Celebrate the Year of the Dragon

 Happy New Year! This is the first of  my back dated holiday projects posts. 2024 is the Lunar Year of the Dragon and today I'm sharing the card and calendar we sent to family and friends to celebrate the New Year.

I decided to keep the front of the card clean and simple, using plain white cardstock and an old embossing folder from Crafts-Too to add a subtle bamboo with butterfly and dragonfly textured background. 

I used Spellbinders "Sealed Twine" die and gold foil board for the cording and adhered a wax seal. The wax seal was created using Craspire's "Dragon" wax seal stamp purchased on Amazon. I used a Marvy Uchida DecoColor Metallic Paint Pen to highlight the image of the dragon. The "Happy New Year" fishtail banner below it was foiled and cut using Spellbinders "Christmas Sentiments" and "Hexi-Gems Sentiments" hot foil plates and dies.

I enclosed a Year of the Dragon calendar magnet inside each card. The sentiment on the top was computer generated and the clip art of the cute pair of dragons on it comes from the Pixta Japan site.

This year's lunar year calendar magnet could very well be one of the most detailed ones I've created over the years. Of the twelve animals in the Chinese Lunar Zodiac, the dragon is the only mythical creature and probably most revered. Wanting my dragon to be special, I used lots of pearlescent cardstock: three shades of green, two shades of blue as well as red, gold and cream. I started working on these in late summer and finally finished 40 of them in December thanks to a sweet and crafty friend who helped with the assembling.

Our daughter and her family visited for  a week after Christmas so I was able to get a photo to quickly print and add to the back of our cards before sending them out. 

I have a few more New Year of the Dragon crafty goodness I want to share!

Every year I look forward to seeing the daruma lunar year treat holders created by my dear friend Lorna. This year's daruma dragon and "suzu" ceramic bell dragon treat holders are so kawaii! The adorable paper pieced dragons were packaged together with yummy rice crackers and mochi.

I think my mom has been making these fun plastic canvas Chinese Lunar Year animal magnets every year for as long as I have been making my calendar magnets. I guess it's a fun tradition that we share them together with family at our annual New Years family reuinion. 

Thanks for stopping by. I will continue to slowly back post a few of my Christmas projects from 2023 in the weeks to follow. If interested, you can scroll back to see them.