2025 Slithers in like a Snake

Gung Hei Fat Choy! Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year of the Snake. To celebrate, I baked several batches of almond cookies and made twenty of these shadowbox treat holders with handles to put them in to share with friends and family.

To make the box, I used a digital cutting file called "Fold Over Box" designed by Pebbles In My Pocket. I enlarged the size of the original template to create a cube shaped box that was 3.75 inches in height, width, and depth to ensure I could get at least 10 medium sized cookies to fit inside. I added a circular cut out to the template for the front of the box and added clear acetate for the window. A round frame cut from gold glitter cardstock was then glued onto the front of the window.

To add the shadowbox to the window, I first created a square tray with a depth of 1/4 inch. I

adhered a square piece of gold foil board which had been embossed with the "Weaving Blocks" embossing folder from Craft Concepts to the inside of the tray. Cutting file for the paper pieced snake was inspired by littlemandyart and created in Make the Cut. The snake was then added to the tray using foam tape for dimension, and finally, the tray was glued to the inside of the box, behind the window. 

On the back of the box, I added a stylized, circular Chinese "fu" character for good luck, cut from gold foil board. Cutting file for this was also created in Make the Cut.

I also made several of these decorated "lai see" or red envelopes to pass out with the boxes of cookies.

Inspired by several similar cute Chinese New Year Snake illustrations on Pinterest, I used Make the Cut Design program to create a cutting file of a snake peeking out of  a red Chinese money bag. 

The gold Asian coins were cut from gold foil board using the "Asian Accessories" die set from Elizabeth Craft Designs. All pieces for the snake and red bag were cut from pearlescent cardstock on the Silhouette Cameo. The snake heads were glued separately onto the envelope flaps so the recipients could lift the heads to access the "gifts" inside.

The good news is that the Year of the Snake promises to bring positive transformation, personal growth and wisdom. Best wishes to all for a year of good health and many happy days of crafting!