Sister Stamps Release #18 Available Today!

Just a reminder that the last two stamps of the Sister Stamps Chinese Zodiac series - the Year of the Rabbit and Year of the Dragon - go on sale at your favorite retailers TODAY!
And just in case you missed any of them, here's all 12 of the adorable zodiac animals that were released this year...

Many thanks to all of you who stopped by to visit during each of the these releases. I hope that you were able to get even a little bit of inspiration and see how versatile these wonderful stamps can be. Thank you too, to Denise and Jenny for allowing me to be a part of this fun and learning adventure!
Please stop by the Sister Stamps blog for a list of places you can purchase these stamps to start collecting all 12 of the Chinese Zodiac Animals!

Sister Stamps Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Dragon {and friends!}

Today I'm sharing a project featuring the last of the twelve animals in the Sister Stamps Chinese Zodiac collection, the Year of the Dragon. Isn't he a cutie? LOL, not sure if dragons ever want to be called "cute" but you gotta admit, this one is really CUTE! He sorta reminds me of Mushu, the dragon from Disney's Mulan....but way CUTER!

My project today is actually one that I have been wanting to do from the very beginning when I first learned I would have the honor of joining the DT to introduce the fabulous line of Sister Stamps Chinese Zodiac collection. It includes not only the featured new Year of the Dragon stamp, but all of his other eleven zodiac animal friends as well...

This was pretty much a simple project to put together. I used an inexpensive wall clock purchased from WalMart, took it apart and just replaced the face. Initially I had wanted to include the kanji characters for each of the animals, but ended up leaving them off since it was getting pretty crowded. The diameter of this clock face is 9-1/2 inches; and since my cardstock is 12x12, I really couldn't get too much larger.

I had my Silhouette cut the circles for the face from cardstock and after stamping, coloring and cutting out each of the zodiac animals, they were placed in the order of their years, starting with the Year of the Rat and ending with the Year of the Boar. Black flatback rhinestones were used for the hour markers.

 



Re-introducing (in order of year)... Year of the Rat, Year of the Ox, Year of the Tiger, Year of the Rabbit, Year of the Dragon and Year of the Snake...

 

 ...Year of the Horse, Year of the Ram, Year of the Monkey, Year of the Rooster, Year of the Dog, and finally Year of the Boar.

And there you have it, the entire fabulous line of animals from the Sister Stamps Chinese Zodiac Collection! Have you begun collecting yet? The New Year 2014 isn't too faraway...it will be the Year of the Horse...lol, get started on decorating your calendars soon!

Please stop by to visit the blogs of our Design Team to see their fun creative projects! Leaving a comment on Jenny's post over at the Sister Stamps blog and Linda's You Tube video enters you in two chances to win the new Year of the Dragon stamp!

 

Linda: Sweet and Sassy Creations

Linda's You Tube video: Lfundoo

Laura: By TKG

Patti:   Creations By Patti

Jenny:  Sister Stamps Blog

      

Sister Stamps Release #18: Year of the Rabbit

It's time for the release of the last two animals in the Sister Stamps Chinese Zodiac stamp collection, the Year of the Rabbit and Year of the Dragon. My project today is a Tsukimi gift bag featuring the adorable Year of the Rabbit stamp.

Around this time of the year, many cultures around the world celebrate the harvest moon. In Japan, the event is called "Otsukimi" or "Moon Viewing" Festival and is based on an old folktale about the rabbit in the moon. In this heartwarming tale, the rabbit offers to jump into a fire to provide himself as a meal to a hungry beggar (who is really the moon god in disguise). Touched by the rabbit's kindness, the moon god takes the rabbit back to live with him in the moon forever. And so to this day, when the moon is clear and full, the Japanese say you can still see the rabbit in the moon. During Otsukimi, displays of Japanese pampas grass or "susuki" are seen decorating homes and mochi dumplings (tsukimi dango) are offered to the gods for a bountiful harvest.  Families and friends gather to retell the story of the rabbit in the moon and celebrate, honor, and view the beauty of the harvest moon together.

In addition to the new Year of the Rabbit stamped image, I added other traditional icons related to the Otsukimi festivities to decorate my gift bag. The tsukimi dango (mochi dumplings), offering tray and moon were simply created with circle and square punches; the pampas grass, and grass were handcut; and the kanji characters for "tsukimi" were cut on my Silhouette.

  

Thought this little gift bag would be cute to hold mochi and other treats for giving during the Otsukimi celebration.

For more fun and creative ideas using the two new Chinese Zodiac stamp releases, be sure to stop in to visit the blogs of the our other DT members as well as the Jenny at the Sister Stamps blog.  Don't forget to leave a comment over at the Sister Stamps blog for your chance to win this adorable Year of the Rabbit stamp! And hope you'll get a chance to stop by again tomorrow for our preview of the Year of the Dragon stamp...

Linda: Simple and Sassy Creations

Laura: By TKG                    

Patti:   Creations By Patti

Jenny: Sister Stamps Blog

Sister Stamps Release #16: Available Today!

Today's release day! Be sure to head on over to your favorite craft and online stores to get your stamps from this new release today. For the list of stores, please see the sidebar at the Sister Stamps blog.

Many thanks to all that joined us for this fun release preview...hope you'll come back again at the end of September when we showcase the last two animals in the Sister Stamps Chinese Zodiac collection, the Year of the Rabbit and Year of the Snake.



 

Sister Stamps Release #16: Year of the Tiger

Today I'm sharing my second project for Sister Stamps Release #16, this time featuring the Year of the Tiger stamp from the Chinese Zodiac Collection. Isn't she adorable? Definitely one of my faves in this collection!

I colored her up with Copics and placed her on a background of bamboo...created by inking up a Darcy bamboo embossing folder and running it through the Big Shot. The kanji character at the top is "tora" or "Tiger", rendered into a cutfile in MTC and cut with the Silhouette. Altho this looks like a card, it's actually meant to be a box, or a holder for what's inside...

...a little Tiger charm to hang from your purse or keyring...

I have been itching to try some shrink art with these Chinese Zodiac animals for some time now, and was really pleased at how this turned out!

Tiger image was stamped onto white shrink plastic, colored, then cut out. I used a 1/8" hand punch to punch a hole at the top of the Tiger's head and  baked it on a foil lined pan in a toaster oven set at 300 degrees, allowing it to shrink, leaving it in till it was fully flattened...about 8 minutes. The finished size of the charm turned out to be about 1/3rd the size of the original stamped image.

I placed a jump ring through the tiny hole on the charm, added a bell and strap finding. Secured the charm by sewing it onto cardstock and placed it inside the recessed window "box".

Then on the left side panel, I added the personality traits for people born in the Year of the Tiger.
This was surprisingly quick and easy...and I can't wait to try and make all  12 zodiac animals into little shrink plastic charms...wouldn't it make a very cute charm bracelet?
To learn how you can win this adorable Year of the Tiger stamp or any of the rest of the cute Sea Friends stamps in Release #16, head on over to the Sister Stamps blog before midnite tonight. And definitely check out the Design Team blogs for their amazing creative projects featuring stamps from this new release.

Jenny:   Sister Stamps Official Blog
Debi:     Crafty Buzz
Eva:       Crafting This And That
Kerry:    Kerry Is Chilling
Patti:      Creations By Patti
Laura:    By TKG
Linda:    Simple and Sassy Creations
Linda's You Tube Channel:  Lfundoo's Channel

 

Sister Stamps Release #16: Year of the Ox

It's time for Sister Stamps Release #16, and included with this newest release are the Chinese Zodiac Year of the Ox and Year of the Tiger stamps. Today I'm sharing an anniversary card I created using the new Year of the Ox stamp together with the Year of the Rat stamp (from Release #14). 

When my daughter and son in law were first dating, we were pleased to learn that he was born in the Year of the Ox, a good match (according to Chinese astrology) for her, who was born in the Year of the Rat. LOL, I know it sounds silly but coming from Asian roots, our family tends to hold on to these traditional beliefs. In fact, there is a very cute folk legend about the Chinese zodiac animals which explains how the clever Rat got to be the first and the strong, kindhearted Ox became the second animal in the 12 year cycle of the Chinese Zodiac. (Click on the link to read the story)

For this card, I decided to color the Ox and Rat in nontraditional fun colors to give it a whimsical feel...remember Paul Bunyan's blue ox? (I think this ox is waaaay cuter!) The Chinese character behind them is the Chinese symbol for "shuang xi" or "double happiness". MTC was used to create the cutfile for the symbol, cut in red cardstock and sprayed with Tsukineko Sparkle spritz.

Placed the symbol and stamped images onto gold cardstock and washi paper and onto a gatefold style card...

...and to keep the gatefold nicely closed, I added little square tabs to top and bottom on the right side of the card to slip into the gap on left side of the card.

The gatefold card opens...

...with some interesting Chinese astrology info on  relationship compatibility between the Ox and Rat...

...And this flips open for the anniversary greeting inside.

 

I guess this card would also work as a fun and novel kind of wedding card, by using the Chinese zodiac animals of the year the bride and groom were born.

Hope you've had the chance to pop in at the Sister Stamps blog to see the adorable sea creatures in this newest release and possibly even win one! And please check out the Design Team blogs for some fabulous inspiration on what you can create with these new stamps:

 

Jenny: Sister Stamps Official Blog

Debi:   Crafty Buzz

Eva:     Crafting This And That

Kerry:  Kerry's Chilling

Patti:    Creations By Patti

Laura:  By TKG

Linda:  Simple and Sassy Creations

Linda on You Tube: Lfundoo's Channel

 





Sister Stamps Release 14 On Sale Today!

Today's the day Sister Stamps newest stamps go on sale! In addition to the Year of the Boar and Year of the Rat stamps we previewed the past two days, the much anticipated trio of adorable mermaids are also part of this new release. The list of places you can purchase these are posted over at the Sister Stamps blog.

Once again, many thanks to Jenny for allowing me to participate in this fun preview, and to everyone who dropped in to visit. Hope you can visit again at the end of this month for more Sister Stamps fun!

Sister Stamps Release #14: Year of the Rat

Hello again! Today I'm sharing a card featuring the new Sister Stamps Year of the Rat stamp from the Chinese Zodiac Collection being released tomorrow.

I decided to make a special "Yakudoshi" birthday card with the Year of the Rat stamp. According to some Japanese beliefs, the yakudoshi years are specific years of calamity and bad luck; one of the most crucial being the year a man turns 42. Families often hold a large party to celebrate a man's 41st birthday to ward off the bad luck for the coming year. With that being said, if  you're invited to attend a yakudoshi party this year, the birthday boy was born in the Year of the Rat (1972).

Wanted to include traditional symbols of good luck on my yakudoshi card...so the first thing I did was print up the kanji characters for "good luck" or "ko'un" on the background cardstock. I especially liked the stylized look of these characters, found over at KanjiStyle.com. It's a great site which offers several free kanji image downloads and even gives suggestions on suitable kanji characters to be used on greeting cards for different occasions.

Next, I chose to use a paper pieced image of a lucky mallot, or "uchide no kozuchi", a familiar Japanese motif used to represent good luck and good fortune. For this, I found a coloring book-like image and had MTC render it into a cutfile.

Once the main panel was completed, I decided to use it on a joy-fold style card. (Tutorial for this by Beate Johns is at Splitcoast Stampers.) Embossed the panel on the right using an embossing folder from the Cuttlebug Asian Bundle and lightly sprayed it with Tsukineko Gold Spritz for a bit of sparkle.

For the back panel, I chose a washi paper that had images of bamboo, pine and plum blossoms...known to the Japanese as "Sho Chiku Bai", which are classic traditional symbols of longevity and resistance to hardship. Then finally I finished off with strands of gold mizuhiki cord tied into a knot to keep my card closed.

For more sneak peeks of this new Sister Stamps release, be sure to hop on over to visit the rest of the DT...you're sure to be delighted at all the creativity going on! Just click on the links below...

 

Jenny: Sister Stamps Official Blog

Debi: Crafty Buzz

Mimi: Cuddles of Love

Linda: Simple and Sassy Creations

Patti: Creations By Patti

Laura: By TKG

 

Sister Stamps Release #14: Year of the Boar

Thank you for joining me as we preview the release of the next in the series of Sister Stamps Chinese Zodiac Collection. My first project showcases the new Year of the Boar stamp...awww... isn't he adorable? I've colored him up in pink (so I guess he looks more like a baby boar) and used him to dress up this little easel tissue box card I put together.



The inspiration for this tissue box card comes from one created and shared by Kim Weber of Nana's Keepsakes. For instructions on how to put the basic box together, check out this  video tutorial by Dee Slater of Create! with Dee.  I did few changes to Dee's the original design; one was to move the position of the opening where the tissues are dispensed from the center to the edge of the box. (I used Spellbinders Label Four die to cut the opening instead of a punch).  And since I wanted my tissue holder to close up like a card, I extended the base about an inch longer on the bottom.

Next, I attached an easel type card to the top, adding paper roses from All Natural Accents as the stop, and a length of ribbon to keep the card closed. With summer allergy & cold season just around the corner, thought this might be a cute card to have on hand for an ailing friend.

Please be sure to stop in to visit the rest of the DT members today to check out their creative projects using the adorable stamps in this new Sister Stamps release!

 

Jenny: Sister Stamps Blog

Debi: Crafty Buzz

Mimi: Cuddles of Love

Linda: Simple and Sassy Creations

Patti: Creations By Patti

Laura: By TKG   

 

Hope you'll get a chance to come back again tomorrow; I'll be sharing a project showcasing Sister Stamps new Year of the Rat stamp.     

Sister Stamps Release #12 Day!

Sister Stamps Release #12 stamps are available for purchase from today! These adorable new Boys Day and Chinese Zodiac stamps are sure to sell out quickly so run to your favorite local retailers or online stores to grab them soon. Check out the sidebar over at the Sister Stamps blog for the list of places you can get these cuties from.
Thank you again for joining us during this new release. We'll be back again at the end of May for Sister Stamps next new release with more sneak peek projects featuring the next two Chinese Zodiac animals, the Year of the Pig and Year of the Rat. Hope to see you then!

Year of the Rooster Easter Surprise

Happy Easter, everyone! I'm back today with my second project from Sister Stamps Release #12. This time featuring the new Year of the Rooster stamp from Chinese Zodiac Collection. Being that today is Easter, I just couldn't resist showcasing this darling rooster on an Easter surprise treat bag. What's the surprise? Pull up the the tab on the front of the bag to see....

...Easter egg "hatches" open to show a little chick and all the chocolate eggs inside!
Doesn't "papa" rooster look so proud to see his little baby?

This Easter cuteness is a brainstorm of cleverness from Andrea Walford...original template and tutorial for her Easter Peek a Boo Gable Box can be found on her blog, Sunny Stampin'. Since I don't own the oval Coluzzle template needed to cut the window in the box, I created a similar template for mines in MTC. I also ended up decreasing the depth of the box from it's original 1-1/2" to 3/4", mostly because it would take an ENTIRE bag of chocolate eggs to fill the larger sized box. (LOL, yeah, I'm "CHEEP"!) The little chick is a digital stamp from Azadi Images, banner is a cut from the Cricut Wedding Solutions cartridge, and corner embellishments were diecut from Provocraft's Vintage set.
For more sneak peeks of projects using Sister Stamps newest Release #12, be sure to stop in to visit the rest of the the DT blogs today!

Jenny: Sister Stamps Blog

Debi: Crafty Buzz

Vera: Lings Happy Place

Linda: Simple and Sassy Creations

Patti: Creations by Patti

Laura: By TKG

New Sister Stamps Release #12

Hi all! Welcome back as we preview the stamps from Sister Stamps Release #12, which includes the next two Chinese Zodiac stamps, the Rooster and Dog. My project today features the adorable new Year of the Dog stamp. As many of you already know, I am an avid dog lover who often decorates gift bags during special holidays to fill with treats and toys for my doggie Latte to give to her doggie pals. So of course the first thing that came to mind when I saw this sweet dog image was to create a gift for a doggie friend...uh, or at least for a fellow dog owner friend! Can you guess what this might be? Kind of looks like a pocket calendar or checkbook cover, doesn't it?

From the backside, it looks sort of like an envelope with a tabbed closure...

Look inside and you'll find...

Doggie treat bags! I stamped directly onto the sandwich bags with permanent StazOn ink to decorate them. LOL, you might have to be a dog lover to understand this, but I know several ladies who always keep ziplock sandwich bags in their purses just so they can take their leftovers from eating out home to their faithful canine companions. Thought this little holder might be kind of a cute and convenient way to store those baggies in their purses. Can't easily tell from the photos, but if you look closely, you'll see that the holder is encased in plastic so it can be easily kept in your purse without getting worn. The plastic cover was created by slipping the holder into clear page protector, trimming it to fit and sealing with an electric bag sealer. Kind of a fun and novel project, huh.

Okay, please head on over to the blogs of the rest of the DT members to check out their fabulous projects featuring this new release:

 

Jenny:     Sister Stamps Blog 

Debi:       Crafty Buzz

Vera:       Lings Happy Place

Linda:      Simple and Sassy Creations

Patti:        Creations by Patti

Laura:      By TKG

 

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for to get a peek at my project using the new Year of the Rooster stamp!



Sister Stamps Release 11: It's Release Day!

Woo Hoo! Today is the day we've all been anxiously awaiting....it's Release Day for the five brand new Sister Stamps images! Head on over to your favorite craft store to grab yours before they're gone. For a listing of retailers here in Hawaii or online check out the listing on the side bar over at Sister Stamps official blog.

Sincere thanks to all of you who stopped by to visit during release week.  Hope you'll join us once again at the end of March when we introduce the next two Chinese Zodiac Animals, Year of the Rooster and Year of the Dog...see 'ya then!

 

Sister Stamps Release #11: Valentines Day Treats!

Remember how I mentioned before about how versatile the new Sister Stamps Chinese Zodiac animal stamps can be? Well, with Valentines Day just around the corner, I just couldn't resist using the new Year of the Monkey and Year of the Sheep stamps to start working on my first Valentine goodies for the year!

I put together this darling little monkey one first. Simply colored him up with Copics, cut him out and placed him on this "Flatbacked Treat Box". Double heart cutout was created in MTC by welding two heart outlines together; added a bow, a tiny punched tag (EK Success), and a cute Valentine sentiment on a scalloped circle (Spellbinders Nestabilities). A few more cute Valentines sentiments came to mind that might be perfect for this as well. How about... "Bananas For You"...."Let's Monkey Around".... "To My Favorite Swinger"... lots of possibilities!

Had so much fun with the first one that I just had to make one using the Year of the Sheep stamp too! Outline heart and "Love Ewe" in the background are cutfiles created in MTC (LD Charming ttf). And of course the creative possibilities with this adorable Year of the Sheep stamp are limitless... Thank "Ewe" cards, Happy Birthday to "Ewe" cards, "Ewe" are Special cards...just to name a few. ("EWE" know what I mean? LOL, sorry, I couldn't resist!)

The original template for this "Flatbacked Treat Box" comes from Patti Gilliam over at the Splitcoaststampers Tutorial page. There's also a video tutorial by Beate Johns which I found helpful on the bottom of the same page. I think Patti G's box is just the perfect size for holding Hershey Nugget chocolates, but since I wanted to use Dove Chocolates in mine, I adjusted the sizing of the box a bit, decreasing the depth to 0.5" and length to 3.5". The finished height of the entire thing is 4.5" and is just the right size to hold 3 Dove Chocolate Hearts.

Although I created my re-sized box as a cutfile on MTC, the template is simple enough to do with a paper cutter or pair of scissors...

Using a sheet of cardstock 5.5" x 8", you can use this MTC screenshot to create and handcut your own template for this box. The numbers in red indicate the placement of the box flaps as well as the scorelines. Score your cardstock first then trim down to the scorelines as shown for the box flaps. Or if you prefer, as always, the cutfile for this is available just for the asking.The instructions for assembling the box are the same as provided on Beate John's video tutorial. Very quick and easy!

And if you haven't had a chance to do so yet, you must go check out the fabulous project samples for this new release created by the other guest designers as well as over at the Sister Stamps blog!

Patti:  Creations By Patti

Linda: Simple and Sassy Creations

Laura:  By TKG

Debi:  Crafty Buzz

Suilan:   Sweetland Paper Treats

Sister Stamps Release #11: Year of the Sheep

Yay! It's time for another Sister Stamps new release. This time I'm back with the second pair of Chinese Zodiac stamps, the Sheep and Monkey, which will be available for purchase this Friday.
I've decided to share a birthday card I came up with using the Year of the Sheep stamp...isn't he adorable? This one holds a special place in my heart because my mother in law, hubby and myself were born in the year of the sheep. Ooops....did I just give away my old age?
For the background paper on the front of the card, I added the years associated with the Year of the Sheep (Gabriola ttf) onto some red tone digital paper purchased from Lettering Delights. Thought it was kind of fun that you can customize and print up your own paper that way. Used Copics to add a bit of color to my sheep and placed him on a circle on which I had printed "Born in the Year of the Sheep" (Calligrapher ttf) using the WordArt function in Microsoft Word.

Over to the right of the main image, I added a gold tabbed "flap" which I embossed using the Spellbinders Asian  M-Bossalities folder. Kanji for "hitsuji" or "sheep" is a cutfile created in MTC from a Google Image search.

Then inside the little tabbed pocket, I added a little removable insert which describes some of the personality traits associated with people born in the Year of the Sheep...

And here's a shot of the inside of the card with the Happy Birthday greeting. Thought this would be kind of neat card to give to someone born in the Year of the Sheep. Of course you could do this same idea using any of the Chinese Zodiac animals for friends born in any other year!

Okay now, don't forget to go visit the blogs of my fellow guest designers today for more fun ideas for this new Sister Stamps Release! Click on the links below to take you directly to their sites:

 

Patti: Creations By Patti

Linda: Simple and Sassy Creations

Laura: By TKG  

Debi: Crafty Buzz

Suilan: Sweetland Paper Treats

Please come back to visit again tomorrow, I'll have yet another Sister Stamps Zodiac project to share with you!

Welcome 2013!

Happy New Year! We celebrated the first day of 2013 together with our extended family, spending time catching up on each others' lives, watching the bowl games on TV and eating way too much! I put together a dozen of these decorated gable boxes filled with homemade treats to share with each family. Originally, I had designed a box for my New Years treats back in November during the Sister Stamps Chinese Zodiac release. *Sigh* I had high hopes of getting started early on those in time for New Years, but as you can see that didn't happen!

I fell behind schedule before Christmas and didn't have time to start on the boxes till after Christmas so I had to keep the decorating  down to something quicker and simpler. I used Sister Stamps Year of the Snake image, mounted onto an octogon shaped gold cardstock run through a Cuttlebug embossing folder. Had my Silhouette cut the Japanese kanji character "Hebi" for snake. Red patterned paper background panel is from My Little Shoebox, Aiko Collection.

As it turned out, the original gable box design I had chosen to use back in November was a bit too small to hold my treats, so I ended up changing it at the last minute to this larger one (6-3/4"H x 6-1/2"W x 3-1/2"D), which could easily hold a dozen cookies.Template for this one was also found on the internet and converted into a workable cut file in Make the Cut.
Chinese New Year is coming up soon (February 10th) and these were pretty quick, so I'm thinking I may make up a few more of these....