Chinese New Year Treats

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Based on the traditional lunar calendar, Thursday (February 19) marked the first day of the Chinese New Year and the beginning of Year of the Sheep. Baked up batches of hubby's favorite almond cookies again this year and put together some Year of the Sheep boxes to put them in for giving to friends and family.

I chose to make octagonal boxes again this year to hold my cookies, just a little bit different than the ones from last year. Got the freebie cutfile for these from SVG Cuts. I really liked the unusual shape of this box...difficult to tell from my photos, but the bottom half of this box gently flares out to give it a slightly wider base than its top. Also liked the idea of the shadow box type window on the cover...the original box from SVG Cuts comes with a pretty heart shaped window which I swapped out for a lantern shape instead.

Another unique design feature I love on this box is its wide scalloped edge lid.

The lantern shapes for the window were created by welding rectangle and oval shapes in MTC. The cover on this box is four layers thick...a top red cover layer embossed with a folder from Cuttlebug Asian bundle, a shiny gold foil layer for the window frame, the mat gold inset embossed with a plum blossom folder also from the Cuttlebug Asian bundle, and finally the slightly larger black cardstock layer which peeks out from the edges as a border. 

I chose a Chinese papercut style design for my sheep and added the character for "sheep". I'm always intrigued by the intricacy and details on Chinese papercuts and was thrilled to find an image that could be easily rendered into a cutfile and cut on my Silhouette machine.
An interesting and amusing thing I came across while searching the web for inspiration for my cookie box this year...the Chinese character and word "yang" apparently refers to any member of the sheep genre, which explains why many of the Chinese zodiac images for this year look more like "goats" than sheep. Many refer to this year as being the "Year of the Goat". I thought this was especially funny since  earlier I had mentioned how hubby (who was born in the Year of the Sheep)  was so insistent that this was the Year of the RAM", not "sheep". LOL, wonder how he would feel about being called just an "OLD GOAT"?!!!

Special Delivery Valentines

Happy, Happy Valentines Day! This year I made these fun post office drop box type mailboxes to help me share the love with special friends and family. The svg cutfile for these adorable boxes were designed by the super talented Mary Kowal, and may be purchased at her site, SVG Cuts. Love that all the pieces needed put this project together cut so clean, and that assembly video tutorials are provided for every project.

I used Bazzill Bling Feather Boa for the mailbox bases and some fun heart patterned cardstock from MMBI to decorate the front door and side inset panels. The round medallions on the side panels were designed using Calibiri and Armonioso fonts in Microsoft Word and cut out with circle punches.

On the front door, I added a paper pieced teddy from the "SWAK" file from Designs On Cloud 9. Thought he looked so cute peeking out of his little envelope filled with hearts!

Then a "Special Delivery" banner with scalloped heart and flower accents were created in Make the Cut and added to the top of the mailbox.

The finished size of this is quite large, 6-1/2" tall, 5" wide, 3-3/4" deep...but what I loved most about this is how the door on the front drops down so you can fill these up with lots of goodies! I baked up a couple batches of Cranberry Shortbread cookies (recipe from Craisins website) and filled each mailbox with over a dozen cookies with still lots of room to spare. Unfortunately, with the day for Chinese New Years falling so close to Valentines Day this year, I only had time enough to make ten of these...so much fun to put together but a little time consuming...darned, wish I had gotten started earlier!
Hope everyone is having a wonderful time celebrating the love this weekend!

"Whale-Come" Baby!

Here's a card I recently made to celebrate the birth of a co-worker's grandson. Before he was born I found out that his nursery was being decorated with a nautical theme so I tried to keep with the theme for his card.I was happy to learn that baby's name was "LOGAN"... a five-letter name, which meant I could use the same building blocks card template I had created for the last baby card I made again...yay!

On the front of the card, I used the cute whale cut from Cricut's B is for Boy cartridge together with a sailboat cut created in MTC from an image found on the web. Scallop edge borders to simulate waves were created in MTC as well. I used adhesive foam squares to pop the layers of "waves" to try to create the look of different depths of water for the sailboat and whale. Background cardstock was embossed using Sizzix Stars and Swirls folder.

This is what the Building Blocks card looked like on the inside. Busted out my old Quickutz dies to decorate the inside of this card....Mini Blossom font die for the alphas on the blocks and 2x2 dies for the dolphins.

Here's the view from the top. As you can see, I completely snipped away the thin cardstock pieces between the blocks (which normally fold towards the back of the blocks) and replaced them with a single solid piece of cardstock in blue in hopes to make the card a little bit more durable.

I won't lie and say this was an easy card for me...LOL...anytime I have to take out my exacto knife and ruler to make a card you can bet I struggled! But I did have fun with the decorating and maybe if I do this a few more times, I'll eventually get the hang of it?

Yakudoshi Koi

Once in awhile events occur that make me stop and think, "Wait...am I that OLD already?" Such was the case when we recently received an invite to a Yakudoshi birthday party for the "little boy" who was the ring bearer at our wedding..."WHAT? He's 41 years old ALREADY?!!!"
Mark's birthday invitation was a lovely Asian style card with a picture of a koi on it, symbolic in Asian cultures as representing strength and overcoming adversity. Very appropriate, since the Yakudoshi years are considered the turbulent years in one's life, and the reason for the big celebration being a way for friends and family to bring good luck.

I decided to go with the koi theme and was happy to have the chance use the cutfile I had created a while back for my dad's koi birthday card again. Remembering the difficulties I ran into last time, I spent a little extra time re-working the original cutfile so it would cut cleaner; and chose a thinner, text weight paper with a less porous, smooth pearlized finish.. Much more pleased with the results this time around!

Then instead of trying to color the koi, this time around I cut a blackout image from some pretty orange prismatic paper (Best Occasions Prismatic Paper Pack). Really liked how the shimmer of this paper reminded me of the shiny reflection of scales on koi swimming in a pond. I added a little dimension by using foam tape to attach the fish to their gold foil shadows.
Adhered the koi and a layered cut of the kanji character "fuku" for good fortune in a recessed window card with a half inch depth. (Tutorial for this by Lynn Mercurio at Splitcoast Stampers, here) For the background inset, I used blue pearlized paper and Spellbinders Asian M-Bossibilities folder to create the Asian wave pattern.

Kept the inside of the card plain and simple. Just added a mini red envelope for a monetary gift, held in place with a gold gift card holder, cut using Jaded Blossom's Gift Card die. Had fun putting this card together; and I hope it brings enough good luck to help our grown up ring bearer sail through his yakudoshi year with ease!

Welcome In the New Year with Bamboo and Pine

So excited today to share this amazing New Years surprise my fabulously creative friend Lorna brought by for me on our return to work after the holidays.

Lorna created this beautiful arrangement of bamboo, pine and flowers known as "kadomatsu" (which translates to "Gate Pine"). Displaying "kadomatsu" at the front entrance of your home or business is a Japanese tradition which is supposed to ward off evil and bring good luck for the New Year. Lorna used cardstock to create the different lengths of bamboo (representing heaven, humanity and earth); added sprigs of pine (for longevity and endurance); cherry blossoms and a paper chrysanthemum (cut on her Silhouette) for a splash of color; and tied everything together with twine...just like the real thing!

But that's not all...turns out that this amazing paper kadomatsu arrangement by Lorna is more than just a display...the stand is actually a box with a drawer that slides out, filled with yummy treats! WOW, right?!!!!

And this is the lovely thank you card that came along with it.

Lorna stamped and colored up images from Dandelion Designs brand new "Teeny Weeny Garden" set to create this irresistibly kawaii scene for her adorable card...love it! Lorna's limitless imagination and talent to always come up with the funnest, one of a kind projects is truly remarkable. I'm can hardly wait to see what she'll create next!

A Homemade Holiday

I was excited to receive so many wonderful homemade surprises from crafty friends once again this Christmas! Scroll down to get a closer look at each little treasure...

Handcrafted cookie goodness from sweet Heather...we look forward to these adorable decorated cuties every Christmas...YUM!

A trio of holiday angels from amazingly creative Lorna! Seriously, this girl always blows me away with the MOST original ideas. I would love to peek into her brain to learn how she consistently comes up with such unique and imaginative creations.

Case in point...this awesome embossed four sided pyramid box tree topped with an angel winged Sister Stamps Kiyomi in flight, holding an origami crane! 

And how about this sweet angel treat holder made using Dandelion Designs kokeshi head with a condiment cup covered with a lace doily for her body? Yes, amazing....very amazing!

This adorable Christmas card and super sweet coaster calendar were created by my best blogging pal from the Big Island, Karen of Have A Scrap Happy Day blog. She puts together the cutest cards with beautifully stamped and colored images, always perfectly paired with die cuts and lots of fun embellishing. 

Simply LOVED this really unique and special swing type card from dear Aunty Mollie. Don't think I've ever seen a card like this before....definitely need to ask her about how she created this beauty next time I see her! The glittery trees on the front are epoxy stickers...they really add such an elegant touch!

Here's a closeup shot of the super cute bag my gifts from Kris came in. Awww....totally adorable, right? Kris always does the best paper pieced creations. Love all the embossing on the background and layered tree... and who could resist that super sweet Santa teddy?

And OMG! How cute is this Pochacco tag that came with Kris' gift? Kawaii to the max!

Uh, oh! Cuteness overload!!! That's what I thought when I first saw this lovable little elf on a thank you card from sweet Gwen. I believe this little feller's a punch art creation...completely and very creatively paper pieced together using many different paper punches....ingenious!!!!

My last card to share is this amazing thank you card created by Patti of Creations By Patti blog. Darn! I tried very hard, but was unable to capture the subtle glittery shimmer on the background of this card...so BEAUTIFUL irl!!! And of course that kawaii paper pieced happy snowflake had me all smiles!

I was thrilled and delighted to receive so many wonderful homemade cards and goodies this year. All the time and thought and love spent on creating each of these is truly appreciated and certainly warmed my heart this Christmas. Thank you so very much!!!!

Ramming in with the Year of the Sheep

Happy New Year! A big hearty welcome to the Year of the Sheep...or Year of the Ram...as hubby would correct me. All just a matter of semantics, but I guess men prefer to be called "Rams" instead of "Sheep". Hubby and I were both born in the Year of the Sheep, and that could be the reason why he was more concerned than usual when I was putting together some things to share with our family at our annual New Years luncheon.
I could tell that he wasn't particularly pleased when I made the 2015 Year of the Sheep easel calendar card earlier last year...(too cutesy and feminine?) Then while I was searching for an image to use to decorate treat jars for New Years, he made a comment about rams and horns.
Okay, okay...compromise....how about a ram with horns that's still a little bit cute?

Hubby was pleased.

Had MTC create a cutfile for the ram (by Daikonko) and Japanese kanji for "hitsuji" or "sheep" with shadow layers. Images were cut on the Silhouette Cameo, paper pieced and adhered with foam tape onto a circle shape which had been run through one of the embossing folders from Cuttlebug's Asian Bundle. Wrapped a strip of red/gold washi paper around the bottles and tied a bow on each.

Still had a couple unopened boxes of cereal left from Christmas so we used it to make up another batch of cereal snacks, this time using Asian flavors and adding macadamia nuts. Filled a dozen quart size bottles...I just love that these bottles are pretty much quick and easy to decorate.
Hope everyone had a fun and safe holiday season!  Being that 2015 is "our year" hubby and I are looking forward to a GREAT YEAR for all our friends and family!