Sunday, January 12, 2014

Chinese New Year never-ending card

My Crafting with Dragonflies teamie Susan is the new coordinator at UnstampaBelles, the blog that challenges you each month to create something without using any stamps at all! Quite a feat, really.

The January theme at UnstampaBelles is "New beginnings + New product/technique" so I decided to make a 30th birthday card using the new-to-me Never-ending Card technique.

I decided to make a Chinese New Year card, as it's coming up at the end of January. I used papers from Graphic 45's Bird Song collection.

Mom and I recently took a class at Scraps of Love with Leslie Foley to make a Never-ending Scrapbook page, and a fellow crafter also showed us how to make a smaller card version. I've never made my own from scratch, however, so I used the Never-ending Card tutorial at Dawn's Stamping Thoughts (she also has a video tutorial here).




Every time I make a Chinese New Year card, I have a bit of a panic about whether or not the images I'm using are actually Chinese. You'd think I'd be a bit more confident after going through this a few times, but it never hurts to do your research again (well, basically Wikipedia). As I always learn, the "Chinese" calendar New Year is celebrated throughout Southeast Asia, and was recognized by Japan until the late 1800s (Wikipedia again). One reason I was worried is that I'm 99% sure that the papers & stickers I used are Japanese-inspired, but I think it works! The larger images are fussy-cut from actual Chinese New Year gift envelopes that I got from our local Asian grocery. The banners were also cut from these envelopes.

I had a great time using the Glitter Masking with Outline Stickers technique. It's definitely time-consuming, but worth it.

The gold paper I used for the backings and the message page is really thin, so when I ran it through my BigShot in an embossing folder, some of the pieces were cut out. But I think it's definitely a happy mistake!

Inspiration/Challenges:
The Corrosive Challenges #190: New Beginnings
Digistamps 4 Joy #83: Glitter/Sparkle
Make My Monday: (C6) Embossing (heat-embossing on horse and dry embossing on gold paper)
Quick Quotes #35: A Bright and Shiny New Year
Unstampabelles: New Beginnings (no stamps!) + Optional Twist: Use new product/technique

Update: This placed in the Top 3 for Quick Quotes #35! Thank you!
My mom's friend saw this card and ordered 10 similar cards!


Thank you for visiting,

10 comments:

  1. CG this is a very beautiful card great shape.
    Thanks for join us at
    {Digistamps4Joy DT Member}

    Karin

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  2. Thanks so much for joining in at MMM this week - your card is lovely - Jacqueline xx

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  3. I love happy mistakes! Your card is amazing - and informative,as I didn't realise it was the Year of the Horse! Great card - all that lovely shimmeryness and sparkle - and well and truly in the mode of our challenge. New Beginnings and new techniques and NO STAMPS! Thanks for joining in the fun at Unstampabelles!

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  4. Your colors really pop - hit out of the park!

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  5. Such a wonderful card….love all the papers and stickers and a terrific style. I agree I think the missing pieces of gold are perfect. So great to see you as part of Unstampabelles.

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  6. Great card! And I agree, totally a happy mistake to have those pieces end up getting cut out. Thanks for joining us at UnstampaBelles.

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  7. Great job! Thanks so much for participating in our UNSTAMPABELLES challenge!! Hope to see you again for our next challenge!!
    ~DEANNE~
    A Little Bit O' Paper

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  8. This is a fabulous card. I've never seen anything like it. Thanks for joining us at the Corrosive Challenge. Good luck and hope to see you again soon!

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  9. Such a beautiful creative card! I love the images and the folds!

    Thank you for playing along with us at Quick Quotes this month!!!

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  10. This card is perfect for the Chinese New Year! Fabulous! Thanks for stopping by Quick Quotes and doing the challenge!

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