Year of Rabbit

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

It will be the Year of the Rabbit this year. Just for fun, here is some information I found online for Rabbit year 2011:

"Chinese Horoscope for 2011

There are many famous people born in the year of The Rabbit such as Angelina Jolie, Albert Einstein, Tiger Woods and Frank Sinatra etc. As per 2011 Chinese horoscope, 2011 is going to be relatively calmer than the last year, both on the world scene, as well as on a personal level. Those people who are born in other compatible Chinese zodiac signs will also find 2011 very productive and fulfilling. These signs compatible with the rabbit are – the sheep, the dog and the pig. Those born under other signs might suffer, depending on how flexible they are in 2011. Those who can tactfully negotiate complex personal or business issues may also attain similar good luck enjoyed by rabbits and those compatible with them in 2011."

So here I am to share the card I made for my family:

Funnily enough... although I am Chinese, from Taiwan, I've never made an oriental card before. This is actually the first time! I think I have not done it too bad huh?! ^_^ I am pretty lucky to be fluent in Mandarin and know how to write Chinese characters. So I do not need to rely on using peel offs or stamps for Chinese words. I've used the traditional red and gold colours with a bit of black. Made a little firecracker and a gold tassel at the end. It looks like the firecraker is lit.... watch out, cover your ears and wait for them to go BANG!! ^_^ Hee hee!

Wish my family and my friends all the best for the coming year. Gong Xi Fa Chi!

Love,

Goo-goo Ga-ga

Recently many friends around me are either expecting or have just given birth. Therefore, I thought I would share two of my baby congratulations cards which I made last year.

My colleague was leaving work to go on maternity leave so I made her this card to wish her all the best. I just love this stamp image - a happy, proud mum!

I like to add the recipient's name on card, just to make it a little bit special. I have also stamped the front of the envelope with this cute heart safety pin. All stamps are from Elzybells, which unfortunately has closed down.

Inside the card, I continued with the heart safety pin images. I coloured the pins by using a gold sparkly gel pen. The hearts are coloured in red with glitter glue added for extra sparkle. This baby stamp image is so cute! (Also from Elzybells.) The little tag at the top is blank so that you can add any message you like.

The idea, for the next baby card, was taken from the Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine issue 78. I like to make mechanism cards. The fun of being able to interact with the card always amazes me. First when you look at this card, there is not much going on. I used the template that comes with the magazine, followed the instruction and made this baby pram. The wheels are attached by brads so they are moveable too. There is a tab at the right hand size of the card and once you pull it......

...... this is what happens.......

The baby sticks his head out and also reveals the message "Congratulations"! I had so much fun making this card and just couldn't stop pulling the tab in and out. Another day, I would like to use this mechanism and make other cards like a little mouse coming out of its mouse hole or a fairy popping out behind a mushroom. So many ideas and so little time to make cards! Do you have any other ideas?

My First Card for 2011

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a nice and relaxing Christmas and New Year break.

I told myself that I should make more cards and blog more this year. Is that my New Year resolution?! I guess it is! ^_^

So here it is - my first card for this year.

I will be entering this card in The Sugar Bowl Challenge 50 by following the below sketch and using the optional theme- embossing.





I will also be entering this card in The Play Date Cafe Challenge #63 by using grass green, gold and silver colours. At first I didn't think that these colours would work together. However, after making this card, I now quite like the colour combination. Unfortunately I don't think my photo captures the true colour of the girl's socks. (Everything else pretty much matches the colour of the card in reality but just the colour of the socks somehow came out different. It is very strange!) It was meant to be two different shades of greens but they came out as blues.

Finally, I will be entering this card in the Papertake Weekly Challenge - Anything Goes with optional to add lace to my work.

I am very happy with my first card of the year. The colours make this card look very elegant and the sketch is simple and easy to work with. I hope you like it too!