Ingenious Inkling

2025 the Year of the Snake

The theme for the Lunar New Year Challenge for 2025 is the Year of the Snake.  

 

I went in search of some snake stamp sets, and not surprisingly, there were only a few I could locate, including this adorable Party Snake (that comes with coordinating die cuts) from Trinity Stamps.  I stamped him in black and chose red & yellow for the balloon colors, since those are traditional Lunar New Year colors.

 

 

I used red & yellow designer papers together with the Sketch from Atlantic Hearts Sketches.  I swapped the circle for a stitched oval die cut, since that shape worked better with my stamped image.  I finished with some enamel dot embellishments and a sentiment from Mama Elephant New Beginnings.

 

Chinese New Year 2025

The November Lunar New Year Challenge gives the option to provide a New Year's card for 2025 - the year of the snake.  

 

 

I don't have any snakes in my stamping stash, so I found a free image to use as the focal point and paired it with a stamped sentiment from Mama Elephant New Beginnings.

 

Mid-Autumn Festival

The October Lunar New Year Challenge has the additional option to create a card for the Mid-Autumn Festival. 

 

I was not familiar with that holiday, so I did some research.   I learned that it is a harvest festival celebrated on the night of a full moon.  The festival is based on the legend of the Moon Goddess who is accompanied by a Jade Rabbit who lives on the moon, so I found my rabbit from Lawn Fawn Snow Day.

 

 

The images I saw featured Red & Gold and some lotus flowers, so I incorporated those colors  with the Mama Elephant Knot of Luck Creative Cuts Frame and some flowers from the Lawn Fawn Magic Iris Floral Wreath Add-on that I accented with some AlteNew Metallic Gold Gem Sparkles. 

Since the festival is a time to be grateful for the harvest, I used a vintage Stampin' Up sentiment.

Year of the Pig

The Lunar New Year Challenge indicates that there are three ways to join - one way to enter is to make a Lunar New Year card, second is to make a birthday card featuring a dragon, and third is to make a Chinese New Year Card.

 

 

Since I only have one dragon stamp in my stash, I looked at what other animals might be possible for a Chinese New Year card ... and I chose the Year of the Pig.  In Chinese culture, the Pig represents abundance, generosity, and good fortune. Some say that people born in the Year of the Pig are easy-going, popular, and enthusiastic. They are also said to be good friends, but can be easily cheated because they lack suspicion and discrimination. 

I revisited the Pig I made for this card in 2015, however this time I made him red since the Chinese New Year animals are usually depicted in red.  I also added gold, which is another color that is often in celebratory images.

 

 

I paired the pig with paper that looks like it is covered in chrysanthemums, which are one of the lucky flowers for the Chinese New Year.

 

 

I finished with a sentiment from Mama Elephant New Beginnings using the layout from Tuesday Morning Sketches.

Lunar New Year

I've been wanting to join the new Lunar New Year Challenge, so I picked-up the Mama Elephant Knot of Luck Creative Cuts to give it a try.

 

 

I die cut the frame from a shimmery gold cardstock and backed it with deep red cardstock.  I die cut the knot and accents from the same two shades and assembled it on an ivory oval, using a foam dot to raise one of the dots to "hang" it from at the top.

 

 

I didn't have any more of that deep red shade of cardstock to frame out my design, so I did what any good crafter does when she needs a specific color of paper ... I made it myself using red paints & my Gellipress.  

I bought the Mama Elephant New Beginnings Sentiments to use with these images, but I didn't get the coordinating die cuts, and when I tried to position them without the detail cut, it covered too much of the card, so I decided to use the sentiment on the inside of the card.

I'd Rather Be Weird

I wanted to create a card combining the CASology Happy Challenge with the Less is More Black & White Challenge.

 

 

I found this fun Happy sentiment from a STAMPtember set from Simon Says Stamp & Technique Tuesday Sassy You're Not Normal.  After that I went searching for the perfect image to pair with it.

 

 

I chose this goofy little ramen slurping cat from Mama Elephant Nom Nom Kitties.

Rock On

Yesterday I read this article about Generation X and Quarantine, and most of it rang pretty true ... seriously, I used to read encyclopedias to entertain myself.

But the one thing that brought back the biggest flood of memories was the making of the perfect Mix Tape.  How I would hold my cassette tape player next to my bedside clock radio and try to hit record at the exact perfect moment when the DJ announced one of my favorite songs was going to play (and hope that my brother didn't come running through the room making noise) ... or setting the needle down on the record player and rushing to hit record before the song began. 

And how after high school, the perfect mix tape was one that lasted me through my drive to night classes at college and back (48 minutes each way) after a full day at the office ... and it was a bonus if it was something I could sing along with on that drive back home and keep myself awake.

So it was those memories that inspired today's card.  The Cardz 4 Guys Challenge is to use a Stencil (my foiled strip used a Stencil and Therm-o-Web Transfer Gel before applying Gina K. Designs Jelly Bean Green Foil) and the All Sorts Challenge is all about Men and Boys.

 

 

The stamp set is Mama Elephant's Rewind (it looks like it is discontinued, but they released a portion of the images under a new Mix Tape Set).

Addicted to CAS is code word Texture ... you can see the wonderful texture of the foiled Transfer Gel where the light is reflecting on the left.

 

 

And lastly, Simon Says Stamp is Anything Goes.

Are you mailing your cards?  This one is going in the mail along with others. Make sure you're taking this opportunity to send some positive vibes across the miles.

Fun with Fabric

Today's card is fun with fabric ... I applied fabric stiffener to Red Cordoroy and Denim Fabric.  After they dired, I die cut the circle and large heart for my card.

 

I added a tiny sentiment from Mama Elephant's Mini Messages (love these tiny stamps) and a tiny glitter heart as an accent.

They layout is this week's CAS(E) this Sketch.

 

And the Dies R Us Challenge is to use the Color Red ... I love that the Red Corduroy (and denim) were from my Mother-in-Law ... today would have been her 92nd birthday ... I miss her.

The House that Stamps Built is using Pink and/or Red in their card challenge this week.

 

Fist Pumpin' For You!

I love the gold and peachy pink in the inspiration photo at The Card Concept ... I would call my style Classy & Elegant.

I pulled out two gold metallic designer papers and combined them using this week's CAS(E) this Sketch.

The card just seemed to scream for a sassy sentiment, so I pulled out smy Mama Elephant Hustle Stamps.  The curvy stitched edge are new Die-Namics Stitched Basic Edges 2 from My Favorite Things.

Creative Girl

Julie Comstock has a new line called Creative Girls that you can pick-up at JoAnn's.  I placed an online order last week and added one of the small water-color resist pads to my shopping cart.

My first card was inspired by this picture from today's Splitcoast Stampers Inspiration Challenge.  It's doing a resist design with a white crayon by Alisa Burke.

I did my resist using Color Burst Watercolor Powders ... I wanted sort of a tie die effect.

The Creative Girl cards were sturdy enough to withstand layers of Color Burst and Water.  The sentiment is from Mama Elephant's Rewind.

I got a little heavy on the color on this one, but the resist letters still show through clearly.  There was a metallic diamond in the paper, but I found a glittery one on my studio table from Essentials by Ellen Hutson, so I attached it with foam tape for a bit more sparkle.