Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy New Year! We are now entering the year of the Goat. I read somewhere that it's Chinese tradition to avoid having children during the year of the goat because it's considered unlucky. We are starting out this new year with some misfortune, but we have every intention of turning the misfortune into opportunity!

A few weeks or so ago, Cricut offered the Chinese characters as a free cut. I found this cute project in the Cricut Design Space "make it now" area which cut six Chinese characters and mini envelopes to hold a treat. I cut the envelopes from cranberry cardstock. The characters were cut from retired gold metallic paper I had in my stash. The meaning of each character was written on the flaps of the envelopes with the pen inserted into the Cricut Explore.

Adding the cut characters to the envelopes was a little tricky. Some of the pieces are very tiny and kept sticking to my fingers. I used the negative areas from the cuts for the placement.

I filled the envelopes with milk chocolate gold coins. My daughter works at a Chinese restaurant and is excited to give them to her co-workers.

May your New Year be filled with Love, Honor, Friendship, Home, Strength, and Fortune!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used:

1272 Cranberry Cardstock

Gold Metallic Paper (Retired)

Cricut Explore and Design Space

February Three Amigos Blog Hop

Welcome to the Three Amigos Blog hop.  We are three Close to My Heart Independent Consultants with a love for stamping and scrapping and would like to share our creative ideas with you.  On the 3rd of each month we feature a different CTMH product and create a card, layout, or other project.  There are only three stops on this hop so it will only take a few minutes to hop through.

This month's challenge was to mix and match papers from different paper packs. I saw a "make it now" designed project for the Cricut Explore that would be perfect for my girls' valentines. I made a set of tags to adorn the cute Designer Creations Takeout Boxes in the Annual Inspirations Idea Book.

Since the takeout boxes are embossed with white hearts, I knew they would be perfect to hold valentine treats for my girls. I used the Tender Pink Shin Han marker to randomly color a few of the hearts on the box. For the tags, I used the black and glacier dot B&T paper from the Snowhaven pack, and the lagoon hearts and Arrows B&T papers from the Heartstrings paper pack. I added red glitter hearts from the Stuck on You Puffies and a bow tied from retired Baby Pink organdy ribbon.

Here's what the takeout box and tag looked like before I put the entire project together.

I tied several colors and styles of current and retired CTMH ribbon to the handle of the takeout box to give it a little frill. Most of the ribbon on the handle came from my scrap jars. Even though the jars look pretty with all of the colorful ribbon in them, using it up felt good!

I attached the tag with white hemp (retired) and opted to tie it with a bow instead of a knot to make it removable. The box will be filled with assorted chocolates and a heart shaped brownie that I will bake just before mailing. Both girls are away at college and receiving packages really makes their day!

Thanks for stopping by today. Hop over to Lisa's blog and then Donna's blog to see what they created!

Supplies Used:

X7188B Snowhaven Paper Pack

X7193B Heartstrings Paper Pack

Z2050 Designer Creations Takeout Boxes

Z3037 Stuck On You Puffies

Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape

Z1989 Slate Diagonal Striped Ribbon

Retired CTMH Ribbon (Baby Pink Organdy, Blush Dot grosgrain, Cranberry Grosgrain, Heavenly Blue Organdy, Hollyhock stitched, Lagoon Satin, White Ric Rac)