Grab it and Add it! ~ #1: Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today marks the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year 

or Spring Festival.

The 2020's Chinese zodiac animal is the 'Year of the Rat.'

I know ~ not that cute, right?

It actually ranks the highest on the Chinese zodiac chart :)

It's fascinating to me to learn about different cultures and customs,

so creating a card while reading about the celebrations and traditions  

was an enriching experience.

I'm the Year of the Sheep which means:

My lucky numbers are 2 and 7

My lucky flower is a carnation and an Alice Flower (I can't believe it!)

 my lucky colors are green, red, and purple,

my best match is a Rabbit, Horse or Pig (my husband is a rabbit ♥ ),

and my lucky gemstone is the emerald.

That was fun!

Even if I don't follow astrology or horoscopes,

it was fun seeing all the interesting facts about my year :)

 

Speaking of this year, one of my goals was to take one stamp set,

once a month,

and pile on as many of the stamps in the set as I can to one card.

You can read that here on my 2020 Word of the Year post 

highlighted in orange ♥

It's called Grab it and Add it!

(thank you to Chrissy, my daughter, for the catchy title of this series!)

 Wow!

It was a lot harder than I anticipated!

I naturally chose Mama Elephant's Lion Dance to start ~ card #1 ~

based solely on the date (and I REALLY love this stamp set, too!)

There are 11 stamps and 2 sentiments in this set.

I originally had all 11 on the front but it got so overcrowded,

it started to really not look okay.

So I switched up the sentiment to the front

and added the streamers to the inside.

much. better. 

The panel behind the images was created using Ranger Ink distress oxide inks

in twisted citron and cracked pistachio.

I created the frame by running a die cut through the Gemini Jr 

and glued that onto the panel.

The images are stamped/cut/colored with copic markers

and popped up on 3D foam.

I've used this stamp set a couple of times before

and you can see the cards HERE and HERE.

For this card, I wanted to incorporate some of the tips from class 

about being fearless and using bold via color plucking.

I started off with blues and greens and teal

and then popped in a splash of dark orange and hot pink!

And that's my card of cheer and celebration for today!

I hope you're off to a good start to your weekend :)

Thanks for stopping by!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

CCEE1904: Gold!

"There's gold in them thar hills!"

 

Perhaps you've heard this quirky and popular sentiment ...

gaining popularity throught it's use in western movies and tv shows.

 This saying comes from Mark Twain’s 1892 novel The American Claimant. 

He supposedly got it indirectly from a Georgia assayer,

 Dr. Matthew Fleming Stephenson, who said, “there’s millions in it,”

 to keep locals from heading to California for the Gold Rush in 1849. 

The phrase later became corrupted to the above.

 

This fun fact flows right along 

with the newest CCEE Stampers challenge this week:

 

Gold!

Liz is our hostess again this week and states:

Gold was discovered in California on January 24, 1848 

 so use Gold on your creations!

 . Glittery gold paper, gold chrome cardstock, or gold embossing

 and any other possibilities you can think to create, 

we would love seeing on your creations. 

 

                      My son just returned home from New York City,

and one of their MANY stops on the trip was to Chinatown.

His words: "It was interesting and neat, a little choatic 

and I got to bargain for a new Rubic's Cube!

 

wait ... what?!

 

So that was the inspiration for my card ~ Chinese New Year!

I've always loved the colors of the festive floats, the ingenuity

behind the designs and movements of float performers in the Lion Dance ♥

 

 

 

I used my Mama Elephant stamp and die set to create this card,

and it's called Lion Dance.

I created a border and background of glittery gold cardstock.

I intentionally used just red, black and gold to bring out 

the feel of an asian style card.

The glittery gold cardstock really sets the tone for the celebration :)

You can see all the the golden cards on the CCEE blog today!

Each of the designers have created something wonderful :)

Thanks for stopping by!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly