Chinese New Year Blog Hop: DAY TWO (Gift Card Holder Featuring Mei Li from Sister Stamps)

KUNG HEI FAT CHOI!  HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!  Welcome to DAY TWO of the Chinese New Year Blog Hop!  This hop is in honor of Guan, the little boy April's family is adopting from Taiwan.  To celebrate his culture, we want to share some Chinese-inspired projects with you! 

If you arrived here from Janet's blog  then you are in the right place!  If you just joined us, please go back to April's blog at www.curlsandgrins.blogspot.com to see everyone's amazing creativity!

It was really fun to create projects for this hop in celebration of Chinese New Year, especially because my family never really did much to observe this holiday when I was growing up (even though we are part Chinese).   As an adult, I never really did anything special either, but I am hoping to change that for my two daughters' sakes.   

For today's project, I created a card that also acts as a gift card holder.  Gift card holder, you ask?  LOL  Well, I know the idea of a gift card for Chinese New Year might sound a little ... different, perhaps, but when I saw this beautiful Chinese New Year gift card at Starbuck's last week, I just couldn't resist buying one!  It's just so pretty !!!!

Not only is the gift card so elegant with all the red and gold, the matching envelope was beautiful, too!  I love how it looks just like a lai see envelope!  I really hated to not include the envelope on my project , so I was determined to find a way to add it to the card.

As you can see in the main picture of my post, I matted the envelope on gold and black paper before adhering to the front of the card.  I also cut off the top flap of the envelope and used a small circle punch to create a cutout to make it easier to pull the gift card out.  I like that the cutout made a little bit of the gift card visible.  

For yesterday's project, I used Mei Li from Sister Stamps.  I just love this little girl with her lantern, so I decided to use her on today's project also, using different colors from yesterday's project for her outfit and lantern.  Of course, I just had to add a little bit of Stickles !  I also pop-dotted Mei Li to sort of "separate" her from the busy background.   I used the same washi paper as I did with yesterday's project.  Red and gold just totally symbolize Chinese New Year for me, so I had to use that color scheme again.  

Thanks for stopping by!  We have some great blog candy to offer from April Nourse and PSA Essentials.  To be eligible, you must simply comment on each blog on each day's post.  We'd love for you to become a follower of each of our blogs, too!

Please hop on over to Jennifer's blog next to see what she's created.

 Below is the complete blog hop lineup:  

• April - http://curlsandgrins.blogspot.com
• Lynne K. - http://slasewcraftiness.blogspot.com/
• Ashley - http://theglamoroussideofscrapping.blogspot.com/
• Amy - http://www.lovetocrop.com/
• Jearise - http://lorbysworld.blogspot.com/
• Shannon - http://www.purplelionpaper.com/blog
• Inga - http://mommahobbit.blogspot.com/
• Maria - http://www.mdcraftcorner.blogspot.com/
• Janet- http://www.createatdreamscrapbooks.blogspot.com/
• Dena -  http://missdjones.blogspot.com/      <<<------ YOU ARE HERE
• Jennifer - http://jenrubio.blogspot.com/  <<<------ GO HERE NEXT
• Theresa- http://www.thescrapbookingqueen.com/
• Ellen - http://cardmonkey-business.blogspot.com/
• PSA Essentials - www.psastampcamp.blogspot.com/