Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year is almost here!





 This year it coincides with Valentines day.






There are a lot of Valentine's cards around, but how many Chinese New Year cards have YOU seen?!

Many of my friends and colleagues celebrate Chinese New Years, and this year I decided to give them cards for the occasion, and you will get to see a few of them posted here between now and February 14th!

This is the first Chinese New Year card I made.  Firstly, I had no images that were really appropriate, and secondly, I wanted to showcase these gorgeous postage stamps.  What to do?  I decided to use the little red money envelopes.

First of all, I needed to get some.  They come in various sizes, shapes and designs.  Some have pictures of flowers or the characters representing the year or other items representing good fortune.  Here is one of the more "plain" ones, so it was easier to work with.  Thank you to my friend Kim for this and many other ones!

Since I didn't have any little red envelopes of my own, I sent an email around to my friends and they all brought me a bunch of different ones.  No two cards will be alike!

In my next couple of Chinese New Years posts I'll share with you more about the history, celebration and tradition of it.  Wait till you see my next card!