Chinese New Year Blog Hop DAY TWO -- This Little Light of Mine... :)

Welcome to Day TWO of the Chinese New Year Blog Hop!!

If you missed Day One's post, please CLICK HERE!! :)

January 22-23, 2012

Year of the Dragon

Ni hao and welcome to the SECOND DAY 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 have arrived here from Ashley, then you are in the right place!! :)  If you are just joining in from your dashboard or reading this via email, please CLICK HERE to start at April's blog -- you don't want to miss anyone's amazing creativity!

For today's project, I created...

A Chinese-inspired lantern and a mini gift card!! :)  I just love how fun and easy these lanterns are to make...  I used two sheets of 8.5"x11" vellum for this one as well as some 1"x11" red cardstock strips for support on the ends.  To create the outside layer of the lantern I scored the short side (8.5") of the vellum at 1", 4.25", and 7.5", then turned the vellum to the long side (11") and cut at every 1/2" between the outside score marks.  I cut the other piece of vellum (it's striped in my picture) to 7.5"x11", and then formed a tube (attaching one 7.5" side to the other 7.5" side).

I added the outside layer of vellum by adhering just the edges at the top and bottom.  The red strips were then added and accented with the small white flowers (distressed with black ink and topped with a black gem).

The mini gift card measures just 2.5" square...  I used a retired SU! stamp (Gifts from the Orient) for the paper lanterns across the top and K Andrew Designs Splashtastic Summer Stamp Set for the "Shine on!" sentiment...  Another little flower finishes off this mini card....

I added a battery-operated tealight inside the lantern -- I love how the double layer of vellum really enhances the soft glow...

I'll leave you with a picture of this lantern in the dark...  It's such a comforting glow, and I can't wait until the weather warms up so I can put this outside on a warm evening...  With a stack of snow outside my window, this sure gives me something to look forward to!! :)

We have some great blog candy to offer from April Nourse and PSA Essentials. To be eligible, you will need to comment on each blog on each day's post (this is a TWO-DAY hop, so be sure to stop back tomorrow!!). We'd love for you to become a follower of each of our blogs as well...

Thanks again for stopping by! Your next stop is Jearise!!

Here are the links for all the stops in April's Chinese New Year Blog Hop...  :)

April

Lynne

Ashley

Amy -- You are HERE now!! :)

Jearise  -- Go here NEXT!!

Shannon

Inga

Maria

Janet

Dena

Jennifer

Theresa

Ellen

PSA Essentials

Until next time,