Being invited to a Lunar New Year party, I decided to to make a themed card for the host. Lunar New Year, sometimes known better as Chinese New Year, is celebrated by most Asian cultures. As the name suggests, the lunar new year is based on a calendar depending on the moon as opposed to the Gregorian sun calendar. This year, Lunar New Year is January 31, 2014. According to the Asian zodiac/horoscope, this year is the year of the horse.
While I was searching for card inspirations, I stumbled upon this website, which has some nice paper cutting designs. I decided to try one. Check the link out below.
Link: http://fxpapercut.com/year-of-the-horse-2014-pop-up-card/
The website above had a template for the horse, so I went ahead and sized it to the shape I wanted and then started.
I used red paper and yellow inside for background. In the end, I think the original creator’s white card with red background probably was a better color scheme.
To do the cutting, since I didn’t have great scissors for intricate cutting, I went ahead and used a knife. You can get away with using an exacto knife or that knife on a Swiss army knife. However, just be careful. Curves are hard with knives and sometimes, you can over cut (as I did.) I used paperclips and binder clips to keep the paper with the template on top of the red cardstock. I also put a thin magazine in the inside of the cardstock. This way, the back cover of the card won’t have holes through it when I cut the design with the knife.
Anyhow, here’s the final product~
LNY Horse Card Inside – No yellow paper added yet
LNY Horse Card – Finished
Happy Lunar New Year!
Improv Artz 