Inspiration Week: Introducing City Streets & New Happy Home Dies

Hello there!  Today kicks off our inspiration week with a brand new stamp set being showcased each day!  All of the new items being shared this week will be available for purchase this Friday on July 1st.  Make sure to check back and visit us each day for more inspiration, peeks and prizes!  

Today I'm starting off with our new City Streets Stamp set and coordinating dies which were designed as a follow up to our popular Happy Home stamps.  This set has 3 downtown buildings, 5 sentiments and lots of fun miniature accessories to compliment them. 

For my first card I wanted to go bright and happy with touches of black to make the colors pop. I borrowed the tree stamp from the Happy Home set to fill out my little scene.

For my next card I used some stitched ribbon to evoke the feel of a street and a basic metal rimmed office tag to highlight the little cafe table and chairs from the set.  I created cloud masks by cutting post it notes using the new Happy Home Cloud Dies and then sponged on my ink over the top.  I love the big reveal when you pull off the masks and how the clouds look as a one-layer image!  

I finished off my card by setting my acrylic block down over the tag and then bending my sentiment to match the curve.  I love this easy little trick and the extra oomph a curved sentiment gives!

For this card I thought it would be fun to go bright and masculine for a change and to focus solely on the car stamp from the set.  I used my Signo Uniball gel pen to create the dotted line for my street and sponged on some soft Tumbled Glass distress ink as a backdrop for the cars.  My sentiment was borrowed from the new Sock Hop set that will be shared on Thursday.  ;)

I chose to go soft and sweet on this card focused on the bakery building in the set.  For my card mat I used Neenah Desert Storm (Kraft) cardstock to pick up the colors in the building.  I created a pale pink ombre effect for my sentiment tab using Spun Sugar distress ink and finished off my card with an elegant rhinestone embellishment.

For my last card I thought it would be fun to use all the images from the set and to create a bright, happy color palette by stamping the images in different colored inks.  To give my images depth I then quickly (& carefully) colored the images with coordinating pale Copic Markers.  I say carefully because I stamped using dye inks which can bleed if too much coloring is done over the top.  

I finished my card with a banner from Sunny Borders and a Birthday Sentiment from Comfy Creatures.  For my hearts I used the Stitched Heart Dies which were covered in stardust stickles and glossy accents and popped up with foam tape.

Here's a closer peek at the new City Streets stamps, City Streets dies and the long awaited Happy Home dies (you can click on the images to view them larger).

      

Are you still with me?  Each day this week we are giving away a $20 gift certificate to our store using the rafflecopter below for a total of five lucky winners. The contest for each post closes at Midnight PST on Friday, July 1st with winners announced on Saturday, July 2nd.  :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway