Inspiration Week: Introducing Christmas Icons & Tag Topper Dies

Welcome!  Today's the big day!  Before you run off to go shopping, make sure to check out the final unveiling of products and scroll down to the bottom of this post for our last giveaway of the week and a special offer for free shipping.  ;)

Today I'm super excited to share a new set of dies that were created with the same flexibility and value as our fishtail banner dies.  I also have one last holiday stamp set to share that was created as a compliment to the gift tag dies with 11 small iconic Christmas images and the words "to" & "from" in 4 unique fonts.  As you will see from my examples though it's pretty fun all on it's own too.  

Introducing Sunny Semi Circles Dies (Retail: $15.00)

These dies were designed to be ultra flexible for creating tags, labels, bookmarks, card panels and shaped cards from 1/2" wide to 4" wide.  

I honestly wanted to have sooo much more time to play with these dies, but I only was able to finish some holiday gift tags with them today (although you might check the SSS Blog this afternoon for another bonus project with them).  I used the dies to create both the inner tag as well as a shadow.  I then decorated them with images & greetings from Gleeful Reindeer, Blissful Baking and Christmas Icons.

To use them, I found using these steps gave me the best results:

1. Draw a faint pencil line on your cardstock with a T-square ruler approximately 1/2" to 2" from the top depending on the circle size.
2. Using some washi tape, secure them in place along the line that was drawn and run them through the die-cutting machine (As an alternative, I found you could also skip the first step by using a clear ruler with a grid and pushing the die flat with the edge of the ruler before adhering with washi tape).
3. Use a paper trimmer to trim them down each side.  Because they are sized at exact 1/2 increments they are super easy to trim using the guides on your trimmer.  
4. Erase pencil lines and shorten to desired length.  Round corners if desired.

Introducing Crescent Tag Topper Dies (Retail: $9.00)

Just like the Sunny Semi Circles, these were designed to create a variety of tags, bookmarks, labels and card panels in three sizes. I created several gift tags using the middle tag size together with Blissful Baking & Christmas Icons to embellish them.  These would be perfect for adhering to baked goods for neighbors and friends at the holidays.  As a finishing touch I added cute borders to my tags using our Sunny Borders Stamps & coordinating dies.

Introducing Traditional Tag Topper Dies (Retail: $10.00)

I created a third style of gift tags with the new Traditional Tag Topper dies.  You can die-cut the hole with the slot die for ribbon that comes with this die set or mix them with the Crescent Tag Topper dies for more options. This was the last project I tackled for the release and I had a lot of fun using up some extra odds and ends from different stamp sets shared throughout the week--it always feels really good to have nothing go to waste. 

To add some interest to my 2-1/4" wide tags I cut a second portion from patterned paper to add to the top of each one using Doodlebug's Here Comes Santa Claus 6x6 paper pad.  I then die-cut the bottoms using different Fishtail Banner dies.  I actually was able to use them for the flat bottomed tags as well since they were narrow enough.  

As a side note, I wanted to point out the Minnie Mouse inspired embellishment using our Holiday Style set.  I stamped an extra set of ornaments with Hero Arts Charcoal ink and Black ink for the shadow.  I then punched our her ears using a 5/8" circle punch before paper-piecing them together.  I had so much fun on the is one & it was super easy--I can totally see myself mass producing these for all my gifts this Christmas.

Up next is a grid style card focusing on all the fun images from the Christmas Icons stamp set.  For my sentiment I turned to one from our Bundled Up set that was just the right size to fit in my center square.

I think many of the images from the Christmas Icons set make great companion pieces for the little penguin from our Bundled Up set from last year.  To decorate my package I added stripes to one with a pen and ruler and stamped circles on the other one using a circle snowflake from our Snow Kissed set.  The little holly added to his hat was taken from the new Blissful Baking set.  I finished off my card with my other favorite banner from our Sunny Borders set.

For this Christmas Icons card I inked up my background using a tiny bit of Picked Raspberry with Festive Berries and Fired Brick distress inks. I then flicked on water and when it was dry, used the two poinsettia images to stamp a tone-on-tone print onto the background.  I then stamped and colored 6 separate images with Copic Markers which I fussy cut out.  It looks like there are actually 10 flowers, but I was crafty and placed many of them off the edge where I could trim them off and add them to a second spot so nothing went to waste (and saved me some time).

For my merry word die, I pressed a piece of kraft cardstock into my VersaMark ink pad and sprinkled the whole piece with glittery gold embossing powder before heating it up and die-cutting my word from it.  A sentiment heated embossed in coordinating gold powder from our Merry Sentiments set completed my card.

This last card was created using a glue pad with those same poinsettia images (and the trio of dots from our Sweet Shoppe set) together with hot pink foil and a Mini Minc machine.   This is one of those times where a stamp positioner to get extra good glue coverage with multiple impressions of the stamp is really helpful.  

You can also achieve a similar fun look by stamping with VersaMark & applying metallic or colored opaque embossing powder on black cardstock.  I then just added some jewels to the center of each flower for some extra bling and foiled a sentiment on some plain white cardstock using Merry Sentiments.

I honestly had so many more ideas for this set that I ran out of time for, but hopefully I shared enough to get your creative wheels turning--I think there are endless ways these cute images can be used and I can't wait to see what you make!

Here's a full look at the new Christmas Icon stamps, Tag Topper Dies & Sunny Semi Circle Dies all being released today (dies are a bit larger than they appear here)...

      

I hope you've enjoyed all the sets and inspiration this week.  I'm loving the new dies for their reasonable price point, flexibility and space saving features!

Would you like to win a $20 gift code to our online store?  Use the rafflecopter below to enter to win.  We will be giving away a new gift code each day for a total of five chances to win!  If you're just joining us, there's still time to enter the contests from earlier in the week too. ;)

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Each contest closes on October 8th at Midnight PST.  Winners will be announced on Sunday, October 9th.  :)

SALES & FREEBIES:

Before you rush off, I wanted to let you know that I'm running a special for FREE SHIPPING on all orders over $25 for our US retail customers & all orders over $50 for our Canadian friends through Monday, 10/10/16 at Midnight PST (offer will be applied automatically).  

In addition, orders over $49 from any location will qualify for $5 off using the code SAVE5.

Don't forget all orders will automatically come with a free 7/8" holly die (while supplies last).

CLICK HERE TO VISIT OUR ONLINE STORE

Other Sunny Studio Supplies Used Today: