2nd Birthday Blog Hop with Holiday Sneak Peeks & Prizes

Hello & welcome to a very special post today.  I am thrilled and humbled to have reached our second birthday milestone this month!  To celebrate we are hosting a fun blog hop with some of our favorite designers who are sharing sneak peeks of our holiday release coming out next Friday. 

For my part of the hop, I am sharing five different ways to use our new Fireplace dies which come with everything you need to create a fun A2 sized shaped fireplace card! 

Card No. 1:  For my first card I wanted to create a traditional brick fireplace reminiscent of grandma's house.  I inked up three swatches of white cardstock using Fired Brick, Rusty Hinge, Wild Honey & Ripe Persimmon distress inks.  I then die-cut the bricks using the four brick pieces that come with the set and adhered them with a glue pen in a random pattern.  For my mantel, I cut it from some wood print patterned paper and cut the trim from metallic gold cardstock.

While this set comes with some die-cut stockings, I thought I would mix things up by using the stocking stamp from our Christmas Icons set and the kitty warming himself from our Furever Friends stamps.  I then used a Copic multiliner pen to write the names of our family on the stockings.  

Card No. 2: Next up I have a card where I used those same brick dies along with an embossing pad to emboss the bricks into the background of my fireplace piece, giving it a nice subtle detail.  I heat embossed my sentiment in white using a phrase from our Heartfelt Wishes set and a kitty from Pet Sympathy.  

For this card I thought it would be fun to do something totally different so instead of stockings, I used the wreath image from our Christmas Icons set, along with a metallic pipe cleaner to form my garland behind the wreaths.  I'm in love with the results!

Card No. 3: For this card I went more modern with the look of my fireplace, cutting the background from silver shimmer cardstock and topping it with what I like to think of as white subway tile.  I channeled my inner Barbie girl and inked my stockings using Picked Raspberry and Twisted Citron distress inks.  I stamped my sentiment on the mantel using a phrase from our Gleeful Reindeer set.  A puppy from our Santa's Helpers and a gift from Christmas Icons complete my scene.

Card No. 4: Up next is another somewhat modern take with a black and white fireplace. It's difficult to see in my photo, but my background was embossed with the bricks in the same method I used for my second card.  To embellish my card I turned to the kitty in the stocking image from our Santa's Helpers set.

Card No. 5: My last card shows a third way to use the bricks for the fireplace by cutting a random brick pattern from the front panel and layering another solid panel behind it.  For these I used some scraps of solid distressed patterned papers that were a bit thinner than my other cardstocks so they actually benefited from the extra thickness.  I embellished my die-cut stockings with some stitched lines using my multiliner pen and added candy canes from our new Playful Polar Bears set.  I finished my card with a banner that perfectly hugs the fireplace from our Sunny Borders set and a sentiment from our new Christmas Home set.

Here's a look at the full die set which will begin shipping on Friday, September 29th.  The fireplace mantel scores along the top making it easy to cut two to form your card base and to adhere them together along the top.

I hope you will join me all next week when I will be sharing more ideas with the rest of our holiday release.  In the meantime I'm ecstatic to have a very talented group of ladies helping me celebrate today.  They are showing more sneak peeks with amazing projects that are sure to inspire you!  Your next stop in the hop is Sandy's blog.  :) 

In case you get lost, here's a full list of everyone hopping today...

Sunny Studio
Sandy Allnock

Nichol Spohr
Eloise Blue

Nancy Damiano

Kay Miller
Nina-Marie Trapani

Vanessa Menhorn

Michelle Short
Anni Lerche
Lexa Levana
Juliana Michaels

Don't forget to leave a comment at every stop because each designer is giving away a $25 gift code to our online store for 12 chances to win and a total of $300 in prizes!  

You have until Monday evening at 11:59 pm PDT to leave your comments.  Winners will be announced on our blog on Friday, September 29th.  :)

Do you love what you see and can't wait to reserve your favorites?  In honor of our birthday celebrations you can pre-order everything now and it will be held and shipped out on the official release date on September 29th.  Plus use the code CELEBRATE to save 15% off all retail prices through Sunday, October 1st.





Sunny Studio Supplies Used:

Christmas Icons Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Christmas Icons Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Furever Friends Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Furever Friends Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Gleeful Reindeer Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio
Heartfelt Wishes Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Santa's Helpers Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Santa's Helpers Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Sunny Borders Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Sunny Borders Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Pet Sympathy Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Pet Sympathy Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Christmas Home Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio

Fireplace Shaped Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio

Playful Polar Bears Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio

Playful Polar Bears Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio