Sneak Peek: Introducing Beach Buddies, Tiki Time & Stitched Rectangles

Hello and welcome to day 2 of our Summer Peek Week!  All this week I am showcasing cards using our newest collection which will be available for purchase on Friday, April 16th. 

Today I am sharing two new critter stamp sets for summer that work beautifully together or all on their own, along with our new Stitched Rectangle Dies which I shared quite a bit of yesterday. Let's jump right in.

Card No. 1: My first card features our new Beach Buddies stamps. This set comes with the same lovable critters from our previous Balloon Rides set in a new larger size, as well as a number of fun summer accessories that they can be paired with (or made to look like they are sitting inside of). For this card I paired the new sand bucket, shovel, beach bag, towel, sunscreen, sunglasses and critters from Beach Buddies with the sand castle, beach ball & umbrella from our Beach Babies Stamps. To keep a cohesive look for my busy scene, I limited my Copic Marker color palette to red, white, blue and aqua, with a touch of brown for my sand and critters.

For my backdrop, I colored my sky with Tumbled Glass distress ink and my waves from Salty Ocean which I then splattered with water and die-cut using our Catch A Wave Dies. My sandy hills were stamped using our Oceans of Joy Stamps and then inked up using Tea Dye distress ink.

This set comes with two great "Summer" and "Sunshine" script words and a number of companion sentiments that can be mixed and matched with them. For this card I stamped my greeting with VersaMark Ink onto a small strip of black cardstock and then heat embossed it with Hero Arts White Detail Embossing Powder.

Card No. 2: Up next is a happy card using the cute little watermelon with paws image from the Beach Buddies set that you can place in front of any of the 6 critters. I decided to use the three bears for this card (even though I realize koalas aren't technically bears) and lined them up on the smallest rectangle from the new Stitched Rectangles Dies set. For my greeting I used the phrase from our Slice of Summer Stamps which was stamped using Versafine Onyx Black ink.

To repeat my watermelon theme, I used a green striped print from our Sleek Stripes Paper pack for my background and rounded the bottom corners with my We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper tool. I then recreated a watermelon slice by inking up our Stitched Circle Small Dies and Stitched Circle Large Dies. For the red portion of my watermelon, I blended Worn Lipstick, Candy Apple and a tiny bit of Barn Door distress ink on the edges. For the other stitched circle I used Twisted Citron distress ink and then for the darkest portion of my rind I used our Scalloped Circle Mat 1 dies inked up with Mowed Lawn distress ink. For my watermelon seeds I used the largest raindrop from our Rain or Shine Dies which I cut from black cardstock and added a shine mark with my Sharpie Extra Fine Point White Paint Pen. Love when I can re-purpose supplies like that!

In an attempt to tie the two individual portions of my card together, I cut a stitched heart from red cardstock using our Window Trio Circle Dies which I then inked up along the bottom with some more barn door distress ink. 

Card No. 3: The Beach Buddies Set comes with two great floats including an adorable pink flamingo and a polka-dot inner tube that matches the one found in our Sealiously Sweet Stamps. I kept this particular card really clean and simple, starting by inking a cardstock panel with a pink ombre, blending Worn Lipstick Distress ink with the new Kitsch Flamingo distress ink. To keep a graphic feel, I started by first die-cutting the outer edge of my pink panel using our Frilly Frames Herringbone Dies and then cut out a smaller panel using the middle sized rectangle from our new Stitched Rectangle Dies. I love the results! 

For my greeting, I heat embossed the words "Happy Summer" using VersaMark Ink together with Hero Arts White Detail Embossing Powder. I then arranged my critters to look like they are sorting of floating down an invisible pink river, adding a few random rhinestones from our new Pink Spinel Jewels. It's such a simple design, but the fun retro 1950's inspired color scheme made this one of my favorites of the day!

On a side note before we move on to the next card, I should mention I wanted to see if I could make it look like my koala was coming through the tube, rather than just sitting on top so I trimmed out the back portion of the flamingo with my scissors and also tried to trim close to the koala's body so that he could just barely squeeze in. It sort of worked, but in hindsight I would probably just layer him on top like I did with the bunny next time.  ;)

Card No. 4: My next card illustrates all the fun ways the critters can layer together with the Beach Buddies accessories to look like they are peeking out from the sand bucket, beach bag and inner tube. To frame each critter, I used the stitched squares from our Window Quad Square Dies and mounted them onto a blue checked print from our Classic Sunburst Paper pack. I finished my simple design with a sentiment from the Beach Buddies set stamped with Versafine Onyx Black Ink.

Card No. 5: Switching gears a bit, my next card combines the critters from Beach Buddies with the Tiki Bar, Drinks, Bird, Torch & Sentiment from our new Tiki Time Stamps. Our new Tiki Time Stamps are such a fun set with so many possibilities!  For this card I took inspiration from a photo I found when googling beach sunsets. To recreate the look, I blended Salty Ocean, Picked Raspberry & Carved Pumpkin distress inks. 

For my sandy hills, I cut them using our Slimline Nature Border Dies which I inked up with Antique Linen distress ink and then stippled with various colors of Copic Markers for a sandy texture. Virgin Piña Coladas are my all time favorite so when I came across this cute sentiment I knew I needed to include it with the stamp set (the set also includes a separate "~" to include over the letter "n" for those that want to write it properly in Spanish).

Card View with Light-up Feature: Using Chibitronics White LED lights together with Copper Foil Tape & Coin Batteries I turned my card into an interactive light-up card. This was my first time dipping my toe into this arena and I was surprised at how easy it was with the help of THIS tutorial as a guide. Since my design didn't have a good way to add a "push me" type button, I added the small flower as a way to tell the recipient where to push. It just sort of worked out that it also helped offset the bird in the top left corner of my card and add a bit of balance to my overall card design. 

To give my on/off button over my battery enough space to stay off when not being pushed, I built up the entire background with one layer of foam tape, cutting around the battery portion as shown in the linked video. I then added a second layer of foam tape for my second sand dune except for where the batter was located.  This gave me just the clearance I needed to allow my lights to shut off when not in use. 

This was seriously so much fun! I can imagine this becoming a small addiction to see what else I can light up. I was able to save quite a bit of money by skipping Chibritronics starter kit and buying my other supplies in bulk at a cheaper price. I now have enough supplies to make 15 light up cards. In fact I think I have enough copper tape to make 50 cards so that was a really good value and will most likely last me forever.

Card No. 6: Up next is a fun hula inspired card using the Elephant from the Tiki Time Stamps. My family did a little one-on-one hula lessons when visiting Hawaii's Polynesian Cultural Center about 15 years ago and this card with them all lined up in the grass reminds me of that experience. 

To create the base of my card I started by cutting my scalloped background using our Fancy Frames Rectangle Dies, trimming down my notecard about 1/8" before mounting the scalloped frame to it. Our new Stitched Rectangle Dies have been designed to not only compliment these Fancy Frames dies, but also to work together with all of our previously released Frilly Frames Dies. As a bonus, none of the stitched rectangles in this set, duplicate the sizes found in any of our other die sets.

My sky was inked using a light touch of Peacock Feathers distress ink and the grass was created by blending the new Rustic Wilderness Distress Ink, together with Mowed Lawn and Twisted Citron. I then cut the grassy edge using the border die that comes with our new Picket Fence dies (which will be featured fully on Thursday). For my custom punny greeting I used the words "happy" and "day" from our Happy Thoughts Stamps and paired them with the word Hula which I cut using our new Chloe Alphabet Dies (being shared tomorrow).

Card No. 7: My next card is another take on the Tiki Bar from the Time Time set. This time I used it on a horizontal card and paired it with the koala and sunhat from the Beach Buddies set. For my ocean inspired background I inked up a panel using Broken China and Peacock Feathers distress ink which I splattered with water and set aside to dry. I then inked up a strip of white cardstock with Antique Linen distress ink for my sand and cut the stitched edge using our Woodland Border Dies. To fill the empty void in my background, I stamped and colored a couple of palm trees from our Tropical Scenes Stamps with Copic Markers and tucked them behind my sand dune. 

For my foreground I arranged the tropical banana leaves from the Tiki Time set to look like a plant growing on either side of my scene, also adding a parrot from Tiki Time and a crab from our Oceans of Joy Stamps. The Tiki Time set comes with the "seas the day" punny sentiment, however the word "seas" was feeling a bit too small for this particular card so to make it feel more prominent, I spelled out the same word using our Loopy Letters Dies. This was one of those cards where I kept tinkering with it, add a little bit here and a little bit there, but in the end I really love how it turned out.  

Card No. 8: For my last card of the day I used the two little parrots from the Tiki Time Stamps together with the tree branch from our A Bird's Life Stamps. To give my tree branch a more tropical feel I layered it with some leaves and flowers from the Tiki Time set. This type of tree branch might not exist in real life, but I love the tropical vibe it gave my card.  To frame my little bird couple I added a stitched circle cut from our Dots & Striped Pastels Paper using our Stitched Circle Small Dies. This was actually a scrap sitting on my desk as a leftover from a shaker card window I cut for a card I will be sharing tomorrow and when I saw it, I thought it would be a cute way to frame my bird couple and looked a bit like an over-sized moon behind them.

My background was inked up with a heavy layer of Salty Ocean distress ink and then trimmed down using our Stitched Rectangle Dies. When my background was fully dry, I heat embossed my sentiment from the set using VersaMark Ink and Hero Arts White Detail Embossing Powder. Some Cornflower Blue Jewels were the perfect way to finish this simple card and give it a little touch of sparkle.

That wraps up today's sneak peeks. I'm so happy you spent a part of your day with me today. I read all your comments and they mean so much!  I'd love to give a $50 gift code to one lucky winner using the rafflecopter below. Make sure to keep checking back all this week for more peeks & prizes. The contests run through Saturday, April 17th at Midnight PST with winners announced here on Sunday, April 18th. :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway Here's a closer look at the our new Beach Buddies Stamps & Dies, Tiki Time Stamps & Dies and Stitched Rectangle Dies used today (available for purchase on April 16th).

 

 

Other Sunny Studio Supplies Used:

A Bird's Life Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	A Bird's Life Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Oceans of Joy Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Oceans of Joy Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio
Chloe Alphabet Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Picket Fence Border Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Tsukineko Jumbo Dauber Shop at: Sunny Studio	Versafine Onyx Black Ink Shop at: Sunny Studio
Beach Babies Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Beach Babies Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Fancy Frames- Rectangles Shop at: Sunny Studio	Happy Thoughts Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio
Woodland Borders Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Loopy Letters Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Dots & Stripes Pastels 6x6 Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Catch A Wave Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Tropical Scenes Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Tropical Scenes Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Slice of Summer Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Sealiously Sweet Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio
Sealiously Sweet Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Frilly Frames Herringbone Shop at: Sunny Studio	Slimline Nature Borders Shop at: Sunny Studio	Window Quad Square Die Shop at: Sunny Studio
Classic Sunburst Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Sleek Stripes Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Scalloped Circle Mat 1 Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Stitched Circle Small Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Stitched Circle Large Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Hero Arts Morning Glory Ink Shop at: Sunny Studio	Hero Arts White Detail Shop at: Sunny Studio	VersaMark Watermark Ink Shop at: Sunny Studio
Rain or Shine Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Pink Spinel Jewels Shop at: Sunny Studio	Cornflower Blue Jewels Shop at: Sunny Studio