Sneak Peek: Holiday Express, Bear Hugs & Forest Trees Stencils

Hello and welcome to the last day of our 2021 Holiday Peek Week!  Every morning this week I have showcased cards using our newest fall & winter collections which will be begin shipping today! Hooray!

Today I am sharing our last two new 4x6 Stamp sets for winter, along with our very first set of stencils, called Forest Trees. This is an idea I have been tossing around for several years and I finally decided to take the plunge and create them. It consists of three numbered 6-inch wide stencils that can be used alone or layered together to create the look of a dense forest backdrop for your cards.

I have created a video sharing not only the new products from today, but also a closer look at all products and cards shared over the past six days. I hope you will join me! You can also watch directly on our YouTube channel HERE.

Card No. 1: For my first set of cards today I'm sharing ways to use our new Holiday Express Stamps. The set comes with a train engine, a gondola style rail car, a peeking Santa, reindeer, polar bear, penguin, tree, gifts, a number of fun elements to decorate the cars with and several versatile mix and match greetings. 

For my card, I started by inking my background lightly with tumbled glass distress ink before inking in my trees using the new Forest Trees Stencils with Twisted Citron for the first layer and Mowed Lawn for the second layer. I then added a layer of brush below my trees using our Fluffy Cloud Border Dies and a bank of snow with our Slimline Nature Border Dies. The set comes with the bells to decorate with and I stamped multiples of the reindeer from the set, giving one a red nose to look like Rudolph. I tucked a bag of toys behind the last one using an image from our Santa Claus Lane Stamps. I was running out of a good place to fit a greeting so our Comic Strip Speech Bubbles Dies came to my rescue and allowed me to stamp a sentiment from the Holiday Express set.

Card No. 2: For my next card I created a slimline style card using the largest die from our Stitched Rectangle Dies set which I elongated by hanging one end off the cutting plate before running my paper through the die-cutting machine and then repeating the process on the opposite side. The stitching helps you lock the die into position making this super easy to do and get beautiful results. For my tree lined background I also elongated the border from our Winter Scenes Stamps by first stamping it in the center (with pale blue ink) and then masking off the edges before stamping them again on both sides. I then shaded the trees using my Copic Markers before adding a snowy sparkle using my favorite Stardust Stickles by Ranger.

For this card I used the little string of lights from the Holiday Express set to decorate my box cars which were filled with penguins, polar bears, trees and gifts all colored in a cool blue, green and turquoise analogous color scheme. I finished my card with a cute greeting from the set which I stamped using VersaFine Onyx Black Ink.

Card No. 3: Up next is an everyday take on the cute train (and gifts) from Holiday Express. For this fun birthday card I paired the critters from our Beach Buddies stamps with the balloons from our Floating By Stamps and the little banners from our Balloon Rides Stamps. For my fir tree with grass hillside backdrop, I turned to a border from our Scenic Route Stamps. Lastly I inked up the stitched cloud border from our Slimline Nature Border Dies with some Twisted Citron Distress ink to form a little brush directly behind my train. I just love how happy and festive this turned out!

Card No. 4: For my next card I started by inking up my background using the three layers of Forest Trees Stencils before die-cutting my panel using the outer stitched rectangle from our Frilly Frames Quatrefoil Dies. I then stamped some tufts of grass along the bottom half of my panel using images from our Barnyard Buddies Stamps. I thought this train would also make a cute baby boy card so for my focal point I colored it with more whimsical colors and added the little bear from our Beach Buddies Stamps, I framed the image using a scalloped circle from our Fancy Frames Circle Dies, inserting a little half circle beneath my train to ground my scene.  For my sentiment I paired the word "congrats" from our Tool Time Stamps with the phrase "coming your way" from the Holiday Express Stamps, stamping them both onto a small banner from our Banner Basics Stamps.

Card No. 5: For my last train card for the day, I mass produced this playful holiday card for our brick and mortar stores to display, focusing almost entirely on the elements from our Holiday Express Stamps. One time saving measure I utilized was using a basic solid aqua cardstock for my background rather than inking it up with distress inks like I often do for my one-of-a-kind cards. I also chose to set up the three cloud puffs of steam in my MISTI tool and to stamp them all at once which saved me so much extra time in stamping, coloring, cutting and gluing the individual pieces later. I also used the basic stitched hillside border from our Slimline Nature Border Dies, which cuts a stitched slope on both sides of the cutline. I used this to my advantage by positioning the die in the center of my white cardstock and cutting two snowy borders at once. For my sentiment, I used a greeting from the set which I also set up in my MISTI tool and stamped quickly and easily with my favorite VersaFine Onyx Black Ink. All these time saving measures kept me from wanting to pull my hair out during the assembly line process, but I don't think the average recipient would ever know I cut corners to make the cardmaking process quicker.

Card No. 6: Switching gears, I have a series of cards showcasing our new Bear Hugs Stamps. This set with all the hugging bears works great for the holidays, Valentine's Day, Father's Day and Mother's Day and even to let someone know you miss their hugs during Covid.

For this card I started by inking up my sky and fir tree background using our Forest Trees Stencils with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. I then added some birch trees to either side of my card using the Bear Hugs Stamps and a stitched drift of snow using our Slimline Nature Border Dies. For my focal point I used the sweater clad bears rubbing noses from the Bear Hugs stamps and a greeting from the set. I then stamped five little hearts (also from the set) with red ink. Finally I added a strip of the candy cane striped paper from our new All Is Bright Paper pack, backed with a thin strip of red cardstock to the bottom of my card.

Card No. 7: Starting with the same Forest Trees Stencils and Tumbled Glass Distress Inks, this time I inked my borders on a card panel with a vertical orientation and added a fourth row of trees to the foreground using our Winter Scenes Stamps. This scene set comes with a separate line image that hugs the edge of the trees which gave me the opportunity to create separation so I could color the icy Arctic Ocean with my Copic Markers for my sleeping polar bear with his ice block to float on. For my greeting I borrowed a sentiment from our Lazy Christmas Stamps which felt so perfect for this image and I couldn't resist adding the tiny Santa hat from our Christmas Critters Stamps as a last minute touch. I just love this bear!  

Card No. 8: For this card I paired the three images featuring the hugging Mama and Papa Bears from the Bear Hugs Stamps. To ground my images I lined them up on the scalloped gift tags with matching toppers included with our Sliding Window Dies set. I cut out the toppers from a aqua checked patterned paper from our All Is Bright Paper pack and covered the tag's holes with small red hearts from our Mini Basic Shape II Dies which were coated with Glossy Accents. For my card background I used a red stitched scallop print from that same holiday paper pack and die-cut the bottom edge with a lacy scallop to match my tags using our Slimline Basic Border Dies. I wanted to have a white shadow behind my red scalloped edge so I cut a second strip from white cardstock with the plain scalloped border die that also comes with the border die set to offset behind my background. For my greeting, I heat embossed several words from the Bear Hugs stamps with white embossing powder and paired them with the scripty "hugs" word die-cut from our Scalloped Oval Mat 3 Dies.

Card No. 9: For my next card I took one of those same hugging bear images, this time coloring them to look like polar bears for my card's focal point. I thought a pink and lavender color scheme would be a fun change of pace so I started by inking up a piece of white cardstock with Spun Sugar Distress ink for my sky and then layered it with varying shades of Shaded Lilac Distress Ink using our Forest Trees Stencils. I cut a snowy hillside using our Slimline Nature Border Dies to layer along the bottom of my scene and then trimmed a Stitched Arch from a piece of pink snowflake patterned paper from our Holiday Cheer Paper pack to layer over my entire background. This window gave me a wonderful frame to showcase my hugging bears and a great place to stamp my greeting from the set. I then cut a number of small snowflakes from our Snowflake Circle Frame Dies to randomly scatter in the foreground which I topped with our Metallic Silver Drops. These drops are so much fun to work with and they really make your cards shine!

Card No. 10: For my last card of the day I thought I would create an everyday themed card using the Bear Hugs Stamps to show how well they work for cards outside the winter season. For this card I used the bear, mug and birch trees with leaves from the set to create a light and airy scene, pairing them with the mountain from our Alpaca Holiday Stamps. I colored my sky using Spun Sugar Distress ink and then when it was fully dry, I heat embossed a sentiment from our Beautiful Autumn Stamps. My grassy layers were created by flicking on color with my Copic Markers and trimming the edges using the grass border die from our Picket Fence Dies. As my last touch I added a number of daisies to the grass using the flower image from our Spring Scenes Stamps. Finally I had drew some steam coming from my coffee mug using a Sharpie White Extra Fine Point Paint Pen.

Well, that wraps up all my sneak peeks for the week! I'm so happy you've joined me! I read all your comments and they mean so much!  I'd love to give a $25 gift code to one lucky winner using the rafflecopter below.  Don't forget there's still time to enter our giveaways from earlier in the week, including our birthday blog hop HERE with loads of prizes at every stop. The contests run through TODAY at Midnight PST with winners announced here on Sunday, August 29th. :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This week we also have three different discount codes to chose from, however you are limited to one discount code per order so please chose the one with the biggest savings for you. ❤️

Plus all order will automatically come with our newest free mini ornament die for the season!

Here's a closer look at the our new Holiday Express Stamps & Dies, Bear Hugs Stamps & Dies and Forest Trees Stencils used today (which are available for pre-order as part of our birthday festivities and will begin shipping on August 27th):

Other Sunny Studio Supplies Used:

Beach Buddies Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Outback Critters Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Picket Fence Border Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Stitched Rectangle Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Tsukineko Jumbo Dauber Shop at: Sunny Studio	Versafine Onyx Black Ink Shop at: Sunny Studio	Barnyard Buddies Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Fancy Frames-Circle Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Beautiful Autumn Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Sliding Window Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Holiday Cheer 6x6 Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Alpaca Holiday Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio
Alpaca Holiday Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Mini Basic Shape Dies II Shop at: Sunny Studio	Fluffy Clouds Border Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Comic Strip Speech Bubble Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Scenic Route Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Scenic Route Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Snowflake Circle Frame Shop at: Sunny Studio	Banner Basics Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio
Banner Basics Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Floating By Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Floating By Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Spring Scenes Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio
Spring Scenes Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Tool Time Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Stitched Arch Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Frilly Frames Quatrefoil Shop at: Sunny Studio
Slimline Basic Borders Shop at: Sunny Studio	Slimline Nature Borders Shop at: Sunny Studio	Winter Scenes Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Winter Scenes Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Balloon Rides Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Scalloped Oval Mat 3 Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	All Is Bright Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Hero Arts White Detail Shop at: Sunny Studio
Lazy Christmas Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	VersaMark Watermark Ink Shop at: Sunny Studio	Metallic Silver Drops Shop at: Sunny Studio