Guest Designer Spotlight: Passionate Penguins Cards with Sara Zoppi

Hi crafty friends, Sara Zoppi here! Today I am totally thrilled because today I am guesting again for Sunny Studio Stamps. I really love cute critters and if you are here, I’m sure you will too! I made three cards, using two of the recently released stamps and a background die too. So, let’s dive into the first one!

As soon as I saw the Bursting Hearts Die I loved it!! Look how gorgeous it is! And I have seen a lot of inspirations from the Design Team that I couldn’t wait to play more. I firstly took a piece of 4.25”x 5.5” white cardstock and I ink blended the Distress Inks in Spun Sugar and Worn Lipstick. When I liked the blending, I splattered some Festive Berries ink and some Gansai Tambi Starry Watercolor (pearl) to create some texture and I let aside to dry.

I now moved to the two protagonists from Passionate Penguins Stamps, which I stamped on a piece of Neenah Solar White and I colored with Copics. I went for a totally new combo for me: blue, white, red and pink. It works really great! I also die cut everything with coordinating dies. 

Here’s my first trick: since I didn’t like the white between all the balloon strings from the Heart Bouquet Stamps so I fussy cut them all and I stamped them directly on the background panel before adhering the balloons. I then took the background panel and I die-cut it using the Bursting Hearts Die. I didn’t throw away all the smaller hearts, I took a little plastic bag and I put them there. My idea was to layer a white sheet of paper behind, but I didn’t like the look so much…and while looking in my stash I found some holographic paper and I couldn’t resist! I cut a 4” x 5.25” piece of that (I also cut the heart panel, since I wanted to mat everything with some white) and I layered behind…it is really difficult to catch in the photos all the shine and light that it gives. I completed the card adding the sentiment strips and an A2 white panel behind. 

My second inspiration uses the same Passionate Penguins Stamps but in a night-time scene. The idea came from the sentiment found in the Lovey Dovey Stamp Set. The sentiment is in a circular shape and it was perfect to fit into a moon! I firstly started from the background: I masked a circular shape with a Post-it note and I ink blended the sky using Distress Inks in Shaded Lilac, Blueprint Sketch and Black Soot. I then removed the post it and silver heat embossed the sentiment. And here’s another trick: if you use a stamping tool, you can heat emboss twice, to get a smoother look (after my first layer, the sentiment didn’t look so bold). I also added some white stars in the sky.

I then stamped the penguins on the card and I colored with Copics too. Look how lovely they are! To complete the scene, I added some hearts (the ones that I saved from the previous background LOL) and I matted three times, using in order silver glitter, pink and white paper. 

And here’s my third and last inspiration, using the same Passionate Penguins stamp set. 

I must say I was inspired by another super talented crafty friend for the background, Amy Young. When I saw her card, I knew I wanted to case (copy and selectively edit) her, using this couple under the umbrella. I stamped the penguins on a piece of Neenah Solar White paper and I colored my one-layer scene using Copics. I masked the bottom part in order to get a horizontal white stripe. To create the rain effect, I created some blue lines over my scene, and I used a white gel pen to add some shining details.

I also wanted to complete the scene with a giant SUNSHINE word, made of a rainbow colors. I used the Chloe Alphabet Dies, I really love this bold font and it is perfect to customize sentiments. I die cut them from some colored cardstock but when I layered them the word was “too heavy” for my card and I didn’t like the final look. So, I came up with another idea (I never give up!). I cut white letters and I used the colored pieces behind, with a small offset, in order to create a colored shadow. And I loved the look! I then matted the scene with a slightly larder black panel and a rainbow patterned paper. The one I used comes from another brand, but Sunny Studio has in stock the Rainbow Bright 6x6 Paper with a really similar pattern. 

And here’s my third and last trick: when you are choosing a color palette or – like here – the colors for the letters, choose your patterned paper and take inspiration from it! The project will seem more organic. Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have found my project inspiring! 

Sunny Studio Supplies Used:

Chloe Alphabet Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Rainbow Bright 6x6 Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Bursting Heart Die Shop at: Sunny Studio	Heart Bouquet Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Lovey Dovey Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio
Passionate Penguins Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Passionate Penguins Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio