Sneak Peek: Fintastic Friends, Ocean View & Tropical Trees Backdrop Die

Hello and welcome to the first day of our Sneak Peek Week!  Each morning this week I am showcasing cards using our newest Summer collection which will be available to purchase on April 22nd.

Today I am sharing ideas using our new Fintastic Friends Stamps, Ocean View Stamps and Tropical Trees Backdrop Die. Let's dive right in (pun intended). ;)

Card No. 1: My first card showcases several of the adorable new ocean critters from our Fintastic Friends stamps paired with 1-1/2 of the ocean floor coral borders from our Tropical Scenes Stamps. I had already stamped and die-cut the borders prior to deciding to combine them on a slimline style card so I tried my best to hide my seam with my Copic Marker coloring and an extra sea anemone layered over the top from our Best Fishes Stamps (along with the use of a pufferfish from that set to go with the new pufferfish from Fintastic Friends).

I inked up my water background with a gradient using Peacock Feathers distress ink and then heat embossed my punny greeting from Fintastic Friends onto a stitched strip using our Slimline Pennant Dies. As a last touch, I added the seashell and crab from our new Ocean View Stamps and a number of bubbles from Fintastic Friends which were topped with Ranger Glossy Accents for a touch of realism. 

Card No. 2: Up next is a bright and happy grid style card featuring the Fintastic Friends Stamps, together with our new stitched Wonky Windows Dies which I will be sharing more of tomorrow. To start this card I created my own tone-on-tone "patterned paper" by repeatedly stamping the various bubbles from the stamp set using navy blue ink. For my stitched rectangles I inked them up in alternating shades of Salty Ocean and Peacock Feathers distress inks and then splattered them with water to lift some of the ink and give the look of bubbles. I purposefully colored my sea creatures with Copics markers using a pink, orange and yellow palette to create a cohesive color scheme. For my sentiment I stamped my greeting using Versamark Ink and heat embossed it with Hero Arts White Detail Embossing Powder. I love that my sentiment was able to break apart to fit on the three individual panels. Finally I added some Studio Katia Tiny Iridescent Bubbles to fill in some of the open spaces and add a little sparkle to my card.

Card No. 3: Next up, I have another slimline style card, this time pairing the three sharks (and two crabs) from our Fintastic Friends Stamps, Best Fishes Stamps and Sea You Soon Stamps with the coral, plant and crab images from our new Ocean View Stamps. 

For my background, I started by inking up my white cardstock with Broken China Distress Ink, before using Studio Katia's Underwater Sun Rays Stencil with Salty Ocean and Prize Ribbon Distress Inks over the top. The delicate nature of the stencil made it difficult to keep the stencil rays from wiggling during inking, however in the end I think the soft edges added to the real look of the sunrays and I am in love with the results. 

I die-cut a stitched pennant from yellow cardstock using our Stitched Rectangle Dies, inking up the bottom edge with some Wild Honey Distress Ink and stamping a punny greeting from the Best Fishes set using VersaFine Onyx Black Ink. Lastly, just like my first card, I stamped some bubbles from Fintastic Friends and topped them with Ranger Glossy Accents.

Card No. 4: Switching gears, I have a card featuring the fun beach border scene from our new Ocean View Stamps. The border includes two palm trees on the left, the ocean waves and shore in the middle and a beach chair and umbrella on the left. The Ocean View set also included another small individual palm tree which I tucked behind the umbrella in my card. For my background I inked up my white cardstock panel, blending Spun Sugar and Tumbled Glass Distress Inks. The Ocean View dies only die-cut along the top of the scene, giving you the flexibility to seamlessly place it at any height on your card without having a strange "seam" and divider around all the objects in the scene. For this reason I chose to color my sand using Copic Markers for this particular card.

Building out the rest of my scene, I used the extra beach chair and two kids from our new Kiddie Pool Stamps which I will be sharing more of tomorrow. I also paired the girl sitting on the floatie with the sand bucket, shovel and beach ball from our Beach Babies Stamps. For my greeting I used a sentiment from our Beach Buddies Stamps and filled the awkward imbalance in my background with some white flying seagulls die-cut from our new Tropical Trees Backdrop Dies.

Card No. 5: I have another underwater scene pairing the swimming girl from our new Kiddie Pool Stamps, together with the new fish, seahorse, shells and plants from Fintastic Friends Stamps and the coral and plants from the Ocean View Stamps. To cut my waves along the top, I used our Stitched Scalloped Dies and stamped bubbles in the background using our Best Fishes Stamps. Finally I stamped a cute punny greeting from the Fintastic Friends set and framed my entire scene using the stitched border from our new Tropical Trees Backdrop Dies.

Card No. 6: For this beach scene style card I once again used the border from our new Ocean View Stamps, but this time I used it on a card with a vertical, portrait orientation and cut off the beach chair on the right, covering the remaining chair leg with two of the small palm trees. For my background I used the yellow sunburst patterned paper from our Classic Sunburst Paper pack and topped it with a sun cut using our Stitched Circle Large Dies.  

To build out my scene, I added both girls and the greeting from our Coastal Cuties Stamps with the girl, sandcastle and beach ball from our Beach Babies Stamps. This time for my sand, I actually stamped the border scene onto a piece of masking material and fussy cut it out along the bottom edge so I could lay it over my scene and ink up the large sandy portion of my card using Tea Dye Distress Ink. I then used a coordinating Copic marker to add shadows beneath each of my figures.

Card No. 7: For this card I relied almost entirely on the use of our new Tropical Trees Backdrop die for a pretty beach scene at sunset with palm trees silhouettes. This die comes with a stitched frame, rocky slope, three palm trees, four unique clouds and a flying seagull. For my sunset background I blended Seedless Preserves, Picked Raspberry, Carved Pumpkin and Wild Honey Distress inks. I then repeated those colors for my water, keeping the center more yellow in tone, working out towards the purple on the far, outside edges and adding water ripple details with my Copic Marker. For my sun I used our Stitched Circle Small Dies which I inked up with Mustard Seed and Wild Honey Distress inks before stamping my sentiment from the Beach Buddies Stamps with VersaFine Onyx Black Ink.

Card No. 8: For my last card I used that same Tropical Trees Backdrop die in daylight scene, cutting the a second set of tree tops from green to layer over the top of my brown cardstock base and adding details to my trunk and palms using Copic Markers. This time I added a piece of kraft cardstock cut with our Slimline Nature Border Dies for my sand and a bride & groom couple and greeting from our new Wedded Bliss Stamps being fully shared on Thursday. To add a little extra detail to my sandy beach I used the specs of sand images included with our new Ocean View Stamps.

That wraps up today's sneak peeks. I'm so happy you spent 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. 

Our daily contests this week run through Saturday, April 23rd at Midnight PST with winners announced here on Sunday, April 24th. :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway Here's a closer look at our new Fintastic Friends Stamps & Dies, Ocean View Stamps & Dies, and Tropical Trees Backdrop Die used today (which will be available to purchase starting on April 22nd):

 

 

Other Supplies Used:

Stitched Scallop Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Beach Buddies Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Beach Buddies 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	Beach Babies Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Beach Babies Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Best Fishes Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Best Fishes Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Coastal Cuties Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Coastal Cuties Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Sea You Soon Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Sea You Soon Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Tropical Scenes Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Tropical Scenes Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Slimline Nature Borders Shop at: Sunny Studio	Classic Sunburst Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Slimline Pennant Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Stitched Circle Small Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Stitched Circle Large Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Kiddie Pool Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Kiddie Pool Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Wedded Bliss Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio
Wedded Bliss Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Wonky Windows Die Shop at: Sunny Studio	Hero Arts White Detail Shop at: Sunny Studio	Tiny Iridescent Bubbles Shop at: Sunny Studio
VersaMark Watermark Ink Shop at: Sunny Studio	Cottontail Embossing Powder Tool Shop at: Sunny Studio	Ranger Glossy Accents Shop at: Sunny Studio	Multi Medium Matte Shop at: Sunny Studio
Memento Tuxedo Black Ink Pad Shop at: Sunny Studio	Domed Ink Blending Foam Shop at: Sunny Studio