Sneak Peek: Introducing Bighearted Bears & Sprawling Surfaces

Hi there! Welcome to day 2 of our Spring Sneak Peek Week!  All this week I am sharing cards showcasing our newest collection which will be available for purchase this Friday!

Card No. 1: Today I am sharing card ideas using our newest panda stamp set called Bighearted Bears which is perfect for Valentine's Day and so much more! This set comes with a little post office mailbox, letters, and bears in so many new cute poses. I also was able to pair two of the new pandas with the panda on the top of the mailbox from our Panda Party Stamps so they mix and match for double the fun. For my background, I started by cutting clouds from masking material using our Comic Strip Everyday Dies and then inked over them using Tumbled Glass distress ink before pulling up the masks to reveal the white cardstock beneath. 

For the buildings behind my bears, I stamped and colored the border from our Charming City Stamps. When I was done I felt like the buildings were drawing the eye away from the scene in the foreground too much so I cut a piece of vellum and adhered it to the back of an arched window I cut using our Stitched Arch Dies. This was just what my scene needed to frame the scene and make the buildings feel a bit hazy in the background like they would be in real life. Lastly, I inked up varying shades of red cardstock for our layered Brilliant Banner 2 Dies and heat-embossed my greeting, pairing the word "love" from our Love & Light Stamps with the words "sending" and "your way" from the Panda Party Stamps.

Card No. 2: Up next is a cute Parisian scene, mixing the bears from Bighearted Bears and Panda Party with the Eiffel Tower and cafe table and chair set from our Paris Afternoon Stamps. The real star of the show though is the cobblestone from our new Sprawling Surfaces Stamps. This set comes with 3 unique "flooring" or outdoor surfaces to create realistic scenes with vanishing focal points or "forced perspective". If you are a fan of some of the amazing artists who do this freehand, these fun borders now allow you to look like a pro with the help of a stamp set that does the heavy lifting for you. For this card, I colored the cobblestone with a no-line coloring technique, but once again I felt like the colors I chose were too bold with everything else I had going on so I was able to subdue them by wrapping my border strip in a sheet of vellum and adhering it with flaps to the back so I didn't have to mess with trying to hide the adhesive. 

To create the shrubs in the background, I used our Fluffy Clouds Border Dies and inked them up with mowed lawn distress ink. For my greeting, I paired the die-cut word "sending" from our new Gift Card Envelope Dies (to be shared more tomorrow) with the words "Valentine's Day" from our Bighearted Bears Stamps and the "wishes" word from our Christmas Cookie Stamps. The same "wishes" word can also be found in our Truckloads of Love Stamps and Reindeer Games Stamps. The little pink pennant strip they were stamped on was cut using one of the dies from our Notebook Photo Corners Dies. 

Card No. 3: Moving indoors, this card features the new Sprawling Surfaces Stamps, spotlighting the wood floor border which I paired with the cute sofa and other living room furniture from our Cozy Christmas Stamps. For the occupants, I used three bears from both our new Bighearted Bears Stamps and Panda Party Stamps, adding wallpaper to my room using a seafoam green polka-dot print from our Dots & Stripes Pastel Paper pack. Lastly, I heat embossed my "home is wherever you are" greeting from our Puppy Parents Stamps onto our Brilliant Banner 2 Dies which I inked up pink to match the pink heart the bear is holding.

Card No. 4: Using the third border from the Sprawling Surfaces Stamps, I created an outdoor scene using the park bench and tree images from our Spring Scenes Stamps. I think the bricks go together so well and the little panda bears on the bicycle and Panda with the flower bouquet from our new Bighearted Bears Stamps were the perfect compliment. When I had my images placed in the scene, however, I felt like the large white space inside the bicycle wheels was really glowing against my brick background so I ended up coloring them to match the bricks to hopefully keep the eye from going straight to that spot. To complete my scene, I added the sitting bear from our Panda Party Stamps, a greeting from our new Big Bunny Stamps, and the butterfly from our Birthday Mouse Stamps (or Spring Showers Stamps).

Card No. 5: I created a whimsical scene for this card featuring the Bighearted Bears Stamps. I started by inking my background using Broken China Distress Ink together with masks I had cut using our Fluffy Clouds Border Dies. I then colored six heart balloons and the bicycling couple using Copic Markers, positioning the balloons with the coordinating strings to lift my bicycle into the clouds.  I then added a 1" strip of Classic Sunburst Paper to the bottom of my card using the blue grid print to match my clouds, adding the stitching along the top edge with the die from our Slimline Basic Border Dies. I completed my card with a punny sentiment from the set and layered a loopy heart border from our Heartstrings Border Dies.

Card No. 6: For my last card I kept envisioning a pile of letters to go with the darling mailbox from our new Bighearted Bears stamps so I stamped and cut out many little letter masks so I could stamp a section of them, cover them in masks, stamp another layer, move the masks, and repeat until I had a proper-sized letter pile. I added the little panda from our Panda Party Stamps to a thought bubble from our Comic Strip Speech Bubbles Dies and a thin stitched frame using our Frilly Frames Herringbone Dies.

To ground my mailbox I added a simple strip of black cardstock along the bottom, but then I was struggling with hiding the unfinished edge of my letters which I had positioned off the edge of my paper when I stamped them so a little white scalloped border from our Slimline Basic Border Dies came to my rescue. Adding it had the added benefit of giving me a nice little "box" to fit my sentiment. To create my greeting I paired the "thinking of you" phrase from the Fast Food Fun Stamps together with the word "this" from our Alpaca Holiday Stamps and the "Valentine's Day" from the new Bighearted Bears set.

That wraps up today's sneak peek. I'm so happy you joined me today! I'd love to give a $50 gift code to one lucky winner using the Rafflecopter below. Our daily sneak peek contests run through Saturday, January 6th at Midnight PST with the winners announced here on Sunday, January 7th. :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Here's a closer look at our new Bighearted Bears Stamps & Dies and Sprawling Surfaces Stamps used today and available for purchase on Friday, January 5th.

  

Other Sunny Studio Supplies Used:

Tsukineko Jumbo Dauber Shop at: Sunny Studio	Versafine Onyx Black Ink Shop at: Sunny Studio	Comic Strip Everyday Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Dots & Stripes Pastels 6x6 Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio
Fluffy Clouds Border Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Spring Scenes Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Spring Scenes Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Heartstrings Border Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Stitched Arch Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Classic Sunburst Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Charming City Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Charming City Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Paris Afternoon Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Paris Afternoon Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Cozy Christmas Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Cozy Christmas Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Panda Party Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Panda Party Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Notebook Photo Corners Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Birthday Mouse Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio
Birthday Mouse Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Brilliant Banner 2 Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Love & Light Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Big Bunny Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio
Big Bunny Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Gift Card Envelope Die Shop at: Sunny Studio	Hero Arts White Detail Shop at: Sunny Studio	VersaMark Watermark Ink Shop at: Sunny Studio
Fast Food Fun Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Alpaca Holiday Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Puppy Parents Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Frilly Frames Herringbone Shop at: Sunny Studio
Comic Strip Speech Bubble Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Slimline Basic Borders Shop at: Sunny Studio