Sneak Peek: Introducing Alpine Adventure Stamps & Dies

Hello, and welcome to day 3 of our Holiday Sneak Peek Week!  All week, I am sharing cards showcasing our newest collection, which will be available for purchase this Friday!

Card No. 1: Today I am showcasing our new Alpine Adventure Stamps and Dies, which feature a pond surrounded by fir trees and distant mountains, and include five adorable penguins and a polar bear engaged in winter activities such as ice skating, sledding, and skiing. As you will see from my card examples today, the "pond" portion can be colored in various ways to enhance this set's versatility. It was also designed to work beautifully for both portrait and landscape A2 cards, 5.5" square cards, as well as vertical 5x7 cards.

For my first card, I started by inking the sky and card base along the top with Tumbled Glass and Spun Sugar Distress inks to create a beautiful glow around the snowy mountains in my scene. I then added a greeting from the set and heat-embossed white snowflakes around the sentiment, using the six small snowflakes from the set as well. I just adore how crisp the details came out.

For all of my cards today, I stamped and fussy-cut a mask from Spellbinders Masking Material, and I was able to reuse the same mask over and over for every card shared here today. While the majority of my scene was colored with Copic Markers, I colored the frozen pond using more of that Tumbled Glass Distress ink, keeping it lighter towards the center and darker on the edges to stand out against the white snowy banks. I then positioned three of the ice-skating penguins from the set onto the "ice" and colored their winter accessories pink to match the sky's glow. Lastly, I added a small strip of pink plaid-patterned paper from the All is Bright Paper pack and a stitched edge using the Ribbon & Lace Border Dies.

Card Set No. 2: Next up is a card set I created using a single stamped scene from the Alpine Adventure Stamps, carefully cut exactly down the center to use on two cards. I love that this kept any of my precious coloring from ending up on the cutting room floor, and that the simple way I colored these images would be fast enough to mass-produce for your Christmas card list! 

For both of these cards, I repeatedly stamped the same six little snowflakes for my background, and this went surprisingly fast because I used my MISTI tool to stamp them in one corner, then flip my panel to the opposite corner and stamp the same six snowflakes. I was then able to repeat my stamping on my second card, with the images already in place. This made the process go surprisingly fast. I also used Versafine Clair Veri Peri ink, which stamped the snowflakes very crisply on the first pass, without the need for double-stamping to get a solid image.

Ice Skating Polar Bear Card: When it came to framing my scene, for my first card I used the same pink plaid paper from the All is Bright Paper pack and die-cut a scalloped mat using the Mini Mat & Tag 2 Dies. To add the stitching to my snowy scene, I carefully laid my background down on the same Mini Mat & Tag 2 Dies, using washi tape to hold the die in place before running it through my die-cutting machine. When it cut out, there were tiny bits of the scalloped edge remaining, so I used my paper trimmer to trim them down smoothly and layer them over the pink scalloped mat. This sky on this particular card felt a bit unbalanced by the visually heavier sentiment in the bottom left, so I remedied that by stamping three small snowflakes from the set with Versafine Clair Baby Pink Ink.

Skiing Penguins Card: For my second card in the set, I used the Mini Mat & Tag 3 Dies to create the scalloped frame. I love how the Alpine Adventure Stamps have a snowdrift on the right side, perfect for placing critters. It was just what I needed to make it look like this pair of penguins had just skied down the mountain. For both of these cards, I stamped shimmery greetings using Versafine Clair Veri Peri ink and then heat-embossed them using Hero Arts White Satin Pearl Embossing Powder.

Card No. 3: For my next card using the Alpine Adventure Stamps, I focused on the penguins without utilizing the alpine scene from the set. I started by trimming an A2-sized panel from an aqua multi-dot print from our Joyful Holiday Paper pack. I then layered it with a pink scalloped frame, cut using the Fancy Frames Rectangle Dies, and a piece of white cardstock, cut just a hair smaller to adhere below it. I inked the center where my penguins would go with some Tumbled Glass Distress ink and then stacked the smallest Stitched Heart 2 Dies and Scalloped Heart Dies to layer beneath my penguin on the sled. I flanked that penguin with two different ice-skating penguins on each side, pointing inward to face him. 

For my greeting, I used the large "Winter Wishes" sentiment from the set, stamped using Versafine Clair Bali Blue Ink. There was something about the card that still fell a bit flat for me, so I dressed up the greeting with a pennant strip, which I elongated using the die from the Notebook Photo Corner Dies and the blue snowflake print that was trimmed off and left over from the back side of the paper I used for my background.

Card No. 4: Next up is a card using almost only the images, scene, and greeting from the Alpine Adventure Stamps and Dies in a light and airy red, white, and blue color scheme. The only other product I utilized was the stitched trail from the Sweet As Can Bee Stamps, which I stamped using Gina K. Blue Sky Ink.

Card No. 5: Next up is a card using the snowy scene and greeting from the new Alpine Adventure Stamps, but this time I added in the snowmen from our Feeling Frosty Stamps. I die-cut the scene into a square using the largest die from the Stitched Square Dies and then matted it with red plaid patterned paper from the All is Bright Paper pack, die-cut with the Scalloped Square 1 Large Dies. Lastly, to add a touch of sparkle to my snowy trees, I applied Stickles Stardust Glitter. 

Card No. 6: Up next is another card pairing different critter images with the scene from the Alpine Adventure Stamps. This time I mixed in the reindeer, gifts, and greeting from the Reindeer Games Stamps, with the Santa, Sleigh, and gifts from the Santa Claus Lane Stamps. I love how fun and festive it turned out with the fir tree backdrop!

Card No. 7: Switching gears, I have a couple of cards that show how the new Alpine Adventure Stamps aren't limited to just winter scenes. I was able to color the ground to look like rocks and dirt rather than snow, and color my mountains a majestic purple, perfect for a fall card. For my focal point, I used the vintage trailer from our Happy Camper Stamps and the car from City Streets Stamps, coloring them in a fun, retro-inspired pink. I completed my card with a "happy retirement" banner using the greeting from the Happy Thoughts Stamps, which I heat-embossed onto a pink print from the Gingham Pastels Paper pack and die-cut with the Brilliant Banner 3 Dies. The patterned paper wasn't the perfect shade to match my Copic markers, but I was able to make it work by inking it up with a light blend of Saltwater Taffy Distress ink.

Card No. 8: For my last card of the day featuring the Alpine Adventure Stamps, I colored the scene to look like a day at the lake, adding the kids from our retiring Beach Babies Stamps. I realized after finishing this card that we only have a handful of these sets left in stock, but the kids from our Coastal Cuties Stamps and Kiddie Pool Stamps will also work for a card like this if you have trouble getting this particular set at some point. In fact, I ended up using the greeting from our Kiddie Pool stamps, even though the Beach Babies set has the same one in a different font. I also added the water splash images from that set, stamping them in dark blue ink and adding white highlights with a gel pen. I LOVE how much mileage I got from this one stamp set!

That wraps up today's sneak peek. I'm so happy you joined me today! I'd love to give a $40 gift code to one lucky winner, who will be randomly selected from comments on this blog post and on our Facebook and Instagram posts. Our daily contests will run through Saturday, August 29th, at Midnight PST, with winners announced here on our blog on Sunday, August 30th.

Here's a closer look at our new 6x6 Alpine Adventure Stamps and Alpine Adventure Dies, which are now available for purchase.

Other Supplies Used:

Mini Mat & Tag 2 Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Mini Mat & Tag 3 Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Notebook Photo Corners Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Fancy Frames- Rectangles Shop at: Sunny Studio
Stitched Square Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Scalloped Square 1 Large Die Shop at: Sunny Studio	Scalloped Heart Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Stitched Heart 2 Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Santa Claus Lane Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Santa Claus Lane Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Reindeer Games Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Reindeer Games Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Feeling Frosty Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Feeling Frosty Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Sweet As Can Bee Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Happy Thoughts Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio
City Streets Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	City Streets Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Happy Camper Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Happy Camper Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Kiddie Pool Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Kiddie Pool Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Beach Babies Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Beach Babies Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Gingham Pastels 6x6 Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Joyful Holiday Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	All Is Bright Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Brilliant Banner 3 Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Versafine Clair Ink- Bali Blue Shop at: Sunny Studio	Verafine Clair Ink- Very Peri Shop at: Sunny Studio	Versafine Clair Ink- Baby Pink Shop at: Sunny Studio	Versafine Onyx Black Ink Shop at: Sunny Studio
VersaMark Watermark Ink Shop at: Sunny Studio	Ribbon & Lace Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Hero Arts Ultra Fine Clear Shop at: Sunny Studio	Hero Arts White Detail Shop at: Sunny Studio
Tsukineko Jumbo Dauber Shop at: Sunny Studio	PinkFresh Studio Blending Brushes Shop at: Sunny Studio	Stickles Stardust Glitter Shop at: Sunny Studio