Hello and welcome to day 4 of our Holiday Sneak Peek Week! Each morning this week I am showcasing projects using our newest fall & winter collections which will be available to purchase on August 25th.
I'm so excited to share today's projects with you sharing a fun new oversized Bear called Holiday Hugs from our Black Friday graphics last year. A few of you had asked where to buy him so I'm super happy to have him available this year. As a follow-up to our popular Santa's Stocking Dies, I am also proud to introduce a similar concept with our fun new Woolen Mitten Dies! Let's dive right in!
Card No. 1: For my first card of the day, I used our new Holiday Hugs Stamps to create a slimline card (measuring 9" wide x 4" high). I added a candy cane-striped patterned paper strip to the bottom of my card piecing together two strips from our Joyful Holiday Paper pack. I was able to completely make my seam invisible by cutting my paper on the diagonal to hug one of the red stripes. I then colored three of the bears to look like polar bears with matching candy-striped scarves and holding three of the holiday-themed objects with the cocoa mug, gift box, and stocking. For my background, I inked it using Tumbled Glass Distress Ink and then randomly stamped some of the snowflakes from the set in the background and filled the space between them with the large script greeting from the set, cut out using the Holiday Hugs Dies.
Card No. 2: Up next is a colorful holiday card using Holiday Hugs, together with our Frilly Frames Chevron Dies which I cut out a couple times from white cardstock and then inked the pieces in a rainbow of Distress Ink colors to stack up and bleed off the edges of my card. To do this I applied them to a thin piece of printer paper which I had coated in sticky adhesive and then was able to make quick work of lining them up. Afterward, I added a simple white ricrac edge using our Ric Rac Border Dies on either side. I colored my bear's scarf to match the Distress inks, this time coloring my bear a warm brown color to look like a traditional teddy bear. I stamped my "Winter Hugs" greeting onto a white thought bubble using our Comic Strip Speece Bubble Dies and then added three small snowflakes as an embellishment. One of these will be our new free die with purchase this holiday season (the top two) and the other style come from our online store-exclusive Basic Mini Shape 2 Dies.
Card No. 3: The Holiday Hugs Stamps aren't limited to just the Christmas holiday season. For this love-themed card, I took inspiration from the scalloped heart in the set that the bear can hold by repeating the motif, layering our Stitched Heart 2 Dies and Scalloped Heart Dies in a similar fashion for my background. I love that I was able to ink my stitched hearts with various inks in my stash to closely match the heart I had colored with my Copic Markers. I then mounted them onto a piece of hot pink grid paper from our Classic Gingham Paper pack and added the "sending hugs" sentiment to the largest heart in the center of my card.
Card No. 4: Continuing with non-holiday cards, I created a birthday card using the wrapped gifts and cupcake from the Holiday Hugs Stamps which I paired with the cherry from our Birthday Cat Stamps. I framed my sentiment and polar bear by layering an aqua blue polka-dot patterned paper from Polka-dot Parade Paper pack and a white scalloped mat from our Mini Mat & Tag 1 Dies. I stamped the happy birthday greeting from our Scrumptious Cupcakes Stamps with Versafine Onyx Black Ink and added rainbow streamers overhead using the Crepe Paper Streamers Dies.
Card No. 5: My next Holiday Hugs card spotlights the adorable iconic holiday images from this set without the bear. I think they are cute enough to stand out all on their own so I created a 4.25" x 4.25" square grid-style card by pairing our Window Quad Square Dies with patterned paper from our Classic Gingham Paper and Gingham Pastel Paper packs. To add a little pizazz, I added white polka-dots to my stocking and the bow on my gift using a white Sharpie paint pen. Lastly, I heat embossed my sentiment with White Detail Embossing Powder in the top, right square using our Inside Greetings Holiday Stamps.
Card No. 6: Switching gears, I have a shaped holiday gift card holder using our new Woolen Mitten Dies with a fun red and white Nordic pattern. These dies come with a number of elements to embellish these cute mittens including rows of stitches, snowflakes, holly leaves, poinsettia layers, and faux buttons. They have also been sized to fit in an A2 envelope with a little room to spare on top to fit your gift card.
For this card, I repeatedly cut out the stylized snowflake print from the center of my mitten in a straight line, filled the negative space with a strip of white cardstock below, and then added the rows of stitches on either side before sewing on some Tiny White Buttons with red thread. I then took a paper piercer and added some little holes on the outside edge of my mitten by piercing through a piece of scratch foam before hand stitching around the outside edge. I did this merely for decoration though before using a strong line of liquid adhesive to actually adhere my front piece to my back piece. Lastly, I added a white cuff from the set which I had layered with a red snowflake (also from the set).
Card No. 7: Up next is a bright and happy Woolen Mitten card. They might be a little busy, but I really wish I had a pair of mittens like these! I started by cutting two mittens from Navy cardstock, scoring the back one about an inch from the top, parallel to the flat bottom of my cuff, and adding adhesive above my score line to adhere to the back of my other mitten piece. I then cut a number of colorful snowflakes from cardstock using the snowflake die from the set. I made sure to not throw away my scraps though because I was able to trim approximately 1/8" wide strips of rainbow cardstock to stack on printer paper and die-cut with the coordinating cuff die. I then stamped the "warm wishes" greeting from our Heartfelt Wishes Stamps using a shortened pennant from our Notebook Photo Corner Dies. Lastly, I added Pure White Jewels to the center of each of my snowflakes to pick up the white of my sentiment strip.
Card No. 8: For this Woolen Mitten card I couldn't resist creating a classic ivory cable knit design using our Cable Knit Embossing Folder, lightly inking the raised surface with some Antique Linen Distress Ink. This set comes with a small scalloped lace edge to tuck between the cuff and mitten. I then layered my mitten with the poinsettia pieces, holly, and faux wood button using the two individual dies from the set to layer together. Loving the ability to create a realistic-looking button that is flat enough to mail.
Card No. 9: For my last card of the day I couldn't resist using some of the individual poinsettia and holly decorative elements from the
Woolen Mitten Dies for a non-mitten card. I started by cutting all the pieces from white cardstock. I then inked up all the flowers with Spun Sugar Distress ink and all the holly leaves with
Gina K. Key Lime Ink. I then took my heat gun to the poinsettias to make sure they were good and dry before tracing the veins using my R83 Copic Marker. I then softened them a bit by going over them with my RV10 and R81 colors. To add a little dimension to my flowers I popped up the center section using foam tape. Since this already added enough bulk, I didn't want to add jewels or peals to the center that would make this card difficult to mail so I used some Stickles Lime Green Glitter Glue with three dots in the center of each flower and filled any empty spaces I had on my black background. I love how they catch the light!
Lastly, I stamped my "happy holidays" sentiment using our
Holiday Greetings Stamps and
Dies which I first stamped in dye ink and then stamped a second time in my MISTI tool with Versamark ink so I could sprinkle on some pearlized embossing powder. I actually had prepared this sentiment for a card last year, but at the last minute chose to go with a different color so sadly I no longer remember the exact color combo I used here.
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 $25 gift code to one lucky winner using the Rafflecopter below.
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Our daily contests will run through Monday, August 28th at Midnight PST with winners announced here on Friday, September 1st. :)
