2017 Cat Lovers Hop with Fireplace Card with Eloise

Today we're thrilled to be a sponsor for the 2017 Cat Lovers Hop so with that theme in mind, Eloise has created one of the cutest cat themed Christmas cards:

Hi everyone, Eloise here and today I have a shaped card to share with you all using the brand new Fireplace Dies which is so super fun and I'll also be using the Santa's Helpers and Christmas Icons stamp sets to create my scene.

To begin my card, I first stamped out four stockings from the Christmas Icons stamp set and the cat in stocking and cat tree image from the Santa's Helpers stamp set and coloured them all in using Copic Markers. I then used both coordinating die sets to cut out all my images.

Next up, it was time to create my card base. I used the Fireplace Dies and first cut out the main panel out of some kraft cardstock. Next up I cut out a ton of brick images from the same kraft cardstock. I then used Gathered Twigs and Antique Linen Distress Inks to colour my main fireplace panel and used Fired Brick Distress Ink to ink blend over all the bricks. I then used some liquid glue to adhere them all down into place. Once all my bricks were adhered down, I used some watercolour cardstock and ink blended some Mustard Seed, Carved Pumpkin, Festive Berries and Black Soot Distress Inks into each corner, then cut the flames and fire stand from each of the colours. I then took some gold foil cardstock and cut the fireplace arch from it also. I then wanted the inside of the fire place to look black and charred. So I used the negative piece from the arch die, adhered it over the top of my panel and ink blended Black Soot Distress Ink on the inside over the bricks to make it look charred.

Now all my pieces were ready to be adhered together. I first adhered my gold arch around the outside of black arched piece and then adhered the fire stand and flames on top. I used foam tape behind the rest of my images and for all the stockings, I pierced a hole through each of the hanger pieces and threaded some hemp cord through, to make it seem like all the stockings were hanging over the fire. Before tying a bow to hold them all in place, I added two jingle bells onto the string, then tied it into a bow. Lastly, I adhered the tree cat next to the fire. 

To finish up, I white heat embossed the 'Meowy Christmas' sentiment from Santa's Helpers onto a strip of black cardstock, and adhered it with more foam tape onto the bottom of my panel. To make this panel into a card, I cut down a card base to 4 3/4" x 4" and adhered it onto the back of my fireplace. You could cut an additional fireplace base, score the top and adhere it onto the back - but I decided to do it this way this time around. 

In honor of the hop Sunny Studio is donating a $25 gift code to our online store so make sure to check out the Peaceful Garden blog for details on how you can win. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I'll see you next time! 

Sunny Studio Supplies Used:

Christmas Icons Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Christmas Icons Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Santa's Helpers Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Santa's Helpers Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Fireplace Shaped Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio

2nd Birthday Blog Hop with Holiday Sneak Peeks & Prizes

Hello & welcome to a very special post today.  I am thrilled and humbled to have reached our second birthday milestone this month!  To celebrate we are hosting a fun blog hop with some of our favorite designers who are sharing sneak peeks of our holiday release coming out next Friday. 

For my part of the hop, I am sharing five different ways to use our new Fireplace dies which come with everything you need to create a fun A2 sized shaped fireplace card! 

Card No. 1:  For my first card I wanted to create a traditional brick fireplace reminiscent of grandma's house.  I inked up three swatches of white cardstock using Fired Brick, Rusty Hinge, Wild Honey & Ripe Persimmon distress inks.  I then die-cut the bricks using the four brick pieces that come with the set and adhered them with a glue pen in a random pattern.  For my mantel, I cut it from some wood print patterned paper and cut the trim from metallic gold cardstock.

While this set comes with some die-cut stockings, I thought I would mix things up by using the stocking stamp from our Christmas Icons set and the kitty warming himself from our Furever Friends stamps.  I then used a Copic multiliner pen to write the names of our family on the stockings.  

Card No. 2: Next up I have a card where I used those same brick dies along with an embossing pad to emboss the bricks into the background of my fireplace piece, giving it a nice subtle detail.  I heat embossed my sentiment in white using a phrase from our Heartfelt Wishes set and a kitty from Pet Sympathy.  

For this card I thought it would be fun to do something totally different so instead of stockings, I used the wreath image from our Christmas Icons set, along with a metallic pipe cleaner to form my garland behind the wreaths.  I'm in love with the results!

Card No. 3: For this card I went more modern with the look of my fireplace, cutting the background from silver shimmer cardstock and topping it with what I like to think of as white subway tile.  I channeled my inner Barbie girl and inked my stockings using Picked Raspberry and Twisted Citron distress inks.  I stamped my sentiment on the mantel using a phrase from our Gleeful Reindeer set.  A puppy from our Santa's Helpers and a gift from Christmas Icons complete my scene.

Card No. 4: Up next is another somewhat modern take with a black and white fireplace. It's difficult to see in my photo, but my background was embossed with the bricks in the same method I used for my second card.  To embellish my card I turned to the kitty in the stocking image from our Santa's Helpers set.

Card No. 5: My last card shows a third way to use the bricks for the fireplace by cutting a random brick pattern from the front panel and layering another solid panel behind it.  For these I used some scraps of solid distressed patterned papers that were a bit thinner than my other cardstocks so they actually benefited from the extra thickness.  I embellished my die-cut stockings with some stitched lines using my multiliner pen and added candy canes from our new Playful Polar Bears set.  I finished my card with a banner that perfectly hugs the fireplace from our Sunny Borders set and a sentiment from our new Christmas Home set.

Here's a look at the full die set which will begin shipping on Friday, September 29th.  The fireplace mantel scores along the top making it easy to cut two to form your card base and to adhere them together along the top.

I hope you will join me all next week when I will be sharing more ideas with the rest of our holiday release.  In the meantime I'm ecstatic to have a very talented group of ladies helping me celebrate today.  They are showing more sneak peeks with amazing projects that are sure to inspire you!  Your next stop in the hop is Sandy's blog.  :) 

In case you get lost, here's a full list of everyone hopping today...

Sunny Studio
Sandy Allnock

Nichol Spohr
Eloise Blue

Nancy Damiano

Kay Miller
Nina-Marie Trapani

Vanessa Menhorn

Michelle Short
Anni Lerche
Lexa Levana
Juliana Michaels

Don't forget to leave a comment at every stop because each designer is giving away a $25 gift code to our online store for 12 chances to win and a total of $300 in prizes!  

You have until Monday evening at 11:59 pm PDT to leave your comments.  Winners will be announced on our blog on Friday, September 29th.  :)

Do you love what you see and can't wait to reserve your favorites?  In honor of our birthday celebrations you can pre-order everything now and it will be held and shipped out on the official release date on September 29th.  Plus use the code CELEBRATE to save 15% off all retail prices through Sunday, October 1st.





Sunny Studio Supplies Used:

Christmas Icons Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Christmas Icons Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Furever Friends Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Furever Friends Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Gleeful Reindeer Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio
Heartfelt Wishes Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Santa's Helpers Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Santa's Helpers Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Sunny Borders Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Sunny Borders Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Pet Sympathy Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Pet Sympathy Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Christmas Home Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio

Fireplace Shaped Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio

Playful Polar Bears Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio

Playful Polar Bears Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio

Last-Minute Holiday Tags with Video by Emily

I'm here with some last-minute holiday tags using Santa's Helpers, Crescent Tag Topper Dies, Traditional Tag Topper Dies and Fishtail Banners Dies. The images were coloured a few weeks ago so it was easy to throw these tags together. See how I assembled the tags here:

I love how these animals look just like my friends' pets! It's perfect when you can personalize gifts. I could easily turn these tags into cards by attaching them to a card base with some festive paw prints in the background. I love dressing up my tags with basic black and white chevron ribbon, bells and string in both gold and silver.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Sunny Studio Supplies Used:

        

Santa' s Helpers Christmas Card with Emily

Doesn't the kitty look snug in that stocking? Santa's Helpers is one of my favourite holiday animal holiday sets! I love colouring them and they are so cute. I coloured all of the images at once so I could make a whole batch of cards. They'll be going to all the friends who have pets or are getting new pets this Christmas.

I heat embossed both the image and the sentiment with sparkle embossing powder so the black outline is super sparkly! It's perfect for holiday cards. I created a diamond-shaped focal point by connecting two banners made with the Fishtail Banners Dies.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Sunny Studio Supplies Used:

    

Merry Sentiments and Festive Friends with Emily

Hi, everyone! Today, I'm sharing a card using the Merry Sentiments mini stamp set. I created a two-line sentiment to frame this festive couple from Sending My Love. After heat embossing and watercolouring with distress inks, I fussy cut the animal heads, bodies and their gifts. The heads and gifts are popped up with foam tape.

The sentiments were first heat embossed on watercolour cardstock. Then I gave a two-colour wash with a large, flat brush, and added bright yellow and black splatter.  I die cut several snowflakes from Santa's Helpers Dies and strategically adhered them to cover up some smudges at the top of the card.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Sunny Studio Supplies Used: