Sneak Peek: Introducing Big Panda Stamps & 5 New Square Dies

Hello and welcome to the first day of our Summer Sneak Peek Week!  All this week I will be sharing cards showcasing our newest collection which will be available for purchase this Friday!

Card No. 1: Today I'm sharing card ideas using our new Big Panda Stamps and Dies. This big bear comes with some accessories to dress up for summer like a sunhat, sunglasses, and beach bag. I used two of them to create a summer beach-themed card, pairing my big panda with the waves, beach chair, and umbrella from our Ocean View Stamps and the smaller panda bear and sentiment from our Panda Party Stamps. To add the two types of stitched clouds to my sky, I turned to our Fluffy Cloud Dies. A small strip of striped paper from our Rainbow Bright Paper pack pulled the elements together and the pennant strip from our Notebook Photo Corner Dies completed my card. The pennant strip was actually used to fix a stamping error, but in the end, it was a happy accident because I actually think it added a little interest and weight to my card that had previously felt visually unbalanced. 

Card No. 2: For my next summer card I paired the bear and greeting from our Big Panda Stamps with our new Juicy Watermelon Dies which I'll be sharing more of tomorrow. The watermelon dies come with options to create three different seed arrangements (I've shared two here) and there is a separate die to cut a bit out of the watermelon slice. For the base of my card, I cut a green striped panel from our Sleek Stripes Paper pack and then added a strip from our Classic Sunburst Paper pack using a die from from our Ribbon & Lace Border Dies. For the stitched mat behind my bear, I used the die from our Slimline Scalloped Frame Dies which I shorted to fit the space.

Card No. 3: For this Big Panda Card, I paired the bear with the sunglasses and two cocktail drinks from the set with the rabbit from the Big Bunny Stamps and the tiki bar, drinks, tiki lights, and parrot from our Tiki Time Stamps for a fun summer beach scene. I also added a stitched sandy slope using our Slimline Nature Border Dies.

Card No. 4: I thought it would be fun to turn the panda from the Big Panda Stamps into a hula girl using the flower from the set for a flower lei and cutting a fringe grass skirt with my paper trimmer from a piece of green cardstock. I added the ukulele from the set for her to hold and stamped the "Hello Cutie" greeting onto a speech bubble from our Comic Strip Speech Bubbles Dies. For my card base, I used our Scalloped Square 1 Large Dies which I layered with the Scalloped Square 2 Large Dies, adhering small punched circles in rainbow colors behind each scalloped opening to sandwich between the two layers. I then cut a Stitched Square mat from a green leaf print from our Summer Splash Paper pack for the background behind my bear.

Card No. 5: I paired the Big Panda bears with the ice cream cones from our Summer Sweets Stamps for this 4" x 9" portrait slimline-style card. For my background, I cut 1-inch strips of polka-dot paper in pink, yellow, and mint green to match the ice cream from our Dots & Stripes Pastel Paper pack and added stitching to both edges using our Slimline Basic Border Dies. For my two sentiments, I heat embossed "Cone-gratulations" from the Summer Sweets Stamps onto our Brilliant Banner 1 Dies which had been cut out from our Gingham Pastel Paper pack. For the sentiment "I'm so happy for you" I pieced together the word "happy" from our Happy Thoughts Stamps and the rest of the phrase from our Feeling Froggy Stamps.



Card No. 6: For this card, I created a mini patchwork quilt using the 1" Stitched Square Die cut from patterned paper scraps which I adhered to a piece of printer paper and trimmed down to layer onto the 4.5" wide Scalloped Square 1 Small Dies. I then added the bear from the Big Panda Stamps holding a smoothie drink from our Summer Sweets Stamps and grounded him in the center of my card using our Brilliant Banner 2 Die which was heat embossed with a sentiment from the Summer Sweets set. The number of patterned paper sets I used is almost too numerous to list so I have linked them below in my supply list thumbnails.

Card No. 7: Switching gears I have a couple non-bear-related cards using our Big Panda Stamps. For this card, I started by cutting a 5" square piece of waves patterned paper from our Summer Splash Paper pack. I then cut 4 Scalloped Square 1 Large Dies using different bright colors from our Classic Gingham Paper pack which I layered with Stitched Square Dies cut from white cardstock. This gave me little frames to add the tropical drinks, sunhat, and sunglasses from the set. In the fourth square in the top, right corner I stamped my "hello there!" greeting which I paired with two of the little flowers from the Big Panda set to add a little something extra to that otherwise plain square.

Card No. 8: When creating these sunglasses for the Big Panda Stamps, I thought it would be fun to use them as a focal point for a graduation card. I colored them in a rainbow of colors and arranged them in a wavy border across the bottom third of my card, adding glossy accents to the lenses after I colored them with Copic markers to give them a realistic shiny reflection. Before doing this though, I started by adding a thin rainbow-striped strip of paper along the bottom of my card base from our Rainbow Bright Paper pack and added a stitch along the bottom edge of my white cardstock panel using a die from our Slimline Basic Border Dies.

For my sentiment, I stamped "You're future's so bright you gotta wear shades" using our Kinsley Alphabet Stamps and using our Chloe Alphabet Dies with rainbow colors of cardstock to spell out the word "Bright." This photo angle better shows off the Glossy Accents on the sunglasses lenses. I popped up the green pair right under my sentiment with some foam tape to add some interest.

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, April 20th at Midnight PST with the winners announced here on Sunday, April 21st. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway Here's a closer look at our new Big Panda Stamps and Dies and five new square dies used today and available for purchase on Friday, April 19th.

 

Other Supplies Used:

Tiki Time Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Tiki Time Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Chloe Alphabet Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Tsukineko Jumbo Dauber Shop at: Sunny Studio
Rainbow Bright 6x6 Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Gingham Pastels 6x6 Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Dots & Stripes Pastels 6x6 Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Summer Splash 6x6 Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio
Comic Strip Speech Bubble Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Kinsley Alphabet Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Summer Sweets Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Summer Sweets Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Slimline Basic Borders Shop at: Sunny Studio	Slimline Nature Borders Shop at: Sunny Studio	Slimline Scalloped Frame Shop at: Sunny Studio	Classic Sunburst Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio
Sleek Stripes Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Ribbon & Lace Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Brilliant Banner 1 Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Big Bunny Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio
Big Bunny Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Juicy Watermelon Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Hero Arts White Detail Shop at: Sunny Studio	VersaMark Watermark Ink Shop at: Sunny Studio
Versafine Onyx Black Ink Shop at: Sunny Studio	Fluffy Clouds Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Ocean View Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Ocean View Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Happy Thoughts Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Feeling Froggy Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Panda Party Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Panda Party Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Classic Gingham 6x6 Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Spring Fling Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Spring Fever Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Brilliant Banner 2 Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Notebook Photo Corners Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio

Gift Card Envelope Floral Bouquet Cards With Mendi

Hello there! Before we switch gears and kick off our Summer Sneak Peek week starting here tomorrow morning, I thought I would pop in and share one last spring card idea that has been bouncing around in my head since our Spring Sneak Peek week back in January.

Card No. 1: I thought it would be so much fun to pair our new Beautiful Bluebell Stamps together with our Gift Card Envelope dies to create a floral bouquet. However, once I got started it was hard not to reuse this same idea with so many of our other flower layering stamps which I always make sure to stamp extras of assembly line style so I can have them on hand and ready to go for instances just like this. In the end, I was able to create five cards using one idea which saved me so much time and I'm really happy with how they turned out!

For all my cards today I started by trimming an A2-sized grey tone-on-tone patterned paper panel from our Subtle Grey Tones Paper pack. I then cut my Gift Card Envelope for this card from a green gingham from our Gingham Pastel Paper pack. After it was assembled, I tucked in three fern leaves from our Spring Greenery Dies. I then set to work filling in all the various bluebell flowers from our Beautiful Bluebells Stamps. For my greeting, I stamped the "happy birthday" phrase from our Inside Greetings Birthday Stamps onto our Brilliant Banner 1 Dies. As finishing touches, I added a blue butterfly from our Watering Can Stamps and a white stitched strip along the bottom from our Ribbon & Lace Border Dies.

Bluebell Ink Colors Used:
Hero Arts Dusty Blue
Hero Arts Cornflower
Gina K. Powder Blue
Hero Arts Indigo

Stem Ink Colors Used:
Pinkfresh Studio Key Lime
Pinkfresh Studio Olive
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Card No. 2: For my next card, I started by die-cutting my Gift Card Envelope from a lightweight pink cardstock (65 lbs. or something similar to what you find with those Michaels multi-colored packs). I should note that I realized as I went along that it was helpful to ink the edges of the envelopes before assembling them to help define that this was indeed an envelope. Some of the earlier versions shared below lack that bit of definition and I wish I could go back and add it because they feel a little flat to me and maybe harder to distinguish that these are indeed envelopes.

This time for my flowers I used our Spring Bouquet Stamps with the little honey bee from our Tranquil Tulips Stamps. For my sentiment, I once again used the Inside Greetings Birthday Stamps, stamping them onto our Brilliant Banner 2 Dies which had been cut from our Gingham Pastel Paper and Dots & Stripes Pastel Paper packs. The scalloped edge added to the bottom of my card comes from our Eyelet Lace Border Dies.

Daffodil Ink Colors:

PinkFresh Sunshine
PinkFresh Sweet Mustard
PinkFresh Marigold
PinkFresh Apricot

Iris Ink Colors:
PinkFresh Lavender
Gina K. Wild Lilac
Hero Arts Grape Juice
PinkFresh Sweet Mustard

Lavender Hyacinth Ink Colors:
PinkFresh Soft Lilac
Lawn Fawn Fresh Lavender
PinkFresh Lavender

Periwinkle Hyacinth Ink Colors:
Simon Says Stamp Hydrangea
Ranger Archival Violet
MFT Purple Rain (retired)

Leaves & Stems Ink Colors:
PinkFresh Key Lime
Concord & 9th Parsley
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Card No. 3: Up next is a floral bouquet using our Tranquil Tulips Stamps which I stamped in purple, hot pink, and peach tones. For my lavender Gift Card Envelope, I turned to the floral patterned paper from our Flirty Flowers Paper pack. My "congratulations" greeting comes from our Inside Greetings Congrats Stamps which I stamped onto a coordinating shade of peach paper from our Gingham Pastel Paper and Dots & Stripes Pastel Paper packs. Lastly, I added the white stitched strip along the bottom from our Ribbon & Lace Border Dies.

Purple Tulip Ink Colors:
PinkFresh Soft Lilac
PinkFresh Lavender
Gina K. Wild Lilac

Peach Tulip Ink Colors:
PinkFresh Ballet Slipper
Gina K. Innocent Pink
PinkFresh Coral Reef

Hot Pink Tulip Ink Colors:
Gina K. Bubblegum Pink
Hero Arts Ultra Pink
Gina K.Passionate Pink

Leaves & Stems Ink Colors:
Gina K. Lucky Clover (or Hero Arts Fresh Lawn)
PinkFresh Olive

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Card No. 4: For this floral bouquet, I turned to our Captivating Camellias Stamps which I stamped in beautiful hot pink shades and tucked into an aqua blue Gift Card Envelope. This time I made a Mother's Day Card borrowing a sentiment from our Happy Thoughts Stamps which I stamped onto our Brilliant Banner 1 Dies cut from pink cardstock and shaded with inks to match my flowers. I once again added some blue butterflies to match from our Watering Can Stamps and added a white stitched strip along the bottom from our Ribbon & Lace Border Dies.

Camellia Ink Colors:
Gina K. Bubblegum Pink
PinkFresh Sparkling Rose
PinkFresh Bubblegum
Gina K.Passionate Pink

Leaf Ink Colors:
PinkFresh Grassy Knoll
PinkFresh Key Lime
Concord & 9th Parsley
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Card No. 5: For my last card of the day I used our Lovely Lilacs Stamps to create a beautiful uplifting floral bouquet for a sympathy card. I already had the pink polka-dot Gift Card Envelope on hand so I decided to make my lilacs a beautiful shade of pink to match and cut my Brilliant Banner 2 Die from green cardstock to match the leaves. I stamped my "praying for you" sentiment from our Inside Greetings Sympathy Stamps and once again added some pink butterflies to match from our Watering Can Stamps with a white stitched strip along the bottom of my card from our Eyelet Lace Border Dies.

Lilac Flower Ink Colors:
PinkFresh Ballet Slipper
Hero Arts Soft Pink
Hero Arts Bubblegum
Gina K.Passionate Pink

Lilac Leaves Ink Colors:
PinkFresh Studio Grassy Knoll
PinkFresh Studio Key Lime
PinkFresh Studio Olive

I hope I've inspired you with these cards today. Make sure to return here tomorrow morning at 8am EST / 5am PST for my first set of Summer Sneak Peeks as I count down the days to our big release on Friday. In the meantime, here's a little sneak peek to tide you over.

Supplies Used Today:

Versafine Onyx Black Ink Shop at: Sunny Studio	Happy Thoughts Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Gingham Pastels 6x6 Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Flirty Flowers 6x6 Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio
Subtle Grey Tones Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Eyelet Lace Borders Shop at: Sunny Studio	Captivating Camellias Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Captivating Camellias Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Inside Greetings Birthday Shop at: Sunny Studio	Inside Greetings Sympathy Shop at: Sunny Studio	Spring Greenery Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Lovely Lilacs Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio
Lovely Lilacs Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Watering Can Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Watering Can Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Inside Greetings Congrats Shop at: Sunny Studio
Spring Bouquet Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Spring Bouquet Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Tranquil Tulips Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Tranquil Tulips Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Ribbon & Lace Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Brilliant Banner 1 Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Brilliant Banner 2 Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Beautiful Bluebells Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio
Dots & Stripes Pastels 6x6 Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Beautiful Bluebells Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Gift Card Envelope Die Shop at: Sunny Studio