Sneak Peek: Balloon Rides, Country Scenes & My Otter Half

Hello and welcome to day 3 of our Spring Peek Week!  All this week I am showcasing cards using our newest collection which will be available for purchase on Friday, January 8th.  

For today's sneak peeks I have two new 4x6 stamp sets including a new border scene set and a new 3x4 critter set. Let's dive it!  

Card No. 1: Up first is a card showcasing our new Balloon Rides Stamps. This set comes with a hot air balloon, a couple different banner options to personalize the balloon, a cute sunshine, two new cloud shapes (can never have too many cloud options), a house, two trees, six adorable critters, two party hats, a graduation cap and five coordinating greetings.

While the balloon can comfortably can fit on a standard card, it really lends itself well to the Slimline Card craze. I stamped and colored two balloons in a rainbow of colors and then cut one in "half" so that I could give the appearance that there were three balloons floating across my card (since odd numbers are often pleasing to the eye). To frame my scene, I used the Slimline Scalloped Frame die and popped up a couple clouds and one balloon with foam tape to give the appearance some were in the foreground and some were further away, even though they're all the same size. For my greeting, I die-cut a stitched strip using our Slimline Pennant Dies and backed them with a slightly wider strip of striped patterned paper to match from our Rainbow Bright Paper pack. 

Card No. 2:  Up next is a graduation card using the cute little panda bear, together with the graduation cap. For my balloon, I thought it would be fun to customize it with polka-dots so after coloring it with my Copic markers, I added some quick dots with my Sharpie White Extra Fine Point Paint Pen. I wanted to keep my colors limited to hot pink, black and white so I found a neutral grey cardstock for my sky which I cut out using our Stitched Circle Small Dies. For my background I cut out a black scalloped panel using our Frilly Frames Stripes Dies which I backed with a piece of white cardstock to match my little panda. 

I stamped a banner using our Basic Banner Stamps into a piece of white cardstock using pink ink and then sponged on some Picked Raspberry Distress ink, adding a little detail for the folds with my Copic Markers for a no-line coloring look. Who says you can't combine dye ink with alcohol ink? I use this technique often and it saves me so much time trying to get my coloring to look nice and smooth with my markers. I love to fussy cut them out with my scissors afterwards so I don't have to worry about all the distress ink that I sponged on outside the lines. A couple hearts from our Basic Mini Shape II Dies inked up with more of the distress ink were the perfect accent to complete this fun and spunky card.

Card No. 3: For my next project, I made another slimline card, but this time I wanted to showcase the world below with the cute little house image from the set. I paired three of them with the rolling hills and tree border from our new Country Scenes Stamps. For this card I incorporated a rainbow again, but this time I went solid for my balloon and added the rainbow with the two little banners I layered over the top. These banners are sized just right so you can criss-cross them like I did here or add them straight around the middle of your balloon.

The bottom of my card was feeling a little blah with all the fun stuff going on for the rest of the card so to create some visual weight and balance, I added another little hillside using our Slimline Nature Border dies which I stamped with a subtle, tone-on-tone polka-dot print using our Background Basics Stamps. For my greeting, I stamped another banner from our Banner Basics Stamps and once again combined distress inks with Copic accents, coloring it with a mix of Mustard Seed and a little Spiced Marmalade Distress Inks to mimic my Copic coloring for the balloon.

Card No. 4:  Up next I couldn't resist an Americana inspired hot air balloon. While it may be too early for the fourth of July, President's Day is coming up and I thought the little buntings add-on option would be so cute colored red, white and blue. I paired them with the barn scene from our Farm Fresh Stamps. I mounted then both onto an A2 sized stitched panel using our Frilly Frames Quatrefoil Dies for my sky background and a thin strip of our Classic Gingham Paper for my grass.

When I nearly was done, I had this nagging feeling that there was an open, unbalanced space in the bottom, right corner so the little car from our City Streets Stamps came to my rescue. It created a visual triangle between the three groupings and allowed me to add some additional blue accents to my card. Yay! Win-win.

Card No. 5:  For this Balloon Rides card I framed the balloon with our Stitched Arch Dies which I was able to slightly elongate by hiding where they cut off behind the mountains. Makes me think of how the ceiling raises or floor sinks at Disney's Haunted Mansion (depending on the park). It gave me just the wee bit of extra space I was wanting to have the mountain scene below using our new Country Scenes Stamps. I mounted my finished vignette onto a piece of sunburst paper from our Subtle Grey Tones Paper pack.

Card No. 6:  Last, but not least, I had it in my head while I was creating this stamp set that it would be really fun to recreate the opening sequence of The Muppet Show as seen HERE using the cute critters from this set. In fact it's one of the main reasons I decided to include party hats with this set. I knew these little guys might be a bit too short to fill the arches so I thought a couple party hats might give them height. Crazy how my mind works, right?  Anyway, I can't look at this card now without hearing the theme song in my head--takes me back. I can almost see them swaying back and forth. For those who didn't grow up with The Muppets, you can alternately pretend it's a Zoom birthday party.  ;)

To create my three stories of arches, I used the smallest die from our Stitched Arch dies and then lined it up along the edge of my three 1-3/8" wide white cardstock strips, cutting them out one by one. I then took a little masking material (a.k.a. post it notes) and took turns inking up behind each arch in square blocks using Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet, Peacock Feathers & Salty Ocean Distress ink. I then layered the arches over each other, starting at the top and working my way down. I made sure to leave a small sliver of space to heat emboss a little greeting from the set onto a strip of black cardstock. Finally I added stitching to the edge to dress it up and compliment the stitching around each arch using our Slimline Basic Border Dies. I'm not going to lie. This one took a bit more time, but it was fun and I love the results!

Card No. 7:  Switching gears, I have a couple cards featuring a darling new 3x4 critter stamp set called My Otter Half. This set comes with two little critter pairs: An otter couple (or set of good friends) as seen here and an otter Mom with her baby. It also includes five mix and match punny sentiments. As a bonus I had some extra room to available on the My Otter Half Dies so I was able to include the word "otter" for some extra design options.

To create my card, I cut a heart window using the largest heart from out Stitched Heart Dies. These hearts are big enough to make a shaped card from so this card is bigger than your standard A2 card.  It ended up being 5.25" wide x 5" high.  I could have made it square, but I was digging the unique shape. To form my background, I layered alternating strips of cardstock cut into wave using our Stitched Scallop Dies. I kept my design really clean and simple with a no-line coloring banner (just as describe in card no. 2) using our Banner Basics Stamps and a handful of hearts from our Basic Mini Shape II Dies and Basic Mini Shape 3 Dies.

Card No. 8:  For my last card of the day, I combined two different borders from our Country Scenes stamps: the pond border together with the mountains border behind it. I should note that the dies to match these stamps have been designed to only cut out along the top of each border so you can layer them with a different colored sky while have a seamless scene below. For some of the scenes I will be sharing tomorrow I colored the water and grass with my Copic markers but for this card I wanted to use my distress inks so after coloring the details with my Copics, I stamped a couple masks and fussy cut them out to cover & protect my images when I inked up the grass and water with distress inks. I then safely saved the masks so I can use them over and over again on a number of different cards without having to cut out new ones each time. To add the little waves, I alternated the mini wave dies that come with the Country Scenes set, although the otter stamps also include a couple waves as well so you have plenty of options.

I have some Action Wobbles that are mini plastic springs for crafting with adhesive on both sides that I purchased a long time ago and I thought they would be so cute for this card. They scrunch down fairly flat to fit in an envelope, but then bounce out and wiggle back and forth when the card is removed. 

I just love this Mom and baby otter. I think this pair would be perfect for Mother's Day or even for baby cards.

Well, as much as I would have liked to have time to create a third otter card, that wraps up today's sneak peeks. I'm so happy you joined me today. I'd love to give a $50 gift code to one lucky winner. Leave me a comment and then enter using the rafflecopter below.  Make sure to keep checking back all this week for more peeks & prizes. The contests run through Saturday, January 9th at Midnight PST with winners announced here on Sunday, January 10th. :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Here's a closer look at the our new Balloon Rides Stamps & Dies, Country Scenes Stamps & Dies and My Otter Half Stamps & Dies used today (available for purchase on January 8th).

  

  

   

Other Sunny Studio Supplies Used:

City Streets Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	City Streets Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Stitched Heart Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Stitched Scallop Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Versafine Onyx Black Ink Shop at: Sunny Studio	Background Basics Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Mini Basic Shape Dies II Shop at: Sunny Studio	Frilly Frames Stripes Die Shop at: Sunny Studio
Banner Basics Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Banner Basics Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Stitched Arch Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Frilly Frames Quatrefoil Shop at: Sunny Studio
Slimline Nature Borders Shop at: Sunny Studio	Slimline Scalloped Frame Shop at: Sunny Studio	Farm Fresh Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Farm Fresh Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Tsukineko Jumbo Dauber Shop at: Sunny Studio	Stitched Circle Small Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Hero Arts White Detail Shop at: Sunny Studio	VersaMark Watermark Ink Shop at: Sunny Studio

Sneak Peek: Eggs To Dye For, Layered Basket & Slimline Pennant Dies

Hello and welcome to day 2 of our Spring Peek Week!  All this week I am showcasing cards using our newest collection which will be available for purchase on Friday, January 8th.  

Today I'm sharing cards featuring two brand new layering sets that I'm super excited for, along with a brand new slimline die set that is good for so many everyday uses!

Card No. 1:  For my first card of the day, I used our new Eggs To Dye For Stamps which is a super easy layering set for beginners. Not only that, but they also only require two ink colors per egg which is always nice for those with a limited stash. The set comes with 8 patterned eggs, one solid egg to layer beneath them with a contrasting color and one outlined egg to use with the accompanying bunny and chick images. There are also a few sentiments that can be mixed and matched playing on the word basket (to go with our second stamp set of the day shared down below).

For my eggs shown here, I stepped up my stamping to another level by applying a little extra ink in the darker color along the left side of my solid egg while it was still positioned in my MISTI tool. To give my eggs a smooth shadow, I applied the ink to the edge of my clear stamp with the use of a small sponge finger dauber before impressing the image a second time. I love the extra dimension this simple step adds and how it really adds dimension.

For my sentiment, I cut the frame from our Gingham Pastel Paper using our Scalloped Circle Mat 3 dies together with our Scalloped Circle Mat 1 dies (to fill behind the openings) and our new Stitched Circle Large Dies to cut out the opening from the centers. I then backed the finished frame with some vellum to allow some of my eggs to still peek through, but not be quite as distracting. For my greeting, I die-cut pink cardstock with our Color Word Dies, pairing them with our Color Me Happy Stamps which were stamped with VersaMark Ink and heat embossed with Hero Arts White Detail Embossing Powder. To create my banner I used our Fancy Frames Rectangle Dies which I ran through my die-cutting machine twice to get the "v" cut from both ends (leaving part of the die hanging off the edge of my cutting platform each time so not to cut the other end off). 

Phew!  Are you still with me?  That was a mouth full.  ;)

Card No. 2:  For this Eggs To Dye For card, I started by stamping my little bunnies using Alcohol Marker friendly Memento ink to stamp my egg bodies, bunny faces and ears in colored ink to match. When it came to stamping the eyes, I took a moment to first color my images with Copic Markers and then stamped the faces a second time while the face images were still in my MISTI stamping tool so that I could perfectly align stamping the eyes again in black ink. To achieve this, I carefully applied VersaFine Onyx Black Ink to the eye portion of the stamp using just the corner of the pad to each eye. The raised surface made this easier than it may seem and I love the way the eyes look when stamped in black! These chubby egg-shaped bunnies crack me up!

For my border of banners, I stamped tone-on-tone prints using colored cardstock and slightly darker ink with our Background Basics Stamps. I then die-cut them using our new Slimline Pennant Dies. I cut the grass for my bunnies using the border die from our Sunny Sentiments Dies and the stitched panel for my sky using our Frilly Frames Retro Petal Dies. I completed my card with a heat embossed sentiment using a punny greeting from our A Good Egg Stamps.

Card No. 3: Up next is a grid style card. I took inspiration from Elle Woods with Legally Blond and channeled my inner Barbie Girl. I stamped my patterned eggs with VersaMark Ink which I then heat embossed with pearlescent and glitter embossing powders. 

I love the way the specialty embossing powders catch the light. They add a bit of sparkle while still being really elegant. I mounted my finished eggs onto a scalloped panel using our Frilly Frames Hexagon Dies and then heat embossed my Easter sentiment with white embossing powder using our Happy Thoughts Stamps and the smallest pennant strip from our new Slimline Pennant Dies.

These dies only have the "v" cutout from one end, but it's super easy to shorten them to your desired length with the double "v" by flipping the die after the first cut, locking it into place with the previous stitched edge and running it through your die-cutting machine a second time. Love that! So nice to customize them to fit any length!

Card No. 4:  Up next is the chick version with the egg stamps. For these chicks I first stamped them with the solid egg image in my MISTI, then double stamped a shadow around the edge using the sponge finger dauber described for my first card and finally stamped them again with the outlined egg stamps, adding the VersaFine Onyx Black Ink to the eyes (as described in my 2nd card). This may sound like a lot of stamping, but when mass producing cards for Easter assembly line style this was such a quick & easy way to color these guys without having to pull out my Copic Markers and fuss with getting my shading just right.

For this card design I cut a series of banners from our Spring Fling Paper prints using our new Slimline Pennant Dies together with the scalloped edge of our original Fishtail Banner dies. These were made with the same angle and work beautifully together! 

In order to fit all the pennants the way I had envisioned, I made this card a little larger at 6" wide x 4.5" high. Even then I realized I would still need to trim a couple of my pennants narrower to get them to fit three across, but I was able to blend in my trimmed edges by using the stitched die from our Slimline Basic Border dies set. I completed my card with heat embossed greetings from our Chickie Baby Stamps.

Card No. 5:  I mass produced this clean & simple card for the brick & mortar stores who carry our products. I started by cutting a white scalloped mat using our Frilly Frames Hexagon Dies. I then inked up the top, center portion of my panel with a bit of tumbled glass distress ink using my favorite Jumbo Dauber. For my little chick, I gave him a fun polka-dot print which is a bit difficult to see here in my photo, but the cute, subtle detail makes me happy. him. For my grass I cut a border using our Sunny Sentiments Dies, rounding the edges with my scissors. I then stamped the word "happy" using our Cheerful Daisies Stamps and the word Spring from our new Layered Basket Dies (shown below) die-cut from matching lilac cardstock.

Card No. 6:  Up next is an Easter card pairing our Eggs To Dye For Stamps with our new Layered Basket Stamps. This is probably not the best example to start with because I went with super light inks for this one trying to create the look of a white washed basket, but this is such a fun basket image that is perfect for Easter, spring flowers and so much more!

I used a flower print from our Spring Fling Paper pack for my background sized to 4.5" x 4.5" and then framed my basket scene with a piece of coordinating aqua cardstock cut using our Stitched Circle Large Dies and the grass border from our Sunny Sentiments Dies. A sentiment from our the Eggs to Dye For stamps completed my card.

Card No. 7: For my last card of the day I used those same Layered Basket stamps with our popular Berry Bliss Stamps. There were so many cards I knew I wanted to create with these basket stamps that I didn't find the time to get to for today, but this pairing was at the top of my list! To add to my card's country feel I stamped the gingham print using our Background Basics Stamps and then added a scalloped and stitched edge to my white cardstock panel using our Slimline Basic Border dies. 

I share all the ink colors I used below, but to add an extra touch of realism to my strawberries, I stamped my strawberry seeds with Versamark ink and heat embossed them using a yellow embossing powder. I love how this extra step made my berries come alive! The embossing powder makes them pop so much more than yellow dye ink. On a side note, I adore Ranger's colored embossing powders--I've found their rainbow colored powders are some of the best quality I've come across.

As a final touch I added a little punny thank you sentiment from our Fresh & Fruity Stamps. I'm such a sucker for gingham and fruit images so this card was so much fun to create!

Here's are some examples of the egg combinations I stamped out:

I frequently am asked which ink colors I used for my layered images.  While I think there are so many great options out there, these are the colors I used today for my stamped images:

Purple Eggs
PinkFresh Soft Lilac
PinkFresh Lavender

Blue Eggs
PinkFresh Sky Blue
PinkFresh Summer Shower

Green Eggs
Gina K. Key Lime
PinkFresh Grassy Knoll

Aqua Eggs
Gina K. Ocean Mist
Gina K. Turquoise Sea

Orange Eggs
PinkFresh Apricot
PinkFresh Clementine

Yellow Eggs
PinkFresh Lemon Whip
PinkFresh Sweet Mustard

Coral Eggs
Gina K. Innocent Pink
Concord & 9th Honeysuckle

Peachy Pink Eggs
Concord & 9th Ballet Slipper
PinkFresh Coral Reef

Pink Eggs
Hero Arts Soft Pink
Hero Arts Bubblegum

Layered Basket (card no. 6)
Skipped Lightest Layer
Hero Arts Soft Sand
Memories Soft Sand or Gina K. Sandy Beach
Memories Sand

Layered Basket (card no. 7)
Hero Arts Soft Sand
Gina K. Sandy Beach
Memories Sand
MFT Kraft

Strawberries (card no. 7)
Concord & 9th Honeysuckle
Gina K. Red Velvet
Concord & 9th Cranberry
Gina K. Lucky Clover
PinkFresh Evergreen

Blueberries (card no. 7)
PinkFresh Blue Jay
PinkFresh Sapphire
Hero Arts Navy (or Gina K. In the Navy)

That wraps up today's sneak peeks. I'm so happy you spent a part of your day with me today. I read all your comments and they mean so much!  I'd love to give a $50 gift code to one lucky winner using the rafflecopter below.  Make sure to keep checking back all this week for more peeks & prizes. The contests run through Saturday, January 9th at Midnight PST with winners announced here on Sunday, January 10th. :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Here's a closer look at the our new Eggs To Dye For Stamps & Dies, Layered Basket Stamps & Dies and our Slimline Pennant Dies used today (available for purchase on January 8th). 

I ran out of time to create them for today, but these slimline dies are also the perfect size for scrapbooking. I can't wait to try them on my next page!

   

Other Sunny Studio Supplies Used:

A Good Egg Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Color Me Happy Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Color Word Die Shop at: Sunny Studio	Sunny Sentiments Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Versafine Onyx Black Ink Shop at: Sunny Studio	Fancy Frames- Rectangles Shop at: Sunny Studio	Berry Bliss Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Berry Bliss Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Background Basics Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Happy Thoughts Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Gingham Pastels 6x6 Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio	Frilly Frames Hexagon Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio
Frilly Frames Retro Petals Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Cheerful Daisies Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Chickie Baby Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Spring Fling Paper Shop at: Sunny Studio
Slimline Basic Borders Shop at: Sunny Studio	Scalloped Circle Mat 3 Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Stitched Circle Large Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Hero Arts White Detail Shop at: Sunny Studio
Fishtail Banner Dies Shop at: Sunny Studio	Fresh & Fruity Stamps Shop at: Sunny Studio	Tsukineko Jumbo Dauber Shop at: Sunny Studio	Versafine Onyx Black Ink Shop at: Sunny Studio