Post It Notebooks

Check out the embellishments on the front cover of these notebooks....

I made them using clay and one of the Sweet Pea stamps from plate #6. After rolling out the clay to approx 1/4" thick I pushed the stamp into the clay. Before baking the clay I brushed various colors of perfect pearls onto the clay using a small brush. I attached these great embellishments onto the front covers after the notebooks were bound.
To make the notebook I cut the front and back covers from mat board - approx 3 1/4" x 3 3/4".
I cut pieces larger than the covers from core'dinations cardstock. That is a cardstock that is a different color on each side, and when you sand one side of the cardstock the color from the other side will show through. I ran the core'dinations pieces through the Cuttlebug using the script embossing folder. Then I sanded the piece so that the color from the other side of the cardstock piece would show through.
I covered the front and back covers with this embossed cardstock
I glued a piece of coordinating cardstock to the inside of both the front and back covers.
I bound the books using my Bind It All. Be sure to bind the front and back covers together before attaching the post-it note to the inside.
The great thing about this notebook is that when this packet of post it notes are used up you can just attach a new packet to the back cover of the notebook.
Give this a try... they'll make great gifts!
Have fun... Chrissy

October Guest Design Artist

We are happy to announce our October Guest Design Artist will be Micki Harper. You can view her talented work at artful xpressions You will be able to view her work here on Monday, October 12th.

Under the Sea

This mermaid is from Plate #3 and I just love the way her hair is drawn. It really has that floating in the water look to it. I decided to go purple - a lot of purple. The wave punched border and brads let me highlight the image as the main focus for the card. I am looking forward to many more cards in many more colors with this stamp!

Re-welcoming Design Team members

I want to re-welcome our design team members, since they have been doing a fantastic job on this blog. Jennifer, Alex, Chrissy, Connie, Holley, Katarina (picture not shown)

Customer Submissions!

Today we are featuring a fantastic Halloween card by Gayle Tondre, she uses the Sweet Pea Stamps Halloween plate # 1 for this cutie.


We are always looking for artwork to feature on the blog and website. Please email submissions to: Jennifer.

View even more of your favorite Sweet Pea Stamps...

Today we would like to share with you additional places to spot your favorite Sweet Pea Stamps.

The first creation we would like to draw your attention to is Connie Piotter's card published in Vamp Stamp News. You can see her cute card, using the bingo dauber technique, on page 24 of the October edition. It can also be viewed in the online gallery, it's the cute one in orange and red

Another place to spot Sweet Pea stamps is at Stamper's Quest, where several submissions have been uploading using many of the great sentiments available.

Paper Piecing

Today I thought I'd show you how easy it is to make a card using a technique called paper piecing. The girl stamps, such as Sweet Pea Stamps plate #9, are perfect for this since there need to be a bit of open spaces (not too much detail) to work.

What you need is a patterned paper that has small patterns. You stamp one full image on white paper and the details you want on the patterned paper. I wanted to make her dress patterned, but you could make her skirt in one pattern and blouse in one or even the hair. You can align the stamp so the dress gets the pattern you'd like. I stamped on the edge of my patterned paper where there were some pink dots (the final dress piece).


When you've stamped the image on the paper you cut it out inside of the black lines. Make sure it matches and looks good.



I wasn't sure which pattern to use so I cut out a dress piece in another pattern too.


Colour the rest of the image and colour a bit of the dress so there are no white parts showing through when you mount the patterned piece. I decided to use the brown part and cut out a belt from the other piece.


Glue the pieces on and tadaaa, the card is done! I used the same paper for the back of the text stamp as for the girl's dress.


Hope I've inspired you to try this technique and I'll see you next week.
/Katarina

Saturday's treat....

Today I had a bit of inspiration while watching Tim Holtz. He created a card using a similar layout and I thought it would be a great way to use this image I had stamped a couple weeks ago. The nice thing about this type of layout is that you can use some of those scraps from your stash that are so hard to let go of....

Supplies:
Sweet Pea Stamps Plate #7
Black Archival Ink (CTMH)
White, Black and Pink Card Stocks (Unknown)
Printed Papers (Unknown)
Silver Sentiment Stickers (StarForm)
Adhesive (Scotch)
Paper Trimmer (Purple Cow)

Directions:

1. Cut a piece of black card stock 5.5" x 8.5" and fold in half.
2. Using scraps of printed papers, tear a strip from the base color about 1 - 1/2" wide and the top paper about 1" wide.
3. Layer the two pieces of printed paper, attaching to the card front across the center.
4. Stamp the dress image on white card stock and tear out along two of the sides.
5. Mat the stamped image on a piece of black card stock.
6. Mat once more on solid pink card stock and attach to the left hand side of the card.
7. Attach the sentiment stickers along the right side of the card front.
8. Enjoy sharing!

All the Flowers of Tomorrow

"All the Flowers of all the tomorrow are in the seeds of today -Indian Proverb"

What a wonderful saying. This card uses a beautiful dragonfly from sheet #10 and a fun saying from sheet #8.

First stamp your white cardstock with the dragonfly image in a random pattern. Cut two strips of decorative paper, one that is 1" thick and the other is 1/3" thick. Layer these strips and adhere them to your card.

Stamp the saying from Plate #8 with Prussian Blue ColorBox Chalk ink. Trim the saying and chalk the edges with your ColorBox ink then mount the saying onto matching blue polka dot paper using 1/16" pop dots. Add another layer of dimensionality by using more pop dots to add the saying to your card. Chalk all the edges of the card and add some cute Prima flowers as accents.

Happy Friday Everyone!

Holley

Connie-Life's Simple Treasures

This lovely rendition of Sweet Pea plate #5 is just smoke and mirrors. You get the impression that it is layered with another layer on top, but it is all one whole piece of cardstock, nothing but optical illusions.
You will find this lovely plate of images by clicking HERE

Supplies:
Sweet Pea Plate #5
Inks: Stamp It dye "New Burgundy" by Ranger & dye ink "Gardenia" by Ranger
Clear glitter pen "Stardust" by Sakura
Post It notes
Ruler
Sponge
Dye marker "Burgundy" by Stampin' Up!
cardstock (unknown)

Directions:
Cut & score dark purple cardstock into A2 card size, cut light purple cardstock slightly smaller.
Stamp focal image in center of light purple cardstock, stamp another on scrap post it note & cut out for mask. Mask focal image. Using post it notes, mask cardstock into 4 areas. Remove one note at a time and stamp images & sponge around edges. Remove another note and repeat. Repeat until all 4 areas are done. Using ruler draw a line with markers across and down in center of panel to separate areas. Remove mask from focal image and go over glass with clear glitter pen. Adhere this panel onto card base.

This is a fun technique and is easy to get good results with little effort.

Pink Gift Bag

This gift bag was made using Sweet Pea plate #8.

I stamped an image on each side and colored them with watercolor pencils.

I also stamped a verse on each bag and on the side shown to the right I stamped another of the



verses on light colored cardstock and attached to the side of the bag.

I finished the bags off
with some wine colored ribbon and a fabric flower on one of the sides.

Purple Gift Bag

I used Sweet Pea plate #3 for this gift bag.

For each side of the bag I used 2 images and one of the verses.

Each image was colored with watercolor pencils. On the left side I had stamped the image on white cardstock first and then cut it out and attached it to the bag.





I used decorative ribbon to create a ribbon look at the top of each side of the bag.

Blue Gift Bag

For this gift bag I used Sweet Pea plate #9.

On each side of the bag I stamped an image and 2 of the verses. I colored the images with watercolor pencils.

On one side of the bag I attached a pink ribbon that had been tied into a bow.





On the other side I threaded some beads on a pink ribbon and attached it to the sides of the bag.

Green Gift Bag

I used stamps from
plate #7 for this gift bag.

I used one image and one verse for each side.

I used a piece of star shaped punchinella (sequin waste) to sponge ink on the bag in several areas.






And then using the same color ink I sponged ink onto the edges of the bag.

I punch a couple of holes in the top to create the bow with the decorative ribbon.

Tuesday with Molly

Have you seen the new stamps in the Gumdrop Gang that are coming? If not, let me introduce you to Molly. She is such fun to play with. She is also on sale through TODAY!


Don't forget that there are a couple of fun things going on right now with Sweet Pea Stamps including the opportunity to be a Guest Designer for October!

REMINDER!!!!!

Blog Candy!
Every customer, from now to September 30th, that submits their cards to our Monday Customer Submissions will be put into a drawing for $10 in rubber money to be used for their choice of Sweet Pea Stamps. All you need to do is send your card submission to Jennifer. You do not need to send in directions for the card, but they do need to be Sweet Pea Stamps only.

Customer Submissions!

Today we are sharing cards created by Jan Ekrut of Burnet, Tx. She uses images from Sweet Pea Stamps plate #10 and plate #8. Thank you Jan for such cute cards!




We are always looking for artwork to feature on the blog and website. Please email submissions to: Jennifer.

Dragonfly delight

Big apologies for the lateness of this card. No excuses :)

Today I worked on the adorable dragonfly from plate 10. I have been wanting to use the stamp, but never had the perfect subtle papers. When I found these I knew just what to do. I coloured the dragonfly with Promarkers and then used a whitish Twinkling H2O's to add that shimmer to his wings.



I wanted to add embellishments and text but thought they overpowered the card. So maybe I'll leave it like this. It would be wonderful as a sympathy card letting the little details speak for themselves.

Promarkers: apple, pastel green, ice grey 1&3, blender
Twinkling H2O's: icicles
Papers: Wild Asparagus "cousin"

/Katarina

I Miss You...

This card is created using my favorite technique, direct to paper. I love to smoosh and smear ink all over the place. Usually I finish it off by adding a coat of gesso to soften the colors but recently I came into some Golden Glazes, a thin acrylic paint that is just like butter. This can easily be replaced with a thinned down acrylic paint or the standard gesso.

Supplies:
Sweet Pea Stamps Plate 6
Sweet Pea Stamps Plate 3
Brilliance Ink Pads (Tsukineko)

• Galaxy Gold
• Platinum Planet
• Starlite Silver
• Cosmic Copper

Peach and Brown Card Stock (Stampin' Up)
Cream Card Stock (Unknown)
Copper Mica Card Stock (Unknown)
Gold and Copper Printed Foil (Unknown)
Ivory Glaze (Golden)
Adhesive (Scotch)
Old Credit Card
Corner Rounder (EK Success)
Paper Trimmer (Purple Cow)

Directions:

1. Cut the peach card stock to 5.5" x 8.5" and fold in half.
2. Using the silver ink pad, apply ink directly to the card front in a random motion.
3. Continue adding color to the card front with the remaining ink pads going from lightest to darkest.
4. Round the corners of the card.
5. Apply a small stripe of the cream colored glaze to the edge of the credit card and smear the paint over the inked background. adding more glaze as needed or preferred. Allow to dry.
6. Stamp the image on the cream card stock and trim out neatly.
7. Cut a piece of the brown card stock 1 - 3/4" x 2 - 1/4" and apply the Cosmic Copper ink to the edges.
8. Attach the stamped image to the brown card stock.
9. Cut the foil to 2" x 2 - 3/4" and mat the stamped image on top.
10. The final layer is the copper card stock cut to 2 - 1/4" x 3".
11. Cut 3 pieces of the copper cardstock to 7/8" x2 - 1/2".
    
12. Cut 3 pieces of the printed foil to 3/4" x 2 - 1/4" and mat on the copper pieces.
13. Cut a piece of cream card stock to 1/2" x 2", stamp the sentiment, edge with the copper ink pad and mat on a piece of copper card stock.
14. Attach the stamped image on the card front about 1/4" from the edge and 3/4" from the top.
15. Attach a matted foil strip on the left hand side of the card, aligning the upper edge with the upper edge of the stamped image mat.
16. Attach the other matted foil strip to the bottom aligning it's bottom edge with the bottom of the stamped image mat.
17. Attach the matted sentiment, centering it between the two matted foil pieces.
18. Enjoy sharing!

Love is Blind....

"Love is Blind, but friendship closes its eyes." What a wonderful sentiment. I made this adorable red dress card using two stamps from Plate #7.



The printed paper comes from Autumn Leaves; I cut three strips of printed paper-two that are 1.5"x4.25" and one 2.0"x4.25". I glued the printed paper stripes to my blank white card, carefully spacing the papers so the papers were aligned and the gaps were even.

I stamped the images from Plate #7 in VersaFine Ink. After drying I colored the dress image with Prismacolor art markers. I trimmed the images and layered them onto DCWV black cardstock. I attached these images onto the card and embellished it with a Prima flower and Making Memories epoxy top brad.

Happy crafting this weekend!

Holley

Connie-Hello Sunshine!

This card revolves around only one image from the Gum Drop Gang Plate 8. I punched a tag with my Cuttlebug using a Spellbinders Shapeabilities "Ribbon Tags" die and sponged ink through the center to set it off before stamping the verse in black dye ink. I ran some sheer organza ribbon by Reasonable Ribbon (yellow with white dots) thru the tag, adhering the ends behind a strip of black paper. The snazzy designer paper is unknown, as is the yellow cardstock...both from my stash. A few flowers by Prima, with swipes by a dark yellow dye ink pad, were adhered with glittery white brads from Oriental Trading.
You can check out all the Gum Drop Gang at Sweet Pea Stamps by clicking HERE.

Connie-At The Beach

Sweet Pea Stamps Plate #5 is made for a day at the beach or the pool, soaking up rays and just havin' fun!
I began with a blue cardstock base and layered some fine sandpaper which I tore to resemble a beach.
I stamped the images and colored with SU! markers, adding some white with a white gel pen by EK Success. A cute brass sun charm added with a tiny brad from Oriental Trading and my "scene" is complete!
You can see all of those beach images from Plate #5 by clicking HERE.

Celebrate Halloween

Halloween is just around the corner and the Halloween stamp set from Sweet Pea Stamps is just the answer for some cute cards.
On these first two cards I added a few embellishments to spice up the cards. I found some cute little Halloween colored pom poms and added some to these cards.
The small bat stamp that comes with this set is great as a background as shown in the orange card, or stamped in the foreground as seen in cards that follow.
Here are 2 more cards ....
Once I pulled out my Halloween colored cardstock there was no end to the combinations of cards that could be made with this set of stamps.
I thought the 'Happy Halloween' stamp made a great background for the other images.
On some cards you'll see some doodling along the edges. When I had a card that looked a little bare or unfinished I found that adding a little border with a marker worked wonders.
Finishing touches like ribbons or colored gems also added to the appeal of the card.

How about these 2 cuties....
On both cards I used some self stick Halloween-colored gems to add a little glitz.
The little witch looked good when I framed her with a piece of black cardstock. I used a ticket punch on the orange cardstock which gave me the perfect space for adding the colored gems. The orange ribbon provided the finishing touch for the card.
I combined the bat boy with some of the decorative scrapbook paper on the orange card. I used the colored gems in the 4 corners of the card.

Had enough yet???
Here's the 7th card I made from the Halloween set. Once I started I just couldn't stop!
On this one I used a combination of decorative scrapbook paper, 4 of the Halloween stamps, and some markers to spice up the card.
How can Halloween be scary when this set of stamps is so cute???
Have fun with this set...
Chrissy

Fun Fall Card

I used the jack o lanterns from the Halloween sheet to create a fun fall card. I took some very thin strips of cardstock and wrapped it around my embossing stylus to create additional vines for the jack o lanterns.

I am looking forward to making a summer card in the same style with the flip flops from Plate #5. I think that would be super cute too!

Gum Drop Gang: Molly & Olivia

Meet Molly & Olivia, Haydens newest friends. Molly & her younger sister, Olivia, are part of the 'Gum Drop Gang' series. You can pre-order these today through Sept 20th and save $2.50. Shipment will be in and mailed out Sept 28th.

Boo to you

Halloween is approaching and for once I have my cards made on time. I even have some Christmas cards ready. Speaking of Christmas, have you seen the new Christmas stamps?

This time (as promised) I used a different sheet of stamps. I used the pumpkins and text from Halloween sheet #1.


I stamped the pumpkins with VersaMark ink straight on the black panel - then embossed with black sparkly powder. They are coloured with gel pens and twinkling h2o-similar paints.


I used my nestabilities die to cut out and emboss the aperture in the card.
The inside text is embossed the same way as the pumpkins. When you write on the inside of the card (preferably in gold or copper) the text will show through the aperture letting your message be a part of the overall card (unless you're ashamed of your writing, lol).


See you next week.
/Katarina

I'm Batty for you

Here's a little Halloween card to enjoy. Now's a great time to get all your Halloween cards made so they can be mailed out early this year.


This card uses Halloween Sheet #1, which is on sale this week for only $7. That's a great price for a whole set of rubber stamps.
My stamp uses black cardstock with mica flecks in it for a shimmery background. I paired that with some black and white striped paper from DCWV. I used two stamps from Halloween Sheet #1, stamped with VersaFine ink and colored with Derwent Inktense pencils. I use a blender pen to get the watercolor effect.
For embellishments, I used three colors of felt buttons from Buttons Galore & More with some sheer ribbon. I love these felt buttons and would suggest that you could cut your own felt buttons with your die cutter.
To finish it off, I chalked the edges of the stamped images with a ColorBox Chalk ink pad. Inside the card I stamped the Happy Halloween image with white ink and used a white gel pen to accent it. It came out wonderfully!
Happy Friday everyone!
Holley

Connie-Gift Bag

This is a quick and easy to make gift bag that can be adapted to any occasion. This one is a birthday gift bag.

My supplies:

Yellow decorative bag measuring 4.75" wide and 8.5" tall
Topper is brown cardstock cut to 4" high by 4.75" wide and scored at 2" (halfway mark)
Copic Markers
Decorative ribbon by Reasonable Ribbon
slot punch unknown
Sweet Pea Stamps (of course!) from plate #9

I began with a solid yellow bag gotten long ago from a place I don't recall. I stamped various Sweet Pea words all over in dark brown ink. I stamped a Sweet Pea Pal on a scrap of cream cardstock, colored with Copics, trimmed and matted over dark brown.
I cut the brown cardstock for the bag topper and scored it in half to fit over the top of the bag. I glued the back onto the back side ONLY of the bag. I punched small slots in the front of the topper and the front of the bag & ran some ribbon thru.

Fill the bag up with your gifts and then tie the ribbon to close it and you are finished!
You can find the stamps I used by clicking HERE.

Connie-Girls

This is a simple yet striking card I think. My scanner wants to wash out the color so please take my word for it....I did NOT forget to color the entire image!

Supplies I used:
Girl from Sweet Pea plate #7
Words from Sweet Pea plate #5
Tuxedo Black dye ink by Memento
Copic Markers
Creative Memories corner rounder punch
EK Success edger punch

I cut a yellow panel slightly smaller than the blue base and edged with "Bubbles" edger punch.
I cut a cream panel slightly smaller than the yellow on which I stamped the images.

That is all there was to this card. Sweet Pea has images that stand by themselves I believe. You don't need to bury them with foo fah.....

You can find the stamps I used by clicking HERE.

BLOG Candy WINNER IS...........................

...............Betty Weaver! Congratulations. If you could please e-mail me with your address:
Lynette mailto:sweetpearubberstamps@gmail.com

Time to read a book

I used the stamps from Sweet Pea plate #3 to make this bookmark. You can also buy these great plastic bookmark sleeves from Sweet Pea stamps website.
I started with 2 pieces of white glossy cardstock. On each piece of cardstock I stamped a background image with VersaMark and dried the ink before applying various colors of alcohol inks. Then I stamped the Sweet Pea images with black India ink. I glued the 2 pieces of cardstock to each other and used a metallic leafing pen to draw a border around each side of the bookmark.

Now that kids are back in school.... a bookmark will come in handy!


Here's the other side of the bookmark.
I looped various fibers and a ribbon through the hole at the top of the bookmark sleeve. I tied a couple of sea shells and a flip flop foam bead to the ends of the fibers..... perfect embellishments for the mermaid theme.
These might even be great gifts for that special teacher!
And they take so little time to create; give it a try.
Chrissy