Shy Love

When I first saw Plate #19 I knew exactly which one of the images I would use first! I think this shy lady done in a postage stamp format is just fabulous! Wouldn't these make wonderful real life "love" stamps from the post office? Much better than some of the actual designs they have put forth.



I really went outside my color comfort zone with this card. It was super fun to do so! I wanted to showcase this image in very non-love (pink, white, red) colors and push myself with the fall color range.

Back with a bookmark

I'm back and this time I have made a bookmark. I've been playing with the new stamps from plate 23 and my distress inks. I just couldn't stay away from ink and rubber yesterday, lol. I really like the look Tim Holtz makes on his Christmas tags. Even if I follow him step by step I can't figure out how he does it! At least I had fun yesterday even if it didn't turn out like his.


I used broken china (blue) around the edges, sprayed with water and dried with my heating gun. Then I inked a swirl stamp with green peeled paint and stamped a couple of times on the side. I sprayed with water again and let it bleed a little before I heat-set it. I inked up the girl stamp with black ink and stamped on the bottom of the bookmark. I coloured it slightly on the edges with my Promarkers. Finally I inked the sentiment with VersaMark and stamped three times on the top. I stamped it so the whole text could be read. I then brushed some red Pearl-Ex over it to add that shine.

Please welcome our newest design team member, Randi!

Hello, my name is Randi and am thrilled to be part of the Sweet Pea DT! I have a passion for anything involving art or animal rescue. I've been a jewelry designer for about 8 years and I've been working with stamps since I was a little girl. I love all mediums of art; watercolor, pencil, acrylics, collage..but my new favorite medium is Copic markers. I am a certified Copic designer and I teach at some of my local stores. My style is very eclectic. As you can tell from my blog, I love mermaids and fairies. Which, is why Sweet Pea Stamps is such a perfect match for me! I instantly fell in love with the Ching-Chou Kuik Fantasy Art collection.



I want to send out a big THANK YOU to all of the Sweet Pea DT and Lynette for my very warm welcome to the DT team!! I am so thrilled to be a part of this amazing group of ladies!! I am looking forward to working with you all! And, I am enjoying seeing all of Sweet Pea's customers wonderful creations!

My first Sweet Pea DT post!

Today I have a card from my favorite sheet (so far!) of mermaid fairies! This stunning image is from © ching-chou kuik's Fantasy Art sheet 2 (plate 21) These stamps are incredibly detailed and SOOOO fun to color!!! I especially love that you can create an entire focal point with one stamp. These are the perfect size to cut and color portrait style. They would be excellent for ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) as well. In fact...that will be my next project! Next week, I will be back with some Sweet Pea ATCs!!

Don't forget to check out the Sweet Pea Referral Promotion. It's only available for a limited time! See the details here. Be sure to take advantage of this offer and earn some credit towards these gorgeous mermaid images!

Supplies:
© ching-chou kuik's Fantasy Art sheet 2 (plate 21)
Copic Markers, Spica Glitter Pen
DP: K&Co Viola Vita, BG Wisteria
Cuttlebug embossing folder
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Brilliance Platinum Planet, VersaMagic Purple Hydrangea
Stickles: Glitz-Tiara

The Beauty of Botanicals

Another sheet of images I love and can't resist sharing with you is the newest plate #18, with gorgeous botanical images.

 Using this beautiful sheet, these are the first two of many creations to come.

This card is made using the matchbook folding technique. I used a piece of green Core'dinations paper about  5" x 9 1/2" in size, folding 1" and again 5 1/4" from the edge of the paper. The patterned paper is Paper Studio mulberry, the mat and stamped image are coordinating pieces from the scrap pile. The flowers are prima with a millinery center. The image was stamped with Forest Green StazOn, I then put a coat of Judikin's Diamond Glaze on the wings and sprinkled with a touch of Martha Stewart's green glitter. (Allow the wings to dry before attaching the image to the card.) To finish the card, add a 4" x 4" piece of cardstock to the inside of attaching it at the closure fold both front and back.

This card is a standard 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" made with Club Scrap and mulberry papers. The image is stamped with Onyx VersaFine ink on parchment paper and again with Ancient Page Sage ink. I removed the frame from the Sage stamped image and attached over the first image using glue dots to add depth.

Enjoy sharing!

Fall Farie Girl

This stamp comes off of Plate #23. I love her because she is so versatile. The foliage that surrounds her face can be colored many different ways which allows this image to be a great image for fall. I could change the coloring though and make the flowers brighter and the image would work for spring.

I paired the stamp with a beautiful saying that is also part of sheet #23. "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. Helen Keller" I added some pretty leaf button embellishments to the card with glue dots.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving this week. Happy Fall, All!

Get Well Soon

Here's a cute and simple Get Well paper piecing that I made using a stamp from plate #15



To make this card, first stamp the image four times: once on blue textured cardstock, once on printed red paper, once on brown cardstock, and once on white paper. I cut out the "jeans" from the blue image, the "shirt" from the red image, the hair/shoes from the brown image and adhered them all to the white image. I then colored in the face and arms of the image with Copic markers.

I layered my paper piecing on blue and then red paper. I stamped the get well saying from sheet #10 .

Happy Friday everyone!


Holley

Black Friday Sale!

Friday ONLY!

*FREE Shipping to USA residents on orders over $20.00
(shipping to Canada will be $2.00, all other countries $5.00)

*First time customers (only!) spend at least $20.00, get a FREE unmounted 'Fantasy Art Collection' stamp (our choice)

*Orders over $25.00 will receive a $2.00 gift voucher (through e-mail) to be used on their next order

NEW! On pre-order/ pre-pay, ching-chou kuik's 'Fantasy Art Collection' sheet #5

Also, NEW! On pre-order/ pre-pay Gum Drop Gang 'Be Mine'

Be sure to check out our sale that runs through Cyber Monday, lots of items at 50% off, the biggest sale we have had yet!

Connie-Do You Believe?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE!

I used an image from plate #20 for this card. I adore these fantasy images by ching-chou kuik. You can see them all at Sweet Pea Stamps.

My method remains pretty simple....I ran a pc. of white cardstock thru the Cuttlebug with the Candy Cane embossing folder and swiped a variegated red inkpad over, layered that on red cardstock base. Then I stamped and colored with Prismacolor markers (a poor man's Copic) & layered that onto an overlarge red panel with a sentiment stamped in white below with a large white snowflake eyelet attached.
Connie

I hear Christmas music!

Do you hear Christmas music???
When I saw these Christmas images from Sweet Pea plate#12 with the music in the background, I knew my Cuttlebug 'Allegro' embossing folder would be the perfect compliment. For all 4 cards I ran a piece of Core'dinations cardstock through the Cuttlebug and sanded the paper to reveal the core. For those of you who haven't heard or seen the Core'dinations paper yet, it looks like a double sided cardstock, but when you sand the 'uncolored' side then the color from the reverse side (core) of the paper shows through.
The Core'dinations pieces I used for the 2 cards above were whitewash (uncolored) on one side and a sort of light peach and beige on the reverse side. I began with black cards for both cards, punching decorative photo corners for the card on the left, and a decorative corner punch on the embossed piece for the card on the right.
For the card on the left I stamped the holly image onto light pink cardstock with VersaMark and heat embossed with black detail embossing powder. I centered the piece onto the Cuttlebug embossed piece and then slipped it into the the punched corners of the black card.
For the card on the right, I stamped the holly image onto a small piece of gold cardstock, trimmed it, and edged the piece with a black marker. I attached the gold piece to the Cuttlebug embossed piece and then onto the center of the black card. The card needed something more so I applied some gold peel-off stickers to the top and bottom edges.

The Core'dinations pieces I used for these 2 were black (uncolored) on one side and then blue, and the other pink, on the reverse side.
I used a decorative photo corner punch on each of the cards and trimmed the embossed piece to fit within those corners. I stamped each image using black ink, the angel onto a small piece of light blue cardstock and the holly onto a small piece of burgundy cardstock. The smaller size of these images allowed me to use up some of my scraps I had been saving. I mounted the angel onto the same blue cardstock that was used for the card and then attached on an angle to the middle of the card. I ran a gold Krylon pen along the edges of the maroon card that the holly was stamped on before attaching to the center of that card.
Christmas will be here before we know it!!! Better get going on those Christmas cards!
Chrissy

Seasons of Fantasy - Christmas Fairy

Seasons of Fantasy - Plate 23 is so much FUN! I love that there is a Fairy for the holidays. I stamped the Christmas Fairy in brown ink, colored select areas with colored pencils and then used cranberry glimmer mist. I wish you could see all the shimmer and shine.

Did you see the referral program Sweet Pea Stamps is offering? Time to enable your friends!

Fairy Masterpiece

 

Good Monday everyone! Is everyone ready for Thanksgiving? Sigh, not me, not yet! Regardless of everything going on, I was fortunate to be able to grab a view minutes of therapy and this beautiful fairy has been waiting for me to finish her up.

Another beautiful image from ching-chou kuik's Fantasy Art Collection. This one is called My Buddy and is 1 of 4 images on ching-chou kuik's Fantasy Art Collection 3 (plate 22).

She is stamped onto Neenah Classic Crest Millstone super smooth 80lb card stock in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with Copics. (I could sit and color all day long, if only I could, lol)

I tend to keep my card design clean and simple (you know, that gives me more time for coloring) using textured card stock and my nesties. I paired the image with a motivational sentiment and used silk ribbon for some pop. Quick, simple and easy! Here is a close up look:

Doesn't she just have the most beautiful eyes? Make sure to head over to the Sweet Pea Stamps store, various stamps are on sale right now through Sunday, November 29th at 15-50% off. And mark your calendar for Black Friday! Plate 25, sheet 5 from ching-chou kuik's Fantasy Art Collection and another Gum Drop Gang sheet will be unveiled. I can hardly wait!!!!

I hope you enjoyed today's card and are inspired to pick up your markers!

Today we are featuring one of Katarina's "Best Of" cards

Here's is a really cheerful card from the Sweet Pea Pals sheet. I knew as soon as I saw these girls that I wanted to make a bright and happy card. I originally wanted it to be a birthday card, but when seeing the "cheer up!" text from plate #10 I knew I had to use it instead.


I have used my oval nestabilities and promarkers to colour the girl.

Colours used:
saffron, petrol blue, lime green, orange and berry red. Yellow is from my old pantone collection although promarker's "canary" is very similar. Flowers and buttons from my huge stash ;) and paper from DCWV.




/Katarina

Referral Program

Sweet Pea Stamps Referral Promotion! Everyone that you refer and they place an order over $10, you will receive a $1 gift voucher. They need to e-mail me after placing their order (within the same day) or enter it when checking out letting me know you (they need to give me your full name, along w/ your e-mail adress) referred them to me. This promotion will run through Dec 10th.

December Design Team Guest Artists will be.....

Joannie Davis and Kimberly Stouffer! Congratulations Joannie & Kimberly, we look forward to working with you for the month of December. To see what they will be creating for us, be sure to check back the week of Dec. 13th!

Please Welcome Randi Wall

We are happy to announce the newest member of our design team, Randi Wall. Her blog is remarkable and her talent is breathtaking. Please visit her blog The Dark Mermaid. Be sure to check back and see what she has created for us.

Love is in the Air

Today I have 3 cards to share with you featuring Sweet Pea's Love Sheet #19. It is an absolutely gorgeous and versatile sheet of stamps.

This card uses Rose colored Mica cardstock for the base, a pink print and mulberry like paper from the Paper Studio along with a solid pink Bazzill. The ink is Ancient Page Bordeaux. There is a scrap of ribbon adorned with pink dew drops. The sentiment is from The Angels plate #17.

The papers for this card includes solid and textured green cardstock, handmade paper with floral inclusions and an Asian themed mulberry paper, along with a scrap of parchment for the stamped image. The image was stamped with Forest Green StazOn. The sentiment is a cardstock sticker, the flower is from the Club Scrap kit and it is accented with a gold dew drop.

The last card for today uses the rose colored mica cardstock, more Paper Studio mulberry printed papers and a magenta solid cardstock. The image is stamped with the Ancient Page Bordeaux on pink Bazzill.

I hope you have enjoyed today's offerings, enjoy sharing!

December Customer Card Challenge

When: Week of Dec 13,2009
What: ©ching-chou kuik's Fantasy Art Collection Challenge
How: E-mail Jennifer @ jennifer.willis@yahoo.com your card, using any ©ching-chou kuik's Fantasy Art Collection stamps before Dec 12, 2009. All cards submitted will be entered in our Random Generator and will will pick one lucky winner for a $5.00 gift card. You may enter as many times as you like. The winner will also receive our Challenge Badge (as shown above) to place on their blog

Count Your Blessings

 got some great venetian style papers from Pressed Petals that I think look wonderful with Sweet Pea's Angels from sheet # 17. This set of stamps is one of our best sellers!

I stamped the large angel once and the small angel twice with Black ink from Memento. I trimmed out all the images and mounted the large image on silver paper. I covered my card with printed cardstock from Pressed Petals, inking all the edges with ColorBox Chalk ink. I mounted the smaller angels on opposing sides of the large angel and mounted tiny buttons with glue dots.

The saying comes from sheet #14; The full saying is "Count your blessings, not your birthdays" but for this card I only wanted to use part of the saying. I carefully inked the part of the saying that I wanted and stamped it on white paper.

Many people think of this plate as a holiday theme plate, but I think it is much more than that. Here's a nice example of how to use the image for a non holiday card.

Happy Friday everyone!

Holley

Blog Candy Winner-----

#4 Rhonda Miller, Congratulations!

Connie-Sweet Sweet Pea Mermaid

Here is that famous Sweet Pea Mermaid....morphed a bit.  I drew some more locks of hair to
cover her a bit more, think they blend in well?

Supplies:
Sweet Pea Stamps Plate #1
Papers by DCWV "Safari Chic"
Nestabilities "Labels Two"
Prima Flowers
Glitter Brad by Oriental Trading
Dye Ink by ColorBox Chalk "Amber Clay"
Versamark by Tsukineko
Black detail Embossing Powder by Judi-Kins
SU Markers
Skittles from Holley
tiny jewel-unknown
Brown and white cardstock - unknown
glue dots

I trimmed some DCWV paper to fit base and edged with a marker.  I stamped, embossed and colored the mermaid before cutting with a Nestie; then I sponged ink around and layered on a larger shape.  I stuck a brad in the center of a prima flower and attached before adhering the mermaid to the card.  I attached a teeny tiny jewel to her belly button and some cool skittles that I got in a trade from Holley.

I drew in more tresses to keep my art out of the "adult" category...LOL  Hope you like it.

Connie

BLOG CANDY!

Check back tomorrow as we will be drawing the winner, using the radom drawing generator, for the blog candy!
Here is the names and their numbers for the drawing:

#1 Wynneth Happer
#2 Terri Scott
#3 Heather Brow
#4 Rhonda Miller
#5 Jenny Laszlo
#6 Anita Autore

Good Luck! Winner will win their choice of ©chin-chou kuik's sheets

Karyn Campbell - our November Guest Designer shares one more...

This image is Faraway Moon from the ching-chou kiuk collection, plate 20. Thank you Karyn for such wonderful creations!

Customer Card Submission

This beautiful card was submitted by Nancy Thaut. She stamped the ching-chou kuik, Winterberry  image on acetate. Thank you Nancy for such a pretty card!

Happy Birthday To You!

I hope you all got a chance to attend the release party yesterday on Paper Craft Planet. I know it was a BLAST and lots of fabulous prizes were given away!




This week, I decided to create with one of the cute kids that are part of the Sweet Pea Pals. They are just so fun to work with and make the most adorable cards! This time I paired them with the Happy Birthday embossing plate and some bright colors.

Happy Life

Happy Monday Everyone! I thought I would 'officially' share this card here on the Sweet Pea Stamps blog. I had created this card for the Sweet Pea Stamps New Release party back in October and wanted to share it here. This beauty is called Dragonfly Fantasy. She is available as an individual stamp or as part of a whole plate, Fantasy Art Sheet 2 (plate 21).

I was really, really intimidated at first. I mean there is a lot to color and such detail BUT it all came together, lol. It really was fun and didn't take any time at all. And because it is fantasy, I could really go wild with the colors (which I didn't – yet)! I'm thinking all those special techniques for paper like shaving cream swirls, etc…. would be perfect to use with these images. Oh the ideas are spinning in my head…let's hope I can actually act on some of them before they disappear.

I used Copic markers to color her. Whenever I use Copics to color images, I always use Neenah Crest Ultra Smooth 80lb card stock. I generally use Solar White or if I want an off white or ivory card stock, I use Millstone (also from Neenah). I like the way the Copics work on this type of cardstock and I order it by the ream which is cheaper. This card stock allows me to push the darker inks to create shadows. Now, there are many many different ways to use Copics, it's just basically what works for you and the type of look one is wanting to achieve. There is no right or wrong way to use these alcohol markers.

The rest of the card stock including the card base is from Stampin' Up! I had some ribbon in my stash which came from Michaels. It came on these really neat spools, so when they put them in the clearance bin, I snagged them up. The brads are from JoAnn's and were purchased 2 years ago. CK had a scrapbook line at JoAnn's which was discontinued. I picked up all kinds of embellishments and brads for 25 cents a pack. Can't go wrong with that!

I hope you like her and remember, it doesn't matter what coloring medium you use, these beautiful stamps are a lot of fun to color. Be sure to stop by the Sweet Pea Stamps shop to check out all the fabulous stamps.

Spring Moony Night

Spring Moony Night is one of the newest stamps from the ching-chou kuik line previewed at the stamp release. It is included on plate 22.

Black Haired Lady

Another plate with images from ©ching-chou kuik's Fantasy Art Collection is now available for order! This plate is just as stunning as all the others. I used the image Black Haired Lady from plate #22. I decided to not give her black hair. Show us what you create!

Egyptian Mermaid

Today Holley has Egypt Mermaid from our newest sheet of ching-chou kuik's Fantasy Art collection #3 now available for pre-order!

Moonlit Beauty

For my Moonlit Beauty, I used ching-chou kuik's Faraway Moon. She is colored with copics, with some glitter added to the hair by using Spica pens. I tend to leave the card design simple because these beauties deserve all the focus :-).

Make sure to mark your calendars and shop for the Fantasy Art Collection Sheet #4 available December 4th.

Our newest Sheet

This is our newest sheet by ©ching-chou kuik's Fantasy Art Collection. This is now on pre-order, and is expecting to be in stock Dec 6th.

The Winner is.........................

#3 Nancy Thaut! I will be sending out you your gift card through e-mail!

Customer Color Card Challenge Participants

Here is the #'s for those who participated in our custmer color card challenge. If you sent in more than one card, you get put in more than one time.

(1) Nancy Thaut
(2) Brandi Burns
(3) Nancy Thaut
(4) Anita Autore
(5) Rachel Henahan
(6) Randi Wall

I will be drawing a number in the Random Generator and posting the winner at 12:00 PM (eastern) today. Good Luck! The winner will win a $5.00 gift card in rubber money.

One More Peek?

One more sneak peek before our unveiling tonight!!!! Be sure to come and join us!

Join us tonight for our Deer Widow's Stamp Release Party!

Another sneak peek!!!!!! To see the whole sheet, attend the Stamp Release Party at Paper Craft Planet on Sunday, Nov 15th @ 10:00 PM eastern. We will be unveiling plate #24, ©ching-chou kuik's Fantasy Art Collection, sheet #4. We will have some easy question/games and will be giving away prizes. One lucky winner will win this new sheet!
What will be giving away??????:
(1) sheet #24
(5) 2 single, individual, stamps pkg (our choice) of ©ching-chou kuiks collection
(3) $5.00 gift certificates
(1) Sheet #12, holiday
(2) $15.00 gift certificates for Paper Temptress (one will be coming from me, and Patricia @ paper Temptress is donating one, make sure you visit her site, it is a paper lovers dream)
Plus come and view all the cards our design team has been creating!

It's a 6-pack birthday party!!!!

I was rummaging through my craft area and found 2 of these 6-pack cartons that I had bought at a craft rummage a couple of months ago. An idea popped into my head and I was off and running. One of our granddaughter's has a birthday coming in November and this looked like a good way to 'package' her birthday gifts.


Alcohol ink seemed the best way to color this carton because the texture was somewhat glossy to the touch. After a few experiments with various colors of ink, I decided on these 4 (purple twilight, stonewash, pool, and silver). I used a felt applicator and blending solution to apply the inks to the surface.







I laid out my newspapers for this messy job and got to work applying the alcohol inks. In no time I was finished. It was easy since this carton folds pretty flat.



Here is a picture of the 6-pack carton after I finished applying the alcohol inks. Lizzy loves purple so this should be the perfect to hold her birthday gifts. Actually, I like purple too!!







I pulled out some Grungeboard letters and a couple of chipboard swirls, painted them with silver acrylic paint, and attached them with double sided tape to the side of the carton. I got out my fabric flower petals and Aileen's color mist sprays and kept spritzing on colors until I saw the colors I thought would look good. I attached one set of petals to this side of the carton with a rhinestone brad, and saved the other set of petals for the other side of the carton. I have some decorative ribbon, actually they are slightly padded fabric silver stars, and I attached to the bottom of the carton with glue dots.

I happened to have this purple embellishment in my stash, so I attached it to the side of the carton with some glue dots.








On this side of the 6-pack I stamped images and phrases from Sweet Pea stamps. The two 'ladies' are from plate #7, and the Birthday sentiments are from plate #9. I used permanent markers to color in the images so that they would show up more easily on the slightly dark-colored background. I attached the second grunge swirl to the right of the handle, the puffy silver stars to the bottom, and another couple of fabric flowers to the right of the stamped images.

Ready to go!!! I wrapped various items with colored tissue and dropped them into the 6 slots of the 6-pack. Lizzy likes some of the shower gels and body creams available at Bath and Body Works; and they fit perfectly into this package. I think Lizzy will like it. I'm thrilled with how it turned out.
I have one more of these blank 6 packs left. Hmmm, what shall I do with that one??
Keep on stamping.... Chrissy

Customer Color Challenge Submission

A beautiful submission from Brandi Burns, thanks so much for sharing!

Customer Color Card Challenge

Another beautifully created card made by Nancy Thaut. Thanks, once again, Nancy!