The Koi

Another Sweet Pea Stamps card from me, this time using Ching Chou Kuik's The Koi:

 

 

I coloured the image with my Prismacolor pencils....

 

 

...and added detail with a white gel pen and some Stickles glitter glue.

 

 

I decorated an easel card with seaside-theme papers from Crafty Individuals and added gemstones and paper blossoms.

 

 

You can find this beautiful stamp in digi or red rubber format at the Sweet Pea Stamps store... and don't forget, until 7 March all Ching Chou Kuik digi stamps are on sale at 25% off.

Nothern Nightfall

For my Sweet Pea Stamps creation this week I am using an image from one of my all-time favourite Sweet Pea artists - Ching Chou Kuik. I just love her beautiful, stylised women and the fabulous detail in her drawings. Her work has a real sense of mystery, and often melancholy, to it.

 

This digi stamp is one I hadn't worked with before, called Northern Nightfall:

 

 

I coloured this image with my Promarkers in soft pastel colours. I just love the little unicorn in this image. :)

 

 

I mixed pale blue cardstock with pastel pink shabby chic-style paper for my card and added decoration with a length of lacy ribbon, some die-cut leafy flourishes and lots of pretty little flowers.

 

 

 

You can find this gorgeous image in red rubber or digi format in the Sweet Pea Stamps store.

 

Remembering

The new challenge starts today at Sweet Pea Stampers and our theme for this challenge is, appropriately enough, Let Us Remember/Thinking of You. 

 

I chose to work with one of my favourite Ching Chou Kuik stamps called Poppies From The Mist:

 

 

I decided to go really clean and simple with this card. I love how versatile Sweet Pea Stamps images are.. they are such beautiful, detailed stamps and they look fabulous on busy, detailed cards... but they also make for some very striking clean and simple cards.

 

 

I used the digi version of this image and simply printed it onto an A4 sheet of white cardstock, placing the image in the bottom right corner, with the sheet in landscape format, and then trimmed the cardstock to a 6x6 card size and scored and folded it to make my card.

 

I coloured the image in using Prismacolor pencils and a simple HB pencil:

 

 

When I decide who to give this card to, I will add a simple stamped sentiment in black ink... it could work for so many occasions... thinking of you... with sympathy... just a note...

 

The challenge runs for 2 weeks and you don't need to use a Sweet Pea Stamps product to enter, though obviously we would love to see your Sweet Pea Stamps creations. Entries that do use a Sweet Pea Stamps product will be eligible to win our DT Top Pick prize and there is also a randomly-drawn prize that is open to all entrants.

Pumpkin Pixie

This week I've been creating with one of the new digi stamps from one of my favourite Sweet Pea Stamps artists - Ching Chou Kuik.

 

 

For this card I've used the Pumpkin Pixie digi stamp. I love the halloween theme to this image... and the cute little cats! :) I coloured the image with my Promarkers in warm shades of orange and green and added a little shading around the figure using Prismacolor pencils:

 

 

I also added a touch of Spiced Marmalade Distress Stickles to the accents in her hair:

 

 

I came across this fabulous bat frame in the Silhouette store recently and thought it was just perfect for this card. I cut it out from black cardstock and teamed it with some luscious autumn-coloured papers from the new Autumn Song collection from Bo Bunny.

 

 

To finish I added some layered flowers and dotted some flourishes using black Enamel Accents.

 

 

This stamp is available in red rubber or digi format from the Sweet Pea Stamps store.

 

 

Purple Tender

I've been creating this week with another digi stamp from one of my favourite artists, Ching Chou Kuik. This one is called Purple Tender:

 

 

I've coloured her with my Prismacolor pencils and added Frantage embossing powders and mica flakes around the edges:

 

 

I used some pretty patterned papers in colours that matched with my image and distressed the edges before attaching them to my card blank. I layered a pretty heart-shaped doily behind my image and added a cluster of layered flowers:

 

 

To finish, and add just a bit more glitter and shine (cos you can never have too much glitter and shine, right? :D) I added some more mica flakes to the corners of the card and a sparkly die-cut butterfly.

 

 

This gorgeous image is available in red rubber or digi format at the Sweet Pea Stamps store.

 

Spinner Card

Ching Chou Kuik's The Moth is one of several gorgeous rubber stamps by this amazing artist that each comes on a single sheet with a lovely sentiment stamp. As soon as I saw this stamp I had an idea for a card:

 

I've never made this type of card before (in fact, I wasn't even sure I knew what the name for it was, I just knew I'd seen some in magazines etc) but just thought this circular framed image would look fabulous on a card where the image could spin around... and have the sentiment on the reverse:

 

 

I have to say though, as pleased as I am with how this card came out, it's a bear to photograph properly! :lol: Here's what it looks like closed up:

 

 

And here's the reverse side:

 

 

I coloured the image with my Promarkers and added some Stickles over the moths:

 

 

I cut the card shape out from coloured card using my Cameo and decorated it with some pretty paper and added some flower flourishes cut from gold mirri card using the Cameo. I stamped the sentiment onto a circle of white card and blended Spiced Marmalade and then Salty Ocean Distress Inks around the edges before attaching to the card.

 

 

 

Whoops! Bit late!

The new challenge went live at Sweet Pea Stampers yesterday and somehow, in the chaos of getting back into our routine after a week's holiday, I forgot all about it! :lol:

 

Still, better late than never, here's my card for the Birds of a Feather challenge:

 

 

I used Ching-Chou Kuik's Scarlett Holly image and coloured it with my Prismacolor pencils (am really enjoying using these pencils - it's a different technique that colouring with Promarkers but the effects are at once lovely and soft and yet vibrant in colour):

 

 

I covered a plain white card blank with a mixture of patterned paper and embossed white card (of which I'd inked the edges) and used some pretty ribbon to cover the join and I stamped and punched out a sentiment using coordinating Stampin' Up! stamp and punch.

 

 

I finished things off with some flowers and, in a last-minute burst of inspiration (cos the packet was lying around on my desk - see, being untidy can sometimes actually be useful! :D), a little chipboard bird which I covered with Versamark ink and heat embossed with sparkly gold embossing powder.

 

 

The challenge runs for a month and you don't have to use a Sweet Pea Stamps image to enter, though of course we'd love it if you did (and doing so will get you an extra chance to win).

 

A Rose By Any Other Name

I love working with Sweet Pea Stamps... not only because of the gorgeous stamps I get to create with, but also because of the awesome team of creative ladies I get to work with and the fabulous inspiration I get from seeing their creations.

This week I have taken a bit of inspiration from one of my fellow-DT members and done my own take on Milo's gorgeous, super-detailed style:

 

I have to admit that I love how this turned out. :)

I've used Ching Chou Kuik's beautiful Red Rose digi stamp. I love the Dia de los Muertos sugar skulls influence of this image. I coloured her with Promarkers, using red and gold colours and keeping her skin super-pale.

 

 

I teamed the image with a red and black colour scheme and lots of texture and detail for a rather gothic/baroque feel.

 

 

I cut a card shaped card blank with My Cameo and layered some gorgeous Basic Grey paper (from the Boxer collection) onto it. I then added lots of texture and dimension with flowers and lace and fabric and trinkets, cutting out the image and layering it over the top of it all:

 

 



I added lots of little decorative touches like a little metal pendant which I filled with more of the patterned paper and layers of UTEE, into which I set a paper rose, and a little shrink plastic butterfly.

 

Other additions include a little wooden key with I coloured black with my Promarkers and coated with Glossy Accents...

 

And some heart-shaped decorative pins and a ticket stamped onto kraft card.
 

You can buy this gorgeous image in red rubber or digi format from the Sweet Pea Stamps store. Hope you like my card and that Milo doesn't mind me "borrowing" her fabulous style. :)

 

Purple Rain...

For my card for Sweet Pea Stamps this week I chose to work with another of Ching-Chou Kuik's gorgeous digital stamps. This one is called Autumn Rain:

 

 

I coloured the image with my Promarkers in stormy shades of purple and blue:

 

 

For patterned papers to match with these colours I turned to my beloved collection of Basic Grey papers. These papers are from quite an old collection - Phresh & Phunky - which I've had for ages! I also added coordinating fibres from the Phresh & Phunky collection layered under some flowers. I punched the large flower from the patterned paper using a Stampin' Up! punch and added some small paper flowers.

 

 

I also punched several butterflies from the patterned paper (using two different Stampin' Up! punches) and folded the wings up a little before attaching them and then added some grey pearls (also by Basic Grey) to the centres.

 

 

The final touch for this card was some chipboard photo corners (also by Basic Grey - I might have gone a bit mad with the whole Basic Grey thing on this card! :lol:) which I decorated with a faux dichroic glass technique.

 

 

You can buy this beautiful image in either red rubber or digi format from the Sweet Pea Stamps store.

 

 

We're All Mad Here...

I seem to be having a bit of a thing for Alice in Wonderland today. :)

 

As well as making my Cheshire Cat bookmark, I also decided to have a play with Ching-Chou Kuik's gorgeous Cheshire Cat Illusion image (available as a digi stamp or red rubber stamp from Sweet Pea Stamps).

 

 

I used the digi stamp and coloured it with my Promarkers:

 

 

I made a tentfold card base from pale blue cardstock and embossed a panel of white card using a Tim Holtz Texture Fadez embossing folder (I don't know why exactly but the circular pattern on this folder put me in mind of the song "Windmills of My Mind" (...and the circles that you find... in the windmills of your mind) and of Alice tumbling down into the rabbit hole). I wrapped some baker's twine around the embossed panel before attaching it to the card base and then matted the coloured digi stamp onto more pale blue card and attached it with foam tape, letting it overhang the side of the card. To finish, I added some pale blue gems to the centres of the circles on the embossed panel.

 

A fairly quick and simple card that allows the striking image to take centre stage. :) I'm also entering this card in the We're All Mad Here, So Anything Goes challenge at The Altered Alice.