Purple woods by Ching-Chou Kuik

It has been so exciting for me to be working as a design team member.  I can remember sitting with some friends of mine and talking about how cool it would be to work in a design team for a stamp company.  Now, six months later, not only am I on a design team but I am on the Sweet Pea Stamps design team.  My friends and I all agree that sweet peas are THE BEST stamps around.  I had some time today so I wanted to make a card for my sister who is recuperating after her open heart surgery on the 8th of October.
The name if the stamp is Purple Woods.   I love the stamp because of all of the details.  This comes in Digi or rubber form.  Visit Sweet Pea Stamps to get one of your own. She is on sheet 5 of plate 25.   Here is the finished card.

Hugs by Viola- Sweet Pea Stamps design team member, I almost scream every time in type that,  Yah 

here is a close up of the colored image.

Have a wonderful week and take care of those you love

I hope you enjoy

Sweet Pea Classics Part II

Hi everyone and welcome to my second part of the Sweet Pea Classics. Hope you enjoyed the first part. Today I want to show you two more cards I made with two of my all time favourite images. Both of them are from the amazing artist ching-chou kuik who's whole collection you can find HERE.

The first card is made with 'Purple Woods'. I coloured this beautiful image with my Distress Inks on heavy 300 gram watercolour papers. The designer papers I used are some left overs from other cards. I want to use them as well as they are too nice to be left in the drawer.

The second card is made with 'Red Hearts'. I coloured this fabulous image with my Distress Inks as well on heavy aquarell paper. I decided to colour the hearts yellow this time. The papers are left overs as well.

Well, I think there are quite some more fabulous images who could be called Classics. And perhaps I will continue this series later. So keep on visiting us here so you won't miss it.

Have a magical day!
Hugs, Karina

Terra Bidlespacher's Journey

Hi Everyone,

Today I'll be sharing a card made with Terra Bidlespacher's Journey:

Journey is available as a single stamp or as part of Plate #103. The sentiment is from Plate #24.

She is stamped onto Neenah Super Smooth 80lb Solar White card stock with Tuxedo Memento Ink and colored with Copics.

I added a little Gloss to the wings and some rhinestones.

I've been eying my rickrack ribbon and thought it would work with this image. I have such a hard time with adding embellishments :-(. Although you only see a little of the rick rack strips, it does add a nice touch and is reminisce of waves.

As with all of the stamps at Sweet Pea Stamps, she was a joy to color even if I was a little intimidated. Honestly I am always intimidated when I start out, but the sheer magic of these stamps takes over. I know you know what I mean, right?

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out the SALES page at Sweet Pea Stamps!

Let the little fairy in you fly!

I love this beautiful stamp from Sweet Pea stamps designer Lisa Victoria. This adorable fairy is holding a sweet little dragon. The name of this stamp is "The Butterfly Dragon" (Plate #72). I added a wonderful saying from Plate #24 that says "Let the little fairy in you fly!" I used some beautiful printed background cardstock and added some weaved ribbon on top with some orange ric rac on the edges. I added beautiful flowers layered with red, white, and orange flowers to match the color of the stamped image.

Lisa Victoria has some adorable stamp images featuring dragons with a sweet little fairy. I hope this card inspires you to let the fairy in you fly!!

Sweet Pea Stamps has given a generous amount of rubber stamps to Holley's Blog during the Feb. Celebration. Be sure to go by Holley's Blog and win some of the wonderful Sweet Pea Stamps there.

Cheers, Holley

The Seahorse

After I loved the last round stamp so much, it inspired me to get even more of these beautiful round shaped stamps from artist ching-chou kuik. These stamps are stunning artwork and fit beautifully using Spellbinder's Nestibilities as backgrounds. The stamp used in this card comes from a sheet called "The Seahorse". I wanted to make her hair look like the water so I used copic markers in four shades of blue to color her hair. Then, I used a dark brown copic markers to color in the background of the stamp, as well as the leaves and the outfit of the maiden.

I chose a wonderful saying from Plate #24 that says, "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 two adorable brown hearts, metallic burnt gold border-punched paper, and a few buttons to coordinate with the color of the seahorses; these buttons make the seahorses in the image pop out of the design.

Hope you have a heartfelt day!

Holley

Very berry mystical wishes

How wonderful isn't it that the new year has started? I hope you are as excited as I am. Can't wait to see all the new sweet pea releases and what we make with them during 2011. I hope you'll continue stopping by to see what we are up to.

The card I want to show you today is my first for 2011. I made it using a colour challenge and let me tell you, it was a CHALLENGE. The colours were plum, blueberry and beige. Say what?! I've never played with that colour combo so I started looking through my stash - there are always papers with any combo you're looking for, but not this one. I almost gave up, but stubborn as I am I got intrigued. So I realized I needed to whip up my own set of matching papers. I immediately thought of this purple glittery one I had been saving. The blue and beige were harder as I don't use those colours much. I came across the dotty one which is the backside of a vintage Charleston dancers paper. I also found the light blue with beige swirls and was quite proud at how I managed to match them up together.

The image I used is Ching chou kuik's dark sirene from plate 24 and the sentiment is from plate 46. I've never used her before, but knew she was right for this as soon as I saw her. I think it was the fact that her hair was dark that gives the card that extra "darkness" and leaves it more muted than it would be if I had coloured it blue. She is stamped with black ink and then I went over her hair with midnight blue promarker to make her hair agree more with the patterned papers. The rest of her is also coloured with promarkers. I added some glittereffects with a sakura gelly roll to the image, text and butterfly border. That pen is addictive! To make the white parts more yellow on both the image and sentiments I inked them with a distress ink. The different butterflies are made using Martha Stewart punches and the leaves are made using a quickutz die. I also made a little decoration from a bottlecap that I hammered on to flatten a bit. I then glued on a circle from one of the patterned papers, filled with clear dimensional glue and filled with tiny see-through beads.

Rising Flame in blue

Some time ago, Lynette asked the DT to select their favorite of ching chou kuiks images.  I was so very, very torn and there were many amazing ones from which to select, but I eventually settled on Rising Flame.  It is still the top of my list.

I have seen many beautiful color combinations with this image and I loved playing with another.

Angel Kitty

In July I had to say good-bye to my precious kitty of 16 years.  It was one of the most difficult things I have ever done.  I miss her terribly.  The other day I was looking through all my wonderful Sweet Pea Stamp images and came across Purple Woods.  It struck me that the kitty was the one with wings in this picture.  I decided to color this to remind me of my sweet Angel Kitty.

Get Inky!

Alex

Fairy Friend

Here's a wonderful stamp from Sweet Pea stamps. This stamp comes from artist Lisa Victoria's Fantasy collection (Plate #72) and is called "Fairy Friend". I love this adorable girl and her little dragon friend; what a cute duet!

This small highlight shows little fairy with the dragon sitting on her shoulder. Too cute. I colored her with copic markers using several shades a blue and using shades R24, 27 and 29 for the tiny dragon.

I used Nestabilities to cut out the Fairy and her dragon and picked an adorable saying to go with them "Let the little Fairy in you fly!" (Plate #24).

Have a great day! May everyone let their fairy fly today!
Cheers, Holley

5 Cards from my blog candy giveaways

I wanted to share with you the cards I created to go with my 5 days of Blog Candy Giveaways. The first was was created with Masked Fairy In Green by ching-chou kuiks plate #33.

The 2nd card was created with Merry Season by ching-chou kuiks plate#20.

For my 3rd card I used Rising Flame ching-chou Kuiks Plate #24.

I used September Rhythm ching-chou kuiks Plate#25.

And for my last card I used Fantasy Easter Ocean ching-chou kuiks Plate#30. You can find all these images here on the Sweet Pea Stamps Store.

The Serene Night

I love this beautiful stamp called The Serene Night from Plate #24. I stamped and colored in the image and then cut out a scalloped oval using Nestabilities. I layered the image on beautiful layered papers one that is embossed metallic and one that is bright sheer white color. The main card stock for this card is a light pink Bazzil paper.


I used metallic pink cutoffs to highlight the corners of the card and low level pop dots to raise each level of the card. The shiny level of the metallic paper really makes the image stand out without adding further amounts of embellishment. The image was colored using Copic Markers.

Enchanted garden and flower tutorial

This time I want to show you "The Serene Night" - another wonderful stamp from Sweet Pea that I hadn't played with until now. The text is from sheet 7 plate 29 and the stamp from sheet 4 plate 24. I actually had this image coloured and matched with the papers. It was laying around and I needed to clean my space a bit so I thought it was time to get it finished. I also made two flowers from a gift wrap paper that happened to match perfectly! I love how this card makes me feel - like I was in some enchanted garden.

Here's a detail of the embossed background with golden birds that I made:

Here's how I made the flower:
I used my blossom nesties, but you could use circles or cut shapes out by hand. I even embossed them to give them an extra edge, but I don't know if it really shows. Cut out 6-7 of them in silk paper (the ones you have to gift wrap)

 After you've cut them out, poke them into your hand like shown on photo to scrunch them up.

Glue them side by side and work your way around until you're satisfied with the result. You might want to use a smaller shape to fill in the gaps in the middle.

 Use different shapes to make different sized flowers:

And there you have it. If you use my tutorial, please leave a comment linking to your post so we can have a look.

/Katarina

Purple Woods

Here's another wonderful image from ching chou kiuk's fantasy art collection. Her name is Purple Woods and she comes from Plate #24. I love her innocent face and the adorable fairy cat that she is holding.

I started with a gorgeous shimmery mica cardstock base in purple and then used matching embellishments. The image was stamped with Memento ink and colored with Copic markers. I added a beautiful quote from Plate #25.

Holley

Have a Magical Day!

I love this stamp, called Dark Sirene, from ching chou kuik's fantasy art collection. This stamp is on plate #24 and the saying used comes from Plate #21. For this card I stamped the image with Memento black ink and trimmed out the image to remove the background. I colored her with copic markers including coloring over the black hair to give it a dark brown look.

I think she is so beautiful that I didn't want to add a lot of extra embellishments, but I do think the image would love fabulous if I had some flowers that matched the color of the flowers in it. You can even use your stamping ink to add extra color to the floral embellishments so they match even better. The bling used on this card are pearls from Queen&Co.

Have a magical day!

Holley

UTEE and Fantasy Art Stamps - Let's Play

Let's play with some UTEE and ching chou kuiks Fantasy Art stamps! 

Disclaimer: No rubber stamps were harmed in the process - just in case you were wondering :-)!

This project is a fun to do because you can let your inner artist come out to explore all kinds of different creative ideas. Basically I mean go wild and have fun! Gather your supplies and let's get started!
 

Supplies you will need:

• UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel)
• Melting Pot
• To Dye For Ink
• Pigment or Permanent Ink
• Rubber Stamps

 

• Craft Stick or Spatula
• Non-stick Embossing Craft Sheet
• optional: Dry Pigment Powders
• optional: Glitter, Beads, Charms, etc.
• Wonder Tape or Glue

Working on a sturdy, protected area plug in your Melting Pot. Pour clear UTEE in the pot to melt, cover with lid .

Keep your melting pot covered while the UTEE is melting. This helps to melt your embossing enamel more quickly and efficiently. 

(Having said that, once I started pouring the melted UTEE, I completely got lost in what I was doing that I did not put the lid back on in between pourings)

While we're waiting for the UTEE to melt, grab your Sweet Pea Stamp of choice. I grabbed the angel stamps from Plate 17, ching-chou kuik's Caribbean Treasure from Plate 36 and ching-chou kuik's Dark Sirene from Plate 24.
(Ok, I admit I dragged them all out - after all, I don't play too often with the Melting Pot and UTEE so when I do, I take full advantage of it :-) )

 

I used StazOn Azure ink to ink up my stamp. You can use any pigment ink, but I like the results I got with StazOn. Be sure to ink up your stamp really well.

Once the UTEE was completed melted, I added 3-4 drops of To Dye For Ink.

Using a craft stick or spatula, stir it really well.

Pour the melted UTEE onto the craft sheet.

Now hold your breath, lol and press your inked stamp into the melted UTEE.

As you press, it's normal that some of the melted UTEE will push out on the side - creating like a wedge shape. No worries, that's perfectly ok.

Leave the stamp in the UTEE until it cools completely.

I didn't have time to trim or apply repositionable glue on the back of the images from Plate 36 yet. I didn't let that stop me. As seen here, I used ching-chou kuik's Caribbean Treasure without an acrylic block.

Once the UTEE cools, the stamp will lift out easily.

Peel image from craft sheet, if desired trim while still warm or use a hot knife. I like the look of the excess UTEE and didn't trim any of it.

Save all excess pieces of UTEE or any pieces that you are not happy with because you can re-melt these. I safe mine in a sandwich bag for later use.
 

Oh you can also make your own dew drops :-).

Here is a close up (blurry - sorry) of the stamp after I peeled it off the melted UTEE.

See, no harm done. After a good scrub with StazOn cleaner, my stamps looked good as new!

Now you can embellish your piece with glitter glue or charms or you can use pigment ink powders to add more definition. You can attach your piece to a card or leave as is to use as a suncatcher. The piece will be see through, just remember that the stamped image will appear in reverse if you use the non-stamped side. If you plan on using it as a sun catcher, use a toothpick to poke a hole while the finished piece is still warm.

I wanted to create a piece of wall art, so let's continue:

Using card stock from DCWV's Old World Stack and my Lattice Shapeabilities pendant, I die cut 2 pieces which I glued back to back.

I applied my finished piece on top of the lattice die cut with Zippy Paper Glue and yes, my piece cracked. I left it like this because it adds character.... I like it :-). At this point, I could have called this piece finished.

But since I love hardware stores and wanted something a little sturdier, I dug out my Formica sample chips.

You can find these at any home improvement center in the cabinet/counter section.

Using a regular glue stick, I adhered a piece of DP cut slightly larger than the Formica swatch.

Next I used my sanding pad to sand along the edges which gives gets rid of the excess paper and finishes the edges.

I added my melt art on top of the covered Formica with glue. Finishing the whole piece off with different embellishments.

Here are a couple of close-ups!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. I'm by no means an expert but the whole idea is to experiment and have fun.

As you can see from my piece, there are no mistakes just opportunities to embellish!

I'll leave you with another look at the finished piece!