It's the last Hurrah at Sweet Pea Stamps- Come join us as a Thank You for all the good times!

 I'm sure that you have been following the "news" that as of the end of November, Sweet Pea Stamps will be closing their doors for good.  The last rubber will have been pressed, the wonderful artists will be moving on to other venues to showcase their creations, and our sweet, kind, courageous leader will have a more routine way of life and will be on the road to a healthier life style.  She took me in on her Design Team and I found a wonderful second home.  Lynette, I will always be grateful for the      time that I've spent here with you. 

We, the DT, wanted to make these last 2 challenges ALL about Thank Yous or a Thanksgiving theme.  Because we are so Thankful for being here on a regular basis!  I chose an image that I feel conveys my sadness for leaving called Into the Light by Karen Middleton.  I will always remember this image as one of my favorites as it was my very first attempt to color Black hair.  I love the color combination of blues and browns so have combined some weathered wood paper with some heritage style brown mat.  I love the sheerness of the taupe brown lace that I added at the side and added the circular die cut.  Inside is a verse that I think conveys my heartfelt feelings for this Digital & rubber stamp site-Sweet Pea Stamps leaves behind many happy customers and friends world wide.  It's great to know that Lynette's hard work saw such a Dream come true.  Please join us and let us see all YOUR Special projects!  We'd love to be inspired!  Signing off as an SPS Design Team Member,  Carolyn

We are so Thankful for Sweet Pea Stamps....It's a bittersweet month ahead

As I'm sure you may have heard, we will be only having 2 more One Sweet Challenge with this wonderful site, Sweet Pea Stamps, before Lynette closes the doors at the end of the month.  She has had such amazing artists and has been such a generous owner, she will be missed greatly.
So. It has been decided, very fittingly, that this month will be all about Thankfulness or  Thanksgiving.  With that in mind, I'm using an image called Thanksgiving by Regan Kubecek.  Loving the Fall colors, embossed shiny leaves, thick baker's twine, and an appropriate Stampin' Up sentiment.  On the inside I used the flip side of the leaf paper, an accent paper and a great Thanksgiving stamp. 
Every time I use this image, I will remember all the good times we, the Design Team, have had with SPS and our Challenges.  We hope that you will all want to take this final lap with us and get inspired with the creations on the Challenge.  Look forward to seeing you there.

Sweet Pea Stamps One Sweet Challenge wants to see Fall Colors

At One Sweet Challenge this week, We'd like to see any of your Fall creations or something appropriate for All Souls Day!  I'm really getting into the cooler nights that we're having here in Illinois.  I love Fall as long as I can see the beautiful changing colors of the leaves!
This image is in the Sweet Pea Stamps Store and is called Forgiveness by Karen Middleton.  She is one of the talented artists that you can find in the Store-they carry both rubber stamps and digitals.
I used this beautiful Fall colored paper from the Graphic 45 French Country Collection series- Deja Vu. On the inside, I used the reverse side of the paper-love doing that because you have complimentary colors and patterns.  I was lucky to have a wonderful array of flowers that match perfectly!  AND was able to use 2 stick pins to tuck into the floral group!

We hope to see Your creations soon at this 2 week challenge-you Always inspire us.  Thanks for looking!

It's a SPOOKY Halloween theme at One Sweet Challenge with Sweet Pea Stamps!

It's time again for some fun , kind-of Spooky Halloween cards at One Sweet Challenge by Sweet Pea Stamps!  I chose Vampire with Cat by Molly Harrison.  She's one of the many talented artists that share their talents at Sweet Pea Stamps.  This month's theme is either Halloween or a creation with Purple/Green/Orange or Black on it. 
The back mat is an amazing black glitter paper in black by The Paper Studio. (You can see an orange backdrop glitter page in the background of my picture.)  I have this great cobweb design paper and some embellies that are theme appropriate!  The star of the show is this wonderful image.  I'm having fun experimenting with colored hair and find I'm loving it!  Just step out of your comfort zone and try it!  I put a purple patterned paper behind her to mat the image. Had a little fun on the inside with some quirky skeleton heads and a great stamp along with a cardstock sticker.  I hope you will come and join us at our challenge-we'd love to see the creations you come up with!

One Sweet Challenge is featuring Halloween or a Color Challenge!

 It's that spooky time of the year  what with Halloween coming next month and at One Sweet Challenge, we were asked to use Halloween images or use the colors Purple/green/orange/and-or black in our creations.  I think I managed all of this with the card I made from the digital image  Witch and Cat by Molly Harrison.  I think that the color might be off just a little, but the green was so intense that, no matter what I did to it, they all looked the same.  So, My apologies.  There are so many wonderful images in the Sweet Pea Store by several artists-you just really need to go see all your choices!  As you can see I used black and green neon bats, a wonderful roughly textured handmade green paper, and accents of green sheer ribbon, glitter bats and black pearl studs. More of the handmade paper inside the card , black sheer ribbon and a great Halloween rubber stamp.
Come over and play with us at One Sweet Challenge with Sweet Pea Stamps-we'd love to see your creations!

New Techniques at the One Sweet Challege/Sweet Pea Stamps-Z-Fold Method

This post for One Sweet Challenge from Sweet Pea Stamps is all about learning or using a new technique. So I decided that I would try a Z-fold method, I believe that is what this is called, using a beautiful image from The Sweet Pea Stamps Shop called Beautiful by Holly Durr.  I used copics to color her in and various heritage style papers.  I love the feel of the butterfly die cut with the Happy Birthday stamp!  Felt it's very elegant.  Be sure and check out our challenge this week and get your entry ready!

Show us some New Techniques at Sweet Pea Stamps' ONE SWEET CHALLENGE!

For the month of August!!, we at One Sweet Challenge/Sweet Pea Stamps have chosen to "Educate" ourselves in homage of everyone getting ready to go back to school---We are  going to use a new technique or medium that is new to us in our creations this month.
I'm using the image Swan_n_Pond_Princess by Holly Durr, a fantastic artist from the Sweet Pea Shop.  What I'm learning in the last week or so is how to use Frantage, a texture embossing medium.  This image has waves and sea froth across the bottom of the swan and I chose to use the Aged Marine Embossing Enamel to create the same effect.  These enamels have a gorgeous mixtures of golds, multiple shades of deep blues, and I added some chunky white also.  Used the perfect stamp both inside and out for this Birthday card as well as complimentary buttons.  Please join us and show us YOUR new ideas-we love to Case your creations!

It's still Christmas in July at Sweet Pea Stamps and the One Sweet Challenge!

Continuing on with the Monthly Theme at One Sweet Challenge, It's Christmas in July!  AND that makes it a great time to get started on all your Christmas cards by using one of the many in the Sweet Pea Shop.  The one that I've used is called Merry by Regan Kubecek, a very talented artist among many at SPS!
There's lots of details in the image itself, what with braids, fairy wings, presents, piles of snow all around her, decorated Christmas Trees!  I used a very appropriate design paper in Christmas stripes, a red velvet insert to highlight the silver glitter domes, snow tex on the front hill and Frantage multi-crystal glitter mix/flower soft on the back hill, with silver filigree corner hinges.  I tilted the image a little to get a closer view of the sparkles.  Inside, I used the reverse paper from the stripe, stamped a super verse for Christmas and accented it with a poinsettia flower.
 I also want to remind you that our prizes are three digital images if the winner uses an SPS image, or one digital image if the winner does not use an SPS image. Can you give me one good reason why you would not want to use an SPS image? This challenge will end on August 1.

One Sweet Challenge/Sweet Pea Stamps is having Christmas in July!

Sweet Pea Stamps is starting the first 2 week challenge at One Sweet Challenge for this month!  The Theme is Christmas in July--Yeah, a GREAT way to beat this heat and humidity!   Remember the third Monday of July you will see more art work for the July challenge. I also want to remind you that our prizes are three digital images if the winner uses an SPS image, or one digital image if the winner does not use an SPS image. Can you give me one good reason why you would not want to use an SPS image?
There are so many images to use in the Vast gallery of Artists at Sweet Pea Stamps!  The one I was particularly drawn to is called  Christmas bird by Elaine Cox.  This was just one of her digital images that was available.  I LOVE getting some of my Christmas cards done early don't you?  The image is already in a circular pattern and even comes with some shading in the background.  I used Copics on her but then accented the snow on the tree branches with Glitter Liner (in the Liquid Pearl section) and it is iridescent and flows pretty well.  Then I used a glaze pen which is so awesome-you could leave it to dry and it makes a slick look to your image OR use like I did and while wet, applied some glitter for the snowflakes.  I added some glitter ribbon and a clear type sticker and there you have it.
Hope you like and hope you will come and place an entry in our Challenge!  Can't wait to see you there!

I'd like to enter this in the following Challenge:

Crafty Calendar Challenge 
Crafty Hazelnut Christmas Challenge 
Quirky Crafts Challenge Blog

One Sweet Challenge at Sweet Pea Stamps-Use a Die or Punches

We're ready at Sweet Pea Stamps for the 2nd half of our monthly Challenge -We're to use either Dies or Punches!  You can see that I chose to cut out around my image with a die to bring the focus to the gorgeous image, Butterfly Lilypad by Lemon Short Bread.
I just love so many things about this sweetie sitting on her rock! Gorgeous eyes, layout of the flower, the floating of the dress panels.!  Then I found the perfect paper for the coloring and away we went!  I double matted her and then added the sheer ribbon.  In the inside, I added a sticker that matched the papers that says "Cherish".
Remember because it's the third Monday of June you will see more art work for the June challenge. I also want to remind you that our prizes are three digital images if the winner uses an SPS image, or one digital image if the winner does not use an SPS image. Can you give me one good reason why you would not want to use an SPS image? This challenge will end on July 4. This gives you an extra week to get your creativity going.  Please come and play with us and let us see your beautiful creations.

One Sweet Challenge for Sweet Pea Stamps is using Die-Cuts or Punches!

 This is my Creative Team entry for our Sweet Pea One Sweet Challenge Contest.  Our theme this month is a perfect one for June, "Die Cuts and/or Punches. There are so many possibilities available for you!  Your art can be anything you want, but you must follow the OSC rules and that month’s theme.  If you do not, your entry will be deleted.

I was lucky to use an image from the Sweet Pea Store called Sweetdreams by Katerina Koukiotis.  She offers images with wonderful shading and gorgeous refined lines.  I used Copics on her face and then used chalks for the background and to soften the hair.  I had some Heritage type papers in a perfect green and green/print that I used as accent banners.  In the image there was a light hair clip that I decided to put pearls on.  The die cuts that I used are actually ones that I received from a friend in white-I used copics to color them to cream and then accented them with a faceted Rhinestone. 
On the inside, I continued with more of the green print paper and added a sentiment that would be wonderful for dear friends.
We can't wait to see your creations with the die-cuts or punches!  We are always so inspired with what you come up with!  Can't wait to see you there!

A Little Bird Told me over at Sweet Pea Stamps & One Sweet Challenge!

Norma J Burnell is a wonderful artist over at Sweet Pea Stamps~ she creates very whimsical detailed images with sweet faces that are a challenge, but a JOY to color.  This image is called A-little-bird-told-me and I just hope I did it justice!  This Get Well card was made for the 2nd part of the May Challenge. I cannot believe that we are almost at the half-way mark for 2015. Our theme this month is a perfect one for May, “Things with Wings.” We want to see your art using “anything with wings.” Your art can be anything you want, but you must follow the OSC rules and that month’s theme.  The One Sweet Challenge Blog can be found here. 
So that I could accent the "tendrils" that were hanging down from the image, I decided to do a fancy cut on them and use the background paper to bring them out front.  I added the blue mat, ribbon, and circular sentiment.
There are so many interesting artists to choose from at the Sweet Pea Store, both for the purists that use rubber stamps and the digitally minded.  You'll have a wonderful experience there!  Can't wait for you to join us soon~
Carolyn, DT

SPRING HAS SPRUNG 2nd Challenge at Sweet Pea's "One Sweet Challenge"

 How can you NOT get a smile on your face when you see Raindragon by Lisa Victoria with Sweet Pea Stamps!!!  Even Puddles won't get him down!  This will celebrate the halfway point in the "One Sweet Challenge" for Sweet Pea as we continue with the theme Spring Has Sprung for April.

This was such a FUN card to do-a 6x6 card blank used from The Paper Cut, with this Perfect rain drop 2 sided paper.  The dragon is SO cute and I loved doing her in Copic shades of pinks with a light blue wash over her.  The other side of the paper has several different cloud patterns on it which I used with foam dots.  What I got a kick out of was going back and using Aleene's Clear Gel Tacky Glue on all the raindrops, even across the border at the bottom (which is the tear away section of the paper).  On the inside, I wanted to do a sunshine page with another paper from the set-aren't the rain boots and umbrellas adorable?  With an up-beat sentiment, it's sure to get someone feeling better quickly!
Be sure to check back for the next month's theme at One Sweet Challenge-Sweet Pea Stamps has so many images that will inspire you to enter your creation!  Remember: Our prizes for our challenges are a $10 coupon if the winner uses a Sweet Pea Stamp rubber stamp or digital image and a $5 coupon to the Sweet Pea Stamp store if the winner did not use a Sweet Pea Stamp.  See you there!

"Spring has Sprung" is the Challenge Theme at Sweet Pea's ONE SWEET CHALLENGE for April!

This Stunner is by a favorite artist of mine that now creates for Sweet Pea Stamps, Lynne Stansbery.  I got to know her through Squigglefly and she has great shading and unique images!  This one is called Tender Loving Care.  I took some liberties with adding a young pink bud to the plant, where the leaves were accented with "dew drops" made from clear acrylic glue. (kind of hard to see from the picture).  I used a "loopy" felt flower and added the button on the corner.  White cardstock flower pods and branches are compliments of friends.  On the inside, I finished the card with a coordinating flower paper and used the double sided paper for the accent strip.  The verse is from my stash-perfect don't you think?


This card is my "premier" card as a New Design Team Member on the Sweet Pea One Sweet Challenge Team and I'm thrilled to death that they asked me to join them.  I'm looking forward to a great relationship-I so admire their images!

Winners are chosen randomly. If the winning card uses a Sweet Pea Stamp image the prize is a $10 gift card to the SPS store. A $5 gift card will be awarded to the winner if the image is from any other company.  So at least twice a month, I hope you will return to my blog to see what the newest offering is from Sweet Pea Stamps & OSC Design Team !