Get Bloggin' - Pinterest

Hello Sweet Friends!!

It's Dana here with a new Get Bloggin' post! Today i'm going to be talking about Pinterest!! Yep that's right, Pinterest! Pinterest has amazing photos, tutorials, how to's, stamps, papers, fancy shoes, wedding dress... i mean anything and everything!! Its a great marketing tool for YOU and your Blog!!!  And its a great place to spread your love of card making, market yourself and the products you use, especially if you are on a design team!

First thing if you need to think about is a watermark for your photos! So when your photo gets pinned anyone can find where the photo came from! Making one is really simple! Just Google the name of your photo editing program and 'making a watermark', there are a ton of tutorials out there!! I made one not too long ago, but it's a little bit hard to read, so i'm currently trying out different fonts! Play with it and have fun!

But when you find one you like, you can use Pic Monkey to add them to your photo! Its super easy!

1. Go to pickmonkey.com and click on Edit a Photo
2. Open the photo you want the watermark on.
3. Next on the left side of the screen click on Overlay button (the butterfly)
4. Click the button Your Own
5. Find your watermark file and click ok
6. Now your watermark is open over your picture. You can resize it and move it around were you want it
7. Then save the file to your computer!

Easy huh?! Now no matter who pin's your photos, anyone can find you!

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok another little tidbit for you! You know when you pin a photo there is an area for a description:

Well if someone pins your photo they could leave it blank, or they could insert some kind of description. It could be any type of description, they might not say anything about you or your blog, so here's a mini tutorial on how to have a description already there when a photo is pinned.

All you have to do is add a description to your photo in Blogger, its easy!!(if you don;t have Blogger, Google 'photo description Type Pad, Word Press' etc, though it might be very similar to Blogger, so give it a try first)

     1. Insert your photo like normal into your post
     2. Click on the photo and you will get a long window, click on the Properties link

    3. An Image Properties window pops up. There are two text boxes and you can see where i entered some information about my photo. Click ok.

   4. Now just place your mouse over the picture and up pops a text box with the information i added to the text boxes (give it a try with the photo below, or any on this post!)

When this photo is pinned the information i added in the text boxes will appear in the pin description box.

You can add any type of description that you'd like. Just make it relevant to the photo! This added information does a few things for you. It helps you market yourself, by already having your name and blog name in the description field. Obviously people can edit it, but in most cases this will not happen.

If you place the name of the main manufacture featured on your project (in this case Sweet Stamp Shop!), this not only helps SSS marketing, but it also gives another keyword that your work will show up under! Unless you are one of the many well known names in the card making world, not a lot of people will be searching for you by your name. However lots of people are going to be searching for Sweet Stamp Shop and other manufactures. Its great exposure for you to have your card or project show up in someone's SSS search and this means more traffic to your blog!

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok so now you are ready for tons of people to start pinning your awesome, amazing photos!! But how do they pin it!?!?! Well some people have already added a quick button to their Internet Explore, Chrome, Firefox etc, and they use it all the time! But just in case someone comes along and doesn;t have the button you can have a button ready for them to use.

Nicole found a great tutorial from Code It Pretty on how to had a Pin button to your photos, Click here to check out the tutorial! I highly encourage you to give it a try!!

----------------------------------------------------------

Last i want to mention that you can add a follow you button to your blog! People who like your blog, just might light what you pin too!

Pinterest has a couple buttons and widgets that you can add to your blog. Click here to visit the page. Just add your Pinterest URL and type in a name, then click Build It. Pinterest will give you some code that you can add to your blog! Here is what mine looks like:

Another option is to add social media buttons! I haven't decided on the buttons i want to use yet, so the Follow Me button is great until i make that decision. There are a LOT of free buttons out there or you can get ones that go with your blog design (usually for an additional cost.)

--------------------------------------------------------

So i hope these tips help you use your Blog AND Pinterest better! All these tricks are great ways to make your blog easier to use, help market you and hopefully get more people checking out your blog and cards!! Is there another way you use Pinterest to market you and your blog? If you have any other tips, leave a comment!! I know everyone would love to know (me included)!!!

Here is a full shot of the card i used in my tutorials and the Sweet Stamp Shop stamp sets i used to create it!! Check out my blog for the details on how i made this card!!!

Frank

Zombies

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Oh and don;t forget Sweet Stamp Shops Use What You Have Challenge!! The challenge is open until Tuesday October 29th, and there is a prize!!! Check it out here!

I almost forgot!! Sweet Stamp Ship is having a Design Team Call!! Yeah!! You're going to try out right!?!?! You better!! Click here for all the details!!

Have a Sweet Day!!!

Dana Pin It

Triple Sweet Thursday - 10 Minute Craft Dash

Hey everyone!

Happy Thursday sweet friends! It's Alyssa here from My Thoughts Exactly with another Triple Sweet Thursday - 3 Cards, 3 Ways, 1 Challenge! As always I'll be spotlighting ONE challenge and rocking it THREE ways to get you inspired!

This week's featured challenge:

The 10 Minute Craft Dash

About the Challenge:

The 10 Minute Craft Dash is a color challenge with a TWIST: you must complete your card in under 10 minutes. A new challenge is posted every other Wednesday. Your entry must use the color palette and be completed in under 10 minutes. Though if you do go over 10 minutes you can still link up,  you just won't be eligible for the prize. An important note: you CAN plan and pull out your supplies prior  to starting the timer!

Why I Love This Challenge:

Do you LOVE color challenges but find yourself bored or not so challenged by them from time to time? If so, The 10 Minute Craft Dash is for YOU! I love a good old color challenge, but I REALLY love the 10 minute twist! It's like the card makers work out. Sometimes I find myself spending HOURS on one card. That's ok every now and then, but isn't great when you have several cards on your to do list. The 10 Minute Craft Dash really pushes you to get creative and just DO IT. Do it FAST.

The Current Challenge:

The current challenge called for the use of orange, black, and green. Perfect for Halloween right? But Halloween isn't the only way to rock this color palette!

3 Cards - 3 Ways -ONE Challenge

Way 1 : CAS

Time: 7 minutes and 2 seconds

For my first card I went the route I'm most comfortable with: CAS. I pulled out my Sweet Stamp Shop Triangle Style and Zombies stamp sets, an orange, a green, and a black ink pad, and some white paper. I started the timer and went to work creating my Halloween inspired triangle pattern. After scrambling to find some sequins to finish off my card, my stylish and simple Halloween card was finished in 7 minutes and 2 seconds!

Way 2 : a GUEST card by Danni!

Time: 7 minutes and 47 seconds

For card number two I brought in the help of my wonderful friend and Sweet Design Team coordinator Danni! It was super fun to do the dash with Danni and Nicole! Danni busted out this beautiful ombre card featuring the Sweet Stamp Shop Fall Gratitude stamp set in just 7 minutes and 47 seconds! I especially love the little gem accents. Thanks so much for your help Danni!!

Way 3 : More Involved

Time: 9 minutes and 38 seconds

Whew. This one was close. For my final card I challenged myself to step outside the halloween/fall box. I will admit a couple things: I stretched "orange" to a bit of a yellow to red spectrum, and see those green sequins? Yeah, those MIGHT have gone on after I stopped my timer and then realized I had no green, shhh. But I LOVE how this card turned out, and that's really what it's about isn't it? For this card I whipped out my Sweet Stamp Shop Super Mom stamp set, plus my watercolors and some clear acetate. Oh, and don't forget the sequin ;)

SSS Used in These Projects:

Triangle Style

Zombies

Fall Gratitude

Super Mom

I'm looking for MORE challenges to feature right here on the SSS blog! What is YOUR favorite challenge to play along with? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Have you checked out the SSS Pinterest and Flickr pages?

There's TONS more fantastic inspiration on those pages so be sure to click and check them out!!

Before I go, DON'T FORGET the Sweet Stamp Shop October release is happening October 16th! You WON'T want to miss this one!!

Big bloggy hugs <3

Alyssa

Pin It

Just Add Ink: A Little Art

Happy Monday! It's Tyra and I'm here to kick off a new series, Just Add Ink, where I explore creative stamping techniques.  Today I am sharing two small scale art pieces.  Here is the first:

The first project is a framed art piece created using watercolor pencils and paper, water and a paint brush.

Simply use watercolor pencils to create shaded sections and paint with water.  Use a flat wide brush to create wide strokes.  Allow the paint to dry and stamp the sentiment.  I used the sentiment from Color Wheel:

The Oscar Wilde quote served as the inspiration behind creating simple strokes of color.  There are several Sweet Stamp Shop collections that would work well using this technique including, Fall Gratitude, Austen Obsessed and Chalkboard Sign. 

The second piece is mini mixed media art:

The "shades of love" sentiment from the Color Wheel set is perfect for this mini art piece. 

• Color the canvas with a gelato and blend.

• Place stencil on top of the canvas. Spread modeling paste over the stencil (similar to icing a cake) with a palette knife (or use an old credit card or hotel key).  

• Be careful to lift the stencil from the canvas. Allow the paste to dry. Drying time depends on how thick the paste is applied.  

• Stamp sentiment! Voila! You have created your own mini masterpiece! 

Stamp sets perfect for this technique include Admit One (create artwork for a child's room) and Zombies (create an art piece for a halloween candy table display)

Which technique will you try first? Please share your creations on our Flickr Page!!  There is still time to play along with the latest Use What You Have Challenge.

 Join the Sweet Stamp Stop Community on Facebook and Pinterest! Stay up to date on the new products releases, (Did you see the September Release?) and sales. Take care and thanks for stopping by!!

Pin It

Challenge Me Friday - Curtain Call Challenge

Hello Sweet Friends!

It's Tracy here with your final Challenge Me Friday post!

Today I am participating in the Curtain Call Challenge....Carnival Craze!  This is a new challenge to me, so I thought I would give it a try!  The Admit One stamp set is perfect for this challenge.  I decided to keep the colors soft and watercolor the background.  To achieve this look, I used my Distress Markers and a water brush.  I first heat embossed the stars from Admit One on the background paper.

I heat embossed the circus tent onto a piece of vellum with Zing Metallic Silver embossing powder.  I love the look of this powder, it looks to smooth!

I stamped the sentiment from the Zombies stamp set.  See, it doesn't only have to be used for a scary or Halloween card ; )

I stamped the inside of the card with the elephant stamp from Admit One and Hero Arts Tide Pool ink.

Admit One

Zombies

Don't forget to submit your card into our very own Use What You Have Challenge!  You can find all of the details here!

Thanks for stopping by and joining me for all of my Challenge Me Fridays!

~Tracy

Pin It

Throwback Thursday- Chemistry

Welcome back to another Throwback Thursday! I announced the winner for last weeks Throwback Thursday. You can check it our HERE to see if you won! :)

But I am back with this super fun set "Chemistry". Even if you are not a science-type kind of guy this set is so fun to play with along with all the GREAT sentiments included in it.

Check it out:

Chemistry

 I played around with a couple ideas and this week nothing was coming together...Then I had an aaah HA moment. I loved what Michelle Duffy did on her layout this past week with the vellum overlay! If you missed that post you can check it out HERE. I LOVE Love love vellum so I wanted to try out that technique since the rest of what I kept trying to do was such a flop.

Here is my card:

 I love how the vellum really tamed down my image and really allowed me to POP the rest of my elements away from it. AND, as you will notice, I used the Mini Periodic Table. But that stamp comes in a square so I tapped off the ones I did not want ink on and then stamped them all individually in a row. I then used my Aged Ivory Embossing Enamel from Stampendous on  a metal frame that was originally green and embossed to make it better match. (if you have never done this before PLEASE BE CAREFUL YOUR METAL WILL BE VERY HOT!!!!!!) This is by far one of my favorite crafting techniques! You can practically emboss anything you can get the powder to stick too. I love embossing my picture frames. I will use multiple colors which creates a fun marbled distress kind of a look. It really creates an awesome effect, I do say.

I just loved the sentiment "You have a heart of gold"  and I coincedentally had gold heart pins from My Minds Eye that I just recently picked up from my work!!! I attached a green chevron ribbon to add an extra little pop and voila!  Fun HUH???



Want to see more? Check out my blog HERE. I even have a little Zombies action going on :)

Thanks for stopping in for another week of Throwback Thursdays!

Nicole here - stealing a moment to say, today only you can run over to the shop and get this UBER popular set for $8. --- YEP EIGHT BUCKS! Today ONLY! (no code needed :) --- no other coupon codes can be used on this set. Thanks! 


ARE YOU A "MARTHA"  ????  Then boy, you won't want to miss out!!!

>>>>>>>>>>WELL Here Ya Go<<<<<<<<<<

And if you are interested in being a Sweet Stamp Shop designer, there is still time to apply. Check out all the details HERE. You will have until the 15th to apply!

Happy Crafting!!!!!
xoxo
Danni Pin It

Throwback Thursday's - Pattern Craze

 >>>>>>>>>> Give-Away Alert<<<<<<<<<<

(FOR INFO ON THE GIVE-AWAY READ THRU TO THE BOTTOM FOR ALL THE DETAILS!)

Hi everyone!!! Welcome back to this week's Sweet Stamp Shop's Throwback Thursday. I am featuring Pattern Craze on the blog today and....

This is a MUST HAVE stamp set! 

Just look at it lol. It pretty much speaks for itself :) Patterns, geo-metric shapes, sizes, OPTIONS!!!!! HOT and TRENDY!!!!

Pattern Craze

 I use this stamp set a lot because of the versatility I get from it.

This week I took my inspiration from the Play Date Cafe's challenge blog. The theme for this week's challenge was, It's a {Splash} of Neon. I just LOVED their color scheme they had going...Black, white, and neon yellow (although it looks green to me and that is what I used for my card, neon green)

 

It's VERY TRENDY this week just like the stamp set. I didn't enter my card in the challenge since it was over before Thursday's Throwback, but it is still fun to play along and a GREAT way to draw your inspiration from. I was also going to use a sketch from another challenge blog, but I ended up doing my own thing once I broke out the stamp set and got to work.

This is my card that I came up with:

I got out my watercolor pencils for this card and colored in some of the hearts with black on the panel I created, just to give it a little pop and add a little something! Then to give the panel I stamped and embossed on separation, I matted in black. Next, I grabbed the plain hexagon and the dot hexagon and stamped on white and trimmed out. I like the idea of just layering them slightly underneath with out being "neat" about it. For a little more texture, I broke out the trusty mist and added some neon splash and then my black and neon pens and did some border lines. Then I just accented with a few embellies and a sentiment.
.

For my sentiment I first stamped Epic from Starts Here in neon green and then stamped right in the middle, Happy Birthday from Zombies. I love how perfectly they fit together.

 Starts Here

Zombies

Loving Pattern Craze??? Head on over to the Sweet Stamp Shop  HERE and snag one up before they are gone, we only have limited stock on hand. So don't procrastinate ;)

SO, wanna know how you can get in on my giveaway??? Simply go to my BLOG HERE. And follow the three (VERY SIMPLE AND EASY) steps. Also here is a sneak peak at a bonus project you will want to check out!

Happy Crafting,
xoxoxo
Danni Pin It