Five Days of Digis: Love One Another

Hi friends! Hope you saw our special Five Days of Digis launch yesterday — where I introduced my rich and happy pattern of Gerbera Daisies — that you can download for FREE RIGHT HERE.

And today, we have another sweet image to share. This one has flowers with special meaning to me (gosh, they all do, don’t ya know!) and I’m thrilled to share it with you — hoping you find a special joy working with “Love One Another”.

Love One Another is an illustration that celebrates the spirit of love and acceptance. Different species of plants and creatures living together in harmony - a metaphor for our times. The image comes with and without the sentiment, in black and no-line versions.

I’ve drawn flowers with special meaning to me.... dwarf and intermediate bearded irises mingling with tulips. You guys know how I am totally in to flowers, right? Well, there was a time that the only flowers we had growing up were the random wild daylilies that seemed to pop up in everyone's yard. But one day when I was in high school, my mom, Susan, discovered irises. The variety of colors, sizes, ruffles galore. She went bananas. First she got into tall bearded irises (which you may be familiar with), but then, being my mom, she had to find something more rare and special, so she sought out the "dwarf" (sometimes only 3-4 inches tall!) bearded irises, or the intermediate, which are a little bit taller. The blooms are just as MAGNIFICENT as the tall bearded, if not moreso.

Source: Schreiner's Iris Gardens

Well, the iris phase was pretty intense in our household... along with growing a huge variety, my mom and stepdad both got training to become judges in the American Iris Society. I was encouraged (well, more like bribed) to take part in junior iris arranging competitions, and I believe we can trace my very first botanical painting to iris subject matter (I'll have to dig up a photo and add it here....)

I knew I had to get some irises down on paper - but what to pair them with? As I envisioned a combination of flowers coexisting joyfully.

In April of this year I was invited by a dear old friend of mine, Sharyn Sowell, to visit her incredible garden and studio in Skagit Valley, Washington. She timed our visit to coordinate with the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, where basically the entire area lights up with row upon row of blossoming tulips. You have to just pull over at the side of the road and gawk. It is unforgettable beauty and I took approximately one billion photos. Many of them with me giving the thumbs up! Who doesn’t love tulips?

So, there we have the components of Love One Another: irises and tulips! And what of the critters meandering about?

I’ve included a Luna Moth (which you can see, our designers have colored in whatever way coordinates with their flowers — which is a brilliant move), and a "pleasing fungus" beetle (never had heard of it before, but I liked the polka dots!) and a caterpillar with little spiny things sticking out. Folks, I don't even know what kind it is, because sometimes that’s just what happens when you want to add a little frill!

My friends, you simply must see what our dear designers have created for today — unstoppable beauty to inspire your next project!

Come see:

Barbara Walker

Stacy Morgan

Christine Okken

Rhea Weigand
Cheryl Scrivens

There are so many color combinations possible for this digital stamp set! I can’t wait to see what you will do with it!

Tomorrow we’ll have another highly detailed illustration to share, it’s a personal favorite I have to say...

Five Days of Digis: Free Download + Free Coloring Class

You’ve been waiting for brand new digital images from Power Poppy for months and months... and I aim to deliver and delight!

Welcome to our 5 Days of Digis release — kicking off with a BANG!! I've designed a new image of Gerbera Daisies that I think you’re going to love. Kindness is the Way is an allover floral pattern both with and without lettering, along with a single flower when you just need a simple, cheery bloom! And get this....

IT IS FREE! DOWNLOAD HERE.

I want to say thank you to my wonderful, amazing, creative and courageous customers for your loving support of Power Poppy. "Kindness is the Way" is a FREE digital stamp set download that is not a short-time promotion, it's here for the taking and enjoying forever!

What’s even more fun? A FREE Coloring Class!

We've teamed up with Kit and Clowder to offer a FREE coloring class created specifically for Kindness is the Way! Designed by the amazing Alyce Keegan, whom we positively adore. Alyce's gorgeous work is featured in the photo above (isn’t it dreamy??), and in her awesome video tutorials, you learn the tips and techniques to help you enhance your coloring skills! Be sure to join this group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/kitandclowder/ and enter your coloring project for a chance to WIN part of $200 in prizes from Power Poppy and Kit and Clowder.

Here is a sneak peek of MORE inspiring creations by our talented designers working with Kindness is the Way.... spin around to their blogs and enjoy smiling the whole way through. Then download your free stamp set, take the free class, and be on your way to a weekend of coloring! 

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS BEAUTY? 

Come see:

Barbara Walker

Stacy Morgan

Cheryl Scrivens

Christine Okken

Thank you so much and be SURE to come back tomorrow to check out the brand new illustration that  is directly inspired by the garden, I cannot wait to share it with you!!

Earthy & Delish Hues!

Hello sweet color craving stampin' friends! Today's little hues have a tasty flavor attached to them and show off a recipe crafted over HOURS in our own Power Poppy Peep in Chief's kitchen. Check it out, will you? (And try not to let your mouth water!) 

This, my friends, is Boeuf en Daube in progress in Ms. Marcella's cooking space. What I found even more delish than the meal's looks was the fact that she made this feast in her Grandma Dorothy's 1960's era Wagner Ware tureen. Apparently, creating this recipe takes hours upon hours of simmering! I think those are the absolute best kinds of meals -- you get to savor the smells all day long!

HOW TO PLAY: Playing along with this week's Hues to Use is sweet and simple! Just look at the color cues above -- plum, pumpkin and straw and use them in your card or creation. After you're done getting those fingers inky, link up your creation on the link below so we can all see! YIPPPEEEE!

Are you ready for another little fun surprise today? We have another guest on tap today! This lovely lady loves all things crafty and lives in a gorgeous part of the country. She's about as talented as she is sweet so put your hands together for.....

"Hi all, I'm Sue! I'm from a small city, North Tonawanda, NY between Buffalo and Niagara Falls, New York. I have been married to my high school sweetheart for 52 years. We have one daughter, a great son-in-law and two grandchildren -- Megan, who just turned 20 and is in college studying art, and Michael, who will graduate high school this June and attend college in the fall. I worked as an accountant and tax preparer for 28 years. I have been retired since 2008 and don't miss giving up my life from January to April 15th each year for tax season!"

I have crafted all of my life beginning at a young age with a box of 64 Crayola Crayons. To my late mother's delight, I learned to sew all on my own while I was a stay at home mom. I made Cabbage Patch dolls and their clothes when they were all the rage, and have sewn American Girl doll outfits by the dozens. I took decorative painting classes and did that for many years. I learned calligraphy and did invitations and place setting cards for friends. Then, I bought a couple of rubber stamps in 1995, became hooked and now have a large collection of stamps, digis, paper and dies. I took classes from Kevin at Stampscapes and became obsessed with scene stamping for a while. I have taught rubber stamp classes at my local stamp store too.

When it comes to stamping, Copic markers are my go-to choice for coloring right now, replacing the Crayola crayons. All these years later, I still LOVE to color.


SUE'S CREATION

For my card, I chose the digi, Cup of Columbine. (Did you know this image also comes in a clear version? It's called Cheerful Columbine) I knew I wanted to make a shaped card, so I chose a Spellbinders Grand Die Label 4. I cut an eggplant colored mat for the Copic colored image. I attached them to a white card cut from the same die set and embossed the purple mat and the front of the card with a Creative Expressions embossing folder, called Braided Vines. It's an 8-1/2" by 11" embossing folder.

Next, I stamped and embossed the word Enjoy, from Jillibean, and cut it out with the matching die in the set. I then cut two more of the word Joy from white cardstock and glued them to the back of the orange embossed original to give it some dimension. The word Everyday was stamped on
white cardstock and embossed with the same orange embossing powder and die cut with the flag die from the same set. A few purple sequins were finishing touches to the card.

Here's a close up for you! 

I am thrilled to have been asked to design a card for the Hues to Use, and I would like to thank Julie for the opportunity!"

Thank YOU Sue, the pleasure is all ours! I love the combo of purple and orange and I think you really did a beautiful job of marrying these two bold and happy hues! We should mention that if you want to see what crafty endeavors Sue is up to, you can check out her blog Sue's Rubber Stamping Adventures by just clicking the link! Thanks again Sue!

Before we get to the linky and bid you a farewell for the week, I did want to tell you happy Hues to Use lovers to stay tuned! Why? Well, we think you are all pretty awesome and Marcella and I chatted about how we can up the ante and give you coloristas a little extra incentive to play along with us from week to week. So, like I said, stay tuned! Some exciting news will be unveiled SOON!

Until next week!
~Julie 

An InLinkz Link-up

hApPy FrI-yAy!

Yes, my sweet stamping friends, we are a little slow on the take to share some fun little vibes to get your ready for a feel-good weekend! Sorry 'bout that! Never fear... we're here now! ;-)

As we speak, there's a flurry of activity, not only at my home base in Montana but in St. Louis as Marce gets ready for a MASSIVE road trip. Can you say 1800 miles with the family truckster packed to the gills? Yep, that's Marcy! Stay tuned for more on her adventures! Just a little note, if you place an order in the next week, Marcella and her crew will pack it up when they return!

Okay, are you all ready for some...

Let's get right to the eye candy folks! Marcella has another massive digital release just for you. Want to see a sneak peek?

Sigh... it's divine, isn't it? And, I wish I could show you more. Get ready digi-lovers. There is a smorgasbord of fun images that absolutely CANNOT wait to be colored up by your crafty hands -- flowers of all kinds, sweet vignettes, and scenes that are sure to drop your blood pressure at first sight. Mark your calendar! The new digi release starts July 20th -- JUST ONE WEEK FROM TODAY! 

This second Good Vibe is pretty self-explanatory. Puppies = good vibes. We just love that Mr. Tibbs, the Power Poppy Pup in Chief, demands that his master put down work for a little catch with his favorite red thing-a-ma-jig! You go Tibbs!

I am not sure about you, but I can almost smell the beautiful scent of lilacs when I take a glance at this AH-MAZE-ING creation by Jeannean Marshall using Power Poppy's French Lilac digital stamp set. Wow. Makes me yearn for next spring when the bushes behind my house will be in full bloom again! If you want to be WOWED by this image above fashioned into a finished card plus a few others, click HERE! 

Okay, this good vibe is clearly mine but -- you know what? We're all family here and it's perfectly fine to share those proud mama moments, right? Well, this pic above is of my daughter's softball team after their battle to win at the State Softball Tournament in Great Falls, Montana. These little ladies took 2nd place out of 21 teams. #2 in the standings, #1 in our hearts! They battled in 95-degree heat and dug so deep that many of us were shocked. They couldn't quite conquer their main rival but you know it's a good game when the other coach says to your girls, "That's how you play softball girls!" Proud. (Just in case you wondered, my daughter is the second from the left in the first row). Go 406 Playmakers!

There's little doubt that both Katie and I are squealing at this photo above. You see, we're both avid knitters. When Marcy asked what she should do on that mondo car trip, I suggested she learn how to knit! Well, her grandma taught her years ago and all she needed to do was get "reacquainted!" So, she hit up the Kirkwood Knittery and snagged these lovelies above! She says she plans to try her hand at knitting a scarf. Watch out folks! We all know what happens when Marcy falls in love with something new -- remember her mushroom craze that's still ongoing? I am excited to see where this one goes!


With all those vibes out there now sitting somewhere in cyberspace.....

Be sure to check out these fine ladies and their fresh cut Power Poppy creations!

Cindy

Katie

Christine

Ally

Stacy

Thanks so much for stopping by and checking in before you hit up your crafting spaces this weekend! We love your visits!

Until next time!
~Julie

Neutral Hues

Hello all of you creative paper crafters!!  Tosh here filling in for Julie for today's Hues to Use Challenge.  I hope you are enjoying a day surrounded by color, but that doesn't mean it has to be bright, bold, or even soft pastels.  Today...it's all about being NEUTRAL....so get out your grays people!! 

It seems Marcy is thinking about Mr. Tibbs today, and for those of you who love bold, bright colors, today's hues might be a bit of a challenge. We're going grayscale.

Would you like to play along?  All you have to do is take your color cues from the photo above  (Julie has highlighted 3 of the most prominent colors in the photo), create a project using those colors, and link it below.  We'd love to see where your creativity takes you, and by participating, you could be chosen to host one of our Hues to Use challenges.  If so, you would get to choose a Power Poppy digi set to play along with.

Are you ready to see my interpretation?  I chose to work with the digital set Easy Breezy Coneflowers.  Now, I LOVE working with neutrals, but shoot, I just can't resist adding a little pop of color.  I might have stepped out of the box a bit, and since this is on the Power Poppy blog itself, I thought I better not make my "pop" very bold, so I just added a subtle purple to the Coneflower center.  This is my first time hosting the Hues to Use Challenge, so since I'm a newbie, hopefully, I won't get in too much trouble. 

The Easy Breezy Coneflower digital image itself includes two Coneflowers and I wanted a grouping of them.  So, I used Photoshop to make a little collage out of the blooms and included one of the sentiments.  I then colored the Coneflowers using T2, T1, and T5 along with V17 and V15.  The background was made using T0-T6.  I soaked a piece of textured cloth with Copic Blending Solution and dabbed the background to get that stippled effect.

I created the randomly striped base piece using 3 of the Copic colors listed above: T1, T3 and T5.  I didn't have gray string that matched as closely as I would like, so I just colored up some string with my T5 Copic, and I did the same with the mini clothespin using V17.

Thanks for visiting today.  I look forward to seeing how you all are inspired by these gray tones.  Don't forget to link your creations below.

Have a fantastic week!!

Happy Stamping!!
Tosh

An InLinkz Link-up

Inspire Me Monday: Copic Shading & Shadows

Happy Monday everyone!  Welcome to another edition of Inspire Me Monday here at Power Poppy with yours truly, Allison Cope. I hope you all had an amazing and hopefully creative weekend.

Today I’m sharing some tips and tricks when it comes to adding shading to your Copic coloring. Come and join me at my crafty desk … don’t forget that refreshing drink…  this one’s a little longer than usual!

Today I’m featuring one of the blooms form the new release, the Abundant Petals stamp set.

See this video in HD.

Here are the links to the two coloring sheets I designed.  Please feel free to download them to your own computer and use them.

Large Coloring Chart

Small Coloring Charts

Here’s another close up of the images and Copic Markers I chose to use today.

I’d love to see what you do with this little shading challenge.  Share a link to your own creations in the comment section below.

Have a great week everyone!  Hope you’re enjoying some nice sunny summer weather your way!

~ Ally ~


stamps:  Power Poppy (Abundant Petals)
cardstock:  Copic X-Press It ( White)
inks:  Copic Markers, Memento (Tuxedo Black)

Go Ahead.... Inspire Me!

Happy July Power Poppy Peeps! Boy, do we have a super fun challenge for you this month. Okay, I am a bit biased though. I decided on this challenge and I can't wait to see how you take this Power & Spark to the next explosive level! ;-)

Are you ready? Let's see what's in store!

HOW TO PLAY: Every Monday here on the Power Poppy blog we invite the best of the best creative minds to share a little bit of their creative process. The hope is that they will "inspire" and spark a crafty revolution! Each Inspire Me Monday feature offers either a coloring lesson, a technique or maybe even a fun little digital "how to!" You can find all of our Inspire Me Monday features HERE on this link. Once you scroll through all these fun and informative posts, to take on this challenge, all you need to do is pick one as your source of inspiration and give that coloring lesson, technique or tutorial a try! Just that simple!

On to my creation! Goodness, this was a tough one. I literally went through every Inspire Me Monday. Did you know we've had this feature on the blog since April of 2014? WOW! That's a lot of inspiration waiting in the wings! So, after going through and revisiting a ton of fun posts, I chose THIS post by Ally Cope -- Fun With Masks! I had just bought some masking sheets and wanted an "excuse" to rip them out of the package and give them a try! 

First up, here's a peek at one of Ally's cards so you get the gist of what I did when I followed in her creative footsteps! 

And here's a look at my version using Power Poppy's Abundant Petals stamp set along with the coordinating die set! After I lifted the masks, added a stitched scallop frame die and the sentiment that I embossed in white from the M-Powering Words stamp set.   

All in all, this was a super easy card to create and a fun technique that I am pretty sure I'll give a try again soon! If you want to know more about the particulars of this creation -- just click HERE or on my name in the link list down further in this post.  Now it's YOUR TURN to take one of these Inspire Me Mondays for a spin! When you do, don't forget to link up your creation below! 

THE OFFICIAL RULES:

Use Power Poppy stamps if you have them. If not, it is a great way to win some!

Link your creation below using our Linky (please use the exact URL from your post instead of a generic blog address.)

Please mention Power Poppy in YOUR blog or gallery post with a link back to THIS challenge

The winner will receive a $50 SHOPPING SPREE TO THE POWER POPPY SHOP

Enter as many cards as you’d like, as long as they fit the theme of the challenge

Deadline to enter is June 30 @ 8:00 PM EST. At that point, we’ll draw the winner randomly and make the announcement right here on the first Friday in August! 

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

With the new challenge, we are super excited to share the lucky card maker randomly chosen for June's Round and Round Power & Spark Challenge hosted by Stacy Morgan! (Be sure to click the link to see all the amazing entries this past month!) So, after we threw all the names in the virtual hat, here's the number that random.org drew...

The lucky number is 8, which means the winner is....

***CAT ARENZANA *** 

Congrats Cat! You've won a $50 Shopping Spree to the Power Poppy Shop! Contact us at bloom@powerpoppy.com and we will send your shopping code.

We do have to take a minute to share Cat's card, which is just a true breath of summer! 💗

Cat used Power Poppy's stamp set Tea in the Garden and I just adore the peppy color scheme she chose for her card layout -- just too happy, don't you think? The end result is just sweet and delish looking! Thanks Cat for sharing your talents with us this month! We can't wait to see what you nab with that shopping spree so you can come back and inspire us all in future Power & Spark Challenges! ;-) 

Before you go, you can't leave without hitting up these links below and seeing what some of our fabulous members of the Bloom Brigade have to share! Get ready, as always, to be WOWED! 

Christine Okken
Julie Koerber
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker

Speaking of being wowed, Ally Cope will be in the house for the next Inspire Me Monday and I personally cannot wait to see what fabulousness she cooks up! Until then, enjoy your weekend my sweet stamping friends! 

~Julie

An InLinkz Link-up