Weekend Stamp Steal + Bloom Brigade

Well hello there Power Poppy fans, feel like you need a little spring zing in your life these days? Well, get this. We have a splash of spring that is not only beautiful to share... IT'S ON SALE! It's time to take a trip to the Power Poppy Shop for another Weekend Stamp Steal. Check it out sweet peeps...

Shop now through Monday at midnight central, you can nab a few of the blossoms that seem to sprout through winter’s thaw.

Weekend Stamp Steal — going on now

Bloomin’ Wonderful clear stamp set

A light and lively springtime stamp set featuring soft Pussy Willow and snowdrops, Crocus flowers and Forsythia branches. With plenty of sentiments designed with a vintage postcard style to serve all of your early spring celebrations, or help say thanks for being so bloomin’ wonderful! (or for being so very kind, OR for simply being awesome.) A wreath with a mossy cradle holding a nest of birds’ eggs is large enough to fit the sentiments. 

If it’s a digi you prefer, we have a versatile bouquet that you can dig into — and download in an instant.

Winter Pick-Me-Up digital download

Imagine poking around a chilly pasture, gathering plump stems of snowdrops, crocuses with their grasslike foliage, all intertwined with the puffy catkins of pussy willow branches. If the thought of this alone isn’t a “pick-me-up” in the middle of winter, I don't know what is! Well, maybe I do ... coloring in this image and giving the card to a friend.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

For inspiration, here are a few of our Bloom Brigade favorites using these images for beautiful, soothing cards...

Shop the WEEKEND STAMP STEAL now and save up to $5 on these classic images.

Since it's Friday, that means that some of the Bloomies are on hand to share some of what they've been working on this week. There are some MIND-BLOWERS in this list! Put on your seat belt...

Allison Cope

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Stacy Morgan

Tosha Leyendekker

Loved seeing you here today for our Stamp Steal and Bloomie round-up. Be sure to come back and see us soon.

~Julie 

Creative Confetti: Just Take 10!

Hello Sweet Peeps! Do you ever just crave that time to create but realize there's just one problem? Yes, you don't have the time! Believe me, I can relate! So, this week for our Creative Confetti Challenge, I decided to keep the challenge on the simple side by focusing on.... simple creations! Check it out!

HOW TO PLAY: Take 10! That's right, try to create a card in ten minutes! Now, if it takes a little longer, no worries, no one is going to re-create your card and time the process. The goal is to choose a clean and classy design that takes a fraction of the time that you would normally spend creating. It's a great way to get that quick card making fix!

For our inspiration today, I chose a few cards that the oh-so-talented Tosha Leyendekker created recently. I was so taken by both cards because even though they are on the simple side, they are ANYTHING but boring. I love how balanced both are and how Tosh added little fun accents to give this otherwise simple creation some texture and pop!

This first creation uses a sentiment from Power Poppy's stamp set Good Thinking: Love Notes. I love how Tosh used two different inks to make that sentiment a focal point. Add in some stitched dies and an embossed background and this is one fun masculine card that isn't heavy on the time commitment.

I absolutely adore this creation above which uses some fun dies and a splash of sequins to make this creation sing! And, once again, Tosh made the sentiment the centerpiece of this beauty! The sentiment is from Grandma's Snowflakes. What's fun is the fact that Tosh inked up only a portion of the sentiment to make a holiday sentiment work for Valentine's Day. Brilliant! 

A special thanks to Tosh for creating such beautiful pieces of inspiration! So, will you set the timer and take us up on this little Take 10 Challenge? I sincerely hope so because we could all use some inspiration for those beautiful, quick and classy creations! Once you're done creating, don't forget to link up your card using the linky below so that we can see your handiwork and, at that point, you'll also be in the running for a $25 gift code to the Power Poppy Shop too! So, as I love to say, get inspired then get those fingers inky!

Until next time!

~Julie 
Creative Confetti Thrower

An InLinkz Link-up

Inspire Me Monday: Faux Stained Glass & Starry Bloom

Howdy all!  Happy Monday and welcome to another fun edition of Inspire Me Monday!  I’m Allison Cope your hostess for today!

Today I’m going to be sharing how I created a fun faux stained glass card.  Some of the supplies you’re going to need for this project include:

• heavier weight cardstock
• acetate or “clear paper”
• anti-static powder tool
• embossing powder
• a window/frame type die
• no-line ink color
• and some fun coloring mediums!

Today I decided to create with our fabulous “Poppy XL” stamp set.  This stamp set includes 4 large Poppy parts to build a bouquet of your liking.  It also includes 3 special sentiments.

So grab a cuppa of something warm and join me in my craftroom!

Click to view in HD.

Here’s a quick look at all the cool aspects of the card…

Here’s the inside panel with the starry bloom.

And finally a close up of the starry bloom one more time…

For those who love to know what colors I used, here's a chart for you...

Thanks for joining me today!  I hope I’ve inspired you to create today! Have a great week everyone!

~ Ally ~


stamps: Power Poppy (Poppy XL)
cardstock:  Recollections (White & Black 110#), My Favorite Things (Vellum), Staples (Acetate), Tim Holtz Ideology (Metallics 2)
dies: Catherine Pooler Designs (Lattice Frame), Honey Bee Stamps (Hugs Honey Cut)
inks: Ink on 3 (Fade Out), Copic Markers, Polychromos Pencils
stencil: Catherine Pooler Designs (Twisted Sunburst)
embossing powder: Stampendous! (Detail Copper)
paint: DecoArt (White Acrylic)
tool: Copic Air Brush System

New Digital Download: Vital Rose

And sometimes.... the 10th. I guess as long as the date is divisible by 5, we’re okay. Regardless, here comes a beautiful rose illustration, rejuvenated, full of life, and vital to your collection of florals. It’s a digital download, so you can grab it whenever you’re ready to get coloring...

This rose is a beaut. It’s lush and open, with lots of room for your brush or marker tips. In the image I colored above, I started with generous washes of Daniel Smith watercolor. After that dried, I went in with Prismacolor Premier colored pencils, and then followed up with more watercolor and touches of opaque Winsor & Newton gouache.

Vital Rose includes a second version with the hand-lettered snippet of a poem. Here’s a peek at Instant Gardener Nancy Sheads’ beautiful Copic creation with the alternate version of Vital Rose...

Isn’t that fun? Go see the full image right here on Nancy’s blog, HERE, and check out the cheeky quote (written in 1815, but still made me laugh.)

Vital Rose is perfect for Valentine’s Day, but just like live roses, it holds up the rest of the year, too. That’s one of the reasons I named this set Vital Rose — it’s vital to have a really great rose in your collection, and a great image to practice on.

This morning while readying the card I made for a little photo shoot, I had the most wonderful production assistant. Tibbs thinks Vital Rose is indeed, vital. That Corgi is always in my corner.

Psssssst... a very special class is coming up on Friday, February 15 with Amy at Vanilla Arts. As a matter of fact, she is the one who inspired Vital Rose. If you take her coloring class, you will get a discount on this image, how about that? 

Learn more about Amy’s newest class right HERE.

We’ll see you on Monday with a brand new Inspire Me Monday with Allison Cope. Be prepared to go into a full and complete swoon, folks.

Good Vibe Friday with the Bloom Brigade

Hello, my dear Peeps. 

I have been so preoccupied drawing, editing, and getting organized this week, I got a bit behind on collecting my Good Vibes to share for the week. Instead I want to share what else has been on mind, or shall I say, who else has been on my mind. Wednesday was the 3-year anniversary of my sweet and amazing mama passing away. I posted about this on Instagram and on my personal Facebook account, but wanted to share it here, as well. She is, after all, a major force behind why I felt that I could launch Power Poppy in the first place, with a mission of sharing beautiful, whimsical images, but also offering nourishment for our souls with uplifting messages to our creative crafting community. 

Mom’s cancer returned the year after I started Power Poppy, and she died the following year. I have often reflected on the irony of starting this business. I thought Power Poppy would allow me to inspire others — but what ended up happening was that I have been surrounded by, enveloped in, and inspired by the love and support and prayers of others. Did God want me to start this business because he knew that I would need this great community of people to help me through, to give me inspiration to move forward in gratitude and grace, and to prevent me from rolling up into a ball of grief? I think maybe so.

Marcella, baby Lulu, and my mom, Susan, in 2003

Though to me it still seems like yesterday, it has been three years since my mom eased on down the road, into eternity, one with the universe. Now she’s sprinkling her love and wisdom and laughter and passion and quirky brilliance over us all. Try to catch some of it if you can. She lived life on her own terms, unapologetically, joyfully.

I hope she is in a state of pure bliss, surrounded by a Motown horn section dancing like an Ike-ette in her Laboutins. Or maybe she’s sipping a Pimm’s Cup, pouring over celestial daffodil catalogs featuring otherworldly cultivars. She surely is sporting a knowing grin at the current wallpaper decorating craze, as we hardly had a room without wallpaper in my lifetime and she could have been the international spokesperson for Brunschwig et Fils. Gosh, I miss her.

Nobody was like Susan Heard Smith.

Gonna keep trying to tune in to her sprinklings. I know her spirit is near me and I desperately need her decorating advice, and a really big hug.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

So, my friends, let’s keep moving and grooving, in the spirit of my best friend, confidante, supportive superstar, and mother-in-chief, and celebrate the gifts of a new day. Let’s color, let’s make cards, let’s send cards, and let’s lift up one another.  

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

I’m thrilled, awed, and humbled to get to share the work of these incredibly talented and wonderful women, our Bloom Brigade. These cards are going to knock your socks off, and get you in the mood to make!

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Katie Sims
Cindy Lawrence
Tosha Leyendekker
Stacy Morgan

Happiest weekend to everyone — and please come back by on Sunday, February 10th, I am releasing a new digital design that is simple and easy to color — I know, I know, that is hard to believe. But miracles do happen!

All my love, 

Creative Confetti: All You Need Is LOVE!

Hello Sweet Peeps! Today, as we throw up the Creative Confetti to inspire a new batch of artsy endeavors, we are honing in on an upcoming holiday that's designed to share the love! That's what we do as card makers, right? So, this little challenge should be a piece of cake! Or, maybe a box of truffles....  ;-)

With Valentine's Day just 9 days away, do you need a little nudge to dig deep into your stamp stash to pull out those love-inspired images? Or, do you need to be enabled to hit up the Power Poppy Shop for some "love"-ly illustrations? Check out all the LOVE stamps HERE! Some are digis, which means that you get some instant gratification with that purchase! And if you want to narrow it down to Valentine's Day, just click HERE! 

On to my creation! 

If this little number looks familiar, it's because this project took center stage yesterday for Inspire Me Monday! You can click HERE to see the full tutorial on how to make this little Valentine's Day Box. It is a super easy project and you can whip it up in no time. It's the perfect size for a few pieces of chocolate -- just enough to let those you love know that you are "sweet"on them! ;-) I used the Va-Va-Valentines Digital Stamp Set, which just so happens to be on sale right now. Six images and four sentiments for just $7.99! I love this set because you can create a half dozen different little Valentines in one fell swoop! I plan to make two more of these little boxes so that I can give one to my hubby, my son and my daughter too! 💗

Because we have a new month, we have a new linky below AND, we have a chance to pull a winner from the virtual hat for a $25 gift code to the Power Poppy Shop! So, let's get right to it! Random.org says the winner is......

which means our lucky stamper is....

***AMY MARSHALL***

Amy, feel free to contact us at bloom@powerpoppy.com and we will get your winning code sent your way! 

Before we go, want to see the cute creation Amy whipped up for one of our Creative Confetti Challenges? Check it out!

Amy played along with our sketch challenge HERE last week and I absolutely adore her card, which uses Power Poppy's Cozy Cupfuls stamp set!  I just love the distressed feel of this little cheerful card and you know I love the splash of sparkle that she added! Well done, Amy! Well done! 

So, what will you make for our "All You Need Is LOVE" Challenge this week? I can't wait to see... and be inspired! Once you're done creating, don't forget to link up your card using the linky below so that we can see your handiwork and, at that point, you'll also be in the running for a $25 gift code to the Power Poppy Shop too! So, as I love to say, get inspired then get those fingers inky!

Until next time!

~Julie 
Creative Confetti Thrower

An InLinkz Link-up

Inspire Me Monday: Sweets for your Sweeties!

Hello Peeps and Happy Monday! I don't know about you but every Valentine's Day, I go on the hunt for a cute little project to make for my lovelies -- hubby plus my darling son and daughter. This little project that I am showcasing today is perfect for a sweet little treat for those you love! 💗 The good news is, if you like this project, you can change the width of the box and make it just a smidge bigger or smaller.

Want to see? Here's a peek at my finished project so you know where we are going!

To start, let's take a look at the supplies you'll

need to grab to get ready!

• 2-1/2" circle punch or die with a slightly larger scalloped circle to create a mat
• 3 different decorative paper designs
• Paper cutter 
• 1/4" hole punch
• Coordinating ribbon, about 8" length
• Ruler
• Valentine or love-inspired stamp, I used Power Poppy's Va-Va-Valentines digital stamp set. (Pst. did you see this one is on SALE right now?) 
• Coloring medium of choice
• Corner rounder punch
• Strong adhesive, I used Scor-Tape in a 1/4" width
  

To create this box in a flash, I cut my decorative paper before I even got started. I dug deep into my decorative paper stash and pulled out three coordinating sheets of Echo Park paper that I had been holding on for quite some time!
 

• Start by cutting 2 strips of white card stock to measure 2-1/2” by 11”. From the long side, score at 1-3/4”, 4 - 1/4”, 6-3/4”, and 9-¼”. Do this to both pieces.
• Corner round all of the edges of your strips.
• Cut decorative paper #1 into 4 pieces that measure 2.5” by 1.25”
• Cut decorative paper #2 into 4 pieces that measure 2.5” by 2.5”
• Cut decorative paper #3 into 2 pieces that measure 2.5” by 1.75”

Let's Get Started!

Remember the two long strips that you created and scored? You'll want to criss-cross them adhering them in the center square. 

And, after you adhere the two pieces, here's what your project will look like so far! 

Next, adhere decorative paper #2 so that it looks like the picture below.

Adhere decorative paper #1 so that it overlaps decorative paper #2 and looks like the picture below.

Once you have all your paper layered, it's time to mark the center of each end and punch a 1/4" circle roughly 1/2" from the top. I started by finding the center of my box with all my flaps overlapped.

Then, after punching that hole, I started to line up each flap, one by one to make sure the next hole lined up perfectly before marking the hole and punching. 

From there, it's time to deck out the box! As you can see, on the top two flaps, I did add that third design of decorative paper. After adhering it, I punched the 1/4" hole in each flap and rounded the corners. 

Now, it's time to create your main image! I printed off the You Totally Rock image from the digital set, then used a 2-1/2" circle to punch the image. Next step, coloring it all up! I used a wide range of Red and grey Copic markers and accented with a white gel pen, once I was all done. 

Knot the coordinating ribbon and thread through all four flaps, starting with one at a time and folding the flaps in until you have the two that you want on top showing with the decorative paper edges.

To keep the flaps secure, I slid a few punched hearts over the top, like this. Of course, I had to have a sparkly heart! ;-)

And here's my project again! I liked adding the punched hearts and adhering them to fly off the edge just for a little extra pizazz! Now all I need is some fun treats to stuff inside!

This project is super fast and allows you to use up some coordinating decorative paper in a truly fun way! I can't wait to send one to my son at college and hide one in my daughter's room for her to find on Valentine's Day. Fun!

Thanks for stopping by and joining me for Inspire Me Monday! I'll be back tomorrow to usher in another Creative Confetti Challenge! See you then!

~Julie