The Blossom Challenge: Clean Slate

Welcome to a new year Power Poppy friends!  It’s Christine welcoming you today to start new year right with a new theme for The Blossom Challenge!  January brings a lot of new starts, maybe even new creative goodies and fresh creative juices, so we’re all about a Clean Slate this month!  So put away all the layers and extra do-dads and instead show us your best clean and simple designs that celebrate that simple, clean and yet graphic style that packs a punch! 

Today I pulled out a now retired polymer set from Power Poppy which showcases all sorts of fun mushrooms!  Parts of that set are also available in digi form as Mushroom Trio, Miraculous Mushrooms and Morel Standards.  I stamped this image on Kraft cardstock and then pulled out my Prismacolor Pencils because I always love how pencils look on Kraft.  

You can achieve a look that almost glows!  I always lay down a layer of white prismacolor for the rest of the colours to lay on and blend.   A simple snail die seemed like the perfect accent, and then a bit of ribbon adds another pop of colour but keeps it clean, and the layers very simple.  

 

Now you’re invited to come and join us for this month’s Clean Slate!  All you need to do is create a Clean and Simple design showcasing any Power Poppy image and link it up below to be in the running!  

BUT THERE’S MORE!  Did you know Marcy’s got a gorgeous freebie you can use too?!  Just in time for Valentine’s The Rose Digi is FREE!  It would be a beautiful clean design image to use!  But we’d love to see any of your creations.  

You have until February 17th to enter!  Winner will be chosen at random and will receive a $20 Gift Code to the Power Poppy store!  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

The Blossom Challenge Goes Sentimental

 

Hello Friends and Welcome to the August edition of the The Blossom Challenge.  I’m Christine bringing you this month’s The Blossom Challenge, and we’re Going Sentimental, focussing on Power Poppy’s beautiful selection of sentiments.  

Today I’m bringing you two inspiration cards with Sentiments as the focus.  

First up is a design I made for a recent wedding.  

For a lot of years my husband and I were youth pastors and it’s been fun to see our former students get married over the years.  This wedding was a delightful one with the bride from Indian-Canadian descent and the groom from British-Canadian descent, the mix of cultures and colours at the wedding was gorgeous.  This palette reflects the colours in the wedding of orange, pink, coral and red.  I’ve utilized two beautiful Power Poppy sets,  Hummingbird Paradise as the beautiful floral frame, and then one of my ALL TIME favourite polymer sets from Power Poppy Big Scripts.  Did you know that this set features hand drawn sentiments by Marcy?  I just love her scripty writing.  

To highlight the sentiment I embossed it on white cardstock, then sponged warm shades of Distress Oxide Ink, Seedless Preserves and Abandoned Coral around it, wiping the ink off the sentiment once it was done.  The floral frame is fussy cut out in a windowed design.  

Next up is a Clean and Simple design.  

Dear friends of ours move away today to another city in the province.  We are going to miss them terribly.  Over the years we’ve watched them grow from a newly married couple to a family of four.  We’ve shared a love of creativity and the mountains, so this design is a bit of a nod to our friendship, and the fact that they are moving closer to the Rockies.  Similar to the first card, I created a background of a sunset sky using Distres Oxide Inks: Tumbled Glass, Wilted Violet, Abandoned Coral and Seedless Preserves, spashed some water on the background, then embossed this awsome encouraging sentiment from Power Poppy M-Powering Words (currently sold out in polymer) onto the beautiful colour of the background.  I used a framed arch die to accent the sentiment, and then hand drew in a silhouette of our favourite mountain range in Canmore, Alberta, the Three Sisters, filling it in with a black Sharpie, and added a punch-cut sparkly paper moon.  

Now how about some phenomenal Sentimental inspiration from The Bloom Brigade?  

Barbara

Essie

Gloria

Lisa

and Me, Christine!

Now it’s your turn Power Poppy friends!  Your challenge this month is to create something “Sentimental”  where the focus is on the sentiment.  We’re inviting you to think about creative backgrounds, stencilling, framing the sentiment with other sets, or creative uses of patterned paper and dies.  You can use any Power Poppy set as part of your design to be in the running for our monthly prize!  

To sweeten the deal Marcy has discounted a number of her Fall themed Sentiment sets (and a few extras) for you HERE.  Did you know there are also two sets in the sentimental family that are FREE?!  I Can Do All Things and Let It Be.  We’re making it easy for you to play along!  

Add your link at the bottom of the post for your chance to win a $20 Gift Code to the Power Poppy Store!

Would you like to know who last month’s The Blossom Challenge: Christmas In July winner is?    Random.org picked Amanda!  Congratulations Amanda!   Please email Marcy at bloom@powerpoppy.com to collect your gift code!  

Looking forward to seeeing all of your Sentimental Creations!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Twelve Days of Christmas - Day 12: Mossy Pots with Paperwhites!

Hello Friends! Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas December Challenge and here we are at Day 12! I'm Nancy Sheads and today I'm featuring an image from the Mossy Pots with Paperwhites: Accent Pieces Digital Stamp Set. This image is also available in the Mossy Pots with Paperwhites Clear Polymer Stamp Set. 

First - let's take a look at this beautiful digital stamp set! I love paperwhites and so this was a natural for me to color. As Marcella says - they are so dainty, fresh, white, and bright! So how could I resist?

Today's project features:

• Mossy Pots with Paperwhites: Accent Pieces
• Copic coloring (see marker list below)
• Additional basic supplies listed in the directions below.

DIRECTIONS

Cut card base from from a heavy weight white cardstock to 4.25″ x 11″ and score at 5.5″ for a top fold card.

Cut pattern paper to 3.75" x 5"

Cut solid card stock to 3.25" x 4.5"

Print digital image on paper appropriate to your coloring medium. If you need help printing a digital image see Julie's blog post HERE or my YouTube video HERE.

Color image. I used Copic markers and my marker list is shown below.

Trim image layer to 3" x 4.25"

Adhere image layer to center of solid card stock.

Apply craft foam or foam strips to back of solid card stock.

Adhere to center of pattern paper.

Adhere card front to card base.

Add sentiment if desired.

Does it look like something is missing? Yeah - I didn't add a sentiment to the front of my card. I may add one at a later date when I send the card, but as it is now, it's suitable for any occasion - holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. So by adding the sentiment later, I can tailor it to the recipient and occasion.

I previously posted a project using the other image from this set. You can take a look at it HERE.

If you missed any of the days of our fun little Power Poppy 12 Days of Christmas extravaganza, just click HERE to scroll through all the days and.... get ready to be inspired! 

Thanks for stopping by!

SUPPLIES

• Mossy Pots with Paperwhites: Accent Pieces Digital Stamp Set 
• COPICS:  BV00, Y38, B60, B63 (flowers); YG03, YG25, YG67 (leaves); E21, E23, E25 (bulb); YG93, YG95, YG97, YG99 (moss); C0, C1, C3, YG03, YG25, YG67 (bowl); BV00, B60 (shadow)

12 Days of Christmas - Day 9!

Hello all! Hope these 12 days of Christmas the Power Poppy way are just making your heart bubble with holiday inspiration! I am popping on the Power Poppy Blog today for DAY 9 to share some clean and classy creations from Christine Okken. We all know that Christmas cards can prove challenging when it comes to layers and postage and just getting a larger creation in the mail. So, Christine is peeling the layers back, literally, to show us you can have a "WOW" creation without a ton of extras. And, to make it even easier, she used one stamp set --  Cuddle in the Cabin -- to create 4 different and beautiful cards.

Let's first take a peek at this beautiful set! Its imagery is so serene with a retreat in the woods just sitting and waiting for you to enjoy! What's wonderful about this set is that there are so many interchangeable scenes that you can create with just this ONE set! 

For those who love digital sets instead of clear, GOOD NEWS! These images are available in digital format as well HERE! 

So, let's get right to the magic that Christine created! 

CARD 1

In this creation, Christine stamped the tree from the set multiple times using Rustic Wilderness Distress Ink on watercolor paper. Now, here's the fun part. She used a water brush to drag down the color from the ink to ground the images and give it so much depth. Brilliant! Add a little torn-edge on the paper, a wee bit of bling and you have a card that just screams classy! 

CARD 2

This creation is not only a breath of fresh air with those cool tones, it just underscores Christine's artistic talent. First, she stamped the sentiment from the set onto watercolor paper, added some color to the open block letters with some watercolor and then, added the watercolor pine branches to form a wreath by hand. I have never done this myself, but seeing how beautiful it is, I am tempted to try freehanding like she did! I am pretty sure I'd need to lightly trace a circle first before I started the handpainting. She used Daniel Smith Watercolor paints and then embossed the sequins to serve as the "berries" on the wreath from the Let it Glow stamp set. If you aren't brave enough to try hand painting, you could use the elements from the Enchanted Branches Nativity to try crafting a wreath with stamps! 

CARD 3

Well, it really doesn't get more simple than this beautiful creation above! Christine stamped the Be Still scene, colored with Copics and Prismacolor pencils and... ta-da! Fini! I love the visual effect she created by coloring in the sky to create that round effect above the mountainscape. 

CARD 4

I don't know about you, but I think there's something whimsical about stamping on dark papers and using light pencils or even bleach (as Christine did) to help create contrast. This card is the perfect example of that! Christine stamped and embossed the cabin from this set on navy card stock, painted bleach into the highlights and light sources for the moonlight and lamplight glow and then used white acrylic paint splatters to serve as her snow! She then used white ink for the sentiment (from the Let it Glow stamp set). The whole effect is soft and inviting! Christine did want to point out when using bleach, sometimes the bleach reacts differently with different papers. It's not a bad idea to test drive the bleach on a scrap before you begin. In this case, the effect is not white but more cream or light yellow, which is perfect for the glowing moon!

I hope you've enjoyed these clean and classy and easy to replicate creations using, for the most part, just one stamp set! So creative and fun! 

If you missed any of the days of our fun little Power Poppy 12 Days of Christmas extravaganza, just click HERE to scroll through all the days and.... get ready to be inspired! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Creative Confetti: Keeping It Simple

Hello friends and happy Tuesday! I hope the week is off to a great start for everyone! Lisa here to bring you this weeks Creative Confetti and we're going to keep it simple!

Life is a bit crazy for me right now....I work for our local school district and our kids are headed back to school on the 19th so we're busy getting ready for them. Plus, after 11 years of working the night shift, I'm switching to days. So, I'm trying to balance work, family time and crafting time! I'm always about keeping things simple but I really need to simplify things as much as possible right now. Hence, this week's theme. Let's create cards with lots of white space and not much fuss. Let the image do all the talking!

HOW TO PLAY: Create a clean and simple card. This means plenty of white space and a nice streamlined card without a lot of elements to draw your eye away from the image.

On to my creation...

Power Poppy has such wonderful images with fabulous details that it's really easy to pick one for a CAS card. Since I have winter and Christmas on the brain  I decided to ink up the set Let Your Heart Be Light. I am drawn to images that have an old fashioned feel to them and this set definitely has that feel. My grandmother was a retired florist and she used to have the most beautiful Christmas centerpieces on the kitchen table and this set makes me think of those.

To start, I die cut my white base so I would have some pretty edging around my image. After getting the 2 pieces arranged to where I wanted them (the top and bottom image panels) I stamped them in black and then used my copic markers to color in the image. For a little extra pop, I used metallic gel pens on the leaves and berries. I then adhered the white image panel to a cherry-colored card base and voila, easy peasy clean and simple card! It took me less than 15 mins from start to finish!

Want to join me this week? Simply create, post and then link up using the linky below! As we always say, if you get those fingers inky and play along, each and every link is an opportunity to win a $25 gift code to the Power Poppy Shop! 

Until next time!

Lisa 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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: Playing with Oxides & Vellum

Howdy Power Poppy fans!  I’m Allison Cope and today on Inspire Me Monday I’m going to be making a couple of cards featuring Distress Oxides inks and vellum paper.

Today I’m featuring the new stamp set “Cabbage and Kale” that I know you’ll all fall in love with if you haven’t already seen it.

Now, grab a fun drink and meet me in my scraproom for a quick video tutorial…

Click to play in HD.

Now, let’s take a second look at those cards I made…

And here’s the second card I made using almost the exact same supplies.  I did add an additional Distress Oxide in “Dusty Concord” and some stitching to hold on my vellum brassicas.

Thanks for joining me today.   I hope I’ve inspired you to pull out some fun inks and some vellum for your next card.  And last but not least, Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians today!  Have a great day everyone!

~ Ally ~


stamps: Power Poppy (Cabbage and Kale, Natural Beauties)
cardstock: Recollections (110# White), Catherine Pooler Designs (Smoke & Mirrors), Vellum (MFT)
inks: Versamark, Distress Oxides (Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, Wilted Violet, Dusty Concord)
embossing powder: Stampendous! (Detail Copper)
dies:  My Favorite Things (Stitched Rectangles)
other: thread

Inspire Me Monday - Faux Photo Tinting

Hi Power Poppy buddies!  It’s Christine waving hello to each of you.  Today I thought I’d bring you a little tutorial that borrows from a popular style of a few years ago that really borrows from a vintage practise of the 1800’s - Photo Tinting.  It’s the manual colouration of a black and white photo with light tints to create realism or an artistic effect (at least that’s what wikipedia tells me!).  

That idea can easily translate to stamped or digital images too.  I was thinking about what Marcy said in this post, "We are instead encouraged to think in values: light, dark, and all the gradients of highlight and shadow in between.”

So, with the theme of just adding colour value (light and dark) you can easily colour up an image with just grey tones like this one below.  

This image comes to life just by using different W Copic Markers (or any other of the cool or toner gray family).  I printed out this awesome masculine digi called Fly Guy onto XPress It Blending card stock and then added warm grays in various intensity, developing the highlights and shadows.  Just by adding in those shadows, the image starts to take on a 3D effect.  It gives you the look of a black and white photo.

But then, to take it another step, I started adding some soft “tints” of colour.

Here I’ve given the water and the trout some colouration with the BG10 marker.  I used my gray colouring as a guideline on where to add the hints of blue.  In water you’d see the deepest colours on the edges and where you want to focus on something (like the splash of the fish).  

Next I added in a little colour to his skin and some more colour to the trout.  

Here you can see I’ve added a little B000 to his pants and the sky, some soft G20 to the grasses, and some E00 to the rocks in some of the highlighted areas.  To finish off the colouring I came back with my W1, W2 and W2 markers to deepen some of the shadows.  Very soft and subtle and actually really quick to colour.  It works well for when you have a limited number of markers too.  Your colour only comes from a soft single coloured marker and your value (shadow) comes in your gray-scale markers.  

Here is the finished design and a close-up below.  

And even though I’m REALLY early for next Father’s Day, here’s the inside of the card too.  

Maybe this is another way for you to think about Colouring Outside the Lines like Marcy’s most recent Power & Sparklette Challenge.    Did you see the prize for this one too?  Crazy Awesome!  The winner will receive every set in our 2016 Holiday Clear Stamp Collection when they debut in October.  

Thanks for hanging out with me today!

Christine

Inspire Me Monday: Layered Paper Strips

Good Monday to all of you Power Poppy Peeps out there! It’s Christine here and today for Inspire Me Monday. I have something that will take your colouring to a whole other level, in more ways than one!  I’m calling it Layered Paper Strips, and it’s a really neat way to add dimension and interest to your coloured project.  

Here is what the lovely finished project looks like, and I’ll take you through the steps it takes to create it!  

First I began with our lovely Countryside Bouquet - Deluxe Stamp set, stamping in in Memento Tuxedo Black onto XPress It Blending Cardstock.  

I actually stamped 3 of these bouquet images, one that I would be using for the card face (about 4 x 4) and then two other images of the same stamped onto more of the cardstock.  

There are a couple of ways you can proceed from here.  You could colour all three images individually (using the same colouring on each image) and then cut the second and third images into strips, or you can also proceed like I have.  Going this direction requires a little less colouring time.   Start by by colouring your main 4 x 4 image as you like and set aside.  

Then, with the extra two stamped pieces I oriented them exactly the same direction (here with the stems at the bottom and the bouquet running above.  Then I took out my paper trimmer and trimmed these images into uneven-width strips going horizontally with one image and then vertically with the other.  These become the popped up strips of the design.   Next you can take some of the strips from each directionally cut image (leaving some strips behind) and colour those up (I chose every other piece or so).  

It’s important that if you’re doing this method that you colour up your main image first - when the pieces are cut into strips it’s not always as easy to orient what lines or parts you are colouring so this way you can always refer back to your main coloured design, matching it up for reference as needed.  Trust me - I know this from experience :).  Those tiny lines don’t always make sense when they are just in thin little pieces in front of you.  

Here you can see the two vertical pieces I’ve chosen and coloured and the three horizontal pieces I’ve  coloured up.  

Next you’re going to layer your strips over the main image matching the designs exactly.  You could chose to weave the strips between horizontal and vertical, but I chose to lay all my horizontal images first with a thin popped adhesive square, and then add the vertical strips on top.  Your main image peeks out underneath the popped up layers adding all sorts of fun dimension.  

Now, because of the way I stamped the main image in the corner running diagonally, the strips are actually form more of an X than a cross.  You could do either way, it’s just up to you!   Both are visually effective.  

Here you can see the vertical strips added with a thicker popped adhesive square so you get more dimension to the layers.  

A bit of a side view letting you see that sort of basket design it forms.  

Here’s a close-up of the finished design also showing a peek of the sentiment from our lovely Dynamic Duos:  Peonies and Tulips set, stamped in a soft green ink.  

Because I wanted the design from the strips to really play center stage I didn’t add any other embellishments, so it’s a really neat Clean and Simple design with some definite punch!  

Thanks for joining me today and I hope you enjoyed learning a new way to jazz up your images!  Let me know if you tried it out, I’d love to come and see!  

(Copics for those of you who’ve asked:  BV60, BV63, BV66, Y15, Y35, Y38, YR14, YR15, BG90, BG93, BG96, BV02, BV04, V02, G21, G24).