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).