Inspire Me Monday: Share the Spotlight

 

Hello friends! It's time for Inspire Me Monday once again and this time it's me, Lisa Johansen, bringing everyone some inspiration!

This week I decided to feature the Spotlight Technique. Like many others my life is a blur...I work full time, I am a volunteer firefighter for my town, I'm on the board for a local bird rehab center plus I sneak in time with my family and friends, gardening, crafting, workouts, photography etc. Some days I really want to get creative but have a small window of opportunity to do so. This is where we bring in the spotlight technique!

This technique is very simple....choose the image you would like to use and either stamp or print the image twice. 

Because today is Memorial Day in the United States I decided to use the digital set Perfect Poppies with a red, white and blue theme. I knew I wanted a sentiment so on the copy on the left I placed the sentiment where I wanted it and changed the color to blue.

Next, on the 2nd copy of the image, decide what part of the flower is going to be your focal point and cut it out.

Once you have the part of your image you plan on spotlighting cut out it out and color it.

Now take your first image, adhere it to your card base and then add your spotlighted portion. I used pop up adhesive on the back of mine to get extra dimension. 

Card #2

For my second card I followed the exact same steps, except this time I used the digital set Garden Fireworks.

This time I decided to go with a square shape for my image panels, using the smaller square to die cut my spotlight piece.

Now just put your card together and get your spotlighted image in place.

By using this technique it took me less than 15 mins per card to get everything done! That left me plenty of time to go finish watching the new season of Stranger Things with my family :)

If you've never tried this technique (or even if you have!) I hope you give it a chance and if you do, stop by and share a link to your creation in the comments section! 

Thanks for stopping by the Power Poppy blog, have a fabulous week!

Lisa

Creative Confetti: Rock that Mojo!

Hello everyone and happy Tuesday! If you checked in yesterday for my guest post on Inspire Me Monday, you know that I've been having an issue as of late with my mojo! I got a few emails after I posted that column and, it turns out, a lot of YOU are suffering as well - wondering where your mojo went! So, I thought it would be fun to have you read THIS POST and hopefully it will inspire because that is the basis of this week's Creative Confetti Challenge!

HOW TO PLAY: Find a source of inspiration - a blog, a Pinterest gallery, a sketch website, a catalog, a magazine -- you name it! Whatever inspires you, take some time to really let that mojo bubble up to the surface to create! All you need to do is create using that source and then share a link or photo of your inspiration source!

Once you are done with your creation, don't forget to link it up using the linky below. Every entry is one shot at winning a $25 code to the Power Poppy Shop!

On to my creation!

So, this sketch below from Paper Play Sketches was my source of inspiration. I loved the simplicity of it and as soon as I set my sights on it, I knew exactly what I would do to bring it to life!

I started by cutting out all my pieces first, like I did in my post yesterday, just to speed up the creative process. As you can see, after I die cut my rectangles, I stamped using the Power Poppy clear stamp Summer Berries. 

From there, it was just coloring it up with Copics and assembling! Before I added the strip of green decorative paper, I decided to add some pizazz by wrapping it with some silver cording. To color, I used R30, R32, R35 and R37 for the berries and accented in spots with Y11 and YG00. The leaves were colored up with YG00, YG03, YG13, YG17. I accented with Y00 and YG0000 around the outside of the image and then accented the berries with a white gel pen. And... ta da!

 Here's a little closeup for you!

And as you can see, I did use the "Hello Friend" sentiment, also from the stamp set and accented my creation like the sketch did with some bling in the upper right corner! I have to say, I love the simplicity of following a sketch and helping take some of the guesswork out of creating -- especially when you feel like you are in a creative slump! 

MOVING ON! Since we are about to embark on a new month, we have a winner to share from all of our June Creative Confetti entries! If you missed the action, just click HERE to see some of the beautiful creations submitted! After we put all the entries into the virtual hat, Random.org drew this number!

That means the winner is....

* * * * * BONNIE KLASS! * * * *

Bonnie had several breathtaking entries this past month, but this one below was our lucky winner!

I love the bold pop of color on the white textured base and just a hint of black in the twine and sentiment! Just perfect! Just in case you wondered, Bonnie used Power Poppy's Garden Fireworks digital stamp set for this creation. 

Bonnie, to claim your $25 gift code to the Power Poppy Shop, just email us at bloom@powerpoppy.com and Marcella will get your code right to you! So glad you played along and shared your talents with us! 

Okay, sweet stamping friends, now it's your turn to show us your spark of inspiration! As I mentioned, each entry gets you a chance at winning a little shopping trip with $25 to spend in the Power Poppy Shop! So... what are you waiting for? Let's see you get those fingers inky!

Until next time!
~Julie 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

New Digital Set for June: Garden Fireworks

Hello, Hello! Oh my goodness, do we have something filled with snap, crackle, and pop for you today. Our June introduction for the Instant Garden release has got petal-packing sizzle, has coloring possibilities to die for, and celebrates a jubilant summer garden in bloom.

Have you noticed the gigantic globes of Allium in bloom? They are like huge lollipops in shades of purple, pink, blue, or white that tower over many other plants and put on a spectacular show in the garden. They look like something from the Wizard of Oz! The trick with these giant Alliums ('Globemaster' is a particular favorite cultivar)—once you see them, you may yearn to have them in your garden. You may want to plant a few as an accent with companion plants, or yearn to dig up an area of the yard just to have an Allium showcase! They are that cool. Above they are planted in my mom and stepdad’s garden, along with big round boxwood shrubs, and underplanted with spiderwort and columbine, which reseed themselves wherever they choose.

These big beauties are fanciful and fun and total eyecatchers, and almost always garner admirers doing the “slow drive” past the garden when they are blooming. Alliums come in zillions of sizes and varieties to be sure (from teeny tiny balls of brilliant blue and the deepest shades of red, to wild, wispier species with yellow flowers!), and go through several interesting phases of bloom (the buds themselves are particularly snappy, and the seedheeds left on each stalk after the flowers finish up are cool enough to be left up all year long!) so this new digi set I’m going to share with you today is probably not the last time you’ll be seeing Alliums show up in my sketchbook or stamp collection!

Presenting a new set that highlights awesome Alliums— AND — Poppies! (Plus a little catnip for good measure.) I couldn’t let the clear stamps be the only media that our beloved Poppies would show their faces, now could I? Check out Garden Fireworks!

This is a digital image that I believe you’ll find is pretty darn versatile. Feel like coloring up an entire garden scene? Go for it. Want to enlarge it, crop in tight, and show off a few flowers, do it to it. Wanna shrink it down and repeat it to create a bouncy border? You can have a ball with this image and get several various looks. Plus the coloring possibilities!!! Garden Fireworks will help you try combinations of purples, pinks, and blues, and that’s only the start. We’ve already talked about how Poppies come in umpteen shades and styles, now it’s time for you to see how you can stretch yourself to pair up the Poppies with these other plants, and create a riot of color and festive garden fun.

The sentiment in this set is a lovely and inspiring piece of Scripture that you may want to use on its own, alongside the image, or showcase on the interior of a card, and I’ll let our incredible Instant Gardeners team show you how beautifully these two can be used. Be prepared for some real coloring and cardmaking fireworks, folks!!

SHOW ’EM WHATCHA GOT, INSTANT GARDENERS!

Jennifer Dove

Broni Holcombe

Cheryl Scrivens

Debbie Olson

Rhea Weigand

Thank you so much for coming by to see the newest botanical blossoms from Power Poppy! As always, this DIGITAL set is available from the Power Poppy Shop right now, so you can be coloring this baby today!