Creative Confetti: Anything but a Heart!

Hello! I am so happy to be here on this challenge for you! Can you believe that it is February? It was a busy month in January and now we are looking at Valentine's month. Certainly, crafty people think of it that way and that made me think of a challenge for you! I know that we all associate Valentine's Day with hearts, so let's think outside the (candy hearts) box and use no hearts at all.

HOW TO PLAY: Make a card, you should be able to recognize it as a valentine, but use something other than a heart. I can think of lots of things that you can find in the Power Poppy shop. Cherries, berries, red poppies, red roses or any flower. Use your Valentine colors or any color that makes you think Valentine!

On to my creation! 

I chose the strawberries from the digital set called Cherries and Berries. Just by using red and a red gingham panel, it was already looking like a Valentine! I just needed to change the sentiment. I used the phrase from Juicy Strawberries' digital stamp set and changed the word Friend to Valentine. It was easy!

To complete the card, I used a panel of red gingham and I die cut the strawberry panel that I colored with my Copic markers with Paper Trey Ink Mix and Match die called Pretty Brackets. The shading and the touches of white gel pen really make them look juicy! So, you see, a Valentine, without a heart! Now it's your turn to give this challenge a try.

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Since it's a new month, we get to find out who was our lucky winner of last month's random drawing! So, without further ado....

That means, the winner is....

 * * * Theresa Pollack * * *

Want to take a look at Theresa's winning creation? It's clean and classy and beautiful! 

Theresa played along in our Life Imitating Art challenge and was inspired by a Georgia O'Keefe print to create this beauty above. You might not be able to tell, but she mixed the Ultimate Poppy (no line version) and Juicy Strawberries digital sets to and then printed them on a background of green leaves. She added a little color to the poppy's petals to add a little more dimension. Wow! Check out all the details and even a second creation HERE! 

Congrats Theresa! To claim your prize, all you need to do is email us at bloom@powerpoppy.com and Marcy will get your winning code to you!

So now it is your turn! I am so excited to see what you come up with for this challenge.  Don't forget to link up your creations using the linky below to this challenge below and remember, every entry is one shot at winning a $25 gift code to the Power Poppy Shop. You have all month long to play!

Until then,
 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Berry-licious!

Hello all and welcome to another edition of....

Today's little color exploration features a favorite of Ms. Marcella's! Just set your sights on this little firecracker on two wheels below!

If you didn't know it, Marcella's beau, Doug, loves to fix up vintage bikes. If you scroll through Marce's Ista-stream, man-oh-man you see the passion those two have -- and the soirees that they organize -- all for the love of the vintage bike! So, I thought it especially fitting since Marce just celebrated a birthday yesterday (she's not 46 -- she's forty-sassy!), that we'd honor this little number in this week's Hues to Use! Check-check-check-ity it out! So grab those shades of firecracker red, electric yellow and go-go green --- and get to creating!

On to my creation! Okay, I have a confession to make! When summer rolls around, my family literally hits the road following my daughter's softball team all over the place! Recently we were in Steamboat Springs, CO., which meant, I was hundreds of miles from my craft room! So, sweet stamping friends, I just had time to color up, but not make a card with, some Juicy Strawberries!  

Just in case you wondered, I grabbed my Copic markers for this little number and reached for YG03, YG17 and YG67 for the go-go greens! I used Y13 and Y35 for the electric yellows and then reached for R20, R32, R27 and R29 for the firecracker red strawberries! As you can see, I accented with some white gel pen and then highlighted my image with Y00 and YG0000 just to add a bit of glow!

Now, if you want to see these lush berries taking center stage on a card, all you need to do is check back to my blog HERE on Friday when I finish it up and post with the Bloomies! ;-)

Until then, let's see where this trio of colors takes you? Is it around the bend looking for adventure? Or, is it more like a peaceful, easy Sunday drive through the rolling hills? Take this challenge for a spin and.... then link up your creation below!

See you back here soon!
~Julie

An InLinkz Link-up

Inspire Me Monday: Colouring Juicy Strawberries

Hello my lovely Power Poppy peeps!  It's Inspire Me Monday and I, Allison Cope, will be your hostess today!

Today I thought I would share with you how I coloured the strawberries for a card I posted a little ways back using the fabulous "Juicy Strawberries" digital stamp.

I had a lot of questions about what colours I had used and what I had done to create such a realistic berry.

So I thought today I would share my colouring process of this beautiful digital stamp and just how I got it to look the way it does!

Grab something delicious to drink and join me in my scrappy room today...

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and give this technique a try for your next berry-lious creation. Don't forget to give it a try with our luscious raspberry image, "Berry It", too! 

Happy colouring everyone!

~  Ally ~

Two new digital sets available today!

Today at Power Poppy, we’re just gonna go a little wild. We’ve got BOTH our Instant Garden digi for April AND a freshly remixed Marcella Hawley illustration for you on the same day. Two digis, one day. The beautiful ladies who make up the Instant Gardeners and Bloom Brigade have come up with some highly inspiring cards to celebrate this big occasion!

First I’m going to share a drawing that came to me after spending a weekend at the World Daffodil Convention, which was held here in St. Louis a few weekends ago. There were daffodil connoisseurs from New Zealand and Northern Ireland to Nova Scotia and Nashville all gathering to appreciate, discuss, and show off their Narcissus! My mother was active in the American Daffodil Society, and I’ve shared her love of those flowers here many times, so you might guess that this was a very special day for me! Doug even came along for a tour of the daffodil grower and hybridizer, Jason Delaney, who also has been the curator of the bulb gardens at Missouri Botanical Garden, and is one rad dude. Another day my stepdad, Steve, and I ventured over to the Daffodil Show with thousands of world-class cultivars and historic specimens on display. To say I was inspired by this weekend spent surrounded by the glorious gifts of Narcissus would be an understatement!

Garden plots laden with thousands of varieties of hybrid daffodils. Heaven on earth on a rainy morning in Illinois.

Bouquets as sumptuous as this were simply everywhere!

Special details in the corona, or cup, of the Daffodil are best appreciated up close!

Even my motorcycle-lovin’ sweetheart came with me to the rainy Daffodil tour. That is love.

I felt compelled to find a way to work these beauties into a new drawing! Truly I could probably have drawn any number of new Daffodil sets, for, like you, I was CREATED to CREATE! And I can’t get enough Daffodils! But figuring that we already have some pretty neat illustrations of Daffodils, I contained myself a bit, and came up with this new drawing for our April Instant Garden release... presenting: Created to Create!

This digital stamp set celebrates the spirit of drawing, painting, and admiring nature in one handy image. Fun to color up on its own or make into a card. Our Instant Gardeners (and a few special guest Bloomies!) have made creations that truly exemplify what this sentiment states! You’ll get a link list to the Created to Create cards in just a moment... but first, let’s just see WHAT ELSE we have to share with you today!

Have you got it in you to check out TWO new sets today? I hope so, because this next one is a lot of fun, and I’ve been asked a bunch of times if it will ever make it to digital form. And well, I aim to please! Introducing Juicy Strawberries!

I don’t think I’m too biased when I say that this is an illustration you should have in your arsenal for whenever you want a simple but classic image that is simply sweet. With two sentiments that remind a friend you are there for her or for him, or pair it up with something else entirely. Juicy Strawberries was drawn with inspiration from heirloom strawberries that are growing in our backyard. They were started from a previous owner’s grandmother’s strawberry plants! Now, that is pretty sweet. :)

Come take a leisurely tour through our design teams’ blogs today to get a glimpse of creativity in action. Looking through these interpretations of my illustrations, I felt a sense of wonder and downright awe.

Jennifer Dove
Broni Holcombe
Cheryl Scrivens
Debbie Olson
Barb Walker

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Kathy Jones
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker
Dina Kowal special guest

I hope you enjoy what we’ve prepared for you, and if you desire to get to coloring these images, Created to Create and Juicy Strawberries are available right now in the Power Poppy Shop.

Have a wonderful day and thanks for coming by!