And the Winner for Coloring Outside the Lines Challenge is....

Hello to all of you hardworking, brave, beautiful artists — you all deserve a round of applause for your cards entered in our Power & Sparklette Coloring Outside the Lines Challenge. I have to say that I am SO DARN PROUD of you gals for moving beyond your comfort zones, for trying techniques that were a little different, maybe a bit bold — and in some cases, totally out there!! It makes me really excited to see that you were up for the challenge. And then to show them off in public on your blogs, on Instagram, Pinterest, Splitcoast, was equally daring and divine. I had a few entries emailed to me directly, which I also appreciated seeing!

A huge bravo to every one of you! 

Thank you for pushing yourself. Thank you for being with us on a journey to go a little deeper in our creativity. I think you are AWESOME!!!

Reviewing the entries with my son, Finn, was such a pleasure for both of us. Let me tell you that he was just as amazed as I was at some of the cool techniques employed (from spattering to fingerpainting to watercoloring with wispy strokes). I wish you could have heard some of the adjectives Finn used to described these cards: “SO COOL!” was probably the most oft used of them all!

The winner of the Coloring Outside the Lines Challenge will receive our yet-to-be-revealed Holiday 2016 clear stamp collection — FIVE brand new stamp sets (retail price $90).

And the winner is...

DONNA PHELAN!

Donna, your creativity was operating at such high rates, you could have gotten a speeding ticket. We absolutely love how you worked your way around the stamped images, and let the paint go where it wanted to go, nudging it along lovingly. I’ve never seen anything quite like either of these bookmarks. Congratulations, Donna, and thank you for showing off how you stretched yourself, girl!

I’ll be sending you a bundle of all five new Holiday sets when we release them on October 21.

Thank you again to EVERYONE who entered, who commented, and who cheered us on all month long with our Power and Sparklette Challenges. I had great fun getting to know you all a little better and I hope you feel empowered to do something fresh, something different, and something artistic. You are Courageous and Creative and I am very proud of all of you!

Big love,

Do It Anyway • Winners for Week 2

Hello my friends!

I’m very happy to share with you the winners of our Week 2 Power & Sparklette Challenge where we asked a question, and received some of the most inspiring, thought-provoking, standing-ovation-inducing answers. It is my belief that you are ALL rockstars in this life. You inspire me to keep doing what I do by letting me know you’re out there doing what YOU do. I just know that you inspired others by your example. And I hope that you know that if you could do that thing you did, well by golly, you can DO ANYTHING you set your mind to.

Thank you, thank you to everyone who read our question, pondered a response, and took the time to share your very meaningful stories.

I could not bring myself to select a “winner”, because I struggle with the concept of one triumph being better or more daring or more ANYTHING than another. THEY ALL WIN!! So, please understand that I selected randomly using Random.org. All of the entries were SO good! Our grand prize winning post said:

“Around 2008 I saw crafters on line using the Distress Inks to color stamp images. I was hooked on the beautiful colors of the Distress Inks and wanted to learn so bad. At the time I couldn't find any videos or help to learn. (This was even before the markers came out. I was using the ink pads.) So I taught myself. It took me two years of constant practice and I came up with a technique all my own. I can now sit down and color images and more with them and feel so comfortable and grateful that I kept up with the practice. Since then I have learned to color with the markers too. I know that the Lord gave me the talent and gifts I have and through His help I was able to learn. I am so grateful.”

The winner of the $25 Power Poppy Gift Code is:

• • • • Ann!! • • • •

Ann, if you can drop me a quick email at bloom@powerpoppy.com, I will send you your prize!

Hold on a second, I’m not finished here....

I’d like to extend a $10 Gift Code to the Power Poppy Shop to each of the women who contributed to our Do It Anyway Challenge. 

If you were one of the inspiring souls who submitted a response to this post, please send me an email at bloom@powerpoppy.com, and I will send you a $10 gift code. You can use it towards digis or clear stamps, and it will have no expiration. Or you can share it with a friend if you’d like.

Have a great day, everyone, and remember that you are SO Courageous AND Creative!

Coloring Outside the Lines: Mini Challenge Week 3

We’ve all heard the term “coloring outside the lines,” and whether you apply the term figuratively or literally, that’s exactly where we’re going with today’s challenge.

Coloring-in outlined images is one of the joys of using stamps and digis as you well know. It allows folks to start with a flat image, and to essentially bring it to life. It was my experience as an art student years ago that the concept of starting your artwork with an outline is a bit of a, well, a non-starter. We were taught not to think linearly. They try to break you of the habit of drawing in outlines. We are instead encouraged to think in values: light, dark, and all the gradients of highlight and shadow in between. We practice it like crazy using different approaches, techniques, and ways of thinking. It’s not that beginning art students are taught to completely avoid lines or outlines, rather quite the contrary. The goal is to learn to adjust your line quality — the width of the line, the intensity with which the line is drawn — to reflect what we are seeing.

I’d venture to say that what art classes really teach you is not really how to be an artist but moreso how to look at things. How to consider. How to determine what to limit and what to embrace. How to figure out what speaks to you and how you want to reflect that creatively with your media of choice. Henri Matisse said:  

“I don’t paint things. I only paint the difference between things.”

Yes, Henri, YES! (Or, I suppose it should be Oui, Henri, OUI!) When I approach coloring one of my stamp designs, I have to confess, I cannot stay in the lines. I don’t want to! I feel that the area around the stamped image is just as important as the area inside. The “negative space.” You may notice in my work that I tend to draw shadow beneath and around objects. By the time the image makes it to you, believe me, I’ve probably already erased about half the shadow I originally put in the drawing. I tend to forget that you guys are going to die-cut or fussy-cut these drawings to be a part of a larger, unique creation for a card or project, which is of course FABULOUS. But my instinct as an artist is to just keep going. To illustrate what I see, or what I imagine, or what I feel.

For the third Mini Challenge, I want you to look at things differently.

Power & Sparklette: Week 3

Color outside the lines — whatever that means to you.

Whether it is literally coloring outside the lines, coloring beyond the lines, or coloring ON TOP of the lines. Perhaps it is figuratively coloring outside the lines — trying a technique that is new to you. We are gonna try to stretch ourselves on this one. And folks, you don’t have to complete a card. Just get your coloring materials out, stamp or print out an image, and see what happens when you color outside the lines. Whatever that may mean to you.

Here’s what I made when trying to color outside the lines, using one of two free downloads I illustrated from of the winning quotes from our Week 1 Challenge.

I began with a print-out of the Let It Be digital coloring sheet. I enlarged the image to 125% and changed the opacity to 70% so the black outline wouldn’t dominate. I started painting swooshes of Indigo Blue gouache paint with a very wet sable paintbrush all around the perimeter of the art, and actually painted right over Sir Paul McCartney’s name. Sorry, Paul! I let the blue go inside and in between the leaves. I decided to give some color to the LEAVES ONLY. Coloring outside the lines for me was literal, but I also had a goal of leaving something white. It is so hard for me not to touch every single darn white space on the paper. 

So I deepened all of my blues and my green shadows. I cross-hatched and finetuned, I added more color to the leaves, even dulled out the greens with red, and then started putting blue on the leaves to connect the background to the foreground. More shading, more lines, more color, more shading. More fun in the background to really push the lettering to be the most prominent aspect of the work.

But my ladies, let me tell you, I wanted to color in the letters. OHHHHH I wanted to so badly!! I almost did. But I couldn’t help but be affected by what the image was shouting at me in all caps: “LET IT BE”. 

Was it a message from the Universe? Can’t I even put some little dots in there? “LET IT BE”. 

Oh. Are you sure I can’t just shade inside the edges of each letter with some yellow? “LET IT BE”. 

Finally I decided to listen, and I let it be.

And you know what, I rather like how it turned out! Note, I did end up coloring inside the lines a little bit — whoops! — but those were just a part of the artistic process. Elements of human touch. And I let them be!

Now it’s your turn! 

Share with us your interpretation of Coloring Outside the Lines here on the blog using the InLinks button below.

On Instagram, please share your coloring creations using the hashtag #powerandsparklette — and we will come find you!!

I will choose a winner from the entries, and that colorist will receive every set in our 2016 Holiday Clear Stamp Collection when they debut in October.

I hope to see a big show and tell of coloring experimentation — it doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, it shouldn’t be perfect. It should reflect your inner artistry. Your ability to see things, and to try things. Because you, my friend, are Courageous and Creative, and ALWAYS Awesome.

An InLinkz Link-up

Free Coloring Downloads • Winners for Week 1

Hello, my friends!

I’d first like to give a heartfelt thank you for being such a generous and brave group of gals. I love that so many of you felt comfortable submitting your FAVORITE quotes to our very first Power and Sparklette Challenge. And several of you have already left the most inspiring stories of “Doing It Anyway” for Week 2 of the Mini Challenges (haven’t seen that one yet, well click here to head on over.)

Well, I told you I would be announcing the “winners” of the Week 1 challenge, and I will not disappoint, even though it’s a bit late in the day... ahem. (Blaming computer problems, sorry folks, my Mac called in sick even though my pens were workin’ overtime.)

Just to remind you, we are hoping to cause a wonderful disruption in your creative flow by going a little deeper, to ignite courage, can-do spirit, and honestly, to give a jolt to the mental space that we artists get into when we set to work making art. And so, we asked:

Share a favorite quote, saying, or verse that inspires you. 

There were soooooo many wonderful quotes in the list, my ladies (and I do know there are a few gents out there). In fact, there was such enlightenment and encouragement on that thread of comments, I hope you’ll visit the original post if you haven’t done so yet, and jot down a few to add to your journals or your post-it notes or wherever it is you write down nourishing thoughts that catch your attention.

I said that I would choose a winning quote and illustrate it as FREE digital download for coloring and creating. But sugar-peas, I could not narrow it down to one. In reviewing the quotes, I noticed a few overarching themes: one was having the strength/courage/moxie to do what we need or want to do, and the other was letting go and releasing the need to be in control. Such a different type of message for different situations, but each obviously important to you all. So I have chosen TWO, and you may visit our website right now and download them for FREE from the store!! Right now! The first winning submission was from Diane, who wrote:

“Let it Be” from the Beatles. I having been reminding myself of this for years. I tend to be a “fixer” and I need to remember that I am not meant to fix everything for everyone. Let go and let God.

I give you, Let It Be. Click below to get this downloadable coloring image (it is about 5" across and is resizable to suit your needs):

Next we have a passage from the Bible that many of you found great comfort in, and I have to admit that I too feel both a tremendous relief and a firmer backbone when I remember this one... As Lisa K. said:

My favorite verse is “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13 This speaks to me when I have hard days. I lean on Christ to give me strength as I often do not have it totally by myself.

Thank you to all who submitted this inspiring passage: Susan, Cheryl, Julie, and Lisa K, and here is I Can Do All Things:

Now folks, you’ll need to go ahead and check-out to get the downloads, but you will not be charged for either one, and you may get both if you’d like. You don’t even need a promotional code.

Thank you again for being such good, good people. You make my heart all cozy! I will probably end up using some of the other quote ideas in future stamp sets — my inspiration cup runneth over!

It’s not too late to enter our Week 2 Challenge (we all love to read what YOUR experiences have been, and you could win a $25 gift code in our store if you share). Be prepared for Week 3’s Mini Challenge to be announced on Saturday.

In the meantime... Thursday, Sept 15, we have a new digital stamp set release PLUS a big coloring and sale promotion kicking off with our friends at Passionate Paper Creations ... I hope you’ll be back to see us soon. We are running around like nuts with all of this excitement, ANNNNND there will SOON BE HOLIDAY CLEAR STAMPS!!! Phew. A lot of action in the Power Poppy HQ. Peace out!

Do It Anyway: Mini Challenge Week 2

Our kids at a local craft-it-yourself studio, where they grab armfuls of art supplies, figure out a craft project to make, and just go for it.

Have you ever noticed how little kids have a sense that they can do anything? This can be applied to everything from jumping out of a tree to making up a recipe to building their own go-karts. They’re pretty much filled with confidence.

At some point as they mature, most folks start to lose this sense. We are told that we aren’t doing something the right way. Our actions are corrected, our spirits get a bit dimmed. We bounce back from most of this stuff, but being corrected doesn’t feel so great. Some of us start to wonder if we just aren’t good at whatever task. Maybe we shouldn’t try it again because we might fail, and we don’t like that feeling. As adults, many of us have years and years of these sorts of thoughts built up, so that trying something new can feel very scary. We may feel paralyzed by fear.

In the world of art and making, this sensation may be seen when one is afraid of pushing oneself further. For example, having an inner voice that says, “I’m really great at stamping, but I couldn’t draw anything more than a stick figure if my life depended on it.” This could translate to, “I’d better not even try to freehand draw, because if it doesn’t look perfect, then everyone will think I’m not as good of a stamper as they did before!” Think about that mental leap. Why would we send ourselves such messages? I’ll bet we all do it in our own ways.

What if we decided to be conscious of our inner fears of failure, and we turned them on their heads? If we took the feeling of not being great at something yet, and used it as a stepping stone to getting better? As a way to learn, to expand our abilities, and to just try for the sheer challenge of it? Replacing the inner voice that said, “Don’t try, you might fail” with “This might not turn out how I imagine, but I’m going to do it ANYWAY!”

Because why not, my friends? We are only on this planet for a little while. Why the heck not just go for it? Try that technique you’ve been curious about. Approach your creativity from a different angle than normal — instead of having everything centered like you always do, go asymmetrical and rotate! Run over the cardstock with your car to give it some texture. Draw all over it with scribbles. Tear it into tiny pieces and make a mosaic. Stamp off the edge of the paper! Close your eyes and grab the markers for your color scheme randomly. Why not? It might expand your creativity into a realm you had no idea was possible. Or it might look ridiculous. But at least you’ll be making something new, moving forward with your creativity, and broadening your artistic skill set. It could be the step you needed to take to break out of your fixed thinking, to a place of growth and learning and challenge.

I have a hard time thinking of a more encouraging, warm, uplifting group of people than those I’ve met through this crafting and cardmaking community. When we are trying something new, there are always dear folks who will chime in to say, “You’re getting better at your coloring!” or “What a nice effect that was with the matching ribbon, I’m so glad you tried it!” It is a neat thing to watch.

Here we are at Week Two of Power and Sparklette... let me remind you of my funky graphic for this month... which was actually a bit outside the box for my normal lettering style, but I let myself be inspired by some of the heavy metal album covers that my son Finn exposes me to. Here ’tis!

For the second mini challenge, I have a big question for you.

Power & Sparklette: Week 2

What is something you thought you could never do — and then you did it?

It can be in the artistic realm, or in daily life. It can be a personal triumph or a professional one. It can be BIG or it can be a tiny incremental thing that meant a lot in some way. Here’s one of mine....

I was a teenage skateboarder, but hadn’t thought about skating in about 20 years. I mean, I was a professional graphic designer working for big clients, a mother of two, and someone who worried about whether the silverware was polished for Thanksgiving dinner. After my divorce, it occurred to me that I needed a new hobby to keep myself occupied and get me out of the house. I had old friends who were taking their kids out to skateboard, and were starting to skate again themselves. Even though I felt totally awkward, I bought myself a new board and safety gear. At age 39 I got back out there. I was still able to do a bunch of tricks. Yes, it hurt when I fell, and falling was common on those first few outings. But if I hadn’t pushed myself to go out skateboarding, I would not have met Doug! That’s where we reconnected after 20+ years, on the deck of the mini ramp. :) Plus, I showed myself that I could do exciting and fun sports, no matter my age. Within a year, I then learned how to ride a motorcycle.

I will choose one entry from the Week 2 challenge to give a $25 gift certificate towards anything in the Power Poppy Shop. Entries will close Tuesday, September 20 at midnight central.

Now, you try. What is something you thought you couldn’t do, and then you did it?

P.S. WE ARE ALL LOVING YOUR QUOTE CONTRIBUTIONS!!! So much so, I’m going to keep it open a few more days, and pick the quote that I will illustrate on Wednesday. Tune back in to see if it is yours! I will make the chosen quote into a downloadable image for coloring. Click here to add your favorite quote.

Power & Sparklette: Mini Challenge Week 1

Always take the scenic route. :)

Hey guys! If you’ve been hanging around us for any length of time, you’ve gazed upon, participated in, or maybe even WON one of our monthly cardmaking challenges. Power & Spark is hosted by the Bloom Brigade, and the themes are designed to get you excited to use your stamps in a fresh arrangement, to give you an inspiring push, and to focus your design in a direction that may not have occurred to you.

We love seeing the efforts you all share with us each month, they range from charming beginners to the exquisitely advanced, and I have to say, I am always impressed by what I see. It’s hard to color inside the lines of those tiny drawings, much less bring them together with other design elements to create a really cool card. And you guys are improving your skills and broadening your range of talents. You’re getting SO GOOD!

In fact, I would say we’re getting to the point where we can push your creativity even further, and maybe even deeper.

We’re going to take a quick hiatus from our monthly challenges to bring you something new. Each Saturday in September I’ll be sharing a challenge — and it will only last for a few days! Then we’ll throw out another idea. Short n’ snappy-like. Then another. You get the picture. My goal is get you into a zone of open-mindedness and fresh thinking before you even sit down to make a card. We’re just doing some creative re-calibration, and I hope that as many of you as possible will join us on this ride. Oh, and there will be prizes. ’Cause who doesn’t love prizes? Introducing:

For the first mini challenge, get this — we’re not even going to color or stamp.

Power & Sparklette: Week 1

Share a favorite quote, saying, or verse that inspires you in the comments section of this blog post.

It can be a jaw-dropper with huge insights. It can state the obvious, but in a way that’s clever. Maybe it helps shift you into another state of mind. Whatever it is, it speaks to you. It makes you go “hmm” or “wow!”, feel relief, deepen your faith, or bust out laughing. I would love if you would explain what it means to you, why you return to it again and again. Or if it’s new to you, why it has captured your spirit.

I’ll get us started with a quote that seems to do this for me without fail:

Talk about a perspective-changer! “You are not just a drop in the ocean, you are the mighty ocean in the drop.” The 13th-century poet Rumi wrote this observation, and I have scrawled it on more than a few Post-Its to remind myself that we are so much more powerful than we may think. We have all the tools already within us to do whatever we need to do.

Now, you try. I am hoping that we can fill up pages of inspiring quotes. That is my goal with Power & Sparklette Week 1. So that when you share your meaningful quote, you may also see other folks’ favorites, be it a Bible verse or one of Ben Franklin’s witty quips, or that funny thing that somebody’s Grandma used to always say. We’re going to do something with these, but I’m not ready to spill the beans on that yet. For now, let’s think about words that inspire us.

Next week, I’m going to choose one of the submitted quotes to illustrate (more neatly than the one I showcased above!) as a drawing that can be colored in, and I will share it as a free download on the Power Poppy blog!

So here we go, folks, what is one of your favorite inspiring quotes?