Creative Confetti: Sketch It Out

Hello all and happy Tuesday! Being that so many of you love a good sketch, it's time for another one! Are you ready as I reach down into my bag of tricks and throw out this week's Creative Confetti???

HOW TO PLAY: It's as simple as following the sketch below! And, to give you a little creative license, feel free to change shapes or flip the sketch any which way. It's doesn't matter as long as we can "see" the sketch and feel your inspiration! Maybe you want to flip it so that the sentiment flag is more toward the top? Your call! Maybe you want to flip the sketch on its side? You do that! Maybe you want to use a shape other than an oval? Feel free! 

Here's a peek at the sketch!

And here's a look at my creation! 

So, this creation MAY look a little familiar to you if you followed along on my Inspire Me Monday, ways to get inspired tutorial HERE! I showed you all how you can create for those times when inspiration is lacking and one of my tricks was to create a layout ahead of time without actually stamping! See?

I shared how I followed a sketch, gathered up some papers and then, put them in a baggie with everything needed to save for a creative rainy day!

So, I pulled out all the pieces and decided to put them to use and encourage you to do the same by using this very sketch!

For my card, I used a retired set called Prairie Cheer. Sadly, I didn't know it was retired when I chose to create my card! But, if you like this look, there are so many slender florals that Power Poppy has in the shop, you can really create a similar look with stamp sets like:

Asters Abuzz
Black Eyed Susan
Bubbles and Fizz (this would make a cute and different creation!)
Easy Breezy Coneflowers
Graceful Still Life
Lavender Sprigs

And there are so many more to pick from if you just scroll through the Flowers Category on the Power Poppy Shop!

Moving on! I colored up my main image using just a few Copic Markers. I am trying to be more of a minimalist when I color because I think it is just so much easier than layering on color after color. Of course, there are times when the beauty of the art requires it but because this image is so simple and clean, it isn't required for this illustration.

Here's a close up for y'all! Yep, I added Stickles. I swear, I am addicted and have been for 20 plus years! ;-)

The sentiment above is one of my recent favorites. It's from the Cheerful Columbine stamp set, which is currently sold out. Sorry folks! I seem to not be a great enabler today! ;-)

And that, my friends, is it! 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! Woo Hoo!

Until next time!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Hues that Make You Swoon!

Hello peeps! Are you ready for a nature-inspired color cue that's just begging for you to pick up and use? Goodness knows I am! It's Tuesday, so let's cue up the latest round of....

When Marcella spotted this amazing swirl of color, she was at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in our nation's capital. This, my friends, is Tight Malachite and as Marcy said when she first set her sights on it, "Dare you not to swoon!" Well, I did indeed swoon and then I decided this would be a wonderfully fun color combo for.. HUES TO USE!  I'll admit, it's a bit tricky at times to pull off monochromatic color combos. But, you know what? I know you can do it! And, I can't wait to see how you pull it off!

HOW TO PLAY ALONG WITH US: To play along with us, simply use these three colors to spark a bit of creativity in your crafting space and then, when you're done, link up your creation using our linky below! Sweet & simple! 

Want to see how I took these colors for a whirl?

For starters, I picked up Power Poppy's Succulent Singles and Prairie Cheer stamp sets (for the sentiment). I stamped two of the smaller leaves directly on my decorative paper and then, stamped a bunch onto white cardstock to cut out later. Actually, I could have used the Succulent Singles Die Set that goes with this stamp set but I had a lapse in judgment and forgot to do that! EEK!  

Now, here's the fun part. I decided that instead of letting ink play a prominent role in my creation, I would heat emboss. I dug deep into my drawer of embossing powders. Deep! I have so many embossing powders and many of them are more than 15 years old -- so underused! Take a look at the three powders I picked. They are from a company called BMuse. The company is still around but no longer makes these amazing colors of embossing powder. I have Copper, Aged Copper and Bronze. Here's a peek at what they look like, pre-emboss.  

And, because you really shouldn't use Copic Markers with embossing powder (I hear that it damages the tip of your marker), I decided to reach for my Distress Markers and picked up these colors below. I never color directly onto my image when using Distress Markers. I scribble them onto a plastic palette or even a large acrylic block and then pick up the marker with either a blender pen or water brush. This time I used my Dove Blender pen. I love how this allows you to add color gradually and almost with a watercolor effect. 

And here's a close up of how those embossing powders turned out! It's so hard to photograph the metallic sheen but they are really quite fun in real life. The Aged Copper has that bit of navy in it, which picks up on the navy in the base portion of my card. I love that blue tint, the distressed bronze and the copper. LOVE! 

And here's a little better shot of the coloring! I love the almost dreamy wash on each petal. And, to be honest with you? I just scribbled on the color -- didn't really spend a ton of time on it! Isn't that the best?

And that, my friends, is it! Now it's your turn to take these colors and put our own spin on them! After you're done, don't forget to link up your creation below and let us all see your take on this color combo challenge!

And remember.... if you would like to be a guest hostess and share the weekly Hues, all you need to do is play along with us. We grab all of our guests right from the weekly link lists! So get those fingers inky and let’s see how you put these Hues to good use! Until next week!

~Julie

An InLinkz Link-up

Planning for Magnolias

Hey everyone Jessie here today sharing another watercolor card for you all today! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did creating it! I am thrilled that I will now be able to share an Inspire me Monday post with you all every month!

I stamped out the branch of flowers from the Planning For Magnolias stamp set using Versafine Onyx Black ink on Fluid watercolor paper. I painted the image with my Schmincke and Daniel Smith watercolors (there is a process video for you here in this post.) After everything was nice and dry I stamped the sentiment from the Prairie Cheer Set!

I have recently created a facebook group, that the wonderful Marcella told me to share with you all! The group is called Cards and Colour! In the group I am doing one or two live colouring events a month using different colouring mediums (There is even one coming up for Power Poppy, shhhh!!) It's also a place where we chat about different things with colouring and stamping and share everyone's wonderful makes, I would love you to come join us!

Now that is enough of my babbling and on to sharing the video!

            

Thanks for stopping by,

Hugz,

Jessie

Inspire Me Monday: Interactive Tag Card

Howdy all!  Welcome to Inspire Me Monday!  I'm Allison Cope your hostess today at Power Poppy.

I am a HUGE fan of fun and interactive cards.  I love being able to send a handmade creation where someone physically gets to interact with their card... for example, something pop-s up when you pull a tab or am element rotates or swings on the card front.

So today I thought that I would share a super-duper easy-peasy interactive tag card tutorial with you.

Since Autumn is just around the corner (it's showing it's self here already in Alberta!) I thought I would pull out a stamp set from last year and a brand new one too!  So I grabbed the amazingly gorgeous "Olive & Oak Expanded" stamp collection the "Prairie Cheer" stamp set too!

So first I'm actually going to start you off with how to make this super simple card and then below you'll find a sped-up video if you'd like to see the colouring of my focal image.  Enjoy...

And for those of you that really enjoy colouring, come and check out this video where I coloured the brilliant trio of oak leaves, acorns and olives...

Here's a quick peek of my card...

And here it is with it's tag showing...

I hope I've inspired you today to get out and colour and create!

~ Ally ~