Mixed Media with Power Poppy

Hello, and Welcome to the Power Poppy Blog!  Rhea here to share with you a Mixed Media creation using Countryside Bouquet.

The glory of digital images is you are able to size them to almost any size you wish.

This image I sized to 8.5"x6".  I've done this in a card size previously, but it happens to be one of my favorites so I thought I would so something a little special with it.

1.  With a wooden board purchased at a box store, I used a 12"x12" stone wall stencil using Faber-Castel Whipped Spackle.  Once it was dry, I used my water brush filled with Blending Solution and Copic Refills to "Water Color" or "Paint" the stones to look like bricks. 

2.  I die cut the fence and sign from chipboard. Then covered with matching paper.

3.  Everything was attached using foam pop up squares with pieces of chipboard to lift from the "wall" this piece has a lot of dimensions.   

4.  Add a bow and that is it.  

All color is from Copic Markers and Refills as well as airbrushing.
Here are the colors I used...

  

Gone Fishing....

Welcome back to Power Poppy Blog!  This is Rhea hoping to inspire you with with a 

 newer digital stamp called Fly Guy.  You can find so many beautiful Digital Images and Clear Stamps at Power Poppy.  It's so inspiring to visit and use Marcella's images!

I have to admit that Fly Guy is beyond cool!  And way fun to color!  I did use a lot of Copic Markers to complete this image but that's just me.  I like to blend colors together on the paper which take more  colors.  For example the 40's with the W's for the rocks.  The different BG's for the water with a Colorless Blender Marker in certain areas.  Yellows with Green for the foliage and B's with BG's and Colorless Blender for the sky.  

Now this is just an A2 size card so it's the perfect size for any guy in your life.  It reminds me so much of where we live.   You see this all the time driving through the country side and on the banks of the vast lakes we are surrounded by.  

Here are all the colors I used if you want to give it a go.....Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by!  Feel free to share, pin, leave us a comment and sign up to receive emails of the Power Poppy Blog!   There is always so much inspiration going on at Power Poppy you don't want to miss any of it!  Also you would enjoy joining Passionate Paper Creations and Friends Facebook Group where Power Poppy is a Sponsor! 

Summer Has Arrived!

Hello all our flower lovers!  This is Rhea here today for Monday Inspiration.

How about this 8x8 framed wreath of Flowers with a touch of metal?

This digi is called Peony Love

I increased the size to be 7.75" x 7.75" so it would fit within the 8x8 frame.  I wanted to make it unique and happy.  As I was framing it the inside was missing something then I realized what it was.

It was a butterfly.  I searched for dies and had a couple picked out then I remembered I had metal!!!

What a way to make it even more unique.  

The colors used were:

YG13, 97, 99 and YG21 as a highlight on leaves

Pink Flowers:  V01 highlights, RV11, 52, 66, 69

Purple Flowers:  BV31, 43, 04, 08, C9

Yellow Flowers:  Y11 highlights, Y21, YR21, 23, 24, 27, Y28

Another framed piece for my Flower Wall.

For the love of Tulips!

Welcome to Inspire Me Monday on Power Poppy! This is Rhea, and today, and I am sharing Tulips in Hobnail Pitcher.

This is a digital image which has been enlarged to 200%.  It is now framed in black with a black and white matting and proudly hanging on my wall of framed Power Poppy florals.

What I wanted to share with you today is the foliage.  If you look at the depth of the foliage, it was created using many different shades of greens. To make something look like it is in the distance, it needs to be a little darker with more of a gray tone to it. If you are using Copic Markers. this means you want to move more to the center of the Copic Color Wheel.  

I like to start with the shadows first, or in this case, what is in the background. I started with YG61, 63 and 67 and colored the leaves that were behind the front leaves. Next, in the deepest shadow areas I added G94 and 99 as these have more gray tones to them. Now, I moved to the leaves that were in the front.  I used YG25, 17 with the highlight yellowish color being YG21. With these colors being more vibrant and lighter, it helped bring them forward.

Now for the Tulips!  There are several colors used here — ones you can’t imagine using together: V52, 63, 66, 69, 12, 15, 17, and Y00.... Say what!?!?! Yup, that's right. It’s all done in layers in the order listed with Y00 being the last added where I left white starting at the end and flicking into the violets and purples. These colors blend so well together and I actually had no idea what the plan was as I was just playing.  I figured I could always start over!

Now back to G99, I added this color to add drop shadows under the leaves and flowers and blended a little with G94.

For the pitcher....Mackenzie Childs Pottery is one of my loves, so I added the signature checkerboard pattern and just went for it. Although it isn’t perfect, I just don’t care because it is art! I used a multiline .08 in black to outline the black squares, and a Copic Spica marker (glitter marker) to add dots of texture to the cream squares. The final touches were to add a touch of color around the flowers and using V20 to ground the pitcher.

That’s how you take a flat image and add depth. :)

Inspire Me Monday: Clean and Simple Hellebores

Welcome back to Power Poppy! It’s Rhea here and today I am sharing the Hellebores Digital Stamp, and am going to show you a Clean and Simple way to treat this set.

Clean and Simple (CAS) is oh so popular! For some like me it wasn't easy to do at first. I am a very detailed person and love layers and embellishments.  I love adding shaped dies and textures of ribbon and whatever else I can find.  With this beautiful Hellebores Digital Stamp I think I was a able to accomplish the CAS but still added a touch of embellies, texture with a few layers.  But showing the true beauty of the digital image its self.

Then came the question, to fussy cut or not to fussy cut?  hahahaha  When I added the sentiment next to it I decided not to fussy cut that area and place layers there.  But I did fussy cut the rest of the image.  That really made the image pop off the textured background.  Of course I used pop up squares to help it along.  

There was one little problem...ever open a marker and a blob of ink drops on your image?  Yup, me too!!  Right on the sentiment, and just as I was finishing the last flower.  So what do you do?  Put more dots on the sentiment and act like it was suppose to be there :)  just sayin'

Here is the color palette I used so you too can color up this beautiful image. 

Inspire Me Monday: A little “Winter Pick-Me-Up” with How-to Video

Welcome once again to Power Poppy’s Inspire Me Monday with Rhea Weigand. Today I am sharing Winter Pick-Me-Up with an instructional video on how I do the backgrounds of florals.

I printed the digital image at 150% of its original size, and at 30% opacity. It is framed in a 5x7 very old frame passed down through the family. I chose it because it really helped pop the fluffy willow twigs from the project.

Enjoy the video. My voice is a little low so you may want to turn up the volume. Beware to turn the volume DOWN when the music starts...lol. It may startle you.   

Here are the colors used to create this piece.

Thanks for visiting today!

On The First Day Of Christmas

Hello, Rhea here today to share a little something special.  Partridge in a Pear Tree is a digital stamp available at Power Poppy.

I colored this up at 150% which made it 5.5" x 6.5".  Then placed it inside a wooden cigar box.  I removed the lid and the hinges.  I airbrushed the edges to match the picture and to age the box.

To add more interest large ribbon was added with flowers and buttons to match the image.

If you don't have a cigar box...try a frame and mat it with matching colors and decorate the frame.

It would be a nice little gift for a friend and something that could sit out each holiday season!

Here are the colors I used to color the image...

Thanks for visiting today!  

Inspire Me Monday: Tips + Tricks from Rhea

Hello Power Poppy Fans!  Rhea Weigand here to bring you Monday Inspiration!!

Today I am using Heaven and Nature Sing Stamp Set.

You can find all of Power Poppy Clear Stamps Here just in case you want to try this on some of the NEW HOLIDAY STAMPS JUST RELEASED!

There are a few techniques I used in this design.

1. Monochromatic with a Color Pop - With this being a Christmas design I used the E80's.  This color set has a nice green hue to them.  The forward pieces are lighter and are accented with Karina Wink white.  The pieces in back were colored with the darker colors.  This gives the overall appearance of depth.  The Color Pop is the stamped sentiment in Red.
   
2. No Line Coloring - I used Memento Desert Sand being that I was coloring with the E's.  Keep in mind with out the black lines your overall color can look a little different because you loose the details of the stamped image.
   
3. Using an Embossing Folder Over the Colored Image that Matches the Background - Once I was done and I knew the Copics were dry I had a thought to run this through my machine with a dot embossing folder....what's the worse that could happen?  I had to start over?  As it turned out I thought it was awesome!  So I did a piece in the background to match :)  I don't usually have a plan for a design it just all comes together in the end.
   
4. Using Matching Dies to Create a Frame for the Original Die Cut - It looked a little plain and I wanted to really have the "Color Pop of Red"  So I took the original size die and the next size die.  Perfectly nested them, taped them together so they wouldn't move and created a frame with red card stock.   Once it was attached with a thin layer of glue I then used glossy accents to frame the inside with beaded chain for further effect.
   
5. Using a Drop of Matching Stickles and Covering with Faber-Castels Texture Gems (a thick totally clear drying that creates a dome) - Which magnifies the little bit of glitter at the bottom.  I did this on all the berries and the inside of the flowers. 

Now, here are the few colors I used.

Thanks for visiting, and if you would like to visit my blog I would love to see you over there!

PassionatePaperCreations.blogspot.com

Ripe Berries Anyone?

Hello Power Poppy Friends!  Today I am bringing you Berry It Digital Stamp.  I couldn't make the August 25th post to release this image so I thought I would share it with you on my monthly inspiration post with a little coloring tip.

This months tip:  Don't be afraid to use grays to make your colors deeper and more rich looking.  It helps to give more dimension and contrast to your projects. 

Here is how I teach to use grays; When I've colored a few berries with the regular colors, I decided where I want to make RV99 (in this case) darker.  I then added N7 to that area and immediately went over it with RV69.  These two colors will blend together on the paper making the top color a darker shade and you won't see the gray.  Then I will blend it out with the sequence of colors, this is done lightly.  Once you get the hang of it you can just start by adding gray before your darkest color and blending out from there. 

I used N gray because I didn't want any blue or brown undertones.  

I only do this with Copic XPress Paper as it allows me more time to work with my coloring and has less of a chance of looking "muddy" with more ink added.   

I will be back next month for more coloring tips!

Rhea

Inspire Me Monday: Coloring Camellias using the Color Wheel

Hello Power Poppy Friends! Today I hope to inspire you with bright colors using Camellias. This is a digital set found in the Power Poppy Store.

Camellias are usually shades of pink, red or white. Honestly, I wanted to inspire you to use colors you like or are feeling at the moment you start a project. I felt like using shades of orange... so I did! Then using the Triadic Theory of the Color Wheel. I went with Green and Purple to complement.  

Wondering what the Triadic Theory is of the color wheel? Three colors spaced equally apart on the color wheel. I chose oranges, so purples and greens were Triadic in theory.  So I was comfortable in knowing that the finished piece would be balanced in colors and by using the below colors that started with 1 in the Copic Color Family. I knew it would be brighter as well with little-to-no gray undertones.

Here is the color palette if you want to give it a go :)

Thanks for coming by today!

~Rhea

Sometimes you can’t see the garden for the flowers

Hello and welcome to the Power Poppy Inspire Me Monday from Rhea.  It’s true that sometimes your eye fixates on just one object when there is so much beauty than surrounds it. The same is true when you are in the Power Poppy store! When I am looking at all those yummy flowers I see each one individually. Then I remember that when working with digi stamps, there are no limits! Just because I love love the Gerbera Daisies and the Winter Pick-Me-Up and they are individual images doesn't mean I can’t put them together to create a beautiful garden!

The images needed to be turned into a .png file so the background was transparent. They come to us in .jpg format. Being a .png allows me to layer them and position them front to back. All I use is Photoshop. I do not delete anything or alter Marcella’s art in any way. It is as simple as moving things around until you like what you see. You can “flip” an image which I did with the Winter Pick-Me-Up on the far right side. To do that in Photoshop, all you have to do is click on “Image” and then “Rotate” and click on “Flip Horizontal.” You don’t want everything looking too chimerical or it appears unnatural. I also like odd numbers.  

Now, I always like to share my color palettes! This way you can purchase the Gerbera Daisies, and the Winter Pick-Me-Up and use the same colors if you like.

Thanks for your time today!  I will be back Monday, August 3rd for another inspirational post.

~xo Rhea