Fundraisers and Free Sunflowers for Ukraine

Hello there, friends. 

We are all watching the attack on Ukraine with immense pain, horror, and a crushing sense of helplessness. I have been wracking my brain to figure out how to help, even in a small way. Perhaps starting with my drawings, and extending to YOU, we can make a bigger impact and help people feel supported from all over the world.

We CAN contribute encouragement and hope to the Ukrainian people. 

••• HERE ARE THREE WAYS TO HELP •••

• Four of my Sunflower-themed digital images are all now available for FREE to anyone who wants to download them and create cards, flyers, or posters. Sunflowers are the national flower of Ukraine, and we are starting to see them pop up all over the world in an effort to show our support and love. You’ll find two bouquets and sunflowers both detailed and simple. There is something for everyone to color and create a card or image to share. 

We are starting to see beautiful, uplifting creations from all over the world.

• Peace Offering, a folk-art-style bouquet, is now available to download for $5, and is a FUNDRAISER to help the people of Ukraine. It includes an A2-sized illustration and an 8.5" x 11" size, so that anyone and everyone can join in and color! You’ll find the word Peace in English and Mir in Russian. ALL proceeds are being donated to sunflowerofpeace.com.

Download and color — this image is great for any and all skill levels of colorers and crafters.

• I am also offering my gouache and watercolor handpainted version of Peace Offering as a colorful download, ready to print out to make cards, flyers, or posters, or to use in social media to promote peace rather than war. This FUNDRAISER is also $5, and the proceeds will be donated to sunflowerofpeace.com. 

Sales of both versions of Peace Offering are being donated to Sunflower of Peace, a non-profit organization committed to helping Ukrainians affected by the Russian military invasion with medical and humanitarian aid. It is a USA-based 501(c)(3), working with a global network of established organization and institutions that are committed to helping Ukraine in the current situation. Learn more or donate to them directly at sunflowerofpeace.com

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Come along and see what our kind-hearted and hugely talented designers — The Bloom Brigade! — have created to inspire you with the Peace Offering Digital Stamp Set.

Barbara Campbell

Julie Koerber

Sathya Kala Sankaran

Christine Okken

Lastly, here is a little peek of me at work on my painting of Peace Offering. 

I hope you enjoy working on your cards, flyers, posters, or sharing on social media, and may we all do our part to bring a sense of hope to those who are suffering.

Bless you, and thank you for showing your support of Ukraine!

Creative Confetti: All Boxed Up!

Hello all and Happy Tuesday! How's life in your neck of the woods? Beautiful, I hope! I have a fun challenge that is open to interpretation, which means I hope we have some creative sparks flying and can see this little challenge go in so many different directions! Check it out!

HOW TO PLAY: Use a box element on your card or creation. Think graphically! Or, think literally by actually creating a box! That's okay too! So, my sweet stamping friends, that's all it takes this week to add an entry to our monthly drawing for $25 off in the Power Poppy Shop!

On to my creation!

I have to say that I was really inspired by Jessie Banks quick watercolor creation that she unveiled yesterday in her Inspire Me Monday post. I love those little cherry blossoms and so, I knew that I wanted to have a few spring blossoms take center stage in my creation. They are just so fresh and full of spring! Only, mine aren't cherry blossoms at all ... but apple blossoms! 

I'll start by saying that I used the Power Poppy digital stamp called Apples in Season and then, I went and nipped and tucked and created this grid in Photoshop Elements. Let me show you what I did!

I started by creating a 4" by 5.25" canvas. I created a square using the Marquee tool, clicked on the tab at the top that says "Layer", clicked on "New Fill Layer" and then when it asked what color, I used the little color dropper tool to choose the same white as my background. From there, I added a "stroke" around my box. You can see when you look at the screen capture above that the stroke I used is highlighted with a box.

From there, you right-click on that box and click on "Duplicate Layer" until you get three duplicates. Then, when you look at your canvas through a grid (it's a tool you can click on under "View" ), you can line up all your boxes perfectly so you have a four-square design!

From there, I opened up the Apples in Season stamp set and used bits and pieces. TIP: If you click on "Layer" and then click on "Merge Visible" all four boxes will stay where they are. From there, you can use the magic eraser tool to erase the background on each box so that you can allow pieces of your image to show through the box. That's what I did here! I also wanted some of the image to hang over the box - which meant making a duplicate of the image, letting pieces of it hang over the edge and erasing the other areas that I wanted to stay behind the grid frame. I got a little tricky with my image but you don't need to. The whole idea was to frame up pieces of my image for a visual pop!

Here's a close up below!

Quick details on my card! I used Copic Markers and used R0000, R81 and R83 for the petals, G20 and G24 for the leaves and then G0000 and BG11 to highlight my image in each box. I added a little glitter glue to the centers and then added the sentiment in the plain box from the clear set called Always Here.   From there, I just matted it on a decorative paper card, added some pop thanks to a Stampin' Up Embossing Folder, and then added some silver cording and a fun pearlescent button. Tada! Quick - pretty - inspired - and fun!

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Before we bid you adieu, we do have to draw the winner from our May challenges! Can you believe it is actually June already!?!?

So, after we threw all the virtual names into a hat, random.org drew this number!

That means the winner is.....

* * * * JULIE GEARINGER!! * * * * 

Julie joined us for Barb's challenge to use the "Rule of Thirds!" She created this sweet creation below using Power Poppy's Sunshine of My Life digital stamp set (Psst! This one is on sale right now for $2.99!) and dolled it up using a die-cut to create her thirds and added color with some watercolor pencils! I love the result with the dreamy background she created and the bold color!

Julie, to claim your code to the Power Poppy Shop, all you have to do is email us at bloom@powerpoppy.com! Just that simple!

Okay sweet stamping friends, now it's your turn! Let's see how you take this challenge and think "out of the box!" or, in the box, or just as a box! ;-) If you have Power Poppy stamps, please use them! If not, remember each entry will be one more chance at winning a $25 gift code to the Power Poppy Shop!  (That means you might be able to WIN some!)

Just a note! Because the 30th of June is a Tuesday, this month's challenge will end on  June 29th so we can draw for the winner that night! So, let's get those fingers inky to get your cards on the linky! ;-)

Until next time, happy stamping!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Inspire Me Monday - Copic Colouring

Hey Power Poppy friends! Jessie here and welcome to another Inspire me Monday, and my first Inspire me Monday post for you all. I thought for my first post I would give you all a colouring video that I hope you enjoy. I have always loved the Sunflower Power Digital stamp, and now even more sunflower love in the Sunshine of my Life Digital Stamp that I have coloured for you all today. 

I created a rectangle in my microsoft word program and enlarged the digital stamp then printed it out and coloured it up with my copics for you!

           

Have a wonderful week! 

-Jessie

Our July Instant Garden Introduction: Sunshine of My Life

At this point in the summer, our tables and windowsills are consistently dotted with garden-clipped bouquets. And is there anything that says “summer” more than a big bunch of sunflowers? I guess a few things maybe, but sunflowers are right up there. And these stalks of sunshine have long provided inspiration for artists, most notably, Vincent Van Gogh. He became known for his sunflowers after painting a large series of them in Arles, in the south of France, in the late 1880s. Van Gogh suggested to an artist friend that sunflowers could be “his” flower. I love this:

“It is a kind of painting that rather changes in character, and takes on a richness the longer you look at it. Besides, you know, Gauguin likes them extraordinarily. He said to me among other things – ‘That... it’s... the flower.’ You know that the peony is Jeannin’s, the hollyhock belongs to Quost, but the sunflower is somewhat my own.”

I hadn’t realized this the last time we introduced our Sunflower Power illustration as a digital stamp, when I shared several favorite Van Gogh Sunflower paintings, which have long been an inspiration to me as a painter. He painted them over and over and over, attempting to truly master the changes in color. He used the new discoveries in pigment development to create new shades of yellow (thus leading to new shades of orange!) and was able to capture variances in the flowers that are captivating.

I encourage you to do a bit of research on Van Gogh’s Sunflower series for the fun of it. A wonderful resource is right on Wikipedia, they have their own page, click here, where you can see the paintings and read all about what was happening with Van Gogh and Gauguin at the time they were painting them.

Another quote that strikes me:

“Now that I hope to live with Gauguin in a studio of our own, I want to make decorations for the studio. Nothing but big flowers.”

Taking inspiration from the pure saturation of flowers and the Van Gogh attitude, I’d like to introduce you to our newest digital stamp introduction, Sunshine of My Life:

This digital stamp set includes one large main image and two sentiments, and is ready to be downloaded and printed in an instant, so you can get right to coloring.

A quick note for clear stamp lovers. If you like this Sunshine of My Life image, you may be interested in our next clear stamp release in August. Just sayin’!

Today we are SO FORTUNATE to have a giant team of BOTH teams to help showcase our new digital set, the Instant Gardeners and the Bloom Brigade are out in force! There are a few other fun digital sets sprinkled in, too, so be sure to stop by everyone’s blogs to see what glorious and colorful imagery they are providing....

Barb Walker
Debbie Olson
Nancy Sheads
Cheryl Scrivens
 Broni Holcombe 
Stacy Morgan
Cindy Lawrence
 Allison Cope 
Tosha Leyendekker (two cards today!)
 Christine Okken 
Kathy Jones

I hope you find this an inspiring part of your Friday! We are so happy you came by the Power Poppy Blog to see what’s new. Have a great weekend, everyone.