Inspire Me Monday: Digital Chalkboard Sunflowers

Hello Power Poppy fans!  I'm Allison Cope and I'm your hostess for Inspire Me Monday today.

Today I thought I'd share with you a quick video tutorial on how to create a printed back ground for your digital stamps.

I am featuring the brand new digital stamp set, "Sunflower Power" today.

For my particular tutorial, I will be using the Photoshop SC3 program to do all of my digital creations in but this can be achieved in other programs that you may have at home.

Join me today by grabbing a nice cuppa joe or a cold summery lemonade and find out how to create a chalkboard back ground for your digital images.

Here's one final gander at my final card creation using the digital image and back ground we created...

Here's a close up that shows I added some Copic Marker made shadows behind my image to give it more depth...

Thanks for joining me today!  I hope I was able to help you learn a new trick or two when it comes to your digital stamp images.  For more digital images offered here at Power Poppy, check THIS out here!

Happy digital creating everyone!

~ Ally ~

PS:  For complete card supplies, please visit my blog here.

A Little Shabby & A Little Chic!

Hello Power Poppy Peeps! It’s another fun-filled Friday over here on the POWER POPPY blog! We’ve got some Bloomies creations to share, winnings to award and a brand new challege -- one designed to deliver a dash of design power & splash of creative spark — to unveil!

LET’S GET READY HAPPY STAMPERS!

HOW TO PLAY: Our hostess with the mostess is the talented Cindy Lawrence and here’s what she has to say about this month's Shabby & Chic Challenge! 

“Create a project using soft colors, distressed edges, vintage embellishments...anything that gives your card or creation that shabby chic look!”

OFFICIAL RULES:

• Use Power Poppy stamps if you have them, but if you don’t, this is a great way to WIN them
• Link your creation below using our Linky (please use the exact URL from your post instead of a generic blog address.)
• Please mention Power Poppy in YOUR blog or gallery post with a link back to THIS challenge
• The winner will receive a free clear or digital stamp set of choice from the Power Poppy Shop
• Enter as many cards as you’d like, as long as they fit the theme of the challenge!
• Deadline to enter is August 31 @ 8:00pm EST. At that point, we'll draw the winner randomly and make the announcement right here on the first Friday of September.

Just to set the scene and get those creative juices flowing, let's take a gander at the one and only Cindy Lawrence's challenge creation!

Cindy used the fresh combination of pink, kraft, and gray shades in her shabby chic creation.  She inverted the colors in the digital image before printing it off, making the image white and the background black.  Then she lightened the black background to a pale shade of gray, in keeping with the soft palette on her card.  Bits of lacey doily, distressed edges, a mix of twine and white seam binding ribbon add just the right amount of shabby to the chic, or perhaps it is chic to the shabby?  Either way, it showcases the gorgeous new Sunflower Power digital stamp beautifully.

There you have it folks! How shabby can you get? How much of an antique flair can you deliver? We can't wait to see those creations start to fill up our linky below! So, get those fingers inky and then link up your gallery or blog post right here! (psst. the link is at the bottom of this post!)

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AND WE HAVE A WINNER! 

Last week brought an end to July’s Hang Some Paper Challenge!  With all the entries in, we let Random.org work its magic and the lucky number is......

That means our Power & Spark winner for July is... DONNA PHELAN!

Just check out her cute-as-can-be creation!

I love the wonky layout Donna used and you can see she even used the inside of her card to capitalize on the Hang Some Paper Challenge! That's still valuable real estate folks! While Donna didn't use Power Poppy stamps on this beauty, now she'll have some to play along in future challenges! YAY! CONGRATS DONNA! Simply email us at bloom@powerpoppy.com and let us know what stamp set or digital stamp set that you’d like and we’ll send it your way! 

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We’ve come to the part of our Friday program where we love to share the blog roll for some of cardmaking's finest — THE BLOOM BRIGADE! Stop on by and get a glimpse of some of their latest creative pursuits!

Allison Cope

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Stacy Morgan

Thanks for sharing a bit of your day with us! We can’t wait to see you get all Shabby & Chic this month for a shot at some fabulous Power Poppy stamps! See you back here real soon!

~Julie

An InLinkz Link-up

Let’s cover the walls with Sunflowers!

Hello there, Sunshine!

I’m ohhhh so happy to bring you an illustration of mine today that I hope will bring a smile to your face. But first, let’s get all hopped up on paintings by the master colorist, painter, dreamer... Vincent van Gogh. It might give you a bit of an idea of what my newest remixed digital stamp set is today...

Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1888  ||  Public Domain photo

Vincent van Gogh, Still Life Vase with Twelve Sunflowers, 1889  ||  Public Domain photo

Vincent van Gogh, Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers, 1888  ||  Public Domain photo

I recently read an article about how Vincent came to paint his series of sunflower paintings in order to woo the artist Paul Gauguin to come visit him, and cover the walls of the room where he would be staying in van Gogh’s house in Arles, France, in exquisite sunflowers! It’s quite fascinating, if you want to pop over to the BBC for a transcript...

Well, really, who among us isn’t wooed and wowed by sunflowers? They give a thrill, whether the walls are covered in them (can you IMAGINE what a sight that must’ve been?!) or if you pass by a field of bright yellow beauties in bloom, or even if maybe your neighbors’ 8-foot specimens are leaning over the fence and into view! I’d say the same powerful spark of joy can be created with a single bloom bursting forth from the paper.... so let’s start there! Introducing: Sunflower Power.

This set includes my sunflower illustration and a sentiment that lets somebody know how much you appreciate them! It’s as simple as that, my sweet friends, and you can color up this set in a simple, cheerful yellow, or go dramatic with hybrid reds, oranges, and even shades of magenta — heck, have fun with it, no matter how you decide to go!! Just add a little sunshine to someone’s day. How about today?

Here are some women who are VERY GOOD at adding sunshine to all of our days — members of our Bloom Brigade and Instant Gardener design teams!! They have created a stunning card with this new set, come and get a little sunshiny goodness for yourself, just by reading their blog posts:

Debbie Olson
Cheryl Scrivens
Julie Koerber
Tosha Leyendekker
Stacy Morgan

Thank you so much for coming by today to see our newest Digi on the 5s release, and thank you to all of you for adding such a joyful element to MY life. I appreciate you so very much!

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

August’s Color Me Grateful Collection is here!

I’m so happy to share with everyone that we’re ready to roll out the three new sets that will keep you coloring til the cows come home! Or maybe til you’ve worn out the grooves on your old 45 records... were you able to spend some time this week visiting with our enchanting Bloom Brigade? Each card they created for this release was a brilliant sight to behold, if I do say so myself! How is it that they can bring such shock and awe in the form of stunning stamping release after release? It is not for me to ask, but for me to be so stoked!!!

Now, it’s YOUR turn to get your hands dirty — what would you do with all of these images to color? Each set offers something delightfully different and is available now in the Power Poppy Shop:

 Happy Crabapple

Well Played

So Grateful

I know this might seem too good to be true, but the Bloomies have fashioned ONE MORE CARD to really kick this release into high gear. Talk about being grateful, thank you ladies!! Let’s go see what very special creation they have to share with us today....

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Katie Sims
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker

We are soooo glad that you could come spend some time with us—AND—we hope you had a chance to squeeeeze your card into our July edition of the Power & Spark Challenge, which had final call on Friday! We’ll be announcing the winner of the free stamp set next Friday, August 7, and will share a brand new challenge! See you creative kittens later.... hopefully over at the Power Poppy Shop to stock up on the new sets or to pick up a few you’ve been wanting to play with. Take care, and enjoy your weekend!

So Grateful!

Hello folks! Things are bustling so much over at Power Poppy home base that, when a blog post decides not only to not go up but proceeds to get lost in the blogosphere, we didn’t realize it! So, to get you to the action that much faster, I am going to make this introduction — short, sweet and full of gratitutde! Check out our final sneaky peak from Power Poppy’s Color Me Grateful Collection!

This set — So Grateful — captures our gratitude for nature’s abundance with giant doses of end-of-summer/early fall color! Just look at these lush and larger than life images that are oozing with possibilities when it comes to coloring! With a bunch of  dahlias, daisies, sweet potato vine, berries and even a darling flower-filled pumpkin -- you have a potpourri of beauty at the center of your fall cards and creations. Not to mention, the sentiments in this set are suited for thank you cards galore!

As always, the Bloomies went above and beyond when it came to bringing this new set to life — check it out for yourself! You won't be sorry!

Allison Cope

Christine Okken

Kathy Jones

Katie Sims

Leslie Miller

Tosha Leyendekker

Be sure to check back tomorrow when our Bloomies kick off a Power Poppy Parade showcasing the fabulous sets in our Color Me Grateful Collection! And, it’s also the day when all the sets will be LIVE in the Power Poppy Shop, ready to add to stamp rooms far and wide!

See you then!

~Julie

Those about to rock this stamp set, we salute you!

Welcome back for day two of our Color Me Grateful August clear set sneak peeks!!

For everyone who knows that I am a music lover/fanatic/junkie, you may have been wondering just how long it would be before I would design a stamp set devoted to that divine topic: MUSIC! It heals hearts, it lifts up the spirit, it makes people gosh-darn happy!

Growing up I was surrounded by my folks’ record collection... the sounds of Motown, Stax Records from Memphis (which is now the American Museum of Soul Music and Doug and I recently toured it — swoooon!!), of course the Beatles and the Beach Boys and all the “golden oldies” really were the soundtrack of my childhood. Sprinkled in with hard bop jazz (my Daddy’s favorite), and influenced by my brother Andy’s hip hop and rap cassettes (taped from a friend’s cassette, who probably taped it off the radio), I went on to discover funk, ska, punk, skateboard rock, moody Brit pop and dance electronica ... and girl, we haven’t even gotten to the part yet where I started working in a record store in high school and my world exploded with a new variety of musical genres I’d never even heard of. The list of favorites just grew and grew, into country and metal and power pop and classical and, and, and...

OK, so, yeah, a music set was in order! And the ideas had been swirling...

But the thing that really got me in the groove to design this set was my daughter, Lulu. We went to our first rock concert together this spring. And by first, I mean, the first time she picked the band she reallllllllly wanted to see, and it wasn’t “Mom Music”. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen her as giddy as she was at that show!! She was IN. HER. ELEMENT. She can often be found wearing her big puffy headphones, or playing guitar, singing, and writing songs. She’s a poet, a dreamer, and a leader. If anyone deserves a stamp set with a tribute to her favorite things, it’s this lil lady. I borrowed this selfie from her Instagram. (Don’t say anything to her, please, she’ll kill me...)

I realized that when I wanted to make a card for Lulu, Power Poppy did not have a set in our arsenal that fit Lulu’s tastes to a T. I had to get on top of that STAT! (p.s. the one set that would have fit the bill would have been Sassy Succulents, and we WILL get that one back in stock very soon, my friends, very soon!) I worked through lots of sketches and came up with a few images that I think are a sweet tribute to nostalgic rock n’ rollers, with quirky and fun images and sentiments that will light up a card for the tween-to-teen set... or heck, people of any age who appreciate a nice jam! Introducing: Well Played.

I want you to see just how much fun the Bloom Brigade has been having with Well Played...

Let’s Get Rockin’ BLOOMIES!

Kathy Jones
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker
Leslie Miller
Christine Okken
Allison Cope
Katie Sims
Cindy Lawrence 

Thank you so much for checking out Day 2 of our August release! We’ll be back tomorrow to show you one more set that is so full of coloring options, I just know (hope, but really feel pretty confident) that you’re going to love it.