Digis and Deals and Contests -- Oh My!

Hello Peeps! We kind of let you in on a little secret yesterday and NOW, we're ready to fully fill everyone in on some weekend fun! If you didn't know it, the fabulous Rhea Weigand has a super creative and chocked-full-of-inspiration spot on Facebook that she affectionately calls Passionate Paper Creations & Friends! If you haven't joined this group, you are missing out. Not a day goes by where dozens of people don't upload colorful eye candy or tutorials sharing some of the latest coloring techniques. That's why, when Rhea asked us if Power Poppy wanted a weekend all to ourselves to usher in some fun, we couldn't help but say YES!

SO, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Starting today and running through Sunday at 11:59 pm central daylight time, one of our newest digital stamps, Sunflower Power, will be offered at 50% off. That's just $3 for this joy-filled image and sunny sentiment! 

WHAT DO I DO WITH THE IMAGE AFTER I BUY IT?

Well, you join us in a coloring contest! All you have to do is nab the digi, use it to create a colorful card or project and then link your creation up over on the Passionate Paper Creations and Friends Page on Facebook under our coloring contest post and you'll be in the running!

I AM NOT A MEMBER AT PASSIONATE PAPER CREATIONS & FRIENDS, HOW DO I BECOME ONE?

It's easy! Click on over to the page HERE, and up at the top, there is a button to click that says "Join This Group." Click on that button and you'll be one of the newest peeps to join this colorfully creative page! 

WHEN WILL YOU PICK A WINNER?

Fear not! If you make something using our Sunflower Power digital stamp, you won't need to wait long to find out if you've won! We'll comb through the entries, draw two random winners for a $25 Gift Certificate to the Power Poppy Shop and make the announcement over on the Passionate Paper Creations and Friends Facebook Page on Monday.

So, what are you waiting for? A creative community awaits! It's one that is full of inspiration AND it will give you a chance to win some Power Poppy goodness too! That's a win-win if you ask me! 

~Julie

Kicking off a Creative Weekend!

It's Friday and boy do we have a lot to share here on the ole POWER POPPY blog! Where to begin? Where to begin!!! 

FIRST UP: We are so excited to partner with the fabulous Rhea Weigand and her creative spot on the web, Passionate Paper Creations! We can't spill the beans just yet (come back tomorrow for more), but I'll give you a few hints — there will be a contest! There will be a special on one of our gorgeous new digital stamps and there will be prizes for those of you who play along! So, like I said, swing back by and see what we've got shaking. In the meantime, click on over HERE and click on the tab that says Join Group. That way, you can take part and won't miss out on a minute of the action! 

SECOND: Tomorrow is the 15th of the month, which means we're about to pluck another beauty from the Power Poppy greenhouse and add it to our Instant Garden. Translation: we'll have a brand new digital stamp to add to our Instant Garden collection, just for YOU! If you like what you see, you can snap it up and get right to printing, coloring, and creating!

THIRD: Have you had time to let the paper and ink fly and play along in our latest challenge? If not, check it out! There are stamps up for grabs and they might just have YOUR name on them! Here's what I'm talking about! It's our......

HOW TO PLAY: Play along with our design hostess Cindy Lawrence and create a card or project that's a little shabby and a little chic! Think vintage accents, roughed up edges and maybe even an antique flair!

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.

Even though we just ushered in this challenge last week, the entries are already starting to come in! Take a gander at this lovely by the talented Wanda Cullen!

Wanda used Power Poppy's digital stamp Gerbera Daisies and then added the shabby chic touches with distressing, sponging, splatters, and twine! This card has great country accents with the stitched-border look, and roughed up papers. I love the rustic charm and the mix of patterns. It's a keeper of a card, Wanda! Okay folks, now it's YOUR turn to show off your shabby chic side! We can't wait to see what you whip up and we can't WAIT to give away some freebies to one lucky stamper this month!

And, stamping friends, that's not the end of the inspiration! We have the Bloomies on stand by to show off some of their latest creations! Stop on by and say, “hi!”

Christine Okken
Julie Koerber
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker

Thanks so much for popping in ans seeing what we have on tap! Like I said, you have GOT to come back tomorrow to take in a bit of the excitement. New digital stamps! Contests! Plus, a special on one of our newest digital stamps! Too much fun! 

~Julie

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!)

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

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! 

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

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!