Holiday 2015 Collection: Try Citrus for Christmas!

Boy, do you all know how to make a lady feel good. Thank you for the very kind comments on my blog post yesterday introducing our first set of the Holiday release (if you missed it, click here!) as well as all of your supportive comments on our Bloom Brigade’s blogs!

Today I’m sharing a glimpse of another brand new clear stamp set (there will be five total, culminating in a big ol’ blog hop celebration on Sunday, October 18th to coincide with the sets being revealed in their entirety and available for purchase). Today’s set is a little spicy!

Spicy for Christmas? Oh, yeah. Spicy for Christmas. I’m talking about mulling spices. Cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, star anise, nutmeg. And what am I going to do with these spices? Well, around here, we make orange pomanders decorated with spicy aromatic cloves in a variety of patterns. Then we float them in apple cider tossed with the mulling spices, simmer it all on the stove, and seemingly instantly the sweet smells of the holidays fill the house! I have been so giddy about doing this set, I can’t even tell you. I went ahead and prepared a batch of orange pomanders and mulling spices this very morning and put it on the stove—I don’t have cider on hand so I used orange juice and sliced up an apple and tossed it in the saucepan!—so the scent will be wafting through the house when the kids wake up for school.

Speaking of slicing up stuff, here are a few slices of the Bloomie’s cards to show you what we’re up to today!

Details from spicy new cards by Christine Okken, Kathy Jones, and Allison Cope

I hope you’ll find this clear set to have all kinds of possibilities — it is versatile enough to use for Autumnal cards as it is for the Holidays. Presenting: Spice It Up!

Have you ever made these balls of smell-goodie-goodness? If you haven’t ever made your own citrus pomanders, I recommend that this be the year you give it a try. It is SO EASY and you can make them with little kids, too! The tradition goes back to Medieval times, so you can even try to work a history lesson into it. The patterns can be totally random, or you can try more orderly designs. I actually asked Lulu (age 13) if she would help me make a few last night and she was kind of over it. Get ’em while they’re young, before they can say no!! :)

You don’t have to float the pomanders in mulling spices, you can set them in a pretty bowl as a table centerpiece, or perch a few around the house in teacups or on beds of greenery. Many will eventually dry cure (they go off if there’s too much humidity and get icky, you’ll have toss those) — and provide decorative interest throughout the season. I still have some from a few years ago in my stash, but I’m one of those keepers of everything....

Even if you aren’t feeling like making actual pomanders, how about giving Spice It Up a go in your cardmaking and holiday crafting? You aren’t going to believe your eyes when you see the cute ideas coming from the Bloom Brigade today... some adorable, out-of-the-box thinking from these wunderkinds of creativity!! Go take a look...

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Leslie Miller
Tosha Leyendekker

Thank you so much for coming by for Day 2 of our Holiday preview. Three more exciting days to go! See you back here tomorrow, I hope!

Holiday 2015 Collection... Sneak Peeks Start Today!

Hello, hello! I couldn’t be more tickled to begin sharing our Holiday 2015 clear stamp preview with you. My friends, we are adding FIVE NEW SETS to our Happiest Holiday Collection! In fact, it’s been so hard to keep it under wraps, I’ve already shared peeks of my sketches on my Instagram feed (@marcellahawley if you’d care to join me over there).

I tell you, concocting the ideas for the collection, doing loads of research (what an awesome “job”), drawing the images, styling the sentiments, and all that jolly jazz is an affair in its own right, but ladies, you ain’t seen nuthin’ until you see how the Bloom Brigade design team has transformed my artwork into showstopping Holiday cards.

And we absolutely cannot wait to see what YOU will do with them! Oh, goodness me. The possibilities with these sets are pretty great... from elegant to homespun, and lots of variety in between. Here is a teensy sampling of today’s set just to give you an inkling of what I mean...

Details from gorgeous new cards by Leslie Miller, Cindy Lawrence, and Tosha Leyendekker

The artwork style for the stamp above is inspired by an ancient design technique known as arabesque. According to the dictionary, arabesque is “an ornamental design consisting of intertwined flowing lines, originally found in Arabic or Moorish decoration,” and the style was adapted into Greek, Medieval, Renaissance... there isn’t really an art form that hasn’t used it! I’m sure you’ve got a few images with scrolling lines and shapes in your stamp arsenal.

But what really got me into this vibe was the idea that you can start with a shape or “ornament” and then fill it with your own variety of flowers, vines, berries, fruits, what have you — to come up with an image that holds a lot of interest whether it’s shown in a single color or shaded to the nines!

From the Handbook of Ornament by Franz Sales Meyer, 1957, Dover Publications, Inc.

Here is a neat example from a wonderful resource called Handbook of Ornament, which is a collection of ornamental designs, both 2- and 3-dimensional, throughout history. It’s basically a go-to tome of decorative design, and I pull it out on occasion as a jumping off point for ideas. There’s an entire chapter on flat designs rendered inside a shape, and here I’ve shared a snippet from the Oblong Panel page. Now as you can see, the designs of these ornaments are repeat patterns. The same design elements (leaf, vine, fleurette, scroll) are repeated in each area of the panel to created a unified whole design. NIFTY! And also, it’s something I see done beautifully in the crafting world. So, to make it my own, I decided to take the concept of creating several design elements (poinsettias, berry clusters, roses, lilies, mistletoe, leaves, and vines) and put them together into a tree-shaped ornament, but with an organic structure, so each area of the tree is unique! I saw a wonderful embroidery pattern of spring flowers inside a tree ornament that captured my heart, and I knew that holiday botanicals would be something fun to try! Take a peek at my pencil sketch, which I then went in and fine-tuned and redrew with a Pigma Micron pen...

With the mix of flowers and fruits, seeds, leaves, and berries, you can use this set for the Holidays, or really, for any time of the year! Introducing our first Holiday set of the 2015 release... Botanical Tree.

I have kept you here waaaaaay too long, because what is truly spectacular about our arabesque set is what you can DO with it! Just take a look at what our Bloom Brigade has created for today’s kick-off:

Cindy Lawrence

Julie Koerber

Kathy Jones

Leslie Miller

Stacy Morgan

Tosha Leyendekker

I do hope we’ll see you back here tomorrow for another fresh new Holiday set peek! ALL SETS WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE on Sunday, October 18th!!!

Have an absolutely awesome day everyone!

Inspire Me Monday: Inktense Pencils

Howdy all... and Happy Monday to all those out there in Blogland.  It's Inspire Me Monday and I'm your hostess Allison Cope!

Today on the Power Poppy Blog we're going to talk a little bit about Inktense pencils and creating cards with large sentiments.  I'm going to pull out my "Happy Crabapples" and "Potted Primroses" stamp sets and we're going to do a little stamping and coloring together.

So here is a peek at the card I'm going to share the coloring process with you today. 

So grab a good cup of something tasty and join me at my stamp table...

Direct Video Link 

For my final card, I added some clear Wink of Stella pen and some White Jellyroll Pen details to my crabapples and blossoms...

Inktense Pencils: Sun Yellow, Sherbet Lime, Apple Green, Tangerine, Poppy Red, Cherry, Shiraz, Bark

Thanks for taking the time to stop by today!  I hope you enjoyed my video tutorial and give this medium a whirl!  Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian peeps out there!

~ Ally ~

Supplies:
Stamps:  Power Poppy (Happy Crabapples, Potted Primroses)
Cardstock: Canston (90# Watercolor Paper), Recollections 110# White cardstock
Patterned Paper:  Fresh Squeezed Chevron 6x6 (My Favorite Things)
Inks:  Jet Black (StazOn), Inktense Pencils, Wink of Stella (clear), Jellyroll White Pen 
Dies:  Stitched Rectangles (Lawn Fawn), Stitched Basic Edges (My Favorite Things)
Lace:  Misc..

And the WINNER is......

Hello folks! Short and sweet post for you this Sunday! We wanted to thank all the lovelies that joined us in celebrating World Card Making Day and taking our Sketch Challenge for a spin! We loved seeing all the different color combinations and how some of you flip flopped the sketch to get even more creative with it!

Random.org drew the number 13, which means our lucky winner is.......

D.J. RANTS! 

Congrats D.J.-- we loved how you took the sketch and instead of a rectangle, you morphed it into a square orientation! Plus, we love the fusion of stamp sets you used to create this beautiful scene!!!

D.J. not only used Power Poppy's O Holy Night stamp set but she used the Merry Littles set too to create that darling sentiment accented with a bow and some sprigs of evergreen! Love the warm and cozy feel this creation exudes! Bravo!!!

D.J. to claim your prize, all you need to do is email us at bloom@powerpoppy.com and let us know which three digital stamp sets or which single polymer stamp set you would like us to send your way! Congrats!!

If you want to see ALL the entries, just click on over HERE to see just how creative folks got with this one! I loved each and every one!

Thanks all! See you back here soon! Ally is "on deck" tomorrow with another episode of Inspire Me Monday that you will NOT want to miss! ;-)

~Julie

COLOR YOUR WORLD!

Wouldn't it be nice to take a little respite, a little break from the day-to-day grind to do something that adds joy and color to your life? Well, these peeps right here at Power Poppy dedicated at least ONE DAY to coloring our worlds and we're joining the ever-talented Kathy Racoosin over at The Daily Marker in her challenge to color up something every day -- YES -- every day for 30 days! She's even sharing prizes for those who participate! It may be the 9th and we may be joining the party fashionably late, but you can join in at any time at all!

HOW TO JOIN IN THE FUN.....

Pick a coloring medium, any which one, and enjoy some special downtime to recharge and color. There's no presssure to really do it each and every day. But, if you want to carve out ten minutes for a zippy color fest with your favorite cuppa, why not? Life's too short, isn't it?

WHAT? IT'S JUST THAT EASY?

Yes, sweet stamping friends, it is! Then, after you color up something fun, make sure you link your creation RIGHT HERE on the linky for a chance at some prizes! Keep in mind Kathy is urging us all to share our colorific skills. That doesn't mean you need a finished card. Just show off what you colored! You can also share via social media -- Facebook, Instagram, Flickr -- using the hashtag #thedailymarker30day3  

DID YOU SAY THERE WERE PRIZES? 

Why yes, we did! And guess what? Power Poppy is adding to the mix by donating a stamp set of choice to one lucky colorista! Kathy will pick the winner at the end of the month when the challenge wraps up! Check HERE for all the details!

WHERE DO I FIND INSPIRATION?
The Daily Marker! Kathy is posting new and colorful things each and every day for the entire month of October!

ARE THE BLOOMIES PLAYING ALONG?
Absolutely! In fact, if you hop, skip and jump your way through our link list, you'll see what they created during one of their own personal coloring sessions.

Allison Cope

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Julie Koerber
Katie Sims

Leslie Miller

Stacy Morgan

Tosha Leyendekker

CAN I COMBINE THIS WITH ANOTHER CHALLENGE?
Why yes you CAN! In fact, there is so much going on at Power Poppy you have a plethora of ways to double, triple even quadruple your chances of winning some Power Poppy stamps! You have until Saturday night to play along in our World Cardmaking Day Sketch Challenge! You can nip and snip and play along in our Power and Spark Bits & Pieces Challenge! Or, you can hop on over to Splitcoaststampers and play along in their month long Hope You Can Cling To event. 

So there you have it peeps, a handful of reasons to take time to create a little happy and color up some fun!

Can't wait to see what YOU create!
~Julie

Trick or treat?

Hello to you! The Bloom Brigade and I are all wrapped up in preparing for our Holiday clear stamp release. Busy busy busy! Fun fun fun!

In the meantime, I hope you’ll scroll down to read about some of the cardmaking challenges we’ve posted in the last few days! From World Card Making Day to our Bits & Pieces Challenge, to Splitcoaststampers’ Hope You Can Cling To monthlong challenge, you’ll find plenty to keep you busy. We’ll see you all next Monday, with an all-new tutorial from our dear Allison Cope.

Our Instant Garden digi releases are going to take a brief break as well, and we’ll be back on October 25th with downloadable images and sentiments to delight and inspire!

Don’t forget to run over and see Christine Okken’s card on the Paper Crafter’s Library blog, and you could win a free stamp set just for leaving a comment.

Perhaps you’ll enjoy some Otis Redding, “Trick or Treat” to kick off this October Monday? I know I did! Have a fabulous day!

HAPPY WORLD CARD MAKING DAY!

Welcome to a momentous occasion here in the card making world! It’s a day devoted completely to... US!

That’s right folks — for today we get to create with reckless abandon watching that ink flow, paper fly, and glitter float through the air like fairy dust! 

In honor of this oh-so-special day, Power Poppy thought it would be fantabulous (fantastic plus fabulous = fantabulous) to offer up a fun challenge that would give you a reason to create and also give us a reason to give away a little Power Poppy goodness! So, here goes! It’s a Sketchy Challenge that has some extra fun packed inside!

HOW TO PLAY:  MAKE SURE YOU USE ALL 3 ELEMENTS

#1: USE THIS SKETCH AS INSPIRATION

#2: USE NON-TRADITIONAL COLORS TO CREATE A HOLIDAY CARD

Here’s a little peek at how I used the sketch! Okay, I hope I don’t get “fired” for sharing this top secret look at an upcoming Power Poppy Holiday set. That’s right, what you are seeing here is super dooper classified card making information folks! ;-) Take a gander at Power Poppy’s soon-to-be-released stamp set called Cozy Cupfuls! You can watch for upcoming Holiday Collection sneaky peeks starting October 13th with the full release on the 18th of October! You are definitely going to want to mark your calendar. This collection is buzz-worthy!!!

#3: ADD A LITTLE SPARKLE OR BLING

Anyone that knows me --- KNOWS --- I love my bling. It makes me happy! So, as you can see here, I have a plethora! I have a little rhinestone for my deer's nose, a little sparkle gel pen on the cup’s steamy drink and a little razzle dazzle on the package thanks to some glitter glue, see?

So, there you have it! Use the sketch, non-traditional colors for a holiday card and add a little sparkle! Then, link up your creation below! Use Power Poppy stamp sets if you have them, but if you don't, now is the time to win some! While World Card Making Day is only one day, you're in luck! You have a whole WEEK to play along! Contest will close next Saturday, October 10th and we’ll announce a winner sometime on Sunday, October 11th. Random winner will receive their choice of three digital stamp sets or one polymer stamp set of choice! 

Want to see how some of my fellow Bloomies took this sketch for a spin?

Cindy Lawrence

Christine Okken

Julie Koerber

Tosha Leyendekker

There you have it Card Making Comrades — get those fingers inky, have some fun, create and then link up your creation below! HAPPY WORLD CARD MAKING DAY!

~Julie

p.s. If you are looking for even more ways to create, see our post on Thursday about our sponsorship of this year's Hope You Can Cling To event over at Splitcoaststampers.com! It's a cause with a heart that helps you create and deliver hope along the way! ;-) 

An InLinkz Link-up