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

No Tricks, JUST TREATS!

Hello all and happy Friday! It's the day before All Hallow's Eve! Any crafters out there with wee ghosts and goblins ready to take over the city in search of candy? I love this time of year, nothing like the crisp fall air paired with darling kiddos smiling and just looking for goodies! It's priceless. So, HAPPY HALLOWEEN to you all!

We aren't in the business of "Tricking" today but we sure will be "Treating!" First up, time is dwindling for you to get in on this month's......

This fun-filled Power and Spark Challenge called Bits & Pieces ends tomorrow at 8PM EST! So, grab whatever bit or piece of a stamped image you'd like to play up on a card and get those last minute entries in! Winner gets a stamp set of choice and that, sweet stamping friends, is indeed a TREAT!

We've also been treated to the artistry from all kinds of entries this month! Just because I LOVE to share, let's take a peek at a few cards that just trickled in this past week! Shall we?

First up is MAUREEN WONG! Not only do I love the sparkly and soft backdrop to this beautifully colored floral, I realized looking at it that Maureen just used the budding flower from Power Poppy's Digital Stamp set called Sunflower Power. So sweet! On top of that, she used multiple images to add a little something from the dimension department. What a beautiful effect, don't you think?

Next up is Barbara Campbell who not only blew up a snippet of the Digital Stamp called Countryside Bouquet, she colored it exquisitely in bold shades of orange. It's got almost a dreamy, watercolor effect going on there! Well done Barbara! Well done!

Well, that was fun, wasn't it? I hope you feel creatively refreshed and ready to take on the Power & Spark Bits & Pieces challenge YOURSELF! We'll be drawing a name, thanks to random.org this week and will announce the lucky stamper next Friday as we unveil a brand-spanking new Power & Spark Challenge just for YOU!

And now it's time to shine the spotlight on our ever-so-fabulous crew of Bloomies! Make sure you stop by their "places" to give them a shout!

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Julie Koerber

Katie Sims

Leslie Miller

Stacy Morgan

Tosha Leyendekker

Thanks for stopping by and checking out what's POPPIN' here on the Power Poppy Blog! Make sure to tune in Monday for another "episode" of Inspire Me Monday! I'm told Rhea Weigand is on deck and ready to "WOW" with another colorific creation!

See you back here soon!

~Julie

Inspire Me Monday: Arabesque Ornaments

Happy Monday friends!  It’s Christine here to show you a sweet and simple little ornament you can create for your tree.  What’s fun about it is that you can make it more detailed, or leave it quite simple and it still has a wonderful effect.  

Did you see Marcy’s wonderful post about the design process with our new set Botanical Tree? Oh it’s so great, she talks about the development of this set in the arabesque style, which is such a wonderful way of illustrating.  Because of the detail of this set, it works perfect when stamped in a variety of ways.  I thought I’d show off three styles for these ornaments.  

For the first ornament I thought I’d go all out and colour it up.  I stamped the tree in Memento Tuxedo Black onto a 4 x 6 inch piece of XPress It Blending card stock, reversing the image back and forth.  

Next, I added my reds into the design giving colour to the roses and poinsettias.  

Then I added in a variety of greens to the foliage and lilies.  

Next, because I wanted the inside of the ornament to be pretty I coloured up the backside of the card stock with a B10 and B11 Marker to give it a blue hue.  

And then I added that same B10, B11 blue hue to the background of the coloured up side.  

Next take your 4 x 6 inch coloured card stock and cut it into 3/4 inch strips along the 4 inch side.  You’ll probably have a wee bit of a sliver of left-over card stock, you can just toss it.  I wasn’t interested in doing any math to figure out how to make it work out perfectly.

Line up your strips in a row, aren’t they pretty?  

Then, because I wanted the top of the oranament to have a finished look I took at small die cut circle in a coordinating colour and used my 1/8 inch punch to put a hole in the center.  

Gather all the strips into a pile and punch a hole in the top center of the strips, then add your circle and a brad to hold that side together.  Follow the same step for the bottom of the strips by adding a punched hole and brad there as well.  

Now you’ll have a stack that looks like this.  You can bend the strips slightly to curve them and then you’ll fan the strips into an oval strip by strip to form the ornament.  

Here’s how it looks!  So cute!  

And now you can see why I wanted to colour the inside of the ornament, just because you can see the inner strips too.  

Next I tied some simple twine around the top brad.  You could also add beads or tassels to the top or bottom of the ornament to really fancy them up.  

You can also use this set tone on tone to create a soft pretty effect as I did above with Pool Party paper and ink.  

Or, like this little ornament using white craft ink, and white embossing powder on red cardstock.  

Here’s my pretty trio hanging from my evergreen tree outside.  So cute, and even easy enough for kids to create too. They would be a great little addition to your Christmas tree this year.  

Christine

A Fanciful Friday... just for YOU!

Goodness gracious, hasn’t this been an action-packed month full of Power Poppy? From World Card Making Day, a new Power & Spark Challenge, sponsoring the Splitcoaststampers' Hope You Can Cling To campaign, fabulous tutorials.... did I mention the AMAZING holiday release last week? Oh my! And today, we’re back at it again with another mini Bloom Brigade Parade along with some eye candy from some of our Power Poppy Peeps!

Let’s get on with the show! Just in case it’s slipped off your radar, we should tell you that you only have 8 more days to get in on this.......

It’s the Bits & Pieces Power and Spark Challenge -- where we challenge YOU to use just a bit or a piece of a stamped image.  You can click HERE for all the official details! Use Power Poppy stamps if you have them, but if you don’t, it’s a great time to win some! Like I said, check out the official rules! ;-)

Because we only have a little over a week left, I HAVE to take this time to share a couple of the creations that have been linked up this month!

Isn't this little tea time creation as sweet as can be? We can all thank Gail for this digital delight that pairs one of Power Poppy’s Digi Stamp Sets, Gerbera Daisies, with the Silhouette Cameo! So pretty in pink and I love the embossing and pop of pearls! 

The next lovely not only uses Power Poppy's Potted Primroses stamp set but a creative mosaic effect! Tricia is playing along in the Hope You Can Cling To challenge to be inspired by the art of mosaic. You can read all about the challenge HERE after, of course, you soak up Tricia’s artistic know-how! 

If that little dose of inspiration wasn't enough -- we have more! It’s time to take a trip through Bloom Brigade land to check out what some of the Bloomies whipped up for your viewing pleasure this week!

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Julie Koerber

Stacy Morgan

Thanks so much Power Poppy fans for stopping by and sharing a little time this Friday! Christine Okken will be back on Monday for another artful Inspire Me Monday! See you then sweet friends!

~Julie

Inspire Me Monday: Adding Dimension

Hello Friends, How was your weekend? Let me introduce myself. My name is Kathy Racoosin, and I have been blogging for 7 years at The Daily Marker. I am so delighted to be here today for Inspire Me Monday. I must admit I am a feeling some stage fright. I would like to show you that adding dimension to your cards with just a little fussy cutting can add some impact to your card.

Die-cutting a few circles, you can create a wreath. It’s the perfect “frame” to add dimension and set off the beautiful images from Power Poppy, like this vignette from the Bottlebrush Holiday clear stamp set.

I have a collection of bottlebrush trees except they aren't the yummy vintage ones. I have long admired the beige “antique” trees so that was the look I was going for today. 

If you want to see a few tips on creating my card, watching the video might be helpful. :)

Check out your stash for two circles that will work together create a round open wreath. 

Stamp the bottlebrush tree onto the wreath repeatedly with some Bamboo Leaves ink from Memento (Copic-friendly) The great thing is you can place the tree on the thick or the thin part to fill in the gap. No need for measuring. 

Color your wreath with some vintage-looking colors. The gaps between the stamped trees looks like wrapped ribbon so don't be shy adding some color here.

Sometimes it’s a good thing to stamp a few extra images just in case. At this point I wasn’t sure how strong I wanted the lines to be for the center of my wreath. 

I settled on the soft lines of the Memento Ink called London Fog. Not shown is another bottlebrush tree that I stamped and colored so that I can pop up later on my card. 

Cutting into and around the images make it easy to cut out. Stamp the sentiment in the grey ink. A large blob of Glossy Accents were added to the small ornaments on the tree and Wink of Stella was added to the large ornaments and the banners. 

For the background I chose a stencil with a geometric pattern. Using a light and relaxed hand when inking up the stencil will give you a softer color. Once the stencil is removed add more distress ink to the corners to draw the eye into the center of the card where your focal point is. 

Foam on top of foam gives you dimension galore. It’s best to select only one of the images to have double foam tape. The bottlebrush tree is the lucky one :)

Making a layered card for someone special is worth the extra effort when you have a little extra time. Thanks for your visit today it’s always appreciated. 

Fondly, Kathy

Happiest Holiday 2015 is Now Available!

Whew!! This has been a whirlwind of a week! We’ve shared our excitement about the 2015 Holiday stamp designs and some really creative cardmaking samples to go with them. It’s time to reveal all the sets. You can come and shop away!!!

Introducing the five new sets you can find right now at Power Poppy:

 Botanical Tree

Spice It Up

Wreaths Plain and Fancy

Olive and Oak Extended

Cozy Cupfuls

Now that you’ve seen all of these sweet new sets, I sure hope you’ll find something you like. If you need just a smidge more enticing... how would you like to see ONE MORE CARD from each member of the Bloom Brigade?! I thought you’d like the sound of that!

Get your cup of coffee and come take a whirl with me... carry it away girls!

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

Thank you so much for spending time with us this week! We appreciate you and have eaten up all of your delightful comments with a spoon! Thanks for being so loving and generous with your kindness. :)

P.S.... I know this might be too much excitement to bear, I mean, couple with our new release and all of these cool Bloomie cards, but get this: On MONDAY, Kathy Racoosin from the Daily Marker is going to be here with an all-new Inspire Me Monday tutorial!! Be sure to come on back tomorrow!

Holiday 2015 Collection: Time for Something Cute!

Well hello there, everybody! We’re on our very last day of new Holiday set peeks here at Power Poppy. If you’ve been following along with us this week, I’m feeling pretty confident that you’ve seen at least a FEW cards to get your mojo kickin’ to make sensational seasonal cards. I know it’s helping me get into the spirit to see my illustrations all colored-up and presented with ribbons and pearls like they’re going out to the ball!

So, if you liked the new tree set, or maybe the wreaths, or even those nostalgic pomanders — hold the phone! I have one more set to share today! This fella is designed to bring a touch of cozy to your craft table, with three vignettes that will make three very different cards. Each image delights in the little details, with lots of whimsical bits to color and add your unique touch! Take a look...

Captures of coziness in these cards by Stacy Morgan, Leslie Miller, and Tosha Leyendekker.

Whether it’s a fancy teacup, café au lait and latte bowls, or a down-home cocoa mug, I’ve filled each one with an unexpected surprise!

Are you ready to see our last addition to the Happiest Holiday Collection for 2015? Because I’m ready to show it off, and I sure do hope you’ll find it pleasing. Herrrrrre’s Cozy Cupfuls!

I can see using these images as the focal images on Holiday cards, but they’re also perfect for gift tags! And one of the best things about this set... the Cardinal boy and girl is a scene you may turn to year ’round! I have to confess that I chose to use Cardinals as an homage to my hometown St. Louis baseball team... who were just eliminated from the National League playoffs by our longtime rival, the Chicago Cubs. But fear not! Their memory will live on in this stamp set... (Go Cards!) xoxo

Another image in this set is a proper teacup with a big gulp of... spruce! I’m not exactly sure how you would water this one in real life, but I know I loooove the idea of teacups full of Christmas trees! So why not make it happen in our creative cardmaking, I ask? Maybe I’ll even try it on the mantel this year. (But where shall I put all those bottlebrush trees?)

And lastly, Cozy Cupfuls features a vignette of packages ready to be delivered or placed beneath the tree. Somebody has just been wrapping her little heart out.... you can tell because she is having a hot cocoa with whipped cream and even popped a peppermint stick in there! (Maybe she also gave herself a dash of peppermint liqueur as an added reward? We may never know!) Whatever the case, you can have a lot of fun coloring up these gifties in any which way for a very cozy scene indeed.

Would you like to see what our Bloom Brigade has done with the images and sentiments in Cozy Cupfuls today? I know I’m ready!

Christine Okken
Stacy Morgan
Katie Sims
Cindy Lawrence

Leslie Miller
and our special guest Bloomie today...
Dina Kowal

Have fun running around the designers’ blogs today, and I hope you’ll leave a little love to let them know how much you appreciate their beautiful work!! They are the most wonderful group of women, and they are REALLY making me look good this week (and every week... so blessed to have my Bloomies!) 

Now, tomorrow we’ll be here with a BIG OL’ BLOG HOP and all of the sets will be available in the store and will start shipping this week! Thank you all so much for coming by, and I wish you a happy weekend!