Spring is in the Air!

Hello Power Poppy Peeps! It’s (happy dance) FRIDAY! I don’t need to tell you what that means, do I?? Okay, okay. I’ll give you the rundown. It means 1) Some shout outs to our creative customers of the week and 2) a little eye candy from our beloved Bloom Brigade, a.k.a. the Power Poppy Design Team, the finest in the land!

So, let’s get to some of those customer creations first! I mean to tell you, it is a PURE treat to surf around the blogosphere to see what kind of Power Poppy prettiness has sprouted in, get this, just SEVEN days! It’s like watching a garden grow, I tell you! These little bits of creativity are prolific and they sprout beautifully!

We love to share a bit of what we’ve witnessed blossom on your craft tables. This first creation is one of the entries for Stacy Morgan’s March Peek-A-Boo Power & Spark Sketch Challenge and it is, dare I say, BRILLIANT! This one is the brain child of Tricia Traxler and she used her Misti Stamping Tool to create these “ghost” images on the panel that she then placed over her main image. It looks like pink vellum, doesn’t it? Well, stamping friends, it is not! She stamped once and then using her Misti, stamped again for that perfect precision. I swear, I need one of those Misti thingies! Thanks for enabling Tricia, I tell ya! ;-)

We should mention Tricia used the Potted Primroses stamp set by Power Poppy and beautifully embellished this with sheer ribbon and a snippet of gold cording. Ahhh, it’s a beauty! 

Next up is a kind of a brag on one of our Bloomies. Did you see Christine Okken’s post for the Cardmaker Magazine blog? Man, what a bit of vintage and vibrant flavor Christine delivered — with a European spin. You’ll have to CLICK HERE to see how Christine used the traditional blue-and-white folk art flair to make this quartet of cards for a friend. Psst! Just in case you wondered, she used Power Poppy’s new Folk Heart clear stamp set. You’ll want to pin this photo so that when you get your stamp set, you can CASE it (Copy and Steal Everything!). She won’t mind! ;-)

Gaw-gee-ous Ms. Christine! I love the clean and classy design and how you really added so much dimension, even with the monochromatic make up of these cards!

Now it’s time to take a gander at what the rest of the Power Poppy Bloom Brigade whipped up this week. I have a feeling they made “spring” their muse for their latest creations. It’s just a feeling! You'll have to make the rounds to see for yourself!

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Julie Koerber

Leslie Miller

Stacy Morgan

That’s it for us today! We hope you leave inspired and ready for a weekend of creativity! And, don’t forget to tune in on Monday for another edition of Inspire Me Monday, when we kick off the creative week with a BANG!

See you then!
~Julie

Our March Instant Garden Introduction: Spring Meadow Bouquet

Hello all! Today let’s move beyond our “standard” Spring flowers. There are the cherished tulips and daffodils, yes, and we will always have them (in fact, more stamps will be coming out very soon featuring them!). But as spring is sprouting all around us, it is tempting to celebrate some of the other gifts from the ground — the unsung rockstars!

Imagine walking along a little winding creek near a dewy spring meadow. The sun is flickering across the scene as nodding fronds of what appear to be tiny hearts cascade over the creek. What might these nodding fronds be?? The old fashioned Bleeding Heart is what I have in mind! Dicentra spectabilis with its puffy little danging hearts.

And a bit further along in the meadow are what look to be giant snowdrops — but snowdrops have already finished blooming, the meadow is greening up. If that’s the case, what could these bouncing pops of white be? I’m looking at Leucojum aestivum, which is the beautifully whimsical plant called Summer Snowflake (there is also Spring Snowflake, Leucojum vernum, and others do actually nickname them snowdrops, though they are not the same plant as actual snowdrops, which are genus Galanthus).

What more do we come across? Well, flowering at the base of a creekside tree are masses of checkerboard-patterned flowers that could be straight out of a Mary Engelbreit card! Known as checkered lily or snake’s head fritillary, Fritillaria meleagris is a plant that you might fall in love with after seeing it just once. They are so unique looking. How do they get that checkered pattern? Nature!!! You astound.

Lastly on our meadow outing, we come across an old Lilac tree sprawling along a wooden fence. Year after year, it blooms with abandon, and scents the country air with its spicy perfume.

Imagine gathering up a few stems of each of these jewels, and you have our March Instant Garden digital stamp set offering, Spring Meadow Bouquet!

This set is available now as a digital image (complete with sentiment!) that, after you order you receive it in an email as black-and-white jpg files. Save it to your computer, and then you just print it out from your home printer, and color away! If you ever have questions about working with our digital stamp sets, sit down with these great tutorials created by our Bloom Brigade design team:

I bought a digital stamp. Now what?

•

Working with free digital imaging software

•

Simple digital effects on a Mac computer

Now, back to our new Spring Meadow Bouquet. What started with an imaginary gathering of flowers in my head, initially looked like a fuzzy blob. I roughed out how the flowers might be collected in my sketchbook:

I then redrew the concoction on my illustration paper (I use Canson Bristol Smooth). Now, we’ve talked in the past about how, once I get going on an image, sometimes I just can’t stop. This one ended up being quite rich with details and bits and bobs... and even a little meadow butterfly came along to rest on the foliage of the checkered lily. I like to get pretty detailed in my pencil sketches so I can really get a feel for how the drawing is going to look. For ink drawings that are meant to be colored in by others, I try to leave space for markers or colored pencils to go, and some airiness for any background coloring you may want to add.

After the bouquet was drawn in pencil, came the really fun part. Things start to get real! I grabbed a handful of Sakura Pigma Micron pens, ranging from .01 to .03 size nibs, and inked in the details, created the lines, tinkered with the weight of lines and the amount of tiny dots and details. By the time I finished up, it was late in the evening, and my photo was taken by the light of the lamp next to my little cozy spot on the sofa where I like to draw. (Not shown in photo, cat sitting next to me with one paw on my arm.)

And there you have the nearly finished piece! I scan my artwork into the computer and “clean it up” — which essentially means that I can fix any boo-boos like slips of my pen, or proximity of one plant to another. I fine-tuned this one in Photoshop, and now the Spring Meadow Bouquet is all filled up with unique and wonderful plants, plus a buzzing bumblebee too (at some point I decided I wanted more LIFE happening in this image, and along came that little dude...)

Now I’d love for you to see what our talented Instant Gardeners have come up with to show off this bustling bouquet. Bop around and be sure to say hello when you do!

Broni Holcombe

Cheryl Scrivens

Barb Walker

Jennifer Dove

Would you like to get your hands on this newest digital stamp set? Come and grab Spring Meadow Bouquet in the Power Poppy Shop right now!

I hope you have a wonderful day, and continue to enjoy the unfurling of spring’s abundance.

Inspire Me Monday: Pop Up Box Tutorial

Howdy all!  Welcome to the Power Poppy blog!  I'm your hostess, Allison Cope, for today's edition of Inspire Me Monday.

Today I’m going to share with you how to make a fun and relatively simple “Pop Up Box” card.

Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and join me at my scrappy desk...

 

Direct Link

Click HERE to download the card base, braces and decorative panel dimensions.

Here’s a few quick looks at my two Pop Up Box cards today...

Copics: BV23, BV31, BG10, BG11, Y000, Y00, Y11, Y13, YG23, YR000, YR00, YR12 

Copics: C0, C1, C2, C4, R0000, R000, R00, Y0000, YR0000, YR000

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you enjoyed my creative journey today! 

~ Ally ~


Supplies:
Tulip Birthday
stamps: Power Poppy (Dynamic Duos: Peonies & Tulips, Short Stacks, My English Rose)
cardstock:  Recollections #110 White Cardstock, Bazzill (Sawdust)
patterned paper: Penny Black (Painted Blooms)
ink: Memento (Grey Flannel), Copic Markers, Sakura (Glaze Pen)
die: MFT (Stitched Ovals), Spellbinders (Scalloped Circles, Ribbon Banners), Cheery Lynn Designs (Polynesian Sails Mini, Expandable Tiny Borders), Pretty Pink Posh (Picket Fence)
corner rounder:  EKSuccess.

Love Roses
stamps: Power Poppy (My English Rose, Azalea)
cardstock:  Recollections #110 White Cardstock, Bazzill (Marshmallow), Vellum
patterned paper: Penny Black (Gentle Whisper)
ink: Memento (Grey Flannel), Simon Says Stamp (Twirling Tutu), Copic Markers, Versamark, Sakura (Glaze Pen)
die: MFT (Stitched Circles, Stitched Ovals), Cheery Lynn Designs (Polynesian Sails Mini, Expandable Tiny Borders), Pretty Pink Posh (Picket Fence)
embossing powder:  Micheal's (clear)
corner rounder:  EKSuccess.

Peeking in on our Latest Challenge...

Hip-Hip-Horray, who loves that it's Friday? ME! It’s Power Poppy Friday, which brings a dose of the Bloom Brigade plus a little customer show and tell! So, let’s get to it, shall we?

First off, last week we kicked off a splendiferous Power & Spark Challenge affectionately called the Peek-A-Boo Sketch Challenge! What do you have to do? Well, simply be inspired by this whimsical sketch by Bloomie Stacy Morgan!

And, already we are seeing creations chocked full of creativity folks! Let’s take a peek-a-boo at this super fun birthday card from Ms. Barbara Campbell. I love the star cut-out and the way that wrapped package just pops into focus! Add in rhinestones, sequins and a peek-a-boo sentie and all I have to say is “Barbara, you nailed it.” We should point out that Barbara used Power Poppy’s Short Stacks stamp set!

Since we are kind of on a birthday kick here, we had to show off another one of our customer faves by the artistic hands of Donna Phelan! She also used the same Short Stacks stamp set but hers has a more sweet and, dare I say, preppy feel? Can a card be preppy? Well, I will just say that it can be! I love the swiss dots and gingham pair and the little sequins add just the right amount of BLING! Fabby Ms. Donna, Fabby! 

So check out our latest Power & Spark Challenge HERE and then, give it a whirl in your own stamp room! We can't wait to see what you come up with! 

Now it’s time for our weekly Bloom Brigade Parade! Hop on over, take a gander and don’t forget to say “hi” to these lovely ladies as you’re passing through...

Katie Sims
Cindy Lawrence

Leslie Miller

Stacy Morgan

Tosha Leyendekker
Kathy Jones

Thanks for stopping by today! Be sure to tune back in on Monday when Ally Cope wows the crowd with her latest edition of Inspire Me Monday.

Have a great weekend everyone!

~Julie

Inspire Me Monday: Clean and Simple Hellebores

Welcome back to Power Poppy! It’s Rhea here and today I am sharing the Hellebores Digital Stamp, and am going to show you a Clean and Simple way to treat this set.

Clean and Simple (CAS) is oh so popular! For some like me it wasn't easy to do at first. I am a very detailed person and love layers and embellishments.  I love adding shaped dies and textures of ribbon and whatever else I can find.  With this beautiful Hellebores Digital Stamp I think I was a able to accomplish the CAS but still added a touch of embellies, texture with a few layers.  But showing the true beauty of the digital image its self.

Then came the question, to fussy cut or not to fussy cut?  hahahaha  When I added the sentiment next to it I decided not to fussy cut that area and place layers there.  But I did fussy cut the rest of the image.  That really made the image pop off the textured background.  Of course I used pop up squares to help it along.  

There was one little problem...ever open a marker and a blob of ink drops on your image?  Yup, me too!!  Right on the sentiment, and just as I was finishing the last flower.  So what do you do?  Put more dots on the sentiment and act like it was suppose to be there :)  just sayin'

Here is the color palette I used so you too can color up this beautiful image. 

Freshly remixed digital stamp set arrives today! Joyful Lilies

Good day to you and welcome to a new release of digital images — it’s our “Digis on the 5s” for March 5th. I’m bringing you an illustration from my archive that I retooled, freshened up, and made more versatile multiple occcasions. It should be a coloring delight for lovers of lilies and observers of Eastertime, too! :)

Presenting: Joyful Lilies, a beautiful tangle of blooming Easter Lilies and fizzy Forget-Me-Nots!

In this digital package, you’ll get a total of four images, two sentiments and two versions of the lily cluster. One image has the lilies and forget-me-nots intertwined with a cross, and it is a lovely way to share special Easter blessings with those you love, especially when colored up as traditional Easter Lilies. The image is also available without any other elements, and can be colored in any way you’d like!

For a wonderful example of this flexibility, check out the cards made by a few of our designers...

Debbie Olson

Christine Okken

Be sure to check back this week for more cards using this set! Thank you so much for coming by today, and I hope you enjoy your weekend — be sure to set aside time to do something for YOU!

 

Power Poppy Peek-A-Boo Sketch Challenge!

It’s Friday, folks, and that means another dose of Power Poppy goodness coming your way! We have Bloomie creations to share! We have customer cards to show off! We have a new Power & Spark Challenge to unveil! And..... we have a winner from last month’s challenge to showcase — and she won a Power Poppy stamp set!

Whew! Are you ready???

We’re going to get right into the action and share the brand new Power & Spark Challenge hosted by the lovely and talented Stacy Morgan...

HOW TO PLAY:  The Peek-A-Boo is a special SKETCH challenge, where you create cut-outs on your card to share a snippet or give a “peek” of fun underneath! Stacy wants to let you know that even though the shapes in our sketch are circles, let your imagination flow and make them any ’ol shape you like! To prove this point, Stacy used hearts. Oh, she also wants you to use at least two panels as well, which makes sense with this peek-a-boo sketch!

Take a gander at her creation to see her Power & Spark Peek-A-Boo Style using Power Poppy’s new clear stamp set Folk Heart:

THE 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 March 31st @ 8:00pm EST.  At that point, we’ll draw the winner randomly and make the announcement right here on the first Friday of March! 

We cannot wait to see what you create! Let's see you take this sketch for a ride my stamping friends!

NOW FOR SOME EXCITING NEWS....

Before we move on over to see what the Bloom Brigade whipped up for your viewing pleasure, let’s dip our hands into the random.org hat to see who was our lucky winner from last month’s Switch Up Your Shades Power & Spark Challenge!

And, the winner is.......

Which means, the sassy stamper who will get her pick of a stamp set from the Power Poppy Shop is....

JUDY WOODLAND! 

And just because we love to share, here's a look at what Judy created for this mix-up your medium kind of challenge!

Judy used her Prismacolor pencils for this beauty and even admitted that she doesn't turn to digital stamps very often when creating. Well, Ms. Judy, after seeing this feast for the eyes using Power Poppy's digital stamp set Everything’s Rosy, I really think you should make this a habit! I love the striking spring colors and the clean and classy layout! To claim your prize, all you need to do is email us at bloom@powerpoppy.com and let us know which stamp set you'd love to add to your collection! Congrats!

And now.... drum roll please.... the fabulously creative, big-hearted, wonderful women also known as THE BLOOM BRIGADE! Hop on over and see their Friday Power Poppy creations and... don’t forget to say “hi!” while you’re there! 

Cindy Lawrence

Julie Koerber
Katie Sims

Leslie Miller

Tosha Leyendekker

And that, my friends is it for us today! Be sure to swing by TOMORROW for a newly remixed Digital Stamp Set from Marcella Hawley, and then on Monday, Rhea Weigand will be sharing her Copic coloring talents in vivid and wonderful ways with our next Inspire Me Monday.

See you then!

~Julie

An InLinkz Link-up