Creative Confetti: Sketch It Out!

Hello all and happy Tuesday to you! Today, I thought I'd do something I love and offer up a brand new sketch here on the Creative Confetti Challenge! It's always a good time when you can just try someone else's layout design, take the guesswork out and just color and create!  

HOW TO PLAY: All you have to do is create using the sketch below. Use Power Poppy Stamps  if you have them but if not, this is a great way to try to win some Power Poppy goodness! Just that simple!

Let's take a look at the sketch....

And now, on to my creation! 

 

A few weeks ago, I followed along with Nancy Sheads as she colored up an image from the Holly Golightly set.  I love her Inspire Me Monday coloring videos. It's just so peaceful to have a coloring companion! ;-) You can CLICK HERE to see this tutorial for yourself! She shares what Copic Markers she uses as she goes, making it super easy to pause, grab the color and then hit play and follow along. 

After I was done coloring, I used a stitched edge circle die and matted it on top of a few layers of different decorative paper, add a little doily, some twine and... ta da! Done! The little tag sentiment features a portion of a sentiment from the stamp set Simple Joys. 

Here's a look at a closeup of my card front. You can see, when I was all done, I did add a little sparkle thanks to a Wink of Stella Glitter Pen. Gotta have a little sparkle! 

So, there you have it folks -- that's my take on a brand new sketch! I hope you join me for this week's challenge! 

That means the winner of the September challenge is.....

SUSAN SUDBURY! 

Susan created a beautiful card for our Free For All Challenge using Power Poppy's Chickadee in Barberry digital stamp!  Check it out! And, if you want to see more of her creative process, all you need to do is click HERE to hop on over to her blog! 

I love how she used an effect to create the look of snow falling in her background. Amazing! Susan, to claim your prize, all you need to do is email us at bloom@powerpoppy.com and we will get your winning coupon code for $25 in the Power Poppy Shop to you! 

Want to join me and take this little layout for a test drive? Please, get those fingers inky and be sure to share what you come up with by using the linky below! Every entry -- no matter what the week -- is thrown into a virtual hat for our random drawing at the end of the month for a $25 gift code to the Power Poppy Shop! 

Have a great week! I can't wait to see what you create! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Inspire Me Monday: One Stamp - Three Cards!

 

GOOD MORNING FRIENDS! Welcome back to Inspire Me Monday! I've got three (yes three!) card projects for you today. 

As many of you know, my primary medium is Copic markers. But sometimes (especially when I'm in a crafting slump), I'll switch to other medium like colored pencils or watercolors to challenge myself. But I recently purchased Power Poppy's Grandma's Snowflakes stamp set which lends itself to various stamping techniques rather than coloring. Since I rarely create cards entirely from stamping, I decided to challenge myself to create multiple cards with the same stamp set. I pulled out my MISTI stamping tool and various pigment inks from my stash and got to work.

CARD 1

This was kind of my warm up card and I had to do this in a few stages. I inserted an A2 sized piece of white cardstock in my MISTI, arranged the larger stamps where I wanted them, and closed the MISTI door to stick them in place. I inked the stamps with Versafine Clare ink in Tulip Red and stamped the snowflakes a couple of times to make sure that I had good coverage. Then I cleaned the stamps, rearranged them again and stamped with Delicata Ink in Golden Glitz. This ink is pretty pale so it also required a few stampings, but the shimmer in the ink is pretty and subtle. I ended up doing this twice, first stamping the gold snowflakes on the lower half of the card and then arranging and stamping them on the upper half of the card. I stamped the sentiment in the lower corner with Versafine Clare in Nocturne. 

After the ink was fully dry, I die cut the cardstock, glued a piece of craft foam to the back for dimension and adhered it to a card base.

One down ... two to go!

CARD 2

Pink and black is one of my favorite color combinations so I decided to incorporate it here. I cut a piece of white cardstock to 2.5" x 4.25" and stamped the snowflakes as before using Delicata Ink in Rose Gold. The sentiment was stamped with Versafine Clare in Nocturne. 

Once the ink was dry, I started building the card layers as follows:

• Cut one piece of craft foam cut to 2.25" x 4"
• Cut one piece of white cardstock cut to 2.5" x 4.5"
• Cut one piece of pink cardstock cut to 3" x 4.75"
• Cut one piece of black and white polka dot pattern paper cut to 4.25" x 5.5"
• Glue craft foam to the back of the image layer for dimension. 
• Glue image layer to second piece of white cardstock, leaving a 1/8" border of white.
• Glue that to the pink cardstock, leaving a 1/8" border of pink.
• Glue pattern paper to your card base. 
• Position your image layers and glue to front of card. 
• Set aside to allow all the glued layers to dry.

Two down ... one to go!

CARD 3

For my last card, the stamping started off the same - I cut a piece of white cardstock and stamped the snowflakes with Delicata Ink in Rose Gold. The sentiment was once again stamped in Versafine Clare in Nocturne. 

For the background, I used a technique called dry embossing to create an impression into a piece of white cardstock. The effect is similar to using an embossing folder except that I created the embossed impression in the paper using a cutting die. This is done using a silicon embossing mat part of the die sandwich that you run through your die cutting machine. 

You should check the recommended die sandwich for your particular machine, but essentially it would consist of:

• Base plate
• Die (facing up)
• Cardstock
• Embossing mat
• Top plate

When you run the die sandwich through your machine, the embossing mat will prevent the die from cutting through the paper, leaving instead an embossed impression.  You can also use this technique with stencils. 

And now you have three cards, all created from the same stamp set!

That's all for me today! See you soon.

Creative Confetti - Colors of Fall!

Hello and welcome friends to Happy Tuesday! There are a few things I truly miss when we go to Florida for the winter -- the cooler days and the wonderful colors of the leaves! Yes, there is plenty of color in Florida all year long, but the seasons don't compare to the ones that we have in the north. The wonderful colors of fall just beg to be used on a project. And that's what this week's Creative Confetti Challenge is all about! 

HOW TO PLAY: For this week's challenge, let's see your fall colors on your entires! I've provided some fall colors for you above and I'd love it if you gave them a try but really, any hues of fall will do!  

For my project, I choose the digital stamp from Power Poppy called Pumpkins and Pears. It is on sale right now and you can find it HERE

On to my creation! 

Finishing the inside gave me an opportunity to stamp and color up some leaves. Often, I wait until I have a need for a card to stamp on the sentiment. This one could be a Thanksgiving card, or a Hello, or even, How have you been? card.

I printed this image on Copic-friendly paper by Hammermill (100 lb), in the no-line version digital stamp. Then I used my Copic markers to color it.

Here's a look at the Copic Markers that I used to color up my image:

• YR18, YR 15, YR21
• YG95, YG93, YG91
• E37
• C0, C1,C2,C3,C4

I also used the die from Simon Says Stamp called Frames. 

I hope that you join me this week? Simply create, and then link up using the linky below! As we always say, if you get those fingers inky and play along, each and every link is an opportunity to win a $25 gift code to the Power Poppy Shop!

Until next time!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Garden Dirt: Copic Marker Swatches for Power Poppy Stamps (Sunflowers)

Ready to get creative with color?

Gerbera Daisies is one of the true chameleon stamps here at Power Poppy. With a versatile shape and not too many details, it could masquerade as many different kinds of radial flowers.

Hello, my name is Amy Shulke and I’m the illustrator and art instructor at VanillaArts.com. Welcome to my feature series here at the blog: The Garden Dirt 

It’s called the Garden Dirt because we’re looking closer at the weird colors I use underneath vibrant and pretty colors to mimic the dirty color of shade.

I’ve got a whole series of artistic coloring articles here at the Power Poppy blog; here’s a quick link to a bunch of my previous articles.

Let's Color Sunflowers!

Today I’m sharing an up-close look at my interpretation of sunflowers. The Gerbera Daisies stamp which I used is available here.

Even though I chose this stamp for the sunflower-ish petals, I ended up falling in love with the brown button centers. They were so much fun to color! I used a combination of Copic Markers and Prismacolor Premier Pencils.

But today's swatch for the buttery yellow petals.

Take a closer look. This isn’t just any old Copic color swatch.

In my professional illustration work, I use a color layering technique called Underpainting. I teach Copic Marker classes using this same technique. Instead of using a light and medium yellow marker plus an orange marker to shade these petals, I deliberately throw in a clashing color to create a more realistic shade color.

The secret to my dimensional sunflower petals is the secret purple.

Wait, purple? 

Where’s the purple?

It’s UNDER the yellow. That’s why we call this method underpainting. We’re using purple to create the muddy, neutralized shade color that you’ll see in the shade of real yellow petals in real life.

I know… purple under yellow just sounds wrong. Momma told you not to wear a yellow shirt with your purple pants. You believed her when she said purple and yellow clash.

They do!

That’s why we’re using them, to make dirty color! It's Garden Dirt.

To make this swatch work, you must work dark to light. Oh, and we’re not really blending as much as layering.

Start with V12 using very light strokes. Put this light purple in the shady recesses of your yellow petals where they come out from the brown center or where the petals overlap. Don’t press too hard because we don’t need a lot of purple to make this work. We want a little mud, not a big mud slide!

Then go over the V12 with Y35, hiding the purple completely. The two colors together make a weird orangish brownish neutralized color. Let your yellow strokes come out beyond the purple to create 2 colors— the dirty orange plus a clean yellow color. 

Remember, no purple is left uncoated! The purple underpaint is our little secret.

Now blend with the Y13 just as you normally would. Go slow to smooth everything out nicely.

Underpainting takes a bit of getting used to. The technique feels weird at first and the color looks even weirder… let’s call it an acquired taste. 

The funny thing is, once you get used to the color of real yellow shade, you start to see it everywhere around you! Check out the strange shady color on a banana or a school bus sometime. Real yellow shade is funky!

Color Power Poppy’s “Gerbera Daisies” with me! 

Expressive Sunflowers a Marker Painting Workshop for intermediate to advanced Copic colorers. 

Recorded live to show real coloring in real time. 

Watch and rewatch the class as many times as you want. No expiration dates, no hurry. Color on your own schedule

Expressive Sunflowers demonstrates how to use your Copic chisel nib. 

Yes, we ditch the soft and squishy brush nib that everyone always uses to make wonderful artistic marks with the hard end you usually ignore.

Expressive Sunflowers uses Power Poppy’s beautiful Gerbera Daisies digital stamp but there are several other stamps you can use the same technique with. How about this stamp? Or this one? Oh, and I really would try it with this one!

You can find out more about Marker Painting Workshops here.

And I’ll see you back here next month for another fun color swatch!

Creative Confetti: Color Your Image on Colored Cardstock

Hello! I think this is my first time hosting the Creative Confetti Challenge. I wanted to inspire you to great heights, but I have been distracted with a visit from my adult children. My son came for the long Labor Day weekend, but my daughter came for a WEEK! Plus, my college-age son started online classes this last week. I have been enjoying the "kids" and not spending as much time in my studio.

However, I hope that you enjoy the challenge this week. I had fun making the samples!

HOW TO PLAY: Stamp or print a Power Poppy Stamps image onto COLORED CARDSTOCK!  Then, color away! Use ANY color cardstock, as long as it's NOT white.

On to my creations! 

The project that started me thinking about coloring on colored cardstock was this class from Vanilla Arts called Illustrated Monarch. 

The class was to color the Monarchs and Milkweed image onto tan cardstock. I had a lot of fun coloring on the tan paper with Copics and Prismacolor pencils. 

The tan cardstock was light enough that the Copic markers looked fine, if muted, and the colored pencil looked AMAZNG!

So...I thought...what OTHER colors could I print onto and color?!?

I chose a few images to print onto a few colors of cardstock. I found that if I wanted to color an image onto very dark cardstock such as black or navy blue, I would have to somehow trace the image with a white pencil or use a similar technique. The printed image did not show up quite enough to allow me to see the lines, especially on a detailed image. Also, Copic markers are too transparent to show up on super dark cardstock.

I asked my artist daughter about using colored paper and she said the standard colors she used were white, off white or cream, tan, and gray. But, I was sure that light blue, pink, even red would work! I tried a few different papers and colors and learned lots of things!

This is another example of playing around before you start an actual project. Be prepared to "waste" a little printer ink and a few sheets of cardstock! It's worth it to experiment!

I learned that you need to test the paper with the medium you wish to use. I printed this sunflower image from Sunflower Power onto cream linen cardstock. I had hoped to use watercolor pencils for the image, but the paper was too thin to accept the water! I also found out that while the Copics looked amazing, they "oozed" too much on the linen cardstock (no surprise there). The colored pencils loved this lightly textured paper!

In my discovery I learned that you also need to allow Copics to DRY before you can see how the color really looks on colored paper. 

I had my heart set on using Copics on this sky blue cardstock, but they wanted to bleed. Any attempt to push the color back with the blender only made a "drool" line on the paper! The paper had a bit of a rough texture, and no coating so the alcohol ink just wanted to soak in and wick out! 

The colored pencils loved this paper! And they looked amazing on the blue background! I had found my perfect match!

I printed the Chinese Lantern image onto the sky blue cardstock at about 7" x 5".  I printed the lines in pale gray as well. I colored the image with Prismacolor Colored Pencils, which worked beautifully!

I hope you enjoyed my versions of the challenge for this week! If you want to join me and show off some of your Power Poppy Projects, please be sure to share what you come up with by using the linky below! Every entry -- no matter what the week -- is thrown into a virtual hat for our random drawing at the end of the month for a $25 gift code to the Power Poppy Shop! 

Have a great week! I can't wait to see what you create! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Inspire Me Monday ~ No Stone Unturned!

Happy Monday everyone!  Allison Cope here!  Welcome to Inspire Me Monday.

I don't know about you but I am constantly looking for inspiration all around me.  As a Scout leader, we're always on the go (when Covid isn't impacting us!) in the wild outdoors.

When we're not Geo-caching, camping or hiking we like to investigate the city we live in. So on our adventure one day, we came across this cluster of painted rocks.  Each one was decorated by someone different and each one was uniquely cool to look at. This art of decorating rocks is a trend right now.  An art perfect for any age.

So I decided to join the trend but incorporate stamps of course!

First, I sent out my 15 year old son and gave him the job of finding me some nice smooth rocks to check out.  He managed to find a few along our alfalfa field that were perfect.

I began by washing my rock and using my heat gun to dry it off quickly. (Can you picture this?!?!  Drying rocks with a heat gun?!?)

I grabbed the ever beautiful and Autumn themed stamp set, "Fortunes of Fall".  I just had to use that gorgeous stack of pumpkins on my rock!  I used Versafine Black Onyx ink and carefully stamped my image right on the surface.  Now, my rock was not totally flat so I carefully rolled my stamp all around to get full coverage of the surface.  Now because of the round surface, I knew I wasn't going to get a perfect image - no need to fret!  I knew I was going to cover up the ink lines with paint anyway!

Now I don't own all different kinds of colors of acrylic paint!  I just don't have the storage for it but I do own white acrylic paint....  Yup... and a LOT of re-inkers for some of my favorite hybrid inks.  So I simply took my white paint and used my re-inkers to color it up to what ever shade I needed!

So here's a little sneak peek of my in-progress project...

I tried to put down a few layers of tinted paint so my paints would be opaque.  I'm still working on my painting skills since I work mainly with Copic Markers so it's not perfect but I'm okay with that.  It's just there to put a smile on someone face after all.

Here's my final rock...

A little bit of varnish and it's ready for the real world!

A little close up.  I wish you could see the texture of the little white blossom areas!

I hope I've inspired you today to think outside of the box and how your stamps can be used in many other ways then just on paper!

Thanks for joining me!  I'll see you again soon!

Happy craftin'!

~ Ally ~

Creative Confetti: Free For All!

Hello all and happy Tuesday to you! Today, we are just going to let it roll here on the Creative Confetti Challenge! Here in the States, we are just coming off a holiday weekend and, I am telling you, it was hard to get back into the groove today. That's why I decided to just share this little challenge with all of you -- to let YOU choose how you wanted to be inspired this week! 

HOW TO PLAY: Every now and then I just pull this wild card out of the mix and let you just "do your thang!" So, why not now? All you have to do is create using Power Poppy Stamps!  Just that simple!

On to my creations! 

If you joined me earlier in the week, I said I would pop back into this post and update it with my creation(s). I was having trouble with one of the cards and after some crooked cuts and not the right paper, I just waved the white flag. Well, a cup of coffee and some extra time helped me, friends! And, you're about to see how this creation was inspired by something else I am working on!

First up, the inspiration source. Every Christmas, my mother-in-law cooks not only a fabulous brunch but dinner as well, feeding her brood and helping us all to share some much-needed family time. So, I found a darling pattern for a fun jelly roll apron. If any of you quilt out there, I am sure you know how fun jelly rolls are! I've made a half dozen quilts using these and now, I can add an apron to the list! Here's the pattern if you are interested. And, here's a look at the finished Christmas apron! 

As you can see, I still have to sew on the buttons. I just placed them there so you could see what the finished product might look like! ;-) I will admit -- it's a wee bit busy but I think it's joyful and fun. Hopefully, she likes it too! Another thing that kind of bugged me that I am trying to get over is the fact that on the jelly roll, some of the patterns and plaids were printed crooked on the strips, which makes my sewing look crooked. Ugh! Oh well, hopefully I am the only one that this bothers! LOL! 
 

Now, to the card this apron inspired! 

I loved the way the fabric stacked on the apron and I decided to try to imitate that. I started with two 1" squares and then stacked on two 1" by 2" squares. Then, 1" by 3" squares. because my canvas was so small compared to a large scale quilt, I started the pattern over again for the bottom half of my card! 

As you can see, I added the sentiment from the set Holly Golightly, matted it up on some patterned paper and then added an embossed heart. I punched the star out of a piece of decorative paper and added a bit of bling!  And, ta da! Done!

Since this was an Anything Goes week, I also tapped into some of my love of coloring and rewound our Inspire Me Mondays feature back to THIS one done by Nancy Sheads where she colored up the vase of leafy berries and holly, also from the Holly Golightly set. 

I always have fun following along as Nancy colors. She does such a great job of showing us her process in such an easy way! I think this is darling and I can't wait to dream up a card design for it!

So, there you have it folks -- that's my version of Anything Goes for you this week! Want to join me and show off some of your Power Poppy Projects? Please to get those fingers inky and be sure to share what you come up with by using the linky below! Every entry -- no matter what the week -- is thrown into a virtual hat for our random drawing at the end of the month for a $25 gift code to the Power Poppy Shop! 

Have a great week! I can't wait to see what you create! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter