The Blossom Challenge: Inspired by the Sea

Welcome Power Poppy friends!  Today it’s Christine back with you, kicking off a brand new theme for The Blossom Challenge at Power Poppy!  

This month we have an Inspiration Challenge based on a photo from my recent trip to Northern California for work.  At a local friend’s recommendation we took a day off to head to the coast, driving through the Sonoma Valley wine country to a spot called Bodega Beach.  Its a sweet little coastal town with miles of beaches along the coastline.  It was such a stunning surprise with high cliffs, bluffs and pounding surf; you could believe you’re in Cornwall, England rather than the Cali coast.  The spot I took this picture was at Bodega Head where you are high on the bluffs looking down at the rugged coast above.  In the foreground you can see the vegetation with the pop of pink.  These plants are succulents called Sea Fig, and the flowers bloom a number of different colours.  Its an invasive plant in California, so they’re trying to control it, but it made for a beautiful picture!  

I’ve created two cards with this inspiration:  First up, a design inspired by the colours and plants in the photo.  

It’s a mini-slimline design using Power Poppy’s Gerbera Daisies Stamp set to mimic the flowers of the Sea Fig, colouring them in vivid pinks with my Copic Markers.  They are fussy cut and placed on a layered background with a die cut that I think imitates the sea fig vegetation.  A very FUN new find for me is the Lindy’s Magical Powders that I picked up which bring all the colour to that die cut!  These powders are dye based and activated in water, and result in gorgeous vibrant saturated colour and shimmer.  I think they really give the feel of the succulent vegetation and the colours of the sea.  

Here’s a view that helps you see how shimmery and shiny they are, and what awesome colour you are left with.  I’m going to be using them a lot in my future!  I’m using watercolour paper because it holds the moisture you need to activate the powders.  

The pretty little sentiment is from Power Poppy’s sentiment set, Nice Things to Say (in stock in polymer).  

Now I have a card that is very ocean forward.  

For this design I really took inspiration from the layout and colours in the picture.  I started with the background and used the same Lindy’s Magical Powders on watercolour paper to create sky, sea and ground with different powder colours, activited them with water and let them dry fully.  then I ran the background through an embossing folder I have that has the feel of the vegetation.  Next I brayered watered down white acrylic paint over the embossing to give the feeling of foamy waves and bring some highlight to the dimension of the embossing.  

For this beautiful sentiment I used one of my favourite Power Poppy sentiments M-Powering Words , embossed it with a metallic embossing powder in teal, trimmed it out and placed it on teal glitter paper and a layer of vellum.  Then, I accented the card with pretty dies from The Greetery Curio Summer Findings. 

Now I’ll leave you with the photo without graphics, and I hope this inspiration has taken you on a lovely journey to the sea!  

Join us in The Blossom Challenge this month to create something based on any part of this photo that inspires you.  Be as creative as you’d like!  You could win a $20 Gift Code for the Power Poppy store!  

I’ve added the picture without the graphics so you can visualize all of it for your inspiration.   Link up your creation below!

The only requirements are that you need to use one Power Poppy image or sentiment, and can enter as often as you like.  This Challenge runs until March 18th!  

Want to know who won our Clean Slate Challenge last month? We had some really fun entries!  This month,  Almeslee with her gorgeous Birthday rose was our winner!  Almeslee please contact Marcy at bloom@powerpoppy.com to claim your winners code! 

             You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter