Creative Confetti: Rock that Mojo!

Hello everyone and happy Tuesday! If you checked in yesterday for my guest post on Inspire Me Monday, you know that I've been having an issue as of late with my mojo! I got a few emails after I posted that column and, it turns out, a lot of YOU are suffering as well - wondering where your mojo went! So, I thought it would be fun to have you read THIS POST and hopefully it will inspire because that is the basis of this week's Creative Confetti Challenge!

HOW TO PLAY: Find a source of inspiration - a blog, a Pinterest gallery, a sketch website, a catalog, a magazine -- you name it! Whatever inspires you, take some time to really let that mojo bubble up to the surface to create! All you need to do is create using that source and then share a link or photo of your inspiration source!

Once you are done with your creation, don't forget to link it up using the linky below. Every entry is one shot at winning a $25 code to the Power Poppy Shop!

On to my creation!

So, this sketch below from Paper Play Sketches was my source of inspiration. I loved the simplicity of it and as soon as I set my sights on it, I knew exactly what I would do to bring it to life!

I started by cutting out all my pieces first, like I did in my post yesterday, just to speed up the creative process. As you can see, after I die cut my rectangles, I stamped using the Power Poppy clear stamp Summer Berries. 

From there, it was just coloring it up with Copics and assembling! Before I added the strip of green decorative paper, I decided to add some pizazz by wrapping it with some silver cording. To color, I used R30, R32, R35 and R37 for the berries and accented in spots with Y11 and YG00. The leaves were colored up with YG00, YG03, YG13, YG17. I accented with Y00 and YG0000 around the outside of the image and then accented the berries with a white gel pen. And... ta da!

 Here's a little closeup for you!

And as you can see, I did use the "Hello Friend" sentiment, also from the stamp set and accented my creation like the sketch did with some bling in the upper right corner! I have to say, I love the simplicity of following a sketch and helping take some of the guesswork out of creating -- especially when you feel like you are in a creative slump! 

MOVING ON! Since we are about to embark on a new month, we have a winner to share from all of our June Creative Confetti entries! If you missed the action, just click HERE to see some of the beautiful creations submitted! After we put all the entries into the virtual hat, Random.org drew this number!

That means the winner is....

* * * * * BONNIE KLASS! * * * *

Bonnie had several breathtaking entries this past month, but this one below was our lucky winner!

I love the bold pop of color on the white textured base and just a hint of black in the twine and sentiment! Just perfect! Just in case you wondered, Bonnie used Power Poppy's Garden Fireworks digital stamp set for this creation. 

Bonnie, to claim your $25 gift code to the Power Poppy Shop, just email us at bloom@powerpoppy.com and Marcella will get your code right to you! So glad you played along and shared your talents with us! 

Okay, sweet stamping friends, now it's your turn to show us your spark of inspiration! As I mentioned, each entry gets you a chance at winning a little shopping trip with $25 to spend in the Power Poppy Shop! So... what are you waiting for? Let's see you get those fingers inky!

Until next time!
~Julie 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Enchanted Garden Day 4: Summer Berries

Our 4th day of peeks offers a vintage style and sweet sentiments with a summery twist.

Who can resist a trip to go berry picking? Not this family! We try to go out picking every summer — and now is prime time in the midwest. 

The juicy colors and flavors of strawberries and raspberries are front and center in the set we’re sharing today. Summer Berries is the first polymer fruit set I’ve offered here at Power Poppy, and I’m so excited to introduce it. Ripening on the vine, my raspberries look to be straight from a vintage fruit crate. 

Introducing Summer Berries

You may have enjoyed my Berry It digital set, but now for our clear stamp lovers, it’s available to you. I've added a simple strawberry vignette with a birdie visitor and cute new sentiments, too!

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Let’s go see what our wonderful designers have come up with, they I know there is some sweet eye candy for you today!

Allison Cope

Stacy Morgan

Christine Okken

Kathy Jones

Leslie Miller

Nancy Sheads

Broni Holcombe

Julie Koerber

Tomorrow is our final reveal — and we have a big surprise on Monday with a special blog hop. More info coming...

Coloring Tips and Tricks with Amy Shulke

If you've been a Power Poppy fan for long, you know that even Power Poppy's larger images have tiny details. It's just the beauty of Marcella's illustrations. Well, if you've sat back and scratched your head wondering how to do these little details justice, we're sharing some wonderful tips from the professional colorista Amy Shulke from VanillaArts.com.

To get started, let's just take a gander at her finished project using Power Poppy's Berry It digital stamp set. Try not to let your jaw hit the floor please. It hurts. Don't ask me how I know. 

Take it away, Amy! 

Tip 1: There's nothing wrong with finding a good set of leaf markers and sticking to them. Using the same greens on most projects has benefits. First, you'll learn that combo really well and blend it like a pro. Second, you can combine your images for collages or framed sets and they'll magically match. And third, card makers can stock up on decorative papers to match the green combo.

Tip 2: Real life is often far more interesting than your imagination. If you asked me to "color some blackberries", I'd likely color them all the same. But with a photo reference, I find a wild assortment of colors. References don't just help you color with realism, they also keep you from defaulting to boring assumptions.

Tip 3: Highlights are not as white as you think! Real highlights are usually a few shades lighter than the base color (called the local color). I caution students not to over-highlight their objects and that doesn't just mean adding too much highlight, it also means using a color that is too white.

Tip 4: "Color Kissing" is my term for sharing colors from one object to another. The green leaves get a kiss of red and violet, the berries get kisses of green... color kissing adds cohesiveness but it also adds an artistic flair.

Thank you so much Amy for sharing your little tidbits and your beautiful colored up blackberries! Keep in mind folks, last weekend was the Livestream class where folks got to watch Amy color LIVE on her private tutorial channel. The good news? If you like what you see above, you can still take the class! Amy will have this coloring session in her archives until February 2019. Just click HERE to learn how to get in on the action.

Meantime, I'll see you back here tomorrow when we throw up some more Creative Confetti to get that mojo a flowing with a fun new weekly challenge! Remember, if your name is randomly drawn at the end of the month, you win a $25 gift code to the Power Poppy Shop. Enter as many times as you like as well to up your chances...

Until then!
~Julie 

The Patriotic Palette

Hello all! Happy Fourth to all of my sweet stamping friends living in the good 'ole U.S. of A! And, welcome to a PATRIOTIC edition of..... 

We thought it was very fitting in honor of this Independence Day to show a true INDEPENDENT woman! Check this out people -- can you shred like this bad Mama Jama? We thought not only this spirit but the fab shades of red, white and blue were downright perfect for this day!

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And because I couldn't say it more perfectly, even if I tried, I thought I would just share the post that went along with this photo on Marcy's IG!
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• marcellahawleyLife is too short and precious for me to sit out of it for even a day. In honor of International Women's Day, I'm going to KEEP DOING ALL THE THINGS. Mother, lover, partner, daughter, risk-taker, caretaker, nurturer, listener, hurt-knee-kisser, small business owner, entrepreneur, bill-payer, school party helper-outer, taxi driver, meal planner, chef, housekeeper, gardener, scheduler, ENCOURAGER ... and in my spare time, Zumba dancer, motorcyclist and sometime skateboarder. 😍 Women do all the things, all the time, it's the only way we know how. Put your hands in the air for YO'SELF!! ♥️🚨❌⭕️🎯💃🏼💄👠🌺☄️🍷🏍📕❤️💯🚩 #internationalwomensday#strongwomen #getitdone

Sigh.... I love that gal and hope she rubs off on me a little more each day! You might not skateboard but maybe you love to hike or cook or sing at the top of your lungs! You heard Ms. Marcella -- "Keep doing all the things!" 😀🙌💗

On to my creation! 

So, when I picked the red, white and blue color palette, I tried to think of all the sets I could use to bring this theme to life. I perused the Power Poppy Shop, squinting one eye, saying, Hhhhmmm... a lot. Then, I saw these lush raspberries -- from the Berry It Digital Stamp Set -- and knew I just needed to have some fun coloring them up! So, I went to town and grabbed my Copic Markers -- reaching for R32, R14, R29, R39 and R59 from the red family; G20, YG05, YG17 from the green family and then I shaded with B60 and B63, which aren't typially markers I reach for to add a bit of shadow but I thought it would play off that vibrant blue a bit more. And, I think it did! As you can see, when all was said and done, I did add some accents thanks to a white gel pen! 

From there, it's just matting it all up! I added some die cut elements, a couple red metal embellishments and then added the sentiment from the Happy Crabapple stamp set and then accented around the die cut circle with B60 and B63 markers, blending heavily as I went! 

And that, my friends, is it! We hope you put a patriotic spin on cards this week and share your shades of red, white and blue as well! Once you do, simply link up your creation below -- we'd love to see and swoon over your artistry!

Remember, if you play along, you could be one of our guest stars of this column in upcoming weeks!

To get on our radar, simply play along! We want to see you work your magic using these color combos! If chosen from one of the week's linkys, we'll share the color combo for your hosting week, gift you with a digital stamp set of your choice and then, you go to town creating! What fun! You get to inspire fellow creative peeps and get some fun little bennies too! We can't wait to see!


See you back here real soon!
~Julie 

An InLinkz Link-up

Ripe Berries Anyone?

Hello Power Poppy Friends!  Today I am bringing you Berry It Digital Stamp.  I couldn't make the August 25th post to release this image so I thought I would share it with you on my monthly inspiration post with a little coloring tip.

This months tip:  Don't be afraid to use grays to make your colors deeper and more rich looking.  It helps to give more dimension and contrast to your projects. 

Here is how I teach to use grays; When I've colored a few berries with the regular colors, I decided where I want to make RV99 (in this case) darker.  I then added N7 to that area and immediately went over it with RV69.  These two colors will blend together on the paper making the top color a darker shade and you won't see the gray.  Then I will blend it out with the sequence of colors, this is done lightly.  Once you get the hang of it you can just start by adding gray before your darkest color and blending out from there. 

I used N gray because I didn't want any blue or brown undertones.  

I only do this with Copic XPress Paper as it allows me more time to work with my coloring and has less of a chance of looking "muddy" with more ink added.   

I will be back next month for more coloring tips!

Rhea

Grin and Berry It!

One summer’s day about five years ago, we went outside to discover that a red raspberry bush had planted itself at the edge of our front yard. Perhaps the seeds were carried by birds, or by the air, or by someone walking home from the neighborhood farmers market and chucking a few berries aside. That first year, it grew a few leggy canes, leafed out amply, and we had enough berries to fill a few tiny baskets, picked by my kiddos and our next-door neighbors’ boys. Each berry was coveted! Ones dropped on the ground were quickly picked up and popped into mouths. Our mysterious miracle yardberry bush is carefully mowed ’round, tended and trimmed, and now we revel in the fruits each summer and the bush just gets bigger, bolder, and more berry-ful!

Yard + raspberries = Yardberries.

Lulu out picking a post-dinner treat last summer.

Yardberries, local peaches, and purple basil garnish. Just look at those little sparkly highlights!

That berry busy was such a fun surprise for us. Now, how about this for a surprise.... a digital stamp set of two images to download, print, and color, in celebration of the wonderful yardberry — I mean — RASPBERRY! I call this remixed illustration “Berry It” and I hope you’ll have a lot of fun dousing it with intense shades of color and make it POP off the page like I know you can!

Would you like to see what a few of our inspired artists have done with my Berry It digis? I am going to go out on a yardberry limb and say: YES!!! Here we go,

Cheryl Scrivens
Tosha Leyendekker
Debbie Olson
Jennifer Dove

Take care and thank you so much for coming to check in with us! Enjoy yourself in whatever adventures you pursue today.