August Power & Spark: Home Sweet Home!

Hello all and welcome to a new month with a new challenge! It’s all designed to create a bit of creative spark within you! Are you ready for us to take the lid off this new challenge? It's a fun one! Ms. Cindy Lawrence is our hostess with the mostess; and she's challenging us to keep the inspiration behind our creations, close to home! Check it out! 

HOW TO PLAY: Being inspired for this challenge is as simple as looking around your home. Is there a color scheme you crave? What about a pattern featured in a home decor accessory that could spin off into an idea for a card? Here's what Ms. Cindy had to say about this month's Inspired by Home Power & Spark Challenge!

This month, I’m challenging you to create a project inspired by a favorite room or corner in your home! Do you enjoy that modern farmhouse style? Or do you rock a more retro look? Can you see some of your home in your next card or creation? Don’t forget to include an inspiration photo so we can see how you brought that idea to life!

And as we always do, here's Cindy's card and a little bit about the inspiration behind it!

For her creation, Cindy used one of Power Poppy's newest digital stamp sets -- Gifts from the Sea.  She pulled her inspiration from several elements in the room. The textures in the baskets, curtain ties, and wood accessories inspired the ribbons & wood brads on her card. The colors of the walls, furniture, and accessories inspired the color palette in the image. The framed art inspired the cardstock choices and shapes. There are so many directions she could have gone here! For full details and more inspiration photos, visit Cindy’s brand new blog here.

Thanks Cindy! What a beautiful creation to get those ideas floating and jump start this challenge!

THE OFFICIAL RULES:

Use Power Poppy stamps if you have them. If not, it is a great way to win some!

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 $50 SHOPPING SPREE TO 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 August 31st @ 8:00 PM EST. At that point, we’ll draw the winner randomly and make the announcement right here on the first Friday in September!

And now, it’s time to draw one lucky name out of our virtual hat from those who linked up a card for July's Inspire Me Challenge hosted by yours truly! (Be sure to click the link to see all the amazing entries this past month!) Random.org drew the number.... 

And that means the winner is....

*** IRENE RHODES ***

Check out Irene’s amazing creation! I have to say, while this drawing was random, I was a little biased toward this technique! Irene used one of the digi tutorials I did HERE on using average everyday fonts and mixing them up with digital stamps. If you haven't checked out that tutorial, it's really a valuable technique, especially when you are looking to customize a card for just the right person or message.

Irene took that tutorial and added the word FAITH into the mix and surrounded the letters with the digi from the Flowering Branches set. I just adore the results! And, the color scheme Irene chose is just divine as well! We are so happy you played along this month Irene -- this one is a stunning keeper! Now to claim your $50 Shopping Spree to the Power Poppy Shop, just email us at bloom@powerpoppy.com and we'll get your coupon code right to you!

If you need a little extra sumpin, sumpin to get those creative juices and mojo flowing, I know these fine ladies will not disappoint. Be sure to click on the links and pay them a visit.

Cindy Lawrence

Kathy Jones
Katie Sims

Thanks for stopping by and seeing what we've got going down here on the Power Poppy Blog. We can't wait to see you join us this month for Power & Spark. As always, don't forget to link up your creation below after you take the challenge. We love to see just how you took these challenges for a spin.

See you back here soon,
~Julie 

An InLinkz Link-up

Day 8: Christmas Cookie Envelope

Hello there, fellow Power Poppy enthusiasts! Cindy here with day 8 of our 12 Days of Christmas fun! Haven't all of the projects been great?!! So many wonderful ideas! Have you missed any of the days? Well, you're in luck, because I have them all linked right here for you. Check them out: Katie's tags, Stacy's Gift Card Holder, Tosh's Gift Bag Topper, Mindy's Christmas Organizer, Julie's Holiday Treat Box, Christine's Christmas Pom Pom Garland, & Stacey's Altered Gift Tins. Click on the links to create your own homemade Christmas.

If you play along with us during any one of the 12 days and try our project at hand, link up your creation HERE and you’ll be in the running for our Power & Spark 12 Days of Christmas Challenge. That’s right – you’ll have 12 ways to enter. Play along once or try all 12 days for more chances to win a $50 shopping spree to the Power Poppy Shop!

Now, about my creation...

A favorite Christmas tradition in our family is baking lots of Christmas goodies, packaging them up sweetly, and delivering them to all of our neighbors. We've been doing it for 20 years now. The only downside is that it has caught on in our little neighborhood of seven houses, and now we get back 7 times as many goodies as we hand out! Haha! My waistline thanks me for this tradition.

Anyway, I digress... I am always looking for fun & simple packaging ideas, and several years ago I stumbled across a template for making cookie envelopes. Now, I have no idea where I got this template from, as I've had it saved on my computer since I found it. I also edited out the designs on it to give me a blank template that I could decorate myself.

Here's the link to my version of the Cookie Envelope Template. Here's the link to my version of the Cookie Envelope Liner Template. First, I printed out the templates. The templates are quite light; so you will want to choose a cardstock color that is on the lighter side.

The liner was printed on vellum; but you could also use waxed paper, parchment paper, or even thin copy paper. If you use vellum like I did, you'll either need to wait for your ink to dry or heat set it with an embossing tool (which is, of course, what I did).

Since the vellum is transparent, I was able to use my Scor Buddy tool to score the fold lines. Easy peasy!

For the kraft cardstock template, I used a t-square; but you could also use a regular ruler. As you can see in the photo, the template is definitely harder to see on the kraft cardstock. You won't want to go any darker than that.

Next, I cut out the templates and scored the lines. I stamped all over the outside of the kraft template with Color Box opaque white ink and the beautiful swag image from Holly Golightly. Love the understated elegance of white on kraft.

I then flipped the templates over, and placed the liner inside. You could use a bit of no-show adhesive (such as vellum tape) to adhere the liner to the envelope; but I chose not to. It just seemed like an unnecessary step to me.

Here it is with a cookie inside...white chocolate macadamia nut cookie to be exact. Yum!

Okay, the real reason I'm sharing the cookie photo is because I want to give you an idea of the size of the template. The vellum liner is 3-1/4" square inside. Yes, that's also about the size of my cookie. Truth be told, you want your cookies to be 3" or smaller & fairly flat for a nice fit. I made it work, though! (Sure wasn't going to bake a whole new batch of cookies!) You could also put four really small cookies inside, which would be just darling!

I stamped the tag in Memento Tuxedo Black ink on X-Press It Blending Card, colored it with Copic Markers, and stamped the sentiment in red & green inks. I then cut the tag out, and adhered it to the top of the cookie envelope.

Here's a look at the Copic Markers I used.

There are actually a couple of different ways you could close this envelope up. Here's how I closed mine.

I sewed a couple of buttons to two of the flaps, and held them together with red & white striped twine. Super cute, and super easy too!

Another way you could close the envelope is to leave the shorter flaps on the outside, wrap a piece of ribbon or string around the whole thing, and tie it up in a bow.

Finally, if you don't want to mess with sewing buttons, you can just grab a fun piece of washi tape to hold the flaps closed. It really doesn't get any easier than that, does it?

Remember to link up your creation HERE, so that you're entered in this month's 12 Days of Christmas Power & Spark Challenge for a $50 Shopping Spree to the Power Poppy Shop!

Here’s some more inspiration from the
Bloom Brigade today....

Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker

Thanks so much for stopping by for a visit today! Be sure to come back tomorrow for Day 9 of the 12 Days of Christmas. Our dear resident Aussie, Kathy Jones, will be showing us how to create a Christmas cracker! So much inspiration and so many chances to win! Merry Christmas to YOU!

May your day be overflowing with great joy, friends!

~Cindy