Showing posts with label Sweet Memories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sweet Memories. Show all posts

Monday

Inspire Me Monday - Finding Your Mojo



Hello Everyone! It's Kathy Racoosin here today. How are you this Monday? It's always good to be back on the Power Poppy blog and I thought I would address "mojo". Have you ever lost your mojo? Mojo apparently means " a magical charm bag used in voodoo" or something having to do with libido lol.

The Urban Dictionary says that mojo can be "some ability that brings good luck or helps you be good at something."

I admit I always thought it related to crafting and losing your creative energy.

I found this chart on google and looks like the term mojo has risen over the years.

If you want to see my process here is a video or you can click here to watch it in HD.




If you get stuck or loose your mojo hopefully this set of cards will get you back in your game. I love this stamp called, "Sweet Memories" The flowers are illustrated so beautifully that they stand on their own. (Thanks Marcy!!!) Perfect for some stamping and simple coloring.


There are so many flowers in the stamp set it was easy to lay them out on a misti and stamp several at one time. 


Coloring is something I love to do and when my mojo isn't around I discovered you can still color and create cards. Coloring backgrounds is super relaxing and it's nice to not worrying about shading or coloring multiple flowers. 


Minimal supplies make this an easy to pack for travel. Some Copic friendly ink and 2 Copic markers. First I outlined the flowers and then I filled in the spaces around them. Don't worry about the coloring not looking smooth because I have a remedy for that. Copic Colorless Blending Solution!

I use it on a regular basic and it's super easy. All you need is a tiny rag/towel that is nubby. (my rag is about 1.5"square and I use it over and over ... I cut mine from an old shabby towel)
I just pulled this towel off the internet to show the texture. When you moisten a towel that has texture with Copic Blending Solution .... dab it on the background & you get beautiful texture on your coloring. You need to play around on some scrap paper how wet you want your towel/rag. If you want to dab on more solution I suggest using your heat gun to dry the paper between because if you over saturate it ... the color bleeds into the image. (Always keep the lid on the solution and read the warning labels)


If the color bleeds into the images that fixable ... just a little more time consuming. Use your colorless blender marker to remove any color in the image. (If it's a dark color you need to repeat multiple times letting it dry in between. )


This technique was repeated on the stock under the front of the card. I colored only the edges on the paper and then used the rag technique. A sentiment or die cut can always be added later that suits the occasion of the recipient if you want to add a little something extra.




While I was writing my post I realized that my blouse resembles my cards lol. When I purchased the blouse I loved the fabric ... maybe I tucked that inspiration way back in my brain and didn't realize it when I was looking for some mojo?

I hope today's post was beneficial for you today and wishing you a good start to your week.

Hugs, Kathy

Friday

July Challenge: Copy a Bloomie

Hello folks and Happiest of Fridays to YOU! This month, we're back with a new challenge designed to deliver a little design power full of creative spark!  Last month you blew our socks off with your June Bug Challenge entries and we just know you'll do the same this month! If you missed out on the action last month, visit our challenge post HERE to see all the AMAZING cards and creations submitted. I have one word -- "Woah!!" You guys rocked it!

This month, we have a new hostess and she's challenging you to sleuth around the web to find creative inspiration thanks to our beloved Bloomies! 


HOW TO PLAY: Instead of letting me share all the deets for this month's challenge, let's let the hostess with the mostess -- Ms. Ally Cope -- share!

-----------------------------------------
“Your challenge for the month of July is to CASE a Bloom Brigade member! What is CASE-ing you ask? CASE stands for Copy And Share Everything! It's as simple as being inspired in any old which way by another person's card. Most people copy a few aspects of the card, like the layout of the card layers and basic elements but change up a few things like the embellishments, colors or even the theme. So, copy a few things but change a few things too!”
-----------------------------------------

I chose to CASE this recent glorious holiday card below by the lovely Stacy Morgan. She featured the festive stamps from Power Poppy's Merry Littles stamp set. 


Here's my take on Stacy's card featuring Power Poppy's Sweet Memories and Burst of Kindness clear stamp sets. I loved Stacy's design, so I chose to take the basic layout of her card and rotate it to fit a top folding A-2 sized card. While I loved the bold holiday colors, I chose to change my card to a softer, more subtle color palette instead. 


Instead of grabbing some patterned papers, I chose to stamp a greeting all over my background and create my own. Stacy's card is a holiday theme and so I changed my card to be something different, a Thank You (& Miss You) card. 

So there you go! Go and get inspired by our Bloom Brigade members by clicking on our Bloomie Blog Roll off to the right. Remember to link up the Bloomie's creation that you chose to CASE in your own blog post and then link it up your version below on our challenge linky! Happy creating! ~Ally

Thanks so much Ally! Remember folks, if you get your fingers inky and your lucky name is drawn at the end of July, you win a......

$50 SHOPPING SPREE
AT THE POWER POPPY SHOP! WOOT WOOT!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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 July 31th @ 8:00 PM EST. At that point, we’ll draw the winner randomly and make the announcement right here on the first Friday in August. 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Moving on, we have a winning name to draw! After random.org put all of the names in the virtual hat, the number drawn was...

                                                  

Which means the winner is.....

MARSHA DRAIN! 

You have to check out Marsha's beautifully colored and distressed creation that comes complete with a fluttering butterfly! She used Power Poppy's digital stamp set Pure Prairie Bouquet to perfection!


CONGRATS MARSHA! You've won a $50 Shopping Spree — contact us at bloom@powerpoppy.com and we'll send you your shopping code!

Before I let you go, I do have a few fun-filled announcements! 

I'm sure you've heard the old saying when the cat's away, the mice will play? Well, since Marcy decided to hit the road on a fun-filled family vacation, Power Poppy hopes you get... SHOPPY! See what I did there? Anywhoo, if you need to stock up on some digital stamps, NOW IS THE TIME! All digital images, ALL OF THEM, will be on sale through July 14th when you shop and use promo code VACATIONDIGIS at the time of checkout. How fun is that? 

Keep in mind, if you purchase clear stamps during that time frame (between July 6 and July 14), orders will be mailed on or after July 17th. The store isn't closed, the mailing department is just taking a little nap! ;-)  

And now, let's turn it over to some of the most talented card designers in all of blog land!


Stop by, say "hi" and see what these fine ladies have been up to this week!


Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to swing back by Monday when Ally Cope will be at it again -- wowing us with her mad stampin' skills for another edition of Inspire Me Monday. She'll share an oft-forgotten supply that not only is fun to use but creates a little wow factor on your cards and projects! Here's a hint -- it changes before your eyes! How's that for a teaser? Have a fabulous weekend and we'll see you back here real soon!

~Julie


It's a Power Poppy Kind of Friday!

Hello all and happy spring to you. As I type these words, the sun is streaming in and the grass looks just a little bit greener out my window here in Montana. Yay! I hope you are all feeling the sunshine and watching those spring flowers take root and blossom -- even if it is only in your heart! 

Boy, oh boy, the talent was sure blossoming all over the web this week and we can't wait to show off just SOME of the Power Poppy goodness that we picked up on! Be ready to be wowed! Get set to be amazed! 

LET'S GET THIS POWER POPPY PARTY STARTED! 


Mindy Baxter of My Creative Scoop is sharing a gorgeous process peek of artwork she's working on for a soon-to-debut coloring class. Would you like to learn to shade and blend your Copics like THIS? Go see what Mindy’s up to with Hellebores, Power Poppy's digital set that’s long been a favorite for many. Taking your coloring to next-level realism and dimension is just a weekend away...


Stampin' Rock Star Michelle Boyer was spotted using Power Poppy's digital stamp set Cuppa Buttercups. I love the sweet simplicity of Michelle's design and all that absolutely fabulous shading! Sigh.... love.


Okay, Okay. I know I share a TON of Nancy Sturtz' stuff here on the blog. so much so, she might actually wonder if I am a stalker. (I am not Nancy, promise!) But honestly, look at this card! It is simply too sweet NOT to share. Everything about it just has a welcoming and charming vibe -- from the decorative paper to the way she so perfectly cut out those stamped and colored images,  to the alignment of all those darling dishes! If this was real life sitting area, I would have to spend an afternoon there with a cuppa somethin' good! p.s. Nancy used Artful Display by Power Poppy for this creation.


The creativity that’s happening in the card making world right now is just off the charts, and we love to see how you all are stretching yourselves. Jo Ann Danchik has come up with a personal challenge to use the same arrangement of stamps — we’re excited to see that it is our new Succulent Singles — in a series of cards, with different shades of cardstock and completely different coloring methods and color schemes. The results are absolutely breathtaking! Visit Jo Ann (@jadanchik on Instagram) to see her beautiful studies.


Need a super dose of happy? Direct your eyes above please to this colorful wonder created by Maria Sabina, who happens to hail from a small Romanian town. All I have is... WOW! Look at that no-line coloring (Maria used Inktense watercolor pencils) in so many sweet springy hues! She used Power Poppy's new clear set Peony Muse along with a few Narcissus blooms and Eucalyptus leaves from Glistening Paperwhites in such a unique way, I almost didn't recognize the stamp sets! Well done Maria, well done!


Alright -- one more for you!!!  Here's another version of no-line coloring, this time using colored pencils and Power Poppy's new set Sweet Memories. Essie's card has such a dreamy quality about it, don't you think? It's almost like those beautiful little flowers were just picked and placed so perfectly on a table, capturing the natural light just streaming over them. So sweet and beautiful!

I happen to know a few more lovely ladies who would like to share their artful endeavors with all of you! It's the Bloom Brigade and they are all on stand-by, waiting for your visit!




Before we go, have you checked out our new challenge for April?


Yours truly is the hostess and all you have to do is pick one of three sketches and then... CREATE! You can flip flop the sketch, set it on its side, use different shapes. The whole idea is to use these sketches as a launching pad! Learn more HERE and be sure to check out all the fabulous entries that have already linked up to the challenge! Of course, we would love to see YOUR take on these card layouts! ;-)

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to tune in next Monday when we'll have another Inspire Me Monday post to kick off your creative week. By the way, if you missed last Monday with Ally, hop back HERE to check it out. I can't wait to give some of her experimenting a try!

Check back at the end of the day, when Marcella will announce the winners of the two $25 shopping codes from last week’s Power Poppy/MISTI blog hop. We LOVED reading all of your comments, thank you so much for the love!

For those that celebrate this beautiful holiday, have a fabulous Easter Weekend!
Julie

Monday

Inspire Me Monday: Stamping with Water

Welcome to the Power Poppy blog! It’s Allison Cope here with another fun Inspire Me Monday!

Today we’re all about experimenting!  Yes… when you have all these fun stamps and products, sometimes you just have to experiment with them.  You know, not having a goal of an end product makes playing around with your supplies fun.

For today, I’m sharing a fun stamping with water technique.  I’m going to use a few different kinds of ink and some watercolor paper.

So grab a cuppa something fun and join me at my desk…

For today’s experiments, here are a few close ups…

For our video panel, we used the delicate “Sweet Memories” stamp set and some cool Distress Inks…
For the above panel, I think I would have got a better image if I had allowed the water just to sit and sink into the watercolor paper.  I think the image would have been much more clear!  Live and learn I say!!!

For our cool green & blue panel, we used the fun “Succulent Singles” stamp set…

For the earthy panel, we used the whimsical “Artful Display” stamp set…

For our bright and springy panel, we used the “Burst of Kindness” stamp set…

And for our final panel, we used the amazing “Loving Tulips” stamp set.  I think this panel came out the best of the five…

Don't forget to check out the blog hop that Power Poppy has collaborated with My Sweet Petunia (maker of the MISTI tool).  Click the image below to check out the start of our fun hop... there's even a PRIZE for leaving comments for each of the designers...

http://powerpoppy.blogspot.ca/2017/04/hoppin-with-misti.html

Plus, don't forget to play along with the latest Power & Spark Challenge this month! It's a super fun one... three amazing sketches by the amazing talented Julie Koerber!  Click here for more details!


 Thanks for joining me today!  I hope you too get to experiment with your inks and stamping with water!  Have a great week everyone!

~ Allison Cope ~


supplies:
Paper:  Strathmore (Bristol Smooth)
Inks:  Catherine Pooler Designs (Party Dress, Flirty Fushia, Something Blue, Aquatini, Lime Rickey, Fiesta Blue), Distress Inks (Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, Dusty Concord), Distress Oxides (Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Faded Jeans, Peeled Paint, Wilted Violet) 
Tools:  MISTI, Mini MISTI

Sunday

Spring Fling Day Three: Loving Tulips and Sweet Memories

Just a note here before we begin. I did not mess up Daylight Savings time! But I did oversleep... because I was up until 3 am going through all the Giveaway entries... good golly was that exciting. More on that later.

OOoooooOOoooooOOO we just keep on keeping on with the fun this week, are you loving it as much as I am? Two full days of Spring Fling previews are under our belt, three sweet stamp sets have been shared, and today we have two more to add to the stack of temptation! If you haven’t seen any of the other sets yet, take a moment to scroll through our blog to catch up on the juicy cards and creations the Bloomies have been whipping up! Plus you can see my new haircut. Yes, the breaking news and most important information can be found here, including the status of my out of control mane.

ON TO THE STAMP PREVIEWS...

Have ya seen our little peeks at this set yet? The one I spent some time coloring one beautiful morning, and was so excited playing with my tubes of paint that I decided to make a photo shoot on my dining room table with all my “little stuff”...


I woke up and had this vision in my head of arranging the stamps around an inspiring blurb, and for me, this verse is helpful. It’s hand-lettered, not a part of the set, but you could add anything you want inside a scattered circle of Sweet Peas! I shot a few details of the process as the image was coming alive on my watercolor block...


These are the stamps from our new clear stamp set that I think is one of most fun things I’ve played with in a while!! To create this set, I started with our digital version, Sweet Pea Show, which I drew earlier this year. It has been quite the hit with colorists across the world much to my delight, with a rainbow of colors and creative approaches. But the fun part of this clear version is that I took some computer-aided clippers to the vines! The result is a stamp set with a whole BUNCH of single sweet peas in various lengths with subtle variance in scale, along with new drawings of pea pods, tendrils, peas, and a fresh batch of small curlicue sentiments that go with it. It’s all too sweet! Introducing Sweet Memories.


You can do so much with this set, and I know it’s one that I will return to agin and again because it’s gosh darn FUN to play with the twisting, twirling tendrils and our flouncy, fancy hybrid sweet peas. These are no standard peas, my dears. These are special, just like you! hehe! :) Seriously I mean it, though. Special peas for special peeps.

On to the NEXT new stamp set preview for today... let’s just hop right in, shall we? Isn’t everybody everywhere just Loving Tulips? Find me one person who does not like a tulip. The simplest ones are hard to pass up, and the French, Parrot, and species tulips are downright jaw-dropping. So let’s check out this set that might ring a bell with ya....


Do you recognize that pitcher of prettiness? It’s based on one of our most popular digis everrrr, Tulips in Hobnail Pitcher. But I refined the clear stamp version a bit, and it’s just as awesome and fun to color as the digi. PLUS, this one comes with a spotty sentiment that I hope will win your heart as it did mine. The swoopy scripty “Hello!” is based on a vintage greeting card I found, and attempted to recreate — but with a polka-dotty vibe just to be extra lively.

This new set will also have COORDINATING DIES — yes, I am going there — and they will be in the shop next week!

ADDENDUM: Our alert cardmaking friend Maria V. inquired as to whether the dies for Loving Tulips will fit the digital stamp. I’d like to report that they will fit with a small adjustment. The digital stamp needs to be slightly reduced when you go to print. You'll just change the size to 97% in the print dialog box and the artwork should nestle right in. This was not my intention, but due to variance needed when manufacturing the clear stamps, the digital image is not a perfect match. If this becomes too tricky for folks, we may upload a "die-friendly update" to be available to anyone who has purchased Tulips in Hobnail Pitcher. Stay tuned, darlings!

Now let’s run ’round and see what creative cards are on display for today by the talented Bloom Brigade design team, who are just totally outdoing themselves on this release, I’m sure you’ll agree:



Thank you sooooo much, Bloomies!! And thank you so much to my wonderful customers who have been burning up the internet with their kind comments so far during our previews.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

And now it’s time to announce the winner of the Power Poppy Giveaway — you know, the one where we are giving away the ENTIRE SPRING FLING COLLECTION of 8 stamps to one entrant and a friend who was tagged.

We got approximately 80 ba-jillion entries from our blog, Facebook, and Instagram — and I want to tell you that by the end of going through all of them (I was awake until 3 am!!) I wish I could give them to every single one of you. If I ever win the lottery, I’m totally going to. 

But for this time around, we have one winner, who tagged one friend...



*** BARB ENGLER ***

Barb, Congratulations to you!
You win all 8 stamps in our collection, and the friend you tagged wins 8 stamps, too. That friend is Lisa Tilson.

Please send us a note at bloom@powerpoppy.com with both of your addresses so we can get those stamps on their way to both of you lickity split. Can't wait to see what you make with them, ladies, I hope you’ll share photos of your work with us.

THANK YOU ALL so much for entering, for your beautiful, loving, and sometimes very moving comments... this was great fun and I think we’ll have to do it again!!

See you back here tomorrow, yes? TWO MORE stamp sets will be coming out to play, and we’ll be one day closer to everything being available to purchase on March 14. 

Enjoy your day,