Power Poppy's September Power & Spark Challenge~Let's Hit the Books!

Hello there and happy September to all of you!  Can you believe that we are already in to September?  Where did the summer go?   Although, I will miss those lazy summer days, I have to admit that I love Fall and all the wonderful things that come with the season!  Cooler temperatures, shorter days, falling leaves, football games, and the giddy feeling I get with the back to school rush.  Call me sentimental, but even after more years than I care to admit since I’ve been in school, I still feel the need to go shopping for pencils, pens, paper pads, books, and all of the fun little things that you do to prepare for a new school year!  It's also time for a new Power Poppy Power & Spark Challenge....and I get to be the hostess!  So how about a challenge that will inspire you to “Hit the Books”?  

You can use an image containing books, or how about a neat book print designer paper, or even create a book mark or book cover?  Whatever you decide, just make sure your inspiration is book related!  

So, for my project I decided to make a book cover and book mark.  Did you ever have to make book covers for your school books?  I used to look forward to covering and decorating my books each year!  I started by covering my little book with some craft wrapping paper and then made a belly band with a couple of patterned papers and some machine stitching for my book front.  Next, I printed an image and sentiment from Power Poppy's digital stamp set Apples in Season on to white card stock and colored it with Copics.  After die cutting my image, I layered it with some green card stock and adhered it to my book cover.

For my book mark, I die cut kraft and white card stock and stamped an apple image from the Farmer's Market stamp set and a sentiment from the Lilac Time stamp set.  After coloring the image with Copics, I assembled my book mark, added a bit of patterned paper and green card stock, and finished it with some ribbon.

Don't you just love those beautifully drawn apples and lovely sentiment?  The detail Marcella added to those apples is amazing!

I can't wait to curl up with my little book and "enjoy the moment"!  :)  That is all for my project today, but some of my Bloomie sisters have some lovelies to share with you so make sure you check them out and leave a little blog love while you are there.  I thank you so much for stopping by today and I hope that you will play along with us in our September Power & Spark Challenge this month.  Just link up your project on the Power Poppy blog for your chance to win a $50 gift code!  I can't wait to see what you create.  I hope you have a great weekend and I hope you will stop by again soon...until then, take care.  :)

Allison Cope 

Christine Okken  

Katie Sims <------You are here 
Stacy Morgan 


~Katie


Copic markers used for book cover:  R30, R32, R35, R37, R39, BV02, BV13, RV23, RV29, E40, E42, YG0000, YG21, YG61, YG63, YG67, YG91, G29, C00, C2, C4

Copic markers used for book mark:  R30, R32, R35, R37, R39, BV02, RV23, RV29, YG0000, YG21, YG61, YG63, YG67, G29, BG0000, BG000, B00, E40, E42, E44, E51, E55, E57, E59, 

Happy Power Poppy Friday with Sweet Peas!

Hello there and a Happy Friday to you!  I hope all is well with you.  Today I have a card to share using Power Poppy's new digital stamp set, Sweet Pea Show.    

For my card, I started by printing my image and coloring it with Copics.  After that, I die cut my image panel.  I stamped my sentiment from the Farmer's Market stamp set and then sponged some Ranger Distress ink in Frayed Burlap around the panel.  Then, I trimmed some patterned papers with a paper trimmer and die cut my card base.  I thought it might be fun to wrap a patterned paper around the folded edge to mimic book binding.  I distressed a lot of the paper edges with Papertrey Ink's Chamomile and Chai inks, then added a little stitching and assembled my layers.  I added a ribbon and some shimmer to the blooms with a Wink of Stella clear pen.  This is an A2 sized card.

Those have got to be the most darling sweet pea blooms ever!  And just look at those wee little tendrils reaching up to the sun....my goodness, it just doesn't get any sweeter than that!  Do you suppose that is how they got their name?  One has to wonder.....:)

I cannot get over all of the intricate details Marcella managed to pack into this image....and as always, it was a dream to color up!

So that is all for my card today but several of my Bloomie sisters have created some pretty spectacular cards for your creative inspiration.  Make sure you check them out and leave a little (or a lot) of blog love while you are there.  :)  I am so glad you were able to stop by today and I look forward to our next visit.  Until then, take care!

Allison Cope 

Christine Okken 

Cindy Lawrence    
Julie Koerber  
Katie Sims <------You are here 
Stacy Morgan 
Tosha Leyendekker

~Katie

Supplies not listed above:  Paper- Rustic White card stock from Papertrey Ink, patterned floral paper from BasicGrey's "Sweet Threads" 6x6 paper pad, dotted patterned paper from My Mind's Eye's Lost & Found "Blush" 6x6 paper pad; Ink-Memento's Tuxedo Black ink, PTI's Smokey Shadow ink for the sentiment; Other- PTI's Noted: Scalloped A2 Vertical die set and ribbon, and these Copic colors: G000, YG21, YG23, YG25, YG67, YG91, RV10, RV21, RV23, RV25, RV29, RV52, RV55, RV63, RV66, RV69, RV99, V91, V93, V95, and V99.

It's Another Awesome Power Poppy Friday!

Hi there and a very happy Friday to you!  Have you had a good week?  Checked out the latest goings on over at the Power Poppy Blog?  Have you been able to get in any crafty time lately?  I hope so!  I was able to sneak in my craft room for a bit this week to put together a card for a sweet friend of mine.  To say that she loves cauliflower would probably be an understatement so I thought this darling little cauliflower image  from the Farmer's Market set would be perfect for a card for her!

I started by stamping my little basket of cauliflower on to card stock with Memento's Tuxedo Black ink.  Next, I colored it in with Copics and fussy cut it out  but I wanted to add a little more dimension without a lot of extra fussy cutting.  Hmmm,  so I took my stylus and made a few indentations from the front so I could then turn it over and really emboss some dots from the back where the cauliflower florets were. After that, I added some sparkle on the florets with my Atyou Spica clear glitter pen.  To finish it off, I stamped the dainty little "Just For You" sentiment with Versamark ink and embossed it with white embossing powder and my heat gun.  Amazing how much detail that wee little sentiment has!  :)  

For my sentiment, I used a die from one of my treasured Marianne Design die sets, Petra's Square Frames.  I thought the shape looked a little like cauliflower.  I stamped the "Share what you Love" sentiment, sponged on some Ranger Distress ink in Peeled Paint and then proceeded to assemble my panels for my card.  Just a couple of patterned papers, stitching, and ribbon treatment set the scene for my sentiment die cut and sparkly cauliflower basket.  

I tried to get a photo to show the dimension of the cauliflower but I am not sure you can really see it in these photos.  I can't recall a time when I have stamped over something I have colored with copics and then heat embossed it...but I think it really turned out great.  Whew!  And first time too.....I was a little nervous since I had already colored the entire image (when will I learn?) but it turned out A-okay this time!  

Don't you just love that sentiment.  I will take it one step further and add with the "peeps that you love"....so this card is going to one big hearted, incredibly creative, cauliflower super freak that I just adore!  ;) 

Ok, so now that I have shown you my card, how about taking a little hop around and see what some of my a-mazing Bloom Brigade sisters created for your Friday inspiration.  And, if you haven't played along with our March Power and Spark Challenge that Tosha Leyendekker threw down last week, you really need to check that out too!  It lasts all month and you could end up winning a stamp set of your choice!  Yay!  Ok, so that's all for me today but I am working on a little something for some upcoming posts (Ahem, April Power Poppy Release, cough cough) so I hope to see you back soon and until then, take care!  :)

Christine Okken   
Dawn Burnworth
Katie Sims <------You are here 
Stacy Morgan 

~Katie

Supplies not listed above:  Paper- Naturals White and Lucky Limeade card stocks from Stampin' Up!, Classic White card stock from Flourishes, patterned papers from My Mind's Eye's "Dolled Up" 6x6 paper pad and Lilybeedesign's "Double Dutch" 6x6 paper pad; Ink-  Versafine Onyx Black ink, Papertrey Ink's Chamomile ink; Other-  Certainly Celery satin ribbon from SU!, white twine and button from PTI, and these Copic colors-  YG0000, YG01, YG21, YG23, YG61, YG63, YG67, E30, E33, E35, E37,E57, E59, W01, W03, N5, N7, and N9.

A Power Poppy Friday with Lilacs!

Hello there everybody!  I hope you all have been doing well and staying warm wherever you are!  It has been right chilly here and I must say, we are not used to single digits!  My poor Camellias....they were about to bloom and now all of the leaves are curled up and the buds are frozen.  I hope once this cold snap passes some of the blooms will recover, but I don't know.....we'll just have to see.  Have you been keeping up with all of the fabulousness going on over at Power Poppy?  Those amazing Power Poppy Instant Gardeners have been at it again and heralded in one of the most beautiful digis evah....French Lilac.  I could not wait to get this one printed up and colored!

Now I ask you, have you ever seen a prettier lilac image?  Me either.  ;)  That Marcella definitely knows her blooms, doesn't she?   Lilacs come in a variety of colors so you could use this image again and again with several different color schemes!    Let me show you what I did using this amazing image.....

I chose to go with the more traditional lilac colors and stayed mostly in the violet family of Copics.  When I think of lilacs, I think of an abundance of blooms and that heavenly scent everywhere.  I wanted my card to be chock full of blooms so I added  just a few extra to anchor my image.  One might be surprised exactly how many of these little blooms it takes to fill the bottom left corner of an A2-ish sized card but I think it was totally worth it to make it feel like a huge bouquet of lilacs.  I crumpled my papers before I used my Martha Stewart 3 in 1 Hydrangea punch and then used a stylus on them to really rough them up.  Next, I sponged on a little PTI Fresh Snow ink and I think was able to pass these off as lilac blooms.....don't you?  ;)  After I colored my image, I sponged on some Ranger Distress Ink in Weathered Wood and spritzed some ink from markers around the blooms.  Then, I got ready to stamp my sentiment from Power Poppy's Farmer's Market set.  

Now here is where it gets interesting and it turns out I have a little survival tip for you.  I have tried to make it a practice to stamp my sentiment before I color my image because...well, bad things can happen if you don't (ask me how I know this).  I must not have been in my right mind, because I went ahead and colored up my image and then realized I hadn't put the sentiment on there....drat.  Sooo, I practiced stamping the sentiment more times than I care to admit here to make sure all would go well and on every one of the practice images it went beautifully.  So, I felt pretty confident going in that all would be ok.....and then......yep, it happened.  I stamped that sentiment, pulled up the stamp and from "Sweet" all the way to "Brighten" there was a stray black line, in what later was to be determined as a Miniature Longhaired Dachshund hair on my stamp (again, ask me how I know this...)  I was mortified.  I was just about to ditch the image and color up another one when I spied my Stampin' Up!  Stampin White Chalk Marker.  I thought, what the heck....so I dabbed it on the stray black Versafine ink line and O.M.Gosh.....it worked!  The photo below has not been touched up....this is how well that marker covered up my ooops.  Pretty cool, eh?  Tragic situation averted.....

I used my Krylon Silver Leafing pen for this image and popped it up on foam dimensionals so my gazillion punched lilac blooms could spill out around it.  The card itself is some very simple layers of patterned papers, card stock, and a bit of stitching....but I think that this card would still count as reasonably flat for mailing!  :)  Oh, I did use some Tsukineko Shimmer Mist on the punched lilac blooms and then my Atyou Spica clear glitter pen for the centers of the colored blooms.  So there you have it, a fabulous French Lilac digital image, a semi flat card for mailing, a new anecdote for your card emergency tool box, and one very relieved card maker since every thing worked out ok....lol.  I sure have enjoyed your visit here today and I hope you will be able to pay all of my sweet and uber talented Bloom Brigade sisters a visit.....they have lots of lilac goodness just waiting for you to see!  Make sure you leave them a little love, while you're there, k?  I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week and weekend and until next time....take care!  :)

Allison Cope 

Christine Okken 
Cindy Lawrence  
Dawn Burnworth  
Julie Koerber 
Kathy Jones 
Katie Sims <------You are here
Leslie Miller 
Stacy Morgan 
Tosha Leyendekker

~Katie

Supplies not listed above:  Paper:  Naturals White, colored card stocks, and striped patterned paper from Stampin' Up!. Classic White card stock from Flourishes, Music patterned paper from The Paper Studio; Dies:  Spellbinders' A2 Matting Basics sets A & B, Grand Scalloped Rectangles, Papertrey Ink's linen impression plate; Ink:  Tsukineko's Versafine ink in Onyx Black, Stampin' Up! markers in Sahara Sand, Basic Gray and Concord Crush and these Copic colors:  G40, G82, G85, G99, YG91, V0000, V01, V04, V05, V09, V12, V15, V17, BV01, BV02, and C5.