Power Poppy - The Blog: Challenge

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Monday

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!

The Blossom Challenge: Clean Slate

Welcome to a new year Power Poppy friends! It’s Christine welcoming you today to start new year right with a new theme for The Blossom Challenge! January brings a lot of new starts, maybe even new creative goodies and fresh creative juices, so we’re all about a Clean Slate this month! So put away all the layers and extra do-dads and instead show us your best clean and simple designs that celebrate that simple, clean and yet graphic style that packs a punch!

Today I pulled out a now retired polymer set from Power Poppy which showcases all sorts of fun mushrooms! Parts of that set are also available in digi form as Mushroom Trio, Miraculous Mushrooms and Morel Standards. I stamped this image on Kraft cardstock and then pulled out my Prismacolor Pencils because I always love how pencils look on Kraft.

You can achieve a look that almost glows! I always lay down a layer of white prismacolor for the rest of the colours to lay on and blend. A simple snail die seemed like the perfect accent, and then a bit of ribbon adds another pop of colour but keeps it clean, and the layers very simple.

Now you’re invited to come and join us for this month’s Clean Slate! All you need to do is create a Clean and Simple design showcasing any Power Poppy image and link it up below to be in the running!

BUT THERE’S MORE! Did you know Marcy’s got a gorgeous freebie you can use too?! Just in time for Valentine’s The Rose Digi is FREE! It would be a beautiful clean design image to use! But we’d love to see any of your creations.

You have until February 17th to enter! Winner will be chosen at random and will receive a $20 Gift Code to the Power Poppy store!

The Blossom Challenge: Eat Your Fruit and Veggies

Hello Power Poppy friends! It’s Christine with you here today and we’re headed into harvest season this month with The Blossom Challenge and our theme “Eat Your Fruit and Veggies”. Today I am showing off our “vegan” concept with two cards celebrating both gratitude and yummy fruit and veggies.

My first design showcases Power Poppy’s Cabbage Patch set. Each of these cabbages or kale are coloured with Copic Markers and trimmed out. I have more photos of this design on my blog, as well as a short tutorial on how I created the coordinating cabbage and kale background. The mini-slimline size is perfect size for this design to make it feel long and lean, and with lots of room for the images, sentiment banner and background.

The sentiment is from the polymer version of this set, which is embossed in white and inked in black below. I love all the rich green colour! It’s the colour I love best!

Next up is a card with one of my favourite fall sets from Power Poppy called: Pumpkins and Pears.

Marcy always does little vignettes so charmingly and they are such a delight to colour. I started with Copics for this design and then finished off the colouring with Prismacolor Pencils to add in the fine details.

The background is a Kraft panel that was masked off with tape and then Distress Oxide Ink was added (Crackling Campfire, Abandoned Coral, Fossilized Amber and Seedless Preserves). After splattering with water and some white ink and it was dry, I ran the panel through with a pierced die. I love the look it gives. It’s finished off with some patterned paper, inked die cut leaves and enamel dots.

Have you been eating your Fruits and Veggies? How about creating a card with them?!

Join us this month with a design using some form of Fruit or Vegetable in the card and at least one Power Poppy stamp. The Challenge is open for a month and you could win a $20 gift card to the Power Poppy Store!

To top it off, Marcy has a SALE on some of my favourite Fruit and Veggie themed digi stamps in the store if you’d like to add to your collection and play along!

You have until October 16th to submit your link below.

Want to know the WINNER from our Sentimental Challenge last month? Congratulations goes out to..... Maggie S ! Maggie, contact Marcy at bloom@powerpoppy.com to get your prize code! We look forward to see what you create!

Enjoy and be inspired with more Fruit and Veggie goodness from the Bloom Brigade playing along today.

Gloria

Essie

The Blossom Challenge: Bring Those May Flowers

Hello Power Poppy Friends!

We’re so excited to welcome you here today and to invite you to our NEW Monthly Challenge! I’ll be your host (Christine), but each month I’ll be joined by some of our Power Poppy Bloomies bringing you inspiration with the challenge.

It’s called The Blossom Challenge! As I’ve been thinking about the challenge, my heart keeps coming back to this theme of “Blossom”. Yes, of course the flower allusion, that’s the beauty of Power Poppy, but also to Blossom in the sense of growing and thriving as creators, becoming more abudant in our abilities .......and sometimes that means we need a spark of inspiration, a push to try something new, a place that celebrates what we’ve done, and how we’ve grown. I want this to be a place to feel proud of our creative gift, in a Power Poppy Community that cheers one other on! So that’s what you’re going to find here each month at Power Poppy, and we hope you all join in!

This month our theme is “April Showers Bring May Flowers”. We want you to pull out all of those lovely Spring blooms that Marcy illustrates so beautifully and create anything with them. More on the theme, and prizes later in the post, but first I’ll start with the card I created.

Heart Abloom is one of my favourite illustrations from Power Poppy! I love the composition of the images, the combination of daffodils, narcissus, hellebore, tiny lilies and the fun blueberries and snail! Its sister set in polymer is called Always Here (still available!). I really enjoy picking unique palettes for my colouring and when I found a fun peachy-yellow hellebore that helped me decide on these fun colours together. That’s one of my #1 tips for colouring, do some research on your flowers first. Find some inspiration and build a cohesive colour palette from there.

The colouring is done with Copic Markers, with details added in with Prismacolor Pencils. Trimmed out carefully and placed on this pretty ombre patterned paper, with paper ric-rac and a scalloped frame helps keep the emphasis on the beauty of the flowers. I delight in how fresh and fun it is and how much I enjoyed colouring it!

So....here are the details about the Challenge!

1. You must use a Power Poppy image somewhere on your design. It could be a stamp, digi, sentiment, Power Poppy freebie, or a background, but we want to see you using your Power Poppy images. Those will be the cards entered for our monthly prize.

This month we want to see your Spring flowers, think tulip, daffodil, narcissus, hellebore, hyacinth, primrose, snow drop, crocus, and cherry blossoms for your creations. Let’s leave those summer blooms for a few months from now :)

Marcy has generously discounted some of our BEST Spring themed images by 25% OFF so you can play along!! You are not limited to these sets, but what an awesome sale!

Click here to see the discounted sets this month:

ALL NEW: Sketches of Spring Volume I
Daffodil Bouquet
Dancing with Daffodils

Bowl of Beauty

Auricula Theatre
Blossoming Cherry
Heart Abloom
Hellebores
Hyacinth Bulb in Glass
Love One Another
Magnolia Sunshine
Spring Border One and Spring Border Two
Spring Meadow Bouquet
Springtime Love Roundel
Tulips
Tulips in Hobnail Pitcher
Created to Create
Flowering Branches
Winter Pick Me Up

2. There will be a monthly PRIZE for playing along! Sometimes it will be a random draw, and other times it will be a Bloomie Favourite winning design. Winners will receive a $20 Gift Card to the Power Poppy store! This month’s Challenge will be open until NOON on June 17th.

Here is more inspiration for our April Showers Bring May Flowers from the Bloomies!

Barbara C

Lisa J

Gloria

Essie

and Christine

Enter to win using our Linky below!

Tuesday

Creative Confetti: An Attitude of Gratitude!

Hello stampers! It's time for another Creative Confetti Challenge -- where we throw up a bit of inspiration for you to enjoy to share a little inspiration! And today, I not only have a challenge to share, I have a brand new Power Poppy image to share as well! This one is all about giving thanks. What a perfect week for that kind of message!

HOW TO PLAY: Simply share a card or creation with a message that shares your gratitude! It's just that simple! Just like all Creative Confetti Challenges, every month we take the entries on our linky and draw a random winner at the end of our month-long challenge. The winner gets a $25 gift code to the Power Poppy Shop! Wooo hoooo!

Just like I mentioned, I am showing off a brand new image from Power Poppy. In fact, Marcella drew it this afternoon! That's how fresh this new illustration is! Let me introduce you to Bittersweet Thanks!

This image comes pre-sized for an A2 card AND an 8.5" x 11" — print a few off for folks to color while waiting to eat. Or print it for yourself to color during precious Thanksgiving downtime! And, on top of this new image, Marcella is offering all fall-themed digital downloads - including this one above - at 50% off! No code needed! Just click HERE to check out the autumnal bounty for yourself!

On to my creation!

What's wonderful about this illustration is that it is sized super large for a coloring extravaganza or is also designed to take up the front of a card. Well, I decided that I wanted to make a mini card, so I sized it to be just 2" wide and about 2-3/4" tall. I have to say it is a little bit smaller than I should have gone but I do love how this little card turned out! I took a normal A2 size card and cut it in half so that it measured 4-1/4" tall and 2-3/4" wide. After I colored up this image with Copic markers, I used a 2-1/2" circle punch to cut out my image. I printed out 6 to a page because it's my hope to color up all of these and create these mini notes so that I can write "Thanksgiving Love Notes" to my family and put them all on their plates as we sit down to eat. :-)

I rounded some corners on my card and used a scalloped die cut to add a little pizzazz to my creation along with some decorative paper and... ta-da! Done!

Here's a little closeup so that you can see the image just a wee bit better!

And that, my friends, is it! Now it's your turn to color up some gratitude and then, once you're done, link up your creation below so you are in the running for the $25 Gift Code! Keep in mind, we run the same linky all month long so play along with me just one week or each week to expand your chances of winning! We can't wait to see what you color up!

Happy Stamping!

Creative Confetti: Emboss Like a Boss!

Hello friends! It's Tuesday and that means it's time for a brand new Creative Confetti challenge! When I dreamt up this challenge, I wanted something easy and in my head, I kept seeing splashes of white on black. I have no idea why - it might have been that cool pine cone wrapping paper that I saw while out shopping. Not sure. But when all was said and done, I had white embossing powder everywhere and stacks of black paper at the ready. So, fine folks, here's your challenge for this week!

HOW TO PLAY: Just as simple as it sounds - make a card using either heat or dry embossing! Let your creativity flow!

On to my creation....

I started by stamping one of the main images from Let Your Heart Be Light using Versamark ink and then embossed using white detail powder. Then, using a few different shades of red and green, I colored up my image using colored pencils. I used one of the sentiments from the set and used that along the bottom. Add a little strip of red card stock, a red ribbon and a bit of bling and that's all there is to this card! I like to keep my holiday cards a little on the simple side because as you know - the paper flies when you need to create as many as we do!

Here's a close up for you!

So, do you want to "Emboss like a Boss?" Join me this week! Every entry is one more shot at winning a $25 gift code to the Power Poppy Shop! So, get those fingers inky and let's have some fun this week! Once you're done with your creation, don't forget to link up your creation below!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Julie

Creative Confetti: Tic Tac Toe!

Hello all and Happy Tuesday! Sorry, I am so late posting. I almost had to say Happy Wednesday at this point! ;-) So, let's get on to this week's challenge. It's one that gives you a little freedom and flexibility to create with ..... a little game of Tic Tac Toe.

HOW TO PLAY: Playing is just as simple as the graphic above says. Just use the Tic Tac Toe board below and follow the line across, diagonally or down to choose three items to create with. Just that simple.

On to my creation!

I have to admit, this card below is an oldie but goodie! My work was so crazy this week that I didn't even get to walk by my craft room, let alone step inside. But, this card does show how this week's challenge works. So, here goes!

As you can see, I used Power Poppy's clear stamp set called Bee Kind Toile. And if you look closely you'll also see that I used the top row of the board by using a background stamp (that fabulous honeycomb that is a part of the set). I have a bow AND I created a birthday card! So, Tic Tac Toe for me!

And, here's a peek at the inside. I just love taking the time to make the insides of cards extra special as well! I used the background stamp again, the little bee in the set (one of them at least) and one of the sentiments from the set as well. As for the main image, that little beehive cake was colored up with Copic markers.

And that, my friends, is it! Just that easy peasy! So, now it's your turn to have a little bit of fun playing Tic Tac Toe and using those prompts to create! I can't wait to see what you come up with! There are so many fun possibilities!

Before I let you go, with a new month, it means that we get to choose the lucky winner from all the entries for our Creative Confetti Challenges for August! So, without further ado, the lucky stamper is....

That means the winner is.....

* * * * RAHMAT GOUSE * * * *

Rahmat created this beautiful creation above for our Keep It Simple challenge to create with white space and have a clean and classy design. I would say she nailed it! You can read more about this creation by clicking HERE! Rahmat, to claim your $25 shopping code, all you need to do is email us at bloom@powerpoppy.com and Marcy will go ahead and get that winning code right to you! Fun stuff!

With the new month, that means a whole host of new opportunities for YOU to win a little shopping spree at the Power Poppy Shop! So, get those fingers inky and let's see that creativity flow! We absolutely love it when you share all your artsy endeavors with us!

Until next time!

Creative Confetti: Inside Out!

Hello friends and happy Tuesday! I have a super fun post for you today! And, as a little bonus, I have a tutorial to show you how YOU can create a fun -- what I call -- "in and out" creation! So, let's get to it, shall we?

HOW TO PLAY: Create, letting your image fall in and out of a frame. This can be in a physical frame, you can fussy cut. You can get creative with stamping the image multiple times. Let's see your take on this one!

On to my creation... Here, below, is a peek at my card! You might wonder, "Hey, what image is that? I've never seen that one before!" If you did indeed say that, first click HERE to see Amy Shulke's tutorial on underpainting using this image -- Aloe and Oranges -- which is coming soon to the Power Poppy Shop!!

I absolutely love the colors in this image -- vibrant oranges, soft serene greens with a splash of purple in the stems of the coral aloe! I had never seen this plant in real life. But, if you Google it, you'll see that the blooms sprout from the aloe plant. Who knew? Not me!

So, as you look at my card, you'll see that I have the plant popping in and out of a physical frame. That's not a part of the original stamp. So, how did I do that? You're about to see!

I started by opening up the image and then creating a canvas that was basically the same size as the front of an A2 card. 4.25 by 5.5" at 300 dpi in Photoshop Elements.

After placing my digi on this canvas, I created a rectangle by using the Marquee Rectangle tool and dragging my mouse to create a rectangle. From there, I clicked on the tab that says Layer and created a solid fill layer in white to match my background. You can see below, after I created that fill layer, I added a black stroke around the outside. This was the second-heaviest stroke.

From there, I brought my main image forward by hitting the control button at the same time as the right bracket button. You can see below that I still have my white background on my main image. Well, for this technique to work -- that has to go!

So, as you can see on my toolbar below, I used the magic eraser tool and just clicked until the background on my Aloe and Oranges was transparent. This allowed my small frame to show through and it allowed me to situate my image so that it spilled outside of the frame! Fun!

And here's a peek again at my finished card! You can see in my finished image, I scooted the digi over a bit so that more of it fell outside the frame before coloring it up with Copic markers.

Since this image was so large, I just stuck it on an orange card stock base and then added a stitched oval sentiment. Not a lot needed when the image is so bodacious all on its own! ;-) I used the sentiment from the Summer Berries clear set because I thought it was so perfect for this image. Pop it up with foam tape, add a few rhinestones and.. ta da! Done!

I have to say, I wish I could tell you which Copic markers I used to color up this image but I was watching baseball on TV and just grabbing from my Copic Marker storage bag as I went! I do know that I tried to use more blue-green colors for the aloe and more rich green colors for the leaves. the oranges were pretty straight forward. I chose the most vibrant shades of orange and deep yellow. The background was colored with V01, and V0000. I just LOVE purple and orange together! My two favorite colors!

Want to join me this week? Simply create, post and then link up using the linky below! As we always say, if you get those fingers inky and play along, each and every link is an opportunity to win a $25 gift code to the Power Poppy Shop!

Until next time!