September Power & Spark: Hitting the Books!!

Hello folks and welcome to a whole new challenge designed to bring that bit of design power and a splash of creative spark to help motivate you to make outstanding cards and papercrafting projects. Are you ready to see what we have in store for you this month? Our fab hostess is the uber talented Bloomie Katie Sims. Let's get right to it, shall we?

HOW TO PLAY: Are you a bit of a bookworm? Does your heart yearn for a great page-turner? Let's hear from Katie how she wants us to combine our love of books with our craftsy sides!

“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! 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! I can’t wait to see what you create!”


Great challenge, Ms. Katie. Let's take a look to see how she put this book-loving challenge to the test!

Be still my heart! Katie not only covered the front of a journal and decked it out with Power Poppy's Apples in Season digital stamp set, which she so masterfully colored, she made a sweet-as-can be bookmark using Power Poppy's clear set Farmers Market. I love the pop of red and the reminder that fall and apple cider season is upon us! With this beautiful inspiration before us, now it's your chance to turn the page and give this challenge the good ole college try!

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 direct 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 September 30 @ 8:00 PM EST. At that point, we’ll draw the winner randomly and make the announcement right here on the first Friday in October. 

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

Moving on! Every first Friday we take a look back at all those ab fab entries, throw them all in a virtual hat and draw out one lucky winner for a $50 Shopping Spree to the Power Poppy Shop! Well folks, it's that time! In August, the amazing Cindy Lawrence asked you to take a look around your home and be inspired by something inside -- a color scheme, a work of art, a design feel. And man, did you all rise to the challenge! Just click HERE to see all the entries from our Power & Spark Inspired by Home challenge!

So Random.org stirred it all up and drew....

That means our lucky winner of the Shopping Spree is....

*** ANN TUCK! ***

Ann created this beauty using Power Poppy's freebie Kindness is the Way digital stamp and imitated the feel from an art print that hangs in the corner of her dining area. You'll have to click on over HERE to see her inspiration and how she brought it to life on this lovely creation!

Ann, in order to nab the code for your shopping spree, just email us at bloom@powerpoppy.com and we will get your winning code to you soonest!

Check out the creative genius brewing at some of our favorite designers' spots on the web! Those Bloomies are at it again and you won't want to miss what they've whipped up this week!

Allison Cope

Christine Okken

Katie Sims

Stacy Morgan

Thanks all for stopping by! Hopefully, you'll want to "Hit the Books" and join us with this fun-filled and creative challenge! As always, after you get your fingers inky, don't forget to link up your creation below so we can all see your fabulous handiwork!


Until next time!

~Julie

An InLinkz Link-up

A little art therapy with my coffee

Well, hello there!

Did anyone else see this news flash about how coloring has been found to help relieve stress in adults? I saw the article from the Guardian posted on Facebook the other day and thought, HECK YEAH IT DOES! This groundbreaking phenomenon could have been revealed years ago if the researchers had been following the papercrafting community. Coloring: It’s Cathartic. (Can I get that made into a bumper sticker?) This morning I took my coffee with a little cream, and a side of stamps and watercolors. I feel better already!

I have a bunch of big deadlines this week and just realized that my kids have the next two days off school for parent-teacher conferences. This gives me a fair bit of worry, just wanting to be sure I get everything to my clients on time, getting your orders filled (I made sure I was all caught up on that first thing, ahem!) along with getting to the soccer game tonight, the grocery store, the bank, swap out loads of laundry, etc, etc. We’re all juggling stuff like mad, and wanting to be present with our families — living in the moment! Girl, it can take it’s toll on the old psyche.

Well, I plan to check a number of items off my to-do list today, I promise. But I wanted to share my “art therapy” from earlier this morning, seizing an opportunity to just COLOR. The image I used is the Chinese Lanterns and Bittersweet stamp from my Sunny Harvest stamp set. The sentiment is from my Farmers Market set. While the leaves are changing outside and we plan to go punkin’ pickin’ this weekend, I thought it was only fitting to color up an image with some fall flair. It will be perfect to give to my mom and step-dad, whose garden is laced with Chinese Lantern (Latin name is Physalis alkekengi, also called Winter Cherry, you’ll see why in a second).

This is an old photo, but I love it so! My mom gathered up armfuls of these puffy pops of color and brought them over to help decorate for Lulu’s first birthday party (11 years ago — ACK!). She even put them in a pinky-red transferware pitcher. (Read here for more about my beloved mom and her transferware.) I had a theme of orange, hot pink, and white, and we had real orange and magenta paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling... bouquets all over the house. I must’ve had more energy back then, because even thinking back to decorating for the party I feel kind of tired. Where’s that coffee again... I might’ve accidentally used it for my water cup when I was painting....

This year my folks’ Chinese Lantern crop wasn’t quite as bountiful (it can be very invasive in a garden, and they had a horticulture/landscaping student come and clear out some overgrown areas), but I popped over recently and my mom and I found several surviving plants. It’s so fascinating to me how they can go through such a wonderful metamorphosis! On this visit, I found examples of some fresh green, papery “lanterns”...

And then another several stalks were that vivid deep orange color that is simply breathtaking! (Seriously, you might need to take a step back from your monitor because it is so awesome.) Look how the orange even bleeds into the bright green stem! I didn’t notice that earlier when I was coloring, and now I wish I’d done the stems that way. Ah well, it was supposed to be cathartic, not botanically correct. :) 

And lastly — and oh baby this is good — the papery “lanterns” dry to reveal the fruit inside! These will last for months and months after the summer, hence the nickname Winter Cherry.

I hope I’ve given you some jolts of color to inspire you today, and maybe just the nudge you needed to have an “art therapy” session of your own.

Have a good one!

Would you like cauliflower with that?

I would first like to report that since my last post, I have feasted on tomatoes and basil about seven times, and I’m so much better for it. Don’t ever let me go that long again!!

OK, so, my little girl, my firstborn angel, my energy-filled, soccer-playing sparkplug, my wise-cracking, trivia-loving Lulupedia, turned 12 last month. 

TWELVE I SAY! 

 

Apparently they let that happen, a kid gets to keep growing, and growing, and then they turn twelve and start middle school, and there’s nothing you can really do about it. But you know what you CAN do? You can still try to get those 12-year-olds to eat their veggies. I try to do it all the time and on many occasions, it takes. (Note: this post is NOT about tomatoes and basil — everybody knows tomatoes are a fruit!)

For Lulu’s bday celebration with her gal pals, she really wanted to have a roller skating sleepover party. I’m all for that kind of madness! Throw a bunch of sweet girls with sleeping bags in my living room to squeal and giggle and put on their own version of “America’s Got Talent” after 3 hours of skating in a circle to the latest dance hits — those kind of memories will last a lifetime.

I wonder if they’ll remember that I attempted to fortify their evening extravaganza with some farmers market bounty before it all began. I’m thinking no. But you know what, I tried, and it sure was pretty, and I’m recording it here on the internets for posterity.

 

I stopped by the market the day of the party and found that POW! — the colorful cauliflower had made a showy stop on the racks. Amish farmers from a few hours away in Illinois had giant bouquets of sunflowers, celosia, purple millet, and those crazy, hairy, green orbs on a stick (if ANYONE knows what those are, please share with the rest of us!). I picked up baskets of Missouri-grown peppers in all different shades, plus sugar snap peas (not local, but total must-haves!), carrots and cheeses and lettuces, and even a dozen brown eggs for breakfast the next morning. We made sandwiches with simple coldcut fixins, and had a giant bowl of chips because you have to have a little grease and salty crunch with your healthy stuff, it’s only fair. 

I encouraged the kids to try as many vegetables as they could. And I dared them to break off a hunk of the yellow or purple cauliflower, which I’d popped into vintage flowerpots. The vibrant colors were so inviting, who could resist???

 

Apparently everyone could resist, except for Clara, who is 9, and who was the recipient of the Most Adventurous Kid of the Day award. GO CLARA! Upon trying the purple variety, she declared it gross, and moved on to the snap peas. Maybe it needed to be seasoned, or cooked, or hidden inside something else... I’m not sure, but they haven’t seen the last of the purple cauliflower, I can tell you that.

My friends, you may encourage your kids to eat their veggies. You can even stamp the sentiment AND the cauliflower onto a card with my Farmers Market set (you know my stamp ideas often spring from my real life adventures?). And sometimes they will partake of your healthy prompting. Other times, you just gotta roll with their turned-up noses, and get those preteen party people over to the roller rink for cotton candy and popsicles.

Have a great day and I hope your cardmaking has been filled with fun and fresh ideas! And maybe a few fresh veggie stamps. :)

A time for tomatoes and basil

Well hello there! 

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been able to write a blog post, and I miss letting everyone in on our family’s silliness and my artistic adventures. I don’t mind saying that you all have kept me busy busy busy getting orders mailed out from our last stamp release, and I am so grateful for each and every one of you!!! With the kids home from school, going on a quick trip to the Ozarks, working on the upcoming release (more information on that coming Friday), several summer birthdays and celebrations, starting school and open houses and ah heck, JUST LIFE — it’s been tough for me to keep up.

Blogging isn’t the only area that has been affected by the far-from-lazy summer. I am sad to admit this. It’s embarrassing, really. And it’s a downright bummer for the foodie and pleasure-seeker in me. But I have not made my summer go-to dish of tomatoes & basil a single time this summer. NOT ONCE!!

There was a time, like, say every single summer before this, when tomatoes and basil were consumed 1-2 times a week, in some configuration or other. I’d buy tomatoes at the farmers market, or get them from my sweet neighbors and friends who had abundant crops. I would resort to good Italian canned ones if fresh weren’t handy. I grow basil in pots, along with my other herb obsessions: marjoram, lemon thyme and anything else I can cram into the containers. I’d snip up the herbs with kitchen shears or pull the leaves off by hand, chiffonade it all up with a chef’s knife, or throw the entire sprigs into the dish, but one way or other, tomatoes and basil USUALLY make their way into what I’m cooking all summer long. 

Last summer, I found myself with so many gorgeous heirloom tomatoes (red, orange, yellow, shades of pink and green and everything in between!), I took to photographing my concoctions. This one had fat blobs of fresh goat cheese from Baetje Farms. Check out that juicy yellow-pink number!

I’d add a drizzle of olive oil, and something acidic (whether lemon or lime juice, Balsamic or white wine vinegar), and always big, flaky kosher salt and freshly-ground pepper. Lunch is served!

 

Girl, you know I added avocado, smoky local bacon, and blue cheese to this one! HOW could I have let a summer pass without having made this?! I’m shaking my head at myself as I type.

  

Lulu and I made our own fettucine using the heavy (do not let it drop on your foot) Italian pasta maker I inherited from my Grandmother Dorothy. We simmered a slew of homegrown tomatoes with a whole chopped onion and lots of garlic, a little red wine, and a hunk (or 2... or 3) of butter — it was pure divinity! Lulu asked if she could “style the photo” (she is so my child) and she ran out to the overstuffed pots, picked the herbs, and placed them “just so” for our picture. Needless to say, I’m a big fan of her work!

One afternoon called for tomatoes and basil with gorgonzola, and the pièce de resistance was several nasturtium blossoms and tiny leaves. Whew, they are peppery!

 

Even scrambled eggs weren’t safe from my tomato-basil rampage. This creation was for dinner, as evidenced by the glass of white wine waiting in the wings.

OK. Just writing this post is seemingly enough to get my rear in gear to correct this problem.

About midway through writing just now I found myself running downstairs and yanking a bunch of purple basil, marjoram, and lemon thyme out of their pots in the garden. I found the lone tomato leftover from last week’s shopping, and, after I publish this very post, I am going to EAT IT ALL UP. The time for tomatoes and basil is nigh! 

Hope you are enjoying your last days of the warm summer, with tomatoes and herbs, the bounty of your farmers markets, or maybe you’re making cards with the Farmers Market stamp set (did you notice them tucked into the group of fresh veggies? I even DRAW tomatoes and basil!). Have a lovely, lovely day, and don’t forget to pop back over on Friday to read news about my upcoming release, find out who we’ve chosen as our latest Power Peep of the Week, PLUS who wins a free Power Poppy stamp set! Bye bye!

Inspire Me Monday: Chalkboard tags

Hi there! Dina here for another Inspire Me Monday!

I have a habit of looking for things to alter when I shop... at thrift stores I’m always looking for paintable boxes, wood pieces or frames. A couple of months ago I spotted a set of wooden chalkboard tags at Michaels – grabbed them... tucked them in my “things to paint” drawer... then forgot about them. You know you’ve done it too... ;)

When I found them again I had a new stack of Power Poppy stamps on my desk! Perfect combination for a fun little chalkboard technique.

I started by stamping the apple box image from Farmers Market using Memento Luxe ink – this is a great bright white on black surfaces.

I added highlights to the image using a white Prismacolor pencil after heat-setting the ink. I normally color shading and leave highlights white, so this takes a bit of practice. Highlights hit where the image is closest to the light and curving toward the light. I pictured a light source to the upper left... I normally don't bother with a light source, and just imagine myself as the light source when I color.

Here’s the completely colored image – I sketched in a horizontal line to give the box something to sit on, and stamped the sentiment, adding a few highlights with a pencil there too. The tags came with twine hangers, which I removed for stamping.

Here’s another tag I added some color to – I’d suggest coloring the white highlights first. The color added is the ‘true color’ of the image (a poppy from Countryside Bouquet Deluxe). Leave the shadows uncolored, and let the black show through in those areas.

One more tip for adding texture to a background – this is drywall tape that you can get at any hardware store. It’s great as a stencil or even a stamp! You can see how I used it on the completed tags below.

If you don’t have wooden tags, you coul get the same effect with die cut chipboard or wood pieces painted with chalkboard or matte acrylic paint.

Enjoy the close ups!

(This reminds me... I’m heading to my parents’ house today in N. Idaho – can’t wait to go to the farmer’s market with my Mom!)

Share what you love!

Farmers Market - a clear stamp set filled with goodness

Well hello there!

Today I am just giddy to tell you about our upcoming release, which drops August 1st. And not only is this new collection presented as clear photopolymer sets, but it consists of FIVE sets in all. Our biggest stamp release yet! For those of you who’ve been loving our flower-filled digital stamps from the past few months, there *might* be some familiar images—paired with a few surprises. OK, that’s pretty cryptic. Hope it’s enough of a tease to see you back at the Power Poppy Blog EVERY DAY THIS WEEK! The Bloom Brigade is creating up a storm to help us show off all the juicy jubilance! You’re going to want to see every day of the fun unfurl, I can just tell.

Our first set peek celebrates abundance, freshness, saturated color, a sense of community, and unlimited possibilities. It’s all about the Farmers Market!

I find something special—and sometimes overwhelming—about the visiting the market (and we have several amaaaaaazing ones here in St. Louis, including Soulard Market, one of the oldest and largest farmers markets west of the Mississippi River). Whether it’s a Saturday morning extravaganza with live music and hot coffee and bushel baskets everywhere you turn (like Tower Grove Farmers Market), or a late-afternoon affair, with vendors displaying everything from fresh herbs, local honey, and native wildflowers to grass-fed beef and gorgeous fresh eggs from free-range chickens (Schlafly and Webster Groves are two favorites) — I invariably come home with WAY. TOO. MUCH.



We hob-nob or be-bop or shimmy from stand to stand (no one sulks at a farmers market) and there’s a shoulder-to-shoulder coziness and sense of community. “We all get to be here surrounded by the earth’s bounty and tempted by fresh-grown goodness—can I get an amen?!” we say to one another without speaking. Folks standing in line to pick out the perfectly ripe heirloom tomato or the latest variety of colorful cauliflower—did you know it comes in orange and purple and bright chartreuse, along with beloved white? Comparing and contrasting the hot peppers, caressing the curly kale. Trying to gauge whether your family can finish off a peck of peaches before next week’s market day arrives. Let me tell you right now, if you’re thinking about buying peaches grown ’round these parts, just go ahead and get the bushel. 

 

OK, so I probably went on too long about the market. But I hope you feel a bit of the enthusiasm that went into the creation of this new set for you. Introducing: Farmers Market!

This fresh set of TEN clear stamps will be available to purchase on Friday, August 1, along with the other four sets in Power Poppy’s August “Share Your Sunshine” collection.

Annnnnnnd now it’s time for an abundant display of creative card inspiration from the Bloom Brigade!!! (“We all get to be here surrounded by these artists’ talents and tempted by their expertly crafted treasures while we sit in our PAJAMAS!—can I get an amen?!” we say to one another across the internet....)

GO BLOOM BRIGADE, GO!

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Dawn Burnworth
Danielle Kennedy
Julie Koerber
Katie Sims
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker

Hope to see you back here, tomorrow, friends!