Do it for the DADS!

Hello sweet folks! How's your week shaping up so far? Did you happen to catch Catherine's tutorial yesterday on making the most out of digital images? I have one word... WOW! If you haven't seen it yet, click HERE to "catch" the action and see what she masterfully whipped up!

I have to say her creation is serving as the inspiration for today's Creative Confetti! With her card, we are going to set a theme for the week to....

HOW TO PLAY: While the title suggests we're going to create for Dad, really any masculine cards will do! Let's show the men in our lives that we care enough to create the very best for them! And, if you have a dad you need a card for, you'll be ahead of the game when Father's Day rolls around on June 16th!

On to my creations! In honor of this challenge, I thought I would cue up a few of my "manly cards" to showcase a few different masculine stamp sets that Power Poppy has created over the years!

I made this one above for my brother-in-law who has a birthday around Father's Day -- so this little creation using Power Poppy's O Hoppy Day stamp set served as double duty! I also offered on the inside to buy him a beer! ;-)

This card above went to my hubby who used to be a gear head. In fact, we joke that my wedding ring is his old 1993 Harley Roadster, which I hate to say he sold in order to buy my ring. So you can see why Power Poppy's Move the Soul stamp set was a perfect way to honor my guy! :-)

This card above using Power Poppy's Play Ball stamp set was a Father's Day card a few years back. The kids decided to serve up a baseball-themed Father's Day and in addition to this card, we got family tickets for the minor league team here in town. It was a great day ... and it's a great set to take one of your guys out to the old ball game! Also, did you see a portion of this set was made into a digital stamp set called Baseball Vignette, with even more Father's Day sentiments! Click HERE to see!

So, do you have a guy in your life who could use a little handmade love? I sure hope so because I'd love to see your creation! After you finish up your card, don't forget to link it up using our linky below! Every entry is one more shot at a $25 gift code to the Power Poppy Shop! 

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

Because it's a brand new month, that means we get to dig into all the entries from last month and draw the winner for that $25 gift code! So, let's get to it!

After we threw all the virtual names into our hat, random.org mixed them all up and drew....

That means the winner is...

SHARON at RAINBOWS AND BORDEAUX!

If you want to take a peek at the winning creation, take a gander! Isn't it a beauty?

Sharon used French Lilac by Power Poppy and some Prismacolor Pencils with amazing results. I love that she made this one for her mom since purple is her favorite color. So sweet! Sharon, all you need to do is email us at bloom@powerpoppy.com and we will get that code right out to you! Happy Shopping! 

And there you have it folks! Some manly creations topped off with a springtime beauty! We can't wait to see what YOU create this month! 

Happy Stamping!

~Julie

a.k.a. The Creative Confetti Thrower! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Backgrounds and Borders ~ Using Power Poppy images in unexpected ways

Hello Power Poppy friends!! Tosh here today to inspire you to use Power Poppy images in unexpected ways.  I have 4 projects to share with you, so make yourself comfortable and follow along.

My first includes a stamp from the Play Ball set that really got me thinking.  When I saw the baseball stitches stamp, I thought...why can't I just use one side of the stamp and make it look like a blanket stitch?  I was explaining to my dear friend Katie (who just happens to be a Power Poppy Bloomie) that I wanted to use the flowers in the heart vase from the Folk Heart set with the blanket stitch, and that I wanted it to look like a quilt panel.  She asked if I'd ever seen Redwork quilts.  Well, I hadn't, so I checked out Pinterest, and found some fabulous examples.  And yes...that was exactly the look I was going for.  Here are a couple of links to some beautiful Redwork quilts that I used for inspiration:  Rosalie Quinlan Designs, Rosalie Quinlan Designs 2

I started by diecutting a square and stamping only half of the "baseball stitches" onto the edges using Love Letter Memento Ink.  Doesn't that look just like a blanket stitch?  I got giddy after seeing how it turned out.

I then decided I wanted a scalloped border.  So I traced the square die onto cardstock, and stamped the small heart, from Power Poppy's Good Thinking Love Notes set, around the entire square, just leaving to two top "bumps" from the heart showing.

Don't they look awesome together?  I was so happy with how it turned out.  I added a few extras to really give it the "quilt panel" feel too:  I scored and burnished the Folk Heart image to make it pop.  I also burnished the whole back side of the panel to give it texture like it was fabric.

I then embossed the background to give the feel of quilt stitching, and actually sewed around some of the edges and panels.

Next up is my tulip card.  I had some fun creating a "shabby elegant" border using the tire treads from the Power Poppy Move The Soul set.  I started by stamping the tulips from the Dynamic Duos: Peonies and Tulips set with Tuxedo Black Memento ink onto X-Press It cardstock and coloring it with Copics.  I then embossed an oval shape around them using an oval die and a diecutting machine.  Then I took the tire treads and stamped them randomly around the oval using Versamark ink.  Lastly, I rubbed the Versamark pad over the edges to give a frame to the whole image and embossed it all with gold embossing powder.  I really love the "shabby elegance" that the tire treads gave the frame.

Now, you've probably seen many variations of this next card.  I just took 3 different sentiments from the Power Poppy Nice Things to Say stamp set, and stamped them onto a precut rectangle that I taped off the edges of, so I could maintain the border.  

After stamping the sentiments, I photocopied it onto black cardstock so I could Minc it with gold foil.  (For some background information on how I use the Minc Machine, click HERE.)  I love how clean and crisp it turned out.  To finish it off, I added a "So Happy For You" sentiment from the Dream Wedding set, as well as a couple of gold cardsock punched flowers.

Below is a look at how I taped off and stamped the panel before Stamping it.

And finally, my last card.  This one was just plain fun!!  I took the "smoke" image from the Power Poppy Move the Soul set and randomly stamped it with three different Ranger Distress Ink colors:  Peacock Feathers, Twisted Citron and Squeezed Lemonade.  After I had my background, I splattered some diluted black acrylic paint over it and stamped the "hello" sentiment from Power Poppy's Big Scripts set.  Aren't those "splotches" fun?!?!?

Whew...right!?!?!  That is finally it.  I had some fun using these stamps in unique ways, and I hope I've inspired you to look at some of your images in different ways!

Thanks for sticking with this long post!

   Happy Stamping!!

Two wheels move the soul

Hello my dears! I wanted to say, first off, that yesterday absolutely blew my mind. Can those Bloom Brigade sweethearts be any more wonderful? Surprising me with birthday messages galore and beautiful cards made in my honor — I was feeling the LOVE! And then to have you share well wishes on my own post, I have to say that my heartstrings were pulled so hard, I may need a day to recover! Thank you so much for your warm, kindness-filled notes. There are no other folks like the stamping crowd, and I am so lucky to get to walk among you!!

Speaking of walking among various crowds... have you ever considered what it might be like to walk among appreciators of vintage motorcycles? I will be honest with you that the thought never once crossed my mind. Until about five years ago, and I met...

...my beloved Douglas! (I should note, he always wears a helmet, in this pic above we were doing a photoshoot in a park in a stretch of road away from traffic.) ANYWAY - the guy has been fascinated with anything that has two wheels and motor since he was a little kid. And as passionate as we all are about our hobbies of papercrafting, coloring, gardening, collecting strawberry pincushions or WHATEVER it may be, that is how Doug feels about old motorcycles.

Maybe it all started with his Dad. Doug and his cousin grew up riding motorcycles all through their backyard, on motocross tracks of their own making. Or one would ride the motorcycle and pull the other on a sled through the snow. Do you ever wonder how we survived growing up with all the shenanigans some of us got away with? Still, Doug’s passion turned into racing, riding, and now restoring the sweet old bikes from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. He got me turned on to it the very first Christmas we spent together, when he restored a golden 1972 Honda CB175 and surprised me with it. After taking the riding courses offered at the local community college, and lots and lots of practice offroad and in parking lots, at age 40, they let me loose on the street!

Ok, that shot isn’t on the actual street. That’s on the dirt bike, taken on a day spent riding the trails in the Iron Belt of Missouri with my love. My “daily rider” is my cute lil ‘68 Yamaha YCS-1, cherry red with a chrome “toaster tank”. Do you see how I’m now able to throw out these wacky terms? I didn’t know any of this stuff, but I have become IMMERSED in the culture of old motorcycles, and of the love of feeling free to zoomzoomzooomazoom!! It’s like nothing else! Do any of you all ride motorcycles, too? There’s apparently more women riders now than ever before. We see ladies showing up on cool old rides every month at the event Doug and I put on, Vintage Bike Night St. Louis, which quickly grew to be the largest monthly bike meet-up in the midwest! Here’s one of the posters I designed a few years ago, complete with touches of handlettering and the retro style I love!

Just a few more notes about vintage motorcycles. They offer incredible inspiration for color palettes! Check out this juicy orange number, a Ducati from Italia:

The classic British Triumphs that come rolling up are always swarmed with admirers...

Vintage racing bikes are some of my favorites—not to ride or race—but check out these snazzy graphics and bold colors! I get some of my best ideas from checking out the designs on old motorcycles, everything from logos and lettering, to stripe combinations for patterns, the awesome old racing posters, gosh, the inspiration is endless!

Just one last one, because how fun is the tank of this Kawasaki, with the bright red streak surrounded by burgundy, white, and black? I can see that combo on Christmas card!

For now I’ll hold off on any further motorcycle slideshow, but I won’t hold off on sharing the newest set in the Cultivate Love Collection, which is inspired by the passion I see every day for the moto enthusiasts in my life. Presenting Move the Soul!

This set was designed in the spirit of this quote: “Four wheels move the body, two wheels move the soul.” With a motorcycle-riding dude in vintage goggles on a retro race bike, loads of cool, handlettered sentiments and accent graphics, plus greasy tire tracks and oil spots I created in my own garage by rolling my motorcycle tires through some two-stroke oil and then over a piece of paper! I am not afraid to get my hands dirty, as I saw this as a larger, heavier form of rubber stamping. ;)

I can already think of a few folks who would love a sporty card with a moto-theme, and I have to say, these stamp up with as much detail as my original drawing/painting, and that makes me feel stoked!!

Move the Soul would be perfect for the man in your life, the boys in your life, heck, even maybe some ladies you know! Let’s roll over to these fabulous Bloomies to see where they took these images!

Stacy Morgan

Katie Sims

Tosha Leyendekker
Julie Koerber

We’ll see you back here tomorrow for one more day of sneak peeks — and then Monday, all the sets will be available for purchase in the Power Poppy Shop — PLUS A BIG OL’ BLOG HOP with the whole team showcasing one more card from this release. Enjoy your weekend!!

QUICK NOTE: We will be announcing the winner of the Cut It Out Challenge next week! Stay tuned for details!