Saturday, December 31, 2016

2016 Favourites

Happy New Year Friends! 

As a fun memory of my favourite designs of 2016 I put together this little tour through my creative efforts this past year... each post is linked below if you’re interested in taking a closer look.  
























































Thanks for all your support over the last year in this creative journey!  Looking forward to new ventures in the year ahead!  


Friday, December 30, 2016

A Crate of Apples



One of my favourite shared pastimes with my Dad is enjoying the fruit that grows in each of our yards.  We were just talking about how good our apples were this year, so for my Dad’s Birthday today, I thought I’d create this card with this awesome set from Power Poppy called Farmer’s Market.  I think the crate of apples looks SO wonderful and homey!  

I stamped the image with Desert Sand Memento Ink and did some no-line colouring with Copic markers, and then a really basic layering of designer paper.  Not too much fuss or muss, because my Dad won’t notice it anyway!  I did distress the edges of the stitched circle die, so that the white would be a bit warmer to go with the designer paper, but in the photo it just looks a little dirty :)  haha!  Not the intent!



The sentiment is from another Power Poppy set, Short Stacks.  I did find a cute little wood veneer apple button and some twine to finish it off.  

Tonight we’re headed for supper together as a family to a place called “Meat”.  It’s all about Southern BBQ and it’s great food!  

Hope you’re enjoying these last few days of 2016.  

Be sure to pop by the rest of the Bloom Brigade playing along today...

SaveSave
Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence

Julie Koerber

Next week we’ll have a brand new Power and Spark Challenge to kick off 2017!  

Friday, December 23, 2016

Hollyberry



Hello and Happy Christmas friends!  It’s been a while since I’ve been able to get to my creative side,  this is a really busy time of the year for us in ministry, but I didn’t want the season to pass without at least one more Christmas design and my blessings to each of you!

Today the Bloom Brigade has a little bit more inspiration for your Friday to show off.  

I put together a design that’s a combination of digital and stamping showcasing Power Poppy’s Hollyberry digi set and the polymer set Holly Go Lightly.  The nice thing about this hybrid type of design is it gives you lots of versatility.  

I’ll be honest and say, I’m not sure if I stamped the larger holly image or printed it digitally because I did up a bunch of images to take along on a trip a few weeks ago to the mountains.  After I got home and it was already coloured, I couldn’t tell if it was ink or printed!  I used Copics for the showcased holly and then trimmed it out with a little border.  

Next on the background layer I used the digital image of the holly, resized it quite a bit smaller and placed a bunch of them together to create some background paper.  I really wanted to print it in green ink, but my printer must be running out of ink and it really printed quite gray....so I grabbed my inktense pencils and did some really loose watercolouring of the holly so it would look quite faded, and almost vintage.  

Once it was dry, I took a stencil and some embossing paste and added it to the background, so it combined with the pattern and added texture.  



I popped a little “ornament” into the holly stamped and embossed with the Holly Go Lightly set, tucking it in the greenery.   A little twine and an enamel dot finish it off.  

Have any spare minutes for some last minute creating and gifting?  Be sure to add your Sweet Treat creation to the link up and you could be in the running for a Power Poppy set of your choice!  



Blessings to each of you this most special season!  

Here’s the Power Poppy crew playing along today....


Allison Cope
Christine Okken

Julie Koerber
Katie Sims
Stacy Morgan


Sunday, December 11, 2016

Persian Congratulations



Popping in today with a pretty design that’s definitely not in the Christmas theme.  A friend asked if I would create a congratulations card for a friend who was retiring at her workplace.  She requested flowers and blue.  I pulled out this gorgeous set from Altenew, Persian Motifs that has been sitting in my stamps-to-use pile for forever.  I’ve seen so many beautiful cards with this set, that I really wanted to try it out myself.  

I stamped the flowers in a soft gray ink and coloured the design up with Copics.  

A soft panel of vellum, some pretty sparkle over some Scor Tape and some square gems accent the design.  



The lovely “sending” word die is from The Cat’s Pajamas.  I die cut out one layer in blue and then a second layer in Crafter’s Foam to pop it up a little.  I really love this product because it works great for intricate designs.  One side of the foam is adhesive so you can die cut it out and place it perfectly behind your intricate die.  



Here’s the Copics I used.  

Hope you’re doing well out there....we’re in the midst of a 10 day freezing cold snap so we’re bundled up out here and grateful for a warm house!



Friday, December 2, 2016

Sweet Treats: Santa Jar



December is here!  And that means a new challenge at Power Poppy.  This month I get to be your hostess, and I wanted to give you a challenge that will make your gift giving easier.  I called it Sweet Treats.  As you think about those little gifts you give over the month, whether its a hostess gift,  Christmas baking, a teacher gift, or those fun work gift exchanges, you want to give a sweet treat from the heart.  That’s what this challenge is about.  Create something that’s a sweet treat for someone you love, whether its a decorated bag, a tag, a gift card holder....it’s all up to you!  

On Monday I did a whole post on the Power Poppy Blog for Inspire Me Monday with some other gift packaging ideas that might inspire you as well.  



Today I put together a fun little jar of red m & m’s in a mason jar.  There are so many ideas of what you can fill a mason jar with and I thought this one was pretty cute.  It just means getting some red and green m & m’s, separate out the green ones, and then fill a jar with them.  You could even use the green m & m’s for an elf themed jar.  All I did was get a silver ribbon buckle, some black satin ribbon and glued it in to make the jar look like Santa’s belly.  Perfect for your favourite chocolate lover.  

I added a santa themed tag done with the adorable Power Poppy Action Santa set.  



I thought I’d give you a better picture of the jar.  I added a felt circle to the top of the jar, some sparkly white ribbon around the jar lid and then adhered a sparkly styrafoam ball for his pom pom.  If I would have had some white yarn at home, I would have made a pom pom, but I just went with what I had on hand.  



Here a couple of views of the tag.  I used some embossing paste and a heart stencil to add some texture to the kraft card stock and then used a snowflake border (The Cat’s Pajamas) to the bottom of the tag.  A little felt bow finishes it off.  



A closer picture of the colouring on the tag.  I stamped the image in Memento Gray Flannel ink so it would have a bit of a softer look to it.  I added some glitter pen to the pom pom, Santa’s furry coat, the star and the snow.  

So, now I’ll hand you over to the Bloom Brigade with some more inspiration, and then it’s your turn. Join us in the Sweet Treat challenge and you could win a Power Poppy set of your choice!  


Allison Cope
Christine Okken (you are here
)
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Stacy Morgan