A Month of Colouring

Greetings Everyone!  It’s been a long time since I’ve created a card.  For those of you who follow me on Instagram you know our family has been walking through treatment for my husband, who has had a relapse of Hairy Cell Leukemia.  It’s a very treatable form of Cancer, but none-the-less, requires treatment, which we’re in the middle of.  Throw in a hospital stay for a suspected infection with a very low immune system and we’ve had our plates full. I won’t dwell too much on that here, just let you know that my creative time has been limited.  I am hoping that changes around this month, but in case it doesn’t, I will be posting little bits of colouring on Instagram that I manage for the 30 Day Colouring Challenge.  Today is Day One, and I have this fancy fox from Power Poppy called The Fox and the Moth to show you.  

An easel card seemed like a good fit for this design.  So, after I framed it up, I added some simple die cut leaves to accent the edge of the design and act as a prop for the easel, and a dabble of sequins finish it off.  

He’s such a handsome guy isn’t he?  

Some of my lovely Bloom Brigade sisters are creating today too, pop on over and see them!

Julie Koerber

Stacy Morgan

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A Month of Colouring

Rosé all Day in Progress

Have we got a treat for you today!  Marcella has given us a brand new digital image that is stunning! It’s called Rosé All Day, and you’re going to be wowed!  It’s an amazing combination of flowers that are naturally reds, pinks, and whites (and any derivatives of these shades... pinky-purples, corals, peaches).  The bouquet features Roses, Redbud branches (Cercis canadensis), Cyclamen hederifolium, a Fern frond (for contrast) along with "ivy-leaved Cyclamen" leaves - they are quite dramatic. Marcy has worked in a few paint brushes and a colored pencil, along with a ladybug and bumblebees. It’s such a beauty!

We’re also helping kick off Kathy Racoosin’s 30 Day Coloring Challenge today!

Though I don’t have a completed design, I started working on a larger piece that I’ll end up putting on an easel or framing.  I’ve printed it up large, about 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 and I’ve used the version of the image that works for “no-line” colouring.  I wanted to give the image that rosey-pink theme for all my flowers.  I’ll finish it up later this week and show it off to you once it’s done.  

I’ve done some basic laying down of colour, and once that’s done, I think I’ll possibly give it some detail with pencils to finish it off.  

Here are some of the Power Poppy girls giving you some sneak peeks off this amazing design today.  

Kathy Racoosin 
Tosha 
Kathy on Instagram
Barbara on Instagram
Broni
Elizabeth  on Instagram
Jessie on Instagram
Nancy
me! Christine
and Marcy at the Power Poppy blog

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Rosé all Day in Progress

The Daily Marker Hop

Kathy Racoosin of The Daily Marker is unleashing a world of color on her blog and Instagram (@kathyrac) this month, and she wants all of us to join her in the fun! 

The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge energizes us to color something every day — even if only for a few minutes. Whether your love markers or prefer paints, colored pencils or crayons, all media is welcome! CLICK HERE to find out where to share what you are coloring and join the encouraging community of happy colorists. You'll also find answers to questions you may have along the way, participate in contests and more! If you share your work on social media, don't forget the hashtag: #thedailymarker30day and if you use our stamps and digis, add the hashtag #powerpoppy

My design is going to be quite soft and simple as I am recovering from pneumonia and it really knocked the stuffing out of me!

I chose to to a bit of a combination design using Power Poppy’s beautiful Azalea set and Power Poppy’s set Big Scripts combined with a soft watercoloured background using Altenew’s Hibiscus Bouquet stamps.  Though they are not azaleas, they have a bit of a similar feel, and I like how all of it pairs together.  

I wanted to use a soft palette, so I chose to go with coral and grey.  I started with the background, stamping the hibiscus and leaves in coral and grey ink onto watercolor paper, washing in the lines a little with my aqua brush to spread the colour and bring the flowers and leaves to life a little.  Next, I swooshed some embossing paste through a Tim Holtz Bubble stencil, setting that aside to dry.  

Then I stamped the azalea from Power Poppy’s set, and watercoloured with reinkers.  I added a scalloped frame so that the pretty mini azalea would have a place to sit.  I also stamped the “smile” sentiment from Big Scripts and washed out the ink a bit to soften it, cut it out with a tiny little border and added that to the frame.  

A smattering of sequins and a bit of twine complete it.  Soft simple colour.  

Now for the amazing, knock-your-socks-off- give-away news!  

POWER POPPY GIVEAWAY

To kick off the challenge, Power Poppy’s Marcella Hawley has a surprise of epic proportions! She’s giving away Power Poppy’s SOON-TO-BE-UNVEILED MARCH CLEAR STAMP SET RELEASE! That means EIGHT of the freshest, most fun Power Poppy designs to hit the market yet. It's a $144 value! Plus you can enter a friend to win.

Read all the details here!
Winners will be announced on the Power Poppy Blog/Instagram/Facebook on Sunday, March 12th, and also over on thedailymarker.com

Here’s the Power Poppy Bloom Brigade playing along today, then be sure to pop by the Power Poppy Blog to see where to hop to next!


SaveSaveSaveSaveSave
Allison Cope
Christine Okken (you are here)
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Katie Sims
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker

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The Daily Marker Hop

Magnolia Sunshine

Hello Friends!  Today we’ve got a brand new challenge at Power Poppy that’s going to be another good stretch for you.  Ally’s our hostess and here’s what she had to say about the challenge:

This month I want you pull out a coloring medium that you don't use that often.  So if you tend to use Copic Markers for instance, pull out your water color paints or your colored pencils instead!  Let's see you use up some of those not-so-used mediums this month.

That’s a great challenge for me as I tend to grab my Copics most.  Today I pulled out my prismacolor pencils and this BRAND NEW beauty, Magnolia Sunshine!  

Marcy has a brand new digi today that honours her mom’s favourite flowers - Magnolias and Daffodils.  As some of you may know, Marcy’s mom is going through some health challenges so we want to give her all the love, encouragement, prayers and sunshine we can, so I made this especially sunshiney.  

Did you see the fun tutorial over on Splitcoaststampers the other day on how to make a Pleated Skirt Fold?  I thought it was an ingenious way of folding paper in a simple way that creates a neat focal point.   So, I found some sunshiney paper in my stash (SU) and pleated the lower section.  

The image is just so pretty!  Here’s what this pretty digi looks like below:  

Here is a closer look at the colouring.  Finishing details include sparkly ribbon, enamel dots and baker’s twine.  

Here’s also a closer look a the pleated fold too.  Its nice because you can show off both sides of a double sided paper.  

And we’re also jumping in with the 30 Day Coloring Challenge at the Daily Marker with this one too!  It’s a good encouragement to color a few minutes every day!  

So, now we’d like to invite YOU to jump in with us at Power Poppy and pull out some of your unused colouring mediums to colour with us this month.  Enter at the Power Poppy Blog and you could win a Power Poppy set of your choice!  

Here’s the Bloomies and Instant Gardeners playing along today....

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker
Cheryl Scrivens
Barbara Walker

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Magnolia Sunshine

Birthday Apples

Today Power Poppy is having some great fun with The Daily Marker’s 30 Day Coloring Challenge!  I’ve already been having some fun colouring so I was delighted to jump in again, and there are Power Poppy prizes to be given away!  

I stamped up the lovely apple crate from our Farmer’s Market set in Memento Peanut Brittle ink to soften the effect and then gave it some colour with Copics to match this fun paper (MME Jubilee Tangerine).  I thought the soft blue would be a good contrast to the deep colours of the apples.  I stitched on my main panel and then added the pennant accents with a button and twine.  Don’t those apples look crisp and juicy?  

The sentiment is from another of our Power Poppy sets - Go Wild.  I thought it was perfect.  

Here’s the Copics I used (a lot actually, but that was part of the fun :).  

So now here’s the details of how you can join in!

HOW TO JOIN IN THE FUN.....

Pick a coloring medium, any which one, and enjoy some special downtime to recharge and color. There's no presssure to really do it each and every day. But, if you want to carve out ten minutes for a zippy color fest with your favorite cuppa, why not? Life's too short, isn't it?

WHAT? IT'S JUST THAT EASY?

Yes, sweet stamping friends, it is! Then, after you color up your world, make sure you link your creation RIGHT HERE on the linky for a chance at some prizes! Keep in mind Kathy is urging us all to share our colorific skills. That doesn't mean you need a finished card. Just show off what you colored! You can also share via social media -- Facebook, Instagram, Flickr -- using the hashtag #thedailymarker30day3  

DID YOU SAY THERE WERE PRIZES? 

Why yes, we did! And guess what? Power Poppy is adding to the mix by donating a stamp set of choice to one lucky colorista!

WHERE DO I FIND INSPIRATION?

The Daily Marker! Kathy is posting new and colorful things each and every day for the entire month of October!

ARE THE BLOOMIES PLAYING ALONG?

Absolutely! In fact, if you hop, skip and jump your way through our link list, you'll see what they created during one of their own personal coloring sessions.

Allison Cope

Christine Okken (you are here)

Cindy Lawrence

Julie Koerber
Katie Sims

Leslie Miller

Stacy Morgan

Tosha Leyendekker

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Birthday Apples

Little Red Beret

Hello, I’m back again!  

October is my birthday month and to treat myself I thought it would be fun to jump in with The Daily Marker’s - 30 Day Coloring Challenge whenever I can.  It’s all about spending 10 minutes a day (minimum) of colouring just for fun!  You can make your designs into cards, or just colour for the sake of colouring.  So, that’s what I’m going to try to do.  Sometimes you’ll see cards, sometimes I think it will just be showing off images that will hopefully later make it into cards.  

Today I put a card together with a little bear I coloured up last night.   It’s an adorable old image from Birdie Brown.  I love this little guy in his red beret and the fun stripedy shirt.  It has almost a French feel to it, so I kept some of those basic themes in the design.  The sentiment is from a PTI set I had that would fit in the little circle I wanted to use.    

My sister-in-law asked for a few kids Birthday designs, and I this would be a cute one.  

The shimmer I added to the balloon highlights doesn’t look really great in this picture, much better in real life :)  It’s supposed to be a subtle effect but photographed so differently.  

Here’s the Copics I used.   See you soon with some more colouring!  

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Little Red Beret