The Blossom Challenge: Eat Your Fruit and Veggies

Hello!  I’m kicking of this month’s The Blossom Challenge at Power Poppy called “Eat Your Fruit and Veggies”, with two cards celebrating both gratitude and yummy fruit and veggie designs, something that Power Poppy does SO well!    

My first design showcases Power Poppy’s Cabbage Patch set.  Each of these cabbages or kale are coloured with Copic Markers and trimmed out.  

They are arranged on a mini-slimline background you’ll see more of in a sec, and I added some assorted green and blue-green sequins to accent. 

The sentiment is from the polymer version of this set, which is embossed in white and inked in black below.

You can see peek at the coordinated background I created for the card above, and how I did it pictured below.  After I sponged on lots of Distress Oxide ink (Mowed Lawn and Evergreen Bough) onto the heavy cardstock panel, I used my polymer stamps of this set and a paper towel soaked with water as my ink pad.  I used my Misti to “lift” off the ink with the water, because water reacts with Disress Oxide ink.  It’s a soft subtle effect and you’re left with a faded-sueded pattern.  By doing it in the Misti, I could stamp each cabbage several times with water to get  a more defined lift of colour.  Then, I dried it with my heat tool to complete the reaction.  

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 well, and they are really delightful to colour.  

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 with them?! Come on in and join us at Power Poppy with a design using some form of Fruit or Vegetable in the card and Power Poppy stamps.  The Challenge is open for a month and you could win a gift card to the Power Poppy Store!   And to top it off, Marcy has discounted some of my favourite Fruit and Veggie themed stamps in the store if you want to play along!  

Here’s more Fruit and Veggie goodness from the Bloom Brigade playing along today.  Thanks so much for stopping by!  

Gloria

Essie

and link your entry at the Power Poppy Blog!

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The Blossom Challenge: Eat Your Fruit and Veggies

Power Poppy’s New Aloe and Oranges

We are so excited to begin the introductions to the NEW Release from Power Poppy with a collection called Fresh Squeezed Scents!  Today we’re beginning with the beautifully unique set Aloe and Oranges!  Isn’t it just dreamy!?  Marcy illustrated such a beauty here!  When she first showed it to us she designed it to run in a vertical fashion, but as I played with it I found it also worked perfectly in this horizontal direction as well.  I printed the image onto Copic XPress it paper in a light grey so it’s about halfway between no-line colouring and a typical printed image.  That’s the transparency of line I like to work with best, and one of the great things about digital images, you can adjust them!

I’ve given it lots of deep rich colouring with Copic Markers and then added detailing in with Prismacolour Pencils.  To give the orange realism and texture I’ve coloured it with a blend of pointillism, and added juicy highlights to the cut orange.  I love the colour contrast between the blue greens of the aloe and the vibrant oranges of the fruit.  Can’t you just smell the citrus fragrance now?  

I’ve added a sentiment stamped with Power Poppy’s Tea in the Garden Stamp Set, and surrounded it with a scalloped edge die and a deep purple layer to really highlight the background and make the images pop.  

Truly a stunning image don’t you think?  

There’s lots more inspiration with the new Bloom Brigade in store....just click on these links to be amazed, and I’ll see you tomorrow with more inspiration!  

Stacy
Julie 
Leslie
Kathy
Ally
Broni
Barbara C

Barbara W

Gloria

Nancy

Lisa

Christine (you are here)

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Power Poppy’s New Aloe and Oranges

Bunny Bakery in TCP's Sneaky Peek Week!

Welcome to The Cat’s Pajamas Sneaky Peek Week!  I’m jumping in on Day 2 of the release with an awesome set showcasing our favourite bunny, and today he’s a baker!  It’s called Roll With It!  

As soon as I saw the cupcakes I thought it would be fun to create a little scene for bunny in front of his own bakery window.  Not only is he a fabulous baker, he’s a juggling artist too!  It really draws in the customers!  The coordinating dies for this set make putting it all together really easy.  I began by creating the opening in the rounded door for the design with TCP’s new Birch Snowglobe Die and then creating the scene around the door with a C1 Copic Marker.  I tried to give the look of glass to the side windows with some reflective streaks of colour.  

After cutting out the different elements through the die, I added them to the scene. The pops of red really add some punch.  

Here’s a peek at what this cute set, the coordinating dies and the other dies we’ll be profiling today look like.  

Are you In It To Win It?  Comment on today’s post and you are in the running for a $10 Gift Code!  Winners will be announced at the TCP Blog tomorrow.    

Here are the Cat Pack Kitties showing off this set today!  

Christine (you are here)

Wendy

Melissa

Cristena 

Nancy

Kerry
Brenda

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Bunny Bakery in TCP's Sneaky Peek Week!

Hop for Popcorn Love

Hi Everyone!  We’re kicking off a new challenge this week and the celebration of our Sneaky Peeks with a Blog Hop today!   It’s been a fabulous week of sneak peeks at The Cat’s Pajamas and now all of the sets and dies are available for purchase!  

You should have come from Brenda’s blog along the hop, or you can start right at the beginning at Deborah’s blog.  Either way there’s great stuff in store for you to see!

Today I’ve got a fun design to show you today that makes a really cute treat for someone special.  Perfect for Valentine’s or any day you want to show some love.  

GAH!  Who doesn’t love popcorn in a popcorn box!  Once I saw this awesome image in the Just Let it Happen Set, I knew I wanted to make a treat bag from a popcorn box.  

For the tag, I stamped the image from the set onto Neenah white cardstock and then added a wee bit of colour with my Copics.  Aren’t their 3D glasses adorable???.  I cut out the tag using the Toppers CutUps die and rounded the corners along the bottom.  

Then I used a popcorn box file from the Silhouette store, (I was so giddy when I found it!), and then stamped the sentiment on the label and added some hearts from the Small Envie CutUps die.  This die has a little different shape for the heart than the Nested Hearts CutUps.  

Some simple twine ties the tag onto the treat bag.  

Inside is white chocolate and M&M popcorn I made, which was yummy.  

I love how eye-catching the colours are, and it’s such a sweet gift! 

Now you can head on over to Nancy’s Blog to continue the hippity-hop fun!  And be sure to join in with us on the Anything Goes Challenge!  

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Hop for Popcorn Love

Brown Bag Love

Today we’re showing off some of the awesome CutUps Dies available with this release.  Alma always does such a good job giving us creative fun things to play with.   Today I’m using the Love Topper CutUp to make a cute little treat bag.  

This is so simple everyone!  I began by stamping the solid heart from our new set Conversation Hearts in white Craft ink on a mini paper bag on both sides.   Then I stamped the stitched heart over a few of the hearts and added one of the heart dies popped up in red cardstock.  I cut the top of the bag with our Toppers CutUps die (the scalloped one), and added another heart to the front after it was folded down.  On the backside of the bag I added the Lover Topper in red card stock and tied a wee bit of twine around it.  And that it all it took!  

Inside the bag are Peanut Butter Blondies.  But I’ll be honest, though I consider myself a pretty decent cook, this was the first time for this recipe and it really didn’t turn out!  They look ok, and the kids said they liked them but something did not go right!  You could fill these with any snacky thing you choose - probably one with a tried and true recipe :)

 

Tonight is the night!  Our Pajama Party starts at 6 pm Mountain Time on our Facebook Page.  We hope to see you there for the extra Sneaky Peek, chatter, fun and games.  

Are you In it to Win It????  You could win a $10 TCP voucher just by commenting on The Cat Pack’s Blogs!  Alma will pick a random commenter each day and the winner’s will be announced on our TCP Facebook Page and the blog.  

Here’s the Cat Pack playing along today....

Brenda Nakandakari
Christine Okken (you are here)
Deborah Anton
Nancy Thomas
Wendy McGaffey
our Guest Stamper Wanda Cullen
and Alma at the TCP Blog!

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Brown Bag Love

Beauty Captured - Thirty-Seven

I haven’t posted any photos for a while, but I thought it would be fun to show you some of the “fruits of my labour this week”, and the inspiration links from Pinterest!  I’m trying a lot of new things lately that I’ve pinned, so here’s this week’s recommendations...

Cheesy Garlic Zucchini Bread.  I tried a new recipe with my abundance of zucchini from my mom’s garden.  Here’s the link for the recipe.  It turned out really well and we paired it with chili that we made this week.  It has just a touch of dill in in (SO GOOD).  She has some cute printables on the site if you want to make labels with it for gift giving as well.  

YUM.  Reeses Chocolate Peanut Butter Krispies.  We are big peanut butter fans here, so these squares did not last long, and got two thumbs up from each family member.  I couldn’t find chocolate rice krispies at the store, so I just used vanilla rice krispies and added a TBSP of cocoa to the marshmallow/margarine/karo mix.  Totally yummy.  

Our cherry tree produced beautifully this year.  Better than any other year yet, the fruit was so plump and healthy from these gorgeous tart cherries.  We picked 1/2 the tree and I probably had 50 pounds here (and I still have 1/2 on the tree to pick).  I gave so many bags away and made many quarts and 1/2 pints of cherry jelly, which really turned out fabulous.  I use this recipe, and then add a good TBSP of vanilla to the juice when you add the sugar to the juice.  Such great flavour, it makes you want to eat it for dessert.  

And even though school started a couple of weeks ago, here’s the pic of the boys on the first day.  Our younger son is in 6th grade, and our older son is in 10th grade.  For us that’s the start of high school.  It’s been a good transition for our older son even though it’s a new school, taking the bus, etc.  Our daughter started University this fall as well, and she’s doing great getting adjusted to all the classes, professors, syllabi, reading....bills... :)  I’m grateful that she’s going to school here, even if it means that she’s up at 5:30 am for her 8 am classes.  It’s just so nice to have her at home, not far away!  I’m also grateful for scholarships too!  :)

Hope you have a fabulous Sunday friends!    Thanks for stopping by.  

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Beauty Captured - Thirty-Seven