Silvered Lilacs

Hello there stamping friends!  Hope your week has been filled with encouraging things!  I’m back with another card for the Power Poppy - Power & Spark Challenge this month.  This time I’m playing with purples and black and white.  I pulled out the ever beautiful and fragrant Lilac Time stamp set, and with my Copics, coloured part of the petals in different shades of purples, and the leaves, stem and other petals in cool greyscale tones.  I think the effect of the purple cascading through the lilac blossoms is really pretty.  

I chose some fun dramatic black and white papers, found a pretty grey ribbon and a silver ribbon slide to embellish.  But once I had that silver accent I knew I wanted to carry it a little more through the design.  

I took some silver metallic paint and splashed it across parts of the card to give it some shine.  The sentiment, also from the set is stamped in SU Orchid ink.  It reminds me of a song by Jonny Diaz called Just Breathe (I’ve linked the video - it’s really good).  The song is about how we frantically live our lives and the invitation to slow down.  It really speaks to the season of life I’m in so I thought you might enjoy it too.   Here’s the lyrics...

Breathe - Jonny Diaz

Alarm clock screaming bare feet hit the floor
It’s off to the races everybody out the door
I’m feeling like I’m falling behind, it’s a crazy life

Ninety miles an hour going fast as I can
Trying to push a little harder trying to get the upper hand
So much to do in so little time, it’s a crazy life
It’s ready, set, go it’s another wild day
When the stress is on the rise in my heart I feel you say just

Breathe, just breathe
Come and rest at my feet
And be, just be
Chaos calls but all you really need
Is to just breathe

Third cup of joe just to get me through the day
Want to make the most of time but I feel it slip away
I wonder if there’s something more to this crazy life
I’m busy, busy, busy, and it’s no surprise to see
That I only have time for me, me, me
There’s gotta be something more to this crazy life
I’m hanging on tight to another wild day
When it starts to fall apart in my heart I hear you say just... breathe

Here’s my Copics above...

So, please join us on the B & W with a Splash of Colour Challenge - up for grabs is s $50 gift code to the Power Poppy store!  With new release previews starting next week it’s a great time to create and enter.  I can’t wait to start showing you the new sets!  You’re going to be blown away!  

Be sure to pop on by to see my Bloom Brigade Sisters:   Stacy, Katie and Marcy at the Power Poppy Blog today too!  

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Silvered Lilacs

Going Postal!

Today is our last fabulous Sneak Peek before the PJ Party tonight , the release of all this good stuff and our Blog Hop tomorrow to celebrate!  

This last peek is with a great new set of dies called Square Stamps.  With this awesome set of dies you can create all sorts of postal themed fun.  

I did a little mixed-media playing with these dies, cardstock, vellum, felt and embossing paste to create this postage themed card.  I cut the inside of the dies with vellum and embossed the sentiment from our Sending You set inside, and added a sweet little felt heart in the center.  I attached that to two strips of cardstock that I had used a Falling Hearts Stencil (Simon Says) and embossing paste.  Then a few lines of felt hearts and a bit of washi tape finish it off.  

All those hearts together are so sweet!  

Here’s a peek at how fun these dies are.  As you can see they all incorporate stitched edges and can be layered together or used separately.  

All you need to do is comment on the Design Team’s Blogs to be entered to win a $10 gift certificate from TCP.  

Tonight is the Pajamas Party at our Facebook Forum...hope you can come by for fun games, and even more new sneak peeks.  

Here’s the Cat Pack with great inspiration ahead!

Brenda Nakandakari
Christine Okken (you are here)
Deborah Anton
Jessica Rone
Nancy Thomas
Wendy McGaffey
and Alma at the TCP Blog!

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Going Postal!

Sending You

Another day of fabulous fun at The Cat’s Pajamas!  Today we bring you....Sending You.  

Just this year Canada Post has switched our neighbourhood to superbox mail delivery.  It just means I have to walk down the street to get our mail from the superbox.  I kind of miss the mailman walking by the house each day when I’m home, but I also know that if I forget to get the mail, it’s in a locked box too.  So that’s a good thing.   Sometimes I send our youngest down to the box after school to pick up the mail, and he loves to scooter, so this reminds me of him.  SO cute!

I went with a little collage style for this design adding the very cute new Square Stamps dies you’ll see more of tomorrow and also the Small Envie CutUp die with vellum.  A wee bit of embossing paste in the form of arrows to move your eye around the design and some fun stamping with this set bring it to life.  

I added a little felt heart onto the vellum envie so it has a little texture too.  

Here’s a peek at this adorable set and the die (which you’ll see more of in the next couple of days).  I can’t wait to use that little helicopter too!  It’s so cute!  

Remember all you need to do to be in the winning for a $10 TCP Gift card is to comment on the Designers Blogs!  Easy peasy!  

And here’s your invite to the Pajama Party on Monday night!

Enjoy more inspiration with The Cat Pack and friends....

Brenda Nakandakari
Christine Okken (you are here)
Jessica Rone
Julie Elak
Nancy Thomas
Wendy McGaffey
Michele Boyer our Guest Designer
and Alma at the TCP Blog!

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Sending You

Grow Everyday Blog Hop

What a lovely week we’ve had showcasing all the new sets in the Grow Everyday Collection at Power Poppy!  Today we’re hopping around to give you another peek at these awesome sets in action, and then you can pop into the Power Poppy store to drop them in your shopping basket!  

Let’s jump in!

I was feeling a little scrappy and decided to play with Planning for Magnolias again.  I think this sweet little planner is so fun!  I bought a nice planner this year, much like the one above and I haven’t had one minute to do anything but be practical with it.  I can’t wait to be more artistic and “gussy it up” a bit ike this one :).  

I think that gray and yellow are such a wonderful spring-like colour combination.  It shows off the contrast between the gray skies and land with pops of bright spring colour.  I coloured the planner with Copics and then trimmed it out with a little border.  I placed it onto some gray textured cardstock that I had sponged an alphabet stencil onto.  I used a whole bunch of washi tape to go with the planner theme and then embossed the sentiment in white.  A few enamel dots and pearls give some more pops of colour, and then black photo corners finish it off.    

Here’s what this lovely Magnolia set looks like below.  I think it’s just amazing!

There’s so much more in store today!  The Bloom Brigade always brings their best!

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Katie Sims
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker
and Marcy at the Power Poppy Blog!

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Grow Everyday Blog Hop

Folk Heart

It’s Day 2 of our power-packed Power Poppy February release!  Today we’ve got a really lovely set that is downright folksy!  It showcases so many fun little elements that can be combined or used alone to create a folk-art feel.  It’s called Folk Heart and it’s so sweet!  

I decided to work with this sweet little bird in a heart wreath.  One of the hallmarks of folk-art style from my research is the use of bold colour in a fanciful way.  I totally went with that feel for my design.  

I coloured up the little bird in some fanciful colours with Copics and then trimmed out the little heart, popping it up and placing it onto a Spellbinders Die piece.  On the front panel of the cardstock I used a mini heart stencil and some embossing paste to go with the heart theme as a background element.  I think it gives it that dainty feel.  

Once the embossing paste had dried I added some strips of vellum, wash tape and silver cording around that layer.  

That sweet little sentiment flag is the finishing touch.  

Copics I used (again I was a away when colouring so I didn’t take a photo)  Leaves: G40, G43, G46, Feathers: BG05, BG07, BG09, BG75, R24, R27, R29, Breast & Flowers:  Y11, Y15.   

The Bloom Brigade has lots in store for you today.  Be sure to pop by and see what Marcy has to say about this sweet design too.  And you won’t want to miss her beautiful tribute to her mom on this post as well.  

Allison Cope
Christine Okken (you are here)
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Katie Sims
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker
Marcy at the Power Poppy Blog

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Folk Heart

Best of 2015 - Part 1

Hello Friends!  I’ve collected up my favourite creations of 2015 to recap for you again this year.  I realized as I looked at my posts that this was a year I didn’t have nearly as much time to create as in other years.  Working almost full-time for a good portion of the year really changed my creative time.  I still feel so grateful for the chance to colour and put cards together whenever I can, and I so appreciate you coming by to visit and your kind comments!  I hope to have a more regular blogging schedule in the year ahead.  

January

Powerful Poppies

Ocean Prayers

February

Poppy Birthday 

March

Can We Be Friends?

Need Space?

Dragon Baby

April

Birthday Bunny

Dreamy Galaxy

Bloom

May

Amazing Azaleas

June

Go Wild

Pencilled Poppies

Air Time

Back tomorrow for round two!  

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Best of 2015 - Part 1

5 Fun Techniques for Embossing Paste

Happy Monday friends!  Today I have an Inspire Me Monday tutorial on the Power Poppy Blog with some great ideas for using Embossing Paste on your projects.  I’ve been getting more questions recently about how I use Embossing Paste so I thought this would be a great start for demonstrating it to you.  

Here’s a sneak peek of one of the methods...

I hope you can stop by!

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5 Fun Techniques for Embossing Paste

Generously Shabby

Ready for some shabby romance?  I’ve designed another card for this month’s Shabby Chic Challenge at Power Poppy.  I decided to go with another no-line style colouring just because I think the softness of the technique really lends itself to this shabby style.  I used the gorgeous new polymer set So Grateful.  The dahlia arrangement here is just so pretty!  I stamped the image in Memento Desert Sand onto XPress It Blending Cardstock and then gave it some soft copic colouring.  Then I trimmed it out with a little border, spritzed it with some Mr. Huey’s Shine, and got ready to work on my background. 

I just LOVE the Tim Holtz Gothic stencil.  It’s my go to stencil for elegant looks.  I used embossing paste on the purple cardstock and then let it dry completely.  After it was dry I sponged some SU Almost Amethyst ink in different spots around the embossing paste to give it a aged look and curled up the edges.  

I placed a Spellbinders die cut in white underneath the the window I had cut out and then stamped the sentiment and sponged over some more of the stencil in ink softly over the sentiment.  

In this shot you can see the shine of the Spritz on the flowers.   Then, something I rarely do, I added some rolled paper roses to the design.  I think these are Verve dies.  Then I finished off with some pearls and lace and it has that vintage shabby appeal.  

Here’s a look at the challenge graphic again.  We sure hope you can join us in creating some thing Shabby & Chic and have your chance to win some Power Poppy goodies!  Here’s the girls playing along today...

Christine Okken
Julie Koerber
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker


Now here’s some FUN NEWS!  Tomorrow we’ll be showing off another NEW Digi image at Power Poppy.  It’s a beaut!


AND....as well on Saturday, we’ll also be playing along over on Passionate Paper Creations and ushering in a coloring contest. As a part of this promotion, the brand new Sunflower Power will be on sale for 24 hours only for $3!! You can use this image to enter the contest and two lucky winners will get a $25 gift certificate to the Power Poppy store! 

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Generously Shabby

Happy Crabapples

Hello Sweet People!  It’s a busy week here on the blog as today we’re beginning brand new Sneak Peeks at Power Poppy of our August polymer stamp set release, the Color Me Grateful Collection!   Today begins our very lovely Happy Crabapple!  Though, there’s nothing crabby here...it’s all loveliness!  

I did some soft colouring and cutting of these intricate blossoms and fruit to create this multi-layered card that throws a little mixed-media fun in.  

I really wanted to showcase the lovely sentiment and surround it with the blossoms, so I added some pointillism to create that delicate feeling around it as well.  

I used embossing paste and a Tim Holtz stencil to create that gorgeous raised background on the white layer.  Finished off with some satin finished cotton ribbon and enamel dots and pearls, it’s got that soft country elegance.  

Here’s the Copics I used.  

And here’s the Bloom Brigade with gorgeousness in store...

Allison Cope
Christine Okken  (you are here)
Katie Sims
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker

See you back here tomorrow with more fun!

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Happy Crabapples

Constellation Prize

Day 5 of Sneaky Peek Week at The Cat’s Pajamas is sure to bring a smile to your face.  I happen to think these little playing penguins and the sentiments are hysterical :)  Here’s Constellation Prize.  

First off, let me just say, I LOVE the sentiment on this card....it’s so perfect for these playful little guys and the galaxy theme.  First I stamped them on Neenah White and coloured them up with some Copics (super easy as it was just the clouds and the moon).  I trimmed them out with a little border.  

I made a galaxy theme scene with the background again using watercolour with Memento ink refills.  I did a similar card to this one HERE, but this time as I was perusing through my cupboard I found the perfect medium to wash in the silver shimmery colour in the scene with some old Tsukeniko Silver All-Purpose Ink.  It worked perfectly to add in that silvery shimmer after the watercolouring while still being a bit transparent.  

The sentiment is embossed in silver and you can also see the shimmery stars I added using the 3 x 3 Stars CutUps cut with the ICraft Adhesive.  Because it’s a double sided adhesive, I just placed it on the card and then sprinkled it with glittery and it gave me gorgeous glittery stars!   Finished off with some silver cording.  

Here’s another peek at the galaxy background and the shimmery stars.  

Are you In It to Win It?  Now you can pop on over and comment on the rest of the Cat Pack’s creations with this set....every comment you leave increases your chances of winning this set!  

Lisa 
Christine (you are here)
Wendy M
Jessie

Don’t forget about the Pajama Party Monday!

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Constellation Prize