Really Rosy with MFT

Hello friends!  I’m popping in today with a pretty floral from My Favorite Things. This week I’m playing along with their Colour Challenge  (of light and medium pink, red and lime green) and Sketch Challenge, with this lovely image called Fresh Cut Flowers, that has since been retired.  It’s got some really nice big petals to get into!  I started with Copics and finished with pencils to give more definition and soften the transitions nicely.  

The sketch called for a centre circle, which I cut out with an MFT Scalloped Edge Circle die.  Peeking through the background on the cardbase is ink blended base with some texture from an embossing plate.  

The pretty sentiment is from MFT’s Everyday Scripted Greetings.  It’s a great scripty handwriting sentiment set.  

Appreciate you dropping by!  

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Really Rosy with MFT

Alex Syberia Designs - Dreamy Florals

Sometimes you’re just in the mood to colour something really beautiful, and for me I always lean toward florals.  So, I picked up a few images from Alex Syberia Designs in her digi files, this one called Just Wonderful Floral Slimline.  Those petals and that sweet little bird stole my heart!  They have a November Colour challenge on the blog with a bluey-purple to green palette, so though this design isn’t Christmasy (maybe in the tropics!), the colours work perfectly for the card.  

I pulled out my Copics, worked with light blues to purples and then added some fun greens, and then that contrasting pop of orangey-yellow for that adorable bird.  After colouring with Copics, I pulled out my Prismacolor Pencils and added in some details to pull some of the colours together better and deepen the contrast between the petals so they pop from each other.  This was a really lovely one to spend time on.  

The card base is ink blended to coordinate with the colours on the flowers and tie it all together.  

The foiled sentiment is from Spellbinders, Yana’s Sentiments Glimmer.  I think I want to get more in this style because I use them so often.  They are just the right size to add to a card, and the scripty style is so pretty.  

Thanks for joining me today for this colouring extravaganza!  
 

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Alex Syberia Designs - Dreamy Florals

Mini Mouse Blessings

 

Hopping in with a very cute sketch from My Favorite Things today and some pretty adorable mice from the set Harvest Mouse.  Another in the collection of images I’ve had coloured up for a long time.  These little cuties are coloured on Kraft cardstock with Prismacolor Pencils, and it makes for a fuzzy cozy look for them, which is perfect for their fur.  

To create the openings I used two stitched dies one a square, and one a rectangle I extended for 2 cuts to create the longer windows.  It’s a great sketch for creating little scenes.  I marked the openings onto the Olive cardstock with pencil so I knew where to put the background stamping.  Then I popped the top layer up with foam tape.  

                   

Just a tiny wood veneer star as an accent and they’re sending blessings!

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Mini Mouse Blessings

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

Golden Tulips

I’m popping back into day to showcase a sweet SALE going on at Power Poppy!  It’s called the Weekend Stamp Steal.  Both the Dynamic Duos:  Peonies and Tulips Stamp Set, and the Tulips and Peonies digital sets are all on sale.  They are some of my favourite Power Poppy images!  

Today I’ve used the Tulips Digital set, enlarged the image and printed it in a grayscale tone.  I coloured it in warm shades with Copics, finishing off with some Prismacolor pencils to add definition to the petals and leaves, and create the soft background colour. 

I accented with some fun golden elements, a gold sparkle fishtale banner and adhesive gold sparkle letters, and some spritzes of gold Tattered Angels spray and splatters of iridescent gold paint.  

To see more of the sparkle (it’s really shimmery in real life) I tipped the card a bit so you can see the golden glow.  

The sale runs till Monday night so be sure and stop by the Power Poppy store.  Enjoy!

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Golden Tulips

WCMD with Power Poppy!

It’s the best kind of day!  World Cardmaking Day!  And today, the Power Poppy gang is celebrating by creating our favourite kind of card, and you’re invited to play too!  

There are a couple of favourite kinds of cards I like to make.  Though I probably use more birthday cards than anything, my favourite to make is a card that will encourage someone.  Something to spur them on, or brighten their day because they know they’re loved.  So, this design is created with Power Poppy’s Fortunes of Fall set and these adorable vases of zinnias.  I love to work with flowers and with stamps that have a lot of colouring potential.  All the base colouring is done with Copics, and then I finished off the details with Prismacolor Pencils.  

I made a bit of a easel fold for this design, anchoring the fold with a pretty ribbon tag die from The Cat’s Pajamas.  

Zinnias are just the most cheerful flower with their wide variety of colours, and I just love the unique little vases Marcy illustrated too!  

We have FUN news for today....

Are you planning on making a Power Poppy WCMD creations?  Join us in making your favourite type of card.

Also, you can comment on any of the Bloomie’s posts today and you are in the running for a WCMD goody bag full of fun Power Poppy goodness!  

And third....Power Poppy is having a one day ONLY, 24-hour flash sale.  It’s 20% off anything in the store if you use the code WORLD!   

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Stacy Morgan
and Marcy at the Power Poppy Blog

Copics:  Y15, Y17, YR15, YR18, R12, R14, R27, G0000, G00, G02, BG000, BG10, BG11, Bg18, BG53, BG57, YG00, YG01, YG21, Y23, RV14, RV17, RV19, RV69

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WCMD with Power Poppy!

Fortunes of Fall

Autumn is such a beautiful season!  The colours, and cozyness.  I just wish it would last longer.  That’s one of the big things I miss about living in the US, fall was more prolonged.  But even still, my Canada turns out all her colours for the season (once we can get past the ridulously early snow that just fell 👎 - don’t worry though, it will be gone tomorrow).  So, today’s sweet set from Power Poppy is a perfect way to make autumn last as long as you want it to!  It’s called Fortunes of Fall, and it’s a rich celebration of beautiful arrangments that sing on the autumn breezes.  

I chose to work with the sweet pumpkin stand first, with the pretty arrangment of pumpkins, pears, flowers and greenery.  Dreamy to colour up in such a fun palette!  I went with a lot of gold accents to really warm it up and add some glitzy.  Colouring is done with Copics and then some prismacolours to add in detail.  It’s so cozy I think I need a warm pumpkin spice latte!  

I added some sponging to warm up the focal piece, used a gold Krylon pen to edge everything (almost like gold leaf edges) and added some gold accents in the ribbon and card candy, with a couple of die cut leaves to make it even more warm and seasonal.  

The Bloom Brigade has so many creative ways to show off this set, you’ll have to stop by and see!  I’ll be back again tomorrow with our last set, which is another beauty!  

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Katie Sims
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker
and Marcy at the Power Poppy Blog

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Fortunes of Fall

Natural Wonders (and Mums!) with Power Poppy

Happy (almost) Autumn everyone!  It’s that season of cozy that we all love.  And we’re bringing you a gorgeous new collection of Power Poppy polymer sets just in time for all the goodness that fall brings.  It’s called Natural Wonders, and you’ll find 4 new stamp sets that convey the wonder of this gorgeous world.  

Today we’re kicking it all off with Chrysanthemum XL.  It’s a jumbo sized bloom that sings AMAZING!  The perfect fall flower.  

As usual, I get inspiration from lovely pictures I find on the web.  I always love when there are two-toned flowers and this one fit the bill.  I began with Copics and then finished off my colouring with Prismacolor Pencils to get a little more detail and colour variation in there.  With the larger size, you can get into all those pretty petals beautifully.   

I added some detail in the framing by using a stencil and embossing paste in a pattern that looked like the shape of the petals of the mum.  

I had a little mishap in creating this one.  I wanted to add some sparkly Nuvo Dots, but I was having some issues with my bottle.  Low and behold the entire bottle exploded right beside my card and spattered on this on and another one coming up this week.  So, I had to make some adjustments like adding that sparkle onto the embossing paste and frame to make it work.  I think I rescued it alright!  The sparkle looks like it works thankfully.  

A few clear sequins, gems and a bit of twine to balance the layout and it’s complete.  

We hope you’ll join us all week for Natural Wonders Previews!

Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Kathy Jones
Katie Sims
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker
and Marcy at the Power Poppy Blog

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Natural Wonders (and Mums!) with Power Poppy

You Are Enough

You. Are. Enough.  How much do all of us crave to hear that?  Doesn’t it just slow your breathing down to think about it?  What you have to offer the world, and even moreso - just who you are is enough.  I absolutely LOVE this sentiment from Marcy’s set M-Powering Words.  Power Poppy does gorgeous florals which you’ll see, but I think equally good are our sentiments.  This set is a beauty, especially combined with the lush florals of Abundant Petals.  I coloured up this amazing peony with Copics and finished it off with some Prismacolor Pencils, then I used the Abundant Petals Coordinating Dies to cut it all out and made a pretty arrangement on watercolour paper (which I washed in a pretty background with my Gansai Tambi watercolours) adding salt to the wet background, then splattering with a loaded paint brush.   

For the sentiment I re-wet the watercolor paper just enough to be damp, not wet, and then inked my sentiment and stamped it in, this way the sentiment could bleed a bit.  After it was completely dry I outlined the sentiment with a periwinkle prismacolor pencil to sharpen the details.   A few sequins and rhinestone complete the design.  

Don’t forget about the awesome challenge going on this month for Power & Spark to look up our Inspire Me Monday Challenges and then use one of the techniques for your creation.  You could win a $50 Shopping Spree!  

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

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You Are Enough

Welcome, Little Chick!

A good friend of mine had a brand new baby girl last week.  She is just so precious and tiny and velvety!  My friend's firsborn was a boy, so now she has someone to be girly with too.  One of the gifts I often get for friend’s babies is to get them Robeez shoes (they are my favourite).  I found an adorable pair that is girly pink with gold hearts and gold bows on the backs.  I paired the shoes with a cute little flowery hair bow, so now she’s set for showing off her girlyness.  We’re so grateful for her little life.  

To go along with the little gift I made a pretty in pink spring card using a cute set from SU called Everybunny.  That little spring chick is so cute!  I pulled out the prismacolor pencils for a change and gave her some soft colour, and tried to make her extra fluffy.  

For the sentiment I used a set from PaperTrey Ink called Simple Sentiments.  For fun I added some pink pom pom ribbon, some fun washi tape, and a heart veneer that I pressed into white craft ink.  Cute cute cute!  

And here she is!  What a blessing!

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Welcome, Little Chick!

Rosé All Day Completed!

Earlier this week I showed you my initial progress on an art piece with Power Poppy’s new set, Rosé All Day.  Well, it’s complete!  I put some more time into it on Wednesday night in front of Season 2 of ER.  Man I loved that show!  Honestly it was a little challenging to decide what to concentrate on - the show or my colouring :)!  

The piece is just over 6 x 6 inches finished sized, and I placed it on my mini easel and for now it will go on our mantle.

It is primarily coloured with Copics, and I finished off some of the shading and line work with prismacolor pencils.  Even though most of the shades are in the RV copic family, I didn’t skimp, and used a whopping 46 markers on this design, so I’m not going to even attempt to take a picture of them.

I wanted each element to have it’s own “feel” and distinct shade of colour so you could differentiate between the elements of the design, but I also wanted it to have an overall cohesive aspect as well.  I tried to accomplish this by bringing some colours from other areas into each other so they would tie together.

For instance, in the roses, I used RV00, RV02, RV04, RC09, but I also added shadows with BV00 and BV02, plus a wee bit of B63 so that it tied into the more purple tones of the cyclamen and coloured pencil crayon (which I did with RV00, RV52, RV66 and B63).  The Redbud and ribbon are done in RV63, RV66, RV69.  Then, because I had some blue tones going on in the flowers, I did my paintbrush in B63, B66, B69.  It adds contrast, but takes on the tones of the shadows in the flowers.  No-line colouring has some challenges because you gradually start to lose your reference lines as you colour.  You can manage this by having another reference piece nearby to refer to, and in colouring you do need to add some definition in with your markers or pencils to your outer areas so you can see the shadows and a bit of the outline when it’s finished.

The leaves were fun to do, particularly those amazing varigated cyclamen leaves, I did them with a combo of G21, G24, G28 with some B10, B11 and B66 for the shadows.  This was one spot I added prismacolor pencil at the end giving the depths some blue-green and the highlights some yellow-green so that they tied into the more yellow green of the stems.  Super fun project to work on. Sometimes you just need a bigger piece to stretch you.  Thanks for enjoying the journey with me!  

Be sure to stop by the Power Poppy Blog to see what Marcy has in store today and also my Bloom Brigade sisters playing along with inspiration.  Don’t forget that our weekly Hues to Use Challenge is going on, as well as our monthly Power & Spark - Grab a Map Challenge.  You could win anything from a guest spot on the blog to a $50 gift certificate to the Power Poppy store!  

Christine Okken (here)
Julie Koerber
Katie Sims
Stacy Morgan
and Marcy at the Power Poppy Blog

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Rosé All Day Completed!

Farmyard Chick

How about a bright and cheery design to start your Tuesday?  Today I’ve pulled out the adorable set, The Whole Herd from My Favorite Things to create a sweet little birthday design.  

Farmyard and gingham pair so perfectly together, and with those fluffy yellow little baby chicks following mama along, I had to do a bright yellow gingham background.  See how the last one is doing his own little dance?  There’s always that one hey?  

The colouring on the hen and chicks is with Copics, and the blades of grass are with Prismacolour pencils.  I just find the thin pencils are great for making individual blades of grass.  

It’s wee bit of fun papers, a little bit of button and twine to accent.  Having them over to the right side helps balance the off-centre layout.  The sentiment is popped up to give it the look of a labeling machine label.  

Inside is the birthday greeting.  

Hope your whole herd is well, and that you have a great week ahead!

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Farmyard Chick

Pencil Me In Dahlias

Friday Greetings my friends, from smokin’ hot Alberta.  We’ve been in the in high 20’s - mid 30’s C (80’s and 90’s F) this week, and I am melting.  Good thing it usually cools off at night now, so sleep is a little easier than earlier in the summer.  School kicked off here this week and we only have one in grade school now.  Our daughter is in her last year of University, our middle son is working this year and our youngest is in grade 9.  We’re so grateful for good starts to the fall for them.  

Today I’m stopping back in with another Power Poppy creation for our Cozy Krafty Power and Spark Challenge.  Colouring on Kraft cardstock with Copics is always fun, but I especially love to colour on Kraft with pencils, so this one is all about the pop of pencils.  

It's a last hurrah to summer using our gorgeous Dahlia XL stamp set.  With its larger size I knew I could get into those petals with the pencils and give it some really fun vibrant colour.  

I started with a layer of white prismacolor pencil and then came back with some lovely magenta and purple pencils to give the centers definition.  

With such gorgeous petals I kept the details really simple, a few background strips of paper for a sense of movement, some enamel dots and then a bit of ric rack to ground the image.  

I have seen some really great entries so far in our Cozy Kraft Colouring Challenge, and I hope lots more of you join in.  You could win a $50 Shopping Spree to the Power Poppy store....and if you heard Marcy spill the beans this week - we have a new polymer release coming this month so there will be even more awesome stuff for you to choose from.  

For more inspiration pop on by the rest of the Bloom Brigade playing along today!

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker
and Julie at the Power Poppy Blog with another Good Vibe Friday!

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Pencil Me In Dahlias

Orchid Hues

Power Poppy is back with another trio of colours to inspire you this week in our Hues to Use Challlenge.  This week we introduce our first guest stamper too!  You’ll want to check out the Power Poppy blog for the introduction.  I’m jumping in a day late with a pretty orchid design.  

I used the lovely set Orchids Rock, stamping it in brown ink on watercolor paper.  Next up, I pulled out my Inktense pencils and washed in some pretty pink colour onto the orchids, a bit of green on the leaves and some pretty buttery colour in the background.  After it was dry I added some definition with my prismacolor pencils to pair better with the Hues to Use Challenge.  

Lovely colours together aren’t they?  All from Marcy’s recent trip to the DC area.  

I flicked my waterbrush with some chocolate ink onto the watercolor paper and I sewed the layers together, adding some pretty pink designer paper to zing it up a bit.  The sentiment is from Power Poppy’s Potted Primroses set.  A tiny button and some twine accents the corner.  

So, come on over and play with this week's Hues to Use!  If your creation is chosen, you get to join us in a future week of Hues to Use and win a free Power Poppy Digi stamp too!

Thanks for popping by!

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Orchid Hues

It’s TCP Sneaky Peek Week!

Welcome to Sneaky Peek Week at The Cat’s Pajamas!  I’m kicking it all off today with peeks of the new stamps, CutUps dies, and CutAbles for July.  We’re all about the delights and whimsy of summer this month!  There are three fun new stamp sets, one CutUps die, and two new CutAble files.  I’ve got lots of great stuff to show you!  

I’m starting it all off with the brand new Big Blooms stamp set.  I happen to love hydrangeas and wanted to play with these gorgeous blooms first.  I used my MISTI to stamp the blooms several times in an amethyst and blue blue ink, adding some green to some of the blooms as well.  Then stamping some dotted centers with purple ink and white craft ink.  The multi-steps really give the flowers more realism.  

I created a windowed design by die cutting out the middle of the flowers, then used my MISTI to line up the middle so I could restamp the flowers inside the fram in the exact location I needed.   You’ll see what I did with the original white inner panel in a minute.  

I embossed the pretty sentiment inside the design and added some clear sequins for a bit of shine.  

Now, for that inner panel.  No need for a perfectly pretty stamped piece to go to waste. Now I can have two cards instead of one!

I used the inner panel to the right for my next card!

I created a tall and narrow design here 3 1/2 x 5, pairing it with some pretty designer paper that really shows off the contrasting flowers.  I’ve added the lovely new Ribbon Banner CutUps die with a sentiment from another new set this month called Banner Day.  It’s stamped in white craft ink and embossed.  

A few clear sequins adorn this one as well.  I really love this fresh colour combination.  

Next up, I’m creating with my gnomies!  

These adorable gnomes are from the new set, What’s Up Gnomies.  This time I coloured with prismacolor pencils to create a little scene of them sitting on a fence.  

I’ve used a woodgrain embossing folder on the bottom third of the card, some fun washi tape, as well as some die cut buttons, and enamel dots to accent.  

They’re such a cute pair!  

Last up for today, I have another card I created with the Big Blooms set.

When I first saw these pretty stamps I thought of dill blooming in the garden, so I have a bit of a simple but earthy, masculine design.  I began by stamping the images in white craft ink on watercolor paper, and embossed them in white.  Next I stamped the green “dill” in Ranger Distress ink and then washed in some distress ink for the background, allowing some water drops to pull away some of the ink in places.  

Some burlap and some twine finish off the design.  

So, have you enjoyed this little tour of the July products at TCP?  Would you like to win them?  Every day Alma chooses a winner from the comments on each Sneaky Peek post for a $10 voucher to the TCP store!  So, comment away :)   Check here and on our Facebook page tomorrow for the winner.

As well, our fearless leader and TCP Cat Packer Nancy will be up tomorrow to showcase these new goodies, and you have another chance to win!  More information at the TCP Blog HERE!  

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It’s TCP Sneaky Peek Week!