Happiest Holidays: Winter Wonderland

Well, we’ve shown you some really outstanding new stamps this week at Power Poppy and today we bring you what is perhaps my favourite one,  (though you know it’s always so hard to pick a favourite!) the very lovely, Winter Wonderland.  

It showcases all that you love about Marcy’s botanical illustration into one amazing-new-collection of Christmas flowers.  

Here is Marcy’s description....

Hot on the heels of designing the flowers for my recent wedding, I couldn’t help but incorporate anemones into a holiday bouquet — and what a dramatic companion they make with Poinsettia, Pepperberries, and Dusty Miller leaves! This truly joyful cascade of holiday beauty will provide your coloristas with an exciting coloring experience and unforgettable results. Mix-and-match sentiments allow for the simplest phrasing (the scripty"Joyful" is beautiful on its own) - up to multi-word stacking ("Joyful winter wishes to you”).  

Isn’t this image spectacular?  It really takes your breath away to see the combination of these elements together.  I know it’s quite an unusual palette, but I started it all off with looking up some colours for anemones.  When I saw a burgundy variety with purple centers I was sold!  It was really fun to spend some time colouring!

The design is quite simple to really showcase as much of the bouquet as possible. 

As you can see accents are simple sequins and some iridescent Nuvo dots.  Isn’t the script lovely for the sentiment too?  

Here are the Copics I used to bring it all to life.  

And here are the Bloom Brigade with beautiful Winter Wonderland inspiration....

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Julie Koerber
Katie Sims
and Marcy at the Power Poppy Blog

Be sure to stop by tomorrow when all the sets are available (woo hoo!), and we’ll show you one more inspirational day of creations in our Blog Hop. 

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Happiest Holidays: Winter Wonderland

Happiest Holidays: Glitter House Village

As often happens when we first see Marcy’s illustrations, I think I gasped out loud when I saw today’s sweet,sweet set called Glitter House Village.  I've had such a fascination for sweet little minature scenes from the time I was little, and I think this set really captures the whimsy and warmth of the Christmas season.  

Here’s what Marcy had to say about this beautiful set.  

Obsessed. I'm totally obsessed with the precious ’40s-era glittered cardboard villages, decked out in micro-flitter, tufted with cottony snow, based on home designs of the time. Also called "putz" houses, the tiny buildings (homes, churches, shops) were available in dimestores, allowing everyone to create a sweet snowy Christmas village on their mantel. These days, you can find remakes of the vintage glittery cardboard houses — and you an also find them in this fun stamp set! Have a great time coloring this one in all manner of palettes, decorating the bottlebrush trees and adding dimension for that 3-D effect. And don't forget to use lots of sparkle as a finishing touch. Two accents - felt pom-pom fringe and an evergreen bough - can be repeated to make a swag below the village. Randomly stamp the snowy sky as a background. Place the large or small North Star ornament in the sky with the radiating glow.

In March of this year I made a similar design with a spring-time Garden Gate theme and our set Natural Beauties.  This set looked like a great way to revisit that theme with a little Christmas Village.  I coloured it all up with Copics to give it the feel of a tiny cardboard village.  Then I cut a little gate with my Silhouette machine, and formed a card 4 1/4 x 11 with scoring lines at 2 3/4 inches from each end on the long sides.  Then I just trimmed around the fence to create the gate opening.  

After it was put together I pulled out some chunky glitter and after adding some Mono-Multi glue to the rooftops and snow, covered it with glitter.  That’s one of the sweet hallmarks of Putz Houses, they do celebrate a lot of glitter.  Chunky glitter though - is a little hard to photograph!  

Here’s a few views with the fences open from each side.  The set includes some lovely boughs and borders you can incorporate, and I thought they looked so perfect along the fence.  

You can see that chunky glitter gets everywhere, just like snow :)

I’ve tried to capture the shimmer and shine of the glitter in this photo.  It is such a sweet scene don’t you think?  I can’t wait to colour it up in other themes....like pastel....I think that would be gorgeous!

Here's the Bloom Brigade in action....

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Kathy Jones
Tosha Leyendekker
and Marcy at the Power Poppy Blog

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Happiest Holidays: Glitter House Village

Happiest Holidays: Berry Sweet Holiday

We’ve got a whole new round of happy for today’s Happiest Holiday Collection from Power Poppy.  Introducing, Berry Sweet Holiday!  

Here’s Marcy’s description:  

All things sweet for holiday cards that can't be beat! Originally designed for the maven of the 30-Day Coloring Challenge, Merriest Berries is now available in a streamlined clear stamp. The stitched-ribbon centerpiece is anchored by a giant candy cane, and bubbles over with holly berries and mistletoe. This image supplies a sweet and snappy punch that instantly says HAPPY! Another favorite digi, the Felt Leaves and Fruits Wreath, is now immortalized in clear polymer, with its easy-to-color design and   comfy-cozy-crafty vibe. Lots of accents and sentiments round out this sweet set. 

Sometimes when I’m colouring I have no particular direction in mind.  I just go with whatever strikes my fancy.  I thought a pretty green candy cane would be fun, blue-green juniper berries would look nice, that rich, green holly...and then, hmmm what to do about that ribbon?  For some reason a bluey-purple came to mind to contrast.   Turns out it made a fun combination.  Then I decided to go shabby-chic with the overall design with some metallics mixed in.  I’m thinking I might have gone a little overboard on that part :)  

I used some embossing paste and glitter for the background and then swiped some metallic paint over the backgound in spots to give it an aged, almost patinaed look.  

A few iridescent gems, some sparkly ribbon and twine finish it off.  

Here’s my fabulous fellow Bloomies showcasing this set today:

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

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Happiest Holidays: Berry Sweet Holiday

Happiest Holidays - Flowering Santa

Well friends, you’re going to flip with Marcy’s unique and inspired creativity today.... instroducing Flowering Santa, and he’s one dapper dude!

Here’s Marcy’s description of this stylish guy:  

Big, bold, and laden with blooms! This botanical Santa Claus offers a warm, welcoming smile, twinkling eyes, and a beard that will not be soon forgotten. Santa's decorative curls overflow with holly, stars, and poinsettias — and when shaded using monochromatic tones or metallics, will create a supreme showstopper. Very merry sentiments are perfect for overlays or card interiors.

As soon as I saw this Merry Santa and his botanical beard, I remembered a sheet of designer paper that had the same look as Marcy’s illustration, so I quickly grabbed it out of my stash and starting colouring him up to match.  He’s decidedly more of a “salt-n-pepper” Santa to match the black in the paper, but I think it’s a fun look for him!  The card is 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches finished size to make lots of room for him. 

Some striped velvet ribbon accents finish it off.  I didn’t want to go too crazy with embellishments because the paper and design have a more busy tone.  I trimmed out the sentiment to place over top of the design, almost as if it’s floating.  

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Julie Koerber
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker
and Marcy at the Power Poppy Blog 

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Happiest Holidays - Flowering Santa

Happiest Holidays - Santa Under Glass

Today I’m bringing you a delightful Power Poppy stamp preview called Under Glass:  Christmas Traditions.  Lovers of Power Poppy will notice right away that it goes with Marcy’s previously released set, Under Glass, which is a personal favourite of mine.  Now,  it gets even better with a Christmas version, and a newly sized cloche!

Here’s Marcy’s description of the set:  

Hot on the heels of our first-ever cloche set “Under Glass”, this new group of Christmas vignettes is bound for popularity on your craft table. Each still life fits perfectly inside the glass dome, or works equally well individually. One grouping has a classic Power Poppy stack (we LOVE to stack cute things!) consisting of wrapped gifts and ornaments; another fun stamp is the "JOY" tree - filled with ornate decoration and detail. Lastly, Santa feeding his reindeer, an image based on a vintage Christmas decal, is ideal for creating a snow dome with a glitter pen! Use the bow to add a handle to the top of the snow globe - or place it atop the tree. Four sentiments complement the vintage vibe.

Isn’t he just SO CUTE??!!  I love this little Santa and reindeer pair!  Coloured up with Copics, and trimmed out to sit on a pretty, edged banner, in the midst of a flurry of snowflakes!  

A red paper bow and some detailed snowflake dies really do the accenting here,  along with a few shimmery enamel dots.  I’ve added sparkly pen on santa’s furry hat, cuffs and suit, and along the snow.  You can catch a glimpse of the silvery sparkle.  

Here’s the Copics I used to bring it to life.  

Here’s the beautiful Bloomies with inspiration for you today from this awesome set....

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Stacy Morgan
and Marcy at the Power Poppy Blog 

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Happiest Holidays - Santa Under Glass

Happiest Holidays - Rustic Rejoicing

Happiest Tuesday to you!  We’re so excited to be bringing you an amazing nine days of our Christmas/Holiday/Winter/Knock-Your-Socks-Off Release from Power Poppy!  Today is Day 3 and I’m jumping in to show you the very lovely set, Rustic Rejoicing.  

Here’s Marcy’s description of the set....

A celebration of all things woodsy, as we rejoice and give thanks! Two unique focal images offer elegant imagery to set your holiday cards apart. A pretty bough with pinecones and jingle bells is set off by a loopy ribbon to which you may add the perfect accent color. Taking a pause from spreading peace throughout the land, a dove rests in a fir tree, olive branch poised. Add glowing detail to the holiday bulbs for pretty sparkle. Four sentiments help set the tone you're going for, whether peaceful or ebullient. 

This is the kind of stamp that gets me EVERY time!  I love showcasing the elegant and yet rustic elements that winter and Christmas bring....classy, woodsy, cozy....that's where I was going with this design.  With a backdrop of wood plank designer paper, I chose a warm colour palette for the pinecones and jingle bells, colouring it all up with Copics.  An elegant die shows off the image, edged in Krylon Gold pen, with a matching curvy bit of green, also edged in gold. 

To give a nod to the rustic touches, I added a burlap fishtale banner, and some twine around jingle bells.  The sentiment is a gold-edged diecut from TCP.  

Here’s the Copics I used for colouring, in case that’s helpful for you.  

So that’s a peek at  Rustic Rejoicing!  Make sure you stop by the rest of the team showcasing this set today because they’ve all got such beautiful takes on the set.  We’ll be back with beauty all week long!  Here’s a peek....

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

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Happiest Holidays - Rustic Rejoicing