Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Stripedy Tulips



Amoung Spring flowers, tulips are my all time favourite.  So I love that on Day 4 of our May New Releases at Power Poppy we get to show off these beauties.  

We used to have some stunning burgundy tulips at our home in the US, they were one of the flowers I hated to leave behind, so today I created a trio of stripedy tulips in that deep burgundy red colour.  



Aren’t they gorgeous?  I like this rich palette with some old SU papers I found in my stash, so I gave my flowers some colouring to match them with Copics, adding some burgundy ribbon, deep blue cardstock to contrast, and some twine and tiny burgundy pearls and sewing.  



Here is another look at the colouring which was really fun to do.  I also added a wee bit of colouring into the open letters of the sentiment to deepen the colour a little.  



Here’s the Copics for this lovely palette.  


And to wrap up this gorgeous week HERE is the link for the Tulips in the store, we know you’ll want them to complete your collection this month!  We are excited to have you jump in on the challenges this month with these great sets! Thanks so much for all the fun this week and for all your kind words.

Here is our beautiful Bloom Brigade in action:

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
 (you are here)
Cindy Lawrence
Danielle Kennedy
Dawn Burnworth
Kathy Jones
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker


Don’t forget to drop by again tomorow for our Power Poppy Blog Hop with a special guest!

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Pretty Peonies


I have always had a special place in my garden for peonies.  At our first home in the US midwest we had a number of peony plants, many with double blooms  - they were so beautiful and colourful - I had pink and fuchsia there.  Here at home, as I’ve mentioned before,  I have transplanted my grandma’s peonies.  They are so special to me because I was named after her and she died before I was born.  So, every time I look at them, it’s a little reminder of my heritage.  

Today’s Power Poppy peonies are delightful!  Full of fluffy petals which are gorgeous to colour!


I chose to go with a soft and romantic theme with this card.  I cut out the image with a beautiful Spellbinder’s shape Marvelous Squares, backing it onto another Labels shape that I embossed with a lattice folder.   The colouring is really soft with Copics, and it’s all paired with some pretty baby themed paper from Graphic 45.  

I’ve added some lovely rose netted ribbon and then made a satin ribbon rose myself to accent.  Here is link to the tutorial for the ribbon rose on my blog too.  It’s easy and makes a pretty and elegant accent.  


I trimmed just a part of the sentiment for the outside of the card.  And then the entire sentiment inside as you can see below.





Here’s the Copics I used for the colouring.  

A Reminder again of the FUN NEWS!  At Power Poppy we want to give in to your inner voice that craves instant gratification!  This month the release will be all digital - meaning you can download, print and use the images as soon as they land in your inbox!  

And then, it gets even better...Are you ready for some incredible fun?  During the whole month of May, well not only share ideas on how to use these beauties, but well also give those who purchase them extra ways to win some Power Poppy goodies!  Each Friday during May, well usher in challenges designed around our new and beautiful digi images!  

Its been fun to already see many of you trying out these digis in galleries around blogland!  

Here’s the link to the beautiful Peonies set....I know you’ll want to have it in your grasp ASAP...and the great thing is YOU CAN!  Go get it and enjoy!   Make sure you stop by the Power Poppy Blog today Marcy has a post about these peony beauties!

Here’s our Bloom Brigade in action, I know you’ll be wowed!

Allison Cope
Christine Okken 
(you are here)
Cindy Lawrence
Danielle Kennedy
Dawn Burnworth
Julie Koerber
Katie Sims
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker

Monday, April 28, 2014

Wonderful Gladioli


Welcome to Day Two of the fantastic May Releases at Power Poppy that’s ALL Digital!  It’s our way of getting these beauties into as many hands as possible this month :)  We know you’ll love them.  

Today it is a gorgeous array of Gladioli blooms to celebrate someone wonderful!  They are so cheerful and so great to colour!  


The glad blooms are coloured with Copics in pretty yellows and vibrant spring greens with a pretty bluey green background that really shows them off.  I’ve used some Spellbinders dies to accent them and then paired it with this pretty paper that right now I can’t get my hands on which one it was!  



I used some pretty sheer polka dotted ribbon ruchhed behind one layer and then tied in a knot on the Lacey Oval then a little touch of Kaiser Sparklets to accent.  I like it a lot.  The colours are very me :)



Here’s a look at the inside with the pretty sentiment.  You can see the scoring I did on the background of the card on the left side too to mirror the plaid in the paper.   And below are the Copics I used.  




Heres a reminder of the FUN NEWS!  At Power Poppy we want to give in to your inner voice that craves instant gratification!  This month the release will be all digital - meaning you can download, print and use the images as soon as they land in your inbox!  

And then, it gets even better...Are you ready for some incredible fun?  During the whole month of May, well not only share ideas on how to use these beauties, but well also give those who purchase them extra ways to win some Power Poppy goodies!  Each Friday during May, well usher in challenges designed around our new and beautiful digi images!  

There’s LOTS to love about digis...from the instant ability to use them, the lower price, the ability to resize them, and that you don’t need any storage space :)  We really hope you’ll give them a try this month!

Now here is the link to these fantastic Gladioli Flowers...go right now and buy them then create!  


And here’s the Bloom Brigade playing with Gladioli today:

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
 (you are here)
Cindy Lawrence
Dawn Burnworth
Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Leslie Miller
Tosha Leyendekker


Sunday, April 27, 2014

Gingham Gerbera Daisies


Have we ever got a fun week ahead!  Its the May Power Poppy Release and we have such a great surprise in store just for you!  

First I’ll get to today’s beautiful set, but be sure to read on for the surprise!



Theres just nothing like a bunch of beautiful Gerbera Daisies!  They are so vibrant and make such a great cheerful statement.  As always Marcy did a beautiful job illustrating these gorgeous blooms.  Ive coloured these beauties with Copics and then added depth and highlight with Prismacolor pencils, then trimmed around the Gingham Gerbera trio.  The pretty papers are Bo Bunny- Pincushion.  And Ive used this last weeks Sweet Sunday Sketch from Karen Giron.  


Here’s another look at the blooms.  As you can see I added some purple in the deeper areas for definition and some pretty seambinding and twine and faceted gems as accent.  



Here’s the inside of the card and the pretty sentiment.   And below are the Copics and Prismacolor Pencils I used.  




Now for the FUN NEWS!  At Power Poppy we want to give in to your inner voice that craves instant gratification!  This month the release will be all digital - meaning you can download, print and use the images as soon as they land in your inbox!  

And then, it gets even better...Are you ready for some incredible fun?  During the whole month of May, well not only share ideas on how to use these beauties, but well also give those who purchase them extra ways to win some Power Poppy goodies!  Each Friday during May, well usher in challenges designed around our new and beautiful digi images!  

There’s LOTS to love about digis...from the instant ability to use them, the lower price, the ability to resize them, and that you don’t need any storage space :)  We really hope you’ll give them a try this month!

Here’s the link to the beautiful Gerbera Daisies!  Go ahead - Create!  We can’t wait to see!

Here’s a list of the rest of the Bloom Brigade showing off these gorgeous Gerberas!

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
 (you are here)
Cindy Lawrence
Danielle Kennedy
Dawn Burnworth
Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Katie Sims
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Starting Tomorrow...


A sneak peek of what’s starting tomorrow...May New Releases at Power Poppy!  What a fantastic week is ahead for you, and it’s full of surprises!  

Friday, April 25, 2014

Umbrella Prayers


I’m going to leave this very short and sweet friends.  This card is going to one of our students who is facing some very significant health concerns, and our hearts are heavy for.  I love the idea of “umbrella prayers” as the title suggests.  Being covered and sheltered under those prayers.  I’m playing in the Card Concept umbrella challenge in the Clean and Layered Category, and used TCP’s Sketch this week for their bi-weekly challenge.  It’s a good one.  There’s still time to jump in.  




Colouring is with Copics and I used two of the new sets - Hang in there Baby for the sentiment and Rise and Shine with the cute bunny and umbrella.  

With some good news, so far my husband doesn’t need surgery.  He has a 25 % tear of his achilles tendon and they’ve splinted it and we’ll see a surgeon in 2 weeks.  Hopefully it will heal on its own and he can avoid that extra recovery.  Thanks for your sweet words over the last few days!  I apologize that I haven’t gotten back to many of you as my days are very full as the only driver in the family and chief nurse :)

Monday, April 21, 2014

Manly Thanks

Quick post...Thanks for your kind words about my hubby’s torn achilles.  His pain is considerably less today, still waiting on word for the ultrasound :)

So, I’m hopping!  I’m in charge of our Administrative Assistant Appreciation this week on Wednesday and as I was going through all the cards I have I realized that I didn’t have enough cards that were masculine thank-you’s....so I had to quickly make a couple.


I thought this cute (old) MFT set would be really fun.  I’ve had it forever!  I did some fun colouring on the straw hat, carrot greens and ground.  I used this past week’s MFT Sketch for the fun.  It really helps to have a sketch when you need something quick!



And on this one I pulled out a cute Lawn Fawn set called Home Sweet Home, and this week’s Mojo Sketch.  It’s a great set to paper piece (I even made some curtains in the window) pairing with some MME - Kate & Co paper.  

Short and sweet today!

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Unexpected Easter

We had an unexpected Easter day today.  One of my husband’s roles as Executive Pastor is that he’s in charge of all the moving pieces in our Sunday services.  Right now we’re doing a rebuild of our Church so we’re meeting in a school and he was running up the stairs backstage to pass on a message to the Worship Team, only as he was running his achilles tendon popped and he was in a lot of pain. I didn’t see it happen but a friend came to find me and asked me to come with him...I find my husband not able to put any weight on his right leg.  SO!  After some assessment from some Doctors in our Church I took him to the ER.  He has at least a partial tear in his achilles and we’ll have to see in the next day or two if he’ll need surgery.

We missed the Easter services :( but the beautiful thing is...I know a risen Saviour and it doesn’t matter where we were, I hold that hope in my heart.

So tonight, I’m pooped, so this will be short and sweet.  I thought I’d pull out one of the cards I haven’t had a chance to show you yet, but that I made for last month’s Power Poppy release with the beautiful Springtime Love set.



I think the spring time blooms are stunning.  They’re coloured with Copics and paired with these pretty MME papers.  



Embossed hearts, enamel dots and some twine wrap it up. 


And here’s the inside.  Thanks for stopping by friends.  I have no idea what this week will hold, but I know that I am held in it.  I hope that those truths can anchor you too.  

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Sock Monkey Baby!


One of my friends said I needed more baby cards in my stash...which is true!  So I decided to make a couple this week.  And already I have a brand new baby boy I can give this to!  He came 6 weeks early but he’s doing well.  This sweet little Sock Monkey from The Cat’s Pajamas - Hang in There Baby is sure to put a smile on your face :)  

I did a little copic colouring and out of the box cutting to give the balloons a lift for the little guy, pairing him with some cute Carta Bella Rough and Tumble DP.  My sewing machine seems not to want to cooperate with me as it slipped a couple of stitches on the corner at the top.  But once those holes are made you’re sort of committed!  


Accents include some pretty Embosslit hearts, enamel dots, and some seam binding.  Though this is not actually a baby set, one of the sentiments has the word baby in it so I just inked up that part of the stamp and voila!  A baby card!  


Monday, April 14, 2014

Azaleas - Three Ways


I’ve completed the last of the cards that will be gifts for our friends that hosted us on Vancouver Island.  I wanted to try to do some colouring in three different ways for today’s post so you can see a comparison, so here we go!  As with the rest of the gift set I used Power Poppy’s Azaleas.  I do love all the sets in this month’s release...and I’ll get to them soon too!  :)


This card is coloured with Copics, you get a beautiful blend between colours and rich vivid depth of colour as well.  


Adding BV’s into the shadows and YG’s into the highlights really makes a difference in the realism of the colouring.  


Here’s the inside of the card...a beautiful quote from the Good Thinking: Renewal set, stamped in a deep coral ink.  


Now here is a very similar design using Prismacolor pencils for the colouring.  They have a beautiful blend, you can really work with sharp edge details, and you can decide to use a blending stump (with or without mineral spirits) to blend - or just leave it as pencil strokes.  Because of the pencils I used these have more of a rosy glow than the coral of the Copic coloured card.  


I did a little warm grey shadowing under the flowers as you can see above.  

Now I’ll show the box that I put all of the designs in.  


It’s a very simple A2 Box design that I often use from a SCS tutorial.  I kept it quite clean and added a pretty card/tag where I watercoloured the azaleas.  I could use some practise on the watercolouring to be honest.  I like more white space in my watercoloring and my brush was too full of water for the flowers.  But, it’s still a pretty and simple tag (and I do like the background wash) that helps tie the different cards together that are inside the box.  

Here’s the Copics I used for the first card:


And now that’s complete and ready to give to them.  :)  

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Foxy Friend



I was in the mood to create something fun and springy with this cute set Freida Fox from Reverse Confetti.  I had so much fun guesting with them last month.  I decided to give Freida a silvery look rather than a traditional fox colouring, and then paired her with some pretty Webster’s Pages that have a spring/Easter theme.   She’s so cute isn’t she?  


Her cute dress and the heart are paper pieced, the rest Copic coloured with some flick strokes to give her the feel of fur.  The heart it popped up a bit to give it some dimension.  And there’s lots of ziggy zaggy sewing.  




And here’s the Copics I used.  

Thanks for stopping friends!  

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Beauty Captured - Fifteen

Some pretty gerberas to share today.... a little ray of sunshine!




Wishing you some sunshine inside and out today! 

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Vases of Azaleas



Here is another pair of pretty azalea cards for the friends that let us stay at their place on Spring Break.  I wanted to do something really cheerful for this pair.  There’s just some slight differences between the two cards with paper choices and sentiment.  


I began with the gorgeous Azaleas set from Power Poppy, and then also used Good Thinking: Renewal for the sentiment on the other card.  So many great words of hope in that set!  Stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and then coloured with Copics (see the pic below for colours).  I wanted it to match up with this older MME paper  The Skies the Limit - Find Your Wings.  I used this week’s Deconstructing Jen sketch for the layout.  


A wide panel of lace really sets off the flowers with a little washi tape accent and some white Candi to tie it all together.  


And here’s the Copic colours I used.  

Now there’s just one more set to make!  

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Soft Azalea Pair



Thanks for all your kind words on the Vancouver Island pictures friends! :)  I really do love photography especially when you can grab just the right shot.  Some of you have asked what kind of camera I have.  It’s a Nikon D3000 DSLR, and I do love it.  I have 3 different lenses I use, the base lens that comes with the camera, a longer AF 55 - 300mm, 1:4.5 - 5.6 and a portrait lens for macro/close ups and softer effects.  That’s it!  I’m just learning really, and have a long way to go with photography, but boy it’s so much easier with digital photography.  You can shoot a lot and delete what doesn’t work.  Every time you shoot you’re learning something!

Alrighty....since the family that let us stay in their home on the Island was so generous, I wanted to make some cards for them as a gift.  So, I think I’ll do 3 pairs or so and put them in a pretty box.  And, because we saw so many azaleas on the Island and in fact they have several varieties growing in their yard, I knew this was the perfect stamp set.  This is the first pair.  


I started with the gorgeous set Azaleas from Power Poppy.  Swoon!  I just heard today that it’s almost sold out for this order - so if you want it - don’t wait!  Or you will have to wait a few weeks :)  I began by stamping the smallest blooms onto this Kraft paper with Memento Tuxedo Black ink to create my own designer paper feel.  I coloured them all with prismacolor pencils and then ran it through a pretty diamond embossing folder.  I think it gives it a great effect, almost trellis like.  


Next I stamped some extra blooms separately on Kraft, colouring them as well, and then cutting them out.  These I popped onto a simple Kraft tag that I die cut the top edge of.  The sentiment is stamped in Memento Bamboo Leaves. I’ve accented with pretty faceted gems and some lace peeking out from behind the tag.  


Lastly you can see I added a vellum tag behind the kraft one that I embossed the azaleas onto.  These are tied on with some simple seambinding and Baker’s twine.  

I’ll see if I can finish the next pair and show you tomorrow or Friday :)

Thanks for stopping!