Friday, October 30, 2015

Wreath Season




How about some cozy Christmas today?  I thought it was about time that I coloured up this gorgeous wreath from Power Poppy’s new Wreaths, Plain and Fancy set.  It’s stamped onto XPress It Blending card stock and then coloured up loosely with Copics.  This is a set that you could spend a lot of time on details, or you could go with a more loose style and you’ll still have a lovely effect.  

I found these fun older papers from Basic Grey that really showcased that deep burgundy red colour, and then some soft blue, so that’s the direction it all went.  To further soften that bluey-green I added a layer of vellum over the blue to mute it and make it into more of the tone of the colouring.  



A pretty vellum banner holds the embossed sentiment, with some sparkly enamel dots to hide the adhesive and give it a little pizzazz.  



Here’s who’s showing off more Friday inspiration from the Bloom Brigade today!  And don’t forget that you have one more day to enter our Bits and Pieces Power and Spark Challenge!  


Christine Okken (you are here)
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Katie Sims
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker


Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Happy Birthday to Me...and You!


Well hello there, and Happy October 29th!

Since today is my Birthday, I thought we’d all celebrate together, how does that sound?  It’s always fun to have a party and gifts right?  Today I’m sharing gifts with you!  I’ve got a giveaway for some Birthday fun!

First some cute dies from The Cat’s Pajamas - Slime/Icicles, Wave, and Buttons!



Then, I’ll let the winner choose 1 stamp set from each of my favourite Stamp Companies, and I’ll have them send it to you on me!

Power Poppy  and  The Cat’s Pajamas

All you have to do is tell me in your comment “What is one way you’d like to grow in the next 12 months?"  

North American residents only please, one entry per person.  I’ll leave this open for one week and then choose a winner!

Thanks for celebrating with me!





Monday, October 26, 2015

Cozy Couples Skate



Hi peeps.  We’ve got another round of TCP Tuesday with some more Anything Goes fun!  



I pulled out the sweet Melt My Ice set ‘cause these sheep are just so darn cute :)  Stamped on Neenah White and coloured with Copics, and fussy cut with a small border.  They’re the picture of sweet love.  

Next I created a windowed frame with the Fancy Flip Frames Cut Ups, and some fun old MME paper.  I thought the pastel Christmas trees and the snowflakes were cute.  



Then I accented the design using TCP’s Double Snowflakes Cut Ups dies leaving some of the cuts in the snowflakes and pushing some out.  This die was one of my favourite TCP things to come out last Christmas, so it was really fun ot bring it out again.  I accented with some twine and a sparkly snowflake and this pretty sentiment from the set.  

Here’s the details about the challenge, and you can enter and win...

  1. Every other Tuesday a new challenge will be posted on The Cat’s Pajamas blog as well as on our Facebook page.
  2. If you want to play along you just upload your design to The Cat’s Pajamas blog page using the InLinkz button below.
  3. You must have your project posted by the Monday, 11:55 EDT before the next challenge to be eligible to win the Cat Cash.
  4. Cards and projects are not required to use a Cat’s Pajamas Stamp or CutUps die but if you do the Cat Cash amount increases.
  5. On the following TCP Tuesday, the week’s winner will be chosen from the previous challenge and will receive a Cat Cash Voucher for $10 or $15 if a TCP product is used.



Here’s the Cat Pack playing along with inspiration for you today!

Brenda Nakandakari
Christine Okken (you are here)
Julie Elak
Lori Tecler
Nancy Thomas
Wendy McGaffey
and Alma at the TCP Blog!



Sunday, October 25, 2015

Baby Bunting

I really love to personalize gifts for babies to make them special, and even more-so when that little person is born to one of our former youth kids or leaders.  

This weekend a lovely friend of mine, and a former leader, one whom I’ve mentored for about 5 or 6 years had her baby shower for her first baby, an adorable little guy.  I decided I’d do a little banner with his name to match his room decorations.  His room is sky blue with some fun vinyl of a tree with orange leaves and little birds.  So, with that sky blue, orange and brown theme here it is.  



Of course, as I was working on it this week, my machine decided to konk out, and I had to borrow my mom’s to finish it off.  I was up till midnight last night trying to get it all done for the shower Sunday afternoon.  And of course in the middle of my sewing one of the pennants totally wrecked, and I had to create a whole new one...it was a crazy saga, and I was so frustrated!   My husband kept saying in a tentative voice, “is there anything I can do to help?”.  Gah, No!  But finally I pulled it all together, and still got some sleep before Church :)






And then of course you have to have a card to match....



I kept to that sky blue, brown and orange theme and some fun gingham paper for a paper pieced onesie and then some fun flags and an embossed sentiment.  



Sigh...babies.  Just so special.  



Friday, October 23, 2015

A Mountain Wedding



Hi again friends!  As I said yesterday I was able to go to some of our former youth leader’s wedding over the weekend.  An autumn wedding is always lovely, but put it in the mountains too...and it’s wonderful.  I was able to go with some friends and had a great weekend.  As a present to them I decided to take the Scripture they picked for their wedding (it pays to have inside information :), and create a frame with the verses they picked in it.  I was able to match the card above to the design.  I stamped the beautiful Olive and Oak Expanded set, and used a soft rust coloured ink so that it would take on that no-line look. A gabillion Copics later, and some fussy cutting and this card was born.  


I sponged the inside of the stitched rectangle die with some rust and canteloupe ink so that it would feel really warm.  The accents are simply some rustic twine and a wood veneer heart, with the sentiment coming from Good Thinking: Love Notes stamp set.  




I have several pictures of this frame just because I was scrambling to take the pictures the night before we left and my light wasn’t the greatest....so I’ll show you several of the angles.  I embossed some rich purple cardstock to frame out the edges and then added the whole image of the Olive and Oak and then on the top corner added part of the image.  I love that it personalized the gift for them.  






A closer look at the colouring on the bottom and the top.  





I thought I’d include a few pictures of the location of the wedding...boy was it gorgeous.  The reception was at a golf course club house, so it really showcased the area beautifully.  They had the perfect day too, 20 degrees celsius, blue skies and sunshine!






One of my friends at the wedding and I.  



We helped a little bit with one area of the wedding, manning the popcorn bar at the reception!  So fun....it was a very popular spot :)  



Here’s who’s playing along from the Bloom Brigade today....and don’t forget about our Bits and Pieces Challenge you can join in on and win Power Poppy goodies!  



Christine Okken
 (you are here)
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Stacy Morgan



Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Sunflowers


Hi people!  We’ve been busy these last few days.  I was able to go the wedding of two former youth leaders we had and it was in the next province and in the mountains.  What a beautiful setting!  The autumn leaves were amazing, the weather was gorgeous, and it was such a lovely heartfelt wedding.  Tomorrow I’ll show you what I made for them, but for today I thought I’d show you what I coloured up most recently.


This is from Gina K’s Stately Flowers 5 set,  Autumn is such a beautiful time to showcase these sunflowers because of their amazing yellow and orange hues.  I thought it would be fun to pair it with a really soft blue/green background and this week’s Mojo Monday sketch.  I did a little piercing, and stamping of the “sunflower” word from the set through the design to soften the effect.  



I added some washi tape into the tag top, a button and twine to finish it off.  Another contribution to the 30 Day Colouring Challenge too!

Thanks for popping by, see you tomorrow!



Sunday, October 18, 2015

Happiest Holiday Blog Hop!



Haven’t you had the best week with all these fabulous Power Poppy Happiest Holiday Sneak Peeks?  Today’s the day!  Now you can purchase all these perfectly pretty polymer sets in the Power Poppy store!    



Today I decided to work with the very lovely Botanical Tree.  I think it’s just so creative and unique!  I found this fabulous paper from MME - Christmas on Market Street, it has such fun colours and some metallic gold in the design - so that inspired the colours I used for the tree.  



It has such elegance doesn’t it?  Some simple vellum behind the image, some pretty gold cording and sequins finish it off!  



Hop on over to see what the Bloom Brigade has to show off today!  Thanks for joining us this week and for all your kind words!  We’ve had a great time giving you the sneak peeks of these fantastic sets!

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Katie Sims
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker


Saturday, October 17, 2015

Cozy Cupfuls



How about some sweetness all rolled into a little Christmas Cup?  Today’s set, Cozy Cupfuls is just SO lovely and whimsical!  You’ll love these sweet cups full of Christmas celebration.  



As soon as I saw these sweet little cardinals I knew they had to be the first little image I worked with. Talk about ADORABLE!   Now I know that little female cardinals are a lot more grey and muted in colour, but I just couldn’t do it....I had to make both of these cuties that vibrant red that they’re most known for.  I paired the image with this fantastic paper Echo Park - The Story of Christmas.  That black background just makes it all pop!  



Accents include ric rack ribbon, enamel dots and then it’s finished with the stitched circle sentiment set into the square coloured up to match the dots on the little cup in the design.   Here’s the Copics I used below.  






Here’s the gang playing along today!  


Christine Okken 
(you are here)
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Katie Sims
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan

Tomorrow we’ll all be celebrating when the release goes live!  Come on back to see our Happiest Holiday Blog Hop!


Friday, October 16, 2015

Olive and Oaks



Yay, Day Four of fantastic Happiest Holiday Sneak Peeks at Power Poppy!

There are just some sets that make you OOOOO as soon as you see them.  When Marcy first illustrated this Olive and Oak set as a digital image I just about fell off my chair.  I was SO excited to hear that she was expanding the set and putting it into polymer, It’s called Olive & Oak Expanded!  It is a must have set in my opinion.

I LOVE fall leaves, and one of my favourite pass-times is to crunch them when my husband and I walk most days.  I go out of my way to find the crunchiest ones, and my husband is quite entertained by me.  :)


I still wanted to work with the largest image in the set because I really wanted to take another stab at all this gorgeous colouring in a Thanksgiving themed card.  I found some older papers that had the acorn and leaves theme and put it all together after carefully trimming out the image.  It did take me a while but, it’s so worth it in the end.  




I added the sentiment from the set into a stitched circle, added some simple twine and sewn layers.  Such a beauty that speaks to the colour and abundance of autumn and all we have to be grateful for!  



The selection of Copics I used, and I enjoyed every minute colouring it!  







Christine Okken (you are here)
Julie Koerber
and pop by to see Marcy at the Power Poppy Blog - she’s going to link up some of the other ways the Bloom Brigade has used this set in the past few months.  



Thursday, October 15, 2015

Wreaths, Plain and Fancy




Welcome to Day 3 of our Happiest Holiday Sneak Peeks at Power Poppy!

Today we bring you Wreaths Plain & Fancy.  There’s just nothing like the festive feeling of a beautiful wreath greeting you on a door or wall.  Marcy has captured some gorgeous wreaths in stamp form and you can “gussy them up”, or leave them simple.  They will shine equally with their lovely accents or in their sweet simplicity.



Today I’m bringing you a more simple wreath of olive leaves and berries but done with all sorts of shimmer and glimmer to make it all shine.  The wreath is coloured with soft blue greens and the berries are given a little shimmer with a glitter pen.  Then I’ve placed the die cut circle on some vellum to continue that softened effect.  



For the silver/gray section, I used a Tim Holtz Stencil (Gothic) to add embossing paste and then embossed with silver and then spritzed the sheet with Mr. Huey’s shine to give it a glimmery patina.  

I also added a strip of Scor Tape that I had burnished Dazzling Diamonds glitter into, and finally added some shimmer enamel dots.  I think it speaks “peace” like the sentiment says.  



Here’s the small selection of Copics I used.  




Here’s the Bloom Brigade in action today....they’re going to wow you!  



Allison Cope
Christine Okken 
(you are here)
Katie Sims
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker
and pop by the Power Poppy Blog to see what Marcy has to say, it’s always wonderful and uplifting.


Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Spice it Up!




I am so delighted to jump into the amazing Holiday Release at Power Poppy today!  Marcella has already started the beautiful offerings we’re bringing to you yesterday, and today we show off Spice it Up!



I think this set is gorgeous!  I love the creative way Marcy illustrated the pomanders and how fun it is to use orange in a Christmas design!  I chose to use the single orange pomander and pair the depth of the orange and cloves with some soft minty greens for a nice contrast.  

I die cut out the pomander with a stitched die and then also framed it up with some sage cardstock creating almost a windowed design.  



I kept the accents simple yet also adding that nice punch of colour with the seambinding, twine and enamel dots.  



Here’s the pile of Copics I used - oh boy that looks a bit haphazard doesn’t it?  Sorry!  You can tell I was rushing onto something else when I snapped that pic!  




The Bloom Brigade has some more wonderful to show off with this amazing set....


Allison Cope
Christine Okken (you are here)
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Leslie Miller
Tosha Leyendekker
and read the story behind the set from Marcy at the Power Poppy Blog!

See you back here tomorrow with another lovely Sneak Peek!