Friday, November 27, 2015

Chill Snow-Dude

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends.  I hope you’ve been able to celebrate with loved ones, and gratitude is dwelling in your heart this week.  

We’ve got some awesome news today from Power Poppy!  This new digital stamp set from Marcy is available for just $1 until Monday!  Plus there’s a huge sale going on as well.  



I think I spoke too soon the other day when I said we only had a dusting of snow, now we have about 20 + cm or about 8 inches!  So, this little snow dude is right at home :)  He is one of my all-time favourite snowmen.  He has the perfect blend of chubbyness, whimsical expression and fashionable snow-wear, plus you throw on some berry-fied arms, a sweet bird, and he’s just irresistible!  Marcy also included a snowflake background in the set that’s super sweet too.   The set is called Let’s Chill.  

I paired him with this Echo Park - The Story of Christmas paper that has a great combination of swirly designs, woodgrain and rich green.  


In this shot you can see that I sparklified all the puddles of extra snow with a Wink of Stella pen, and I also coloured in the wood button in the same Copic colours as his buttons in the illustration.  The swirly border is from TCP.  



Here are the Copics I used to give him life.  And here’s the fun news for you....the big, fantastic, awesome SALE on all things Power Poppy and Let’s Chill on sale!  





We have a lovely assortment of the Instant Gardener Team and the Bloom Brigade showing off Mr. Let’s Chill and you won’t want to miss it!  Pop on by the Power Poppy Blog to find out who’s playing along!  




Monday, November 23, 2015

Cool Crisp Wreath


How’s your Tuesday shaping up friends?  Do you have any snow in your neck of the woods?  Our family in the US has shown us pictures of up to 18” of snow where they are, and yet, we in the Great White North only have a dusting.  I know that probably won’t last much longer.  I’ll take it while we have it!

Today brings us another two week challenge at The Cat’s Pajamas!  We love doing Anything Goes Challenges, because it allows you to come up with whatever your creativity desires.  



I’m still brewing with creative ideas for the new sets and dies Alma just released because they’re so fun.  Today I made a crisp cool wreath with a fun colour combination and the new Wreath Kit stamp set.  I started by lightly tracing in pencil around a circular die, the size of wreath I wanted to build.  Then using some Pool Party ink, I started with the branches and added in some cool gray ink as well, and finally some pretty berries in Razzleberry ink.  I used teh Grapevine Wreath CutUps Die cut in grey cardstock to form the inner party of the wreath, swiping some VersaMark ink on it and adding some silver embossing powder.  I wanted it to look a bit like a sparkly dusting of snow.  I also added some silver embossed berries in the design for some extra shine.  

To complete this pretty wreath I added textured Razzleberry Poinsettia CutUps Die, and then used the Easy Stitched Bow CutUps Die in Pool Party cardstock to finish the top of the design.   So many fun new goodies to play with on this card!



I love this cool palette don’t you?  A really fun combination.  



Now don’t miss the big news at The Cat’s Pajamas!  Alma has a fabulous sale going on right now!  

We hope you can join us in our Anything Goes Challenge - you could win up to $15 Cat’s Cash to use in the store!  

Here’s some more inspiration from the lovely and amazing Cat Pack


Brenda Nakandakari
Christine Okken (you are here)
Deborah Anton
Julie Elak
Lori Tecler
Nancy Thomas


A Fragrant Copic Tutorial


Hi friends!  I’m up on the Power Poppy Blog for Inspire Me Monday.  Today I’ve got a tutorial on how to step up your Copic colouring using highlights and depth.  Lots of pictures and comparisons on how I get the effects in my colouring that I hope are helpful to you!  Hope you can check it out!  



Friday, November 20, 2015

And A Partridge in a Pear Tree

First off, let me start by saying a VERY Happy Birthday to my friend Julie Koerber.  Julie is the glue that keeps us all running smoothly at Power Poppy and she’s also a absolutely lovely, gifted, warm and caring friend.  Be sure to wish her a Happy Birthday when you pop by.  AND how fun is it that Tosha Leyendekker also has her Birhday today too!  She’s a gem, full of life, fun and heartfelt.  Such great ladies, both of them :)

Marcy just released another Instant Garden image this week with a fabulous Christmas theme that will have you singing!  


It’s called Partridge in a Pear Tree!  I chose to go really dramatic with this one using non-traditional Christmas colours too.  I’ll show you where my inspiration came from.  I found both of these pictures perusing through Pinterest and that that black background on both of these pieces was so striking.   I was so unsure whether I should try it or not!  

Art Print                                                         Pysanka

Aren’t they both lovely inspiration?  



Here was the design without the background before I decided to just go for it!  



And here it was after.  What do you think?  Was it a good decision?  




Card details are really simple, stitched dies, stitched framing and a stitched die bow (from The Cat’s Pajamas).  

I have to say I love how it turned out.  It’s fun to take a bit of a departure from what you would normally do!   And it’s such a gorgeous image to play with.  

I did use a lot of Copics for this one...





Now, these fabulous Bloom Brigaders have more Partridge in a Pear Tree inspiration for you today!  


Christine Okken (you are here)
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Leslie Miller
Tosha Leyendekker




Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Poppy Love



I have a friend who just LOVES poppies, she really loves their simplicity and vibrant colour.  That describes her personality as well.  She shines a simple vibrance in life too.  I also love her because she has a laugh as big as mine :).  She asked if I could make her a poppy card, so I worked on this one with A Day for Daisies  - Fairy Flowers just for her.  A simple design with the colouring taking center stage.  



Some trims and enamel dots finish it off.  



Thanks for visiting!  



Monday, November 16, 2015

TCP Blog Hop!



Hello and welcome to The Cat’s Pajamas Winter Blog Hop!  We’re celebrating all the fabulous just released sets that are now available at TCP!  It’s been a fun week showing it all off.  You should have arrived here from Deborah’s Blog and if you get lost along the way pop on back to see Alma at the TCP Blog.  



Today I’m playing with Build Your Own Snowman creating a couple of cards.  What a cute set that allows you to customize your snow people in any way you’d like.  As soon as I saw this sentiment in the set I knew I had to try and create a goofy assembly of different snow people to show it off.  

I stamped them in rows around the card adding some accesories for them stamped in the images, and some extras stamped on other paper, coloured, cut out and glued on.  It elimates some masking if you didn’t want to go to that extra trouble.  



I picked a palette of teal, pink, green and grey, with a wee bit of orange thrown in, and then added the Holiday Topper snowflakes CutUps in teal placed along the right side to finish it off.  Doesn’t that deer snowman crack you up?  It’s obviously hunting season :)  

Now for card #2 that I also showed off at the Pajama Party last night.  When I first looked at this set and saw the swirly pieces I actually thought they were angels wings not snowman arms.  That got me thinking about creating another snow angel...



I stamped this cutie onto Neenah Natural White card stock in a soft grey ink, I added the “wings” in vellum that I had glittered up with Iridescent Ice embossing powder.  I added some soft warm grey colouring with prismacolor pencils.  I created some snowflakes cut outs with the Double Snowflakes CutUps die, and also stamped the small snowflakes from the Snowman Accessory Kit set, embossed in clear for a really subtle effect.  


The sentiment is from the new Got Snow? set, also new this release.   

Here are the sets I used today.  







Now for the fun news...Alma’s having a SALE on everything in-store!!  It’s a great one!  



Now to send you along on the Blog Hop here’s Brenda!  



Sunday, November 15, 2015

Watercoloured Poinsettias


Today I’m excited that we’re showcasing the brand new CutUps Dies this month from TCP.  They are SO great!  Today I’m playing with the amazing Poinsettias CutUps Dies, and the new Leaves CutUps Dies that will be free with any $65 purchase.  



I haven’t played around with my watercolours in a long time so I started by cutting out several of the detailed poinsettias from watercolour paper, and then also used the leaves die to cut some leaves.  I LOVE these intricate dies!  I let any pieces fall out of the poinsettia that wanted to, but allowed the rest of the pieces to stay in.  Then I took my water pen and some reinkers and allowed the reinkers to bleed out from the center of the flowers into the petals.  I spread it out where I wanted and then just kept adding reinker, allowing it to bleed until I had the depth of colour I wanted.  I used the same technique on the leaves as well.  It really gives it a loose watercolored effect.  



Because gold is such a great match with this lovely razzleberry colour, I embossed some gold in the center of the flowers once I had placed them where I wanted them on the frame.  I added the watercolour background using the same green and red, added some splotches of colour from my water brush and then added the gold berry dots from the Wreath Building Stamp Set, and the sentiment from anther TCP set, Joy to the World.  Because of the shine of the gold, you can’t quite read the sentiment in the above photo, but you can in the photo below.  To finish it off I added some gold sequins.  



I’ll have another card at the Pajama Party tonight in the TCP Facebook forum with these CutUps that I love so I hope you can pop by and see it.  






Here are the dies I used on the design.  

It’s almost your last chance!  Have you been In It To Win It?  

WIN A $10 GIFT VOUCHER OR STAMP SET!!

Just comment on the Cat Pack, Swanky Stamper, and Guest Designers blogs each day and you could win this stamp set or a $10 Gift Voucher to purchase any of the products or a stamp set you see this week.
After you comment, check our Facebook page to see if you’ve won. We chose a winner at random each day.


And be sure to join us for our Pajamas Party TONIGHT in our Facebook Forum....there’ll be more Sneak Peeks, contests and chances to win!  

Here’s the Cat Pack playing along today....

Brenda Nakandakari
Christine Okken (you are here)
Julie Elak
Nancy Thomas
Wendy McGaffey
June Swart our Swanky Stamper
and Alma at the TCP Blog!



Saturday, November 14, 2015

Angels Gather Here



One of the beautiful things about a northern climate is how amazing freshly fallen snow looks.  There is the most hushed whisper of sound being stilled, and the landscape is totally covered in a blanket of white sparkle.  It’s quite amazing!  There’s also something so fun and childlike about dropping in that fresh fallen snow and making a snow angel...today’s new set we’re Sneak Peeking from The Cat’s Pajamas called Got Snow, showcases our favourite bunny creating some snow angels of his own.  



I tried to capture that beautiful freshly fallen snow feeling on this design.  I stamped the snow angel outline and the little footprints onto the card stock and stamped our favourite bunny in the top snow angel.  I coloured it with Copics, creating a shadowed effect in the angels.  Then I masked the snow angels so that I could cover the card with VersaMark ink, add Heat and Stick powder and then tons of glitter.  That way all the snow would sparkle except the packed down snow in the angels :)   I tell you, after this card there was sparkle for DAYS around my place!  



Sweet and simple embellishments finish it off.  Doesn’t that shimmer look awesome?  

Here’s the Copics I used below.  





And here’s the sweet little set.  





Now...I have to ask again.....have you been In It To Win It?  

WIN A $10 GIFT VOUCHER OR STAMP SET!!

Just comment on the Cat Pack, Swanky Stamper, and Guest Designers blogs each day and you could win this stamp set or a $10 Gift Voucher to purchase any of the products or a stamp set you see this week.
After you comment, check our Facebook page to see if you’ve won. We chose a winner at random each day.


And be sure to join us for our Pajamas Party on Monday night in our Facebook Forum....there’ll be more Sneak Peeks, contests and chances to win!

Here’s the Cat Pack playing along today....

Brenda Nakandakari
Christine Okken (you are here)
Deborah Anton
Wendy McGaffey
Julie Elak
June Swart our Swanky Stamper
our special guest Alice Wertz
and Alma at the TCP Blog!



Friday, November 13, 2015

Snow Globe


I’m back today with another very fun Sneaky Peek set from The Cat’s Pajamas called Snowman Accessory Pack....it’s a companion set to yesterday’s very adorable Build Your Own Snowman that celebrates those very fun snow globes you can shake any time of the year, in any climate and see a swirly snow scene.  Who hasn’t had fun with those right?  



My card has a bit of an unusual fold style, I’m not even sure what I’d call it, but the front is cut away so that the snowglobe folds open.  I used the Slhouette cut files Alma will have available for this set to form the snow globe, then I stamped the outline of the snow globe and glued acetate behind the snow globe frame.  I stamped some of the mini snowflakes from the set in white ink onto the acetate. It’s all very swirly feeling!

Next I formed the hill out of the He Said, She Said CutUps die, and the placed the snow man on the hill and the snow globe over top.  


Here you can see that it’s got a cute little inside fold that holds the card front open and also has the sentiment.  From this angle you can see the snowflakes stamped onto the acetate.  There is space to write inside the card behind the snow globe or on the back of the card as well.  

On the patterned paper layer I added a snowflake with the Double Snowflake CutUps die, and some pretty rhinestone accents.  A little strip of glittered ScorTape finishes off the front.  




Here’s how this cute set looks.  



Now...have you been In It To Win It?  

WIN A $10 GIFT VOUCHER OR STAMP SET!!

Just comment on the Cat Pack, Swanky Stamper, and Guest Designers blogs each day and you could win this stamp set or a $10 Gift Voucher to purchase any of the products or a stamp set you see this week.
After you comment, check our Facebook page to see if you’ve won. We chose a winner at random each day.


And be sure to join us for our Pajamas Party on Monday night in our Facebook Forum....there’ll be more Sneak Peeks, contests and chances to win!

Here’s the Cat Pack playing along today....

Brenda Nakandakari
Christine Okken (you are here)
Deborah Anton
Nancy Thomas
Wendy McGaffey
June Swart our Swanky Stamper
and Alma at the TCP Blog!