Lots of Love Bugs & a Winner

Happy Friday everyone! Here in our household we are on the grand countdown for the last few days remaining in the school year.  My son moves on to Jr. High in the fall and only has 9 more days of school after today.  Wow… this year has gone fast!  Now… on to the Power Poppy show!

As a crafter I take inspiration from all around me.  Especially from ads, challenges and fun colour combos.  I had this cool piece of colour inspiration in my “Inspiration” file on my computer and I saw lots of fun potential with not only the colours but the design and it’s use of simple lined images.  So this is the photo I took inspiration from for my card creation today.

To begin my card I drew 3 random, rounded imperfect rectangle shapes on masking paper, cut them out to create 3 rectangular masks to use as the base for my pattern.

I tried to match all the fun shades of green, blue and orange from the image using a variety of different inks from my collection to achieve the same look.

For my stamps, I used “Burst of Kindness” for the bees, “Soothing Sympathy” for the butterfly, “Sweet Memories” for the small leaf, “Peony Muse” for the large leaf and the berries and finally the “Succulent Singles” for all the other fun details.

I even added a bit of shine...

If you haven’t already guessed, my card today goes along side with our Power & Spark Challenge for the month of using bugs or insects on your cards.  I thought the bees and butterfly would look great among the greenery here.

For more challenge details, click the link above.

Also I wanted to announce the WINNER of my birthday giveaway today too!  The lucky winner is…

Congrats Natalie!  I will be contacting you sometime today for all your mailing details.

Now… make sure you check out what my fellow Bloomies have been up to creating this week…

Allison Cope – you are here!

Christine Okken – go here next!

Cindy Lawrence

Julie Koerber

Stacy Morgan

Tosha Leyendekker

Marcella on the Power Poppy Blog

Thanks again for joining me!  I hope you too get inspired to create this weekend!

~ Ally ~


Stamps:  Power Poppy (Burst of Kindness, Soothing Sympathy, Sweet Memories, Peony Muse, Succulent Singles)
Cardstock:  Recollections (110# White, Cloud Collection)
Inks:  Versafine (Onyx Black), Versamark, Memento (Grey Flannel, Cantaloupe), Ranger Distress Ink (Iced Spruce, Evergreen Bough, Rusty Hinges, Faded Jeans), Catherine Pooler Designs (It’s a Boy), Papertrey Ink (Simply Chartreuse, Spring Moss), Simon Says Stamp (Fog), Hero Arts Shadow Ink (Tide Pool), Sakura (Glaze Pen)
Embossing Powder:  Stampendous! (White Detail)
Washi Tape:  Teresa Collins (Urban Mask)
Twine:  Stampin’ Up! (Basic Black)

Got that Beachy Feeling?

Howdy all!  Happy Wednesday! It’s time for a fun and fabulous new challenge over at StampNation.  This week the entire Dream Team has gathered to showcase some amazing creations featuring our sponsor this week, SugarPea Designs! And WOWSERS… these ladies have rocked it this week.  We have a gorgeous summer inspired photo for our inspiration this week.  Here’s a little sneak peek into some of the team’s creations…

Wow… cool right?!?!

Here’s a little peek at my specific card…

I had the pleasure of working with two of their fabulous stamp sets, Seaside Wishes, Build a Background – Basics on my card today.  And I have to say, SugarPea Designs is one of my favourite stamp companies.  Not only are their images amazing and super fun to colour but the quality of their stamps and dies are top of the line!

Here’s another fun card featuring both inspiration from our summery photo inspiration and the Seaside Wishes stamp set from SugarPea Designs again.  This time I took a nautical turn!

Thanks for stopping in today!  I hope you enjoyed my card!

~ Ally ~

Sponsored by: SugarPea Designs

Sneak Peek Card:
stamps: Seaside Wishes, Build a Background - Basics (SugarPea Designs)
ink: Tuxedo Black, Tangelo (Memento), Regal Rose (Stampin' Up!), Copic Markers, Clear Wink of Stella
paper: Neenah Solar White Cardstock

Nautical Card:
stamps: Seaside Wishes (SugarPea Designs)
ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Copic Markers, Tea Dye (Ranger Distress), Gellyroll White Pen
paper: Neenah Solar White Cardstock, Rustic Cream Cardstock (Papertrey Ink), "Anchored" (Authenique)
accessories: Stitched Duo 1 Die (Pretty Pink Posh), Twine (Darice), thread.

“In The Mood” Blog Hop

 We are so excited to announce the release of our newest online card class, In the Mood! Through mood board inspiration, our designers teach class participants many different ways that you can draw inspiration from the world around you. To celebrate the release of In the Mood class we have created a special In the Mood blog hop. Each of our designers, and some of our friends, have created a card based on this mood board.

There are 10 FREE class registrations hidden along the hop, so make sure you leave comments along the way.
The more comments you make, the greater your chances are of winning!

You have until 11:59 pm EST on Sunday, June 21st to leave a comment to be entered to win! Winners will be announced at on Monday on Catherine's Blog.

Sign up by June 24th to get access to a BONUS mood board and two extra video tutorials.

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Here is the mood board that we are being inspired by today!  Isn't it stunning!  It has all kinds of cool aspects to it; butterflies, delicate flowers, cute little tea cups, beautiful glassware, stunning sunsets and even cool jewelry!  

I was inspired by not only the color scheme of the mood board but also by the gorgeous flowers and the China tea cups.  I took the colors and colored my poppies with the fun hues of blues, purples and pinks.  My simple image includes some pottery just like the tea cups and it of course showcases those happy poppies inside!

Here's a little close up of my blooms...

It’s time to hop along now. Click on each of the designers below…

Catherine Pooler
Maureen Merritt
Kristie Goulet
Heather North
Stephanie Klauck
Isha Gupta
Laurel Beard
Allison Cope – you are here!

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you enjoyed hopping along with the entire team and I hope that you'll come and check out this class... it's amazing!

Make sure you head on back to  

Catherine's blog for further information!

~ Ally ~

Supplies:

stamps: Poppies (Power Poppy), Twinkle, Twinkle (SugarPea Designs), Background Basics: Gingham (Papertrey Ink)

paper: Recollections White Cardstock

ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Dusty Concord (Ranger Distress), Copic Markers, Clear Wink of Stella

accessories: Stitched Circles die (My Favorite Things), Stitched Borders 2 (Pretty Pink Posh), Michael's Trims.

A Sneak Peek for Tomorrow

Hey fellow stamp lovers!  Tomorrow is going to be filling with a lot of fun so I wanted to take a moment to share what’s going on.

First of all, it’s Wednesday tomorrow and time for another fabulous challenge over at StampNation.  This week the Dream Team has been in the mood for Autumn… Autumn colours that is!  Here’s a little sneak peek for you…

AND… we also havin’ a HOUSE WARMING PARTY!  Catherine Pooler, owner of StampNation has just done a full blog makeover and we’re going to celebrate with her and a bunch of other stampy guests!  By coming along and joining us this week, beginning tomorrow, we are giving away over $300 worth of stamping loot!!!! 

Join me tomorrow at 6am EST when I tell ya a little bit more about the par-tah events!

~ Ally ~

Feathered Spirits

Hello fellow stamp lovers!  The Bloom Brigade is back again this week to share some fabulous Power Poppy creations and have you play along again!  Will you be the newest Peep of the Week?

This week I chose to keep my card pretty simple.  I chose to play with just ink and stamps.
I started off with a small piece of water colour paper and some Ranger Distress inks; Dusty Concord and Broken China.  I dabbed them randomly on my work surface, spritzed it with only a tiny bit of water and then patted my paper in the inks.  Wow!  I just love how the ink dots layered and blended…

Then I used the darling feather images from the Marcella’s Mixtape Vol. 1 stamp set and some white and light mint green embossing powders to add over top of my inky paper.  I also created my own patterned paper for the back ground and added a sentiment using the Good Thinking: Renewal stamp set too!


Now it's your turn!  Come and play along this week with the Bloom Brigade!  Anything goes for this week's challenge!

HERE'S HOW TO PLAY ALONG:
All you need to do is use the linky HERE and share a new Power Poppy creation. It’s just that simple! It can be anything -- a card, an altered item, a 3D creation, a set of cards, ANYTHING!

OFFICIAL RULES:

• You must use Power Poppy Stamps on your creation! There are lots of great digital stamps for immediate possession, here!
• Link up your creation using the Linky here.
• Mention the Peep of the Week challenge in your blog or gallery post with a link back to this blog post. This is a MUST!
• We'll accept entries up until Thursday @3PM EST and will announce the Power Peeps of the Week next Friday for our Peep of the Week post.
• Peeps of the Week Winners will have their creations posted in a special gallery on the Power Poppy Pinterest Boards! 
• All players from the 13th, 20th and 27th will have their names thrown into a hat and the winner will get to pick a FREE STAMP SET OF THEIR CHOICE! Woo hoo!

Need a little inspiration to get those creative juices flowing? Be sure to stop on by and see what the lovely ladies on the Bloom Brigade created this week!

Allison Cope -- you are here!
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Dawn Burnworth
Julie Koerber
Leslie Miller
Tosha Leyendekker 

Thanks for stopping by!
  
~ Ally ~


Sponsored by:  Power Poppy

Supplies:
stamps: Power Poppy (Marcella’s Mixtape Vol 1., Good Thinking: Renewal)
cardstock:  Recollections, Flourishes, Papertrey Ink
embossing powders:  Stampendous!, Zing!
edge punch:  EK Success
ink: Memento, Versamark, Ranger Distress.

Happy Birthday Papertrey Ink!

Happy birthday Papertrey Ink!

Here's my birthday card for the Day 5 challenge...

I used the following PTI stamp sets:

• Harvest Berries
• Mega Mehndi Medallion
• Background Basics: Text Style
• Round & Round

Here's a close up of my cut out detail...

And the inside of my card creation...

And finally, a photo of me and my card...

Hope you have a great 7th birthday PTI!

~ Ally ~

Get Well Soon My Friend

Hello stamp lovers!  It's mid week and I'm sharing a fun and simple card I made today for an ill friend.  She's been ill due to surgery and is at home on the mend but extremely slowly, so I thought I'd send her some words of good health.

The stamps I used for my creation include the sentiments from Flourishes "Sentimental Favorites" and "Friendship & Flowers" and the roses are from Papertray Ink's "The Sweet Life" stamp set.

For my card, I used the newest Sketch Challenge sketch at Splitcoast , #474, for my card's design...

I also used the gorgeous Colour Combinations Challenge from Splitcoast too:  The colours this week for CC464 are BASIC GREY, PUMPKIN PIE and PRIMROSE PETALS.

Thanks for stopping by!  Please come and join us at Splitcoaststampers for some fab challenges!

~ Ally ~

Sponsored by:  Flourishes LLC

Supplies:
stamps: Flourishes (Sentimental Favorites, Friendship & Flowers), Papertrey Ink (The Sweet Life)
cardstock:  Flourishes (Classic White), Bazzill
patterned papers: Echo Park (That's My Boy), MME (Collectable: Memorable)
die cut shapes: Spellbinders
ink: Memento (Cantaloupe, Tangelo, Rhubarb Stalk, Grey Flannel)
other: thread.

Christmas Card Assembly Line!

Happy Thursday everyone! One of the last little bits of non-holiday life is coming to a halt.  Tomorrow is my son's last day of school before the holidays so I spent today making some of the last Christmas cards for some of the people in my son's life; his 2 teachers, his principal and his bus driver.

I started off by cutting my card bases out using my Klic N'Kut machine.  I used a previous card base design that I had already designed to create my card shape.

Then I cut out 4 different card fronts using 4 different patterned papers form Fancy Pants Designs, the "Home for Christmas" collection. I cut 2 strips of different patterned papers and stitched them on to my card fronts.

Then I cut out the small bough shape using the Flourishes "Poinsettia and Pine SVG Cut File" from the same cardstock as my card bases and stamped the small boughs from the actual "Poinsettia and Pine" stamp set on to each shape using green ink. SUPER QUICK and EASY!  No fussy cutting... it's all done for you!!!

Using my Klic N'Kut machine, I then designed a tag that specifically fit my greeting from the Flourishes "Winter Bouquets" stamp set and stamped my greetings using dark brown ink.

Then I wrapped all of the cards using either twine or thin ribbon and adhered my tags and my little holly boughs.

Sure makes it easy when you cut 4 of everything.  I'm going to have to remember to do this next year too!  It worked out so well and SO quick!  Are you ready for Christmas yet???

Supplies: 
stamps: Flourishes (Winter Bouquets, Poinsettia & Pine)
cardstock: Papertrey Ink Rustic Cream
patterned papers: Fancy Pants Designs
cut files: Flourishes SVG Cut Files
inks: Stampin' Up!, Memento, Ranger
tool: Klic N Kut
ribbon: Offray
twine: Darice
accessories: thread.

 

Christmas Sweets Challenge

Over on the Flourishes blog, they have 2 challenges to participate in in celebration of their November release.

For this challenge, you had to use the colours white, red and light green.

Here is the card I created to participate today...

Merry Kissmas

supplies: stamps, Flourishes; cardstock, Papertrey Ink; inks, Memento, Ranger, Copic; other, Glossy Accents, silver twine.

Here's a close up my coloured image from the "Meet Me Under the Mistletoe" stamp set by Flourishes. I added Glossy Accents to my berries for a little shine.

Just Add Water!

Howdy all! It's the 30th and new sketch has been revealed on the Cardabilities blog today!

This month's second is sketch has so many possibilities. With a blank canvas, anything is possible! Here's what I did with this month's sketch...

Water Colour Poppies

supplies: stamps, Flourishes, Papertrey Ink; ribbon, KaiserCraft; button, Maya Road; gems, Prima, KaiserCraft, Hero Arts; inks, Versamark, Ranger; embossing powder, Hero Arts; cardstock, Bazzill; water colour paper, Fabriano; mists for colouring, Tattered Angels; glitter, Perfect Pearls; other, thread, twine.

I created the base panel of my card using water colour paper, heat embossed stamps and mists... yup mists! I took a few drops of the Glimmer Mists colours: Flower Power, Tiger Lily and Red Velvet. I used a water brush and applied the colours after misting the entire embossed image using just plain water.

Here's what my central panel looked like after painting my flowers using the mist colours.

To finish it off, I sprayed the entire piece of paper again and added the Glimmer Mist colours of Turquoise Blue and Electric Blue using my water brush. Then I stamped a subtle script over top of the entire piece using a Papertrey Ink stamp.

Come on out and join the rest of the team and create using this month's sketch!

Neutrals and Paperwhites

I've been playing around with some primed canvas paper that painter's use as a base for their canvases. I found it in a multiple sheet pad form at Micheal's and thought that it would be great for cards and layouts too.

I wanted to play along with Flourishes' monthly Bring Back Beautiful challenge (to use neutral colours) and their Cut Above the Rest challenge (to use a cut edge) so I thought I would combine my card to meet both challenges today.

Neutral Paperwhites

supplies: stamps, Flourishes, Papertrey Ink; patterned papers, Bo Bunny; primed canvas paper, Fredrix; die cut shape, Spellbinders; butterfly charm, My Mind's Eye; inks, Ranger, Memento, Copic; brads, BasicGrey; lace, Hero Arts; cardstock, Bazzill; other, thread.

I started by die cutting a piece of the canvas paper using my Spellbinders shape and then stamping the paperwhites flower image by Flourishes right onto the masked canvas paper. I carefully coloured in my image using my Copic markers. I stamped the script by Papertrey Ink over top of my entire coloured image to tone the background down a bit.

I hope you too get a chance to play along! I just love the Flourishes challenges!

Challenge #54: Paint My Room!

It's my week over on the Creative Prompts 4U blog this week. This week I chose a photo of the most beautiful room. I mean... I could totally live in this room... warm greys and browns, cream and a lush green colour palette.

For this week's inspiration, I completely stole the colour palette to use on my creation and this is what I came up with...

Thinking of You With Sympathy

supplies: cardstock, Bazzill, Gina K. Designs; stamps, Papertrey Ink; ribbon, Kaisercraft; inks, Tsukenko, Ranger, Stampin' Up!; other, thread.

I used a variety of my Papertrey Ink stamps and created the mini dotted grey panel and also the floral green panel.


I hope you'll play along with us this week and I hope you take some inspiration from this week's photo just like my fellow Creative Crew did... here!

Mission 0035: I Chair-ish

If you are here for the myStamp BOX Love Train Blog Hop, please click the blinkie below!

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It's Sunday... time for a new card challenge over at Mission to Create!

This week our 5 concepts included:

Deborah - use pastel colours

Jocelyn - stitched journalling lines

Vanessa - lace trim

Iris - white gesso or use mists

Nicole - this sketch:

And this is what I did with all 5 concepts this week....

I Chair-ish Your Friendship

supplies: patterned papers, stickers, BasicGrey; cardstock, Bazzill; white trim, friendship definition stamp, Hero Arts; chair & sentiment stamps, Papertrey Ink; inks, Memento, Copic, Ranger; mists, Tattered Angels, Smooch; die cut shape, Spellbinder's; other, pearls, gems, thread.

I chose to use some pastel coloured patterned papers by BasicGrey for this card. I used almost all of the aspects of Nicole's sketch with exception of the bottom panel: I used this to stamp a friendship definition stamp by Hero Arts in this place.

For the misting aspect, I took a piece of the Hero Arts self-adhesive white trims and misted it with both a blue and an orange mist to add colour.

As you can see, I added some dimension to my card using multiple layers of the cute chair stamp from Papertrey ink.

Come and play along this week! We're giving away a prize from Artful Delight. You can check out what the rest of my fellow card team made using this week's concepts HERE.