Peep-in-chief is Getting Hitched!

I’m so excited to be share the news: Marcella Hawley -creatrix of Power Poppy Stamps– is getting married to her beau Doug tomorrow!  The design team thought it would be fun to have a blog hop to wish her great happiness on her special day, as well as for future bliss together.

Marcella loves her gardens around her home: she affectionately calls them her “terrarium.” So there definitely needed to be plenty of blooms in what I made for the occasion.  As inspiration, I thought of a perfect late-summer day: sunny, gold-tinged skies and richly-colored foliage and flowers. The Power Poppy digital stamp Luminous Bouquet came to mind, so I printed that off and got to creating.

I ended up making two things! A sweet little keepsake box and a gilt-edged card.

For the box, I colored up that beautiful bouquet with colored pencils on kraft-colored cardstock, and then die-cut the image with Lawn Fawn’s Fancy Box die. I thought this made a perfectly-sized little token that could be used to hold a few dried petals from the bride’s bouquet or groom’s boutonnière, or maybe a few beads or bit of lace that got snagged during all of the merry making.  I lined the interior of the box with some thin aqua paper. Before I assembled the box, I heat-embossed the wedding date with gold on the inside of the lid.

Once the box was put together, I added a little more shine by swiping all of the edges with a gold-leafing pen.

The card has a border of bright gilding flakes, reminiscent of the rings exchanged during the wedding vows. The bouquet is colored with the same bright colors, and accented with some gold stenciling, and everything is glowy against the kraft; just like I imagine Marcella and Doug will be glowing on their special day.

I’ll be sending these paper crafts along to the couple, as soon as I finish this blog post! I had so much fun creating for the lady who makes such beautiful designs for us. Congratulations to Marcella and Doug, and to their family. Please take and share millions of photos!

Marriage is an amazing adventure,
even when you already 
know each other by heart…
Best wishes for all you have yet
to discover together!

Be sure to stop and see what lovely things the rest of the design team has crafted and penned to wish the Newlyweds-to-be the best wedding ever!  If you’d love to leave Marcy and Doug a special message, please leave that on the Power Poppy Blog – I know they will read each and every one of them!
Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Katie Sims
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker
Jennifer Dove
Broni Holcombe
Cheryl Scrivens
Barb Walker
Nancy Sheads
Jessie Banks

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Faux Damascene Cards with Metallic Watercolors

Hi everyone! Today I’m showing off some dramatic and shiny cards that are reminiscent of the bold Damascene jewelry from Toledo in Spain.

These black and gold pieces (below) are made by inlaying precious foils onto a base metal, which is then oxidized to create that deep black background.  You’ll see pieces featuring flowers, birds, and geometric designs.

Credits, clockwise from top left: 1, 2, 3, 4

I recently spent some of my birthday money on the Finetec Pearl Colors palette (below). Isn’t it gorgeous? The bright metallic pots sitting in their black case inspired me to try to get that Damascene effect on paper.

For my cards, I used the Vibrant Thanks stamp set from Power Poppy, and clear heat-embossed the Zinnia and Coreopsis onto black card stock.

Then, I just started laying color from the palette onto the stamped images, using a size 0 watercolor brush.  The embossing acted as a resist, and kept the details from getting painted over.

I am not a painter, so I was pleased at how easily the flowers filled in.  Between the two cards, I managed to use all the golds (and silver) in the palette!

Once the paint was dry, I added metallic sentiments.  I also painted, then die cut frames to give the panels the look of bezeled brooches.

I think they look so cool in the sunlight! If you don’t have a Finetec palette, other metallic paints, metallic gouache, Perfect Pearls mixed with water, or even metallic pens would give a similar effect.

Thanks so much for reading! Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question.

Project info:
Paints: M600 Pearl Colors palette (Finetec)
Stamp sets: Vibrant Thanks, Tree of Life, Olive & Oak Expanded (Power Poppy)

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THE SKY IS THE LIMIT Challenge

I’m down to the wire, but here is my entry for Power Poppy’s THE SKY IS THE LIMIT challenge.

Here is my inspiration photo, taken by me, with an iPhone, no filters. I live in SoCal, and winter is when we get spectacular sunsets. Sometimes the sky is lavender, and sometimes it is neon with the last glow of the sun.

I decided to go bold with my entry, showing off the amazing hues of my sunset.  I haven’t seen the sky go green yet, but I think it sets off those pink, oranges and purples so well. I stamped multiple images from the Orchids Rock set, to create a sort of pattern.  This card is another step away from a realistic style of coloring, but I really like playing with these images in new ways.

One technique I used a lot of this time was tip-to-tip blending. For both the background and the flowers, I either needed a marker I didn’t have, or needed to “invent” a new color. I’m definitely still learning, but I’m glad for the practice.

The sentiment is from the same set–I figured that anyone who receives this unconventional card will appreciate the inspiration. 🙂

COPICS Used:
BV0000, BV000, BV00, BV04
YG0000, YG00, YG03
YR0000, YR000, YR02
RV0000, RV000, RV00, RV02, RV25

Countryside Bouquet Accordion Birthday Card

My mom is an artsy lady who likes to paint with watercolors.  When her birthday comes around, I always try to make her something pretty and creative, or perhaps show her a new technique I’ve learned.

I think these accordion card dies from Karen Burniston are so cool! They’re easy to put together, and the finished card looks so impressive.  You can learn more about the dies and assembling the cards from Karen Burniston herself in this video.

For this years birthday, I used the Countryside Bouquet digital stamp from Power Poppy.  For each of the three main panels, I colored just the Coreopsis, or just the California poppy, or just the Salvia in the bouquet.

On the back of the of one of the panels, I included a small version of the bouquet, with all three flowers colored.

I wanted to add some trim pieces around the edges, and I chose flourish edges from the Frame Edges die set.  I cut 16 of these edges to go around the panels of my card. A tip for cutting out these pieces: run strips of paper through your xyron before cutting, and you will get a perfectly cut, perfectly sticky trim piece, with no extra adhesive clinging to the edges, and no trying to glue down tiny swirls of paper!

After I got the trim pieces placed on my card, I ran a clean brayer over them to make sure they were stuck down securely.

I used a combination of dies from the accordion card set and other circle dies to cut out my colored images and backgrounds.

I once I assembled the panels, I added some additions to the back, such as a sentiment (not shown) and this sweet quote, stamped on some Basic Grey Fresh Cut Paper.

I also made a custom envelope, using more Fresh Cut paper and my WRMK envelope punch board.

You can see the finished card in motion on my Instagram.

Peep of the Week: Sunflower Flair

This is my latest Peep of the Week entry, and this card was also a prototype for my entry in the Pop Goes the World challenge, as I was experimenting with repeating sunflower and circle designs. At the same time, I decided to try a neat technique for making DIY embellishments.

I had made a few “epoxy” blanks already (the secret is glossy accents and acetate!), so I stamped three sunflower sprays, colored them with copics and then die cut matching shapes. To finish my Sunny Harvest “flair,” I adhered the sunflowery circles to the blanks. I used three of these embellishments to create a card with raised elements. I coordinated the background of the flair with the pattered paper, enamel dots around the sentiment, and the polka-dotted card base.

Pop Goes the World Challenge

My entry for the Power Poppy August Pop Goes the World challenge uses the sunflowers from the Sunny Harvest stamp set. This month’s challenge had a color requirement—to use at least three of the following colors: turquoise, buttery yellow, rusty red, and grassy green. I was inspired by a cool pack of paper I found at The Stamp Addict’s annual garage sale, which features sunflowers, daisies and butterflies on backgrounds of greens and blues.

I wanted to try a “sunken 3-D” effect, so I layered copic-colored sunflower sprays under a column of circles die cut from the patterned paper. While this paper had the requisite buttery yellows on a turquoise background, I repeated those two colors on my sunflowers and also added bright green berries.

I used a sentiment from the Sunny Harvest set, and added some enamel dots from the My Mind’s Eye Market Street collection. I decided to repeat the gold sparkle from the enamel dots on the sunflowers with a swipe from a Wink of Stella gold pen.

I thought a polka dot card base (Lawn Fawn) would add a whimsical touch, and then I went even further by die-cutting a ruffled edge on the bottom (also Lawn Fawn).