Bloomie Friday and a little Creative Challenge!

Hi all and happy Friday! If you're looking for ways to be inspired in your card making endeavors -- man, I think I have a fun one for you this week! This week's Creative Confetti Challenge that I ushered in earlier this week encourages us all to step out of the card making world to find inspiration from some of the masters in the art world. Look at the scenery, the colors, the graphic impact, the lines, the message. This week's challenge is all about interpretation, and that's why it makes it so much fun! Check it out!

HOW TO PLAY: Scroll through the artwork HERE and be inspired by one of the works. Then, create with that work of art in mind - you might take the look, the colors, the message - it's up to you! There are no hard and fast rules with this challenge! The only thing I ask is that when you post your creation on social media or your blog, share a link to the work that inspired your creation!

On to my creation! When I scrolled through the prints at Art.com, I could see so many opportunities to stretch my creative limits but there was just something about this soft print that caught my eye. It looked dreamy and today, (since the sun isn't shining here) I thought I needed a little soft and dreamy in my life!

I knew it might be tricky to get the perfect image to go along with this scene. I first thought about Power Poppy's Sunset Sway, but after scrolling through my digital stamps, I settled on THIS one, Bubbles and Fizz! I thought the foliage was dreamy like the inspiration art and I thought about the ways I could create that fun tonal backdrop.

I started by dropping the grey tone image onto a 4.25 by 5.5 canvas in PhotoShop Elements and then moving and positioning two of the images to create the look of foliage coming up from the bottom. After printing, I die-cut and then covered the outer edge of my die cut, right along the stitched edges, with Post-It notes to mask this off from any ink.

Then, I used Copic markers to create the fade of color. I wanted to use Distress Inks at first but I thought masking those little bits and bobbles might be a wee bit too difficult, so... markers it was!  I used G20, BV0000, BG70 and BG72 to create this backdrop. After I was done, I took some slate blue ink and then sponged some ink on using a spotted style stencil. I wanted to create a wee bit of texture to the backdrop. I colored up the leaves and flowers too. I realize my inspiration photo was purple and white flowers but I thought this needed a pop of color. This flower is called a Golden Wattle. It's native to Australia and it truly looks like pom-poms of sunshine! See? (click the link for photos!) 

From there, I just matted it all up, picking up on the yellow and sage colored green. The sentiment, which is also a digital image, is from the Saucer Magnolia set.   I used a die for the sentiment, punched a hole on each side and then used some gold cording as an accent. Here's a look at the finished card....

And, here's a little close up for you! Of course, I had to add a little splash of glitter to those bubbles to make them a little fizzier! ;-)  I think glitter makes a card happy. Just sayin'!

And that, my friends, is it!   Now, I know if you looked at my card, you might have a hard time seeing the original work but some of the elements are indeed there -- the color fade of a backdrop, and the foliage springing up from the bottom. The similarities after that are few. That's the beauty of this challenge, I didn't say "copy" the work of art. I said, "be inspired by it!" :-)

I hope you do have some creative downtime this week and can join in on the fun of  Life Imitating Art! After you're done, just link up your creation below so we can all see AND so you can have a shot at winning a $25 gift code to the Power Poppy Shop!

Be sure to stop on over and catch a little bit of these ladies' creativity! I know if you hop, skip and jump their way,  you won't be sad you did!

Stacy Morgan

Gloria Stengel is making a guest appearance with a fab Valentine that you'll love!

Have a beautiful and creative weekend!

Friday Fun: Small & Sassy!

Hello all! Since it's Friday, I have some Power Poppy fun to share! If you didn't catch it, I helped usher in a new challenge over on the Power Poppy blog earlier this week and I hope you'll click HERE to check it out! 

Recently, I was in my craft room trying to scale back and organize and I stumbled upon some 4-1/2" square envelopes. They were so cute really. I know, it's an illness when we call an envelope cute but bear with me because those square little envies sparked this challenge! 

To play, all you need to do is, just as the graphic suggests, create a card that's smaller than the typical A-2 size, which is 4.25" by 5.5". Anything goes! You can even choose a different shape. Make it square. Use a die-cut to create a circle card, whatever your little heart desires. Just do one thing -- make it small and sassy! ;-) 

On to my creations!

Being that I had a stack of these envelopes, I thought it might be fun to create not one, but a whole set of cards that maybe I could give as a gift. I have a few friends who really love these for birthdays and low and behold, one of them has a birthday coming up! So, winner, winner, chicken dinner!

I started with the digital stamp set by Power Poppy called Forget-Me-Not Heart. I love this image because the flowers are just as sweet as can be and you can color it up in a jiffy. It made creating four of these cards a breeze! I started by opening up the file and used the heart with the sentiment "Thank You" already placed inside. I grabbed my Copic Markers and went to town coloring! All four cards had leaves colored up with YG00, YG23 and YG25. For the flowers below, I used R81, R83 and R85. All centers of the flowers were colored with Y11 and Y17. Then, when all was done, the centers were dabbed with a wee bit of white gel pen, just for a little extra something!

The petals on this card were colored with B60, B63 and B66. Using the blank Forget Me Not Heart, I added different sentiments to each of the remaining cards. For this one, I used the sentiment from the digital stamp set Pure Prairie Bouquet. 

The petals here took on Y02 and Y11 and the sentiment was from Power Poppy's Easy Breezy Coneflower digital stamp set. 

And this one was colored with BG11, BG13 and BG15. The sentiment was from the Camellias digital stamp set. 

The fun part of creating this little four-card set was that I used four base cards from a set I bought at Michaels that offered up all kinds of colors and patterns in one box set with envelopes. I simply trimmed them all down to create a 4-1/4 by 4-1/4" square -- perfect for my little 4-1/2" envelopes! What I trimmed off the cards, I used as accents on the others. It couldn't have worked out any better! I added some little enamel dots and popped some of the die-cut hearts with foam tape and.. ta-da! I was done! All in all, it only took me a little more than an hour to whip up these four cards and now, I have some on hand for a friend! I will probably make a little coordinating box for these, perfect for gifting!

Want a little more fun this Friday? Be sure to hop on over to Nancy Sheads' home on the web to see what crafty things she's conjured up for you all! 

Until next time, 

~Julie