Power Poppy's August Blog Hop!

Howdy do to you and welcome back for the Power Poppy August Blog Hop!  Have you enjoyed all of the festivities this week? What a blooming extravaganza! All of this month's stamps will be available today!  Just to give you one last peek at these amazing sets, the Bloom Brigade has joined together for our end of the release hop, so let's get to it!  :)

For my card today, I chose to use the incredibly beautiful Chinese Lantern and Bittersweet image from the Sunny Harvest stamp set.  Be still, my heart.....these images are a-mazing!  I had never seen either Chinese Lantern or Bittersweet before so this was a real treat for me.....a little botanical lesson along with my crafting! After doing a little "field research" on these beauties, I got to work.  The stunning colors of these plants definitely pushed me in the "fall decorating" frame of mind....well, honestly I have been pining for fall for a little while (and football season....which you heard me whining about in a previous post) so I went with a fall theme complete with some die cut leaves.....

Have I said I am so ready for fall yet?  Well, I am.  So for my card, I stamped the image onto some newsprint patterned paper and colored with Copics directly on the designer paper.  What you are looking at is actually the second coloring, the first one was colored and die cut when I managed to smudge the heck out of it while finishing up my card.  I am choosing to look at it as an opportunity to change what I didn't like about it the first time around so I used a different die for my main image panel and I like it a lot better....it kind of reminds me of the shape of a real Chinese lantern.  Soooo, then I assembled my card panels using layers of card stock in cream and dark brown and patterned papers in a dark brown damask (which is pretty much covered up), dark brown gingham, and this awesome orange and red linen print.  Once all of the layers were inked or sanded or stitched or gold leafed (and let me tell you, there is a lot of gold leafing going on here-I definitely made up for not using it much lately) or a combination of all of the above the real dilemma started....accessorizing.  Normally, this is one of my favorite parts of the process (besides the actual coloring, of course) but I had a real dickens of a time deciding what to put on this card.  I finally decided on some die cut leaves but I added gold leafing to some of them for a little extra somethin' somethin'.  

For my sentiment leaf, I stamped it first then ran it through my Grand Calibur with a wood texture plate and then I inked it up and attached some twine and a button.  For my image panel, I cut a couple of slits in it to thread my ribbon through, wrapped it around the largest card panel and tied it in a bow.  Next, I stuffed extra leaves here and there until I like the way it looked.  Finally, I attached my assembled card panel to my card base and added a little Ranger Glossy Accents on my berries and a little Wink of Stella Clear brush pen to my Chinese Lanterns.

Here is one more view so you can maybe see the layers a little better.  Seriously, Marcella's image is so detailed and unique and a complete joy to color up!  These are my favorite colors to use on cards and it is a real struggle for me to not make every card look like Thanksgiving!  Well, that is all for my card today, but you need to check out all of the creations from my incredibly talented Bloom Brigade sisters....they have been rockin' the house all week and I am sure today will be no exception!  Make sure you leave them a little blog love while you're there and then why don't you pop on over to the Power Poppy Shop and make these incredible stamps your own....you know  you wanna!  ;)  Thank you so much for stopping by today for a visit....it's always good to see you!  Be checking back, because I will have some more projects using these new sets to share soon.  Until then, take care!  :)

Allison Cope 

Christine Okken 
Cindy Lawrence 
Danielle Kennedy 
Dawn Burnworth  
Julie Koerber 
Kathy Jones 
Katie Sims <------You are here
Leslie Miller 
Stacy Morgan 
Tosha Leyendekker

~Katie

Supplies:  Image and Sentiment from Power Poppy's Sunny Harvest stamp set; Paper-My Mind's Eye  Lost & Found Two "Rosy" 6x6 paper pad, Teresa Collins "Fabrications" 6x6 paper pad, Stampin' Up! card stock in Early Espresso, Classic Ivory card stock from Flourishes; Ink-Memento's Tuxedo Black, Papertrey Ink's Chamomile, Colorbox ink in Chestnut Roan, Stampin' Up!'s ink in Early Espresso; Dies-Spellbinders' Labels Twenty Two and Mat Basics A sets, Cuttlebug Leaf dies, Papertrey ink's wood grain texture plate; Other-SU!'s Early Espresso ribbon, hemp twine, button, Krylon 18KT Gold Leafing pen, and these Copic colors:  YG13, YG17, YG61, YG63, YG67, YG91, R21, R22, R24, R27, R39, Y13, Y15, Y18, YR12, YR14, YR15, YR18, E71, and E77.