Power Poppy Blossom Challenge - September 2022 - Eat Your Fruit and Veggies

Hello and welcome to the Blog! The Power Poppy Bloom Brigade is bringing you a monthly challenge the third Monday of every month! The lovely and super talented Christine Okken is your hostess each month! The challenge is called The Blossom Challenge and will be a different theme or type of challenge each month! 

This month the theme is: Eat Your Fruit and Veggies. So grab a Power Poppy image that contains fruit and/or vegetables and create a project featuring it! 

Our challenge WINNER will receive a $20 gift card to use at the Power Poppy Store!! The challenge is open until October 16th! Link up your project to the Power Poppy Blog for a chance to win! Winners will be posted next month on the Power Poppy Blog. 

To sweeten the deal Power Poppy has discounted a few of our fruit and veggie themed stamps for you HERE.  

The August winner is posted today on the Power Poppy Blog...hop over to see if it is you!

Now here is a look at my inspiration project for the challenge: Eat Your Fruit and Veggies!

Ok, so pumpkins are not technically vegetables, but are winter squash, and squash are gourds, but let's not quibble! Besides, who doesn't love to see beautiful pumpkins in the fall?! And who doesn't love to eat pumpkin goodies and drink pumpkin spice lattes?! 

I printed the image from the Painting Pumpkins Digital Stamp Set onto white cardstock at approximately 5" tall. The resulting card is an impressive 5 5/8" x 6 3/8". I know...that happens sometimes with larger stamped images, odd card sizes! I simply use my WRMK envelope punch board and make a custom envelope! {smile}  

I colored the image with Castle Arts Soft Touch, Pastel, and Metallic colored pencils. This is my first time using these pencils, and I liked them very much. They worked very well on the Neenah Classic Crest (#80) coverstock.

When I use a new colored pencil set for the first time, I am never sure how they will react to the paper I have chosen. The best pencils in my stash are those which accommodate to a variety of papers. I purchased the Castle Arts pencils a few months ago when they had an outlandish sale, and expected...not much from them.

I started with the pumpkins, since they are the star of the show! I chose a selection of orange, red-orange, and orange-yellow pencils to see how they would perform on the smoother  cardstock. 

I was very surprised at how many layers I was able to achieve to get the light and shadow I wanted, as well as the slight color variation among the pumpkins! The pencils also sharpened well and held a point well. They were well worth the money I spent for pencils that I really didn't need, but am so happy to have! 

Once I had the pumpkins finished, I decided to keep the other elements in that same fall color palette, with browns and golden yellows. The Power Poppy images are always very pretty and so fun to color. 

To off-set all that orange, I decided to color the pitcher and the stand in a turquoise blue shade. The little pots of paint I wanted to reflect colors you might use to paint some faces on your pumpkins. 

I did add a bit of a background with a pale green pencil, blended out with Prismacolor white. It is very pale and the camera did not really pick it up well, which is fine. I looks a bit "muddy" in real life and I wish I had not added any background color. 

I stamped a sentiment from the Fortunes of Fall clear stamp set, which is retired. I die cut the sentiment and a brown mat with oval dies. Then I used a blender brush that was sitting on my desk covered in green ink to add some ink shading to the sentiment oval. 

The card (5 5/8" x 6 3/8") is made from brown cardstock with a layer of orange cardstock to give some contrast.  

I used orange ink to stamp the two images from the Fortunes of Fall clear stamp set to decorate the inside of the card. If you like those images, they are available as digital images: Pumpkins and Pears and Maize for Days. 

I added a few enamel dots around the card for some texture, and that is it! No ribbon, no printed paper, no embellishments! So not normal for me! {giggle} 

I hope you have fun with the Eat Your Fruit and Veggies challenge this month, and please tell your friends! It will be great to have a lot of participants in our monthly Blossom Challenge at Power Poppy!

Make sure you visit the Shop, to see what is on offer!

To see all the inspiration, and to read the challenge details, visit the Power Poppy Blog HERE. Also, to link up your project, do so on the Power Poppy Blog.

Inspiration List

Power Poppy Blog
Esther
Gloria - YOU ARE HERE
Christine

Power Poppy Digital Stamps: Painting Pumpkins, Pumpkins and Pears, Maize for Days

Power Poppy Clear Stamps: Fortunes of Fall (retired)

Cardstock: Neenah Classic Crest white, WorldWin Brown, unknown orange

Ink: Close to My Heart Orange

Colored Pencils: Castle Arts 120 Premium Soft Touch, Pasteltint 48, Metallic 48; Prismacolor White, Black

Enamel Dots: Simple Stories Enchanted, Say Cheese III; Whimsy Stamps (orange)

Die cuts: Spellbinders Classic  Ovals Large and Small

Adhesive: ATG tape, Art Glitter Glue

Tools: Sizzix Big Shot Plus, WRMK Layers, score board, paper trimmer