I ask you... who can resist a Peony?

 

I’m not sure what I like best about Peonies, but I know there’s an awful lot to like. I love to grow ’em, arrange ’em, and for this month’s release of all digital flower images: draw ’em! I find myself stalking the plants in the garden come early May. Is that healthy? Don’t tell anyone if not, because I’m afraid I can’t help myself.

I grow a number of magnificent cultivars hybridized by members of the renowned Klehm family (more on those wonderful people later, as I have a really fun history working with their nursery, Klehm’s Song Sparrow), and I also have several plants whose provenance is unknown, as I bought them in the discount section at the local garden shop because they’d lost their plant tags. But who really cares? They’re Peonies, and when they start to pop, I get more than a little bit giddy.  

These photos were taken last spring in my garden, when I was outside ogling their plump buds atop green stems, crawling with tiny ants and filled with promise.

I swoooooon during moments they begin to unfurl their magnificent petals, each so unique and sublime.

 

 After a rain, the blooms are heavy with drops and I have to shake them out a bit so they don’t droop too much, but I mean, look at these things!

  

I could ruminate about the joys of Peonies for days, but I have the feeling that you might be more interested in the new illustration I’ve done that celebrates this exquisite plant, and that you can get your hands on RIGHT NOW! I hope you find as much joy in them as I do! Introducing: Peonies

What do you think? Can you feel the Peony Passion? And can you imagine what you would do with these fluffy delights? We’re trying something a little new and different with our May release. All of the images are digital downloads (a.k.a. digital stamps, or the very cute moniker “digis”) — they are essentially a crisp black and white image file that you can save to your computer, open in a photo-editing program and have some fun resizing, changing the color, and manipulating, or simply print out straightaway! We are offering my flower images with specially designed companion sentiments in this way only for a limited time—so act fast, and get your instant garden growing!

If you think these Peony images from Power Poppy look like fun, then be prepared to be blasted by seeing a few of the cardmaking possibilities. The boundlessly talented Bloom Brigade have made cards with this set that could induce heart palpitations of the most creative kind. Come have a look...

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence

Danielle Kennedy
Dawn Burnworth
Julie Koerber
Katie Sims
Leslie Miller

Stacy Morgan

Tosha Leyendekker

We have even more Instant Garden fun to share tomorrow! Eeeeee!! See you then!

Pretty little tags...

Happy Monday y’all! A quick note to introduce a fresh voice you’ll be hearing from on the Power Poppy blog. A wonderful welcome to Dina Kowal (Woooo!!) — so excited to have her sharing her new and inspiring ideas for using my stamp designs. Check it!  ~marcella

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Psst! Hey there! Dina here, with a fun little project to share. I’m so excited that Marcy let me sneak in to post.... actually I’ll be here every 3rd Monday with a little creative inspiration for you!

I’m getting excited about opening my etsy store up soon, and I’ve had this idea in my head for a few weeks. I love the orientation and in-the-round-ness of the main image from the Springtime Love set, and it’s perfect for what I’d like to share today!

I started by stamping the round image in the center of a Fabriano watercolor panel, then settled down to enjoy the painting process. I missed the finale of The Voice UK while we were traveling, so that was my entertainment.

Here’s the watercolored panel... aren’t those florals gorgeous? (Note to self: fill in those empty palette wells!) I did a wash around the image first before filling in the flowers and leaves. Another time maybe I'll share more of a step-by-step of how I color flowers.

Next, I positioned small label dies (Quickutz) around the edges of the image, making sure each little label had a piece of the image in the corner or along an edge. I used a little washi tape to keep the dies in place for cutting.

Here are the labels after cutting... aren’t they pretty?!

Some layers and lovely sentiments, a little sponging here and there, and they’re ready to tie onto a gift, tuck in a book, or cheer up a friend. Here are some of the tags above, plus a few more with Azaleas, just for fun.

I hope you’re inspired to look at your stamps in a different way today!

Emerging eye candy

On spring mornings, I can hardly wait to hop out of bed, make coffee, and run outside to see what new plants have started to emerge in my garden. It’s like Christmas for me, all the little gifts of nature. I get a little tingle at the sight of each of them, from the earliest crocuses pushing through the crumbly leaves (I’m so bad at raking those up in the fall) and plump, fuzzy buds on bare magnolia branches, to the expanding colonies of self-seeding hellebores and Virginia bluebells. It fills me with gratitude. Hey, I feel an inspiring quote coming on...

What a delight it is


When, of a morning

I get up and go out


To find in full bloom a flower 

That yesterday was not there.

Tachibana Akemi

Sometimes the flowers and leaves are unfurling at such a fast pace (like, say, today, when the temps made it to the high 60s in St. Louis), you can miss them all together! In the past week since launching Power Poppy, I’ve been caught up wrapping and mailing out parcels packed with stamp sets (YAY!!! Thank you, folks!!!) and trying to keep up with everything at the kids’ school, and all the soccer and baseball and softball practices, plus other exciting graphic design projects in the works, and there’s this vintage motorcycle event that my darling Doug and I put on... I have to confess, I plum forgot to go out garden gawking. This afternoon I went out there, and saw that I’d missed all manner of emerging flowers and leaves. Wait, I feel another quote coming on...

Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. 

from John Hughes’ Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

I’m going to make a point to get out there and feed my soul some glorious gifts of nature in the morning. I’m setting that alarm extra early!

Speaking of missing things, I haven’t kept y’all posted on what’s happening in the Power Poppy online community. 

We would L-O-V-E to see you over on Pinterest, as we have juicy new boards, loaded up with the entire April collection and tons of eye-poppingly beautiful Bloom Brigade creations. GO HERE to peep Power Poppy on Pinterest! We’ll be adding much more over the next several weeks, with challenges and inspiration galore.

ALSO: Power Poppy is on Splitcoast! We want to be sure we don’t miss a single project you post—so please tag any cards you upload with powerpoppy (one word!) and we’ll all get to gawk at what you’ve been up to with our stamp designs. One more opportunity for us to feel like it’s Christmas morning... delighting in the gifts of the stamping community, seeing creativity unfurling before our eyes.

Let’s do this! And thank you again, from the bottom of my heart, for the lovely emails and notes and comments of encouragement you all have sent. (And thank you for following up by ordering my stamp designs!!!) I am so humbled. I feel very, very lucky to get to do what I love, and then to share it with you all is really something cool. 

Shippin’ Fool

This is really happening!

Wrappin’, packin’, and shippin’ these stamps all over the world to my new customers! Eeeeeeeeee!!!

Thank you so much for giving Power Poppy a shot on your stamp tables. I can’t wait to hear what you think... and hope you’re enjoying your day!

 

Putting out the shingle: We’re Open!

Hey everybody! I come bearing stamps. The kind of stamps that make creativity bubble up inside you and make you feel a bit woozy! (or so I’ve been hearing...) Hope you’ll come and see what we have in store for you—the premiere of the Power Poppy stamp collection, made from the highest quality, clear photopolymer. Giddy? Ohhhh, yeah. Join the club!

 

But wait! There’s more. I am so very, VERY grateful to these incredible women, whose hearts and talents go above and beyond my wildest dreams. The Bloom Brigade design team has created *one more* surprise to share with you today (can you believe?!!)... and we have another treat, we are joined in our final release POWER POPPY HOP with a special guest! STOKED to have Dina Kowal sharing her creativity on our opening day.

I hope you’ll come hop with us, today’s cards by the Bloom Brigade are not to be missed!!

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Danielle Kennedy
Dawn Burnworth
Dina Kowal   <<  Our Special Guest!
Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Katie Sims
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker

As my shop launch coincides with the first of April, a quote from poet Edna St. Vincent Millay springs to mind:

“April comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.”

Hey... I resemble that statement! Thank you all so much for traveling along this path with us. I can’t wait to dig in!