Good Vibe 5 and AWESOME Bloomie Cards

Hello my friends, Happy Friday! We have a very cool round up of goodies to inspire today, but before  we get to them, I want to be SURE that you get the links to almost every single one of our Bloom Brigade’s AWESOME cards they’ve created for today... I mean to tell you, these are seriously next level on the inspiration scale! Lots of spring-y, Valentines-y everything-y ideas!

Allison Cope

Julie Koerber

Cindy Lawrence

Tosha Leyendekker

Stacy Morgan

Christine Okken

Katie Sims

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Good Vibe #1

Allison Cope hipped me to this sculpturally sensational in-progress colored pencil work by Sathya Kala Sankaran (@sathyakala.23 on Instagram). I thought everyone should see!! Sathya’s blog shows the final product, her vivid and highly textural version of our Magnolia Sunshine digital stamp printed on a piece of recycled product packaging. The whole thing is genius!

Good Vibe #2

If you haven’t yet experienced the work of British artist Mrs. Mary Delany, well honey, today should be the day. Creating her pieces in the late 1770s (yes, the 18th century!!!!), and not beginning her craft until over the age of 70 (!!!!!), Mrs. Delany created an incredible range of highly detailed and imaginative collages from cut paper and watercolor. Above, a botanical of Raspberry flowers in bloom. See the entire collection archived by the British Museum online, and be awed. THEN, why not try your hand at creating a card with a dramatic deep black background, just like Mary?

Good Vibe #3

This week we released a new digital stamp set, a simply sweet branch of blooms called Blossoming Cherry. Our designers came up with the most beautiful cards, and we even had a step-by-step tutorial on creating an environmental background by guest designer Mindy Baxter. The Cherry Blossoms have been really heating up craft tables all week, wowing us with bi-colored blooms (Jessie Banks), tri-toned beauties (Broni Holcombe), and a few terrific, traditional cards, too! When I saw what Elizabeth Zaffarano did with the image — creating an entire pattern on the computer, printing and foiling it, then coloring it up to create her own Japanese Washi paper, I just about fell over. Go see her Instagram feed to view Elizabeth’s process, and give it a whirl at home! 

Good Vibe #4

Have you entered our February Power & Spark Challenge? It’s called Love to Sparkle, hosted by Kathy Jones, and you can enter any card you make that has either a love theme, or something sparkly, or both! You might even win fifty buckaroonies in our random drawing to spend in the Power Poppy Shop. Check out this pleasantly purple card made by Jennifer Lewis, with pearls dotting the hearts! So many fun things happening in this hip concoction! Jennifer used one of the SIX images in our new Va-Va-Valentines digital stamp pack. Her card is totally rocking my world. What are you waiting for?

Good Vibe #5

Many of you all know that my mama, Susan Smith, was an artist. She could paint and draw anything she put her mind to, from charming illustrations in colored pencil and gouache to hand-lettering with ink and quill, to cutting edge oil paintings that predated the abstract expressionist movement. My mother worked for Hallmark cards as an illustrator in the late 1960s, plucked from her graduating class at University of Tulsa for her first job. Growing up, she told me stories about how much pure FUN it was to work in the art department back then, drawing cute little kids, bunnies, and flowers all day long, playing with all of the latest art supplies, discovering new ways to enhance cards (velvety flocking, sparkling micro-flitter), and traveling to museums and chic boutiques with the other young artists to gather inspiration for new Hallmark cards. It sounded like a dream come true to me. Is it any wonder that I went on to work for the illustrator Mary Engelbreit and then start my own company that helps people create their own dreamy cards? I can’t thank my mom enough for all the inspiration and encouragement she gave me. It was virtually nonstop, as was her positive, overflowing goodness. Mom really loved what we are doing with Power Poppy, often made her own cards with all her “stuff” spread across the dining room table, and loved to see your beautiful cards across the internet, each with a little bit of artwork drawn by her daughter. It made her so happy and proud.

My mom transitioned to Heaven two years ago this week. While we miss her with all our hearts (AND THEN SOME) now I know that she shares her inspiration, endless love and encouragement with the whole entire universe. Can you feel it?! I know I can.

Lots of love to everybody — hug your friends and family a little tighter this week, eh?