Glad all over (again)

  

Sometimes I come around here talking fancy plant talk. Throwing around Latin names and cultivars and hybridizers and all that botanical business. Well, today, I come to you as a humble admirer of a plant I know close to nothing about: the Gladiolus.

For most of my life I actually sort of ignored Gladioli. They seemed too pastel, or too tall, or too something, to my garden-designing and bouquet-arranging self. When planting bulbs (or korms, as the case may be with Glads), I steered towards more exotic Fritallaria or sweet-smelling, shade-tolerating Lilium. But had I ever really LOOKED at Glads? Had I been duped by too many Dutch Gardens catalogs with boring, over-blown bulb displays? Or the red silk stalks formed into a heart in the funerary floral department? What’s my hang-up? Doing a little research, I found that Gladioli—old fashioned, under-appreciated, and available in a wide range of colors and varieties, deserve a chance.

I’m glad to say that I am fully embracing the Gladiolus. In art, in my bouquets, and in my garden.

 

When I illustrated Power Poppy’s Gladioli digital stamp set released this May, I was drawing inspiration from photographs other folks had taken. But to see these glorious spires blooming in person, as I did last week when Lulu and I snuck over to the Missouri Botanical Garden, put me over the edge. I feel like I owe Glads an apology, for they are sublime in their design. I might even go as far to say, they’re kinda sexy!

 

Ok, maybe sexy is a bit much to describe a plant. But, I am definitely giving Glads a second look, and I’m considering how to create a sunny spot in my garden to plant a few varieties. 

Speaking of giving them a second look, those of you who have been wondering if our digital Gladioli set would ever make it into a clear polymer set just might get your wish granted soon. :)

OH - be sure to check out our Gladioli Pinterest board to see some of the gorgeous cards the Bloom Brigade designed with the digi set. Much juiciness to be taken in! Have a great day, and hope you’re feeling as glad about Glads as I am.

Ready to see the Power Peeps of the Week?

Hello folks! Have you played along in this fun new feature right here on the Power Poppy Blog?

If not, what are you waiting for? The Peep of the Week Challenge is an opportunity for you to show off some of your Power Poppy Creations and let the design team see the wonderfully creative ways you've used these fabulous images! Each Friday the Bloom Brigade will pick their faves and we'll highlight them, not only on the Power Poppy Blog HERE but on our Pinterest Power Poppy Peeps Customer Creations Board! At the end of the month, we'll draw a winner for one free stamp set! Fun stuff!

HERE'S HOW TO PLAY: All you need to do is use the linky below and share a new Power Poppy creation. Just that simple! It can be anything -- a card, an altered item, a 3D creation, a set of cards, ANYTHING!

OFFICIAL RULES:

• Use Power Poppy Stamps on your creation!
• Link up your creation using the Linky below
• Mention the Peep of the Week challenge in your blog or gallery post with a link back to this blog post!
• We'll accept entries up until Thursday @3PM EST and will announce the Power Peeps of the Week next Friday for our Peep of the Week post.

Peeps of the Week Winners will have their creations posted in a special gallery on the Power Poppy Pinterest Boards!  All players from the 13th, 20th and 27th will have their names thrown into a hat and the winner will get to pick a FREE STAMP SET OF THEIR CHOICE! So, the more you play, the more chances you have! The winner of a free stamp set will be announced next Friday, so keep those entries coming! 

WANT TO SEE LAST WEEK'S WINNERS?

It was so hard to narrow the field to just two winners! With the DT votes in, here's two of the next designers to earn our title of Power Peeps of the Week!

First up, Ms. Helen Airton created this beauty with Power Poppy's Digi called Tulips and a sentiment that was a part of the Digi Gladioli set! We loved the vibrant colors that just make you want to smile!

Holly Brown also turned our heads with this beautiful creation! We not only loved her coloring but her clean and classy layout that let the image from Power Poppy's Azalea set take center stage. The sentiment is from Power Poppy's set called Good Thinking: Renewal! She even stamped the pink mat with small clusters of Azaleas to tie the whole card together!

In addition to all this fun, the Bloom Brigade is getting ready for July's big release! Tomorrow, that's right, TOMORROW, starts the sneak peeks on the team's blogs and I know one thing is for sure. We cannot wait to show you this latest round of gorgeous illustrations from Marcella Hawley! Want to be tempted with a few little snippets of what's to come? Hop on over and pay the Bloom Brigade a visit -- some have little snippets of cards that they've been working on!

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Danielle Kennedy
Dawn Burnworth
Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Katie Sims
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker


Thanks for stopping by -- don't forget to link up YOUR Power Poppy creations so we can see your fabulous works of art! See you back here tomorrow for day one of the sneaks!

~Julie

An InLinkz Link-up

May Day, May Day!

Do I post gigantic graphics, or what?

Happy May Day everybody! Can you think of a better way to celebrate the first of May than with a virtual garden tour? (Okay, a real garden tour would also be totes awesome, BUT for this flowery frolic you can be in your pajamas, sans make-up, perhaps with a bit of bedhead, and nobody will ever know! Ain’t the internet grand?)

OHHHH my goodness have the Bloom Brigade been ever-so-busy cultivating these magnificent cards for our ALL DIGITAL May release week. THANK YOU, THANK YOU to each of them, such gorgeous artists and beautiful people! I have been so impressed with their floral card creations all week — seriously, they make me want to stop everything and pull out my watercolors. It’s a bit chilly in St. Louis this morning, so I’ll save my peony-plant-progress-peeping until later in the day, and will instead run around this blog hop to see everything they’ve made.

A quick note before I do. All of the images used in the cards for our May “Instant Garden” release (Peonies, Tulips, Gerbera Daisies, and Gladioli) are available as high-resolution digital images — so after you buy the set, you’ll get an email with your images in it, and you can start creating your own crafty garden right away! How cool is that? Again I say: Ain’t the internet grand?

So let’s get this May Day instant garden tour underway, and I hope you’ll visit each of our charming Bloom Brigade designer’s blogs for inspiration—PLUS—we have a special visit from the oh-so-delightful creative phenom, Dina Kowal. Today rules!!!!

THE BLOOM BRIGADE’S MAY DAY INSTANT GARDEN TOUR

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

And thank you so much to everyone who’s been following our release this week, many of you have been Instant Gardening with us already! We have so many fun surprises in store this month—and I can’t wait to be all up in it myself! From new challenges to helpful tips to Pinterest action, there will be lots of ways to share this botanical bounty together!

I truly appreciate all of the support and lovely emails and comments you have been sharing with me. I feel very privileged to be a part of this creative community. :)