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Saturday

Fresh Digi Releases Today!

Hello my friends ~ and welcome to our first Instant Garden introduction of 2020. The TWO digital downloads we are ushering in today made a brief appearance last year as the subjects of a coloring class with Kit & Clowder. And now I’m happy to make them available to everrrrrrybody!

Lisa Johansen created a butterfly card bursting with candy shop colors!

These two images explore several themes. Among them are change, transformation, and self realization. And we’ve brought in the concepts of time and flight. I originally composed these images along with Alyce Keegan, whose insights into what might be fun and challenging for colorers and crafters is fabulously spot-on. 2020’s introductions include a few more twists.

It’s Time to Fly...

Time to Fly in watercolor by Jessie Banks

and here is Shimmering Flight!

Shimmering Flight captured beautifully in markers and pencils by Allison Cope

Turquoise gem version by Barbara Campbell

Can you even? Our designers brought these images to life so beautifully, filled with spirit and vibrancy! The illustrations are filled with details and interesting areas to add your unique spin.

With butterflies, anemones, and the gears of time, Time to Fly comes with three variations in the download: One as seen above, one with the butterfly wings much simplified, and one with more simple watch hands for a crisp look.

Shimmering Flight a juicy stalk of hollyhocks (as seen all over the place in New Mexico on my trip last summer), and nestled inside is a jewel where a dragonfly has landed. A second option has a wonderful turquoise-and-silver pendant in the style of Native American jewelry. This image comes both with and without the dragonfly friend.

Each digital download comes with a few variations and all images are in both black and very light grey for “no-line” coloring.

Broni Holcombe even paired her stunning watercolor of Time to Fly — isn’t this a fun color combo? — with a sentiment printed onto vellum from another of our digital sets.

Gloria Stengel’s Time to Fly progress

I always love to see a process shot, and was thrilled to see Gloria Stengel’s work as she adds tiny details in pencil. Look at those gear details and the tiny dots on the butterflies!

Enjoy working with these images, and if you purchased them while taking the Kit and Clowder classes, you should have gotten an email with links to download the updated variations.

Happy weekend, everyone!

Instant Garden Release: Bowl of Beauty

We have a brand new digital introduction today, and it is one of my most VERY favorite images I’ve ever drawn. I hope you love it as I do. Featuring a lovely tree peony in a bouquet with ferns, Spanish bluebells, and hellebores, this one is pretty epic.

Introducing: Bowl of Beauty

Get a load of that giant flower!

So many tantalizing petals to color, arching ferns, polka dots, emerging buds.... it’s an encapsulation of spring.

The Bowl of Beauty digital download comes with two variations — with the bouquet tucked into a café au lait bowl, and without. You also get no-line (light grey) versions of each. I just know you’ll enjoy working with this one, I’ve tried to draw this one with a great amount of “oomph”!

Come and see what our Instant Gardeners have done with it, because I am on the verge of tears looking at their beautiful work.

and special guest, the Bloom Brigade's

Allison Cope

Come and get your download RIGHT HERE and let’s spend the weekend making life a more colorful place.

Friday

Instant Garden Release: Clover and Pansies

Hello friends. We’re combining Good Vibe Friday with an Instant Garden digital release — as I know it gives me good vibes to share fresh illustrations and our designers’ wonderful cards! Today you’ll find the latest cards by the Instant Gardeners, plus a few ladies from the Bloom Brigade are showing off our other new digi set.

Win-win!

Introducing: Clover and Pansies

Cowabunga — this one has a whole bunch of fun in a single image. The newest in my a series of vintage café au lait bowls filled with garden goodies, Clover and Pansies is a rich and layered bouquet.

You’ll find so many different ways to color this one. Pansies, with their sunny, funny faces, offer velvety petals in shades of the richest dark purple to delicate apricot and everything in between. Some pansies are straightforward and single-toned. Other varieties they have dramatic veins, ruffles, and contrasting petals. Go big and bold or create a soft statement — it’s all up to you.

Pansies are a flower imbued with so much meaning... love, longing, remembrance. They are charming and painterly — as this vintage Burpee catalog says, “painted from nature”.

Combinations for this set are pretty much endless. I’ve drawn two larger pansies and three smaller ones (also known as Viola, and commonly as Johnny-jump-ups); then several four-leaf clovers for good luck. Clover’s botanical name is Trifolium, and there are a number of species offering exciting color combinations. Just for fun, I’ve also included Forget-Me-Nots (Myosotis) which have a sweet trailing quality and wonderful symbolism.

Always remember that you can enlarge the image or crop in if it seems too daunting. That’s part of the fun of digital stamps.

Take a little tour of today’s new cards featuring this delightful bouquet — everyone came up with something unique, fresh, and full of spring zing!

Cindy Lawrence
Stacy Morgan

Thank you for coming by today, sweet ones. xoxoxo

Sunday

Instant Garden January Release: My Favorite Pair

Sometimes the 15th of the month turns into the 20th of the month.

Introducing: My Favorite Pair

Happy January! I’m super stoked to share the second image in a series I’ve been working on: bouquets nestled into vintage French café au lait bowls. The vessels are rustic and charming, with simple patterns that you can coordinate to the flower colors. My Favorite Pair is a refreshing mix, one I don’t know that you’ve seen before in an image for coloring: pears on the branch and African violets accented by meandering ribbons.

African violets (Saintpaulia) are plants native to Tanzania, but have come to be known to be wonderful, cheery windowsill plants for those of us not in tropical climates. Their color range is vast: every shade of blue, purple, magenta, pink, through to coral, white, even bright green. Their glaucous leaves have lovely indentations, and are a nice foil for the bright green, spotty flesh of our pears! There’s a lot too love about My Favorite Pair.

The Instant Gardeners have created some GORGEOUS cards for today’s release - and will be sharing cards through to January 25th.

I want to share some inspiration images... I really do enjoy “playing” with textures, styles, and colors that I think will go well together and be lots of fun for you to work with. Here’s a little combination featuring African violets in salmon with a rosy edging — notice how you can work in a bit of a pinkish-salmon flush on the pears, and then bring in a pink tone in your café au lait bowls. The ribbon is a muted pink with tinges of pale green. I mean, come on, people, this stuff is so much fun!!

My Favorite Pair is a detailed drawing that comes both with and without my handlettered sentiments. And I’ve included light grey versions of each for “no-line” coloring.

Always remember that you can enlarge the image or crop in if it seems too daunting. That’s part of the fun of digital stamps.

Enjoy seeing the cards of today’s release cards in their entirety — the Instant Gardener team went above and beyond.

Thank you, than you, for your GORGEOUS WORK, ladies!

If you’re interested in taking a class RIGHT NOW featuring My Favorite Pair, you are in luck, my friends. Amy Shulke of Vanilla Arts has just launched a class sharing the fundamentals of complementary colors — and where to add those colors.

Isn’t that fantastic?? Color along with Amy in her livestream — and get a special discount on this digital stamp. Click here for info.

Visit us here for Inspire Me Monday hosted by yours truly. I’ll share my painted version of My Favorite Pair along with some of my favorite tips!

Thank you for coming by today, sweet ones. xoxoxo

Thursday

Instant Garden November Release: Snowdrops and Tea Roses

Friends, I am seriously getting into the Holiday mood. How does one switch so quickly from fall flair to “O Tannenbaum”?
One wakes up to a full-fledged snow day in November.

I have yet to rake the leaves, and there will be snowman-making today. Why, there is already a fire in my fireplace and hot coffee in my cup (so very grateful for both!). How about adding a cozy new digital image to download and color up during this snow day....

Introducing: Snowdrops & Tea Roses

This is the first in a new series I’ve been working on. Bouquets nestled into vintage French café au lait bowls (they are rustic and quite charming, with simple patterns and prints that you can coordinate to the flower colors!). Snowdrops and Tea Roses is a pretty arrangement that also includes Variegated Holly — which is holly with a lighter-colored edging. The effect of the lighter edging gives you a bright look rather than merely dark green.

Just look at this range of options with the hybrid tea roses, there are so many ways you can go — from pinks and peaches to rosy reds. Or how about golden yellow? Sparkling white and ivory! What if you mixed it up and had three different colors!?! The Instant Gardeners have REALLY done it up for today’s release!!

Thought I’d share a little inspiration with you here... as I’m coming up with the combinations for my florals, I really do have a ball “playing” with textures and colors that I think will go well together. I put them together in my mind, then start sketching to see how they might work...

Oh, what fun! Snowdrops and Tea Roses is a detailed drawing that comes with a light grey version for “no-line” coloring, along with two sentiments.

Always remember that you can enlarge the image or crop in if it seems too daunting. That’s part of the fun of digital stamps.

You’ve got to see today’s release cards in their entirety — the Instant Gardener team went above and beyond.

Thank you, than you, for your GORGEOUS WORK, ladies!

We will be announcing a special partnership with Kit and Clowder’s online coloring classes a bit later today. Stay tuned!

Friday

Good Vibe WEEKEND!

Hello sweet peeps! This little post is so late this Friday that I am just going to rename today's post the....

So, sit back, relax, take a sip of your favorite beverage and get ready to be WOWED by good vibes and fun crafty stuff!

Your Good Vibe 5 Hit List

1. Giving Thanks I have to say that Stacy nailed it on the autumnal feel of her Friday creation! You'll have to hop on over HERE and see the beautiful way she used Power Poppy's Olive & Oak Expanded set. I can almost smell the spiced cider and hear the crunch of fallen leaves underfoot when looking at this beauty!

2. Colored Pencil Magic Okay, so I might just be on a fall theme kick here today but my jaw dropped when I saw this colored pencil creation from Frankie Bell. Oh. My. Gosh. Isn't it just delish? She used Power Poppy's Maize for Days digital stamp. Sigh... just too pretty. Click HERE to check it out in full glory!

3. The Sunshine of Life Want a little freebie lesson on how to color up Power Poppy's Sunflower Power digital stamp set? Well, Cynde Whitlow is doing just that! Just look at that colorful depth folks? I know... pretty amazing, right? Click HERE to check out all the deets!

4. Miraculous Mushrooms! Our own Bloomie Tosha brought out the absolute best in Power Poppy's Miraculous Mushrooms digital stamp and she did it while taking one of Jennifer Dove's Copic Bootcamps! Yes, THE Jennifer Dove who is on Power Poppy's Instant Garden team. Doesn't it just give you warm fuzzies to think of those two in a room together sharing creative vibes? Click HERE to see all of Tosh's ab fab creation!

5. Marce Hits the Bright Lights, Big City! Check out this little photo snapped by Ms. Marcella herself entering The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Solei in Vegas. Can you imagine? She'll have to jump on here and tell us all about it because it looks pretty incredible. Live shows with good friends, that is indeed a good vibe! I hope she comes back! ;-)

Now we have one more GOOD VIBE to share with you! If you didn't know it, Marcy snuck a brand new holiday image under the radar and released it earlier this week! It's called Ultimate Poinsettia, and just because I know you'll want to SEE... take a gander my friends!

If it looks familiar, you're good! You know your Power Poppy images! This absolutely breathtaking illustration was released last holiday season in clear. It's the Winter Wonderland stamp set. Well, after it's release, Marcella got note after note from digi lovers begging her to release the image in digital form. So, this Christmas, your wishes were granted! It's a bouquet with a flouncy poinsettia surrounded by anemones, pepperberries and the leaves of dusty miller. Breathe it in people!

And with every Digis on the 5s release, we have that fabulous gang of gals known as the Instant Gardeners who lend their creativity to bring these images to life! So, be sure to stop by and see the gorgeous ways they colored up Power Poppy's Ultimate Poinsettia!

Barbara Walker

Broni Holcombe

Leslie Miller

Rhea Weigand

Thanks for popping in to share in this week's Good Vibes! Ally Cope will be in the house as we kick off the week for another edition of Inspire Me Monday! You'll want to swing back by for that because, as we ALL know, that girl has mad skills!

See you then!
Julie

Monday

Instant Garden Release: Painting Pumpkins

Do you mind if I muse on a topic for a sec? There is a wonderful aspect of this time of year, and that aspect is called PUMPKINS. Pumpkins epitomize fall vibes. They last for months if you don’t carve them. But do you really want to stare at orange blobs for months? (I mean, I do, I love orange. But do you?). How about PAINTING the pumpkins to match your décor? Or decorating them with little motifs such as vines and Halloween faces? I mean, pumpkins in their natural colors are gorgeous, but one can always find a way to make a bigger deal out of what was naturally beautiful. I love making things complicated!

This new digital stamp set is easy, because this is an illustration to download, print, and color.

Introducing: Painting Pumpkins

Our hot-off-the-drawing-board digital stamp set, Painting Pumpkins, allows you to “paint” your own pumpkins. You get THREE versions of the focal image (plus no-line versions): One with a blank canvas, one with decorative motifs, and one with jack-o-lantern faces. There’s no end to what you can do with this charming fall set, which can last you from earliest fall through Thanksgiving. Four sentiments ensure that!

Just to get you thinking about how you may want to decorate your pumpkins, here are a few of the cute images that got me thinking about painting pumpkins...

Source: Purely Katie

Source: Handmade Charlotte

I just love the accents on this card by Allison Cope featuring our new clear set: Fortunes of Fall

Do you see where we’re going with all of this? It’s totally fun and interesting to paint pumpkins.

Do you know who ELSE is fun and interesting? We have an announcement! A brand new member of our Instant Gardener Design Team... who is not brand new to Power Poppy. This awesome lady, whose talent may only be eclipsed by her kindness and beautiful spirit, was one of the founding members of the Bloom Brigade. She’s back to grace us with her gorgeous creations, and we couldn’t be more excited to welcome LESLIE MILLER.

Be sure to pop by Leslie’s blog to share a happy hello — and see her new creation made with the Painting Pumpkins digital set.

What an awesome group — feeling so blessed to be working with each and every one of these women! Hope you enjoy today’s digital download introduction — you can pick one up RIGHT HERE and be painting your pumpkins in minutes. Cheerio!