We’ve Got the Peeps!

Hello Peeps! Thank Goodness It’s FRIDAY! Can I get an “Amen?” It’s no surprise that this day is one of our favorites here. We love honoring those customers who truly WOW us with their creations. We love sharing the “fabulosity” of our Bloom Brigade! And, today, we have some extra special goodies to share — we’ll share the winning names from not only our Winter Blitz Blog Candy (this person wins the entire December Digital Stamp Release) but our Peep of the Month winner for November (this winner gets a stamp set of choice!). It is ALL good! ;-)

First things first — Have you ever linked up one of 

your Power Poppy creations here on our blog? 

Well goodness — YOU SHOULD! 

HERE’S HOW TO PLAY IN OUR PEEP OF THE WEEK CHALLENGE: All you need to do to get in the running for the Power Poppy Peep of the Week 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! We can't tell you how much we love to see what you create!

OFFICIAL RULES:

• Use Power Poppy Stamps on your creation! 
• Link up your creation using the Linky below (It helps us to find you! Although it’s not a necessity to win. We scour creations all over the web!).
• Could you please mention the Peep of the Week challenge in your blog or gallery post with a link back to this blog post? We would sure love it if you did! 
• 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.

IT’S NOW TIME TO.... RELEASE THE PEEPS!

First up, we’re sorry that we are revealing the linky for December just today! We should have posted it before now so that all our creative peeps could have linked up their creations so far for the month! Being that we didn’t have a linky, we scoured the web looking for a couple of our favorites and I have to tell you, we found some beauties!

The first creation by Debbie Olson using O Holy Night is nothing less than breathtaking. Would you look at that incredibly rich background? Be still my heart! You’ll have to click on over to her blog because she shares all of the Copic markers she used to get these amazing results! I love the little dots of white she added too for the look of falling snow! 

Becky Egecrone has been a “Peep” before but goodness, look at this stunner. It’s super easy to see why she made our list this week! The soft colors truly make this beautifully colored Geranium from Geraniums Take Two pop! And, did you see that decorative paper behind? Perfect! Becky has a fabulous way of making her cards eye-catching and beautifully balanced! 

Congrats to this week’s winners! We are so excited to add these beautiful creations to our Power Poppy Peep of the Week Board over on Pinterest! How can YOU end up being honored in this way? Simply show us your card making style with Power Poppy Stamps and then link up your creation below! And, if you’re a Peep of the Week Winner and would like our POWER POPPY PEEP OF THE WEEK BLOG BUTTON to “wear” on your blog with pride? Simply email us at bloom@powerpoppy.com and we’ll send that button right to you! 

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DID YOU ENTER OUR PEEP OF THE WEEK CHALLENGE FOR NOVEMBER?

If so, your entry was added to the list for a free stamp set of your choice. Thanks to random.org, all entries were put in our virtual “hat” and so the winner is...

CONGRATULATIONS ANGIE SCHMIDT!

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NOW FOR THE WINNER OF OUR WINTER BLITZ DIGI RELEASE!

We mentioned that if you commented on our designers’ blogs during our Power Poppy Hop last Monday, you’d have a shot at winning the enter Winter Blitz digi release. Well, we put those names in a virtual hat and this winner was randomly chosen... (here’s the comment she left on Katie Sims’ blog):

1. 
   Debbie McKelveyDecember 1, 2014 at 4:13 PM

   Your card is lovely, it makes me think of the old fashion kitchen tiles. You did a fabulous job with the layout and coloring. Thanks for sharing.
2. CONGRATULATIONS DEBBIE McKELVEY!

Angie and Debbie, please drop us an email at bloom@powerpoppy.com, and we’ll get your winnings to you!

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And now, a special treat! Your Friday just wouldn’t be complete without some creative eye candy courtesy Power Poppy’s Bloom Brigade, now would it? Be sure to hop on over and see....

Allison Cope

Christine Okken

Julie Koerber

Leslie Miller

Stacy Morgan

See you back here soon—and don’t forget to link up those Power Poppy creations for YOUR chance to be in the spotlight or win a stamp set of your choice!

~Julie

Link Your Creation Here!

Wooly bully, wooly bully, wooly bully

You know that zany 1960s song by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, “Wooly Bully”? It’s stuck in my head right now.

Why, Marce, WHY?

Well, because I’ve been getting the kids’ stockings hung by the chimney with care, and the stockings are special ones I made years ago using all kinds of wooly bits from my sweet Grandma Bonnie’s mid-century-era wool stash. She boiled down thrift-store coats and dyed them herself to make the materials for her gloriously intricate wool rugs. Wooly bully, wooly bully, wooly bully! Want to get it stuck in your head, too?

So let’s get back to the stockings! Here they are. Aww! One for Lulu and one for Finny, lovingly stitched up when they were little toddlers.

These were obviously made during a period in history when there were, in fact, more than 24 hours in a day. Seriously, there is no other explanation. I look at these now and think, how and when did I have time to root around in Grandma’s cedar chests, sorting through those precious wool remnants to find coordinating colors, and to troll eBay and antiques shops and garage sales searching for vintage ribbons, trims, beads, and buttons? Who IS that person and can I hire her to make me some more of these? Nowadays I find myself strapped for time and perennially frazzled, I can forget to take the wet clothes out of the washer before I throw a dirty load of clothes on top of it. But ... enough about that. I apparently made time to sew these stockings, and the sight of them made my kids’ faces light up when we opened up the holiday storage bins! :)

Wooly bully, wooly bully, wooly bully!

Here are some details of the stockings, if you will indulge me.

I am definitely not the best seamstress in the world by ANY STRETCH of the imagination. But a close up look at these wooly stockings, and all the wacky details and oddball stitches and mashed-up materials reminds me that taking time out for crafting is so important. I’m getting a little misty-eyed thinking about it. We’re making memories here, people!

Have a fabulous day, lovely ladies and gents (and wishing a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our own personal Stevie Wonderful, my stepdad Steve!)

All-digi December blog hop — and a Thanksgiving recap

My December digis are here — a fresh-picked bouquet of wintery wonders, and a splashy set of Camellias, each with a unique sentiment. Will you create something special with them this winter? Maybe a non-traditional holiday card, or create a repeat background pattern and whip up some wrapping paper?

I hope you’ll spend some precious moments enjoying the Bloom Brigade’s Winter Blitz Collection cards — these women have their creativity stun guns set to full swoon ahead:

Allison Cope

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Katie Sims
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker

If you go around to all the blogs and leave a comment, you have a chance to win the entire digital release! Woooohooo what are you waiting for?

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Oops, you can’t pull me off the stage yet, still have a few more things to share.... I HOPE YOU ALL had a MAGNIFICENT Thanksgiving weekend!! One filled with family, friends, food, and above all — a feeling of gratefulness and love. We hosted a Thanksgiving day meal with a Mexican food theme for the second year in a row (big fans of guacamole, pico, and my mom’s enchiladas ’round here, BIG fans!), it was so cozy and crazy and festive!

With my beautiful mamacita Susan before mealtime madness

I got really into creating the tablescape with vibrant plants, candles, colorful peppers and pumpkins—plus the kids’ pinecone-and-pipecleaner turkeys they made back in nursery school. The American Girl dolls had their own table set by Lulu, Sylvia, and Clara, with tiny placecards and placesettings and doll food (yes, we have the American Girl taco party set).

The girls each had their dolls present at the table, and Finn had two stuffed animal cats.

The enchiladas from my childhood (thanks, Mom!) were beside Great Aunt Mildred’s cranberry jello salad.

Good times in my tiny living room, it was full to the gills but filled with love!

Happy Thanksgiving!!! ¡OLÉ! And two days later, we were putting up the tree in this same room.

Doug fixed himself tacos for breakfast for the next three days and we lived happily ever after.

The Camellias have cometh

Today I’ve got something special to share. A digital stamp set featuring a floriferous display of buds and blooms and leaves and stems. One that cannot help but leap from the front of your cards and creations: the Camellias have cometh.

If you live in a temperate part of the world, you might be a little more familiar with this showy plant. (Sweet Katie Sims of our Bloom Brigade has beloved bunches of them in her Georgia yard!) Here in St. Louis, I have come to admire the Camellias at the Linnean House at the Missouri Botanical Garden, on display from February through March. Their glossy, dark green leaves and ga-zillions of blooms create a magical display. Pinks in various states of saturation; shell and salmon and peach; creams and whites. Red and burgundy. Even candy-striped — and some that appear to have been spattered by Jackson Pollack’s paintbrush. Some are plump double blooms with so many petals, they create a pool of color beneath the bush when the flowers finish blooming. To see such lush flowers bursting forth in the middle of winter, well, it is heavenly indeed.

Camellias have long been the subject of poets and writers and painters the world over. They symbolize passion, longing, and enduring love. //>HOT STUFF!<\\ They also symbolize refinement and perfection. Here’s an ode to Camellias that I think is pretty wonderful:

In Nature’s poem flowers have each their word

The rose of love and beauty sings alone;

The violet’s soul exhales in tenderest tone;

The lily’s one pure simple note heard.

The cold Camellia only, stiff and white,

Rose without perfume, lily without grace,

When chilling winter shows his icy face,

Blooms for a world that vainly seeks delight.

Yet, in a theater, or ball-room light,

I gladly see Camellias shining bright 

Above some stately woman’s raven hair,

Whose noble form fulfills the heart’s desire,

Like Grecian marbles warmed by Phidian fire.

The Camellia
Honore de Balzac

WHEW!!! I’d love to see a card that’s a tribute to that imagery... I may need to fan myself after reading it.

Whatever way you approach the Camellias, the sentiment that comes with this set (“Life is better with friends”) is one I bet you’ll use again and again. Suggested to me by Julie Koerber (who contributes many of our wonderful sentiments), it really sums up how I feel but don’t know that I express often enough. I know for sure: Life is better with your friendship, Jules!

Care to see some truly stunning creations made with this set? I encourage you to travel ’round the Internets with us now, and have your eyeballs blasted with beauty, compliments of the Bloom Brigade:

Allison Cope   
Christine Okken
Dina Kowal
Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Katie Sims
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker

Tomorrow, Monday, we’ll be having a big ol’ BLOG HOP — and — if you go around and comment on all of the Bloom Brigade designers’ blogs, you’ll have a chance to win both digital sets in the Winter Blitz Collection. (So you may want to hold off purchasing until Monday, unless you just can’t help yourself... believe me, I understand if you do!)

Stalking the Earth for a Winter Pick-Me-Up

I wonder if, when crafters await a new release of stamps to fuel their creative passions, it feels anything like a gardener stalking the arrival and bloom of her favorite plants.

I can speak to the latter, and good golly, it can feel excruciatingly long.

Last winter it was fa-reeeeeezing and snowy and subzero for way, way, way too many days, and when I saw the little tips of the snowdrops poke through the frozen ground in early January, I got so amped up, I photographed the leaf-strewn scene.

Check out those little nubs! All perky and fresh and purposeful. They look to be ready to keep up that momentum and burst forth from the ground in full splendor any day now, do they not? Well, I waited and I peeked and I waited and I tip-toed outside and peeked again and I waited and peeked. Waited. Peeked. Waited. Peeked. You get the idea.

A few MONTHS later, I was still looking at this.

That is not nice, Mother Nature!

I continued to wait and peek, and at last, by the second week of March, we had lift-off.

SWEET SNOWDROP REDEMPTION!

Man, that took forever, though, and these single snowdrops aren’t even the fancy double kind that need even longer to bloom! I just love the classic Galanthus nivalis, with their fat, droplet-like buds that open to simple nodding flowers. Over at my mother’s house, after she had to wait and peek for as many weeks as I did, we were rewarded with little scenes like this all over her garden beds, with the specialty bulbs she sources from around the world. I believe these are from Ireland:

Now remember, Susan H. Smith (my mama), likes things to be unique, the rarest of the rare. Her hybrid snowdrops (these are Galanthus ‘Ophelia’) are positively precious, are they not!? Worth the lengthy delay. So, let’s all just agree that it can be very hard to wait for things, be they new stamp sets or snowdrops. Which leads me to why you may be here today in the first place:

I have a new stamp set to share, it’s debuting as a digital image, AND — get this — it features the very plant that teased me along for so many weeks! Along with a few others... 

Winter Pick-Me-Up is ready to be plucked from the store right now! This set is actually two digital files, a bouquet and the coordinating sentiment, that, after purchase, is emailed to you directly. You then save the jpg image files from the email, print them out, and get to making a card the very same day. Nifty stuff right there!

I love the idea that the flowers in this bouquet could have been picked during a tip-toe through the winter garden ... snapping off a few pussy willow branches, bending down and rooting around in the leaves to get the glad-faced crocuses, and then, a few sweet snowdrops of course! Who wouldn’t be happy with a handful of that? A pick-me-up for sure.

Hope you’ll take some time to traipse through the blogs of the Bloom Brigade to see some of the snappy cards they’ve made with this set!

Christine Okken
Tosha Leyendekker
Stacy Morgan
Katie Sims
Leslie Miller

We’ve got another set coming on Sunday that’s part of my Winter Blitz Collection of digis for December. Can ya wait for it? I’ve already given you a peek...

A Sale and Some Peeps!

First things first -- did you see the BIG NEWS?? It’s time for a BIG SALE at Power Poppy! And this one only lasts 24 hours -- until 11:59 PM central TONIGHT! So click HERE to get shopping! // Note: The discount code POWERPOP20 is functioning. A snafu earlier was telling customers that the maximum number of discounts had been exceeded — THIS HAS BEEN FIXED! So sorry for any frustration. ~m

Second bit of news? Well, you are going to want to stick with Power Poppy for the next few days because STARTING TOMORROW our Bloom Brigade will be showing off the latest images from Marcella’s sketchbook! That’s right -- we'll have a new collection of digital stamps -- just for you! So, stay tuned for tomorrow’s post and get ready to be WOWED!

Before we set you loose to take a gander at the Power Poppy Shop, we do need to share some Power Poppy Peep of the Week FUN! It's that time when we comb the web looking for all the fabulous things created this past week with Power Poppy stamps, and we bring you some of our faves!

HAVEN’T PLAYED ALONG YET??

HERE’S HOW TO PLAY: All you need to do to get in the running for the Power Poppy Peep of the Week 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! We can't tell you how much we love to see what you create!

OFFICIAL RULES:

• Use Power Poppy Stamps on your creation! 
• Link up your creation using the Linky below (It helps us to find you! Although it’s not a necessity to win. We scour creations all over the web!).
• Could you please mention the Peep of the Week challenge in your blog or gallery post with a link back to this blog post? We would sure love it if you did! 
• 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.

DRUM ROLL PLEASE... 
IT’S TIME TO UNVEIL THE PEEPS!

This first creation using Power Poppy’s Poinsettia stamp set made my jaw drop! Not only do I absolutely adore Geri Utterback’s soft coloring on this tag, oh my goodness, the posh feathers and jingle bells add a splash of whimsy! Total love!

And check out this beauty created by Holly Brown! After coloring up Power Poppy’s Poinsettia with colored pencils, she coated her entire oval with adhesive and glitter -- I can ONLY imagine how much this sparkles in real life! 

And last, but certainly not least, we found this treasure over on Splitcoaststampers.com in Hobby du Jour’s gallery a.k.a. Sallie! I just love, love, love her soft and beautiful creations and this one is no exception! Just look at the soft way she colored up this dynamic duo of winged beauties from Power Poppy’s Heaven & Nature Sing stamp set!  A true work of art! 

Congrats to this week’s winners! We are so excited to add these beautiful creations to our Power Poppy Peep of the Week Board over on Pinterest! How can YOU end up being honored in this way? Simply show us your card making style with Power Poppy Stamps  and then link up your creation below! Next week we will draw one name from all of November's entries and that lucky designer will win a stamp set of choice! FUN STUFF! And, if you're a Peep of the Week Winner and would like our POWER POPPY PEEP OF THE WEEK BLOG BUTTON to “wear” on your blog with pride? Simply email us at bloom@powerpoppy.com and we’ll send that button right to you! 

Before you hop and shop, please stop on by these lovely ladies’ blogs and see what fun they’ve whipped up with Power Poppy stamps! They are a handful of our fabulous Bloom Brigade! 

Allison Cope
Christine Okken

See you back here soon -- and don’t forget to link up those Power Poppy creations for YOUR chance to be in the spotlight or win a stamp set of your choice! Remember, you still have time to win a free stamp set for November if you play along!

~Julie

An InLinkz Link-up

Big Sale on Black Friday!

You know that stamp set you’ve had your eye on since springtime? Well, now’s your time to get it — and save 20%. Woo Woo Woo!

Enjoy your cozy Thanksgiving meal with family and friends, relax, kick back ... and then come shop with Power Poppy for our first sale everrrrr!

I’m offering 20% off all in-stock clear stamp sets in the store. Use the discount code: powerpop20 when checking out to receive the discount. Sale starts Friday, November 28 at 12:00 midnight - and ends at 11:59pm central time.

Sale is good for in-stock clear polymer sets only. Digital stamps and gift card purchases are not a part of this promotion. No rain checks, back orders, exceptions, or extensions. Sorry to sound so serious, but you gotta have this stuff in here somewhere. :)

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone! I know that I am SO VERY GRATEFUL TO ALL OF YOU!

MWAH! HOPE TO SEE YOU FRIDAY!