Celebrating Spring (and Mommies!)

There’s nothing like the beautiful signs of spring like you’ll find in the splashes of pinks and purples that are alive on the flowering trees that line our paths and walkways. In my neck of the woods they are blooming in full force and that’s why I am so darn excited about Power Poppy’s latest addition to our digital image collection, the Instant Garden!

Last Wednesday, Marcella unveiled this beautiful snippet of Flowering Branches with the help of our Instant Gardeners! Today, it's the Bloom Brigades’ turn and man, oh man, do they have a blast of beauty to share! These cards have the WOW factor for sure -- packed with plenty of inspiration for you in your very own craft rooms!

Be still my heart! Am I right folks? If you agree, there’s good news! As with all of the blossoms in our Instant Garden Collection, these images are available to buy, download from an email, print and color -- in an INSTANT! Love that! So, take a gander at the little sneaky peek of Flowering Branches above, grab a cuppa joe and get ready to be wowed by our Bloomies! 

Allison Cope

Christine Okken

Julie Koerber

Katie Sims

Stacy Morgan

Tosha Leyendekker

Thanks for spending a snippet of your day with us! If you're looking for a little MORE inspiration, don’t forget about our POP OF PASTEL POWER & SPARK CHALLENGE! All you need to do is use pastels on your card or creation. Just that simple! Use Power Poppy clear or digital stamps if you have them, but if you don’t -- it’s your chance to win one! Click HERE to find out all the deets! 

We hope you have a fabulously creative and fun-filled weekend ahead! We'll see you back here soon with more color, more fun, and a little bit of life thrown in too! ;-) 

~Julie

April Digi Release Today: Flowering Branches

Good day to you!

I’m releasing a new set today that, wow, if you wanted to, you could possibly go outside your front door to find inspiration for coloring on this very day! Spring-flowering trees are bursting into bloom across the land, filling the air with fragrance, filling our hearts with promise.

I’ve illustrated a flowering crabapple tree (Malus species), but this week I have been enchanted by all manner of spring trees, from weeping cherry to espalliered apple, almond and pear, and if you start getting into the redbuds, dogwoods, and magnolias... I can’t even go there yet. Too much awesomeness, every where you turn! Here’s just a snippet of what I’ve captured the last few weeks:

Masses of cherry trees lining the walkway at Missouri Botanical Garden

Gorgeous hot pink Columnar Apple tree at Missouri Botanical Garden called 'Maypole'

This baby pink weeping cherry tree is raining down sweet fragrant blooms near my folks’ house

A fabulous crab with dark cranberry-colored foliage and petals that look almost tie-dyed

This flowering crabapple tree is low to the ground and very wide, with the most welcoming branches for climbing. No children can resist to get up in it!

Looking up through the inviting crabapple tree, located in a little park area of my own town of Webster Groves

So, are you feeling the fizzy fun of flowering branches? Maybe you’re ready to see the set I designed that shows off the blooms and fruits and leaves all in one package? Well, here we go! Flowering Branches is ready to bloom!

To see this set in an array of fabulous ways, let’s run around to the Instant Gardeners’ blogs, my all-star team of designers who work magic with my digital stamp images. You’ll flip over what they’ve done with Flowering Branches:

Jennifer Dove

Debbie Olson

Broni Holcombe

Cheryl Scrivens
Rhea Weigand

Thank you so much for coming by today, and I hope you’ll give this very flexible set a try. It’s quite large and can be rotated all manner of ways for various effects. Plus, the set comes with TWO digital sentiments, created just for Mother’s Day! Enjoy and have an awesome spring day, hopefully filled with flowering trees!

Inspire Me Monday: Don't Be Intimidated, Just Add Color!

Howdy all!  Welcome to Inspire Me Monday and I'm your hostess this week, Allison Cope!

Now I am the type of card maker that may take hours and I mean HOURS to colour and cut and design and re-design a card to get it to the way I see it in my head.  Sometimes it can be intimidating looking at such detailed beautiful stamps and wonder how your going to make the SHINE!  But today, I just wanted to share a fun a QUICK colouring tutorial that would only take a few minutes!  Yup... colouring in only a few minutes you say!  That's right up a busy crafter's alley.

Today I'm working with water colour paper, Distress Inks and two gorgeous Power Poppy stamp sets, "Good Thinking: Love Notes" and "Simply Camellias".  So grab that cuppa joe, sit back and relax as I share some quick and easy inking with you today...  Enjoy!

Direct Video Link

Here's another quick glance at my four cards again...

 

Amazing how we started with 4 identical stamped cards & the same inks and how different each card turned out!  And that's the fun of experimenting with ink!

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope this inspires you to create today.

~ Ally ~

Serving Up a Bit of Pretty!

I apologize for the slight delay in posting today’s blog — we had some excitement/distraction when our kitty cat, who has been missing all week, showed up at home! Turned our morning upsidedown in a wonderful way! Thank you for your patience! ~marcella ... turning it back over to Julie Koerber ...

Hello all and happy Friday!

I hope the grass is getting a wee bit greener and the spring flowers are starting to sprout in your neck of the woods! Don’t you just love the smell of spring in the air? If you’re still waiting for that lush smell to sprout -- good news! You can always “grow” a bit of floral fancy on your cards and even color it up yourself!

In fact, if you keep on reading, not only will you have a reason to be inspired, but the Bloom Brigade is on stand by, ready to show off their weekly bit of eye candy to get that creative mojo a flowin’!

If you missed us last week, you might have missed YOUR chance to get in on our latest fun-filled challenge hosted by Ally Cope!

Play along in our “POP OF PASTEL” CHALLENGE  and you could be the lucky winner to land a Power Poppy stamp set of YOUR choice! I mean, who wouldn’t want another fabulous stamp set to add to their stamp room mix? Clickety clack those keys HERE to see what this latest challenge is all about! Psst, you don’t have to use Power Poppy stamps to enter or win.

AND BY THE WAY......

The entries are already starting to stream in! And, goodness, I just have to share one that personally took my breath away! Check out this beauty that Linda K. created for this challenge! Don't you just love the soft as can be colors and the exquisitely colored image from Power Poppy's Dancing with Daffodils Digital Stamp Set? Oh  my! Feast your eyes!

Before we hit the Bloom Brigade link list...

We have a bit of a confession! What started as a cute contest to have YOU — our beloved peeps — travel to our Bloomies’ blogs and count the candles for our very FIRST Birthday Celebration at Power Poppy ended up with a quirky candle miscalculation! There was a lone hidden candle that — low and behold — was overlooked when we gave it a count! So, because we are numerically challenged, Ms. Marcella decided to SPREAD EVEN MORE LOVE by awarding one of those who guessed the correct number of “20” with a $100 gift certificate. We apologize for the candle confusion! So, without further ado, that randomly chosen lucky winner is......

AMBER MILONE

Amber, please email us at bloom@powerpoppy.com to claim your prize. We’ll be providing you with a gift code to use on your next shopping trip to powerpoppy.com!

Now to the moment that you have all been waiting for! It’s time to share the latest creations crafted by the fabulous Bloom Brigade!

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Leslie Miller

Stacy Morgan

Tosha Leyendekker

Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing a bit of your day with us! Your visits and comments are like sunshine for the soul! What kind of creativity do you plan to cook up this weekend? We’d love to hear! :-)

~Julie 

Inspire Me Monday: Creating Seeds of Love!

Hello all and welcome to a fun-filled Inspire Me Monday with yours truly, Julie!  With Mother's Day close to a month away, I thought I would get started on a fun little surprise for the moms in your life! It's something small but packed with meaning that will literally "grow" on the person you give this little gift to! 

Here's a look at what we'll be making today! 

OOoooOOOooo.... want to make a little seed packet yourself? Well, the fun news is, packed in this blog post, you'll find not only a freebie cut file, but a template for the seed packet if you don't have a cutting machine AND digi images that you can use to custom create and stylishly pair with Power Poppy clear or digital stamp sets!

LET'S GET ON WITH THE SHOW! 

I started my creating a Silhouette cut file of a Seed Packet, sent to my Silhouette and cut out of decorative paper. (You'll find the cut file to download at the end of this post!)

This will serve as my base. From there, I scored along the places that I would use as my fold lines. I scored on the back side of the paper so that when folded, my decorative paper wouldn't break and show the paper's white core. 

Here's a peek at all the pieces for my Seed Packet! I used the Countryside Bouquet Digital Stamp by Power Poppy as my focal point and digitally inserted it into my seed packet frame....

If you prefer, you can always print this file, mask and use a clear stamp image on the inside! From here, I used Copic markers and picked up these shades.....

But wait, there's more! There's also a darling downloadable sentiment you can use for your seed packet front as well! We have two different senties for you. One is perfect for the mothers and a second can be given to your grandmothers! Here's a peek at the sentiment for moms. Both downloadable files can be found at the end of this post.

I printed, trimmed the panel, added a little paper piercing, some silver cording and a fun little heart charm. To add it to the front of my seed packet, I actually folded and wrapped it around the entire packet like a belly band. And.... ta da, DONE! Just that simple!

Here's another look!

All that's left to do is find some fun seeds to stick inside and give as a gift! I have the flap up at the top still open as you can see. When it comes time to give this away, I'll likely add the seeds inside in a bit of wax paper and then use a silver foil sticker to seal it up.

Want to create a Seeds of Love little gift of your own? Well, it's just as simple as cutting, printing, coloring and then, best of all, giving!

HERE ARE THE LINKS TO OUR DOWNLOADABLE FILES! 

Silhouette Studio Seed Packet File

Seed Packet PDF File

Seed Packet Front

Mother's Sentiment

Grandmother's Sentiment

I hope you have as much fun as I did with this project! If you do end up making one of these cuties, please leave a link to your project in the comment section! I'd love to see!

~Julie

It’s a POP of Pastel Challenge!

Hello everyone and oh my—we’re already three days into April! As you know, every first Friday on the Power Poppy blog, we unveil a new way to inspire you with a bit of design power and a surge of creative spark in your craft rooms!

As we usher in spring, here’s our next Power & Spark Challenge, hosted by the ever-so-talented Ally Cope!

HOW TO PLAY OUR “POP OF PASTEL” CHALLENGE: 

“With Spring slowly making its way across the land, it reveals the beautiful of so many gorgeous blooms and buds: blooms of soft buttery yellows, light lavender purples and pastel rosy pinks. So for this month’s challenge, I want to see you create with a soft, subtle color palette of PASTELS. Let’s see those creamy oranges, delicate grassy greens, and beautiful soft shades of color on your cards and creations. I was inspired to create a card using the subtle palette of watercolor on my bouquet. I can’t wait to see what you create!”  ~ Ally 

OFFICIAL RULES:

• Use Power Poppy stamps if you have them, but if you don’t, this is a great way to WIN them!
• Link your creation below using our Linky
• Please mention Power Poppy in YOUR blog or gallery post with a link back to our challenge
• The winner will receive a free clear or digital stamp set of your choice from the Power Poppy Shop
• You may enter as many cards as you’d like as long as they fit the theme of the challenge.
• Deadline to enter is April 30th at 8:00pm EST. The winner will be randomly selected from the entries, and announced here the first Friday of  May

Want a little peek of what Ally whipped up for this POP of PASTEL Challenge? WARNING — it’s pretty dreamy!

Now, sweet stamping friends, it’s YOUR turn to take this delicate color palette and put it to use on your creations! We can’t wait to see that pop of pink, those gorgeous pale greens and lovely lavenders!

Before we hit the Bloom Brigade link list...

 we have some WINNERS to announce!

You wowed us with your bits of glitz and glamor in our March GO FOR THE GOLD Power & Spark Challenge! We loved to see the gilded beauties that ended up on our link list! If you missed the fun, just click HERE to see all the fabulous entries!

After all the cards were tallied, Random.org whipped up the winning number.....

..... and that means BARBARA CAMPBELL is the lucky lady who will get to pick a stamp set of her choice! Here’s a look at her golden creation! We love the slight shimmer that the gold embossing added to her fabulously colored sunflower! Congrats Barbara!!!

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

But wait, we’re not finished with the winner’s circle yet! Last week, we lit the candle on Power Poppy’s first birthday cake and asked you to hop along and check out the Bloom Brigade’s blogs in search of the lone birthday candle hidden in their posts. 

Well, sweet friends, out of nearly 200 entries, we drew a name from the 19 folks who answered correctly, and that lucky lady is now the recipient of $100 to spend in the Power Poppy Shop:

MARY HABAK

Congrats to both Mary and Barbara! WoooooOOOoo HooooOOOoo! 

Ladies, please email us at bloom@powerpoppy.com to claim your prize! Barbara, let us know your stamp set choice, and Mary, we’ll be providing you with a gift code to use on your next shopping trip to powerpoppy.com!

Now to the Grand Finale of this post — a time when we share the beauties crafted by our talented Bloom Brigade. Stop by their blogs, give them some “love”, and check out their latest creations!

Allison Cope

Christine Okken

Cindy Lawrence

Julie Koerber

Katie Sims

Stacy Morgan

So, get creative and then link up your creations below. You could win that Power Poppy stamp set that is on your wish list! For those that celebrate, we hope you have a rejoiceful Easter or blessed Passover weekend! We'll see you back here soon!

~Julie

An InLinkz Link-up

April stamps: Available today! Plus a hop down the bunny trail...

Hellooooooo!!! I’m peeking out from behind a large tower of brand new stamps, can you seeee meeeee?

It’s the day we’ve been looking forward to all week, all the new clear photopolymer sets are available in the Power Poppy Shop, and girls. I have to tell you, when I stamped them out for the first time, I confess that I squealed a little bit—these might be some of the best I’ve done. I’m not a squealing type normally, more of a “Woo Hoo!” kinda gal. But I squealed because I couldn't believe how awesome and really true to my original drawings they are. PRETTY COOL. We have three showstoppers for you:

Lilac Time

Simply Camellias

Daffodils

And now they can be yours if ya tiptoe on over (by way of the conservatory, past the Camellias, past the Meyer Lemon trees, past the potted Aloes and cacti) to the Scents & Sensibility Collection. Have fun there.

Oh hold on, I have one more little route I’d like you to take time to walk through, before you head through the greenhouse of goodness..... because every member of the Bloom Brigade has one more card to share today. Can you stand it??!!! I might just squeal again!

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

Who am I kidding... I have some photos to share tooooo! (“Woo Hoo”) Since Easter completely snuck up on me and is THIS Sunday, and since this release has a celebration of daffodils and spring flowers, I wanted to share a few images from Easter several years ago. My folks put on the most glorious egg hunt for Doug’s children and mine in their garden, lined with meandering brick pathways that my stepdad Steve designed and paved himself when I was back in highschool. My mom’s baskets for the kids were filled with carefully chosen goodies — and she has done this for the kids every single year since. Can you say luckiest daughter ever? I can:

I AM THE LUCKIEST DAUGHTER EVER! Thank you, Mom! I think you’ll see what I mean... p.s. All of these photos were taken by my true love, Doug. xoxo thank you, honey!

Clara with an eagle eye trained for exquisite egg-hunting

Annnnnnd they’re off down the bunny trail

Finners happy to show us the chocolate-y contents of one of his finds!

Mama Marcella busy snapping photos of all the cuteness while Clara plucks the perfect egg

Hello from my Mom, Susan Smith, from her lofty vantage point in “the Treehouse” that Steve designed and built. Someday we’ll do an entire post about the treehouse. Steve is a renaissance man!

Our oldest girls looking pretty in pink as they round up the goods in the back garden

The fantastic four... five years ago! :)

Wishing everyone a joyful, love-filled, very Happy Easter!