How do you make it the best day ever?

The best day ever, it means something different to everyone. The components of the best day ever could be as simple as waking up with gratitude, having a hot cup of coffee, doing meaningful or enjoyable work, crossing tasks off your to-do list, fixing a yummy dinner, watching a documentary, walking with your sweetie while holding hands... those all add up to awesomeness to me, for example!

And yet, we usually don’t think of the everyday as contenders for the best day ever. And honestly, even though regular days are often fantastic, they seem to have little bumps along the way to mess it all up... computer viruses, bickering children, stressful situations at work, health problems, traffic jams, you see where I'm going with this. We then turn to vacations, weekends, or holidays to give us some of that boomin’ best day ever potential!

I’ve designed a set that celebrates the getaways, the blissful lounging moments, the beautiful friends we gather with for weekend catching-up sessions, the beachy strolls, and best of all, the exhilaration that comes from experiencing the urge to shout out to the world, “THAT WAS THE BEST DAY EVER!!!”

Let me show you one of my best days ever...

 1. We wake up before the sun and are on a tropical island. Winning!

2. We emerge in pajamas from an adorable retro cottage named after a Tiger’s Eye seashell. Mom has coffee in hand with perfect amount of cream and sugar.

 

3. We find seashells piled so abundantly high all along the beach, we walk hunched over in a “stoop” posture sifting through every handful. There are so many good ones, we can throw back the less than perfect ones that on a typical vacation would be the fanciest finds.

4. We allow Mom to take many, many photos without fussing at her to stop taking so many photos.

5. You know, like this photo right here.

6. We come back to the adorable cottage and organize all the seashells for hours on the floor, while snacking on pineapple and mangoes and sandwiches from the local market. We are so busy and having so much fun, we all get along swimmingly! Have we found paradise?

7. We play in the sand all afternoon. We even let Mommy read a good book she brought just for the trip without interruption for an entire chapter. We do not let sand get in her Diet Coke.

8. We take an outdoor shower and giggle the entire time because, hey, we’re taking a shower outdoors! That’s nuts!

9. We order the big seafood platters at our favorite local restaurant and even get ice cream sundaes for dessert, then finish our day where we started it, on a tranquil beach, soaking up the beauty of our marvelous world. Best. Day. Ever!!!

Like I said, there are sooooo many ways to define the best day ever, and I’ve designed a stamp set that focuses on some of the wonderful feelings of the lazy, lovely, relaxing, vacation-y summer lifestyle! Wanna see?

Best Day Ever features three large images and 9 sentiments to create cards for all kinds of occasions, whether you’ve gone to the beach or not! Come peek at the Bloom Brigade’s blog posts for today and take in all the colorful punch and happy feelings they’ve captured in their creations. You know, I thought it was that beachy seashell vacation, but now I’m starting to wonder if THIS is the best day ever!

Leslie Miller
Christine Okken
Julie Koerber 

Stacy Morgan
Katie Sims
Cindy Lawrence
Tosha Leyendekker

 Allison Cope

See you back here on Monday - when everything is available in the shop and we have a giant celebratory blog hop with the ENTIRE TEAM showing off ONE MORE CARD from the Cultivate Love Collection. Can ya stand it?!

Two wheels move the soul

Hello my dears! I wanted to say, first off, that yesterday absolutely blew my mind. Can those Bloom Brigade sweethearts be any more wonderful? Surprising me with birthday messages galore and beautiful cards made in my honor — I was feeling the LOVE! And then to have you share well wishes on my own post, I have to say that my heartstrings were pulled so hard, I may need a day to recover! Thank you so much for your warm, kindness-filled notes. There are no other folks like the stamping crowd, and I am so lucky to get to walk among you!!

Speaking of walking among various crowds... have you ever considered what it might be like to walk among appreciators of vintage motorcycles? I will be honest with you that the thought never once crossed my mind. Until about five years ago, and I met...

...my beloved Douglas! (I should note, he always wears a helmet, in this pic above we were doing a photoshoot in a park in a stretch of road away from traffic.) ANYWAY - the guy has been fascinated with anything that has two wheels and motor since he was a little kid. And as passionate as we all are about our hobbies of papercrafting, coloring, gardening, collecting strawberry pincushions or WHATEVER it may be, that is how Doug feels about old motorcycles.

Maybe it all started with his Dad. Doug and his cousin grew up riding motorcycles all through their backyard, on motocross tracks of their own making. Or one would ride the motorcycle and pull the other on a sled through the snow. Do you ever wonder how we survived growing up with all the shenanigans some of us got away with? Still, Doug’s passion turned into racing, riding, and now restoring the sweet old bikes from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. He got me turned on to it the very first Christmas we spent together, when he restored a golden 1972 Honda CB175 and surprised me with it. After taking the riding courses offered at the local community college, and lots and lots of practice offroad and in parking lots, at age 40, they let me loose on the street!

Ok, that shot isn’t on the actual street. That’s on the dirt bike, taken on a day spent riding the trails in the Iron Belt of Missouri with my love. My “daily rider” is my cute lil ‘68 Yamaha YCS-1, cherry red with a chrome “toaster tank”. Do you see how I’m now able to throw out these wacky terms? I didn’t know any of this stuff, but I have become IMMERSED in the culture of old motorcycles, and of the love of feeling free to zoomzoomzooomazoom!! It’s like nothing else! Do any of you all ride motorcycles, too? There’s apparently more women riders now than ever before. We see ladies showing up on cool old rides every month at the event Doug and I put on, Vintage Bike Night St. Louis, which quickly grew to be the largest monthly bike meet-up in the midwest! Here’s one of the posters I designed a few years ago, complete with touches of handlettering and the retro style I love!

Just a few more notes about vintage motorcycles. They offer incredible inspiration for color palettes! Check out this juicy orange number, a Ducati from Italia:

The classic British Triumphs that come rolling up are always swarmed with admirers...

Vintage racing bikes are some of my favorites—not to ride or race—but check out these snazzy graphics and bold colors! I get some of my best ideas from checking out the designs on old motorcycles, everything from logos and lettering, to stripe combinations for patterns, the awesome old racing posters, gosh, the inspiration is endless!

Just one last one, because how fun is the tank of this Kawasaki, with the bright red streak surrounded by burgundy, white, and black? I can see that combo on Christmas card!

For now I’ll hold off on any further motorcycle slideshow, but I won’t hold off on sharing the newest set in the Cultivate Love Collection, which is inspired by the passion I see every day for the moto enthusiasts in my life. Presenting Move the Soul!

This set was designed in the spirit of this quote: “Four wheels move the body, two wheels move the soul.” With a motorcycle-riding dude in vintage goggles on a retro race bike, loads of cool, handlettered sentiments and accent graphics, plus greasy tire tracks and oil spots I created in my own garage by rolling my motorcycle tires through some two-stroke oil and then over a piece of paper! I am not afraid to get my hands dirty, as I saw this as a larger, heavier form of rubber stamping. ;)

I can already think of a few folks who would love a sporty card with a moto-theme, and I have to say, these stamp up with as much detail as my original drawing/painting, and that makes me feel stoked!!

Move the Soul would be perfect for the man in your life, the boys in your life, heck, even maybe some ladies you know! Let’s roll over to these fabulous Bloomies to see where they took these images!

Stacy Morgan

Katie Sims

Tosha Leyendekker
Julie Koerber

We’ll see you back here tomorrow for one more day of sneak peeks — and then Monday, all the sets will be available for purchase in the Power Poppy Shop — PLUS A BIG OL’ BLOG HOP with the whole team showcasing one more card from this release. Enjoy your weekend!!

QUICK NOTE: We will be announcing the winner of the Cut It Out Challenge next week! Stay tuned for details!

Foraging for flowers, fruit, and fun

Good day to you! Thanks for stopping by during our release week previews for June’s Cultivate Love Collection. I so hope you’ve been soaking up the sneak peaks and marvelous cards from the Bloom Brigade. Those ladies show off my work with such diverse talent and skill, beauty, creativity, and loving words—it’s a celebration every day of the release and I appreciate each of them SO VERY MUCH! (Where’s that little heart-shaped emoji thingamabob when you need it?!) So far we’ve shared a burst of bold beauty from tissue-papery Poppies, and the sweet country charm of an herb garden in Sage Advice.

Today we’re showcasing a stamp set that celebrates the simple beauty of flowers and foraged finds arranged in different vessels. This set has a little of everything: wildflowers, roses, herbs, berries on the vine, and, well, let’s just take a look behind the images, back to the seed of inspiration.

Many of you know by now: I crave the energy and ideas available to all of us from the natural world. Sometimes, that means dropping everything to run outside to soak up my surroundings and then conjure arrangements, vignettes, and scenes for you to stamp (or in some cases, print out) and color. We’ve talked about how soothing and joyful that experience can be — for me as an artist, and I hope for YOU as an artist!

Of course, admiring flora and fauna outdoors is one thing. But what about when you snip a few sprigs and bring them indoors to enjoy? And what if you place the foraged goodies into quirky containers? Above, the kitchen windowsill was the perfect perch for a sunflower the kids grew from seed, plunked into a vintage Gemco vinegar bottle. (By the way, even the stopper/top of that bottle is pretty cool, it’s bright green! I had it cozied up to the base of the bottle so it wouldn’t feel left out.)

Snapped these fresh white, perfectly perfect daisies a few days ago at Shaw Nature Preserve. Fear not, I don’t ever pluck flowers from the wild or from other people’s gardens. But I do photograph them like a madwoman. I wonder if they see me coming at them like a nature paparazzi.

At the OK Hatchery Feed & Garden shop the other day, I couldn’t help but notice this jumbo glazed pot just overflowing with strawberries! Do the arching stems of strawberries remind you of a certain digital stamp set we introduced last year? Hmmm.....

Did you know that before blueberries are blue, they are gorgeously green? And on this specimen, they are chalky blue-green with rosy pink, purple, blue, chartreuse.... I mean, they are like the ultimate berries! Had no idea they could be this cool until I came upon this developing fruit during one of my jaunts. These blueberry bushes happen to live in the Kemper Center for Home Gardening at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

What do all of these random pix have to do with one another? Well, I’ve brought together snippets of nature’s fine offerings and arranged them in a birthday-and-friendship-sentiment set called Go Wild. Check it out:

Go Wild can be as wild or as tame as you want it to be! As a fan of the windowsill garden-snip gallery (that is, taking whatever breaks off when you’re outside weeding, the extra fronds from your pruning, or just to showcase a gorgeous bloom that might otherwise go unheralded), I have THREE unique images that will offer loads of cardmaking and coloring possibilities!

The main windowsill image has a mishmash of repurposed bottles (I can’t be the only one who has so many of these things I refuse to get rid of, as they make the perfect vessels!), and these bottles hold single rose, a cutting of scented geranium that’s already started to root (they DO start almost immediately, it’s fascinating!), a few Coreopsis (the beautifully nicknamed “tickseed”... can we see somebody about getting that name changed?), and finally, a stalk of bushy basil in flower.

Of course, we all know that YOU can make these foraged snippings into whatever the heck you want!

Another Go Wild image that you’ll see today in our designers’ feeds features blueberries (that we now know don’t HAVE to be blue!) with a mix of flowers in a Mason jar. The other day I saw a tea towel that was fancifully handlettered with the words: Everything’s cuter in a Mason jar. Amen to that! Bring on the cuteness, we can’t get enough. Ever. Never enough.

And lastly... if you were a fan of our Arranging Roses digital image, and have been hoping it would someday come out in clear, well, your wait is over! The roses and strawberries are ready to be inked up and stamped (well, they will be after June 8th), and this version has the tiny fallen petals as their own little stamps, so you can make a background or an accent, or whatever you fancy.

Paired with lots of sentiments for birthdays and friendship, you really can’t go wrong with this one!

OK, enough talking, and on to the Bloom Brigade’s parade of beauty and bounty!

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

I know it seems crazy, but we still have TWO MORE SETS to reveal over the next two days. And I know tomorrow’s set is going to be an eye-opener, it’s different from anything else we have in the store... are you up for a wild ride that has nothing to do with wildflowers? :)

Herbal élan with homegrown panache

Herb gardens are an essential ingredient in my recipe for the perfect summer. For the past, gosh, almost 20 years I’d say—even though saying that out loud makes me feel old—I’ve planted an herb garden in pots. And every year I try to make it as quirky and delightful as can be. A few ideas are below, and guess what, at the end of this little missive on achieving herbal awesomeness, there’s going to be a new stamp set inspired by my passion for the scented potager. What a great day to be alive. :)

Mix up the pots and containers for maximum interest. I prefer good-old terra cotta for both the look and the great drainage it supplies for sun-loving, dry-soil-craving herbs. I have a few mossy pots, some brightened up with acrylic paint, I’ll mix ruffle-edged and basketweave or other bas relief patterns, some are glazed in wonderful colors, and then some are as plain as can be! Big, small, tall, skinny, short, squat, multi-level, just shake it up. Recently I’ve added a few pots that only appear to be terra cotta—psyche—they’re plastic! They are very light and easy to move. But not quite as cute and rustic. Then also I have clay pots in shades of cream and grey, and even a few vintage enamel colanders turned into well-draining containers. We’ll come back to that near the end...

Herb tags from potagers past — still holding up!

Make cute plant tags. For me, this is a major part of the herb garden experience. I handletter the tags on wooden stakes from a favorite local garden store (big ups to OK Hatchery Farm & Garden in Kirkwood, MO!) I may even enjoy it more than the planting part. OK, I do like it more than the planting part. Get this, I use the same pens for the plant tags as when drawing the artwork for my digis and stamps — Pigma Micron pens by Sakura. They’re deluxe! The ink is waterproof and fadeproof, and can survive a summer of watering and sunshine. Yes! How about that. Of course you can just keep the plastic gee-gaws that come with the herbs and have all the essential growing info, but that’s not as cute! Memorize that stuff then hide them in the shed and make your own. Also try metal tags (write on them with paint pens), or chalkboard tags, recently Lulu made a set of 8 out of glazed ceramic (total heirloom alert), or gosh, maybe someday we’ll come up with a stamp set that has all the names of the herbs and you can STAMP them on the tags! Hmm....

Handlettered tag in action from last year’s crop, where I had a scented geranium theme and every morning was a sniff-fest of exotic aromas and curious leaf shapes.

Early morning watering session with Lulu a few summers ago.

Shop around for a variety of herbs, the more cultivars the better! The weirder the better! I’m kinda tired of plain green garden sage but what about ‘Berggarten’ Sage, with beautifully formed oversize grey-green leaves, which make for a showier plant with that delicious sage-y scent and flavor. Or better yet, throw in Golden Sage, Tri-Color, or Purple! I’ll plant anything lemon-scented like thyme or basil (look for  citriodorus or citriodorum in the species name); lemon verbena, lemon balm, lemon scented geranium... or better yet, some are both lemon-scented AND variegated, where the foliage is a mix of green and white or yellow or chartreuse. Maybe this is the year to ditch that typical mint and try the dainty peppermint leaves of Pennyroyal? Go crazy folks, go crazy!

Plant tag designed by Lulu three years ago, when I handed the kids my usual supplies and they did all the work! Some of the most creative lettering for plant markers I’ve ever seen was the result!! Lulu’s Parsley tag features the Pi symbol and butterflies, and her newly developing cursive. And somehow I didn't snap a photo of this one... but Finn’s Basil tag, as described by Finn at the time (age 6): “Mommy, Look! The S is actually a snake! I made the L into a light saber. And the B is made into butt cheeks!” Ahhhhh little boys!

Find a mix of foliage shapes and colors. The delicately scalloped leaves of Burnet, strappy swords of lemongrass, ripply wonders of curly parsley or what about Rue, where the whole plant is covered in what look like tiny versions of Henri Matisse cut-outs. The enchantment does not end, folks. Lavender varieties are available with fringed leaves, which add such a quirky touch in a mixed planting. Try to think about plants with matte tones to their leaves, combining with others that are more glossy.

Because most herbs aren’t grown for their flowers, you’ll want to be sure the foliage is as interesting as possible (you know, if you care about things like that...). Trying various shades of blue-green plants all in the same pot—‘Berggarten’ Sage, ‘Kent Beauty’ Oregano, Rue, and Allium senescens would be a great combo. Using deep colors like purple (the Basils available these days can easily satisfy this need) and bright yellow-greens (ie Golden Oregano, Golden Thyme) help the cause! The contrast is so important, and the worst thing that happens if you don’t like how they look together is that you may want to (carefully) yank a plant out later and re-pot. So do experiment, friends! It will pay off in very memorable herb gardens that are as much a joy to USE as they are to admire.

Ceramic plant tag designed and made by Lulu in art class

Bring in a few herbs that reliably flower, such as Nasturtium, Borage, Catnip, Mint, and of course, Chives — but know that once the herb has flowered, its flavor will not be quite as intense, and the plant may decline a bit afterwards. Perhaps plant a few extras only to let them flower, and watch the sweet show unfurl.

Figure out what herbs you use the most, and plant a few extra of those next time. Around here, that means Lemon Thyme, Marjoram, Tarragon, Rosemary, and good ole Genovese Basil. I usually nab 2-3 good-lookin’ starter pots of each of these, and give them lots of space to grow, because in a typical summer I’ll cook with at least a few of them almost every day. Above all, experiment, experiment, experiment!! Oh yes, and HAVE FUN! :)

Wow.... all this info about planting herb gardens and making tags, and we ALSO have a stamp set to share! If you couldn’t tell from the above, I absolutely HAD to design an herb-inspired set, and it absolutely HAD to have handlettering involved somehow! PLUS, I obviously love to pontificate about the topic of herbs. May I present .... Sage Advice!

 

Featuring a mix of traditional favorites all potted up in a kitchen colander, a coordinating border and herbal accents, PLUS a number of fun little sayings, garden snips, and a bitsy pot of rosemary just ’cause, Sage Advice will give you a sweetly-crafted, country garden look and a feel-good spirit at the same time.

Come and see what the Bloom Brigade has made for us today with this set:

Katie Sims

Julie Koerber

Tosha Leyendekker

Kathy Jones

All of the sets from the Cultivate Love Collection will be available on June 8th for purchase in the Power Poppy Shop! (Did you see the Poppies preview yesterday? Be sure to go take a look at the awesome cards everyone made.) But we’re not even close to being finished yet. Tomorrow there’s more floral fun to show you, because we all know I can’t ever have enough flowers (and face it, can anyone?? :)

Thanks so much for coming by!! OH! Please leave us a note in the comments if there are any herb garden tips YOU would like to share, or must-try plant combinations, or great sources for plants or seeds. Have a brilliant day, y’all!

Billowy, sinewy, papery Poppies - clear set preview starts today!

It’s part of the name of this very company, and we think it’s about time that they got some time in the spotlight: Poppies. The word alone is a joy to say, but the flowers themselves, ohhhh la la, I may need the assistance of a fainting couch just posting these Poppy photos I took recently...

Traipsing around my usual haunts (here, the Ottoman Garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden), this absolute jewel of a plant, the deep, dark red of Papaver oreophilum, just glows atop the foliage surrounding it. But the velvety black centers are equally enchanting, comprised of multiple rings of stamens and the round pistil that will remain long after the petals fall, as the unique poppy seed pod. Some varieties of poppy sport centers in vivid yellow, or chartreuse, or white or apple green! How could it take me so long to come out with a set in honor of these beauties?

The double orange Poppies — Papaver intermedium — bloom in a riot of wild orange petals, and light up my neighbor’s garden like a fiery hedge.

I mean, just look at this crazy thing! I can’t take my eyes off that purpley center. And there are well over a hundred species in the Papaver family, I’ve captured just a scant few!

Each hairy bud and wonderfully sinewy stem has a mind of its own ... I’m reminded of dinosaurs with extremely long necks, arching to chomp the leaves of a tree. The buds (two sepals, actually) hold the tightly packed, tissue-paper-like petals until they are ready to absolutely BURST!

 
Even at the end of the flowers’ life cycle, there is such exquisite and quiet beauty. As in this pink Papaver somniferum, again in the Ottoman Garden, from last summer: 

From Shirley to Oriental, Himalayan to Icelandic... a quick Google image search for Poppies will yield enough color combinations and incredibly colored centers to inspire coloring for DAYS! I take that back... MONTHS! Oh heck, maybe even YEARS! :)

With the multitude of coloring options of Poppies in mind, I’ve designed a new stamp set that will provide you with so many blooms and buds, you’ll have a chance to explore all kinds of glorious color combos! May I present the newest clear stamp set, just one part of the Cultivate Love Collection:

Poppies is going to be a fun set to have on hand. For those times when you need a showstopper on your card front, these flowers pack a big punch! Or just to stamp and color for yourself, to experiment with hues to create your own rainbow.

The big bouquet of Poppies (which I modeled after Icelandic Poppies) bubbles up from a Chinese ginger jar. My inspiration for the vessel is the blue-and-white pottery that my grandmother Dorothy always had in her home and antiques shop as I was growing up. She and my grandfather went on frequent buying trips to the UK, where they would bring back all kinds of blue and white treasures, many of them English, but many Chinese that had been imported to England years before. The one I drew features the Chinese character meaning “Double Happiness.” Ginger Jars are perennially in in the decorating world, and I just noticed yesterday that there’s a cluster on them on the newest cover of House Beautiful - even featuring Poppies and Ranunculus...

Photo: @HouseBeautiful on Instagram

You’ll notice as you stroll around the Bloom Brigade’s blogs today, there are just so many options with the two large-sized images and four friendly sentiments in the Poppies clear set! Today we’re kicking off 5 days of stamp set previews with wondrous cardmaking creations, and on Monday, June 8th, everything will be available in the shop! Come have a look at what the ladies have come up with for today.

Take it away, Bloom Brigade!

Katie Sims

Leslie Miller

Stacy Morgan

Christine Okken

Julie Koerber

Cindy Lawrence

We hope to see you back here tomorrow for another clear set preview that is sure to get your senses tingling, especially if you like herb gardening, ribbons, and hand-drawn lettering... (three things that I find essential to life.)

Going Green

Hello Everyone and welcome to another Inspire Me Monday with yours truly, Kathy Jones! Today's tutorial is looking at greens - in particular colouring leaves! Anyone who has followed my work would know how much I love colouring floral images, so of course leaves are an essential piece of this. Let's take a peek at our finished piece!




Time to get started! Begin by stamping your image - I've used Simply Camellias by Power Poppy - in Memento Tuxedo Black onto X-press It Blending Card.

In the Copic family there is a huge selection of greens to choose!  Whether you want soft spring greens, deep greens, bold and bright greens or muted grey-greens, you will find a great combination to suit your project.  Today, I've used what would probably be my favourite green combination - G40, G43, G46, G99.  I just love the hues of this combo!

Lay down the base colour of G40.....

Then add some detail using the next darkest colour, in this case G43, particularly along the veins of the leaves......

Deepen the shadow areas with G46 (make sure you get on the underside of the leaves that would be blocked from the light)......

Go back with your next lightest colour (G43) and flick out from where you've added the G46.....

Then lightly go back with G40 (your lightest colour) over the edges of your previously coloured parts.  You don't have to colour over the entire leaf, the parts that you leave will stay light which will give you more contrast and interest.  You can repeat these last two steps until you are happy with the result.

When you blend with your lighter colours, you sometimes loose the depth from your darkest colour, so go back to add the contrast - I like to use G99 to really add some interest.

Then to make your leaves look a little less 'perfect' add a touch of E21 to parts of the leaves (it doesn't have to be much).  I really like the effect this gives.

Finish colouring your image in your preferred colours!!

I've used......
Flower - R00, R11, R12, R14, Y17
Bowl - C1, B0000, B000
Leaves - G40, G43, G46, G99, E21

Create your card!  You can find more details about how I made the card itself on my blog.

Hope you've enjoyed today's tutorial and you're inspired to colour some beautiful foliage yourself!!

Happy colouring!!

~Kathy