Check out these Fabulously Frilly Flowers!

Hey, Ho & How do you do? Hope you’re having an ever-so-happy Friday and are looking forward to a little R & R this weekend! If you have some creative endeavors planned for your downtime, Power Poppy has got a little show and tell for you that just might spark some fun in your stamping space! If you missed our post HERE earlier this week, take a look at this beauty that just so happens to be the latest addition to our Instant Garden of digital stamps...

Ahhhhh..... look at those options for color! These fluffy little posies can be the palest shades of pink all the way up to the hottest and spiciest shades of orange you’ve ever seen! Go intense or sneak in just a whisper of color — it’s up to you! This beauty called Ranunculus is also paired with a gentle sentiment aimed at “Sending Peace” to those friends in need of a soothing message. Best yet? It's available right now HERE to download, print and color. How’s that for instant gratification? 

The fun thing about Fridays is the fact that we have our Bloomies on standby to show off their latest creative pursuits! And all are showing off our newest member of the Instant Garden! Check it out happy stampers!

Allison Cope

Christine Okken

Julie Koerber

Leslie Miller

Stacy Morgan

And, if you need a wee bit more inspiration, it’s always just a click away on our Pinterest Boards HERE. We have EVERY stamp set released — including Ranunculus — and samples to go along with each. So, grab a cuppa joe and spend some time pinning some of your faves! 

BEFORE WE GO...

Have you dug through your paper stash to take on our latest Power & Spark Hang Some Paper Challenge?

You could offer up some splashes of gingham, dashes of floral fancy, gobs of dots that love to polka! All you need to do, according to challenge hostess Leslie Miller, is put three different patterned papers in to play on your card or creation! So, mix it up with pattern and pizazz! Click HERE for the details and to link up your creation when you're done! 

Speaking of pizazz.... Donna Gourley sure created a fun and perky combo with her entry! We love the bold shades of red she used to color up the single bloom from our Simply Camellias stamp set. She certainly ramped it all up with the gingham, stripes and dots!

Are you ready to take on the challenge? We sure hope so! We can't wait to see what you create! Thanks folks for stopping by and sharing a little of your time with us. Make sure to swing back on Monday for another edition of Inspire Me Monday! Stacy Morgan is on deck with another one of her extra special gift sets that's been stamped and colored up with love. See you back here then!

~Julie

The digi you’ve been waiting for: Ranunculus!

Hello everybody!

While you may not have heard from me in a couple days, rest assured that there’s been no shortage of action at Power Poppy headquarters. Working on all kinds of cool stuff with no end in sight! Did you catch our new digital set of bee-loving wildflowers called Asters Abuzz? That one was so much fun to refresh and refine. See the story behind it HERE! I’ll be bringing you another remixed digi on July 25th, so keep your sites trained on the Blog, my dears!

Meanwhile, I’ve been researching, sketching, inking, and fussing over our upcoming August clear stamp release, which I think is going to be quite the sock-knocker-offer. Oh, and did I mention that last week we started the process of rearranging and redecorating our house to welcome Doug and his sweet daughters to our not-all-that-big house? Good thing we love eachother so much, because my friends, it is going to be tight squeeeeeze! But now it will be a tight squeeze with snappy new wall colors, a shiny coat of high-gloss on every bit of trim (assures that there is never a dull moment), and newly uncovered hardwood floors from 1929.

OK, with all that action out of the way, we’re back to bring you a BRAND NEW botanical in the Power Poppy Instant Garden Collection. This one is not just asking you to color it up, it is practically ROARING. Introducing: Ranunculus!

You all have been asking me for a Ranunculus drawing and my good people, I do aim to please. The hardest part of designing a set like this was stopping myself from covering the entire paper with the roly poly posies. Truly, they are so much fun to draw!! I can’t imagine what a great time you’ll have coloring them. If you want to tempt fate and find out, click on over to our Instant Garden Collection and grab it, along with the sweet little sentiment that the flowers are paired with, as THE WHOLE THING IS AVAILABLE TODAY!

Oh my, we do have some more awesome news — our Instant Gardener design team is here to help usher in our newest botanical, and to set the stage for the artistry that’s possible with Ranunculus. Even just taking a quick peek at their cards gave me the shivers!!! Is it weird to gasp out loud when you see someone color in a drawing you made in the first place, but in a strikingly beautiful new way? I hope not, because I do it all the time and the feeling is indescribably NEAT-O!! Hope you have a chance to see all of these ladies’ gasp-worthy creations....

Jennifer Dove

Debbie Olson
Cheryl Scrivens
Rhea Weigand

Thank you so much for coming by today to see our new set, and I hope you’ll grab it for yourself! Then turn around and share it with us — if you use three decorative papers in your card, you can enter it in THIS MONTH’S CHALLENGE - GO SEE!

Cool Krafty Christmas Creations

Welcome to another fabulous Inspire Me Monday!  I'm hostess Allison Cope.

I live in Southern Alberta, Canada and we're experiencing an extremely hot summer this year.... okay, hot for where we live... LOL!  The temperatures have reached above 30˚C (86˚F) already more than once in the last few weeks and we're normally an average of about 23˚C (73˚F) here close to Calgary during the summer.

So to beat the heat, I thought I'd create a card with COOL feelings in mind.  I thought I'd go step-by-step through how I made my frosty Christmas krafty creation with you!

Grab a cool summery mock-tail and join me for some cool craftin' today...

Here's another quick peek of both cards.  Each card was created using the gorgeous holiday inspired Bough Wow Wow and Merry Littles stamp sets.... perfect for that cool feeling I so desperately need!

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you enjoyed the video and I hope you continue to join me in keeping cool where ever you are!

~ Ally ~

Supplies:

Green & Red Cheer Card 
stamps: Power Poppy (Bough Wow Wow, Merry Littles) cardstock:  Papertrey Ink (Rustic Cream), Neenah Solar White Cardstock, unknown dark kraft xcardstock ink: Memento (Olive Grove), Ranger Distress (Tea Dye), Copic Markers
die:  My Favorite Things (Die-nanics: Stitched Circles)
tool:  Tonic Distress Tool
ribbon:  Offray  twine:  Darice other:  Liquid Applique by Marvy Uchida,  thread.

Blue Cheer Card 

stamps: Power Poppy (Bough Wow Wow, Merry Littles) cardstock:  Papertrey Ink (Rustic Cream), Neenah Solar White Cardstock, Bazzill ink: Memento (Bahama Blue), Ranger Distress (Tea Dye), Copic Markers
die:  My Favorite Things (Die-nanics: Stitched Circles)
ribbon:  Offray - Simply Grosgrain 
tool:  Tonic Distress Tool   twine:  Darice other:  Liquid Applique by Marvy Uchida,  thread.
 

A Little Fun on a Friday!

Hello all and the happiest of Fridays to you! We hope you had a fabulously creative week! And, if not, why not dabble in a little Power Poppy creativity this weekend? You have an excuse, don't you know?

Have you seen our latest Power & Spark Challenge hosted by the lovely Leslie Miller?

Simply grab at least three decorative papers and put them into play on your card or creation! Couldn't get more easy peasy than that! If you want to read up on all the official rules, simply click on over to our  CHALLENGE POST HERE. That's also the place where you will link up your extra special creation once you've whipped it up! You have plenty of time to enter -- the contest is open through July 31st and guess what? If you play along, you get a shot at winning one of the Power Poppy stamp sets that you've been dreaming about!

Already the entires are starting to come in and we have some fun ones! We love THIS gate fold card from BECKY S.! So very fun! And then, we have to show you this cute-as-can-be creation from TRACI MAJOR, which just goes to show that patterned paper can be monochromatic for this challenge. She tackled that oh so well with our set Short Stacks! 

Now, it's YOUR turn to show us what you've got! We can't wait to see which way you mix and match those patterns from your paper stacks to come up with something wonderful!

Speaking of wonderful, it's time to check in on our beloved BLOOMIES! A few of them checked in and have some of their handiwork to share. So, stop on by, say hi, and hopefully be inspired when you hit your own stamping spaces soon!

Julie Koerber

Kathy Jones

Leslie Miller

Stacy Morgan

Thanks for stopping by and sharing a bit of your day with us! We can’t wait to see you Hang Some Paper in your upcoming creations! Get those fingers inky and don’t forget to link up your card or creation on the  CHALLENGE POST HERE . 

COMING UP MONDAY: Be sure to join Ally Cope for her take on our Inspire Me Monday. She's super secretive and so she's not giving us a hint about the amazing project she's working on! Check in Monday to see just what kind of creative magic she pulled from her sleeve! See you back here then!

~Julie

Sometimes you can’t see the garden for the flowers

Hello and welcome to the Power Poppy Inspire Me Monday from Rhea.  It’s true that sometimes your eye fixates on just one object when there is so much beauty than surrounds it. The same is true when you are in the Power Poppy store! When I am looking at all those yummy flowers I see each one individually. Then I remember that when working with digi stamps, there are no limits! Just because I love love the Gerbera Daisies and the Winter Pick-Me-Up and they are individual images doesn't mean I can’t put them together to create a beautiful garden!

The images needed to be turned into a .png file so the background was transparent. They come to us in .jpg format. Being a .png allows me to layer them and position them front to back. All I use is Photoshop. I do not delete anything or alter Marcella’s art in any way. It is as simple as moving things around until you like what you see. You can “flip” an image which I did with the Winter Pick-Me-Up on the far right side. To do that in Photoshop, all you have to do is click on “Image” and then “Rotate” and click on “Flip Horizontal.” You don’t want everything looking too chimerical or it appears unnatural. I also like odd numbers.  

Now, I always like to share my color palettes! This way you can purchase the Gerbera Daisies, and the Winter Pick-Me-Up and use the same colors if you like.

Thanks for your time today!  I will be back Monday, August 3rd for another inspirational post.

~xo Rhea

Sweet digital set: Asters Abuzz

Hello there, hope you enjoyed a spectacular celebration for the 4th of July—and now I’m here to wish you a Happy 5th of July! In addition to today being the birthday of the love of my life, Doug, it is ALSO the first of our new “Digi’s on the 5s” releases. Yep, we are adding even more illustrations and sentiments to feed your coloring addiction. Can you ever, EVER have enough flowers?

Let’s not even go there.

As we announced in the e-newsletter this week, we’re so tickled to introduce even more beautiful digis for you to print and color. We’ll supply a freshly remixed Marcella Hawley illustration on the 5th of each month, a brand new Instant Garden digital set on the 15th, and ANOTHER digital design on the 25th. (For all of our fabulous clear stamp lovers, you’ll still get your fix with juicy photopolymer releases every other month!)

Today, we’re sharing a set that is as sweet as a summer meadow in bloom, just brimming with honeybees. My image was inspired by this watercolor illustration I painted 20 years ago for Honey Acres, a family-run apiary in Ashippun, Wisconsin. I learned so much about bees, honey, beekeeping, and the flowers that make honeybees so happy.

When this was painted, I had just moved back from New York, where I’d been working at Martha Stewart Living magazine, to return to the cozy and creative college town of Champaign, Illinois. Having my own freelance design and illustration business for passionate, interesting, entrepreneurial clients was exactly what I wanted to do (and Martha kept me busy with art assignments for her start-up Martha by Mail catalog, which was superfun). I got a phone call one day that seemed right up my alley! The owner of Honey Acres had seen my flower catalog illustrations for Klehm Nursery, and wanted me to create a cover for their new cookbook. I drove up to visit their operation in the rolling hills of southern Wisconsin, saw the fields of clover and wildflowers that surround the apiary, and toured the honey museum they built to share the story of beekeeping. After my visit, I came up with two options for the cover. The illustration above was my favorite of the two, with a busy-as-a-bee mix of Sweet Peas, Bee Balm, Goldenrod, Thyme, Asters, and Cosmos.

Honey Acres decided to publish my alternate design, with its romantic little summertime scene, below:

I never did get a copy of the printed Honey Acres cookbook, until Doug found this one for me on eBay and surprised me with it for my birthday a few years ago. He is sweeter than all the honey in the world!!

OK, so that little show-and-tell brings us to today’s set release. I originally created this illustration to be a simplified take on my 1995 bee bouquet. I am so excited to release the artwork today with an updated design and two new sentiments, as a digital set, just for you. Asters Abuzz is available for your downloading, printing, and coloring pleasure....

Would you like to get some awesome inspiration for using this breezy bee-sy image? Check out what members of our Bloom Brigade AND Instant Gardeners teams did with Asters Abuzz!

Stacy Morgan

Tosha Leyendekker

Julie Koerber

Cindy Lawrence

Cheryl Scrivens

Thank you so much for coming by to check out the latest from Power Poppy by Marcella Hawley, and I sure hope you’ll enjoy playing with this one.

WINNING!

Hello lovelies! Not only do we have some POWER POPPY winnings to share this fun-filled Friday, we have a brand spanking new challenge which hopes to deliver design power with a very creative spark.

ARE YOU READY???

Start digging through your decorative paper stacks because this month's challenge is asking you to....

HOW TO PLAY: This one is all about patterns, folks! In the words of the lovely Mrs. Leslie Miller....

“Many of us have more designer paper than we know what to do with, so this month let’s “Hang some paper”! I’d like to see you get creative and use at least three patterns or colors of designer paper on your card or project. Mix it up! Plaids, dots, flowers, stripes, you name it. It could be as simple as a trio of flags in different patterns, or all mixed up in your favorite sketch. Just remember — think three! Enjoy!”

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 use the exact URL from your post instead of a generic blog address.)
• Please mention Power Poppy in YOUR blog or gallery post with a link back to THIS challenge
• The winner will receive a free clear or digital stamp set of choice from the Power Poppy Shop
• Enter as many cards as you’d like, as long as they fit the theme of the challenge!
• Deadline to enter is July 31 at 8:00pm EST. At that point, we'll draw the winner randomly and make the announcement right here on the first Friday of August.

And, if you need a wee bit of inspiration, you can take a look at how one of the paper hanging masters pulled this challenge off... Leslie herself!

When it comes to mixing and matching the graphical delight that decorative papers deliver, let’s just say that Leslie Miller has got it going on! Just look above ^^^^ — those polka dots, those stripes and those bunches of softly colored roses!!! It’s the perfect backdrop for her exquisitely colored vase of roses from our brand new set Go Wild. This image, if you prefer instant gratification, is also available in our Digital Stamp Set Arranging Roses.

There you have it folks! Let’s see what you’ve got up your creative sleeve! How many patterns can you make look magically delicious? Once you’re finished creating, post on your blog or gallery and link that beauty up right here! You’ll find our little linky at the bottom of this post.

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MOVING ON TO ONE LUCKY AND EVER SO CRAFTY STAMPER!

Last week brought an end to Junes’s Pencil Me In Challenge. When the linky shut down, we let Random.org work its magic and the lucky number is......

That means our Power & Spark winner for June is... Elizabeth Whisson!

Elizabeth has a double dose of digis with this fresh cut and whimsical wonder! She used the Gerbera Daisies Digital Stamp Set and then used the sentiment from the Bees in Foxglove Digital Stamp Set. I happen to think it is the perfect combination with those sun-loving blossoms colored up in such a bright and perky way! CONGRATS ELIZABETH! Simply email us at bloom@powerpoppy.com and let us know what stamp set or digital stamp set that you’d like and we’ll send it your way! 

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We’ve come to the part of our Friday program where we love to link up to some of the most talented designers that you’ll see in blog land — THE BLOOM BRIGADE! Hop, skip, and jump your way over to their places on the web to see what they've been up to!

Allison Cope

Julie Koerber

Kathy Jones

Katie Sims

Leslie Miller

Stacy Morgan

Thanks for stopping by and sharing a bit of your day with us! We can’t wait to see you Hang Some Paper in your upcoming creations! Get those fingers inky and don’t forget to link up your card or creation below!

COMING UP MONDAY: Be sure to join Rhea Weigand for a colorific Inspire Me Monday when she shows us her impressive digital mash-up of two of Power Poppy’s most popular digital images! See you back here then!

~Julie

An InLinkz Link-up