Spring Meadow Bouquet

Hello, precious friends, and it's so wonderful to "chat" with you today! I am sure you are all looking forward to spring. So in anticipation of its arrival...I get to share the brand new Instant Garden digital image from Power Poppy by Marcella Hawley called Spring Meadow Bouquet.

Isn't this an amazing bouquet? The flowers are, starting clockwise: Bleeding Hearts, Summer Snowflake, Lilacs, and then Checkered Lilies (also called Snake's Head Fritillary), more Summer Snowflake, more Bleeding Hearts, Lilac, and more Summer Snowflake. And just look at this sweet butterfly and the bumble bee (did you know they absolutely love the nectar of bleeding hearts).

Marcy is always so wonderful to provide us with the names of each of the flowers in her images, and I love finding examples of photos. I must say that I was amazed at seeing checkered lilies - they are really checkered! Isn't it so neat how God loves to delight us in His designs? After finding many photos of the various flowers and their different colors, I started to decide what color mix would work best for me. But before I started coloring, I used GIMP to remove the backgrounds of both images (the main floral image and the sentiment). Next I opened Microsoft Word and dragged in each image, resized them, and placed them where I wanted. I decided to make a "copy" of the sentiment and cropped the first two words for the top and the last three words for the bottom of my staggered sentiment (so I could "nest" my sentiment toward the bouquet). The sentiment that comes with this new digi is a single line. Then I printed it (always having two on a page whenever possible). Ah, and then the fun begins -- coloring! I must confess that this one took me three "pre-coloring" tests to figure out what colors would work best for me. I wanted my lilacs and checkered lilies to be compatible and still "work" with the vibrant bleeding hearts. I think they compliment each other. I have to admit that this card took me a long time to color, but oh -- the joy of coloring is so relaxing to me!

Once my coloring was done, I fussed some with trying to figure out a different layout and tried some border dies that just didn't work for me. So I finally "auditioned" Strawberry Slush as a mat and decided to use it with a favorite border punch. The rest was relatively easy using my Perfect Layers tools and trying to make my border symmetric at the bottom (yes, we perfectionists can get a bit carried away - haha!). But in the end, I think I like it enough. Truly, the image is amazing in its fine detail, especially if you enlarge it and see all the tiny dots and lines that give Marcy's images such beauty and depth! 

So, here she is in a simple layout with the decorative border punch at the bottom, and I think that this beautiful bouquet deserves front stage, don't you?

I was so thrilled to see this beautiful bouquet, but I was also delighted to see the lovely sentiment. It really means a lot to me these last couple of weeks. As many of you know, I've continued to deal with health issues, and a dear friend of mine on Splitcoaststampers (Anne Ryan) requested that I be the "destination station" for the March 1 Teapot Challenge. Well, I can't believe the outpouring of love and encouragement, and I continue to receive beautiful cards from the "Teapotters" and other wonderful friends from SCS. How touched I am, and so this card will be posted on SCS tomorrow as a small gesture of my thanks to such a caring and encouraging community. And, precious friends, I thank you all for the many prayers and words of encouragement here on my blog! I love your dearly!

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,
always in every prayer of mine for you all 
making my prayer with joy.
Philippians 1:3, 4

Now it's time to visit some of the Instant Gardeners for more inspiration. After that, I'm sure you stampers will definitely want to hop over to Power Poppy to purchase this new digital release to use today. Don't forget to check out the entire digital collection that keeps growing. So hop on over to the Power Poppy blog to read and see what Marcy has to say about this image and how she developed it - it's amazing, and she takes us on a walk! Well, that's all I'll tell you - find out for yourself! You won't regret it!

Broni Holcombe

Cheryl Scrivens <me>

Barb Walker
Jennifer Dove

Marcella Hawley on the Power Poppy blog

Thank you ever so much for visiting and sharing a comment, thought, or question. I love hearing from you and am always happy to answer questions, so please don't hesitate to email me. I love to help whenever I can. (I am entering this in this week's Word Art Wednesday challenge.) 

Blessings,

Stamps:  Spring Meadow Bouquet (Power Poppy) 

Paper: Solar White (Neenah), Strawberry Slush (SU), White Weave textured paper (The Paper Company)

Ink: None (printer)
Tools/Accessories: Copic markers, Perfect Layers tool, piercing tool, Modern Garland border punch (Martha Stewart)
Techniques: Digital images using GIMP and Microsoft Word

Card Size:  6¼” x 6½”