Pretty Peonies

Tonight's the night! Our September Release products will officially be available starting at 12:00 a.m. EST tonight at wplus9.com, as well as at many of your favorite retailers. You can see all of the upcoming products at the bottom of this post. But we still have lot's more to share with you!

I have several projects to share with you today featuring Pretty Peonies. I absolutely LOVE this set! The images are nice and large and there are several orientations and sizes of a Peony-like flower. Now, this is my artistic interpretation of a Peony. They come in so many varieties - from bulbous round flower heads to ones that are more open with irregular petals. I've modeled mine after the more full open Peonies.

Each image has at least two images that you can stamp together and many have more. It is up to you how many layers you choose to use. And each has been designed so that you can use only one of the steps if you choose! So many possibilities!

For this first card I wanted to show how much detail can be achieved when you use all of the steps for each image. To create the flowers I stamped the base image, the detail image, and the outlined image all in Stampin' Up Regal Rose dye ink. The gradual build-up of intensity by using the same color creates a subtle depth that just adds so much interest.

There is also several leaves and foliage, and some fun little filler flowers included. I followed suit for the foliage by stamping the base and outline images in the same color. And, the best part? You don't have to worry about exactly lining everything up! As long as you stamp in the same orientation, each layer will compliment each other. There are gaps and incompletions in most of the images to help foster that loose artistic feeling.

All that this design really needed to finish it off was a bold sentiment. For that, I used the Walt Disney quote from Dream Believer, also available starting tonight.

Pretty Peonies also has a companion die available as well. This makes building gorgeous bouquets a piece of cake since you can move everything around until you get it just the way that you want it arranged before committing and glueing anything in place. With the addition of the stems included in the set, you can really pull of some amazing looks.

In this example you can see how well the images stand on their own without the addition of the outline image as well. I was able to get a little more contrast between the base and detail layer even though I used the same color ink by stamping off. I inked up the base in Sweet Nectar PURE COLOR Dye Ink and stamped it off onto scratch paper before stamping it onto the die cut without re-inking. Then I stamped the detail image full strength.

The die cuts are designed to hold the entire assembled image including the outlines, but they work just as well without them too!

I used the new Wplus9 EXCLUSIVE Lattice Frame Die as a backdrop for my bouquet and added a sentiment from Strictly Sentiments 5 to finish this card off.

You can also use just the base images along with the outlined images. In my next example I stamped out a little floral cluster and then stamped all of the outlines and a few details of the filler flowers in black.

To keep with the free flowing feel of the flowers I added some random dot clusters around the flowers using Dream Believer in black. And I used the same set to add my sentiment onto a tag die cut using the Timeless Tags 2 die.

A die cut butterfly from the upcoming Small Butterfly Frame die adds the perfect finishing touch of whimsy. I have fallen in love with this little gem and you will be seeing a lot more of it in the upcoming days! I die cut it from White cardstock and colored it using a sponge dauber and Sweet Nectar PURE COLOR Dye Ink. Yes, I have a slight obsession with this color!

And finally, I used a similar layout to the card above to create another 4 bar card from some scraps. I wanted to show you a softer painterly look. Our inks have that self-blending, almost smoothing quality. It makes it the perfect ink to achieve a great simulation of something hand painted.

This was actually one of my "practice" pieces I created while trying to figure out color combos. I stamped the base of the flowers in Sweet Nectar PURE COLOR Dye Ink and added the details in Flamingo PURE COLOR Dye Ink. For the leaves and stems I used Mojito PURE COLOR Dye Ink, and Appletini PURE COLOR Dye Ink.

The sentiment was again added using Dream Believer, and some "splats" were added to the background using Ink Splats.

I just love the range of styles the Pretty Peonies and Pretty Little Peonies sets can cover. I also specifically designed this set to help achieve some gorgeous watercolor results, and was so excited to see how well it translated into stamps. But, that deserves another post all on it's own. So be sure to come back tomorrow to see what I mean!

September 2014 Release - available at midnight 09/05/14

Photopolymer Clear Stamps

Dream Believer
6x8" Clear Stamp Set
$21 USD

Pretty Peonies
6x8" Clear Stamp Set
$21 USD

Pretty Little Peonies
4x6" Clear Stamp Set
$14 USD

Little Bits
3x4" Clear Stamp Set
$6 USD

Punny Produce: Tomatoes
3x4" Clear Stamp Set
$6 USD

Steel Rule Dies

Dream Believer Companion Die
$14 USD

Pretty Peonies Companion Die
$16 USD

Pretty Little Peonies Companion Die
$8 USD

Dreamcatcher Die

$13 USD

Wplus9 EXCLUSIVE Lattice Frame Die
$18 USD

Small Butterfly Frame Die
$16 USD

More From the Design Team

• Iwona "Chupa" Palamountain - Chupa is sharing a fabulous creation using Dream Believer.
• Kara Vrabel - Kara has more gorgeous ideas for the Lattice Frame Die.
• Joni Andaya - And Joni is getting a little punny with Punny Produce: Tomatoes.

Giveaway Alert

Would you like to win the the Pretty Peonies Stamp Set, the Pretty Peonies Companion Die, and the Lattice Frame Die before you can buy it? Just leave a comment below by 10:00 p.m. EST on 09/04/14 to enter. I will select one random winner from all comments. Winner will be posted on our Releaser Winners page by 11:00 p.m. EST.

Good Luck!

As always, thanks for stopping by. And be sure to come back tomorrow, because I have even more to share with you featuring this fantastic release!