October 2015 Release Day

It's Release Day! Every thing we've previewed this week is now available for purchase at wplus9.com as well as at many of your favorite retailers.

I have held back a few cards to share with you over the next couple of weeks along with videos, but I still plenty more to share with you today as well, so let's get to it.

First up is a very non-traditional clean and simple holiday card.

By now, a lot of you know how much I like to mix it up and use unexpected combinations. I love the contrast of the modern watercolored background paired with the very traditional and elegant font in Christmas Greetings. I hand painted very simple strokes of color onto an Arches hot pressed watercolor card base and then just heat embossed my sentiment in Gold. This is a great candidate for mass production.

Based off of your feedback, a lot of you seem to love the new Amaryllis stamp set as much as I do. I literally couldn't wait to ink this baby up!

I heat embossed the image in gold onto Tim Holtz Watercolor card stock and used Gansai Tambi watercolor to add a simple light wash of color to my image. The embossed lines keeps the color contained and makes it really easy to control and end up with gorgeous results.

I die cut the center of the image using one of the stitched rectangles from the Gift Card Layers Die and then cut a few more out of card stock, stacked them together and then reinserted it back into place. For the sentiment I used the Hand Lettered Holiday stamps and dies and then mounted it all onto a Dove Grey card base.

I loved the way this turned out so much that I decided to create a matching tag using the new Anastasia Tag Die.

Next, I wanted to step it up a little. By stamping my image in a waterproof ink, I am able to use the stamped image as a guide to create what looks like a free-hand painting. An added bonus? Allowing the detail lines of the stamping to show through, means I have less work to do.

To created this card, I started by stamping my image in Fairy Dust onto an Arches cold pressed watercolor paper panel. I masked the ends of my stamen with liquid frisket and allowed it to dry. Then I loosely pre-wet my paper, covering the image and a little beyond so that my color would bleed a little beyond the petals, creating a soft and loose edge.

I waited a couple of minutes to allow the water to soak into the paper a little and then I watercolored the flowers using Alizarin Crimson. I waited another minute or two, and then added a little more Alizarin Crimson to the center of my flowers and to the petals that are behind others.

Once the flowers were completely dry, I lightly re-wet the stem areas of the image and painted in the stems using Sap Green. Again I waited a minute or two and then dropped a little more along one edge of the stems to create a little depth. I allowed everything to completely dry and then removed the masking fluid and painted the ends of the stamen with Cadmium Yellow Deep. And of course....I had to add a few splatters! A gold heat embossed sentiment from Christmas Greetings finishes it off.

Some of the ladies still have more to share with you as well so be sure to stop by, they are amazing!

Design Team Inspiration

• Joni Nina Andaya
• Kara Vrabel

Thank you all so much for joining us for another release! I love seeing all of the enthusiasm and appreciate each and every comment.

And don't forget, I'm always open to special requests. So if there was a card that you've seen that you'd like to see a video or Periscope on, just leave it in the comments!