Wplus9 June/July 2013 Release Day Group Post

It's Release Day! All of our June/July 2013 release products are now available for purchase at www.wplus9.com. Don't forget, if we run out of something that you simply must have right now, you can also find Wplus9 products at many of your favorite retailers! Check our retailer's page for a list of where to find us.

If you missed the release, you can start here to catch up. And don't forget to check the winner's page to see if you were a lucky prize package winner!

Release Day is also Group post day. It's the day that I get the pleasure of showcasing the Design Team with their final parting release projects. But before we get to the eye candy, I have a few announcements to share.

Cristina Kowalczyk is stepping down from the Design Team. Life sometimes has a way of piling things on us and at those times we need to take steps to lighten the load. However, don't fret, because we just couldn't bring ourselves to completely part ways. Cristina will continue to delight us a Guest Blogger/Contributor. So no worries, you will still get to enjoy Cristina's stellar work with Wplus9!

We are so excited to welcome back Hannah Craner. Many of you may be familiar with Hannah as the editor of CARDS Magazine. Starting in August, Hannah will be joining the Wplus9 family as a Designer and Stamp Illustrator. I can't wait to see what she has up her sleeve! I hope that you are just as excited as I am and will give her a great big welcome!

Are you ready to see what the ladies have to share today? I know I am! I had a few extra cards left over that I didn't share during the release, so I'll be joining as well.

Cristina Kowalczyk

Cristina brings us another CAS winner. She's created a waterfall of roses that she has cleverly anchored with the unexpected bit of stripes at the top of the card. The soft colors echo the light feeling of the "floating" flowers beautifully.

Dawn Woleslagle

I've paired Milk & Cookies with Fresh Cut Florals. I wanted to see if the milk bottle from Milk & Cookies would work as a vase for my little floral arrangement...and it did! I added a little flower pick using the straw and a banner.

Elise Durenberger

The little milk bottles are perfect for Elise's layout, aren't they? I love her little "ribbon" embellishment down in the corner. And check out how she's used the Cupcake Wrapper Die to anchor her title!

Jean Martin

I am really enjoying seeing Jean take on CAS. And this is no exception. Check out that background! She's stamped the "Cupcake" sentiment from Sweets & Treats repeatedly and finished off the bottom with Borders & Backgrounds. This polka dots are perfect for incorporating the circle backdrops for her cupcakes. Oh, and she also has another STUNNER over on her blog that you will not want to miss!

Jinny Newlin

More background stamping, except this time Jinny has created some colorful cupcake covered paper. My favorite part is the little bow and tag at the bottom with the XOXO Border die. LOVE!

Sarah Martina Parker

Check out how Sarah has softened the modern Ikat patterns by overlaying them with vellum. And I love her "ribbon" treatment - making this card seem like a little package ready to be opened!

Savitri Wilder

Savitri is showing us that all you need is a great stamp to make a great card. A couple of rows from Borders & Backgrounds and a sentiment wrap this up.

And that officially concludes our June/July 2013 Release Week festivities. Thank you so much for joining us and for all of your wonderful and sincere comments. Kerrianne, Sarah and Lea will be joining us over the next month to share their projects with us, so be sure to check back in!

Design Team Inspiration with Elise Durenberger

The Design Team has been taking turns sharing their April/May 2013 release projects with us, and today kicks off Elise Durenberger's rotation. Over the next 3 days she will have plenty to share and inspire us with.

Wplus9 Supplies:
Stamps: Paisley Patterns, Country Charm, Strictly Sentiments 1, Pretty Patches: Umbrella | Ink: White Pigment | Dies: Pretty Patches Umbrella Companion Die, Timeless Tags 2, Folk Art Alphabet, Banner Trio, Clear Cut Stackers: Rounded Rectangles | Cardstock: Green Acres, Ballet Slipers, Sweet Gelato, Lake House,White

Check out this fun layout. Bright colors, fun patterns and big smiles...perfect combo for a layout capturing and celebrating friendship.

I love how Elise used Paisley Patterns to create three different background patterns on her vertical patterns to ground her picture. This is a wonderful set for creating your own patterned paper. With so many images included in this set, you'd never get bored or run out of patterns to create. The Folk Art Alphabet die is a great size - perfect for using on either cards or layouts like Elise has done here to create her title. And the little banners that she added using the pattern blocks from Country Charm are a great addition.

I hope you've enjoyed Elise's layout as much as I have. Be sure to stop by her blog for more photos and all of the details. And join us again tomorrow to see more from this talented lady!

Sweet Daughter Layout with Jinny Newlin

Design team member Jinny Newlin is back today with a fresh and summery layout featuring products from our new release. I always, always, always look forward to Jinny's layouts. She never fails to incorporate product in the most clever ways, without it looking forced.

Wplus9 Supplies:
Stamps: Blanket Stitched Blooms, Embroidered Bouquet Additions, Background Builders: Hearts, Fresh Baked | Dies: Blanket Stiched Blooms, Timeless Tags 2, Scalloped Border, Folk Art Alphabet | Cardstock: Oatmeal, Cupid's Bow, Green Acres

Seriously?! Can it get any cuter?! Love the cascading of flowers across the page and the little overflowing piles. And how perfect does Blanket Stitched Blooms look with that skirt?

But I guess it is kind of impossible not to have a cute layout with a face like that, huh? See what I mean about clever and never forced? Notice how Jinny mimicked the flower brooch in the upper left hand corner of her photo frame? She's carried the checkerboard pattern from the skirt down to the die cut letters in her title. Even the tag shape that she's used for her journaling mimics the curve in the cardigan. Told you, l.o.v.e.

As if the layout wasn't enough, did you read the journaling? Jinny made that dress?! Say what?! Talk about talent!

Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you enjoyed! Jinny will be back again tomorrow with more for us!

The Little Things

Today I have a scrapbook page to share! I know! Crazy, right? I have had the itch to scrapbook for a while now. And I happened to finish two pages this weekend. Which is UNHEARD OF for me, because it usually takes me like 40 hours to do a page!

I actually had a lot of fun with this one, even though there is very minimal stamping. I used a sentiment from Sweet Nothings to support my title. The phrases in this set are actually a great little addition to scrapbook pages. Who knew!

My favorite part is probably the pattern strips at the bottom. I was inspired by the cover page on most scrapbook paper packs. You know how they always have the strips of paper across the front? That was my starting point. And, I wanted to create some little Polaroid frames customized with my favorite little things. So I used my silhouette to whip some up along with the heart border. So much fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

September 2011 Release Day 1

Hello, and welcome to Day 1 of our September Release! For those of you that are new to Wplus9, we will spend the next couple of days getting up close and personal with the products that we will be releasing this month. All previewed items will be available for purchase on September 5th at www.wplus9.com.

This month we have 4 new stamp sets and 1 new coordinating die. We are also switching it up a bit this month, I will be going it alone this week, and the design team will start joining in with their projects over the next two weeks. So today and tomorrow I am going to be showing you Class Act and the coordinating background building set Design Basics: Classroom Backgrounds.

Class Act

• is a 6x8 clear photopolymer stamp set
• contains 18 stamps; allows you to create multiple styles of journaling cards and more with 1 pre-built journaling card, 5 card building pieces and 9 sentiments/titles
• will be available for purchase September 5th for just $19

Design Basics: Classroom Backgrounds

• is a 6x8 clear photopolymer stamp set
• contains 5 background building stamps
• will be available for purchase September 5th for just $19

It's that time of year and the kids are all headed back to school. Class Act and Design Basics: Classroom backgrounds is perfect for documenting those memories. Now be forewarned, I am not great (or even good) at layouts. But, as tradition holds, if design it...it would be helpful if I actually used it. Right?!

My boys were NOT happy about Summer ending...but they were troopers, and put on some big smiles for me for the first day of school. The new shoes and book bags helped too. This layout kicked my butt, and my sewing machine too. So please pardon the stitching. I broke two needles in the process, I didn't even know that was possible! Let me show you some of the details.

I created the CLASS SCHEDULE tag tucked up on the top left by stamping a portion of one of the background pieces from Classroom Backgrounds. I trimmed it out and rounded the corners before stitching down. The little assignment card is the pre-built journaling card included in Class Act, I added the "A+" also included in the set instead of adding personal journaling.

The background for my title was created by stamping the primary journal lines from Classroom Backgrounds in white onto a blue strip of cardstock. These backgrounds stamps are approx. 5.75" long, making them very easy to line up and stamp across a full 12 inch piece of paper.

For my jounaling, I decided to stamp one of the interior stamps onto a tag instead of building a journaling card. It fit perfectly and makes a great accent to add a bit of personal story. Finally, keeping with the theme, I added another of the background building images from Classroom Backgrounds across the bottom of my layout in white.

Now of course, I haven't forgotten my card making roots, both sets are wonderful for card making as well!

Here I've layered two of the journaling cards on top of each other for my focal point. I used the card building pieces to create my own custom card. The wonderful thing about this is that you can create a horizontally or vertically oriented card. I will show you more detail on that tomorrow. I stamped the "Great Job" sentiment repeatedly in red ink for a watermark effect, and added the "Well Done" sentiment onto a label (more on this later this week) for my primary sentiment.

I have only scratched the surface with these sets so far. Be sure to stop by tomorrow for more.

Would you like to win Class Act and Design Basics: Classroom Backgrounds? I will be showcasing these goodies both today and tomorrow, so leave me a comment by 11:59 PM EST September 2nd telling me if you prefer scrapbooking or card making and why. I will select one random winner from all comments. Winners will be posted here.

Thanks for joining me and I hope to see you tomorrow!

Project Supplies

Smiles Layout
Stamps: Class Act, Design Basics: Classroom Backgrounds (Wplus9)
Ink: Black Archival Ink (Ranger); Riding Hood Red (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Going Gray, Bashful Blue, Kraft (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Paper: Stampin' Up! retired scrapbook kit (including stickers and brads)
Other: chipboard letters (Stampin' Up!); Upper Crest punch (Fiskars); Circle punches (Stampin' Up!)

Well Done
Stamps: Class Act, A Pocketful (Wplus9)
Ink: Not Quite Navy (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Rustic Cream (Papertrey Ink)
Patterned Paper: Schoolhouse (October Afternoon); Class of 87 (Kaisercraft); Nordic Holiday (Basic Grey)
Other: buttons and twine (Papertrey Ink); Circle punches (Stampin' Up!)

Lazy Summer Days

I just wanted to pop in and share a digital layout I did using the Funky Flowers Digikit. I absolutely love how this turned out, and I can't wait to go have it printed so I can hang it in his room.

These are some pictures of Carter from the summer vacation we spent in Delaware. We rented a condo with my husband's side of the family and we had such a good time. I love vacationing with them. It was seriously one of the best vacations we've ever had and I think we will do it again soon. Now I just have to create another one with Hunter.

I will be back later with some more posts. I finally got to ink up my set Look Up from Practicing Creativity and can't wait to share it. Hope your weekend is fabulous. Our weather is finally getting around to the Florida weather we are used to and I am loving it!

Some Christmas Goodies

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I LOVE this time of year! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the best family in the world and the most FABulous food. I had the honor of cooking the turkey this year. My very first time, and as scared as I was that I was going to ruin it...it was wonderful. You would have peed your pants laughing listening to my phone call the night before asking my mother why on earth she dropped that turkey off at my house?! Thank goodness for foodnetwork.com. LOL! So in all, I did the turkey, stuffing, and potatoes...and as usual, all of the pies. I couldn't have asked for a better day!

It's tradition for us to put up our Christmas lights the day after Thanksgiving, and this year was no exception. Jason got all of the Christmas lights up and they are FABulous, he always does such a great job. I will post some pics tonight or tomorrow. I just love coming home after work, turning the corner onto our street, and seeing that winter wonderland all lit up. Well as close to a winter wonderland as you can get in Florida. ;o) Today we will put up the tree and I will do some more decorating in the house. That always seems like a never-ending job. I hate when it's time to take it all down. But for now, I will enjoy it...and I will leave you guys with a couple of goodies we did at club last week.

You guys know I don't do too many scrap book layouts...I just don't feel like I'm very good at them. They are always a struggle for me, but hey, everynow and then I give it a go. ;o) The picture is actually a bit old, of my oldest, when we were visiting PA for x-mas one year. I've always loved the set of photos we got that year while walking through the woods at my in-laws.

And this little tile uses Stampin' Up!'s Glassy Glaze Enamel and the Dasher stamp. Simple and elegant. I stamped the image, covered with glassy glaze and baked in the oven. There are a ton of tutorials on various blogs if you've never seen this technique. It's been around quite a while.

And finally, another fun tag. Check out that layout, it is just begging to be used over and over to make a set. Don't you think?! And...it's not too late to join in the Tag It Challenge. There are such great ideas out there for tags!

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you are having fun decorating for "the most wonderful time of the year"!

Lil' Pumpkin

Isn't that the most adorable pumpkin ever?! I got the template from Kristina over at KWernerdesign.com. She used it as a shaped card, but when I saw it, I just knew I wanted to use it on a scrapbook page. There is so much fun on this page for such a simple layout. Lots of inking and some scissor distressing for that "old worn" look. The girls loved creating their own at Club this past weekend. Hope you enjoy and don't forget to leave comments!

I will be posting my CASE's from the Inspire Me Challenge soon. I will be doing 2, I figured since I only had two entries...why not reward them both! They were both so good and so different, I can't help it. ;o)

Project Supplies

Lil' Pumpkin
Cardstock: SU! Pumpkin Pie, Garden Green, Soft Suede, Kraft
Ink: SU! Close to Cocoa, Pumpkin Pie, Creamy Caramel
Accessories:Papertrey Ink buttons, felt ribbon, Sizzix SU!Billboard die cut, Sizzix Big Shot, white gel pen

Wedded Bliss

Just a really quick post. We leave for Hawaii dark and early in the morning...6:50 am flight. So I will be up hopefully around 4. We are going for my sister-in-laws wedding, but turned it into a family vacation. Long way to go, so why not?! So excited and can't wait. I wanted to share the very cute album and announcement I made for her.

First the album, I used a plain Martha Stuart album (on clearance at Michaels) and decorated the front. I'm going to have everyone send me pics and I will make pages to fill it and send to her. Love the saying, and the flowers were a STEAL at $1.99 for a whole bottle! The "G" hanging from the ribbon is their monogram. Well here they are, and as always, thanks for looking!

Next, since it is a destination wedding, and not everyone could attend, I also created her a neat little wedding announcement that she can mail out to the rest of friends and family. Their wedding colors are teal and sky. I think I did pretty good matching them if I do say so myself.

And here it is open with all of the details (without the last name of course). You can't see it in the pic, but if you click on it to enlarge; I added some fun bling to the paisleys in the cake. :)

Summer Lovin'

Geez, I am just feeling these bright sunny colors lately...maybe it has something to do with the impending HAWAII vacation!!! In the spirit of vacation, I pulled out these photos of my hubby and I from just after vacation last summer. I love these photos, such good times! The page was pretty simple and came together quickly. I took some of the SU! Pink Flamingo DSP and cut out a portion of the flowers. I also pulled out the SU! Circle Scissors Plus to cut out the 6 inch circle. The letters were something I found on clearance at Michaels...can't remember the brand. I finished it off with some fun rhinestones and a little journaling and voila, Summer Lovin'!

Thanks so much for looking and hope you have a wonderful weekend.

KWerner Color Inspiration #54

Wow, things just never seem to slow down, do they? I was so excited when I saw the colors for Kristina's Color Challenge. My niece's birthday is coming up fast, and I needed to make her a card. The colors match her personality perfectly! Although silly me mis-read and used turquoise instead of teal...it still counts, right?!

I am also really diggin those vintage looking circle flowers. I think combining them with the bright colors and retro-ish layout, really make it fresh. So here is my submission for Color Inspiration #54, and the matching scrap-book page that I actually love. (I think I just might be getting better at this whole scrapbooking thing) :)

A Little Red, White, and Blue

Wow, it's been a while since I posted last. But, things get hectic and busy, and at least I was finally able to do some crafting. I say crafting and not stamping because these next two items actually involved ZERO stamping. And...they are scrap book pages! Wow! I suck at scrapbooking. Seriously, I suck. But I was so happy with the way these turned out that I wanted to post them quickly before I run off to a Memorial Day cook out. And they just happened to turn out patriotic looking-ish. LOL I will post supplies later. Enjoy and enjoy your festivities today!

Two Sweet, Two Cute, and Two Charming

That about says it all for these two. I made this for my mother-in-law. It's not was I was originally going to make her, but I ordered the wrong size of something and now have to re-order. I'm hoping this holds her over. LOL I wanted to keep it relatively simple and flat so that she can frame it. The dimensions are 8x8.

Create Your Own:

Paper
Walk in the Park Designer Series Paper
Baja Breeze card stock
Whisper White card stock
Basic Gray card stock
Blue Bayou card stock (In Color 2007-2008)

Stamps
Sale-A-Bration Botanical Blooms

Accessories
Whisper White 1/4" ribbon
Sizzix Big Shot
Stampin' Up Billboard Sizzlit decorative strip die (114510)

Don't forget, Sale-A-Bration ends March 31st! You can get your last minute orders in with me. Visit my Stampin' Up! Demonstrator's website and click Shop Now! in the upper right hand corner to shop online with Stampin' Up! Thanks for looking, and don't forget to leave a comment so I know you were here.

Feeling Springish

Well I guess being in Florida, feeling springish isn't so hard to believe. But I found these pictures of my nephew and niece from a couple of years ago, and couldn't help but be inspired to make a scrapbook page. It was perfect because I needed a page to demonstrate at an SU party as well. These kids are just way too photogenic! I love the way her jacket matches the Baja Breeze card stock and the slide matches the Barely Banana card stock perfectly. The Good Friends stamp set was a perfect fit for the sunny day. The layout is so versatile and looks great with a single 5x7 also. Don't forget, you can click on the images to view them larger. Thanks for looking, comments are always appreciated!