A Day Late

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday! I have one last Mother's Day card to share with you all.

This one went to my little sis and features my all time favorite technique - masking.

I stamped my sentiment first and then covered it with rectangle cut from a good old post it note. From there I added my flowers using Folk Art Florals

When you are all done, just remove the mask to reveal the finished product. For a little something extra and to emphasize the break, I added a scored line above and below the sentiment.

So what would you say is your "all-time favorite technique"?

Project Supplies

Mother's Day Floral
Stamps: Folk Art Florals, Mother's Day Bouquet (Wplus9)
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip, Melon Mambo (Stampin' Up!)
Card stock: White (Wplus9)
Other: Martha Stewart Score Board

Oh My Ombre!

I am absolutely diggin' the Ombre trend I am seeing so much of lately. How about you?

What is "ombre"? In short: A French term meaning "shaded." Usually a multicolored stripe, with colors graduating from light to dark.

There are a couple of different ways to achieve this effect, but my favorite by far is by using Copic markers. No mess, the color is easy to lay down, and blending comes naturally to a Copic marker.

Pick a color family where you have at least three graduating shades. Lay down a couple lines of each color from lightest to darkest. Then blend each color transition by going over it with the lighter of the two shades. Work your way up into the lighter shade about two or three strokes, and down into the darker shade as well until you achieve the level of blend that you like.

This is a great technique for backgrounds, and works well for any card for any type of occasion. But don't be afraid to use it for die cuts as well. Create and ombre panel first, then die cut your pieces. Fast, easy, and no clean up.

So what do you think? Have you tried this technique? What was your favorite medium to use?

Project Supplies

Happy
Stamps: Super Star, Funky Foliage (Wplus9)
Ink: Tangerine Tango (Stampin' Up!) Versamark (Tsukineko); Copics (Y32, Y35, Y38, YR04)
Card stock: White (Wplus9); Summer Sunrise (Papertrey Ink)
Dies: Banner Trio (Wplus9)
Other: White Detail embossing powder (Stampendous)

Heartfelt Sympathy
Stamps: Guiding Light (Wplus9)
Ink: Chocolate Chip (Stampin' Up!) Versamark (Tsukineko); Copics (BG11, BG13, BG18)
Card stock: White (Wplus9); Aqua Mist (Papertrey Ink)
Other: White Detail embossing powder (Stampendous)

So Sorry
Stamps: Heartfelt Mix (Wplus9)
Ink: Purely Pomegranate (Stampin' Up!); Copics (R20, R83, R85, R89)
Card stock: White (Wplus9); Sweet Blush (Papertrey Ink)
Dies: Hearts & Clouds (Wplus9)
Other: White Detail embossing powder (Stampendous)

A Botanical Mother's Day

Mother's Day is just around the corner. Have you finished making cards for those special ladies in your life?

I'm making some progress over here, and thought I would share a card I created for my Mother in law. She's a fan of the pink and green color combo, so I thought this soft botanical design would be perfect for her.

I paired Woodgrain Silhouettes Additions with a sentiment from A Special Lady. I love how mature and serene this color combo becomes when paired with lots of white.

How about you? Will you be creating more soft and feminine Mother's Day cards? Or will you be going fun/cute, or perhaps more bold and graphic?

Project Supplies

Botanical Mother's Day
Stamps: A Special Lady, Woodgrain Silhouettes Additions (Wplus9)
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Sahara Sand, Regal Rose (Stampin' Up!) Green (Martha Stewart)
Card stock: White (Wplus9); Antique Linen (Papertrey Ink)
Dies: Label Layers 2 (Wplus9)
Other: ribbon, button (Papertrey Ink); twine (May Arts)

Bring On The Sunshine

It feels like we've skipped Spring and jumped head first into Summer here. With temperatures in the upper 80's-90's, we're seeing lot's of bees and flowers already.

I took this opportunity to pull out The Birds & The Bees and A Pocketful and paired them with some bright primary colors, red and yellow with green. I stamped the flower pocket fillers from A Pocketful across the bottom of my focal panel, and added my bee, sentiment and trail, all from The Birds & The Bees just above them.

For something a little different, I divided my ribbon banners and let the focal panel run between. This creates the illusion that the ribbons are running behind the panel, but uses less ribbon.

While I'm here...if you're reading this through a feed reader, you may not have noticed that the blog has been treated to a much needed makeover. Yay! No more embarrassing looking blog! Well, it's still quite simple, but at least now it matches the website.

Speaking of the website, I wanted to let you know that we've also enabled "Quick Views" at the store.

Now, when you hover over the middle of a product image when browsing categories, a "Quick View" button will appear. Click this and the product details will be displayed in an overlay window. You can "add to cart" or choose to view the full details page from here.

This means faster browsing for you and no waiting on page loads. I hope that you all find this helpful and that it improves your online experience at the store!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having a fantastic day!

Stock and Website Updates

Hi guys, I hope you all had a wonderful Easter holiday! We had a fun mini-vacation down south at Lego Land, and a quiet dinner at home on Sunday.

I just wanted to pop in quickly to point you all over to our Recent News for our stock and website updates in case anyone missed them. Remember, you can subscribe to these feeds as well by clicking on the little RSS icon for Recent News from either the home page or the footer of the website.

I'll be back soon with some new projects!

April/May Release Day Group Post

It's Release Day! All of our April/May 2012 products are now available for purchase at www.wplus9.com. If you missed the release, you can start here to catch up.

With the addition of card stock to the Wplus9 product line, we've had to adjust shipping rates and policies a bit. You can find all of the details here.

Release Day is also Group post day. Release Day is reserved with one last parting project from each of the ladies that I get the pleasure of showcasing.

Dawn Woleslagle

Featuring: Hearts & Clouds Die, Circle Stackers 1, Super Star, Banner Trio Die,The Birds & The Bees

Lea Lawson

Featuring: Super Star, Chevron Impression Plate, Banner Trio Die, Spring Tags, A Pocketful

Savitri Wilder

Featuring: Onesie Twosie, Onesie Twosie Die, Damask DoiliesLabel Layers 4

Elise Durenberger

Featuring: Mother's Day Bouquet, Chevron Impression Plate, Damask Doilies, Circle Stackers 1 Die

Jinny Newlin

Featured: Label Layers 1 Die, Onesie Twosie, Onesie Twosie Die, Background Builders: Knit, Banner Trio Die

Jean Martin

Featured: C'est La Vie, Super Star, Label Layers 4, Label Layers 4 Die, Label Layers 2 Die, Banner Trio Die

Kerrianne Gwin

Featured: Label Layers 2 Die, Mother's Day Bouquet

Christina Kowalczyk

Featured: Damask Doilies, Super Star

Aren't they all wonderful?! As always, the Design Team hit it out of the park this week. If you haven't seen the rest of their samples from the week, be sure to click on their names to check it out. Thanks to those of you who joined us this week! As promised, we've increased our starting inventories and will continue to do so as needed. We also have a die shipment expected early next week, so keep an eye out for a stock update. Thanks again!

April/May 2012 Release Day 4: Full Reveal

It's time for the full reveal! Time to show you the sets we are releasing this month in their entirety. All products will be available for purchase tomorrow, on April 5th at www.wplus9.com.

As you review all of the product and details, you will notice that starting with this release, we are increasing the price of our 6x8 sets by about 10%. This small increase helps offset some of the increased expenses that we are incurring as we grow and will ensure that we are able to continue our growth, but still allows us to remain at a lower cost for you than many of our competitors. All previously released sets will remain at their previous price.

Damask Doilies

Details

• is a 4x6 clear photopolymer stamp set
• contains 10 stamps; 4 images and 6 sentiments
• will be available for purchase April 5th for just $14

Onesie Twosie

Details

• is a 6x8 clear photopolymer stamp set
• contains 44 stamps; 4 onesie images, 14 sentiments and accent images, and the numbers 0-9 in two styles
• will be available for purchase April 5th for just $21

Onesie Twosie Companion Die

Details

• Onesie Twosie stamp set
• comes on a single die that can be easily snipped and separated
• approximate measurements (inches) - (A)1.5 x 1 5/8 (B)1 x 1 1/4
• will be available for purchase April 5th for just $6

Background Builders: Knit

Details

• is a 6x8 clear photopolymer stamp set
• contains 7 stamps; 5 background building strips and 2 smaller scaled builders
• will be available for purchase April 5th for just $21

Super Star

Details

• is a 6x8 clear photopolymer stamp set
• contains 17 stamps; 8 images, 1 banner, and 8 sentiment builders
• will be available for purchase April 5th for just $21

Tie Companion Die

• coordinates with the Super Star stamp set
• comes on a single die that can be easily snipped and separated
• approximate Measurements (inches) - (A)5/8 x 1 1/4 (B)1/2 x 1 5/8
• will be available for purchase February 5th for just $5

Banner Trio Die

• comes on a single die that can be easily snipped and separated
• approximate Measurements (inches) - (A)2 1/2 x 1/2 (B)3 3/4 x 5/8 (C)5 x 5/8
• will be available for purchase February 5th for just $11

Mother's Day Bouquet

• is a 3x4" clear photopolymer stamp set
• contains 11 stamps; 10 images and 1 sentiment
• will be available for purchase April 5th for just $6

Label Layers 4

• is a 4x6" clear photopolymer stamp set
• contains 9 stamps; 1 frame, 6 sentiment builders adn 2 accent images
• will be available for purchase April 5th for just $14

Label Layers 4 Companion Die

• coordinates with the Label Layers 4 stamp set
• comes on a single die that can be easily snipped and separated
• approximate Measurements (inches) - (A)2 1/4 x 1 1/4 (B)2 5/8 x 1 3/4
• will be available for purchase February 5th for just $11

Chevron Impression Plate

• double sided design on American steel
• approximate Measurements (inches) - 5.75" x 4.5"
• will be available for purchase April 5th for just $17

Premium Cardstock

• 8 1/2" x 11" 100 lb. heavy weight cardstock
• acid and lignin free
• made in the USA
• 15 sheet packs available in White, Kraft, and Oatmeal
• will be available for purchase April 5th for $4

So many of you have expressed enthusiasm over our addition of cardstock and Impression Plates. I wanted to give you some more details on this to help answer some of the questions I've been receiving.

Will you be carrying more colors of cardstock?
We are treating these first 3 colors as a beta run. We want to ensure that we can successfully break into the market and supply quality cardstock that meets your needs and exceeds your expectations. Upon success, we plan to introduce a complete color line.

Will these colors be available in larger quantities? A sampler pack?
For this initial phase, we want to keep things on a scale that we will successfully be able to deliver. These are definitely in discussion and on the horizon once we have completed this launch.

Will cardstock and Impression Plates be available for wholesale?
Initially cardstock will only be available direct-to-consumer on the website. Once we have a couple of months of sales trends to review we will adjust our stock accordingly and open up to wholesale. Impression Plates will be available for wholesale at the end of the month.

I hope that answers some of your questions, and as always, I want to thank you for joining us for another release! I love seeing all of the new names, and of course, those who continue to support us each release. You guys are the greatest! How about one more giveaway? Want to win the entire release? Just leave a comment by 10:00 PM EST TONIGHT April 4th to enter. I will select one random winner from all comments. Winners will be posted here by 11:00 PM EST.

Good luck!