Earth Day Flowers

Happy Earth Day! It's Kara and I couldn't stop by the WPlus9 Blog on Earth Day and not share a project featuring flowers! The recently released You Equal Kind set has become a fast favorite.

When I think of Earth Day I always think of the quote, "The Earth Laughs In Flowers" - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I wanted to create the look of falling flowers. Larger flowers have been stamped closer together at the bottom and smaller, more spread apart flowers have been stamped near the top.

I've used my current favorite color combination of Little Piggy, Sweet Gelato, Cranberry Crush, and Mojito for my flowers and leaves.  Black accents make the images pop!  I've stamped a sentiment from You Equal Kind and stamped the word 'awesome' on the You Equal Kind coordinating die cut. I have placed another die cut behind the word to help it stand out from the stamped background.

I hope you've enjoyed! 
Thanks so much for stopping by today.

FEATURED WPLUS9 SUPPLIES

For your convenience, here is a list of all of the supplies (or equivalents) used on today's project(s), along with links to purchase. Please note: this list does contain some affiliate links.

You Equal Kind	You Equal Kind Die	Little Piggy Dye Ink	Sweet Gelato Dye Ink
Cranberry Crush Dye Ink	Mojito Dye Ink	Black Dye Ink	White Cardstock
Black Cardstock

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Friends for All Seasons: Spring with Joni Andaya

Hello Everyone, Joni here. Welcome back to Wplus9 April 2016 Release. Today I want to show you the card I made using the Friends For All Seasons: Spring stamp set.

For this project I made a watercolored one layer card by creating my own watercolor background scene. To begin I first stamped the two pandas from the Friends For All Seasons: Spring stamp set using PURE COLOR dye ink in Black. I also stamped the flower and the bird from the same set.

Then I watercolored the background using Windsor & Newton watercolors. I first started with green and yellow watercolor paints mixed to get the different varieties of green and yellow. To get variation in intensity, add more water to your mix for lighter areas and add more pigment/watercolor to your mix to other areas for more intense color. I let it dry and created a blue background with blue watercolor paint - just remember to apply more concentration of blue on some areas for that variety. Remember any watercolors will work for this project, you don't have to buy expensive watercolor paints.

Next, I splattered some watercolor here and there on the card to add some interest. The sentiments "droppin in to say" and "we heart u " are also from the Friends For All Seasons: Spring stamp set.

Finally, I added some PPP Sparkling Clear sequins to finish off the card. I hope that you enjoyed today's card and that I have inspired you to try watercoloring your own background scene.

Have a wonderful day and thank you for stoppin' by!

VIDEO: Watercolor Backgrounds and Die Cuts with Kelly Latevola

Hello Crafters!

Have you gotten your hands on anything from the new release yet? It's all so awesome it's so hard to pick a favorite! From the get go I fell in love with the Outline Roses Die and the Rose Background Die. Such beautiful flowers for Spring. Today I decided to give the large background die a try :)

Eeep. Spring. Yay!

I really wanted to try something with a white die cut over a watercolor background. Dawn did something similar with the Outlined Roses Die. Well that die sold out pretty quickly, (but I hear it is currently on it's way back - like on the mail truck - way back). I wanted to show you how amazing it looks with the similar Rose Background Die.

You can watch the card from start to finish in the video below.

Watch above or watch in HD at YouTube

I really love how the large die cut makes the card. A sentiment and a few small embellishments were all I needed to complete the card.

That Wink of Stella under the glossy accents is such a show stealer! I love using this approach when I'm doing a card with minimal embellishments.

Thanks so much for dropping by!

Featured Wplus9 Supplies

For your convenience, here is a list of all of the Wplus9 supplies used on today's project(s), along with links to purchase.

Rose Background Die Sending Hoping Wishing Words Die Wplus9 Love Mom Layers Die Wplus9 Bountiful Blooms Die Sending Hoping Wishing Wplus9 PURE COLOR Black Dye Ink Wplus9 Black Premium Cardstock Wplus9 White Premium Cardstock

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VIDEO: Stretching Dye Inks with Guest Artist Yana Smakula

Hello everyone! This is Yana Smakula and I am so excited and truly honored to be a guest here at WPlus9 blog. I am a big fan of WPlus9 stamps and I adore Dawn’s designs, for me they are always perfect, impeccable, unique and well thought out.

Today I’d like to share a card I created for my Mom for Mother’s Day. Flowers plus a beautiful sentiment always make a perfect combo for a Mother’s Day card. I used Watercolored Anemones along with the companion dies, and Strictly Sentiments 4 for my project.

As for the color combo for this card I went with green Appletini, beautiful yellow Wild Mango and fabulous purple Cockleshell PURE COLOR dye inks. My Mom loves yellow flowers and she also adores purple, so using these colors was perfect in my case. I also added White pigment ink to mix as it was crucial to the technique I was using to create my project.

Watch above or watch in HD at YouTube

Watercolored anemones is a beautiful floral set that allows you to create stunning flowers using several colors of ink. Because I was only using one color for each flower (yellow or purple) I also used white to help me stretch each of the colors. I stamped the first layer of each flower using yellow or purple, added a layer of white which helped me mute the base layer of ink and finally I was able to stamp additional second and third layers using the same yellow or purple over white.

Having white ink sit inbetween the layers of yellow or purple really made the top layers pop and stand out against the muted background. I think this is a great technique to help stretch the use our ink pads.

I also used the same technique for the green leaves on the front of my card. The sentiments here were heat embossed in clear over black so they weren't affected by the white.

I also decorated my card on the inside - I created the same floral cluster and added an additional sentiment making sure I left plenty of room to write a message.

Hope you enjoyed, and I hope you have fun stamping!

Thank you so much for having me here on WPlus9 blog. It's been a pleasure!

Featured Wplus9 Supplies

For your convenience, here is a list of all of the Wplus9 supplies (or equivalents) used on today's project(s), along with links to purchase.

Watercolored Anemones Watercolored Anemones Die Wplus9 Strictly Sentiments 5 4x6" Stamp Set Wplus9 Appletini PURE COLOR Dye Ink Wplus9 Wild Mango PURE COLOR Dye Ink Pad Wplus9 Cockleshell PURE COLOR Dye Ink Wplus9 PURE COLOR White Pigment Ink

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Color Burst Rose Background with Maureen

It's Maureen here today with a card featuring the newly released Rose Background die. This die is so delicate and beautiful. It's perfect for Spring and the upcoming wedding season. I decided to pair it with a bold technique to make the design really pop.

I began with a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" piece of watercolor card stock, spritzed it generously with water, and then sprinkled the background with Color Burst.

Color Burst is a highly concentrated watercolor pigment in powder form that makes creating watercolor backgrounds easy. You can add as much or as little of the powder as you'd like, depending on what you want your outcome to be. Because this powder is so concentrated a little really does go a long way! You can heat set this piece to speed up drying, or let it air dry.

The Rose Background was die cut from White Cardstock and then adhered to the watercolored background with liquid glue. Rather than placing this whole piece to the card base, I die cut a portion of it using the Sunshine Layers Die and layered it onto vellum before adding it to the white card base.

This really made the design pop! To keep the background the focal point, I added a simple heat embossed sentiment.

I can't wait to see how you use this beautiful die! Thanks for stopping by today, and you will definitely want to come back tomorrow. We have another very special Guest Artist that you will not want to miss!

Featured Supplies

For your convenience, here is a list of all of the supplies (or equivalents) used on today's project(s), along with links to purchase. Please note: this list does contain some affiliate links.

Beautiful Bouquet: Dahlia	WPlus9 Rose Background Die	WPlus9 Design Studio Dies, Sunshine Layers	WPlus9 White Cardstock	WPlus9 Black Cardstock
Canson XL Watercolor Paper Pad 9x12	Versamark Ink Pad	Ken Oliver Color Burst	Ranger White Embossing Powder	Sizzix Big Shot White & Gray
2 Way Glue, Squeeze & Roll

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