Monday, May 31, 2010

June 21010 Release Day 4: Full Reveal

Welcome to Day 4 of the June Release, the moment you've been waiting for, the full reveal. Introducing the newest additions to the Wplus9 Design Studio. Both sets will be available for purchase on Tuesday, June 1st at www.wplus9.com.

The Birds & The Bees

Details

Set of 28 high-quality photo-polymer stamps;
9 sentiments and 19 images
Full Set Dimensions: 4x6
Price: $13


Background Builders: Hearts

Details

Set of 6 high-quality photo-polymer background building stamps
Full Set Dimensions: 4 x 6
Price: $13

Thanks so much for joining me for this release, and don't forget to check the winners page here to see if you were one of the lucky winners. All winners will be posted by 12 the following day. And join us tomorrow to see what the Wplus9 Design Team has done with these adorable stamps!

Sunday, May 30, 2010

June 2010 Release Day 3: Bonus Cards

It's Day 3 of the June 2010 Wplus9 Release. I've shown you a couple of great uses for both of our new sets The Birds & The Bees, and Background Builders: Hearts over the last couple of days. And you guys have been leaving lots of love and encouragement for these sets. Thanks so much for the huge response! But I still have a few more cards to share before I reveal the full sets tomorrow.

First, I decided to play a little with the cloud images that are included in The Birds & The Bees. I stamped the solid cloud onto Spring Rain cardstock in Fresh Snow ink, both by Papertrey Ink.

Then I came back and randomly stamped the outline image in Versamark and covered with Heat and Stick Powder by Stampin' Up!. This stuff is great. You use it just like embossing powder. Once you hit it with the heat gun it becomes sticky...you can then add glitter or flock. After I poured the glitter, I hit it again with the heat gun to set it.

You'll notice there is a faux stitching theme that runs through most of The Birds & The Bees set. I just adore it. I finished the card off with a butterfly, the heart trail and my fav sentiment from the set; "Follow your {heart}, it knows the way.".

And here is a close up at a slightly different angle so you can see that subtle sparkle.

Ok, this next card is one of my personal favs. I've used both sets together again AND...how excited was I to pull out Funky Foliage for a wonderful surprise. Check this out.

Is that not perfect?! I created a less lazy but still super easy sky using a hand cut cloud shape, some Spring Rain ink and a sponge. Randomly lay the template down and using the sponge dipped in ink, rub starting from the template and brushing onto the cardstock. Just keep moving the template and repeating. Start at the top of your cardstock and work your way down. I used the same template piece to mask the sun image included in The Birds & The Bees to make it appear like it's peeking from behind the clouds. Now the fun part. I used the tree trunk image from Funky Foliage to create a tree branch coming from each side of the cardstock. These are the perfect scale to serve as a perch for the little bird images included in the set. To finish it off, I added some leaves to the branches, also from Funky Foliage.

I told you this was a great release. Still want to see more. Kerrianne has a gorgeous card to show you over at Retro Girly Creative featuring both new sets. Be sure to stop by and show her some love. She has some big news to share next month. ;o) Be sure to stop by tomorrow to see both sets revealed in their entirety before they go on sale Tuesday, June 1st. And Tuesday will be our Design Team group post where you will see what the amazingly talented ladies have done!

So, want a chance to win The Birds and The Bee, Background Builders: Hearts, and Funky Foliage, a prize pack worth $45.00? Leave me a comment by 11:59 pm EST Sunday May 30th. I will select 1 random winner. The winner will be posted here, and will have 1 week to claim their prize.

Friday, May 28, 2010

June 2010 Release Day 2: Background Builders: Hearts

Welcome back for Day 2 of the Wplus9 Design Studio June 2010 release. Today I am showing you a new background building set. I LOVE this set. It seriously ranks right up there with polka dots for me. I am excited to bring you Background Builders: Hearts.

Background Builders: Hearts

  • is a 4x6 clear photopolymer stamp set
  • contains 6 different background building heart images
  • will be available for purchase Tuesday, June 1st for just $13

When I designed this set, I purposely designed 5 of the styles in single rows. I did this so that you could stamp them one on top of another in the same color, or switch it up and do each row a different color. How fun is that? So for this first card I used the open heart image first.

You'll notice, like our other background builder set, these images are at least 5 1/2 inches in width. Just long enough to cover the front of a standard card without having to try to line the pattern up to the left or right. I continued this pattern flipping the stamp up and then down, AND alternating colors. Once I had the card front covered, I came in with one of the solid heart images, spaced perfectly to fit inside of the open heart.

I finished it off with a sentiment from Funky Flowers embossed in white, some chipboard letters, and some pink embroidery floss. This is the perfect card for my niece who turns 10 this summer.

Next, I wanted to do a simple black and white card. I used the larger sized heart and stamped it in Versamark onto Stamper's Select cardstock and embossed it using the Pearl embossing powder from Stampendous.

I chose to pair it with one of the bird images from yesterday's set "The Birds & The Bees" and the sentiment from Funky Foliage. I love how elegant this one turned out.


I hope you are loving the release as much as I am so far. The rest of the design team is having so much fun with these sets. I can't wait to show you what they have done with them. We have one more day of projects to show you tomorrow before the full reveals, so be sure to come back again tomorrow. We will have a big prize package featuring one of our most popular sets.

Want to win the Background Builders: Hearts set? Leave me a comment by 11:59 pm EST Saturday May 29th. I will select 1 random winner to receive Background Builders: Hearts. Winners will be posted here, and will have 1 week to claim their prize.

June 2010 Release Day 1: The Birds & The Bees

Welcome to Day 1 of the Wplus9 Design Studio June 2010 release! I will be releasing two new sets this month at The Studio and I am very anxious to show them to you.

This month I am bringing you the ultimate summer set! If I could only purchase one set for the summer, The Birds & The Bees would be the one for me. I am absolutely in love with this set. The sentiments are so fun, and the font....looove it! I was so excited when I got the My Mind's Eye paper "Quite Contrary" as I knew it was the perfect paper for this release.

The Birds & The Bees

  • is a 4x6 clear photopolymer stamp set
  • contains 28 stamps; 9 sentiments and 19 images
  • will be available for purchase Tuesday, June 1st for just $13

For my first card I've paired the flower and bee images with Design Basics: Backgrounds I. The images work great together! I stamped the stems of the flowers in a row along the bottom, and came back in with the separate flower image and stamped it alternately in orange and yellow. To get the sky effect the lazy way, I just used a sponge and some Spring Rain ink from Papertrey Ink to randomly ink the egdes of the cardstock, coming in a little further here and there. Then I added the dotted trail and two little bees buzzing around the flowers. I pulled it all together by stamping a background pattern from Design Basics: Backgrounds I in Fresh Snow onto Summer Sun cardstock and adding a piece of that My Mind's Eye patterned paper to the bottom of the focal image. Don't you just love that font? Here's a close up shot.

This next card features what just might be my favorite image, and of course, the perfect paper from MME's "Quite Contrary". Yes, I have become a huge MME fan!

See, how perfect is that? This card is so simple. That fun little rain cloud really makes a great focal image all on it's own. Fist I stamped the raining hearts in Stampin' Up!'s Real Red. Then I stamped the solid cloud image in Papertrey Ink's Aqua Mist, trimmed it out and popped it on dimensionals above the "rain". A sentiment; "showering you with love", some twine and a button is all that was needed to finish this card.

So what do you think so far? Hopefully you feel a little inspired. I will be showing you the second set tomorrow, so be sure to stop back by.

Want to win a set? Leave me a comment telling me what about summer inspires you most when crafting by 11:59 pm EST Friday May 28th. I will select 1 random winner to receive The Birds & The Bees and Design Basics: Backgrounds I. Winners will be posted here, and will have 1 week to claim their prize.

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You Are My Sunshine Project Supplies

Stamps
The Birds & The Bees, Design Basics:Backgrounds I by Wplus9 Design Studio
Ink
Only Orange, Summer Sun by Stampin' Up!; Spring Rain, Spring Moss, Fresh Snow by Papertrey Ink; Black by Colorbox
Paper
Quite Contrary patterned paper by My Mind's Eye; Summer Sunrise, Stamper's Select White, Spring Rain cardstock by Papertrey Ink
Other
Scallop border punch, White Grosgrain ribbon by Stampin' Up!

Showering You With Love Project Supplies

Stamps
The Birds & The Bees by Wplus9 Design Studio
Ink
Real Red, Chocolate Chip by Stampin' Up!; Aqua Mist by Papertrey Ink
Paper
Quite Contrary patterned paper by My Mind's Eye; Real Red, Kraft cardstock by Stampin' Up!; Stamper's Select White cardstock by Papertrey Ink
Other
Twine, Vintage Buttons by Papertrey Ink; Soft Suede Stampin' Write markers by Stampin' Up!

Monday, May 24, 2010

2S4Y Sketch 53

Wplus9 has the pleasure of sponsoring 2S4Y this week. (see this post for details) Unfortunately my computer decided to crash and I am in the process of having it reformatted and all of the programs re-installed, so I was not able to get my sketch done in time. Luckily my hubby's laptop does at least have Photoshop. So I'm not completely dead in the water. Anyway, here is my take on Kazan's fabulous sketch.

I was able to bust this bad boy out in about 10 minutes flat. Literally while my husband ran to the convienent store. LOL It's for his birthday tomorrow, so I had to sieze the opportunity! Be sure to visit the 2 Sketches 4 You blog and play along!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wplus9 Sponsors 2S4Y's 2nd Anniversary

It is my pleasure and honor to sponsor this weeks 2 Sketches 4 You challenge! This is a momentous occasions for the lovely Laura and Kazan as it also marks 2S4Y 2nd Anniversary. How exciting is that?

There is a huge prize up for grabs for this special occasion. Not only will the winner get a $25 gift certificate to the Wplus9 Design Studio, but over the next 2 weeks random participants will be selected to win the brand new Cathie Allan's Position It! Are you dying to play? Here's a peek at Kazan's fabulous sketch.

Great, huh?! Well head over to the 2S4Y blog for all of the details, to see what the incredibly talented 2S4Y Design Team has created with an assortment of Wplus9 stamps, and to play along.

And I couldn't leave without showing you what the girls here on the Wplus9 Design Team have done. Check out their blogs for details on each project, or just to leave them a comment!

Hope to see you there!

Saturday, May 22, 2010

U Rock!

You do, you really, really do. ;o)

Today's card is a fun boy card that my oldest, Hunter, helped me pick out the colors for. Green is his favorite color, so I was not surprised when he picked it.

I used Design Basics: Backgrounds I to stamp a single strip in black first on the card base. Then I took a 1.5" strip of black cardstock and stamped a single row on it with Versamark and embossed using Detail White embossing powder. To add a little something without get too frilly, I used the single star from Kisses & Cuddles and randomly added some stars to the green panel. Some chipboard alphas, and a pop of red buttons and I'd say "Done".

Super simple and Hunter gave it a thumbs up. Hope you are having a great weekend. I'm off to spend some time with the boys. We are going to try to get the boat out for some tubing and maybe some fishing. Fun!

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Project Supplies

Stamps
Design Basics: Backgrounds I and Kisses & Cuddles by Wplus9 Design Studio
Ink
Versamark; Black pigment ink by ColorBox
Cardstock
Glorious Green, Basic Black by Stampin' Up!; Stamper's Select White by Papertrey Ink
Other
Chipboard Alphabet by DCVW; Vintage Buttons in Pure Poppy by Papertrey Ink; Embossing Powder by Stampendous; Corner Rounder by Stampin' Up!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

All Eyes On...Paper Piecing

It is the 20th of the month...time for "All Eyes On...", and this month we are focusing on paper piecing.

Paper piecing is so much fun and can be used for so many things. You can paper piece a background, a focal image, a die cut, or a stamp if you are color challenged (like me)! For my project today, I'm using some more of that gorgeous "Quite Contrary" paper from My Mind's Eye.

I decided to piece together a heart for the focal point of this card. (so much like our own, all stitched together with pieces from different memories and people, huh? I started by running a couple of sheets of paper through my Big Shot using a heart die from Stampin' Up!.

Once I had the pieces and patterns I wanted, I used the large hearts and an Exact-O knife to slice sections from each pattern. You can sketch the slices on each heart first to make sure you end up will a full heart. Then I layered them back together and ran it through my (super cheap and chintzy) sewing machine. I feel bad even calling it a sewing machine, it's like an insult to real ones. After I stitched them together, I went all the way around the outside just for a little added "oomph". Should of stopped while I was ahead on that one. LOL Now all I had to do was layout the rest of the card. I added some more border punched patterned paper and a hint of brown card stock on the base.

One of my favorite things is creating a word or phrase by using images combined with text. So I used my Big Shot again to cut out the word "felt" and added it to the right of my heart. "Heart-felt" Love it. I also added a little flower I made this weekend. I made quite a few out of all different weights of yarn. So fun!

I actually ended up using a different flower as you can see in the finished card. To finish it off I added the only stamp on the card, a simple "Thanks" from Funky Flowers.

Check out what some of the design team has to share with you as well. Visit their blogs by clicking on the picture or their names to see more details on each card.

Kerrianne uses several Wplus9 stamps to create some subtle background patterns and then pieces them all together.

Maile opts to color and paper piece an outline stamp from Kisses and Cuddles to pop some of it for added dimension.

Elise uses paper piecing to create a little window complete with curtains and all!

Hopefully we've inspired you. If so, be sure to leave a link in the comments so we can check it out! Have something you'd like to see us tackle? We'd love to add it to our list. You can also connect with us on Facebook, catch up, ask questions or leave suggestions, maybe even see your card featured if you've uploaded it to our Flickr Gallery.

Thanks for stopping by today, hope you find some time to craft!

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Project Supplies

Stamps
Funky Flowers by Wplus9
Ink
Chocolate Chip by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock
Rustic Cream by Papertrey Ink; Chocolate Chip by Stampin' Up!
Paper
Quite Contrary by My Mind's Eye
Other
Fiskars corner rounder; Big Shot; Hearts and Alphabet dies by Stampin' Up!; Royale chrochet thread (size 3); Lemon Tart vintage button by Papertrey Ink

Monday, May 17, 2010


Real quick post tonight. I put this together for the Embellish Magazine Challenge. I got some My Minds Eye paper last week from CARDS Magazine and just had to use it. I have to say, I love this paper! The patterns and colors are amazing and the texture and feel of the paper...heaven. I believe this is from the Quite Contrary collection.

Have a great night and thanks for stopping by!

Friday, May 14, 2010

Color Cue {4} Challenge

Details:
Create a card, scrapbook page, digital layout, tag, whatever...just make sure to use the above colors. Papertrey Ink's Spring Rain, Enchanted Evening, Lemon Tart, and Stamper's Select White or Stampin' Up!'s Bashful Blue, Not Quite Navy, and So Saffron are good equivalents. But anything you have on hand close to the colors will do. As Always, sentiments or outlines in black are fine as well.

Create your project and post it to your blog or online photo gallery such as Flickr or SCS. Add a direct link to your project (not your homepage please) by clicking the "add your link" button below.

Deadline:
You have until June 7th at 11:59 pm EST to play along. You will know the deadline has passed when the link to add your project is no longer available.

Bonus:
If you have Wplus9 stamps in your stash already, now would be the time to bust them out. I will be collecting lucky participants to feature as "On Cue with Color" here on the blog and at The Studio. If you don't have any yet...don't worry I still want to be inspired by you and you will still be featured here on the blog!

I used Wplus9's Kisses & Cuddles, the sentiment from Funky Flowers, and Practicing Creativity's Look Up and Just Dandy for the birds and sun rays in the background to create this playful birthday card.

Maile Belles used Wplus9's Kisses & Cuddles and Design Basics: Backgrounds I to welcome baby with style.


Elise Durenberger put together a very nostalgic scene using the train from Kisses & Cuddles.


Kerrianne Gwin also used bothKisses & Cuddles and Design Basics: Backgrounds I to announce a new little "star".

Now it's your turn! Add your link below.


Wednesday, May 12, 2010

An Absence of Color

Today's cards feature quite the unconventional color combo. In fact, I'd say they lack color almost completely. But don't let that fool you, they are still gorgeous, and quite sophisticated if you ask me. I originally wanted to create this first card for the Caardvarks monochromatic challenge. But as some things go...I didn't make it in time.

I started by stamping the large leaves from Woodgrain Silhouettes Additions in Versamark onto white cardstock. Then I embossed them using Stampendous' White Pearls translucent embossing powder. I love how this turned out. It added an instant touch of class. I stamped the same large leaf in Stampin' Up!'s Sahara Sand onto white cardstock and trimmed. I added the sentiment in black on Sahara Sand and then added a "fancy bow", a technique that I learned from the amazing Paulina, in white satin ribbon. I finished the card off with some pearls in the center of the leaves.

Here's a detail shot of the embossing.

So while I had these colors and products out, I whipped out another fun card, using my "go-to" layout. If you've frequented my blog you'll no doubt recognize this layout.

Again, I love this card! I used the woodgrain background from Woodgrain Silhouettes stamped in Versamark on Sahara Sand cardstock for the background. I thought this was a perfect backdrop for the dandelion from Practicing Creativity's "You're Dandy". I added the sentiment in black, and done. So quick and easy! Both cards use the sentiments from Papertrey Ink's "Giga Guide Lines" set, I love the sentiments in this set. Truth be told...it's the only reason I bought it. ;o)

So what do you think of this "non-color" color combo? Is it something you could see yourself trying?

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Baby Shower

Happy Tuesday all. I've got a quick post for you this evening...I'm not feeling the greatest, I think I'm coming down with a cold. But I took some Airborne and some DayQuil, so hopefully it won't be too bad.

For today's card, I paired the teddy from Wplus9's "Kisses and Cuddles" with the umbrella from Papertrey Ink's "Scattered Showers". I was pleasantly surprised to find that the bear is the perfect size for the umbrellas in that set (wish I could say that was intentional). I'm not completely happy with this card, I wish the teddy bear weren't so high. Maybe I'll make another one and make sure to move it down a bit. This sort of thing probably wouldn't happen if I actually sketched layouts instead of "winging it". LMAO

But I do like the color combo, Melon Mambo, Blush, White and Black and will probably be using it again soon. I also added a little background pattern using Wplus9's "Design Basics: Backgrounds I".

Thanks for stopping by today. I'll be back tomorrow with two of my favorite cards!

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Project Supplies

Paper
Melon Mambo by Stampin' Up!; Vintage Cream and Blush by Papertrey Ink
Stamps
Kisses & Cuddles, Design Basics: Backgrounds I by Wplus9 Design Studio; Scattered Showers by Papertrey Ink
Ink
Black by Colorbox; Pretty in Pink craft ink, Melon Mambo classic ink by Stampin' Up!
Other
Raspberry Fizz buttons by Papertrey Ink; Border punch by Martha Stewart; Pearls generic from Michael's

Monday, May 10, 2010

On Cue With Color {3}

Iwona Palamountain (Chupa)

Wow, you guys don't make it easy! I noticed that a lot of you said you struggled with this combo, but you still managed to pull out a wonderful round of gorgeous inspiration. These are were just a few of our favorites, be sure to check out all of the entries if you haven't already.

I love having the Design Team pick their favorites. Can you believe that this was another round where no two people picked the same card?! Just goes to show how different everyone's taste is. You'll notice that Susan's card is the On Cue feature this month as well as being Maile's personal pick. Congratulations Susan, you will have a banner devoted to you in the feature graphics slider on the homepage at the Studio, www.wplus9.com!

Thanks again to everyone who played along, the next Color Cue will be up on the 15th, I hope you find some time to play again!

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