March 2019 Release: New Home

Hey guys! Our March 2019 Release is now available at wplus9.com and I can't wait to share some ideas and inspiration featuring these newest products!

So, I'm not even going to pretend like I have a favorite this release. Normally, something jumps out at me and just pulls me in a little closer than the others. But this time, each time I opened a set and started creating, I squealed (to myself of course, not out loud, that would just be embarrassing) and proclaimed "This is my favorite!"

So instead, I'll just kick off with one of my favorite sets - New Home. And, right now we have a Bundle & Save deal for New Home. You can pick up the New Home wafer die at 15% off when you purchase the New Home stamp set. Discount is automatically applied when both items are added to your cart.

I've got two cards to share with you today. The whole release focuses on family and home. And the New Home set is literally a front door/porch scene building set.

This first card is perfect for anyone buying a new home, moving, or if you have moved. The inside sentiment says "The address may have changed, but the welcome is still the same." I think it's a perfect sentiment to create address change announcements with!

I started this card by stamping the front door in Memento Tuxedo black ink and then masked it off. I stamped the "siding" across the background and did a little very simple shading and coloring with Copics. I'm talking flat one color and then one shade darker to add simple shadows.

All of the porchscaping - is that a word - it is now. All of the plants, pots, and porch light were stamped, colored with Copics and then die cut with the New Home companion die. I did a bit of layering with my flowers, so I adhered some directly to the base and others I popped up with a little foam adhesive.

For the next card, I wanted to simplify it a bit. You know, do a little less coloring. The images are pretty good sized and this little scene takes up the majority of an A2 card front. Well, I may have mentioned that my oldest son has an affinity for my Copics...which wouldn't be a problem if he would just order the refills when needed! So, my color choices were limited and some, make that most, were running out of ink.

So I decided to go for an all white house and trim with a bold blue door. And I'm not mad about it. I actually love the way this one turned out.

This time, I swapped out the topiary trees fro more planters. You'll notice that I doubled up some of the flowers in the larger pots. I do not have a green thumb, and I have no potted flowers to speak of, but I know I've seen these mixed pots done. So why not here?! LOL I added some of the taller flowers in to give a little height and weight so they would look more substantial next to that bold blue door.

For a little extra texture, I embellished the flowers with a little Glossy Accents and Nuvo Drops.

For the sentiment, I used a couple of our other new products. The new Welcome Wreath and Welcome wafer die compliment the New Home products beautifully. I cut "thanks" from the Welcome wafer die several times and stacked one on top of the other. "For Your Hospitality", from the Welcome Wreath stamp set, was heat embossed in white onto black card stock and adhered with foam tape.

I had a blast playing with this set! I have pieces and parts for more cards already colored, cut out and just waiting - so don't you worry, you'll see more of this set.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I'll be back very soon with more from this release!

Featured Supplies

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

Wplus9 White Cardstock Shop at: WP9	Wplus9 Black Cardstock Shop at: WP9	New Home Shop at: WP9	New Home Die Shop at: WP9
Welcome Die Shop at: WP9	Welcome Wreath Shop at: WP9

Perfect Repeating Pattern w/Dawn ft. HAPPY WISHES

Hello crafty friends! I have a fun technique to share today. And I'll warn you ahead of time, it is addictive!

I don't know about you, but I'm a sucker for a pretty pattern. However, I have a love/hate relationship with patterned paper. I love to look at it, but I hate to cut into it! Hence why I love to stamp out my own.

I can't tell you how many times I get halfway through stamping out a pattern only to stamp an image too close or not close enough and then the "seamless" is off, or one area overlaps that shouldn't. Now normally I go with the flow and figure out a way to cover or cut out that area, but sometimes I have to start over.

Today's technique shows you how to take out the guess work and stamp perfect patterns every time. With the tiniest bit of pre-planning, you'll be stamping out as many pretty patterns as you'd like.

Watch above or watch in HD at YouTube

Bonus? Once you've set up your "template", it can be reused again and again with different color combinations!

Let me apologize up front for the poor picture quality today. My DSLR settings seem to have mysteriously gone awry, combined with a rainy day(s)...and well, you get the point. I'll have to figure that out.

This is one of those that is definitely a show, rather than tell technique, so be sure to watch the video. Here, I'll go over each card along with the color combos and products used. You will need a stamp positioning tool for this - I've used the standard sized MISTI - but whichever you have will do. As the name suggests, repeating pattern, you will be doing a lot of repetitive stamping of a simple floral motif. The MISTI makes this super quick, easy, and best of all...accurate.

All of the patterns today were stamped using the Happy Wishes stamp set. (All products will be listed at the end of this post for reference) This first pair of cards comes from the same pattern. I stamped out a 6x6" inch pattern using the following Wplus9 PURECOLOR ink color combination:

Color Combo 1

• Warm Wool
• Flamingo
• Fairy Dust
• Wild Mango
• Last Leaf

For the first card, I trimmed a 4 x 5.25" panel from the patterned paper and mounted it to a standard card base with foam tape. The sentiment, also from Happy Wishes was stamped onto a die cut circle using the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Circle wafer dies. To accent the sentiment, I stamped a few extra floral elements, die cut them using the Happy Wishes Die and used them to flanked the sentiment with a few floral clusters.

I had some left over pieces of pattern from where I trimmed out the panel from the first card, and used them to die cut a couple of envelopes from using the Love Notes Die. I also cut a few of the floral images from the patterned scraps using the Happy Wishes Die.

I arranged all of the pieces in a little vignette and stamped my sentiment below it.

I knew I wanted to place all of this on a white base, but it felt a little too plain with all of the white on white, so I added a little bit of texture to the background using my score board and stylus. I have a video on this technique in this post for more on how to do that.

The next card uses the same color combo as the previous ones, except I chose to use a bit more of Last Leaf. Switching up which color you use more predominately in a pattern can give it a whole different feel.

I trimmed this one down to 5" square and mounted it to a 5.25" card base. Again, I used the same main sentiment and added the "on your special day" and placed both on a hexagon label die cut from the Clear Cut Stackers: Hexagon Die. More little floral images stamped and die cut flank the top and bottom of the sentiment.

This time I added some texture to the background by using a couple sizes of the Clear Cut Stackers: Hexagon Die to dry emboss instead of cutting. I nested them in the center of my background and swapped out my cutting mats for my embossing mats in the Big Shot. This allows the dies to emboss rather than cut.

The next card uses many of the same colors, but I swapped out the Fairy Dust for Miami Spice. I also changed my floral motif a bit and used some different images from the set.

Color Combo 2

• Warm Wool
• Flamingo
• Miami Spice
• Wild Mango
• Last Leaf

I trimmed the paper down to 4 x 5.25", cutting from the side rather than the middle makes the pattern appear to be more random. If you prefer to retain the "radial" effect of the pattern, be sure to cut your panel from the center of your paper. Again, I used the Clear Cut Stackers: Hexagon Die to cut a hexagon from my pattern and nested a smaller hexagon inside with my sentiment. This time I used the Bold Banner Greetings stamp set.

And this final card really just lets the pattern shine. I used the following color combo:

Color Combo 3

• Warm Wool
• Sweet Nectar
• Shell Pink
• Nautical Navy
• Last Leaf
• Sea Breeze

This time I used the MISTI to stamp out only the largest elements - the large leaf segment and the large flowers. I then came in and hand stamped the rest of the filler images in a more random pattern to fill in the empty spaces. I made sure to repeat some of the same elements across the clusters but didn't worry about making them exact. For the sentiment, I stamped "you're the best" from the Basic Labels stamp set in the middle.

I hope you enjoyed today's projects and that it gives you some ideas on ways to use this technique. Try it with different images like critters or basic shapes, layering stamps and outlined images. The possibilities are endless!

Thanks for stopping by and I will see you next time!

Featured Supplies

For your convenience, here is a list of the featured supplies used on today's project(s), along with links to purchase. Please note: this list contains affiliate links.

Wplus9 White Cardstock Shop at: WP9	Wplus9 PURE COLOR Nautical Navy Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	3M Scotch DOUBLE-SIDED FOAM TAPE Shop at: SSS	Ranger Multi-Medium Matte Shop at: SSS
EK Success CRAFT TWEEZERS Precision Tip Shop at: SSS	We R Memory Keepers TRIM AND SCORE Board Shop at: SSS	Wild Mango PURE COLOR Dye INk Shop at: WP9	Flamingo PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9
Wplus9 Basic Labels Stamp Set Shop at: WP9	Wplus9 Dove Grey Cardstock Shop at: WP9	Wplus9 Gift Card Layers Die Shop at: WP9	Miami Spice PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9
Last Leaf PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Sea Breeze PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Sweet Nectar PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Warm Wool PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9
Tombow MONO Adhesive PERMANENT Tape Dispenser Shop at: SSS	Bold Banner Greetings Shop at: WP9	Fairy Dust PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Simon Says Stamp STITCHED CIRCLES Wafer Dies Shop at: SSS
Happy Wishes Shop at: WP9	PURE COLOR Shell Pink Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Clear Cut Stackers: Hexagon Shop at: WP9	Lawn Fawn Glue Tube Shop at: SSS | EH
Tim Holtz Tonic GLASS MEDIA MAT Shop at: SSS	MISTI Precision Stamping Tool Shop at: SSS | EH	Gemini Junior Shop at: SSS	Happy Wishes Die Shop at: WP9
Love Notes Die Shop at: WP9