February 2011 Release Day 1: Flora & Fauna I

Welcome to Day 1 of the Wplus9 February 2011 Release! For those of you joining us for the first time, we will spend the next couple of days giving you some peeks at projects using the stamps from this month's release. All sets will be available for purchase at www.wplus9.com on February 1st.

Wow, do we have a fantastic release scheduled this month! This month marks Wplus9 Design Studio's 1 year anniversary. One year ago this month, I embarked on this fantastic venture...and I've loved every minute of it! Thank you all so much for making this one of the most fulfilling years ever for me. Seriously. From the bottom of my heart.

Joining us this month to help us celebrate, we have the crazy talented Sarah Martina Parker. She will be here all month long to help us do it up right!

As if that were not exciting enough, I have also invited Mrs. Jinny Newlin to remain on the Wplus9 Design Team permanently! Or at least until she can't stand it anymore. ;o) Don't worry, I will still be selecting Guest Designers periodically for month intervals. Ok, now I believe we can get on with this celebration. Ready?

Up first, we are previewing one of my new personal favorites. Oh my, you will surely fall in love with this set. This not-so-little ditty is the first in a series that I am working on. I have drawn my inspiration for the series from the states' symbols. State birds, flowers, and butterflies to be exact. Flora & Fauna I was inspired by Virginia and North Carolina. This one is so gorgeous, we've decided we need two days to properly introduce it.

Flora & Fauna I

• is a 6x8 clear photopolymer stamp set
• contains 7 stamps; 4 large focal images and 3 accent images
• will be available for purchase February 1st for just $19

Today, I want to focus on the gorgeous Cardinal and single Dogwood Bloom included in the set.

I am in love with the way this turned out. The illustrations in this set really are some of my best ever. To begin, I used a circle cutter (Martha Stewart Crafts) to cut a 2 1/4 inch circle and stamped the cardinal using black ink.

What I really like about this image is that the shading is built in. Because of this, I only had to use one shade of red for the entire bird. Score!

I matted my focal point on a yellow scalloped circle, and matted that on a white doily that I distressed by crumpling it up and then inking it with some distress ink (Ranger).

To create the background patterned paper, I used the single Dogwood bloom also included in the set. I had no idea when I added this one single image how much I would come to love it. That paper is so stunning and sophisticated. And that's just stamped in black on white cardstock. Just IMAGINE the possibilities there!

I just assembled everything and added my sentiment (more on that Sunday!).

This next one literally made me squeal when I finished it. I've used the large Dogwood blooms and one of the smaller butterflies for this one.

Again, we are talking pure and simple stamping. A little Versamark and some white embossing powder and a big beautiful stamp. For me, it all starts with the stamp when I craft, and this set does not disappoint. I paired it with a sentiment from Ever After. I think it's a gorgeous wedding card that could easily be recreated in the bride's colors.

So are you ready to see more? The girls have some gorgeous creations to share with you.

Elise Durenberger
Hannah Craner
Jinny Newlin
Kerrianne Gwin
Maile Belles
Savitri Wilder
Sarah Martina Parker

That's it from me for today, I can wait to share more with you tomorrow. What do you think of the overall concept of this Series so far? Something that you could see wanting to see more of? Leave me a comment by 11:59 pm Saturday, January 29th letting me know which birds/flowers/butterflies you'd like to see grouped together? I'll pick one random winner from the comments to receive Flora & Fauna I. Winners will be posted here, be sure to check to see if you've won. Thanks for joining us and hope to see you tomorrow!

All Eyes On...Envelopes

Happy Friday! It's time for another edition of All Eyes On, and this month, I asked the fabulous design to focus on envelopes. You know, those plain boring envelopes. After spending all of that time creating the perfect card it just seems blasphemous to hide it in a plain envelope! So, whether you are mailing your card or hand delivering, I asked the ladies to show us some envelopes worthy of housing our little works of art.

I decided to focus on sprucing up envelopes for mailing, which means no embellishments or layers. Oh yeah...my kinda crafting; one layer stamping! There are tons of ways to add that little something extra to your envelopes, whether you play with framing the address areas, or adding a watermarked image. I have two fun examples to share with you using All Occasion Tags and From The Kitchen Of.

Isn't that too cute? I stamped the journaling lines from "From The Kitchen" of in the upper left hand corner along with the "From:" stamp from "All Occasion Tags" for the return address. For the address I used the tag, eyelet, and the "To:" stamps. To create the string I first lightly sketched the lines and then went over them with a white gel pen. Once it was dry I erased any left over pencil lines.

Now this one is so versatile. There are a ton of holiday themed images and phrases in "All Occasion Tags" that make mass producing this layout for all of your holiday cards a breeze! All I had to do was add the journaling lines from "From The Kitchen Of" for my recipient and return address and I'm done. So easy and worth adding that final touch.

Be sure to stop by and visit the rest of the design team:
Elise Durenberger
Hannah Craner
Jinny Newlin
Kerrianne Gwin
Maile Belles
Savitri Wilder

I would love to see your ideas as well. If we've inspired you or sparked your creativity, be sure to link up your projects in the comments. Thanks for stopping by and happy Friday!

On Cue With Color {9}

Cristina

Again and again I was drawn back to this clean and simple card with the stunning intricate pattern. I just love the way Cristina paired the busy pattern with the minimalist design.

Sorry for the delay in announcing our favorites. Congrats to all of the fave picks, and thanks so much to all of you who participate in the challenge again and again. As always, I enjoyed seeing what ya'll came up with for this color combo. ;o)

Be sure to check out all of the entries if you haven't already. The Color Cue is always packed with tons of talent and inspiration!

Color Cue {11}

Ready for a little inspiration? For this month's colors, I used Soft Suede (Stampin' Up!) as my netral, Aqua Mist, Sweet Blush, and White (Papertrey Ink). I paired this sweet combo with our Background Builders: Hearts and Love Birds stamp sets.

And of course, the Design Team has some inspiration for you as well!

Elise Durenberger

It looks like Elise and I were on the same wavelength here. She also used Wplus9's Background Builders: Hearts and Love Birds. Love the stamping she did on the acetate with paint. The subtle distressing of the paint is fabulous.

Jinny Newlin

I am loving the soft shabby chic look Jinny has created here. I love how she complimented her felt heart by using Design Basics: Backgrounds I for the back panel.

Kerrianne Gwin

What do I love about this card? Everything! Kerrianne shows us how you don't need much to create a fabulous card. I love how she has used the sentiment set Sweet Nothings to create a full card. She cleverly created the patterned paper using the accent hearts in the set.

Details

Create a card, scrapbook page, digital layout, tag, whatever...just make sure to use the colors noted in the graphic.

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 February 7th at 10:59 pm EST to play along. You will know the deadline has passed when the link to add your project is no longer available.

Bonus

Each Design Team member will be picking their personal favorites from the entries to feature here on the blog.

Now it's your turn!

Those Precious Moments

Happy Thursday (almost Friday)!

Oh how I live for the weekends! Why? Because of moments like these:

Saturday morning...stamping...with my little man. It just doesn't get any better than this. Ah yes, those precious moments.

Showering You With Love

Can you believe it's almost Valentine's Day?!

I have a dreadful feeling that this year is going to go even faster than last year. OK, I realize it's only January 11th...but it seems like the older you get, the faster time flies. Maybe it's because as we get older we start to realize how many goals we have and how little time we have to achieve them. Especially once all of the normal everyday responsibilities start mounting. That being said. I've set one selfish goal this year. One hour. One hour a day to start chipping away at some of those lofty life goals.

We'll see how long that lasts. We happen to have a lot of occasions in February; Valentine's Day, 2 Anniversaries, our Anniversary, and 3 birthdays. I figured I better get started earlier this year if I actually want to keep my goal of sending out more cards. For this one, I decided to dig into my stash for a card that had never been posted to share.

For this card, I used Background Builders: Hearts and The Birds & The Bees. I stamped and panel with the hearts in pink and added my sentiment in brown and red.

For that little something "extra", I punched a few hearts from red cardstock, punched holes in the corner and hung them from the ribbon using DMC floss. Super simple, yet sweet.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are getting a head start on those Valentine's.

Project Supplies

Stamps: Background Builders: Hearts and The Birds & The Bees (Wplus9 Design Studio)
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Close to Cocoa, Real Red (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Kraft, Pretty in Pink (Stampin' Up!); Pure Poppy, Vintage Cream (Papertrey Ink)
Other: Buttons and Ribbon (Papertrey Ink); Heart punch (Marvy Uchida); Border punch (Fiskars); floss (DMC)

Long Time No Post

Happy New Year everyone! I know it has been awhile since my last post, but I am back! So sorry for the long absence. I want to say "thank you" to each one of you who checked in with me, I can't tell you how much that means to me. ;o)

We had a fantastic Holiday. Lots of family time, movie watching, baking, crafting, and fun. I thought I would fill you in on just a bit of what's been going on around here.

Meet Ginger and Max. Some of you already know that our little princess Izzy, had puppies. It was both exciting and scary. Izzy is a toy poodle and just the sweetest thing ever. About a month before delivery, she got extremely sick and we almost lost her. She spent the night at the emergency vet and another 2 1/2 days at the regular vet on IVs and meds. We weren't sure if the puppies were going to make it or not, we were just happy to know that she was going to be OK.

To our suprise, 2 of the 3 puppies survived, and we kept the girl, which the boys named Ginger (I was rooting for Sookie). My mother kept the boy and named him Max. Ginger is turning out to be such a wonderful pup. I mean, come on, how can you possibly stay mad at a cute face like that?!

For Thanksgiving we drove a couple of hours south to Sarasota where Jason's uncle graciously hosted a fantastic and delicious dinner. The boy's favorite part???? Swimming, of course!

When we got back it was time to put up the Christmas decorations. Jason LOVES to decorate the house. He goes all out with lights, wreaths, spotlights, decorations, he even plants poinsettias. Here he is hanging the wreaths (you can see him over on the left side on the ladder...if you look hard). It's such a beautiful display at night. I cant believe I forgot to get a picture this year at night. Naughty, naughty.

A quick shot of the trees that flank the front door.

Christmas morning the boys were amazing. They woke up early of course, but managed to entertain themselves with their stockings and gave us a little longer to sleep. Here they are "patiently" waiting to get started.

As usual, the boys got way more than any child could play with at any one time. But I always love how enthusiastic they are about each gift. Here's my favorite shot of the year; Carter receiving his first $100 bill. (He's RICH now!)

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and look forward to kicking this year off with a bang. I know we are excited here, and are ready to get this going full swing at Wplus9. We have some gorgeous new stamps sets lined up, more from Hannah and Kerrianne, as well as a new line of products! All regularly scheduled activities resume this month. Thanks for sticking by me, and I can't wait to see what this year brings!