Guest Designing at Wplus9!!

I was so thrilled to be asked to Guest Design over at Wplus9's Stamp Away with Me blog!  Here are the 3 cards I made for today!

supplies: white, Audrey Blue, Cornflower, Green Apple, Surf Blue cardstock, Wplus9 Quilt Prints stamp set, pool, Tide Pool, Soft Pool, Pool, Green Hills, and Soft Granite inks, Hand Lettered Hello stamp and die,  Stitched Rectangle dies, Winnie & Walter Big Bold Friends cutaway, stamped sentiment from Prayers stamp set, cuttlebug Houndstooth embossing folder

supplies: white cardstock base and Bristol paper, Wplus9 Modern Anemones and Modern Petunias, Spectrum Aqua markers and water to color, Stitched Rectangle die and moonshine sequins

For more details and pictures, please visit Dawn's blog!

Simon Says........Die Crazy

It's time for a new challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog!

Our theme this week is Die Crazy - use a die somewhere on your creation.  The Design Team are using products from WPLUS9 this week.

Both my cards today use WPLUS9 stamps and dies:

supplies: WPLUS9 Doodle Buds stamps and dies, and Hand Lettered Hello stamps and die, Spectrum Aqua watercolor markers on Bristol paper, Simon's moonshine sequins

And another card using one of my favorite WPLUS9 stamp sets, Quilt Prints.  It is just as fun as making a real quilt, because you can choose the patterns and colors for each element of the design.  I used a die-cut sentiment to help it stand out against the busy background:

supplies: white cardstock, WPLUS9 Quilt Prints and Hand Lettered Thanks die and stamp, Simon Hollyhock, Audrey Blue, and Spring Rain inks

Now it's your turn - I can't wait to see what you create!  Heidi has provided another $50.00 gift voucher

to the amazing Simon Says Stamp store for 1 lucky random winner of this week's challenge!

Do you use Instagram?  If you do, we'd love you to add #ssswchallenge to your challenge entry uploads so we can see them on there, too! 

Throwback Thursday

I really like the idea of pulling out our older stamps and using them again, which is the idea behind the Throwback Thursday challenge at Wplus9.  This month, Maureen made us 3 CAS cards to be inspired by, and here's my first entry:

supplies: Wplus9's Quilt Prints and Hand Lettered Hello, Simon's Green Apple and Hydrangea inks, Hero Arts Navy and Charcoal inks, a lavendar and a green EK success irridescent stickers

I have always loved this Quilt Prints set, because it allows you so much freedom with all the patterns in it, and it's fun to find different color combinations for them!  This is a CASE of Maureen's first card.

I have another idea, so hopefully I'll be back again with a 2nd entry!  Thanks for visiting!

Summer Birthday quilt

Taheerah's 2nd Gossip column challenge is up at Winnie & Walter, and this time it's Geometrics!  This should be an easy one for me, since I was a math major way back in the dark ages, but it threw me for a loop at first.  UNTIL I remembered that many quilt patterns utilize geometry, and then I was flooded with ideas!  I think you'll be seeing several entries from me for this challenge, but here's my first one:

supplies: Studio Calico Intertwined Circles stencil, picked raspberry distress ink, Wplus9 Quilt Prints, orange marmalade, mustard seed, peacock feathers, cracked pistachio, and picked raspberry, Winnie & Walter's Big, Bold Happy Cutaway and stamp set, silver and gold sequins

This is what I'd call an Orange Peel design.  Here is the basic block, a square divided into 4 squares, each having a petal in the center:

You take this basic block and repeat it over and over for a quilt.  

 

The magic happens when you add color to those elements!  And this is one of those patterns that looks different depending on how you focus on it.....you may see just those pointy diamonds floating in lines and diagonals, or you make focus on the petals, and see pink flowers, with a patchwork behind them, or you may see pink circles, each with a different patterned center!

I found that I have a stencil and a stamp set that work beautifully together, so I stencilled the petals on it using picked raspberry ink, then went back in with my stamp set and filled in the spaces between the blocks (pointy diamonds, for lack of a better word for them), with various patterns and colors of ink (spiced marmalade, mustard seed, peacock feather, cracked pistachio, and more picked raspberry).  That panel was then trimmed, attached to my card front, and then I added 4 layers of my cutaway and a stamped banner, along with some gold and silver sequins for sparkle.  I'm planning on using this as a bright summer birthday card.

Taheerah has a nice discussion of Geometry and how it's used in design, with lots of wonderful examples - don't miss it!  And you can even download some free geometric backgrounds if you don't have anything in your collection!

Smile

I came across a new (to me) challenge yesterday, and loved the colors AND the sketch.  You can find them at Lesley Croghan's The Challenge.  Here's what I made for it:

supplies: Wplus9's Quilt Prints and Lil' Inker's Darling Diamonds (sentiment), teal, red, and yellow ink and sequins

I always enjoy stamping these Quilt Prints - it's almost as fun as making a real quilt and WAY faster!

And you thought I was finished........

........with my quilt cards for the Cozy Quilt challenge at the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge!

I evidently miss my quilting days, as I have embraced this challenge.  I haven't done an all-stamped card yet, so here's one, using a complementary color scheme.

supplies: Hero Arts Mandarin and Tide Pool layering papers, Wplus9 Quilt Prints, Blanket Stitched Blooms, 

Adirondack Sunset Orange and Hero Arts Tide Pool inks, a Hero Arts/Archiver's sentiment, and lots of pearls.

This one was inspired by a Pinterest photograph that I have had on my boards for quite awhile.  The pattern of pointy edges is called Prairie Points, and is usually used on the edges of a quilt, making kind of a ruffle all around the border of it.

These papers are from various places: BoBunny dots, an old blue gingham that I've had forever, and the florals and the sentiment are from the Simple Stories Summer Fresh pad.  The red ric-rac is from my sewing basket.

Thanks for visiting me today!

Comfort Zone

Wplus9 has a fun challenge going for their 4th Birthday Celebration this month: to create something using a favorite Wplus9 stamp set, or a favorite color combination or in a signature style.  In other words, make a card and enjoy the process, stay in your comfort zone!

Though I only own a few Wplus9 products, I love each one of them, so I decided to play along, and combine  parts of 3 of my sets.  I chose one of my favorite color combinations, this pretty peachy-pink and green, especially welcome here now when everything is dull outside!  And as a former quilter, I love when I can bring a little bit of a quilt look into my cards

I adore the Quilt Prints stamp set; using it is truly almost like making a little quilt!  I stamped this design using a pale grey and a  pink grapefruit ink.  As I often do with quilt designs, I then embossed it before framing it in the same peachy-pink.  Next I made a die-cut flower, embossed that also with swiss dots to give it more texture, and surrounded it with my go-to die-cut leaves from Folk Art Florals die set.  And to finish I used a sentiment from Fresh Cut Florals.

Happy Birthday, Wplus9, and many more!!

I'd also like to add my card to the new Card Concept challenge, which is Monochromatic Pink.  I'd classify my card as classy and elegant, according to the definition.

A Painterly Palette

That's what Cath has named her current Tuesday Trigger:

Just love seeing all that color, so I followed suit.  After trying various ideas, I settled on this Wplus9 stamp set called Quilt Prints and spent a happy afternoon finding ink colors to approximate those above.  Most of them are Hero Arts, but there are a couple distress inks represented too.  Here's my card:

After finishing the inking, I trimmed my panel, ran it through a houndstooth embossing folder, and then framed it in grey before adding it to my card.  I thought this sweet sentiment from Ali Edwards was a perfect match.

Just sharing......

I made this card for a CardMaker magazine call and it wasn't chosen, so I'm sharing it today.

supplies: Wplus9 Quilt Prints, Hero Arts mid-tone inks Bubble Gum, Green Hills, and Charcoal, Simon exclusives Flower Friend and Best Mom Ever, Sizzix Dots embossing folder, pink and green pearls

The humidity and heat have finally broken here in Ohio (aaaaaahhhhh) - have a great summer weekend!

Circles and Smiles

suppplies: Wplus9 Quilt Prints, Fresh Cut Florals (pink centers and leaves behind button), Hero Arts Sending Smiles Messages, Darice embossing strip, Martha Stewart tape, dotty button, Doodlebug Designs bumblebee baker's twine

This is another card using Wplus9 stamps to enter into 2 challenges: Cloud9's June Blog Hop, Anything Goes and the Monday Mood Board:

Thanks for visiting!

Monday Mood Board #12

Now that I have a couple of Wplus9 stamp sets, I can play along in their Monday Mood Board challenges!  I took the colors from the Mood Board and here is my card, using Quilt Prints and a dotty embossing folder:

It takes some time to stamp all those individual "fabrics", but it still beats making a real quilt!!  Yes, I see that blue ink smoosh........I should have masked off my sentiment........Lesson learned.

Quilt Prints

I had a free day to myself yesterday, so I played with this wonderful Wplus9 Quilt Prints stamp set.   Using my Hero Arts mid-tone inks, I first stamped the "stitched" outline in Charcoal, then filled in the "fabrics" with Green Hills, Butter Bar, and Bubble Gum.  After trimming my panel to fit my card base, I ran it through a Cuttlebug Houndstooth embossing folder to give it that dimpled look that real quilts have after being washed many times.

Then using some rose cardstock and BoBunny Passion Fruit dotted papers, I die-cut 2 each of the 3 sizes of  PTI's Beautiful Blooms II flowers, securing them with a little yellow Basic Grey brad.  My leaf dies are from Wplus9's Folk Art Florals die set, and the sentiment comes from an old clear set, an Archiver's/Hero Arts exclusive.

Love this new quilt set - I hope that Wplus9 continues to offer us more in the same style!  

Cloud9 May Blog Hop

I'm a huge lover of all things Wplus9 - they have wonderful stamps and dies!  Trouble is, somehow I don't own many of their products, so I haven't participated in many of their challenges.  But when I saw this amazing inspiration photo for the current Cloud9 May Blog Hop, I just had to give it a try!

Swoon, right?  LOVE these colors together.  I have no idea why, but I don't think I've ever paired them up.  So I took my one stamp set, Quilt Prints, and the leaves from my one die set, Folk Art Florals, and here's what I made:

I added some dies from some "other" companies along with a sentiment from a Simon exclusive stamp set.  LOVE how the Quilt Prints stamp up, and with all the options for fill-ins in this wonderful set, the sky's the limit with what I'll be doing with it!  

Thanks so much for visiting today!