Cloud9 WPlus9: Hope

This is my second post today.  CAS(E) this Sketch is just a post away.

It's time for this month's Cloud9 blog hop (using WPlus9 stamps) blog hop and the sad news is that this is the last hop.  For the last challenge, they are leaving us with an Anything Goes challenge.

Since it is wide-open challenge, I thought this would be a good time to CASE someone who always leaves me gasping aloud in awe.  Debbie Hughes at Lime Doodle Design makes wonderfully creative, clean and absolutely gorgeous cards.  She has one particular layout that I have fallen in love with.  It's using a tag at the edge of card - see it here, here and here.

So I took my Wplus9 Timeless Tags 2 and the stamp set Heartfelt Mix and tried my own version of the tag on the edge!


On a very different subject, do you ever feel that nature is tired of us humans?  Tornadoes and floods and earthquakes and wildfires.  Here was the view from my place on Tuesday.

Those aren't clouds.  That is what it looks like when 100 homes are burning in a massive wildfire. (ETA: A news conference just said 360 homes by now.)  My home is an hour away and it still looks that overwhelming.  That photo was taken on Tuesday.  Since then, winds have shifted my direction, the smoke is blowing in and I don't even a clear view of my neighbor's house.  (There is absolutely no danger to me - it's 60 miles away - so I really don't have any right to complain about haze and smoke smell.)  There are mind boggling photos on news websites of this Black Forest fire consuming houses with walls of flames.  And it is still 0% contained with more evacuations ordered this morning.  On a positive note, as of this morning there are no fatalities, although officials say that could change as they know there are people who chose not to evacuate.  There are lots of homes still standing as the fire is very erratic, so we'll pray that's where the people are who stayed behind.
Sadly, this area also had a huge fire last year that burned 346 homes.  I have photos here and here of last year's fire on the west side of Colorado Springs (a city of almost a half million people).  This year's fire is northeast of Colorado Springs - it's not as close as last year's but it is a neighborhood whose residents most likely go to Colorado Springs for work or shopping.
Forest fires do happen and they are actually good.  They clear out old vegetation and allow for new growth.  Pine trees don't even drop their seeds unless there is a fire.  It's all part of the plan.  And, with humans living virtually everywhere (personally, I'd love a secluded home in a forested area) - there are always sad stories.  But it has become very scary over the last year to realize that these huge, out-of-control fires happen near major urban areas, not just out in the wilderness.
Sorry for the sidetrack - back to what you came for - here are the details on today's card:

• Stamps: WPlus9 Heartfelt Mix, Sweet Nothings (sentiment)
• Ink: Papertrey Ink Aqua Mist, Fine Linen, Smokey Shadow, Stampin' Up Calypso Coral
• Paper: white
• Accessories: WPlus9 dies: Timeless Tags 2 and Hearts/Clouds die, Ellen Hutson Daffodil Sequins, May Arts twine

Cloud9 with WPlus9: Just a Note

It's time for the monthly Cloud9 challenge to use WPlus9 products and an inspiration photo.


I almost did not play along this month - it's a very flowery photo and I'm not typically a flowery person. But I do love these Blanket Stitched Blooms from WPlus9 - they have a rustic look that makes me happy!

• Stamps: WPlus9 Blanket Stitched Blooms
• Paper: Papertrey Ink Aqua Mist, My Mind's Eye Lavender 6x6
• Ink: Stampin' Up Raspberry Ripple, Primrose Petals, Rose Romance, Lucky Limeade, Memento Gray Flannel, Versamark
• Accessories: WPlus9 Blanket Stitched Blooms die, Martha Stewart Tag Doily, MFT Fishtail Dies, Papertrey Ink Aqua Mist and Sweet Blush buttons, white embossing powder

A Floral Day with WPlus9

As I am watching the snow swirl outside my window (although once again, the 10" predicted is looking to be just a dusting), I decided to play along with two WPlus9 challenges that involved flowers.

The first is Cloud9.

Cloud9 has a picture inspiration.  I strayed a little further from it than I usually do.  I am not particularly creative with picture inspiration challenges.  If there are pink flowers, I stamp pink flowers.  In this case, I started with the swirly background.  I don't have a lot of swirly papers but I found a scrap that had a mass of flowers.  I thought it matched the inspiration until I started adding other colors and realized that the purple and greens were dominate.  I curved the flower a little to get the lean of the inspiration flowers (I love that acrylic stamps allow that!) then a bright butterfly to signify "hope". So...I was definitely inspired by the inspiration but, in the end, didn't come very close.

The second WPlus9 challenge today is the Monday Mood Board and for this challenge I was further inspired by the CAS-ual Fridays challenge to color block.

(Now, I'm going to take advantage of the snowy mood and make a couple of Christmas cards for some upcoming challenges!!!)

Cloud9 card

• Stamps: WPlus9 Woodgrain Silhouettes, Woodgrain Silhouettes Additions and Sweet Nothings
• Paper: Papertrey Plum Pudding, Stampin' Up Lucky Limeade, Basic Gray Kioshi
• Ink: Memento Espresso Truffle and Copics
• Accessories: ribbon from Hobby Lobby

Mood Board card

• Stamps: Wplus9 Mother's Day Bouquet (the flower), Woodgrain Silhouettes Additions (leaf), A Pocketful (sentiment)
• Paper: Stampin' Up Daffodil, Gumball, Cherry
• Ink: Stampin' Up Early Espresso, Versamark
• Accessories: Timeless Twine Lemonade Yellow, misc button, Martha Stewart butterfly punch

I Quite Like You a Lot

I love this sweet little sentiment by WPlus9 and wanted to make sure that it ended up on a Valentine this year.


I pulled it out to play along with the challenge at Cloud9 - use WPlus9 stamps with this inspiration photo.

When I saw the photo, I immediately thought of the banners - lots of little squares and hearts - but I had planned to dress up each banner a little differently.  One with a punch flower, one with a button, one with a twine bow, etc. to give the same busy look as the photo.  But I got them stamped, then saw the little wood bird on the floor under my craft desk - and I decided to quit right there!  I wanted to keep it as simple and sweet as the sentiment. 

• Stamps: WPlus9 Banner Love and Quite Like You
• Paper: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake and Pretty in Pink dsp
• Ink: Stampin' Up Real Red, Crumb Cake, Pretty in Pink
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake ribbon, Studio Calico Wood Veneer bird, misc gem

Cloud9 WPlus9 Blog Hop

I love the photos at this month's Cloud9 challenge...wonderful Nordic and homespun images.  The challenge requires the use of WPlus9 stamps which really isn't a problem for me!

I pulled the red snowflakes on white from the sofa, the warmth of the wood chairs and a pop of yellow with the little bird.

I haven't quite decided how to use this card.  The red and white makes it Christmasy, but I went with a different sentiment so my little bird could perch on the words!  
I used the current layout at Freshly Made Sketches.

• Stamps: WPlus9 Fairisle Backgrounds, Sweet Nothings (sentiment)
• Paper: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Real Red, Daffodil Delight
• Ink: Stampin' Up Real Red, Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate
• Accessories: WPlus9 Folk Art Florals die, Martha Stewart Fine Crystal Glitter (on snowflake panel), Spellbinders narrow ovals, misc twine

It's Cloud9 WPlus9 Time!

This is my second post today.  There's a 

cute row of turkeys just a post away!!

It's that time of the month!  The monthly Cloud9 Challenge using WPlus9 stamps.  Here's the inspiration photo:

I have never been accused of being overly creative when it comes to inspiration photos.  When I see a quilt, I make a quilt!!  But I have an excuse...I bought these great quilt dies from WPlus9 and haven't used them yet!!  So...here's my Christmas quilt with a sparkly Christmas tree!

• Stamps: WPlus9 Pretty Patches: Tree, Winter Wishes (sentiment)
• Paper: MME 12 Days of Christmas dsp, Stampin' Up Real Red, Bermuda Bay and Shimmer White
• Ink: Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay, Versamark
• Accessories: WPlus 9 Quilt Cuts 2 Die, Pretty Patches Tree Die, Creations Unlimited Snowdrift Embossing Powder (IRL the tree is sparkly!), The Twinery Caribbean Twine

An Autumn Scene with Cloud9

I am thrilled to be a guest designer for this month's Cloud9 Blog Hop.  Cloud9 is a monthly challenge to showcase WPlus9 stamps and I do have a thing for WPlus9!!  (They just had a new release with, among other fun things, fabulous Christmas silhouettes and Christmas tree like the pumpkin in my card today....my order is in transit!)

This month's Cloud9 features this inspiration photo:

I liked so many things in the photo - I liked the white/tan house and the direction of the boards, I love the tree decal and the birds on the decorated pumpkin are so fun.  I managed to get ALL of my favorite things in this card!

You do have to have a few sets to create this card - three stamp sets and two die-cut sets on one card!  It should say something about my stamp obsession that I have all of that for one card!
If you have WPlus9 stamps, be sure to check out the Cloud9 Blog Hop.  The challenge is issued on the 6th of month, the hop starts on the 9th giving you plenty of time to create, then ends on the 12th.
If you don't have WPlus9 stamps, they are here!  Have fun!
I was also inspired by the colors at Pals Paper Arts as I've already done a lot of black/orange cards and wanted to be slightly different.

• Stamps: WPlus9 Love Birds (the branch and the bird), Pretty Patches: Pumpkin, Country Charm (the bottom border stripes)
• Paper: Stampin' Up Early Espresso, Papertrey Ink Fine Linen CS and dsp
• Ink: Stampin' Up Early Espresso, More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Papertrey Ink Fine Linen
• Accessories: WPlus9 Love Birds and Pumpkin dies, Stampin' Up White Raffeta, Spellbinders long ovals

Cloud9 plus WPlus9

It's time for the monthly Cloud9 challenge for fans of WPlus9 stamps.  This month's challenge is to use this inspiration picture...

I was immediately attracted to the cascading bird cages.  I have the MOST darling WPlus9 bird house dies and decided to use those for the "cascade".  I have to tell you that these dies come with a sweet little roof.  Having seen the roof, I feel like my bird houses are missing something - but the card was just too full with three little roofs so I've convinced myself that they can stand alone!


I had wanted to add the pop of color with the flowers, but I am loving the colors at Stampin' Royalty this week so decided to stick with those.

I have an update on yesterday's "love 'em most of the time" story with particular emphasis on the cat that woke me at 4 a.m. and the little lost leaf die.

This is the cat...

Can you see the devilish gleam in her eyes?
She is a particularly annoying creature, but she has one redeeming quality...she thinks she is a dog and LOVES to fetch.  She scampers after her "toys", then comes back with this jaunty walk - bow-legged and broad-shouldered - "Look at me, Mom, I got it!  I got it!!"  
As I was making this card, I notice she's standing there in her tough, I-got-it pose, so since it's early and we were the only ones up, I started a conversation.  "Whatcha got girl?...your favorite peppermint candy? (she loves chasing anything wrapped in cellophane)...your nerf dart?...or (my personal favorite to the chagrin of my men)...a tampon?? (the crinkly wrapper is so much fun!)."  
She dropped her conquest at my feet.
Can you guess what it was?...The missing itty bitty leaf die!!!
I have no idea where she came up with it given we spent an hour and a half looking for it...but she is now officially forgiven for the early morning wake up call.
(And I have just spent the last half hour finding new ways to store my dies given she clearly has a new favorite toy!)
I'm also entering this at Simon Says Put a Stamp On It.

• Stamps: WPlus9 Love Birds (sentiment)
• Paper: Stampin' Up Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Pool Party
• Ink: Stampin' Up Soft Suede
• Accessories: WPlus9 Folk Art Floral Dies, Darcies embossing folder, crochet thread

Cloud9 Birthday Wishes

This is my second post today.  It's just a short

scroll down for some Halloween fun!

Cloud9 is a monthly challenge and blog hop using stamps from WPlus9...I love WPlus9 stamps.  They have a new release up today and I'm having a tough time narrowing it down to fit my budget!!

I got up early to make this card as the blog hop started at 8 a.m.  At 7:55 I was taking photos and getting read to edit.  The post came up at Cloud9 and lo and behold - one of the design team members used the same set of stamps and the same color challenge.  I'm feeling a little proud of the fact that I had the same idea as the wonderfully talented Christina!

Here's the sketch from Cloud9:

And here are the fun colors from colourQ

• Stamps: WPlus9 A Pocketful
• Paper: Stampin' Up Summer Starfruit, Gumball Green, Certainly Celery
• Ink: Stampin' Up Midnight Muse, Gumball Green, Summer Starfruit
• Accessories: WPlus 9 A Pocketful Dies

Cloud9 with WPlus9

There's a new monthly challenge using one of my favorite stamp companies.  The challenge is the Cloud9 Blog Hop.  The company is WPlus9.  I have a decent collection of WPlus9 stamps and dies and my wish list is huge.  The Cloud9 challenge is an inspiration photo...

I pulled the texture of the grass skirt and the colors to create this cheerful little card...

• Stamps: WPlus9 Woodgrain Silhouettes (the circles) and Heartfelt Mix (the sentiment)
• Paper: Stampin' Up Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise, Confetti Tan
• Ink: Distress Ink: Antique Linen
• Accessories: WPlus9 Folk Art Floral Dies and Hearts and Clouds Dies