WPlus9 Mood Board and OWH 4 Kids: Hey, Sweetie

This is my third post today!  I am having a very good day!!!

I thought the current throwdown at Operation Write Home: Cards 4 Kids would pair nicely with the current Monday Mood Board at WPlus9 if I did a cupcake!  My card isn't cutesy like a lot of kid's cards but it is sweet and I think it's just perfect for a little girl or maybe a tween who has outgrown cutesy.

• Stamps: WPlus9 Sweets & Treats
• Paper: Stampin' Up Lucky Limeade, Crisp Cantaloupe
• Ink: Stampin' Up Lucky Limeade, Memento black, Copics
• Accessories: WPlus9 Sweets & Treats dies, Ellen Hutson Daffodil sequins, Papertrey Ink Melon Berry button, pearlescent crochet thread

A CAS-ual Mood Board: Way to Go!!

The current WPlus9 Monday Mood Board has a red, white and blue theme.

The current CASual Fridays challenge is congratulations.  

I have to make an 8th grade graduation card for a young man whose school colors are red and blue.

Hmmmm....

• Stamps: WPlus9 Label Layers 4 (sentiment), A Pocketful (stars)
• Paper: Stampin' Up Midnight Muse, Real Red, Simple Stories Snap Color Vibe
• Ink: Stampin' Up Real Red, Midnight Muse
• Accessories: Red, Silver, Gold Stickles

WPlus9 Mood Board: Hey Sweetie

This week's WPlus9 Monday Mood Board is just full of bright colors and confetti and diagonal stripes and all kinds of festive things.  So I took out one of my what-was-I-thinking purchases - my neon inks.  I have to pull them out every so often because I did spend money on them and they deserve some use!!

I have a question for you.  Do you see those striped straws(?) in the bottom left of the inspiration photo?  How are people using them?  I got a few in a monthly Simon Says Stamp kit and then I saw that Hobby Lobby is also carrying bags of them in the stamping section.  But I've never actually seen them used.  Does anybody have any ideas or links?

• Stamps: WPlus9 Pile It On and "Celebrate" from Label Layers 4
• Paper: Astrobrights Glow Cardstock
• Ink: Hero Arts Neon Orange, Green and Pink, Papertrey Ink Classic Kraft
• Accessories: WPlus9 Pile It On dies, Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder, Timeless Twine Krazy for Kraft

WPlus9Monday Mood Board: Take Joy

I had my box of WPlus9 stamps out and decided that I should play along with their Monday Mood Board.  Just like yesterday's card, I had avoided this challenge.  I think it is hard and I just could not figure out what to do with all of those neutrals along with the lace and ribbon flowers and other feminine touches.  I didn't end up with any actual lace or flowers, but I think it's feminine!!

• Stamps: WPlus9 Sweet Nothings
• Paper: Papertrey Ink Fine Linen
• Ink: Papertrey Ink Fine Linen, Memento Black
• Accessories: Prima Wood Embellishments, Sizzix embossing folder, misc twine and pearls

Get Well Quilts

When I was young, I had a "sick quilt".  It only came out when I didn't feel well.  One side was silky smooth and the other was rougher with hand-tied tufts.  I remember my mom saying that she could tell just how sick I was by which side I was cuddling with.  As an adult, I've tried to find a new "sick" quilt for my family - but it just never has measured up to my childhood blankie.

WPlus9 recently came out with a quilt-building set that I just had to have for get well cards.  This first card is a tribute to my blankie.  I am not sure that I love it as a card - but I do love it as a memory!  (Check out the little "tufts"!)


I was inspired by the WPlus9 Mood Board.

And I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.

• Stamps: WPlus9 Quilt Prints, A Pocketful (sentiment)
• Paper: white and Papertrey Vintage Cream
• Ink: Stampin' Up Real Red, Gumball Green, Bashful Blue
• Accessories: WPlus9 Pocketful die, October Afternoon button, cream crochet thread

WPlus9 Mood Board with Blanket Stitching

It's been a really tough week with my class work - not many posts from me!  I'm afraid it's going to be a little overwhelming the next two weeks also.  I have a class this semester that seems to be twice as much work as any other - and even putting in that much work, I can never quite please the professor - so then I work even harder!  I got up extra early to be able to make a card this morning and didn't love sitting at my craft table as much as usual because I kept thinking about the paper that I need to be writing.  But...stick with me....I just have another couple of weeks with this class!!

I had gotten some new goodies from WPlus9 - one of which is a fun Blanket Stitched Bloom set - it's not like anything else that I own - so it seemed like a great set to play with this morning!

I was inspired by this week's WPlus9 Mood Board.

• Stamps: WPlus9 Blanket Stitched Blooms
• Paper: Simple Stories Vintage Bliss, Stampin' Up Regal Rose
• Ink: Stampin' Up Regal Rose, Old Olive, Lucky Limeade, Summer Sun; Papertrey Ink Melon Berry, Harvest Gold; Memento Gray Flannel
• Accessories: Papertrey Ink Harvest Gold button, May Arts twine, WPlus9 Blanket Stitched dies

WPlus9: Inspired by Easter Cookies

This week's mood board at WPlus9 includes two sweet little Easter cookies and a lot of white space!!!

I had so much fun earlier this week creating a card with a small little scene in the corner (see it here) that I used the same idea for this card!

I kept the colors with a little kraft added in for the cookie!  If I had the time to remake this card, I would do a better job with the ink color on the sentiment and I would move it over closer to the egg - but hopefully no one else stresses over these little details!!

• Stamps: WPlus9 Easter Greetings, Love Birds (the branches)
• Paper: Papertrey Trey Lemon
• Ink: Stampin' Up Pear Pizazz, Pretty in Pink, Crumb Cake
• Accessories: WPlus9 Folk Art Florals die, Timeless Twine Krazy for Kraft. misc pearls

WPlus9 Mood Board

This morning was one of those reminders that I need every so often to stay true to my style.  I wanted to play along with the WPlus9 Mood Board.

I had so much out on my desk to make this work.  Layers of patterns, canvas textures, clips, ribbon, etc. but it was taking such a huge effort.  I spend a lot of time on my cards, but it's not necessarily work.  A recent commenter called me meticulous.  I wasn't initially sure that I liked that, but the more that I thought about it - it does describe my cards.  I take a lot of time on each card - even the simple ones - because the colors have to match and the ribbon has to be tied right and everything needs to be straight. So my first effort for this mood board was swept into the trash can - and I went much simpler...

I stuck with the colors, a flower, a little country with the quilt, just a few patterns - and I am much happier!!

• Stamps: WPlus9 Mother's Day Bouquet, Heartfelt Mix
• Paper and Ink: Stampin' Up Midnight Muse, Real Red, Lucky Limeade
• Accessories: WPlus9 Quilt die and heart die, Stampin' Up Limeade twine, misc pearl

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

A Fab Friday Mood Board Monday!!

There isn't even a hint of creativity in this card - not a hint!!  I saw the WPlus9 Monday Mood Board and sorta thought I wouldn't play along because it's all lacy and I don't have WPlus9's lace sets.  But I re-read it this morning and it talks about pink and metal.  I had just cleaned out my embellishment box and come across big metal butterflies.  Then I remembered the sketch at Fab Friday...ding...ding...ding!  The sketch has a big butterfly.  So I took the sketch 100% literally and added a big butterfly.  So...not an ounce of creativity.  (But I like it anyway!)


I LOVE this sentiment - the saying AND the fonts!!Here's WPlus9 Monday Mood Board:

Here's the sketch from Fab Friday:

• Stamps: WPlus9 Quite Like You
• Paper: Stampin' Blushing Bride CS and dsp
• Ink: Versamark
• Accessories: Graphic 45 Metal Butterflies, Martha Stewart adhesive die cut doilies, PSX Detail Platinum embossing powder, My Favorite Things fishtail dies, Papertrey Ink Sweet Blush button, Timeless Twine Bubblegum Pink

WPlus9 Mood Board

WPlus9 Stamps has a new challenge - every Monday, they are going to give us a mood board.  This week's Monday Mood Board is all about texture and bold color.

This thank you card goes out to all of you who take time to comment on my blog. I want to apologize for my commenting absence.  Going back to college is WAY more time-consuming than I ever dreamed it would be.  I love it - I LOVE the challenge - I love thinking about something different for the first time in 15 years.  But it is taking so much more time than I ever thought.  
I still look through all of my favorite blogs every morning over my first cup of coffee and it is wonderful, but as much as I appreciate all of your inspiration, I'm only getting time to comment a couple of times a week.  If you don't happen to post on those days, you haven't heard from me.  I'm still seeing what you have created and I am loving it - thank you for my wake-up boost every morning!

• Stamps: WPlus9 Country Charm
• Paper: Stampin' Up Cherry Cobbler, Confetti Tan
• Ink: Stampin' Up Cherry Cobbler, Marina Mist, Lucky Limeade
• Accessories: WPlus9 Folk Art Florals die, Stampin' Up Cherry button, misc butterfly clip, Jillibean Soup Thank you pennant, Studio Calico wood bird, Stampin' Up Cherry twine