Erin Taylor Designs : Wplus9 Monday Mood Board

Today was the first day of school for my little ones, so I am writing this post sans children... and I must say, it's nice to have a quiet house! Both boys will be in school Monday-Friday this year, and I will have three whole hours of peace and quiet everyday, for the first time in 7+ years. I cleaned up the kitchen today and I was amazed... it stayed clean for three whole hours. A record in the Taylor house, for sure.

I also finished up a card this morning for this week's Monday Mood Board challenge. I am a wee bit obsessed with all things nautical at the moment and my Wplus9 release order arrived on Monday (yay!), so I created a nauti-cool (sorry, couldn't help myself) "Thanks" card:

The gold ink is a little hard to see in these photos, but the anchors at the top of the card & the flags at the bottom are stamped with Tsukineko's Brilliance Galaxy Gold Dew Drop ink. This ink adds a fabulous shine and really sparkles in person. The background cardstock is Wplus9's new Nautical Navy cardstock, and the little banners are from Stampin' Up's clear set called Settin' Sail.

Edited to add: I am also submitting this card for this week's Tuesday Trigger over at the Moxie Fab blog:

I also have a nautical "just because" card to share, also using Stampin' Up's Settin' Sail stamp set. This is the second time I have purchased photopolymer stamps from SU!, and I am very impressed with the quality (and the price!).

I did a quick search on Google Images for "sailboats" to get some inspiration for my card. I was instantly drawn to the swooping sails in varying colors and the beautiful curves of the boats. I wanted to create something similar for my card and I tried (unsuccessfully) to execute my vision using various bowls and plates and Pure Poppy cardstock, but I wasn't happy with the results. I had a "light bulb" moment when I glanced at my Silhouette Cameo and realized I have this amazing machine that will have no problem cutting out what I want. A few clicks in Silhouette Studio and I had a perfect shape for my card:

And I have to share a couple of back to school pictures of my kids. Evan started 2nd grade today, and Jack is in VPK. We had a relatively smooth morning and Jack was all smiles when I picked him up at noon. Ev will be home in a bit and I'm sure I'll get one word answers and a nod or two, but I hope he shares about his first day.