...Welcome to the April Waltz

Ed - I've had a couple of emails regarding entry for the blog hop, and yep! you can still enter a card at any time up until tomorrow. The link list will not close but after tomorrow night the prizes will have been drawn so it might be best to pop in sooner rather than later! lol, thank you!!


Welcome to the April Blog Waltz with Waltzingmouse Stamps! Today we are waltzing with the theme of Mother, I know, I know, Mother's day is passed for all you UK folk, but it's an upcoming holiday in the US and it never hurts to remeber Mum, right?? LOL

As usual I made a hames of the time conversion and though I had a little longer to get ready so i'm just a wee bit late posting!! sorry!

So if you are new to Waltzingmouse Stamps, here's how to follow our Waltz - pop on over to the WMS Forum here and register if you haven't already, it takes just a sec and we don't ask any awkward questions, lol.

Go to the 'Play Room' and you will see the Blog Waltzes posts, if you are participating in the waltz, you will want to add a direct link to your blog post in the thread called April 17th Blog Waltz, Link list and if you just moseying through soaking up the inspiration, this is where you will find all of the links to see what we have all made, it is super easy to follow the waltz from here, don't miss the tips to make browsing quicker.

The participants prize!

I will pick, at random, one April waltz participant to win a stamp set of their choice and yes! if you win, you may also have the choice of some of the upcoming May releases!!!!!

The viewers prize!

As you waltz your way through the gorgeous cards on view, you will see that some of the DT ladies are participating. The DT ladies and I have hidden a little flower motif in some of our waltz pictures!

Check the DT photos (and mine) very carefully, and if you see any of the floral motif, note them down and count them all up. Post your flower tally in the chat thread that accompanies the hop list and I will pick a random winner from the correct answers to win a free Stamp set of your choice, I'll pick the winner on Sunday night, so there's plenty of time!!!

Here is the floral motif you are looking for:


look closely - we've been sneaky, the motif might be white and or partially transparent!!!

The Motif itself is actually a peep at a stampset due for the May release and is just a teeny tiny morsel of what may be one of my fave sets ever, ooh apart from the *** set, also due for May, sooo been wanting that one, but I'm waffling now!! lol



Anyhow, my card for the waltz is very simply done, no ribbons, no bling, nothing, just stamping...ok well a tiny bit of stitching! This is the sort of card I make when I am short of time, I get out the stamps and ink up. I do as much as I can with stamping and if it works out ok, I don't need to add anything else. Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE embellishment of every kind, I just don't always have the time to throw it all together! LOL, I lack the skill required to just throw stuff together, I can spend hours just deciding what ribbon I want to use!

So I broke out the hibiscus stamp from one of our newest releases, Free Spirit Boy. I adore this image and love how versatile it is, here I used it to make a frame for my sentiment, Mother, from Roses in Bloom. I outlines the stamped and coloured frame with another copic pen in the same tone as the Antique Linen distress Ink.

I coloured in the flowers with copics and then cut out the centre panel with my craft knife. I left a nice wide border of card between the cutting and the stamping, the better to highlight the sentiment area.

Around the edges on the front of my card some eagle eyed folks will spot a stamp from the upcoming May release!!!!!!! I cannot wait to show you!!! A little stitching and rounded corners.

I just want to share a wee tip, some of you will probably be doing this already but I just discovered it.
On the sentiment panel, mounted behind the frame, I stamped the hibiscus in antique linen distress ink and then I brushed on some Victorian Velvet distress ink, that Tim Holtz, he knows what he's doing, doesn't he ladies? lol.


Normally I would have reached for the sponges, but I am always a little unhappy about my sponging, I get really uneven areas and I'm ALWAYS in a hurry, so I don't want to be spending ages trying to get smooth evenly blended coverage, usually I end up just calling it distressed!!! LOL.

Anyhow, I just discovered stencilling brushes (see pic above)!!! How fab!! even blending no matter how hard I lean!!! faster, smoother!!! Perfect!!! love it!

I repeated a lot of what I did on the inside panel, my sentiment from Roses in bloom, is a personal favourite. I used it here on my Mother card but it would also be great as a stand alone sentiment on the front of a card for a husband or partner.

I stamped a frame again, using Antique Linen Ink and then outlined it with a light lavender shade of copic pen, must look for the number...Again I used a May release stamp around the outside...and again I brushed with Victorian Velvet distress ink. A wee bit of stitching and we're done!!!



Hope it tickles!!!!!!