...slight delay

 I am currently running about 1-2 days behind with shipping as a close family member was taken into hospital over the weekend, I hope to be back up to speed by Wednesday. Orders are going out, albeit around a day later than normal and shipping notes are slow. I thank you for your patience at this time.

...Forum...

The Forum is temporarily down while I make some adjustments to do with bandwidth, I apologise for the inconvenience, we hope to be back up soon!

The Big Cheese of the Week

Good morning everyone!

I hope your week is going well. Thanks to all of you that shared your Waltzingmouse Stamps projects with us!

We're kicking this week off with our Big Cheese winner, Carola Dolder!

I love the simple joy of Carola's card. Featuring a classic Christmas red and white, the jar of candy canes from Candy Jar Christmas Fillers is the perfect centerpiece. With the embossed red strip to ground it, those candy canes (such fussy cutting skill!) look good enough to eat! I need to break this set out! Do you have it yet? I'd love to see what you come up with.

Carola, your card will be added to the Big Cheese highlight album in the WMS Gallery. Please send me an email and I will provide you with a discount code for $10 off (the price of a small set!!) your next Waltzingmouse Stamps purchase.

I loved Helen Berry's cheery get well card.

A beautiful combination of patterns and textures, Helen's card would certainly brighten my day. My take away from this one? More stamping on patterned paper!! I love how this label from Rescue Remedies looks on the yellow gingham paper. The multi-colored flowers and pearl stick pin perfectly compliment the design. Gorgeous!

Finishing us off this week is a scrumptious morsel from Laurie Jones.

So much rich vibrancy to this fall card. For starters, the burlap is spot-on trendy and just looks great paired with this image. The basket is perfectly put together, built using just that one tiny leaf from Bountiful Baskets Additions and with select leaves popped up for dimension. Inking the label die-cut while still in the die has created a beautiful soft border around the image. A show-stopper, Laurie!

You ladies are just amazing! Thank you so much for your hard work and contributions to the WMS Gallery! We're so glad you're a part of it!

Would you like the opportunity to be chosen for the Big Cheese? Add your direct links (please!) for your newly uploaded projects here in the WMS Forum, a new thread starts every Monday!

Have a great day!
Anya

...Christmas Cottage

I think it's ok for me to put this up now, it's a wee card I did that was featured in a UK mag recently, I used A Cottage Christmas and SU inks. I find that SU inks are not great for colouring with copics unless I clear emboss them, but I do love the colours and so I stamped the cottage (Cherry cobbler...), and used a piece of clean sponge to smooch the image. I smooched a lot, until the image was completely covered in a soft pink glow. Then I was able to use some of my paler copic markers to add a little touch of colour.

Smooching like that meant that there was less ink on the lines and so the image bled less that it normally would have and left me with a lovely soft, smoky image. I liked the effect.

The background mat was stamped with snowflakes from Very Vintage Christmas in Antique Linen distress ink, the ribbon is also from SU, love that stripey stuff!

Hope it tickles!

October Blog Waltz Review and Winners Announced

 

The Waltzingmouse Stamps team was so impressed and amazed with the creative projects of those who participated in the Friends of Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog Waltz this past Monday.  We are please to share some of those great projects with you, just in case you happened to miss then..

Cathy Weber showed us how beautiful a home-decorated candle bring the season into our homes.  She used  Bountiful Basket Additions and Flourishes-Scallops and Dots to make this candle.

Laurie Jones used Spring Baskets and Bountiful Baskets Additions to create this lovely iconic image of Fall.  The great texture of the burlap die cut adds to the earthy feel of this great card. Notice how she stamped the circle rope image from the Very Vintage Labels 3 set.  It's the small touches that add so much detail to a project, and these circle rope images make these button embellishments stand out.

Pat used Blessed by You and Teeny Trees to create this autumnal creation filled with lovely leaves layered on this plaid background.  Great dimension adds to the design to give it a real 3D look and feel. 

All the projects were awesome, and as promised, we selected one random winner from all those who participated in the Waltz.  That lucky winner is: Karen Haman .  Congratulations Karen!  Please e-mail Claire at  claire.brennan1@ntlworld.com with your mailing address and you set of choice and she will make sure that it gets to you.

Last, but not lease, we also selected one commenter who posted their answer to the following question:  What are are MOST grateful for?

The winning comment came from craftymom205 who said:

"I am thankful for a husband that loves me and allows me to craft. I am also thankful for may family and that I have a job right now."

Please follow the same directions above to acquire your free stamp set.

There are so many things that we can find to be thankful for if we only take a moment to think about it.  Being thankful for what we already have is probably the most powerful tool of positive thinking. The ability to notice what we already have, and to consider ourselves blessed with it, truly unlocks the door to abundance and to feeling good.

And a BIG thank you to everyone who participated and commented.  YOU are what makes these Friends of Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog Waltz events so much fun and so inspiring.

Have a great day!

The Big Cheese of the Week .. times 2!

Hi there! I'm here to bring you this week's installment of the Big Cheese of the Week! I hope you have brought along a warm beverage, because this week we're sharing double the fun with our winners from both this week and last week (which were postponed due to the release)! Thank you all for your support during the release - I can't wait until I start to see your creations with these new sets showing up in the Gallery.

Let's start with the Big Cheese winner for this week, Elizabeta!

Lots of lovely layers on this one! Combining die cut paper and fabric, Elizabeta has created a delightful card with lots of dimension and texture. I love the popped up presents from Bountiful Baskets Additions. The red and cream together are such a rich color combination, too.

Elizabeta, your card will be added to the Big Cheese highlight album in the WMS Gallery. Please send me an email and we will provide you with a discount code for $10 off (the price of a small set!!) your next Waltzingmouse Stamps purchase.

Kicking off our honorable mentions for this week is Cathy Weber with a creation she shared for the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge.

Love the layered plaid bird and that cute little clip! The repeated sentiment background looks fab, too!

Our next honorable mention is from one of our 'regulars' - Jeanne Jachna!

Jeanne, I need you to teach me how to tie a bow like that - its gorgeous! A classic Halloween card, I love all the details Jeanne included.. did you see the little witchy tag?

Ladies, thank you all for your participation this week. What fun to peruse the Gallery! Now don't leave too quickly, here are our shout outs from the week of October 3rd.

Helen Berry was our Big Cheese for this week... I snuck Helen a little note so that she had her discount code for the new release. Helen, tell us what you picked!

Helen's tag just oozes Christmas! I love how she combined a number of different WMS sets as well as dies and materials. Red and green are easy colors to combine for Christmas, but Helen used just the right proportion of each to create a great balance on this tag - right down to the red and green striped scarf on the snowman!

We're following a bit of a theme for our honorable mentions this week. It just so happened that these ladies all used the new Cottage sets on their creations. Just look at the inspiration!

Carola Dolder created this cozy winter scene using A Cottage Christmas.

This is so cute! And the coloring is outstanding! You're right, Carola, this house does look great with a red tile roof!

Our second cottage creation is from Kary Lim.

What a work of art! Be sure to check out all the details on this card, there is so much dimension. Kary, I can tell you don't get much snow for Christmas there on the equator, huh? ;)

And last but definitely not least is this card from JJ Bolton.

Isn't this great? Using the cottage to make a snow globe is such an inspired idea. This card makes me want to warm my hands by the fire, its perfectly frosty. Love the flourishes and sparkle!

Ladies, you are ALL outstanding! Thank you so much for your hard work and contributions to the WMS Gallery! We're so glad you're a part of it!

Would you like the opportunity to be chosen for the Big Cheese? Add your direct links (please!) for your newly uploaded projects here in the WMS Forum, a new thread starts every Monday!

Have a great day!

October DT Blog Waltz Wrap-Up and Winner Announced

Hello, Lynn here. The October release was amazing.  We can tell that you are ready to get started on your Christmas projects using the new 6 sets that were released on the 15th.  The Design Team Blog Waltz, held Saturday, was so well attended and we are all appreciative for your support and comments. Today we are happy to announce the winner of a free set; selected from all the wonderful comments left on the Design Team blogs during the Blog Waltz. But before we make that announcement, I wanted to recap a few of the awesome designs that the Team whipped up for the release.  First, a few creations from our Design Team. 
Kelly J. Schirmer used  2011 Holiday Ornaments to create this great dimensional card.  This set of ornaments is designed specifically to work with the 2011 Heirloom Ornaments from Spellbinders! The designs on these ornaments also co-ordinate with the Santa's coming to Town and the Nordic Winter sets. Excellent for making actual ornaments, or tags or dressing up cards and scrapbook pages in festive style!

Look at this beautiful gift set from Sandie Dunne  using the popular Nordic Winter.  This set, full of Scandinavian designs great for stamping borders in various combinations and colors in addition to creating your own borders with one of the 8 accompanying motif stamps.

What person could resist being VERY GOOD soul with a card reminding them that Santa’s Coming to Town  This set is perfect for adding a little dash of nostalgia to your Christmas preparations. 3 main images, including a delightful cameo of the big guy himself,  a beautifully detailed ornament (which happens to fit perfectly into one of this years 2011 Spellbinders Heirloom Ornaments die templates) and a stylish snowflake, great for focal points or even stamped repeatedly as a background. 6 fun sentiments complete the set.  This adorable card is sure to bring a smile as we think about whether we should be on the “naughty” or “nice” list.  HA!

And just take a look at this beautiful project using Seasonal Remedies; a Christmas set of labels with well known Holiday sentiments styled with a vintage flavor. These labels have a typographic style most commonly associated with old-world product labels. Suitable for all manner of Christmas gifts, these labels supply just the right amount of reverent humor to your Christmas gift giving.   Becca Feeken designed this elegant card.

Jennifer Holmes whips up a sweet little card, easily duplicated, for a gentle reminder that the holidays will soon be here - counting the days until the 25th.  Jennifer's use of Santa's Coming to Town.  This set is perfect for adding a little dash of an old-time feel to your Christmas preparations. The set includes 3 main images, including a delightful cameo of the big guy himself; a beautifully detailed ornament (which happens to fit perfectly into one of this year’s 2011 Spellbinders Heirloom Ornaments die templates) and a stylish snowflake, great for focal points or even stamped repeatedly as a background as well as 6 fun sentiments complete the set.

It's so easy to dress up a glass jar transforming it from just a jar to a personalized gift using Candy Jar Christmas. This wonderful project, created by Clare Buswell demonstrates how beautiful a jar of sweets can be! This Candy jar Christmas set pays homage to Mrs. Claus and her sweet shop skills. Featuring a ready filled jar of peppermint candy, this large set has all manner of stamps to help you sweeten up your Christmas preparations.

Niki Estes shows off the adorable jar and one of the many fillers in Candy Jar Christmas Fillers set.  This delicious set contains one empty jar and enough fillers to stock a small store; peppermint candy sticks, canes, balls and gingerbread men! Also included is an official Mrs. Claus label, a bow, two styles of jar lid, 10 sentiments and 4 little supporting goodies! Fill 'em up!

Fantastic, aren't they? OK, I won't make you want any longer to announce the Blog Waltz Comment winner. The name drawn randomly from Mona Pendleton’s  blog and that winner is:

#54 Sue Nader

Congratulations, Sue.  We hope you enjoyed the DT Blog Waltz. To claim your free set, please send your contact information and your set choice in an e-mail to Claire at: Claire.brennan1@ntlworld.com.   The hardest part will be deciding WHICH set you will choose.

We would like to thank you all for making this such an amazing release.

...Mrs Claus

Good morning!

How are you all?? Me? I'm packing and shipping, the release was big, and I mean BIG. Just in case you didn't know we released 6 new sets here on Saturday and Good Grief, Nordic Winter...wow...I cannot wait to see what you guys all get up to with that set!!!! - And we'll be giving you the opportunity to show it off very soon....

Meantime, here's a wee card I didn't get to put up during the release, hoping to get a few of my samples up on the blog this week while I'm otherwise engaged with stuffing envelopes!

I used the silhouette of Mrs Claus herself from Candy Jar Christmas. It's no secret that Christmas is my favourite Season, I love everything about it and everything it stands for. Admittedly with young kids in the house there's a lot of secular stuff going on and I'm more than happy to indulge in the frills and trimmings while they are all wee, but we try not to lose sight of the Baby in the manger and I love Christmas as much for the opprtunity for reflection that it seems to bring as anything else.

One of my favourite WMS events last year was a  'Nice List' event, where we asked folks to leave a comment to tell us about somebody who had been extra nice to them, or who had helped them in some way, somebody that should be on Santa's Nice List. Reading the answers made a big impression on me and I'm keen to do that again this year. We'll run that event at the beginning of November.

We'll also be running a tag competition again this year, also in November so be sure to get your thinking caps on, it won't be long!

Back to the card,  I used the Nordic Winter set to make a cosy knitted style background, see below, and I embossed some fine rock salt into some white card and then sponged all over with Victorian Velvet distress ink to get that front panel, I thought it added a nice snowy feel... It's trimmed out with a Postage stamp die. The circular sentiment is from the same Candy Jar Christma set and was trimmed out with a circle die, but they also work with 1.5 inch circular punches. Mrs Claus herself was stamped with a distress ink, love the texture you get with distress inks. If you prefer a more even coverage, I can recommend Versacolour inks, fab detail, smooth even coverage. 

Just a wee note about embossing random stuff on your machine - many thin things such as pieces of string and crystals of salt can be run successfully through an embossing machine, but be sure to try a little test grain, or tiny bit first, and go gingerly, as you never quite know what the machine is capable of handling and it is possible to break a machine of any kind by trying to emboss something which is too thick.

for more on the salt embossing see this post.

Hope it tickles.

October Friends of Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog Waltz

Hi, Lynn here inviting you to join in the monthly Friends of Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog Waltz.  If you are new to the Blog Waltz, or have never even heard of it, you can get most all the general details right here.

Although we call this a "blog waltz," we have some players who use an online gallery for their linked entry, so even if you don't run a blog, you can still participate.  For a complete list of the players participating in this month’s Waltz, just click here to be directed to the forum.  What?  You aren’t registered on the WMS forum?  Well, that’s easily remedied, and it only takes a moment.  Check it out here.

This month our theme is Gratitude/Thanksgiving!  We all have things that we are blessed with and it’s fun to share those thoughts with others with card designs and scrapbook pages.

 

Playing along in the monthly Friends of Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog Waltz is not only fun, but could earn you a free WMS stamp set.  Come visit us and see what all the excitement is about.

...New stamps for October

ED-Snowbear - I am sorry the 2011 ornaments don't work with the 2010 dies, I am sorry. They were specifically designed for this years dies, the 2011's.

Good evening (or early morning, sorry Australia and Malaysia!) and welcome to the October release at Waltzingmouse Stamps!

If you are new to us, we design and produce clear stamps made from the best quality photopolymer (that's the good stuff) and today we are releasing 6 new sets!!! Welcome! We hope you find lots of creative inspiration!

There is a Design Team Blog Waltz happening right now where you can see some gorgeous examples of what you can do with the new stamps shown below, and we've been previewing for several days already so it's worth a scroll back to see what's new!

Today the ladies will be showing the final sets,  Candy Jar Christmas and Candy Jar Christmas - Fillers, be sure to visit them all and Don't forget to comment, there are prizes!

Commenting Prize

You have until October 17th (11:59 PM, 5:5 9AM Central, 3:59 AM Pacific and 6:59 AM Eastern in US) to comment on as many of the Design Team blogs as possible because a winner will be selected at that time from one of the Design Team members’ blogs to win a Waltzingmouse Stamp set of choice. The winner will be announced on the 18th here on my blog.

Below is a link list of your dance partners for our Release Day waltz! (ED - A couple of our links are a little awry, please bear with us while we square everything up)

• 
  
• Belinda Chang Langner
• Mona Pendleton
• Sarah Martina Parker
• Sandie Dunne
• Julia Aston
• Kate Whelan
• Laurie Schmidlin
• Niki Estes
• Tosha Leyendekker
• Becca Feeken
• Clare Buswell
• Kelly Schirmer
• Lynn Mercurio
• Jennifer Holmes
  
  

Remember - FREE standard shipping for orders over £50 to Everywhere, yes, you're included! (approx $79.00 USD, $79.86 CAD, $76.43 AUD, €57.00 Euros, rate subject to change) and if you don't need £50 GBP worth of stamps today you might be interested to know that shipping one set to US costs around $4.27 USD. We ship our stamps out from our company base here in Northern Ireland. Please note our free standard shipping offer does not include tracking. 

And here are the New goodies for October

Please note ladies that I have slightly changed the way I display the drawings so that you can see all images at the correct angle. I used to display the sets as they were laid out on the carrier sheet, and given that I love to stuff as many stamps into a set as I can, some images appeared at odd angles or even upside down!! From now on everything will be shown right side up, so it will not always be obvious at first glance what size a set is. Please refer to the descriptions as the size is noted there.

2011 Holiday Ornaments - Nestie Friendly

Set size: 6 × 8 inches

A set of ornaments designed specifically to work with the 2011 Heirloom Ornaments Die templates from Spellbinders!

The designs on these ornaments also co-ordinate with the Santa's coming to Town and the Nordic Winter sets. Excellent for making actual ornaments, or tags or dressing up cards and scrapbook pages in festive style! The largest ornament is approx 3.3 inches square and the smallest ornament is approx 1.2 by 1 inch at the widest points. 19 stamps in total.
All images and stamp designs are Copyright © 2011 Waltzingmouse Stamps, Claire Brennan.

Santa's coming to Town

Set size: 6 × 4 inches

The Jolly Elf in the red suit is on his way! We couldn't resist adding a little vintage styling to this most iconic of Christmas images. Perfect for adding a little dash of antique to your Christmas preparations. 3 main images, including a delightful cameo of the Big guy himself, a beautifully detailed ornament (which happens to fit perfectly into one of this years 2011 Spellbinders Heirloom Ornaments die templates) and a stylish snowflake, great for focal points or even stamped repeatedly as a background. 6 fun sentiments complete the set.

The snowflake stamp measures 1.69 inches tall by 1.4 inches wide. The 'No peeking' sentiment measures 1.9 inches wide by 0.6 inches tall.
All images and stamp designs are Copyright © 2011 Waltzingmouse Stamps, Claire Brennan

Candy Jar Christmas

Set size:6 × 8 inches

I absolutely could not have Christmas without Mrs Santa Claus. I don't know if she's big in your house, but we've even had letters from her on occasion. Traditionally (in my house anyhow) Mrs Claus runs the confectionary side of things up North and can be found in the kitchen making candy canes, gingerbread cookies and all of those associated goodies. This Candy jar Christmas set pays homage to her skills. Featuring a ready filled jar of peppermint candy, this large set has all manner of stamps to help you sugar up your Christmas prep. Build a wish list, stamp approval, sweeten your tags and cards with peppermint magic! Mrs Claus herself is there too, a tasteful cameo of the great lady, styled to match Mr Claus in the Santa's coming to Town set.

The circular sentiments are easily punched out with a 1.5 inch punch or a similar sized circle die.
A companion set to Candy Jar Fillers, if 'sweet' is your thing, you can go candy crazy this year!

In the bottom left of the graphic, you can see how easy it is to build a notebook style image - use it with the sentiments to make lists, Recipe, wish list, things to do....whatever tickles...

The filled jar measures just under 2 inches wide by just under 3 inches tall. The 'sweet shoppe' sentiment measures 2.18 inches wide by just under a third of an inch tall..

All images and stamp designs are Copyright © 2011 Waltzingmouse Stamps, Claire Brennan

Candy Jar Christmas

Set size:6 × 8 inches

A companion set to Candy Jar Christmas!

Of course one jar was never going to be enough for me...I have a sweet tooth! So, this toothsome set contains one empty jar and enough fillers to stock a small store, peppermint candy sticks, canes, balls and gingerbread men! A official Mrs Santa Claus label, a bow, two styles of jar lid, 10 sentiments and 4 little supporting goodies! Fill 'em up!

This set also features a little line stamp - you can see it there on the bottom - it just looks like a curved line, but this handy doodad, is just the finish you need, should you wish your jar to be left open, for example if you decide to stamp the oversized candy canes in the jar, see our examples, and my blog for directions with this.

The jar plus lid measures around just under 2 inches wide by just under 3 inches tall when stamped. The single gingerbread man is just over 1.5 inches tall by just under an inch wide.

All images and stamp designs are Copyright © 2011 Waltzingmouse Stamps, Claire Brennan

Nordic Winter

Set size:6 × 8 inches

A Nordic themed stamp set. Are you a fan of Scandinavian design? I am, I love the simple shapes, clean cut images, and I especially love them in knitted items. We took extra care to ensure that when you stamp with this set, you will achieve a realistic knitted texture, each tiny 'stitch' is shaped to recreate that home knit feeling. A great set for experimenting with, stamping borders in various combinations and colours and creating your own borders with one of the 8 accompanying motif stamps. Or simply use one of the motifs stamped simply to quickly create striking, minimal tags and cards. The borders in this set are extra long as usual, the shortest being 6.29 inches long. easily long enough to stamp a full length border on a standard (US 4.25x5.5inch) card without having to repeat.

The double heart border measures 6.29 inches wide by 0.62 inches tall. The single reindeer is 0.93 inches square.

All images and stamp designs are Copyright © 2011 Waltzingmouse Stamps, Claire Brennan

Seasonal Remedies

Set size:6 × 8 inches

A Christmas set of labels with a difference. Well loved Holiday sentiments styled with a vintage flavour, these labels have a typographic style most commonly associated with olde-worlde product labels. Suitable for all manner of Christmas gifts, these labels supply just the right amount of reverent humour to your Christmas gift giving.

This is a companion set to our hugely popular Rescue Remedies, and it contains 6 different label shapes, two square, which work with various Spellbinder square dies (or are very simply trimmed out with a ruler/gillotine) One rectangular label which co-ordinates with the Largest die in Small Labels set (also Spellbinders) One label which is good with a Spellbinders Labels 4 die. One oval label which fits inside the rectangular stamp, or will work with varios Spellbinders ovals, and two smaller labels which are roughly rectangular and will work with labels/tags of all kinds. £ supporting sentiments and 2 small decorative motifs complete this large set.

The Joy label measures 2.17 inches square. The crown measures 0.8 inches wide by just under a half inch tall.

All images and stamp designs are Copyright © 2011 Waltzingmouse Stamps, Claire Brennan

Hope they tickle!!!

Shipping Information

Our usual order turnaround is 24-48 hours but please note that at release time the volume of orders may mean our turnaround is a little slower than normal, please allow up to 3-4 days for your order to be processed, but rest assured shipping is our priority.

Shipping notices for orders placed at release times will go out after all packing and shipping is done!! My priority is to get the stamps out ASAP during release times and it could be that your shipping note may be delayed by up to 4-5 days!! So my apologies in advance if your stamps arrive before the shipping notice...You should receive an automatic order confirmation email from the store immediately upon ordering, so you will know that we have received your order. If you don't get an order confirmation email, please check your spam filter. If it's not in there, do pop me an email on claire.brennan1@ntlworld.com but be advised that it may be a few days before I can reply.

Backordering: our store is set to allow folks to order backordered items. The upside is that orders containing backordered items will be fulfilled first when replenishment stock reaches the store, the downside is that orders containing backordered items will be held until we have all items in stock and ready to ship. However, we have a facility on the store that allows you to see if the item you want is in stock, so that you can decide whether to include that item in your order.