...and we're off

We're going to Athlone today!! WMS first craft show!! lol!! if you're are going to be there, be sure come over to say Hi! Whatever you do, don't rely on me to recognise your  FB profile pic or forum pic... I am short sighted at the best of times!!! I have been known to walk right past good friends!!

Orders on the store today will be shipping Monday, just so's you know! and I hope to be back on Monday with some snaps of our first trip!

The Big Cheese of the Week

Hi there!

Before we announce our next Big Cheese, I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you. The Big Cheese program has been running for 15 weeks now, and you ladies have been amazing! Week after week your submissions are creative and inspirational. We are so glad that you take the time to share them with us!

Now let me introduce this week's Big Cheese!

This gorgeous card was created by Lana. Lana's work is always exceptional, and I love the soft colors and simple layout of this card. Check out the trendy corrugated accents and the absence of a sentiment. So very pretty, Lana!

Lana, 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.

Sharon Gregory shared this beautiful monochrome card.

I love the French country feel to this card. The balance is perfect, with the ruffled lace and bow below and the polka dots above. The pop of pink with the cameo is the perfect touch!

This beauty from Jeanne Jachna will be sure to have you thinking of Christmas!

Where to start? This card has such fabulous coordination between elements - the patterned papers, those amazing die cuts, and motifs on the nutcracker himself (his swirly curls, the chevron pattern on his tunic) all mirror each other. This is a great way to create visual balance and aesthetic appeal - everything just goes together. I also am always inspired by line images that aren't colored. Here, Jeanne heat embossed her image, and it looks great!

Thank you ladies for your contributions this week. 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!

...seen our sketch?

You're invited to play! Check out the details on our sketch blog! Click here. There are some fabby sketch samples to get you going!

September Review and DT Blog Waltz Winner Announced

Hi WMS fans. What a great release it has been. The Design Team Blog Waltz, held Monday, September 19th 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 using A Cottage Home.

A lovely dimensional creation from Julia Aston.

A cozy cottage by Kelly Schirmer

And some wonderful inspiration using the new Halloween set, Hocus Pocus.

Check out all the spooky goodness in this Halloween shadow box created by Mona Pendleton.

And don't you just love this bewitching tag that Anya Schrier created!

We bring the holidays home with the warmth of Waltzingmouse Stamps' A Cottage Christmas.

Just image all of your holiday gift giving that has one of these adorable tags attached!  Nike Estes shows us just how cute these can be.

Clare Buswell created a winter wonderland with this creative pop-up card. WOW!

And lastly we look at all the fun combinations of sentiments for winter that can be created when using Say It Loud - Winter Holiday set.

Sandie Dunne shares well wishes in a big, bold way.

A warm winter wish all wrapped up in a bow, compliments of Becca Feekan.

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 Kelly's blog and that winner is: 

#20, Ellen aka CardMonkey

Congratulations Ellen. We hope you enjoyed the 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.


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

The Big Cheese of the Week

Good morning!

I'm glad you stopped by today to see our Big Cheese of the week. This week seems to be the week of the doily!

This week's Big Cheese sort of picked itself, it is such a stunning card. I just fell in love with Amy Wanford's monochrome sympathy card.

The subtle color palette, the fancy doily (from Dainty Doilies 2 - Small) stamped off the card, that awesome button. Its a gorgeous card and would be beautiful as a set!

Amy, 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.

Another beauty from this week is this card from Laurie Jones.

I love the way Laurie has stamped the branches, making a perfect place to 'hang' the bold lanterns. This card has great balance and the touch of gold embossing adds a level of elegance.

And finally, another example of an outstanding doily card from Helen Berry.

Such an elegant, sophisticated (yet simple) card! The gorgeous silk ribbon and jewels really enhance the design. A wonderful card suitable for such a special occasion!

Thank you ladies for your contributions this week. 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!

September Blog Waltz Review and Winners Announced.

ED - To see the stamps we just released yesterday scroll down or click here

The whole Waltzingmouse Stamps team were so impressed and amazed with the creative projects of those who participated in the Friends of Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog Waltz this past Saturday.  We are please to share some of those great projects with you.

Cathy Weber really did a fabulous job of creating a fantastic Halloween scene, as well as a great card.  She used Join Us, Halloween Party, and You’re Lovely to make all of these great project.

Pauline’s project shows just one of many ways to use Cicely at Halloween. With some creative paper piecing she fashioned a flowing scarf and bat with wings that extend beyond the circle.

Jeanne J fashioned two creative treat bags using the circle images from Cicely at Halloween and Gracie at Halloween.  From those same two sets she created tags and sentiment ribbon banners.

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: SAM.  Congratulations Sam…please e-mail Claire at  claire.brennan1@ntlworld.com with your mailing address and you set of choice and she will be on its way to you.

Last, but not lease, we also selected one commenter who posted their answer to the following question:  What was your favorite Halloween costume. Was it something you made, bought, or rented? Was it for you or for one of your children?

The winning comment came from Elbeth who said:

In Sweden we don't really celebrate Halloween. That is no reason for me not to celebrate Halloween myself! As a Swede, I've not grown up with the Tricks and Treating (but we do something similar when all the witches have to fly away just before Easter!)...
I remember that Haunted Houses at theme parks always attracted me as a child. At one time I even built one, in a room in our basement! It wasn't great, I was around 8, but I was very proud anyway.
All my Halloween parties (as a grown up) have been rather elaborate ones. Once I rented the school I work at and had a proper Hogwarts party - including lessons in alchemy (I'm a chemistry teacher, I promise it was all safe!) and magical biology.
The best costume I had was for another party though. I was Drusilla, the crazy vampire from Buffy. I and a friend ordered half masks from the US, tons of proper theater makeup and we looked totally right.

Thanks for commenting Elbeth.  Please follow the same directions above to acquire your free stamp set.
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.

...New Stamps for September

Good evening (or early morning, sorry Australia and Malaysia!) and welcome to the September 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 4 new sets!!! If you are new to us, Welcome! We hope you find lots of creative inspiration!

We have 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! This month also we added 3 new Design Team members to our already stellar array, it seems incredible to me that all these lovely ladies are so happy to help me show you what I've been drawing up! I marvel at their creations every month!


Today the ladies will be showing the final set, A Cottage Christmas, be sure to visit them all and Don't forget to comment, there are prizes!


You have until September 22 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 23rd here on my blog.

Below is a link list of your dance partners for our Release Day waltz! 

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

Remember - FREE shipping for orders over £50 to Everywhere, yes, you're included! (approx $78.62 USD, $77.21 CAD, $76.28 AUD, €57.38 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 $4.25 USD. We ship our stamps out from our company base here in Northern Ireland.

And here are the New goodies for September

Please note ladies that the Say it loud Winter holiday is a larger set and the other three are small sets, 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.

Say It loud - Winter Holiday

Set size: 6 × 8 inches

Following on from the popularity of the first Say it Loud set, we were innundated with suggestions for a Holiday themed version, and here it is! A fabulously scripted font provides the perfect weight for all those holiday wishes. Endless opportunities to mix and match sentiments, both within this set and also with the original Say it Loud set. Bring on the Winter!

The word 'Christmas' measures just over 3 inches wide by just under 3/4 inches tall at its widest points. The tiny word 'Treats' measures 0.63 inches by 0.12 inches
All images and stamp designs are Copyright © 2011 Waltzingmouse Stamps, Claire Brennan.

A Cottage Home

Set size: 6 × 4 inches

A sister set to A Cottage Christmas, this little set will be more suited to your everyday needs. Featuring two versions of the cottage, a sweet topiary tree, a garden path, and two hinge designs, this dainty little set will provide countless options for cards, tags and scrapbook pages.

Super for cards and tags and even Scrapbook pages, this set is highly detailed and suitable for colouring, or not, as you desire.

The cottage stamp measures just under 2.5 inches by just under 3.5 inches. The 'New Home' sentiment measures just under 1 and 1/2 inches wide by just over a quarter inch tall.
All images and stamp designs are Copyright © 2011 Waltzingmouse Stamps, Claire Brennan

A Cottage Christmas

Set size:6 × 4 inches

A little stamp set full to the brim with Christmas cottage goodness! One large Christmas cottage stamp, snowed in for the holidays, with two topiary christmas trees out front. A cheery snowman lights your way with a tiny lantern and there is a trio of trees and a little cluster of stars to help with scene building. Six separate sentiment stamps - the word 'Bright' is a separate stamp to the rest of the sentiment you see it with in the graphic. Super for cards and tags and even Scrapbook pages, this set is highly detailed and suitable for colouring, or not as you desire.

The cottage stamp measures just under 2.5 inches by just under 3.5 inches. The Home baked for your enjoyment sentiment measures just under 2 and 1/4 inches wide by just over a half inch tall.
All images and stamp designs are Copyright © 2011 Waltzingmouse Stamps, Claire Brennan

Hocus Pocus
Set size: 6 × 4 inches

A small Halloween set featuring a lovely old iron railings and gate. Suitably spookily styled this image makes a great background, or border, or indeed focal point for your cards, add a few of the little crows and you have instant atmosphere! Ot Dt gals also had a lot of fun adding the crows to sentiments and other images, as you'll see in the samples. A cameo of Wanda, a mini broom, 4 theatrically styled sentiments and a nifty little bat medallion complete the set, a total of 11 separate stamps.

The railings stamp measures approximately 5.75 inches long by 1.25 inches tall at its widest points. The 'beWitched' sentiment measures just under 1 and 1/2 inches wide by just over 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, 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.

...And the winner is...

Chèrie said... 9

I love to make packaging boxes and gift tags.

19 September 2011 01:33  

Cherie, you win one each of the 4 sets from the release!!!! Pop me an email with your deets and I'll get your goodies organised!!! Thank you all so much for playing along!! I love to nosey at what else folks like to make, so don't be surprised to find a comp sometime soon where we ask you to show us pics of what else you like to make!!

Back soon with the new goodies for September!

...September release day schedule and COMP!

ED - This comp has now closed, I will be announcing the winner in a moment!

Good evening! Tomorrow we release 4 new clear photopolymer stamp sets!! Just in case you are new here, and even if you're a regular, I thought you might like a little schedule of what's happening when, times are all local to me - to see what time it is where I am, see the clock on the right:

6:00PM - the Store will close to allow final adjustments

6:30PM - the winner of this comp will be announced here on the blog

7:00PM - the New Stamps for September post will go live on this blog, there will be more              fabulous samples from the DT

7:15PM - the Store will re-open.

And FYI

7:00PM in 19 September my time is approximately equal to:

In the USA - 11:00 am Pacific, 12:00 pm Mountain, 1:00 pm Central, 2:00 pm Eastern

In Australia - September 20th, 4:00am (sorry ladies!!)

In Canada - British Columbia 11:00AM, Ontario 2:00PM. Nova Scotia 3:00PM
In Germany - 8:00PM

In Netherlands - 8:00PM
In South Africa 8:00PM

In Malaysia - September 20th, 2:00am (sorry ladies!!)

In Russia, Moscow - 10:00PM

Ok, so I'm a little rusty...I should have had this Competition posted earlier, but hey, there's still time! We can have a little fun before the release kicks off tomorrow evening at 7:00pm my time.

I want to know what else you like to make. aside from cards - Do you scrap? do you make calendars? do you make little boxes a lot, and I'm talking papercrafts, I'm interested in hearing what else you do with paper!!

Leave a comment here and the winner (chosen by random numberness) will win the whole of the September release! All 4 sets!

Ok I'll start us off... Aside from cards I love to make boxes!!!

...September new stamps, Day 3

So are we enjoying the samples?? I have been amazed at what the ladies have created. So amazed that I have spent far too much time ogling their blogs that alas I am not ready this morning...

Anyhow, today the ladies are previewing a little Halloween set Hocus Pocus - let's go and see what they've made shall we? (it'll distract you while I finish up mine...)

• Anya Schrier
• Belinda Chang Langner
• Claire Brennan
• Clare Buswell
• Jennifer Holmes
• Julia Aston
• Kate Whelan
• Kelly Schirmer
• Laurie Schmidlin
• Lynn Mercurio
• Niki Estes
• Sandie Dunne
• Sarah Martina Parker
• Tosha Leyendekker

...A Cottage Home

 

Waltzing? Scroll down or click here.

I love this. I love wee houses. I especially love wee old fairytale type houses and If I could, I would live in a house like this.

This is the card I owe you from yesterday, It's a sample I made to show you one of the new sets, A Cottage Home. I'll be showing the full details of each set here on the blog on Monday night, only two sleeps away!

It's a sort of gingerbread cottage style design and I have been itching to use white embossing powder with it!

I love white embossing powder for two main reasons, it really makes the image pop, and it makes detailed and intricate images easier, much easier, to colour, esp with a waterbrush and some ink as I have used here.

I love detailed images, but I don't always have the time to colour the whole thing in. Also I love copics, but sometimes I just don't have the patience to take the time to be careful about fine detail such as the window frames and doors on this image, this is where embossing comes into its own for me.

With white embossing, I then use a water brush and a few inks, I'm finding SU ink is brilliant, I can squeeze it against the inside of the lid to leave a little pigment that I can use a water brush with.

I really don't have to be particularly careful as the white embossed lines make little 'walls' whch helps to prevent the colour flowing out of the desired area.

Black embossing works well for me if I am using copic markers, I find that white embossing is not great for this because the pens can colour the actual embossed lines.

I found that the house fit perfectly in a Spellbinders rectangle die template and so I used that and matted with a scalloped rectangle die, also Spellbinders. The card base is cream card, with a little horizontal border stamped with one of the other sentiments from A Cottage Home.

I die cut a butterfly (from this new Spellbinders die set) and stamped my sentiment directly to that.

I dressed up my sponged card base with a flower, I love this little cinnamon coloured rose and I am delighted to tell you that I made it myself!!! with the help of one of these - have you seen these? It's a piece of genius! A die that you use to cut out a strip of petal that can be rolled into a rose!! wonderful!! Spellbinders of course.... :)

hope it tickles, I'll be back in the morning with s'more stuff!!