...Bright Season

Good evening! I have a little tiny card for you, it's really a gift tag with it's own little pouch. It's made with images from Bright Season a few sets of which we were able to load to the store today.

I cut out my lamp shape with a cut file from the bundle I'm going to make available in the next day or so. I cut two lamps and simply marked a fold across the top of one of them to make a little taggy that can stand up.

I used soft blues and yellows, not the normal Christmas combo, but pretty and fresh. The Joyeux Noel is from Very Vintage Christmas, as are the To; and From:

I stamped a mini candle and light halo from the Little lanterns set inside. The little pouch was decorated with snowflakes, also from Very Vintage Christmas, and another larger light halo, this time from Bright Season.

Cut files for both the tag and pouch will be available in the bundle, I'm just finishing off files for that this evening.

Hope it tickles!

Waffle
A few folks expressed an interest in what happened next on this post.

Well it's no secret, one sharp eyed observer noted that the plane in question was indeed a puddle jumper and over the puddle I did go. To England, to visit some folks who make stamps. I was delighted to find a bunch of folks whose expertise was palpable, tea eminently drinkable and sense of humour as skewed as my own. Yep, the north of England seemed a very comfortable place on Tuesday afternoon. I felt right at home.

I was considering telephoning DH with instructions to just pack up house and kids and bring them on over, we're moving anyhow, what was wrong with Yorkshire? when my reverie was interrupted by my lift to the airport, it was too late, time to face the music once more....

You'd think that having flown successfully that morning that I'd be a little more relaxed in the afternoon, and you'd be wrong. I knew everything I was 'in for' and I wasn't liking it.

Flitting nervously from store to store in the Airport waiting area looking for something suitably English to bring home to my wee folks, I purchased two Swiss watches and a Danish construction set.

I dithered and dallied, from coffee bar to cosmetic counter, from newsagent to luggage stand, with beetroot visage, furtively squinting short-sightedly at the departure screens, so much so, that I was genuinely surprised when airport security didn't pick me up. They've seen it all before, the middle aged mummy person, who obviously doesn't get out much....

I made one last bee-line for the perfume counter, if I was going down, I was going to do it doused in Chanel No.5 at the very least...

...Advance notice

Just a quick heads up ladies, later today I expect to add a few sets of the following items to the store:

Bright Season
Camelias
Opera tag stamps

and the following sets should be replenished

Compliments of the Sesaon
Way out West
Say it loud
Teeny Trees
Vintage Labels 2
Earth Angel

If you'd like to receive a notice when these items make it onto the store, simply pop over and use our New notification system, when you click on the page of any out of stock item, you will see a 'Notify Me' Tab in the top right hand corner - just enter your email and our store will alert you when the item is restocked.

...Guess where I was?

So, you've been keeping up with all the latest WMS 'goings-on' perhaps and you will know that we don't like what just happened. If you've been around long enough you will also know that we will do everything we can to avoid anything like it ever happening again....

In my head the answer to our issue is simple - backup. And so I jumped on a plane yesterday morning to go and see some folks who will be able to provide just that.

There will be a couple of folks who will read that phrase 'jumped on a plane' with a raised eyebrow..., this is because they know that I am terrified of flying...it's the height thing, I'm not good with 'up' things, ladders, ferris wheels, planes...

The worst moment is just before take-off, you know that few seconds where the plane judders and makes all manner of scary noises while the pilot, the co-pilot and the stewards all finish winding up the giant elastic band.

Once they release that big elastic and the plane starts to rush forward, I just close my eyes and pretend I'm in the captain's seat on the Enterprise and we're going at warp speed.

In the seat on my left yesterday morning, was a guy who would have admirably filled Lieutenant Worf's uniform twice over. I'll swear the plane seemed to bank to the right every time he refolded his legs.

Seemed a nice chap, smiled in all the right places, although it was hard to tell what sort of message he was getting from me. I have tiny ears, ergo, tiny tubes inside those tiny ears and since altitude seems to squeeze those tubes so much that I cannot actually hear anything when I'm on a plane, I have no idea whether the speaking noises I was making were coming out at a reasonable volume, or whether I was seductively whispering witticisms such as "please, take the window seat" into his right elbow...

Winner, winner–Chicken Dinner!

While Waltzingmouse Stamps suffered a major glitch with their latest release, the Design Team worked hard to share many amazing designs during the August Release Blog Waltz.  We were all just as disappointed at the news of the recent events, as you were, but we are hopeful that Claire will get the issues ironed out quickly.

We won’t let a setback like this dampen our spirits.  Stay calm and carry on, as the saying goes, so as promised during the recent Waltzingmouse Stamps August Release Blog Waltz, and we have selected a lucky winner of a free Waltzingmouse Stamps set of choice that are available in the store.  The Design Team selected one comment from their group of comments, and from those, we have declared that the following comment from the blog of Sandie Dunne is the winner:

#32 LDonohue1

She said, “Wow, your Halloween card is so wonderful I love Cicely. I hope you frame it or publish it - it’s a beauty. I so love the colors you used in the Hope Grows card. Thanks for the inspiration.”

Congratulation to our lucky winner. To claim your prize, please e-mail Claire at Claire.brennan1@ntlworld.com. Please provide her with your contact information and set choice, and she will get your selected set on its way to you.

A big thank you goes out to all who took the time to comment and for the wonderful outpouring of love for the new release.

...Thank You! and a new App!

ED - Carola, what browser do you use? I wonder if it doesn't show up in all browsers?

ED - Hi Donna, did the wee green tab pop up on the right hand side at all? if not what was the product and I'll check the settings on that? cheers!

Well I'm nearly done emailing everyone regarding the issues we faced yesterday...not my favourite day ever...but I was absolutely overwhelmed by messages of support and understanding. Thank you. I have THE best circle of folks on the web around me. The simple truth is WMS would not exist without the folks who support us, and we try to keep that at the front of the decisions we make, so even though I felt like I was pulling the rug out from under everybody, I really could not do anything else. Thank you all for understanding!

Today I have a new App on the store - it's a 'Back-in-stock' App and yep, it is completely ironic that it gets installed today in light of yesterdays events....but, it will allow folks to receive emails when items they are keeping an eye on come back into stock, so I am hoping folks will find this one useful.

You can see the green tab on the right hand side of the screen there -"Notify Me".  It's not pretty, I expect we'll get web dude to make it nicer looking soon, but it is fully functioning so we'll go ahead with it as is for the time being.

The Wishpot app is due to be retired, we found it really wasn't working out, it required a sign-in and then took folks off site, so we'll be disabling that, probably today. If anyone especially loved this app, do pop us a note to see if there is anything we can do as a compromise for you.

We will be re-instating a wish list app if we find one that is more dedicated, and frankly more use.

Right, a few more emails to go for me, so I'll catch you later!

...Breaking News

Good Morning folks.

I have bad news. I am heart sick to be here on the blog the morning after a release posting this, but I have been let down by my manufacturer.

I will be emailing everyone who holds an order with us individually to chat to them about this development, but in a nutshell here is what I know.

I was advised early this week that there might be a possible delay on some of the sets due to circumstances at the manufacturer. I duly announced this on the blog. Before the release opened I was told that some of the sets had shipped and would be followed shortly by the rest. This was in keeping with what I was told and so I was fine with that.

I awoke this morning to an email from my main manufacturer that there will be further delays regarding the release stock. On my customers behalf, I am not willing to just accept this and so it is with a really heavy heart that I am going to commence refunding the entire batch of release orders. I am so very, very sorry for the disappointment.

I would like to stress, I will email each person individually with their refund and whatever information I have regarding their order, so please wait for that email, I will be working all weekend on this.

I have disabled back-ordering at the store and I will also be emailing anyone still awaiting previously back-ordered items if their order is affected by this.

The store is now only able to accept orders for those items that we currently hold in stock. I very much regret the inevitable inconvenience this will cause.

Ed - could I also stress that the manufacturing folks are suffering through this also, nobody sets out to have production woes, and this has been a testing time for them also.

...New stamps for August at WMS!

ED - Please note this release has had to be cancelled. Folks who have placed orders have been contacted, please read more about it here.

Good evening (or early morning, sorry Australia and Malaysia!) and welcome to the August release at Waltzingmouse Stamps!  If you are new to us, you are very welcome! We design and produce clear stamps made from the best quality photopolymer (that's the good stuff) and today we release 9 new sets and our very own first set of WMS dies, made for us by Spellbinders!

Remember - FREE standard shipping for orders over £50 to Everywhere, yes, you're included! (approx $79.01 USD, $78.50 CAD, $76.02AUD, €63.16 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. Please note our free standard shipping offer does not include tracking. 

Possible delay - Heads up!

Please note shipping for this release will commence on Tuesday 28th August, and not Monday as earlier thought due to the Bank holiday on Monday. A few of the sets are still in transit to us and so some orders may be delayed by an extra couple of days. Average order shipping time for this release is expected to be 5-7 days, our normal release average is around 3-4 days, just so's you can compare.

Design Team Blog waltz

Before we take another step, let me give you the links to the 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! Be sure to visit all of the DT ladies and Don't forget to comment, there's a prize!

Laurie

Anya

Tosha

Becca

Clare

Kelly

Lynn

Jennifer

Belinda

Mona 

Bonnie

Sandie 
 Julia 

And here are the New goodies for August

Please note, the Seed Packet cut file bundle and the Lanterns cut file bundles will become available for purchase tomorrow. These cut file bundles will be larger than normal and will include more than just cut files for the images. We are unable to bring them to you this evening due to an issue with the app that provides our downloads, my apologies.

The Camellia cut files will also be available tomorrow in our Freebie section, these will be cut files for the camellia shapes and will be a gift to our customers!

Opera Tags - Stamps

Set size – 6 × 4 inches

Set size – 6 × 4 inches
Designed to match our first ever set of custom Spellbinder die templates, these Opera tags offer a theatrical and lightly over-the-top option for when you want to make a statement! That crazy looking stamp is what I call my 'theatre drapes' stamp and it makes a super image for Christmas or halloween tags, see samples. Can't wait to see what folks do with these!
The 'theatre drapes' stamp measures measures 3 and 1/8 inches by 2 and 1/4 inches at the widest points, and the smallest tag frame measures 1 and 1/4 inches by 3/4 inch at the widest points.

All images and stamp designs are Copyright © 2012 Waltzingmouse Stamps, Claire Brennan.

Opera Tags Die Templates - exclusive to WMS

The first ever set of Waltzingmouse Custom designed dies - Opera tags. Three tag designs and a Label style panel. These dies are made for us by Spellbinders and may be used in exactly the same way you use all your Spellbinder die templates. Cut, emboss and stencil.
Designed to complement our Opera Tag stamps, we thought these tags designs would add a little fun to your stash, check out the dramatic 'Theatre Drapes' stamp used with that largest panel, or see how the embossing lines in that larger tag work with the stamp design that co-ordinates.
The approximate sizes of die cuts are:
3 and 7/8 by 3 and 3/8 inches
3 and 1/5 by 2 and 3/8 inches
2 and 1/8 by 2 and 5/8 inches
1 and 1/5 by just under 1 inch

 All images and stamp designs are Copyright © 2012 Waltzingmouse Stamps, Claire Brennan.

Vintage Garden - Seed Packet

Set size – 6 × 8 inches

With 32 stamps this Vintage inspired set is sure to cover all of your seed packet needs. A Vintage style seed packet, drawn up with engraving style details and supplied with antique style lettering for you to fill as your heart desires! Add either of the two original antique art images provided in this set, the carnation or the pumpkin, or chose a flower or vegetable from one of the other sets in this series. Or, fill the seed packet with fabric or paper flowers! Possibilities abound.  The seed packet stamp may be trimmed out with the largest die in your Spellbinders Classic Rectangles set, or you can use the co-ordinating cut files in the Seed Packet cut file bundle.
 The seed packet image measures 2.6 by 3.4 inches and the sentiment "For the little seedlings" measure just under an inch long by just under a half inch tall.All images and stamp designs are Copyright © 2012 Waltzingmouse Stamps, Claire Brennan.

Vintage garden - Flowers

Set size – 6 × 4 inches

 Featuring real, original vintage artwork that has been optimised for stamp making. Names and Latin names in vintage styled fonts, these flowers are stunning on their own as well as being the perfect companion to your Vintage Garden - Seed Packet set.
The Hyacinths are 3 inches by 2 inches at the widest points, and the 'Appleblossom' Sentiment is 2 inches long by a quarter inch tall. All images and stamp designs are Copyright © 2012 Waltzingmouse Stamps, Claire Brennan

Vintage garden - Produce

Set size – 6 × 4 inches

 Featuring real, original vintage artwork that has been optimised for stamp making. Names and Latin names in vintage styled fonts, these images are stunning on their own as well as being the perfect companion to your Vintage Garden - Seed Packet set.
The Cauliflower measures 3 and 1/8 inches by 2 and 1/8 inches at the widest points, and the 'Cauliflower' Sentiment is 1.5 inches long by a quarter inch tall.All images and stamp designs are Copyright © 2012 Waltzingmouse Stamps, Claire Brennan

 

Appleblossom Seeds

Set size – 4 × 3 inches

A one off seed packet image already containing all the text and image you need. A veritable stamp-and-go version of our lovely Vintage Garden Seed Packet set. Instant gratification!

This stamp may be trimmed out with the largest die in your Spellbinders Classic Rectangles set, or you can use the seed packet cut file in the co-ordinating Seed Packet cut file bundle.

 The Appleblossom seed packet stamp produces an image 3 and 3/8 inches by just a hair over 2 and 1/2 inches. All images and stamp designs are Copyright © 2012 Waltzingmouse Stamps, Claire Brennan

Camellia

Set size – 6 × 8 inches

Camellia flowers drawn in a detailed graphic style, perfect for colourists, paper piecers, or simple stampers. A variety of different arrangements and sizes of flower, including a bud, a stalk and some leaves. Use them as single blooms or with techniques such as fussy cutting and masking to create bouquets. Complimentary cut files in .svg and .dxf format are available for this set here. These would be perfect to illustrate your Seed Packet, or slip them inside a Candy Jar vase. A bunch of vintage styled sentiments compliment the images and may be combined in many different ways to create the perfect message for your card or layout.

 The largest blossom is just under 2.5 inches in diameter. The sentiment 'Wonderful' is 2 inches long by 5/8 of an inch tall.All images and stamp designs are Copyright © 2012 Waltzingmouse Stamps, Claire Brennan

Bright Season

Set size – 6 × 4 inches

A small set with a lot of mileage! The large lantern image makes a terrific tag for gift giving. Use the co-ordinating cutting files to produce multiple tags for some fast and easy stamping. Add details such as holly, candles and 'shine' using the many supporting stamps in this set. Or utilize the candlestick for an old time feel. Great for Christmas and Thanksgiving of course, try it in pastels for spring.

Have fun embossing the 'glows' in gold or white to really give your project some sparkle. 14 stamps make up this versatile set.

The large lantern stamp is just under 4 and 1/4 inches by 2 and 7/8 inches at the widest points, and circular candle flame stamp is 5/8 of an inch in diameter.All images and stamp designs are Copyright © 2012 Waltzingmouse Stamps, Claire Brennan

 

Little lanterns

Set size – 6 × 4 inches

A host of tiny lanterns ranging from the formal to the casual, the chic to the boutique, something for every occasion here. Hanging brackets for BOTH sides AND the middle, or a shelf depending on how you look at it...candles, radiating light glow, even a holly leaf, all packed into a small 6x4 set. 14 stamps in total. Go wrought iron, go country, go shabby chic, I don't mind....A perfect match for the 'Light of the World' sentiment set.
The rustic lantern with grip handle stamp measures 2 and 1/4 inches by 1 and 1/5 inches at the widest points, the chain links measure 1 inch by 1/8 inch.All images and stamp designs are Copyright © 2012 Waltzingmouse Stamps, Claire Brennan

Light of the World

Set size – 6 × 4 inches

A set of 7 sentiments, especially designed to work with the Little Lanterns set and the Bright Season images. Including two faith based sentiments, these stamps carry messages of hope, remembrance and encouragement, and will be a great boon to folks finding it necessary to make those difficult cards needed for trialling times.
The largest sentiment is just inder 1 and 3/4 inches by just under 2 inches, the sentiment 'Shine' is 1.5 inches by just over 3/4 inches. All images and stamp designs are Copyright © 2012 Waltzingmouse Stamps, Claire Brennan

Sure hope some of those tickle!!

 

...August release schedule

Good morning, here is a little schedule for the release today!

Please note these are the UK times that are local to me. I have a little note below of equivalent times in other places.

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

7:00PM - the New Stamps for August post will go live on this blog and there will be more              fabulous samples from the DT in our August release Blog Waltz. Don't forget also that we run a little random giveaway from the DT blog waltz, another chance to win goodies!

7:15PM - the Store will re-open.

Just in case you are new to us, We design and produce clear photopolymer stamps and we are releasing nine new stamp sets this evening. Scroll back through the most recent posts to see examples of what is coming later today. And if you are not in need of new stamps just now I invite you to come back this evening at 7:00pm anyhow for the DT Blog Waltz, loads of eye candy and inspiration!! AND a competition!

7:00pm my time Friday 24 August is approximately equal to:

Australia,Queensland  - 4:00am Saturday August 25th (ouch, sorry ladies!)

Brazil, Rio de Janeiro - 3:00pm Friday 24 th

Canada, Ontario - 2:00pm Friday 24 th

Germany - 8:00pm Friday 24 th

Japan - 3:00am Saturday August 25th (oooh, sorry ladies!)

Netherlands - 8:00pm Friday 24 th

Russia, Moscow - 10:00pm Friday 24 th

South Africa - 8:00pm Friday 24 th

USA Pennsylvania - 2:00pm Friday 24 th

USA Missouri - 1:00pm Friday 24 th

USA Washington - 11:00am Friday 24 th

...introducing Bright Season

If you are new to my blog, you might like to know that we are on Day three of our sample previews for tomorrow's release! A stack of new sets and a brand new product for WMS - our own custom die templates, manufactured by the one and only Spellbinders, I cannot tell you how happy these make me! I have actually dreamt of this...!

If you are not new to us, I've been loving the comments you've been leaving me on this post, and after my sample I show you one way that the cameo and Calibur can work beautifully together.

Back to my sample tho - I have this Lantern Card for you. There is a very special relationship between Christmas and Light in my head and the moment I started drawing lanterns I knew it was going to be something I really wanted to do a lot of Christmas prep with.

This Lantern is big for good reason, I have used it on a card here, but you have no idea what an excellent tag this makes, I'll be back with pics of those in a bit.

I made the lantern my focal point here. I trimmed out the panes of my lantern - I used my Cameo and there will be a cut file for this in the Lanterns bundle of cut files. You can see the panel on the left below.

I stamped my candle and the lovely rays of light on a piece of cream card and mounted that in behind, I love how this works. I also trimmed out some of the holly leaves that come in this set, again with the Cameo and mounted them on the roof of the lantern, a little red bow and I was all done....and then I decided that I wanted a little extra detailing around the card, but I didn't want to take away from the main image and so I made up a little scroll frame design and ran that out with the Cameo. I cut it out in kraft card, the same as the card front, and adhered it to the front. I think it gives gorgeous festive detailing to this card (Just fyi, I used Gina K kraft cardstock and had the cameo setting to cover weight and the blade at 7, two passes).

Now, as I was peeling the scroll frame from the carrier sheet, the thought ocurred that the negatives of the design were too good looking a pattern to throw away, and that's when I had this idea...

What if I could get that pattern off the sheet and stick it onto a piece of card, I'd have myself a handy dandy new embossing folder to use with my Grand Calibur.....

So, I applied glue to all the bits left on the sheet, I dug around in my scraps to find the piece that was left over when I cut my panel - I used this as a frame, to give an outside edge to my embossed pattern. Then when the glue was getting tacky, I laid over a large piece of card over the top. I weighted it down with a book and left it for a while to give the glue a chance.

Then I flipped it over and peeled the carrier sheet away to give me a nice new embossing blank.
 Made tea to celebrate! Excited at the possibilities for making more embossing blanks from other cut files!!!

Hope it tickles!

...Day 3 DT links

Good morning, I have the DT links for you, be back later with mine!!

Anya Schrier

Becca Feeken

Belinda Chang Langner

Bonnie Sharp

Clare Buswell

Julia Aston

Jennifer Holmes

Kelly Schirmer

Laurie Schmidlin

Mona Pendleton

Sandie Dunne

Tosha Leyendekker

Claire Brennan (Owner)

...Vintage Garden and a chat

A very quick sample for you tonight, I just wanted to show you how beautiful these vintage images are when stamped very, very simply. This greatly appeals to me as one who never seems to have enough time to do anything!!!

The tag images of flowers are from the small set Vintage Garden - Flowers and the little seed envelope images are from the Vintage Garden - Produce set, both due to release on Friday.

I will be back in the morning with my DT link list and then again in the afternoon with some very special samples, hope you can pop back.

I am whizzing about like a top in the background, prepping the store, getting the cut files together - wow, that Cameo is some machine, but I still love my dies. Something about the tactile nature of producing those beautifully embossed edges just tickles my creative spirit - the girls were beginning to show you the die shapes and the co-ordinating stamps today and I look forward to sharing my samples of those with you, but release week always seems to expand exponentially and I have a few behind the scenes things to do before I get to that.

I'd love to take a little straw poll tho - how many of you ladies or gentlemen out there have a use for our cutting files? With the launch of our first die set and my Cameo purchase I am looking at the different nature of each method of cutting. I'm finding that there are things I want to use the Cameo for and other things for which only my big Rasperry buddy, the Grand Calibur can do for me.

I will be designing both dies and cutting files henceforth, and my plan is to play to the strengths of each system. For example I don't think that the beautifully embossed edge on a decorative tag cut with a Spellbinders die template can be matched by the plain cutting function on my Cameo, I love texture and that is simply not achievable on a cameo...or is it (? lol, I have a wee tut for you tomorrow that could turn your Grand Calibur into your Cameo's best buddy!!) but the Cameo is handy for making little cut out shapes to match oddly shaped stamps that I may not want to buy a die for - so what do you think?

For folks who take the time to give us their opinion here in a comment on this post I'll be making a random draw for a set of my new dies! The draw winner will be announced just before the release. Looking forward to hearing from you!

...August release links day 2

Scroll back to see my sample for yesterday if you haven't already, I'll be back later today with more!

Here are the DT links for the ladies showing samples today, didn't the girls knock our socks off yesterday?can't wait to see today's!!!


Anya Schrier
Becca Feeken
Bonnie Sharp
Belinda Chang Langner
Clare Buswell
Julia Aston
Jennifer Holmes
Kelly Schirmer
Laurie Schmidlin
Lynn Mercurio
Sandie Dunne
Tosha Leyendekker

...Introducing Vintage Garden

Good evening/early morning...lol, it's nearly 4AM here and I should be in bed, but I promised my samples today, and since it's not technically 'tomorrow' 'till I have been to bed.... I'm fulfilling my promise by the skin of my teeth.

Earlier today the DT ladies introduced you all to the Vintage Garden series of stamp sets that we'll be releasing on Friday and here is a little something I put together.

The Vintage Garden series is beginning with the release of 4 sets in the theme. Seed Packet, Flowes, Produce and Appleblossom seeds.

The series combines some actual vintage artwork together with graphics that I created to complement them and make them usable on various projects.

I was once a graphic designer and I developed my ephemera collecting habit into an extreme sport during that time. I have ancient books and bits and bobs squirrelled away all over the house....DH loves it...not.

Anyhow, I have a collection of images, all well over the 100 years old that I put together for this series of stamps, I cleaned up the images and retouched them where necessary, rebuilding some of them and creating sentiments and other decorative graphics to produce a little collection of sets that I think you will love.

I made a sort of little seed packet and folder card, the cut files for all of these will be available on Friday. These would be good to fill with seeds and hand out at a Thanksgiving dinner, maybe even lay them on the table as a favor. A nice thing to take home from a visit I think.

This is what the wee folder looks like opened out - there's a little pocket where the seed packet sits.

Below, when you take the seed packet out, you find that it is a brown paper bag seed envelope in a little cream card wrap. I stuck to burgundy ink throughout, I was liking the old toile feel of the highly detailed vintage images stamped in red.

The pic below shows a wrap that I call 'wrap A - you can see it has a little arched window so that you can see the stamped brown seed envelope. Above the arch is space to stamp a sentiment. In this case 'Thanksgiving'.

Superlative seeds of the Realm...lol, love it!!

Take the seed envlope out and the vintage pumkin looks very smart with some specially designed vintage sentiments. I added a fine drop shadow on that lovely old font. I love how simple this is.

The back of the seed envelope. The Seed Packet set includes necessary items for making actual usable seed packets, such as these 'Type/Variety/Harvested/Use by" and dotted line stamps.

A close up of the Wrap - this is wrap A, there are two more styles of wrap in the vast cut file selection.

Hope it tickles!!!

...August release DT links Day 1

Good morning! I have my DT list for you, these ladies are previewing some of our newest sets this morning, I will be back later with my samples, so do pop back, but first, scroll back to the previous post to see the sneak peeks if you haven't already and to bring yourself up to speed with our release news.

Anya Schrier 

Becca Feeken 

Bonnie Sharp 

Belinda Chang Langner  

Julia Aston 

Jennifer Holmes  

Kelly Schirmer 

Laurie Scmidlin

Lynn Mercurio 

Tosha Leyendekker 

...Release with a difference

Good evening! I have a few peeks for you! I'm going to jump right in and tell you what has been happening here at WMS this week. Before I ran away to Dingle for a weeks vacation, I had scheduled the August release, it's due this Friday night.

I had lined up oodles of new goodies for you and I was excited to be making a start on the Christmas array from Waltzingmouse Stamps. Above are peeks from the 9 or 10 different items we have coming on Friday.

I returned from vacation to find that my manufacturer had some pretty exciting plans of their own going on which has lead to a little delay in some areas of production. Since the Design Team ladies and myself already had most of the foundations laid for our release, we're going to carry on with showing you our samples etc. However I think it is only right and proper to tell you up front that there is just the slightest chance that a couple of our new sets may be a little delayed.

We're beginning samples in the morning, and our release will go live on Friday night at 7:00pm. When the release goes live, we will be in a position to point out to you exactly what sets, if any, are delayed, before you make your choices, and by delay I mean a couple of days.

Shipping for this release will begin on Monday, since there is minimal Postal service here on Saturday and none on Sunday. Thankfully release times are usually crazy busy here at WMS, and I don't expect this to make a big impact on our normal release shipping times, but, as ever, we will keep you updated as we go along.

August 2012 Blog Party Wrap-Up and Winner!

We have a wonderful turnout for the August Blog Party.  There was plenty of inspiration for BIRTHDAYS and since we ALL use birthday cards and design/create for birthdays, we can always use this kind of mojo-assistance. The variety of projects was amazing and we are truly thankful that you took the time to participate.  We know that there are LOTS of on-line activities that are available for your participation, and we are so happy that you deemed the WMS Blog Party worthy of your time and creative talent.  You can still take a look at all the fantastic projects which can be found here.

Everyone did a fabulous job – you always do.  The following three projects really caught my eye.

Helen Berry use the 'Big Berries, Strawberry' mini stamp set to make a scented pillow and a matching card. What a beautifully delicious set!  The stamping of the strawberry on the pillow is just as detailed as that on the cardstock.  Helen did a fantastic job on this lovely project. I can almost smell the fragrance coming from the pillow!

Maureen Wong really put her creative party hat on when she created this fun project. She adorned the top of her party platform by creating two fun pinwheels, using the Playful Pinwheels set and attached to bamboo skewers .  Her sentiment is from the Frame-It set frames the tea light candle beneath the pennant she created from the Bitty Banners set. It’s a project that is a party all to itself.  Nicely done Maureen.

 

 

Marybeth used her twine in a creative way to decorate the candy she placed inside the jar she stamped using the Candy Jar set.  She added glossy accents and glitter to the twine to make this candy look even more delectable.  Who wouldn’t like a jar of candy that looks so beautiful?!

 

Pretty incredible creations, yes? Thanks to everyone who participated. There is so much creativity among WMS customers, and everyone is a winner because they have shared their work with us, but only one participate can win the free set that WMS is giving away to a lucky winner today.  We used Random.org to select our winner this month.  Congratulations goes to:

#36 Nerina

Congratulations Nerina.  Please send Claire an e-mail at Claire.brennan1@ntlworld.com with your stamp set selection and mailing address details. Please use BLOG PARTY WINNER in your subject line.  We appreciate EVERYONE’S participation and support of the “Blog Party”.  We hope you had as much fun blog creating as we did seeing your beautiful projects.

Be sure to check back on September 1st, when we will announce the theme for the September 17th “party”. (EEK, how can it be almost September???)

...late to the party

I'm late. I have no excuses for you, I just didn't make it on time....this is not a new phenomenon for me...however Colleen Proctor, whose Party Project you can see here, created an amazing layout for the party and our linky system seems to have let her down, so I'd invite you to pop over and see her cute, cute layout here, as she is not on the original party list, and I'd hate you to miss out.

Our theme was Birthdays and the blog post with the link list is just the one before this one, so you can scroll back easily to see everything. I will be surfing the party form the comfort of duvets and feather pillows later, right now, I'm up to my ears in tidying a craft room...

I used French Country for my card, colours inspired by this fabby ribbon, it's wired, which makes the whole plumping up the bow thing so much easier...

I stamped in Memento rich cocoa, and coloured with copics. The detail on the large order means that you can pick and choose which bits to colour, or not, it also looks fab just stamped, but I was in a footery mood.

Peeking out the sides of the broad french border panel you can just see the tips of a detailed die cut border, created with the large border die from the Lace Doily Accents Spellbinders die template 
set.

Stamped my sentiment, one word at a time onto a dinky little die cute taggy. Popped on a little red pebble - I got those from Beverly at Precious Scraps, eons ago. Beverly gave me a kick start in this old crafty venture by taking a risk and asking me to be on her DT, what it must be nearly 4 years ago! I'm forever grateful and we will be forever friends!!

Hope it tickles!

Let the August 2012 WMS Blog Party BEGIN!

Hello and welcome to the August 2012 Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog Party! We are thrilled to have you join us for this fun and inspirational event. Are you ready?  Good, let’s get to it!  Our theme for August is:

“BIRTHDAYS”

Birthdays are that special day when you celebrate the uniqueness of YOU. We throw parties, we light candles, we open presents, we celebrate with family and friends - yes, it certainly is a big day.  So we thought that birthdays, for young and old (er) would be a fun theme for our Blog Party.  Couldn't you use a few extra cards around the house for all those birthdays on your calendar? Of course you could!

Use your imagination; show us some ingenuity and create a card, a 3D project, or even a scrapbook page, using images from Waltzingmouse Stamps to share your latest and greatest BIRTHDAY creations.  Perhaps you have a birthday party ensemble complete with party hats and noise makers, or you want to scrapbook your son or daughter's last birthday celebration.  Whatever your creative desire, let the PARTY begin!

We encourage you to upload your entries to your blog or on-line gallery and then link up your creation using the inlinkz tool at the end of this post. We will leave the links open for 24 hours so that everyone will have a chance to play along!  Once you link your project, you can check out all the other inspiring projects by just clicking on their link.  Fun and easy!

A random selection of time zones are given below, so you can see how this works:

UK - 6:30 p.m. 17th August- 6:30 p.m. 18th August

USA (New York) 1:30 p.m. 17th August- 1:30 p.m. 18th August

Australia (Queensland) - 4:30 a.m. 18th August- 4:30 a.m. 19th August

Canada (Alberta) - 11:30 a.m. 17th August- 11:30 a.m. 18th August

Malaysia - 2:30 a.m. 18th August- 2:30 a.m. 19th August

Norway - 7:30 p.m. 17th August- 7:30 p.m. 18th August

You have 24 hours to link up your creation!  We all look forward to see your wonderfully creative projects.  Be sure to check back on the 20th of the month when we will highlight a few of the amazing entries right here on the blog! We will be on the lookout for projects that showcases extra special effort! We will also randomly select a winner for a coupon code good for a free set.

Let the fun begin and use your direct link to start the party.

...more snaps

Evening all - I have a couple more holiday snaps for you, the first is the view down towards Brandon Bay from the Conor Pass above Dingle, a spectacular vista that the pic just does not convey!

A little mossy wall from along the way. How gloriously green is this moss?

And another epic site on the Dingle Peninsula, Gallarus Oratory, an ancient church. Over a thousand years old and virtually intact. Built with dry stone. I have to say, I was itching to see this, but it was a little eerie inside, or maybe that's the claustraphobia talking....

Inside the oratory.

Hope to be back later for the Blog Party? Will I put the kettle on for you?

...a wee spin

So since we had the week off, we decided to pack up the car and make a run for it! This is where we ended up. The very southwest corner of Ireland.

Dingle, County Kerry. Haven't been down this way in years and it was every bit as stunning as I remembered, just one thing to note for future reference, book ahead. Book far ahead. Since we hadn't really planned a vacation this year, we were pretty much ready to take what was left accommodation wise, but I saw oodles of lovely places to stay, if I'd booked earlier. We got ourselves a simple house for the week and it was grand, we were out and about every day anyhow, so it was fine, but like everywhere else on the planet, things are expensive this weather and a little forward planning would have been wise...lol...

Got some nice pics which I hope to share, if you don't mind...this one above is the view towards Dingle from along the coast. Below is a pic of the first thing that comes to my mind every time I think of County Kerry - the hedges, miles and miles of lovely fuschia hedges, my favourite hedge flower. I have a bank of fuschia at the back of my house, it's my one wee tenuous link to my favourite places in Ireland. As I'm doing the dishes, I'm looking at the hedge and wishing I was in Kerry....

Below is one of the many, many ancient sites on the Dingle peninsula, Kilmalkedar Church. Associated with St Brendan, it's a beautiful quiet spot, with Ogham stones, an ancient sundial and an alphabet stone. I'd love to spend a few months just traipsing around Ireland, taking snaps of ancient places.

I have a few more snaps if you are interested...it'll keep us going until the ink dries on my latest card anyhow....

hope it tickles!

...taking a break

So I'm taking a week off. I promised the wee folks some fun time and it starts tomorrow! I have even pinkie promised not to actually physically go into the office for a week from tomorrow. I saw my assistant actually breath a big sigh of relief when this was stated...lol, secretly I think she's delighted to get me out of her hair for a week...I think she thinks I might be a little untidy or something...lol, I dunno... she is a trooper though and this year in particular I'd have been lost without her many, many a time, and not just in work, she's one of those friends that holds you up when you feel like there is no ground beneath your feet. She's a rock.

As well as all her normal stuff she'll be taking over my emails and admin also, so please do bear with us if emails are slow to answer next week, it's been a while since the whole show was handled by just one person, and I'd kinda like her to keep going with the eating and the sleeping....

Anyhow I'm hoping to take the wee folks on a a few spins, eat a few pic-nics that sort of thing, I'm allowed a camera, just not access to my computer....

You might just see me on facebook over the next week...but if you do...be aware that it's probably midnight where I am, and I'll be under the duvet hiding the light of the phone from my wee folks...

chat soon!

August 2012 Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog Party Details

 

Hi everyone. Let’s talk about Birthdays - we all have them, whether we want them or not.  On any given day on earth, approximately 6 billion people are having a birthday. Whether you are young…or a little older – we each have a special day.

Birthdays are that special day when you celebrate the uniqueness of YOU. We throw parties, we light candles, we open presents, we celebrate with family and friends - yes, it certainly is a big day.  So we thought that birthdays, for young and old (er) would be a fun theme for this month's Blog Party...not to mention that having an extra card or two around the house for all those birthdays isn't such a bad idea either.

Use your imagination and show us some ingenuity.  Create a card, a 3D project, or even a scrapbook page, using images from Waltzingmouse Stamps and join the fun.

Below is the schedule of beginning and end times in which you can enter your direct link to your project.  Your post on your blog, or on-line gallery, can go live anytime you wish on the 17th, but you will need to post your direct link here on the WMS blog using the Inlinkz widget that will be available during the time frame (outlined below) .

The festivities begin right here, according to your location, as indicated below:

UK - 6:30 p.m. 17th August- 6:30 p.m. 18th August

USA (New York) 1:30 p.m. 17th August- 1:30 p.m. 18th August

Australia (Queensland) - 4:30 a.m. 18th August- 4:30 a.m. 19th August

Canada (Alberta) - 11:30 a.m. 17th August- 11:30 a.m. 18th August

Malaysia - 2:30 a.m. 18th August- 2:30 a.m. 19th August

Norway - 7:30 p.m. 17th August- 7:30 p.m. 18th August

The linking option will be closed after that time.  From there you can just click on any of the projects linked and be directed to any of the participants’ blogs to get a closer look at their creativity.

Although we call this a "blog party", it is perfectly fine to use an on-line gallery for your project, if you don't have a blog.  It doesn't even have to be the Waltzingmouse Stamps gallery either (although you are most welcome to upload as many WMS projects as you like there).  On-line galleries such as Flickr or Picasa or other galleries are also fine.

You only need to do three things:

1.  You will need to be able to link your project here, using a direct link URL

2.  Your project needs to contain something directly related to the theme – color or other inspiration should be noted in your description

3.  You must use Waltzingmouse Stamps images

We encourage and welcome you to grab this "party mouse" blog button (at the top of this post for your blog sidebar, and to use it at the top of your post on "party day".

On the 20th of the month – we will highlight a few of the entries that really catch our eye and you'll be able to see those here on the WMS blog.  We will also select and announce our winner of the FREE stamp set of choice, using a random generator from those participating in the Blog Party.

So now that you know the date - you know the time - and now you know the theme, what are you waiting for?  Send the kids out to play, turn off the computer and get crafting!  See you the 17th!