...November at WMS and NEW dies!

NB - Long post alert, many pictures...!

Good evening folks! Further to our announcement in our newsmail a couple of days ago I am springing a little something upon you all this evening. You might be aware that we moved home and work premises last month and so our October release was a little delayed...

Given all the upheaval I find I am going to have to do things a little differently in November. Since folks like to get ready ahead of time for Christmas and since we are already late, I am going to simply add the new items to the store as we get them into stock. This means I am not waiting for the traditional Design Team release to make the new goodies available.

The Design Team will be holding an event mid November, beginning on the 18th, but more on that later. Tonight I have a new stamp set for you - it's called Alpine Christmas, and you can see the art for the set below:

It's a large set, 6x8 inches and in true WMS style it is choc full of stamps. Featuring a detailed Alpine style ski lodge/chalet and supported by various alpine inspired images this set is really a little something different from what I have seen out there and I am looking forward to seeing what the DT do with it on the 18th! Alpine Christmas is available to ship immediately from both our USA and UK locations. I will have further samples made with this set over the next couple of days, I am especially itching to show you that stunning mountain range in action!

Tonight's sample highlights the chalet, and I just want to show you how I built the scene with a little masking:

 First - stamp the snowy path image

Next, make a mask from a sticky post it note, trim across the gently curve 

and place the mask on top of the stamped image.

Next stamp the chalet over the post it note.

Remove the mask and you have created a fabby little winter scene and your chalet

is nestled in a snowy meadow!

Alpine Christmas Die set

I am very excited to bring you a new set of dies, designed to complement the Alpine Christmas stamp set. Please note these dies are currently in stock and ready to ship from the USA base only. The UK bound stock is held up in transport and while it is possible to order these dies from the UK base, they will be subject to a delay of at least one week and possibly two, so please bear that in mind if you are ordering from UK. 

The Alpine Christmas die set contains 5 dies, the chalet, the small house, two snowflakes and the mountain range.

The Alpine Christmas dies are open faced dies and may be positioned around the stamped image and secured by tape before passing through your cutting machine. Our dies are top quality steel dies, made in USA and are compatible with most of the well known die cutting machines, such as the Big Shot, Cuttlebug and Grand Calibur.

I have two more Die sets releasing tonight and they are:

The Bright Season large lantern die

The Bright Season lantern die is now available from both the USA and UK locations, shipping immediately. A closed die, this die is designed to be used on it's own - and although the die works perfectly with the large lantern stamp from the Bright Season stamp set, this die really lends itself to use without the stamp. I created this card using the die to cut a lantern from black cardstock, the sentiment is from Alpine Christmas:

 

Here are a few how-to images:

I cut one black lantern and one white lantern from cardstock, I left the 

centre pieces in place in the white lantern

I stamped my candle and glowy bits on the white lantern

I flipped over the black lantern and began inserting the centre pieces 

from the white lantern into the black lantern

I secured the white and black pieces together by using a little tape across the back of the die cut pieces, when I flip it right side up, it gives a lovely finished lantern. For added dimension, I layered on another black lantern shape, which I had rubbed with a little white ink.

 

An added feature of this die are the two little target holes, these come in handy if I want to use this die with the large lantern stamp from Bright Season. Let me show you how:

 First cut the die out of some scratch paper  -  keep the piece that you would normally throw away, this is your frame -notice the two extra little holes.

Next stamp the lantern image onto your desired cardstock.

Place your frame around the stamped image, you can see the two little target holes, one is right beside the pen nib in the photo, the other is at the bottom left of the lantern. Use the pen to draw a little ring right inside the wee target holes, some folks like to colour the target holes in completely, but I get greater accuracy when I just run the pen right around the target hole.

Remove the frame and you can see your two target circles

Place the die, cutting side down, on top of the image, spend a moment lining up the target circles and make sure you are looking directly down on the die and not from a side angle. I secure the die in place with 3 pieces of tape before passing it through my Grand Calibur.

And hey presto, a perfectly aligned die cut. This particular die is deigned to be used both ways and so it is quite a neat fit to the stamp, other dies in our range have a wider border around the image, but I wanted to get all possible use from this lantern shape and I am delighted to be able to use it both for the stamp and also as a stand alone shape, I hope you like it!

The Little Lantern Die set

My last new item this evening is a long awaited die set for the popular Little Lantern stamp set. These dies are immediately available for shipping from both our USA and UK locations. There are 4 dies in this set and while supplied linked together they are easy to snip apart for use singly. These are closed dies and each has two target holes just like the Bright Season lantern die, but these dies give a wider border, and so it is very easy to just cut out the lantern shapes and simply stamp onto those without the need to align if you prefer to use them in that way.

I used one on this card, you can see the nice generous border, this was a cinch, I just die cut the shape and then stamped onto it.

Well folks I very much hope these tickle, I have a good many other items to release in November so you might like to pop back and see us regularly in November, I'd hate you to miss anything! ;)