...are you waltzing???

Tomorrow we're having our monthly blog waltz - come play along!! make a card/project with a masculine theme, get your blog post/gallery link ready and post it to our forum here.

You can get the full details right here.

In the meantime, I will leave you with some pics of Ireland, we haven't had any in a while and it's high time I did my bit for Irish Tourism!!! These were all taken in Mayo, on the road from Westport heading towards Achill Island - we took some little detours and found these gems.

A house at the entrance to Newport town

Rockfleet castle - Once home to pirate queen Grace O'Malley

Burrishoole Friary - a useful info plaque was displayed, scroll down to read more about Burrishoole.

The Atlantic drive at Achill, mere photos cannot begin to capture the sheer beauty of this area...

Feeling refreshed??? lol, right, now go make something for the waltz!!!

...holiday snaps...

So, I promised a few piccies and didn't deliver!!! Gosh ladies if you only KNEW what was going on behind the scenes at WMS...LOL, still that's for another day, I know I'm a shameless tease!! But, there you go.

Ooohh and Lisa will be announcing the winners on the sketch Challenge blog very soon!!! Thank you to all who took part, I finally got time to visit all the entries this week, there were stunners aplenty!!

Anyhow here's a few pics, hope you like em, I know some of you are headed this way soon, I hope you get the weather we got!!!

We're looking at Westport House in this post, super place to go with the family, there's the house and grounds to see as well as the fun park, you really can spend the whole day here! loved it!

What you don't get to see: Jelly legged female being carried off the "Pirate Queen Boat ride" accompanied by giggling children...

Leaving you all with a pic of the Sunset over Clew Bay, surely this is where God, in his infinite wisdom, spends his Sunday afternoons. There is no better place.

...at the edge of the world

Hello from the edge of the world!
I raised a few laughs in Westport yesterday when I walked into a mobile phone store and asked for a dongle. I’m reliably informed that a dongle would enable me to surf the internet from the comfort of my armchair overlooking Clew Bay. I thought it was a reasonable enough request, it was greeted with undisguised mirth, I was only slightly embarrassed....lol.

Of course, internet is available here in hotels etc, but I baulk at the thought of stealth surfing undercover of darkness in the street outside the hotel and my wee folk will not tolerate me ‘computing’ while we dine and indeed a few spousal eyebrows have been raised at my even bringing the laptop with me so I’m afraid it must remain languishing in the corner while I lavish undiluted attention upon my wee clan! In fairness I am enjoying the family time...could do without the sandridden wetsuits tho’...

Anyhow, here’s a couple of pics we snapped last night, the first is a pretty sunset seen at Lecanvey, the second is the national famine monument at Murrisk, f you’re squeamish you won’t want to study this pic too closely...it’s a ship fairly rigged with skeletal shapes. The first time we saw it we approached it eagerly and then hurried the wee folk away when we actually realised what it was.

It’s a terrific piece of art but takes some explaining to a 6 year old.

Right, must be off, fish to be caught! Chat soon!

...a card...a few pics

We had a fabulous weekend, it started with the new Challenge blog going live - Thank you Lisa for setting it all up and to the DT ladies for kicking it off in style! If you haven't seen it yet, pop over here:



Things just got better from there! The clan were all set to go to the Maritime festival in Belfast and right as we were getting into the car we all decided to ditch the crowds and bustle and head for the country! I am so glad we did! We ended up at Springhill House, a lovely old house near Cookstown. We'd never been there before but already we're making plans to go back with a pic-nic.

It is a glorious place I've heard it's haunted and i'm itching to see inside but there was a country fair on in the grounds and we were so entertained that we never made it inside!! Kept it for another day, I have a few pics of the place here for you at the end of the post. Right now, I have a card!! shock!!

I had this idea for a sort of inverted frame, I used two dies (Spellbinders labels 12) close in size. I laid them on top of a scene I built up (on a piece of square card aleady cut to size) with stamps from the Asian Gardens set and then simply ran it all through the cuttlebug. One thing I did do was invert my cuttle bug cutting sandwich so's I could see the dies on the card as I ran it through and I held the dies in place with a few pieces of ripped (not cut - leaves hard edges) post-it note.

Then I simply mount the 3 pieces on the cad at different heights using dimensionals! I mounted the centre panel highest (two layers of foam dimensional) the immediate frame was stuck directly to the card base and the outer frame was put on one layer of foam dimensionals. I like how this turned out!! virtually no effort at all! LOL


Beautiful Springhill


A little wrought iron gate leads to a magnificent Copper Beech tree.


The back of the house viewed through the rhododendrons.


Springhill Roses.


Inside the little bookshop on the grounds, where I scored many, many Maeve Binchy novels at exactly the right price!! DD got a bargain Harry Potter hardback! Wee tiny ones got piles of picture books and DH was rewarded with a single boiled sweet for his patience! LOL


Hope it tickles!

...Blog Hop deets and a pic for Holly!

ED - Yep Katrynka it is absolutely fine to use a link for flikr or indeed your SCS gallery or similar!!

Angela, the thread will not be open until the Blog hop is due to start. Once I open the thread next Wed, you can add our link post at any time after - I'll prob leave it open till the next morning! If you are not going to be around during the hop you can pm me on the forum with your link and i'll make sure you are added!!

ooh and don't forget to check out Bonnie's colour challenge at Stampin around here!


Just a quick reminder about next weeks Blog hop.

WMS will be hosting a blog hop on our brand new Forum on St Patrick's Day March 17th, next Wednesday. We would love for friends of WMS to get out their stamps and show us some green!!

I have supplied some free digital images for folks who don't have WMS stamps and please feel free to join in the blog hop if you've only just discovered us by way of the free digis!! we'd love to have you!

The free Digital images can be got by clicking here, the shamrock above is one image and if you scroll down you can see the other one, it's the shamrock bunch!

Now here's the plan:

You have from now until next Wednesday to make a card or project for the hop.

Write up your blog post, but don't publish it yet!!! You can snag the blog hop logo above to help identify your post if you like. (drag it to your desktop, mac drivers or right click for pc folk) Pop over to the Forum and register, so's you'll be able to post your link on the 17th,

On Wednesday I will start a thread in the Forum at around 11pm my time, that's around 3pm-5pm for most of America! At that time you will be able to add a post to the thread containing your link to your blog post, which you can publish at this time!

The thread will remain open for at least a couple of hours to allow everyone a chance to link, I know dinner and getting home from work will be in the way for some folks!! so we won't close it early!!

The thread will be the link list that you can refer to to hop your way around the participants blogs! There are a couple of handy tips that will be in the Thread to make this super easy to navigate!

For folks who don't have a blog, we are hoping to have a gallery soon for you to upload to but in the meantime I am happy to post a pic or two on my blog, beside my entry. Just make sure your pic is 72 dpi, and no bigger than 640 pixels by 480 pixels please, larger pics will melt my email system! lol. You can email them to me at:
claire.brennan1@ntlworld.com

So, are we all set??


I happened to be in Carrickfergus over the weekend and couldn't pass the opportunity of getting a wee snap for my email buddy Holly!! I love how the castle looks golden in the early evening light!!


I love winter sunsets, this is on the hillside overlooking Belfast Lough.

...snow day!

We get a little snow most years but it's been a long time since it has been so frosty for so many days in a row. The trees are still iced up even in the middle of the day!

This morning my DH thought it would be a good idea to take the kids sledging at a park. It's a very nice park, but it's 10 times prettier in the snow.

So, despite my protestations of pain and discomfort (I had a hot date with my dentist yesterday, it ended badly lol - I'm a complete weed) off we went at 10 this morning.

It was lovely. Here's a few pics.


My wee folk playing at being huskies!


I love the colour of this green tree bark against the snow. It is so vivid. So, what's it like where you are? I hope the snow lasts a bit longer - I know, I know, I shouldn't...but I do! lol! Back tomorrow with a card!

...Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!!!!! This is what it looks like a few miles up the road! I'm cheating slightly, this was taken last year but it was snowing again here today and I'm hoping for our wee traditional New Years Day spin in the country tomorrow!!

Anyhow, the very best of all our wishes to you and yours for 2010! May it be your best yet!!

I just sent out my first 'real' newsletter! lol, hope it looks ok in your browser, I hadn't the patience to wait for it to be tested! lol!!

ED - NB, if you didn't get one, it may be caught in your spam filter!!! Or, you can sign up for future copies in the wee box there on the right!!

Have a fab weekend...think of me here... forced to fool around with ...new stamps... lol!!!

...Happy holly days!

Since I started the stamp company, creating time is stretched and just gets thinner as time goes on. That's the one drawback. I find I'm in stamp drawing mode and then I want to make a few cards and the mojo needs warming up a bit! lol

Anyhow, something I want to start doing for myself is to make a 5 min card every day!!

Admittedly this took more than 5 mins, maybe got as far as 15 but it was quick for me, I usually take eons to produce a card. I can spend a whole evening making one card...lol

So I'm challenging myself to produce something fast every day! this'll be interesting...you may or may not get to see! lol!

I used one of the dotty frames from Vintage Labels No.4 to make the panel. I trimmed it with the co-ordintaing Spellbinders die. I stamped my sentiment in the blank space and then stamped a flourish from Seasons of love Tags over the top - I inked up my stamp in pure poppy, then cleaned it off! then inked it in versamark and stamped to get this lovely muted, distressed flourish image, in a very pale shade of the red, love that wee trick!

Holly leaves and heat berry from the Sewing Box Christmas set, I stamped the holly berries on the cosmo cricket paper and cut out the inside image, discarding the outside line, I love how the Sewing box images can be used in this way. Little bit of glossy accents on the berry.

Used a cuttle bug embossing border twice on the background panel, not crazy about the resulting crease that the edge of the embossing folder leaves but it was too late to try to come up with a solution...another time...


Anyhow I leave you with a couple of pics of the forest park we visited yesterday. It's a fab time of year to go for a walk, so long as you have wellies! - It's Glenariff Forest Park in Antrim.

Had to take the opportunity to have dinner at the restaurant at the foot of the hills, you can watch the waterfalls while dining! I think it's my favourite spot in NI!!

Hope it tickles!

...I tried, I really did, lol

For over an hour this evening I tried to make a card, lol, I really did.

It's not that my mojo has gone - I know exactly where it is, it's asleep upstairs. Truth is, there's been way too much going on for this last month! I've been designing stamp sets to take me into next year. I have set myself new timescales in an effort to be prepared well ahead of releases so that I avoid running out of stock etc. I've been working most nights until 2-3 am. I am not complaining, I love this little business and I am determined to do it properly. In a while I expect things to slow down for me personally as I get into some sort of routine.

I have also been designing and formatting a new web store!!!!!!! I'm so very excited by this, I can't wait to show you all!! I am very pleased with how it has turned out. I had help of course, I don't speak html or whatever it is those folks write websites in, lol, but I wanted to do the graphics myself.

Added to all this there are still some folks in my house who expect to be fed edible food at certain times of the day, lol. My family has been incredible this past few weeks. Today I was feeling less that 100% and my two little ladies took charge, making sandwiches and drawing little pictures to cheer me up. They are my wee cherubs and I dote on them.

The house has literally fallen apart around me as I sat tapping at the 'puter. Laundry now comes in 3 categories: It'll do another day, Wash now please and Incinerate immediately. And, last week the girlies went back to school.

I'm a tad pooped. Oh and we're redecorating a couple of bedrooms...

I have felt bad about not having anything to put on the blog in a while and so tonight I took time out to make something...my head is so full of all the new stamps coming, and all the ideas i have for those new sets tat I couldn't concentrate to make anything..oh and i was a little sleepy..lol

So, here's the plan.

I'm hoping to have a huge official opening party, end September/beginning October - date to be confirmed later this week.

During the party I intend to launch my new webstore. I also intend to launch some new stamp sets. I will also - finally - reveal the Design team!!!! eeeek!!! I had so many applications from fabulous people that I had such a tough time choosing folks but i finally made a decision.

I'm hoping to write to folks who applied over the next few days.

There will be loads of samples and inspiration, competitions - you won't want to miss these! there will be a grand prize!!

After this I hope to get into a regular schedule of releasing new stamps once a month - if anyone has a preference for a date, let me know!! I'm thinking somewhere near the end of each month - but it's not set in stone...

Also I'm interested to hear how many sets you'd like o see released each month, or maybe it doesn't even matter to you, I'm just curious!! lol

anyhow, off to bed.

chat soon.

...hungry?

Pics - top Croagh Patrick from Old Head Beach/Forest, bottom, Clew Bay from the lower section of Croagh Patrick, just behind the statue of himself.

So, anyone going to be in Mayo anytime soon? If you are, I can highly recommend your eating establishment. DO NOT go past the Tavern Bar and restaurant at Murrisk. The food is scrumptious. Upstairs they do a la carte menu - I can still taste it. Mmmmm (Homer Simpson moment). Downstairs they serve Bar food - it is terrific quality - we ate just about everything on the menu when we were there recently. The serving staff are fabulous, very attentive, full of manners.

Portions are generous - they know how to feed actual people. Huge oval plates stuffed with the best of fare. Side dishes aplenty, check out the Sumo fries. Nothing is to much trouble, a little milk to cool the children's potatoes?...no problem. The only thing missing at the Tavern is a member of staff especially assigned to come out and massage your tummy in between courses to make more room.

It's a buzzing little spot that is very family friendly, but not in a chips mashed into the floor sort of way. The Tavern manages to cater for families without losing it's grip on cleanliness like so many other places. There's always a lovely mix of locals and tourists of all vintages.

The location is fabulous, on the coast road between Westport and Louisburgh, ideal thing to do is eat dinner at the Tavern and then drive over the road to the ruins of the Abbey where you can watch the sunset over Clew bay while admiring the ruins and of course Croagh Patrick, the Holy mountain.

That's two years in a row we've eaten there, and I'm saving to go again. Ask for Ruth, tell her I sent you, you won't be disappointed...

...end of a busy week

Wanted to thank all of you for your incredible support during this release. I can't believe my luck, with all of the sets sold out. (Scroll down to see) More are on the way as you may have seen from previous posts and of course I'll update the blog with info as I get it.

I am organising the next series of releases which have been thrown into slight disarray by the effects of my suppliers move. I had intended to release a delicious Thanksgiving set early in September but I think that this will not be possible now. A late September release for this would be too late for many of you.

So for today I leave you with a pic I took on Holiday last month. I can't swim but for some reason I am incredibly drawn by the sea, especially at sunset. My DH drove for miles up a winding country road to get us to the top of a hill at just the right moment for us to snap this shot. There are people who can see this view every night!! imagine. It's a view from outside Louisburgh over the bay to Clare Island (Where Pirate Queen Grace O'Malley had a castle) and beyond.

Back tomorrow with card!

...so, where is she?

Since I have nothing photographable yet, here are some pics of a place we visited a few week-ends ago - It's the Quoile Countryside centre, close to Downpatrick - very pretty wee spot for a pic-nic.

I am just a teensy bit busy getting things ready for my next release - the reason for this is that since the family holiday happens in July I can't have a release in July!!! and I lose about two weeks of crafting time!!!! AAAArrrggghhh!

Hang on to your headgear tho' because what this means for my little stamp company is that I'm going to release my next sets in the first week of August!! and there will probably be more than 2 sets!!!! (I'm hoping to release 4) woohoo! Sort of a July/August release all rolled into one!

So you can appreciate that the little blog-o is a tad empty right now. Not for long tho' - couple more things I want to show you in a day or two.

...feeling groovy. Not.

Since I am virussed up and don't feel up to crafting I have a few pics from the weekend for you. We went to Exploris in Portaferry. It's an aquarium and it's quite good. They do have fish there, but because it was dimly lit and the darn things kept moving,the photos are blurry.

The top photo was snapped on the way home. A rather humdrum bit of Strangford Lough that I've seen a million times before but WOW! what a difference the sky makes - I thought this was a great, atmospheric shot, pure luck that it looked this way just as we were passing.

Waffle

I have loved reading all the comments about my last post!! It seams there are loads of us!! Hurrah! I do love a giggle.

I was also giggling this morning. Before we got out of bed, little guy (LG) and big guy (BG) were having a discussion. I pretended to be asleep, didn't want to spoil the father/son thing. Went a bit like this:

BG: Can you see the Aeroplane up in the sky?
LG: I see a eropane in a kye (He's only just two, he cant pronounce everything - it's so cute)
BG: Do you like the Aeroplane?
LG: I like a eropane up in a kye.
BG: All the people going on holiday - can you see the people in the Aeroplane?
LG: No, I can't see a peepils. I need a telecope a see a peepils up in a eroplane...

I nearly fell out of bed laughing. What possessed BG to ask if he could see the people, and how does LG know what a telescope is let alone what it does?? Silly Daddy!! Lol.

Off to drink tea. Hope to be back at it soon.

...couple o' reddy pinky cards...

ED - the teeny flower on the second card is from the With Sympathy set from PTI

Broke out the Guidelines 2 set from PTI!! to make the patterned paper, it's fab - check it out here. Really need some time to play around with this set but I just wanted to make a card and that's what came out. Cupcake is from the equally delicious Anniversary set! I would need an extra 24 hours in a day - so many ideas, so little time! Lol. Pure poppy, Melon Berry and Hibiscus Burst!

Second card was an attempt at a colour challenge from last week which kinda fell by the wayside, finished it in the interest of not wasting it!! Lol - I'm getting very scrupulous with scraps in the wake of the current economy. Lol. Pure poppy, Melon Berry and Sweet blush! Also a Tim Holtz distress ink - think it was that antique Linen one.

Be sure to check out the release party tonight at PTI!! they're debuting more stamp sets even as I'm just receiving my sets from the last release!!!


And isn't that just a fabulous beach? Stocker strand (or, the big beach at Portsalon!) on the Fanad peninsula. The wee village on the far shore is Portsalon, crackin' wee spot!! lol.

Hope it tickles!