...Beautiful Brogues, stamped...

 

So can think of this blog post as the blogging equivalent of lift music? - something to keep you from getting too bored while I'm in the office, desperately trying to save the life of a tired old, dilapidated printer... Actually the blighter is less than 2 years old and still shiny and I'm more than a little ticked off at the seemingly in-built obsolescence that appears to go hand in hand with technological items these days....but let me get down off my soap box and talk you through a couple of my PJ party things - ah go on, humour me...

Isn't that just yummy? That sort of faux leather brogue pattern - yep I love that.  It's a stamp from the My Kind of Guy set and it's a personal fave. I drew that stamp up in 2013, and it's just never going to date. Brogues or Oxford shoes are one of those things that I think are synonymous with my idea of the ideal man - Mr B wears them all the time...not - but he would look good in them if he did... I nabbed the top pics while I was out shopping, but let's get this straight...I don't shop for DH...he shops for himself...I just carry out research....and act in an advisory capacity...

For my card, I stamped and then clear embossed the brogue pattern and then just went nuts crinkling the whole piece up so that it would look worn.... I used some eyelets and string to help the theme along - it's a really quick simple card, I spent longer wrinkling it than actually making it...

And while I had the stamp out - sure it was easy to knock up a few tags...I just stamped the brogue pattern and use the middle size tag from Stitched tags to trim out three tags from the one stamped image...simple pimple... the sentiments (also My kind of Guy) were stamped on plain tags cut with the smallest tag die from Stitched tags.

And just for fun, because I had some scraps... and don't you like the eyelets laid onto the wee grommet thing on the tag? - go on, try that, I'll bet you have loads of those lying around in the back of a drawer... together we will bring them back into fashion...

Hope it tickles...normal service will resume, once I have figured out where this lead goes...

Here's what I used:

My kind of Guy

Stitched Tags Die set

InLinkz.com

...tossback tuesday? and a freebie with the next 30 orders

LO, I'm rifling through the store back end this evening, sorting out various issues and  I was fixing some stuff on the North Shore product page, I adored this stamp when it came out - I love it still.

I love the mood this stamp creates and since I'm in dire need of some summer sun (it's actually snowing here as I type) I'm going to do a little giveaway -  the next 30 people placing orders at the WMS store will receive one of these North shore stamp sets in with their order for FREE! Offer begins now - 11:00pm my time and will end with the 30th order from now or at 11:00pm tomorrow night (1st April), whichever comes first. Offer is valid on orders with full price items orders only - offer will not combine with any other discounts.

One of my favourite techniques, clear embossing and then wiping white ink over, and burnishing it off the shiny bits.

...because it's good in gold...

Just popping another little sample up. I'm in clean-up mode at the moment, cleaning up the office after the release and the shipping. Tidying up scraps and shoving gold tissue paper into every available nook and cranny...no...don't ask....

Just remembered I hadn't posted this one yet and it's one of my faves. I used the Kaboom die - and cut one in white card and one in shiny gold....ooooh, look at that gleam, isn't that just lush. I layered the gold outline around the white word and ran a couple of pieces of tape across the back to hold them together.

I wanted something subtle for the bard base, so I stamped the large starburst image from the Halftone Backgrounds stamp set in Versamark and quickly poured on white embossing powder. After heat-setting, I rubbed a little gold ink around the starburst and then burnished the area with a clean piece of paper towel. This takes the gold ink off the starburst pattern and makes a very subtle background pattern. Insert smug smile here.... right, I'm off for a cuppa....chat later.

...February release - Kaboom!

ED - Don't forget to keep pinning your fave samples from here and the DT blogs over the next couple of days - when you do, come back to this blog post(click here) and leave a comment to make sure you are entered in our Pin-It competition.

Good evening folks! I'm here a little later than I should have been! My apologies, I have ignored my family wholesale this week while prepping for this release and the guilt wore me down a little today and I spent a little time catching up with the kiddos this evening - and now I finally I have my samples here for our Kaboom stamp set and die! We just released this set yesterday and I have to say it is such a fun set to work with.

Did you enjoy this release - it was something a little different wasn't it? - I know at least a few of you LOVED it, LOL ;) and I'm hoping you can tune in over the next couple of days to see what the DT ladies and I have done with it.

Here are the ladies who are reviewing the release with me today:

Becca Feeken

Sandie Dunne
Laurie Schmidlin
Anya Schrier
Jeanne Jachna
Tosha Leyendekker
Lynn Mercurio
Julia Aston

I made these two cards with the stamps only. I started with the word stamps first and inked those up in black Versafine Ink. I sprinkled on clear embossing powder and heat set - this makes for a really rick black tone and also provides a little glossy highlight, and also makes it easier to colour as the black ink does not run with the copics. I make my masks with post it notes and just secured them in place with a piece of post-it before stamping on the 'burst' image. I masked that too before stamping  the various stars and pops and lightning marks. The last thing to get stamped were the halftone stars.

I coloured the lettering with copics, keeping it strong yellow at the top but blending in orange tones at the bottom where the halftone pattern appears in the lettering. Like a nitwit I forgot to take pics of the insides, but these card fronts go great with the smaller positive sentiment stamps in the set - phrases like 'You nailed it' and 'You did it". Perfect for any positive achievements that need celebrated!

The Kaboom stamp set is a medium sized set, click the image to see it in the store.

This pair of samples also makes use of the Kaboom die and the Halftone Backgrounds set, also released yesterday.

The Kaboom die is great fun, it produces the word and also an outline, essential for these comic book style projects.

On the tag, I cut the Kaboom first out of yellow card and then out of black card. On the yellow word, I stamped some orange dots using a stamp from the Halftone Backgrounders set. Then I too the Kaboom word stamp and inked it up in black, it is the same size as the die and I was able to stamp the word over the die cut to get those fabby black halftone dots on my die cut. I then mounted the yellow word onto the black die cut. I had taped all of the black die cut together, you can see pin the pics below - they show the front and back views of the die cuts.

The top 'kaboom', in orange and black was used on the tag, the bottom 'kaboom' with extra yellow outlining was used on the card - the back views below show you how these are put together. You can see where I taped the black word to the black outline to make a solid base on which to stick the yellow 'kaboom'. I used little dots of glue to attach the two yellow outlines that I got when I cut the yellow words.

Hope it tickles!!

...Introducing Gift Card Envelope Dies

Good morning! Welcome to the second day of previews for our Feb release. My project this morning uses a new die. It's an envelope die especially designed to fit standard Gift cards (which are standard credit card size). I am hoping the girls will show you some ideas for how to use this envelope with gift cards, but I really wanted to show you a little idea I had for a project that is not especially gift card related.

I had an idea to make up a little envelope album, I happened to notice that the Gift card die (from yesterday) perfectly suited the sentiments from Man of the Hour and I was keen to make something cute but not mushy for himself!

This is what the little album looks like all folded up, it's small and neat.  I have it tied up with a little twine and a taggy made from a feather die cut (Fine feathers, stamps and Fine Feather dies). Tiny bit of ribbon with a couple of those eyelets embedded - remember those?

Once you loosen the twine this little album opens out acordian style - There are 5 envelopes and each one is attached to the next one with a little double sided tape on the flaps.

I cut the envelopes from ordinary brown paper and then went to town with a selection of backgrounder stamps. The flat envelope die cuts fit perfectly within the large backgrounders so there is no need to line up patterns!

 I used the Gift card die to cut out some pieces of cream card and stamped sentiments from Man of the Hour.

One of the little card insets is actually a mini card and the way to make this is to fold a piece of card first and smooth the crease, then lay the folded card on the cutting mat and just line up the gift card die to the folded edge, use your fingertips to feel when the cut line of the die is just butting up against the fold, but not on the fold.

Run the die through the die cutter and you should get a mini cardlet which fits the envelope perfectly!

 The little sentiment cards that you can make with the Gift Card die are perfectly sized to fit in a wallet also!

Look at all those yummy patterns! I used the Zig Zag Backgrounder, the Cabin Plaid Backgrounder, the Woodgrain set, Art Deco Backgrounds and the Pinstripe Backgrounder!

Sure hope this tickles! If you like tiny envelopes you might also wish to have a peep at our Mini Mail die set - you could achieve a similar project with that die set!


Well off you pop to see what the ladies have done with our Gift card envelopes today!

Lynn Mercurio
Laurie Schmidlin
Karin Akesdotter
Jen Cuthbertson
Anya Schrier
Kelly Schirmer
Renee Lynch
Teresa Kline
Julia Aston
Jeanne Jachna
Jennifer Holmes

...Sail out to Sea

Good afternoon! I'm catching up with admin and other boring behind the scenes stuff - Last week's release was a goodie - we are already sold out of Ocean Bound, although more had beem quickly ordered when we saw how fast they were going!

I have a wee sample today for you, one that I should have had up before the release, and it's a really simple card, it's a one layer if you don't count the card base....

I am particularly in love with the knot based set - Tying the knot and one of the things a I drew for that set was a corner knot - in the card above I have stamped it 4 times to create a square frame, how cool is that going to look on a gingerbread card this Christmas! Can't wait!

Anyhow, this card is all sponge and stamping, nothing too strenuous here, and I have a  couple of little how-to pics:

After stamping the frame in red ink SU - Cherry Cobbler, I sponged with a little Antique linen ink. Now a lot of SU inks will bleed when you sponge over them and I picked Cherry Cobbler for that purpose. The Red and Antique linen mix well together to give a nice sort of glow.

Next I stamped the sentiment, from Safe Harbour sentiments, in black. Versamark Fine is my black of choice for detail.

Next thing was to trim out a fancy square shape from scratch paper with a Spellbinders Labels 15 die. I set the fancy square shape over the sentiment area on my card, held it down really tightly, and really went to town with the cherry cobbler and a sponge.

When I take it off I have a nice glowing panel that softly tones with the deep red of the frame. Mounted it on a Black card base and that was that....

hope it tickles....oh, btw, are you planning to play along with our Next Pajama Party? We'd love to see you!

...Introducing My kind of Guy, New for April

 Good morning folks! Here are the links to the DT ladies, don't forget to leave them some love as you fly by, there's always a chance that you  might win a little something...:

Anya Schrier  

Becca Feeken  

Belinda Chang Langner 

Clare Buswell  

Edna Morrisedie  

Iwona Palamountain 

Jean Martin  

Jeanne Jachna J

en Cuthbertson  

Jennifer Holmes 

Julia Aston  

Karin Åkesdotter  

Kelly Schirmer  

Kim Duran  

Laurie Schmidlin  

Lynn Mercurio  

Renee Lynch  

Sandie Dunne  

Teresa Kline  

Tosha Leyendekker 

If you are new to us we are just about to release 3 new clear photopolymer stamp sets - The sets go live in the store on Thursday and today Today we are showing some samples made with one of our newest sets - My kind of Guy. We will be previewing here on the WMS and DT blogs between now and Thursday. 

We're also squeezing in a blog waltz on Wednesday and we have a special Guest Event on Friday...phew! Do try to pop back and check here for a giveaway you can enter if you have not already! Back to My kind of Guy....

A feature of today's set is the Brogue pattern styling - I love it. I was looking for a new theme to use for a masculine set and while on my knees one day cleaning out the shoes at the bottom of the cupboard, there it was, a pair of Brogues! That beautiful leather punched pattern was just calling out to me and I had to draw up a version that I thought looks right at home on cards and stationary. You can just see the thick border pattern peeping out behind the layered card pieces. I adore that pattern! more on it later on.

This large stamp set contains many stamps that will enable you to build borders and patterns and create quirky accents for masculine cards, I think it's something a little fresh for the guys and I hope you like it!

I combined 20's style lettering with some modern typefaces for a little updated style and while you won't find a picture of 'himself in a boat' or with a toolkit in this set, you will find just the right accents to create masculine cards with an understated graphic style.

I stamped each word separately onto some different shades of red and aqua card and then punched them out with a square punch before lining them up so that the words are all centred above each other, I like how fast this card was! lol. A little background stamping and a piece of embossed cardstock for texture and I thought this was enough, DH thought so too...not one for ribbons or frills Mr B...

Hope it tickles!

...Do it!....

It's been a busy week and i snaffled a few moments for myself to make a card! It's a sort of masculine encouragement card, for a chap I know who is dithering over a decision. I guess you can tell that I'm not  'on the fence about it' lol, I do think the biggest regrets are often the chances we don't take!

Anyhow, I used a terrific little Spellbinders leaf die template from the Foliage set.

I trimmed out 3 different sizes of patterned paper (Tim Holtz Paper stash - Kraft  resist) and I die cut the same foliage piece into each of them, ensuring that the die cut fell in a place on each piece that would enable me to line them up nicely.

I then sponged theraputically with several shades of brown distress inks and added a little red stitching to two of the layers.

I cut a piece of red card, stamped with a gingham from Gingham and Co and sponged some more. I layered this behind the largest piece of patterned paper. I little line of mushroom coloured ric rac up the side of the front panel was just about right I thought.

The sentiment is from Words of Wisdom, and I stamped it in cream ink (PTI) onto a little taggy shape thingy I cut with a punch....just can't remember the right name for this...

anyhow, hope it tickles!

Don't forget to check out the Challenge blog tomorrow, there's a new sketch up in the morning and then on Sunday it's our Blog waltz!!! Come and play!

...I'm waltzing, I'm waltzing....

I thought for my waltz card today I'd do a guy birthday card, and I had the idea of overstamping my sentiment, I used two of the large words from Say it Loud to make up the happy birthday. A little crazy stitching, gingham, distressing, torn edges...these are things I have come to associate with 'men' cards! lol, why is that...?

anyhow...

I'm waltzing along today with our monthly blog waltz deets here - hope to get an hour later to see who else is dancing along!! I love the relaxed pace of our waltz.... if this were any other blog hop, I'd be late! ;)

If you know how this works, the links are here and the chat is here. The theme is masculine cards!!

I used our new Gingham and Co stamps for the background and the Say it loud stamps to make up my front sentiment and for the inside. I added a little paper aeroplane from Free Spirit Boy, just to reinforce the 'man' feel!

Much sponging and use of blues and cinnamon type colours makes for quite a masculine card...I thought...

...New stamps for March, Yeehaw!

Good evening and welcome to the March release at Waltzingmouse Stamps.

We design and produce clear stamps made from the best quality photopolymer and today we are releasing 5 new sets!!! If you are new to us, you have just stumbled upon a treasure trove of ideas, 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!

Below is a link list of your dance partners for our waltz! Don't forget to leave comments on the DT posts as you pass by, we will draw a winner from an undisclosed DT member blog! The winner will receive a free stamp set! Now, off you pop! Just don't forget to come back and see the new goodies!

Anya
Lynn

Julia

Carly

Sandie

Bonnie

Sarah

Belinda
Mona
Jennifer

Laurie

The competition!!!!

Can't have a decent release without a competition and so here it is - up for grabs is the full March stamp release! One of each of the sets shown below will be awarded to a random entrant! Since we're easing back into it after our long break from releases, I'll make it super easy, just pop a comment on this post telling me which of these new sets you like best, and nope, I won't huff if it turns out not to be Back in the Saddle!!!! lol!

Store Information for the March release

Remember - FREE shipping for orders over £50 to Everywhere, yes, you're included! (approx $81.30US, $79.05CAD, $79.84AUD, €58.90Euros, rate subject to change) and if you don't think you will fulfil the £50GBP worth of stamps today you might be interested to know that shipping one set to US costs around $4.39US. We ship our stamps out from our company base in Northern Ireland.

I begin packing orders as soon as they start to come in, I will begin shipping release orders tomorrow (Wednesday) BUT please be aware that depending on the volume of orders, there will be delays in shipping this week!!

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

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 here are the New goodies for March!!

at 7:15pm they will be (hopefully) available at the store!
Back in the Saddle - ED I will be adding a rough translation of what these sayings mean for our friends who don't have American English as a first language. I'll be adding the translations to the store very soon.

Been wanting to do this set for a long time! I grew up with Bonanza, and the High Chaparral, and cowboys have always been a very popular theme in our house. Perfect for masculine projects of every kind, but with all round appeal. This and indeed the companion background set will inject more than a little western flavour into your card making. Choc full of colloquial Western sayings, there are sentiments to cover birthdays, get togethers, thank you's, well wishes, and more. Even a tiny Wanted poster layout into which you can pop a trimmed out pic of your favourite outlaw!!! Back in the Saddle is a large set, 6x8 inches, packed with 23 stamps in all. 15 sentiments, 5 images and 3 supporting words.

Way out West

A background set, a companion to Back in the Saddle above, this large 6x8 set includes borders and background building stamps that will evoke a western feel on your card/layout projects. Like all our border stamps these are larger than most, averaging between 5 and 3/4 and 6 and 1/4 inches long. The woodgrain border will see use on myriad projects along with the blanket pattern and stars. The western text border is undeniably cowboy. The feature of the Way out West set however are the scene-setting stamps. A duo of stamps made up of a foreground featuring cactus plants in silhouette and another mountain range stamp. When used together these two stamps can create a wonderfully authentic western background. Both are large solid stamps, so be sure to check out our tips for getting a good impression here near the bottom, and here. Separate motif stamps comprising two more cacti, a crescent moon and a teeny sheriff badge complete the set of 10 stamps.

Vintage Labels N0. 18

Spellbinders have done it again, they have released some absolutely stunning label die templates and you just knew I was going to need stamps to match didn't you? lol!! well here is a set that compliments the Labels 18 die templates just released at CHA. Seven label stamps, 1 tag shoulder (see more about this type of stamp here) and 7 tiny little motifs. Lots of folks tell me they use these labels as tags for their craft fair items and so when I was casting around for small stamps to make the most of the tiny little in between spaces I thought that currency symbols would be a useful addition!

Vintage Banners

These pennant shape stamps will be fantastic for scrapbookers and folks who like to make home decor projects as well as card makers. Designed with the newly released Spellbinders Nested pennants die templates in mind, yet also super easy to trim out with a craft knife and ruler, these are sure to become a staple when you need to roll out a banner or flag, or make up some festive bunting for any occasion.

Stamps on a huge scale, these will have you reaching for your mouse mats/fun foam. I use fun foam under my card stock to get a great impression on these and any other large stamps and I hope to have a wee tutorial on that this week.

Bitty Banners

A mini set - 4x6 inches featuring smaller scale banners that might feel more at home on cards and layouts. These little bitty banners co-ordinate with the vintage banners, or may be used alone. There are plenty of them to mix and match giving lots of design opportunities. Easy to trim out, these little banners may also be cut out with the smaller dies in the Spellbinders Nested pennants die templates, BUT there is a knack to it - these smaller shapes are more closely aligned to the cutting edge of the dies, and unlike the larger stamps in the Vintage Banners set above, the trick here is to cut out the die shape first, and then stamp, a little low-tack tape to hold your die cut in place while you stamp is a huge help (cheers Joan for that tip!). You just won't be able to stamp first and line up the die template after in the way we do with all the rest of our Spellbinder friendly stamps, but because these are clear stamps it is still easy to stamp on the die cut shape with accuracy.

The semi circular banner may be easily trimmed out with the help of a i.5 inch die template or a 1.5 inch circle punch.

Hope it tickles!!