The Big Cheese of the Week

Good morning! I am here to share this week's Big Cheese. It was another outstanding week with lots of inspiration.

The Big Cheese of the Week is Elisabeth Larsson with her Way Out West card.

I really am in love with the colors that Elisabeth used. The aqua and peach look so good paired with the brown. I also love the layout, based on this week's sketch challenge. The fancy border at the bottom and the flowers help to temper the masculine images and lighten things up a little.

Congratulations Elisabeth! Your card will be added to the Big Cheese highlight album in the WMS Gallery. Please send me an email and I will provide you with a discount code for $10 off your next Waltzingmouse Stamps purchase.

Up next is a cute little card from Kary Lim using the Earth Angel stamp set.

I always admire crafters that create beautiful cards using the color purple. For some reason, I find purple a really difficult color to work with, and one I don't use often. But Kary has used it beautifully! The impressed card base, fancy die cut doily and paper flowers are all perfect compliments to the design!

There is just something about this card from Charmaine Stack that I really love.

Could it be the soft serene color palette? The fabulous oversized ticket focal point? Or maybe its the cute little die cut bird? (Or maybe all of the above?) All I know is that it is fabulous!

Thanks for another great week of projects, ladies! Inspiring as always!

Would you like the opportunity to be chosen for the Big Cheese? Just upload a project to your Waltzingmouse Gallery. Then add a direct, clickable URL link of your newly uploaded Gallery entry here in the WMS Forum, a new thread starts every Monday! You can visit us on the forum if you have any questions.

Before I sign off, I want to make sure you mark your calendars! This Saturday is the 100th sketch over at the WMS Sketch Challenge Blog and we are making a big deal of it! Trust me, you won't want to miss it!

Have a great day!
Anya

Good morning! Happy hump day! Anya might be here later with the Big Cheese, but I'm just sneaking in a little card I made now that I've found the camera battery charger...

I made this last night, just for myself, well actually I might give it to someone, but I was thinking of myself and my wee mum as I was making it. That sentiment (from Words of Wisdom) is one that my mum said to me often when I was feeling a little bit anxious about something or other.

The card base, cut with Spellbinders Grand Labels 23 die templates, is a patterned paper from a Glitz Vintage Blue Paper pad, as is the rose. I discovered Glitz through Laurie Schmidlin and I love their style, it all seems to work so well for my antique bent.

The rose was created using a Spellbinders Blossom one die template and the leaves are made from kraft card using another Spellbinders Die template - Foliage. I stamped the leaves with the heart pattern from Nordic Spring - the butterfly is from that set also. To make the butterfly I cut out a butterfly shape on my craft robo using one of the free butterfly cutting files here, I stamped a butterfly on both sides, sponged around both sides and folded the butterfly in half to make it look like it was perched on the rose.

I made up the sentiment panel with a piece of yellow paper, also from the Glitz pad by trimming out a scalloped rectangle - my Grand Calibur was getting a work out last night as I got some of those handy dandy junior cutting plates, this greatly reduces my 'mangle time' LOL!! Folks old enough to remember mangles will know what I'm talking about...but really it means that you don't have to turn the handle so many times to get a pass, I love these, I felt really speedy last night!!

I laid a piece of twine around the rectangle and zig zag stitched over it - I believe this is called couching in seamstress terms and it was a tad footery, but i liked the effect. Then I stamped the sentiment on the panel, before mounting it on a plain rectangle of kraft card.

I really enjoyed making this card. It feels like ages since I have crafted at all, and over the last year or so especially, it seems that I have only made stuff when I needed samples for releases. I always regretted that, but it was a symptom of a busy life. I'm sad that life will be less busy now, since mum is not here to be cared for any more, but I look forward to crafting a little more and keeping her with me in my thoughts as I do so.

Hope it tickles!

...OOdles

Good morning!!! I made a card this morning! I need to get started on a pile of thank you cards!

I have to admit I had a little trouble getting started, there was a mojo shaped hole in my imagination this morning, and so I started simply with a little subtle background stamping! I used Anya's delicious dog tooth to create a tone on tone card base and just popped on a simple sentiment from Compact Sentiments 2 as a focal point. Beautiful ovals trimmed out with the Floral oval dies, I trimmed a cream one down further with scissors before mounting it on a kraft card oval.

I drew the pink heart onto the pale pink button ( I used a copic marker)  and threaded it with a little cream button twine to add a weeny bit of interest. Lovely delicious brown velvet ribbon! oooh it's yummy stuff that I'm 'interviewing' for the store!

So, since I'm trying to get going again, I'd like to know how you kick start your mojo when you're feeling lacklustre? ooh, and since I have a couple of spare meters of this stuff just sitting around, I'm going to pick a random comment to win a wee length of this lovely ribbon! So - tell me all your secrets and help me get back into the swing!!! I'll let this run till Wed midnight, my time.

:)

May Blog Party Recap

Hello all.  I hope you enjoyed our most recent blog party.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many felt and fabric inspiration all in one place before.  It was truly amazing to see the creativity of so many Waltzingmouse Stamps fans.  You can still take a gander at all the fantastic project which can be found here.

There were so many amazing projects that it was really difficult to select only three to highlight here for you today, but I hope you will agree that each one holds special appeal.

Kary Lim’s project full of green rolling hills of felt creates a wonderful backdrop of this image from the Half Pint Heroines set.  Each item on this card was individually cut and colored using Copic markers, and what a wonderful job she did!  Lots of layers and plenty to capture the eye as well as the imagination.

Our newest Mischief Maker, Jeanne Jachna, took a simple child’s toy idea and created a truly imaginative work of art.  Her felt pinwheels set the stage for these adorable centers made from the Dainty Doily Large and even used the Waltzingmouse Mouse iconic image to finish the centers off.  Fun and beautiful!

Rebecca Ednie created a project completely from felt with the exception of the front panel.  This lovely and creative needle caddy is as functional as it is lovely.  Rebecca used the Gingham & Co. set to create the background on which she stamped an image from Rescue Remedies.  It’s a lovely project and gift.

 

Thanks to everyone who participated.  We hope you had as much fun creating and playing along with us.

We consider everyone that participated in the blog party a winner, but only one participate can win the free set that WMS is giving away to one lucky winner.  We used Random.org to select our winner this month.  Congratulations goes to:

Debbie Marcinkiewicz

Congratulations Debbie.  You were the last one to link up your project, but it certainly paid off for you! Please send Claire an e-mail at Claire.brennan1@ntlworld.com with your stamp set selection, and mailing address details.  We appreciate EVERYONE’S participation and support of the “Blog Party”.  It was great fun looking at all the very creative projects.  We hope you had as much fun blog hopping as you did creating.

Be sure to check back on June 1st, when we will announce the theme for the June 17th “party”.

May Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog Party–Let’s Get Cozy!

Hello and welcome to the May 2012 Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog Party! This party started a little later than usual this month, but we are raring to go, so let's get started.  We are thrilled that you have joined us for this fun and inspirational event.

Our theme for May is felt or cozy fabrics.  What does that mean?   It may mean that you add a felt or fabric border to compliment your Waltzingmouse Stamps images, or you may want to add a hand rolled flower or two, even die cut felt or fabric elements are great additions too. Your project can be a card, a 3D item or even a scrapbook page – whatever you’re inspired to create.  We look forward to seeing all the inspiring ways you have incorporated the theme into your project!

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. 24th May- 6:30 p.m. 25th May

USA (New York) 1:30 p.m. 24th May- 1:30 p.m. 25th May

Australia (Queensland) - 4:30 a.m. 25th May- 4:30 a.m. 26th May

Canada (Alberta) - 11:30 a.m. 24th May- 11:30 a.m. 25th May

Malaysia - 2:30 a.m. 25th May- 2:30 a.m. 26th May

Norway - 7:30 p.m. 24th May- 7:30 p.m. 25th May

There you have it.  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 27th of the month – 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. SWEET!

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

The Big Cheese of the Week

Well, we have a bit to catch up on, don't we?  It seems like things are almost as busy as during the holidays.  But the approach of summer is certainly considered a holiday, isn't it?

I am here to announce the Big Cheese of the Week for last week (and the week before).

Our continued thanks for all of the fantastic entries and support.

The Big Cheese of the Week for May 7th to 13th is Katie Gehring with this super card:

Love the combination of colors and patterns.  I also love the interest added by adhering the washi tape (yes, washi tape - its everywhere and I *love* it!) on an angle.  This is a bright and cheery card, Katie!

The Big Cheese of the Week for May 14th to 20th is Cathy Weber, with her outstanding take on this week's sketch challenge. 

This week's sketch was certainly a challenge, but Cathy made it look easy!  The combination of blue and brown makes it oh-so-perfect for a little boy.  The patterns and baby motifs are adorable (do you see those little safety pins?) - and I love the touch of the pinked edges!

Great job, Cathy and Katie!  Your projects will be added to the Big Cheese highlight album in the WMS Gallery. Please send me an email and I will provide you with a discount code for $10 off your next Waltzingmouse Stamps purchase.

Thanks for another great week of projects, ladies! Inspiring as always!

Would you like the opportunity to be chosen for the Big Cheese? Just upload a project to your Waltzingmouse Gallery. Then add a direct, clickable URL link of your newly uploaded Gallery entry here in the WMS Forum, a new thread starts every Monday! You can visit us on the forum if you have any questions.

Don't forget that tomorrow is the monthly WMS Blog Party - follow the link for all the details - hope to see you there!

Have a great day!
Anya

...thank you

Rita McCarthy Richardson RIP

I just want to thank everyone for their kind wishes, hugs, cards, prayers and good vibes, all were hugely appreciated and even if I did end up sitting at the computer opening the second box of Kleenex, I always think it's a good thing to let it all out and not bottle your feelings up inside.

My wee mum has gone to be with my dad, she has no more pain, and for that I am grateful. She was a unique and wonderful lady. We were the luckiest children. She was beautiful inside and out, and if I can take anything positive out of what has happened it will be that my mum and dad would have wanted us to go forward in peace and happiness.

Neither of my folks were the sort of people to dwell on their misfortune and so I am looking forward to keeping busy and getting back into things again, that's not to say I won't have the odd wobble and subject you all to lengthy waffles of the 'when I was wee...' variety, but there are interesting things to be told. My mother was incredibly talented, she was an accomplished painter among other things and so I expect that from time to time you might come across her handiwork on this blog.

Thank you for stopping by.

Update: May 17th Blog Party Postponed

With the news of Claire’s mum’s passing, and out of respect, I have made the executive decision to postpone the Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog party event a week.  Rather than hold the event on this Thursday, May 17th, we are postponing the Blog Party until next Thursday, May 24th.  My apologies for any inconvenience for this delay, but I know you all understand.

 

...

Folks, my wee mum has passed away. She had a tough old time with several different conditions for many years and her heart came to rest yesterday morning. I will be taking a few days off.

Emails will be slow to answer this week, I would ask you to bear with me.

Orders will go out as normal. Thank you all for your understanding.

Hugs, C.

…and the winner is…

We hope that you enjoyed the Design Team Blog Waltz this past Tuesday and that you received plenty of inspiration.   As promised, we have selected a lucky winner of a free Waltzingmouse Stamps set of choice as our thank you for “waltzing” along to the team blogs.  Each member of the Design Team selected one comment from their group of comments, and from those, and using Random.org, the following comment from the blog of Tosha Leyendekker  is the big winner!

#19 - Lois Kennedy

Lois Kennedy said...

What a lovely card and for someone who doesn't sew, your bag turned out great. Love it!

May 8, 2012 1:43 PM

Congratulation Lois . To claim your prize, please e-mail Claire at Claire.brennan1@ntlworld.com. 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.

The Big Cheese of the Week

Hi there.  I'm a little late sharing this week's Big Cheese, I was caught up in all the release happenings, and I hope you were too - it was a blast!

This week's Big Cheese is Cyndie... I bet you are going to love the cute card she made!

Isn't that little cozy scene adorable?  Cyndie's card is so inspiring with her creative use of the elements in the Sewing Box Hugs set - the 'branch' to define the hillside, and the flowers cut in half to be trees.  Plus, that is some serious paper piecing there!  Add the curved sentiment into the mix and I'm smitten!

Congratulations, Cyndie! Your project will be added to the Big Cheese highlight album in the WMS Gallery. Please send me an email and I will provide you with a discount code for $10 off your next Waltzingmouse Stamps purchase.

Liza Carruthers used one of my favorite techniques to put together this card:

Liza used a combination of images from the Musical Backgrounds set to create a stunning musical collage.  What a perfect birthday card for a musician or a music-lover.  The monochrome colors help to pull it all together, and the bit of edge-inking and stitching help to finish it off. 

Rounding us out for today is another elegant creation shared by Cathy Weber:

Isn't it pretty?  The pink shades go so well with the get well sentiment, and you can't go wrong with a paper bouquet of roses.  Layering the popped up bloom on the tag helps reinforce those lovely flowers.  The lace is an elegant touch, too!

Thanks for another great week of projects, ladies! Inspiring as always!

Would you like the opportunity to be chosen for the Big Cheese? Just upload a project to your Waltzingmouse Gallery. Then add a direct, clickable URL link of your newly uploaded Gallery entry here in the WMS Forum, a new thread starts every Monday! You can visit us on the forum if you have any questions.

Have a great day!
Anya

May Waltzingmouse Stamps Christmas Card Challenge

Just a quick reminder that we have another Christmas Card Challenge ready just for you.  We all know how hurried we are around the holidays, but there is a way to cross one thing off your to-do list for the Christmas season and that is to play along with our monthly Christmas Card Challenge.  Making card throughout the year is so much easier than trying to make them all at a time of the year when you have so many other things to do.

Here is a little snippet of the May Challenge.

To see more and to play along, check out the May Christmas Card Challenge thread in the WMS forum.

... New Stamps for May 2012!

Good evening (or early morning, sorry Australia and Malaysia!) and welcome to the May release at Waltzingmouse Stamps! Here is a quick checklist to make sure you have seen everything, this is a long post:

1) scroll back to the previous post to see if you won one of the prizes from our comment competition.

2) Waltz along the DT link list to see more samples made with today's sets, commenting as you go.

3) See the 3 new sets here on this post

4) See the new button twines at the end of this post.

5) Note the free shipping on orders over £50 GBP is still on, for everywhere.


If you are new to us, we design and produce clear stamps made from the best quality photopolymer (that's the good stuff) and today we are releasing three new sets!!! Welcome! We hope you find lots of creative inspiration!

There is 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! Be sure to visit all of the DT ladies and Don't forget to comment, there's a prize!

Commenting Prize

You have until May 11th 11:59 PM, 5:5 9AM Central, 3:59 AM Pacific and 6:59 AM Eastern.
to comment on as many of the Design Team blogs as possible because a winner will be selected at that time from one of the Design Team members’ blogs to win a Waltzingmouse Stamp set of choice. The winner will be announced on the 12th May here on my blog.

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

• 
  

Sandie
Julia
Laurie
Anya
Tosha
Becca
Clare
Kelly
Lynn
Jennifer
Belinda
Mona

Remember - FREE standard shipping for orders over £50 to Everywhere, yes, you're included! (approx $80.94 USD, $80.47 CAD, $79.36 AUD, €62.00 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 $4.50 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. 

And here are the New goodies for May

Please note ladies that I have slightly changed the way I display the drawings so that you can see all images at the correct angle. I used to display the sets as they were laid out on the carrier sheet, and given that I love to stuff as many stamps into a set as I can, some images appeared at odd angles or even upside down!! From now on everything will be shown right side up, so it will not always be obvious at first glance what size a set is. Please refer to the descriptions as the size is noted there.

Compact Family
Set size – 6 × 8 inches
 An essential and oft overlooked piece of stamping kit - this set of family words will appeal to both card makers and scrapbookers alike. Set in a modern font the style is soft enough for use even on vintage items and although compact, the weight of the letters gives these sentiments great 'stage presence' on any project. I have included the Initial 'M' as a separate stamp and added in the 'om' and 'um' options so that folks on both side of the Atlantic can address their maternal relations in the proper way! lso included are options for 'step' 'foster' and '-in-law'. All the major relationships are covered, and we have added many little 'by lines' that may be combined with the main words to produce charming sentiments for all sorts of family projects. My personal favourite supporting word is 'bestest' !

 The 'daughter' measures 2.25 by 7/8 of an inch. The 'a hug from your' sentiment is 2.25 inches long by just under a half inch tall. 

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

Compact Sentiments - Part Two
Set size – 6 × 4 inches
A companion to the original Compact Sentiments, this little set features some equally punchy sentiments in the same great font. A very modern style, but the graceful curves ensure that this will also work well on your vintage creations, see our samples for great inspiration with this set! Eleven more compact sentiments and one exclamation mark!

'You're the bee's knees' is a little over 2.5 inches by 0.75 inches tall, the 'Hello' stamp is approx 1.75 by 0.75 inches.  
All images and stamp designs are Copyright © 2012 Waltzingmouse Stamps, Claire Brennan.

Half Pint Heroines

Set size – 6 × 8 inches
Finally a sister set for the guys in Half Pint Heroes! Pick your heroine from the assorted half dozen 'heads' on offer and place her in the setting of your choice, in a hot air balloon, on her own shoulders, or on the back of her very own elephant buddy! Finish off your card with any one or an assortment of the 15 sentiments included in the set. Focusing on encouragement, there are a number of sentiments that work well in combination on the front and inside of the card. Various supporting images such as clouds and birds finish the set, a total of 28 stamps! A girly set - drawn in a simple childlike style, but eminently suitable for both newly minted and vintage gals alike. Paper piece, colour or just simply stamp, all sorts of treatments suit this set.

 The hot air balloon measures just over 4 inches by 2.25 inches at the widest points. The 'Aim high kid' sentiment is 1.75 inches long by just over a quarter inch tall. 

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


Button Twines

Been looking all over for a nice rustic twine, finally found it and I can now offer it in 3 colours - Cream, Natural and Brown. Super for threading through buttons of course, a nice twine is good for general all round homeliness on all sorts of projects. We have it in 10m lengths as pictured. (Button not included)

 Cream

 

Natural

 Brown

Cream, Natural and Brown together for comparison.

...release schedule

LOL, it's almost too late to put this up! my apologies!

Just a quick, 'what's-on-when' for folks regarding today's release of 3 new photopolymer stamp sets! 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 May post will go live on this blog and there will be more              fabulous samples from the DT in our February 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 are releasing three new stamp sets today - I design and produce clear photopolymer stamps. 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!!

7:00pm my time today is approximately equal to:

Australia,Queensland  - 5:00am Thursday May 9st (ouch, sorry ladies!)

Brazil, Rio de Janeiro - 4:00pm Today

Canada, Ontario - 2:00pm Today

Germany - 8:00pm Today

Japan - 4:00am Thursday May 9st (ouch, sorry ladies!)

Netherlands - 8:00pm Today

Russia, Moscow - 11:00pm Today

South Africa - 9:00pm Today

USA - 2:00pm Today

....Our Winners!

Our comment competition closed at midnight and we had 4 winners! That means that 4 folks each win £50 EACH to spend in the WMS store!!!!
Those 4 lucky winners are - drawn by random number generator thingy -


Carla (91) who said:

oh Claire, this is nice! Most of the time I make birthday cards. Thanks for the chance to win. Love from Holland!


Kat (178) who said:

Loving these sneaky peeks, that elephant is so cute! I often make birthday cards but sometimes it is new baby cards or sympathy card. Kat x

Helen L  (165) who said:

Birthday cards are the most needed for me. With 28 neices and nephews, and now they are having children, I'll bet I could send one out every week very soon!! :-D

Ginger (13) who said

I too make alot of thank you cards! Lately however, I have been having to make far too many get well cards!! I seem to be surrounded by sick people! Thank goodness it is starting to slow down and I can get back to making thank you and birthday cards along with a bunch of "I'm sorry" cards for not sending said birthday and thank you cards!! So I welcome you to my vicious never ending circle of life!! I looks so forward to shopping w/ you in the near future!! ginger



Huge Congratulations ladies - Please email me on claire.brennan1@ntlworld.com
Be sure to put the words 'WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER" in the subject line - so's I can easily pick you out or I may not see you in time to get the gift codes to you before the release!!! 

see you in the morning with the schedule!

...one last peeky

Couldn't resist popping on to show you one little extra that we'll have for the store tomorrow, fingers crossed! Lovely, delicious button twine, in 3 colours....cream, natural and brown! Been itching to get my hands on this forever!

I'll be back later with the winners!!! around midnight my time! if you haven't entered there's just time....click here.

...May release day 3

 

Good morning! I hope you are enjoying the samples so far. The DT ladies are showing Compact Sentiments part 2 - we had such an overwhelming reaction to the original Compact Sentiments set which released in February that we pushed our Part 2 set forward, together with our Compact Family set. All three sets feature this super funky font - just the right mix of casual style.

I'm showing my Compact Family samples today as I was too busy playing with pink elephants yesterday to be ready with my CS Part 2 samples....

Here are the ladies, pop off and see what they've been up to!

Anya Schrier

Beeca Feeken

Belinda Chang Langner

 Clare Buswell 

Julia Aston

Jennifer Holmes

 Kelly Schirmer 

Laurie Schmidlin

 Lynn Mercurio

 Mona Pendleton 

Sandie Dunne

Tosha Leyendekker

My first card this morning is a frilly feminine number for a Niece. I was sent some lovely frilly ribbony stuff from Julee T over at Verve and I just love it! cheers Julee!

I started with my new fave dies - those Romantic Rectangles and made the card base from cream card. I layered on a piece of cream card that I embossed with the floral impressabilities plate and stitched it into place. A little sponging beforehand. I made the heart shaped panel by clear embossing the heart from Nordic Spring and them wiping over with distress ink in Tattered Rose, I love the effect that this gives,  see the close up pic for the almost waxy appearance of the wee stitches! Every little tiny stitch is individually rendered so that you get a most realistic texture from the Nordic Spring and Winter stamps. Trimmed it out with the scallop heart die, love that wee embossed edge that you get with Spellbinders.

A wooden button, 3 wee paper roses, and another Spellbinder doodad - a shape from the Persian accents set I believe. I tucked another wee salmon coloured bow in behind the top ofthe heart to help balance the colour and added my simple sentiment panel! I very much like how the style of the sentiments is equally at home on a fussy frilly card like this and on the CAS cards below!

My next card features a Compact Family sentiment paired with an image from Half Pint Heroes - I loved stamping the sentiment in colour to match my rocket!

I made up the sentiment by combining 3 different stamps - there's lots of opportunity for this in Compact Family. I thought the 'bestest' would appeal to my 5 yr old, this is what he says himself! Aside from the main familial words, I tried to fill this set up with lots of smaller words and phrases that would allow for the sentiments to be used again and again in different combinations so that you don't end up stamping the same sentiment on your family cards time after time.

My last sample today is another clean and simple card - this time for a little sister. - I used a face from the new Half Pint Heroines to accent my sentiment and also the top of the wee gift box. I think the strength of the font makes it a perfect choice for simple stamping.

 

All 3 sets will release tomorrow at 7pm my time and you have until tonight midnight to enter the competition here. I'll be back later today/tomorrow with a wee schedule, until then cheerio!

Hope they tickle!

...more Half Pint Heroines, May, Day 2

Afternoon! Finally there was a break in the cloud and I snapped a few pics! I cannot tell you how much grey there is here today...still it could be worse.

Just in case you are new here, we are showing samples of cards made with stamps from our just-about-to-be-released sets. Yesterday and today I'm previewing Half Pint Heroines, the Dt ladies are all much better rganised than me and have moved on to Compact Family today, so pop alog this list for more new stampy goodness:

Anya Schrier

Beeca Feeken

Belinda Chang Langner

Clare Buswell

Julia Aston

Jennifer Holmes

Kelly Schirmer

Laurie Schmidlin

Lynn Mercurio

Mona Pendleton

Sandie Dunne

Tosha Leyendekker

My fist sample today is a sort of a run-on from last nights card - scroll down if you missed it - my Pink elephant! I adore this wee elephant - and I have been itching to use the elephant head portion along with the 'don't forget' and 'have fun' sentiments!! lol!!!

I simply stamped the elephant and trimmed out the head with a scalpel, small sharp scissors are actually better for this as you can turn the card as you cut for nice smooth lines. I used a scalpel because there is stiff competition for scissors in my house and they were all I could lay my hands on given that they are stored several feet above small pilfering-hands reach...

If you do find yourself using a craft knife to trim shapes I highly recommend having a cardboard nail file handy to smooth away all those little 'point's that seem to inadvertently happen as you cut around curves...or maybe I'm ham-fisted and you don't have that problem!! lol!

Anyhow, I wanted to make this little taggy - it's destined to be either attached to a going away present - maybe a friend off to college, new job etc, or put onto the front of a card, either way I am ready!

I used the delicious Persian Accents border die template for some lovely fretwork detailing down the edge, I think of elephants as exotic creatires and this cut out shape sets the tone perfectly for me! Love it! OOh and those wee Romantic Rectangles die templates are just filling a need in my die template stash that I didn't know I had, these are my new faves!

 

I have been itching also to paper piece this wee balloon, I began by stamping the balloon several times onto different sheets of Melissa Frances Attic Treasures papers and trimming out portions of the balloon and inking up the edges before laying back down onto another complete stamped balloon shape. 

I love how this turned out, I love the vintage feel and I was wondering if I could mix it with this set, which is not one I would normally consider to have vintage potential, but I think it works very well - I did all my stamping with Memento Rich Cocoa, which I think helped, rather than a black ink.

I've been having fun with my dies again those Romantic rectangles were used to cut the card front - the card base is just a regular rectangle, cut slightly narrower than the card front. I made a little detailing on the sky background, by using one of those new edges dies (Classic decorative inserts one, which will be available on the store come Tuesday!), can you see those delicious wee pin prick dot details, I LOVE those!!! I love details!!

I stamped from wee clouds onto pink wool felt and trimmed them out with the scalpel, regretting the loss of my wee scissors....but I liked them anyhow!

My last wee card this morning is just a clean and simple, lunch box card note. This is pretty much what my big girlie looked like a few years ago...the face with the long hair was stamped atop the girl body stamp - I couldn't resist adding a cute bunny, just like the one she still has. They grow up way too fast...lol, but she does, she makes me smile with my heart.

Hope they tickle!

...May release day 2...

Yep I should be showing you Compact Family this morning, but before I get to that I have another wee Half Pint Heroines thingy, actually I have a few thingies, and I'll add them as the day goes on, as usual the light here is awful and I'm waiting to pounce on a ray of sunlight for photos!! In the meantime, don't miss the DT ladies samples!

Anya Schrier

Beeca Feeken

Belinda Chang Langner

Clare Buswell

Julia Aston

Jennifer Holmes

Kelly Schirmer

Laurie Schmidlin

Lynn Mercurio

Mona Pendleton

Sandie Dunne

Tosha Leyendekker

...say hello to Half Pint Heroines!

Good evening! I have a little card here to begin my samples, I'm way behind the rest of the DT girls!! I am very excited to introduce you to my Half Pint Heroines, these little ladies are the sister set to Half Pint heroes and will co-ordinate with that set.

The drawing style is the same, as are the fonts and so you should find these two sets easy to combine!

If you remember the Half Pint Heroes, you might remember that the original idea was to have some simple drawings of vehicles, into which I could stamp my 'character'. Having 3 wee folks I found that from an early age they were all very amused when I drew little caricatures of them placed into vehicles or fabulous situations.

This idea grew into Half Pint Heroes. A simply styled set of boy themed vehicles with 7 different 'boy' faces so that you could put your particular 'hero' into his vehicle of choice!

Finally we have some heroines to add to the chaps!

My girls get a big kick out of seeing 'themselves' stamped into the elephant carriage or the hot air balloon.

As with Heroes, we have 3 scenarios for the girls to be placed into - an elephant carriage, a hot air balloon and a simple 'little girl' figure complete with floppy bunny.

My sample for this post shows a girl in the elephant carriage. As before the girl faces are separate stamps, you simply pick the one which is closest to your chosen heroine/card recipient and stamp her in the situation of your choice. I chose the elephant carriage because I felt it really speaks to the sense of adventure and achievement that I would wish for my eldest girl. I truly want my wee folks to think that nothing is beyond them and I designed a series of sentiments for this set that reflect that. I 'borrowed' an arm from the Half Pint Heroes set so she could wave out at us! The little birds are included in the Heroines set.

Once upon a time there was a girl....and she could do anything...

I made a little pocket for my card, to hide away the second sentiment. On the inside I finished off with "...and I was so proud of her"

Aside from just a general encouragement card, I could see me making this card over for a girl I know who will be heading off to university, or for someone taking up a new job. Although the images are simple and childlike in style, I'd be happy to use these for grown up folks also.

I stamped the image in Memento Rich Cocoa and coloured with copic markers. I stamped on some Melissa Frances papers that I had stashed away. I quite often stamp on lightly patterned paper rather than plain card as I think it lends texture to the image. Much sponging of course. I trimmed out a frame with a Spellbinders Postage stamp die template (S4-348) and did a little background stamping with  some Scallops and dots Flourishes.

A special shout out must go to my smallest daughter Erin, she actually drew the original elephant head that you see used in this stamp. Erin has a 'thing' about elephants, and when I was drafting the set she said she could do a better one than me and so she did! I used her elephant head and my elephant body to create this image, and I have to say I think the elephant is super cute, it's definitely got the beady eye factor!

My apologies for the lateness of my post and I will be back tomorrow with more, but in the meantime, don't forget to enter our competition here!

Hope it tickles!

...we're starting previews!

Good morning! Today we begin previews of our 3 new sets which will be released on Tuesday! I will be back later today with my samples, but in the meantime, check out the DT ladies blogs for some fabulous inspiration!

Anya Schrier

Beeca Feeken

Belinda Chang Langner

Clare Buswell

Julia Aston

Jennifer Holmes

Kelly Schirmer

Laurie Schmidlin

Lynn Mercurio

Mona Pendleton

Sandie Dunne

Tosha Leyendekker

And, don't forget to enter our competition if you haven't already done so!, just scroll down to the previous post for deets!

...teeny weeny sneaky peeky and a comp!

 ED this competition closed at midnight with 249 comments!!!

Good morning! I have a sneaky peek for you today! We are having a little release on Tuesday! It's a tiny little release of 3 sets that I had all ready before my mum went into hospital.

I hope you like it, it's a companion set and a much requested one at that! The image in the sneak peek is made up of two stamps, it's a very customisable set!

We will begin showing samples tomorrow and we'd love for you to stop by and pick up some inspiration!

Just for fun I'm going to run a little competition here this morning, entries for this will close on Monday night, midnight, my time, and all you have to do is leave me a comment here on this blog telling me what sort of cards you make most - Me? I seem to always be in need of 'Thank You' cards, how about you?

OOh and the prize, well, lets make it a goodie shall we? How about £50 to spend in the WMS store! Yep I will pick one random winner to win! And here's the plan, if we get over 100 entries (one per person please) I will award another £50 prize (approx $80). If we get over 200 replies we'll award another prize, so it's probably a good idea to spread this around, the more replies we get the more prizes there will be!

The Big Cheese of the Week

Hi there!  Welcome to this week's Big Cheese post.  I am happy to share the amazing inspiration uploaded by all of you this past week.  Let's get started, shall we?

We have a new player this week taking home the Big Cheese prize.  Check out this beautiful birthday card from Maggie Haas:

There are so many fantastic things about this card! It seems like every time I look at it, I spot another little detail that I missed.  I love the way that Maggie framed the sentiment in the die cut, and how she pulled her colors from her patterned paper.  A super fun birthday card!

Congratulations, Maggie! Your project will be added to the Big Cheese highlight album in the WMS Gallery. Please send me an email and I will provide you with a discount code for $10 off your next Waltzingmouse Stamps purchase.

This card from Sharron Gregory was way too cute to pass up:

 I'm really digging Sharron's take on WMSC94 with the layered, consecutively smaller vertical strips.  The different patterns and texture really make it fun, too.  And I must share what Sharron said about this card - she suggested Gracie and Cicely in Paris! Claire, are you hearing this? We need to see more of these girls!

And finishing us off for today, a pink pinwheel from Anne-Elise:

Didn't she choose the perfect patterns for her pink pinwheel? I also see some embossed vellum peeking out from under the twine, one of Anne-Elise's signature elements!  The design of the fun impressed background plays off of the pinwheel, too, and helps bring it all together. Super!

Thanks for another great week of projects, ladies! Inspiring as always!

Would you like the opportunity to be chosen for the Big Cheese? Just upload a project to your Waltzingmouse Gallery. Then add the direct link of your newly uploaded Gallery entry here in the WMS Forum, a new thread starts every Monday! You can visit us on the forum if you have any questions.

Have a great day!
Anya

May 17th Blog Party Details

Hello and happy May Day; a day to celebrate Spring.  I don’t know about you, but every day of spring is a day of celebration…even when rain clouds fill the sky – spring is the epitome of happiness.  May also bring another Waltzingmouse Blog Party just for you.  The theme for the May Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog Party is: Felt or Cozy Fabrics.  What does that mean?  We hope that you will use Waltzingmouse Stamp images to create a project that also contains elements of felt or some other cozy fabric.  That could mean a felt or fabric border or hand rolled flowers – die cute elements are great too.  Perhaps you might try your hand at piecing fabrics where parts of the images would be – use your imagination and amazing us, just like you always do each month.

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 during the time frame (outlined below) you will need to post your direct link here on the WMS blog using the Inlinkz widget that will be available.

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

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

USA (New York) 1:30 p.m. 17th Ma y- 1:30 p.m. 18th May

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

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

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

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

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

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 use it at the top of your post on "party day".

Then, on the 20th of the month – we will highlight a few of the entries that really catch our attention and you'll be able to see those highlighted here on the WMS blog.  We will also select and announce our winner of the FREE stamp set of choice, by a random drawing 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?  Grab those Waltzingmouse Stamps and shower the Internet with creative inspiration!

See you on the 17th!