...November release Day Two!

Right about now I should be introducing you to Compliments of the Season Two and the Vintage Christmas Background... I'll be back in a little while with my projects for those sets, but just so's my post looks purty I have a little more Yonder star for you...

I made a little rustic ornament using some of the cut files that will go with the Yonder star set, it's an oldie but goodie idea, simply because it's so fast! if you have an electronic cutter that is...I love the texture that the saw tooth edging gives, but if you were cutting this by hand, I'd go for straight lines to keep it fast.

I just stamped the star in SU Cherry Cobbler onto the cut out shapes and literally threw some distress ink (Brushed Corduroy, I believe) on with a stencil brush, I found this much faster than sponging each individual piece. Some twine and a little bead to give it weight....easy peasy lemon squeezy...This would also make an awesome gift adornment.

I threw together another card, to give you a better look at that big background stamp - Yonder Star Background. I stamped it in green on white and loved how fresh it was. Teamed it up with a sentiment from Yonder Star, and was tickled to discover that I could pick out details on the stamp in other colours when I used two of those fancy Distress Markers that everyone is raving about...expect to see more of this, I love how the little decorative detail is picked out in red between the green words. This was very easy with the markers.

DT ladies who are previewing the Compliments of the Season Two and Vintage Christmas Background sets are here, so pop on over and visit the gals while I wait for the sun to shine enough for me to photograph my projects for today!

Bonnie Sharp  

Lynn Mercurio  

Belinda Change Langner  

Sarah Martina Parker  

Tosha Leyendekker 

Anya Schrier 

Kelly Schirmer 

Sandie Dunne  

Clare Buswell  

Becca Feeken 

Julia Aston  

Jennifer Holmes 

Laurie Schmidlin

hope it tickles!

...2nd post today - Yonder Star

Good evening, this is my second post of the day. We're previewing Yonder star and Yonder star background - one of our new HUGE background stamps (releasing on Friday) - no more lining up!!!

I used the Yonder star set together with Way out west for this gift set. I had little star shaped iced cookies and I popped them into a Kilner jar and dressed it up. The sentiment gives away the Christmas theme and I stamped my star (Way out West) above the cactus landscape (Way out west) I added a little glow to my star with a halo from Little lanterns.

For my jar tag I stamped the sentiment onto a small aged metal tag that I had and slung it over a larger manilla tag, which had been stamped with the scene. I liked the distressed look of the white ink on the metal, if you are doing something similar, but want a stronger look, simply emboss the sentiment with white powder.

I dressed up the jar with some tweedy fabric and trimmed out a patch to match for my card. I used pretty much the same elements with the addition of a piece of green ric rac, I love big ric rac! A very simple understated set, which all hinges on that little sentiment.

Here are the DT ladies who are also previewing today if you haven't been over already!

Back in the morning with some more eye candy! hope it tickles!

...Introducing Yonder star and Background

Good morning and welcome to the first day of samples for our upcoming November 2nd release. I hope all our USA ladies made it safely through the night.

If you are new to us we are releasing 8 new sets on Friday 2nd November, we have loads to get through before then and an exciting trial which may benefit some USA folks! more on that later.

Here is a list of the DT ladies who are previewing with me, I know some of these ladies may have been without power last night due to the storm, so bear with us if there are gaps in the chain,

Bonnie Sharp  

Lynn Mercurio  

Belinda Change Langner  

Sarah Martina Parker  

Tosha Leyendekker 

Anya Schrier 

Kelly Schirmer 

Sandie Dunne  

Clare Buswell  

Becca Feeken 

Julia Aston  

Jennifer Holmes 

Laurie Schmidlin

 I'm kicking off with a little card that I made with two of the new sets. Yonder Star and Yonder Star Background.

Yonder Star is a Christmas set with a difference - it has a strong Western theme and compliments our existing western sets, Back in the Saddle, and Way out West beautifully. These have proven to be among our most popular sets to date and we hope you will take Yonder Star to heart also.
At Waltzingmouse Stamps we try very hard to bring you something just that little bit different that you won't see elsewhere.

On my card this morning I have used one of the sentiments from Yonder star on the centre panel. I stamped it in Pinecone ink (Versacolour) and later went in with a copic to pick out the word Y'all. It's showing up a little more yellow in our pic but IRL it is a lovely golden shade.

To create the background pattern I have used a new size of stamp for us, I'm really excited to bring you Background stamps this release. Large stamps that cover a standard US card front in one go. I will have a more in depth blog post about these later on, we have a few this release and there are some really nifty little tips that will help you get the very best from these huge stamps!

The Yonder Star background stamp features a feathered star quilt design produced in a distressed style. Perfect for all kinds of projects, particularly Western, Antique and homespun.

The design is such that areas within it may be picked out and coloured, as I have done with the stars in this example. Look closely at the image below to see how I have picked out each star with just one colour. The distress effect means that you really don't have to be careful about going over lines.

Infinite possibilities abound with the Yonder Star background stamp for all sorts of stamping, embossing and colouring to ensure that you get infinite variations from this one stamp.

I will be back later today with more samples, hope this tickles until then!

...sneak peek 4...

Good evening ladies! I should have had this peeky up for you all earlier, but we had pumpkins to carve....apple pie to make etc.... Anywho, this is the last peek before the samples begin tomorrow.

We have a new release scheduled for Friday and as of this very moment I am willing to bet that the stock may be a little delayed. I'm sure you are all watching the storm news as I am and it looks pretty scary this evening. If you are new to us here at Waltzingmouse Stamps you might not be aware that we have our stamps made in USA. Our New Release items were due to leave USA tomorrow, and although I have not been informed of a delay I think it's pretty obvious that it's a definite possibility.

I will update folks with news as I get it, and we will carry on with samples etc, but our only concern today is the safety of all our friends and relations in the path of Hurricane Sandy, it's going to be a very long night, and I know many folks will be sitting up waiting for news of their loved ones. I pray that everyone gets through this storm safely.

...sneak peek number 3

Any ideas? I'm looking forward to this one 'cos I have a sweet tooth!

....sneak peek number two

Itching to hear what you think of this peek....

....and we have a peeky

Here at Waltzingmouse stamps things are getting back to normal and I am excited to tell you that we have a release coming up! Pretty soon...2nd November in fact, and I have a wee peeky for you. This is a much requested little additions set, it won't be too hard for you to guess what for....

I'll be showing peeks over the next few days, we have something pretty new to wms and an exciting trial lined up....

...handy dandy sugar candy

Howdy! I have a wee post today about my Blog party project a few days back, I made over a little basket with some black ribbons and filled it full of wee treat pouches like the one above.

I've seen things like this all over in both blog-land and in stores and it's such a neat little thingumajig I wanted to make up a template for it. If you are even remotely from the same gene pool as me, you have no time at all to fritter away on making elaborate things to just hand out freely at Halloween. I don't mind spending time on something that is going to remain a piece of home decor, or be given to someone special - who I know will keep it! As for hand outs that I aim to give to the trick or treaters who call at the door, I need something snappy! Minimal input, maximum output.

If you know what the official name for these wee twisty boxes are, spill, until I know better I'm calling them Twist Pouches!

For my samples I cut them out on the Silhouette Cameo at 90% size, I was able to get two out of an 8x8 sheet of patterned paper. Because I made these with my fave Graphic 45 Halloween papers, I might in fact just keep them as 'prototypes'... but this is a fabby way to use up all those patterned sheets you have just lying around fading in the sunlight.

Once you get the side flap stuck they practically fold themselves up. I have included the folds as dashed lines so that you can see where they fold easily. They turn out the shape of those old mint humbug sweets.

Get your free template here in the freebies section at the store.

Knock up a few dozen in less than an hour, fill 'em up with either tricks or treats, hand them out! Everybody happy, I feel like mum of the moment and I also have time to get ready for the next release....more on that upon the morrow! (can't wait!)

I added vellum panels to mine that I had stamped with greetings from Hocus Pocus, but you can add lace or ribbons if you wish, plain or fancy, they are such an interesting little shape that you really can't go wrong.

Hope they Tickle!

October Blog Party Recap and YES–We Have a Winner!

We had an amazing turnout for the October Blog Party.  We were pleased with the variety of projects and we are thrilled that you took time to participate.  We know that there are many on-line activities that are available for your participation, and we are happy that you deemed the WMS Blog Party worthy of your time and creative talent.  If you haven’t had a chance to see all the fantastic projects, it’s not too late, they can all be found here.

Each and every project was truly fabulous; each one unique and creative in design. The following three projects really caught my eye.

Marybeth L.’s creative use of text on her leafless birch trees gave them real dimension and texture, and the bats from Gracie at Halloween were hung in their natural sleeping position. She balanced out the fun Halloween creativity with her elegant lace and bow and she even snuck in the purple from the color challenge with three purple beads. 

Sarah’s Pinterest inspired paper bag tree was the perfect backdrop for this spooky piece of home décor. Cicely at Halloween was the muse for the images hung from the branches as well as the wind blown Cicely herself. The attention to detail is fantastic in this project and with the gold shimmery mist sprayed on the tree, it gives the entire project a magical feel. Sarah’s wonderful creativity made this a real winner in my book.

Asha’s spooktacular version of a Concertina Fold Card is filled with wonderful Halloween imagery – from the witch flying across the full moon to the jack-o-lanterns peeking up from the tops of the card. She filled the panels with images from the Hocus Pocus and Gracie at Halloween sets to make sure she completed the eerie scene she was going for. Can you image the delight in receiving such an amazing creation in the mail?

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

Tracey McNeely

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

Be sure to check back on November 1st, when we will announce the theme for the last Blog Party of 2012 on November 17th.

October Blog Party–Starts NOW!

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

Our theme for October is a color selection: 

Now, you may be thinking that this is a Halloween palette, but don’t let that fool you. While these colors do make a great theme for all things that go bump in the night, we hope you won’t feel limited to spooky images; you can use these colors anyway you like.  A colorful birthday card, a “happy fall y’all” card, or anything you like.  So to recap, the challenge for today’s blog party is to use purple, orange and black, (any shade of these colors are fine too).  We will leave it up to you to select the neutral colors you like…white, gray, cream or kraft.  Use your imagination and show us some ingenuity.  We encourage you to create a card, a 3D project, or even a scrapbook page, using images from Waltzingmouse Stamps and join the fun.

Just 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, even if you haven’t created anything yet!  Once you link your project, you can check out all the other inspiring projects by just clicking on their link. Be sure to include the Blog Party Logo (seen at the top of this post) on your blog to easily identify your participation. How fun and easy!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Camellia card. I actually made something that I can show you!!! lol. I'm not convinced that I'm truly in love with this card, but I like it enough to show it... I guess I was trying to capture that 'squeezed blossom' feeling in the sentiment, because that is exactly how I have been feeling lately!

Anyhow, the bloom and leaves were stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa Ink and coloured with copics. My colouring is not that super, I like to stand far, far away from the likes of Sandie and her ilk when I'm doing this sort of thing, but I am pompous enough to consider it passable.

I cut a slit across the bottom and down the side of the sentiment and squeezed the bloom up in underneath, I thought it was a novel way of setting the sentiment to the flower...or maybe I'm regressing back to when I was an art student and mistakenly fancied I knew something about art...lol...

The sentiment and leaves on the card front are stamped in Versafine Grey, a lovely soft ink...I'm planning lots of stamping with that....if only those nice folks at Tsukineko could make it compatible with copics...or I could always clear emboss it....

Anyhow, hope it tickles, and I hope to see you on the 17th (day after tomorrow) we're having a Blog party with a colour theme, click here for deets!

...chilly anyone?

Still unpacking after Athlone. Turns out there was a major stampede through the store the moment we turned our backs and headed for the hills...or maybe it was the gorgeous new August release goodies, which finally arrived...who knows...but we are nearly all caught up again, much thanks to Herself, who has been practically living in the dungeon stock room for a fortnight now. Indeed, so proficient is 'Herself' on the computer that this morning was not the first time that I wondered if her heritage was not partially Borg... Having grown up on a diet of Mac and fries myself, the very mention of the word 'hard-drive' fills me with evil dread. Not so Herself who has built these babies from scratch before now...

Between us, we have made great progress this week, orders are nearly all caught up, admin is not too far behind and the Jericho walls of email land will topple tomorrow, round about lunchtime I believe. No less than 4 magazine projects were completed, written about and shipped, templates were made up for some delicious little doodads that I will be able share freely with you in good time for the holidays, and most excitingly (to me anyhow) plans progressed for the next release.

There is no doubt that the supplier issues in August have set us back a whole lot and, yes, I might well still be releasing Christmas stamps right through until about February, but you know what, that's ok. If there's one thing I picked up this year more than any other, it's how precious and short life is, and you gotta do what makes you happy. I started off this company drawing Gingerbread men in Spring. WMS has never really been about following the marketing seasons to the letter, it's always been about making something that little bit different and that's what I'm holding on to...I cannot wait to show you what is coming next, we have a total of 8 sets lined up, some will be instant old friends, but one or two, well, you've never seen the like....at least not how we do it....

...Finally in Stock

And so finally we got stock of the August sets!! Folks who have availed of our new notification service will have been emailed directly, but just in case you didn't know, we now, finally, have the following in stock:

Vintage garden - Seed Packet

Set size – 6 × 8 inches

Vintage garden - Flowers

Set size – 6 × 4 inches

Vintage garden - Produce

Set size – 6 × 4 inches

 

Appleblossom Seeds

Set size – 4 × 3 inches

Camellia

Set size – 6 × 8 inches

Bright Season

Set size – 6 × 4 inches

 

Little lanterns

Set size – 6 × 4 inches

Light of the World

Set size – 6 × 4 inches

Other News

Well it has been a very long month since the August release debacle and at last the light at the end of the tunnel has waxed from that of a soggy match to somewhere about the strength of a candle. Any moment now, there will be daylight once more.

Now and again we catch a glimpse of it through the skylight in the dungeon office where we have been captive working, but mostly the weather has been in sympathy with us and has cried heavy tears as we have worried ourselves silly over boxes of poor starving envelopes. 

Since we managed to feed up all our little envelopes and ship them off to new homes yesterday, we're hoping to slip the shackles and head out tomorrow to see if there's any of the countryside still above water. We're going to Athlone. It's the Great Big Craft Extravaganza at the Athlone Springs hotel and we're due to have a stall there on Saturday and Sunday. If you are going to be in the area, pop over and say Hi! We'll be the red faced pair trying to look bright and shiny in the corner.

It's a bit of a drive, and last years trip was not without event. It's a story for another day when I have more time to embellish the facts, but I can at last put to bed the August chapter of my biography, which Herself reckons should be called "Waiting for Wanda".

October Blog Party Details–Save the Date–October 17th

 

Hello and welcome to October!  Autumn is upon us in all it’s wondrous colorful glory. Speaking of color…for our October Blog Party, we have a color challenge for you.  Take a look at these!

Now, you may be thinking that this is a Halloween palette, but don’t let that fool you.  Sure, they would make a great color theme for all things that go bump in the night, but you are NOT limited to spooky images.  No way – you can use these colors anyway you like.  A colorful birthday card, a “happy fall y’all” card, or anything you like.  So to recap, the challenge for this blog party is to use purple, orange and black, (any shade of these colors are fine too).  We will leave it up to you to select the neutral colors you like…white, gray, cream or kraft.  Use your imagination and show us some ingenuity.  Create a card, a 3D project, or even a scrapbook page, using images from Waltzingmouse Stamps and join the fun.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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, 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.  Don’t have any WMS images?  Don’t let that stop you.  Claire has some fun free stuff that you can use.  You can find those freebies here.

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

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

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