...New goodies for February!

 

Good evening and welcome to the February release and yep, I do know it is the very last few hours of the very last day of February...

One important announcement is that there has been a little bustle at the store today in anticipation of the Funky Flowers dies and nearly all the UK stock of the Funky Flowers stamps has sold out - more are on order and are expected in approx 2 weeks! There are still some Funky Flowers stamps to be had at our USA location though!

I have some new goodies for you tonight, 4 new die sets and a stamp set, it's just an itty bitty release but it's very important to ease yourself back into these things after Christmas!

OK, things you need to know:

There is Free Shipping on all orders over £60GBP - and yes, that means free shipping to anywhere in the world.

Now that we have a loyalty scheme in operation - you are earning points every time you shop with WMS - you earn points on everything you buy, even digital products! Points gather and turn into discount! See here for more details.

We have a little freebie for you this evening also if you are shopping with us - the first 50 folks whose orders reach £60GBP or more will receive this super mini crackle stamp tucked in free with their order. If you think your order might qualify and you already have the mini crackle stamp, just pop a note on your order to tell us! I'm sure we can find something else for you!

Just before I show you the goodies here are the DT ladies who are taking part in our Release day hop! Don't forget to comment - I believe there is a draw!

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

Jennifer Holmes

And finally here are the new goodies!

 

Gift Card It

Large Stamp set 6x8 inches

Make custom Gift cards or disguise ugly store bought cards with the help of this stamp set. Sentiments are included for making your own, or for giving gift cards for any occasion. The large hand-drawn border and smaller rose motifs are a perfect match for the hand-drawn style of the lettering. A massive 28 stamps in this set should see you through the year!

  

Gift Card Envelope

A die for creating envelopes which are the perfect size for either store bought gift cards or home made gift cards - using our gift card it Die set. A million other uses besides, tiny envelopes are so perfect for card fronts, small item storage, seeds, beads, you name it! 

Gift Card It Die set

Works with Gift Card it stamps.

A unique die set enabling you to produce Gift card size die cuts - Make your own home made gift cards or dress up store bought and complete the look by making beautiful gift card holders using the two options included! A set of 3 dies. 

 Funky Feather Die set 

co-ordinates with Funky feather Stamps cuts paper, card, felt etc beautifully!

 Funky Flowers die set

co-ordinates with Funky Flowers stamps, cuts paper, card, felt etc beautifully!

...Release day Schedule

 

Later this evening all the new goodies that the DT gals and I been previewing will be available! The run down is as follows:

6:30PM - the Store will close to allow final adjustments

7:00PM - the New Goodies for February post will go live on this blog, there will be more              fabulous samples from the DT

7:15PM - the Store will re-open.

Folks placing orders this evening might like to know that we will be giving a little Freebie with the first 50 orders over £60GBP. You don't need to purchase new release items to qualify, ANY orders over £60GBP will qualify, just be sure to place your order as soon after 7.15pm as possible so that you stand a good chance of being in the first 50!

And just fyi...

7:00PM 28th February my time is approximately equal to:

In the USA - Missouri 1.00pm
In the USA - Florida 2.00pm
In the USA - New York 2.00pm

In Australia - Queensland  1 March 5:00 AM (sorry ladies!)

In Canada - Alberta 12:00 PM

In South Africa - 9:00PM

My card uses the Funky Feathers stamps and dies - the stamps are here in the store and the dies will new this evening! I used kraft cardstock and a pale grey card that was the inside of a creeal packet, it has a bit of a fleck through it, just like the kraft card! I saw Deb Frings do this a while back on one of her cards, where she die cut a shape and set it back into another die cut. I thought it looked fabby so I cased her!

Hope it tickles!

...February previews Day 3, Post 2!

Right now I'm meant to be packing dies for tomorrows release, but I love cutting stuff with new dies and so I took a half hour out to make 3 little flower badges. these were ridiculously easy to make, the work of moments.

If you are new to us we are right in the middle of showing samples made with the new goodies that are coming to the store tomorrow night! (scroll right down for the DT links)

I picked 3 nesting flower dies from the new Funky Flowers die set (coming tomorrow) and cut them out twice in each colour and then layered them and stitched them all together with a co-ordinating button. Added a couple of die cut leaves to the back and Bob was instantly my uncle.

Adhered a brooch back to the bloom - I know, I'm meant to sew these on but I had the glue gun already out....

I made up little presentation cards by stamping the Seed packet image from Vintage Garden seeds. Trimmed round the edges, cutting the corners in a curve with my scissors and then sponged a bit with some rusty distress ink. I cut two tiny holes (Cropadile) in the centre of the cards through which I was able to pass the pin of the brooch to hold it on.

I was pretty elated with what I was able to achieve in such a short time, I can spend days over the one card!

Gotta run get the store ready, but if you have not been round the DT yet to see their samples for today, here they are - remember the release is tomorow night, 7.00pm my time!

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

...Introducing Funky Flower dies

Good morning! A short post today! I'm loading the new goodies on to the store and I have only time for a quick hello this morning! I have a card this morning which uses the new Funky Flower dies. 

Chock full of dies to match the existing stamp set (Funky Flower stamps!), the funky flowers dies will cut paper, card, leather, felt etc! I have used them here on my card with the stamps but they work well on their own with felt especially!

There will also be Funky feather dies to match this stamp set! both die sets will release with everything else tomorrow night at 7.00pm my time!

The DT ladies have some more ideas for you today and here they are:

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

I'll be back later this evening with a schedule for tomorrow! chat soon!

...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

...Introducing 'Gift Card It' Stamps and Dies

 Folks it feels like so long since we held a proper release that I almost forget how to do it! Just in case you are new here, we are gearing up to release some new goodies on Friday night, 7.00pm my time - the DT and I will be previewing the new goodies between now and then, so we invite you back to see what we have been up to!

I am a little excited to show you a concept today that will hopefully be of great service to you when it comes to giving gifts.

The stamp set and co-ordinating die set that we are previewing today has been created around the Gift Card concept. It is the first set in its series (I have another planned) and it enables you to do two very distinct things.

1) You can dress up store bought gift cards for any purpose and present them in a becoming style to suit your card/project.

2) You can create your own gift cards.

I have to admit, I had myself in mind when I was deciding exactly what sentiments to begin this set with - I think one of the things I long for most is an evening to myself and so I made that into a stampable sentiment and pictured myself receiving such a home made gift card from one of my wee folks or DH! Bliss!

You remember making those mummy-vouchers' in school - where you drew up a ticket that said valid for a hug? yep? well now you can make up a proper grown up Gift card version! I can think of so many versions I want to make of this, little gift card booklets even!

The dies that co-ordinate with the Gift Card it set include a die designed to create standard gift card die cuts so that you can cut out your own gift cards from card, cork board, leather even, whatever tickles your fancy! What is also neat about this is that you can cut out a holder for your gift card using either of the two smaller dies!

My sample this morning shows the bracket holder die in use, I simply used it on the front of my card to create a space that I could slip my home made gift card into.

I cut my home made gift card from white card stock and stamped an all over pattern on to it using Funky Flowers. on the reverse I stamped the Breakfast in Bed sentiment - I love the sentiment on the front - 'For lovely you from lovely me' - I especially like how it fits neatly inside the bracket shape!

The bracket shape can be used vertically or horizontally, I hope to show you further examples later on.

The Gift card it die set - shown below on one of my home made die storage folders, see the post here for more deets on that.

I sure hope it tickles! Here are he DT ladies who are previewing with me today! Don't forget to leave comments on the DT blogs as you go - we love to hear what you think, and there could be a random prize!

Lynn Mercurio

Laurie Schmidlin 

Karin Akesdotter

Jen Cuthbertson 

Anya Schrier

Kelly Schirmer 

Renee Lynch

Teresa Kline 

Julia Aston

Jeanne Jachna 

...last peek

ED - Well I thought this would have you all scratching your heads!! but Nope, Kathryn A got it nearly immediately!!! She was only the second person to comment!

Kathryn A said...

Hmmmm... Intriguing! Is it a gift card die?

Congratulations Kathryn, pop me an email to claire@waltzingmousestamps.com and we will get your prize organised!!!

I absolutely defy anyone to guess what this peek might be showing - there is no way you will get it, I'm so sure of this that the first person to guess it right, will win the item being peeked....ok, a small hint....it's not a stamp set....

Pop back tomorrow, the DT previews begin in the morning! cannot wait to show you!

...another peek at February...

LOVE this set..... due for release on the 28th, can't wait!

...a little peek at Feb

Good evening folks, I have the first of our peeks for you this eve! will be back tomorrow with more as we begin to get ready for our Feb release - New goodies coming here on the 28th!

...You're Invited

Good evening!Just popping on to invite you to our next Pajama Party! We're having it on the 10th March and we hope you can make it!

Grab the Pajama party badge above, by either right clicking (PC),  or dragging it to your desktop (Mac) and keep it for your pajama party posts.
 
The Pajama party links will open at 15 minutes to midnight on the 10th March. We know that not everyone will be able to link up at that time, and so we hope to give everyone a chance to play by keeping links open for a 24 hour period.  Please don't be put off by the start time if it's awkward where you live, it's pretty impossible to pick a start time that is easy for everyone and we hope the 24 hour window will allow everyone to play along. The Bedtime Story sketch challenge that we will post on the night will remain open for a full week.


Here are the Challenges - you can get yourself a head-start now and begin your creations. You may enter as many times as you like, but we do ask for a separate link for each entry - or we might miss it!

It is not always necessary to use WMS products to play along, but we encourage you to look at each challenge to see if using WMS would boost your chances of winning!

Challenge 1 - To Die For

We recently got our own custom die program under way and we are keen to see what folks are getting up to so this first challenge is all about WMS Cutting edge dies! Entries for this challenge should feature projects that use one or more WMS cutting edge dies. We're really keen to showcase our own dies for this challenge so you will forgive us for limiting entries for this challenge to our own dies.

  

When to make: Make your project now so that you can be ready to post it to your blog/gallery on the night of the party.
How do I link it up?: On the night of the party, post your project to your blog/gallery and post a direct link to it into the inlinkz tool that will be available on the blog post here on the WMS blog. Grab the Pajama party badge now from the beginning of this post to add to your challenge blog posts when you are ready, this will kelp us to find you in the event of a wobbly link. Links for this challenge will remain open for 24 hours.
What will happen? : After the links close we will choose a random project to win a spot prize of £20GBP ($33USD) store credit! 

Challenge 2 - St Patrick's Day Charm

Make a Vintage style project, something charming, with a nod to St Patrick himself. I'm seeing lace, fabric, stitching, all that old world ditzy detailing that screams vintage. It doesn't have to be a card, I'd be delighted to see altered items, scrapbook pages, whatever you wish to show me! We are opening this challenge to everyone and it is not necessary to use WMS for this challenge, but if your stash is St Patrically challenged, we have some St Pat's day Freebies HERE, HERE and HERE.

When to make: Make your project now so that you can be ready to post it to your blog/gallery on the night of the party.

How do I link it up?: On the night of the party, post your project to your blog/gallery and post a direct link to it into the inlinkz tool that will be available on the blog post here on the WMS blog. Grab the Pajama party badge now from the beginning of this post to add to your challenge blog posts when you are ready, this will kelp us to find you in the event of a wobbly link. Links for this challenge will remain open for 24 hours.
What will happen? : After the links close we will choose a random project to win a spot prize of £10GBP ($16.60USA) store credit! If your card does use WMS product your prize will be doubled to £20GBP.

Challenge 3 - What would Mother do?

 I want you to make a card/project in the style of something that your mother would have made! It doesn't have to be stamped! My own mother didn't make cards but she was an artist, she decorated eggs and painted in oils and she was a great baker, so I could see myself either making a card on the theme of decorated eggs, or perhaps I might bake some cookies and make a nice gift wrap for them. 

 

Now it was brought home to me that there just might be a few folks who, for one reason or another, find this challenge a little challenging, so for anyone who is in need of inspiration form a mother, I have this picture for you. You might get a little something from it. This is a real duck egg that my mum cleaned out and decorated for me a very long time ago. It was not one of the eggs that she was pleased to call her best work and she will be rolling her eyes at me for putting it up here, but it is still my favourite, even though she made more for me as the years went on. It's a little frosty house scene and I absolutely love it. I might just take my inspration from this picture and I  invite you to do the same if you have no other ideas that you prefer to use - I see scope for glitter and lots of it folks! :)

When to make: Make your project now so that you can be ready to post it to your blog/gallery on the night of the party.

How do I link it up?: On the night of the party, post your project to your blog/gallery and post a direct link to it into the inlinkz tool that will be available on the blog post here on the WMS blog. Grab the Pajama party badge now from the beginning of this post to add to your challenge blog posts when you are ready, this will kelp us to find you in the event of a wobbly link. Links for this challenge will remain open for 24 hours.
What will happen? : After the links close we will choose a random project to win a spot prize of £10GBP ($16.60USA) store credit! If your card does use WMS product your prize will be doubled to £20GBP.

Bedtime Story 

As ever there will be a Bedtime Story sketch challenge posted on the night!

So hope you can come and play!

...what's happening at WMS?

2014 is a little slow getting off the ground here at WMS, but now that we are nearly ready to roll again with new goodies I have a few dates for your diary. Put a big old red cricle around:

 

Our next release will be on the 28th February - Sneak peeks begin here on the blog on Sat 22nd. Next highlight the:

 

Our next Pajama Party will be here on the blog on the 10th March, Here's a potted outline of the challenges, I will be putting up the official PJ party invite tomorrow containing full details of projects/prizes:

Challenge 1 - To Die For

Make a card/project featuring WMS dies.
When to make: Get a head start by making your project now so that it is ready on the 10th, full details tomorrow!

Challenge 2 - St Patrick's Day Charm

Make a Vintage style project, something charming, with a nod to St Patrick himself.

When to make: Get a head start by making your project now so that it is ready on the 10th, full details tomorrow!

Challenge 3 - What would Mother do?

 I want you to make a card/project in the style of something that your mother would have made! It doesn't have to be stamped! When to make: Get a head start by making your project now so that it is ready on the 10th, full details tomorrow!

Bedtime Story 

As ever there will be a Bedtime Story sketch challenge posted on the night!

Looking forward to catching up with you all soon!

...and the winner is

Folks I'm a little late posting a winner - I was giving out medicine at midnight last night, but it was for myself, I have 'an awful dose' as they say, so you will forgive me if this is short and sweet.

I have enjoyed reading the comments and I must say, it's a great relief to find that our lacksadaisical observance of St Valentine's Day is not such an oddity....

Our winner has been chosen at random, I use that random number generator.org thingy, and out popped:

Gabi MeWi who said...

This magnets are so fresh - perfect for the fridge.
I planed to have a Valentine-dinner with my hubby, but now I will be on a funeral(my friends mum died) - so we will have a spontaneous Valentine day in the next days.

Gabi, I am heartily sorry to hear of your loss, hugs to you. Please pop me an email on claire@waltzingmousestamps.com at your convenience and let me have your choice of die set and your address and I will get your goodies out to you ASAP.

...Fresh lemon on the fridge and a chance to win.

Good morning and yes, I did have to alter the zing of this photo, just a smidgeon! I made some fridge magnets with the new My Heart Dies and some of the sticky backed magnetic sheets that we have at the store. Since the fridge here is way down at the back of the kitchen away from the window I just had to lighten and brighten the pic just a wee tiny bit.

I cut out some fancy glitter card stock that has been lying around, I love the fresh lemon shade - I cut out a few hearts in a complimentary patterned paper also (think this was a Cosmo Cricket paper). Next I ran some of the Magnetic sheets through the old Grand Calibur with the dies and I was absolutely stunned that it worked.

If you have purchased any of our sheets you will see that they are quite thick. Very thick. I was sort of bracing myself as I sent it through the Calibur, just in case the whole thing would jam, but nope, it went through, clean as a whistle and it cut on the first pass. Handily, the magnet cut all the way through but stopped short of the waxed backing paper, so it was easy to remove the shapes from the sheet. Hurrah!

For shapes like the heart which are symmetrical, it does not matter what side you cut the paper/magnet from, but for the arrow heart, I needed to flip the magnet over and cut the die from the other side, so the that the paper version would stick to the magnet version in the correct way.

For me this represents a last moment attempt at some thing vaguely Valentinesy, but still unmushy. I am still at home with sick child and so all the last moment plans to nip out and pick something up have fallen apart, my kids have a knack of falling ill when it's an anniversary, birthday, Valentines...you name it. For the last 14 years, any event in our house that has had a whiff of romance about it has been accompanied by pimples and a temperature....

But I'll bet you are all set, dozen roses cooling in a bucket in the garage, chocolates in behind the books in the book case, card all prepared and written etc, yep? So, let's hear all about it - tell me your plans for Valentines, leave me a comment on this post - I will pick a winner (at random) tomorrow night at midnight, 'cos I will still be up, administering calpol to somebody somewhere....

The random winner will win a set of WMS Cutting Edge dies!

For my little notes I used Compact sentiments Part two. Gooey, but not mushy.

Don't forget to leave your comments below for a chance to win!