...the witch

In the same vein as the vampire card (geddit???) I made this one with the witch from Halloween Party and the new dies - scroll down to the previous post, we loaded some new dies to the store this week!

The paper was lovely, but there was a little resistance to ink on the white pattern, I would have liked to have been able to mute that a little more - I did sand it down, which helped a bit, but I should have tried harder! It's still a little too busy! Anywhoo...

So if you get our newsmails you will definitely want to open the one I'm sending out this evening! (wink!) Folks receiving our mails will be getting first bite at the cherry, so to speak....

chat soon...

...New dies in store, The Count, Halloween Party Witch, Ocean Bound...

 Just last eve I got a delivery of dies that I have been waiting for - I'm super excited to add the new 'The Count' dies to the store (matches The Count Stamp set) along with dies for the Halloween Party Witch and two sets of Ocean Bound dies also. you can click the images below to get to them in the store.

The Count Die set

The Halloween Party Witch die set

Ocean Bound Anchors

Ocean Bound Ships and Wheels

I went ahead and popped them in-store this morning because quite frankly our next release is too big already... there will be more info on this in our newsletter which will go out shortly.

For my card today I used the die to cut a 'window' in the lovely patterned paper which I am using as a card front. I sponged and scuffed it for a little shabby chic. I simply stamped himself onto some smooth white card and popped him in behind the window. A very simple panel was cut with a ruler for the sentiment - I love how the 20's inspired font on the trick or Treat sentiment from Gracie at Halloween looks just like it was made to go with this guy. I distressed the panel and little and simply stuck it on.

If you look close at The Count's cape, you will see that the wee clasps are actually silver metal - I discovered that the flat ends on some jewellery findings I had stashed away were the exact perfect size and so I snipped them off and stuck them on the card - I have a couple of little tips for this below if you plan on doing something similar.

I used one of those long pins, with a flat head - you can see that I have a dark copper one laying here on the red foam beside a die cut of The Count

After I place the pin in the pliers and BEFORE I snip, I place a piece of sellotape over the flat pin head - this stops the flat head pinging off into oblivion when you snip.

Once you have snipped, your flat metal pin head will be easily located on the sellotape, take it from there with a pair of tweezers and apply to the counts lapels.  The flat head may well have a little stalk still attached and so it's a good idea to pierce the image with a pin to give the stalks something to bed into. I pierced, then applied glue to the image and then pushed the little metal pieces into the image, I was able to wipe away excess glue before it dried. I recommend a very strong glue for this.

Hope it tickles!

...Flat Congrats

 

ED - I'd love to Suezie, If I can ever get enough art together to do say a half a dozen of them I will cost it out, it would be so cool!

Good afternoon, hope you had a nice weekend, I have a really super simple fast one layer card for you - well ok technically it's a two layer, but it is completely flat!

While I was blitzing the craft room this weekend I found a piece of printed paper that I had run out onto glossy photo paper - its a paper from the Folk Art Clean Digital paper collection - you can just see it peeking out here, 5th from the left. There's also a darker navy version, 2nd from left and it makes a great Wedding-y type card - this card is destined for a couple of folks I know overseas who have just tied the knot.

I had printed it out smaller than the 12 inch full size - this is the beauty of digital papers - and all I had to do was just trim it to fit a card front. I stamped the 'congratulations' (Gift card it stamp set) in brown onto the blank ribbon area - perfect. Versacolour Pinecone ink seemed to work best on this glossy paper - other inks were not so happy to give a good impression on the gloss - I tried it on a scrap piece first.

 I was all pleased with myself thinking it will cost buttons to post when I remembered that I also have a gift to post, lol!

Hope it tickles!

...Cabin in the woods

Lots of you folks will know it has been a hectic couple of years in the Brennan household, and I don't like to rake over old ground, other than to say that a couple of things caught up with me recently and I have been doing a lot of reflecting on things that have happened, things that didn't happen and things that I would like to happen. I am not a planner by nature, but you know how sometimes you just have to shake yourself a little and do some mental organising...

So I have been a busy bee, I have not been crafting much, but I have been designing stamps to the power of 10. Design work is not something that I can really share with you before it is ready to launch, and that has meant a lot of empty days on the old blog. If I was super savvy I would get myself one of those magic web programs in which you can schedule 10 million posts ahead of time, but I find that unlike most women who are fabulous at multi-tasking, I seem to really only be able to do one thing at any one time!

I am going to plead the perfectionism ammendment here and tell you that I will not start anything unless I know that a) I have the time to do it, and b) the means to do it well.

This is pretty much a catastrophe when it comes to running a business. To run a business well I think you need to be able to keep multiple balls in the air at any one time. I am no juggler and so when I'm focusing on one ball, most of the others fall to the ground! I've been drawing and shipping and relying a LOT on our USA shipper Lynn, who is thankfully my opposite when it comes to organization skills!

Exhibit A - The craft room.

Less than a year ago I moved into this house and had big plans to organize and categorize and stylize all my crafting gear to within a milimetre, the above is what I have looked at every day for the last month as I sat at this computer drawing. It's been killing me, but I've been determined to draw and so I have ignored it...

So just in case you are checking in, thinking, " I wonder what ever happened  to old waltzingmouse...." I'm here, I'm drawing and I'm coming out to play soon!

In the meantime I have a pic of a watercolour illustration I did for a quilt that I was planning and subsequently made during that magical year when I was expecting the boy and my house was always tidy, there was always a hot meal waiting for DH and I seemed to get everything done and then some....