...Springtime Baskets card and tips Video

Hello folks - I've just loaded a video for the Springtime Baskets stamp set. Folks who have this set already, or who just got it at the latest Gina K Designs release might find this helpful. I've also made up some free cutting files (for use on electronic cutters such as the Silhouette, there's a .svg and a .pdf file) and you can access those by clicking here. Again, indulge me, I'm just beginning - apologies for the camera shake...

...Easter Blessings

A real quickie today, I'm working on a load of stuff but it's all admin based and so not very pretty! I rustled up this card in between making 120 lunches for one of the badminton events that my kids attended over the weekend. Longest weekend of my life so far, and coming hot on the heels of our family's bid to sustain the most cold and flu viruses in one household over a calendar year period, I was not exactly full of the joys of Spring...

I die cut the Easter word from a plain white panel the same size as the card front. On the actual card front, I had painted on some ink colours, a little orange, some yellow, just to give a strong background colour to show up through the letterforms. I die cut a flower shape in the panel from the Good Egg dies also. On the actual card front, I clear embossed the corresponding flower stamp (from the A Good Egg stamp set) and then flooded that area with a vibrant pink ink. When I overlaid the white panel on top, all the right areas popped with colour. A little black to accent it and I was done!

...Simple Easter tags and Basic Partial die cutting

Evening folks - are you ready for a little Easter Prep? - If you are the type that has all the stuff made already, right down to all the bows tied, well, I'm impressed. I'm a last minute gal, which is kinda annoying, but that's a whole other adventure into psychology and I'm not qualified to lecture on that so let's just say I'd love to be more like you!

'Simple' and 'Easy' are both friends of mine and the older I get, the friendlier we become. The three of us knocked up these tags quite quickly the other night using the new Easter word die and I was very happy with how they turned out. I love how the 'Easter' word sits up a little from the coloured background tag and casts a shadow - you can encourage that by mounting with little foam adhesive pads.

I also used elements from the A Good Egg stamp set and

 Good Egg die set to dress up my tags.

Seriously it does not get much easier. I did a little partial die cutting, been itching to do this with a suitable word die and here it is - the Easter word die.

Basic Partial Die Cutting

I wanted to cut the word out, but leave a little at the bottom attached to the card stock that it was cut from. Here's how I did it:

I taped the die to some cardstock (I'm using yellow card in this example) and lined the bottom of the word die and card right up to and slightly over the cutting plate on my Cuttlebug. You have to sort of eyeball this from both sides. Once I had it in place I taped it to my cutting plate - the pic above shows what this looks like when I have run it through the bug. You can see the words are cut out all around except for a little area at the bottom of the 'E' and the flourish of the 'r'.

Below is what it looks like when you take off the cutting plate.

Once you take off the tape and flip it right side up, it looks like the example blow (I'm using a white card example here)

Next thing to do is take a ruler and a craft knife (- I'm using a clear quilting ruler and a scalpel) and line it up between the two uncut areas of the diecut. This word makes it very easy because most of the middle letters are higher than the 'E' and the 'r'. All you do is cut a straight line between those two letters.

Once you have done that. the word becomes free of the base section and you can use it on your project. In the yellow example below you can see how I'm lining up a stitched tag die over the word to make a further cut.

This is exactly how I made the words for each of these these tags. Have a go! This 'Easter' die is a lovely die for this technique, such a pretty font and I love how the 'E' and the 'r' are just that little bit lower, allowing the middle letters to be cut out fully. Ok, I'm off to go tackle some admin now...have fun!

... Half a dozen eggs

 I have a little round up of a few of my favourite Easter creations from over the years here, there may be a couple that you missed. If you are anything at all like me, you may be scrabbling around for a few last minute ideas, my personal favourites are the quick cheaty Easter fried eggs, but I did those last year, so I need something else.... anyhow, hope you likey - and if you are all set already, I encourage you to pin these ideas for future use!

The store will be taking a small shipping break (the Post Offfice will be closed for a few days), and I will be taking a couple of days away from the office to roll hard boiled eggs down the hill and eat plenty of chocolate, -  so if I'm not chatting to you before Sunday, may I wish you a very Blessed Easter.

Here are some of my favourite past projects - click on the links below if you would like to go to the relevant blog posts - it should be noted that Spellbinders no longer make the Egg dies, but the projects may be easily replicated by cutting with scissors.

Quick Cheaty Easter Eggs here.

Easter Egg hunt signage here.

Fabergé-esque egg here. 

And another here.

A lttle Folk Art Eggy-chicky-nestyness here.

A dinky Spring Baskets stamp here, 

and a basket template here.

Easter Shipping

 Folks, just a heads up to say that the Post Office will be closed in my area from and including, Friday 6th April until Tuesday 10th April and so I will be unable to ship during this time. Orders placed from the evening of Thursday 5th April will therefore ship on Wednesday the 11th. The store will remain open during this time, but I will be out of the office from Friday until Monday and so there may be a slight delay in replying to email queries over the Easter weekend. I wish you all a very happy and health Easter!

...thank you

I just wanted to pop on here and say a big thank you to everyone who has sent prayers, hugs and good vibes for my mum who has been in hospital. Mum still remains in hospital, but I believe her condition has been stabilised and she may return home this week.

I have been pretty much absent from the old blog/forum etc during this time and it feels like forever since I was out here in blog land!

We've kept the backend running, and orders have gone out pretty much as normal but I'm hoping I can get back into web related things this week, especially since we have a blog waltz coming up and Easter is literally moments away.

If you are still looking around for last moment Easter things to make, we have a selection of freebie templates here in the freebie section at the store, there are the 3 baskets shown below among others, and you might get something there to solve a last minute gifting idea! I am not even going to attempt to make anything Easter-y, lol, but you might still have time!

 Chat soon,

... April Waltz @ Waltzingmouse Stamps

 

Good morning and welcome to the April Waltz at Waltzingmouse Stamps!!!!

Every month we have a Blog Waltz with our friends on the 17th of the month. You can read the details here. Our theme this month is Easter of course!

Here is where you can find a list of participants. Here is where you can join in the chat.

This month, in our chat thread we want to hear about your Easter traditions, most of us remember painting a hard boiled egg at some point...lol, but we'd love to hear what you all get up to over Easter! I will be picking a random post from the chat thread to win some goodies!!

I will also be picking a random participant from our list of players to receive a free set of stamps!! The list is here - please feel free to add your link if you have made an Easter project with your WMS supplies - remember our digital product/free templates all count as WMS supplies. Folks using galleries/flikr are most welcome, just be sure to link directly to your project.

I can't wait to see who is playing along and what they have made, but before i run off, I used a combination of Vintage Banners, Spring Baskets and L'il Buddies to create my Egg hunt markers!! Everything is fairly simple, but If you have a question leave a comment here and I'll reply!!!

I stamped my markers with a variety of bright inks and trimmed with the Spellbinders Nested Pennant dies.

 

Copics were used to colour - the spotty leaves had the colourless blender pen applied to create the spots! 

  

I trimmed colour co-ordinated mats with the lacey pennant dies! Yum! Adhered them to flat lollipop sticks! simple!

Hope it tickles!

...inspiration everywhere

I positively wallowed in all of the fabulous cards and items that folks made for the WMS St Patrick's Day blog hop (scroll down to see my cards in the previous post!). It was a blast, I'll be going round again when the house is quiet this evening!

Thank you to everyone who took part, either posting or leaving comments or both! I hope you all enjoyed it! I do apologise for not being able to wait for the pre-arranged time! lol, I have absolutely no patience and I just couldn't wait! It was brilliant, if you haven't hopped along you can see the list here, do yourself a favour and take a wee notebook, there's a ton of inspiration!!

Talking of inspiration, here are a couple of decorated eggs that my mother made! Years ago my mum painted in oils and decorated eggs! My mum could do just about everything. Sadly mum is not able anymore, and the quick message here is do everything you can so's you don't regret it when you can't!

But the point of these pics is to show you where I got the inspiraton for the Nestie egg stamps I released last month! My mum has made some incredible decorated eggs from empty Goose eggs shells! this is one she made for me many years ago! I love it, wee houses are my very favourite and I treasure it!
She used to give them as gifts and there were some beauties, there was one with a double door, just like the stamp! Anyhow, just thought you folks might like a peep at them!

...March new Stamps day 4 Nestie Eggs!

OOh quick check out Anya, - more gorgeousness!!!!!

Again I'm late today, apologies folks! I finished making this late last night after having a yucky cold day yesterday, the light in my house is not good for photographs so I had to wait till it was bright here today to take pics!!!

Also, pop over to see Jennifer and Belinda, their samples today are so beautiful!! The DT has really treated us this week, don't you think? I can't wait to get all of my release prep done so's I can go back and drool properly all over the ladies blogs!!! lol

AND don't miss the end of this post for very important info!

So today's project is a little eggy decoration made with stamps from the new set Nestie Eggs set releasing on Monday - a very special set designed to co-ordinate with the new Spellbinders Egg dies!!!! You can hang it up on a little Easter Egg tree or even make it up as a little teeny card, it will stand on it's own. (it is just under 3.5 inches tall, a fraction taller if you use te Spellbinders dies to cut it out) I wanted to hang mine on a tree so I have looped a little thin gold ribbon in between the layers, you can see how at the end of this post.

The main stamps used are a scalloped frame and a pair of scalloped doors!!! wee egg door stamps! how cute! The egg doors come as one stamp so that they are already perfectly lined up for you! They match a scalloped frame so that you can team them up on purpose to make these little 'opening eggs'.

You can see below how I used the egg door stamp to create the front of the decoration. I inlaid the doors with a gold and blue pattern I got by gold embossing the largest egg stamp, much like I did in this post. I just stamped the door stamp on the reverse of the gold and blue embossed image and trimmed out with a scalpel.


With the doors open you can see the egg door stamp used again to decorate the insides of the door (I overstamped the doors with the pattern from the largest egg in antique linen.)

You can also clearly see the scalloped frame. I embossed all the doors and frames with gold embossing powder. On the inside I filled my frame with the daffodils and a bow from the Spring Baskets stamp set, released last month. The sentiment comes from the Nestie Eggs set.

I made the tiny door handles from knotted thin gold ribbon, I knotted it many times to achieve a little ball shape and then threaded it back through eyelets that I had set into the blue and gold panels on the front doors. Because the doors are double thickness card you can easily hide all of the gluey bits away. I'm on the lookout for jewellery findings and little pearls and chains to make drop door handles for my next egg!! I kept mine closed with a little gold thread but those wee magnetic closure buttons would also be great for this.



I made little hinges from little bits of card a half inch wide by just over an inch and a quarter long, scored and folded in half. The very last photo in this post will show the position for these.



The back of the decoration features another egg stamp from the set, the flourishy frame, tiny cross and sentiment 'He is Risen' make up one stamp together.


From the photo below you can see that I started out with 4 complete egg shapes. This will be a snap with the Co-ordinating Spellbinders egg die but it's not too hard to get them all the same if you are trimming by hand. Here's how: stamp the scalloped frame (with a light coloured ink) onto a piece of tracing paper or vellum cardstock, something fairly transparent that you can see through, I used vellum because it is fairly stiff as well as being transparent enough. Trim it out leaving at least 1/16 of an inch between the cut edge and the stamped image. Set your transparent template aside.

Now, stamp and emboss the scallop frame 2 times on cardstock of your choice. Stamp and emboss the doors stamp 2 times on cardstock of your choice.

Position your transparent template over each stamped embossed image. Make sure that the template is evenly positioned on the stamped image, this is easy because you have the stamped image on your template as a guide. Take a sharp pencil and draw around the template. Repeat this with the other 3 stamped embossed images and trim out!! Now you have 4 eggs all the same size. The egg doors will need cut apart but this is easy as the doors them selves give a good guide, just cut down the middle with your craft knife and a ruler!

After you have finished assembling your egg, if you notice any uneveness around the edges, use an emery board or fine sanding block to smooth.


Below, add the hinges to the back of the interior egg frame and interior doors first. You can see where the copics i used on the daffodils and bow are showing through the interior egg shape, this will be covered by the back egg shape.


After you have added the front doors is a good time to add a hanging loop of ribbon. Then just add the back egg and you are done!!


Hope it tickles!!!

Would love to hear your views on this!!

Tomorrow's release

Make sure to call back tomorrow, the release goes live at 7pm my time which is so 11:00 am Pacific, noon Mountain, 1:00 pm Central, and 2:00 pm Eastern I think for the American folks, European and Australian folks I will try to find out for you!

There will be a DT blog hop and a prize AND a very special guest stamper!!!!!!!! I can't wait...ooh and something special for you...

...March New stamps Day 3 Digital papers!! Nestie Eggs

Good Afternoon! LOL, sorry I'm late posting today! I left Anya and Lynn flying the WMS flag this morning while I crept back to bed with some hot lemon and medicinal chocolate...

Anyhow, just as well today's samples were super quick and easy to make, my little old jelly legs don't feel like standing all day today! BTW I get man flu, I just don't get little head colds like anyone else, when I'm suffering, I need everyone to be involved! I need to hear sympathy, or even drink sympathy in the form of hot sweet tea and plenty of it! My mother had me spoiled...lol..oh and honey toast..

But enough waffling, I've been itching to show you another new development for WMS, downloadable digital papers!!!

I'm hoping to have 3 packs of digital papers ready for the release on Monday!!

The first card for today uses papers from two of the packs, Celtic Lunettes and Celtic Squares. The green pattern paper is from, you guessed it Celtic Squares and is based on artwork for one of the stamps in the Irish Blessings Stamp set . The yellow circle is a digital paper from Celtic Lunettes and is designed with artwork from the Celtic Heritage stamp set. So now you can have stamps and paper to match!!!! I've been itching to do this for ages and at last it's finally ready, just in time for St Patrick's Day!

How simple this card was to put together! A rectangle of green Celtic Squares ( in the Creme-de-menthe shade) and a circle of Celtic Lunettes ( in Buttercup) with a white mat. I made a quick focal point by cutting out a little fancy tag with a Spellbinders die and then stamped the outline four leaf shamrock from Celtic Heritage in the centre. Then I stamped the outline four leaf shamrock again on a post it note and cut it out. I placed it over the tag image. I then inked up the spotty egg from the new Nestie Eggs (releasing Monday also) in Shabby Shutters distress ink (Ranger) and stamped over the mask, leaving it slightly offset for a fun feel!

Thread a little ribbon through and stamp the sentiment (Celtic Heritage) before attaching the focal point and it's done!



Here is the little mask I made to stamp the shamrock motif for my card, you can see I'd already stamped it once before i remembered to take a pic, just line the mask up over the prestamped outline and fill with any pattern from a solid stamp!


Today's second card uses a paper from the other digital paper set releasing Monday - Victorian. I used a green, i like green, lol, and sponged around the edges with shabby shutters ink! Distressed the edges a little and ripped across the bottom to make room for my sentiment (Spring Baskets). I placed a little pink ribbon down the length of the card to help

The focal point for this card is based around a lovely Victorian patterned egg, also from the new Nestie Eggs set, which co-ordinates with the new Spellbinders Edd dies! I also used this pattern on circle stamps from Vintage Circles small and Faux Fun circles, so if you have those sets this paper will match!!! oooh I love matchy matchy!

I stamped it in Rose Bud Memento and trimmed it out cos I'm still waiting for my dies, lol. I'm not very patient...

Mounted it on a portion of a fancy label (another Spellbinders Die) and added a wee flower made up of Prima and Heidi Swapp bits.




The last wee set of cards are super quick, super simple notelet style cards wit hthe bare minimum of stamping, sometimes I like to do something very quick and simple, like today!




I especially wanted you to see two more little egg shapes from the Nestie Eggs set, there's one with 3 wee cross stitch shapes in the centre and one with a little heart shape, these are going to be good for little simple little rustic cards. And I can see myself using them for flower petals etc too.

I loved the cross stitch egg with the pinked border, which of course, is from the Vintage Labels 3 set due for Monday also!!



Hope they tickle!!! I'll be back tomorrow, a new improved lemon and honey drenched, paracetamolled version of myself hopefully...lol

...March New Stamps Day 2 Nestie Eggs, Vintage Labels 3

Good Morning!! There are actually 10 separate egg images in this new Nestie Eggs stamp set, launching on Monday next, but I wasn't finished playing with this egg just yet! lol.

Also you simply must visit Bonnie today, simply breathtaking!! and Laurie, oh drool, take tissues! and go see Julia, and look veeeeery closely, lol, she has something up her sleeve too!!!!

It's the same egg stamp I used on the chocolate card yesterday but this time I blinged it up to look like one of those Faberge eggs, the potential for this stamp seems endless to me! lol, I'm just getting started with it! I made a few quick tags just to try a few things out!

Heat embossed the versamark stamped image with gold embossing powder and then sponged on Denim ink (Ranger) Some blue rhinestones to finish, very quick, but oh so effective!!


Loved it in gold and green too!



And some springy colours!!?, these three were clear embossed over the coloured ink and then coloured with various copics!


Also releasing Monday is a set of Vintage Labels N0.3. Designed especially for the Spellbinders labels 3 dies but perfectly good for making fancy borders and frames without using dies.


Here I've used two of the stamps and nested them to make a frame for my sentiment focal point. All of the cream card on this card was sponged with Ranger Denim ink, what a fabulous ink to smooth over paper!! and fingers...

The little fancy motif flourishes are also included in Vintage Labels N0.3.


A neat trick for lining up frame stamps. Because they are clear you can line the stamps up easily. A feature of my Nestie friendly sets is that often I will put several dotted frames all on the one stamp, as well as saving space and providing more stamp frames for your money, it is very handy to use the inner frames to line up the outer frames, below I have inked up the outer spotty frame as I want to stamp it only. I position the inner dotty frame right on top of the pre-stamped small circle frame and stamp. Easy peasy, you can try this with most of the nestie frames to get multiple frames for medallions etc!!



So, don't forget to pop over to see Bonnie, simply breathtaking!!, Laurie, oh drool! and I believe Julia, look veeeeery closely!!has something up her sleeve too!!!!

Me? I'm off to bed, I have a rotten sore throat and I want to be feeling better to share some more exciting stuff with you all over the weekend!!!!

Hope they tickle!!!