...March release day 3

...and I'm still in Western mode...which just means that I owe you samples of the banners and the Labels 18 that the DT have been previewing...

I am trying to move into the new room over this weekend and today I was up to my oxters in building bookcases. 10 points to the first person who can say what oxters is...lol.

So once again I've made a mess of the plan for all of us to show you samples pertaining to one set only!! I am heartily sorry, but it's an exceptional circumstance. I have never had a dedicated space of any sort to craft in and I am on the final push to get it sorted out!

Anyhow, here's the links to see what the ladies have done with today's sets Vintage Banners and Bitty Banners.

Laurie
Lynn
Mona
Jennifer
Anya
Belinda
Bonnie
Julia
Sarah
Carly
Sandie

My cards today are quite straightforward, on this first one I used a piece of torn card, which I sponged and stamped repeatedly with the cowboy image. I layered it over a background made from the stamped woodgrain ( Way out West) at the top and the western text border (Way out West) at the bottom. The sentiment, from Back in the Saddle was simply trimmed out and layered onto a square of cork, which I had inked with blue ink.


I used the western text border from Way out West together with the line of stars (also way out West) to make a jaunty background for my Gee thanks card. These western sets have inbuilt masculine appeal but I would have no problem sending this to a female friend.



I think this last simple card is quite cute, I used a few different colours of ink to create interest on a minimalist scene. The sentiment is from Back in the Saddle and the cactii (cactusses...? lol) and crescent moon are all from Way out West. I find that the western images quite strong and lend themselves well to these minimalist cards, which is great when you're pushed for time!!



Be sure to call back tomorrow to see the artwork for the new sets and to hear a little announcement about the future of WMS!!! Seems like there's a million and one things happening at the moment!!

hope they tickle!!

...March release Day 2...

ED - For the rock salt tutorial, be sure to use small grain rock salt and not large grains as this may cause damage to your machine. If in doubt, try passing one grain through first, if it does not want to go through easily, Don't do it. You have been warned ;)

It's only day two and I'm in trouble, we had a plan to show samples from a particular set each day and here i am breaking the rules!!! I'm showing more western, instead of Vintage labels 18...oops...

Thing is, I am also trying to move my crafting gear into the new room and it's not what you'd call tidy around here, d'ya think I'll get away with it? lol...

Anyhow I have two techniques for you today, both great fun, both super simple!! But first we'd better go see what the ladies have been up to - apologies for yesterdays fluffed links, I sent folks all over the country to people who weren't 'entertaining with WMS' yesterday...promise I'll do better today!!

Laurie
Lynn
Mona
Jennifer
Anya
Belinda
Bonnie
Julia
Sarah
Carly

Anyhow, today's first card features a sentiment from the new Back in the saddle set - it's a terrific quote attributed to John Wayne. It covers a lot of situations, and I think I'll get a lot of use out of it. I set it in a mixture of Western Style fonts, and I really love how it turned out.

I wanted to make it the feature of the card and so I didn't pair it up with an image, I just went for a little supporting texture. I used a text background from Way out West on the background mat, which i also distressed with rock salt. See how below.

For the sentiment panel I simply stamped the sentiment in a mixture of versacolour bark and versacolur pinecone, applying both directly to the stamp. The I trimmed out the sentiment into a rectangle with added space at the top. Sponged some Ranger denim ink for a night sky, managing to smudge the 'E' on my way past...and hand cut a wee crescent moon. I felt that it was somehow reflective of the sentiment. The very first fear I ever overcame was a fear of the dark.

Little bit of ginger gingham ribbon tied around the mat and a rusty star finished the card.

Here's how to make the background.

I sprinkled lots of Rock salt, the course grainy stuff, onto a piece of white paper - the white paper was sitting on my Grand Calibur base plate. I used the white paper so that my base plate didn't get covered in salt grains and need cleaning. I'm lazy that way.


I laid a sheet of white cardstock directly on top of the rock salt, placed the embossing plate on top (ED- with tan mat!!! oopsie!) and fed it through the GC. This is what it looks like when it comes out, below. The rock salt embeds itself or crumbles into the cardstock. You can give the cardstock a good shake, and leave it like that ( a story for another day) or you can take a few moments to pick the embedded crystals out of the card - I chose to remove the crystals, I used an old stiff toothbrush for this. You will curse my name for dirty low-down varmint as you do this, but I thought it was worth it on this occasion...lol


Then I sponged (is there any other way, seriosly?) some Ranger Denim ink onto the paper - see the fabby distressed surface and how it soaks up the ink, leaving deep pits of white here and there, I love this look. I also love how ranger inks blend and spread, fabby stuff.


Next I added a little orange, I think that is Rusty Hinge Distress ink. Also with sponge. I think these two colours capture a western feel for me, the blue skies and orange sunsets, the red hills, denim jeans, at least that's how I imagine it is. The inks blend well together and I felt this technique produced an aged distressed look almost like a weathered plaster, pitted with dare i say, shotgun pellets, like some western movie set.

Anyhow, I trimmed out a square of this and stamped over it with the text border to get the mat for today's card.


Today's second card is so simple. You'll soon be addicted to this magical wee technique. I wanted to make a little card that looked like it had been branded, you know, like the cowboys do with cattle??

Well I remebered the lemon juice technique. Fold a little piece of kitchen towel/paper in half, you want to make it a little bigger all round than the stamp you want to use. Place it into a flat bottom dish and squirt yourself a little drop of lemon juice onto the paper towel, enough to make it all soggy. You have just made yourself a lemon juice ink pad.

Ink up your clean stamp in lemon juice, stamp onto a piece of white/cream cardstock. You won't see anything just yet.

Get the heat gun and heat up your image, keep the gun moving in a circular motion so that you don't burn the cardstock. The lemon juice image will start to appear very quickly and will look as if it has been sort of 'burnt' onto the card. It's fabby and the way the image appears out of nowhere is most addictive. You can overheat areas of the image that you want to appear darker than the rest but be careful not to burn the card or your image won't stand out from the background.

I looked at this card for days thinking that I might add another detail, but I eventually decided that I liked it just the way it was.



Hope it tickles!!

...March Release Day 1 and a newbie!!!

Good morning and welcome to our March release previews!! It's been a while since we had some new toys to play with, but before I get into the stamping goodies, let me hand over to Lynn who has an announcement:

"What an exciting day it is for Waltzingmouse Stamps! After a release holiday hiatus, we are back and the Design Team begins their previews of five new sets that will be released on March 1st. But before we get to the previews we have some wonderful news we want to share with you.

We are happy to welcome Sarah Martina Parker, Waltzingmouse Stamps Mischief Maker extraordinaire, to the Waltzingmouse Stamps Design Team.

Sarah has been a member of the Mischief Makers since their formation last August. Her unique style, and beautiful designs have inspired the Waltzingmouse Stamps Sketch Challenge players week after week with drop-dead gorgeous creations.

Sarah said, “I’m so excited to be a part of this awesome team of designers! I guess you could say that paper-crafting is my first passion, but only if you don’t count my incredible family first. I joined the online craft community in December 2008, diving in “head first,” and I haven’t been able to stop since! Making cards is my favorite way to design, but I also enjoy creating scrapbook pages, altered items, gifts and more. I am married to my hero and best friend, Sie. Together we have a beautiful daughter, Sydney, and a fun-loving son, Sie, II. When I’m not lounging with them, I love getting my hands dirty in my hideaway craft room."

Welcome Sarah – we are all very happy that you will be joining us. Please stop by Sarah’s blog, show her some love and check out the magic she creates." - Lynn Mercurio.
Lynn is our acting DT co-ordinator at the moment as we have lost Lisa!! Lisa Hjulberg has been a stalwart supporter of Waltzingmouse Stamps almost since the beginning. She was the very best DT co-ordinator that I could have hoped for. She was a gem, and we will miss her hugely, but I am delighted to say that I will be staying in very close contact with Lisa and we look forward to spilling the beans on just what Lisa will be up to next, BUT! alas it is not our news to spill just yet and so you folks will have to wait a little while longer...
In the meantime, I have some stamps to show you!!
I am a big fan of Cowboys, Westerns, anything with John Wayne in it ... I bought right into the cowboy thing and even though the closest I'll get to a real Western experience is the Christmas cactus on my mum's kitchen windowsill, I could not resist designing me some western stamps. Yesiree...and yup, I am one of those idiots who puts on the voice and everything, my wee folk absolutely crawl with embarrassment!! lol!!
I loved it so much I designed two sets, in fact I have 3 sets, but two of them will be available from next Tuesday 1st March. We'll be releasing the artwork for 5 new clear photopolymer stamp sets here on the blog on Tuesday so be sure to call back and see us between now and then for samples we've made using the new stamps.


One of the new sets is a sentiment set - there are sentiments for many different occasions, this one "kith 'n' kinsfolk - Hoedown - Bring the Posse" is from the new set Back in the Saddle. One of the things I like about some of these western sentiments is the casual feeling - this sentiment could work for all manner of parties and family get togethers, a small 'do' or a big bash. No need for specifics, I love that relaxed feel.

Back in the Saddle is a larger set, 6x8 inches, packed with 23 stamps in all. 15 sentiments, 5 images and 3 supporting words.


I wanted a sunset background, just right for an evening get together, and so I had no trouble creating that with stamps from the other new western set Way out West. It's a background/border set and my favourite stamp is this two part landscape. In the card above you can see that the scene is made up from two images, in the foreground the cactus landscape silhouettes are one stamp. Behind that is a mountain range, stamped in a paler shade, this is another separate stamp.

Way out West has 6 long background stamps, (two of which can be used together to give the cactus and mountains scene used here.) and 4 supporting motifs.


I started with a plain white piece of card about 4 inches by 5.25 inches. I used a sponge and applicator - just pictured - to apply wild honey distress ink to the card - I worked in a circular motion on the craft mat - fab for sponging. I made sure to leave a long oval of white card visible, about a third of the way up the card, this is the horizon.


I sponged some more with a little touch of rusty hinge and a lot of barn door - also distress inks. The pic above shows what the card looked like about halfway through, just as I was starting with the barn door. The pic below shows what it looks like after a load more barn door is applied, but I was careful to leave a little wisp of the wild honey uncovered, i left an area along the top of the white oval, and a little curved wisp on the right - curling up towards the top of the card. I thought it helped give the illusion of depth, but the real sky is so varied that you can't really get this wrong, so long as the colours are blended smoothly, you'll get that long hot evening look.


Also in this pic I have stamped the mountain range - I used a different type of ink for this - memento London Fog. This ink is quite a watery ink and dries with a little dapple in it, it was just the effect I was looking for for faraway mountains that seem hazy in the heat.


Next, I want to draw your attention to the black ink I used on the foreground. In the above pic you can see that the cactus foreground on the two cards look slightly different. The same ink - Versafine black was used for both, BUT the one at the back was stamped while the mountains and sky were still wet.

You can see that the stamped image on the card at the back is very rough and has 'missed' areas. Some of this is to do with the fact that the carsdtock I used was not completely mooth, it had a very slight texture, but mostly it was because the background I was satmping onto was still wet. Distress inks stay wetter for longer than some other types of ink. This will affect the outcome of your card if you are using a two-step stamp such as this scene.

The card in front has a much more solid looking cactus and foreground. This is because I dried the card with a heat gun before stamping the cactus foreground in the same versafine ink.

Another thing I did was use a piece of fun foam under my cardstock. It is pretty much essential when stamping large solid stamps and I began to use fun foam under all my stamping projects some time ago - even if i am only stamping a small sentiment i use the foam, it makes a big difference to the quality of the impression.

Here is the card which was stamped with the cactus while wet. Further below is the card that was dried first, you can compare to see which finish you like best.


Sometimes I get questions from folks wondering how best to get a good impression with large solid stamp, and mostly a perfect impression is achieved by using a piece of funfoam, but it helps to be aware that the texture of the card and the wetness/dryness of the background onto which you are stamping can also be a factor.

Hope it tickles!!

lol, since you have made it thus far, I'd better link you up the the rest of the team, so's you can mosey off into the sunset and see what else you can do with the West!!

Laurie
Lynn
Mona
Jennifer
Anya
Belinda
Bonnie
Julia
Sarah
Carly

...another peep at March

Any guesses???? lol, this is from one of the 5 sets releasing next Tuesday!! Can't wait to show you!!

And, be sure to call back tomorrow, we have a little announcement!

...and another peek...

This fun sentiment set is jam packed. 15 beautifully styled (if i do say so myself...lol) sentiments in western style fonts, 5 little motifs, couple of three supporting word stamps, I'd say you're all set to churn out a herd of western style cards...

You'll be able to westernise everyone from himself to great aunt Maud and every crittur in between...

I'll be releasing this and 4 more sets on the 1st March, here on the blog! Y'all come back now, Yuh hear?! lol, this is just going to run, and run...lol