...SOAP...

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I welcome you to our very first SOAP event!!!! Hurrah!

You might be aware that recently we changed our schedule to move away from a monthly release of new stamps to a more leisurely bi-monthly release plan. This means that we will be releasing new stamps every other month and in between we have SOAP!!

SOAP is our new Stamp of Approval Parade - and it's what we will be doing in the 'in between' months. It's our chance to have another peep at what we just released this past month - and it's your chance to find new ideas and inspiration for things to do with your newest goodies, which, hopefully you now have at your fingertips.

We appreciate that many folks have only just received their new goodies right about the time when we are usually beginning to show what's coming out for the next release and we thought that it would be a good idea to slow things down a little so that we can all have time to appreciate our latest stamps and keep that lovely 'new goodies' feeling for a little while longer.

We aim to produce around the same amount of sets per year, but we think that spreading them out in this way will help us to get more out of our investments. We're hoping that you will be able to find inspiration that you can actually play along with, and to that end, we have a little competition coming up at the conclusion of our SOAP event - here's what the schedule looks like:

April SOAP event - 4 days

April 1-3 

• samples showcasing our March release. Begin here at the WMS blog and you can follow the links to see who else is parading!

April 4 

•  Final day of samples
•  Exciting announcement that you will not want to miss!!!
• You are invited to play along in our CASE competition - details on the day.

Sound ok so far? Good!


Now, leave a comment on this post telling me what you really think of this plan - we can handle it! Don't hold back!!! - I will draw one random comment to win a large set of stamps of your choice! I will make the draw on Monday evening.


Here's who is parading alongside me today:

• Anya Schrier
  
• Belinda Chang Langner
• Bonnie Sharp 

• Claire Brennan
• Jennifer Holmes
• Julia Aston

• Laurie Schmidlin
• Lynn Mercurio
• Mona Pendleton
• Sandie Dunne
• Sarah Martina Parker
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• And here is my project for today, I made a little pennant (- well, not so little actually,). It's big enough to pop up on the wall alone as a decor item. I didn't get a chance to use the banners during the release, I was knee deep in cowboy land back in March and so here is something I wanted to try.
  
  
  I love the clear embossing powders used over coloured inks - see the sheen on the little banner stamps.
  
  
  
  
  I started with one of the medium sized banner stamp designs from the Vintage banners set we just released. In the pic below - the mini pennant on the right was stamped in red ink and trimmed with a Spellbinders Nested Pennant die template from this set. The one on the left was stamped first in red ink and then I stamped another in blue. I trimmed both with the die template and then I used a craft knife to trim the top section off the blue one, following the line of the design. I adhered it over the red one to get a two colour pennant. I found this easy and so I made a little batch of them.
  
  
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• I laid them out in a pleasing arrangement and began to stitch them together, which was super easy because they are such simple shapes.
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  Once they were stitched together I trimmed a backing mat out of blue cardstock. I used one of those edge punches to give a fancy edge.
  
  
  
  
  
  I made a little sentiment panel using a lovely  new Spellbinders fancy tag die. I paired it with two semi circular banner designs from the Mini Banners set - these are super easy to trim out with a 2" circle die or punch.
  
  
  
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• Did you like my flower? - I am ever so slightly botanically challenged - I normally don't make or use flowers much, but I really wanted one for this pennant.
• I laid out my Spellbinders Blossom dies on the base plate of the Grand Calibur and cut all my petals in one go. I love that the base plate actually says 'base plate' as I am really good at getting the plates mixed up normally.
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•  I stamped the blossoms with a text stamp from the Text it set and then set to work with a little smooth headed tool - massaging the petals on a piece of foam until they started to curl up and take on some dimension.
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  Thought you might like to see my stamping foam - someone noticed it in a previous post and I thought you might like to see it all - my itty bitty girl illustrated it for me so's I could see us all in the middle of the night while I'm working  and they are sleeping!!!! lol!
  
  I use the stamping foam for every project I make, I stamp nothing, not even a tiny sentiment without a little foam under the cardstock - the difference it makes is very noticeable and I swear by it!!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Hope it tickles!! Don't forget to call back and tell me what you think!!!
  
  

...tomorrow....

...is your chance to clean up your act....refresh your crafting mojo...and have a little fun with some SOAP...


join us...tomorrow...8:00am my time....

...sneaky Christmas card...?

If you know me at all you know Christmas is never far away from my thoughts! lol, and I had this idea for a card the other night - I trimmed out a rectangular piece of vellum (PTI -  I believe, fabby stuff) and I laid a new Spellbinders die template from THIS set (Fancy Tags two - I have these on order for our store, but we're still waiting...lol). Ran it through the Grand Calibur, which I was fascinated to find makes a real crisp cut on vellum...previously, I used another brand die cut machine for vellum and the results were not so good...

I ran the vellum panel - minus tag shape, through the GC with a Spellbinders Impressability (Snowflake) plate for some texture, love how the impressabilities work on vellum!

I set the vellum panel aside and cut myself a kraft card panel, larger than the vellum piece. Into the centre of this I embossed the same tag design and sponged with burgundy ink to bring out the design. I stamped the sentiment from "Twas the Night Before Christmas..." in brown Ink (Memento Rich Cocoa) - I should have used black...

I layered the two pieces and stitched them together, so that I would avoid the glue/vellum problem. I then adhered them to a dark red card base.

Anyhow, Hope it tickles!!!

...late St Pat's and some Mini Banners tips

Yep - I know, it was nearly a week ago - but like everything else in my life, it was running a little behind...lol - anyhow here's what I did with our free digital image for St Pat's day - a card's a card, right???

I printed the image in something like 40-50% black - so that it looked grey...you follow? good. Then I sponged, really lightly (cos the printer ink wasn't liking it) with crushed olive distress ink.

coloured a few bits in with copics and printed out another label so's I could trim out the sentiment and pop it up on foam bits.

See that wee bit of shapely velum peeping out above and below the label? Well that's a label from the new Spellbinders labels 3 die template set - see it here. I cut it out and embossed it - I used my Grand Calibur, it cuts vellum like butter, no cracked edges!!

I sliced the label in half and adhered it behind the label. Went with a grey background that was stamped with a text background from Text-It. Stitched a little, and mounted all that on a cream card base that was sponged with the same green ink! 

Bitty Banners Stamping Tip

Just when I had the ink and camera out - I thought I'd show you a little something about Bitty Banners - the small set we released at the beginning of the month.

As you might be aware we released a large Vintage Banners set too - and it was designed to fit in with the new Spellbinders Nested Pennants die templates - we'll have these on the store later this month.

The smaller Bitty Banners set can also be used with some of the smaller die templates from that set - here's how:

I cut out my little banner/pennant shapes with my Spellbinders dies as shown - in the picture the dies are shown cutting side down with the card still in them - the exposed areas are the area that I normally design stamps to suit.

In this case, the little shapes are very small and for these tiny shapes I wanted something a little different.

So, in this case I have designed the stamps to fit just inside the cut line of the die, and not the emboss line as I usually do.

Normally the designs fit inside the embossed edge, but the Bitty Banners stamps fit just inside the cut edge, so you need to remove the die cut card pieces from the dies and then stamp.

Below you can see my piece of orange stamping foam. On top of that is the piece of die cut card. On top of that is the banner stamp - you're looking at it through the clear acrylic block

Below - this is what the card banner piece looks like when you have stamped - you can see that there is a much slimmer border of clear card all around the edge. I tend not to emboss these wee pieces when I am stamping in this way as it can result in a less than perfect image. 

Here are the three little stamp shapes that work with the tiniest of the Nested Pennant dies - you can see the fine borders all around!! So go - on try it!!! Just remember with the Bitty Banners to die cut the shapes and THEN stamp and you'll have lots of little bits to make wee banners and bunting for your cards!!!

Hope it tickles!

...stand outs from the waltz and Prize Winners!

Our monthly waltz last Thursday was on the theme of St Pat's, naturally. There was tons of gorgeous green inspiration and I just wanted to spotlight 3 that really caught my eye!! I didn't actually make it around the waltz until Saturday morning!! lol, but that's the beauty of it - you do it in your own time! My plan is to spotlight a couple of waltz entries every 20th, along with the prize winners here on the blog and I'm off to a terrible start a day late already!!! Begging forgiveness...

I was captivated by Karen B's green roses - I am one of those stampers that, when faced with an image to colour, can't think of anything outside the obvious! I was delighted to see the roses in green, it helps me to remember that there are no rules!!

I was intruiged by Cyndie's enamelling technique - I thought it was pretty unique - she pretty much painter her scene with coloured embossing powders - I really want to try this!!! The image looks like a delicate little enamel picture, such a pretty card!

And I pretty much fell off my set when I saw Dana's lucky card!! So many fabulous details, I LOVE that she coloured the labels 18 journalling shape with rainbow colours to match the ribbon! and the wee banners!!! eek!! straight into my favourites folder!!

Thank you to everyone who took part - it was great, so much inspiration to be had! I do hope these three ladies don't mind me sharing their cards, and I look forward to joining you all again next month!!

Prizes!

For folks who haven't been along to a waltz yet here are the deets. It's super simple to join in and you might also be in with a chance of winning a prize - this month we had a prize for a random comment on the waltz chat thread and it goes to Kathy aka snowbearsmon who said:

I'm wearin my green!! World's cutest Leprechaun pin and my Today I'm Irish pin.. though I do have some in me for real!

Made the obligatory corned beef and cabbage... so glad the windows could be opened today!!!!! Tonight i am attending a workshop... making cards and 3D items... I think the hostess is serving all green foods.... FUN!!! I think this will be one of the most fun St Patrick's Days i've had.

Kathy

Kathy - pop me a personal message on the forum with your choice of set and I will get it right out to you!!!

We also have a prize for a random participant and this month it goes to Rudlis of http://papierowaobsesja.blogspot.com/

Rudlis - pop me a personal message on the forum with your choice of set and I will get it right out to you!!! 

Congratulations ladies!!! Thank you for playing along with us!!