Waltzingmouse Stamps November Preview - Day 1

Welcome to the first day of the Waltzingmouse Stamps November Release previews! The DT and I will be sharing projects over the next several days featuring FOUR new stamp sets that will be available for purchase at the Waltzingmouse online store starting Sunday, November 7th. This is such a fun release -- lots of great all-season sets and even more fun Christmas sets!

Be sure to check out Claire, Anya, Bonnie, Jennifer, Joan, Julia, Laurie, Lisa, Lynn, Mona, and Sandie who all have fabulous projects to share with you! 

Today I'm going to feature cards from the fabulous new set called Festive Foliage.

I'm going to admit I have a love affair with gold and kraft. I also have a love affair with Perfect Pearls. My husband likes my love affair with this new medium as it means less glitter in the house... I'm sure you all can relate. ;-) 

For this one, I stamped the pine tree pieces with white pigment ink. Because pigment ink stays "wet" for a bit, I was able to carefully swipe some perfect pearl in gold onto the edges with my small paint brush. Can I say, I LOVE the look of it? The closeup shows it in much better detail.

I carried over the images onto my tag image (since its propped up with dimensional adhesive the close up view I have makes it look "off" but really its just the angle I did that camera shot). The gold strip on my tag is created with some scor-tape and gold perfect pearls (have I mentioned how attached I am to the stuff?).

When I started writing this post (at the last possible minute of course), I realized that all my cards used a combo of gold perfect pearls and kraft... to save you all from my sad obsession, I'll save those two cards for later in the week so you don't get sick of me. ;-)

Therefore, at 9pm, I scrambled to try making another set (since none of my other release projects are ready yet either..yay for procrastinators). I figured this is perfect for those of you who perhaps like to wait til the last minute to start those Christmas cards? ;-)

I took a 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper and cut it into 3 pieces of 3.5 by 8.5 giving me a card that's 3.5 by 4.25. Perfect little mini cards. I stamped and embossed the mistletoe image and colored them with my Copics. Each berry then has a gem center and I then covered the entire thing with some glossy accents. To add another bit of color, I added a border to my cards as well. 

The only thing I changed between the three cards is the sentiment - I used "kisses", "be merry" and "peace". Claire jam packed this set with images and sentiments!

Rather than bore ya'll with slightly different versions of the same card, I went ahead and made the othe two smaller. You can always click on any image on the blog for a larger view.

As a side note, since I was running late and my bedtime is normally 10pm (yes, I'm an old fart), I really wanted my glossy accents to dry so I could photograph these cards. So doing what any normal lazy person does, I used my heat gun to apply some heat. While it worked for 2 of my cards, one of them did cause some major bubbling in my glossy accents. So lesson learned - wait an hour rather than applying heat. ;-)

Thanks for stopping by today! :)






Compliments of the Season Card

Stamps: (Compliments of the Season, Festive Foliage) Waltzingmouse Stamps
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink
Ink: (white pigment, Dark Chocolate) Papertrey Ink
Ribbon: May Arts
Accents: (gold perfect pearls) Ranger


Mistletoe Card set

Stamps: (Festive Foliage) Waltzingmouse Stamps
Cardstock: (white, Pure Poppy) Papertrey Ink, (black) Bazzill
Ribbon: (twill) Papertrey Ink
Coloring Medium: Copics
Accents: (gems) Hero Arts, Glossy Accents
Tools: (border punch) Fiskars

Winter Wishes

Happy Voting day for those in the US! :) I'm gonna head out to vote tonight. I definitely can't wait for the ads to end -- I think I've made fun of them all already and I need new ads to make fun of. But if you haven't seen this, it's kinda funny to hear what our forefathers called each other during their election times: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/72589. If you thought we had it bad...

This is just a simple winter card created with some stitching. I'm sitting here in my house with some blankies around me - it's finally colder here. Our plants have been brought inside as well so it's definitely time for winter cards! :) I was just complaining to my husband how I have so many cute spring/fall coats and I get to wear them for maybe 3 days total. Sigh. Oh well!

Have a great day and get out and vote!

Stamps: (Half Baked) Waltzingmouse Stamps
Cardstock: PTI
Fibers: (floss) DMC
Accents: (chipboard mittens) Cosmo Cricket, (gems) Hero Arts
Tools: (punch) Fiskars

WMSC 21 - I'd like to check you out

I actually did make a card for the WMS sketch this week -- shocking I know! So check it out at the WMS Sketch Challenge blog. And a random participant will win a free stamp set!

I love cheesy puns. Just ask my hubs... he groans every time I come up with something. So I've been dying to use this pun on a card and I finally found a good reason to use it.

I had a stamp of a library check out card -- remember those? I used to love stamping the due date on those check out cards and slipping it back into my library book. My library moved to a self-checkout system with a receipt when I was in junior high and it just wasn't as cool (ok, hope that doesn't date me).

So when I saw the library card sitting on my desk, I decided I needed to pair it with the sentiment: "I'd like to check you out".  Hardee har har! Perfect to give to a dorky book lover. Ok, I'm gonna keep chuckling on my cute sentiment and you guys can roll your eyes now.

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: (Text It, Sweethearts) Waltzingmouse Stamps, (library card) PTI
Ink: PTI
Accents: (buttons) PTI
Fibers: (ribbon) American Crafts

You Inspire Me

It's been pretty warm out here. Warm falls mean warm winters which means wet winters... I hate wet winters. I'm really hoping for some cooler weather soon. 70's in late October just seems wrong... I've got some cutey patotie cardis that I'm ready to wear...

That said, it's been REALLY hard to make holiday cards right now... I want bright happy pink flowers on every card! ;-) So today we have a fun little card with some hot air balloons!

I loved hot air balloons as a kid. For some reason, I remember my mom trying to get me into one and I freaked out about it. By the time I was ready to get on the hot air balloon, they were closed for the day. Alas, a lost opportunity as I'd love to go on a hot air balloon ride now!

The balloons are colored with Copics and then cut out. They're adhered to the card with some dimensional adhesive to add a little depth to the card as well.




Stamps: (Up Up and Away, Dare to Be You) Verve
Ink: (Tuxedo Black) Memento
Coloring Medium: Copics
Cardstock, Fibers: PTI
Tools: (corner rounder) We R Memory Keepers), (texture plate) PTI

Caring Hearts Blog Hop

Welcome to the Caring Hearts Blog Hop! You should be coming from Ayana's blog. If you didn't come from her blog, you should definitely start here to view the entire blog hop. The Caring Hearts Card Drive aims to collect holiday cards (Thanksgiving and Christmas) for the elderly. You have until November 15 to create a Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Winter Holiday card and upload it to this blog post -- and all entries will get you entered for some fun prizes. More details about the card drive are also posted over there.

Today I'm sharing a little Christmas card.

Normally I'm not a gold person but I felt compelled to use some gold. I stamped the music background using Musical Backgrounds from WMS. I used VersaMark and then I dusted the entire background with gold Perfect Pearls. Then I sprayed the entire piece with a mist I created with water and gold perfect pearls.

The tag comes from Nutcracker Sweet  and the sentiment comes from Compliments of the Season. I used some crinkly gold ribbon and some pins to finish the card off.

Thanks for stopping by! Cassie's blog is the next stop on the blog hop! Be sure to see what she has up her sleeve!




Stamps: (Musical Backgrounds, Compliments of the Season, Nutcracker Sweet) Waltzingmouse Stamps
Ink: (brown) Tim Holtz, VersaMark, (gold) Perfect Pearls 
Cardstock, Patterned Paper: PTI
Ribbon: May Arts
Accents: (pin) Little Yellow Bicycle, (button) Papertrey Ink

Birthday Wishes

I'm horrible with on-time birthday wishes. Absolutely horrible. Don't get me wrong - it's not because I don't love my friends, just always late. This year I vowed to be on time... so I've had my cards made a month ahead of time, sometimes even more. But that doesn't mean the card gets sent on time... I pretty much gave up with the summer months (sorry guys) and I figured I'd just start over with the fall birthdays.

I've used this layout before and it's fun to create the taller layouts. For this card, I wanted to not use a white base and use white as my accent color. Just a different twist to the usual. I embossed the roses in white and then sponged some white ink in the flower centers.

Happy Birthday W! May you have a fabulous one!

Stamps: ( Roses in Bloom, Fancy Phrases) Waltzingmouse Stamps
Ink: Versamark from Tsukineko
Embossing Powder: (white detail) Ranger
Cardstock, Fibers: PTI
Tools: (decorative edge scissors) Provo Craft

WMS October Customer Waltz

 

Welcome to the October WMS Customer Waltz! Be sure to check out the WMS forum for the full list of participants! 

We have another fun little guessing game for you. Be sure to find the special word on every participating DT member's blog-o to answer the following question: What is the subject of one of the new stamp sets to be released in November? Just as a hint, there are 11 clues and it's a little tricky so as long as you're in the ballpark, that's good enough. Place your answer in the WMS forum by 11:59 pm Eastern on Tuesday, October 19th for a chance to win something fun! Good luck guys!

Last weekend, I went on a little trip to chill with some fabulously wonderful crafty girls! (Big waves to Pat, Lindsay, Tara, Rebecca, Linda, Steph, and Kirsty!) And while I was on my little trip I picked up new toys! :) When I got back, my husband greeted me with a kiss and then kindly said "Wow, you didn't buy as much as I expected". Ah, true love!

This week, work brought me up to the state of New Hampshire. Typically, I don't rent cars when I'm on a trip because I hate driving. I take taxis and walk when at all possible. However, in this case, I had no choice but to drive an hour from the airport to the client site. That said, the Northeast had the loveliest leaves at this time of year... so it was one lovely drive (well, at least the part of it I did in daylight...) 

So while I was driving, of course I was thinking about my new toys... new toys and leaves led me to this simple card...

The leaves are all from Blessed by You. I stamped the leaves individually with a watermark ink. Then brushed different colors of the Perfect Pearls Metallics. I was ok if the colors merged a little... gives it character.The frame from Very Vintage Labels No. 1 and again, it was brushed with one of the perfect pearl powders. Ok, I went a little powder happy. ;-)


I also sprayed the entire card with a mix of water and gold perfect pearls. It gives the entire card a subtle shine although it does not show up in the photo. It's as if the kraft cardstock has specks of gold in it. Since I didn't want droplets, I sprayed pretty far away and just let the mist fall onto the card.

I love the fall leaves and the Northeast but it also made me super sick. My husband thinks my getting a flu shot right before traveling didn't help... I think its sitting next to a lady on the plane who didn't know how to cover her mouth... eh, who knows. Back to bed for me!  (I will apologize now that I'll probably go through the waltz a little slower than my normal pace)

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous day!



Stamps: (Blessed by You,  Very Vintage Labels No. 1) Waltzingmouse Stamps
Cardstock: (Kraft, Vintage Cream) PTI
Ink:  Versamark from Tsukineko, (Dark Chocolate) PTI
Accents: (gems) Hero Arts
Coloring Medium: (markers) Copics
Tools: (Labels 1 die) Spellbinders