Cardmaking & Papercraft Mag (UK) Issue 99

I've a few cards in the current issue of Cardmaking and Papercraft (UK). I was asked to make some cards for their recycling feature, this time I had to use sweet wrappers (the Quality Street or Roses kind) as a design feature on my cards. This certainly challenged me but it was fun coming up with the ideas. For this first card I went with jewel tones and made lots of little balls from the wrappers. I used a single color for each row. The sentiment is from Fancy Phrases by Waltzingmouse Stamps.

For the second card I kept it pretty CAS again, the colors of the wrappers are so bright it was best to keep a balance with white. The kite is just made up of some triangles attached with foam pads for dimension. The sentiment is from Hero Arts Live and Laugh.

I made a sweet little garden scene for my last card. I fringed some of the cellophane sweet wrappers to make the grass. It turned out pretty cute! Again the sentiment is from Hero Arts Live and Laugh. Here they are in the magazine. Check out the current issue (99) of Cardmaking and Papercraft for lots more ideas. See you thursday with my CASE Study card, we have a brand new muse!! Enjoy the rest of the week! : )

Origami Christmas Tree

The double workshop at The Crafty Alley Shop at the weekend went well, just an hour between the two was a little tight though, I managed to grab a quick bite to eat at lunch. I thought I'd just share a couple of the cards we made in the second workshop (for more experienced crafters). The morning workshop was for beginners, we even had some teenagers in the class, it was great to see their enthusiasm for card making. I love this first card, the origami Christmas tree, there are some great tutorials on You Tube on how to make it. I love the dimension it creates yet it folds completely FLAT for mailing!! I used papers from K&Co Glad Tidings and the stamps are from Hero Arts.

The second card is a nice and quick card. I went with bright colors for this little set, very festive. The green holly paper is from Dovecraft Back to Basics Christmas and the stamp is Hero Arts. I love the sweet little bells. This simple layout could be done in so many different styles and colors. I think I'll do a vintage version. We also made a simple gift card holder using the template that Windy Robinson provided on her blog, it's very quick and easy. Ok I'll be back later with some cards I have in the current issue of Cardmaking & Papercraft Magazine (UK).

CASE Study #67 - Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends! I hope you're enjoying the holiday. It's business as usual here! So on to my CASE Study card. This is our last week with Krysii Ng as our wonderful muse. Here's Kryssi's fabulous CAS card.

Such a fabulous card, I love the layout, the perfect balance of white space. The stamped turquoise flower is gorgeous and I love how she stamped the polka dot border in the same color. The little bit of kraft peeping out works wonderfully and wow what a sentiment. I love big fonts! So for my version I tweeked these elements to fit my style.

For my border I stamped some text from Text-It from Waltzingmouse Stamps in Rose Bud (Memento), instead of a flower I stamped one of the doilies from Dainty Doilies - Large set in Pear Tart (Memento) and my large cut-out sentiment is from Say it Loud. I used Spellbinders Big Scalloped Circles LG to cut out the doily.

I love a bit of lime and hot pink, such a zingy color combo! These sweet flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts. There's also a clear diamonte stick pin in there that I chopped to size! I added a strip of white seam binding as my border.

As a nod to Krysii's polka dots I embossed the background using the Swiss Dots embossing folder. It takes the edge off the scary white space too! : ) I'm not AS scared of the dreaded white space anymore and that's definitely thanks to CASE Study (and the talented DT and muses) pushing my boundaries. Ok, don't forget to check out the rest of the DT's creations! I'm off to prepare for a double workshop at the weekend! (Beginners and advanced) Thanks as always for popping by! : )

Chupa
Amy Wanford
Andrea Ewen
Cristina Kowalczyk
Debby Hughes
Julie LaceyJean Martin
Teresa Kline
Teneale Williams

November Friends of WMS Blog Waltz

Hello and welcome to the November Friends of Waltzingmouse Stamps blog Waltz. The theme is Winter/Christmas. Here's my card! (If you're here for my CASE Study card scroll down.)

My card was totally inspired by Kelly Schirmer's fabulous card here! I just loved the layout, I had to make a 'Clare' version! I kept the color scheme warm and vintagey!

I love the santa silhouette from Santa's Coming to Town, it's just magical. I made a simple rosette from vintage music sheet and the larger Sizzix rosette die. The edges are distressed with Antique Linen distress ink.

The sentiment is from the same Santa's Coming to Town stamp set from Waltzingmouse Stamps. I added a little lace to the bottom and rubbed it with distress ink.

The gorgeous papers are from the Basic Grey Jovial Collection. I just love that plaid!! Ok, enjoy the rest of the blog waltz!! Have a great day! : )

CASE Study #66 - 3D Christmas Tree

Hello!! Again, apologies the old blog has been a bit quiet. I swear I've been making cards, I just can't show them here!! If you're a Splitcoaststampers Fan Club member you can check out some of the cards I've been working on. Next month is my final month in the Dirty Dozen, I can't believe how fast the time has whizzed by!! The rest of the stuff I've been working on is magazine stuff and you'll have to wait for those to be published! Ok, on to my CASE Study card. We're on our third week with Kryssi Ng as our muse. Here's Kryssi's fab inspiration card this week.

I love the layout of Kryssi's card. I interpreted the shape of the buildings and substituted it with a tree. I kept the cropped label and sentiment at the top and also added some snowflakes. My card was a bit experimental, I wanted to make a 3D Christmas tree, kinda shabby and textured. I made a simple cone shape with tabs at the back. It's embellished with little bits of ribbon, lace and beads.

I'm not sure how successful I was, I think I'll have to give another go. The process was fun though and a great way to use up all those little bits of trim and lace.

The sentiment is from Eline's Huis Marianne Design Winter stamp set stamped onto a cropped Spellbinders Labels 18 die cut. The little stars are stamped with acrylic paint and are from Very Vintage Christmas by Waltzingmouse Stamps. I'll be back a little later to join in the Friends of Waltzingmouse Stamps November blog waltz.

Check out the fabulous creations from my CASE Study team mates. Oh and we have a brand new team member, the talented Julie Lacey. Sadly we're saying goodbye to Julie Smith. We'll miss her fab cards!

Chupa
Amy Wanford
Andrea Ewen
Cristina Kowalczyk
Debby Hughes
Julie Lacey
Jean Martin
Teresa Kline
Teneale Williams

CASE Study #65 - Festive Foliage

Hi! Here's my card for this week's CASE Study challenge. It's our second week with Kryssi Ng from Sugar Buffet as our muse. I must confess I was a little nervous when I saw all the CAS cards for this month but I'm actually becoming more comfortable with the style (or should I say less terrified!) Here's Kryssi's inspiration card this week.

I loved the layout of Kryssi's card with the touches of turquoise color paired with kraft and white card. Those acorns just pop right off the card! A wonderful focal point. I CASEd these elements in my card.

I used a mix of elements from Festive Foliage from Waltzingmouse Stamps for my focal point. I stamped them all separately, cut them out and then arranged them. The stamped strip was made using Pic-Nic Patterns.

The large sentiment stamped on the brown paper is from Say it Loud - Winter Holiday from Waltzingmouse Stamps. I used Coffee Archival ink to stamp it. The foliage was stamped using VersaMagic Tea Leaves and the berries Ink it Up True Red.

Don't forget to check out the amazing creations from the CASE Study design team. They are wonderfully inspiring as always.

Chupa
Amy Wanford
Andrea Ewen
Cristina Kowalczyk
Debby Hughes
Jean Martin
Julie Smith (On a break)
Teresa Kline
Teneale Williams

Cardmaking & Papercraft Mag (UK) Issue 98

Hi, just sharing a few cards I have in the current issue of Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine (UK). This time I had to make a series of cards using the BoBunny Blitzen Collection. I loved this designer challenge, the papers are fabulous and make very quick and easy cards. I just added some touches of glitter and some embellishments here and there. I really loved the leaping reindeer card, I added some felt and made a felt bow from a strip of felt. The tag is die-cut cardboard and I added some little bells.

The text on the papers made them perfect for making cards. Especially the hanging stockings, I just added some pom pom trim. Some of the sentiments are from Seasons of Love - Tags from Waltzingmouse Stamps. Here are the cards in the magazine.

Ok, I'll be back tomorrow with a brand new card for the CASE Study Challenge. See you then!! : )

A sad week..

It's been a sad start to the week with the tragic passing of fellow crafter and friend Katie Renz. She lost her battle with stomach cancer just almost a year after diagnosis. She's left behind a beautiful young family and my thoughts are with them as they adjust to life without her in their lives. I have been amazed at how the crafting community has come together for Katie and it warms my heart. One thing I have gained from this is perspective, my little problems seem like minor blips compared to what Katie had to face and I'm extremely grateful for my life right now. We never know what's around the corner for us, so embrace life now.

WMS November SOAP - Day 4 (This little light of mine...)

Welcome to Day 4 of the Waltzingmouse Stamps November SOAP (Stamp of approval parade), thanks for all the lovely comments yesterday, I really appreciate them. Ok, so today I decided to focus on 'light', I love a warm glow about the house at Christmas, the fire lighting, candles on the mantle, fairy lights on the tree pretty much anything that gives off light. So I decided to make some luminaries.

I included a couple of techniques, some piercing and cutting. When I was a teenager I made these lampshades that had pierced patterns and paper cutting on them, they glowed beautifully. So I looked at some different stamps to see which ones would lend themselves to this technique. On this label from Seasonal Remedies I pierced all the way around the border and cut sections on both sides of the label (you'll see why once they're lit up).

Here I teamed the star from Seasons of Love - Tags (this is one of my favorites!) with the Santa silhouette from Santa's Coming to Town. Again I pierced around the edges of the star and cut sections of the circle.

Lastly I used the ornament from Santa's Coming to Town and repeated the same steps as with the other two. The luminaries are just a simple cube shape made from white card, the edges are distressed with ink. Each of these images are on two sides of each cube.

For all the other sides I stamped one of the backgrounds from Pic-Nic Patterns, a perfect pattern for the piercing technique. So, once it got dark I popped in some BATTERY OPERATED TEA LIGHTS!!! (Card and naked flames don't mix!) This is my first time photographing anything in the dark! I tried my best!

I think I'll have these dotted around the house at Christmas, just to add a little glow here and there. I don't have to worry about Isabelle playing with them either since they're just battery operated.

I love how they come to life. The piercing alone gives a nice effect but I love the extra light the cutting reveals.

There are so many possibilities with this technique, next on my list will be A Cottage Christmas. I can so imagine that little cottage with glowing windows!

On two sides of each of the luminaries as I mentioned before I used Pic-Nic Patterns, to pierce it all might have been a bit much (not to mention taken forever) so I just picked out some of the dots from the pattern. It turned out really pretty though!

And then I decided to stamp some candles... I've seen this done a few times before and I was a little nervous about trying it but I'm so glad I did. It's easy-peasy!! Get an ordinary candle, stamp label onto tissue paper (I stamped onto the slightly shiny side) I used a brown ink for a softer vintage look. Cut around, leave a bit of a border, position onto candle, take a piece of wax paper (enough to wrap around the entire candle and let you grip it at the back) cover the stamped label, try to make sure it doesn't move,
heat with heat gun, don't over do it! You'll see it changing once it's heated enough, over heat it and you'll have drippy bits! There are a few video tutorials on YouTube.

Here they are lit, I love this technique! I'm so glad my mom brought me home wax paper from her last trip to the States now! I've never seen it here!

Today we invite you to participate in a CASE (Copy and Share Everything) competition. Here’s how it works:  Find a card or project from any of the projects posted over the past few days by the WMS Design Team, CASE that project using Waltzingmouse Stamp images, and link it using the Inlinkz on Claire's blog. At the end of the competition, one project will be randomly selected to be highlighted with a Parade of its own on several of the Design Team blogs.

We hope you will enjoy this competition and that it will inspire your creativity. You have one week to complete and link your project as the competition will close on November 10th at 8:00 AM which is 3 AM Eastern, 2 AM Central and Midnight, Pacific time. The winner will be announced on Claire's blog on November 11th.

Well, I hope I gave you a few ideas to try! Here are the Design Team members bringing you ideas today!


Anya Schrier
Becca Feeken
Clare Buswell
Julia Aston
Jennifer Holmes
Kate Whelan
Kelly Schirmer
Laurie Schmidlin
Lynn Mercurio
Mona Pendleton
Sandie Dunne
Tosha Leyendekker
Claire Brennan (Owner)

WMS November SOAP - Day 3 (Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree...)

**Scroll down for my CASE Study post** Good Morning! Welcome to Day 3 of the Waltzingmouse Stamps November SOAP. We're having a look at some ideas for Christmas of course! Claire has designed some amazing Christmas stamps but I thought I better not overlook some of the non-Christmas stamps just in case I could make something Christmassy from them too. Well, HELLO Vintage Banners you make perfect Christmas trees!! : )

Teamed with the 'star' from Nordic Winter and the square motif from Very Vintage Christmas (just perfect for the tree trunk!) we have a pretty cool Christmas tree! I made these into shaped Christmas cards.

The sentiment is from Say it Loud - Winter Holiday from Waltzingmouse Stamps. Stamped in Coffee archival ink and the small text is stamped in Memento Rose Bud ink.

I stuck a few lights on this one using the little circle motif from Very Vintage Christmas, it didn't take too long to cut them out! The sentiment is also from Say it Loud - Winter Holiday.

The tree I stamped using VersaMagic Tea Leaves ink and the yellow is Impress Lemon Yellow. I love those little fairy lights! I also made some very CAS versions of my WMS Christmas trees.

These ones are dead flat, easy for posting/mailing and super fast to make. I went for a pink Christmas theme. Again using Vintage Banners, this time I used the medium sized banners stamped using Memento Rose Bud ink.

I used the star again from Nordic Winter and I also used the square motif from the same set for the trunk this time, it's slightly smaller for this smaller tree. The sentiments are from Compliments of the Season and 2011 Holiday Ornaments. I hope I gave you a few ideas and you might go and 'build a Christmas tree' from your Waltzingmouse Stamps! I'll be back tomorrow for Day 4!

Here are the Design Team members that are inspiring you today!

Anya Schrier
Becca Feeken
Clare Buswell
Julia Aston
Jennifer Holmes
Kate Whelan
Kelly Schirmer
Lynn Mercurio
Mona Pendleton
Sandie Dunne
Tosha Leyendekker
Claire Brennan (Owner)

CASE Study #64

We've been having some frustrating problems with our internet again! It was off most of yesterday then came back intermittently last night! Hopefully it'll stay on long enough for me to write this post! Ok, so we have a brand new muse at CASE Study for the month of November. It's Kryssi Ng, she has a fabulous clean and simple style. I love her sweet and elegant card here, just magical!

I chose to CASE the fab layout and the recess created using a negative die-cut, I made mine Christmassy of course! (Now that Halloween's out of the way!) I also got a chance to ink up my Nordic Winter set from Waltzingmouse Stamps. I also added a little knitted background from Faux Fun, I think they work really well together!

The cute reindeer I die-cut using a Marianne Design die, there's a cute sleigh that goes with it too! The negative die-cut recess was made using Spellbinders Labels 18.

The sentiment is from Say it Loud - Winter Holiday by Waltzingmouse Stamps. The red ink I used is True Red by Ink it Up.

Our clocks went back last weekend so I'm hoping this is scheduled for the right time. I think the clocks in the US go back at the weekend, not sure about everywhere else! Now check out the rest of the CASE Study DT cards, they're amazing as always! I'll be back later to join in the Waltzingmouse Stamps November SOAP event. See you then!

Chupa
Amy Wanford
Andrea Ewen
Cristina Kowalczyk
Debby Hughes
Jean Martin
Julie Smith
Teresa Kline
Teneale Williams