Farewell Card Patterns...

Well, all good things come to an end. Card Patterns have decided to cease posting, so this is the final sketch. (There are some rumors of the blog being passed on to some new crafters to run, so it may not be the end!) I'm really delighted to have been part of the Card Patterns team. It's been a wonderful experience.

For my card I used the gorgeous hydrangea stamp from Cherished by Nina B Designs from The Crafts Meow. I did a little paper-piecing with colored card and added some white highlights with white acrylic paint.

I love the sentiments in this set, I just love the fonts! The white lace is from Wild Orchid Crafts. 

SO thanks again Card Patterns, for all the inspiration. Check out the rest of the DT's creations, one last time.

Waltzingmouse Stamps July Release Preview - Day 3

Hello and welcome to Day 3 of the Waltzingmouse Stamps July release previews. Today we're previewing My Island. I love this set, especially the fabulous sentiments, I just love the texture on the font! SO, I decided to focus on the sentiments on my cards, keeping a lot of white space, texture and a splash of color.

I used the sun ray stamp to stamp the oval. I stamped the sentiment onto some white card, cut out and adhered with foam pads. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

Again, I used an embossing folder to add some texture to the white background. The textured oval is also from the My Island set.

In each card I added a splash of color by using a co-ordinating colored card base. You can just seeing it peeping through.

I love all the sentiments in this set but I think this one is my favorite! I do like to get a lot of use out of my sentiments.

Here are the rest of the DT sharing previews of My Island. We'll be back tomorrow for the WMS release day blog waltz.

Anya Schrier

Becca Feeken

Belinda Chang Langner

Clare Buswell

Bonnie Sharp

Julia Aston

Jennifer Holmes

Kelly Schirmer

Mona Pendleton

Sandie Dunne

Tosha Leyendekker

Claire Brennan (Owner)

Waltzingmouse Stamps July Release Preview - Day 2

Hi! Welcome to day 2 of the Waltzingmouse Stamps July release previews. Yesterday was fun and girly, today's stamp set is much more masculine! More of a challenge for me! This is another small set, just 3"x4" but still lots of fun.

There's so much fabulous detail in this stamp, I kinda felt the need to color some of it to try and highlight that. So, I used some water color paints to paint some elements in the stamp. The grid background stamp is from Off Beat Backgrounds by Waltzingmouse Stamps, stamped using Memento Tangelo.

Here are the rest of the DT sharing previews of today's stamp set. I hope you're enjoying the previews! We'll be back tomorrow to preview another set, it's a larger set, so more to look at!


Anya Schrier

Bonnie Sharp

Clare Buswell

Julia Aston

Jennifer Holmes

Kelly Schirmer

Laurie Schmidlin

Lynn Mercurio

Mona Pendleton

Sandie Dunne

Tosha Leyendekker

Claire Brennan (Owner)

Waltzingmouse Stamps July Release Preview - Day 1

Hello and welcome to Day 1 of the Waltzingmouse Stamps July release previews. Four fabulous sets are being released on Sunday 1st of July. Today we are previewing Fairy Princess (a fun girly set!), it's a little add on set to Half Pint Heroines. So here I made a fun castle shaped card. (I had this made before Claire made up a castle shaped template to share, mine's pretty simple but it works just as well.)

SO, behind the little castle door... you'll find the princess. I used the body from Fairy Princess but used one of the heads from Half Pint Heroines only because I wanted my princess to have long hair! I still managed to pop the crown on her head from the Fairy Princess set with a little masking.

I colored my princess using acrylic paints (yea, I have a lot of teeny tiny brushes!). I love that you can mix and match the heads from these sets.

Here's how the whole card opens out. There's a funny little surprise on the back of the door too, a cute little frog also from the Fairy Princess set.

He's so cute. I love his little crown, there's also a frog without a crown in the set too.

I drew the little speech bubble by hand and outlined with black pen.

For the outside of the card I used some Bitty Banners and the sentiment is from Half Pint Heroes, it's the same font, I love how all the elements can all work together. I also added some faux brick effect with acrylic paint and some detail to the door. All the edges are inked with white ink. I also made a little birthday party invitation with the fairy stamp from the Fairy Princess set.

It's pretty CAS, I used both the head and fairy body from the Fairy Princess set but added the starry swish from Teeny Trees. 

Again, she's colored with acrylic paints, I did add some touches of glitter to her wings and the sparkly swish is embossed in silver.

The sentiment is half from Half Pint Heroes and half from Half Pint Heroines. 

Inside I added the little froggy from the Fairy Princess set in a motif from Candy Jar Christmas.

The details are a blank invitation sticker from SRM Stickers that I cropped. 

I love this little stamp set (and it is little, it's the new bite sized version!) perfect for making cards for any little girl in your life. Ok, here are the ladies that are sharing previews today. We'll be previewing another new set tomorrow. (It's much more masculine!)

Anya Schrier

Belinda Chang Langner

Bonnie Sharp

Clare Buswell

Julia Aston

Jennifer Holmes

Kelly Schirmer

Laurie Schmidlin

Lynn Mercurio

Mona Pendleton

Sandie Dunne

Tosha Leyendekker

Claire Brennan (Owner)

CASE Study #97 - A hug

It's our final week at CASE Study with Joy Taylor as our muse. Wow, where did June go to? Isabelle's finished school now, here's hoping the weather dries up a bit so we can spend some time outside! Anyway, back to the card, Joy has another creation to inspire us all, here it is.

I CASEd this one pretty closely, I really love the design and colors. Instead of using washi tape I stamped a chevron pattern using Off Beat Backgrounds by Waltzingmouse Stamps and VersaMagic Pink Grapefruit ink.

The paper flower I made, I've a video tutorial on how to make these here. They really are pretty easy!

The sentiment is from Compact Family by Waltzingmouse Stamps stamped in Jet black. I did a little fussy cutting with the 'sister' text and popped it on to the card with some foam pads.

I hope you can play along with us this week at CASE Study, we'd love to see your creations! For some more inspiration visit my teammates blogs.

Chupa
Amy Wanford
Christina Maclaren
Debby Hughes
Jean Martin
Maureen Plut
Teresa Kline
Teneale Williams

I'll be back in just a little while with the previews for the Waltzingmouse Stamps July release!! You'll love the new stamps!!

Cardmaking & Papercraft Mag (UK) Issue 106

Hello, I'm just here to share a few cards I have in issue 106 of Cardmaking & Papercraft Magazine (UK). I made some cards for the Quick Makes section of the magazine using the Konnichiwa Collection by Basic Grey.

I love working with matching elements of a collection, it makes card-making so much easier! I just love the papers in this collection, really fabulous!

The element stickers in this collection are gorgeous! Check out those big, bold flowers! I also used the matching alphabet stickers.

Here they are in the layout in the magazine. 

Pick up a copy of Cardmaking and Papercraft Magazine Issue 106 for lots more inspiration!

I'll be back tomorrow with my CASE Study card and for the previews of the Waltzingmouse Stamps July release! Can't wait! : )

SRM Stickers Summer Reveal

Over on the SRM Stickers Blog they're having their Summer Reveal of new products. Yesterday was the reveal of Stickers By The Dozen and today they're revealing their Labels By The Dozen! I got to play with the Christmas Selection!! I love these labels, they're great for personalizing gifts and cards!

I created a holiday treat bag and made a coordinating card. I used Die-namics letter dies to create the 'noel'. The green card I embossed with the Seeing Spots embossing folder.

The background I stamped with the little star stamps from Compliments of the Season by Waltzingmouse Stamps in white. The new label sticker from Labels By The Dozen I inked lightly around the edges with Antique Linen Distress Ink.

The Tin Tie Bag I stamped using the same star stamp and I also inked the edges in white. The holly leaf shapes I drew, embossed and inked the edges. The red berries are part of the pom-pom trim! I love the striped background on these new labels! The Button Twine is from Waltzingmouse Stamps.

To be in with a chance of winning this collection (become a follower on the SRM Stickers Blog) and leave a comment there. Don't miss another reveal tomorrow!

CARD PATTERNS - Sketch 171

Hi! I'm here to share my Card Patterns card for this week and some sad news, unfortunately Card Patterns has decided to close their blog as they feel it has run it's course. See the full post here. I'm delighted to have been able to be part of such a wonderful team but all good things must come to an end. On a positive note the Sketch Database will remain open as a resource for card makers. Here's this week's sketch.

For my card I used some of Spellbinders Nina B Designs Sewing Elements dies and fabulous co-ordinating stamp set Sew Happy from The Crafts Meow.

I love the fabulous vintage textured effect on the sewing machine and the design details! Stamped in Jet Black and the edges are inked with Antique Linen Distress ink.

The gorgeous cross stitched sentiment is from the same stamp set. I love cross stitch stamps!! Such a cool effect.

The Antique White Twill ribbon is from Craft Fairy. Nina B Designs has just previewed the brand new dies being released at Summer CHA 2012 Home Spun and Sweet Folk Art, visit Nina's blog to have a look at these fabulous new designs and to be in with a chance of winning them!

Don't forget to visit Card Patterns to see what the rest of the Design Team have come up with. It would be great if you played along with us for our final couple of weeks too. Next week will be our final sketch.

Miss You

Hello, just popping in really quickly with a card I made recently. I'm busy working on new Waltzingmouse Stamps release samples, you're going to love the new stamps!! (Previews start on Thursday the 28th of June).

Here I used one of my favorite label sets, Very Vintage Labels No.10 from Waltzingmouse Stamps that co-ordinate with Spellbinders Labels 10 dies. I love that polka dot label! Here I stamped it using Memento Rose Bud ink. The sentiment is from Compact Sentiments Part Two, the 'my dear' is from Cameo to Go stamped using VersaMagic Oasis Green.

The colorful little flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts, I think those little cherry blossom flowers are my favorite!

The patterned papers are from K&Company Bloomscape Speciality Paper Pad. The white lace is also from Wild Orchid Crafts. Ok, I'll be back tomorrow with my Card Patterns card, I'll see you then! : )