...Coffee Lover's blog hop!

Good afternoon! - if you are here to check out our new release sneak peeks for tomorrow's new release please scroll down - if not then you might be here for the Spring Coffee Lovers Bloghop! I'm taking part today and bear with me if I make any mistooks, it's my first time at this hop!

There are a ton of fabby companies sponsoring this hop - of which we here at Waltzingmouse Stamps are delighted to be one! There are prizes galore and to be in with a chance of winning one of the sponsor prizes, you will need to enter a post on the InLinkz List found on The Coffee Lovers Blog here. 

I hear that you can find all sorts of blog candy and other goodies just by hopping through the entire list so I would strongly advise that you take a peek at all the posts (cough...also see bottom of this post...cough)

The hop will start on Friday, February 27th and run until Friday, March 6th at 11:55 pm pacific. We would love for you to do one link per post, so if you have multiple cards please post them separately.  You must link up a newly created Spring-y project in order to be eligible for any of the Sponsored prizes. You must link your projects to the Inlinkz on the Spring Coffee Lovers Blog Post.

Well since Tea is my liquid of choice I chose to make my card with our Afternoon Tea stamp set. Since I'm literally prepping tomorrows new release, I chose to stamp my main label image in Versamark onto watercolour paper, I then sprinkled on clear embossing powder and heat set it. I used watercolour paints to fill in the negative parts of the label image. It's a bit of a cheat really as the clear embossing resists the paint and it makes it look almost as though I just painted that dinky label by hand! I trimmed out the label and mounted it onto a tag (Waltzingmouse Stamps - Stitched tag dies, see here).

I had embossed the tag with a lovely Tim Holtz embossing folder, the name of which escapes me, and the back panel is embossed with a chevron embossing folder from Spellbinders. A couple of miniature dried rose buds and I was done! I hope you like it!

Blog Candy!

Now for those of you who made it all the way down the page this far, I have blog candy - All I need you to do is leave a comment on this blog post right here. Comments will close on Friday, March 6th at 11:55 pm pacific (which is Saturday March 7th at around 8:00am here in UK) and a winner will be announced later that day! One lucky commenter will win a WMS goodie bag made up of a large set of stamps, a medium set of stamps and a die of their choice from in-stock items!

Hope it tickles! Thanks for playing along!

New Release Blog Waltz Round-up Part 4

Hello there! It's Lisa again, popping in for the final installation of the May New Release Blog Waltz Round-up. I know by now you're itching to get your hands on your new stamps! We can't wait for that to happen, too! Let's all take our collective breath and blow that ash away!

I never get enough of looking at all these beauties. I'm inspired to get back into my craft room and ink up my new Waltzingmouse Stamps sets... I haven't even scratched the surface yet! Plus, I've gotta try the teacup and tea bag templates. Did you get yours, as well as the cake template? So fun!

Speaking of parties (were we?), please mark your calendar for May 17th... that's the date for our Friends of Waltzingmouse Stamps Monthly Blog Waltz. The fun will start in the Waltzingmouse House Forum. The theme this month will be BIRTHDAYS, so start planning/making your cards/projects now! We'll post all the details soon here on the blog.

Have a wonderful day!

New Release Round-up Part 3

It's Lisa again, bringing you more fabulous eye candy from the Design Team created using the newly released stamp sets!

Don't you just LOVE the new Very Vintage Labels No. 10 stamp set? All of the Waltzingmouse Stamps sets that coordinate with Spellbinders Nestabilities are definitely among our best sellers, and for good reason! How many do you own?

And now, for the winners of a stamp set of choice! The winner from among all the comments left on Claire's Blog Waltz post is LYNN PHELPS!!! And the winner from among all the comments left on Jennifer's Blog Waltz post is CRAFTY MATH CHICK!!! Please email Claire at claire.brennan1@ntlworld.com with your stamp set choice and mailing address, and she'll get your prize to you as quickly as possible. Thank you all for waltzing with us!

I'll be back again tomorrow with the final installment of the New Release Round-up. Have a fantastic day!!! 

...Say hello to Afternoon Tea

ED - Joan, I use a scalpel, surgical grade. I haven't found a craft knife yet that can compare, BUT be warned folks these things are sharp! Hand on Heart I couldn't recommend it, It's totally your own decision and if you do for goodness sake keep them out of reach of everyone, especially children and gadget minded husbands!!! I hear good things about those wee finger knives, intending to try them. Also I have a wee pair of really sharp embroidery snips, better for corners.

Today I'd like to show you a set that I absolutely love, you'll have guessed by now that I have a bit of a leaning towards vintage and this little old fashioned Afternoon Tea stamp set is now such a favourite! Actually there are two sets, Afternoon Tea and Afternoon Tea Sentiments.

But before we get started I must tell you who else is previewing today! Be sure to visit Julia, Bonnie, Lisa, Belinda, Lynn, Anya and Laurie today for more fabulous samples, these ladies are the bees knees!!

And - just one more thing, scroll down to the previous post to see details of the BIG CONTEST, it's a challenge and there's not a whole lot of time so do it now!! lol

My first card uses a kettle image from the Afternoon Tea set and a sentiment from Afternoon Tea Sentiments. The kettle image comes in two options one for solid stamping and one outline drawing for colouring and paper piecing, as I have done here. I popped on a little bead over the lid handle for extra interest and added a little shading to the kettle with a very pale grey copic marker.

The tablecloth background was made using one of the fat plaid stamps from the pic nic patterns set also releasing on Saturday, how I love plaid!! I used a teeny tiny cup image from Afternoon Tea in between the plaid stripes and also in the sentiment panel. Can you see the tiny steam above the tea cup? lol!!



I made a matching Tea Bag Baggie!! A cute little gift bag which houses some gigantic and fun, (but not pretty, lol) tea bags! The bag itself is in the shape of a tea bag and comes complete with a tiny label on a string. I made it from vellum and it has that nice linen texture, just right for a tea bag. If you think this is something you might like to make, pop back to the old blog here on Saturday, the FREE template will await you!

The template includes the bag and little tiny label, which is just the right size for a couple of the stamps in the Afternoon Tea set. I have used the label stamp "Soothe away the day" for my little label on this bag, there are a couple more options in the stamp set.


The mini kettle shape comes from the Afternoon Tea set and the sentiment is from Afternoon Tea sentiments. I have used both sets together a lot in my post to try to bring you as many sneaks as I can, there is so much to get through, but I think you will be pleasantly surprised at just how many stamps and options are in each set.

Afternoon Tea has 30 stamps, 12 of which are sentiments. Afternoon Tea sentiments contains 25 stamps, many of which are longer sentiments, the focal images of this set are the large tea cup and the separate posy of pansies, which could be set into the tea cup using masking or used alone, I hope to bring you a sample of that if time permits.


Today's final card uses my favourite image from the Afternoon Tea set. I am a sucker for labels of all kinds, especially vintage and the design for label has been floating around in my head for ages!! I absolutely love it! lol. If I had to pick a desert island stamp, this just might be it.


The whole image including the frames and kettle and cups is one stamp so there's no worries about lining things up. I stamped it repeatedly here to make the background, using Rich cocoa, memento. Much sponging and distressing.

the focal image was stamped in Versacolour pinecone and clear embossed so's I could colour some of it with copics. the main part of the label is a very pale lilac, kinda hard to see in the photo but pretty IRL.

I cut it out with a craft knife and popped it up on some dimensionals. The pink band behind is sponged and blinged. Vintage Barbie...?


Hope it tickles!!

...it was nearly too easy!! Lol.

I made these three cards so fast last night that i felt it would have been 'cheating' for me to put them up one at a time lol!!

They use papers from the BoBunny collection Abbey Road that Beverly of Precious Scraps sent me. You can pop over to her blog if you fancy and take a peek at what else she has in stock! Beverly is taking orders via email and her blog until the online shop is up and running. Pop her an email if you need to order - I keep saying this but you really will have a hard time finding anyone as nice to deal with she really is a lovely lady.

This collection features some delicious graphic florals with co-ordinating polka dots stripes and damasks. There are loads of decorative elements making it super easy - nearly too easy to make cards in a flash!! (LOL I really shouldn't say that!!!) I'm also dying to make some mini Scrap pages from the little 6x6 panels from the collection - I have a little dude who so suits the blue and green!!

The first card is very straight forward and used a PTI Teapot image (tea for two) and a tea cup (Everyday Classics - an anniversary set unavailable to buy, sorry).

The second card is a cut down of one of the fantastic wee panels that come in the collection. It really didn't need anything except maybe a wee smidgeon of ribbon. Feeling like things were coming together too easily, I decided to cut little slits in the journaling lines and thread the ribbon through. Could've just left it alone but I like to footer. Ribbon was New Leaft satin bt PTI (PapertreyInk). Sentiment from Everyday Classics - also PTI.

The third card is a compilation of paper, large label (stamped with a sentiment from Life by PapertreyInk) and smaller floral elements all from the collection. Just simply put together with a little ribbon (New Leaf again) and a fibre I had in my stash. Couple of bits of bling in the centre of the flowers and It was done.

After making these three I sat about and twiddled my thumbs for half an hour wondering what to do with myself!! lol.

...Evening all

Good evening ladies and gents, I've been working on samples for Beverly this evening - the box above isn't one of them, that was something I made up the other week and hadn't put on the blog yet! - It's all PTI, and it's pretty obvious, so any questions, leave a comment and I'll answer them here. (it's one of Laurens templates cut in half and extended - same as the blog hop box)

I've been playing with the paper line Andrea Victoria by My Mind's Eye, and I have to tell you, this may be my favourite set of papers ever. There is just something about the collection that hit's the spot for me, so rich, and regal and yet funky too!! Can't wait to show you!! If you're smart you'll get over to Beverly's place right now and reserve yourself a packet, these are bound to sell out fast!

Store news
If you have ordered stamps from my store but have not yet received a shipping confirmation via email, please contact me, I get notifications from both the store cart and Paypal, and there were one or two notifications from the cart that didn't show up on Paypal, perhaps because the customer decided not to proceed. However, I hate the thought that a couple of folks may have thought they ordered when really the sale was not completed, so please do get in touch if you haven't received a shipping notice. Many thanks.

So, I'm off to bed as it's midnight here...yawn, happy surfing...

Papertrey Ink Bloghop - May '09

Hello ladies - it's bloghop time again. If you don't know what this is click here!

The challenge for this month was to use Yellow - think this qualifies?? lol. I used one of Laurens timeless templates for this - the 'Get a handle on it'. But because I'm greedy and want to put bickies in with my tea bags, I needed it to be a little bigger! So once I had the templates cut out and stuck together (summer sunrise PTI), I chopped it in half.

I also used a hole punch to punch out two semi circles to highlight the design I was going to stamp on the mid section. This also allowed me to run it through the cuttlebug and swiss dot it a bit. I stitched around the edges just to finish it off.

I made a mid section from Lemon tart cardstock and stamped it with tea pots and the wee circular stamp from the Tea for two stamp set. I popped my sentiment up on dimensionals and stamped a wee tea cup from the Anniversary set.

Then I put the top and bottom onto the mid section to complete the box.

All supplies PapertreyInk, including that delicious big chocolate button!

I didn't have much time tonight and so I was grateful for how fast these templates come together!

Can't wait to see what everyone has made!!! Have fun hopping ladies!!

...Lemon tea anyone?

Thank you all for the lovely comments on my wee butterfly! It gives me a lot of encouragement to read them.

Made up a little patterned paper with the stamps from the Anniversary set, Everyday Classics, (PapertreyInk) wish I had photographed it. Anyhow - it turned out quite a large scale design so I made a 5x7 card with it.

I love the flourish type image and started with that in Smokey Grey Versafine Ink on the Linen Texture Vellum from PapertreyInk - added a tea cup in Raw Sienna, Palette ink from PapertreyInk, and needled little holes to give the impression of steam. Then added the flowers - gorgeous stamps - love these.

Mounted it on Grey cardstock from my stash, added a bit of ribbon and a wee sentiment - also from the Everyday Classics set.

Hope it tickles.

...zing

I love this orange ribbon - got it from a local shop - no idea who makes it - this was the last bit I had. Used Versacolour paprika on the teacup and tea bag from the PapertreyInk set Everyday classics which was the anniversary set for this year. I know that 'technically' it's a tea bag 'string' and not a tea bag, but in my head it's a teabag! lol. Thought the teabag and cup suited the 'together forever' sentiment, I'm calling it 'formal whimsy!' lol. The swash was from the same set, used it twice, lengthways to give a frame. Stamped it in Versafine smokey grey.

Paired it with a cracking bit of Basic grey Ambrosia paper that I've been wanting to use, the charcole damask and a bit of co-ordinating orange from the same pad - thought it was quite zingy.

Hope it tickles.

Oooh PS - A few lovely people have enquired about subscribing to my blog via feedblitz, the problem is that feedblitz seem to want to charge me for this service and since I do this as a hobby and don't make any money at it, I really can't take it on just at the mo'. Apologies if this makes things awkward for anyone, as I really love to have you visit.

...ahhh stamping

Ed - ink colous are Ocean tides ( Papertreyink), Smokey grey (Versafine) and Tim Holtz distress ink Antique linen (Ranger). Ta for asking.

Finally got a moment or two to stamp - Used the Guidelines 2 set for the patterned paper and the Anniversary set teacup (all PapertreyInk stamps and card), with polka dots basics for the spotty backgrounds. Ocean tides (again!) and a wee sprinkle of PTI bitty dot paper, kindly donated by Genevieve, thank you chickie.

Used some distress Ink around the edges to make it vintagy. Lugged out the sewing machine even, full of energy last night.

And do you like my flowers? - finally gave in and bought some prima ones - really like these, also had a wee bit of felt swirly stuff in a drawer, seemed to work.

Went to the Stitch and craft show in Belfast today, have to say it was better than previous years - I love all the wee stalls with women from various groups all making lace and spinning yarn and all that. Loads of cardmaking supplies this year and found a few stamp shops I didn't know existed!! Must get my stamping buddy organised and do a wee shop hop some of these days.

Hope they tickle