WMSC#71 "Paper Ruffles"

Today I am sharing a card I made for Waltzingmouse Stamps Sketch Challenge #71 which features a sketch by Kelly Schirmer.  I have been wanting to try out a technique for making paper ruffles that I first saw on a sketch challenge inspiration card made by Clare Buswell.  She kindly posted a tutorial on how to make the ruffles.  If you would like to check it out, here's the link.  I have to admit my ruffles did not turn out as soft and poofy as Clare's, but after quite a few tries, these were finally good enough to actually use on a card.  So, I waited for quite a few weeks until a sketch came along that I could envision using these ruffles.  Today's sketch has that cute little element that could be ribbon, but, I saw ruffles.  Two of them.  Here is my card:

These ruffles were made from some double-sided paper given to me by my friend Renee Lynch.  She kindly sent me two giant boxes of patterned paper and this is the first opportunity I have had to use some of it.  The cardbase is PTI Autumn Rose and the frame stamp set is from Waltzingmouse Stamps Vintage labels #18 and the sentiment is from Say it Loud.  I stitched around the edges and used lots of tea dye to distress all the edges along with a little strip of lace along the top edge of the ruffle.  I added some pearl flourishes and a glittery flower as accents.  This is definitely a  "hand-it" to you kind of card as it would be pretty bulky for mailing.

CR84FN41-Sailboat

My sweet little nephew turns one next weekend and I have been wanting to make a shaped card for him, but couldn't make up my mind what "shape" it should be.  I discovered the Cutting Cafe the other day, a great place to buy svg files to cut on my cricut and there I found this sailboat.  I decided to use the colors from this weeks CR84FN41 which were perfect for a little boys card, steel blue, gray and yellow.  I  only recently discovered CR84FN and their color challenges and I am really enjoying the beautiful color combinations they use in their challenges.   Here's my little sailboat:

After I diecut the sailboat shapes on my cricut, I stamped patterns from Waltzingmouse stamps Off Beat Backgrounds and Pic-nic Patterns.  Both of these stamp sets are so great to create your own patterned papers.  I had a blast stamping that plaid background in all three of the colors.  There are so many different combinations you can create.  I added a little Spellbinder ribbon banner with Grant's name on it, thank goodness he has a short name!  I would like to give a special thanks to my sweet friend Jeanne Jachna of A Kept Life who was so sweet to send me these dies, for no other reason than she is a super generous person!  I have wanted them for some time and they aren't available at my LSS.  Thanks so much, Jeanne.  The last touch on this little card was a tiny ribbon flag and button.  Super quick and easy card for a very sweet little boy on his first birthday.

WMSC#70: Irish Santa?



Today I made a card for Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #70 which uses a sketch by Kelly Schirmer. 

                                                                            Here's my card:

This card was so much fun to make and I used several  Waltzingmouse stamp sets I just received, Around Christmastime and Off Beat Backgrounds.  One of the things I love about Waltzingmouse stamps is they are so great for making patterned paper.  The stamps are huge, so easy to line up and it took me no time at all to stamp the black and white checkerboard pattern on this card.  I used A Muse pigment ink in onyx and I was so happy with the result.  The other thing I love about Waltzingmouse stamps is their images are so intricate, they don't need a lot of detailed shading when you color them.  For my "Irish" Santa, I stamped the image with the onyx ink and clear embossed it.  I colored Santa's hat green, I know, not the traditional color of Santa's hat, but I was trying to tie in the green cardbase.  Who says Santa can't wear a green hat?  Not me!  I added some tinsel glitter to his hat and colored the bell with a gold glitter pen.  Between the embossing and the glitter, he is pretty darn sparkly.  The Santa image was diecut with a Spellbinder pinked circle popped up on a slightly larger circle diecut.   I distressed the edges of the patterned paper and added some saddle stitch ribbon and bow.  There are two pine sprigs which are images from Around Christmastime.  They are embossed, hand-cut and all glittered up too.  The final touch was the two little jingle bells tied on with twine.  So far, this is my very favorite holiday card.  I think I will be making several of these to send this year.  Thanks for taking a look.

Cicely at Halloween

I think this is the last of the Halloween cards, although I have had a really good time making them this year!  Today's card uses Waltzingmouse stamps Cicely at Halloween, and yes, I colored!  She is actually pretty easy to color and doesn't require a lot of blending.  Here she is:

 I honestly don't remember what patterned paper I used, but I used several layers and some zig-zag stitching.  I added a little lace and pearl trim and a little bit of bakers twine.  There is lots of tea dye on this card and,  of course, some of the bats and sentiment from Halloween Party.  The last touch was some sparkly stickles to make the stars and pumpkin shine.  Thanks for taking a look as my Halloween comes to a close.

Halloween Party

Since I am on vacation and knew I wasn't going to be able to participate in this week's sketch challenge, I made a card to share using the very first Waltzingmouse challenge sketch:     Remember this one? WMSC#1
There are 70 sketches just waiting to provide inspiration and an easy way to jump-start your creativity.  To check out all those great sketches, click here.

I loved that embellishment layered over the cut-out circle in the sketch.

Since my kids are grown, I don't have any kids to craft with or make Halloween cards with.  I do, however, have a girlfriend with a 10 year old daughter who loves to craft.  So, this will be the third holiday I have invited her over to my house so she can make little gifts for the kids in her class.  We are going to make Halloween bookmarks this year.  Her teacher is very health conscious and is not going to allow any of the kids to bring candy to school.  Eek!  Halloween with no candy!  Hard to imagine, but she was excited to know we were going to still be able to make something for her to give to her friends. 

Here is the card I made for Allyson to invite her over to make bookmarks:

I used an orange card base and Halloween patterned  paper left over from last year with a large circle window diecut with a Spellbinder die.  Since the orange ink didn't show up well on the black patterned paper, I cut an acrylic circle and stamped directly onto it.  I had to heat set it a little to get it to dry, but it is very bright and shiny in person.  Since Allyson can't wear any Halloween costumes to school, I made her a little badge to wear the day of her party.  She loves pins and badges, so I know she will be excited to wear it.  Here is a close-up of the badge:

I used Waltzingmouse stamps Halloween Party for this card and lots of black glitter to make the badge sparkle.  The card has a spiderweb diecut border and lots of distress ink to give it a spooky feel.  I also added some sparkly bats from Halloween Party to fly across the sentiment focal point.  I know Allyson will have fun making bookmarks with me and I only wish I had discovered this hobby while my own kids were young enough to enjoy it!

"October" 4 of a Kind

It's time to share another 4 of a Kind project with you all.  A few months ago, Renee, Joyce and Kim who are forum friends of mine started a little monthly project that has turned out to be really fun and creative.  Each month one of us mails the others a little kit of stamping ingredients.  Our challenge is to make a project using at least "4" of the kit ingredients and then reveal them on the same day to each other.  It has been such fun awaiting the arrival of our kits, digging into them to see what stamps and papers we have to work with and then checking out each other's cards to see how similar or different they are from each other.  This month the kit came from Joyce and here is a peek at all of the ingredients she sent to us:

I was so excited to see this kit because, 1) I don't have this stamp set and
                                                         2) My son and daughter-in-law just took a hot air balloon ride less than a month ago for their two year anniversary.  There was no doubt in my mind that my project using Up, Up and Away  would be some type of scrapbook page or framed collage from their day own Up, Up and Away Anniversary.  Here is my project:

I used so many pieces of this kit to make my scrapbook page.  I colored the balloons in similar colors to the ones that Matt and Katie saw and rode in on their anniversary.  I used so many pieces of the kit to make this page and still have enough left over to make one or two cards.  My favorite part of the page is the map circle with the number two on it.  That circle was cut from one of the little packages that held our ingredients.  I think Matt and Katie will really love having this displayed in their bookshelf and wouldn't be surprised if they are going to expect another one next year for their 3rd anniversary.
Here is a look at the page all assembled and framed:

Now that you have looked at my 4 of a Kind project, make sure you pop over and look at projects from my three friends, Renee, Joyce and Kim.  I also think there is a prize available if you leave a comment on all four blogs and become a follower of each!   Here is a link to their blogs:

Joyce
Kim
Renee

Waltzing on Vacation





It is the 17th of the month and I am waltzing today...from vacation.  I am in Montana with my husband enjoying some nice cool, rainy weather, so different from my home in California.  Since I am without my craft supplies (something I am going to remedy before before next summer's vacation), I made a few projects to share while I am away. 

Today's Waltzingmouse Blog Waltz theme is Thanksgiving/Thankful and I have a lot to be thankful for.  My family is all doing well, my husband and I have good jobs, we have a nice home and life is good and for all these reasons I am thankful.

I have made another candle.  Yes, I was in candle-making mode last week.  To see my Halloween candle from last week, click here.

I used Waltzingmouse  Bountiful Basket Additions and Flourishes-Scallops and Dots to make this candle.  The image was stamped in Memento ink onto cream colored tissue paper.  I colored it with copics, very carefully because you barely have to touch the tissue paper with the pen, it spreads really quickly.  After the image was colored you just cut it out as close to the image border as possible.  You just lay it over the candle colored side up (I used a dab of glue stick to hold mine in place) and then lay a piece of wax paper over it and hold it smoothly and securely.  Run your heat tool over it back and forth being careful to not heat too long as the candle itself will melt.  You can tell when the image has been transferred because the tissue paper will become translucent.  I did the same thing with the flourishes and the sentiment.  You don't have to do them all at the same time, but try not to re-heat the images that are already adhered.  The last step was just a little lace trim around the top of the candle.

Thanks for taking a look at my Blog Waltz Project.  To see all the other great Waltzingmouse Blog Waltz projects, click here.



WMSC#68

I have had this post written and almost posted 3 times this week. I kept changing my mind about whether to enter it in the WMSC#68 based on this sketch by Claire Brennan: 

Here is what I made:

Now here is why I have debated about posting it in the sketch challenge.  In the sketch, I see a rectangle with two embellishments, one in each corner.  When I made my candles, the house is the rectangle, the bats and the pumpkins were the two corner embellishments.  They stood out a lot until I added that spooky, gothic fence.  For whatever reason, the fence that I absolutely love, kept the other elements from standing out.  Now, if this had been a card, I would have popped up the bats and pumpkins and they would have stood out, but on a candle, I guess less is more and I should have left off the fence.  If anyone has ever colored a detailed image on tissue paper, you will know why I didn't want to start over and color another house!  So, here's my haunted house candle loosely based on the sketch.  I used Waltzingmouse A Cottage Home for the house and the bats and pumpkins are from Halloween Party.  That infamous fence is from Hocus Pocus.  You might also notice the little stand the candle is sitting in.  I found this at Target and it is actually a cupcake holder shaped like a spider.  Cute, don't you think?

WMSC68 & CR84FN40 - A Little Birdie Told Me

Today I have a card for Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #68 as well as CR84FN40.  The sketch is by Claire Brennen:

Isn't it a good sketch with lots of ways to interpret it?  For more details about this sketch challenge, click here:

This weeks CR84FN40 colors are red, brown and kraft.  For more details of this challenge, click here.  Who doesn't love those three colors?  I have used them many times and this time went CAS with my card design.

Here's my card:

I used dark chocolate cardstock stamped with a woodgrain pattern for the card base and Waltzingmouse stamps Sewing Box Hugs for the cute little bird.  I stamped it onto red cardstock and added a gingham texture to it with all three layers popped up on dimensionals.  The kraft notebook page has the sentiment stamped over and over in dark chocolate ink.  At the top, I made a little "It's Your Birthday" badge using the same red and brown gingham and some dark chocolate cardstock stamped with a woodgrain pattern to mimic the badge's ribbon.  It is attached to the notepad with a little mini clothespin.  I attached the note book page to the cardbase with dark chocolate twine.  This little card just makes me smile.  That little bird gets me every time!

WMSC#67-Fall Flower Basket Tag

Today I am sharing a tag I made for Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #67.  The sketch this week is by Claire Brennan:

This cute sketch inspired me to make a tag using a new set I just received called Bountiful Basket Additions.  I stamped two large label images from Vintage Labels #18 in versamark and embossed them with clear embossing powder.  I cut out the center layer and popped it up with dimensional tape. The Vintage label doesn't need a whole lot to make it beautiful, these images hold their own and the clear embossing with the extra large image is so striking.  It has been cool and raining here, so I made my basket full of fall color flowers.  The basket is stamped onto kraft cardstock and colored with copics.  I then embossed  it with a SU square lattice embossing folder.  It looks and feels like a real basket.  The sentiment is from Sewing Box Hugs.  A really pretty bow with orange and green wrinkled ribbon tied on with twine and a button add a little bit of frill to the tag.  I die cut a couple of leaves and embossed them with the square lattice embossing folder too, just to bring in a little bit more Fall color.  Here's a little closeup of the popped up layer and the embossed basket.

Thanks for taking a look at my Fall tag.  I hope you all will consider playing along with the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenges.  There are some great sketches in the archives too that are perfect for jump-starting your creativity.