Waltzingmouse 1st Birthday Blog Waltz!

We don't hop, we waltz our way through the blogs instead - a bit less linear, with some fun dips and twirls along the way! Waltzingmouse Stamps is 1 year old - Happy Birthday!

My order came in just in time for me to make a birthday card, not only for WMS but also for my sister. This card uses the two-stripe plaid stamp from Off Beat Backgrounds, the medium plaid stripe from Pic-Nic Patterns, and a frame and sentiments from Fancy Phrases. The Fancy Phrases fit perfectly into Spellbinders' Fancy Tags dies; mine have not arrived yet so I simply trimmed out the frame with a scissors.



First I stamped the plaid. It is so much fun to do, and you can coordinate it with any color scheme. I went with pink, rose, and soft green for my sister's card.  I took a small paper doily and scored it from point to point all the way around. Then I cut the center out so I could make fan-fold pleats all the way around. I adhered the folded doily to a punched circle to hold it and cover up the inside edges. I saw this idea on the Bits and Pieces blog and ran out and bought a pack of doilies the next day at my local Wal-Mart!

Next, I made some of the spiral cut roses you are seeing a lot out there. Did you know Sizzix actually makes a Bigz die for these now? Not having the die (or the money for one!!), I just drew a spiral on printer paper with a pencil and cut it out with a scalloped scissors. I carefully erased the pencil marks then colored the whole thing with light pink Copic markers and edged it with a deeper rose along the spiral cut. There are a lot of tutorials out there, but what I used is this Sizzix PDF on how to assemble the flower.

I used a pearl bead in the center of each, isn't that a pretty touch? I wanted to control how the bead hole was oriented, so I put it on a pin, applied a blog of Diamond Glaze glue on one side of the bead, and lowered it into the center of the flower. This allowed me to keep the bead hole horizontal, so the hole does not show from the top.

Remember your crimper? That tool that has been gathering dust since embossing folders were created? Pull it back out as your leaf maker! I punched a 1¼ inch circle, folded it in half and ran it through the crimper at an angle diagonal to the fold. Then, while still folded, I cut the sides down to make a half teardrop shape. Open up the fold and you have a perfect textured leaf. You could stop there, but since when do I know when to stop? So the edges, center fold, and ridges were accented with Copic markers!

For the sentiment, I stamped the medium sized plaid stripe in soft green, then stamped the frame and sentiment on top with rose. I wanted it to stand out more from the base plaid, so I filled in the area between the frame and the edge of the paper with a pink Copic marker and edged it with a rose marker. It is mounted on a ⅛-inch thick dimensional. I also ran the rose Copic along the edge of the ribbon on the front to make it match the plaid a bit better.

Can't forget the inside:



I stamped some of the plaid stripes down the sides and used another Fancy Phrase sentiment, plus one of the little flourishes that comes with the set.  I am not sure what the marks are at the bottom of the card - they are not there IRL (in real life); perhaps I need to clean the lens!!!

To see other entries in the blog waltz, just stop by the Play Room forum at the Waltzingmouse House - everyone has listed their entries in the Play Room! Come on in, registration is free and easy and you get to see a lot of good cards, not to mention chances at some very nice blog candy! The blog waltz will kick off Monday, May 17th at 10 a.m. EDT when the blog waltz forum thread opens and we start adding our links!

I hope you are enjoying Waltzingmouse's 1st birthday! Congratulations Claire!

Stamps: Waltzingmouse Stamps - Fancy Phrases, Off Beat Backgrounds, Pic-Nic Patterns
Paper: Printer paper for plaid, roses; 5 x 6 inch ValuePack white card.
Ink: Memento Dye Ink - Angel Pink, New Sprout, Rose Bud; Copic alcohol markers
Embellishments: Paper Doily, Pearl Beads
Tools: ScorePal; Scalloped Scissors, Bow Easy, Crimper