Day 4 - Waltzingmouse SoAP - Free Spirit - Boy Revisited! And the WMS Sketch

Welcome to the last day of the Waltzingmouse Stamp of Approval Parade - today all of the Design Team is parading the Free Spirit - Boy stamp set.  Check the end of my post to see how you can participate in a parade challenge!

There are lots of summer events coming up that this set is perfect for! I made 3 cards to show you just some of its' uses!  All of the sentiments are from Free Spirit - Sentiments. (a great complementary set for Free Spirit - Boy!)

First off - I made a graduation card.

This could be for a high school or a college grad!  I love the skateboarder and bike stamps.   My design is today's Waltzingmouse Sketch -  and since this is a long post - I'll let you just check out all the details about the sketch challenge here.

Here's what I stamped on the inside:

A lot of people travel during the summer -  so I created this fun Route 66 card.

 I used my newly acquired Spellbinders Elegant Posts die and some cool road map patterned paper.

And my final offering for you is a cool summertime surfer card!  I just can not open this set up without using the fun surfboards so here's a surfing card!

First, I embossed a square Nestability on my card.  Then I stamped the boards directly on the patterned paper and adhered it inside the frame.  I die cut the waves and adhered them over the panel with foam tape. I added one little blue gem to the flower on the surfboard.  An easy peasy design!

So there you go -  I hope I've given you a little inspiration for using this wonderful masculine stamp set!

As our parade ends -   we invite you to participate in a CASE (Copy and Share Everything) competition.

Find a card or project from any of those posted during the SoAP by the WMS Design Team.  CASE that project using Waltzingmouse Stamp images, post it on your blog or gallery and link it using the Inlinkz on Claire’s blog.

The competion will close at 8:00 AM Claire’s time (Ireland) on June 10th (3 AM Eastern, 2 AM Central and Midnight, Pacific time).

One project will be randomly selected to be highlighted with a Parade of its own on several of the Design Team blogs.  The winner will be announced on Claire’s blog on June 11th.

And now I hope you'll follow the parade one last time to see what the other Design Team members have to show us using this great stamp set!  Thank you SO much for joining us these past 4 days!

Anya Schrier

Belinda Chang Langner

Bonnie Sharp

Carly Robertson

Claire Brennan

Jennifer Holmes

Julia Aston - you are here

Kate Whelan

Laurie Schmidlin

Lynn Mercurio

Mona Pendleton

Niki Estes

Sandie Dunne

Sarah Martina Parker

Tosha Leyendekker

To the Grad Card:
Stamps: Waltzingmouse -  Free Spirit - Boy, Free Spirit - Sentiments
Paper:  white, true black, Hawaiian Shores - PTI
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Hawaiian Shores - PTI
Accessories:  Rhinestones - Darice (Michaels), trio labels - Spellbinders, foam tape.

Route 66 Card:
Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Free Spirit - Boy, Free Spirit - Sentiments
Paper:  White, True Black - PTI,  Green Bazzill Irish Eyes, DP Paper Pizazz - Road Map.
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Memento Bamboo Leaves, Ranger Distress Antique Linen
Accessories:  Key tag punch and 1 3/4" circle punch - SU, 1 1/2" punch - EK Success, circle Nestability, Elegant Posts - Spellbinders.

Aloha Card:
Stamps: Waltzingmouse -  Free Spirit - Boy, Free Spirit Sentiments.
Paper:  White, Hawaiian Shore, DP Text Style 2009 Bitty Dot basics - PTI
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black
Accessories:  foam tape, square Nestability, waves die - MFT, gem - Darice(Michaels)

Celebrating the Journey and A Puzzling Thing

I have two things to share with you today - First we were given this sketch over on Split Coast

And here is my card using that sketch -

I used 3 different travel themed designer paper for my panels and paper pieced the dress with one of them also. Just in case you don't know what paper piecing is - you stamp the image - then stamp it again on some designer paper - in this case I stamped the dress area - I cut out the dress from the designer paper and attached it over the image. This traveling lady is from a stamp set called Going Places by My Favorite Things.

The sentiment is cut with a Spellbinders Tag Trio, embossed and up on foam dimensionals. I added a metal filigree thingy (that I purchased last week at the Antiques Fair I went to in Brimfield, MA) and a wooden leaf button in the corners. I colored my image with Prismacolor markers and a flesh copic. This card is going postal tomorrow morning to my friend who is definately celebrating her journey!

Stamps: Going Places: My Favorite Things
Paper: Vintage cream: PTI, Basic Black: SU, DP : Autumn Leaves Stack
Ink: Onyx Black Versafine
Accessories: glue dots, foam dimensionals, Prismacolor markers, Copics, wooden button, metal filigree, Spell Binders Tag Trio, Cuttlebug

My second offering today is this fun puzzle piece that I decorated. My brother-in-law and his wife have retired to Killington, VT and are involved with many social groups there. This month the The Killington Arts Guild is running a fun activity where they passed out these puzzle pieces for people to decorate - they measure about 20" x 20". They will display them and auction them off to make money for the Arts Guild programs. So knowing that I stamp and do other crafts - Carol asked me if I'd be interested in decorating one and I said "sure"! Of course then I had to think of something creative to do!!

So I came up with this idea of highlighting the New England States using old time post cards for each state and a couple of old time travel posters as well - one for winter and one for summer. And of course I had to use a ski one being in Killington and all! These images come from a Dover CD Rom & Book called Old Time Travel Posters and Luggage Labels. I just printed what I wanted on card stock and cut them out using photo edge scissors. I mounted them to the designer paper with foam dimensionals so they stick up a little. I used 3 fun designer papers from Cosmo Cricket called Mr. Campy to cover the puzzle piece - as well as some stickers that are also Mr. Campy. I sponged around the edges with Close to Cocoa ink.
So if you are in the Killington, VT area the weekend of Sept 27 & 28th - look up this Arts Guild show and see if you can find my puzzle piece!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Rockin Socks Award and Got your Passport?

My new blogging friend, Deb Neerman, just gave me this fun sock's rockin award! So now it's my turn to pick 6 deserving blogging friends to pass it on to!

Please check out these great blogs to see all the fun stuff out there!

Charlene - has beautiful fresh ideas with her cards!

Dee - has great cards as well as wonderful scrapbook pages to share with you!

Jewels - is so creative with her card designs!

Emma - has fun crafts mixed in with her card offerings!

Loretta - has the most interesting cards and was just published in Take Ten Magazine!

Deena - will keep you in the know about all the fun things going on in blogland!

So check them all out and leave them a comment or two - tell them Julia sent you!!


And now that those formalities are taken care of - here is my card!

I made this quick card for the Ways to Use it Challenge over at Split Coast that was called 'Get Packing' - to use packing materials or travel related stamps - I wanted to do the challenge because I have a ton of travel stamps but I really needed to get to bed! I tried to do a no layer simple card - but just couldn't do it - it seems that I must add layers! So this is pretty close - stamping on a piece of DP and layering it on the card! I only added ribbon at the top. The cute vespa girl is from Amuse Stamps and the sentiment is by Uptown Designs.

Thanks so much for dropping by - I really appreciate it!

Stamps: vespa girl: Amuse, Passport please: Uptown Designs
Paper: Green Bazzill, DP: Basic Grey - Archaic
Ink: Onyx black versafine
Accessories: ribbon: Michaels, glue dots

To Go Where I have Never Gone

This is my card for today's Inspiration Challenge over at Split Coast Stampers.

This is the picture of the bedding to be used as our inspiration today

HaPpY Saturday to you all! I did a few chores first thing like a good girl - so I could jump into my stamping room to get going on today's card.

I was inspired by a few of the images and the teal and gray colors.

It's funny how cards evolve. This started out as a 5 x 5 card and I had stamped images of faces and leaves as well as the ones I ended up using - and I had used lime green ink on some things. I always tend to do literal interpretations of the inspiration challenges - so I was pulling out all the stamps I had that looked like the images on the piece!

As I was laying them all out on the card - I realized that while it had a lot of the images from the inspiration piece - it wasn't looking very pretty (!) - and that's when I had the bright idea to white emboss a few images, not use others and make the card a regular 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 size card! I realized it was ok to not put everything including the kitchen sink on the card!

I'm also learning to take more time with my cards - to put together a template first and see if it works - sometimes even stamping it on regular computer paper to try out a design. You may be thinking that this would take even more time but in the long run it doesn't because you aren't wasting your good card stock when you decide you don't like the direction you are going in!

I tend to be grabbing minutes here and there to do my stamping (do you too??) - between working and just 'living' it's hard to fit it all in. But stamping is my passion so I find the time.

Thinking I only have limited time in my stamping room tends to make me rush to get a card done but I'm learning to stop and smell the 'inks'! The creative process can't be rushed and I miss out on allowing myself to grow if I don't 'think' about the design before throwing it together.

So - back to this card! All of the images accept for the flower are white embossed. I drew on the lines with my gel pen and punched holes on the photo corner and image corners so the colors would show through. I used a panel of Stampin Up designer paper behind the images.

The sentiment is by Uptown designs and the row of trees is by Rubber Tree Stamps. I added dots with my gel pen and Prismacolor marker around the flower frame.

I love doing the Inspiration Challenge - I always end up making a card I wouldn't normally think of!

This afternoon I'm going to be back in my stamping room (Yay!) working on a few craft items that I'll share with you when I get them done so be sure to check back!

Thanks so much for sharing some of your Saturday with me!! Tomorrow is the Featured Stamper Challenge on SCS so you'll see a card from me for that too!

Stamps: Paris in the Spring & Seeing Spots: SU, Trees: Rubber Tree Stamps, Sentiment: Uptown Designs
Paper: Taken with Teal, Basic Grey: SU, Papertrey White, DP: SU
Ink: Taken with teal
Accessories: white gel pen, grey Prismacolor marker, White EP, hot gun, Versamark embossing ink, circle punches, hole punch, dimensionals, photo corner punch