Celebrate the Mouse!

Today Waltzingmouse Stamps is celebrating a special milestone…its first birthday!  One year ago, Claire began her business of selling the creative and adorable clear stamps.  Since that time she has continued to create in her special style that screams elegance and homespun love.  Today the Design Team is celebrating in a special way – with a Blog Waltz.  Most likely you are coming here from Anya’s blog, then you are right on track with the Waltz.  If not, be sure to click on over to Claire’s blog to start.

First I’d like to offer you a piece of cake!  Well, I don’t know that I’d bite into this paper and rhinestone slice of happiness, but it sure is a fun way to dress up a small gift and it was a breeze to make.  Claire is selling this adorable instant-download template that is a snap to print, cut and put together. (£2.50 for the PDF files and £3.00 for the SVG files - or $3.82 and $4.58 USD respectively) I used some older patterned paper and dressed it up with some Zva Creative bling and a border of pompom trim.

There was a tutorial this past week on Splitcoaststampers.com, demonstrating how to make these cute little tea-lite cakes, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.  I grabbed on of the many electronic tea-lites and dressed it up for a fun embellishment for this birthday cake using the instructions provided!

If I had been thinking ahead, I would have designed my special birthday card to match better with my cake box, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out like that, so I hope you will look past that fact.  I wanted to use Claire’s new set, Asian Garden for this card.  I embossed the wonderful grid patterned onto cardstock and then also embossed the cherry blossom images onto vellum cardstock. For my branch I die cut brown cardstock using a new die from Tim Holtz.  I finished off the image with Zva Creative pearls.

After heat embossing the vellum, it added a slight curl to it, but I liked the way it looks and think the curl adds to the dimension of the blossoms.

All eight of the new sets that Claire and the Waltzingmouse Stamps Design Team have been showcasing this week are now available at Waltzingmouse Stamps, so the wait is over.  The hard part for you is deciding which sets to get…and then maybe you will get them all and you won’t have to make a choice! *wink*

Are you ready for even more inspiration?  Be sure to stop along at all the Design Team members’ blogs.  Remember that waltzing along and leaving comments will better your chances of winning a great prize offering from Waltzingmouse Stamps.  Two winners will be selected – one from Claire’s blog and one from comments left at an undisclosed Design Team member’s blog.  So, if you are ready for the music to begin again, you may waltz along to the next Design Team member, Jennifer Holmes!

Thanks for looking in and enjoy your waltz!  Happy Birthday – Waltzingmouse Stamps.

{Supplies}

Stamps: Asian Garden, Words of Wisdom (Waltzingmouse Stamps)

Papers:  Sahara Sand, Sage Shadow, White, Vellum cardstock

Inks:  Color Box Cream White Pigment Ink, Sage Shadow

Accessories:  Zva Creative Peals (PEW-03CA-106-available at i{heart}papers), Rectangular Label Punch (McGill), Labels Four Nestabilities), Ribbon from Stash, Elegant Flourishes Sizzix Die from Tim Holtz