WMS May Blog Party–Teacher Appreciation

Hello friends and welcome to the May Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog Party.

We owe these teachers a lot, so why not end the school year with a little token of your affection and appreciation. The theme for May's Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog Party is -TEACHER APPRECIATION. This theme is very general and can encompass so many creative projects. Seed Packets to demonstrate the growth that your teacher has helped to nurture, a gift card to pamper him or her after a long school year, or just about anything that you can think of to show your teachers how much their efforts are admired and appreciated. Whether it is a card, a 3D project, or even a scrapbook page, using images from Waltzingmouse Stamps, will produce a ton of inspiration and show your appreciation for those special people who help our little ones learn and grow.

We will follow the usual schedule for our May blog party, and below you will find a schedule of beginning and end times where you can enter your direct link to your project using a direct link here on the WMS blog using the Inlinkz widget that is located at the bottom of this post. The festivities begin right here, according to your location, as indicated below:

UK - 6:30 p.m. 17th May- 6:30 p.m. 18th May

USA (New York) 1:30 p.m. 17th May- 1:30 p.m. 18th May

Australia (Queensland) - 4:30 a.m. 18th May- 4:30 a.m. 19th May

Canada (Alberta) - 11:30 a.m. 17th May- 11:30 a.m. 18th May

Malaysia - 2:30 a.m. 18th May- 2:30 a.m. 19th May

Norway - 7:30 p.m. 17th May- 7:30 p.m. 18th May

The linking option will close after these time frames.  From there you may click on any of the projects linked and you’ll be directed to the participants’ blogs or galleries to get a closer look at their creativity.

Although we call this a "blog party", it is perfectly fine to use an on-line gallery for your project, if you don't have a blog.  It doesn't even have to be the Waltzingmouse Stamps gallery either (although you are most welcome to upload as many WMS projects as you like there).  On-line galleries such as Flickr,  Picasa or even Pinterest are all fine.

You only need to do three things:

1.  You will need to be able to link your project here, using a direct URL

2.  Your project needs to contain something directly related to the theme –  but your inspiration should be noted in your description

3.  You must use Waltzingmouse Stamps images somewhere within your design

We encourage and welcome you to grab this "party mouse" blog button (at the top of this post for your blog sidebar, and to use it at the top of your blog party post.

On the 20th – we will highlight three entries that really catch our eye and you'll be able to see those here on the WMS blog.  We will also select and announce our winner of the FREE stamp set of choice, using a random generator from those participating in the Blog Party.

We hope you will tell your friends about our teacher appreciate day. We owe our children’s educators a great amount of gratitude for the work they do throughout the year! Now, let’s get this party started!

... a little flapper

Evening folks! I have another little Art Deco inspired number for you this evening, I am having such fun with these Art deco Card panel cut files! I adore these, and I am itching to draw up some more, I feel like I have found a little groove with these cards!

For this card I cut out the panel on the Cameo (I used American Crafts cardstock, textured) and then swiped it with Versamark before dusting it all over with copper embossing powder. Once it was heat set I added a little bling to each little...well, lets call them scales. I also took a moment to pop each scale out and slightly curve it up a little to add some texture to the surface.

A simple little sentiment from the Fancy Phrases set and beady doodad wrapped with a little ribbon to finish. I loved it! Hope it tickles!

...a little more Art Deco

ED - Lynn Hardy - pop me an email on claire.brennan1@ntlworld.com I'd love to see if I can format files  to suit at least one of your machines! :)

ED - It's the textured 12x12 card that comes in a box Cathy - ta for asking!

Good afternoon. It's lovely and sunny in between raindrops here and I managed to snap a pic of this little morsel in between clouds. It's the second in my trio of Art deco card fronts, I will have another for you later on.

I love the diamond inspired pattern on this one, I am very drawn to strong geometric patterns...well I'm drawn to pattern of any kind, but there is definitely something about a nice crisp mathematically inspired pattern.

Kept it simple as before, I cut the panel on my Silhouette Cameo and mounted it on foam pads, teeny tiny wee foam pads, to allow it to cast a little shadow on the pale blue card front. A perfectly plain cream panel for my sentiment (Paris Nouveau) and a little beaded doodad to finish. Thought it was rather pretty at that stage so I left it alone.

Hope it tickles and if you did fancy having a go at the Art deco panels, they are available on the store here. A bundle of 3 detailed card panels in .svg and ,dxf formats.

Just for you Katarina, I used these settings on the Cameo - Media - Coverstock, Speel - 1, Thickness - 33. I used a thinner cardstock - American crafts - it cuts like butter. I slow the speed right down - I just pop off for a cuppa while the machine toils away. I don't do a double cut. On heavier cardstock I nearly always do a double cut, but with the American Crafts card I don't need to. Hope this helps!

... a little Gatsby style

I love Art Deco, and the upcoming Gatsby movie is on my list of things to see soon. I also love intricate cut files and I was putting my little Cameo through it's paces the other night with this cut file, I am quite delighted with how it handles the tiny little cuts, although I did spend a few moments with a pokey tool, pushing out little bits and pieces that were too tiny to stick to the mat. Also, I don't think I'd put anything heavier than American Crafts cardstock through with this file, I suspect heavier weight stuff would not cope so well with the file.

Since I wanted the detail to stand out, I mounted the cut file panel on a few strategically placed foam squares so that the cream panel would cast a shadow on the green card front and help highlight the cut file. This cut file might be available soon as part of a bundle of card front cut files that I'm working on.

I added rows of cream and white pearls in the space at the bottom of each diamond panel and an oversized silk ribbon bow and a green button to finish. I would have liked a fancier button, but my stocks are low....

I paired it up with a sentiment from Fancy Phrases which already has that 20's air about it. and used a simple frame from Vintage labels No.2 on my Die cut panel - the Spellbinders Labels 2 dies just scream art deco to me too...

Hope it tickles!

...Big Fish

I'm not much into modern sculpture per se, but I love this fella. This is the Big Fish that sits on Donegall Quay in Belfast. He was made by a chap called John Kindness and he's been there on the quay since 1999. He's covered in pieces of ceramic that bear illustrations and engravings form historical documentation associated with Belfast, the shipyards, the Linen industry, that sort of thing.

This is his eye, it looks a little muddy and cloudy from far away, but if you really peer into it,  it's quite interesting, there is a lot going on in that picture that you don't see at first.

You can see a little more of the detail in this shot. I could spend an age just looking at all the different little pieces of tile. I like the fact that the images and information are mostly historical. I like to think about the past as a place, somewhere in time that still exists. A great big sea full of event and circumstance that brought me floating along to the spot where I am now. My little herd and I are all paddling East, chasing the sunrise, but somewhere just to the West, just out of sight, my folks are still with me.

I hear it's Mother's Day soon in USA, so go grab your mum and give her a big squeeze, or if, like me you just can't lay hands on her right now, give somebody else's mum a squeeze! Mums thrive on hugs.