Challenge #48–May 21, 2011

Hello and welcome to the Waltzingmouse Stamps Sketch Challenge blog. We are pleased to bring you inspiration and enthusiasm for Waltzingmouse Stamps each Saturday.  We hope that you will find our samples so inspiring that you will play along with us.

Today is a very special day – it’s Waltzingmouse Stamps’ 2nd birthday.  Two years ago today, Waltzingmouse Stamps opened its wee doors and enchanted us with the unveiling of Half Baked Gingerbread Joy and the Oven Fresh Gingerbread Joy sets.  When I asked Claire what surprised her most after releasing her first two sets, she replied, “the fact that anyone actually wanted to buy my stamps!”

Being a small company just starting out, Claire was shocked initially at the amount of work involved in starting a company – even a small one, but she love every minute of it.  Stretching her mind and knowledge about the entire process has proven to be a challenge and a joy.

Claire said, “the most spine-tingling thing about the venture was the first time I saw a card on the web that had my stamps on it and wasn't made by me! That was surreal! Then seeing our stuff on cards that were in magazines was just awesome! Having said that though, the thing that makes me happiest is the amount of lovely people I have met - I was a stay at home mum, with a very limited social life and now I literally have buddies all over the world! How cool is that!”

You will see a birthday theme emerging today from the Mischief Makers and Design Team members as we all send our well wishes to Claire and Waltzingmouse Stamps.  Congratulations Claire…we wish you a happy 2nd birthday and many more to come!

Before we begin the challenge for this week, we are happy to announce the Top Mouse awards from last week’s Sketch Challenge.

This week’s Top Mouse awards go to:

Rosemary

Sharon Gregory (Simplyshaz)

Cyndie

Fantastic creations! Well done, ladies! Please send me an e-mail at lynn.mercurio@gmail.com and I will provide you with the HTML code for your Top Mouse Blinkie.  We hope you will display it proudly.

Each week we randomly select a lucky winner from all the participants to receive a complimentary Waltzingmouse Stamps set of choice. This week the randomly chosen winner is:

Kary Lim

Congratulations Kary.  Please e-mail Claire at  Claire.brennan1@ntlworld.com. Provide her with your contact information and set choice, and she will get your selected set on its way to you.

And now, if you’re ready – get set – let’s party!  Here is another fun sketch created by our own Mischief Maker, Edna Morrisedie.

To help motivate you, take a peek at the wonderful projects the Mischief Makers have for you today:

Beate Johns

Clare Buswell

Edna Morrisedie

Jean Martin

Jen Cuthbertson

Kelly Schirmer

Lenet Mos

Savitri Wilder

....and projects from a couple of our WMS Design Team members:

Anya Schrier

Julia Aston 

Tosha Leyendekker

Are you ready to get started on your own creation?  Break out your card stock and stamps and create a card, tag, scrapbook layout or any paper project - just remember to include the basic sketch in your design and we ask that you use at lease one WMS image on your submission. We reserve the right to remove entries that do not comply with the guidelines as it is not fair to the players who do. Including WMS images on your project adds to the creative inspiration we gain each week from your wonderful creations.

Remember to post your projects using Inlinkz no later than 12:00 noon Central time on Friday, May 27, 2011. We will announce the winner of the stamp set and the new Top Mouse Award winners when the new sketch challenge is posted on Saturday, May 28st. Please use a direct link to your project and feel free to enter as many times as you like!

You don’t have to have a blog to play along with the sketch challenge. If you upload your project to any on-line galleries or forums, please use the keyword of WMSC48.

Get your chat on about the sketch challenge in this forum.   CLICKING HERE.  Have questions? Have comments?  Have suggestions?  We’d love to chat about it. Drop by and say hello!

Sketch Archives:  Have you ever wished you could see all the past Waltzingmouse Stamp sketches all in one place?  Well, now you can.  Anya Schrier organized the Sketch Challenge gallery and you can find it HERE.  It’s a wonderful source of inspiration.

One last thing – If you don’t already have our Sketch Challenge Blinkie posted on your blog, we would be honored if you would grab the blinkie HTML code that may be found on the sidebar and find a place for it in one of your sidebars.  Displaying it on your blog helps us spread the Waltzingmouse Challenge word.

Have a wonderfully creative week!