November Friendly Feature–Nancy Penir

Hello Waltzingmouse Fans. Today we have a wonderful guest blogger to share some wonderful Christmas inspiration. Many of you will recognize:

Nancy’s blog, Artful Notions, is packed full of unique and creative designs of all things crafty. She loves Waltzingmouse Stamps –and a wonderful friend and supporter. Just take a look at what Nancy is sharing with us today.

Talk about exciting news, I received an email from Lynn and Claire (THE Lynn and Claire!) of Waltzingmouse Stamps inviting me to be the November Friendly Feature blogger.

YES! I’m excited to be a friend of WMS, and thrilled it was November, as I LOVE the holidays, and their holiday stamps!

I created 2 projects to share and showcase their gorgeous sets.

Festive Foliage was stamped and ghost stamped along the top and bottom edge, before adding the red berries which were first stamped, then stamped again with Stamp N' Bond, before adding Prisma glitter.

Bright Season lantern has its own die which allows me to shine (along with the lantern!). I fussy cut the candle and leafy sprig. I’m so excited that Waltzingmouse Stamps has come out with dies.

Their easy placement of the die makes for a perfect cut.

Tags are gifts I give this time of year at housewarmings and cookie exchanges.

The inspiration for my tags came from Lindsey L, who created a set of double tags .that I loved and they are so easy to make, yet looks so good. (Did I tell you I love layers?) This is a set I'm taking to friends this Wednesday.

My tags feature Folk Art Christmas Additions which are the perfect size for tags, AND they have their own dies.

Unfortunately the dies just came out, so I fussy cut these and popped them up with foam. (Can't wait to get those dies!)

A little burlap ribbon and a twine bow and done!

I used Zing embossing powder in 2 shades of aqua. The folksy designer paper is from Webster's Pages.

Well, I could show you more of the fun I've had with my Waltzingmouse Stamps and about what a thrill this has been to be the month’s Friendly Feature,  but I think you get the idea.

Thank you Waltzingmouse!

**************

Aren’t these amazing creations? Just in time for the Christmas tag making season too!

We asked Nancy to answer these questions to help us get a better idea about her process and crafting history:

When did you get into this hobby?

Officially 2010.  That was when I ordered my first stamp set.  Before that, I dabbled in scrapbooking.  I began to love the possibilities of working with a size A2 card.

What is your favorite manufacturer of cardstock?

PTI!  I found PTI’s cardstock by accident while browsing through a card making magazine.  I noticed how sturdy everybody’s cards looked.  I love the colors, the weight, its uses are endless.  You can paint on it, die cut with it, emboss and texturize it.  It simply makes the best looking cards.

What is your favorite Waltzingmouse stamp set or one you reach for ever and over?

There isn’t a stamp set I’ve ordered that I don’t love...and I mean LOVE.  Right now, the Christmas stamps, particularly the Folk Art Christmas, make the most adorable tags and cards.  I was sent a free stamp set with my first order, a phrase filled set, which I use constantly.  The script is so beautiful.

Do you have a favorite technique?

That’s easy.  I love layers.  More is more in my world.

Do you own a die cutter?  What kind?

I own a little Cuttlebug, one of the original models.  I bought it on eBay because I wasn’t sure I was going to continue this hobby.  Bad move.  It’s trade-in time.

What is your favorite color combo?

Red and white.  I’m a color nut.  My grandchildren ask me all the time, “Grandma, what’s your favorite color?”  I tell them I don’t have one.  I love them all. 

If money wasn’t an issue, what crafty stuff would you buy?

I am currently looking for a wonderful camera.  I want to do more with photography.  When you do something you love and take a photo with a point and shoot, you want to scream.  Didn’t I put glitter on that?!  So my next purchase is a decent camera.  Right after the new die cutting machine.

Who is your most admired crafter, or the person that inspires/challenges you most?

To narrow this down to one person is impossible.  I admire everybody.  I admire the wonderful people who bring us all together by providing us with all the best stamping materials and crafting tools; the design teams inspire me to do excellent work; I have one or 2 favorites that are my go-to for inspiration if I’m dry, and they are Betsy Veldman and Melissa Phillips.  They never fail to trigger an idea or layout or color scheme.  They’re fabulous.

Please join us in thanking Nancy for guest blogging today and for being such a loyal friend of Waltzingmouse Stamps!

...PJ party Tag challenge winner!

OK, it was tough, it was really, really hard to decide, there were so many fabulous entries but there was just something so extra cozy and huggy about the wee house on the cozy winter wishes tag from Jill Norwood that made me keep coming back to it. I've always had a thing about wee houses anyhow, but I think Jill's tag just epitomised hat I would like our home to be, cozy, war, festive and largely handmade! Given that we have just moved home, I guess this subject is very close to my heart at present!

 Jill congratulations, pop me an email, better use claire.brennan1@ntlworld.com, and I will organise your prize!

...Now available, new Gingerbread, Afternoon Tea dies and more!

 Afternoon Tea die set

 Folk Art Christmas Die set

 Gingerbread family Die set

 You're a doll die set

Good morning folks! Scroll down to the previous post to see most of the PJ party winners, I am still deliberating over those tags, lol, such a hard choice you made it ladies!!!

This is just a quick note to advise folks that the dies pictured above are now available.

I have a quick infomercial here for you regarding the Folk Art Christmas dies to match the Folk Art Christmas stamps - I had designed them with tag making in mind and while the ornament and the bell already have little hanging loops I decided to add a loop to the dies for both the reindeer and the birdie - if you look through the series of photos below, you can see that the reindeer image stamps as the reindeer, but when you overlay the die, a handy dandy little hanging loop is automatically added!

I thought this was a great idea as it means I don't have to punch a hole in my reindeer in order to hang him as a tag, and it is so easy to snip off the loop if I just want to put him on the front of a card. See the pics!

 

Stamp the reindeer

 

cut a reindeer from some grey scrap card to make the die template

 

 position the template over the stamped image and mark the wee target holes

see Lynn's video here for a complete explanation if you are unsure.

 

die cut the reindeer, perfectly aligned!

 

 if you don't need that loop, just trim it off!

or, use the loop to use your reindeer as a cute tag!

hope it tickles!

...November PJ winners!

Oh My! ladies, I am still working my way through and leaving comments, I have the following results for you, randomly chosen by the random number generator:

Challenge 1 - the winner is:

Random Number 11  - Maria F. - Congratulations Maria pop me an email on info@waltzingmousetsamps.com - put the word PJ winner in your subject line so I can find you easily! I will send you your store discount!


Challenge 2: the winner is:

 Random Number 29  - Kathy Riley. - Congratulations Kathy pop me an email on info@waltzingmousetsamps.com - put the word PJ winner in your subject line so I can find you easily! I will send you your store discount!


Challenge 3, the winner is:

The Tag you're It winner will be chosen on Sunday and announced on Sunday evening, I have not yet finished going through the entries and I want to really take my time since I am picking a winner myself! ... and I am so indecisive...LOL!!!


Challenge 4, the winner is:

 Random Number 7  - Carla. - Congratulations Carla pop me an email on info@waltzingmousetsamps.com - put the word PJ winner in your subject line so I can find you easily! I will send you your store discount!

Can I just say a massive thank you to everyone who played along, I am still visiting blogs and commenting and I have seen such incredible ideas and projects that I am bound to be pinning things all week! I  really appreciate folks taking time out to join our party and I do hope you will all be back again to play along in January - we will take December off from PJ parties, I know you will all be very busy! We will have out next PJ party at the end of January, I will announce the exact date later on, but it will be late January.

in the meantime I am still adding goodies to the store so I'll be back shortly with more news on that.

...Welcome to the November Pajama Party!

ED - folks you can enter these challenges as many times as you like, all we need is a separate link for each project if you  please! :) Cheers for the question Deirdre!

Welcome to the November Pajama Party - won't you come on in and join us, it's easy peasy, simply read through the following challenges - see if any of them tickle and start your creations now -  Most of the challenges remain open for 24 hours, you might have time to play if you get going right away!

You are welcome to play along with us even if you have no WMS stamps to use, and we will still add you to the random prize draws, of course if you can use WMS so much the better, if you win a prize it will be doubled!

As usual there will be a Bedtime Story Sketch challenge at the end of the party which will remain open for one week - so come on get your best flannelette jammies on and get crafting!

Challenge 1

Thank you very much for being my.....

Make a card/project featuring the theme of Thanks, Thanksgiving or Thankfulness. You do not have to use Waltzingmouse Stamps products to play along, but if you do, you will be eligible to double your prize if you win.My sample used you're a Doll, together with the new co-ordinating dies! More about those tomorrow!

When to make: Make your project now, or if you have already made it in preparation for tonight's party, link it up now!
How do I link it up?: Post your project to your blog/gallery and post a direct link to it into the inlinkz tool here in this challenge description. Grab the Pajama party badge now from the beginning of this post to add to your challenge blog posts, this will kelp us to find you in the event of a wobbly link. Links for this challenge will remain open for 24 hours.
What will happen? : After the links close we will choose a random project to win a spot prize of £10 store credit! If the randomly chosen winner has used WMS stamps in the winning project the winner will double their prize and receive £20 store credit.

Challenge 2 - 

Pick a card, any card, so long as it's Christmas!

Classic Christmas cards if you please for this challenge ladies and gents! I want to see you on your best Christmas behaviour - You might even want to consider an interactive card! This is THE perfect challenge to dust down all of your old WMS Christmas sets but remember, my sample above (from the archive) uses Seasonal Remedies.

When to make: Make your project now, or if you have already made it in preparation for tonight's party, link it up now!
How do I link it up?: Post your project to your blog/gallery and post a direct link to it into the inlinkz tool here in this challenge description. Grab the Pajama party badge now from the beginning of this post to add to your challenge blog posts, this will kelp us to find you in the event of a wobbly link. Links for this challenge will remain open for 24 hours.
What will happen? : After the links close we will choose a random project to win a spot prize of £10 store credit! If the randomly chosen winner has used WMS stamps the prize will double and will receive a £20 store credit.
Interactive Bonus - A bonus £10 will be added to this prize if the project created is an interactive card!

Challenge 3 - 

Tag, you're it!

Simple pimple - make me a tag, and I mean make a tag for ME - lol, no really, make something that you think will appeal to me - I'm going to go out on a limb here and for this challenge I will pick the tag that makes me smile the widest to win!! ( I just know I'm gonna regret this!! lol) My sample used Folk Art medallion and the new Folk Art Christmas set together with one of the dies, which arrived today, I will be posting about these tomorrow when they will be available on the store!

When to make: Make your project now, or if you have already made it in preparation for tonight's party, link it up now!
How do I link it up?: Post your project to your blog/gallery and post a direct link to it into the inlinkz tool here in this challenge description. Grab the Pajama party badge now from the beginning of this post to add to your challenge blog posts, this will kelp us to find you in the event of a wobbly link. Links for this challenge will remain open for 24 hours.
What will happen? : After the links close we will choose a random project to win a spot prize of £10 store credit! If the randomly chosen winner has used WMS goodness of any description, (and we include freebies in this challenge,) in the winning project the winner will double their prize and receive £20 store credit.

Challenge 4 - 

Time to Deck those Halls again

I would absolutely LOVE to see some decorations for this challenge, anything that can hang on a tree or stand on a table - and you know we want to see Christmas for this.... my sample is another from the Archives and it features the Nutcracker Sweet stamp set.

When to make: Make your project now, or if you have already made it in preparation for tonight's party, link it up now!
How do I link it up?: Post your project to your blog/gallery and post a direct link to it into the inlinkz tool here in this challenge description. Grab the Pajama party badge now from the beginning of this post to add to your challenge blog posts, this will kelp us to find you in the event of a wobbly link. Links for this challenge will remain open for 24 hours.
What will happen? : After the links close we will choose a random project to win a spot prize of £10 store credit! If the randomly chosen winner has used WMS goodness of any description, (and we include freebies in this challenge,) in the winning project the winner will double their prize and receive £20 store credit.

Bedtime Story

Our Bedtime story sketch - make a card reflecting this sketch and link it up here, you have one week! Here are a few samples from the DT to get you started.

...Comment winner

And we have a winner - we asked folks to spread the word for us about our new goodies and leave us a comment, the random number picker thingumybob chose this one:

Anonymous who said... 

I'm visiting here the first time from Amazing Paper Grace. Love your stamp sets. Pinned my favorite on a new Pinterest board I created.
http://www.pinterest.com/leannesoares/check-it-out/
-Leanne

Leanne - pop me an email on claire.brennan1@ntlworld.com and I will organise your prize - be sure to put the term 'WMS Christmas Winner' in your subject line, so I can easily see you!

...Waltzingmouse Christmas Day 4 - Ornaments!

 

Good morning folks, again, I cheat! I created this hanging ornament some time ago, but I do think it bears another look. Today is 'Ornament Day' of our little Christmas inspiration event, I hope you have been enjoying the show so far - and don't forget to comment on this post, there's a bit of a giveaway happening tonight and all ya gotta do is comment!

You might call it a tussie of sorts and it is made with the Fabulous Spellbinders Heirloom Ornament dies from 2010, still on of my favourite die sets. The hanging box has two sections and can hold quite a few little treats etc, you just need a stout branch to hang it on! I used the Vintage Ornaments stamp set on the outside and Festive foliage stamps in the interior of the tussie, scroll down to see. Hope it tickles, even if you have seen it before!

The DT ladies have some new ideas for you today and I cannot wait to take a peep at what they have been up to!

Lynn Mercurio
Edna Morrisedie
Renee Lynch
Julia Aston
Teresa Kline
Kelly Schirmer
Tosha Leyendekker
Jeanne Jachna
Jen Cuthbertson
Becca Feeken
Anya Schrier
Karin Akesdotter
Sandie Dunne
kim Duran 

Iwona Palamountain

...A Waltzingmouse Christmas Day 3

Good morning folks! We are running a little inspiration event here at Waltzingmouse Stamps and the Design Team have an array of Christmas tags for your perusal this morning! I have cheated slightly ( ok a lotly) in that I have posted an oldie but goodies that I made a while ago - I made two circular tags with the crescent Santa from the Around Christmastime set.

 I love that image! I stamped in black Verasfine and clear embossed before colouring with copics, you can see some of the trellis from Pic nic patterns and a little holly from Festive Foliage peeping out of the background. done in a flash! I mounted one tag on a tin of gingerbread cutters and the other on a card front to make a nice little ensemble!

Here are the DT ladies who are showcasing tags today!

Lynn Mercurio
Edna Morrisedie
Renee Lynch
Julia Aston
Teresa Kline
Kelly Schirmer
Tosha Leyendekker
Jeanne Jachna
Jen Cuthbertson
Becca Feeken
Anya Schrier
Jennifer Holmes
Karin Akesdotter
Sandie Dunne
kim Duran 

Iwona Palamountain
Laurie Schmidlin

Also, don't forget to leave a comment at the end of this post to be in with a chance of winning a little something!

... A Waltzingmouse Christmas - Day 2

Morning! I am a little late, so here are the links to the ladies who are posting today - the girls have some fabby inspiration for you, today we are featuring Christmas cards.

Lynn Mercurio

Edna Morrisedie

Renee Lynch

Julia Aston

Teresa Kline

Kelly Schirmer

Tosha Leyendekker

Jeanne Jachna

Jen Cuthbertson

Becca Feeken

Anya Schrier

Jennifer Holmes

Karin Akesdotter

Sandie Dunne

kim Duran

• Iwona Palamountain
• 
  
• I'm all discombobulated this morning, I'm not even on the right computer! I have a little off school sick today, hence the awfully short post!
• 
  

My card this morning is super simple, the holly sprig from Festive Foliage paired up with a sentiment from the new Seasonal Flourish sentiment set.

...A Waltzingmouse Christmas

 ED - Majo, and Jill many thanks for your questions - we are still waiting on the UK stock - that's why they are showing up as backorder, the UK stock is just delayed, but the USA stock is in and ready to ship immediately!

Good morning and welcome to the beginning of our 4 day Christmas inspiration event. Since we are not having our normal release countdown this month I thought it would be a great idea to have a mid-month event where we can help you with some ideas for the upcoming festivities!

It's a chance for us to show you some projects created with some of our older sets and also some of the new goodies that are instore right now, but which we have not had a chance to shout about just yet! And yup - it's always a good idea to read right down to the end of the post, you never know what I might be giving away at the bottom...

I have for you this morning a reveal of two sets that were added to the store just last night and a whole host of new dies - but before I get to the art, the DT have about a million ideas for you using the newly release Alpine Christmas stamp set and some of our new dies. They have been working hard and I am particularly excited to visit Lynn's blog, I know she has been working on something a little bit special that will be a great help to many folks - Lynn also had a power outage last night, so her post may not be up in time this morning, but check back later, it will be so worth it!:

Anya Schrier
Becca Feeken
Edna Morrisedie
Jeanne Jachna
Jen Cuthbertson
Jennifer Holmes
Julia Aston
Karin Akesdotter
Kelly Schirmer
kim Duran
Laurie Schmidlin
Lynn Mercurio
Renee Lynch
Sandie Dunne
Teresa Kline
Tosha Leyendekker

 The ladies will return tomorrow when we will be featuring Christmas card designs. On Wednesday we will have Christmas Tag inspiration and on Thursday we will have eye candy in the shape of Ornaments and Decorations! Do pop back!

If you can't wait to see the new stuff, here it is:

 Seasonal Flourish

A large stamp set, choc full of beautifully scripty Christmas and New Year sentiments. It's like the little black dress of Christmas stamp sets.

Folk Art Christmas Additions

A medium sized set styled to match the original Folk Art Medallion stamps, there will be dies for this set, they are due with us at the beginning of next week and I will post here on the blog when they become available. Cutting files for this set will be made available in the next couple of days.

 The Dies

 The following new dies are now available from out USA location only - our UK stock is temporarily delayed, I am sorry. I have disabled the backorder facility on the UK stock until I at least have a definite delivery date, and I will of course be updating folks here on the blog as soon as I can. I apologise to all our UK and European friends, but please be assured we are working hard to bring these dies to UK.

Below you can see the new dies and the stamp sets they co-ordinate with.

Festive Foliage Dies 

 Festive Foliage stamp set shown above is such a huge image set that I decided to break the co-ordinating die set down into 3 smaller sets - the following 3 die sets all work with different images from Festive Foliage.

Pinecones die set co-ordinates with Festive Foliage

 Mistletoe die set co-ordinates with Festive Foliage

Holly Die set co-ordinates with Festive Foliage

The Candy Jar Dies

Candy Jar Christmas shown above on the left and Candy Jar Christmas Fillers right, 

Candy Jar - below left and Jar Fillers Jam packed below right

 The Candy Jar/Jam jar stamp sets above are a great favourite and we have a selection of dies that will enable to you either dip in or immerse yourself completely

 Jar Essentials Die set - co-ordinates with Jar Fillers Jam Packed and can also be used with Candy Jar, Candy Jar Christmas Fillers and Candy jar Christmas. This set contains dies for all of the different lids that appear with the basic jar and offers maximum versatility as you can mix and match the lids and add a label to your jar.

 Sweetie Jar Die set - this die set is great for folks who only need to cut out the complete sweetie jar and label from Candy jar Christmas. It also works for the Candy Jar stamp and it can be used also with Candy Jar Christmas Fillers.

Jar Fillers Christmas Die set - this set of 3 dies cuts out the gingerbread man, the candy canes and the bow from the Candy Jar Christmas Fillers set.

 Fine Feathers Dies

 

Fine Feathers Stamp set

The 5 piece Fine Feathers die set co-ordinates with the Fine Feathers stamp set.

You might like to pin the new goodies to your Pinterest boards to help us get the word out, we'd be most grateful - and I've added a wee pin-it button to each image to make that easy, if you hover your mouse over the images you will see it pop up in the top left corner.

More New at the Store

Just in case you are new to us or if it's been a while since you visited, I just wanted to take a moment to make sure you know about some other exciting developments that have been happening recently at the store, I'll keep it short and sweet!

We now offer Gift Cards - click here to see.

We recently got out loyalty scheme off the ground, 

click here to read about it - you may already have points!

So, since you have been super resilient in making it all the way down here, I would like to offer you the chance to win on of our new stamp sets  - All you need to do is spread the word, pin something, or many things, off this or the DT blogs, share something on facebook, tweet about our new dies, we'd really like to get the word out there!

Leave a comment here on this post telling me what you did to spread the word and I will draw a random winner at the end of our Christmas event (Thursday night) The winner will receive a free stamp set of their choice, and if I can squoochy in a set of dies of some sort, I surely will!

Hope it tickles!

...You make the season bright

Evening! I'm gonna keep this one short and sweet I have a suspicion I picked up more than the kids from school today, you know that glowy feeling in your cheeks when you are coming down with the lurgy...?

A few little tag I made with the Little Lanterns set - and the co-ordinating dies, I do love these. I wanted the lanterns to be all aged and weather beaten and so what I did was to ink up the woodgrain Backgrounder stamp and then pick up the ink on my lantern stamp from there, see the pic below - you will notice that my woodgrain stamp is all white ink, I was too lazy to scrub it before inking it up in brown ink, shocking I know, but actually it kinda toned down the brown ink a little, which I liked... I used the same technique with the candles.

 I added a mini scene to the purchased manila tags with the Alpine Christmas mountains stamp and a tiny section of the village. the village is a two-part stamp - I have a buildings stamp and a separate roof stamp, which is handy for when you want to make little snow covered roofs on a dark background! the sentiment is from Cottage Christmas and I added a little ray of light to the word 'Bright' with a stamp from Bright Season. Colours were Old Rose and Bark - both Versacolour inks and WPlus9 White.

Hope it tickles!