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Wednesday 1 July 2015

...we want your suggestions!


ED - Folks thank you! Your input is invaluable - I got the message loud and clear - we need to give you guys more time to link up! I'm all over it - I'm scrutinising all the comments to try to include the most popular ideas! Thank you! I will post the new plans in a day or so, I'm huddled up in bed with what is hopefully the last virus of the season, seriously folks, next year I will have three school germ pools to deal with...that's gonna be fun.

Tonight though, I have a winner - our random comment winner is:

Christine, who said:

I love the challenges and look forward to them every month but rarely actually get to play. I often have trouble linking within the 24 hour period, even when I've got the cards made in advance, which makes it all the more frustrating for me. So a longer linking period would be appreciated. 
I sometimes find the 3rd challenge confusing. Is it just any older stamp set? Does it need to match the theme?


Congratulations Christine! Pop me an email on claire@waltzingmousestamps.com and I will get your £20GBP store voucher organised for you!
If you've just arrived at this post and  care to add your comments I will still read and reply to them, but please note the draw is now ended.


Evening! I should be posting the invite to the next PJ party this evening, but before I start the next PJ event - I want to chat to you about it.

Currently, we announce the 4 challenges and then two weeks later we put up the party post and invite link ups - we have a 24 hour window for linking up.

There are a couple of folks who play along, and we are delighted to have them, but it's no secret that we are a small group. I want to know if we could make it any easier for you to play. I'm looking for format suggestions, or comments on the current set-up.

Should we change it completely? Should we have one challenge per week with a week long link up? Should we have one a month? Are 4 challenges too much? I'd really appreciate your feedback - hopefully it will help me to organise something that is easy and fun for folks to take part in. We have carte blanche people - I am open to all suggestions, but I will most likely take up the more popular ideas!

Please leave your comments on this post and I will pick a random comment to win a £20GBP gift code for the store. I will pick a winner on Friday evening - about 10pm my time. Thanks in advance for your comments.

37 comments:

  1. I really like the current setup, and even though you gave us two weeks time, I had inspiration for the last project that morning and got it posted with 3 minutes to spare lol. The 4 projects are nice because sometimes for the life of me I can't do one, but there are three others chock full of possibilities.

    Perhaps you could get someone with a large following that doesn't usually use WMS (only because they are busy I'm sure... because WMS are da bomb and even though I do love some other companies too, my WMS collection is slowly and steadily growing) to do a guest challenge and emphasize the WMS is no necessary to play but maybe send the guest a stamp set of their choice?

    I might have had too much or not enough coffee. The jury is still out lol. Let me know if you need clarification and I can message you some people that might be interested.

    BTW would it be possilbe to add a "wish list" to the store?

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  2. I haven't entered the challenges before but I like the idea of one challenge a week and a week to work at it. That way, if I miss out on one challenge, then I can contribute a week later. I find the time runs away with me too much and don't enter enough challenges.

    Thanks!

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  3. Hi Claire,

    I would LOVE to participate in one of these challenges. However, being a little technologically impaired and not having a blog deters me from entering. I ADORE your stamps and I think that my cards do them justice but if you took a little pity upon crafters like me, I personally would be eternally grateful! Keep inspiring us!!!!

    Cariños,
    María Alba

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  4. Hi, I think that one challenge each week is just too many. Perhaps once every two weeks, with two weeks to link up or once a month with that month to link up. A 24 hour window to link up just isn't feasible in my world. Thanks for asking!

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  5. Hi,
    I´m a german and love to play along challenges.It can be all a theme,a sketch,or a color challenge,or something different.Two weeks for one challenge would be the best,because many of us are so busy with many other things of work.Using stamps from WM,but without a must or only.So many crafter will play with using their chance to win a prize.I´m a really challenge lover and mostly play with,if I´ve a good day.
    Hope I understand your question right and my answer isn´t wrong ;o) My English isn´t so good,sorry,
    hugs Sylvie
    Wishing you sunny days and many lovely answers!

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  6. I do try to play along each month as you know, but sometimes I forget about it between the information post and the link up post, so personally I would love if the link up lasted longer. I do like the choice of 4 challenges in one though. Not sure that's all that helpful!

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  7. I love the pajama parties even if I do not always have time to participate. That being said I love that we have plenty of time to prepare and 4 options per party to play along with. Sometimes I only enter one of the 4 but I am always inspired to see what everyone creates and get ideas for when I need a card or have time to play in my craft room. Thanks for hosting them and for the fab prizes!

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  8. I think that your format of 4 different challenges is good, because sometimes I can't think of what to do for one, but one of the other challenges is something I can figure out. :-) And having someone do a guest post for the challenges would bring in others who might want to play. I'd love to see a pic of a quilt and have us use that as inspiration for one of the challenges. Or maybe have all of the challenges for that week/month be quilts!! :-D And by the way, have you ever thought of making your cute WMS mouse into a stamp set with some cute sayings to go along with it? I love your Waltzing mouse!! Now I'm trying to think of what sayings could go with him/her....."Just waltzing by to say Hi" ?Hmmm....you're more creative: you might be able to think of some better ones! LOL! Have a great day!! Hugs, H

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  9. Hi Claire,
    Only have one WMS mainly because I live in the USA. I think you have great stamps, dies and other goodies. It is not so easy to get them here and I have not seen many bloggers here using them. My thoughts about how you might increase awareness of your products in general and over here...

    Does your Design Team participate in the challenges you have already? That should be a requirement. You have lots of followers. Have a Guest Design Team member

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  10. Hi Claire! I love challenges but lately life has been so busy that I'm finding it hard to play along. I feel the 24 hour window is tough with time difference as I live downunder :) Perhaps 2 weeks per challenge would be ideal. I especially love a mix of challenges and the opportunity to use new and older stamp sets. Love WMS and really looking forward to participate more. Hugs!!

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  11. Sharon Wellings1 July 2015 at 21:47

    Hi I agree with Maria, it's the blog aspect that deters me. I love your stamps though!

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  12. Martha continued...
    Possibly choose someone from USA with a good following to promote products on Pinterest, or on their blog. Muse does that a lot.
    Another idea is to increase your publicity by choosing bloggers to use a stamp set and blog about it. We all love to see good ideas for products and then we want them.
    I have not ever even seen your blog honestly to know what you have already done. But I really like your stamps and hope you get something going to give you the results you want. Good Luck!

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  13. Hi again!! Just thought of something else: I like the idea of weekly challenges, with the whole week to be able to enter. Then you could pick out of the 4 weeks per month a winner for the challenges, and if someone entered all of the challenges they would have four more chances to win for that month. Hugs, H

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  14. Lots of great ideas, I miss the weekly WMS challenges, but I think that the monthly challenge is also fine, but I think that perhaps a longer link up time (although I'm one of those few people who can get it together and I love the excuse to play with my WMS stamps). I like the option of several challenges, so I guess my official vote is to stick with the PJ party, but have the link up last a bit longer and remind us MORE before the party that we better organized. (oops, in the wrong account, Erin here).

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  15. I love the advance notice of the challenge, but wish there was more time to link it up (like a week?) I always seem to run out of time! I also like how you have several different themes per challenge, including one using some older stamps.

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  16. Sketch challenges are my favorite and gets my mojo running!!! If you are looking for one challenge that everyone can participate in, then the sketch is it.

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  17. The 24 hour window is tough for those like me who always seem to be in an airport when the deadline is on. Even if I can get the pre-set blog post to work, I still need to link up within that 24 hour window. Four challenges also seem a bit overwhelming all at once. Too much stimulation! LOL! I remember how much fun the old weekly WMS sketch challenge was. Every Saturday morning was great to wake up and go see what it was for the week. You got a lot more participation then and we got a lot more inspiration as a result. Here's a suggestion: instead of having your own blog challenge, why not "flip" the concept. Have a challenge where people need to enter OTHER challenges (there are lots out there, and some are wildly popular and not brand specific, like Seize the Birthday and the CAS challenge, etc.) using WMS and then pin their card to a dedicated WMS Pinterest board for that week. One random winner from that board gets a prize. This gets WMS a lot more exposure and you don't have to come up with the theme each week, etc. Plus the cards all go up on your Pinterest site and we get to see the inspiration (and easily find it again whereas the linky thing gets kind of lost in the blog shuffle over time). You would need to post about the "challenge" each week on your blog to remind folks to enter and then pin to be eligible to win.

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  18. I'd much prefer one challenge per week! With the way it is now, if I forget about it, I've missed it for another month. With weekly challenges, it's easier to remember because there are simply more reminders. And if I'm busy I only have to wait another week!

    And I have a list of challenges I like to play on a weekly basis. Yours isn't there because it's only once a month. You could still have a sketch challenge, inspiration challenge etc. one per week or the month. Like a sketch challenge week one, inspiration on week two... The last few extra days could be added to the last challenge I've also been confused about the challenge to use an older set. Do we have to use the one you list in the description? It's not clear to me. Remember, there are a LOT of challenges ot there and you have to make yours stand out. One very helpful thing is to provide a pinnable or saveable graphic for each challenge. It's how I keep track of them, I save the graphics to my photos on my apple devices. It would be good to include the website and the date it ends. I hope this helps and lots of people prefer the weekly challenge!

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  19. I am a regular player and love that you have a few challenges going at the same time as there is normally something that I can have a go at! Like others, I find the 24 hour posting period a challenge and also it is not so easy to visit others and leave comments on their fab creations. I would stick with the advance notice, multiple challenges but longer for posting (I personally am happy to wear PJs for a few days!). In terms of ensuring that people are aware of the PJ challenge coming up it would be good if the DT could post cards over the 2 week lead in as inspiration - that would keep it visible and increase participation rates. Your DT is great! Hope that is helpful - I shall still be playing whatever the format as I love my WMS :)

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  20. Like Helen L above, I like the idea of a weekly challenge with a monthly prize and if you enter every week you have four entries in the draw but I'm not sure how you would get Mr Linky to play along with that so picking your winners could be difficult. Fortnightly challenges are always good because there is lots of time to enter and two chances a month to win. I also like the idea of having a Guest spot. You could say that entrants who are interested in a guest spot must use a WMS item for their guest post. I'm off to check out your blog now. Hugs, Lesley

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  21. Hi Claire, I think your challenge is fun and original, although I have yet to join in. I wasn't signed up so I never got the advance notice, just spotted people linking up, and the 24 hour link is usually too short for me. Now I am following, so I caught this post LOL. Maybe make the link a week long. Or why not just announce the challenge and open the link for the rest of the month. That gives people plenty of time to link up and you will get more exposure as well. I must just say my first order from you arrived safely and I love your stamps. Thank you. Really hope to get inky with you this month. I do like the four options. Something for everyone. Maybe you should give people who use Waltzing Mouse products an extra entry in the draw. I would prefer 4 challenge options open for one month than four weekly challenges. Time always seems in short supply you know. Sometimes I need a bit more thinking time. Hugz

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  22. Hi Claire! I'd prefer a weekly challenge but if you stuck with the current format I think a longer window to link up would be good. Also, I sometimes find that the individual challenges are a little too specific and may be difficult for people to do if they have a limited number of sets.

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  23. Hello, I have read through the comments and I do have to agree with those who suggest that the link up time would be better for me if longer.
    I love challenges as they prompt me to try things outside my comfort zone. The two challenges I enter most frequently are a US weekly one and a monthly local (Australian) one. Both these allow linking of my entry for the full period of the challenge, and even then I am frequently diving onto my website at the last moment to get it posted!
    I don't have very many WMSs, sadly, but I do love the ones I have. Your pin stripe background is my most used background stamp.
    I will watch to see what you decide, with interest. Like many folk I think I must be a bit lazy/busy/preoccupied with life....your challenge seems very open and many folk prefer more clearly defined parameters. Not that your style of challenge is wrong, far from it, I love the freedom of expression it gives participants...and remember...you can't please everyone all of the time, ☺

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  24. I love the PJ parties and always plan to enter more than one, but I end up running out of time and struggling to link up at the last minute. I think that weekly challenges would be too often. I like the chance to select from four challenges, but more frequent reminders would be useful and a longer link up period please. I really like to have a while to plan what I'm going to make, so monthly challenges suit me just fine. I love to see the sketch challenges and I think the chance to use some of the older sets is a good idea too. Basically I'd vote for keeping it more or less the same, but with extra reminders and a longer time for linking up! Thanks for asking us our opinions - your customer service has always been second to none and I really appreciate it.

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  25. Hi Claire, I really miss the the old challenge blog, every Saturday I would pop in there and drool over the latest makes by the design team using your stamps. Like many others here I do forget about the pj party, just due to life getting in the way, (and I'm not a great list maker!) but maybe a challenge every week or maybe every month rotating the themes you already have in place like one week its a sketch, another week its use an older set, another week use WMS dies, or a colour scheme. You could offer a random prize for a winner, and a DT picked winner to guest design one week, or month. Maybe you could also sponsor other challenges too, to get WMS seen, with the design team creating for that challenge for that week. You could make the 'we saw what you did!' Pinterest board a facebook feature, as so many people are on FB and many crafters use it, and have a monthly winner. This would accommodate people without blogs. I guess your pj parties only have the audience of your existing fans (for want of a better word) it would be good to spread the word about you and your fantastic designs. Hope this helps!

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  26. I have only just found your stamps and just received them, very exciting . I was thrilled to then discover you have a challenge. I am going to enter for the first time this month and love the idea you get four challenges at the beginning of the month to work on. I can see the link up time is maybe to short and easy to miss when life gets in the way! I think popular guest designers are a great idea to get your stamp sets out there, as suggested by some fellow crafters! I'm looking forward to joining in with what ever you guys decide. X

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  27. I love the variety of the challenges, so while the previous WMS sketch was always fun, it's nice to be able to mix it up. And I think if a weekly challenge is too much to manage, there is nothing wrong with a monthly plan-- but it would be fun to see more of the DT work too, love the idea of inviting guests too. Sounds like a longer link up is a favorite of these comments. I love that you hop along and come for a visit to the blogs, so only commit to expanding (or shrinking) if you think that it still has the feel of a party at your virtual house and we're all welcome guests who you're excited to see. (And I just posted some new WMS goodies on my blog).

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  28. I have never played before, and had 2 projects ready for the last challenge, but got caught by the 24 hr posting. Life happened that day and I completely forgot. I love the variety of challenges - why not make it a month long is post the challenges on 1st, and close the entries on the last day? And why not make the winner of the previous challenge the guest designer? Extra incentive and get some fresh faces in there!!!

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  29. I love the challenges and look forward to them every month but rarely actually get to play. I often have trouble linking within the 24 hour period, even when I've got the cards made in advance, which makes it all the more frustrating for me. So a longer linking period would be appreciated.

    I sometimes find the 3rd challenge confusing. Is it just any older stamp set? Does it need to match the theme?

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  30. Like others I miss the old WMS weekly challenge. A new challenge every week really got the mojo working! It's pressure for your design team to have to do weekly cards but if you had the design team working week on/week off and use guest designers once a month or challenge winners?

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  31. I love to play with the pajama party whenever I can, but I always forget to make my projects ahead of time, and then can't get them done in 24 hours. I think I'd rather have a challenge every other week, with 2 weeks to link up. Also, It's really hard to use specific sets/themes if you don't have the sets, so more open themes and no set requirements. I like old pajamas and sketch challenges, though!

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  32. Love WMS, Claire ... just don't have enough time to participate very much in the parties, although I'd love another day a week and then I would! How about keeping the Pajama Party name (it's brilliant and unlike any other challenge!) and making it fortnightly. You could use the same themes as you do for the one day event on a rota ... a word/words, colour palette, sketch and old pajamas ... it would give players all the variety of the current Pajama Party without the same posting and commenting time constraints ... and would give you and the DT more time to pay visits. How about GDs ... previous winners or well known designers would be great to spread the word each fortnight! Anita :)

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  33. I've just read through a couple of the comments and I agree with many of them. Guest designers would be great particularly if the guest was chosen from the participants from previous challenge. I agree with Charmaine, sometimes the 24 hour period comes and goes and you haven't had access to a computer so you can't link up, even though you've scheduled posts. I love the current 4 challenges and how you keep coming up with terrific names and ideas for the challenges so please don't change this. Maybe just force us to make at least 1 Christmas card per month by setting a Christmas card challenge as well.

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  34. Hi Claire

    Generally I like your Pajama Parties very much. I also like that there are several challenges: if you don't find an idea or don't have the stamp set for one challenge, there are still other possibilities. But time passes (too) quickly and I must admit that sometimes I simple forget about the Party and don't start making cards in time, i.e.when I then remember the date it's too late to quickly make a card.
    I very much liked the weekly challenges and tried to participate as often as I could. When I missed one, I knew it would only take one week for a new challenge.
    Perhaps a challenge every two weeks would be a good idea? It could be a colour theme, a sketch, etc. or maybe even 2 or 3 themes from which one could choose. And you could perhaps leave more time for uploading the card/project.

    P.S. I already had commented earlier but I'm not sure whether I really published my comment (the hot weather makes my brain work more than slowly *lol*). So if ever there are 2 comments from me, you can delete one.

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  35. Hi Claire
    I have to agree with many of the comments so far that the linky window is too short. I've been known to sit at my computer almost right up to the deadline trying to get linked up and that's even when I'm ahead of the game and made my project in advance! I suspect you'd get more entries if it was left open for longer.
    I liked the comments that suggested a weekly challenge with each week being just one of the challenges so you could still pick and choose which one to enter but if you couldn't make it one week, you could make it the next. You can have 'special mentions' and 'guest designers' as well as one or two prizes - even if the prizes have to be slightly smaller. Getting a 'top card' that can be featured on the blog/store is a kinda prize too right? I know time is short at your end Claire but whichever format you go with, if you stuck to the same one and loaded up a month's worth timed to appear automatically each week it might be easier for you. Can a different DT member take a week on a rolling rota maybe? That's how we did it when I was on a DT and used a google group to communicate with each other - just a thought.
    Best of luck figuring out how to move forward m'dear. Sure wish I had the perfect answer for you (but am loving the new look of the web store). Hugs

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  36. I like the mix of challenges in the PJ party, having 4 of them is a good idea. I find I always forget to enter though because the actual link up period is so short. If the themes went up on the start of the month and you had until the end of the month to enter them that could work well? I often have a project made but finding the time to get a photo taken in good light, blog it and upload it for a 24 hour window often goes against me!

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  37. I've never managed to play because I forget every. Single. Time. I see the info post and then it goes right out of my head. I liked the weekly challenge and having all week to link up... I could manage that more easily. I know a weekly challenge is so much harder to organize though. I think for me, I see the info post, then forget all about it until it's the actual party and then I just can't squeeze it in!

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Thanks for taking the time to comment, :) I read them all and I appreciate you taking time to visit!