Monday 29 March 2010

Mr Linky playing games

Monday morning folks and it seems Mr Linky has been having a fun weekend and might have lost some of your entries.

Hopefully it's sorted now, but if you added a project and it's not there anymore, could we please ask you to add it again as we would hate you to miss out on the chance of being one of our winners.

Friday 26 March 2010

Week 12 Challenge - Sketch & Theme

Hello Polkadoodlers, welcome to another challenge from us all. It's Nettie here and it's my first time to set the challenge, I'm nervous so please be gentle with me. If you have not already had a chance to see Create and Craft or the Polkadoodles website, then you haven't seen the new Polkadoodle CD Paper Boutique. Don't worry though Nikky will be back on Create and Craft on Wednesday 31st March at 10am, so set your timers. Before I begin to explain this week's challenge I'd like to announce the very lucky people who have won Week 10 - Special Birthday or Milestone:

First Place: Teri

Second Place: Siobhan

Third Place: June

Well done you lucky people, please contact Nikky for further details and to collect those all important blinkies.

Now, moving on with this week's challenge........... I have another sketch for you lovely people. I love using Black and White for my projects because I think it looks so elegant. So what I would like you to do is follow the sketch and use Black, White + 1 other colour of your choice. Please remember that it doesn't have to be a card if you don't want......use your imagination as I know you will.

We have the truly talented Ju - Cornishmist who is our guest designer this month and as this is the last challenge for the month of March, we would like to say a big thank you for her lovely cards and for joining us! For this week, she has used papers from Back to Nature and Sugar Birdies along with stackies and ribbons. She coloured the cow to match the colour of the ribbons.

Nettie: Now this is my take on the sketch. Instead of doing a card, I thought I would make a Wedding Box. I have used the Love and Cherish CD for this one. As you will see from the picture I have made the box with a belly band and I have attached the oval to the band. I also used the flower templates on the CD to make these printed flowers.




Dee: I decided to use green as my extra colour as I thought it would make a nice contrast to the black and white. I don't use green very much so I made a mental note at the beginning of the year to use it more often. I used papers from the Back to Nature, Love and Cherish and Paper Boutique Vol 1 CD's.


Kris: I loved this sketch and I love Black and White. I chose a deep sea blue as my third color (only because I'm still using scraps and I had the flowers!). The background paper is from Sugar Birdies (Sugar Swirlies) and the peacock from Back to Nature. I added a little stamped sentiment and some self-adhesive rhinestones.
Kerry - I got my hubby to choose the extra colour and it was orange. I kept lots of white space and added papers and elements from the Candy Doodles CD plus a little Stickles on the butterflies. Shame my camera takes a blurry photo!

Fliss: Like Dee I've chosen to use green as my contrast colour which came about as I was going through my Polka Doodles stash to decide what to do. I came across the black, white and green Stackies flowers from Back to Nature and that was that! I just used the black and white combination which I layered up and matted several times. The first layer uses a Nestabilies scalloped oval with I embossed with dots. The last is some glittery white funky foam. I used the green dotty paper from the new Paper Boutique Floral Bouquet Collection and finished off with a punched strip with a lace band, a bow and some gems.


Kate - I have used the gorgeous butterfly from the heritage collection on the Back to Nature cd and i found the little butterfly stampies on the Candy doodles disc .I added some stickles and adhesive gems too for a bit of bling. The stripes on the step are embossed in the cuttlebug .


Claire - For my colour it just had to be purple - my absolute favourite! Lots of bits and pieces from the cd's with some added Sakura and stickles, also some lovely purple velvet card for added texture and touchability! I love the range of different flowers Nikki produces and the spiral flowers from Back to nature are very versatile.




Ruth: I've used Love and Cherish for my sample plus some red card (picked up ages ago from my local Scrap Store). I do like the image and really should use it more as it is so versitile! I've added some liquid pearls here and there and the little red flowers have very sparkly gems in their centres!

Brenda - I have taken the reddish browns from the papers on the Love and Romance CD, made a topper using nesties and printed the same sheet off several time sto cut out and decoupage the flowers, adding pearl stamens.

The deadline for all entries via Mr Linky is Sunday 4th April at 12 noon GMT. Please remember our challenge rules when entering your makes, as wouldn't want to leave you out.
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Friday 19 March 2010

Week 11 Challenge - Sketch & Theme

Yayy my turn this week!! It's so long since I set a challenge I've been really looking forward to this one and I have to say the Doodle Dollies have surpassed themselves this week, there's some awesome ideas on here! Not that there aren't every week of course!  First I need to mention that we're back on Create and Craft on 29th March and I will make sure I do demo's which are not inclined to go wrong this time, even though I know you all love laughing at me making a cockup, hey, if it makes you all smile tee hee...(note to self: walk away from the spinner cards Nikky)...
Also, you need to watch out for some absolutely lush new stuff from us here at Doodle Towers in the next few weeks, the girls (and me) are all dying to get their sticky mitts on some lush new stamps, just wish the manufacturers would pull their fingers out and hurry up but I've been promised they'll be in my inky fingers by Easter...

Our week 9 challenge was to use a stamp and wings and it looks like a lot of you liked this one! There was some beautiful entries and it was very hard to choose but the winners are...

In 3rd place...Juls
in joint 2nd place...Liz and Crafty Ness
and our first place is Zoe with her very cute dragon which we all loved to bits. Please email me for your blinkies and prize girls!

Ok so on with the show! This week I'm giving you a sketch. Now this got the girls in a bit of a dither but I think they thought it was more complicated than it was! You need to have 4 shapes and they have to interlock somehow - if this confuses you you can see from our samples some of the ways we did this. Also, just to throw a spanner in the works, you have to use Blue and Brown as well! This is one of my fave colour combo's. Here's the sketch...please remember to follow the challenge rules we hate it when we find a lovely card but you broke the rules so we can't count you in... : (


Week 11 Sketch

First of all, our March Guest Designer - Ju - who has used papers and elements from Back To Nature with a little additional doodling.
Enfys - I used Mr Twitty from the Paper Boutique CD (it looks as if he is a bit of a favourite with the team this week!), with papers from Back to Nature. I did some faux stitching - a posh way of saying that I was too lazy to wrestle with threading the machine, so I did a wobbly random straight stitch with the unthreaded machine, and joined up the dots with a fine tip brown pen. The circle is done with pinking shears Nestabilities, and the lettering is tiny alpha stickers


Lou: I have used papers from the boy's cake range on the "Paper Boutique" CD with the expection of the stackie flower! I made the lined paper by scanning in some lined paper (!) and then printing this design over my original printed paper. Flower made using layered scalloped circles from the same papers. This card was for my MIL from my hubby for Mother's Day.
Kris: Nikky gave us such a great sketch this week and I love brown and blue together so this is what I came up with. The printed papers and toppers are from the new Paper Boutique (vol 1) CD. I just typed the sentiment into one of the toppers and printed it! I've been looking for a way to use the Climbing Roses paper from Love & Cherish. I think the stencil look is just perfect for fussy cutting, popping and layering.
Brenda: I have used papers from the Mr Twitty section of the new Paper Boutique CD. Mr Twitty has been decoupaged and his eyes and glasses diamond glazed. The border is Martha Stewart arched lattice and the corner a Sizzix die. Claire Using the Not For Girls CD I have created a joy fold card with lots of opening bits to make up Nikki's fab sketch. Just with a little doodling to finish and a piece of string to keep it closed!

Stacey 3 weeks in and I am sure Nikky is trying to get rid of me with this challenge!!! I had to get a few thinking caps on and this is what I have come up with! I have used the Love and Cherish CD along with the Back to Nature CD. There are more pics and details on my blog!!!
Kerry - Sorry, I couldn't resist, I've made a Christmas card in March!! I love blue on Christmas cards, so when Nikky set the theme of blue and brown it was the first thing that popped in my mind. All the papers and elements come from Jingle Jangles CD plus a little glitter and silver string. At least I can say, I've started my Christmas cards :)
Nettie: There's nothing like a good sketch to get the brain ticking. I have used the new Paper Boutique CD for my inspiration!! I printed out brown and blue papers from the CD and also some shape templates. My Dad's birthday is not until June, but hey it's good to be organised.

Fliss: Bit of an ooops! here as I've used the same set from Paper Boutique as Brenda (not the first time this has happened as we both seem to like the same things lol). I made this card for my brother's birthday as Nikky's colours are perfect for a male card. I used the Mr Twitty decoupage set and one of the papers along with some of the matching embellishments. I used the tree and branch from the Back to Nature CD and one of the sentiments. The scalloped panel and the tree trunk and branch were embossed using the Cuttlebug distressed stripes folder to add texture.
Dee: I don't know how many times I changed my mind doing this challenge, but I eventually settled on one. I used backing papers from a couple of collections on the Paper Boutique Vol 1 CD, and the sentiment and the dog came from the Back to Nature CD. The main background paper I printed onto pale blue paper for a slightly different look, unfortunately it doesn't really show on the photo though. I layered the elements over each other then tied them all together with brown raffia.

Ruth: Looks like Nettie and I were working from the same craft table this week! I've also used papers and elements from Paper Boutique (I just can't get enough of this little car!) The ribbon is from the scrap store and it used to be upholstery edging!


And here is mine, something about it I just don't like but it was too late to change it again... I used papers from the Paper Boutique CD, the cake was made from the cupcake template on the CD and the toppers were also from the CD. I stamped a teeny weeny message on the tag and added a ribbon, stickles and of course used my MS punch (watch out as we are currently waiting for new MS stock to come in this next week!). My fave bit of this whole card is where I've fringed the stripey border with my scissors.

So there you go! Hope you enjoyed the samples from the Design Team and good luck if you decide to enter! Remember that you can link your Polkadoodle Challenge entry with 9 others - any more and we cannot consider you for one of our very special top three spots. Deadline for entries via Mr Linky is Sunday 28 March at 12noon GMT.


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Friday 12 March 2010

Week 10 Challenge - A Special Birthday or Milestone

Hello everyone, Fliss here and it's my turn to set for the challenge this week, but before the details of that it's time to announce the winners of Lou's shaped card challenge from Week 8. Without further ado, here are the lucky three:

First Place: Craftyness
Second Place: Lesley
Third Place: Dora

Congratulations to you all and please email Nikky for more details and your blinkies.

And now to my challenge which I picked because my elder daughter Claire is 21 years old today. She's a very long way away from us at the moment as she's on her year abroad in Japan and as it's the holidays, she's traveling round sightseeing.

My challenge to you all is to make a card to celebrate a milestone birthday or anniversary, the choice is yours.

Our Guest Designer for March, Ju - Cornishmist has made this stunning card using papers from Sugar Birdies, along with distressing and inking of the edges. The scallop borders have been glittered along with the numbers and a bit of doodling completes the card!



Fliss: I had to think really hard about my card because Claire is still going through a bit of a Gothic phase and wouldn't like anything pink or pastel. I chose to make a card using the new Paper Boutique CD and as Claire loves red and black, it just had to be the gorgeous ladybird. I decoupaged all the pieces and assembled the card with foam tape. I added the all important number by printing out some of the alphies from the Back to Nature CD and mounting these on some of the embellishments from the Ladybird, Ladybird Collection.



Stacey - I just love the Love and Cherish CD so when I saw that this weeks challenge was for a milestone birthday or anniversary I knew what I wanted to do! I have printed one of the many gorgeous backing papers from this CD and used it with my big shot for the fancy edge card, next came the fab toppers layered onto gold card and here we have it!!!
Brenda I used papers from the new Paper Boutique CD and the Back to Nature stamp set. I stamped the edges of the main piece and distressed new Tim Holtz inks. The flowers are stamped onto the green and pink papers, cut out and layered onto a sizzix 'stem' and a 21st birthday sentiment from the same CD.


Kerry - I've got so many special events this year, it was difficult to choose. Just to name a few, 3 weddings, two 21st, an 80th and a 90th birthday and three 25th wedding anniversaries including my own. But I decided to make a 21st birthday card for my niece. I used papers from the Back to Nature CD, some stickles and card candy.

Dee - After quite a deliberation I have chosen to do a Ruby Anniversary card. I was drawn to the Boundless Love collection on the Love and Cherish CD when I first saw it. Quite surprising really as red is not one of my favorite colours, but the designs are so striking I was just itching to use them. I also used the distressed polka dot backing paper from the Building Bricks Collection on the Paper boutique CD. Additional items were red and black chalk ink pads, red card, Martha Stewart border punch, gems, kebab stick and gift curling ribbon.


Claire A wee change for me! I have created a small A6 easel fold card(don't normally work this small) with a scalloped top thanks to a topper from the new Paper Boutique CD. The vase of flowers is also from the new CD and I have added a few layers and some fab sticky gems for centres. An editable tag for my sentiment.Stickles for a little sparkle!



Kate I have used the Paper boutique cd for my milestone card, I had printer troubles and my colours weren't right so i just used the black and white option and printed onto patterned paper from my box of left overs.I cut the 40 candles on my cricut and coloured them all in with promarkers .


Nettie: My cousin is 30 shortly and is having a big celebration, so I though I would create a very bold card. He's a larger than life character, so I thought I would go with the large numbers for this one. I have used papers and text from the Back to Nature CD and no images for this one.



Ruth: Something plain and simple from me this week! I've used the A5 car template from Paper Boutique, layered it all up and added the sentiment on the number plate. I've also used the layers on the reverse of the card - more views can be seen on my blog.

The challenge ends on Sunday 21 March at 12noon GMT and please do not combine your challenge card with more than 9 other challenges otherwise you will not be eligible for the prize. Please use Mr Linky below to link your challenge creation. And good luck!

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Friday 5 March 2010

Week 9 Challenge - Wings

Hi everyone, thanks for joining us this week! Firstly before we get on with the formalities we need to introduce a couple of new teamies to the Doodley clan..we had a couple of people who had to bow out of the Design Team in the last couple of weeks due to other commitments and the lovely and very talented Dee and Stacey have both agreed to step in for us, so I'm sure you'll welcome them both and love their fabulous creations..so it's on with the other stuff...our next show on Create and Craft has been changed and it's now Tuesday 9th March at noon, so if you want a better peek at the new Paper Boutique CD you need to check it out for a better chance to snoop at all the wonderful DT samples and some fab ideas by these wonderfully talented girls! You'll have to get your orders in quick as the last show was a sellout and judging by the response it's going to fly again! Also keep your eyes peeled in the next few weeks for some exciting new products which will be appearing...hehehe even the DT don't know about those ones yet, lets see if they read this post and ask me about it later, lol!! I'm sooo naughty....N x

Good Morning everyone, Brenda here and it's my turn to set the theme for our new challenge here at Polkadoodles. But first the lucky winners from Week 7 which was Kris's sketch:

First Place: Samm
Second Place: Rose
Third Place: Jenny

Well done to you all, please contact Nikky for more details and your blinkies!

Now on to this week's theme. I love rubber stamping so I would like to see some Stamping on your project and "Wings"....... what kind of wings is up to you!

Please remember to make sure you link your project (not your blog) to Mr Linky below and remember you can combine your entry with other challenges but please no more than ten, otherwise you won't be in the draw for this weeks winners. You have until 12 noon GMT on Sunday 14 March to enter. The DT have come up with some brilliant inspirational work as always, please do go visit them to see how they made their projects and show your appreciation for all their effort.


As this is the first challenge for March, I'd like to introduce our Guest Designer for the month: Ju (Cornishmist)! Here she has used papers from Back to Nature along with the Daisy Doodles stamps. The scalloped centres were stamped and paper pieced with the circles coloured with promarkers. You will be seeing more of Ju's work during March as she is with us all month!
Brenda I immediately fell in love with the Secret Garden section of the new Paper Boutique CD and have used it here to make an easel card on top of a box with a drawer underneath which I made to fit the elements from the CD. The little trees and flowers are stamped onto shrink plastic with the Daisy Doodles stamp set and coloured with brilliance ink pads. Butterflies are all made with punches and the fence is a Martha Stewart punch.

Nettie: I used the two cuties from the new CD - Paper Boutique. I've made the card so that the owls open out to the sides and you can see the detail on the reverse.
Ruth: I've used the lady owl from Paper Boutique - A5 size and layered up all the front elements. I've used the Daisy Doodles stamps around the edges for a border, and basically that is it! The backing paper is also from the same collection and I've printed it directly onto my lovely white linen effect card. For more details visit my blog!


Kerry - Went for a ladybird for my wings project. The papers are from the new Paper Boutique CD and the stamps are from the Daisy Doodles stamp set. I took the inspiration for the ladybird stamping from one of Nikky's papers. Added some beads for the antenna and a googly eye!!


Claire: In total agreement with Kerry - those ladybirds are fab on the new Paper boutique CD. I have used the papers and tags on the CD to create my flowers. With some flying ladybugs across the top of my card on some wire. Stamps from Daisy Doodles with a little Sakura to colour. I have cut mirror image wings and added to ladybugs to hopefully make them look like they are flying.



Stacey - Well this is my first week and I am just so excited! I have had lots of fun putting together this card. I have used the A5 Miss Twoo template from the Paper Boutique CD and I have used the papers from the Love and Cherish CD. For my stamping element I have used a foam swirly stamp to surround my greeting! To give her some added embellishments I have used some quilling paper for extra volume on her lashes (not enhanced in post production! he!) and an odd felt flower I had in my leftovers box!


Enfys: Well, I have made two this week, to compensate for my lack of stamping (my PD stamps are in the USA, I am in the UK, slight problem.....) Both my cards are simple, and show just how easy it is to whip up a fabby card in next to no time using the CD's. The first one is from Back to Nature, just a few of the peacock feather tips cut out and popped on, and a lot of glamour dust.
And the second one is for a request I had, to make a male 70th Birthday card. Mr Twittie from Paper Boutique, A4 size,with the bottom panel cut off. Sentiment was typed onto a tag and cut out. His glasses were printed onto vellum.
Fliss: I've chosen to use the Heritage Collection from the Back to Nature CD which has gorgeous butterflies and flowers in pretty pastel shades. I enlarged the butterfly stampie slightly and printed on to lilac card, cut it out and decorated it with gunmetal pearls. I used one of the pretty matching papers and made a central border with white card stamped with a flourish from the Daisy Doodles stamp set in lilac and finished with a stamped sentiment from the same set and black punched borders.




Krista...I chose to use a couple of different CDs for this one. I love each of the different CD's for various reasons. One of the things I love, and double love are the little animals on Back to Nature. This little sheep is so darling. I added a fur look to her with felt. The little hills were made with papers from the Love and Cherish cd, I took a circle punch and punched circles and cut them in half. The Love and Cherish CD isn't just for romance, it has a collection of images and designs for every moment, even when one is trying to get a sheep to smile..... (wink) I couldn't help but add that special touch with my pink thread and a zig-zag stitch around the edges of this card.




I am not really one for stamping ,it never seems to come out right but i was really pleased with this attempt - if you look closely you can just about see a stamped sentiment at the bottom !
I used the sugar birdies cd for this card , the little flowers are raised up on foam pads to act as the stop for my easel.