Sunday 31 July 2011

Design Team call news...

Thanks SO much to everyone who applied for the DT call, I really appreciate your efforts & it was lovely to see the talent out there.  The call is now closed & unfortunately I cant reply to everyone individually as there are way too many.  I needed someone with very specific techniques this time round & have made my decision today so if you were successful you have been emailed by now. So sorry if you weren't successful this time but please don't give up and be too disappointed, I simply can't have everyone, much as I'd love to. Thanks again for your interest, keep up the good work you talented people! xx

Friday 29 July 2011

Week 30 Challenge - In An English Country Garden

Hello there everyone, Emma here to invite you to join in with this weeks Polkadoodle challenge. Hopefully most of you have been able to spend some happy times in a garden this year as we have been blessed with a few lovely days of sunshine so, what better idea for a challenge than to incorporate something you find in a garden.

We want to see what you can make with any birds, bees, flowers or trees, or indeed, anything that you may find in an English Country Garden.

For us as a design team, we also get to share with you some of our favourite stamps, just to show you just how versatile Polkadoodles images, backgrounds and papers really are. You are in for a real treat this week, our ladies have made you some beautiful cards.

The top three from challenge 28 which was Long Hot Summer are:

First Place: Gerda
Second Place: Bella
Third Place: Katja

Congratulations! Please email Nikky for your blinkies! The first placed winner receives a download and please put in the subject field of your email your placing and the challenge number - this will make Nikky's life a lot easier!

The Polkadoodlers have a few little rules which makes our life a lot easier when we come visiting your blogs:
1. Please follow the challenge!
2. Only enter your creation into a maximum of 10 challenges including Polka Doodles.
3. Please link your blog post and not your blog address with the blue frog - this saves us from searching your blog for your entry.
4. And please no back-linking to previous posts - these will be disregarded from our top three voting.
5. If you have comment moderation and word verification on your blog it really does slow us down when leaving comments - please consider turning word verification off especially now that comment moderation has a spam section.

Now onto the Design Team samples and inspiration! If you want more detail on how their projects have been created, just click on their name and you'll be taken to their blog. Closing date for the challenge is Sunday 7 August at 12noon GMT.

Enfys: I used a Magnolia stamp, coloured with Promarkers, with papers printed from the Sundae of Seasons CD - including the button, which I painted with glossy accents. I doodled her garden of flowers, and added some tiny paper flowers from my stash with doodle dewdrops in the centers


Emma I have made a garden themed easel card this time using my favourite stamps, the Fairy Flutterbys (yes I know they are Polkadoodles but they are still my fave). I stamped the background using Distress stains blending the colours out with Kuretake watercolour brushes. I used stamps from Nikki's Christmas doodle and Fairy flutterby red rubber stamp ranges. The Two fairies were coloured with Distress Inks. The papers and the little house were from the Sundae of Seasons CD. The teeny floral embellies are shrink plastic.


Audrey... For this CAS card I used the All Around & Everywhere CD. For the stamp I used my S.U. sets Bold Blossom and Printed Petals. I used S.U. inks Pear Pizzazz and Pretty In Pink. I also used my S.U. Corner Ticket Punch for the corners.
Ruth: I've used a sweet Soft Pencil digi stamp, coloured with Aquamarkers and added papers from various Polkadoodle cd's (I am trying to use all my offcuts!) The 'ribbon' (it is actually ribbed plastic) is from my local scrapstore along with the string in the centre of the buttons. And the buttons are from my stash.

Claire: I have incorporated some stamps by Elusive images into the Double sprinkle of Kraft elements. Added some sticky pearls and huge gem brads with some glossy accents to those lovely window frames.


Josie: This week I tried my hand and made a stepper card! Its a little wonky, but the images are so good that you wouldn't notice! I used digi stamp images from Double sprinkle of Kraft CD Rom and from the Sundae of Seasons CD Rom. I also used the Garden Neighbours Rubber stamp. I coloured the images with Pro Markers. All the glittery little high lights on the card (like the flowers and apples) are coloured over using the clear Kuretake Wink of Stella pen and then covered in glossy accents. I also used Cosmic Shimmer glitter on the wings of the butterflies.


lis-m: An unashamedly quick card today. I reached for the Sundae of seasons cd again. This cd is just an all-rounder. I love it! My base is a pink gingham, then I used a summerhouse and a couple of fence icons to layer over the apple tree. The image is Bumble bee Tilda and I coloured her with Promarkers and 3-d'd her on top. I added a mock stitch round the card, and hey presto!!


Fliss - A very quick card from me this week too as I'm still suffering from a nasty cold. All elements on my card are also from the fabulous Sundae Of Seasons CD and the little butterflies coloured with Aquamarkers are a Hobby Art stamp. I finished off with some crochet lace, pearls and a border and then added a sentiment from the Sensational Sentiments stamp set.


Miria For this card I used a template - you can find the link on my blog - and a stamp from stash, the paper and sentiment are from A double Sprinkles of Kraft.


Colette - This week I've made a little garden scene with elements from the Double Sprinkles of Kraft CD and then sat Witzy with dandelion (a Rubber Stampede stamp) on the log. I love dandelions, which is a good job as they are the only thing I can manage to grow in my garden LOL! The paper, border, sentiment panel and flowers all come from the same CD, gems are from stash.

Dee: I've used papers from a Double Sprinkle of Kraft for this weeks card. I printed out the design strips for pleated rosette and punched the edge with an EK success edger punch before I folded it up. I love how the stamps work over the pale pink polka dots of the backing paper. I made the card blank from kraft card and I punched out a circle and stamped on it for the butterfly to sit on. The butterfly and leafy swirl stamps are by Clarity stamps.


Lou: I have made 6 versions of this card with different paper scraps from Sundae of Seasons CD and over stamped them with a Serendipity stamp, Dandelion. A bit of distressing around the edging and my image is finished. The greeting is a stamp I found neglected in a box which I have stamped onto the same coloured papers and then cut up into individual parts to mix and match them on my cards. Finally a little bit of ribbon to add interest and a stamped butterfly from Stamps Away.



Good luck with the challenge and don't forget our rules! The blue frog to link your creations up to will be active until 12noon GMT Sunday 7 August.
*****

Friday 22 July 2011

Week 29 Challenge - Christmas In July

DESIGN TEAM CALL:
Hi everyone! We are looking for a new member for our lovely talented team who can show us their awesome colouring techniques. So, if you LOVE colouring and you're great with your Promarkers, Copics and Watercolours and it's your speciality then please email us with a link to your blog and NO MORE than 50 words about yourself and why you want to be on the Polkadoodles team. You MUST be able to commit to participating in the challenge blog 3 times per month, making TV samples when required AND commenting on challenge entries each week, so please ensure you can do all this before you apply. In addition, you can only be on two other digital design teams. We will consider entries from around the world but as we need people who can make samples, because of time constraints, entries from the UK will be priority on this occasion. But don't let that put you off, we all know Nikky can never say no if she sees someone awesome! We will be choosing someone over the next two weeks and results will be posted here. Please do not leave comments etc, all bloglinks must be sent by email by 31st July.

Hi, Colette here with this weeks challenge and we've gone from one extreme to the other, Long Hot Summer last week to Christmas this week LOL!. There are only 22 weeks and 2 days left until Christmas so I thought it was time to make a start on our Christmas cards as it will be here before you know it!

The top three from challenge 27 which was Transfers and Stickers are:

First Place: Stephanie-Emma
Second Place: Linda
Third Place: Joanna

Congratulations! Please email Nikky for your blinkies! The first placed winner receives a download and please put in the subject field of your email your placing and the challenge number - this will make Nikky's life a lot easier!

The Polkadoodlers have a few little rules which makes our life a lot easier when we come visiting your blogs:
1. Please follow the challenge!
2. Only enter your creation into a maximum of 10 challenges including Polka Doodles.
3. Please link your blog post and not your blog address with the blue frog - this saves us from searching your blog for your entry.
4. And please no back-linking to previous posts - these will be disregarded from our top three voting.
5. If you have comment moderation and word verification on your blog it really does slow us down when leaving comments - please consider turning word verification off especially now that comment moderation has a spam section.

Now onto the Design Team samples and inspiration! If you want more detail on how their projects have been created, just click on their name and you'll be taken to their blog.Closing date for the challenge is Sunday 31 July at 12noon GMT.

Ruth: I've used the wonderful Paper Boutique Vol 2 - Creative Christmas. I've cut the template out and all the layers and just added them together! A really great and easy card to make as Nikky has done the hard work! I've simply added some gems, cocktail stick (wand) and glitter glue.

Lis-m Rather excited to be using the fabby new Christmas cd's from Polkadoodles. "Magical Winter" I love the shades in this one, and have used a selection of papers for a contempary Christmas card, added some ribbon and a charm, and the essential glitter!!


Fliss: I think we're all loving the fabulous new Magical Winter CD and all the elements on my card come from there. All I added were further hearts which I used my own templates to make with one of the gorgeous kraft papers and the blue gingham to which I added faux stitching plus some raffia from my stash which I twisted.


Audrey... For this card I used the new CD Magical Winter. All I can say is wow! This is my new favorite! I used S.U. ink Soft Suede to ink the edges and dark brown floss for the stitching.


Emma - Hi there, I used the fabulous Christmas stamp set this time to make a little scene. I masked the images to make up the scene and then coloured with Promarkers, finally adding a bit of glitz with Stickles.


Josie: This week I used the digi image from the Sundae of Seasons CD Rom. I coloured with Pro Markers. I did the sentiment using A wink of stella glitter pens.



Tracie: I used some fabby paper from Magical Winter CD's, gorgeous spotty ribbon and the cutest santa I have ever seen from the Christmas stamp set. Coloured with Promarkers, and wink of stella pens


Claire: I have used the fab Christmas stamp set and coloured my image with Promarkers. Added some stickles to give a bit of added glitter.

Dee: I used the new CD Magical Winter for my card this week. I coloured the main image with ProMarkers, used Letraset Safmat for the sentiment and added some extra detail with a Martha Stewart border punch. I did a little bit of concertina folding on a strip of punched backing paper and fixed some confetti stars in place.

Colette This week I have made a Christmas card using a non-Christmas CD, Paper Boutique Vol III, the lights came from Sundae of Seasons, I made the houses up using the templates from PBIII, the tree comes from this CD also, I cut each light out and attached it to a piece of pink embroidery thread, (that's dedication for you LOL!) and finished it all off with a sprinkling of glamour dust.

Miria This week I used some gorgeous images and paper from new cds Magical Winter , coloured with Promarkers and cut out.


Good luck with the challenge - deadline Sunday 31 July at 12noon GMT and please remember our rules!

Wednesday 20 July 2011

Design Team Call...

DESIGN TEAM CALL:
Hi everyone! We are looking for a new member for our lovely talented team who can show us their awesome colouring techniques. So, if you LOVE colouring and you're great with your Promarkers, Copics and Watercolours and it's your speciality then please email us with a link to your blog and NO MORE than 50 words about yourself and why you want to be on the Polkadoodles team. You MUST be able to commit to participating in the challenge blog 3 times per month, making TV samples when required AND commenting on challenge entries each week, so please ensure you can do all this before you apply.  In addition, you can only be on one other digital design team. We will consider entries from around the world but as we need people who can make samples, because of time constraints, entries from the UK will be priority on this occasion. But don't let that put you off, we all know Nikky can never say no if she sees someone awesome!  We will be choosing someone over the next two weeks and results will be posted here. Please do not leave comments etc, all bloglinks must be sent by email by 31st July.

Friday 15 July 2011

Week 28 Challenge - Long Hot Summer

Hello everyone, it's Lis-m here with this weeks challenge! Must admit the title was a hopeful whim, but the weather seems to be rather summery as I type this so I hope it will inspire you.
With that in mind I would like you to create a summery project, using hot summer colours perhaps, or create a summery theme. Have fun!

The top three from challenge 26 which was Home Sweet Home are:

First Place: Lisa Jane
Second Place: Scrapjoanny
Third Place: Ruby

Congratulations! Please email Nikky for your blinkies! The first placed winner receives a download and please put in the subject field of your email your placing and the challenge number - this will make Nikky's life a lot easier!

The Polkadoodlers have a few little rules which makes our life a lot easier when we come visiting your blogs:

1. Please follow the challenge!
2. Only enter your creation into a maximum of 10 challenges including Polka Doodles.
3. Please link your blog post and not your blog address with the blue frog - this saves us from searching your blog for your entry.
4. And please no back-linking to previous posts - these will be disregarded from our top three voting.
5. If you have comment moderation and word verification on your blog it really does slow us down when leaving comments - please consider turning word verification off especially now that comment moderation has a spam section.

Now onto the Design Team samples and inspiration! If you want more detail on how their projects have been created, just click on their name and you'll be taken to their blog.

Closing date for the challenge is Sunday 24 July at 12noon GMT.

Ruth: I've gone very clean and simple this week! I've made two sets of notecards (beause I could not decide which image to use!) and printed directly onto my cardstock. I've used Sundae of Seasons pre coloured images and I've just added a faux stitched line and buttons from my stash. To see more of these please have a look on my blog!


Enfys: I decided to make some napkin rings using the Sundae of Seasons CD, I just printed out my favourite green spotty paper, and some black and white stampie flowers. All the rings have different flowers on them, but I coloured them all with buttercup, gold, and apple and leaf green ProMarkers to give a unified look. They look really pretty, and took no time at all to make, so I will be making these for all my supper parties in future........not that crafting leaves me with a lot of time to cook!



Lis-m For my project this time i have reached for the Sundae of Seasons CD, and Double sprinkles of Kraft. I have created a little book that seems to be everywhere in blogland at the moment and created a little diorama within it. I quite like the finished affect; hope you do too! For more details go to my blog



Fliss: To me nothing says summer more than the beach and ice cream along with deck chair stripes so my card features beach huts which we have just a short walk from our house as we live one road back from the sea. All elements and papers are from the fabulous Sundae Of Seasons CD and I've had another experiment with pointillism to colour the black and white stampies. I used a multitude of Promarkers for the technique which I'm in danger of becoming addicted to!


Audrey: It's so nice to be back creating again! For this card I used the Paper Boutiques III CD. I used S.U. Soft Suede and Old Olive inks for all the edges and 3D Dots to give it dimension.



Miria. This week I made a card for a summer birthday. I put in a flowers and butterflies galore using coloured stampies, paper and sentiment from Double Sprinkles of Kraft and Sundae of seasons, cut them out and use foam pads and glossy accents to give dimension and just two buttons to decorate.


Emma: Hello there, I have used gorgeous paper from All Around and Everywhere CD and sentiment from the Sensational Sentiments rubber stamp plate. I have used a lovely bright yellow for my bright summery colour.


Colette I've used the summery colours of yellow (sunshine) and blue (clear summery sky) to make a card for a summer birthday, with the addition of flowers and a dragonfly to complete the summery theme. Everything comes from Sundae of Seasons, apart from the sentiment which is from Double Sprinkle of Kraft. Ribbon is DoCrafts, glitter is Debbi Moore and flowers are from stash.


Josie: For this theme, I went through the cd roms to look at all the lush papers. I find something new every time I look! This backing paper jumped out to me from the Sundae of Seasons CD Rom. I went from there with the colour theme of bright pinks etc. I used Gracie from the Fairy Flutterfly stamps and coloured with Pro Markers. I thought I would so something different this week other than a card, so made a calendar for my friends office.


Dee: I too used a template from Paper Boutique III CD. I just layered everything up with 2mm foam pads to give lots of dimension.
Good luck! The challenge closes on Sunday 24 July at 12noon GMT.

******


Friday 8 July 2011

Week 27 Challenge - Safmat & Letratac

Welcome to another Polkadoodle challenge! This week some of the Design Team have been using two new and very fantastic Letraset products - Safmat and Letratac. Safmat is a transparent film that can be printed on and then once the backing has been peeled off, applied to any product. Letratac is a bit like a dry glue product - it can be rubbed onto the reverse of the image and then applied directly to where you want it to stick - no blobby glue or tell-tale marks!

So our challenge to you is to use stickers or transfers on your projects - if you have Safmat or Letratac then show us what it can do!


The top three from challenge 25 which was a colour theme of Red, White and Blue are:

First Place: Clairebears

Second Place: Sandy

Third Place: Crafty Fairie

Congratulations! Please email Nikky for your blinkies! The first placed winner receives a download and please put in the subject field of your email your placing and the challenge number - this will make Nikky's life a lot easier!

The Polkadoodlers have a few little rules which makes our life a lot easier when we come visiting your blogs:

1. Please follow the challenge!

2. Only enter your creation into a maximum of 10 challenges including Polka Doodles.

3. Please link your blog post and not your blog address with the blue frog - this saves us from searching your blog for your entry.

4. And please no back-linking to previous posts - these will be disregarded from our top three voting.

5. If you have comment moderation and word verification on your blog it really does slow us down when leaving comments - please consider turning word verification off especially now that comment moderation has a spam section.

Now onto the Design Team samples and inspiration! If you want more detail on how their projects have been created, just click on their name and you'll be taken to their blog.

Closing date for the challenge is Sunday 17 July at 12noon GMT.

Ruth: I've raided my acetate stash to make these very cute and handy seed packets! The template can be found on Sundae of Seasons along with the plant labels and the images. All I have added is a brad through the reverse of the packet to hold the larger flaps together and some twine from the kitchen drawer. The flowers and 'ribbon' have been printed onto Safmat and then trimed and added to the acetate - a total doddle to make!



Miria I decorated this mug for a baby girl using coloured digi from Sundae of seasons, for the baby I used Safmat and Letratac for the stars: it's my first experiment, I can do better, anyway it is quick and easy.





Fliss: For my project I've decorated an acrylic jar to store my collection of silk flowers. I used a sentiment from the Sundae Of Seasons CD together with a ribbon border printed on to Safmat. I applied the sentiment to some papers from the same CD with Letratac which I also used to attach it to the jar. I then added panels of gingham paper from the new Magical Winter CD also printed on Safmat and added the ribbon border. I finished off with a matching dotty panel cut with Nestabilities at the top.





Lis-m: For my project I have used a cheap photo frame, and painted it with crackle effect paint, then added a verse on the Safmat to the centre. I printed the flower buds in Safmat and the birdhouses onto card, all from the Double sprinkles of Kraft cd. I then went to town on the embellishments!



Colette This week I have done a bit of recycling and turned a carton that contained Egg Mayo sandwich filler into a Christmas decoration. The snowman and birdhouse inside the carton are from the fantastic new Magical Winter CD1, as are the snowflakes on the outside. I printed the snowflakes onto Safmat and then placed them around the outside of the carton, the large snowflake was printed onto Safmat twice (once flipped), I then sprinkled the sticky side of one with glamour dust and then placed the other one over the top to seal it.
The snowman and birdhouse were also printed twice (once flipped) and were stuck back to back using LetraTac (what a fabulous product, especially useful for sticking intricate shapes), I also stuck the glittered snowflake onto the carton with LetraTac. I made a fancy bow for the top using papers from the CD printed onto both sides of pearl paper. The inside base of the carton is covered in FlowerSoft to represent snow. The "Let It Snow" sentiment around the bottom, was printed onto Safmat and then stuck to white ribbon from stash.







Claire : I have made a quick gift of a candle lantern using Safmat and elements from A Double sprinkle of Kraft cd with some added beautiful woven ribbon.




Josie: I decorated this little picture frame for a little friend of mine who is moving house. I knew Safmat would be perfect for adding her name and a little sentiment. (I put a picture in just to show the project, and yes it's me! lol)




Tracie: I had several projects to add but have come away without the right pictures so will post a pic of my Letraset Safmat scrapbook page - I love the fact you can make custom tapes! I also made a matching card. The patterns on the safmat were the borders from Double Sprinkles of Kraft





Good luck! The challenge closes on Sunday 17 July at 12noon GMT
*****