Challenge 27

Well bloggers, the cold weather has well and truly kicked in, together with the old swine flu. Yep yours truly has had it all week but thank goodness today I actually feel (relatively) normal again and thanks to everyone who helped me feel better in my hours of self-pity! Needless to say everything has been on hold for a week, so I am well and truly behind with the new CD and it will now be launched a week later on Thurs 4th Dec at 2pm on Ideal World. Methinks you will like. Me hopes anyway!


So on with the matters in hand! First of all, let's get this little thing out of the way...

So if you would like to be worked like a navvy week in week out for a miserly pittance sign up now! We are looking for a couple of new suckers sorry peeps so make sure you send me an email now! We will consider any age/gender/ability etc but please make sure you can commit to entering challenges at least every 2 weeks and can also help with samples for TV shows. New teamies will be announced beginning of December and the closing date is Fri 27th Nov at lunchtime.


Right, next on the agenda...winners and winners...you are all winners in my book...for challenge 25 you had to make Crimbo decorations, looks like some of you might have struggled with that one but thanks for the massive effort of those of you who entered...
The runners up are...Siobhan and Ribena Ruby...
and the winner of a fab set of Daisy Doodles stamps is, drum roll pleeeese....Cornish Mist! yayy! Well done to all of you, please email me for your stash and blinkies...


So, here we are on challenge 27 already, 2009 is flashing past my piggy eyes this year...So I asked the fab Dolly Doodlers to make cards using the Not For Girls CD this week. BUT they had to make a card which WASN'T for men. AND they had to use this here sketch too...

So for all of  you lovely challengees you need to use the Sketch and in keeping with the season I'm going to ask you use the colour theme BROWN as well. That's it! Entries have to be in by Sun 29th November at 12:00 GMT and the winner will receive a free CD for their troubles! I might even throw in some choccy coins as it's near to Crimbo! wahaaaay! So let's get on with the show...


Made by Lou...This is so creative! I love the way Lou has used the train background which couldnt be any LESS girly to make this fab Crimbo card..all aboard the santa express...just inspiring Lou! She's used several "plain" papers, layered the papers & then cut out some holly leaves & berries. The sentiment is made with rub ons.

Created by Krista...Krista's used the Tweets here and coloured one pink to make a lovely couple in love! hehehe sooo cute...

Made by Boni...I love this card, I'm so into nature images at the moment...here everything is from the Tweets collection on the CD, I just love it, could be for any occasion this one...

Created by Enfys...she always does it doesn't she? En can make the most beaut cards and this is one of them, just gorgeous...She's turned the sketch on it's head and used the stars and stripes papers. The flowers are from Cricut and she's used Glossy Accents to give them a glassy patent finish. A decoative punch border and lush ribbon finishes it off...

Made by Kerry...there seems to be a blue theme this week! Kerry has been very creative in her thinking here...the polka dot flowers have been cut from the "Bowls" papers, they are in fact, little bowls balls, but how well they work! She's also used the Not so plains which is a plain paper with a bazzill effect texture, we are all lovin' that one...

Made by Ruth...Ruth loves the Tweets with 'tude! Here she's used pencils to colour in the Tweet and added a charm. The backing paper is a brick effect which works really well...

Made by Sue...Here Sue's used the black and white stripes and one of the sentiment frames to make a really simple but elegant card, sometimes less is more...

Created by Kris...how cute is this! Kris has used the Not-so-Plain Plains with the Tweets and coloured "her" with Prismas and OMS, fashioned her a crown, and computer-generated the sentiment. Just adorable, this so makes me chuckle!...

Made by Claire...the Tweets have deffo been popular this week! Here Claire has used several backing papers and layered them all up together, and has torn the main tree paper to show the sentiment behind, inking the torn edge in blue.  I just adore the stamped leaves around the edge which is from the Daisy Doodles stamp set and she's doodled some little swirls which look gorge.  She's finished the whole thing off with the little seed packet which is a template on the CD...

Made by Saskia...We're all really sad this week :( because this is Saskia's last week with us.  She's been with us from the start way back in May and she will be a sad loss to the team with her quirky ideas and inspiration but she has oodles of other stuff she has to do. She has promised to look in on us from time to time though and I'm secretly hoping we will entice her back in the future! 
Here she's used the vintage gardening papers to make this lovely card - can you believe she crochets those little flowers herself! A lovely card from a lovely lovely lady...

So, now onto our amazingly fabulous Guest Designer for this month, the uber talented Dolly.  All through November Dolly is taking the same challenges as the Design Team but she has to make a Christmas equivalent! (I think she liked this cos she is slowly amassing all her crimbo cards, lol!).


So here she is with another fabulous project for this week...


"Another simple one from me!  A christmas take on the sketch using Jingle Jangles CD and the christmas stamp set.  Used the snowball papers again but resized the sheet to A5 to get more snowballs on the card front, and the stitched paper saved me doing the stitching!  

I decoupaged the stamped tree to give a bit of dimension and added some gems!"

We love it Dolly!...


So that's it from us this week folks! 


Remember you can win a fab CD for this challenge so get creating now! Please remember to follow the rules properly and entries must be in by Sunday 29th November at 12:00 GMT.   Don't forget! You still have time for last minute entries to last week's challenge, entries don't close till this Sunday at 12:00, so make sure you get in on the action!
ttfn xx

Design Team Call

CLOSING DATE FOR ENTRIES...FRIDAY 27TH NOVEMBER AT 12:00 GMT

Challenge 26

I know I say it every week but time certainly does fly - Santa will have been and gone and missed me completely at this rate! I think as I've got older my time management has flown off and left me high and dry as I seem to always be in a rush and nowt ever gets done. Hey ho, better start writing my wish list now!


I have to give a wee mench to the fabulous Dolly, our Guest Designer for November - what a fab tutorial she gave us last week, shame yours truly was so late posting it, if you missed it make sure you check it out here. Dolly will also be giving us her take on this week later, can't wait!


For Challenge 24 we asked  you to make a card for the guys using 3 brads and a stamp.  As always, great entries everyone but alas, there can only be 3 picked :(   and I have to say there really really were some amazing cards...(remember to follow the rules tho, some of you lost out because you forgot the brads!)...


Joint Runners Up goes to...Pinky and Peggy...great works girls please email me for your blinkies...
and... First Place goes to the fab creation from Magic Wanda who's won a Candy Doodles CD for her troubles, please email me Wanda!...

Now, don't forget you still have time to enter last week's challenge which is open until Sunday lunchtime for entries - you need to make some kind of Christmas Decoration using a stamp - and don't forget you can win a set of Rubber Stamps worth £14.99 so get those entries in!

Right! Our next challenge is to use the sketch below and use a Male theme. The Design Team have once again done us very proud with their interpretations of this sketch and given you lots of inspiration using the Not For Girls CD. Closing date is Sunday 22nd November at 12.00 GMT so remember you gotta be in it to win it!

So first we go to Dolly our fab Guest Designer for November...

Here Dolly's made a great Easel card, using one of my fave snowball papers from the CD and then made her own cute parcel just by cutting a parcel shape and using ribbons. I really like how she's used the stamps in the circles instead of actually adding an embellie where the shapes should be on the sketch, very inspired! She's then stamped the greeting and used that as the catch for the card to stand up and attached a wee brad...another fab idea Dolly!


Created by Kath...Kath's certainly made a winner here (oooohh how corny! lol!), she's picked the footie papers here but I really like the use of the newspaper and the mesh in the background...

created by Ruth...she always does something different and here Ruth's gone for a bit of a retro look, this image always makes me laugh and would suit anyone and any occasion I think...

Created by Saskia...fab choice of papers here and such a versatile card, great for someone older maybe...

Made by Boni...Boni has made a fab easel card as well this week, love this card it's so bright and breezy and I love how she's used the button as the catch here...

Made by Claire...the burger n chips rears it's sesame bun again, you are all LOVIN' this one so much! Here Claire has used the same diaper fold for the chip carton and I love the way she's used the same wordy paper in 2 colours - I've only just noticed the little promise button at the bottom - cool!...

Made by Kris...Wow! Kris has gone for something totally different here...still from the NFG CD, she's chosen this fab vintage paper and picked out the elements in a creative way...nice work Kris...

Created by Enfys...Here En has used the fab chevron papers from the CD and used the little alphies combined with her chipboard to make up the greeting. Great card...

Created by Lou...Wow, I LOVE this card! Here Lou has used one of my fave images, the music Stampie Topper and the star papers. The sentiment is one from her own stash and she's doodled and then stamped some extra stars onto the papers - I think this is just fantastic...

Made by Kerry...another stunner from Kerry this week...I'm so pleased Kerry found these papers on the CD as they're one of my faves...they actually look like textured cardstock and give a "Bazzill" finish, they're so effective you actually want to stroke them and then it's weird when they're all smooth to the touch! Kerry has used the papers with her die-cutting machine to make the leaves and then used Polkadoodles stamps for the message and the tiny leaves as a finishing touch...faberoo...

Ok, that's your lot for this week, as always leave your entries in the comments below the post and join us for next week's challenge! tttnw x

Christmas Tree tutorial

Hi all

Well it's better late than never! I know I promised a tutorial for Sunday and it is still Sunday - just! Sorry this is so late but I've had technical problems with the video and it's taken me about 4 hours and 3 attempts to do this tutorial and in the end I've lost a section but hopefully it's not too bad! Hope you enjoy it and have a go.

If you would like to make this lovely 3D Christmas tree just watch the video...

November Guest Designer - Dolly

Well folks, as promised I'm handing this post over to the lovely Dolly who has kindly agreed to be our first ever Guest Designer! Yayy! Dolly will be doing a weekly project for us every Friday during November and I'm sure most of you already know her from blogland anyway and if you haven't already come across her fab blog then you should do so - but not till you check out the fab tutorial below! Dolly will be following the normal DT challenges but she will be putting her own stamp on each challenge ('scuse the pun) - I can't wait! So here ya go, first up...

"Was I surprised when the lovely Nikky, the multi talented designer of all things Polkadoodles asked me to be a Guest Designer for November? Took me about 30 seconds to decide and say 'Yes!'. I love Nikky's designs and the DT over there are a talented bunch so I was honoured to be asked to join them.

This week the Polkadoodles challenge is to create a christmas decoration and here's my christmas tree mobile. 

And here's how I made it. The papers I've used are from the Jingle Jangles CD. 

Cut two triangles of patterned paper measuring 16cm at the base and 20cm high. 

Cut 2 6.5cm squares of contrasting paper for the pot and shape the sides making them more pot-shaped!

Cut the 2 triangles of paper into strips 3.75cm wide 

Cut 2 Stars for the top of the tree and 2 Ovals for the hanger.

Place one set of tree pieces and the star face down leaving a 2mm gap between each piece. Take a piece of string and stick it to the centre of each tree piece with some tape, keeping the string as straight and as near to the centre as you can. Otherwise it'll be 'wonky'!

Now stick the corresponding pieces on top with glue, decorate both sides and stamp a sentiment on the oval hanger. I'm going to make a few of these to send as cards, it folds quite easily to fit into a standard sized envelope.

Hope you can join in with the challenge this week, it closes on Sunday 15th November. There's some lovely designs by the DT to inspire you to get crafting for christmas, be sure to check them out !"  

xx....Dolly

exciting things...

Well helloooo everyone, crikes don't the weeks pass by quickly! I'm writing this a bit early this week as I'm packing my bags and bogging off to the NEC this afty and I can't wait - roadtrip! Sorry, I just don't get out very often so it's a major incident for me when I do! So if you are in the NEC on Friday and  you see my ugly mug come over and say hi - I will be the one buffooning around and getting cross that other people dare to be in front of me in whatever queue I'm standing in. I will also have elbow pads on for booting you all out of my way! lol!  I'm also excited this week because we have a fabulous Guest Designer for November - wahoooo! I will tease you with that morsel for now, I might tell you who it is later...tee hee....


So the challenge before last (I get very mixed up with this Sunday deadline thing, it doesn't take much) was Halloween. Now some of you had been mega busy and I have to say there were some really awesome entries for this. We don't do Halloween very big in the UK but I LOVE it and I want it to get as big as the States so I went totally overboard this year, bought shedloads of sweets and made little cute cones for everyone. We hardly had anyone round :(   Typical! Still we managed to scoff, I mean offload all the sweets and I was a good girl yesterday and chucked all the leftovers out as I knew I would be too tempted.  So it took us yonks and yonks to pick winners and I'm sorry if we didn't comment on everyone's blogs, we did try but I think we all lost the will to live cos there were so many. But thanks to everyone who entered they were all fab.


The lucky winners are:

In 3rd place....Karin and Britt - Britt is only 5 years old and I think her card was awesome so she should share the spoils with her mum I think!
In 2nd place...Lynne in NI...
and our fab winner is....ta dahhh.....Kimmi...


Well done girls can you all please email me for blinkies and some freebies. x


Don't forget you still have until Sunday lunchtime to enter last week's challenge - you can win a CD so make sure you join and have a go!


So as I said before, we have a fabulous Guest Designer for November - the lovely Dolly! Yayyy! I'm sure a lot of you already know Dolly and we thought we'd better stop her winning all the PD challenges by asking her to join us for a little while, LOL!  So welcome aboard Dolly, we can't wait to see what you're making for us!  Dolly has very kindly agreed to share some tutorials for us, the first of which will be posted on Saturday morning, so make sure you tune in to nick all her fabby ideas!   


Right, so onto this week! As the festivities are rapidly approaching I'm challenging you all to make decorations this week - you can make any kind of decoration but please use a rubber stamp and make it Christmas. You have until Sunday 15th November to enter and the winning entry will receive a set of my Daisy Doodles stamps worth £14.99!


I asked the design team to use a CD and stamps for this challenge.  Boy, they never let us down do they...now I have to say I'm doing this post early so it might be a bit light on entries but I will add more as they come in so check back Friday night for more ideas...


created by Saskia...." I used an old Christmas bauble, covered it with some soft white paper, added lovely ribbon and wire...and a Polka Doodle birdie! That's it...oh  yes...and some glitter of course!"..

created by Ruth..."This came about from an idea that I had whilst in the bath on Sunday night! It's an acetate candle holder cover thingy with springy crimbo trees coming off it! Not recommended to be used with the candle is actually lit, but its a nice idea eh?! Bit difficult to get a photo of too. Used the Christmas download for it."

created by Kath..." I covered a square candle with papers and images from Jingle Jangles and stamped with this gorgeous snowflake image."...

created by Boni...Boni has made a frame and hung a lovely Penguin from the centre and made this fab scallop bauble by cutting 3 circles, folding them in half and glueing in the centre...fab...

created by Kerry..." I Cut out a large snowflake for the top and popped a silver snowflake brad in the center, ribbon and silver twine with beads threaded on for the pinched in bits (I'm sure there's a proper name for these). Then added lots of glitter!"...

created by Kris..."I used the digi Polly as the stamp and colored with Prismas and OMS and did some doodles so hopefully it's OK. I kind of like how it turned out."...

created by Lou...This fab hanging decoration was made with Jingle Jangles papers and she's cut them into strips, folded and attached them in the middle. Then she's used flower shapes for the middle decoration...nice idea...

created by Claire...I love this fab tree topper but I suppose you could use it as a bottle decoration too...very simple to make, just make a cone of paper/card (use half a circle to do this) and she's added a star, doodled the edges and then Polly on top. Because Polly's wand was very finely detailed for cutting abd there were tiny tiny cascading stars on the original, notice how she's replaced them with beads on wire - very imaginative, might have to pinch that myself!...

made by Krista...Krista's made this fab tag decoration using Jingle Jangles. She's used Jack and added a flower which kinda ties in as a snowball I think but I love the acetate snowflake, it almost looks like fabric in this pic, lovely...

created by Nikky..."This is actually my project for a class on Saturday so I hope none of my ladies see this before the day! I just didn't realise I'd tied it in with the challenge, I'm obviously in decoration mode! I made the tree (watch out for a tutorial on Sunday night for this) and stamped lots of decorations on top, added some stickles for glitter and some liquid pearls for snow. It's a bit lopsided but I kinda like that, it adds character (My excuse, lol!)"...

Right folks that's it for this one, remember you can win some fab stamps for this challenge so get creating now! Please remember you can only enter up to 10 challenges and entries must be in by Sunday 15th at 12:00 GMT.  Don't forget to pop in on Saturday to see Dolly's tutorial and see what fab make she's done for her first week and I will be posting the tutorial for the tree on Sunday night - hope to see ya then! xx

A spooktacular week of treats...

Yikes, I almost forgot to do the post, Ruth will be gunning for me - the first week I've posted for yonks and I'm back to my old slack self, so sorry Ruthie!!! haha!  I'm still out of synch after the clocks going back last weekend and for some reason all day I've been thinking it was Wednesday. Still, remembered last minute (actually gave my tongue freezer burn off my Cornetto because of the shock) so all is not lost! I'm in Halloween mode and have been carving my mini pumpkin today but it looks a bit forlorn all by itself, so am on a quest to get a bigger more impressive beast tomorrow! oooerrr Mrs!! LOL!  I made some Toffee Apples the other day - they were SOOO scrumptious - at least if we'd been able to eat them they would have been!! Unforch I didn't quite cook the toffee long enough and although it did harden it didn't get to that break-off crispy brittleness so all that happened was my teef literally got stuck together!! I thought I was gonna die from toffee asphyxiation! Honestly! I had a bunged up nose and I couldnt breathe through my mouth my molars were welded that tight!!! And we are both in need of a dentist at the moment so I didn't even let the other half near them! If I could've bared my teeth long enough to laugh I would've believe me, and I only had a piece about an inch big. I was gutted cos I'd used all the apples and was really lookign forward to them, hahahaha. They did taste lush I have to say! I daren't give it another go now though having wasted 8 apples and a whole pound of sugar! hmm maybe I should've taken them to the post office picket lines - one of those babies would soon send them all off to the dentist for a few  hours and long enough for our post to get through - maybe I will send the recipe to the Postmaster General!

So talking of Halloween, last week we challenged you all to make Halloween stuff and those of you who posted haven't let us down with your awesome creations, but you can still enter up to lunchtime on Sunday so if you've made any great Halloweeny stuff for the day itself you still have time to enter.


I need to announce the previous challenge winners which had to follow this sketch and the Top 3 Winners will receive a Polkadoodles Halloween Download Bundle - I'm sure you can make use of it just in time for the occasion girls!  We had some fantastic entries and the 3 Lucky winners are...


Ribena Ruby, CJ's Mom and Dolly


Well done girls, please email me for your lovely Downloads!


Right, onto the task at hand. Last week we knew every challenge blog in the world must have done Halloween, but PLEASE!! Some of you are entering 32 or more challenges with ONE card!! I MEAN?? Whassat all about???!!! 32!!!! I think someone even had 35, good on you for keeping track and actually typing them all out, personally I would have lost the will to live!
So as some of you are obviously finding it hard to keep to the rules, we have decided to increase the number of challenges you can enter up to 10. 


Ok, for the next challenge I'm going to ask you to make a MALE project! Oh no I hear you all cry! Oh yes! I LOVE doing men's stuff, maybe because green and blue are 2 of my fave colours.  As a tip for anyone who does struggle with stuff for guys - they always like strong colours! And don't feel you HAVE to put a fancy embellishment on, quite often a good man's card is really plain and simple.  So you need to make a MALE project and you have to use 3 brads. That's it! It can be anything and you can use anything you like! Easy! You have until Sunday 8th November at lunchtime (GMT) to enter so get your thinking caps on!


The Winner of this challenge will receive a free Candy Doodles CD worth £14.99 so come on - get entering now!


So for this week's challenge I asked the fabulous Doodle Dollies to use the new Not For Girls CD which is a fabulous resource for all those Men's cards and projects you want to make. I'm quite proud of this collection because I think it offers something a bit different to all the other male stuff out there, particularly where cards are concerned.  When we launched this on Create and Craft I demo'd a "Burger and Chips" card - sounds weird, huh? But it is pretty cool and I can't believe how many of you have actually made your own versions of that project - I think there are men all over the world getting burgers through the post as we speak, LOL!  Anyway, enough waffling, onto the wonderful creations from the team this week.  So they had to use Not For Girls, a Rubber Stamp and they also had to do a bit of a doodle too (must've been feeling mean that day, haha!)  so here you go...




made by Ruth....I LOVE this fab card from Ruth, this is what I mean by simple but perfect, lovin' that string girl!...

made by Kerry...as a Scooter Girl myself she won me over with this one, LOL!...

 

created by Saskia...Very cute! Saskia has used one of the Brick Lane papers and combined the Tweets with 'Tude with stamps from our Daisy Doodles collection, I love thos floaty little leaves, they're fab...

created by Kath....the Tweets with 'Tude sure are popular! Love how Kath has turned this into a crimbo card and the use of the music paper is lovely...it does rock, Kath!...

made by Kris...Here Kris has taken one of the cool toppers and combined it with buttons and alphabets from the CD, her doodling is all those stripes in the background...great card Kris...

created by Claire...Claire sure loves to doodle! I think she is addicted to these fab robots! A great gatefold card and she's made her brads look like screws. I really like the way Claire does this kind of doodling by using both black and white pens, it looks great and I WILL be stealing it! lol!...

Created by Boni...Boni's gone for a more classic look here using the Jazz and distressed piano papers, 2 of our faves. The message is also on the CD too and she's added a little embellie for some metallic...love this...

Created by Enfys...You can tell an En card a mile off ,I think! I love this card, it's so funny - those little Tweet Dudes have deffo been the most popular collection with the Team I think, and putting her brads on the tree is just plain clever...but then our En is always a very clever girl isnt she...just love it...

made by Sue...here Sue has used the fab tickets from the CD together with a great text backing paper and topper. For her doodling she's used one of the doodle stamps from the Daisy Doodles collection (if you don't have these yet I think they're a must-have, they are SO versatile) and her 3 little stars are brads...fab card...

So as the saying goes, that's it Folks! another week over and another challenge for you to get your teeth into - that's if you have any teeth left after all that trick or treating!   Don't forget there's a free CD on offer for the winner!!

See  you next week xxx

Week 23 Challenge - Halloween!

Be prepared for some spooky offerings from the Design Team this week! It is Friday once again and because Nikky is relaxing in the Green Room at Ideal World and rubbing shoulders with the crafting stars of the telly, I'm back again to write the challenge post for the week!

And we are already upto week 23! Which means, if my maths is any good that the Polkadoodle Design Team and Challenge Blog are slowly approaching the magical 6 months mark. And the little whisper I heard on the grapevine is that there will be some fab blog candy available very soon to tempt you into entering our challenges. So you have to be in it to win it!!

As I mentioned before, Nikky is on the telly this morning - 10am GMT on Create and Craft / Ideal World - Sky channel 671 showing her latest double cd - Not For Girls. So tune in and take the weight off your crafting toes for an hour - you'll be glad you did!

Before I move onto the challenge for this week (slight giveaway in the title of this post!) I need to announce the winners of challenge 21:

In Third Place: Siobhan

And In Joint First Place: Teri and Auntie Nonie

Congratulations ladies! Please email Nikky for further details and your lovely blinkies!

So this week, the DT have been set the challenge of Halloween. Now this may fill you with dread (no pun intended!) but you don't need to make a card - just look at some of the creations from the DT - food can be spooky too!!

You can use any items you wish but all the better if they are Polkadoodle's! All the DT have worked with the Halloween Download which is available here and has 35% off until 31st October - what are you waiting for??! I just love the grotty papers!! Please remember that you can combine your Polkadoodle entry with three other challenges - making a total of 4 for one item.

Yes spiders do have snack tins and here is one made by Boni to prove it! Just look at the googly eyes on those spiders!

A shrink plastic Polly sits on top of this sweetie jar made by Claire - the pumpkins around the bottom of the jar are also from the Halloween download.

You just cannot beat googly eyes - Enfys has livened up Jack in his ghostie costume with some larger than life eyes! I love the drippy effect on the card and the freehand stitching!

Kerry has created a spooky free hanging spiders web and just look at the size of the critter in the centre! And googly eyes too!

It's looking like ghosty Jack is very popular with the DT this week! The ghosties have been layered onto one of the sentiments by Kris to create a spooky backing. The little twists of cord just add the right amount of colour to the card.

Lou has cleverly used the Candy Doodles stamps to create some quite spooky trees! They've been stamped onto the Halloween papers and then trimmed.

Now there is no point in asking how many chocolates are left as the answer is none - my youngest has scoffed them all! Paper, sentiment and dressed up Jack all from the download - the bats are table confetti. Saskia has used a lot of the elements from the Halloween download to create her spiders web card. Spooky!!

You have until 12noon GMT on Sunday 1 November to enter this challenge and challenge 22 is still open until Sunday 25 October at 12noon GMT.

Good luck!

izzy wizzy lets get busy!...

Well I finally managed to relieve Ruth from bloggy doo-tays for this week at least, bless her for helping out so much lately, I really don't know what I would do without ALL my lovely designer gals, they are absolute treasures. I just never seem to have a minute these days between designing and travelling to Create and Craft, the weeks are flashing by and I can't believe it's the middle of October already, this has been a whirlwind year for sure. This month we've launched a new double CD "Not for GIrls" which has gone down a storm and kept us extremely busy shipping and packing, we have literally sent the last batch of the pre-orders off today, it takes us over a week to plough through them all. So after all the craziness my mojo seems to have got up and bogged off , maybe I'm just tired out - eekk what if it doesnt come back!?! Horror! I couldn't live without making something for more than a couple of days though - could you?? Stranded on a desert island I would be the one trying to draw with a stick and making a raft using all the twirliest twigs and the prettiest leaves, with a sail made from flowers and a trail of lotus petals following us home!! Seriously! Not to mench having first built a deep hole and trying to melt sand to make glass so I could sip my cocktails!...right, quick slap round the chops and it's back to the reality and drudgery! Talking of drudgery I actually CLEANED, slap, whack, ouch, yes I did THAT word to the house this week! Necessity of course, we had a plumber coming and it involved moving lots of boxes of stash from where he wanted to be and the shame of the cat fluff just caught up with me quite honestly. Still it's over now, won't have to do it again till Crimbo, hahaha! No we have vowed to try and do IT once a week at least from now on. hmmm, WHATeva!

So without further ado, for Week 20 we challenged you to follow a sketch and we had some lovely entries as always, you peeps sure do us proud every week. I know all the Doodlers love mooching around your blogs looking to see what you did and

we do try and leave comments although sometimes time does prevent but it doesnt mean we don't see them because we do!

So the winning entries were...

3rd place: Allison

2nd place: Dolly

and big congratulations to Shirley who snaffled the Winners Accolade this week!

Well done to all 3 of you, please email me for your blinkies and goodies.

Before I forget you still have time to enter last week's challenge which is

open until lunchtime on Sunday so make sure you get your entries in!

Right, onto this week's challenge....

...we have another sketch this week so please follow the sketch - you can rotate it or flip it, as long as the sketch is recognisable.

Also, please remember that you can only combine your Polkadoodles card with 3 other challenges - the limit is 4 including Polkadoodles. Follow these little rules and you could be in with a chance of winning some fab Polkadoodles products! As we're coming up to Halloween the Top 3 entries will each receive the Polly Polkadoodles Halloween Download Bundle as a little prize for their troubles. Closing date for your entries is Sunday 25th Oct at noon GMT. As it's close to Halloween we'll vote for our winners early so you can get your prizes in time to be making Halloween-y stuff! So come on, get cracking!

As always the fantastic Design Team have come up with some great ideas for this sketch, I asked them to use Polkadoodles stamps with any CD collection - they never fail to disappoint do they, so grab your coffee and the biggest piece of cake you've got and take a look at these gorgie offerings...

Created by Kris...I absolutely LOVE this card, the colours on this are lovely. Kris has used the Crimbley Doodles download collection and she's copied the doodles from the holly stamp and doodled freehand around a scallop frame - I think this looks just like lace and it gives a fantastic look to the card, really pulls it all together...

Created by Enfys...En used her fave tree papers on this fab Crimbo card - these are from the Candy Doodles collection. She's then stamped the tree (SO versatile) and added buttons which I think are just adorable. She loves that little Fudgey dog too doesn't she! Fab, fab, fab!...think he's waiting for a bone parcel...

Created by Krista...another stunner! Krista has made a PRE-crimbo card - what a FAB idea! remind Santa it's Crimbo and send him your list, great idea if you have kids or grandkids, with half term coming you could get them to do one and use it as blackmail ALL the way up to Xmas!! Anyway she's used Polly from Jingle Jangles and I wonder if she coloured this black cos she's been a baad girl??...
Created by Lou...this is such a soft, lovely card...Lou has used the Snowmen papers from Jingle Jangles CD and again has used the tree stamp and overstamped that big bauble - I love that it's oversized, it looks fab!...
created by Ruth...I always love the way Ruth just uses simplicity, I'm in a busy phase at the moment and I love seeing the crisp clean look on Ruth's cards. Here she's made a gorgeous flower and then used the doodle stamp from the Daisy Doodles stamp collection around the edges. Bootiful...Created by Claire...Claire is always so creative! Here she has used the funky robots from the brand new Not For Girls CD and the way she's added them around that circle is FAB. She's made a doodley ribbon using the same stamp as Ruth and then added doodling around the frame and double edged it in white and black for definition, this girl really IS a doodler at heart!...
Created by Saskia...another lovely creation by Saskia...She's used Jingle Jangles elements with the papers and the cute Robin, then stamped Holly using the Crimbo Doodles stamps. Love that flower touch behind the Robin, reminds me of a green pepper for some reason but I love it!...


Created by Kerry...Kerry had made this fun card using Not For Girls CD - those tweets with 'tood are proving popular with everyone!! All elements are from the CD and then she's stamped the buttons and the doodles aorund the edges - a great men's card, think we all have at least one poseur in the family dont we!...

Created by Boni...Here Boni has used the Halloween collection to make this fab spooky card, those little bats are SO cute!She's added lots of distressing to make it look even grungier...
Created by Kath...lovely use of the sketch here. Kath has stamped snowflakes (wouldnt have thought of doing red ones) onto a plain paper and then Stamped the lovely tree onto the Jingle Jangles paper (think it's Gumdrops that one), added her sentiment stamp and some lovely doodling and embellies - simple but gorgeous...
Well, it's a bumper crop this week so I hope you liked what we have to offer and hopefully you will all be feeling inspired to join in this week...can't wait to see what you do! Remember there is a free download bundle for 3, yes, 3, lucky peeps for this one! Don't forget, you have till Sunday 25th to enter! Gotta be in it to win it girls! (and boys!)

ttfn xx

Week 21 Challenge - Sketch

Good morning! It's Friday again so that means another Polkadoodle Challenge!


Before I reveal this week's challenge, I must announce the winners from week 19 - Digi Colouring. We had a great response and without further ado, here are the winners:

In Joint Third Place: Ribenaruby and Eileen

In Second Place: Lynne in NI

And The Winner Is: Katie

Congratulations to you all! Please email Nikky for your blinkies and the lucky winner gets a Polkadoodle prize!


Challenge 20 from last week is still open until Sunday 11 October at 12noon GMT so you still have time to enter!


Right, onto this weeks challenge! Nikky gave the Design Team this following sketch and asked us to use Jingle Jangle Christmas and also the rubber stamps.


To enter this challenge, please follow the sketch - you can rotate it or flip it, as long as the sketch is recognisable then that is fine. Also, please remember that you can only combine your Polkadoodle card with 3 other challenges - the limit is 4 including Polkadoodle. Follow these little rules and you could be in with a chance of winning some fab Polkadoodle products!


From the Design Team creations, you'll be able to see just how versatile Jingle Jangle Christmas and the stamps are! If you want more details on how each card was made, just click on their names!

However, Nikky forgot to use Jingle Jangle Christmas and she has used the Crimbley Doodles download instead! I do forgive her, purely for the use of that wonderful red spotty ribbon!

Boni has created a wonderfully festive Christmas card! And Polly looks so sweet leaning on her rather large Christmas present!

Now this reminds me of Iced Gems. And I'm not showing my age here as I know you can still buy them in the shops! Claire has added some fab doodling along with images from Jingle Jangle Christmas and some of the rubber stamp images.

Ah - Christmas greens and reds! Enfys has created a wonderful traditional coloured Christmas card complete with real stitching! Now that just completes it for me!

Now this from Kath just screams Christmas at me!! The little snowflakes are from the Christmas stamp set along with the holly and berries. And yes, Christmas screams. Or at least it does in my house!!

A fun card from Kerry - those fairy lights look so real and does the candy lolly make you feel peckish too?!
Just look at this cute penguin family! This really is Saskia and her family! A funky felt flower (try saying that fast!) has been added to her card - everything else is from the cd!

Now I do like Polly. She really should be scattering some stars but I had an accident with the scissors and instead she is holding a stamped and glittered gift!

To enter this challenge, please leave a comment with your blog post as the link - you have until Sunday 18 October at 12noon GMT to enter and you can use what ever papers you like - better still, if you have any Polkadoodle products, we would love to see them! We don't have many rules but we do ask that you follow the challenge for that particular week and also please remember that although you can combine this challenge with others, the limit is 4 including the Polkadoodle challenge - any more will be disqualified.

Good luck and we can't wait to see what you create!