Week 17 Challenge - Anything But A Card

Fridays seem to come around really quickly these days! And because it is a Friday, it is time for another Polkadoodle Challenge! Once again, I am hosting this challenge and I hope the Design Team have given you plenty of inspiration! The Challenge for week 16 remains open until Sunday 13 September, so you still have time to enter.

Challenge 15 has closed and the winners from that week are:

In joint Second place: Denise and Aquarius

First place: Anne

Congratulations to our winners! It was a very tough week to choose just three - well done to all who entered! Please email Nikky for further details regarding blinkies etc!

If you're wanting more Polkadoodles then watch Create and Craft on Sky channel 671 on Tuesday 15 September at 9am as you will see Nikky demonstrating her two brand new rubber stamp collections that complement Jingle Jangle Christmas and Candy Doodles. I've been lucky enough to receive a pre launch set of each and they are fantastic to use! Really detailed and stamp so easily!

Onto this week - Challenge 17. I asked the Design Team to make something that was not a card - this could be a book, bookmark, container, ornament, postcard, atc - anything just as long it is not a card! If you want further details of how they made their creation, simply click on the name and you'll be taken directly to their blog - as if by magic!

So your challenge this week is to make

Anything But A Card

Boni has created a beautiful welcome gift for a baby - just look how cute the little booties are! Made with Sugar Birdies and Candy Doodles and some extra embellishments.


Claire has made two simple but stunning bookmarks using papers and images from Jingle Jangle Christmas and also a little Sugar Birdies. And if you look closely at the blue birdie tag you will see the very soon to be released Jingle Jangle Christmas stamps!

Just look at this wonderfully cute memory book that Enfys has created! She's made it for one of her Grandsons by using papers and images from Jingle Jangle Christmas. I love the picture of wrapped up Max!

Kath has ingeniously made a little organiser! Now that is organised! Made using the stampies and papers from Jingle Jangle Christmas it opens out to reveal a post-it notepad and little holder for other scraps of paper or receipts. Wonderful!

And now for something very different! Kerry has filed two heart shaped bags (used Sugar Birdies and Candy Doodles) with lavender, added some ribbon, funky flowers and doodling. This is a project that would be a great idea for Christmas!

By layering up various papers and stampies from Candy Doodles and adding them to a scrap peice of cardboard, Kirsty has made a simple yet elegant door hanger. You could add any letter of the alphabet to personalise it or even a sentiment. Look at the shine on the handle!

Here Kris has made a tree decoration - it looks complicated to make but surprisingly it is simple - a bit of stitching and gluing and you too can make a tree ornament! Made with Jingle Jangle Christmas papers.

Lulu has created a cute little stocking which really is a gift box - very ingenious! Made using papers and elements from Jingle Jangle Christmas and some clever paper pleating. But where are the sweeties Lou??!!

Saskia has used my favourite Polkadoodle download - Halloween! She's cleverly made two wrappers for sweets or candies, resizing the stampie images and overlaying different elements.

As its been back to school week in the UK, Sue has made a wonderful sticker reward book for the children in her class. Polly looks like she's going back to school too! Paper based elements from Candy Doodles and a few extra embellishments here and there and volia! A very fab sticker book!!

I've made a Birthday book because I keep loosing the scraps of paper with names and Birthdays on and I like to be organised enough to remember them! I've used Candy Doodles with a bit of overprinting - if you want to see how I made it, there is a tutorial just before this post or you can also see it on my blog.

So I hope the Design Team samples have given you plenty of food for thought! They really have given you some inspiration! I didn't realise when I set the challenge just how creative the Team is! Remember, you can make anything as long as it is not a card - your only limit is what to make!

Good luck and I can't wait to see how you interpret my challenge! You have until Sunday 20 September to enter - simply leave a link on this post back to your blog and we can all come and visit you!

Tutorial for Challenge 17 - A Birthday Book

Here is a tutorial for you to follow or adapt as you see appropriate - I've made a Birthday Book. Really because I have Birthday's written on scraps of paper and then I can never find them when I need them and miss Birthday's so I decided to do something about it!

The actual cover template was created by the very talented and generous Dolly who kindly sent me the file so I could use it (thanks Dolly!)

I've used Candy Doodles cd, you'll also need a ruler, pencil, pair of scissors, hole punch or similar tool, embellishments to decorate and two large jump ring binders. Aside from all the printing, it took me around 2 hours to assemble the book.


The above picture in more detail: The black target sheets are the front and rear covers of the book, you can see the template too (printed onto an A4 sheet so you get an idea of the size) and also the tags which I have printed the months of the year onto. The dandelion tags, printed onto 160gsm card are from the Candy Doodles cd - I cut and pasted the image onto a word document, added in the background colour and also the text. I did this in word so you don't need any fancy photo or picture editing programmes as long as you are familiar with Microsoft word.

The pages of the book - one for each month have been printed directly onto pre printed sheets of 100gsm smooth paper. I've used Microsoft excel to make up the months, making sure that the lines were evenly spaced and that I had enough days for each month! You'll see my writing on the edge of the sheet - this is so I knew what months to print on which coloured sheets so that I wouldn't get the same colour opposite each other! It took a bit of planning and working out, but I got there in the end with the excel spreadsheet!


I double sided printed the actual pages onto 200gsm white hammered cardstock - a different colour on the reverse - the months (above) were then layered on top (just in case I made a mistake and didn't want to waste the lovely hammered card!)


The book covers were printed onto 300gsm card stock, traced around the template from Dolly and then stuck the sheets back to back for more rigidity.

Here are all the tags cut out and inked - I ended up using a hole punch to make the holes in the tags (much simpler on the muscles!)

I then cut down the sheets of printed card which will be the pages of the book - I rounded the edges and inked them too. The pages fit nicely inside the covers - I measured from the start of the circle to the opposite edge.

I then cut out the months, rounded and inked the edges again. It may help if you keep a note of the number of days in each month. Just so you don't stick the wrong month down!

I added the ring binders through the top and bottom of the book and here it shows two of the months side by side. The tags are not adhered to the pages - they can be turned over and can be moved too.

Now if I'd have really got myself organised, I'd have made a little pouch on the back cover for scraps of paper that I have yet to transfer into the book. Mind you, I've yet to write all the Birthdays in - I don't want to spoil it!

The front cover looks really plain (its been lightly inked too) so I used my Baby Face Cuttlebug dies to create the wording from silver and black card.

Add a bit of organza ribbon to the rings (matching with the colour of the pages!)

And it's completed!

This can be adapted for any type of book project and with Christmas just around the corner, Birthday books would make an ideal gift!

Hope you've found it easy enough to follow - if you get stuck or have any questions, please let me know!

Oh, I've just remembered - I have the spreadsheet for the months if you want to follow the project - visit my blog for my email address and I'll happily send it to you!

Edited to say: I'm in the process of transfering files from my 'old' computer (it's a little poorly) to a new one and it is taking a while to do so, so please bear with me if you have already emailed me to request the file - I will get it to you as soon as I can!

Challenge winners...

Hi everyone - apologies, but due to a few technology disasters at Doodle Towers this week (caused by my Fingers of Woe, I'm told) I've lost my PC, emails everything! So if you're a challenge winner/runner up etc waiting for prizes/blinkies etc can you please email me again at sales@polkadoodles.co.uk. It will take a while for me to sort your blinkies etc but at least I will know where they're meant to be going!! thanks, Nix xx