Week 4 Challenge - Party Time

Hi its Tracie here - it's time for another challenge at Polka Doodles this week, but before I give you the details here are the top three from Nikky's sketch and colour theme challenge:

First Place: Debbie Johns
Second Place: Josie

Third Place: Stamper Sue

Congratulations! Please email Nikky with 'Week 2 Challenge' in the subject field for further details and your blinkies!

Before we get onto this week's challenge just a quick reminder that you can see Nikky on Create and Craft on Saturday 29th at 11am and 3pm - she has some fabulous new stamps and fantastic colouring techniques to show you and will also be showcasing the latest Polka Doodles CD, Paper Boutique 3 - you will LOVE her demo's! Also, for those of you nearby, you can also catch Nikky at a special demo day at Embsay Crafts in Skipton, North Yorkshire on Saturday 12th Feb, 10 - 3pm - hope you can make it along on the day, Embsay is a great shop and Skipton is lovely to visit!

Ok, onto this week's challenge. Firstly, we have a few little rules that make life a lot easier for the Design Team when we come visiting your blogs - please ensure you do the following, we have lots of blogs to visit and it's so time consuming sometimes, you can really help us which means we will leave more comments!

1. Please follow the challenge!! So many of you forget to do this and it means great work goes unconsidered!
2. Only enter your creation in a maximum of 10 challenges including Polkadoodles.
3. Please please link your blog post with the blue frog NOT your blog address as we cannot always find our way around your blogs and can't find the project you're entering!!
4. Please do not back link to previous posts - these will be disregarded from our voting for the top three!

We are in the party mood this week at Polka Doodles - on Sunday I am throwing a joint birthday party for my 5 yr old and 3 yr old (eeeek!) so this week we would like to see your projects with a party theme. So get out the bubbly, chuck on some party tunes and get in the party spirit. The challenge is open until Sunday 6 February at 12noon GMT - please enter via the blue frog at the bottom of this post.

D'Anne The party is started here at Polkadoodles. I created a Birthday card to share with you. The Fancy Star Cake digital element and coordinating digital papers used to create this card are from the Paper Boutique Vol 1 CD. To give the cake a layered look I printed the Fancy Star Cake digital element out three times. I raised each cut layers with pop-dots. I then added Liquid Appliqué and some glitter to give the appearance of creamy delicious icing. Remember, Birthdays are nature’s way of telling us to eat more cake. Enjoy!

Emma Hiya, yeah a party theme! I just love them,so I have made some invitations using the All Around and Everywhere CD to celebrate in style. Parties to me are about cakes and bright decorations like my favourite bunting - this CD has them all and the best thing is, I didn't have to colour any of them as they are already coloured and matched perfectly. All the papers and images are on the CD, the sentiment is from Sensational Sentiments stamp plate, finally, I added some Stickles for sparkle.

Tracie: I killed two birds with one stone for my challenge this year and made some bits and pieces for the party. I have used the collectors edition section of Sugar Birdies and scallop and circle punches to make this party set of thank you headers (these will be put on sweetie bags) and book marks for the sweetie bags. I also made cupcake flags but the cakes are still baking - so check my blog later today for pics of them.

Claire I have used the great Cupcake template from Paper Boutique Volume 1 to create my party card. I have added the alphas with fancy wires, velvet brads for my cupcake case spots and some sticky gems to the band.

Audrey ...For this Birthday Gift Holder I used the All Around And Everywhere CD for the paper, the cupcake and the Happy Birthday. I love that you can pick a tag and then type the text that you would like to go on it. I inked all the edges of the paper with Soft Suede and I added dots around the cupcake. I rounded all the corners to make it look a little bit softer and I also used 3D Dots for the cupcake and the Happy Birthday.

Saskia - A happy card for a happy party!! Oooh... these owls are so cute! And this card is so easy to make!! You can find all those lovely flowers, owls and papers at the Sugar Birdies Collectors Edition cd-rom! Just give it a try!

Dee: I've used one of the cute little house rubber stamps for my card. The hearts on the roof made me think of bunting, and the dragonflies are just arriving for the party. I coloured the image in with PoMarkers, I used scallop square nesties which I punched holes in and threaded through some lush lemondrop twine. The blue backing paper is from Paper Boutique Vol III cd. I punched the designs down the sides of the card with Martha Stewart's scallop 2 holes border punch. I added some printed ribbon from my stash and chipboard letters. I couldn't find the right colour buttons so I coloured white pearl ones with a promarker pen.

Miria -This week my creation is a very girlish one but it's just ... a piece of cake to make it! The papers and the template are from Love&Cherish and the image, coloured with waterpencils, and the sentiment are from the gorgeous new Paper Boutique III, the laces are from my stash.
Colette: I think the party mood went to my head this week and I probably went a bit overboard! Using lots of images from the new Paper Boutique III CD Rom and paper from Sundae of Seasons, I made a heap of party goodies - a cutlery holder, gift bag (made using an A5 envelope), lollipop cover, wrappers for a chocolate bar and tube of sweets, a treat bag topper, pin the tail on the elephant game, tic, tac, toe game and a memory card game (pairs).

Ruth: I love parties and my two boys have their Birthday's a week apart so we have joint parties too! I've used the brand new cd Paper Boutique Vol 3 for inspiration - this is the A5 space rocket with a few extras from my stash added. The planet in the background boings around too!

Fliss: I have a rather girly card too in pink with some zesty lime for a great contrast. I think this one is suitable for any age and all the papers and elements including the gorgeous little party owl come from Nikky's recent Collectors Edition of the Sugar Birdies CD. I've used lots of layers and my only addition was a matching layered flower.

Cheryl: I have used the cake coloured with pencils,and used some pearl paints for the icing. All the papers, image and sentiments are from the Sundae of Seasons cd.

Lou: I have also used one of the new Little House rubber stamps for my card. I have embossed vellum with a Sizzex folder and then restamped the image as I wanted some more ! All images coloured with my promarkers and white gel pen highlights. The sentiment has been hand written.

Good luck! The challenge is open until Sunday 6 February at 12noon GMT!!

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Week 3 Challenge - There's No Place Like Home

Hi Colette here - it's time for another challenge at Polka Doodles this week, but before I give you the details here are the top three from our first challenge of 2011, which was Emma's 'A Wish For The New Year':

First Place: Katalytic
Second Place: Clairebears
Third Place: Dianne

Congratulations! Please email Nikky with 'Week 1 Challenge' in the subject field for further details and your blinkies!

We have a few little rules that make life a lot easier for the Design Team when we come visiting your blogs;

1. Please follow the challenge
2. Only enter your creation in a maximum of 10 challenges including Polkadoodles
3. Please please link your blog post with the blue frog rather than your blog address as we cannot always find our way around your blogs!
4. Please do not back link to previous posts - these will be disregarded from our voting for the top three

The challenge is open until Sunday 30 January at 12noon GMT - good luck!

Now onto our challenge for this week, the theme is 'There's no place like home' and we'd love to see projects or cards that can be given as a moving/new home gift. Check out the fabulous DT creations, for some inspiration!

I do hope you can join us for the challenge this week, but please remember to follow our few simple rules.

Our guest designer for this week is Ashley. Ashley has made a beautiful new home card, using the house from the new Paper Boutique III CD Rom, and added glitter and flowers from her stash.

Colette - This week I've used the All Around and Everywhere CD Rom - Magical Days Collection to make a wine bottle label, keyring and gift card holder. The keyring is made from a trolley coin keyring, I just removed the coin and added my own design, which was made using shrink plastic and a stampie from the CD. I enlarged the stampie to double the size I wanted, added my sentiment and then flipped it horizontally so that I had a mirror image. I printed this, then traced over the design onto the shrink plastic with a Staedtler Lumocolor pen, coloured it with Sakura gelly roll stardust pens, punched a hole for hanging and then used my heatgun to shrink it. The card has a section in the centre which holds a gift card.

Ruth: I've used one of the new House stamps which I've coloured with Promarkers, used two Nesties for layering and added it all to a Kraft card blank. These stamps are great if you are a bit unsure with colouring but look fantastic finished (even if I say so myself!)



D'Anne - Welcome home friends! I loved how this sweet card turned out using the 'House Stampies' from the All Around & Everywhere CD. I colored the main image with Promarkers and added a product to give the flowers a raised look. The green and pink designer paper is from the Sundae of Seasons CD.


Enfys: I couldn't resist this little family of owls from the Sugar Birdies Collectors Edition CD, and popped them onto an easel card

Claire - The New Polka Doodles PB Cd is packed full of really creative templates. I have used the recipe template for this fun New Home card. Adding ribbon as ties to the apron. Lots of different textures with stickles and crackle glaze.

Tracie: I used the table and chairs and a couple of green papers from the Sundae of Seasons CD. I also used a Martha Stewart border punch which I trimmed down slightly. I created the sentiment on my pc.

Emma I've made a card using paper and an image from the All Around and Everywhere CD. The images were already coloured so it was so quick to print them out, the only extras I used were some basic white and brown card stock and then a few Doodle Dewdrops.

Lis-m . I have literally made a home card with the new house template from the new Paper Boutique Vol 3 cd "Projects Galore". I used the A4 coloured option and added the layers to make a stunning 3d new home project.

Dee: I've used the House Stampie from Paper Boutique Vol III CD for my card this week. I printed it out four times and cut out my own decoupage layers to make the features stand out more. All the backing papers are from PB volIII too. The scrummy spot ribbon can also be found on the Polka Doodles website.

Saskia - I used the lovely Magic House stamp. I used red ink for the stamp and only coloured the little hearts. All papers, sentiment and mushrooms are from the Sundae Of Seasons cd rom.

Audrey For this box I used Sundae Of Seasons for everything... the paper, the sentiment, the flowers and the fence. I used 3D dots to give the fences some dimension and I inked the edges of the paper as well. I made this gift box for a Congratulations On Your New Home gift.

Fliss - I've made my shaped card using elements all from the Sundae of Seasons CD Summer collection. I printed out the cottage and the pretty flowery fences, together with the background paper on to cream card instead of white and it gives a slightly softer look to the resulting colours which I rather like. I went round the edges with a Cool Grey 2 Promarker to add depth and added a little Pastel Blue to the flower sections.

Miria This card is for a couple of friends who have just moved to a new house : it was just a piece of cake making it ! I used colour stampies, paper and sentiment from Sundae of seasons, I stamped the house twice, to give more 3D effect I cut out the door and one window. The ribbon is from my stash.


Lou: All the elements from my card are from the "Sugar Birdies" CD and I love that bird house topper. I have pyramarged it (a first for me) to create some additional effect. Simple mat and layering followed by a little paper pleating for a ribbon. Sorry that there isn't a sentiment but I couldn't decide on which one to use! I made 4 different ones and couldn't decide which looked the best . . . so in the end I left them all off !


Good luck - the closing date is Sunday 30 January at 12noon GMT and please remember our little rules!

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Week 2 Challenge - Sketch, Colour Theme & a freebie!

Hi everyone, it's me...Nikky! : D ...welcome to another challenge week at Polka Doodles!

Firstly, the top three from the last challenge of 2010 which was a sketch and to colour your image are:
First Place: Lisa C, Second Place: Claire, Third Place: Rosie G

Congratulations Ladies! We loved your entries this week! Please email Nikky for further details - please put 'Challenge 51' in your subject field.

So we've had an ultra busy few weeks at Polka Doodles and I've been working my poor teamies to the bone making lots of samples over the Christmas and New Year for me - as usual they came up trumps as they always do, I'm so lucky to have this amazing team of fabulous talents supporting me and without them all I'd be well and truly up the creek! If you're wondering what all the hoo-hah is about, we launched our very latest digital CD rom last week - the 3rd in the Paper Boutique template series, Projects Galore. I think the girlies have been dying to reveal what they've been making with this new CD, I can tell there are already favourites for sure! You can snatch a peek here and see all the amazing samples from the very talented Team Doodle Dollies here...it's worth a look, believe me!

So before I give you this week's challenge I also have some more exciting news...our lovely Enfys, who I've known now for quite a lorra years, has reached a humongous milestone on her blogaroo...a whopping great 500,000 blog hits no less! 500,000!!! Whoop Whoop!! A huge congratulations are in order for this and to mark the occasion she is hosting a fantastic blog hop next week, starting on Mon 17th Jan at 9am - so make sure you join in, she has STACKS of candy to giveaway and a few surprises up her sleeve I think. Please make sure you join in, it will be a great hop, I think even some of the PD girls are roped in as well, so it'll be a goodie.

Right, on with this week's challenge then...I wanted to comemmorate En's milestone and my challenge is themed around her lifestyle...En spends 6 mths of the year here in the UK, her homeland, but also spends 6 months in the USA each year, lucky girl (know which I would choose!)...so there are 3 parts to my challenge this week...1. create a card using Red, White and Blue - the idea is to design something that you could send to someone in the US or the UK, all transcontinental-like! 2. to help you we have this little sketch below which you need to use (you can interpret this). 3. IN ADDITION, I decided last minute to design you a little FREEBIE so you can download the 3 papers and the 2 "happy" words here for absolutely zilch! So what are you waiting for??!!! Get on it!

Please remember the rules: Must use red, white and blue and the sketch and it should be suitable for a US or UK/european recipient! And you can only enter it in this and 9 other challenges! You have until Sunday 23rd January at 12noon GMT to get your entries in. (You don't have to use the download).

Ok, so let's see what everyone's made!

Nikky: I tried to stick to the sketch and the brief as much as I could but we had delivery of some brand new lushy lush embroidered ribbons as I was making this and I had to use some of the fabby Liberty design on my card! I LOVE it! And you can checkout the rest of the fabby designs here they are AMAZING! I suppose this makes my card lean towards the US side of the red,white and blue but hey ho, it was one of those times when the stash overrules!! You can get further info on what I've used on my blog.

Ruth: I've made an A5 card with this fab truck which is from the brand new Paper Boutique Vol 3 cd. I've layered up the image ontop of one of the papers from the same cd with faux stitching around the edges. The sentiment has been cut using my Cuttlebug Baby Face alphabet set The headlights and grille on the truck are glittered (although you can't see it in the photo!)



Fliss - I've made a birthday card for the challenge using a gorgeous digi girl from the Sundae of Seasons CD Autumn Collection and coloured her with Prisma pencils, blending the colours with Zest It. The plaid paper and border are from the same CD and the blue paper is from the Not So Plain Plains of the Not For Girls CD. The greeting is made from the new Sentiments stamp collection and I finished off with flowers and a leaf punched from the paper scraps.

D'Anne - For my project this week I used a mess of new and old goodies. The new goodies used were the pattern striped background paper and the black and white digital birdie. These digital elements are available on the All Around & Everywhere in the 'Bright & Beautiful' collection CD. For the old elements I cut out a tree shape and then applied different shades of brown cardstock to create the tree bark. Did you notice the clouds behind the blue bird?



Audrey ... For this card I used the Sundae Of Seasons CD. I cannot get enough of it! Everything matches. I used the red and blue digital papers with my Cricut to cut out the letters and then went and printed the presents is a few different sizes. I used the sentiment banner as well. I inked the edges a little bit with Soft Suede ink and that it.

Enfys: I used Babsie, one of the fairy flutterby stamps, and some gingham paper from Sundae of Seasons. The red and white check paper is from Not for Girls CD, and the letters are Thickers by American Crafts. Babsie was coloured with ProMarkers


Saskia - This cute doggie, made in 3d-layers, is from the new Paper Boutique III cd-rom! I added wiggling eyes, so the doggie can have a good look around! Backing papers are from the Sundae Of Seasons cd-rom. This is a 'free interpretation' of the sketch.

Colette - I used the robot from the fabulous new Paper Boutique 3 CD Rom, printed him out twice and layered him onto an oval cut with nesties, For the background I used the Cuttlebug clockworks embossing folder rubbed over with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Stormy Sky. The oval is glued to a strip of card, which is decorated with washers and nuts, and attached to the card with a brad so that it swivels up to show a message underneath.

Lis-m. I too have chosen a robot, but this time from the not for girls cd. The dotty papers are from Sugar Birdies and I've die cut the word happy. The birthday sentiment is computer generated.

Claire - Great sketch which I've rotated and turned into an easel format. I have used the gorgeous buterflies from Sundae of Seasons cd. Papers from Paper boutique volume 1 and flower built up from a selection of cd's incuding Sundae of Seasons with a splash of stickles!

Dee: I have used Papers and images from the Sugar Birdies Collectors Edition CD for my project this week. I scaled down the flowers by half to make the flower border, added some lush East of India ribbon and a few pink gems.

Emma Hiya, I made a really clean and simple card this time. The Image is from Sundae of Seasons Cd, the sentiment is from Sensational Sentiments red rubber stamp plate and the alphies are from All Around and Everywhere Cd, lastly I used a little bit of Stickles to give that extra bit of sparkle.

Miria For my card I used this cute bear from new cd Paper Boutique 3, the papers are from Not for girls and the sentiment is from Sundae of Seasons

Good luck!
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Week 1 Challenge - A Wish for the New Year

Well hello there, it is Emma here, and I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year from all of us here at Polkadoodles.

It is my pleasure to introduce the first challenge of 2011, yes 2011, which also happens to be my first time setting the theme of our challenge at Polkadoodles.

For many of us, the New Year holds a tradition to make wishes for ourselves and our loved ones that reflect our hopes and dreams for the future. I thought it would be a sweet idea to record at least one of those wishes in our craft. So, that is the theme of this weeks challenge - A wish for the New Year.
You can interpret the wish anyway you please, you can make a wish for yourself or someone you love, perhaps good luck, good health, happiness or hope, the wish is yours to make. As a special welcome to 2011, the winner of this challenge will receive a copy of the Sugar Birdies Collectors Edition CD which has just been released...so make sure you get your entries in, it's such a fabulous CD!

Please remember when you enter our challenge, that the maximum number of challenges you can enter with your Polkadoodles challenge entry is ten.

Before we move onto our Design team's inspiration, I would like to announce the winners of our last challenge. The top three from Challenge 50 which was the Age Related theme are:

First Place: Julie B
Second Place: Lesley
Third Place: Claire

Congratulations! Please email Nikky with 'Challenge 50 top three' in the subject field for further details. Please be patient as Nikky is quite busy at the moment so if there is a delay in her responding, you know why!

Our Guest designer for this week is Cheryl. Cheryl has made a Wish for Happiness in her gorgeous creation. She has used papers, image and sentiment from the All Around and Everywhere CD. The image was coloured with Prisma Pencils and then she added gems and flowers from her stash and some Doodle Dewdrops too.

Ruth: I've decided to celebrate cakes, and why not! This delightful cupcake is taken from the brand new Paper Boutique Vol3 cd which is launched tomorrow on Create and Craft (details above) I've printed the A5 coloured template and simply layered it all together adding glitter glue here and there! The front and rear of the card are held together by a concertina tab at the bottom of the cupcake and the closure is the ribbon threaded through the top of the cake. The cake also comes in pink!



D'Anne - Hello, new DT here. For my card today, I've used Sundae of Seasons for the printable candles and All Around and Everywhere 'Bright and Beautiful' papers for my layout. Instead of using the word Wish, you could used Love, Peace, Bloom or Grow. I hope your New Year's celebration was ultra-fantastic! CHEERS to you all!!


Saskia-I adore my little family! I wish a year full of 'special times' together with my son and hubby! I made this quick and simple (but sooo cute!) card with images and papers from the Sugar Birdies Collectors Edition cd-rom.

Lis-m A New Year marks the beginning of new things, a time to make changes perhaps, like moving home... Since I am in love with the new house stamps I decided on a "Good luck in your new home" card. The papers are from Sugar Birdies I just love how all the colours just work so well together. The house, of course is coloured with Promarkers.

Claire My family and friends are busy with Birthdays in January..... so my project is a Birthday wish. Using the fabulous new paper boutique cd by Nikki. Pop by Create and Craft on Saturday to check it out!

Miria My card is a way to wish you Happy New Year; the coloured stampie and the sentiment are from Sundae of seasons, the papers and the alphies are from Not for girls (the year is a male!). Then I added some dew drops and a ribbon and a button from my stash.

Colette My wish covers just about everything, using a little poem that I made up myself (I'm not the Poet Laureate, so don't expect much LOL!) I used not so plain plains in Villa from the Not For Girls CD for my background, and randomly stamped with the dandelion from the fabulous Garden Neighbours stamp set, I also used the same stamp on white card. The first part of the poem is revealed on the tag, when you pull it up, and the second part is under the slider section. The sentiment is also my own, made to go with the rest of the design.

Emma Hi there, I, like you did a bit of reflecting at New Year and I made many wishes for the future. I chose three wishes that I hoped for most and put those into a wall hanging to go in my art room. A daily reminder that I should and perhaps must make decisions that pave a way for my wishes to come true. I used paper from the Sundae of Seasons CD as a background, Martha Stewart deep edge punch to make the fancy corners and trim, Prima Pearls to embellish. I hand wrote my wishes and sealed them with Rangers Glossy Accents behind glass. I accented with ring pulls and Rangers Stickles in Platinum. I beaded some chain to make the hanger.

Jenny I've made an 8"x8" card full of wishes for the recipient! The stars came from the wonderful Sundae of Seasons CD & some are layered on 3D foam to add dimension. The 'wishes' sentiment comes from Back to Nature. I've doodled a border with the Promarker Fine Liner pen.

Tracie: I used Paper Boutique 2: Creative Christmas and The Sugar Birdies Collectors Edition to create my take away box full of wishes. As my sister has just announced her wedding date I have filled the fortune cookies with the wishes for health, wealth, fertility, longevity and happiness, The flowers were coloured with promarkers and finished with a tiny pearl

Fliss: My wish is for those going on to new pastures this year one of whom is my elder daughter in her final year of her Japanese studies degree. I have a little preview for you as I've used one of the fabulous templates from Paper Boutique Volume 3 which is being launched by Nikky on Create and Craft tomorrow. I've altered Ditsy Daisy a little to show her versatility and used quite a few different colouring and decorating techniques - please pop over to my blog for full details. I've used papers from the new CD and Sundae of Seasons which is also where her wings come from.

Lou: My wish for this year is to always be "So Thankful" for all that I have; all the people I know (family, friends & work colleagues) . . . really to always be thankful even when times are hard. I have used papers from the "All Around and Everywhere" CD and all the topper elements, including sentiment is from the Spring section on the "Sundae of Seasons" CD. I have further embellished the card with sewing paraphernalia - buttons, threads, bias binding as my ribbon, wonder web for the bow and several pins!

Good luck with the challenge! It is open until Sunday 16 January at 12noon GMT. Please remember that the limit is 10 for the number of challenge that you can combine including the Polkadoodle challenge.

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