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.

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