Happy Birthday To Us!

Woohoo, it's our 3rd Birthday celebration!...

Yes, today is our 3rd Birthday - 3 years ago today we launched the Polkadoodles challenge blog and we've been bringing you some awesome inspiration from our amazing Design Team ever since!!
So to celebrate this fabulous occasion we're having a BIG celebration and you can win over £220 worth of blog candy - so make sure you enter today's EXTRA challenge to be in with a chance to get some wonderful candy! woooohoooo!! We want to take the opportunity to thank each and every one of you who regularly enter our challenges from all across the globe for all your fabulous support over the past 3 years, here's raising a glass to another 3 and beyond!

So, of course, today's challenge is very simple - you need to make us a Special Birthday Card incorporating No. 3 to help us mark the occasion! The 3 can be 3 ribbons, 3 papers, 3 brads...you get the idea!...


As this is a really special challenge you have until 31st May to enter this one and we will announce it the following Friday. Our very most favourite entry will win a massive prize of TEN, Yes, I did say TEN, Polkadoodles CD's with a value of over £160!!  In addition, in appreciation of all our regular people who join us week in and week out around the world, We will also give a CD prize worth over £15 to one entry from the USA and Canada, to someone in Europe (non UK), someone in the UK and also someone from the Rest of the World outside those areas - that's an extra 4 chances to win too!...
**important** when you add your challenge entry, please include your name and your Country so we can see it in the thumbnails, ie Nikky, UK - this will make it a whole lot easier for us to see where you guys are coming from, thanks!
...And did you know we are also on Facebook and Twitter? Why not join up with our Facebook group, the Polka Doodle Dandies or tweet us at @polka_doodles - we love to hear from you all, talk craft and see all your amazing creations! It's really interesting to look back at what we were doing 3 years ago - even on our very first post there was just as much inspiration and wonderful talent brimming away back then as there is now at Team Doodles - take a look here and see what our very first challenge was: 

We 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.

So come on, get entering this great challenge for this lovely candy - don't forget you have until the 31st May to enter! Now let's see what the DT came up with to inspire you all...

Shary - What's better for a birthday than a lovely cupcake? I have used a template from the Candy Doodles CD for a cupcake! The templates are so easy to use, you get the templates, papers and embellies to print out. I've decoupaged all my pieces and added some diamond stickles to the dots on the ribbon and some glossy accents to the drops on the icing. The 3 is also from the Candy Doodles CD as you get a full alphabet and numbers on it. To finish off I added a happy birthday ticket with a sheer bow.

Nelly - To celebrate Polka doodles 3rd Birthday I just knew what ever I made needed 3 candles on it! so here we have an easel "Birthday Cake" card , looks good enough to eat doesnt it! the papers are taken from the Stamp and Circle magazine cd's and the image is from Pretty Sweet CD.

Fliss - I decided on a floral element for my card and used the gorgeous roses together with papers from the Sugarplum Daisy CD. The roses are printed on watercolour paper and coloured with Aquamarkers before cutting out. I layered and tore the papers and stamped 3 corners of the green backing paper with my fave stamp from the Daisy Doodles stamp set, embossing in white. I die cut some circular doilies with a Marianne Design set and added dry embossing and punching for texture. Happy Birthday Polka Doodles!

NJ Happy 3rd Birthday Polkadoodles, for my card I used the Pretty Sweet CD. The character I have used is so cute. I have used the Marianne Design Flowers Die LR0131. I used 3 of everything,papers, flowers, pins, lace and beads.

Claire A very special celebration indeed! I have used 3 dp's(Candy Doodles collectors edition), 3 ribbons(Candy Doodles collectors edition), 3 flowers (Double Sprinkle of Kraft), 3 images(Sugarplum daisy cd) and of course the number 3(Sugarplum daisy cd) for our special 3rd birthday card. Oh my it just so happens I used 3 cd's as well!

Enfys: Crikey - three years! I have been with Nikky from day one, and it has been a roller coaster journey of fabulous products, tight deadlines, and a lot of laughs. So happy birthday Polkadoodles. Nikky, this card is for you, you are a real honey......

I used Sundae of Seasons and some Memory Box dies, I used three bees to fit in with the challenge and doodled some little trails for them...

and the inside of the card, the honey pot coated with glossy accents...

JAN: I chose three yummy cupcakes for my card to celebrate Polkadoodles 3rd birthday. I used the cupcake stamp and stamped once onto card and twice onto shrink plastic - the large one is coloured with Promarkers and the two small ones are coloured with pencils, before I shrank them. The pretty flowered paper is from the 'Sugar Birdies' CD and the pink striped paper is from the 'Candy Doodles' CD, as is the sentiment. Almost good enough to eat!

Lisa: 'The Crafting Owl. Happy Birthday Polkadoodles!! For my card I decided to use the presents and papers from Sundae of Seasons. I added glitter glue and wire to add more texture and interest.

Miria To celebrate our 3rd blogversary I made an explosion box, the 3d cupcake is from cd All Around and Everywhere, papers and sentiment from Sugarplum Daisy , just added some gems and a doily from stash.

Join in our celebration now!                                                                         
Claire (Happy Days) - Happy Birthday to us!!! What celebration wouldn't be complete without a bit of cake?? So for my card I used the the Sundae of Seasons and Sugarplum Daisy to whip up a very special pop up cake with three candles! It's a huge card (well for me anyway) and I struggled to picture it, so please forgive the photos. However, the good news is it folds flat for posting!!!

Diane... for this Special Celebration I’ve brought together the wonderful Sugarplum Daisy CD and a Marianne Creatables die to create the rolled roses and the leaves.

Shell...I have made a 8x8 card for the special 3rd Birthday challenge...The image is from the candy doodles collectors edition cd and has been coloured with copics.  The papers and tag sentiments are from sugarplum daisy cd...Flowers, gauze and pearls are from my stash.

Nikky...I decided to keep my card really simple this week. I used the cupcake digi from Sugarplum Daisy and the lovely star papers which I adore. I think my 3 buttons have moved on this card!

 

Dee...I've used the cupcakes, papers, tickets and alphabet letters from the CD Sugarplum Daisy.  I printed the tickets onto Letraset Safmat then applied to printed card and cut out.  Each layer is set forward 1 cm to give extra depth, but it all folds down flat to fit into an envelope nicely.

 Ruth... I agree with En - 3 years - that time has flown by and its been a pleasure working with Nikky for the past three years!  All three papers are from Sugar Plum Daisy with image from Sundae of Seasons.  Cuttlebug and Sizzix dies used and the card is for my niece who will be 3 at the end of November (how organised am I?!!)

Lou: I have been very privileged to be with Nikky for the 3 years and she has made things a "blast" to say the least and agree with En and Ruth .... time flies when you are having fun! All papers and elements are from Sugar Plum Daisy CD. The alphabet was printed on to Safmat to make my sentient. My 3 things are my presents and flowers.

Daniele:  I've also used the bear from Paper Boutique Vol 3 plus quite a bit of sparkle! 

So there you have our inspiration for our Special Birthday! We really hope you'll all join us in our special celebration and get your entries in to win all of that amazing candy up for grabs!! Don't forget you have until noon (GMT) on 31st May to enter! ttfn! xx

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