Week 49 - Secret Santa (part 1)...Polkadoodles challenge

Welcome back to another fabulous challenge!

We've gone all "Secret Santa" here at Polka Doodles for the next fortnights challenge as we wanted to make our last challenge of 2014 a little bit different with the festive season looming.

Each of the DT has made a card for someone else on the DT but nobody knows who is making for whom ... hee, hee, hee....

So the challenge this fortnight is ...

"Who would you make a Secret Santa card for and why?"

Link up to the challenge using Mr Linky below ...... now you don't necessarily have to make a card or project for this challenge but you could do a short post instead sharing your Secret Santa (crush/hero/heroine etc etc). Link up to your post as normal and use the photo of your secret crush Santa in Mr Linky. If you do make a project, link as per normal.

NOW as an added bit of fun, visit each DT blog and have a guess, using the clues, as to whom they may have made their project for .... leave a comment on their blog with your idea and you could be in with the chance of winning a prize of a wonderful Polka Doodles digi image. We will randomly choose 3 DT blogs (names in a hat thing) and then randomly chose a comment from each blog and the winning comment will each receive a Polka Doodles digi image.

This special Secret Santa will last for 2 weeks so you have until 18th December to enter - if you're canny you could win 3 digis and we will also have 3 fabulous overall prize winners chosen at random, each of whom will receive a copy of one of our amazing Collections worth at least £10.99 each!

The winners of our Clean and Simple Challenge Weeks 46/47 are at the end of this post!

So let's see who has made what this week .....

Scatty Jan Wow how much fun are we going to have over the coming weeks - I made my card using the Festive Hollybobs collection - This is available as a cd or download collection.
For my first clue I am going to tell you I live in the UK but to reach my Secret Santa's destination my card has travelled by aeroplane..... For more clues , and some more photo's  and to leave your guess come visit my blog xx

Asha - Secrets, surprise and Santa ... these are a few of my favourite things! The background paper is from Angelberry Christmas, the cosy houses and trees are from A Home For Christmas and the greeting is from Festive Hollybobs. To accentuate the snow I used Texture Paste and glitter. For extra sparkle and shimmer I used Liquid Pearls and Stickles.
Clue: My Secret Santa is into crafting, cooking and cats. She lives way across the pond and ... tell you more on my blog! 

Karon - This is so much fun and great that you can all join in too :-)  I have also used the fabulous Work and Play 5 Festive Hollybobs collection for my card.  I coloured this little lady with pencils. She is also available as a single download, along with other characters off this wonderful CD.
For my first clue, my secret Santa keeps herself very fit and is very busy throughout the year.  There are some more clues on my blog - so why not stop by and have a guess :-)

Ashley-What a blast this week has been making my Secret Santa Card for a Secret Friend! I used the amazing Festive Hollybobs collection.(Yes I am addicted to that one) Since this is a Christmas Challenge I just had to do a whimsical Winter scene. I tried a fun zig zag snowflake print for the background and I think it makes the card all the more "whimsy" 
Now for the fun part : 
My very first clue for the recipient of this card is that she has beautiful blue eyes. Need another hint? Hop on over to my blog and catch the rest of the clues!

Mel - I had great fun making my Secret Santa card - the CD I opted for is once again Festive Hollybobs, and I've gone a bit dotty for beautiful big satin bows since using this gorgeous ribbon on a gift bag recently. I love the sumptuous effect it gives for this time of year! And of course you can't go wrong with a lovely stick pin and some sparkly silver skeleton leaves.
My first clue for the recipient of this card is that she's got blonde hair. The rest of the clues are on my blog, so do pop by to take a look :)

Anna -  As a surprise for a very nice friend living in England, and who creates beautiful things (you can read more about her on my blog), I decided to make a round, Holiday card using paper from the Picknix Collection 2...Gingerbread Twist CD collection, without a picture, but with my favourite die cut deer, a poinsettia, which I made myself, and a Polish saying “Magia Swiat Bozego Narodzenia”, which means “The Magic of Christmas”. Besides blue, which I used here, all accessories are in two colours – white and red (they are symbolic of Poland, a country in which I live) - because I wanted the friend, for whom I made this card with great pleasure, to know where I am from.

Leah - Hello everyone!  It's a might chilly up here right now, so the heat is on full blast!  I have made a Christmas card for my Secret Santa recipient using Maddie with Present, and some of the cut out printable tags from the Festive Hollybobs Collection.  I coloured Maddie with my Prismacolor pencils and used a Wink of Stella pen to give her an all around halo.
I have a special clue for you:  my Secret Santa recipient has a special pooch!  :)

Cheremane - I love this fab idea and I hope you will enjoy and join in the fun with us. I have done a clean and simple Christmas card for my Secret Santa and I have used Octavia Friendly Hugs Digi and the Papers and Bow are from Work and Play Festive HollyBobs Cd. 

Now onto a clue: She is a lovely lady and loves Fairy's, for a few more clue's pop on over to my Blog.

                                              

Lou: I hope my Secret Santa person likes my card as I have been brave and used glitter just for them. I have used an image from the Work and Play Festive HollyBobs CD and papers from Angelberry Christmas. My first clue is that this person lives by the coast.

The "Secret Santa" challenge will end on THURSDAY 18th DECEMBER at midnight (GMT) and winners will be announced on FRIDAY 19th DECEMBER. along with the challenge winner.

You will get all the clues and loads more info on all the blogs so make sure you pop in and see all the team and leave comments to be in with a chance of winning their digistamps - we're keeping it secret who has the key to the digis so you have to enter on everyone in case you miss out LOL!!

Our winner as chosen by Random Org for our Clean and Simple Challenge is

#57 - Leona

You have won a fabulous download bundle worth £5 from the digistore

Please email us here to claim you prize, quoting PD49001wk46

Our Top 3 this week, as chosen by the DT, 

you all made such fabulous creations it was really difficult.

#5 - Kathyk

#11 - Novinka

#50 - Sue N

Congratulations to everyone, don't forget to take your blinkies from the sidebar.

Just to let you know that the winner for our Nordic Christmas Challenge, will be announced next Friday, 12 December.

See you next week for Round 2!! Good luck!!

*****

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Week 47 - Clean and Simple - Polkadoodles Challenge

Hello to everyone out there and it's Happy Friday!

 We are here this week with our wonderful inspiration from the design team.

If you missed the latest Polkadoodles show on Create and Craft TV yesterday you can still
WATCH IT HERE 
for a limited time - definitely worth watching for some inspiration!

The theme of this week is still 

Clean and Simple

and you can
enter the challenge

Here

Do not forget that it is not necessary for the use of products Polkadoodles to enter challenges

but make sure you follow the rules in the sidebar ---- & gt;

You have until noon GMT Friday, November 28th to enter.

The winner of the Week 44/45 - Recycle It is at the bottom of this post.

Now, for the inspiration from the Polkadoodles team this week....

Sandie - I adored the theme for this challenge, CAS, as I seemed to have gone embellishment crazy over the past few weeks and this made a fabulous change :D  I used the super DIY Dave image who can be found in Work and Play 1 CD collection, but also as a Full collection Digital Download and as a Clear Stamp! (just how fabulous is Polkadoodles!  Nikky sure looks after us crafters).  I have coloured him with my Graph'it Marker Pens and added a few 3D touches (an idea first used by our very own Claire Boelema :D So I need to shhh up now and show you my make....

Bev here with my CAS creation, I used the Hollybobs Santa Digistamp, scaled it to the required size in my graphics program me and added my text in the opposite corner printed off then coloured with my Graph'it Markers. I just adore this little fella.

Ashley- For this challeng I used the Bows from the  Festive  Hollybobs  collection. I copied them into my Paint and made each one 80% the size of the first so that they would gradually decrease in size =) Who knew one element could be so much fun! I also cut out the stem and star from the tree in the same  Hollybobs  collection =) If you have any questions feel free to visit my blog and ask =)

Yvonne - For this challenge I used 'Miss Millicent' from the gorgeous 'Rose Budd' Collection, which you can get as a digi download collection or as a CD-Rom. You can also get her as a clear stamp.  I coloured her with my Graph'It Markers - pop over to my blog for details. 

Anita - Hi there this has to be one of the hardest cards to do CAS wow the urge too embellish was unreal lol. Today I have used Winston Bear Heart of Gold, which you can get as a digi download collection or as a CD-Rom. I coloured her using Alcohol Markers - For more info visit my blog.

Jenny - Here is my card for the CAS challenge, I have used Festive Holybobs which you can find here. It's a great cd and download and it's one I'll be using for a few years to come. Pop over to my blog and see more details.

Susan - Well for those of you that know me I don't do CAS ,so for the first time ever this is my take on CAS.  I have used  the beautiful Octavia Friendly Hugs Digi printed on water colour paper and coloured with my New Derwent Inktense Pencils .This is my first attempt at using them and boy do I love them .

Frezja - what a challange! For me almost no work to do because I like a lot of details.. 

I try and try and try and this is the effect.. :) I used sentimental from Pretty Sweet mini CD

The winner (chosen by random org) for our last challenge, 

44/45 Recycle it is......

25 - Sandra

You have won a copy of the brand new Work and Play 7 Collection

Please email us here to claim your prize and quote PDw47001wk 44

The Top 3 this week, chosen by the Design Team are

20 - Barbara

22 - Pamelli

23 - Rupa

Congratulations to all, thanks for your participation and do not forget to claim your blinkies from the sidebar.

Remember, our challenge is 

Clean and Simple

You can enter here

Please do not forget, there are a maximum of 2 entries per person.

Have a fabulous week everyone.

Week 46 - Clean and Simple - Polkadoodles Challenge

It's Friday! And it's the start of another fabulous challenge here at Polkadoodles.

This fortnights challenge...

Clean and Simple.

You will have until Friday 28th November, noon GMT, to enter.

You do not have to use Polkadoodles products to enter our challenges, 

and the rules for the challenges are over there in the side bar ---->

THE WINNER OF THIS CHALLENGE WILL RECEIVE A FABULOUS DOWNLOAD BUNDLE WORTH £5 FROM THE DIGISTORE....

Make sure you get this date in your diary as Nikky will be on 
Create and Craft on Thurs 20th November 
which is next week with another fabulous Polkadoodles show - don't miss it because there's something special going on! 

 Let's take a look at what the team have to share this week...

Scatty Jan I absolutely adore the Octavia collection - This card uses Octavia Friendly Hugs and she is coloured using Graph'It Markers - I am not usually a CAS crafter but I do think Octavia is such a lovely digi she speaks out on her own xx

Asha - Not being CAS-worthy I struggled to make this card. For my project, I used Libby the gypsy girl from the Fredericka Mini CD collection and dressed her up in Christmassy colours with the help of Graph'It markers.  You can also download Libby as a single digistamp. The sentiment is from Gingerbread Twist. Somehow it seemed appropriate, given my fertile imagination! A little gold choc wrapper, gold stitching, 3 eyelets, a few Liquid Pearl droplets and it's done.

Anna -  I don't often make cards in the Clean and Simple style, but here it is - a very simple and uncomplicated card. The background is made from a corrugated cardboard and on it, just a beautiful image of a Teddy Bear from the Winston Deluxe Papercrafting CD collection, and a tiny clothes pin on the bow.

Karon - Well, CAS hmmmm!  This is probably as close as I will ever come to a CAS card.  The temptation to add bling to those snowflakes was really hard to resist.  As is, I had to add ribbon and the embossed background ;-)  I used the pre-coloured snowman off the fabulous Work & Play 5 - Festive Hollybobs collection, and decoupage him.  The sentiment is from A Home for Christmas CD collection.

Cheremane - It's really hard for me to do CAS as I just love using ribbon and bling, But I have to say I really did enjoy making this card and maybe its a start of more cas from me. I have used the gorgeous Octavia Thinking Digistamp and delicately coloured her added a little glamour dust along with some simple mat and laying and just one gem as I just couldn't resist.

Ashley -  I have a very hard time with open white space I feel like its so limiting but it is also amazing! Okay well let me stop rambling, look at this beauty, I am so proud that I was able to do CAS. I used the  Work & Play 5 Festive Hollybobs collection. I can not stress this enough, if you do not have this set you NEED it! IT has the absolute best digi  images of the season!

Leah - Like most of my counterparts, I have a wee bit of trouble with CAS, however, who doesn't love a good challenge!  I used Octavia Best Friends for this project, and what a spectacular image she is to color!  I want to try her in all different hair and eye colors.  I colored her with my Prismacolor Pencils on vellum, then used 2 simple layers to put her in a shadowbox frame, along with ribbon and one die cut.  The quote by George Eliot speaks volumes for myself and many others.  I really love the look of the shadowbox, and I can see a few more of them in my future!  I have also discovered that glass is very hard to photograph!  There are a few reflections in there :P

Melanie - I love clean and simple cards - I would definitely say it's my style! Don't feel you need to use a white card blank to get this look - the emphasis is on placement and embellishments (or lack of them!), making sure your finished product is unfussy and uncluttered.  For this card I used the lovely black & white postcard from the Festive Hollybobs CD. I mounted it onto a kraft card blank at an angle, coloured the holly leaves with my pens and added a subtle pop of red with some gems for berries. I then simply tied the card with red & brown twine and added my sentiment. So simple!

Wow - Amazing inspiration from the Design team this week.

It's sure to get those creative juices flowing :-)

Please do not forget, there are a maximum of 2 entries per person.

Have a fabulous week everyone.

****

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Week 45 - Recycle It - Polkadoodles Challenge

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Polkadoodles challenge!
Don't forget that every Tuesday we have a great inspiration post full of colouring ideas for you from the Digi Queens so check it out below this post - and did you know that our sister team Digi Choosday have a fab Tuesday challenge for you to? make sure you sign up, there are often Choosday/Tuesday deals and offers so you need to make sure we're on your blogfeeds and join up with us over on Polka Doodle Dandies, our Facebook group for even more specials and all the daily news from the team!

So here we are, week 2 of our Recycle It Challenge.

Do you think we are all getting in Christmas mode LOL!

You don't have to make something Christmas to enter the challenge, just tell us what you

have reused in you project, on your blog.  It's always good to see

what us crazy crafters can reuse, don't you think?!

You can Recycle anything you wish - and this can be something as simple as reusing a bit of ribbon!

You have until Friday 14th November  noon GMT to enter. Just please follow the rules in the sidebar. You don't have to use our products to enter!
THE WINNER OF THIS CHALLENGE WILL RECEIVE A COPY OF THIS BRAND NEW COLLECTION WHICH IS WORTH £11.99!

Have you seen the latest new release at Polka Doodles.....

The fabulous Work and Play 7 - Less Work, More Play!!

The winners of your weeks 42/43 Christmas Fun challenge are at the end of this post.

You can enter the current challenge
Recycle It - HERE

But first lets see the Design Teams inspiration for you this week....

Anna -  Wow! It’s been a long time since I made a card with flowers! Recently I’ve been making mostly round and Christmas cards, so today, especially for you, something elegant with flowers. A multi-layered card, with the aforementioned flowers, ribbons, white tulle, pom poms, paper doilies, a Polish cut out sign ‘Sto lat’ (roughly translated, it means ‘May you live a hundred years’), also something recycled from a blouse, i.e. gray tulle with gold accents and sequins. The paper, which I used comes from Rose Budd collection. If you want to see more photos, I invite you to  visit my blog.

Lou: I have used lots of recycled bits on my card: kraft card is from a cereal box, lace from ..who knows, corrugated card from packaging and canvas effect card from the inside of a gift box. I have used the Perfect poinsettia and Christmas Doodles stamp sets, coloured with my distress inks. Full details and more photos are on my blog.

Scatty Jan The other week I was using some spray and sparkle on some poinsettias , I had sprayed them on an old bit of Kraft - When they were dry and I took them off I loved the Kraft more than the poinsettias and definitely couldn't bear to throw it out. The photo does it no justice it is just full of sparkle and magic. Perfect for this Challenge.

I decided to pop it on as the background for my bag . I coloured up using Graph'Its the wonderful digi image Octavia Thinking. The Bow is from the Festive Hollybobs collection and the flowers are from the Cherryblossom Lane CD.

Asha - My project started with something yummy wrapped in gold in a brown paper cup. I used paper from Festive Hollybobs, a sweet angel and candy canes from Angelberry Christmas and a sentiment from Gingerbread Twist to make a tag. The gold wrapper is a band in the middle of the tag and the brown paper cup is now a halo around the angel. Extra embellies from my stash: ribbon, twine, Stickles and Liquid Pearls. I also used Graph'It markers to add extra colour to the digis.

Karon - I had these bottles from some little flowers that I have placed in better storage.  I decided they would be perfect to fill with treats.  So I removed all the labels and ran them through my dishwasher to sterilize them and then decorated and filled them. Before...

I used the Work & Play 5 Festive Hollybobs collection.  I decided to showcase just 4, out of the many, design sheets that are available in this fabulous collection.  These are great if you want lots of elements already put together and are great for making quick cards and projects.  I wrapped each bottle in papers off the CD and also made some little rosettes for the bottle tops.  Here are my bottles all filled and decorated.

Cheremane - I have decided to use a empty tin to make my remote control holder for my recycled project seeing we all have empty tins at home. Make sure you give it a good wash first though.

I've used the fabulous Winston Cd to make my recycled remote control holder for my hubby, mind you he can never find the remote as I always have it. The Winston Cd is pack full of gorgeous images, papers and accessories galore. The main image I have used is Winston Bear Snoozy Days which you can get on his own as a  Digi download as well. Head on over to the Polkadoodles Shop where you can get lots of crafty goodies to help you remake my project.

Samantha K - I used the wonderful Work and Play 6 Collection to create a get well pen.

There are a great range of images and embellishments and as always papers, in this collection, something for everyone :) For my recycled item I used an old pen that was the type you get given advertising a company with their details in the barrel. I emptied these out and added my own bits :)

Its a fully working pen. I created a little image square, with a character, some flowers and a sentiment (all from the CD) and I had a pen with a large barrel, that once taken apart, had the printed square popped inside to make a cute get well pen :)

Ashley- I Decided to make use of an extra wedding invitation print out and not waste paper. I was simple I wanted to recycle all my old scraps and papers so for my card I only used scraps and printed on old wedding invites =) I used the amazing Work & Play 5 Festive Hollybobs collection for the main image as well as the background paper and North Pole embelly. What's so great about the collection is all the amazing images work well with one another or as a stand alone image! So head on over to the store you don't want to miss out on these adorable images for this Christmas and Holiday season! 

Melanie - For my recycling project I decided to upcycle a glass candle jar for a first Christmas keepsake or gift. I used the wonderful Festive Hollybobs CD for this, which contains some lovely design sheets with papers, toppers and extra elements that were perfect for decorating this candle jar. I added some punched snowflakes, a chalkboard panel and red silk ribbon to finish. The final touch was a red silk ribbon bow for the candle jar lid. This Mistletoe Kiss image is also available as a clear stamp in the Polka Doodles store - gorgeous!

WOW - amazing creations and ideas!  

Now lets announce our winner (chosen by random.org) for our last challenge, Christmas Fun

#80 - Deonna B

Please email us here to claim your prize, which is a copy of the fabulous Winston Collection, please quote the code PDwk45001wk42

Now onto the Top 3 as chosen by the Design Team

#8 - Mummylade

#13 - Sandra

#33 - Christine Craig

Congratulations to everyone and thanks for entering our challenges.

Don't forget to claim you blinkies from the side bar.

Recycle It Challenge can be entered HERE

Don't forget you do not have to use Polkadoodles products to enter our challenges

and please remember that there are a maximum of 2 entries per person.

Have a great week everyone.

Week 39 - Favourite Holiday and Colour Teal

Welcome to another Polkadoodle challenge!  Don't forget that you can catch Rosemary Merry on Saturday at 12noon on Create and Craft demonstrating the brand new Studio 12 Picknix cd - Gingerbread Twist.  You won't want to miss the show as the cd is rather special!

This week we have a new challenge and the theme is:

Favourite Holiday and Add The Colour Teal

And to get you in the mood for Halloween the top three placed entries from this challenge will each receive a copy of the Polly Wichydoodles Halloween bundle!  Don't forget to follow our rules which are below! 

Before we have a look at the Design Team samples, we need to announce the top three from Challenge 37 which was 'Ice Cream Colours'.   We had some stunning entries and its been difficult to choose a top three, but without further ado they are:

First Place: A £5 voucher to spend at Polkadoodles - Twisted Witch - Please use verification code PD1W3937

Second Place: Carole

Third Place: Anna

Congratulations to you all! Twisted Witch, please email Nikky for your prize and you can all grab your blinkies from the sidebar.  Please remember to put your verification code and the challenge week in the subject field on your email. For all prize winners, you must use the code given above to claim your prize otherwise we cannot release it.

 

We have a few little rules which makes our life a lot easier when we come visiting your blog:
1. Please follow the challenge theme!
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 linky tool - 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 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

The challenge ends on Sunday 7 October at 12noon GMT.

Now onto the Design Team creations!

Ruth:  I've used papers from Here Come Christmas cd along with the cute tag.  I've used my own template for the stocking and added a fair amount of glitter glue to the top!  Used a Marianne Creatables snowflake die with vellum and bits and bobs from my stash.

Lucy ~ My favourite colour is teal/turquoise so adding this in was easy! I don't celebrate, but christmas/winter is my favourite time of year! I made the tag with paints and cosmic sprays. The backing paper and digi image are from the Magical Winter CD Rom and is coloured in with Pro Markers and Flexi Markers.

Miria I used this lovely image from Here comes Christmas once again, I coloured it with Kuretake Zig Art&Graphic Twin. Papers and sentiments are from the same cd, I added a distressed doily and gems.

Anne - I used Gingerbread Twist  to make some  quick print and go Christmas cards with matching tags.  

and a little box to put them in

Fliss - I'm still on a Christmas card roll so decided to make a cute shaped card with some gorgeous teal paper and the adorable deer from the Here Comes Christmas CD. I think he looks a little shy and sheepish. I cut my card blank using a large die and one from the same set to cut the backing paper. I then embossed a white die cut oval with hearts for the cut out deer and embellished with Marianne Design die cut fir and a sentiment from the CD with a bakers twine tie.

Norine - While Fall isn't exactly a holiday/occasion unto itself, it brings with it birthdays, my anniversary, and my very favorite holiday, Thanksgiving!  And the cooler temps herald something to celebrate, so I used an image from the Sundae of Seasons (Autumn) cd, and paper from the Pretty Tuff cd to make this fun fall card.

Clare - It has to be Christmas for me!!!. I used this gorgeous wintery scene from the Picknix Collection 2 Gingerbread Twist. The sentiment was from the Here Comes Christmas CD. I have used White Pom Pom ribbon, Red Berry Doodle Dew Drops  on the Christmas tree and finished off with Diamond Stickles.

Ashley:  I love love love Christmas time. So for this challenge I was thrilled to incorporate one of my favorite colors into my card. I used the adorable ginger couple , sentiment and papers

From the Picknix Gingerbread twist cd Rom :) this cd is beyond amazing and is perfect for the holiday season!!!! 

Good luck with the challenge and don't forget our rules!  Deadline for entries is Sunday 7 October at 12noon GMT.