Week 20 - A wedding card with a difference

Hi everyone, challenge time again for us here at Polkadoodles! It's Lou's turn to host the challenge this week and it's a goodie!

Before we go on further - we have some very exciting news coming up on Tues 22nd May which will be Polkadoodles 3rd Birthday! We're having a BIG celebration and chances to win over £220 worth of blog candy - so make sure you come and join us at our special party on TUESDAY 22nd to be in with a chance to get some wonderful candy! woooohoooo!!

Before we get onto this week's challenge let's find out the winners from challenge which was

1st place - Claire C, 2nd place - Cathy Lee, 3rd place - Fiona.

Congratulations! please email Nikky for your prize and grab your blinkies from the sidebar - the first placed winner receives a FREE download! Please put in the subject field of your email your placing and the challenge number.

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.

Hi, Lou here and it's my week to set the challenge and I wanted to make this weeks theme a challenge! I would like everyone to make a wedding card but with a twist. You all know the famous wedding quote of "something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue"..... so ...... I would like you to make a wedding card incorporating all these elements. I did say it was going to be a challenge !!

Have a look at my talented teamies projects to kick start your inspiration:

Lou: My wedding card has been made using loads of elements from the Love and Cherish Cd and made to look a little "shabby chic". My something new is the gorgeous Marianne Design pom pom ribbon; my something old is a neglected decorative corner punch; my something borrowed is the gold rings charm which was borrowed from a friend and finally my something blue is the 2 hearts with lickle blue gems.

Nelly My wedding card with a difference is a shaped easel card created using dies, something old is the cream satin ribbon, something new was the the Bride & Groom stamp coloured with pro markers , something borrowed was the heart border punch from a friend and something Blue is the colouring behind the rose arch which was taken form Pretty Tuff CD, the design papers were taken from the Wonderland CD, the birdcage i resized the birdcage template from Paper Boutique 3 CD, sentiment is from the Love and Cherish Cd. the Anja corner (bottom right) is from Marianne Design; LR0215.

Claire - I made an exploding box for my wedding card. The something old is the box, it's an old technique which I've used loads of times. The something new is the owls wedding clothes - I used the owls from Sugar Birdies Collectors Edition and simply drew a jacket and a top hat for the groom and added a veil for the bride. I had to borrow a mini heart punch from a friend and obviously the something blue is the papers which were printed from the Candy Doodles Collectors Edition. The large button hearts were taken from a Sundae of Seasons and I drew the horse shoe.

Jan: My wedding card is a traditional easel card - the paper and sentiment are both from the 'All Around & Everywhere' CD. My something old is the piece of ribbon on the sentiment tag (which was cut from an old pair of pyjamas); something new is the cute little Bride and Groom stamp which is coloured with Promarkers; something borrowed is the gorgeous white feather tucked behind the image (from my daughter's stash) and something blue is the colour scheme.

Norine: My card this week uses Polka Doodles Flutter Fairy rubber stamps on vellum and heat embossed. I adhered the vellum behind the scalloped window opening and layered blue dot paper (Pretty Tuff cd) on the inside of the card. Then I layered swiss dot tulle over the whole front of the card, and adorned it with ribbon and the sentiment tag which is printed on Pretty Tuff paper. Sentiment from the Candy Doodles Collectors cd. The little black tag charm is something (very) old, the sentiment digi is new, the white emboss on vellum is a technique I borrowed (lifted) from a sample I saw at CHA this year, and the paper is blue!

NJ I chose to make a Wedding Anniversary Card, as my husband and I celebrated our 17th Wedding Anniversary in May. I have used the Love & Cherish CD. My something borrowed is the photo from my wedding album, which is also my something old. My something blue is the vintage lace I have used from Marianne Design . My something new are the embellishments I have used. I made a pocket too on the card to keep the photo in, and then you can just lift it out to look at.

Shary - for my card this week I've chose a Candy Doodles image and coloured it in with Copics. The "blue" and white backing papers are from the Sugar Birdies CD and I've gone around the edges with a little blue ink. The heart paper which I've given a decorative border with a "new" Martha Stewart punch is from the Candy Doodles CD. I've added some white ribbon and some heart gems which I've had for ages , hence the "old". The sentiment ticket is also from the Candy Doodles CD. And for the "borrowed" I was on borrowed time as I was supposed to be doing housework!!!

Claire - I decided to make a gift card and a confetti box this week. Using the Love and Cherish cd to print onto Safmat I have decorated a clear plastic box from some moisturiser (something old), filled my box with some Frantage Shaved iced (something new and something borrowed - don't have confetti)....something blue - well there's some little blue hearts on the paper.

Shell- Something a little different from me this week (no colouring eekk), I have used 1 image off each of the pretty tuff and pretty sweet cd's, the flowers were punched from papers from pretty tuff...Something old is my embossing folder, something new is my new flower punch, something borrowed is the sentiment and something new is the flowers..

Patty...for my Wedding card I used Green Dot Paper and Boy & Girl Owls from the Sugar Birdies CD, I needed to add something blue which is the blue at the front with the knot, something old -  the edges. You can see how I made this on my blog.

Diane -I think I've only ever made one wedding card before so this is something of a departure from the norm for me!  Anyhoo, Love and Cherish CD to the rescue together with some lovely papers from a couple of other Polka Doodles CDs and job done!  I hope you like it!

So there's your inspiration - some fantastic projects from the DT this week I think you'll agree! You have until Sun 27th May at 12 noon GMT to enter the challenge, so just add your URL to the Linky below! Good Luck!

Week 19 - Monochromatic Shades

Woohoo it's Polkadoodles Friday again! We have a great challenge for you all this week but a little heads up with some other news! Firstly, you can catch Nikky on Create & Craft for a full 4 days next week - oh my, they're keeping her busy busy! She will be on air at 8am, 1pm & 4pm Monday 14th May, 9 &2 on Tues, 2 & & on Wed and 8,11 & 5 on Thursday (subject to change of course!). She can't reveal what she's doing yet but let's just say there will be lots of colouring and tips and techniques involved so I hope you can all tune in and email in - it would be super to get all of the bloggers mentioned on the shows! Also, we have a rather special birthday coming up this month so make sure you do check in on us next week when all will be revealed and we have something spesh up our sleeves!


Before we get onto this week's challenge let's find out the winners from the Week 17 challenge Shabby Chic/Vintage which gave us all a very difficult task with so many gorgeous entries.

1st place - Heidi D, 2nd place - Carol H, 3rd place -Paula

Congratulations! please email Nikky for your prize and grab your blinkies from the sidebar of the blog - the first placed winner receives a Pretty Sweet CD, woohoo!! Please put in the subject field of your email your placing and the challenge number.
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 now on to this weeks challenge with the theme of Monochromatic Shades. The hardest part will be choosing which colour to go for and read on for some fabulous inspiration from the Design Team who have all excelled themselves with a gorgeous array of projects to feast your eyes on! You have to choose just ONE single colour for your project, but you can choose as many shades of that colour as you wish. The winner of this challenge will receive a Download Bundle choc full of goodies!

Emma. Hello there, here I am hi-jacking a week that I am not supposed to once again - Oh well, the challenge was just too enticing this week to miss. I have chosen the colour brown for my monochromatic look this week and all the elements came from the Sugar Plum Daisy CDROM. The colouring was Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink. Embellies are Marianne Design Creatables and Doodle Dewdrops.

Lucy: This week I used the backing papers from the Sugarplum Daisy CD Rom and the image is from the Candy Doodles CD Rom. The image and butterfly were coloured in using a mixture of Pro Markers and FlexMarkers. The butterfly and flower were made using Marianne Design Creatables.

Enfys: I can never resist this baby from the Sundae of Seasons CD, matching paper from the CD as well. I coloured white chipboard letters with blue to match, the whole thing is so soft and pretty, just like a new baby!

Lisa - The Crafting Owl. For the challenge this week I decided to think pink and have used the Miss Twoo template from Paper Boutique and papers from Sundae of Seasons to make a card. I've been wanted to have a go at this template for ages and this was the perfect opportunity.

Fliss - I've gone for blue for my card using a pretty image from the Pretty Sweet CD printed on thick cartridge paper and coloured with Aquamarkers. The papers are from the Pretty Tuff CD and the flowers from the Sugar Birdies Collectors Edition. The butterfly is from Sundae of Seasons and all I added was some punching with a Martha Stewart border punch.

Hi Daniele here, for my card this week I used images from the Love and Cherish CD, so many elegant designs perfect for weddings and anniversaries.

Anne - The papers are from the new Sugar Plum Daisy CD , the banner and image are from Not for Girls CD. Coloured with prisma pencils which I blended with mineral spirits and as it's CAS I only added a few little dew drops to embellish.

Miria - To decorate my paper bag I used an image from cd Sundae of Seasons, I paper pieced and distressed it, the papers and sentiment are from the same cd. The die-cuts are Marianne design Creatables. Buttons, lace and pompom trim from stash.

Diane - The wonderful Sugar Plum Daisy CD has been the source of most of the items on my card. The image has been coloured with Copics and Wink of Stella pens.

Ruth - How could I resist and not make a Christmas card?! Papers are from Sundae of Seasons and I've distressed the edges with a pair of scissors. I've used two Marianne Creatables dies - the snowflakes (LR0125) which I have cut from vellum, and also the hanging icicles (LR0135). Two half pearls and some liquid pearls for detail and the card is complete!

So there's your inspiration - some fantastic projects from the DT this week I think you'll agree! You have until Sunday 20 May at 12 noon GMT to enter the challenge, so just add your URL to the Linky below! Good Luck!

B Week 16 - Red and White colour challenge/Stashbox Stamp

Hello everyone, NJ here. I hope you can all feel the buzz of excitement in the air with the pre-order of the Pen & Paper Circle Issue 3 now available. Issue 2 has just been sent out and if you are one of the lucky recipients who got your orders in I am sure you are all loving the fabulous tutorials from some of the design team. Don't forget too that Nikky is on our screens on the 24th & 25th on Create & Craft. Check out the Polkadoodles Website for a  fabulous selection of crafty goodies including Marianne Design Dies so many lovely ones to choose from. Marianne Design have a wide selection of crafting goodies including dies, papers and stamps too.  Also look at the fabulous selection of Polkadoodles CD'S and other products, there's always something new every week!

Before we get onto this week's challenge let's find out the winners from the Week 14 / Big Birthday challenge who have also each won a copy of the new Sugarplum Daisy CD...

1st place - Kimbo  , 2nd place -  Sandy's Stamping Scene, 3rd place - Jaybe

Congratulations! please email Nikky for your prizes and blinkies! Please put in the subject field of your email your placing and the challenge number.
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.

Onto this weeks challenge which has been set by Enfys. As it is nearly St. George's Day we would like to see a red & white colour theme. Here's what the design team have made, this time they were allowed to use a stamp from their stash... the winner of this Challenge will receive a copy of our fabulous Sundae of Seasons CD.

Emma Hello there, I have used a favourite stamp with some Marianne Design Creatable die cuts along with some of the gorgeous stamps that were in the first issue of Polkadoodles Pen and Paper Circle. I made my own backing paper with the stamps, coloured everything with Distress Inks and then finished the flower with a fancy brad.

Nelly Welcome to another Polka doodle challenge :) for this weeks card I have used Fairy Flutterfly rubber stamps set "Maggie" and coloured her with promarkers. The red and white polka dot design paper is taken from Sundae of seasons cd and the toadstools that 'Maggie' is relaxing on came from the new Sugar Plum Daisy CD, the flower and butterfly edging trim is a stamp set by Marianne Design.

NJ Hello everyone, for my red & white theme and stashbox stamp I've used the Polkadoodles Dragonfly Neighbours Clear Stamp along with the Sundae of Seasons CD. The sentiment is from the Paper Boutique Volume 3 CD and the decorative paper the image is matted onto is from Marianne Design. I coloured the image with Polychromo pencils.

Lou: I have decided to make a dreaded "male" card for this weeks challenge using papers from the Pretty Tuff CD (although I have sneeked a little blue in there too .... lol ). The sentiment stamp was a freebie on a craft magazine which makes a great sign. The arrow is hand cut and so are the traffic lights which has been finshed off with buttons (coloured with Promarkers). A really quick and simple card.

Shell-I loved making this card, I used 4 cd's for this one. The papers are from Pretty Tuff, the tickets and sentiments are from Sugarplum Daisy and the image is of course off Pretty Sweet and lastly the fabulous flowers are from the Sundae of Seasons...the image was coloured with a mix of copics and pro markers.

Claire - My worst nightmare - Red and White and a Stashbox Stamp LOL. So I went for a Christmas card this week. I used the some of the elements from the fantastic Pond Neighbours Clear Stamp Set to create a mini scene in the aperture of my card before giving it a sprinkle of texture paste, Glossy Accents and glitter.  The snowflake die is from Marianne Design (LR0125).

Dee - I have used papers and image from the Sugarplum Daisy Cd. I've also used Polka Doodles sentiment stamps and bird stamp which I stamped on the main image sheet, and then on the polka dot paper, cut out and fixed over the first one with 1mm foam pads.

Norine - I loved this red and white challenge and I kind of got a bit carried away and ended up with two cards!! I didn't actually use any stamps from my stash because I didn't feel like any of my own went with the challenge well enough. The first card uses an image from the SugarPlum Daisy cd and paper from the Magical Winter 1 cd. The addition of some velvet ribbon, gems and a paper doily complete this pretty any occasion card!

The second card uses images from the Sundae of Seasons cd paired with matching PolkaDoodles paper. I used a Spellbinders die and an embossing folder to create the background and then layered the printed and hand cut images on top.

Shary - Here's my red and white card for this week's theme. Although it's a feminine card I've used the papers from the Pretty Tuff CD, even the punched flowers are from the same paper. I've added a little gem to the middles. The bird cage is a die by Marianne Designs which I die cut and then distressed a little and added a bow. The sentiment is from Candy Doodles which I cut out and inked around the edges. I've paper pieced the girl with the same Pretty Tuff papers.

Joanna: For this card I used all my favourites ;). The super delicious papers are from Sundae of Seasons and Love & Cherish CDs. The sweet image is from the Pretty Sweet CD and I coloured it with Inktense pencils. The magical sentiment is from our newest release - Sugarplum Daisy. To embellish the card I created some dimensional flowers from the same papers using Marianne's Design CR1202 die and the gorgeous leaf is Marianne's LR0150 die. The flowers centres were also decorated with a touch of Liquid Pearls.

Diane  For our Red and White Challenge to celebrate St. George’s Day, strawberries and toadstools seemed like good subjects to use – not often featured together but I hope you like it! The paper from the Sugarplum Daisy CD was perfect for the strawberry theme and the red and white.

So there is our inspiration for this challenge - you have until Sunday 29th April to enter!

Entries close at noon GMT - good luck!

Week 14 - Big Birthdays

Hello NJ here, I just wanted to say Happy Easter to you all and welcome to another fab challenge this week.

Have you all entered last week's fab Blog Hop?? We have more candy than you can poke a candy cane at and you still have until noon on Easter Sunday to enter so make sure you get hopping NOW! Those of you who watch Create & Craft TV, you can also catch Nikky doing the Paper Clinic 2 hour slot on Easter Monday at 11am - lots of colouring, hints and tips and answering questions, so if you have bank holiday boredom tune in! Don't forget to check out the Polkadoodles Website where you can find fabulous dies and stamps from Marianne Design and also lots of other gorgeous crafty goodies, don't forget to check out the Polkadoodles CD ROMS while your there. Who needs an Easter Egg!

Before we get onto this week's challenge, let's find out the winners from Week 12 which was the Mother's Day challenge which were:

1st place - Dee 2nd place - Sazzlecraft 3rd place - Sarah

Congratulations! Please email Nikky for your prize and blinkies - the first placed winner receives a free download! Please put in the subject field of your email your placing and the challenge number.

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.

I (Ruth), have set the challenge this week as I am celebrating my Birthday today! It's one with a number ending in zero although I'd like to think I am 21 again! So, to help me celebrate (not that I will need much encouragement!) the challenge this week is to make a Birthday Card with a number on - the bigger the number the better! Our Top 3 winners of this challenge will each get a FREE Sugarplum Daisy CD - woohoo!! So make sure you get your entries in!...

Ruth: I've used a firm favourite with the Sugary Cake template from Paper Boutique Vol 1. I've used a Marianne Design Creatable embossing die on the card blank and also on the larger cake layers. Although you can't see it, the cake icing is rather sparkly as too are the numbers which I've attached with curled wire.

Emma Hello there, I have combined some of Polkadoodles gorgeous Pretty Sweet papers with beautiful Marianne Design Creatables die for this 21st bithday card. For the folded flower, I used a scalloped shaped ribbon style trim from the Sundae Of Seasons Cd.

Nelly - Hi Everyone for this weeks Big number Birthday card I have used images and design papers from the new Sugar Plum Daisy CD , the style is a Z gate fold and I have made the wrap to hold it closed, perfect for a sweet 16th Birthday :) embellishments are also from this adorable Cd!

Shell- For my card this week I've used a beautiful image and papers from the Sugarplum Daisy CD. The image has been coloured with pro markers. I made the rolled flowers using a Marianne Design Die LR0163, the ribbon, pearls and metal corner are from my stash.

NJ Hello for my big number I have made a card using the All Around & Everywhere CD I have hidden the '50' on a tag and popped it in a pocket. I used a Marianne Design Creatable LR0118.

Claire (Happy Days) - I've used the Sugarplum Daisy and Paper Boutique Volume 1 CD to create my handbag card. I've also used the alphabet and number set from the new Pen & Paper Circle Magazine 2 to create the sentiment tag. The gorgeous butterfly clasp is from the Marianne Design butterfly set LR0158.

Clare:- I've used papers, image, number and sentiment from the new Polka Doodles "Candy Doodles Collectors Edition" CD-Rom. I've coloured the image and number with alcohol markers and added glitter, clear ultra thick embossing powder and glossy accents as highlights. The roses and leaves are from the Marianne Design die "English Rose" LR0162.

Joanna: As I didn't have any "big" birthdays coming up, I decided to incorporate the BIG numbers into these cute frames for my 2 adorable nieces as a keepsake of what they look like in 2012 :-). The papers are a mixture of Sugarplum Daisy, Candy Doodles and Sundae of Seasons and the numbers are from the Sugar Birdies CD. The gorgeous die cuts are from Marianne Design CR1202 and LR 0141.

Dee: I have used the tree and birdhouse image, backing papers, ticket, numbers and a flower from the Candy Doodles Collectors edition CD, and the girl and the toadstool are from Sugarplum Daisy CD for this weeks card. The fence, birdhouse, bird, fence and swirl are Marianne Design Dies cut from a very pretty Marianne Designs backing paper. Some inking with distress inks and faux stitching finishes off the card just nicely.

Shary- For my card I've used the Not for girls Polkadoodles CD for the papers, letters, number and sentiment and the cute image is called Skating Don by Marianne Design. I've coloured him in with Copics.


Diane - My card for a lucky 40 year old uses the Fairy Flutterfly Gracie stamp and pretty paper from the new Sugar Plum Daisy CD. The numbers were also from the CD but the sentiment and flowers are part of the stamp plate, I just drew the stems and leaves for the flowers. The lovely corners are from a Marianne Design die and everything is coloured with Copics.

Carol - For my card I have used the brand new gorgeous cd called Sugarplum Daisy. I've played around in my graphics programme and merged a couple of images as well as printed out the little bees and bunny on the flower and popped them up on some glue gel for added dimension. The sentiment is also from the cd. I then printed the little girl onto some tissue paper and adhered it to the candle.

Lou:  I didn't want to go all "guns blazing" announcing the significant birthday, (not saying that this is Ruth's "0" birthday) but instead have created lickle dots with a number on! All papers are from the new Candy Doodles Collectors Edition as they are such a fab selection of papers and so versatile; as is the cupcake and sentiment (printed on to Safmat). The embossed panel at the back is a Marianne Design "Designables die which both cuts and embosses. I have also used a Marianne Design frame and butterfly die.

So there is our inspiration for this challenge - you have until Sunday 15th April to enter and be in with a chance of winning that fabulous candy! Entries close at noon GMT.

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