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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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!

Week 15 - Pretty in Pink

Hi everyone - have you all got over the Easter break yet or are we still guzzling lots of chocolate and candy??!!! Before we get onto this week's challenge let's find out the winners from week 13 which was the Easter challenge and hop! We had a lot going on that week and judging by the entrants and comments everyone enjoyed themselves although lots of you didn't leave your answers in the comments!

Grateful thanks to our wonderful sponsors for the blog hop prize - Marianne Design. From all the challenge entries and blog hop comments (you had to enter both parts to have a chance of winning), congratulations goes to:
First place - Michaela with an awesome entry! Well done Michaela, you win our Marianne Design candy and the Sugarplum and Candy Doodles CD's!
Second place: Bianca with her stunning paper wabbit, and in 3rd place is Jo Grason who both win a Candy Doodles CD! Well done everyone, please email us with your snailmails to claim your prizes (please put challenge number in the email subject field)

Phew!! And just in case you were wondering, the unscrambled letters spelt SUGARPLUM DAISY. For the Design Team members who had additional candy to give away on their blogs, please visit their blogs to see if you were lucky!

Right! Onto this weeks challenge! The theme is Pretty In Pink and the challenge is open until Sunday 22 April at 12noon GMT. The winner of this challenge will receive a £5 voucher to spend on the Polkadoodles website - woohoooo!

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.

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.

4. And please no back-linking to previous posts - these will be disregarded from our top three voting.

Ruth: This must be one of my most favourite templates to use as I turn to it time and time again - really quick and easy to make (and it comes in mint green too!) It's from Paper Boutique Vol 3 and I've layered everything up with foam pads. Added glitter, some ribbon from my stash and the chocolate stars are covered in glossy accents!

Josie: This week I used the lush backing papers and toppers from the Candy Doodles CD Rom. I added glitter around the edge of the card and finished with a Marianne Die and some flowers.

Doreen: For my card this week I've used a beautiful image and papers from the Sugarplum Daisy CD. The image has been coloured with Copics.

Fliss: For my card this week all elements come from the new Sugarplum Daisy CD as I love all the very pretty and girly elements on there. I printed the sweet image and a rose onto watercolour paper and coloured them with a mix of watercolour pencils and Prisma pencils, adding a touch of glitter. I tore the edges of the backing paper and inked for a shabby chic look. I used a Marianne Design lace die and pretty tag die to cut out the sentiment.

Lou: I have jumped aboard this week as I could not play along last week. I have used papers from Candy Doodles Collectors Edition as is the sentiment from the same CD. The roses are part of the stamp set from from the 1st issue of the Pen and paper Circle Club as is the delish strawberry backing paper. I have used the following Marianne Design dies on my card; decorative panel and butterfly plus the gorgeous pom pom lace/ribbon is also from Marianne Design too. The card has been finished with some organza ribbon and heart gems.

Enfys: I couldn't resist this little angel from the Sugarplum CD, I printed her out twice, once onto white cardstock which I cut out, then again onto pink spotted paper from the CD, and cut out just her dress and wellies and paper pieced those onto the image that I coloured with Promarkers. The background was printed from the same CD, but I added some punched flowers to the fence and grass.

Daniele......just loving the new CD Sugar Plum Daisy so I've gone overboard with the pink for this challenge, I've used a pre printed topper and also a digi image which I coloured in with promarkers and flex markers. The grass was created using a Marianne Design die then I added sequin flowers.

Anne - I've used two CD's and Pen and Paper Kit 1 for this project. Candy Doodles and our newest release Sugar Plum Daisy. A Marianne Design flower die and some ribbon and pearls from my stash.

Lisa - 'The Crafting Owl'. For my project I decided to do a page in my journal as I think that the images from the CD-ROMS are just perfect for this. I used the owl from 'Back to Nature', papers torn and stuck on the page from Sugar Plum Daisy and Sundae of Seasons. The stamps are the 'Be Neighbours' set. I then added abit of doodling to bring the whole thing together. More pics and journaling on my blog.

Miria For my card I used a lovely image and papers from cd Sugarplum Daisy. I coloured the digi with kuretake zig art and twin.and paperpieced her dress. The sentiment is from cd Candy Doddles Collectors' edition.

Patty I used papers from Sundae of Seasons and Pen & Paper Circle Magazine and the Girl from Pretty Sweet.I love the position of this girl that's why I wanted to make a birthday card for a Girl that used to sit just like that, and add the white border to the edge to make a combination to the pink and brown polkadots.

Claire So Pretty in pink is this lovely girl coloured with Promarkers from the Pretty Sweet cd which has combined with the yummy layered heart cake from Paper Boutique Vol 1. Just added a few sticky gems and some stickles.

Good luck with the challenge and please remember our rules when entering! The challenge is open until Sunday 22 April at 12noon GMT and add your creation to the widget below!

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Week 13 - Easter BLOG HOP

Hi everyone! Welcome to our fantastic blog hop and candy giveaway!

Our fabulous sponsors Marianne Design are giving you the chance to win this adorable Garden themed Creatable as part of our blog hop!
Creatables are handy stencils that cut and/or emboss. They can be used in many machines, with all kinds of paper. The cut-out and embossed shapes are ideal to make your cards and other creative projects even more beautiful. We also have this lovely cuter than cute Snoesjes stamp, a fabulous 32 page paper pack and we adore this stunning flower ribbon - this candy is just scrumptious!!

In addition to this wonderful Marianne Design candy the first prize winner will receive a brand new Sugarplum Daisy CD AND a Candy Doodles CD from Polkadoodles PLUS 2 further winners will also receive a Candy Doodles CD - so there are 3 chances to win in our Hop and Challenge!!

Here is what you must do: (you might find some extra candy along the way from the DT so make sure you go visit them all!!)

CHALLENGE STAGE 1: Now, we know not everyone likes to do a hop for whatever reason, so we still have our normal challenge for the week which is EASTER themed - you must make a card or project which is Easter themed.


But that's not all...


CHALLENGE STAGE 2: Our second challenge is the blog hop - if you hop along with us this week you will find that the Easter Bunny has arrived early and left some hidden goodies on some of the Design Teams blogs - but you have to hop though the whole list to find who the Easter Bunny has visited!


You need to complete both the Easter themed challenge and the blog hop to be in with a chance of winning one of the fantastic prizes on offer! If you've never taken part in a blog hop before it's easy peasy...all you need to do is visit each blog in turn and for this hop each Polkadoodler will give you a LETTER (be careful - some of the Polkadoodlers may have more than one so make sure you collect them all!)

Now add all the letters together, unscramble them and leave a comment on the Polkadoodle Challenge Blog (comments will be moderated!) telling us what the word is. You MUST follow this blog and link to the blog hop on your own blog to be eligible to win, so make sure you click follow in the sidebar!


Your entry will automatically be judged for the Easter themed challenge BUT we will know if you have completed the Blog Hop so if you haven't you will still only be eligible for the random blog candy hidden amongst some of the Polkadoodlers. FOR THE EASTER THEMED CHALLENGE JUST LEAVE YOUR ENTRY AS NORMAL USING THE INLINKZ BUTTON, WE WILL SORT THROUGH THE ENTRIES AS WE WILL KNOW IF YOU FOLLOWED THE HOP OR NOT! ; )


The list to follow - just in case you get stuck is:

Polkadoodle Challenge Blog (you are here)
Nikky
Fliss
Anne
Claire
Doreen
Enfys
Miria
Lisa
Danielle
Lana
Ruth
Claire HD
Then back here to this blog to leave your unscrambled word!

The letter you need to start you off is.... P

Keep this safe along with all the other letters - and don't forget to leave a comment on each blog as you hop to make sure you're considered for the candy!

Before we get onto the samples from the team for this week's challenge let's find out the winners from our previous challenge which was to feature an Animal or Bird:

1st place - Jayne, 2nd place - Lori , 3rd place - Blackdragon

Congratulations! Jayne please email Nikky for your prize. Blinkies can also be requested from Nikky for the second and third place participants. Please put in the subject field of your email your placing and the challenge number to speed up the process.

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 link below - 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 (and sometimes we cannot read it!) Please consider turning word verification off especially now that comment moderation has a spam filter.


Right, now onto the wonderful samples created by the Design Team! This challenge and blog hop is open until Sunday 8 April at 12noon GMT - good luck and please remember our rules and that you have to enter the challenge AND blog hop to be in with a chance of winning!


Lana: I have used the brand new SugarPlum Daisy CD. I must say this CD is jammed packed with wonderful cuties you will certainly fall in love with ;)

Patty: For my Easter card I used papers from Sundae Seasons, I wanted to highlight just a portion of the Bunny with color so used green ink and added as if were part of the same image. Added the white bow to make a subtle tone to all the bright green and pink. And used the sentiment form Candy Doodles CD

Ruth: I've gone for an old favourite - Paper Boutique Vol 1 and used the little bunny decoupage along with one of the matching papers. I've glittered the bunny and used an acetate strip so that he boings around! Promarkers have been used to colour the Marianne Designs die and then I've glued them on around the middle of the pouch.

Claire - I've used the gorgeous Sugarplum Daisy CD and Candy Doodles Collector's Edition to create my Easter bunting. I simply printed out six different papers from the Sugarplum Daisy CD. I then used the wordbook template on the Candy Doodles CD to create the letters and printed these onto the same paper. The rabbit is from the Sugarplum Fairy CD and I've simply resized and flipped him several in my graphics programme and placed him under the letters so that he looks he like he's peek-a-booing.

Claire: I have used elements from the new Sugarplum daisy cd for my Easter card. How gorgeous is that Bunny Scene. Coloured with promarkers and some safmat used to print one of the lovely ribbon designs on.

Doreen: I've decorated/pimped a little glass using images and a pretty border from the fantastic Sugarplum Daisy CD. I embellished with flowers and ribbon.

Daniele......although technically mine isn't an Easter card I couldn't resist the sweet bunny, one of the elements from the new fabbie CD.....Sugarplum Daisy to share with you.

Lisa - 'The Crafting Owl'. I decided to go for a very simple Easter Bonnet using the fab papers from 'Back to Nature' which I inked over. I cut out the flowers using a punch and the fab Marianne Design die set LRo11.

Fliss: I decided to make a little woven basket to fill with Easter treats using a tutorial I found on the internet. The gorgeous checked papers are from the brand new Sugarplum Daisy CD as are the adorable little bunnies. I used an Easter greeting from the Paper Boutique Vol 3 CD. The basket is decorated with layered flowers and a flourish branch made using Marianne Design dies.

Enfys: I used my Cricut to cut a doily shaped card, and the bunny from the Paper Boutique CD. the spotty bow is made with paper from the Sundae of Seasons CD, and the flowers were punched.

Anne -For my project I've used the new Sugar Plum Daisy CD I began by printing both sides of the paper for my little bag, a couple of smaller pieces and the images for my card and I was good to go. I then added the images to the backers, hand cut some grass for the bag, punched some flowers and added my favourite Marianne Designs die cut flower and the job was a good 'un!

Miria What's better for an Easter blog hop than two hopping bunnies? Here they are, ready to colour from new supercute cd Sugarplum Daisy; I coloured them with Zig Art&Graphic Twin. Paper and sentiment are from Candydoodles Collectors' Edition.

Josie: For this lovely challenge I decided to used the lovely Marianne Die which I covered in glitter! The backing papers are from the Sugarplum Daisy CD Rom.

Good luck! Don't forget that you need to enter the challenge as well as the blog hop this week to be in with a chance of winning one of the wonderful prizes on offer. Deadline for both entries is Sunday 8 April at 12noon GMT.
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