Week 3 - Sketch and Blog Candy

Hello everyone and welcome to another week at Polkadoodles!


Woohoo we have a bit of a landmark at Polkadoodles - 1000 Blog followers!! woohooooo!! In celebration of this we will choose 5 random people who leave a comment under this week's post who will each receive a free stamp! But you have to be a follower and you have to leave a comment under the post to qualify. The winners will be announced next week.


Before we get down to business this week, did you all know we now have a great Under 16's monthly challenge over at Diddydoodles! We think it's really important to get the youngsters crafting and give them a bit of motivation so if you have young hands that are always in your craft stuff then please get them joining in! It's all a bit of fun but it's run by kids for kids and we would love it if you can help spread the word please.


Before we get to this week's challenge, onto the winners from Week 1 which was to follow the sketch in Shades of Grey. As ever we had some fab entries and the winners are:
1st: Jackie and tied as runner ups are Emma, Sandra B, and Lindsey well done everyone, Jackie wins a special set of Grey Flexmarkers and the runners up all win a Digi!
Can everyone please email Nikky for your blinkies and to claim your prizes please!

Please put in the subject field of your email your placing and the challenge number - this will make Nikky's life a lot easier!

So, onto this week's challenge - the sketch! It's my birthday this week so the theme is to make a Birthday Card and follow the sketch. The winner of this challenge will win a free stamp which has not even been released yet so we can't even show you the design, but if you like cute owls you are going to love it!!
Now I felt generous so I've let the Design Team use one of their stamps from their stashbox this week, let's see what they all came up with but please make sure you follow our simple rules when you enter...

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 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 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.

Ruth: I've gone with a round card and I've used two butterflies from Sundae of Seasons and added some wire. The ribbon ruffles are made by simply ruffling up ribbon and sticking it down to some very very sticky foam tape (I think its DIY stuff!) Confession time - I can't remember which cd I printed the paper from!!!

Daniele: For my card I used papers from All Around and Everywhere, the bird cage die is from Memory box and I couldn't resist adding feathers. The stamp I have used is from Stampavie but there is also a delightful birdbox on the Cd to go with the papers.

Claire: For my Stashbox stamp card I have used a freebie star stamp from Craft Stamper magazine and also a birthday cake stamp. It's my middle child Caleb's 7th Birthday soon so enjoyed using Nikki's sketch for his card. The papers are from the Magical Winter cd and the alphas are from Sugar Birdies CD..... Just with a little added doodling and gold leaf

Enfys: I made a New Year resolution to use up some of the papers I have printed out from various CD's - the great thing about Polkadoodles CD's is that all the papers seem to coordinate with other CD's - you get so many colour families on each one that it is easy to match papers. The image I used is a Lili of the Valley, coloured with Promarkers (did you know that Nikki is one of the few suppliers to sell markers individually?)

Fliss: I'm on a bit of a nature kick with my cards at the moment so my card here is no exception as I wanted to use this really cute owl from Tattered Angels and I thought the papers on the Pretty Sweet CD a perfect match with their shabby look and gorgeous vintage colours. I stamped the owl with Memento Rich Cocoa and left him uncoloured for impact. I added die cut layers and inking on the edges for emphasis. I finished off with a great sentiment from the Back To Nature CD.

Miria For my card I used a LOTV stamp coloured with Distress, the papers are from Paper Pretties cd, I just added some buttons.

Josie: This week for stash box stamp I used a Lili of the Valley image. I am hooked on the pink and turquoise colours at the moment as well as these papers. They are from the Pretty Sweet and Magical Winter CD Roms.

Net - Hi and oops! I kind of got a bit.... er lost on the sketch! Its sort of in there but the sizes and shapes are a bit different. A case of do as I say not do as I do! My hand immediately went to these lovely dotty papers. I love dots! A new magnolia was inked for the occasion. So please don't be like me follow the sketch! ~slopes off to the norty glitter free corner~

Ashley- For my card I used the Pretty Tuff cd, for the awesome stars and stripes papers and stamp image. I added some cool PTI stamps to create a fun "rock star" theme. A little glitter here a little glitter there and BAM you have a "ROCKIN" card.

Anne...For my card this week I've used papers from Sugar Birdies CD and a stamp from Sparkle n Sprinkle which I've coloured with copics. Some punched flowers and leaves finish the look.

ALAN: For this challenge l went straight to Sugar Birdies CD-Roms 'Collectors Edition' for my backing papers. There is such a wide range that can be used for any occasion. I wanted a softer card creation that l could give to Mum-in-Law on her Birthday. The flowers were again from the Sugar Birdies CD-Rom 'Collectors Edition and were just glued together and a button threaded with Butcher string to give detail.

So there you have this week's entries...aren't they fab!

You have until Sunday 29th January at noon GMT to enter so make sure you get your entry in to have a chance of winning that candy!

Just use the cute little InLinkz button below - all you need to do is add the URL of your image(not your blog post!) on your blog (or Photobucket etc if you don't have a blog) and InLinkz will load your thumbnail. It sometimes takes a little while to refresh so if it doesnt load first time just check a little later on.

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Week 1 - Giveaway & Shades of Grey sketch

Well helloooo Polkadoodley's! Happy New Year!! We all hope you've had an amazing Christmas and New Year and it's now time to work some festive calories off with lots of fab new challenges! We have some really exciting things going on this year so make sure you check in regularly for all the news...

We are all VERY excited to announce our brand new Polkadoodles Club - the Pen and Paper Circle! There are no costly membership costs to this, you just sign up on pre-order if you want the issue and wait for it to drop through your door - simples! We'll be bringing you an exclusive stamp and some other goodies each time together with a fabulous step by step project magazine which is entirely put together by the Design Team and is full of inspiration - there will be at least 12 projects plus loads of other hints and tips each issue! If that's not a good enough reason to sign up we don't know what is! We're overwhelmed by the response so far (Nikky has had to quadruple the initial stock she ordered) but you still have until 15th Janua

ry to order your kit, so get in now to make sure you can get hold of yours!
Also, make sure you tune into Create and Craft TV (if you can't get it you can see it on www.catchup.tv) on Sat 7th Jan at 11am and 4pm for lots more ideas and inspiration with Nikky!

Before we get onto the challenge let's announce the winners from challenge 49 - A Quick Christmas Card:

1st place: Julie B, 2nd place: Neli, 3rd place: Pauline - well done to all of you!

Please email Nikky for your blinkies - the first placed winner receives a £10 voucher to spend in the Polkadoodles shop!! 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 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 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.

It's my turn - Nikky - to set this week's challenge and for this one the lovely peeps at Letraset have kindly donated a special set of Flexmarkers which I've asked them to put together for us...all in shades of Grey! The challenge runs until Sunday 15 January at 12noon GMT.

I love using sketches and find them really useful when I've lost my mojo, but in addition to the sketch I also asked everyone to use different shades of grey for this challenge too. You can do this with your papers or just with your image if you like but the project overall needs to have a monochromatic look. If you're clever you might be able to squeeze some greyish blue hues in there too. So let's see what everyone made...

Nikky...*cough* I set the challenge and kinda missed an important point - the shades of grey bit LOL!! I decided to upload my card anyway and if you want some great tutorials on how to colour with Grey tones then get yourself a copy of Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine this month and checkout the first in my series of monthly features I'll be doing this year which are focused on colouring techniques. On this card I used Kuretake's Kurecolor alcohol markers and our Be Nighbours range of rubber stamps. The papers are my favourite of all time and are from the Pretty Sweet CD...

You can see a tutorial on my blog for the colouring for this one and also the samples which used Greys in the magazine features here.

Josie: Loved this challenge for the sketch but also the colour shades. I recently got all the grey Pro Markers and this was good practice. First of all I printed the backing paper from the Pretty Tuff CD Rom, then I took the image from the Pretty Sweet CD Rom. I coloured the image, the ribbon and the flowers with my grey Pro Markers. On the rose in the image I went over it with a clear Wink of stella glitter pen and glossy accents on top of that. I then added a Craftworks Sentiment and some Frou Frou Bling.

Daniele, what a great challenge, I have used images and papers from The Love & Cherish Cd to create this anniversary card, adding a feather and grey pearls for a touch of bling.

Anne - I used the Not For Girls Definitely For Men CD and started by colouring up the image using my copic markers. Then It was a simply a print job with these fabulous papers. I also loaded the plain grey papers into my graphics programme and added my own text to match ( or as near as I could) so it all matched. Some brads, eyelets and a bit of white cord for the embellies and I was sorted.

Lana - For my card I have used papers and toppers from the 'Not for Girls Definitely for Men CD. I was worried when I realised we needed to make our creations in shades of Grey as I love bright and colourful cards, however I think the mod scooter images are perfect for this challenge. I did the complete card using Photoshop.

Doreen - For my card I used the image frome the fantastic Pretty Sweet CD Rom and the paper is from the Pretty Tuff CD Rom. I embellished with ribbon, lace and flowers. I love the monochromatic look.

Miria For my card I used images, sentiment and papers from Pretty Tuff. I coloured Claude and the car with Zig Art&Graphic Twin and Wink of stella.

Joanna - For my card I used papers from the Sundae of Seasons CD and the stamp from the Neighbours range. The image was coloured with water colour pencils and cosmic shimmer water colour paints. To embellish the card I used lots of die cuts and glitter!

Claire - Loved this challenge Nikky. Gave me the chance to use up some papers I'd printed from Not for Girls cd alongside the cute dog from the Pretty Tuff cd coloured with promarkers, a little added doodling and crackle glaze.

Fliss - The image, sentiment and background paper on my card perfect for the boys in the family came from the fabulous Pretty Tuff CD and the script paper from the Not For Girls CD. My oval panel was embossed with a brick wall folder and inked with Pumice Stone Distress ink. My image was coloured first with Promarkers in all the shades of grey I possess and I then added some detail with Prisma pencils.

Ruth: I've delved way back into the Polkadoodle archives and used Not For Girls cd for all my card plus a bit of embossed acetate (you can just about see it!) plus some buttons and embroidery thread from my stash.

Net - I've been norty! So no change there then ;)) I've printed out various grey papers from the Pretty Tuff CD - (which is B E Y O N D lush) I then inked up the super sweet BevvieBoo and coloured her in various greys. Then I thought... which is always dangerous..... and the pink came out. Well just a bit and then pink card to layer up with. I hope I'm forgiven.... but i

ts stuck down so I guess I am.

Alan: For this Challenge l used the FAB cd PRETTY TUFF. Has loads of images that you can build and create a card for those Men/Boys in your social circle. I tried to keep it clean. All the papers and images were worked on using a simple D.T.P that we all have access to and normally some are free to get hold of. Any questions please ask. will reply a.s.a.p Happy crafting in 2012 you all.

Good luck with the challenge (please remember our rules!) and the deadline for entries is Sunday 15 January at 12noon GMT.
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