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 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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wk 9 - Digi Queens Colouring Inspiration

Welcome back to another day of lovely Colouring Inspiration from our Digi Queens team!

Tait - Hi guys, im back again for another fun inspiration card for you. I have used the very beautiful Seashore Shannon this week, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with her - I really wanted to show just how beautiful the image is, so I have coloured her all in grey tones with copic markers. With the card I wanted it to be simple and showcase the image more than the embellishments so I have just used some distressed papers, a couple of bits of lace and some shells to finish it off. I hope you enjoy :D

You can get the digi here:

I have coloured this image with copic markers using only the Cool Grey tones.

Cara.....I have used the stunning Octavia Best friends Digi image today and coloured her up in Sepia tones using my Graph'it markers and added highlights with my gold glitter shake marker.  I was going for an autumnal theme and chose feathers and leaves as my embellishments and added vintage gold and white frantage powder to finish the card.

You can get the digi here

Janine - hi everyone! I just love the Winston CD and I couldn't resist this fabby digi stamp of Winston chillin' out in his boat; I think he's so cool!  To colour this gorgeous image I thought I would take inspiration from Nikky and use my Pan Pastels - it was a bit of a learning curve but I'm happy with the results. However I did use a few pencils in certain areas to add a little extra depth. I decided to make it a CAS card so the background layers are quite simple. To finish off I added a few hand drawn fish and some buttons. 

You can get the digi here
                                                                           

I used the following Pan Pastels: Turquoise, Bright Yellow Green, Phthalo Green, Burnt Sienna Shade, Permanent Red, Permanent Red Tint, Violet Tint, Titanium White, Diarylide Yellow, Black.

Christine - Hi peeps, another Christmas card from me! I've used the gorgeous 'Presents' for my card this week from the Work and Play 5 Festive Hollybobs Collection CD.  I also used some digi paper from that CD too.  I do love colouring in red - though it's such a tricky colour - it can so easily bleed.  I'm also experimenting with my background shading - going for slightly deeper to make the image stand out more.  Like her dotty dress and headband?  Easy to achieve with a white gel or poster paint pen.  I did the sentiment on the PC and used Dies for the image, sentiment, & the holly.

You can get the Festive Hollybobs Collection CD at Polka Doodles here:

It's such a wonderful Christmas collection brim full of fabulous-ness!

Here are the Copic colours I used:
Skin E000, E00, E21, E11, E04, R20
Hair: E21, E34, E23
Dress and Headband: R24, R29, R46., E57
Holly: G21, G99
Shading: W0, W1, W2, W3, W5, plus plenty of blender pen
I used a Sharpie Poster Paint Pen for the white dots.

 

Fi - Hi folks and here's my latest card.  I have used this little cutie called Luna which you can find here in the Polka Doodles store.  I coloured her in with alcohol markers.  I made the background with my floral fusions die-namics die which I layered onto card which I coloured with distress inks.  The bottom part of the backing has been embossed with the same die.  I added a piee of ribbon around the join just to finish it off a bit.  The bow has been fastened to the card and a rolled rose has been attached.  I added some teeny pearls to the centres of the dies cut backing....hope you like!....

You can buy Luna here

Spectgrum Noirs used: Skin - FS2, FS3, FS6 Hair - EB1, EB2, GB8, GB10 Clothes - IB3, CT4, CT2
What fabulous creations the team have made! Super duper lushty!  We'll be back on Friday with more inspiration and our Polkadoodles challenge but in the meantime don't forget to pop on over to see what the  Digi Choosday  team are up to today HERE. See you Friday!