Week 38 Challenge - Distress It

GIVEAWAY WEEK!...Wooohoooo!

The lovely peeps at Letraset have kindly donated a Set of their fantastic brand new Flexmarkers to us this week for one lucky winning entry!

So make sure you get entering this week's challenge to be in with a chance of winning these lush pens - if you don't know about Flexmarkers 1) where have you been? and 2) check them out here. Flexmarkers are the new sister product to the Promarker and Triamarker alcohol based family of pens from Letraset and are just amazing for blending!

Use them alongside your Promarkers to achieve stunning soft blends with the new flexible brush tip and a gorgeous array of brand new colours. The lucky winner will receive Set One which are the palest of pale shades perfect for skintones (brand, brand new colours and these will not be available in Promarkers). We also have another freebie download for you: Nikky has been working with Letraset to ensure that everyone is priming their Flexmarkers properly - some of the colours are so pale that until you allow them to dry it looks like the pens have no colour in them and some people don't quite prime them enough. So they put their heads together to find an easy solution and Nikky discovered if you colour these swatches in the pens are primed perfectly, so Letraset have made this into a swatch download for everyone. You can get the download here - the one you need to use to prime is on the right, 2nd row down the page: download it here.

Rules of the giveaway are that you MUST follow our challenge rules - please ensure you follow the standard rules or you will not be included in the draw! The winner will be drawn at random from the entries for this week, so it doesn't matter how good you are at colouring you still have a chance of winning! The winning entry will be announced on the blog along with the challenge winner as normal.

Letraset will also be running a colouring competition on their blog on Wednesday 28th September using a lovely Polkadoodles image, so head on over there to have a look and get yourself a fab free Polkadoodles download to boot - more freebie goodness!

Back to this week's challenge!

Hello there, Emma here to set the challenge this time. So, you can really have some fun this week scrunching, inking, tearing, sanding, infact whatever distressing technique you love, we want to see it, I hope you will join us in this 'Distress it' challenge.

Before we move on, the top three from challenge 36 which was Setting the Scene are:

First Place: Michaela
Second Place: Julie W
Third Place: Nelly S

Congratulations! Please email Nikky for your blinkies! The first placed winner receives a download and 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 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.

The challenge is open until Sunday 2 October at 12noon and any entries that do not follow our challenge rules will not be eligible for any prizes so please read them carefully!

If you want more detail on how the Design Team have created their projects, just click on their name and you'll be taken to their blog.

Daniele, for this weeks card I used the sweet stamp set called Babsie, I have used Dusty Concord and sage to distress the edges of the image which was coloured with Prisma pencils, the papers are from the new Cd called Pretty Sweet.

Emma - Hello there, I had fun distressing my card this week. The image and paper I used are from the Magical Winter volume one CD. I coloured this fun image with Letraset Aquamarkers. I sanded all the edges of my card and inked them, I then ripped sections to distress further and quite liked how distress finishing can still look pretty.

Ruth: I've used a scrap of paper (distressed with scissors) from A Double Sprinkle of Kraft - I've printed it at A5 size for a smaller pattern. The cute mushroom house is from the Garden Neighbours rubber stamp set, and I've coloured it with Aquamarkers. Everything else is from my stash.


Audrey... For this card I used the CD All Around And Everywhere. I used my S.U. cupcake punch for the cupcakes and used 3D Dots to give them dimension. For the distressing I ripped the green paper and inked everything with S.U. Chocolate Chip ink.
Fliss - I've made a vintage style collage card as the theme is perfect for this. I've used the gorgeous bird cage and shabby paper from the Paper Boutique Vol 3 CD. I tore the edges of the background paper and added this to a kraft card. I printed out the cage and then coloured just the scroll pattern sections on one with Promarkers. After cutting the second one I inked with Versamark and embossed with tarnished gold powder. I added die cut leaves and a bird, together with punched flowers all coloured with Distress inks. I finished off with butterflies punched from the paper left after sponging the leaves as it was too good to waste!

Saskia - Lots of inspiration on the Magical Winter Part 1 cd-rom! I printed out this cute birdie and coloured it with Promarkers from the Polka Doodles Shop! All papers are from this great cd-rom! I added some Glimmer Mist for the 'distress look'.

Hi Louise here with my card for this week. I have used the new 'Pretty Sweet' cd which is gorgeous and distressed my edges.

Claire I have also used the new Pretty sweet cd to create my exploding box with lots of distressing of the beautiful papers!

Diane I have used an image and paper from the wonderful Pretty Sweet CD - the sentiment is also from that CD. I'm not sure that all the distressing is very visible because I've almost completely covered it with Stickles!

Dee: All papers and the image are from A Magical Winter CD for this weeks card. Lots of inking with a distress ink pad, tearing, sanding and water spotting.

MiriaThis week I chose a Halloween preview for my distressed card. Images, coloured with Distress ink pad and Kuretake Wink of Stella, and sentiment are from versatile Sundae of Seasons. The background is recycled cardboard then I added brads, rafia and thin wire.

Colette This week I have used the gorgeous Pretty Sweet CD Rom. I have sanded and inked the edges of the papers, used a Cheery Lyn die for the doily and Tim Holtz tattered florals die for the flower. The doily and flower have been scrunched and spritzed with glimmer mist and I drew faux stitching around some of the papers.

Alan..... This is my 1st entry into the challenges. I have left a complete how I made the card on my blog. The Images came from Not for Girls Definitely for Men and I took the bike into photoshop and layerd two parts of the image onto each other. Then after I had printed the main image I then printed the same image onto non printable vellum. Ripped the vellum to fit. Gaffer tape was used to edge the card.

Good luck with the challenge - please remember all the rules (you don't want to miss out on the Flexmarkers!) and the challenge ends on Sunday 2 October at 12noon GMT.

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Week 33 Challenge - Single Layer

Welcome to another Polkadoodle challenge! I (Ruth) am your hostess this week and my challenge is:

Single Layer cards

You need to either stamp or print directly onto your card stock and add minimal embellishments - the less the better!

The Design Team have risen to my challenge magnificently (although I get the feeling they found it rather challenging!) and I found that it is a great way to get your Christmas card pile even bigger - I hope you've started making yours!!

Before we see the Design Teams creations, I'd like to announce the top three from chalenge 31 which was to CASE a Design Teams card. I think this rather stumped a lot of our regular entrants as we only had 4 participate. So as a change we have a top four!

First Place: Jo Price
Second Place: Deanne
Third Place: Zora
Fourth Place: Lydia

Congratulations! Please email Nikky for your blinkies! The first placed winner receives a download and 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 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.

Now onto the Design Team samples and inspiration! If you want more detail on how their projects have been created, just click on their name and you'll be taken to their blog. Closing date for the challenge is Sunday 28 August at 12noon GMT.

Ruth: Now I really have made a single layer card! I've printed one of the toppers from the new Christmas cd Magical Winter directly onto my cardstock, folded it and added some glitter around the edge of the image and on the sign. So simple that I made 4! Have a look on my blog for the other three!

Emma, oooh, how difficult, I normally embellish everything to the death, so what a challenge this was. So, it's all about the image and colouring for me this time. I used a die cut for the card shape, the Garden Neighbours stamp plates to create the scene and Promarkers to colour, (sorry Ruth, I had to just put a couple of buttons on, my hands did it on auto pilot - I just can't help myself - but you did say minimal, so I think it still counts)

Enfys: I found this challenge hard, I am a multi-layer crafter - thank goodness for a cuttlebug and an oval embossing folder to add a bit of texture, it made a great frame for this lovely tree stamp, which I coloured with ProMarkers and embellished with red liquid pearls.

Claire I have created my single layer card on a Kraft card blank, using rubber stamps from the Wonderland collection, simply coloured with pencils.

Miria. I made my card just printing this pretty girl from A Double Sprinkle of Kraft, coloured it with Promarkers and Distress for the background and added just a ribbon and two brads.

Louise For the challenge this week I have stamped directly onto my copic cardstock and used the Fairy Flutterfly stamp 'Meeshelle'. I have coloured my image with copics and have used a Martha Stewart border punch along the bottom and added a few pearls on the flowers.

Saskia - I'm back after a lovely summer break! For this little card, I used the beautiful Fairy Flutterfly Maxine stamp. I coloured the image with some brand new Flexmarkers. I added the sweet butterflies by using the Flexmarkers and a black pen. It's a girly-card, so some glitter was required.

Lis-m: Well, I have been lucky enough to get my hands on a few Flexmarkers. Using the butterfly from the flutterfly Fairy Maggie I coloured it in, blending as I went. I like the result, kind of like a tie-dye effect.

Nikky...Wow, I love this week's challenge, it really made me think hard. I've cheated slightly because I had this card already made but it fits the bill so well I decided to include it (Ruth please forgive me the picture does have a layer under it so it is really 2 but I can't take it off now!)...I used my favest little housey stamps here and just grey Promarkers to do all the colour and shading. Did you notice the neat little trick I did? This is my fave bit of the card and why I wanted to share it...check out my blog and I'll show you ; )...

Fliss - My goodness, this was a difficult one for me too as I love to put layers on my cards and add things for texture. I went for stamping and got out my favourite Fairy Flutterfly set, Gracie. I stamped Gracie first on a scalloped card blank then masked her to add the wings. I stamped on a few flowers at random and added the sentiment near the top. I coloured all the images with a mix of Flexmarkers and Prisma pencils. Finally, I added some grass using 2 shades of green Zig Art & Graphic twin markers which are fabulous to make grass blades.

Audrey... For this one layer card I used the new CD Magical Winter Part 2. I stitched around the edges with brown floss and used Glossy Accents for the stars and heart.

Daniele: Ohhh this is my first card as part of the Polka Doodle team, I have to confess I've never worked with CDs before, but being as there are oodles of designs, papers and sentiments it was easy, I used the CD Sundae of Seasons for the border image and sentiment, printing the sentiment straight onto the card and then colouring the holly border with Prisma pencils and added Glamour dust for the details.

Colette - I used Sugar Birdies, Collectors Edition CD rom for my single layer card. I made my card up in Photoshop adding shadows to the layers to make them look dimensional even though they are not and printed straight onto linen card. I printed the inside of my card too. I added a couple of gems to the middles of the flowers to finish off the card.

Diane Like many of my teamies, I found this challenge quite difficult because it meant that I couldn't load my card with half a florist's shop and other embellies! I decided to go for one of the scenes that the uber talented Nikky has made her own and just added a sentiment from the All Around and Everywhere CD - I hope this keeps me within the rules!




Lou: I have created my card using the Wonderland stamp set. I masked different areas to create the frames and central panel. Simple colouring scheme using my Letraset Flexmarkers and then doodled the edges. The only embellishment I used was some glossy accents to add imension.

Dee: I've kept my card very minimal this week, not something I'm usually known for lol. I've taken three elements from the Granny Baker section of Magical Winter Cd1, scaled them down and printed them onto my card. I then embossed a box round each element using the Graham's Scoreboard, then added some text with a dark grey fineliner.

Good luck with the challenge! Please remember our rules and the closing date is Sunday 28 August at 12noon GMT.
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Week 26 Challenge - Home Sweet Home

Hello! It's Saskia here, for this week's challenge! We have a 2 months school holiday here in Belgium (July and August). I love to spend some time abroad, but I'm always so happy to come home!! So for this challenge, the Design Team wants to see a project about 'home'... a new house, moving, a village, a bird house,... Enjoy crafting!

The top three from challenge 24 which was 'All Of A Flutter' are:

First Place: Carol
Second Place: Jenny B
Third Place: Claire C

Congratulations! Please email Nikky for your blinkies! The first placed winner receives a download and 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 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.

Now onto the Design Team samples and inspiration! Closing date for the challenge is Sunday 10 July at 12noon GMT.

Saskia - I used the cute images and gorgeous papers from the A Double Sprinkle Of Kraft cd-rom to make my house-card. Aren't the flowers lovely?!

Fliss: I've made an easel style card for some friends who have just moved house and are now living very close to us. All elements are from the A Double Sprinkle Of Kraft CD and I chose the cute bird house for the card. I used the black and white stampie which I coloured with a mix of Promarkers and Zig Art & Graphic Twin Markers then inked around the edges of the panel. I layered up papers from the CD, added a sentiment from the sheet of alterable panels and finished with a layered flower and some pearls.

Emma Hello there, I have used some paper from the Double Sprinkle of Kraft cd and Sundae of Seasons to make this tag from my own template. I made the sentiment using a distressed ticket and my Dymo. The flowers were made from punched out flowers coloured with Distress Stains.

Josie: I really enjoyed this challenge! I made this card for a fellow Polkadoodler as she moved recently! I could not use these stamps. I used Stamp doodles - Dragon fly & garden neighbours stamp sets. I masked and stamped the houses and then coloured with Pro Markers.

Claire I have made a few quicky cards using the lovely Polka doodles girls Babsie and Gracie combined with the All around and everywhere cd.

Colette I made a quick and easy card using word paper from the Back to Nature CD, and pink gingham paper and a tag from All Around and Everywhere. I used a spellbinders die to cut five keys out of black card, cut one key from silver card and layered it over the central black key then attached the tag with some silver cord. Inside the card there is an Irish new home blessing.

Miria. For this week's creation I used a long and narrow card, the paper is from A Double Sprinkles of Kraft, the coloured stampies are from A Sundae of Seasons and the cut out sentiment as well, I nested it on a punched flower as a final touch.

Lis-m This week I have used a couple of discs."Back to Nature" for the background paper which I love, it's so versatile and "All around and Everywhere" for the rest, the house papers, the dotty papers and the house itself. A little dimension to the card and a sentiment border.. hey presto!

Ruth: I've used one of the Dragonfly Neighbour stamps, coloured with Promarkers. The card layering is from my stash along with the Kraft card blank and garden twine. I've added a faux stitched border around the edge of the card.
Good luck with the challenge - closing date is Sunday 10 July at 12noon GMT.

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Week 23 Challenge - Something for Dad

Welcome to another Polkadoodle challenge! The theme this week is to make Something for Dad - if you are stuck for ideas just have a look at the Design Team inspiration below!

Before we move on, I need to announce the winners from Challenge 21 which was the Male theme - the blog hop does not end until Sunday, so if you've not already entered, there is still time!!

First Place: Dorcas
Second Place: Mandy
Third Place: Lollydolly

Congratulations! Please email Nikky for your blinkies!

The first placed winner receives a download and please put in the subject field of your email your placing and the challenge number - this will make Nikky's life a lot easier!

We had an extra challenge in Week 21 and the three winners from the hop challenge all win a Double Sprinkles of Kraft CD! These winners are:


Congratulations! Please email Nikky with your postal details!

1. Rose
2. Ruby
3. Rosie

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 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.

Good luck with this week's challenge - the closing date is Sunday 19 June at 12noon GMT.

Ruth: I've made a simple folding card using the Father's Day download. I've traced the large letters onto the funky patterned papers and doodled a stitched line around the outside of the letters. The bloke ribbon is from my stash and it holds the whole thing together!


D'Anne - Today, I want to share a card I designed using the Not for Girls CD-ROM. I choose to work with the scooter collection. The digital background paper was printed out and then ran through an argyle embossing folder. Then I printed the other layers out three times and layered them with 3-d tape. Next, I added two antique brads which gives the card a masculine appearance. You could create a girls card by simply putting rhinestones or pearls in place of the antique brads. You have a super scooter weekend!


Audrey For this Father's Day Card I used the Father's Day/Family Download. I sewed around the edges of the card with a dark grey floss. I used my Cricut to cut out the ties and used 3D Dots so make them pop. I also inked all the edges of the papers as well.


Emma, Hiya, I made a gift tag to attach to a gift for Dad. I used elements from the Polkadoodles Father/Family download, I just added some twine and some faux brads by Craftworkcards

Saskia - Isn't this a cute card for Dad? I used the Nellienoo elephant stamp. The papers are from the A Double Sprinkle Of Craft cd-rom and the sentiment from the Daisy Doodles stamp plate. Enjoy crafting!

Colette My card is more male themed, but could easily be adapted to a Fathers Day card just by changing the wording, the photo could be of the child or children the card is from. I have used the helicopter template from Paper Boutique Vol III, but turned it into a rocker card. I cut the windows out and replaced them with acetate, adding the photo behind one of them, a bit of stickles to the lights finished it off.

Fliss: For my card, I've again done a vintage style one using the gorgeous vintage car background and one of the car stampies from the Not For Girls CD. I added the paper to the card with kraft photo corners for interest. I then embossed a white card panel with the Cuttlebug gears folder, sponged and swiped it with Wild Honey and Rusty Hinge Distress inks then added peel off hinges and twine. I finished off with some chipboard gears grunged up with Black Soot DI and some Dymo printed text.

Lou: I have used the fab Polkadoodles Father/Family download and love the backing papes as there are so versatile. Simple mat and layering techniques from me this week (nothing fancy), handcut stars, punched hearts, some buttons and twine. The "Dad"was made using up old Letraset rub on letters.

Claire - I have used the tool box from Paper Boutique Vol 3 to create my Happy Birthday Dad card - ideal! Just adding some great woodgrain embossed card, screw brads and a bit of doodling!

Lis-m - I have used the fab new download for Fathers day from the shop , designed by our fabulous Nikky Hall... This really was a quick cut and stick card, a little string and a button.. Hey presto! Just shows how fantastic these papers really are !!

Miria: My card is a CAS one. The papers are from Not for girls and Double Sprinkles of Kraft, then I added some alphie brads and buttons. For the punched tag I used some recycled cardboard.


Dee: I decided to make a small gift for my Dad. I've had this plastic case knocking around the workroom for a little while so I decided it was time to do something with it. I used papers and letters from the Double Sprinkles of Kraft CD, East of India ribbon and a brad. I printed the letters onto Letraset's Safmat

Josie: This week I decided to use some elements on the Not for Girls CD Rom. I chose red glitter paper to add some sparkle to the backing paper, and some buttons for a bit of texture.

Good luck with the challenge! Closing date is Sunday 19 June at 12noon GMT!
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