A bit of Upcycling

Hello everyone Dee here with today's Studio 12 post.  I spent a while mulling over what to make and what to use.  With so many Studio 12 stamps to choose from I was rather spoilt for choice, but in the end I couldn't resist using the Polkadoodles Owl stamp in conjunction with some papers from the Picknix Gingerbread Twist CD.   I had an old paper bag from a high street store that was in my 'useful things to alter box'.  I covered the front with the papers and blended tea dye distress ink round the edges.  I paper pieced the stamp and added a few images from the CD to finish the bag off.

 

Check back Thursday and Friday for more fabulous creative inspiration from the design team.

Life is much better when you're laughing

Hello all Dee here with today's Studio 12 project.  This is something I did quite some time ago now but I've been holding off till the stamps were back in stock.  Well they are now in stock at last so here is my colourful 12x12 canvas.  There's lots of layers of paint and ink and I used stamps and masks on the canvas to give an overall riot of colour.  These are not my usual colours it has to be said, I always feel far more at home with cool blues and purples, but I wanted this to be happy and to make you smile when you looked at it, hopefully I have achieved that.

All the stamps are Polkadoodles Studio 12 and Susan K Weckesser at Studio 12. I had so much fun making this so I hope you all like it.

Week 30 Challenge - Christmas In July

Hi everyone - hope you're ready for another challenge!

Before we go onto this week's challenge we need to announce the top three from Week 28 Challenge which was Summer Fun.  Some really fabulous creations were entered but there can only be three lucky winners and they are:

1st Place - Chris V - please use the code PD1W3028 to claim your prize
2nd Place - Norma - please use the code PD2W3028 to claim your prize
3rd Place - Cheryl Anne - please use the code PD3W3028 to claim your prize
  
Congratulations to you all - you have all won a copy of our latest collection Bonbon Belles which is worth £17.99!!!. Please all email Nikky and don't forget to quote your winner's code - we cannot release prizes without it!  Blinkies are in the sidebar for you to grab.

We have a few little rules which makes our life a lot easier when we come visiting your blog:
1.  Please follow the challenge theme!
2.  Only enter your creation into a maximum of 10 challenges including Polkadoodles
3.  Please link your blog post and not your blog address with the linky tool - 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 when leaving comments - please consider turning off word verification especially as the comment moderation has a spam section.
 

Now for our challenge for this week and the theme chosen is:

Christmas in July! 

Yes, we cardmakers are already thinking of the festive season even though the heat is blistering here in the UK, so get your Christmas stash at the ready and show us your wares!  Our favourite top 3 entries for this challenge will each win a copy of our brand new Christmas collection, Angelberry Christmas, which is just adorable and is worth £11.99!

Lou: for my card, I designed my own mittens template to make a free standing swing card thingy (lol). All the paper, embellies and sentiment are from the Angelberry Christmas CD. When the card is "flat" it will fit in to an A5 envelope.

Kim - My Christmas in July card features a gorgeous digi and papers and sentiment all from the gorgeous 'Angelberry Christmas'!  I've coloured the digi with alcohol pens, added lots of glittery stuff, some ribbon, punched snowflakes and pearls.

Ruth:  It appears that I have broken with tradition this week and gone for the Studio 12 cd - Gingerbread Twist - probably because I was feeling rather peckish and these gingerbread people look scrummy to eat!  All papers and images are from the cd and I've added organza ribbon from my stash.

 JAN - I have made a central stepper card using paper and images from the brand new 'Angelberry Christmas' CD. I couldn't resist this little guy - can you see his shiny nose (with a little help from my glossy accents!)

Lizzie- For my card  I used a digi image from the new mini CD Angelberry Christmas I coloured her using promarkers. Papers are from the Gingerbread twist CD. I used my Stickles glitter glue to jazz up the Marianne die cuts of the stars and icicles. boy it sparkles this card !!! Added some gems and voila !!!

I also made this card using the pre-coloured image and embellies this is all from the Angelberry CD. I used the embellies to make banners !!!  Hope you like it !

Shell- For my card this week I have used the gorjuss new Angelberry Christmas cd. I cut a ice skate shape on my cameo, then added a little trim and a flower to finish

So there is our inspiration this week!
You have until 12 noon on Sunday 4th August to enter and good luck!

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Studio 12, Welcome...

Hello fellow crafters, today I have a piece of home decor for you all.  I found an inexpensive wooden sign while out shopping, just perfect for a touch of altering.  I painted the sign with acrylic paints and over stamped with Archival Inkpads.  While this dried I used Distress Inkpads and Distress Stains to make a wide variety of coloured inky backgrounds.  I stamped the house, trees, flowers and crowns from the Studio 12 range on the inky backgrounds.  I then over stamped the images with various text stamps from the same range. I cut all the images out and fixed them in place on the sign.  I found some chipboard letters amongst my stash to finish the sign off nicely.

 

A colourful and happy welcome into anyones home.  I hope you like my sign, I had a lot of fun making this.  Dont forget to check out the Polkadoodles shop for all your crafting needs.

Happy crafting to you all, Dee.

Hello everyone it's Dee here with the post for today.  Before I show you today's make have you seen all the new stash on the Polkadoodles website, Nikky sure has been a busy little bee, both designing and tracking down some really lovely stuff.  There's new digi stamps, CD rom, Pan Pastels, Masks, 3D Chipboard kits, Dylusions sprays, Graph-it markers and printed PD paper packs. At last printed paper packs, yayy. Now there's something for every one there so check it out.

Back to my project and I have a little card made with Studio 12 and Susan Weckesser range of stamps and the Stamp Slab.  I love the quirky images and had such fun making this.  I used Distress inks on the slab, Scattered Straw, Wild Honey and Vintage Photo or Tea Dye, I cant quite remember which one now.

Well thats it from me today, someone form the Studio 12 design team will be back on thursday with another delish sample for you all.

Washing the dust

Good morning everyone. Its Dee here with today's post and I have been naughty and sneaked in a sample made with the new Studio 12 stamps.  If we all keep quiet it may just miss her eagle eyed radar, but then again maybe not lol.  It's all worth it though, so I'll endure the wrath to show you all something made with just a few stamps from this fantastic new range.  I have to say Nikky has some lush goodies in at the moment, just one is the new CD of Emma Cannings digi stamps 'Digistamp Heaven', fabulous value for money.  Think I'd better stop before I get carried away, if you want to see all the new items just click here.

Right, back to today's card (sorry I'm so easily distracted by pretty new things), I wasn't swearing at you with the title, it was part of the Pablo Picasso quote I used.  This card was made with my cousin in mind because she loves words, text and inspirational quotes.  I used the Stamp Slab for my background with liberal dollops of acrylic paints because I wanted lots of interesting texture and movement. The stamps I used are Fanciful Flourish, Road to the City, Shabby Checkers (soo useful) and Washing The Dust Off.  They are on pre-order on the Polkadoodles site at the moment, but do keep an eye open as they are starting to find their way into shops all over the country.

Tomorrow sees the Polkadoodles challenge so pop back to see oodles of inspiration from all the lovely talented DT ladies.

I'm off now to check out the new items section of the Polkadoodles site, I spotted some cool masks while I was sorting the links. I'm doomed, there's no way I'll hold my resolve lol

Week 21 - Doodled Edge/Border - Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Us!! WOOHOO!

Yes, it's our 3rd birthday this week here at Polkadoodles - oh my, where has the time gone? We're all very proud indeed that some of our original teamies are still with us creating inspiring makes for us all each week, and I have to say a special huge thanks to Enfys, Ruth and Lou for putting up with me for three whole years, you girls rock! (You do too Nikky!!) Of course, I love the WHOLE of my awesome Design Team and they are all uber talented as you all know only too well, so I'd also like to say a big thanks to everyone else on the team wherever they may be in the world for their help in making Polkadoodles and this challenge blog one of THE most inspirational on the planet!

So to celebrate our big milestone we're going to give some awesome blog candy away this week - our No 1 winner will receive blog candy worth £40 and our 2 runners up will both receive download bundles!...

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

1st place - Svit, 2nd place -Kezzy , 3rd place -NikkiByrne

Congratulations! please email Nikky for your prize and grab your blinkies from the sidebar of the blog - the first placed winner receives a download bundle choc full of goodies! 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 Mister Linky - 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 (Claire P) turn to host the challenge this week and as I do so love my doodling. Please include a doodled border or element in your project.

As it's our birthday we're adding an extra element to our challenge - this has to be a Birthday Card or project for us! Don't forget you have all that candy to win!!


Emma - Hello there, just joining Team A again for the lovely doodled edge challenge. I have used elements from the Sugar Plum Daisy CDROM again...... I just can't stop using this CD, I luuuuurve it so!!!! This little Bee is the BUZZ is he not? I failed on the stashbox stamp element but hey, when I have such a cute little fella like this to craft with, I forgot all about my other stamps.

Anne - I've used papers from the second edition of the Pen and Paper Circle mag and the little sentiment ticket is from the Pretty Tuff CD.

Lucy: This week I decided to go for some lovely bright colours. I used the backing papers from the Sugar Plum Daisy CD Rom and used matching Pro Markers & Flexi Markers to colour in the digi image. I doodled around the edge with a glue pen and then covered in glitter!

Caire P - Since it's my challenge this week I really had to join in with team A (I have recently moved over to B) I have used papers from a free Polka doodles set that came with a crafting magazine recently. Main image from Sundae of Seasons cd, fab fun ladybugs from Sugarplum Daisy cd as is the sentiment tag. With that all important finishing touch, a tad of doodling!

Enfys: A rustic garden sort of card from me this week, image ready coloured from Sundae of Seasons, with some extra blooms cut out and popped on. I added a burlap square, which frayed nicely, so I used a bit of the frayed stuff to make a string bow for the sentiment. Doodled around the edge of the card, and the circle of the image and I was done..... (I forgot about stashbox stamp week, but hey, with images like this, who cares!)

Lisa - 'The Crafting Owl'. Oooh as soon as I saw this challenge I knew it was right up my street! I've used an image from Sugar Plum Daisy and backing papers from Sundae of Seasons.

 

Doreen:  I've used an image from Sugar Plum Daisy and the backing papers is from Sundae of Seasons and Sugar Plum Daisy. I love to mix the paper.

Ruth:  I love this cute bear template from Paper Boutique Vol 3.  I used the A5 size, cut out all the elements and layered them up with foam pads.  The 'gift' is made with an offcut of card that I've doodled around the edge and added a ribbon bow and a die cut number 1

Fliss: I've used images from the Sugarplum Daisy CD and papers are a mix from there and the Pretty Sweet CD. My doodling was inspired by the leafy Martha Stewart punched border and I did a lot of layering for the final design of my creation.

Daniele, for my card I have used the sweet mouse image from The Sugar Plum Daisy Cd coloured in with Prisma pencils, I have doodled lines around the embossed background to create a frame.

Miria I made a quick easel card for a boy's birthday. I used coloured stampies, paper and sentiment from cd Pretty Tuff.  Easy peasy!

                                                                        
So there's your inspiration - some fantastic projects from the DT this week I think you'll agree! You have until Sunday 3 June at 12 noon GMT to enter the challenge, so just add your URL to the Linky below! Good Luck!

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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!