Polka Doodles is 3 And We're Celebrating in Style

Morning! Well the day has finally arrived and it's now time to party! Polka Doodles is 3 years old today and to celebrate Nikky has organised a huge birthday bash with lots of fabby prizes. Now when I say lots, I means LOTS!!!! There's a total of £220 in prizes to be won, with the top prize being approximately £160 in value. Sounds fab huh? Well you could be the lucky recipient of one of these prizes simply by making a special birthday card for us. All you have to do is make a special card with three of something on it (it could be three different papers, 3 flowers or in my case 3 candles). Every single Polka Doodles teamie has made a card to celebrate, so there's plenty of inspiration over on the challenge blog. Here's mine, a pop up card (excuse the dodgy photo - It was such a big card it was almost impossible to photograph, so I've played with it in my graphics programme, but I think a little more practice is required :D)

So, what are you waiting for? Grab your stash and get creating!

Claire xxx


Materials
Images - Sundae of Seasons
Papers & Sentiment - Sugarplum Daisy
Promarkers & Flexmarkers
Stickles
Glossy Accents

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Make It Monday - Anything goes
Bunny Zoe's - Anything Goes
The Crazy Challenge - 3D
Joanna Sheen Challenge Blog - Happy Birthday
One Stitch At A Time - Anything goes
Paper Sundaes - Pretty in pink
Crazy 4 Challenges - Birthdays
Inspire Me Fridays - Anything goes
Divas By Design - Pink
I ♥ PROMARKERS - Anything Goes
Paper Shelter - Birthday cards with sentiment
Whimsy Stamps - Anything goes
Tuesday Throwdown - 3D

Are you free on the 22nd May?????

I jolly well hope so!!! Make a date in your diaries ladies and gents, and get ready to party.........

Polka Doodles is gonna be 3 years old on Tuesday, and guess what? We're having a celebration, it won't be any old party either, cos when we celebrate we do it in style! How does £220 worth of prizes sound? Good? Thought so! So to be in with a chance of grabbing some stash, come back here on Tuesday and find out how.

I'm off to finish a top secret project which will be revealed in June ;D

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Claire xxx

Something Old, New, Borrowed & Blue!!!

Morning! It's challenge week again for team B over at Polka Doodles and just in case you hadn't guessed it the theme this week is Weddings.

I decided that I fancied making an exploding box as they always seem to go down well with the recipients and as I had someone to make it for it would so totally be worth the effort involved! So that's what I've done! The old is of course the tried and tested exploding box, the new was my Labels One Nesties and the addition of clothes to the owls, the borrowed was the mini heart punch (courtesy of my lovely friend Maz who for some reason chooses not to blog??!!) and the blue is of course evident in my colour scheming! So here it is:

The gorgeous polkadot paper is from Candy Doodles Collectors Edition CD. The Heart & Button are from the Sundae of Seasons CD and the owls are from the Sugar Birdies Special Collectors Edition CD. I've drawn a jacket and top hat for the male owl and a veil for the female owl to make them look like a married couple. I free-hand cut the horseshoe.

The arch is made from card covered acetate which has been embossed.

The little frame on the front was from Poundland and I've just given it a coat of acrylic paint and brushed it lightly with Distress Ink. The back of the frame has been glued onto the box and the frame simply clips on and off. Needless to say I will be in search of more these as I think they'll be really useful!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Claire xxx

Materials
Candy Doodles Collectors Edition
Sundae of Seasons
Sugar Birdies Special Collectors Edition
Labels One Nestabilities
Sizzix - Blonde De Monde Alpha
Sizzix - Burlap and Swirls Embossing Folder
Stickles
Glossy Accents
Gems

I'd like to enter this box into the following challenges:
I ♥ PROMARKERS- Anything Goes
Just Keep on Creating - Anything Goes
Truly Scrumptious - Anything Goes
Whimsy Stamps Inspirations Challenge - Anything Goes
Sassy Cheryl's - Anything but a square card
fashionista challenge - Weddings
make it monday - anything goes
Simon Says stamp & show - anything goes
stamp with fun - weddings
catch the bug - things with wings
crafty emma - anything goes

A Vintage Card And The Freezer Paper Technique!!!

I'm not gonna say good morning cos it's been raining all week, I've got a bad dose of "man flu" and both my washing machine and microwave have packed up - so to be honest there's nothing particularly "good" about this week! So I'll just stick to "Morning" if it's all the same to you....

Anyway, it's challenge time over at Delicious Doodles and this week it's "Try a new technique". Now normally I love challenges like this, but for some reason I really struggled this week and the best I could come up with was the "Freezer Paper Technique".  Now I know that you can buy inkjet fabric to put through the printer, but it is sooo expensive although not as expensive as new printer if this technique goes pear shaped! So I figured I'd give it go and I'm kinda glad I did.

I started by roughly colouring the image Daisies & Butterflies with Promarkers. I then placed the fabric backed freezer paper into my printer, said a little prayer and hit the copy button. To my amazement it worked!

Once I'd got over the shock of something going right this week, I quickly cut out a  mask and then used a script stamp to create the background. The edges have been gently sponged with Distress Ink. I then ironed the fabric again to set the inks.

I couldn't make something with no glitter or sparkle, so I used a quickie glue pen and some Glamour Dust on the wings of the butterflies and then added a little Glossy Accents to the centre of the flowers. Oh and note lovers of Webster's Pages - I've finally cut into one of mine ;D

I'm not sure this technique would do your printer the world of good if used on a regular basis, but for the occasional project it would be great!

I hope that you'll join us this week - it doesn't matter if it goes wrong, we still want to see it! If you're stuck for inspiration then pop over to the challenge blog as the girls have totally rocked this challenge and come up with some fab techniques.

Thanks for stopping by today, hopefully I'll not be Mrs Grouch for much longer!!! Have a fab weekend

Claire xxx

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Going Buggy - Things with wings
The Paper Shelter - Anything goes
Anything Goes - Things with wings
Creative Craft Challenges - Anything Goes
LEJ Designs - Things with wings
Sassy Cheryl's - A Stitch In Time
Creative Mondays - Anything Goes
Great Impressions - Anything Goes
Pan Pastel - Anything Goes
Creatalicious Challenges - Butterflies and Flowers
So Artful Challenges - Butterflies, turquoise, yellow, orange
Speedy & Friends - Use 3 of something

Polka Doodles Challenge - Vintage Box

Well have you got your copy of Pen & Paper Circle Issue 2?? If you have, you may have spotted my Vintage Box on the front cover and detailed "how to" instructions inside. I've had a quick flick through and have to say there are some awesome projects from the DT included in it.

I've been really busy with various projects lately (this being one of them) and simply ran out of time to make anything for this weeks challenge over at Polka Doodles which is DISTRESS. So I'm afraid I've cheated a little and used this project for my DT sample. These are a couple of pictures of the box taken before it was sent off for publication never to be seen again - cos Nikky has pinched it!!!! LOL  :0)

Here it is on the cover of the magazine which unfortunately has sold out. The good news is though that Issue 3 of the magazine has just gone on pre-order and includes the gorgeous stamps shown in the picture below. Remember this is a limited release and you only have until the 15th May to place your order.

If you did get the magazine and are inspired to make the box, please let me know as I'd love to see your take on it.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a fantastic weekend.

Claire xxx

I would like to enter this box into the following challenges:
Digi Doodles Shop's Best - Anything goes
Do You Stack Up - Circles
Paper Crafting Journey - Vintage
Sassy Studio Designs - You've been framed
My Mum's Craft Shop - Embossing
Truly Scrumptious - Distressing Die cuts/ Punches
Whimsy Stamps - Spots and dots
Anything goes - Things with wings
Craft Room - Embossing
LEJ Designs - Anything goes
Papertake Weekly - Anything goes
Top Tip Tuesday - Anything but a card
Creative Mondays - Anything goes
Lollipop Crafts - Anything goes
Make it Monday - Anything goes

Baby Feet Box Frame

Just a quickie from me today - the rain has finally stopped, so me and the kids are off out to play!

I made this little box frame ages ago for the Crafty Ribbons baby challenge. It was one of those rare things that I was actually really pleased with and quite reluctant to let go! I think it would make a gorgeous little gift to hang in a newborn's nursery.

This was another fast and easy make. I drew the feet and cut them out before shaping them with an embossing tool and mounting directly into the frame. I'm not sure whether my photo shows the dimension, so here's another picture that attempts to show the dimension.

Right I'm off before the rain starts again!

Claire xxx

Materials:

Ribbons - Crafty Ribbons

Papers - Candy Doodles Collectors Edition

Button Die Cuts - Memory Box

Glossy Accents

I'd like to enter this project into the following challenges:

Come & Get It - Anything but a card

Craft Your Days Away - Just for children

Crafty Catz - Anything Goes

Inspire me Fridays - Anything Goes

Poodles Parlour - Anything Goes

4 Crafty Chicks - No stamping

Crafting For All Seasons - Anything but a card

Divas By Design - Buttons & Bows

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

Bearly Mine Challenges - Baby Days

Top Tip Tuesday - Anything but a card

Bunny Zoes - Ribbon or Twine

Shoulda Gone To Spec Savers!!!

Morning! Time for another challenge over at Delicious Doodles. This week were playing BINGO and boy did I have fun and games with this card!!! Firstly I  printed the image out slightly larger than I normally would which meant that I struggled to fit it onto my normal sized card. That was fairly easily resolved by cutting her out and putting her directly onto one of the layers. However, something that couldn't so easily be resolved was my major boo boo with the faux stitching - LOL :/  Have you spotted it yet? Nooo then maybe we should book a group session at Specsavers - LOL!!! I only went and used a blue gel pen for the stitching! Now in my defense, it was late at night and I don't have access to one of those daylight lamps and my gel pens are all tossed in a box and look very similar, so it was an easy mistake to make! :D Some how me thinks I'm seriously over due an eye test!

Anyway, here's the card - with blue stitching in tact (I might try dry brushing some acrylic paint over it to bring the colour down and just hope that whoever the unlucky recipient is thinks it's part of the design!).

Well that's it from me today - I've gotta save me eyesight dontcha know!

Have a fab weekend

Claire x

Materials
Image - Delicious Doodles
Die - Cheery Lynn
Sentiment & Postage Stamp Die - Whimsey Stamps
Ribbon and Buttons- Crafty Ribbons
Fluffy Stuff - Carole's Crafts
Flowers & Gems - from stash

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Crafts & Me - Embossing
Divas By Design - Buttons & Bows
Little Darlings - Flowers
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
Truly Scrumptious - Distressing, Die Cuts & Punches
Whimsy Stamps - Distressing
Deep Ocean - Punches/Dies