Polka Doodles Challenge - Stickers And Transfers

Hello everyone on a very blustery and rather wet Friday. Let's hope we'll have better weather over the weekend as this is not nice!
It's Friday so it's Polka Doodles day and this time our head doodler, Nikky, has come up with a rather different challenge. This came about because Letraset kindly sent all the Design Team samples of Safmat and Letratac to play with,
For those of you that haven't come across these amazing products before, Safmat is a self adhesive, printable film so that you can print out elements from CDs, digital elements or your own artwork and apply this to lots of media types such as glass and metal. Letratac is sheets of tiny glue dots for attaching all sorts of shapes to your projects really easily. I found it especially useful for my project as you will see.

I've turned a simple clear acrylic storage jar which I bought in Tescos into a stylish container for my collection of silk flowers which were previously stored in a biscuit tin, This one certainly looks much smarter on my shelf!
I printed out the text and some of the faux ribbon borders from the Sundae Of Seasons CD on to Safmat, together with some of the lovely gingham design paper from the brand new Magical Winter CD Set (I'll have a load of samples I made for Nikky to share with you soon).
I attached the gingham design and the ribbon borders to 3 sides of the jar and then attached the text to some blue polka dot paper. As you can see it gives a very different look to the text which would normally have a white background. I then cut this out with a Nestabilities die and added a mat of dark red polka dot paper. I repeated the shapes on the top of the jar. Both of the elements were attached using Letratac which gave a perfect finish when burnished with each element securely fixed in place.

You have until 12 noon on Sunday 17 July to enter and don't forget to look at the DT inspiration as there are some gorgeous and varied projects there. You can find Safmat and Letratac at the Letraset website HERE.

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Polka Doodles Sketch and Colour Challenge

Morning folks on this wet and windy Friday. We had yet more rain in the night and it really is weather for ducks at the moment.
I'm here today with the next Polka Doodles challenge which has been set by head doodler Nikky and as she really loves a sketch, she's come up with this one:

She also wants us to use only 3 colours with the sketch and I chose red, green and gold so you can probably guess which type of card I made - yup! I decided to make another Christmas card to add to my collection as I'm quite determined not to wait until December this year.

I chose the background papers from the Jingle Jangle CD as I just love the jazzy text papers on there. I made a mat for my green harlequin panel from gold leather texture card and stuck this to a square card covered in the text paper.
I the cute Polka Doodles angel in stocking in black Memento ink and coloured her with Promarkers in my colours. I cut her out and added her to the green panel with foam tape. I added embellishments made from the smallest holly sprays from the Wreath section of the Paper Boutique 2 Creative Christmas CD with a greeting from the Xmas Doodles stamp set.

Don't forget that there are now only a few days left to the fabulous Letraset competition to win an entire set of Aquamarkers. All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning this great set or a runner up prize is to show us your colouring skills using your favourite colouring medium - how easy is that! The competition runs until 31 August so don't delay if you still want to enter!

Polka Doodles Challenge - Vintage Style

Morning all, it's Friday again and I've just realised this is the first post since last week.  I think my mojo has gone for a holiday now as I've tried to do several things but haven't been happy enough with them.
This week's challenge over at Polka Doodles has been chosen by yours truly and looking at the theme, I'm sure you can guess why I picked it.  I wanted to show you all that you can do vintage style cards with the CDs and the stamps as I know there are loads of vintage fans out there.
Here's what I made:

I made my own backing paper for the card with the lovely floral flourish stamp from the Daisy Doodles stamp set.
For the pink paper, I stamped the flourish in Memento Sweet Plum and then sponged Distress inks in Scattered Straw, Wild Honey and Victorian Velvet over the top. I then stamped on a few more flourishes in Victorian Velvet.
I made the green paper in the same way using Scattered Straw, Crushed Olive and Peeled Paint Distress inks. I mounted this panel on a darker green mat made by sponging Peeled Paint ink just round the edges of the card and embossing with clear powder (Distress ink allows for this as it stays wet longer than conventional dye ink, part of the reason I love it so much as it blends so beautifully).
I made the flower by printing out some of the Housey, Housey text paper from the Back To Nature CD and then printing the digital Stacking Flowers and Rose Leaves stamps from the Love and Cherish CD on top. I then coloured the petals and leaves with Letraset Aquamarkers. I really love these as they have the most beautiful watercolour effect totally unlike conventional markers. I simply made streaks with 2 or 3 colours and blended them with a damp brush to give a lovely soft effect.
I then cut a circle with a Nestabilities Scalloped Circle die and coloured this with an Aquamarker and water brush. I embossed it with a Quickutz folder and then rubbed the side of the same Aquamarker round the edge for a distressed edge look.
I stuck the pink panel to a card blank and added the other elements as shown with a greeting from Back To Nature CD coloured with Aquamarkers and a domed sticker in the centre of the flower.
The Aquamarker challenge is running until 31 August so for a chance to win some of these unique markers, pop over to the Challenge Blog for details and another fab tutorial from Nikky plus details of her Create and Craft show on 22 August at 10am.

Finally, I'm entering my card in a couple of challenges:
Stampin' For The Weekend - Anything Goes
Stamp Something - Something Digi (my flowers and leaves)

Polka Doodles Challenge - Acetate or Vellum

Happy Friday everyone, it's Polka Doodles time again and this week's challenge is to use Acetate or Vellum on your creation. I was rather pleased to see this as I think it's something that doesn't get used nearly enough and really made the creative juices flow.
i chose to use vellum as I wanted a soft look for my card.

 I printed the pretty daisy paper from the Love and Cherish CD on to pale yellow vellum and cut out a square which I stuck to a cream square trimmed with deckle edged scissors. I put the tape just across the centre.
I stuck this panel to a peach card blank and then added a border of lemon card trimmed with a Martha Stewart punch on both edges and a central peach strip embossed with the Cuttlebug daisy folder.
I printed the beautiful lace butterfly from the All Around & Everywhere CD on to pale blue vellum and mint green card, cut these out and layered them together. I added peach pearls to the body.
As a finishing touch, I coloured one of the greeting panels from the Back To Nature CD with a lemon Promarker to match it to the card and put this on a mat of peach card trimmed with deckle scissors.

The Letraset Aquamarker competition is still ongoing so if you haven't yet had a look to see what's on offer, just pop over to the challenge blog for all the details. i also think there might be another fab tutorial from Nikky so it's definitely a must to take a look.

Polka Doodles Challenge and Competition News

Hi everybody, Friday again so the next Polka Doodles challenge is here but before I tell you about it I have some MEGA news from Nikky to pass on about a fab competition which has started today.
The great news is that Polka Doodles has teamed up with Letraset of Promarkers fame to host a competition with the MOST FABULOUS PRIZES imaginable. If you pop over to the Challenge Blog, Nikky will tell you more about it and I'm totally green cos I can't enter being on the DT.
Now, on to the Polka Doodles challenge this week the theme of which is CHRISTMAS IN JULY. I hope you're not groaning as it's a great way to get started on your cards especially if you're like me and leave it to 1 December then panic lol!
I was actually making Christmas cards in June because the latest CD, Paper Boutique Creative Christmas, actually came out last month.
Here's my card which is a tent shape:

I printed out 2 of the lovely snowflake papers from the CD on both sides of the paper. I then cut an oval out of one of the squares of decorated paper and turned this over to the contrast side.
I printed out the cute penguin digital images and cut out the size to fit the oval. I stuck him on with foam tape.
I sponged clear embossing ink on some of the darker snowflake paper and embossed it with crystal powder for some bling. I used a large and small snowflake punch to make some embellishments for the card. I added a greeting from the CD to finish.
You'll find the tent card instructions by Debbie Dolphin on the Inspirational Tips and Techniques blog - this is a really great site if you haven't yet seen it as it has loads of ideas with full instructions on how to make everything.
Don't forget to check out the challenge blog for those all important Letraset competition details as you really don't want to miss out.