Polkadoodles Autumn

The challenge over at Polkadoodles this week is

Autumn

here's mine....quite simple this week. The cardstock looks greyish in the photo, but it's very subtle shades of taupe. I cut the scallops with nesties, the acorn spray was printed out from the Sundae of Seasons CD and cut out....

the sentiment was printed out, I added a real button threaded with cotton to go with the two little printed ones..............
and covered the acorns with glossy accents for a bit of shine

You have a week to take part in the challenge and as usual there are three winners every week

Do pop over to Craftwork Cards, they are having a fabulous contest, tell them your favourite ribbon tips and tricks, and the winner will receive hundreds of metres of ribbon - a metre of each of the ribbons they sell. I have some of the ribbons, and they are yummy, lovely narrow grosgrain in scrumptious colours, lush satins, delicate organza - a ribbon lovers dream. So put your thinking caps on and come up with a top tip

I'm a cover girl!

Here's the cover for the latest edition of Papercraft Inspirations, on sale today in the UK. See the main card? The jolly little santa? Well, that's MINE! I am ridiculously excited to be the main designer on the cover............be sure to look for it in the shops.

Here's a fabric card, I haven't made one of those for a while. I have had this Oriental fabric hanging around for ages, but this is the first time I've used it. The leaf round-the-page punch is by Martha Stewart, and the base card is gemstone from Jo-Anns
She's not exactly a raving beauty is she? Still, the whole effect is quite striking I think. The metal brad has a Asian type motif on it.

I am still working away at those videos.............I think I have one for every day next week, when my next blog candy starts on Tuesday 2nd November. Only one prize this time, but what a prize..................one of my faithful followers is going to be very happy with this

One cut two ways, and some WINNERS

First of all, thank you all for leaving your names for the fairy stamps draw. I used random.org and the numbers that came up were 48, 5, 42

That means that the fairy stamps go to

Pamela (smoochie grandma)

and

Rufus

and the CD goes to

Bev V

Congratulations to you all. Email me with your address and I will get them in the mail to you. If I haven't heard from you in seven days, I will draw another winner for that prize...

On to today's cards, that I made using the Country Life cartridge and my Cricut. I made these for Scrappy-go-Lucky, which is a one stop shop for all your cricut needs, and a whole lot more as well. Mandy, the owner, is in Australia, but they also have a online store in the USA and the UK. Be sure to check out the blog, there are always great projects on there, and a lot of information about all the latest products as well

I made this sunshine card first, used cheerful papers and added some button flowers with hand drawn stems, and doodled a bit around the edges. The hello stamp is a wood backed one from the dollar bin

and I liked the cut so much, I went on to make a 50th birthday card. I used all silver, grey and black for this one, and cut the rays off the sun to turn it into a moon. A good tip when you are making monochromatic cards is to use a lot of texture and separate the layers with foam pads to give dimension



I am still working hard on my videos, what a palaver it is. I seem to end up with a lot of fascinating shots of the ceiling or my feet. It is all tied up with the next giveaway, which will be starting next week, and one lucky person is going to be a very, very happy bunny with this one I promise you.
So what on earth am I videoing? Could it be anything to do with ink?
See you tomorrow

Fairy Giveaway

THIS POST WILL STAY AT THE TOP OF THE BLOG UNTIL SUNDAY 24TH OCTOBER, SCROLL DOWN FOR LATER POSTS

Another great blog giveaway for you this week. I just love these Fairy Flutterby stamps by Polkadoodles, they are so clever - the girl images and the wings are separate stamps, so you can use the wings as butterfly stamps if you want.

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post, which will stay at the top until next sunday, the 24th October. I will draw the winners at 12.00 p.m on that day. As usual I will mail to anywhere in the world. If you have a blog, it would be nice if you told your visitors about the giveaway.

Just to let you know, that if you love Polkadoodles products that shipping is free worldwide.

So I split this week's prize into three, so there will be three happy people on Sunday

First up is a set of three Fairy Flutterby stamps, Bevvieboo, Meeshelle and Babsie PLUS a bonus set of 14 unmounted sentiment stamps

Next we have another set of three Fairy Flutterby stamps, Maxine, Gracie and my favourite Maggie (she's the one with the glasses sitting on a toadstool). You will also get a set of sentiment stamps
and the next winner will get the fabulous CD, Back to Nature. Just look at that little owl, adorable.
If you haven't used Polkadoodles CD's you really are in for a treat. Anyone who is frightened at the idea of digi cardmaking need worry no more. Honestly, they are so easy to use, no complicated computer skills needed, you just click and print. You get loads of ready coloured images for quick cards, and have the option of printing them in black and white and colouring yourself, just like any stamped image. You get coordinating paper, and sweet little tags and labels - you can even type a personal greeting on the labels before you print them

So good luck to you all, just make sure I can identify you from your comment

On to today's card, of course, it should be a Fairy Flutterby card, but events have overtaken me and I have had a couple of projects I had to get finished that took up my crafting time. There will be a couple of fairy cards later in the week, I promise

So I used an Urban Belle stamp from Kanban, available from QVC in the UK. The border punch is a new deep punch from Martha Stewart, I punched two pieces and stuck a piece of red felt ric-rac in the middle. I found these really nice pom poms in Michaels, they have bits of glitter in them, so I used one of those for the hat, and all the white bits were glittered with glamour dust.
Sentiment is by Stampin Up





Promarkers used:
skin ivory, blush and soft peach
dress crimson and burgundy
belt warm grey 5 and black
hair caramel and tan
eyes pastel blue

That's it folks, I'm done for today, see you tomorrow

Happy New House

A card made with a Polkadoodles stamp today. I printed the paper from the All Around and Everywhere CD, this is the card I was making when I mislaid my punch - I was going to punch all around the page, but couldn't find the border punch. In the end, I was quite pleased with the way the punched corners looked when I backed them in white. The main image was coloured with promarkers, and cut out with nestabilities

I found that little beaded trim on clearance in Jo-Anns, I always haunt those ribbon aisles looking for bargains. The trim is made up of loads of little metal dots on a backing strip
and here is the inside of the card. I typed my own greeting onto one of the sentiment labels before cutting it out, and I used some scraps to pretty the inside of the card. The edges of the scallop card base were inked with one of the Promarker pinks - just run the wedge end around the card

Promarkers used:

pastel pink, dusky pink, cocktail pink, satin

apple green, lime zest and pear green

ice grey 1 to shadow

I will announce the winners of the Polkadoodle goodies tomorrow, see you then

Baby Challenge for Polkadoodles

It was my turn to set the challenge for the Polkadoodles challenge blog this week, and I chose the theme of

Babies

mainly because I am totally in love with this little baby image from the Sundae of Seasons CD

For my first card I took a plain gift bag and covered it with paper printed from the CD, added some Martha Stewart punched borders and replaced the handles with pink twill. The little gingham bow and button was a printed element as well, I punched holes in the paper button and threaded it with pink twine. I love that sentiment as well.....

I couldn't leave the little boys out, so I made this washing line card, again with elements from Sundae of Seasons. I added some little wooden clothes pegs, the washing line was hand drawn

If you love challenges, pop over to the blog and join in the fun. It's worth taking a look to see what fabulous designs the team have come up with this week

I'll be back tomorrow with my last Polkadoodle card for this week

Polkadoodles Friend Card

Here's another Polkadoodles card, everything was printed out using the Sundae of Seasons CD. The great thing as far as I am concerned, is that you don't have to fiddle around and resize anything, it's all done for you on the CD. I printed out the fence, flowers, backing paper and sentiment ribbon and cut around them.......

added some button and thread (I hate naked buttons!) centres to the flowers........

and the sentiment strip just needed to be cut out. So easy.....

Want to see more of this gorgeous little babe? Come back tomorrow......

I was searching today for a punch, I thought I had it here, but after a search I decided I must be mistaken and it is back home in the UK. So I finished the card without it, opened a drawer and there was the missing punch. How did that get there? I had searched that drawer. I need help to get organised. Anybody with exceptional organising skills is welcome to come and stay. Anyone who can teach me to make a card without half a ton of paper ending up on the floor, and glue and glitter all over my desk would be particularly welcome

Fairy Christmas

Here's a little Christmas card made with Sundae of Seasons, the newest CD from Polkadoodles. I love the images and papers on this CD, they have a country feel to them, which is a look I adore - I am a sucker for plaids. I printed everything I needed, the two papers, the little angel image and the sentiment tag. I wanted to colour in the image myself, although I had the option of printing her out already coloured.

The scallop circles are the scallop 2 cut from Lacy Labels cartridge, cut at 6". The base card is 6 x 6

I chose colours for her clothes that coordinated with the colours on the plaid paper. The wings are printed separate to the image, I left them uncoloured and ran them face down through the xyron x (the little machine) to get an even coating of glue, then sprinkled glitter on the wings before attaching with a foam pad
Do you like the buttons on the sentiment tag? Hard to believe they are not buttons at all, but printed onto the paper. They look so 3D

Promarkers used:
blush and soft peach for skin
pastel blue, powder blue and denim blue
scarlet
lime zest and apple green
hair primrose and buttercup
cool grey 4 & 5
I get a few comments about making Christmas cards early. I either make them so early for design team stuff, or to try out seasonal products I am sent. I was making Christmas cards in July for a magazine! Now that really is hard, difficult to get into the right mood when the sun is shining, the garden needs watering and people are talking about their summer holidays. Humming Jingle Bells works a bit I have discovered, the downside of that being that when you hear it piped around stores sometime in October, you are so sick of the tune that you could scream....


We went canoeing yesterday - it's a trip I love making when we are here in Florida. It was a glorious day, the river was dappled turquoise and aqua blue, pretty flowers grew wild on the banks, and all was well with the world - or at least it would have been if a large and lethal looking spider had not fallen from a tree right at my bare feet. My screams certainly shattered the tranquil air. The canoe rocked dangerously. I was in danger. My husband laughed so much he almost fell out of the canoe. I wished he would........................
The spider was dispatched with a quick blow from my flip flop. What a way to go
See you tomorrow

The Winners are........................................

Firstly, thank you all so much for throwing your name in the hat for the 'best of both worlds' blog candy. Those who didn't win, I am putting another couple of blog candy prizes that you won't want to miss on here tomorrow, wonderful goodies from Polkadoodles.............................

and at the end of the month, I have a prize that will make you all sit up. Someone will have a fabulous early Christmas present.... hint, it involves colouring. I may drop another hint later in the week

I went through the list, printed them all out, deleted any duplicates to be totally fair, and used random.org to pick the numbers. I took screenshots, but the flash bleached it all out.

So the two lucky winners are

from the UK

CHARITY CRAFTER (Leigh)

congrats Leigh, you will get the parcel of Martha Stewart goodies. Email me with your address

and the winner of all the Best of British goodies,

from the USA

SHARI (CRICUT ROOKIE)

Congrats Shari, email me with your address and I will send your parcel on it's way

If I don't hear from the winners before Saturday 23rd October, I will draw another name

So on to today's card. I used a Kanban stamp, from a clear set called 'the best of friends'

I decided to do a step-by-step for you on colouring a horse, as always I have to say I am no expert...........

Here is the finished card...
All colouring done with Promarkers

I stamped the image with memento tuxedo black ink onto Georgia Pacific cardstock from Walmart (office supply aisle)


_______________________________________

I coloured the lightest parts of the horse (imagining that the light is falling from the right)
with sandstone

____________________________________________

I coloured the rest of the horse body with cinnamon, then went over the whole of the coloured area with sandstone to blend the edges


______________________________________

I added Umber to the darkest areas - under the mane, around the ears, along the jawline, and blended it all by going over it again with sandstone



_________________________________________


I coloured the mane with vanilla,

___________________________________________
Then added shading to the mane with sandstone and tan - looks a mess at this stage doesn't it? The ink is still very wet, and the colours blend and fade as it dries.

________________________________________

and here is my finished horse. You see how the ink blends perfectly when it is dry. I added white pen (Signo) highlights to the eye and mane

I coloured the little rider in similar subtle shades, I always find that keeping a fairly tight colour palette when colouring an image looks far more effective in the end than multi colours to distract the eye. The fence was left uncoloured, I just added some grey shading with ice grey 2 to add definition to the planks of wood. The two greens I used were pear green, marsh green and just a touch of apple

Gosh, this has been a bit of a marathon post, I need to go and sit with a gin and tonic!

Take a peek on my sidebar, my boys got together with their families yesterday, here are the children having their tea. How I miss them.

See you tomorrow with details of how you can win the cutest stuff from Polkadoodles

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS BLOG CANDY

THIS POST WILL STAY AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE UNTIL SUNDAY 17TH OCTOBER - SCROLL DOWN FOR THIS WEEK'S POSTS

Time for some candy, I am doing my 'best of both worlds' again, offering you a chance to sample stuff that is brand new/hard to find in your part of the world.

All you have to do is leave your name, and country at the end of this post.

If you want to sign up to follow, that would be nice, but is not a requirement. All I ask is that if you have a blog, you mention the candy with a link back to here.

Email subscribers, click on the Going Buggy link at the end of your email which will bring you here to leave a comment.

First of all, for those of you from outside the UK:

A starter set of 12 Promarkers (thank you Letraset) (see my video on using PM's)

A Polkadoodles CD - All Around and Everywhere (thank you Nikky of Polkadoodles)

Some goodies from Craftwork Cards, beautiful foiled papers, matching sentiment buttons and card candy

'Roses' embossing folder - exclusive to Kars in the UK

A set of clear Christmas stamps by Papermania UK

and for my fellow Brits:

Two Martha Steward punches - one a border of little mice (think of this on a 'twas the night before Christmas card.......or those cute mice stamps....)

A Martha Stewart ribbon punch

A Martha Stewart hole punch (a fabulous little gadget, punch holes anywhere on your project, and all the different sizes are stored neatly in the handle)

Cuttlebug Cut and Emboss - Flowers

Two large bottles of Martha Stewart ultrafine glitter in Aqua and Silver

Martha Stewart fine tip black pen - perfect for doodling

Martha Stewart ribbon

Autumn Leaves Silver leaves

So there you go, good luck, don't forget to link back from your blog if you have one, and make sure that I can identify you if you win

I will use Random.org to draw the 2 winners next Sunday at midday EST

Oh no! I'm late.....

Here's what I have been up to - a very good friend was celebrating a special birthday with a party today, I asked her husband who had arranged it all if I could help set up the tables. What was the colour scheme?

Well bless him, he had been out and bought the bright birthday balloon tablecloths that aren't usually seen at a party past the age of six. Now my friend is an elegant and sophisticated woman, who would probably have chosen a scheme of hot pink and silver....... you get the picture. So I dashed out to get tissue paper and was still making dratted paper flowers at 2 a.m, I made about forty of the things, but it was worth it, we scattered groups of them around, and the tables looked great, really bright and funky. It was a super party, thank you Howard and Carol xx

I am a day late posting my Polkadoodles card for this week. We were asked to make something

SPOOKY

Before I get to my card, I can't tell you what fabulous stuff the design team have come up with for this challenge, creative bunch. Do go over and take a peek, and of course if you join in with the challenge, there are blinkies and a prize up for grabs each week

For my card, I sprayed the background white cardstock with some black krylon spray webbing, it gives a very random spooky effect, (and added a bit of a modern art feel to the red green and blue paint splashes already on my garage floor)

.......... whilst I waited for it to dry, I printed out elements from the autumn section of the Sundae of Seasons CD, available from Polkadoodles. I printed her out already coloured in, all I had to do was cut her out with the pumpkins and stick her on with foam pads.

I painted the pumpkins with Glossy Accents


the sentiment was printed out as well

I will draw the winner of the 'best of both worlds' blog candy tomorrow.... see you then

Sending Hugs.....

This sweet little image is an acrylic stamp by Kanban (UK). The papers are by Paper Pizzaz, and the sentiment is by Craftwork Cards

The border punches are EK Success, and the ribbon was a gift - I think it's from Michaels

I found the inverted scallop nestability on sale in Hobby Lobby, so of course I bought it - I would buy a used tea bag if it was on sale. I wasn't at all sure if I would use it, but now, I love it, you will be seeing it again I'm sure

Promarkers used:

Ivory, blush and pastel pink

blossom and pink carnation

primrose and buttercup

sandstone, burnt sienna and warm grey 5

Ice grey 1 to shadow


I am working on getting a few Promarker videos done, not that I am any sort of expert, but alcohol inks seem so confusing to a lot of people who are new to them, that I thought a few simple tips might be useful. Now to clear a space on my table so that I can squeeze the camera on. I often wonder how the people who take videos from above do it. Do they have a device like a miners helmet with the camera strapped to that? Do they have a film director type on hand to film over their shoulder? Do they strap a camera to a step ladder? It's a mystery to me. You will have to put up with my upside down or sideways angles.
See you tomorrow

Doily Card - Cindy Lou

Here's another of those doily cuts from the Cindy Lou cartridge. The borders are those wide martha punches, the doily was cut at 3 1/2" and the sentiment button is by Craftwork Cards. It looks quite a fancy card, but it was really quick and easy to make

You may have noticed a 'vote for us' logo from Promarkers at the top of the blog. Letraset have been nominated for an award, so if you love your promarkers, please click on the link and vote for them. It won't take long, and you get to see who else has been nominated as well.

I am up to my eyeballs in snowflakes here - working on a Christmas project that is taking forever and I am not totally sure that it is going to work out as planned. Hey ho, it's only paper.....

See you tomorrow

You're tea-riffic

Here's another gorgeous little image from Lili of the Valley. The cardstock looks blue in the photo, but is actually lilac.

I got the tiny roses online, but can't remember the link, sorry. The punch is EK Success, nested shapes by spellbinders, sentiment by Fiskars
Promarkers used@
blush, ivory, soft peach
Bluebell, lavender, orchid
pear green, marsh green
ice grey 1 & 3
caramel, tan

As a postscript, I had a lot of really hilarious emails sent to me yesterday from a number of blog friends, it seems that so many people have had very funny experiences attending funerals, or related events. I suppose it is a triumph of the human spirit that we can find humour in sad situations, and smile through tears. Thank you all so much for writing to me, you made my day, and your stories had me crying with laughter

Scaaaary...............

I made some cards using the new October 31st cartridge for Scrappy-Go-Lucky. This cartridge is not about cuddly little ghosts, it has a dark side that would be adored by teenagers. It's full of jagged edges, and scary images.

I used one of the borders for the jagged cut on the left, then cut the lantern at 6", and backed bits of it in orange cardstock. The sentiment is one of Studio G's halloweeen stamps from last year

To see the other cards I made, pop over to Scrappy-go-Lucky's blog

At last, I have a Dunkin experience to share with you, and yes, hand on heart this is exactly what happened. I was sitting in the sunshine when an elderly African-American woman, all dressed up, and carrying a walmart carrier bag, sat down at the next table. 'Hello honey' she said with a beaming smile. We started chatting, she was with her son and granddaughter.

'It's my husbands anniversary today' she announced

'oh, happy anniversary' I cried

'No, it's the anniversary of his passing' she said 'we always go to church then come here on his anniversary and birthday'

She unfurled the walmart bag to show me an ornate urn

'he normally lives in my china cabinet' she said chattily

Well, what could I say? How did I keep a straight face? What did I do?

I whipped out my notebook that I keep handy for when inspiration strikes me, and wrote a note to my kids, I will put it with my will!

Dear James, Edward and Alexandra

When I am no longer here, please don't carry me around in a walmart bag. Don't feel you have to buy me a coffee on my birthday, you never felt compelled to do that when I was alive, so don't feel you have to start now. I know that none of you own a china cabinet, please don't go out and buy one just for me

love

mum

Spookie Dookie

Here's a little feast of Halloweenie cards today, all done with the new download from Funky Hand, called Spookie Dookie. For only £3.49 ($5.40) you get 20 downloadable papers, plus toppers and sentiments. The beauty of downloadable papers is that you can mix and match, and make your own double sided paper for projects quickly and easily. Lots of inspiration over on the site from the design team. Go HERE for the download

These cards are what I call 'cuddly' halloween, come back tomorrow to see the spoooookier stuff I did for Scrappy-go-Lucky. You should head over to the blog NOW, there is a prize of $100au up for grabs to be spent in the SGL store, and it is so easy to enter

I am getting ready for my Best of Both Worlds blog candy giveaway, starting monday, you won't want to miss it