Party Day 3: Polkadoodles Day

Another party. Hope you are not all too exhausted and full of cake.......here's the sketch we used for this week's challenge over at Polkadoodles, with the added rule that we had to use red, white and blue

and here's what I came up with. I used Babsie, one of the fairy flutterby stamps, and papers printed from the Sundae of Seasons CD

Coloured with promarkers, I used blush and soft peach for her skin, crimson and dusky pink, denim blue and cobalt blue, caramel and cinnamon for her hair

So on to today's prizes, and what a lot of goodies I have here for you, donated by the very generous Nikky Hall, owner of Polkadoodles
The first prize is this fabulous fabric covered box with three layers, all ready to take those buttons and crafty bits and pieces. How fabulous would this look on your desk.
A brand new Sugar Birdies CD - collectors edition
A tube of doodle dewdrops
A swatch of fru fru ribbons






The second prize winner will get the Back to Nature CD and a swatch of fru fru ribbons







and the third winner will get the All Around and Everywhere CD



So what do you have to do?
Go over to the challenge blog HERE, click to follow the Polkadoodle Challenge blog (we love our doodly followers, and we have fairy spies to make sure this rule is followed :) and pick up a special party goodie that Nikky has made, just for you. Come back here and tell me what you picked up! The winners of the above prizes will be the 27th, 58th and 3rd persons to comply with the above rules and comment here, in that order BUT I am keeping the comments hidden (evil grin) so none of you will know where you are on the list until Sunday 23rd

Followers is a strange word isn't it? When I first mentioned followers to Mike he said
'Followers? Where are you leading them? Don't they know you have no sense of direction?'

See you tomorrow for another beautiful round of prizes

Don't forger you can win Promarkers on yesterday's post, and you have loads of time to make your bug card (Wednesday's post)

Party Day Two: Promarker Day

Welcome back to day 2 of the party. Today is all about ProMarkers, those wonderful alcohol markers that offer top quality at an affordable price. The photo above shows the new packaging, a blister case which doubles as a storage case and carrying case. There are two sets currently offered in this way.

Set 1

Walnut

Umber

Soft Peach

Primrose

Lemon

Arctic Blue

Cobalt Blue

Fuschia Pink

Cerise

Pale Pink

Almond

Sunkissed Pink

and set 2

Henna

Ruby

Bright Orange

Canary

Lime Green

Forest Green

Sky Blue

Indigo Blue

Amethyst

Rose Pink

Cool Grey 4

Black

Blender Pen

Now the brilliant news is that I have two of each of these sets to give away, donated by Letraset, two sets of set 1 and two sets of set 2. So four of you will get a chance to add to your ProMarker collection.

So what do you have to do?

In the card below, I coloured the girl with ProMarkers, using some of my favourite colours.

I used 2 colours for her skin, 2 for her hair, 2 for her sweater, and two for her jeans

hint: the skin colours are those I use all the time, look at the whole range of colours not just the new sets. The colours on the chart are very accurate......

Use the colour chart below to take a guess at what eight colours I used - there are no tricks, just straightforward colouring. I used a white pen to add a few highlights to her hair

For a close up view of the colour chart, click HERE

I am going to keep the comments hidden until the end of the contest on Saturday 22nd January - crafty me - so none of you will know how many comments there are, or anybody else's answers. I'll show you all the guesses on Sunday 23rd when the winners will be announced.Take a guess, the winners will be drawn from the correct answers, or if nobody gets it right, those with just one wrong answer. After that it will be a random draw. Go on, do join in, it's a great prize

I'll be back tomorrow with lots more goodies to give away

PARTY! Day one....

Welcome to my week long blog party, lots of fun, lots of games and lots of prizes to be won. I have arranged this to say a huge thank you to all my followers, and those who subscribe by email. I recently reached over 2,000 followers, and there are another 1,800 of you who get a daily email. In addition, 1/2 a million of you have been over here to visit me, so if that isn't a good enough reason to party, I don't know what is. Who needs birthdays to get in the party spirit? Not us.....

For those who get an email, you will need to come over here to join in the fun, at the bottom of your email is a link to Going Buggy, click on that and come on over

Each day will feature a new mini competition, and a new bunch of prizes. The comments for each competition will be kept open until midnight GMT (7:00 PM EST) on Saturday 22nd January. The winners (and there will be a lot of you!) will be announced on Sunday 23rd January. If you have a blog, PLEASE post this on there - a party is always better with lots of peeps

Right, let's party. I have chosen this little challenge first, so that you have a full ten days to join in. Let's look at the prizes for today first.......... if you are from Australia or elsewhere, choose which candy you would like to win :)

Two winners for this first day....................................

For America and Canada....

You will get:

A pack of Papermania UK paper, matching embellishments and tiny heart shaped spotty buttons

a pack of springy things - hard to find in the USA, these make your projects wobble!

2 packs of Polkadoodles flutterby fairies rubber stamps (Maggie and Gracie, my favourites!)

Popcorn the Bear rubber stamp set

Seven ProMarkers and rubber ProMarker holder
Cinnamon

Dusky Pink

Pastel Green

Pastel Pink

Ivory

Pastel Beige

Pastel Yellow

and for the UK and Europe:
Martha Stewart deep border punch Infinity
Martha Stewart tinsel glitter set - 12 colours
Martha Stewart glitter clean-up cloth
Cuttlebug Cut and Emboss die and embossing folder 'Birthday Wishes'





So how do you win?
I'm setting you to work, you are going to GO BUGGY
Make a card, for any occasion, any shape, any size, any technique, but it MUST have a bug on it - I am going to be generous and call butterflies, dragon flies, bees etc bugs. You have until Friday 21st January to enter your card

Post it on your blog or a forum, then use the Mr Linky below to enter your card. If you don't have a blog, put it into a (free) Flickr account, that will give you a URL to upload your photo here. Make sure you say in your blog post what country you live in.

Here's my card to start you off, made with the Boys will be Boys Cricut cartridge

Click on the photos below to visit the blogs and view the cards, leave a bit of love on the way - YOU are going to vote for your favourites later next week

I'll be back tomorrow with another competition and more prizes..........you could win something every day for a whole week

More Paper Boutique 3......

More samples from the fabulous new Paper Boutique 3, creative templates from Polkadoodles. For this one I used the robot - can robots be cute? I think this one is. The gears were cut from the Robotz cricut cartridge, and I typed the sentiment onto one of the labels on the Sundae of Seasons CD. The gingham paper is from that CD as well

Debra asked about printing digi paper and ink. Obviously you use some of your ink cartridge when you print, but as an example I have a HP C4200 series photosmart printer. I put in new cartridges last week, and printed off forty sheets of images and papers. My cartridges are still showing as half full.

Another query about colouring digi images with alcohol markers, and smearing. I have never had this problem, I guess it depends on the type of ink. If you do have a problem, dump clear embossing powder onto your image as soon as you print it - the ink stays wet enough for you to do that, then heat emboss it. I sometimes do that anyway, I like the effect of the embossed detail

Here's the hippo from the Cd, I added lots of blue raindrops for bubbles. Don't you love the sentiment that Nikky came up with. I love a play on words.......


I am very, very busy getting ready for a BIG blog party on here starting on Wednesday. There will be some fabulous prizes to be won, fun competitions every day for a week. Dig out your party clothes, blow up some balloons and get ready to party

Launch of Paper Boutique 3

Today saw the launch of the new Polkadoodles CD on Create and Craft TV here in the UK. This one is Paper Boutique 3 - full of the most gorgeous templates and papers. For those of you who are new to digi CD's, they are really easy to use, all you need is a computer and a printer. You can print the templates out in black and white to colour with your promarkers or copics or whatever, or print them out already coloured which makes short work of producing the most fabulous cards.

I am a bit of a Westie fan - I love these little white dogs, we used to own a dearly loved Westie ourselves. Here I just made up the dog and popped her onto a simple card...........

the Scottie dog was turned into a shaped card. The little tag around his neck reads 'sorry you're feeling ruff'. You can type any sentiment you want onto the tags on the CD, then print
Here's his back side. The sentiment inside reads 'hope you feel better soon'

and how about this for a card with a wow factor? It would make a great wedding card, done in white with a pair of lovebirds inside. I just used the ready coloured version. Yes, it was a lot of cutting around the struts, but they were clean and simple cuts, so didn't take too long...........

and here's the inside of the card. This one is huge. You have the choice of printing everything out in A4 (like this one) A5 or A6

If you are tempted, don't forget that Nikky does free shipping to anywhere in the world

These cards were made and parcelled up last week, ready for today's show, which is just as well, because yesterday, all the crafting gremlins in the world decided to pay me a visit.

You know the type of thing, carefully position an element onto a card with permanent adhesive, find out that you have stuck it on upside down....................... finish colouring a stamped image, drop it right into the middle of a black ink pad..........................cut carefully around a stamped image and CHOP right at the last snip, you cut right through a leg.............console yourself with a cup of coffee, oops, knock it over, how can one cup of coffee make a flood that looks as though a muddy Amazon river is flowing over your desk?

When that happens, there's nothing else for it, shut up shop for the day and watch a few soaps to numb the pain

Wedding Card

Here's a wedding card I made for Craftwork Cards. The shaped card base is one of theirs - their blank cards are lovely, such a good weight, this one is BIG - about 8"

All the papers, labels, flowers and sentiments are CWC as well. White is so appropriate for wedding cards, and I love making them. The label sentiment looks crooked in the photo, it isn't, just the angle that I photographed it.

The 'brads' in the centre of the flowers are card candy, little domes of silver cardstock you just stick on
We are looking after a friend's dog, he's quite an old chap now, but the sweetest dog. He is devoted to Mike and follows him everywhere. Mike was out last night, and Jake was really restless, he paced around the study, paced around the hall, paced around the kitchen. I gave him water, let him out...............still pacing. He came and paced as I was making a couple of cards, and eventually gave a great sigh and flopped down. Thank goodness, I thought, and carried on working. Then it popped into my head 'OMG what if he's dead!'. So I stamped my foot a few inches from his head, the poor thing leapt to his feet and resumed his pacing. When Mike came home Jake immediately flopped onto his bed and fell asleep - he obviously thought 'thank heavens I can relax now that the mad woman who always has a pair of scissors in her hand and stamps her feet isn't in charge of me...........

Explosion Box

Here's what I have been busy with this week, amongst a lot of other things. I had a commission to do an explosion box for a 30 year old. The top of the box wasn't finished when I took the photo, it now has the name, and black gems on the letters. There are lacey punched borders around the sides as well...

The boxes themselves don't take me long at all, but putting the photos in takes AGES............

I always make the first pages, the ones you see when the box flops open, to match each other. If you don't do this you get a bizarre sort of lopsided look to the box. After that, each page is treated as an entity in it's own right. Even if you no longer mat and layer photos on scrapbook pages, it still looks perfect for these little pages, and cropping the photos into circles or ovals still works as well.................

I had enough photos to put them on the back of the pages as well, which I always like, as it makes the box that much more substantial............


I always tie the colour scheme in with the papers I have chosen, in this case hot pink, acid green and black............

and I am always on the lookout for tiny embellishments to add to these boxes. I use a lot of tiny buttons, gems and those dress it up buttons that come in packs (I particularly love the crayon ones for children's boxes)

If anyone hasn't had a go at making one of these, scroll down to labels, there is a photo tutorial on there giving the measurements.

So I suddenly remembered that it is Twelfth Night tomorrow - in the UK, that is the day we traditionally take down our Christmas decorations. We live in a three storey house, and the decorations are kept in the attic. After lugging numerous boxes upstairs, I remembered why I was reluctant to decorate in the first place. Doesn't the house look bare when they come down? I will clean and polish and buy fresh flowers tomorrow and pretend that I am a perfect, instead of desperate, housewife for a whole day.

Happy Birthday......reprised

I very rarely duplicate cards, being of the 'done that, bored with it now, move on to the next thing' type of personality, but in the middle of doing commission cards, I was ferreting about in a drawer and found this almost completed card, made with papers from the Vintage Rose collection by Craftwork Cards. I have a vague recollection of deciding that I could make two cards just as quickly as one - that idea lasted about 5 minutes.

Anyway, all I needed to finish it was to cut a flourish using the Mothers Day seasonal cartridge. I picked this up somewhere for a ridiculous price. The good thing about Provocraft bringing out so many cartridges is that you can pick them up a lot more reasonably these days.

My cold is going, the snow has all gone, I am cracking on with stuff - life is getting back to normal (whatever normal is!)

Peacock Birthday

I used printed elements from the Back to Nature CD by Polkadoodles for this one. I simply chopped bits of the tailfeather papers up, mounted them onto pale lilac gemstone cardstock, and topped them with the peacock. I added shimmerz dots here and there for a bit of sparkle

Thank you for all the emails, I have had loads of new year messages, and get well wishes as well, you are such a kind bunch. I still feel pretty ropey actually, this cold is showing no signs of going away, so I am keeping warm and cozy. I have been crafting like crazy though, only it's all stuff I can't share with you yet - magazine stuff that has to be sent off this week. You will get to see them in time :)

I think I have broken about six resolutions already - how are you doing? I say 'think' because I really can't remember exactly what I resolved to do now. Perhaps it's just as well.

Apparently Max (3) has discovered the joys of being an older brother. Every time Milo (18 months) touches his toys, or does anything Max disapproves of, he says very sternly 'MILO, go to the naughty step at once'

The hilarious thing is that Milo trundles off to the naughty step and sits there until his parents rescue him!

See you tomorrow

A Happy New Year

No card today, just a warm wish to all of you for a very happy, healthy and creative year in 2011

I am still sniffling and sneezing my way around London. Yesterday I spent time with Kiki and Monty and we went to Toys R US to spend the Christmas gift money that was burning a hole in Kiki's pocket. As we drew up she said 'Carphone Warehouse is next door to Toys R Us Ma, that's very handy isn't it?'

'well yes, if you want to buy a new phone and some toys at the same time, it is very handy' I replied

'and a new car' she pointed out 'you could buy a new car, and a phone and some toys'

How on earth do you explain to a six year old that Carphone Warehouse doesn't actually sell cars.....................that's right, move on swiftly to the next subject.

Here they are, clambering in and out of a very pink princess playhouse at Toys R Us

New year resolutions? I always swing between making far too many totally unrealistic resolutions that are broken by the end of the first week in January, or thinking 'nah, I won't bother, I never keep them anyway'. This year I seem to be in a resolution making mood. As a lot of them involve housework in one way or another, I doubt they will even last a week. 'Oops' I will think as I clean the oven for the first time in the year (in April or thereabouts) 'I resolved to do this job every week this year'

HAPPY NEW YEAR, MAY ALL YOUR RESOLUTIONS BE REALISTIC

Oh dear....

I have fallen victim to one of the many bugs floating about the UK at the moment, and feel very sorry for myself. It's only a bad cold, not the flu thank goodness, but bad enough to make me feel rotten. So I am not firing on all cylinders this week, plus dashing back down to London for another visit. I long for a bit of peace and quiet to get back to a crafty day in my cupboard!

In the meantime, here's a card I made for Craftwork Cards. I used their beautifully foiled papers, and some of the coordinating die-cut flowers. The silver 'brads' in the centre of the flowers are some of their clever card candy - little domes of cardstock that you stick on with a foam pad.

Whilst you are browsing their site, look out for their brand new CD called Inspiring Your Passion. It's packed full of inspiring projects from the design team (mine is a party wreath).

There is a big sale on over at Funky Hand at the moment. Pop over there to pick up a bargain

It took me 4 1/2 hours to do a journey that normally takes about 2 hours today(back down to London). Nightmare. It had all the elements that you dread. Sleet, fog and ice. When I called at a garage for petrol, and went to pay, a woman dashing past in a hurry bumped into me with some force. She would have found her way around a bit better if she had taken her wrap-around sunglasses off. Sunglasses? She would have been better equipped with ski goggles.

My favourite cards from each month in 2010

Here are my favourite cards from 2010 - favourites for various reasons. Some pleased me because I thought I hit on an original idea, some were technically challenging and turned out quite well, some, well, I just liked the end result.

January - for Papercraft Inspirations magazine

February - I LOVE shoe cards


March - I was pleased with the way this idea panned out



April - after buying the Robotz cartridge, I struggled to know what to do with it, but have since made a few variations of this card for boys

May - for a sketch challenge on Penny Black Saturday challenge site. I like the clean simplicity of this one

June - for Craftwork Cards

July - I made this with the Cricut cri-kit pens, from Scrappy-go-Lucky, and was really pleased how they 'drew' the image. I was then able to colour it in with my Promarkers, much easier than fiddling around with those tiny cuts and glue.....

August - I loved this one, done for Funky Hand

September - for some reason this Polkadoodles card is one of my favourites, it was simple to make, but I love the look of the glossy accent raindrops

October - I don't mess around with new techniques very often these days, but I got really messy and paint spattered doing this one with Rangers acrylic paint daubers.

November - Alex's advent calendar has to be one of my favourite makes EVER

December - and this one is my favourite Promarker card of the year

What do you think? Did I choose well?

Christmas was a whirl of eating, laughing, opening gifts, and most of all, playing with those adorable grandchildren of mine. We scattered food for the reindeer with Kiki, put a new hat onto Monty which made his eyes look like bright blue saucers, opened presents with Max and Milo.......it was all quite delightful. I hope yours was too.