Polka Doodles Challenge - Alter It!

Morning everyone, it's now time for this week's Polka Doodle challenge and the theme set by Ruth is Alter It! You can make whatever you like to recycle something and make it useful or decorative.
My DT project is made using a toiletries round box that I found lurking in my daughter's bin and decided was too good to put in the recycling bin. I've turned it into a gift/trinket box.
Here's the before:

And here it is, altered:

I've used the brand new Polka Doodles All Around & Everywhere CD which has the most gorgeous papers, embellishments and stampies plus some of those famous shaped elements.
Before covering the box, I rubbed Olive Green and Royal Purple StazOn ink around all the edges as they are slightly rounded and not easily covered. I then covered the box sides and lid with some of the beautiful white swirl papers in lilac and green.
I then made a large flower decoration for the top using some of the stacking flowers and used Nikky's fab scrunching technique (just screwing them up! lol) and then built them up to make a cabbage rose type flower.
I printed out the uncoloured butterfly digital stamp and coloured it with Promarkers. I then sponged on embossing ink and embossed the butterfly with crystal embossing powder for a sparkly look.
The other DT members have made some fabulous altered projects so don't forget to have a look. You have until 12 noon on Sunday 9 May to upload your creations and I'm looking forward to seeing them.
Finally, I'm entering my box in the following challenges:
A Spoon Full of Sugar - 3D something
Cupcake Craft Challenges - Don't Be Square!
Digital Tuesday Challenge - Anything But A Card
Pollycraft Monday Challenge - Make Your Own Flowers

AiFactory Challenge 34 - Buttons

It's Thursday again so it's time for the next challenge over at AiFactory and this weeks' theme is to use buttons on your creation.
The Design Team were given some lovely images to play with by Mia, the gorgeous and cute Baby Pram digital stamp and the Baby Line Set.

 I was asked to make something with the sweet pram image and decided to go for an easel shape card again and here's what I made

I made the easel shape with cream card and rounded off all the corners. I added a patchwork pattern of little squares of Basic Grey Lemonade paper as I wanted a slightly stronger pastel combination. I repeated the squares across the base.
I added a plain piece of paper at the top, embossed with the Cuttlebug Kimmy Luvs folder in the centre. I glued 3 heart buttons on each side. I printed out the pram image and coloured it with Promarkers. I cut it out and adhered with foam tape.
To finish, I added some ribbon, a flower stopper and a stamped sentiment.
My term on the AiFactory DT has now come to an end and I want to say what a real pleasure it has been working with such lovely images and with such lovely creative ladies.
Don't forget to check out the other DT creations and the prize is your choice of the above images.
Finally, I'm entering this card in the challenge over at Dutch Dare Card Challenges with the theme of an Easel Card with a Repeat Something - my buttons and the patchwork squares.

Audrey Tent Card

Hello everyone, hoping you've got a lovely warm, sunny day too as it's been beautiful here today.
I have a card to share with you in shape that's totally new to me but I'll be making more as it's quite easy and looks really different. It's called a tent card and I found the instructions for this on the Inspirational Tips and Techniques blog whilst searching for a different card shape for a class I taught yesterday. The tutorial is by the ever inventive Debbie Dolphin and the site is definitely worth a look if you haven't seen it before.

You'll find the instructions on the blog link above. I made the card from some lovely double sided 12 x 12 paper from a pack called Touch of Teal by Papermania. I used the largest Nestabilities Blossom die to cut the shape from the card front and then attached a cut out image of Audrey by B Line Designs to the flower shape. I added black paper trimmed using the Martha Stewart daisy border to the top and bottom of the card and a white daisy repeat trim for contrast. I finished off with a stamped Hero Arts sentiment LL662 Small Greetings cut out with the Nestabilities set and inked a little.
I'm entering the card in the following challenges whose themes it fits:
Creative Craft Challenges - Bloomin' Marvellous-flowers (see OSAAT list)
Papertake Weekly - Do Something Different (my card shape)
One Stitch At A Time - Flowers (backing paper, borders, trim, central shape)

Mermaid Mixed Media Art

We've had a lovely sunny day down here in the South so I hope you've all had one too and are having a lovely weekend.
I have a piece of artwork to share that came about by one of my frequent serendipity moments. The piece has been made with the lovely mermaid digital image from Dezinaworld's weekly challenge run by the lovely June.
I'd been thinking about a suitable background for the mermaid for several days and yesterday managed to find a little spare time to experiment with some acrylic inks. I dripped the inks on to wet watercolour paper and then sprayed with some more water to make the colours move more. I put too much water on one piece and dropped on a paper towel to absorb the excess but when I pulled it off I found serendipity had struck as the paper towel looked lovely, the colour really brought out the texture. I sprayed it with Cosmic Shimmer colours of Ancient Copper and Golden Mint with a touch of Twilight Glimmer Mist.

I attached the paper towel to a piece of mount board with glue and tore off the excess round the edges. Using Diamond Glaze, I glued on some Mica Gold Flakes, Antique Bronze chips and an assortment of flower shaped sequins and some seed beads.
I printed out the mermaid and coloured her in part with Promarkers. I then painted her tail and hair with Twinkling H20 paints, just dotting the paint on her tail to get a scaly effect. I cut her out and ran the edge of a grey marker all around to make the image stand out. I glued her to the panel with foam tape and glue as I find this makes sure that anything attached stays put!
Finally, I had some really good news this week as I found out that the card I entered in Gingersnap Creations Copper, Ginger or Rust challenge has been picked as one of the Ginger Gems.  If you'd like to see the card, click here.

Polka Doodles Monochrome Challenge

Well it's Friday again and how the last week has flown by! It's time for the next challenge at Polka Doodles and this week has been set by Nettie. She would like you to use Monchrome on your creations as in lots of shades of just one colour.
The brand new Polka Doodles CD, All Around & Everywhere is having it's debut on Create & Craft today at 10am with Nikky so if you're able do take a look. The Design Team have all been madly making samples for this and the elements on the CD are awesome.
I've chosen to use purple for my card and there are quite a few papers and embellishments that are in shades of this colour, one of my favourites. I made an easel card as I wanted to squeeze as many things as possible on.

I chose the beautiful dandelion paper for the background here as I just adore this (it comes in several mouth watering shades and there's one with clocks on too!). I've used Bevvieboo, one of the adorable new Fairy Flutterby acrylic stamp sets. These are really clever as the wings are separate and can be used to make a very pretty butterfly on their own. Each set also includes flowers, a greeting and a little extra something.
I coloured the fairy using Promarkers (Lilac, Orchid, Purple, Aubergine and Amethyst) and matted her on a piece of polka dot paper cut with a Nestabilities oval scalloped die. I added another mat of purple Bazzill card in an oval shape and a border punched with the Martha Stewart double dot scallop.
I printed out one of the pretty gingham stacking flower sheets and layered some up to make the flower embellishment. I curled the petals upwards for a 3D look. I added a further strip of paper trimmed with the Martha Stewart punch on the base and glued on a butterfly by Dress It Up as the stop.
I finshed off with one of the lovely label shape gingham trimmed greetings and some purple gems.
You have until 12 noon on Sunday 2 May to upload your creations and don't forget to take a look at all the other DT projects as there's some great inspiration there.
Finally, I'm entering this card in the new challenge over at Sew Many Challenges with the theme of Anything Goes.

AiFactory Challenge 33 - Anything But A Card

Hope everyone is well. It's time for the next challenge over at AiFactory and the theme for this week is Anything But A Card.
The Design Team were given some of the lovely clip art to work with and I've been lucky enough to get to use the All the Yum Stuff set which is a brightly coloured set of cupcake circles which really are yummy looking.
As it's food related, I decided to make a shopping list hanger for the kitchen so my list is always to hand and will hopefully encourage my family to add things that we're running out of (notice I said hopefully lol!!!)

This is really quite simple to make as all I did was cut an A4 size piece of mount board and cover it with orange gingham paper. I then punched out the cupcake circles and put them on black paper mats made using a small scalloped circle Nestabilities set. I stuck these down each side of the board.
I made a slot with a piece of green gingham paper and slid the back of a pre-made shopping list pad in the slot. It was quite a tight fit and prevents the pad moving about. I added a black gingham ribbon hanger at the back.

Fanciful Flight

Hi all, hope you're having a lovely weekend and that it's sunny where you are too.
I had some fabulous news this week which cheered me up with all the other stuff going on at the moment. Guess who managed to win the Stamp Man's blog candy giveaway of the absolutely gorgeous Tim Holtz Alterations Fanciful Flight die - Yes, ME!!! It arrived yesterday whilst I was out at Kingston with my daughter and OH and managed to get some time to play today.
The challenge on this week's Sunday Stamper (yes, it's the last day today so I'm somewhat late entering this) is to use Silver on your project and I decided that as I'm using Tim Holtz things, I'd go for a tarnished look.

  I've used a 10cm square mini canvas board for this and sponged on green acrylic paint, then sprayed with various Glimmer Mists and Crafty Notions sprays. I then stamped on Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz collection U3-1159 (old wallpaper, I think) and embossed this with silver detail powder. I then made it a bit tarnished with a mix of black and red permanent inks.

I cut the butterfly pieces out of black card and stamped on the solid pieces with a script stamp and silver ink which I embossed with pearl red powder-this gives a good tarnished effect. I rubbed the upper wings with ink, embossed them with silver powder and again rubbed with red and black inks. I did the same with the body piece.
I added Magic Mesh to the canvas and rubbed this with the red and black inks plus some metallic silver Rub On. I finished off with some silver trim and glued the butterfly pieces on with foam tape and glue for dimension.

Polka Doodles Week 15 Challenge - Animal Magic

It's Friday again so it's time for the next Polka Doodles challenge and this week's theme has been chosen by Claire. She would like to see your creations with animals on.
I've gone very girly for my card as I couldn't resist the lovely Miss Kitty on the Back to Nature CD.

I made the background paper for the card using the gorgeous crown and chandelier embellishments from the Love and Cherish CD and altered the size slightly. I then dropped these into a Word document and copied and pasted until I had a whole sheet. I printed out the crowns on to white and pink card and the chandeliers on to pink. I then cut them up as you can see in the photo.
I coloured the kitty's nose and ears with a pink Promarker and then went round all the lines with a grey one to really make the image pop. I made her a crown by printing out one of the embellishments, cut it out and added pearls and bling. A computer generated sentiment finished off the card.
Don't forget to have a look at the other DT creations as there are some gorgeous things to be seen. The links are all on my side bar or you can hop over to the challenge blog to see them all in one place.
Hope you decide to enter and good luck!
Fliss xx

Daisy Fairy

Morning everyone, I have a card for you that I made with the beautiful Daisy Fairy image that you need to make something with if you want to take part in the Prairie Fairy DT call. As this image is so lovely, I felt I must have a go and her's what I came up with.

I wanted to steer clear of pink and decided to go for pretty blue and green this time. I printed the fairy out 4 times and coloured various parts to decoupage for a 3D look. I used Promarkers for the colouring and for her wings, I coloured them first, then sponged Versamark ink on top and embossed them with crystal powder for a lovely glittered effect.

Here's a close up as it's never easy to see glitter in photos.

I place the fairy on a mat with scalloped top and bottom edges and sponged ink round the edges for a soft effect. The paisley paper I used is by K & Co and I finished off with a central border cut from blue card using my new Martha Stewart Double Edge Doily Lace Trim punch (just fabulous and worth every penny!!!). I added pearls and flowers with a jewel to embellish.
Thanks for looking, Fliss xx

AiFactory Challenge 32 - Birthdays

Hello everyone! Hope you're having a better week than me. I took my daughter to the physiotherapist yesterday for her ongoing back problem and was horrified to be told when she came out that she has a partially slipped disc at the base of her back!!! Not good when you're only 19. Thankfully it can be sorted out with exercise and what she's done so far has helped a lot, although it will take another 6 weeks to completely right itself.
Anyway, enough of our troubles and on to this weeks' challenge at Aifactory which has the theme of Birthdays-an easy one as I'm sure everyone has loads of these to do. The design team were asked to use one of two sets of gorgeous images and I was assigned this one:

And here's what I made:

I decided that a circular shape showed off the jolly sun image at it's best and worked out how to make a circular easel card with the help of Debbie Dolphin's article in the latest Craft Stamper magazine. She actually made a card with a label shape Nestabilities set but I used the same principle with my trusty Creative Memories circle cutting set.
I printed out the sun twice and coloured them with Distress inks in Mustard Seed, Dried Marigold and Spiced Marmalade. The paper I used is by Die Cuts With A View (DCWV) and is the Blossoms and Butterflies paper stack. I used a combination of Nestabilities and my circle cutter to cut the mat shapes. The last brown layer was cut with small scallop scissors as I didn't have anything else large enough.
I added a flower shaped brad and a computer generated sentiment to finish.
I hope you decide to join in with this one and also look at the other DT creations as the other set used is the gorgeous Ella the Mermaid set and the prize is either this one or the Happy Nature set I used.
Good luck, Fliss x

Polka Doodles Wedding Challenge

Morning everyone, hope you're all well and have a bright and sunny day as we have here. Just as well too as I'm off to Ravensbourne Uni in Kent a bit later with my daughter Sarah for her last interview and rain would not be nice!
This week's challenge has been set by Kerry and is a wedding one as her niece is getting married today-another reason for a sunny day! Kerry asked us to use the Love and Cherish CD which is full of gorgeous love themed elements.

I chose to use the beautiful red heart and flourish collection as I'm sure you know how much I love flourishes.
My card is very simple to make as one of the papers has the images on the right side and you just print out and fold in half to make your card blank. I added on of the matching toppers on a red paper mat and printed out and cut up some more hearts for a 3D look. I finished off by adding pearls to the hearts and flowers.
Hope you decide to enter this Polka Doodles Challenge and you have until 12 noon on Sunday 18 April to upload your creations. Good luck!
Fliss x

AiFactory Challenge 31 - Mothers Day

Hello everyone, I'm back with the next challenge over at AiFactory after a very difficult couple of days. I somehow managed to scratch my left eye on Monday and didn't realise until the evening when I went to take out my contact lenses (I'm blind as a bat without lol) and found that half my left eye was bright red. The next morning you could see the scratch so I haven't been able to wear a contact lens in that eye and as you can imagine, it's made everything really difficult!!!
The challenge we have this week is to make a project with Mum in mind and the DT were given some really lovely images to work with:

 This is the one I was asked to make my project with and I also managed to sneak the one below in as well.

Here's the card I made with the images:

I made my own background paper for this using white opaque Stazon ink for the resist technique. The clear stamp set I used is Papermania PMA9071004 Floral. I stamped a solid flower at random with the white ink and let it dry. I sponged Dried Marigold and Spiced Marmalade Distress ink over the top and then stamped on an open flower with the darker orange ink.  I then stamped on another flower with Tea Dye Distress ink.
I printed out the Mothers Day image 4 times and coloured various elements to build up my decoupage image. I assembled the pieces with foam tape and double sided tape. I printed out the flower 4 times and coloured this in a similar way to build up my 3D flower.
I sponged blue ink around the edges of the main panel and stuck this on a mat of deeper turquoise. I assembled the card with a piece of doyley on one side and some buttons tied with thread.
I'm also entering my card in the following challenges:
One Stitch At A Time - Anything Goes
Cupcake Craft Challenge - Make Your Own Flower
The Pink Elephant Challenge - Nature
Pollycraft Challenges - Anything Goes
CRAFT Challenge - Buttons

Thanks for looking,
Fliss x

Fairy Queen

Back with another post at last after several busy days sorting out family things and my younger daughter with her ongoing back problem.
I've finally finished my Ready Steady Stamp challenge artwork after starting it and having to stop due to the above problems and found that it also fits the theme of the very first Sir Stampalot challenge which is Fantasy. Here's the Ready Steady Stamp recipe:

I've made a piece of wall art using a set of stamps which I've had for a couple of months and have been itching to use.

The stamp set is by The Queen's Ink and from the Paper Relics range. It's called Flight Ref PR-012 and is available from The Stamp Attic.
I stamped all the elements with black Memento ink and coloured them with various Promarkers. I then cut them all out.
I covered a frame mount with pink and brown paper by Papermania (the Red Hot capsule collection) and covered a piece of mountboard with paper from the Green capsule collection. I painted a piece of corrugated packaging with dusty rose acrylic paint and assembled the panel with this behind the frame.
I added the fairy as shown and decorated her with pearls and gems. I punched a border with a Martha Stewart punch and another piece of pink paper then punched out some green paper hearts and stuck these elements on the left hand side with buttons for embellishments.
I finished off with some Prima leaves and flowers and generated the Queen of Hearts text on the computer and coloured with a Promarker.
I've been a bit cunning with the numbers on this piece and if you look closely you'll see they're on the Fly text panel.
Thanks for looking.
Fliss x

Polka Doodles Week 13 Challenge - Birthday

Morning everyone and a very Happy Easter to you all!
This week at Polka Doodles we're helping Ruth to celebrate her birthday and for her challenge she would like to see your birthday creations.  You can enter anything you like, in any colour you like as long as it's for a birthday and knowing how many of those we all have to make (says she who hasn't yet made her brother in law's card for his birthday today!), I'm sure you can find the time to enter this week.
My card for the challenge was made with Ruth in mind and I hope she likes flowers because I've gone wildly floral in the hope that Spring will finally decide to stay after months of cold weather.

I chose to make a large easel style card and there are several photos so that you can see all the detail clearly.
I've used the gorgeous Floral Bouquet decoupage sheet from the Paper Boutique CD and cut out and layered up the vase pieces and lots of flowers for a 3D effect. The good thing about Nikky's decoupage elements is that you can add as many layers as you like so if you're short on time,  you don't have to use as many layers but still get a stunning look. I actually cut my pieces out yesterday whilst sitting in the physiotherapist's waiting room yesterday waiting for my daughter who's done her back in, much to the amusement and interest of several people who came in whilst I was there!
I embossed one side of the front panel of my card using a Sissix embossing folder and fixed the vase to this. I then made some decorated paper using the Polka Doodles Daisy Doodles stamp set and to show you how easy it is to do this, read on for a short tutorial:

Hope you can see these well enough, but you can click on the photo for a closer look. Here's what you do:
Step 1 - Choose one of the smaller solid flowers and stamp at random but leaving quite big spaces in between. I used VersaColor lime ink. On my card, I stamped on lemon card for a warm look.
Step 2 - Choose an open flower and stamp in between your lime flowers-I used VersaColor sky blue.
Step 3 - Take a larger solid flower and stamp at random, overlapping some of the previously stamped flowers. I used VersaColor lilac for this.
Step 4 - The finishing touch to draw it all together. I stamped the flourish flower in Memento lilac posies dye ink. You have to go with the flow here and carry on until it looks balanced.
It really is that easy.

To finish my card, I added a panel of the paper to the card front and a strip to the base. I added a greeting typed into one of the editable embellishments and some velvet and striped ribbon. I used a flower shaped brad to prop up the card front.

So it's over to you now and you have until 12 noon on Sunday 11 April to link up your creations.
Good luck!

AiFactory Challenge 30 - ANYTHING GOES!

Morning everyone, it's time for the next challenge at AiFactory and this week's theme is Anything Goes! So let's see all your creations as you can enter any kind of project you like.
Mia challenged the Design Team to make something with this beautiful set of Clip Art with a flourish theme.  The lucky winner will receive this as the prize.
I'm also pleased to say that we're back with the old challenge blog this week as a lot of people found the new one a bit confusing. So if you click on the link above, you'll be transported to a much more familiar place!

Here's what I made with some of the images. I used a sketch by Doodle Palace for the card.

I printed a flourish in the top right hand corner of some polka dot paper for the background.
I manipulated and resized the border image to make the border strips and the frame. I printed these out on white parchment paper and coloured them with VersaColor inks in lilac, mint and sky blue.
The lovely image I used is actually holding a heart but I got a bit creative and turned the heart into a box of chocs with a black Sharpie fine pen. I printed out another image and coloured her with Promarkers, cut her out and added just the chocolate box and arms cut out from the first image to give a 3D effect.
I put the image on a square mat embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder. I then cut some Easter egg shapes from some of my experimental paper scraps which I printed out when working out which papers to use for my card. I coloured these with inks and embossed them using Crystal embossing powder.
I assembled the card as shown, adding a computer generated sentiment cut to an oval shape and Prima pastel flowers with pearl centres.

I'm entering my card into the following challenges:
Digital Tuesday - Scrap It! using paper scraps for  embellishments (my Easter eggs)
Papertake Weekly - Open Theme
Crafty Cardmakers - Spring
Cupcake Craft Challenges - Spring or Easter and Chocolate (colour or edible)
The Pink Elephant - Pastel Colour Theme
DareU2DigiStamp - Easter
Paper Cutz - Easter but no bunnies or chicks
Stampin For The Weekend - Easter
For Fun Challenges - Anything Goes as long as it's family friendly
Crafty Creations - Anything Goes
Stampin' Royalty - Easter
Creative Craft Challenges -  Eggstatic Easter

I hope you'll all have a go at the AiFactory challenge this week as it's the easiest ever and you have until 11pm next Wednesday evening (7 April) to upload your creations.