Tumbling Leaves for Polkadoodles

Hello lovely peeps

It's challenge inspiration time at Polkadoodles today where the theme as always is 'Anything Goes' and the Design Team theme is 'Autumn Colours'

I love the colour of trees in the autumn so for my inspiration card I've stamped a few tumbling leaves using the poinsettia leaf from the new Festive Christmas Soup stamps. .

I used sticky notes for the masks this time and coloured in the leaves with diluted brushos

I added some sparkle with a clear glitter pen (Crafters Companion)

The sentiment was printed from the Daisydays CD straight onto some watercolour paper and I extended the twirly bits with a black fineliner pen.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-

Crafty Friends Challenge #42 autumn colours  
 The Crafty Addicts #26 AG/Autumn Colours
Open-Minded Challenges #10 Thanks/Thanksgiving

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

White Poinsettias for Polkadoodles

Hello lovely peeps

It's time for a new 'Anything Goes' challenge at Polkadoodles, with the optional theme of Christmas.
I was lucky enough to receive the gorgeous new Christmas stamps and co-ordinating CD which Nikky launched last Friday on Create and Craft, so I have used these for my inspiration card.

I was a bit stumped again this week on how to I was going to physically make my card. I wanted to combine a stamped poinsettia with one of the background papers from the CD, but I knew my hand/elbow wouldn't be up to cutting out the flowers for layering on top. Luckily, Pebeo drawing gum came to the rescue (more on that in a minute).

To start off, I dragged the turquoise snowflake paper into CraftArtist and sized it to 6"x6". I then brought in one of the lovely sentiments and converted it from black to white before splitting it into two halves and positioning it over the paper. I printed the project in black and white onto copy paper to make sure it was the right size for my card.

I laid the copy paper over the top of some watercolour card and drew some lines around where the blocks of text were, leaving slight indentations on the watercolour card underneath. Now that I knew where my poinsettias could go, I started stamping.

The set doesn't include a poinsettia flower, but you get three different leaf/petal shapes to 'build' your own. I used the largest leaf/petal first, stamping it onto the watercolour card with Dove Grey Stazon. Since the petals needed to overlap I needed to mask some of them off, and this is where the Pebeo Drawing Gum comes in.

After I had stamped each petal I painted the gum over the top and waited a few minutes for it to dry before doing the next one. Although this was quite time consuming it did give my elbow some much needed rest periods*.  Obviously, if your hands are up to it, it is a lot quicker to cut out masks from sticky notes.

* I am under strict instructions from my physiotherapist not to overdo it. Spoilsport ;D

 Once I'd finished building the flowers, I printed my backing paper and sentiment over the top of the watercolour card (I used 160gsm because my thicker watercolour card will not go through my printer).

Dab off any remaining printer ink from the masked flowers and then rub off the drawing gum.

I added some definition to my poinsettias by painting them with Spectrum Aqua markers
(Jasmine, Moss and Black)

I cut this down and glued it onto a 6"x6" card blank, and added a bit of sparkle with a Wink of Stella pen.

The centres are polystrene balls from my old beanbag which I glued on with Cosmic Shimmer.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
That's Crafty! Challenge Blog Christmas in September
Winter Wonderland two Dies and or Add some Sparkle
Addicted to Stamps and More #212 Make your mark
Inspiration Destination  #104 Always Anything Goes
Crafting from the Heart #128 Anything Goes
World Wide Open Design Team Challenge 14 Anything Goes 

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Penguin Scene for Polkadoodles

Hello lovely peeps

Did you catch the new Polkadoodles launch on Create and Craft yesterday of Christmas Stamp Soup? There were some gob-smackingly beautiful makes from Nikky and my teamies. You can catch up with the shows here (2pm)  and here (7pm)

The inspiration card I made was (of course) quirky. The idea behind stamp soup is that you combine a few of the stamps to make your own images, so for instance this set has lots of components to make gorgeous snowflakes. One of the stamps is a snowy window ledge/doorstep/postbox top, but when I was turning it around trying to work out what it was, the first thing that popped into my head was 'penguin'.

So, I stamped up some 'penguins' onto Sheena's Stamping Card, dabbed some Black Memento ink and Fawn Spectrum Aqua Marker onto my craft mat and painted them in with a wet brush.

For the card base I added the paler blue 'Not So Plain Jane' paper from the co-ordinating CD then added some Shabby Blue Frantage embossing powder onto a piece of the darker blue for the sea.

Next I brightened the beige version of the paper in a graphics program and cut out an 'ice-shelf', cliff and igloo.

I added Pumice Stone Distress Ink to the edges and painted in a door and shadow with Black Memento ink on a paintbrush.

I stuck on the penguins with Collall Glue Gel and added a sentiment from the CD along with a couple of die-cut snowflakes.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas #299 Cute/AG
C.R.A.F.T. #381 Christmas
That's Crafty! Challenge Blog Christmas in September
Paper Creator's Crafts #52 Christmas
Crafting By Designs (monthly) September Anything Goes
The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up #21 AG Optional Theme The nature of Christmas
 Live & Love Crafts Challenge #51 Photo Inspiration 


Thanks for stopping by today,

Katrina x

Pink Lemonade for Polkadoodles

Hello lovely peeps

 It's time for a new challenge at Polkadoodles and the theme this time is 'Use Ribbon or Twine'

I've been dying to use this gorgeous 'Antique Rose Print Burlap' ribbon that I bought from the Ribbons & Trims section of the Polkadoodles store back in January (it's not available at the moment but there are heaps of other gorgeous things in there). I've teamed it up with a flower I built using the Lemonade Fizz stamp soup collection.

I stamped the flower with Black Archival ink onto watercolour card and then painted it in with Pebeo Drawing Gum to protect it while I did the background. I mixed some Rose Red Brusho crystals with a smidge of the Purple in order to get the correct shade and just slapped it on around the flower (I wet the card first so that the colour spread out). I splashed on some white gesso and Buff Titanium paint with a wet paintbrush before drying it off and rubbing away the gum.

The leaves were coloured in the with a mix of Moss Green and Yellow Brusho crystals and I used Grey on the petals.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
Creative Knockouts #148 All about the flowers
The Ribbon Girls June any image
The Crazy Challenge #225 R is for ... (ribbon)

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Lavender Butterfly for Polkadoodles

Hello peeps, hope you are well.

It's time for a new challenge at Polkadoodles - the theme for the next fortnight  is 'Things with Wings'.

My Lavender Tea Collection stamps arrived last weekend so I was dying to have a play with them. I started by stamping 'butterfly wings' (i.e. one of the petal stamps) and some flower stems onto watercolour card.

I then 'coloured' them in with Pebeo drawing gum, wet the card thoroughly and painted on some Cobalt Blue brusho paint for the sky and Olive Green for the ground.

I added some Violet splodges where the flower heads would go then rubbed off the gum and coloured the butterfly in with sprinkles of Purple.

For the body of the butterfly I stamped the stamen twice onto a separate piece of paper and cut it out.

The sentiment was printed from the Lemonade Fizz CD Rom and cut up before scribbling an outline with a fineliner pen.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
Crafting from the Heart #110 Anything Goes (Always)
Pile It On  #107 - Garden Creatures
Craftin Desert Divas In The Garden
Dream Valley Challenges #130 - All Creatures Great and Small
Deep Ocean Challenge #128: Flowers everywhere
A Bit More Time to Craft  #19 Anything Goes
Penny Black and More  Anything Goes with Stamping 
Live & Love Crafts Challenge  #47 Blossoms &/or Butterflies  
Quirky Crafts #5 April Showers bring Quirky May Flowers

Thanks for stopping by,

Katrina x

Lemonade Swirls

Hello lovely peeps

 It's mid-challenge reminder time on the Polkadoodles blog today.
The theme this fortnight is 'Swirls and Flourishes'.

My favourite stamp on the Lemonade Fizz Stamp Soup set has some lovely swirls in it, so that was my starting point. I built up some flowers with a few of the stamps in the set, starting with a circle for the centre and masking off as I went.

I coloured the flower in with Promarkers - Pastel Beige, Khaki and Oatmeal - and the stem/leaves with Pear and Umber. To deepen the colour I went over with a Lyra Polycolour Pencil - Vermillion.

(The flower on the right is before the pencil has been added)

 I found a paper with the perfect colour match on the Pretty Tuff CD but needed something pale to mat the flowers onto, so I had a rootle through my small stash of Gelli Plate prints and found this one that was done with the Leafy Swirl stencil from Clarity.

I cut it in half and then tore the edges and filled in a bit with a couple more Lyra pencils - Brown ochre 82 and Van Dyck Brown 76

I layered up my panel and my greeting (also from Stamp Soup) on torn green card and added a couple of die-cut flourishes. They've got a little bit of Golden Sand Embossing Powder from Stampendous on them.

 I would like to enter this in the following challenges:- 

I love Promarkers #307 pastels
AuroraWings Challenge #27 Say it with Flowers
Craftin Desert Divas In The Garden
Creative Moments #92  Always Anything Goes w/optional twist "Showers and/or Rainbows"
SSS Work it wednesday Flowers
Paper Creator's Crafts #46 Polka Dots or Gingham
{Pin}spirational #164 - Inspiration Image

Please pop on over to the Polkadoodles blog to see some more inspiration from my fabulous teamies.

Thanks for stopping by,
Katrina x

Mice day for Polkadoodles Launch

Good morning peeps, and welcome to my new followers :)

The lovely Nikky Hall from Polkadoodles is launching two fabulous new Stamp & CD collections on Create and Craft* this morning at 10 o'clock. The two sets that launched in March sold like hot cakes and I expect these will do the same, so tune in early :)

* If you watch Create and Craft on Freeview don't forget that they moved channels yesterday from 36 to 23. You might need to retune your Freeview box.

I was incredibly honoured to be asked by Nikky to make some samples for the show and this is one of my favourite makes. My inspiration for this card was a red bubble paper on the Little Kingdom CD - I'd cut out the white holes with my Craft Robo for another project and thought how much it looked like cheese - the holey kind, that is.

I still had my Robo software open so I cut the same pattern out of a lime coloured paper from the CD.

 I then had a hunt around the digis on the CD to see if I could spot anything that looked like a mouse. I found petals that I could use for ears, plus the head/body, little circles for the eyes (I just needed to add black centres) and part of a flourish that looked like a tail. Result!

I dragged everything into CraftArtist to crop the parts I wanted and resize, then assembed the mouse and printed off a group of them in the bottom right hand corner of a piece of Super Smooth card.

This lovely sentiment from the CD contains all the letters I need for my greeting. How lucky is that?

 'Life takes you to unexpected places.
Love brings you Home'

Of course, I had to go with 'mice day' instead of 'nice day' - any opportunity for a bit of pun :D

I mounted the letters on Kraft card to make them stand out a bit more.

 The mice were coloured in with some Promarkers:
 Satin, March Hare, Tan, Sunkissed and Pastel Beige

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
Star Stampz Challenge  USE A DIGI
Sassy Studio Designs  #330 Tictactoe (Button, Fake Stitching, Die Cut Cheese)

Ching-chou Kuik Digital Stamps Use Kraft card
 Send a Smile for Kids Animal cards
Passion For Promarkers Challenge  #343 Make it Digi (used Promarkers)
Cutie Pie Challenge #98 WOODLAND FRIENDS!
The Crazy Challenge #221 Buttons
The Ribbon Girls Use any image
Inspiration Destination  #83 Always Anything Goes

Hope you can check back later when I'll have a sample from the other new collection to show you.
Katrina x

Squid Soup and Shaker tutorial

Hello lovely peeps, and welcome to my new followers.
I'm chuffed to bits because I've now reached 50 Google Connect followers (the neat freak in me likes round numbers :D  )

Yesterday I had a chance to play with my new Lemonade Fizz Stamp Soup stamps from Polkadoodles.

The idea is that you build up your own flowers etc. with the individual stamps. There is also a CD to accompany it with some other digi stamps, sentiments etc. and papers with a pink/aqua colour theme.
 
I just started stamping on scrap paper first to see what flowers I could make

But then I got waylaid because I spotted a squid :D

The idea of making a male card from floral stamps and papers really appealed to my quirky side, so I set about making a shaker card with an underwater theme. I've included instructions for those who've never made a shaker card before.

I stamped the largest flower onto green diamond paper and cut out the middle petal for the squid body. I traced it twice onto my card (which is covered with the stripy aqua paper) in pencil so I could see where to stamp my tentacles.

I stamped various leaves onto other Lemonade Fizz papers and cut them out for my seaweed.

The next step was to make the shaker frame.

To make it more sturdy I glued the paper onto some card with Collall photo glue and die-cut a circle from the middle using a large X-Cut circle die.

Next I glued a square of acetate onto the back with Collall all-purpose glue (it sticks to glass among other things, so I figured it would work on acetate)

I added a double height of adhesive foam on a roll as I find that if you only use a single layer then your shaker bits get wedged in and won't move.

I arranged my seaweed around the front of the frame and attached with Cosmic Shimmer glue for speed.

When you're ready to assemble just sprinkle your sequins etc.  in the middle of your base card,

then peel off the backing tape from the foam and carefully position the frame over the top.

Just realised that the eyes are in the wrong place for squid but it's too late to move them now.  Never mind, I'm sure you get the idea.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge #126: anything goes with a twist ...Make it Male
Mod Squad Challenge -Water, Water, Everywhere
Paper Shelter Challenge #245 - For the Boys
Craftin Desert Divas  Shake it up
Scrapbook Stamp Society Challenge Blog  #89 Anything goes option Flowers
Crafty Girls Creations   Always Anything Goes
Crafting for all Seasons  #124 tic tac toe (sparkly sequins, stamp, backing paper)

Tinker- Dream  #40 Shaker Card 

I'm going to spend the rest of the day giving my craft room a long overdue tidy :D

Whatever you're doing I hope you have a good day,

Katrina x