Polkadoodle Challenge 27 - Gift Cards

Time for another Polkadoodle challenge!  The weeks are certainly flying by and before you know it, Christmas will be here!  The theme for the challenge is:

Gift Cards

I made a few of these last year and they were really popular, and to hedge my bets I made some more!  I've used one of my own tempates and I made two of the pouches from a sheet of A4 so it is quite economical.  The images and papers come from Paper Boutique Vol 2 and Santa has been cut out with a Nestie and then glittered.

The ribbon is from my stash and I've added a plain panel inside for a message to be written.

Good luck with the challenge!

I'd like to enter the following challenges:

ABC Christmas Challenge:  M for Make a Gift
Christmas Crafting:  Two or More Folds
Through The Craftroom Door:  Christmas in July

• All paperbased products:  Paper Boutique Vol 2
• Everything else:  My stash

Confused Santa

I think Santa is looking a little confused! Fab pre coloured digi image by Lee Jacobs and bought from here - all I've done is resized it and cut it out (plus added some glitter!)

The papers are offcuts and are from Echo Park - All I Want For Christmas digi pack. The red ribbon is from my stash and the tiny brads are fake - black Sharpie marker with glossy accents over the top! I had to join two pieces of the backing paper together as I only had strips left that were not wide enough - I think I've done it well enough so you can't see the join!

A bit of inking around the edges plus some faux stitching and the card is complete!

I'd like to enter the following challenges:

Seems A Little Sketchy: Sketch followed
Paper Makeup Stamps: Colour Combo
Karens Doodles: Spots and Stripes
My Time Made Easy: Colour Palette
Crazy 4 Challenges: It's Santa!

• Image: Lee Jacobs, bought from here
• Papers: Echo Park digi pack - All I Want For Christmas
• Everything else: My stash

Polkadoodle Challenge 49 - Quick Christmas

It's time for another Polkadoodle challenge and Colette has set the fab theme of:

Quick Christmas Cards

I think to make these six cards it took me around ten minutes! I've used some offcuts of card from the Scrap Store that were a perfect size for some diddy cards. The card actually has a light pearlescent sheen so its a good surface to work on!

I've printed one of the Santa digis from Paper Boutique Vol 2 directly onto the cardstock and then added glitter glue around the edge of the card.

Told you it was quick and simple!

Good luck with the challenge - hope you can join in and the deadline is Sunday 18 December at 12noon.

I'd like to enter the following challenges:

Moving Along With The Times: Last Minute Christmas
ABC Christmas: Y for Yippee - Anything Christmas
The Pixie Cottage: Last Minute Cards

• Image: Paper Boutique Vol 2
• Card blanks: Scrap Store

Slightly Sozzled Santa

I suppose I am a bit of an impulse buyer, especially when something is a bargain as I know I will use it at some point, one day! And the Santa on this card is just this! It's a die-cut decoupage image that I bought from my local craft shop a while ago for a bargain. The bits were easy to pop out and I've layered it with foam pads.

So, as I'd actually made the image and it was simply hanging around, it needed to be used. So when I saw the Crafty Hazelnut Christmas challenge for this week - its a perfect fit! The theme is

Santa

And I've used the very lovely Jingle Belles sketch from their last challenge (I got an honourable mention - who-hoooo!) I couldn't lay my hands on any suitable backing paper so decided to weave some embossed (snowflakes and swiss dots) strips of off-cut white card as the background. The tiny fairy lights I've had for donkeys in my stash but never really used them, and I've secured them with a brad and a dab of glue. Santa does look rather sozzled!!

I'm feeling rather rough at the moment - got a cold from hell which I thought was flu on Monday but I'm still moving (just) and I'm not too bad as long as I don't start sneezing or thinking about it. And I look like Rudolf. Great.

• Image: Die cut decoupage - not got a clue of the maker
• Embossing: Cuttlebug snowflakes and swiss dot
• Fairy lights: My stash
  

Santa and Rudolph

I've found a new challenge blog - well, new to me anyway called Bah Humbug, and the current challenge is

Rudolph / Reindeer

I've used this Lee Jacobs image bought from here, which I've coloured with Promarkers plus some glitter glue.


The papers are Dovecraft Ho Ho Ho 8x8 paper stack and I've simply inked the edges, layered the image with pale brown card and ruby red card and then added an organza ribbon and bow. It's one of those images that I've had coloured in ready for an appropriate challenge. I try and get ahead of myself by having colouring session as then it feels like the actual cards come together a lot quicker!

• Backing paper: Dovecraft Ho Ho Ho 8x8 paper stack
• Image: Lee Jacobs, coloured with Promarkers and glitter glue
• Everything else: My stash
  

Santa Door Hanger

I don't really need an excuse to make these Christmas door hangers, but when I saw the Die Cut Dreams challenge for the week, which is:

Make A Door Hanger

I had to get cracking! The last one I made, I sold and I've been asked for more, so I've actually made 3 of these with slight variations on each. The red spotty paper is printed onto card and I've made it thicker by having a blank layer in between the printed sides. Both the paper and the Santa image are from Paper Boutique Vol 2 - Creative Christmas from Polkadoodles.


I've glittered Santa with glitter glue and the letters have been cut with my Sizzix Round-a-Bout alphabet for the larger letters and my Cuttlebug Baby Face alphabet for the smaller letters. I've inked the edges of the hanger and then doodled a fine black line around the edge.

• Backing paper and image: Paper Boutique Vol 2 - Creative Christmas from Polkadoodles
• Dies: Sizzix Round-a-Bout alphabet and Cuttlebug Baby Face
• Everything else: My stash
  

Polkadoodle Challenge 39 - Fancy Folding

Welcome to another Friday and another Polkadoodle Challenge! This week Dee has set the challenge to be:

Fancy or Interesting Folding

Which can mean a lot of different things! If you are struggling for inspiration, have a look and see what the Polkadoodle Design Team came up with!

I've used fancy folding to make this gift card holder and because it is so quick and easy to make, I've turned it into a tutorial! I was asked by quite a few people to make a tutorial after last time I made and blogged one of these gift card holders.


I must point out that I am not the creator of this tutorial - it was originally published in Papercraft Inspirations magazine a few years ago and was written by the very talented Enfys - I've just adapted it slightly.

You will need:
An image to add to the front of the gift card
Length of ribbon
One 12x12 sheet of thin card or good quality paper
Bone folder

To start with, I printed the Santa A6 layered shape from Paper Boutique Vol 2 - Creative Christmas (a wonderful cd if you love Christmas!) and cut out all the elements.

I then layered them up - basically you can layer them however you want as it is not a traditional decoupage shape. Add glitter glue and other embellishments if you wish at this point or you can save it until you add Santa to the front of the gift card.

Next, I've used a 12x12 sheet of Bazzil Swiss Dots red card and folded it into quarters - use a bone folder to make sure you get nice crisp edges!

Cut to the centre point of the card (as shown) by using the fold as a guide.

Turn the card around (as shown) and fold the top left corner down to create a smaller fold

Next, turn the whole sheet over and on the opposite side of the first folded corner, fold the whole quarter so that the corner touches the centre fold as shown below.

Bring the top left corner across to cover the right hand side. This creates the first 'pocket' on the card.

By bringing up the fold underneath to sit on top of the first 'pocket', this now creates the second 'pocket' on the card.

Simply fold the remaining panel around the back to form an actual card. The hard work is now complete!

Add ribbon decoration to the front - this looks pretty and also adds as a natural closure to the sides of the pockets so any items placed in them will remain there.

I glued the Santa on the main front panel, taking care not to glue where the pockets are otherwise you can't add anything to them!

I've used a 12x12 sheet of card stock but you can use smaller if you wish - just remember that the finished size will be half of what you started with. For instance, 12x12 becomes 6x6 when completed, so cutting a sheet of A4 card up (8x8 square) will turn into a 4x4 pocket card.

If the instructions seem a little daunting, try practicing on a sheet of paper - once you've done it once you'll soon get the hang of it!

Hope you found this useful!

Now back to the challenge - good luck if you enter and you have until Sunday 10 October at 12noon GMT to link your blog post to the Challenge blog. Please remember to follow the brief and not to enter your Polkadoodle creation into more than 9 other challenges.

• Card stock: My stash
• Image: A6 Santa from Paper Boutique Vol 2 - Creative Christmas
• Ribbon: My stash
  
  

Simple Doodles Challenge 21 - Holiday's

It's time for another Simple Doodles Challenge! This fortnight the challenge is:

Holiday's

And I've used this sweet Simple Doodles image of Santa, coloured with Promarkers and glitter glue. I've made a Christmas Savings Jar - a good idea in theory but probably not in practice! I've re purposed a pasta sauce jar and added a handcut label using silver card and Funky Hand papers plus ruby red ribbon.

Despite colouring the image quite some time ago, I was lost for inspiration until I saw the jar waiting to be recycled!

Hope you can join in the challenge! Pop over to the challenge blog for more Design Team inspiration and to enter. Challenge is open until Friday 16 July - good luck!

• Image: Simple Doodles coloured with Promarkers and glitter glue
• Papers: Silver card from my stash, other from Funky Hand
• Ribbon: From my stash

Polkadoodle Challenge Week 26 - Decorative Item

It's Friday again so time for another Polkadoodle challenge! This week Claire has set the challenge of:

Something Decorative

Last weekend saw the launch of the new Polkadoodles cd - Paper Boutique Vol 2 Creative Christmas and I've really fallen for the cute Santa digi stamps so just had to use them for this challenge!

I've cut out one of the 5 stamps and glittered his hat and beard and added it to one of the backing papers after drawing around a door hanger template.

Inked and doodled around the edges and added the lettering with Sizzix Round-a-Bout alphabet set for the larger letters and then Cuttlebug Baby Face alphabet set for the smaller ones.

A really versatile cd packed full of Christmas goodies!! Christmas in July eh?!

Good luck with the challenge - its open until Sunday 11 July at 12noon GMT.

• All elements: Paper Boutique Vol 2 - Creative Christmas
• Dies: Sizzix Round a-Bout alphabet set and Cuttlebug Baby Face alphabet
  

Santa's Suit

A lovely simple sketch (how I like straightforward sketches!) on Friday Sketchers for this week! I've used papers from DCWV - Christmas Multistack 6x6 plus a digital image by Lee Jacobs which I bought from here, coloured with Promarkers plus a little glitter glue on the fur bits of Santa's Suit!

The sentiment was computer generated and I've added two extras in the way of snowflakes. I bought a wooden box of these from Matalan in the post Christmas sale and I think they are supposed to be gift stickers but look much better as card embellishments!!And it's never too early to make Christmas cards!!

• Backing paper: DCWV 6x6 Christmas Multistack
  
• Image: Digital image by Lee Jacobs, bought from here, coloured with Promarkers and glitter glue
• Sentiment: Computer generated
• Embellishments: Matalan
  

Vintage Christmas

A Very Vintage Christmas

Is this weeks Winter Wonderland challenge.

I dug out my remaining chipboard embellishments from last year and found enough backing paper to make this card. The buttons are from my stash as too the ribbon.

I've rounded all the edges and inked them too with chestnut Whispers to give it a bit of a vintage look. As you can see, this was quite a quick card to make but it's another one into the Christmas box!

• Backing paper and sentiment: Downloads from Mad About Cards
• Image: Chipboard embellishment from the Pound Shop
• Ribbon and buttons: From my stash