Hi everyone!

I just wanted to share a short You Tube video with you which might be answering some of your questions about the amazing new Graph'It markers (and it also has a sneaky little gift in there too!)!

I'll be adding some more for you in the next few weeks so make sure you keep watching!
x

Giveaway

Hi everyone - I made a little faux pas! I've been uber busy and missed my deadline for my last Design Memory Craft post :C oops! naughty me!! I will make it up to them by doing something else though. Well, I'd half scheduled my post with a fantastic giveaway and as I forgot all about it, it just scheduled itself anyway LOL!! And when I checked there were already lots of comments so I'm having to do it now anyway haha. I do hope my blogmeister Naoko forgives me, she is in Japan right now so I'm keeping quiet lol - but those of you with eagle eyes knew there was something amiss as the deadline was in there with a December date tee hee!!

So, as a finale to my guest design series, Faber Castell Design Memory Craft has graciously put together this awesome set of products for me to give away!

• Red Mixed Media Sampler Pack 
• Yellow Mixed Media Sampler Pack
• Stampers Big Brush Pen
• Mix & Match Gelatos in Green (4 Gelatos, a brush, and a stamp)

Leave a comment here on this blog post by 20/5/13 to enter a chance to win. To be eligible you must LIKE the Design Memory Craft Facebook page. Good luck!

Let your heart sing!

Hi everyone!

Today, make sure you head over to the amazing Faber Castell Design Memory Craft blog as I'm the guest designer today with a project and some techniques I absolutely LOVE! You can find it here, but here's some sneaky peeks for you!

This project used Gesso, MDF, Gelato's, Pan Pastels, our new Studio 12 stamps and some of the new products on my Wednesday show so make sure you check it out - it's full on messy fingers heaven!

See you there! xx

That Sunday feeling!

Hey my Lovelies!

Quick heads up today as I have a really busy week! I thought I had an easy week coming up after some hectic ones but who was I kidding, I really must read my diary every day to get a grip on reality haha!

You'll find me on Ideal World (Create & Craft's sister TV channel) at 5pm on Wednesday 17th with another Premium Art Brands show - I can't wait!!

I promise to be getting a little messy and oh my! you know what that means!! Yep, when I say messy I don't go half measures so I hope you can join me with some LOVELY brand new products we're bringing to you! The guys at PAB really know what us crafters love, for sure! Plus there'll be some old faves on there including Pan Pastels too which I know you all adore and love ; )

I have a family funeral to attend on Thursday so I hope I manage to get rid of the mess and my hands aren't too ugly or it won't do will it, Nanny will be on her little cloud above shaking her head at me if she sees me turn up in a state to wave her off LOL!

Then on Saturday I'll be at the York Hobbycraft store with a fabulous workshop with some lovely ladies. We had a last-minute cancellation on Friday I think so there might be 2 places left but please make sure you call us to book or book online.

I've been asked to blog the card I made on Friday's 8am show and I WILL do this but it will be after the weekend as I had to give the card away and I don't have time to remake it again before the workshop, but I promise to give you the instructions, just bear with me!

In the meantime, I've added all the show samples to the website gallery now for Fredericka, there are some real beauties in there!

And here is a little sneaky peek of something coming up on Tuesday too!

; D

see ya there!

xxx

Phew!

Hi everyone! My goodness it's been cold this week, I really hope it starts to warm up soon! Just wanted to share some of this week's news, as always, life at Polkadoodles is always a whirlwind but I've actually had the day off today (first since Crimbo, eeks!) so it's a good time to catch up on things...

Firstly, we do have some really important news re Polkadoodles...we now have an OUTLET shop for the public to visit! Wooohoooo!!
We came back from a show recently and we realised we have quite a lot of stock just siting here waiting for the online buyers to snap it up so we've had a really good move around and have now opened one of our units to the public. Now, before you all get your roller skates on, opening times will be and are limited to Thursday, Friday and Saturdays each week BUT please PLEASE check the website before you travel any distance as we may not be open all the time if we have show commitments and the last thing we want is people wasting their time if we're not there! It's not a huge shop but if you're in the area we'd love you to pop in and see us and we have lots of great offers going on.

So I have to tell you I will be on Create & Craft TV this week on Fri 12th April at the ungodly hour of 8am! I only have one hour so make sure you record it if you can't watch as there won't be repeats etc. I also have another show (2 hours I think) on 20th April with Premium Art Brands with more lushty products for you, can't wait!

Yesterday was the first of my demo days at our local York Hobbycraft...it was a little quiet because it was THE most gorgeous day here and anyone who lives between York and the coast knows what that means - everyone heads off to the coast! Plus it was Grand National day which always makes it a quiet afternoon, but I spent 4 hours with some lovely ladies where we talked a lot about die-cutting and threw a few cool ideas around...it was quite nice and informal and turned into more of a workshop than anything, although they nagged me into some colouring too of course, those minxes! We all made some cool rosettes and then discovered Hobbycraft had a ton of Tim Holtz dies at half price including Rosette ones so we all snaffled up the bargains! The ladies all loved our brand new Toppings and Colour Me packs which were a hit with them because they are so great for making your own card toppers or for practising colouring with, especially if you don't like digital products! The ladies all thought they were a great idea, check them out here! 

I didn't colour this yesterday but I did this at the NEC and made it into a sample this week (sorry if you're on my Facebook and Twitter feeds you'll be sick of seeing this image!) but I ADORE this and I think this is one of my favourite things I've ever coloured. Of course, I coloured this with Graph'It markers (nothing else will really do for me these days unless my arm is twisted up my back!)...it's the umbrella which I love, such a great effect and a complete accident really!

Look how the brolly actually looks like it has raindrops on it! it was coloured with 3 colours plus the blender pen but I love how it looks like it's wet and where I used the blender on the inside  the blender bleed lines actually look like the water marks so I left them there!

This gorgeous image is from Emma Canning and is available as either a digistamp or on our digistamp Heaven CD here.

I'll be back later this week with some more makes for you, so I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. Me, I'm off back to my coffee and choccy digestive!

x

Hellooo! It's not often I have time to scrap these days but it's one of those things I really love to do just for ME. It means I can use all my 'bestest' stash that I love and still can keep it too! best of both worlds!

Anyhoo, following on from yesterday's post on the Sunday Scrappers show, here is the finished layout again...

This was a panoramic pic I took on Christmas Day with my new camera I treated myself to in December (having wrecked the lens on my big DSLR which now has to be photoshopped with every pic I take to get rid of the scratches)...

There were 14 of us plus 3 kids for lunch so it was a bit difficult getting everyone in the pic and I managed except for one person and me so it was a pretty good result really!

I made this layout on the show and I'd have liked to do more with it really but as always time just runs away from you so it was very much a quick layout even though I'd planned it out a bit beforehand...

This is Bazzill cardstock together with papers from my Picknix CD and the chevrons are from the same Heidi Swapp pack. All the embellies are also from Picknix as is the alphabet and the Good Times is a Theresa Collins embellishment. I used Maimeri iridescent gesso with a mask on the left hand side and Pan Pastels through a mask at the top of the page, mixing red and yellow. Finally it was spritzed with Heidi Swapp shimmer spritz (can't remember the name of it now!). Just goes to show that true hybrid can still be creative if you use digital products properly and creatively!

Right, that's it for today, see you soon!! xx

Catching up!

Hi everyone!

Finally found my camera after looking high and low all week...must have searched my handbag like a zillion times and there it was in the inside pocket....grrr....

I hope you all enjoyed the Sunday Scrappers show last week with myself and the lovely Deano again, we had a great time and it was so nice to be able to do something different for a change...I had so many lovely comments after the show about the little book I made and many of you asked if I could blog it so here it is.  I'm sorry but I've been rushed off my feet this week so I haven't had chance to do anything with it yet so it's in a bit of a sorry half-finished state from the show LOL!!

If you didn't see the show, I made this using Heidi Swapp papers and embellies plus some Theresa Collins bits and pieces and my own Picknix collection...a really good mix of products! 

Here's how to make it...

1. Take some 8x8" papers (double-sided is best but not essential) and fold in half. These are actually going to make the pages of the book so you can fold as many as you wish. I have to say, these ones were really heavy weight and it would be much better with a thinner paper.

 2. Take a couple of the folded pages and cut them in half or thirds and intermingle them amongst the rest so you have some pages which more like flaps and the whole thing is random.

3. Take your hole punch and punch through them all at the same time then take some twine and thread it through the holes twice and then tie in a knot to hold the pages together like a book.
4. Take one page and fold again but this time I had to make a little spine as the pages were quite thick (hence why a thinner card/paper is better for the inside pages). You can do this really easily by just wrapping it around the inner and then creasing down the folds to get the correct size spine.
Add some hinges (these ones are Theresa Collins and are AMAZING!), securing into place down the spine with brads.  Insert the inner pages and use Washi tape to secure them to the front cover and again to the back cover. On the show I used Tim Holtz Tissue tape but Washi is usually much stickier so it will work better and be more secure.
5. Make a wrap to go around the open edge of the book - don't fart about, just measure it to fit!
6. The Theresa Collins embellies came in some heavyweight packaging that I just had to use - it was way too nice to throw away as it had an awesome big eyelet in the top! I just cut the top of the packaging off which was all shaped and nicey nice, sanded it back a bit then added gesso over the top (the pack was VERY shiny so wouldn't take any ink). Once the Gesso was half dry I added some Heidi Swapp black Spritz which is mega gorgeous and irridescent and then rubbed it into the Gesso to colourise it and left it to dry. This gives a great texture!

 Once this was dry it created an awesome flap to go with the wraparound - I took one of the Theresa Collins metal Buttons - these are like MAHOOSIVE brads!! Anyway to me they were crying out to be used as little handles (by the way, all these bits are available in a kit on the Create and Craft website, just do a search for TC and HS, I have to say I think the price for the quality of the kit was brilliant, these handles would be about £4.99 on their own in a pack I reckon, they are heavyweight!). Anyway, I just pushed it through the eyelet and voila, handle terrifique!!...

Next, attach this piece to the wraparound and then decorate it all up and add whatever you want to your book. I used the tape along the bottom of some of the pages to create little pockets and added a tab ready to decorate up properly but so far this is as far as I got lol!

I'm sorry I havent had chance to do more to this but it's been a kinda crazy week back at the ranch. I restarted my classes on Saturday and we have now opened our unit as a part-time Outlet so we've had a mega busy week getting everything ready in time. I just do not know where my time goes, I haven't had a day off since Christmas lol!

Right, I'll be back later with the layout I also did on the show as I also had comments to show a close up of that one. Phew, you guys do keep me busy!!
xxx

Just Be...

Hi everyone! It's my turn to post over on the fabulous Faber Castell Design Memory Craft blog today, I had loads of fun with this project, here's a little sneaky peek...

Pop over there and have a look at all the fabulous inspiration that's on the blog by the team, some beautiful makes!

I will be back soon with some pics from last weekend and more news!
TTFN
xx

Diary fixtures and a peek!

Morning all!

Today I wanted to share these lovelies....

 I almost forgot in all the busy-ness and mayhem of this week - we have a brand new range of digistamps available to download NOW here from the lovely Time For Tea designs, we are all loving this range and there will be more to come soon, but in the meantime these are EXCLUSIVE to Polkadoodles so grab them while you can!

This image above was coloured with the new Graph'It markers (except the jumper and hat) - can you see what I mean about vibrancy of colour? Even I have to admit the hair on this is devine and just with 3 or 4 colours!
The one below was coloured with Pro/Flexmarkers....the sparkly shimmer is the brand new Wink of Stella brushmarkers which are amazing for adding sparkle!

Going further into my diary, I have my first restart class here in York on 30th March, which is ultra exciting as we are opening our doors here part-time as a public store! 

Woohoo!! Yes, from the end of March you will be able to visit Polkadoodles on a Thurs, Fri or Saturday and browse our goodies at your leisure! Watch out for more details on this, dates and opening times will be on the website soon!

6th April - you can find me demoing in store at Hobbycrafts York, showing you die-cutting and stamping and colouring so please come along and say hello - I have a fabulous Letraset/Polkadoodles goody bag to give away in store in a special draw and it's worth over £50!!!

13th April - Hobbycrafts Workshop, York - make a stunning window box and a card using die-cut techniques and stamping and colouring - you can see full details of this online on the website. Places are limited so please book early through the website, I have a gorgeous project lined up for you to make (well, 2 projects!)

Heading even further on into May you will be able to catch me up in Aberdeen at the Papeterie on 11th and 12th. I will be demoing in store on 11th and have a workshop on 12th before I head for home again.

Pheweee - any more? I don't think I can fit much more in!!! I'm worn out just thinking about this lot haha!

Right my lovelies, I'm tootling off, we have a mega busy time prepping for everything this week so there is no time for snoozing around here! See you all soon and I hope we see you at Harrogate this weekend, woohooo! xx

Create and Craft TV today at 6pm!

Hey guys!

Before I reveal some more of my news today please don't forget to either tune in or record my brand new show for Premium Art Brands on Create and Craft at 6pm tonight! 

Please email in and if you have any questions on the products please send them in - there's nothing better than getting live feedback on the shows!  

If you're overseas you can watch live on www.createandcraft.tv or if you never heard of it it's on Sky 671 and Freeview channel 36. You can also catch it on www.catchuptv.com so there's no escape!

Right, on with the other news!  My diary is mega busy right now so I thought I'd share some of the stuff we have going on...

16th and 17th March - if you're at GNPE, Harrogate then please pop by and see us - we have some AWESOME new goodies for you (can't wait, I think some of you will be UBER excited when you see what's on offer!!!) and I will have the Pan Pastels and Graph'its with me to show you too!

Then on Sat 23rd March - if you're going to Hobbycrafts at NEC then please stop by the A1 Crafts stand and say hello as I will be demonstrating and will have lots of Polkadoodles/Studio 12 goodies with me there too!! I'm only there on the Saturday so please make sure you stop by and say hello!

So much to do, so little time!!

Here is a little sneaky peek of something coming up tomorrow I have to show you...xxx