Saying Good Bye

>> Thursday, November 24, 2011

It hasn't been quite a year yet, but the Polkadot Door Challenges will not be continuing at this time. The blog will continue to operate as our personal blog, but at this time in our lives we feel that we need to concentrate our efforts to the people who are closest to us. We have enjoyed the challenges, feedback, and the new connections that have been made so much! Once life settles down and certain priorities are not so pressing we would like to continue with the Polkadot Door Inspiration challenges. Thank you to everyone for your comments, encouragement, and enthusiasm. We've been honored with all the interest this blog has garnered!

Sarah and Rebecca

P.S.  We will be announcing the winners from November's Blog Hop and Inspirational Challenge shortly.  We apologize for the delay and appreciate your patience. 

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Sketchy Thursdays 11.17 Challenge

>> Wednesday, November 23, 2011

We recently made a long distance move. Not a lot of fun with four little kids including a newborn, but on the bright side it served as a good catalyst to purge our belongings.  I must admit that I take an almost gleeful satisfaction in organizing our possessions and seeing a large number of things destined for the thrift shop and rubbish bin.  Of course, I also take immense pleasure in scouting out deals and re-accumulating more stuff once we are settled in our new house, but that is another conversation entirely. 

Generally I can be quite heartless when it comes to tossing or giving away stuff.  My kids tend to get a look of terror in their eyes when they see me headed towards their playroom with a garbage bag.  My husband has learned to keep really important things at the office where I can't accidentally throw them out in a cleaning frenzy. You're not likely to see my house on any upcoming episodes of hoarders.

Unless of course they start a new show called "Scrapbooking Hoarders". (Which, incidentally is a really good idea.  I would totally watch that if I had a t.v.)

I do go into my scraproom regularly with the intention of cleaning it out and purging the excess supplies, really I do.  I just get distracted and start working on layouts instead. Or I just sit and admire the pretty bits and baubles.  It's so hard to throw any of it away.  I mean, if I bought it in the first place it was likely because I liked it, and just because I now have more paper than I could possibly use in a dozen lifetimes does not mean I like any of it any less than I originally did. Sigh.

My husband suggested that the solution is to stop buying more stuff until I have used up everything that is currently in my stash - which would be really good advice except for the aforementioned buying addiction... 

Anyway, all that is to say that I have been feeling a bit guilty about the amount of supplies that I "had to have" only to put them away and never look at them again, so when I sat down to make this layout for this week's Sketchy Thursday challenge, I also challenged myself to use some of my "old" supplies. The end result is a layout of Oliver that uses Making Memories papers and embellishments that I bought to do a layout of Isaac... 4 years ago.
(Please forgive the crummy photo - apparently we don't get any sun during the winter here!)


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A handmade Wedding.

>> Saturday, November 19, 2011



After a very eventful few months, Rebecca is back to the blog! I don't have any recent crafty creations to share at the moment, but I thought I would post some pictures of the details from the wedding back in September. We were on a budget and decided to lots of the decorating ourselves. It worked out fantasticly! We were married in an outdoor ceremony at a heritage village and had a garden party reception. My Mom is an avid gardener and all the flowers were from her garden. While she didn't do the bouquets (a family friend did), all the other floral arrangements were hers, aren't they incredible?!

Between my husband and I, there are 25 siblings (yes, you read that correctly). We decided that instead of numbering each table, we would name each one after a sibling since we had exactly 25 tables of guests.

The guys boutonniere were Gladiolas. I wanted something other than traditional roses.

They also wore Morning Suits with Ascot ties, I made the tie pins with beads from my sister's collection and hat pins!

The ringbearer's pillow was the same one used at my sister's wedding 3 years ago, but I spruced it up a bit with a rose I made from left over scraps from the bridesmaids dresses.

The program was designed and printed at home, an easy way to save some money!

The invitation, which I also designed and printed at home. The wax seal made a huge impression on those invited. A simple, and fairly inexpensive touch to make it more personal.

I adored my bouquet. The flowers (with the exception of the roses) were home grown from my Mom's garden and hand tied by a family friend. 



I didn't make this detail, but these Mother of Pearl cufflinks were the perfect accent to the morning suits.

My husband's ring is a custom made titanium ring inlayed with blue box elder wood. Minter and Richter Designs on etsy has some amazing and unique rings. I knew he had to have one.



Another look at the centrepieces on the tables. That is one of the bridesmaids bouquets as well as a sunflower arrangement by my Mom.


Guestbook table. The antique typewriter made a perfect accent, we had typed out "Please sign our Guestbook" as instructions.




Instead of haveing individual favours, we incorporated an old fashioned candy table. It was a hit with young and old.

The Precious Moments figurine was a wedding gift to my parents 28 years ago, which they then passed onto my husband and I. Along with the little banner, it transformed the store bought cake into something a lot more unique to us, I just couldn't justify hundreds of dollars on a custom cake. We had some delicious sheet cakes as well.

All the food labels were made by Sarah, doesn't she have tidy hand writing!


To go along with our Thank You cards, I made the banner ahead of time and we made sure our photographer got this photo. The feedback from the guests was unanimous, they loved the idea!
The picture wall was made by my husband the night before the wedding. It was a perfect accent to our vintage wedding.


Dress details! You all were waiting for these, right? The dress was originally strapless, but my very good friend redesigned the entire bodice so I would be more comfortable on our wedding day. The guests couldn't tell it had been altered and I kept getting asked "where did you find a dress with sleeves?"

My amazing Mother basically designed and sewed all three of the bridesmaids dresses.

there are more photos I could post, but I should leave it at this. Thanks to everyone who is reading! I cannot wait to show you the December challenge, its just around the corner. Don't forget to enter the November Inspiration challenge, there are so many great prizes to be won!



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Sketchy Thursdays 11.3

>> Sunday, November 6, 2011

This week's sketch from Sketchy Thursdays was just what I needed as I was working with my November Apron Strings Kit

Oliver's sisters like to treat him like a doll so sometimes his outfits are... interesting.  Some looks are adorable on a baby but sure couldn't be pulled of by anyone else! I was pretty excited when I got these papers from from Fancy Pant's Summer's End line because the colors and the polkadots matched these photos perfectly.

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{November} Blog Hop and Inspiration Challenge

>> Tuesday, November 1, 2011


It's hard to believe that it is November all ready, but there is no doubt that fall has arrived.  Autumn is definitely my favorite time of year.  The turning leaves, crisp air, warm afternoon sunlight, pumpkins and apple pie... 

This month we have another gorgeous inspiration image that captures the focuses on one of the best things about this time of year - Thanksgiving! (and all the amazing food that usually accompanies that holiday):

 Here is what I was inspired to create:

Our wonderful designers have put together some amazing projects based on the inspiration photo.  Please visit each of their blogs to see their projects then come back to the Polkadot Door to vote for your favorite by leaving a comment and post your own entry.  We have some great prizes this month!

Lindsay
DeeDee
Amanda
Debby 
Lisa
Aki
Nicole
Smitha
Joanne
Diana
Erin
Ujjwal
Nita


This month's Challenge winner will receive a $10 gift certificate from Scrap Eco Chic
  • Create a project based upon this month's inspiration.  It can be anything - a card, layout, altered item... Post a photo of your creation to your blog or online gallery (use code PDD) and link it here using the Mr. Linky widget at the end of this post.  Please provide a direct link to your post.
  • You may enter as many times as you like, but you're asked to provide a newly designed project. We ask that you combine this challenge with no more than 3 other challenges.
  • We will choose one winner who will receive the prize provided by the sponsor and be invited to participate as a guest designer for our November Blog Hop and Inspirational Challenge. In addition,we will also invite the creators of a number of our favorite submissions to join the November Guest Design team and play for November's GDT prize and the title of Featured Designer!
  • Submissions will close at midnight on November 17th.  
  • We will announce the November challenge winner and December guest design team members on November 19th.
  

One blog hop commenter will receive a prize pack from  
Abby and Ellie!
  • After visiting all the stops on the blog hop, come back here and leave us a comment telling us which GDT member's project was your favorite (and make sure that you are a follower!) We'll randomly select one lucky commenter to receive the UmWowStudio prize pack.  
  • Earn Extra Entries! - Help us spread the word about the Polkadot Door Inspiration Challenge and Blog Hop.  Post about the challenge on facebook, twitter & online forums, or grab our badge and post it to your blog, to earn extra entries for the prize draw.  Just leave an additional comment letting us know what you did to spread the word (and leave a link if applicable).

  • We will announce the winner of the prize pack on November 15.

The Guest Design Team member with the most votes will receive a $50 gift certificate from Hydrangea Hipp and will be named November's Featured Designer
  • Remember to leave us a comment on this post casting your vote for your favorite GDT project.
  • We will announce this month's Featured Designer on November 15.


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So Pretty...

>> Thursday, October 20, 2011

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{October} Inspirational Challenge Winner

>> Wednesday, October 19, 2011

As usual, all of the projects created based on this month's inspiration image were gorgeous!  It is amazing how the same image can inspire so many beautiful, but completely unique creations. It was difficult to choose a winner because we loved all the entries, but at the end of the day we decided to award the prize to Lisa because we could not get over how cute her little gnomes were!

We love how she incorporated so many elements from the inspiration image and added texture with the felt clouds and hats. Congratulations Lisa! Be sure to grab your badge.

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{October} Featured Designer

>> Saturday, October 15, 2011


Our fabulous design team certainly delivered some amazing projects this month and I certainly could not have picked just one favorite!  Fortunately though it was not up to me - the blog hoppers voted and this month the designer with the winning project is

 
Even though Amanda admits to being a bit stumped by the inspiration image, we think her layout perfectly reflects the spirit of challenge.  I especially love the cool blue background offset by the vibrant red accents, and the girls in her photo are even cuter than the gnomes!  Be sure to check out Amanda's blog Random Sweetness to see more of her beautiful work. 

Congratulations Amanda, you will receive the awesome papercrafting kit from Scrappydoodads. Please email Polkadotdoordesigns@gmail.com to collect your prize, and be sure to grab your badge.

We will be back in a few days to post the November Design Team and Challenge Winners!




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And the prize goes to...

The winner of the embellishment prize package from UmWowStudio is:
 
Lyneen October 2, 2011 11:15 AM
Are you serious... we have to pick just one... if that is the case... Amanda will get my vote as her LO reminds me of memories of my sister and me. That could be us in the picture. I also love Dee Dee's with the sweet little baby crawling through the frame... SO HARD TO CHOOSE! Thanks for a fabulous hop! 
Congratulations Lyneen!  Please email Polkadotdoordesigns@gmail.com to collect your prize.  Thank you everyone for playing along with our little hop.  We hope to see you all again next month!

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I Love a Rainy Day

>> Friday, October 14, 2011

I don't know what it is, but there is just something about a rainy fall day that I find so cozy.  It's the kind of day where I can justify letting the kids stay in their pajamas all day, ignore the housework and serve leftovers for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  The kind of day where I don't feel bad putting a movie on for the kids and hiding myself in my scrapbooking room for the whole afternoon.

We had a day like that last week, which conveniently coincided with the arrival of my October Apron Strings kit.

I was so excited when I discovered that this month's Bigger Than a Bread Box kit had papers from October Afternoon's Boarding Pass collection.  I am a huge OA fan! Even though I didn't really have any true "travel" photos, I found that the papers were versatile enough to use for some everyday photos of my kids. 


I was not quite as excited about the other patterned paper in the kit.  While it is beautiful, I wasn't sure how I was going to use Fancy Pants' October 31 collection since we don't really "do" Halloween in this house.

In the end I dug up some fall photos of Emma and Isaac that were taken about three years ago.  I had actually scrapped these pictures before but was never satisfied with the resulting pages so I was happy to take the opportunity for a redo. 

 This layout is based on a sketch by Becky Fleck.  I have a bit of a hard time with double page layouts, but I am trying to challenge myself to do them more often.  It is nice to be able to include so many photos and extensive journaling. 



It was Canadian Thanksgiving on Monday, so I also created a quick card from my scraps.
All in all, I'd say that my rainy day was pretty productive. 

Don't forget to link up your entry for this month's challenge before Midnight on Monday (Oct 17th).  Not only will this month's winner receive a gift certificate to Berry71Bleu, but they will also join us as a member of next month's Design Team and be eligible for November's Featured Designer Prize!

Have a marvelous weekend!

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Just a few days left...

>> Thursday, October 13, 2011

to make sure you are entered for this month's fabulous prizes!  

The deadline for linking up your project based on this month's inspiration image is midnight, October 17th!

The creator of our favorite submission will receive a $20 gift certificate for beautiful, vintage style embellished tags from Berry71Bleu Boutique!

Make sure you visit all the stops on the blog hop and leave a comment here on the Polkadot Door by the 15th to be eligable for the prize pack full of gorgeous handmade embellishments from UmWowStudio


And don't forget to cast your vote for your favorite project from our design team so that one lucky designer can take home a gorgeous paper-crafting kit from ScrappyDooDads!






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