Polar Bears are a Girl's best friend ... obviously!!!!!!!

Good morning my crafty friends!

If you celebrate Valentine's Day, I hope you all had a lovely weekend. We went into town and purchased (from the same department store) 2 new frying pans, a kitchen timer and voile/net curtains .... boy, we sure know how to live on what's supposed to be the most loved up day of the year!!!!! :D

Anyway, it's new challenge time at Feeling Sketchy and we've got another great sketch for you, courtesy of Michelle.

Our sponsor for this challenge is Nikky and the team at Polkadoodles who are offering the lucky winner of this challenge a prize pack. Even if you're not lucky enough to win the prize for this challenge, make sure you go to Digi Choosday Blog where Nikky regularly offers discount codes to the Polkadoodles Store, as well as the special offers that are already in place! Hands up - who likes a discount to get new crafty stash!!!!!!!!!

Here's the sketch we'd like you to follow for Challenge #139:

and here's my card using the sketch and featuring a gorgeous image from Polkadoodles:

I must confess that I found this card rather a challenge, as it's quite a lot fussier than my normal card making style. However, I'm pretty pleased with it!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card Base - is a 14.8 cm square, pre-made card base in white
• Design Papers - are from the Nordic Christmas CD-Rom by Crafter's Companion, which doesn't seem to be available any longer :o(   I've used a red snowflake paper on the front of the card, and I ran my paper back through my printer to print the brown chequered paper on the reverse as this paper matches the background on my button. I've used Kraft card for matting and layering.
  
• Image - is the uber-cute Polar Family - Octavia Frosted Winter by Nikky at Polkadoodles. I've brought this lovely family to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens and Clear Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen before hand cutting the image out and attaching it to my card. Unfortunately, I didn't keep a note of all the colours I used - sorry!
• Tag - is embossed from Kraft card using my Springtime Sweets and Cupcake Treats Ultimate Pro Embossing Board and I then cut this out by hand, and re-embossed the edges to give definition. The bow is made from jute twine I have in my stash, and tied using my Ultimate Pro. A faux button made from an embellishment I found on the Nordic Christmas CD-Rom which I then cut using the heart shaped die from my Die'sire Essentials Button Box die set (also no longer available). I cut out 3 further heart shapes, glued them all together ensuring my printed heart was on the top, and then covered the white edges using my EB7 Spectrum Noir Pen.
• Sentiment and Snowflake - are both dies available in Sara's Signature - Festive Wonder Collection and are both cut from Centura Pearl Snow White Silver card. I cut the words away from the initial letters of "Merry Christmas" to follow the sketch.

I hope you'll come over Feeling Sketchy and check out the amazing creations by my talented team mates. Then don't forget to come back and show us your cards or scrapbook pages following our sketch. We'll be back with our new challenge on 1st March 2016.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

• Add a Button (or Buttons) at CD Sunday
• Trend Week #330 - Add a Tag to your card/project at Just us Girls Challenge
• Challenge #121 - Anything Goes with an optional twist of "Add a Tag" at Digistamps4Joy
• Have a Heart Challenge at Winter Wonderland - my faux button is heart shaped and there is heart on the button too!
• Challenge #120 - Die Cuts at Addicted to Stamps
• Challenge #101 - Homemade Embellishments at Pile it On Challenges - my faux button is homemade!
• B is for B - you pick! at ABC Challenge - B is for Brown, Button, Bow and Bears!
• Challenge #311 - Use Red as your Main Colour at Crafty Catz Challenge

We're on half term now here at Casa Mia, and I'll be waiting in for my gas man to service our boiler. Gives me some crafting time me thinks!

Whatever you're up to today, have fun!

Hugs, Helen x