ATTENTION aspiring Dollies!

Okay, we know it's only been a month since our NEW Dollies took the stage, but it's time for us to start the process all over again... This time we're doing it a LITTLE differently! Here's what we're after...

• 4+ creative souls who are up for a little bit of fun in the Dollhouse, socializing, gettin' crafty, and LOVING this fabulous hobby we share!
  
• You must be able to commit to doing one assigned challenge per week (though the option is always there to do more) for a SIX-month term (July through December).
• We are looking for people who can spark creativity and are on top of things like deadlines, comments and whatever comes your way!
• You must keep an active personal blog where you'll post your projects done for the Dollies.
• There is an expectation that you will not only be active in our Dollies forum, by encouraging your teammates and meeting your deadlines, but you will also leave comments on challenge participants' blogs on a regular basis.
  

At the end of this term, all Dollies will receive a fun thank you from the founding Dollies.

Still interested? Why not email 3 projects that highlight your style, a quick "about me" and why you think you'd be a great addition to the Dollhouse to designdollies@gmail.com, and show us whatcha got?! All entries must be submitted by May 25th, and we will announce our new Dollies on June 1st. The new lineup will go live on July 1st where we'll give everyone a special introduction and their special signature doll on our banner.

If you have previously applied to be a Design Dollie, or have spent some time with us in the Dollhouse, feel free to send in new projects for review during this new Dollie-Call. If you have any questions before you apply, drop us a line via email, and we'll do our best to make sure everything is clear.

So here's your cue, friends! WE ARE NOW TAKING APPLICATIONS! :)

Elementary... or Secondary...

Hello all!! Welcome to another Elements Challenge hosted by your favorite dollies! :) BUT, before we get on with the specifics, it's time to give away some GOODIES!

Our April Elements Prize winner is:

ROBIN

Whose OUT OF THE BOX (literally, out of the Cheerio box!) non-traditional element card RAWKED!! Robin, please email us with your address so I can get your prize in the mail! :)

Thank you to those of you who played along last month, and please do join in THIS month for a shot at this handy dandy prize:

To get you started, this week happens to be Teacher Appreciation week (although I don't think my students have gotten THAT memo yet...), SO our first May challenge is to create a Teacher-inspired project. It can be a gift for a teacher or something honoring your favorite teacher, but somehow that "educational" aspect must be predominant...

For some inspiration, check out these Dollilicious creations:

Check out the AWESOME talent displayed by our newest
Guest Designer, VEL!!

Dana's Amazing Offering created for her DD's teacher:

And my (Adina's) humble creation...
My DD's teacher loves Moose... don't ask...

SO, hopefully that'll get your juices going and get you creating a layout, card, or other altered kind of project in honor of your favorite teacher... Please remember to upload your newly created submissions via Mr. Linky by no later than midnight on Monday, May 10th EST to be included for the prize drawing and be sure to link back to us in your blog post! Happy scrappin!

Thank you Lizzie, welcome Vel!

It's MAY! Yep, we are wrapping up the April challenges and announcing our winners, and the festivities for May have kicked off, BUT, saying goodbye to April also means we bid adieu (but not goodbye!) to our wonderful Guest Design Dollie, LIZZIE! She added just the right about of spunky to our April challenges, and we hope you all enjoyed the projects - we've certainly enjoyed having her in the Dollhouse! Lizzie also just had a GORGEOUS baby boy, so we wish her the best and hope she's enjoying time with her new little one. Visit her blog, Oh, Snap!, and see what she's up to!

This means we have a NEW Guest Dollie for the month, and we are thrilled to introduce you to the mad stylings of VEL! She's been playing along with our challenges for a while, and we love the way she thinks outside of the box! She rocks the vintage/shabby chic, her clean and simple creations are fantastic, and she's recently falling in love with the new Alterations dies from t!m holtz! :) understandably so! Vel decided to use the combo from yesterday's Color Challenge, and created this little beauty:


LOVE those giant scallops, and that fabby Cosmo Cricket paper! Vel's already geared up to have lots of fun with the Dollies! I'm attending CKC in Buffalo with her in a couple of weeks, so I'll be able to tell you if she's as awesome in person as she seems in the blogosphere! I can't wait!

Vel, welcome to the Dollhouse!
(Folks, I highly encourage you to drop by her blog, Halcyon Dreams, and show her some true Dollie love!)

We'll be back a little later with the new ELEMENTS CHALLENGE, and on Wednesday with something you won't want to miss!

APRIL Winner, and FIRST May Challenge!

It's a rainy, grey, HUMID Monday here in South Jersey. What a weekend, though! Temperatures were over NINETY degrees, plus loads of humidity. What's the weather like in your neck of the woods? Hopefully you've all enjoyed a restful weekend, ideally JAM-PACKED with crafty fun, and getting your Elements and Sketch challenges done, since you still have a WEE bit of time for those!

The April COLOR CHALLENGES, however, have wrapped, up, and we are SO pleased to have seen so many amazing creations from friends and visitors to the Dollhouse! :)

Out of 67 entries (WOO HOO!), I can't tell you how much TALENT and CREATIVE GENIUS we had floating throughout the blogosphere! But the gods (aka the randomizer at random.org) have spoken, and the winner of the April prize pack is the very LOYAL girl who gave us THIS little beauty:


Lucky #3 - TINA!
Congrats, girlie! If you'd be so kind as to EMAIL ME, Leah, with your snail mail addy, I will happily send your hard-earned prize out!

And it's time for us to kick things off for our MAY challenges (can you believe we're 1/3 of the way through 2010 already?!)...

Let's see what you can do with THIS tough combo:
PINK, CREAM and ORANGE


Yeah, I know... even *I* had issues with this one for some reason! And i love the pink and orange! I think the cream threw me off a bit. But my sister Dollies rocked it all, as always! Wanna see?

The brilliant KATE gave us this gorgeous page - yummy flowery goodness!

and our other Aussie-Dollie, Melissa, tossed in THIS piece of DELISH distressy genius:

and here's me, Leah the Orange, with my very humble card:



So I suppose you'll want to know what the prize will be for this month's Color Challenges, right? Oh, all right... How about this?


Basic Grey "Offbeat" 6x6 pad, chipboard letter stack (there are, like, a BAZILLION pieces in here!), brads (*I LOVE THIS LINE!*)
lengths of green leaves, green mini ball trim, blue and brown ribbon

So. If this appeals to you in any way, shape or form, you must PLAY WITH THE DOLLIES! Today is your first chance to get in on the action, so create a NEW project for this challenge, link it up below (the blog POST, not your general blog, please!), and be sure to link BACK to us in order to be eligible to win! You have until next SUNDAY, May 9th at midnight EST to play along for this one! Have fun, and happy crafting!

200+ followers, and we're celebrating by giving stuff away!

SO, 200 followers is certainly nothing to sneeze at! We humble Dollies are SO grateful to all of you who come back to visit, who play along with our challenges, and who are always leaving such encouraging and positive comments. We would be nothing without you, and we thank you all so very much.

Instead of just saying "thank you", however, we've decided to make it even MORE fun for you, and we're going to be paying attention!

Each of the founding Dollies has a little giftie package (or not so little!) to bestow upon a lucky follower. We don't want you to post on your blogs about our candy, because we think these gifts should be given to those who have BEEN showing us support, and who continue to do so.

Over the next couple of weeks, we'll be monitoring the participation in the challenges, and the comments left on any of our posts. Every comment notification we receive is worth one entry. Every link added is worth one entry. (Hint- the Trifecta, therefore, is worth three entries, plus three chances at the monthly prize!)

On Wednesday, May 12th, three numbers will be randomly drawn from all of the notifications, and each winner will receive a special thank you from one of the founding Dollies. We're just three friends who wanted to do something a little different to challenge other crafters, and to push ourselves, and we never thought our little blog would become so popular!

So think of this as our little nod to you, dear friends. We'd love to be able to do more for you, but we hope this gesture will convince you that we are truly grateful (and flattered!) by the fact that you keep coming back for more. You don't have to do anything differently; just continue to be the amazing friends and followers you are! GOOD LUCK, and THANK YOU ALL!