Friday, October 29, 2010

Trick or Treat!

Thanks to everyone who took part in last week's "Autumn Leaves" dare - there certainly were some lovely projects on show!
It's Nat here with this week's Dare. This week I hope you're ready for a little....


Trick or Treating!

With Halloween just a few days away you still have time to get your spooky vibes going and make a Halloween card or you could use some ghoulish Halloween colours to make a non-Halloween card.... the choice is yours.
Here are some of the creations the design team came up with!

Remember to link us up to your cards - have a spooktacular week!


Lynda



Keryn


Samm

Kathy
Rein
   

Friday, October 22, 2010

Autumn Leaves

Thanks to everyone who joined in with our 'Anniversary Waltz' theme last week with the emphasis on the dance part. There were some fabulous creations and we loved coming to see them all.

Hi it's Lynda here and it's my turn to set the Dare this week so I've chosen the very topical theme of:-

AUTUMN LEAVES

I absolutely adore Autumn and the colours that come with it so this week I'd like you to get creative with leaves. Create backgrounds or even flowers with them or just simply use them to embellish your cards. Don't forget the autumnal colours though!

Please come back and leave us a link to your card. We can't wait to see what you make! Here's what the Team have made this week:-

Friday, October 15, 2010

The Anniversary Waltz

*The winner of the paper pack from our little extra celebration of World Cardmaking Day as chosen by Random.org was number 8, Katina. Congratulations Katina and thank you to everyone who entered*

On to this week;
Thank you to everyone who joined in with Rein's Office themed dare last week and shared such wonderful creations with us all, we really enjoyed seeing them.


As you know, October is our Anniversary month - we're 4 years old in a couple of dares time so it's definitely time to celebrate. So our theme for this week's challenge is:

Welcome to the Dance

We'd like you to take Dance and Dancing as your inspiration and do some fancy footwork on your cards this week. We can't wait to see how you shimmy along with this one. Be it Ballet, Street-dance, Flamenco or Tango, the (dance) floor is yours

Here are some cards from the team to set your feet a-tapping - if you think we're looking a bit "thin on the ground", it's because our "Other Lives" are getting in the way and throwing various obstacles in the way of our crafting atm! But do come back over the next few days when hopefully there'll be more to see :-)

Samm

Kathy


Rein




Jo



Nat

Friday, October 08, 2010

Office Blocks

Hi, thanks to all of you that joined with us last week - both for our October Birthstone dare and the special Papercraft Inspirations Blog Party dare too

It's Rein here this week and I am daring you to use an office theme along with some item of office equipment, staples, paper-clips... on your card.

Bedankt aan iedereen voor het meedoen bij de uitdaging van vorige week. deze week is het mijn beurt de uitdaging te kiezen. 'gebruik kantoorbenodigdheden zoals nietjes, etiketten of paperclips...' op je kaart

Please come back and let us know where we can see your creations, here's what the design team have come up with to help inspire you





Saturday, October 02, 2010

World Cardmaking Day

Please note that our regular weekly dare for this week appears below this extra post!



Today is World Cardmaking Day - The first Saturday of each October, kicking off the holiday card-making season, the most popular time for creating and sharing handmade greetings.
The card-making community worldwide, including hobbyists, beginning card makers, manufacturers of card-making products, retail sellers of products, educators, and press are invited to come together to celebrate this holiday and creative passion.

It is a day to connect with fellow card makers both near and far, to applaud the creativity that powers the craft, and to provide an opportunity for card makers to connect and find resources that will empower, inspire, and encourage them in their card making.
The origin of exchanging handmade greeting cards can be traced all the way back to ancient Chinese culture.
* Today, card making is a worldwide hobby, especially popular in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
* 86% of scrapbookers also create handmade cards
* 92% of paper crafters create cards more than any other type of project
* The top occasions/themes for making cards are
o Birthdays
o winter holidays (Christmas, New Year’s, etc.)
o thank you Valentine’s Day
o Mother’s Day
* Card makers prefer stamps and rub-ons for use on their holiday handmade cards
* 73% of card makers use their computer in part or all of their design

Coinciding with WCD, Papercraft Inspirations Magazine are having a Christmas blog party all weekend, celebrating Christmas and offering Christmas card making ideas, projects, competitions, money-saving offers and more, all that you'll need for the festive season.

Papercraft Inspirations Blog Party

We were thrilled when we were asked to join in with the festivities and we would like to invite you to join in too by making a Christmas card to celebrate.

We have a paper pad to giveaway too;



We will pick a card at random from all the eligible cards.

  • In order to be eligible you need to add a link in the comments to a newly created Christmas themed card by midnight on Saturday 9 October.
  • You may enter as many times as you wish and you may combine challenges.
  • Cards must link back to the Daring Cardmakers blog.
  • Have fun creating!



To make this card I used:-
Penny Black Slapstick Stamp Set - Carolling Penguins
Stamped onto Watercolour paper with StazOn Ink
and coloured with AquaMarkers
Plenty of Stickles was added!
Mounted onto Bazzill Card Stock
Punched with Martha Stewart Crown Border Punch
and embossed the White with Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder
Tiny Snowflakes - Woodware Punch
Peel Off Gems for the centres
Kathy
To make this card I used:
C6 blank (used landscape)
Kaiser "Dear Santa" 6x6 paper pad
Wide organza ribbon
Gold thread and gold crochet thread
a few beads in matching colours
Spellbinders Nesties scallop circles die
Spellbinders Shapeabilities "Fanciful Holidays" die (tree)
scrap of gold paper
Gold ink pad or Krylon pen
Gold Stickles

1. Cut and stick 2 strips of paper (one 1.5cm wider than the other) across the card front
2. Die cut an aperture with the Nesties die, run the ink or Krylon pen around the raw edge
3. Tie a ribbon bow around as shown, tie a few strands of gold thread through the knot, Thread some beads onto another length of thread and secure the ends by knotting the end beads in place. Thread the crochet cord through the loop in the ribbon, then with some beads at either end of the bead-string, tie the crochet cord tightly around the centre so that the beads will hang down at the two ends when the card is standing up.
4. Cover the inside back of the card, Adhere the paper for the tree to a scrap of card, then cut out the tree shape, add a scrap of gold paper to the reverse to show through the little "bauble" holes.
5. Apply glue or tape to the reverse of the tree, close the card so that you can position the tree in the aperture and stick down firmly. Highlight the star with gold Stickles.and it's all done.

Lythan
To make this card I used:
Craft Creations large square card blank
Digital Papers from Funky Hand Dreams Come True CD printed at A5 size
Snowflake and sentiment are Funky Hand All I Want for Xmas Digi stamps
Fiskars Upper crest border punch
Black felt tip pen
Glue pen and Glamour Dust glitter
Nestability small rectangle and scallop dies

1: Print out your papers.
2: Using Word or equivalent, make an A5 page, insert the digi snowflake and enlarge to about half the page. Print out onto one of the pattern papers
3: Cut out the snowflake, leaving a small outline.
4: Add a line of glue and Glamour Dust inside the black line.
5: Cut a square of pattern paper 4x4" and another 4.5 x 4.5 ". Outline with black pen. Adhere together.
6: Stick a different pattern to the bottom half of a card blank. Outline with black pen
7: Using the same pattern as the snowflake, punch a border. Outline and stick to the top of the patterned paper.
8: Cut out the sentiment and a scallop using nestability dies. Outline and stick together.
9: Stick the large square of patterned papers to the card, slightly higher than the centre.
10: Add the snowflake using foam pads
11: Add the sentiment to the bottom right hand corner




To make this card, I used;
Bazzill Kraft and white cardstock
Crate Paper Snowy Day papers, chipboard and stickers
Papermania gems
Paper flowers - some coloured with Sharpies
Lace and button twine
Button and brads
Nestabilities small scallops circle die
Cuttlebug flower die
Cuttlebug embossing folder
Circle and Holly punches
Brown and white inkpads
Needle and thread

1. Cut a panel of brown patterned paper and ink and stitch around the edge, wrap lace around the panel and mat with Kraft cardstock
2. Emboss a panel of white card, tie on twine, mat with kraft cardstock, ink and stitch and adhere to the card.
3. Mat a chipboard ring with white embossed card cut into a circle and a die cut scalloped circle.
4. Add a cuttlebug flower and chipboard snowflake circle with a brad, adhere the completed circle to the card.
5. Add note label and memories sticker and adhere chipboard scallop and corner to the card.
6. Create tree from patterned paper, stitching the edges of the tree, add a snowflake and punched circle with a brad and add the tree to the card.
7. Punch holly, ink and adhere. Glue flowers to the card.
8. Add a punched yellow circle and button to the top of the tree and gems to the card.


Friday, October 01, 2010

Opalus

Thank you to everyone who played along with our "Oops I Forgot" dare this past week.

October is our anniversary month - yes the DCM is FOUR years old this month - we're very proud of that achievement and we hope that you've all enjoyed and been inspired by our challenges and the projects we've shown here. We're looking forward to Year 5 already!

With that in mind it's even more special that our new Guest Designer is a long-time Darer here on the DCM blog; we're very happy to announce that Samm (Livett) Turner has agreed to join our team for the next two months. Welcome to the team, Samm, we love your cards and we are proud to be able to showcase your work here on the DCM blog


Well "our" very own birthstone is the 10th birthstone dare of the year and it's

Opal – The October Birthstone
“Opal” is derived from the Latin word “opalus” which means “a stone”.

The precious Opal occurs in several types of colour. The White opal has a white body colour with pastel glints of rainbow. The Black opal has a blue, grey or black body colour.The black Boulder opal contains ironstone.
Crystal or water opal is the transparent or colourless opal contains brilliant flashes of colour within it.
Fire opal is a transparent or a translucent opal with a yellow, orange or red body colour that may also have a flash of colour.
Australia produces around 97% of the world's opal and 90% is called ‘light opal’ or white and crystal opal.
We'd like you to use the Opal as your inspiration for your card this week, whether it be the many colours of the Opal or the history and myths that it has inspired.

Please come back and leave a link so we can see your creations, oh, and please come back over the weekend too when we'll have a World Cardmaking Day Christmas Extra here on the DCM!

But first, here are some Opal cards from the DT

Nat