Step away from the cards - tag it!

Friday is dare day and Daring Cardmakers have the second of the "step away from the cards" dares in the run up to Christmas - make a tag!



Tags are usually a last minute thing for me so it was good to have a prompt that made me get some of them out of the way early. To be honest, they looked nearly as nice without the holly so if you needed a super-speedy option at the very last minute this could be it!

I used the MISTI to do these "production line " style so they were quick in any case. If you put a frame (the negative of the die cut) into the MISTI, line the stamp up so it's where you want it in the aperture and then just pop each blank die cut into the frame, the stamp will be exactly where you want it each time.

Stamps:
Noel Plate 2 (PaperArtsy)

Paper: white, green, red

Ink: Memento Luxe by Tsukineko (Love Letter)

Other:
Stitched square die (cheap and cheerful unbranded)
Square Nestabilities (Spellbinder)
Festive Greenery strip die (Tim Holtz/Sizzix Alterations)
Office hole punch
Posca white paint pen
Clear Wink of Stella pen
Crop-a-dile 
White crochet thread
MISTI

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Deck the halls

It's Daring Cardmaker day and we're getting further into the Christmas spirit - today's dare asks for a card inspired by Christmas carols and songs.

I immediately thought of this lovely big sentiment stamp with words from "Deck the halls with boughs of holly" so went with that and, of course, the holly to go with it!

Colouring is a mix of Copic and pencils. I used a scalpel to cut around the tips of a couple of the leaves so I could tuck the die cut circle in behind them. The berries have a bit of Wink of Stella glitz on them and white paint pen highlights.

Stamps:
Noel (Waltzingmouse Stamps - now available from Gina K)
Freebie holly stamp (Creative Stamping magazine)

Ink: Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Paper: kraft

Other:
Copic markers
Coloured pencils
Stitched circle die (just a cheap and cheerful unbranded one)
Clear Wink of Stella marker
White Posca paint pen
Corner Chomper

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Birthday kicks!

My nephew celebrated reaching double figures recently! He does Taekwondo and is currently a green belt so I went with this digital image from craftsuprint which has the option of belts in different colours.

The image comes with a background and separate bits to layer up decoupage-style. I didn't use the background, just the figure and a couple of layers. The image is pre-coloured but I added a tiny bit of Copic shading as well.

The wonky spiral element is hand cut and I laid a circle die on the card as a guide for placing the die cut lettering. A doodled border finished it off.

Apologies that the image is a wee bit blurry - low light in Northumberland and a posting deadline made it tricky!

Supplies:
Karate Dude image from craftsuprint (Karate Girl is also available if you want something for your nieces rather than nephews!)
Copic markers
Black and white cardstock
Tim Holtz Typeset strip die by Sizzix
Posca white paint pen
White Prismacolor pencil
Pinflair glue gel

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Step away from the cards!

In the run up to Christmas, some of the challenges at DCM will be to "step away from the cards" and make other things (which can be Christmas-themed or not - it's up to you).

Our first non-card challenge is to make or decorate a gift bag or box.

I made a bag-a-lope using an A4 manilla envelope. This is a useful "how to" if you fancy having a go - Bag-a-Lope Tutorial. Measurement-wise I just trimmed an arbitrary "looks right" amount off the top and scored at 5cm.

It's another one that looks better in real life I'm afraid but I'm sure you get the idea! The snowflakes are glittery and the hanging bauble is silver mirri card which is difficult to photograph. The snowflake is embossed into the bauble with the die rather than cut out of a separate piece and stuck on.

Supplies:
A4 manilla envelope
White cardstock
Fancy Lattice die (Shapeabilities by Spellbinder)
Sizzlets die by Sizzix (Serenity set, retired) 
Snowflake die (Waltzingmouse Stamps, retired)
Sheer ribbon
Silver thread
Corner Chomper
Cropadile

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November inspiration

It's Friday so it's Daring Cardmakers day and despite having finished my month as Guest Designer I'm still here! I'm delighted to have been invited to stay on as a permanent member of the team which should give me a little prod to make something each week as well as being great fun!

Being the first week of the month it's an "elemental" dare - scroll down to see the picture Kathy chose or, even better, visit the DCM blog to see the picture and the different ways it inspired the team.

There are loads of possibilities in the picture so choosing three or more elements shouldn't be too difficult.

I chose the colours, butterfly (it seems a strange decoration for a Christmas tree but definitely there!), circular cushion and glitz (gold embossing and gems). I tried to keep some of the overall "busy" feel as well which made me a bit twitchy but I think there's enough white space here to counteract it!

My purple circles are domed to fit with the cushion element - I've got a couple of wooden implements that go with a dapping/doming block designed for shaping jewellery pieces which proved very useful on larger circles. An embossing stylus is great for tiny ones but not so much use when you go large!

Stamps: Wings by Darkroom Door

Ink: 
Adirondack by Ranger (Pool)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Picked Raspberry)
Versamark

Paper:
Bristol board
Textured purple

Other:
Gold detail embossing powder
Coloursoft pencil
Circle punches and die
Hello die by Waltzingmouse Stamps (retired)
Cressida stencil by Memory Box
Corner Chomper
Nail art gems
Pinflair glue gel

The elemental inspiration picture:

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