Tempting Template Tuesday

Thank you for all the wonderful cards you've been sharing with us for Keryn's Distressing Dare. There's still plenty of time to join in and show your work, but as usual we also have something else for you to play with in the middle of a DCM week.

So, for our Little Midweek Extra this time we have what we hope is a tempting template to help get those creative juices flowing. We're looking forward to seeing how you use this sketch, remember you can shrink it, twist it, turn it on it's head - as long as we can stil see the sketch in there its up to you. Have fun, and don't forget to come back and let us know where we can see your cards. Here are some from the DT to help get you thinking - there'll be more being added shortly, so please pop back to check them out too

Most Distressing

Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful creations for our team Hot and Spicy dare and our 7th Anniversary (Wool & Copper) Anniversary Little Extra.

Hi it's Keryn here and it's my turn to Distress you all, or at least your cards with this weeks dare. You can make a card for any season, any holiday, any occaision but you need to use either a fingernail, curled edges, sandpaper, tearing, anything you like really as long as looks like it's had a fair bit or wear and tear.

Please leave us a message when you've made your card so we can come and see how distressed you can be.

Kathy

Keryn
Lythan
Rachel
Michelle
Sue
Tanya

The first in a series !!

Big thanks again to everyone who joined has joined in last Friday’s team dare,

there certainly was some beautiful creations on the subject of hot and spicy !
Now, you still have time to join in if you want too- but if you want a little extra dare, you’ve come to the right place !

We are introducing a new series to our little mid week dares, based around traditional and anniversary gift themes to inspire a design. We are not necessarily looking for an anniversary card (although obviously that’s allowed :) the card can be for any occasion but it should be inspired by the gift theme of the chosen year.

Now, we could start with 1st Anniversary, but that would mean you'd be able to guess the next dare in the series, and that would be too easy eh? :) So we've decided to pick the dare year randomly and we are starting off with

'The 7th Anniversary'

We’d like you to make a card inspired by the Traditional or Modern gift theme
for a 7th Anniversary, which is……

'Wool or Copper'

Don’t forget to leave us a link to your card so that we can come see your lovely creations!

Hot and Spicy

A huge thank you to everyone who joined in with Jo's Fluttery Butterfly dare - the cards were, as ever wonderful, and so varied.

We hope that you are finding Lythan's tutorial both informative and inspiring - it gives a whole new and uniquely "you" dimension to all those patterned papers we love so much, doesn't it?
Please keep sharing the cards you're making, we love to see them.

This week's Dare theme is a team effort rather than a challenge just thought up by just one of us.

We'd like you to take the phrase
"Hot and Spicy"
and make of it what you will.

It could be colour themed, food themed or maybe have just a hint of saucy spicy-ness

Should be interesting! When you've finished spicing up your cards, please share what you make in the usual ways :)

Finally, we have some happy news to share. Tanya has agreed to join us on the Design Team as a full time member. Tanya's work is lovely, and we are really pleased to have us join the team full time. Welcome aboard Tanya.

Sue

Jane
Tanya
Kathy
Lythan
Michelle

Doodling with patterned paper tutorial

Hello there, it is Lythan here with the second in our occasional tutorials. I'm going to share something I absolutely love doing - adding a little extra to patterned paper.

To do this you need to chose paper with quite a bold pattern. Papers such as those by American Crafts; the more modern K and Co; Sassafrass Lass and Scenic Route are good places to start. I am using Piggy Tales in these examples. I love these papers as they are so bright and colourful and also have a matching plain colour on the back. This technique works well for cards using punches and loads of white space. They often solve my problem of what to put on men's cards!

So here is what you will need
a variety of toning papers, some punches, distress ink, card stock, black and white pens. I use any old black gel pen but the only white pen for me is a Pentel Hybrid Gel pen (currently available in Smiths!)

Punch out shapes in a variety of sizes - I tend to use circles or squares. Flower shapes would work well too. Don't make them too small or the doodling gets tricky.
Choose to use some on the patterned and some on the plain side.
I then always distress the edges, this makes the shapes "pop" on white cards. You can see the difference between the one on the left and those on the right
then draw an outline circle - there are all sorts of ways of doing this, here are a few examples...then outline the patterns with black pen
You can leave them like that - I think the patterns look smarter and fresher with a bit of black added. But then if you add some white and some additional patterns...
you get a really individual look! Then just have fun in front of the tv doing some doodling.
And then assemble onto cards
It also works for larger pieces of patterned paper. This card would be quite nice...
but I prefer the look of this one!NB It is well worth washing your hands frequently while making these cards as distress ink and black gel pen transfer easily. Often my choice of where things go is dictated by hiding smudges - there were three on the above card...
So there you go - I would love to see your creations. Link them here in the usual way!

Butterfly, Flutterby

Hi everyone :) Jo here with this week's dare....

I seem to like butterflies at the mo. This week therefore I would like you to put some butterflies on cards. Stitched, felt, shiny, bright, plain, paper pieced, stamped, drawn... you get the idea :) any theme of card but it must have a butterfly somewhere on the card!

Thank you to everyone who took part in Kathy's fabulous Shrink to Fit dare and also the little mid week extra :)

Have fun and we can't wait to see your wonderful creations!

Edit:
The lucky winner of our Spot Prize on the "Shrink to Fit" Dare is Mucky Pup
Please contact Kathy with your postal info and your prize will be on its way asap
Jo

Keryn

Kathy
Rachel
MichelleTanya Leigh
Sue

Lythan

We've folded.....:)

Hello Everyone ! A huge thank you once again to everyone who has taken part in (and are still planning to take part ) in Kathy's 'Shrink it' dare. What a great dare- I think we all had fun with that one !

Now this weeks mid week dare is inspired by Rachel and is called 'Folded' ! This is not folds in the card blank itself, but rather folds ON the card- whether it be some kind of paper folding technique or folded embellishments or even just a folded over message of some type.

Here's a couple from the design team to give you a couple of ideas ! The first card is from Sue, the second from our lovely guest designer Michelle.

Have fun! We look forward to seeing what you come up with !

Shrink to Fit

Welcome to another Daring Friday :)

This time it's me (Kathy) here to set the week's challenge, but we've a couple of things to mention before we get down to the new Dare.
First we want to say a big Thank You for all the wonderful cards you've been sharing with us. We really do appreciate the time and effort you all put into our dares, and if you leave a comment here we love to come and visit your blogs to see what you've made.
Next, we've had a bit of a think, and decided that instead of asking our Guest Designers to come and play for just a couple of weeks, we're going to ask if they can put up with us for a whole calendar month, We think it'll be so much more fun, having longer to get to know them and their work. So today we'd like you to say Hi to the very talented Michelle who's been brave enough to join the Design Team for the month of April. Welcome aboard Michelle!
And there's more.....this week we have stash to give away, courtesy of UK magazine Papercraft Inspirations who featured the DCM blog last year - make a card specifically for this dare (and no other) and you'll be in with a chance of winning when we do the draw once next Friday's dare is announced.

So without further ado, here's my tiny little challenge for this week

Shrink to Fit

I used to be able to make cards with lots of "white space" around the designs, but lately when I've tried to do this my cards just look sooooo naked!

So this week I'd like you to think small - not small cards, but small spaces of embellishment on regular sized cards.

You are allowed to cover no more than a 5x5cms area of your card with paper or embellishment - the rest of the card must be left plain.

How you use those valuable cms is up to you. So you may choose to split up those cms to use around your card, or use them in a block or a line. It might help to cut a few 5x5cm squares then cut those up to work out good ways of using your allotment. Making your whole card a miniscule 5x5cms is NOT an option!! Lets have no cheating (I know what you lot are like.....),
but because I'm feeling generous, I'm going to let you add a SIMPLE greeting as extra to your 5x5 allowance! :-)

Please leave us a message when you've made your card so we can come and see how you use your 5x5cms

Can't wait to see what you come up with

Kathy

LythanTanya Leigh
Jane
Michelle
Keryn
Mel
Sue

Jo
Rachel

Rhi