All Checked Out

Well Hello !! Friday has come round again soooo fast ! Its my turn (Jane) to dare this week. Okay -are you ready ? For my dare you can choose any theme for the card BUT it must incorporate 'Checks', whether it be gingham paper or ribbon or squares, any thing really as long as it incorporates some kind of shape with 4 equal sides....... so go on- I dare you to think outside the square/step out of the box ..............easy as, eh ?!!

Thank you so much once again to everyone who joined in with Lynne's Pockets dare and the Little Extra- you all produced some absolutely gorgeous cards ! Well done. We are so looking forward to seeing what you put together for this dare.

Don’t forget to leave us a comment and your Blog link and we’ll come over to check out your creations. You can still join in the fun if you don’t have a Blog. Just send a pic/scan of your creation to the team at daringcardmakers@hotmail.co.uk and we’ll add it to our gallery for all to see.

Here's what the design team has come up with to give you a little inspiration.

Jane


Kathy



Rhi

Keryn
Gillian

Jo
Lynne
Lythan
Nat

We've Got Your Number

Please keep those fantastic pockets cards coming - they are wonderful and we'reenjoying seeing them all - but there's plenty of room for more, more, more!
We're very happy to announce that the very talented Nat (Kool Kitty Musings) has agreed to join us as our Guest Designer for the next couple of weeks, if you regularly check out the Darers' Links you'll already know something of Nat's wonderful work - and if not, well you're missing a treat!

This week we have a numerical Little Extra challenge for you:

"We've Got Your Number"

Numbers and Fun? Those two words don't often appear in the same sentence, do they?
Well, we'd like you to have some fun with numbers and put a numeral on your card - it's as easy as that

So a great opportunity to make some kid's birthday cards, but there's also Sweet 16, those milestone Birthdays, Special Anniversaries, even New Home cards personalised with the recipient's new house number on - as long as it's got a number on it, it counts (haha - did you spot the extra-subtle pun there?) There are probably loads of other ways to use numbers on your cards so get inventive and enjoy a bit of creative accountancy for our little bit of midweek fun. Don't forget to leave us a message to tell us where we can see your card.

Pockets of Fun

It's my turn - (Lynne) - to set the dare this week.
OoooOOoooOOooooOOOoo!!!!!!!!
My first Dare. I’m so nervous, I can’t believe that it’s my turn already.
I’ve gone for something nice and easy - had to break myself in gently.
POCKETS
I’d like to see lots and lots of pockets. Pockets full of posies, Brass in Pocket (love the Pretenders).Pockets on clothes, Pockets from clothes, Library Pocket, Pockets of this and Pockets of that.
Get the idea?
Pockets and Pockets of Pockets.

Don’t forget to leave us a comment and your Blog link and we’ll - hop, skip and a jump over to check out your creations. You can still join in the fun if you don’t have a Blog. Just send a pic/ scan of your creation to the team at daringcardmakers@hotmail.co.uk and we’ll add it to our gallery for all to see.

Remember to have pockets and pockets full of FUN!!!!

Lynne

Rhi

Lythan
Kathy

Donna

Jane

Gillian

News Flash !!!

Well, we are very proud to announce that just a few minutes ago ......we passed our 50000 visitor mark !! It's is a very proud and exciting moment for the Daring Card Makers Design Team and we have all been watching the counter this past few hours !

We would like to issue a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has supported us, to everyone who has joined in the dares so far and a special thank you to our regular loyal darers who join with us weekly.

On a personal note - I (Jane) would like to say a HUGE thank you to the Design team, for all their hard work, and their unwavering support of both the Blog and each other and myself. They are a wonderful group of ladies, and very special friends.

So- onwards and upwards ! Not long now till Friday's dare - but you still have time if you haven't taken part already to join with Gillian's dare and the Little Extra this week.

Many thanks once again to you all. We all appreciate your support!

Janexx

Faking it!

Please keep those fabby haberdashery cards coming, there have been some fantastic and inventive ideas shown using bits and bobs "pinched" from the sewing boxes around the world, and you know we're always keen to welcome more cardmakers to join in with our dares.
Have you noticed the visitor counter at the bottom of this page? It's getting VERY close to 50,000 now......

Fee Fi Fo Fum.....
For our Little Extra challenge this week, we'd like you to "Go Faux it" Yes, all we want you to do this week is to use something fake on your cards. For instance you could make fake ribbon, fake brads or fake chipboard - we think you talented folk can come up with lots more "let's pretend" ideas so we can't wait to see your ideas.

As usual, just leave a message to tell us where we can see your masquerading marvels and we'll pop over to see how you've got on with this little challenge.

And, also as usual, here are a few cards from the Design Team to start you thinking.

Visit to the Haberdashery Department

Thank you for all the wonderful cards you showed for last week's Text dare, as always it's amazing to see how mant different styles and ideas you come up with, we love to see them all. This week we'd like to welcome another Kiwi to the team - Donna has kindly agreed to be our Guest Designer for a couple of weeks, Welcome Donna, we hope you enjoy your time here and we look forward to seeing your work on here.

G'day all, Gillian here, and it's my turn to dare you all this week

Your card can be any theme you like, just as long as it's got something you'd find in a Haberdashery Department on it

Alright then, grab that old sewing basket of yours or raid your sewing machine drawer, have a look at what creative bits are hidding away there....maybe it's buttons, a zip, hook & eye's, ribbons, braids, Dressmaking patterns, tape measures,Pins & Needles, lace, safety pins or embroidery thread....

so many wonderful little treasures just waiting to be added to your next card :O)

I'm going to add one more rule....

Yes you may stitch on your card, but that can't be your only haberdashery item....

Don't forget to leave us a comment with your blog link to show us your creations. If you haven't got a blog you can still join in by sending a pic of your card to the team at daringcardmakers@hotmail.co.uk We will add it to our gallery and share the link right here on the blog.Here's the Design Team's Cards to get you inspired!

Lynne

Gillian

Jane


Keryn


Donna
Kathy


Lythan

Jo

The Swinging Sixties

So, are you all wondering what our news was?
Well, we got our first ever mention in a craft magazine - the magazine is a UK based one called Papercrafts Inspirations and it went on sale last Friday how exciting is that?
Maybe there's more to come....

Jane's been looking at the stats and come up with a few bits of DCM trivia;
*On average we are gaining 445 NEW visitors every single month
*The average daily visit count is 232 people
*We have had visitors not only from the UK, NZ and Australia, where our Design Team members are based, but also from the USA, Sweden, Germany, Ireland, Puerto Rico, India, Belgium, Canada, Singapore, Finland and France
*We are due to hit the 50000 visitor mark soon - sometime around 23rd July - WOW!
And we just want to say a big THANK YOU to all of you who come and play each week and make this such a fun place to be.

After all that, let's get down to the challenge business again, don't forget there's still lots of time to have a go at the TEXT dare, but just in case you're looking fora little bit of Tuesday temptation........

We've another Retro challenge for this week's Little Extra.
This time we'd like you to find your inspiration in the 1960s.

Need some help? Try these links:

I Love the 60s
Wikipedia
More 60s links

Looking forward to seeing what you groovy kids come up with, so don't forget to leave us a link so we can come and hang out on your blog.
Here are some from the DT to get you thinking

Text Message

We do hope you enjoyed playing with your beads and sequins this last week - it was certainly inspiring to see all the ideas you came up with for using them, thank you so much for sharing them with us. span>

Well, this week the Design Team have come up with this idea for you to play with, we hope you'll enjoy it.

TEXT...

definition... the main body of matter in a book or manuscript. the actual wording of anything written or printed, short passage of scripture, etc

We'd like you to somehow incorporate text into your cards this week - not just one word.. but a portion of TEXT... like a poem, or newspaper print, Caligraphy, Even rip up an old text book and use some of the paper from it, there are masses of possibilities here, so let your imaginations run riot and let us see you texting to your heart's content!

Here are some cards from the Design Team to get you thinking. We just know you're going to come up with some fabby cards for this one - we can't wait to see them! Don't forget to come back and leave us a message when you're ready to share your words of wisdom with the world.....

Rhi
Sheila

Kathy

Jane

Gillian

Keryn
Lynne


Lythan

Jo

Cartoon crazy little extra

You're showing us some wonderful cards this week - it's amazing how just a couple of beads or sequins can really "lift" a card. We are really enjoying seeing all these wonderful Beady cards and of course there's still time to make loads more! We hope you'll enjoy having a bit of fun with Lythan's fab idea for the Little Extra challenge this week:

We'd like you to have a go at making a cartoon inspired card! You could use the colours and patterns (eg Minnie Mouse's dress would mean a black, white and red spotty card; Winnie the Pooh red and um, honey coloured) or symbolic (eg using an anchor inspired by Popeye).

Please take care not to infringe the copyright rules - you might need to think a bit more laterally with this one.

As usual we have some Design Team cards to help get you thinking.

Come and leave us a message when you're done and we'll hot-foot it over to see your cartoon creations.