Mask-erade

It has been wonderful seeing all your sparkly sapphire blue (and pink!) cards this last week. Today's challenge gives you a choice...

Masks

Now you could make a card featuring a mask; or use a masking technique for stamping or use a mask to spray or paint on. The decision is yours!
Just don't forget to leave a link in the comments section so we can see your creation.
Here are all the wonderful ways that the team have interpreted the dare

Rein

Kathy

Nat

Lynda

Lythan

Keryn

And the winner is.....

The winner (picked by Random.org) of our fabulous prize, generously donated by The Ribbon Girl for last week's Post Pals challenge is:

Alisonw30

Congratulations Alison, if you'll please contact one of the team via our personal blogs, with your postal info we'll pass them on to Andrea and Mary at The Ribbon Girl

Once again, thanks to those who joined in to support Post Pals' wonderful work.

The latest dare is detailed below, and we look forward to seeing your Sapphire cards soon!

Sapphires for September

Thank you for helping us bring smiles to the faces of some sick children through the wonderful Post Pals scheme. We were so happy to see all the lovely cards you made.

Thank you also too The Ribbon Girl for offering such a gorgeous prize to one lucky darer this week.

Asia will be along soon to announce the name of the winner, so please check back later to see if it's You!

Another Thank You message goes to our wonderful Guest Designers Ania and Julia, who have shared their inspiring crafting with us over the last few weeks - thank you both, it's been a real treat to have you with us and we hope you'll continue to join in with our dares each week!

As it's the first Friday of September, we're looking at the birthstone for for this month which is the

Sapphire.
Sapphires are also the traditional gemstone for the 45th Wedding Anniversary and we'd like you to use the Sapphire as your inspiration for your DCM card this week

Here are a few bits of Sapphire info that might spark off some ideas:

* The word Sapphire derives from the Greek word for blue, "sapphirus"
* They have been associated with Priests, who considered them symbolic of purity, and Kings, who thought them symbolic of wisdom
*Sapphires were mined as early as the 7th Century BC in India and what is now Sri Lanka. Today they are found in Sri Lanka, Australia, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Kashmir, Myanmar, Thailand, China, Madagascar, and the US
* It was believed that a venomous snake put in a vessel made of sapphire would quickly die. Sapphires therefore earned the reputation as an excellent all-purpose medicine and were ingested as an antidote to poison. Sapphires were sometimes ground into powders as a remedy for everything from colic to rheumatism and mental illness. They were also believed to be able to stop bleeding and cure disorders of the eye.
* Egyptians associated the clear sapphire with the eye of Horas -- the all-seeing, all-knowing "eye in the sky" -- while the gemstone was used by the Greeks to to tap into the subconscious mind by stimulating the opening of the "third eye."
* Sapphires represent sincerity and faithfulness and therefore were a popular marriage gift
* Clear sapphires, like diamonds, are the guardians of love. When exchanged with a loved one, sapphires are believed to enhance feelings for one another and attune the two psyches. Sapphires have the power to banish envy and jealousy, and are said to promote chastity in virgins and fidelity in marriage.

* Fancy sapphires come in various colours such as yellow, orange, lavender and other pastel shades, but the most prized is the pink sapphire or more precisely the pink-orange sapphire due to its rarity.

Please come back and leave a link so that we can pop along and see your creations

Here's what the team have been making this week

Nat:
Kathy

Keryn

Lythan


Jo

Rein   

.

A Little bit of Giving

It's Friday again and this week it's my - Asia's - first dare . Thank you all for taking part in Jane's material challenge, your cards were amazing!

This week we've got a prize for you from The Ribbon Girl. Just look at these colours and designs - aren't they fab?

And since we're doing a give away, I would like you to give something back. Remember last year Sue's Post Pals dare? It's a great cause and there are still many kids waiting for cards, so I would like you to create a "Thinking of you" card and send it to one (or all!) the children from this website. Let yourself be inspired by these kids, they all write about colours that they like and their favourite characters. Remember not to use glitter or things that could come off the card easily. If you're not from the UK, you may prefer to send this card to someone you know that may need a little support.

To qualify to enter our draw:

- Link your card back to here

- Add links to your blog for Post Pals, The Ribbon Girl and The Daring Cardmakers

- Enter your card for no more than 5 challenges including this one.

Witam serdecznie kartomaniaczki z Polski i zapraszam do wzięcia udziału w moim pierwszym wyzwaniu na DCM. Polega ono na stworzeniu pozytywnej kartki z przesłaniem "Myslę o Tobie" i wysłaniu jej do osoby, która potrzebuje takiego wsparcia. A przy okazji można wygrać wspaniałą nagrodę.

Here's a little inspiration from our Design Team:

Julia

Rein

Kathy

Lynda

Ania (Nutka)


Lythan


Asia


Keryn

Jo

Material girl

Hi everyone Jane here, Thanks to everyone for joining in with Jo's wonderful dare last week - we loved all of your cards - so creative !

Its my turn to set the dare this week- and I haved named it ......

'Material girl'

I would love you all to design a card inspired by a design on clothing - I know we have done inspired by clothing before but I was thinking more about being inspired by the pictures/textures/slogans/quotes on tshirts - not just limited to the colours/patterns on materials.(although, of course, they are perfectly acceptable to!'

I'm thinking ruffles,stitching/motives - but of course you can be inspired by just colours/designs if you prefer - it would be great if you have a picture of the clothing also? Hopefully I have not made it a too difficult of a challenge?

Come see what our design team have come up with this week. I am so proud of them - they took the challenge by the horns and have come up with some gorgeous designs as always !

Don't forget also - the DCM are now on facebook- hurry along and find us there too.......

Julia

Lynda

Inspired by the Motif on this T-Shirt:-

Kathy

Keryn

Inspired by this T-Shirt:-

Rein

Jane



Ania

Jo

Inspired by this t-shirt;


Vanessa

Inspired by Fat Face.

Asia Wu

Lythan

Tree-mendous!

Thank you to all who joined in with the team's August birthstone dare, there really were the most gorgeous selection of Peridot inspired cards!

It's Jo here this week with a dare....

Tree-mendous!

I would like to see cards this week featuring a tree! Some of the Daring Cardmakers may have groaned slightly when I mentioned Christmas trees (Kathy!) but it doesn't have to be a festive tree, green trees, apple trees, stamped trees, sticker trees, paper pieced trees - anything goes, as long as it is a tree!

Jo

Julia

Kathy

Lynda

Lythan

Vanessa

Rein  

August Birthstone; Peridot

Thank you all for joining in with Nat's very first challenge, what a fabulous array of cards we were treated to! We hope you'll enjoy this week's dare, which is the next in our series of birthstone themed challenges.

Before that though, we'd like to take a minute to say that Ania, our July Guest Designer all the way from Poland is going to stay with us for August too - we're so pleased she's agreed to play along for another month as her cards and other projects are such an inspiration.

Our Summer Special treat is that we also have a second talented guest designer to help inspire you:

We're delighted to welcome Julia to the team this month. Followers of the very popular "What's On Your Work-desk Wednesday" fun of sharing photos of our workspaces will already know Julia, as WOYWW was her brainchild!

We wanted her here on the DCM because she makes such wonderful things and we knew she would inspire you to get crafty!

Please take some time to visit the blogs of both of our August GDs - we promise you won't be disappointed.

So, down to the business of this week's challenge.

The August birthstone is the

Peridot

The colour of the peridot can range from lime, yellowish green, olive green to medium dark green.
As well as being the birthstone for August, Peridots are also the gemstone for the 16th Wedding anniversary

The Peridot is the National gem of Egypt. The Ancient Egyptians called the Peridot “the gem of the sun”.

They are associated with love, truth, faithfulness and loyalty, and also with fame, dignity, and protection

We'd like you to make a card using this lovely gemstone as your starting point. You could use the history, myths and qualities of the stone as your inspiration, and/or use the beautiful yellow-green colour in your creations.

Whatever you do, we'd love to see what you make, so please come back and leave a link so we can visit.

Here's what the Design Team have been making this week

Rein

Julia

Lynda

Nat

Ania (Nutki)

Kathy

Keryn

Vanessa