Fröhliche Weihnachten

… and a happy new year 2020!

Fröhliche Weihnachten und ein glückliches neues Jahr 2020!

DC pretty pastels

Finally Friday! And the last day of school! The Christmas holidays are here … finally time to relax, drink tea and just being with my favourite people.

If you need more Christmas cards, we hope that the Daring Cardmakers can provide some inspiration:

Have a Very Crafty Christmas

 We'd love you to join in with us for just one more challenge from our seasonal calendar before we take our Christmas holiday!
 

It's another Anything Crafty challenge this week, and final theme this year is

Pretty Pastel Christmas

We don't often use them at Christmas so we would love to see any kind of craft project featuring Pretty Pastel shades

Cards, tags, bags, boxes, table decor.....any kind of craft project is good- just tone down the colours and go for pale and interesting this week!

To confess … using pastel colours is not such a huge challenge for me. Even at Christmas I prefer pastel colours to bright red and dark green. So here I used some Christmas papers and the stamp/die set you already know 😉.

Have a great countdown to Christmas! Try to enjoy and don’t worry

DC Christmas tree

Happy Friday, everyone! We’re halfway through advent time and Christmas is fast approaching …

Don’t worry. The Daring Cardmakers will give you some more inspiration for your last Christmas cards and projects.

Today it’s all about trees!

Any kind of craft project, not necessarily Christmas - but we need to see one 

or more trees featured please.

Hmmm… what should I say … I used the same die cut again and stamped some trees in different green/turqoise inks in the foreground. I also used Christmas paper with lots of trees on it.

(I already ordered some more Christmas products so that my blog will look a bit more varied next Christmas season!)

Next I immediatly used up the scraps and created another card from the „negatives“. This time the red dotted paper in the background and the Christmas tree paper as the element in the centre.

To make the snowflake more interessting I added dimension, another layer and some nuvo drops.

Here are the two twin cards next to each other:

DC December Elemental Inspiration

Hello, crafters! Happy St. Nicholas Day to everyone. I hope you all found some treats in your winter boots this morning … I found something great (new dies!) in my post box as well and can’t wait to try them out soon.

The Daring Cardmakers want to inspire you and brought you this elemental picture for December.

Pick at least three elements and use them on your card.

I used a tag, snowflakes and yarn. (And maybe I have to put deer on my wish list. They look awesome on any card)

DC natural, gold, white

Happy Friday, everyone! 

I already made plans visit Christmas markets and sheduled the first Christmas parties with colleagues and relatives … it’s starting to feel a lot like Christmas.

The Daring Cardmakers would like to add to the early Christmas feeling.

We'd love you to join in with us for our seasonal calendar
Have a Very Crafty Christmas
it's a mix of card challenges and others where you can share any kind of crafting project on our given themes -  come and get crafting with the DCM

Natural, Gold and White

This week it's 'Anything Goes' challenge and its a Colour Palette challenge

So, feel free to share any kind of craft project you

 fancy making, but with the beautiful 

Natural, Gold and White colour palette, please!

I used a card and added golden trees and a sentiment. The background paper has a wood pattern for the natural element.

By the way, the weather is awful around here: cold, foggy and always grey – perfect for crafting 😉!

Make the most out of this season!

DC Just cards: Christmas Songs and Carols

Hello, crafters! The Daring Cardmakers bring you a new Christmas inspired challenge.

This week is an 'Just Cards' challenge and the theme is 

Christmas Songs and Carols

choose any Christmas Song or Carol as the inspiration for making your card. If you want to add a twist by making it not a Christmas card then go for it!  we’d love to see how you manage that

I used a patterned paper with a Christmas song on it and added a few musical notes.

DC baubles and bows

Hello, crafters! Let the Christmas countdown continue …

The Daring Cardmakers have a new challenge for you to stock up your Christmas cards and projects.

We'd love you to join in with us for our seasonal calendar

Have a Very Crafty Christmas

it's a mix of card challenges and others where you can share any kind of crafting project on our given themes, so tags, bags, boxes or anything else you make.

This week is an 'Anything Goes' challenge and the theme is 

Baubles and Bows

So, feel free to share any kind of craft project, but it must feature 

Baubles and Bows, please

I made a card. For the baubles I used die cut circles and the bows are drawn with black fineliner.

DC November elemental inspiration

Yay! You might think it’s the start of November … but for the Daring Cardmakers it’s already the start oft he festive season. So get ready for snow, Christmas trees, winter scenes etc. during the next few Fridays.

This week we start our seasonal calendar - its a mix of card challenges and others where you can share any kind of crafting project on our given themes, so tags, bags, boxes or anything else you make.
 We're calling it:

Have a Very Crafty Christmas

This week though, we're sticking to cards and as it's the first day of a new month it's an 

Elemental Inspiration Challenge 

For November we have this lovely, Wintry mood board for you to play with.

Remember, you just need to pick a minimum 3 elements  from the picture to use when making your card.  If you choose to use the colour palette, then that would count as one of your elements.

I picked glitter, stars and snow covered trees.

You will notice during the next weeks that I love this set of dies (and the matching stamps). It was an expensive purchase but I think I already got it’s money worth out of it. And besides ... I don’t own that many Christmas products…

Hallo, ihr Lieben! Ihr denkt der November fängt an, aber für die Daring Cardmakers beginnt heute schon die Festtagssaison. Die nächsten Wochen gibt es jeden Freitag eine sehr weihnachtliche Inspiration für euch.

Macht doch mit, falls ihr noch Weihnachtskärtchen braucht.

Diese Woche gibt es eine Bildinspiration. Sucht euch drei Elemente aus und verwendet sie auf euren Karten.

Bei mir seht ihr schneebedeckte Bäume, einen Sternenhimmel und ein bisschen Glitzer.

Happy crafting! Viel Spaß beim Basteln!

DC back to black

Hello, crafty people! The Daring Cardmakers have a new exciting challenge for you.

Svenja wants us to

Go back to black!

Make a card that features the colour black as main colour or as a distinctive central element.

Usually I don’t use a lot of black on my projects as I think that it is such a sad colour. So I was really surprised how it looks combined with bright colours. It makes all the colours so much brighter and it doesn’t have to look like a condolence card at all.

Hallo, kreative Leserinnen! Die Daring Cardmakers haben eine spannende Herausforderung für euch.

Svenja möchte diese Woche schwarz sehen 😉.

Verwendet schwarz als Hauptfarbe auf euren Karten oder zumindest als großes Element.

Ich bin mit schwarz normalerweise sehr sparsam, weil es so eine traurige, dunkle Farbe ist. Aber ich war überrascht, wie knallig bunt alle Farben neben schwarz aussehen und dass die Karte gar nicht nach Trauerkarte aussieht. Wieder was gelernt!

While cleaning my craft cupboard I got rid of old SU catalogues. But I kept inspiring card ideas and try to „copy“ them. Here: using little stamps to create a background.

Beim letzten Ausmisten flogen auch alle alten SU Kataloge raus. Die inspirierendsten Bilder habe ich allerdings behalten und versuche die Ideen umzusetzen. Hier: kleine Stempel verwenden, um den Hintergrund zu gestalten.

DC Use up your scraps

Hello, crafters! Welcome to the Daring Cardmakers‘ challenge.

Use up your scraps

Are there some papers etc. you want to use up before the new year? Is there a paper pad that is lying around since forever? Is your scrap box overflowing? Do you have a collection of coloured stamped images that never fit on your current projects? Show us what you create with scraps and papers you want to get rid of.

There’s a paper pad I really love(d) … and I waited forever to cut it apart and actually use it. But now there are only little bits of it left and the patterns that I just don’t love that much. But before buying something new, I challenged myself to use it up completely.

And while I was decluttering my crafting cabinet a while ago I put a „use before 2020“ sticker on a number of things and I challenge myself to use them for my next craft projects. 

If not, they will be given away and I only allow myself to shop new things once they are gone (one way or the other 😉).

DC October Elemental inspirational challenge

It’s already October and I’m looking forward to some cosy golden autumn days.

Here is the inspirational picture I picked for the Daring Cardmakers:

Please use at least three items from the moodboard on your card.

I made a very traditional autumn card: hedgehog, leaves and a plaid pattern.

I remembered how much fun I had creating matching bookmarks (and/or envelopes) for my cards :-) ... I should do it more often!

Have a cosy and crafty weekend!

DC World Tourism Day

Hello, friends and crafters! Here is the new Daring Cardmakers‘ challenge.

Shabneez found out that it’s World Tourism Day today and it's role is to raise awareness of international tourism.

So she challenges you to create a card that features something from a different country or culture.

Oh. I got slightly carried away while crafting and created a card that celebrates travelling more than one specific country.

I tried to keep the card quite gender neutral. Wanderlust is part of my families‘ genes … one of my cousins is currently living and working in South America (and the other just returned from travelling through Australia/NZ) and my other cousin (my god daughter) is finishing school in July and already planning a year abroad. So it’s always good to have travel cards on hand.

Have fun visiting different countries via our blog, dream about travelling and make time for crafting and doing things that make you happy!

DC Got your number

Hello, crafters! The Daring Cardmakers are challenging you again to create a new card.

Ruth’s boys have their birthdays in September and hereldest has turned 16.  So her challenge to you is to create something with a number on it!

Use numbers on your card!

And it doesn't need to be a birthday number :)

I used a number stencil to create this background. Otherwise I kept it clean and simple so that I can use the card for any upcoming male birthday.

DC special thoughts

Hello, crafters! Happy Friday and let’s get crafty with the Daring Cardmakers.

Dawn picked this week’s topic:

Special Thoughts

The challenge I (=Dawn) have set is a personal one for me.  I recently lost my Dad to cancer after a 9 year battle.  My Dad was my hero and I miss him so much.  So I want you to create a card for that special person, in memory of someone special or just to let a friend know you are thinking about them.

As a family we received lots of cards after Dad passed away and it was comforting to know how much people cared.

I think it’s so brave of Dawn to share her personal story with us/you and so good to hear that (some) cards actually do make such a difference.

And I hope that most of our cards make a difference to someone and are able to touch/console/support/cheer someone up!

Here’s mine. The sentiment says: I miss you.

DC September elemental inspiration

Hello, crafters! Here’s the latest Daring Cardmakers‘ challenge.

It’s the first Friday in September. So as always we have an inspirational picture for you:

Pick at least three elements and use them on your card.

I picked pink, flamingo and a huge flower.

DC Resist!

Hello, crafters! Here comes the new Daring Cardmakers‘ challenge.

This week Nat is challenging you to embrace one of her favourite techniques of the moment: the resist technique.

You can accomplish it in a variety of ways using:

• Heat embossing to resist ink, watercolour or other media
• Masking paper or post-it notes with die cuts or even masking tape
• Resist spray on its own or in combination with stencils
• Masking fluid or a masking pen with watercolour
• Wax crayons

I love all the resist techniques that Nat listed, but I use heat embossing  the most often. I’m also quite a fan of ink blending at the moment … so here are my butterflies on bright and coloured backgrounds:

Hallo, liebe Bastlerinnen!

Diese Woche hat sich Nat eine Herausforderung für die Daring Cardmakers ausgedacht. Sie möchte Karten sehen, die mit einer „resist technique“ gemacht wurden.

Dabei muss ich immer sofort an heat embossing und farbige Stempelkissen denken. Und weil ich im Moment sehr sehr gerne Farbverläufe mit meinen Stempelkissen mache, kamen diese Kärtchen dabei heraus.

Schaut euch doch am Wochenende Tutorials für die oben erwähnten Techniken an und probiert mal eine aus?! Viel Spaß dabei!