Last Day of 2014

Happy New Years Eve! from the Die Cut Divas to all of you!

There's still time to enter our challenge.  This year seems to have flown by.  Don't you love Cathie's greet "from our house to yours"?   What a perfect ending to a year.

Cathie

Elizabeth Craft Designs Holiday House, Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Scalloped Circles, and Standard Circles, Bo Bunny Patterned Paper.

Check out House of Borowski

Arlene

Close-up

Arlene chose some silver gift wrap and a stamp by Judi-Kins, Spiral Flower Dots, and stamped it with Hero Arts Unicorn Pigment Ink.  It does not dry fast on the semi-glossy surface of this particular paper.  It sits on the surface and I didn't want to take a heat tool to it as the box contains perfume.  (TIP - stamp before you wrap the present).  So I wiped some of the ink off.  I then die-cut the fabulous Elizabeth Craft Designs snowflakes.  My daughter-in-law loved the packaging..

Arlene at A Bit of This and That

All the Best to you and yours

The Die Cut Divas

Cheery Seasons Greetings

Is it time for starting Christmas cards?  Hannah has created some beautiful cards so you are not quite out of the Christmas season yet.   I love the gold on this ornament.

I love this tree.  It's a joyful, wonderful tree I have fallen in love with.

Hannah has some posting issues, so I can't tell you what embossing folders, stamps or dies she used.  But I do love the cards.

Arlene and the Die Cut Divas

Penguins Everywhere!

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!  mine was wonderful!

It appears that our DT all love penguins, as you can see below, all cute and fun examples.

made by Hannah

Arlene at A Bit of This and That

Michelle at Just a Nutter Paper Crafter


I'm off to play with my new toys!
Hannah and the DCD Team

Merry Christmas!!!

Hannah

Marsha

 www.grammasroom.blogspot.com

Arlene Front of Card

inside of card - Holiday House

Full view of inside of card

Close-up of inside of card Elizabeth Craft Designs Trees from Everygreen Pivot Card



Arlene at A Bit of This and That



From: Hannah, Arlene, Dawn, Cathie, Michelle, and Marsha

It's Christmas Eve

I'm actually posting this on the first hours of Christmas Eve! It's kinda weird really, it's 1am CST as I'm writing this and I can officially say tomorrow is Christmas, I hope it didn't confuse the kids too much, they might think it's time to open presents when they wake up, and when I told them we were going to the Christmas eve service "tonight"  they thought I meant now, too funny. Anyway now my late night jabbering is over, here are some more Lovely cards from our DT.

Michelle at Just A Nutter Paper Crafter

 

Made by Hannah

 

Arlene at A Bit of This and That

 

Dawn at Dawns world

 

Counting down to Christmas

I can hardly believe Christmas is this week! What are your plans or traditions? My Family every year have a wonderful croissant breakfast made by my Dad, and after gifts we play games and enjoy time together.
Today our Diva's have some lovely inspiration to share.

made by Marsha

Elizabeth Crafts Design Holiday House, Spellbinder Shapeabilities Grommet Tag, Spellbinder Nestabilities Label Four

Arlene at A Bit of This and That

Arlene made these fun tags using an owl and penguin die

Michelle at Just A Nutter Paper Crafter

Michele made a lovely whimsical winter scene.

I hope you are all having a happy, safe, and warm holiday!

Hannah and the DCD Team

Sweet snowglobe

Hey there I hope you enjoyed the time with our Guest Alicia this week, I certainly did!
   

As her last day with us she wanted to share this lovely card

Isn't this the cutest shaker card?!

Every Friday she does an Inspiration post on her personal blog, for Dies R Us who is also our sponsor this month, you can view all the details on her blog here

 

 

Thanks Again Alicia for a wonderful week!  I enjoyed having you with us!

Annan and the DCD Team

Tent Card Tutorial with our Guest Designer Alicia

I'm excited to be the Guest DT for Die Cut Divas this week and today I'm going to share a tutorial for these sweet 'tent cards'. I used these as a treat bag for my daughters teachers for the end of the school year, and they would look great with a Halloween or Valentines theme too, or simply as a card. They are quick and can be kept simple or detailed depending on what dies you choose. You can leave them undecorated and they would still look just as striking! Here is what they look like once completed.

Dies used include:

Memory Box Star Garland

Spellbinders Curved Rectangle

1) Cut cardstock to the sizes below. This card can be created to any size you like, however my card will measure 5" x 6" once complete.

 

2) Score the 5" x 4" at 1" intervals down the card. This will create the bottom of the card. Fold score lines into a valley, mountain, valley style

3) From one of the 5" x 6" pieces, use any shaped die you would like for the 'window'. I've used  Spellbinders Curved Rectangle. Be sure to leave room at the top and bottom to attach to the bottom piece. 

 

4) Attach both 5" x 6" pieces to the scored card, with the scored card on the inside.

** If you find that once you've attached the scored card to your 'window' piece it shows through the window, carefully replace your die and re-cut it.

5) From the same coloured cardstock, die cut one Memory Box Star Garland.

6) Carefully attach the die cut Memory Box Star Garland to the front window. Due to the fiddly, delicate sections of the die cut, I found using a glue pen to be very effective as compared to adhesives like tape or glossy accent.

7) If you will be using this as a 'treat' bag like I did, I found that I had to add a couple of splints of thick cardboard (cut from a cereal box) to stop it from falling over.

8) Fill your zip lock bag with treats and attach zip bag to the top of the card with tape before pressing together. You can either leave it here or punch a couple of holes up the top to thread some ribbon through and decorated with sequins and Kindyglitz.

 

Introducing our Guest Alicia

Please welcome our guest..... Alicia!

Tell us a little about yourself:

 I'm a mother of 2 small precious people & a part-time worker. I started scrapbooking in 2005. I moved onto digital scrapbooking when my daughter was born in 2007 (& still do!) as it was easier, quicker & both grandparents wanted scrap pages too so it was easier to do one page digitally & email it to everyone. I needed to use my paper up so I started playing at card making.

How long have you been a card maker/scrapper & when did you start? 

I had always admired all those beautiful coloured images (Magnolia, La La Land, CC Designs etc) so I bought a few stamps & used my pencils to start with. Pencils just didn't have the wow factor I was after so I decided to pick up my first Copic in 2011 after visiting a craft fair & self taught.

Wow you do amazing coloring for being self taught, you have a great teacher (wink)

Do you follow sketches or dive right in? 

If there is a current sketch challenge that would fit the idea of my image I have in my mind then I will have a play with it, but I don't solely use sketches. Sometime when I start off with a sketch, it morphs into something completely different but I find sketches a great starting place!

                              

How many projects do you make a week? 

I'm currently on 2 weekly design teams and 2 monthly design teams so I create at least 2 cards a week. If I have time I will create more, but I make sure my commitments are covered first which usually doesn't leave me with much spare time.

What is your favourite tool (what can't you create without) & why? 

I can't create without colouring something. Colouring is very therapeutic to me & I love colouring with my kids in the studio having a go too (with their own special pens & textas!)

You and me both, I love to color!

What at the moment is your most favourite thing to do on your project?

  I'm loving playing with Frantage! I love the added bling it adds to cards & the whimsical effect it creates. I'm still yet to master it though.

How would you describe your style? 

I'd describe my style as clean and simple without being CAS. You will always find a coloured image as a focus on my cards and a couple of layers of designer papers without too much fluff & pomp.

What about your style would you change (or not) & why?

 I'd love to be able to create those soft whimsical cards with all that distressing and lace etc, however I fail every time I've tried! I love having a fantastic image hand coloured as my focal point and try to keep the rest of the card simple so as to not detract from the image.

Have you been published or on a Design team - when & where? 

I have been published once in Australia (all details are here: http://maxibellestudio.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/watermarks-washi-tape.html) which was a great privilege.  I'm currently on both of the Dies R Us design teams (the inspiration blog & the challenge blog). I also design for Outlawz Saturday Paper Ala Mode weekly challenge & Scrapbooker PhD monthly challenge.

Describe (pictures are even better) your crafting area?

I'm very lucky to have my own space which I spent a considerable time thinking about layout & use before putting together. Everything is within arms reach so its very efficient for crafting which is great when I have limited time. There is plenty of desk area to spread out on (or have little helpers join in) and plenty of storage too. 

Fantastic, what I wouldn't give for a space like that.

Do you have a blog? If not where can we see more of your fabulous creations?

 My blog is http://maxibellestudio.blogspot.com.au

Thanks Alicia for the great introduction! I'm looking forward to seeing what else you are going to share with us this week.

Have a wonderful week!
Hannah and the DCD Team

Gifting Art

Arlene has been Busy making these lovely books to gift to her co-workers,  I love the faux stitch borders from the die.  I guess I still have time to add to my Christmas wish list

Memory-Box--Classic-Upper-Alphabet_

Die-namics Stitched Stax (rectangles)
Hero Arts Long and Cute Tags  (DI046
The tag is inlaid into the rectangle

For the Guys

Memory Box Classic Upper Alphabet

Die-namics Stitched Stax (squares)

For the Girls

Memory-Box--Classic-Upper-Alphabet_

Die-namics Stitched Stax (circles)
To get more details and close ups you can visit her blog A bit of this and that.

Hannah and the DCD Team

Winter Wishes

 This sweet card makes me want to wish for snow,  but the right kind of snow,  lately our Snow's have been mostly ice and way to cold to even go outside and enjoy it, but there is always that wishful thinking right?
I Love Cathie's Choice of colors, and design.

Made By Cathie

Art by Miran Image, Spellbinders Nestabilities Label 28, Mega Ovals Large, Elizabeth Craft Design Snowflakes, Kaisercraft Patterned paper, AmyRUs sentiment stamp.

 

Hannah and the DCD Team

 

Vintage Holiday

Well vintage looking anyway, today I have a simple card to share

 usually around the holidays I use a lot of my scraps to make cards,  as I did here, making the assembly quick and easy to duplicate.

I can hardly believe the Holidays are nearly upon us!

Hannah and the DCD Team.

Of Penguins and Plaid

I love to use plaid patterns on holiday cards, and I have the perfect stamp to do so, but it just doesn't quite have the desired effect when stamped in a single color, and rather then taking the time to carefully color the image, I decided to make my own pattern using distress ink and the masking technique. After which I colored the Penguins hat and scarf to coordinate, and framed him with my two favorite Nestability dies, regular oval and the scalloped oval.
 I just love how this turned out, and can't wait to mail it off!

I think I'm almost caught up with my Christmas cards this year, now if I can just get them out on time.

Have a great weekend!
Hannah and the DCD Team

Bringin' home the Christmas tree

It looks Like Arlene has gone into the tree delivery business with these three fun cards

 

Arlene at A Bit of This and That

 

WINNER for November Challenge

Drum Roll Please!

The winner of the November challenge is:

# 76

Please contact us at thedcdivas@gmail.com so we may give you the information so you may collect your 7 images from Bugaboo Digital Stamps.


We have a brand new button for those picked by the DTs. YOU may have been selected, so read all the way down to see if you were selected as a DT favorite.  Those who were, go pick up your button under our button tab at the top of our blog.



Some of the DTs just had to do a FAVORITE PICK OF THE MONTH.  We have a very busy team, but you just have to take some time and make a special pick.  There are so many wonderful projects, CAS, Ornate, Elegant, Textural, and on and on.  I always have so many favorites that I am glad I don't have to pick one for the winner of the prize.

Here are some of the DT picks for November:

Cathie's pick

The concept of this card is fantastic with the three fold and the images are adorable, I kept coming back to it and finding new things to find, love it.



Arlene's Pick
I loved the shading of all the items on this image.  That's what brought me to this pick.  There were so many wonderful entries, but I love the color coordination, of background paper and embellishments with the colors in the image and that shading.  I actually had a number that I went back and forth on.




Michelle's Pick

 This reminds me so much of my Swedish heritage-the red and white sweater background design, the skates that look like real wood and steel, framed nicely with the postage stamp frame. The dimensional holly and pine cones really add a nature look-this is an outdoorsy card that just puts you on a frozen lake having fun. It was hard to pick just one, there were so many fabulous cards to choose from!

Hannah's Pick

I just love the simple elegance, the frosted look of the embossed border,  and the inlayed sequin ornaments, and kraft and maroon/burgundy is one of my favorite color combinations.  I also love the choice of the "backdrop" it beautifully showcases the card and just makes it stand out adding to the eye catching effect.

Have a wonderful Holiday Season from the Die Cut Divas.