Daring Cardmakers Birthday Celebrations - Docrafts sponsored dare

Hi!

All this month over on Daring Cardmakers we're celebrating the 7th birthday of the blog. There are prizes up for grabs and we've got some fab sponsors sharing their products too so you get to have a nosy at some of the great cardmaking products out there as well as the design team showing you some ideas on how to use them. As it's a party we've also got some guest designers popping up so keep a peek on the blog all through October and make sure you get involved because you've got the added incentive of prizes too!

This first weeks dare has been sponsored by Docrafts and they kindly provided the design team with some of their Border Punch punches to use. I was sent out the Ribbon Bow Border Punch and the Poinsettia Border Punch. Both you can get from Docrafts direct and from Docrafts stockists of which there are plenty so it should be easy to find one local to you. I know my local garden centre and The Range stock all the Docrafts products so they're really easy to get a hold of and the punches are a great investment buy at just a fiver!

I had a good play with the punches and I did have a little go at seeing what I could punch out with them. I even tried out punching Washi tape. I stuck the tape to a clear card bag first, (something that you can peel the tape off of afterwards) then punched along the tape. It worked quite well although I did need to make sure there were no sticky bits getting stuck inside so if you do have a go at this make sure you do the same so your punch isn't getting jammed with sticky bits. Makes for a bit of a different look to the tape. I'd use this on scrapbooking projects too.

 

Getting back to the challenge this week, as it's the birthday celebration we're making all the challenges birthday themed and the challenge this week is to be inspired by the rainbow birthday cakes and make a birthday themed card. Here's what I came up with for the birthday card using the Docrafts Ribbon Bow Border Punch:

 

I created the bunting from scraps of cardstock and measured the length of the bow cut out to get the pieces the right size so I could punch a ribbon out of the top of each piece. I then punched out holes in the top corners of each piece and strung each together using bakers twine. I used 3D foam pads to adhere the bunting to the card blank to give it the feeling of movement. The finishing touch was just adding the stamped greeting across the top. I wanted to keep it simple and just let the rainbow colours show off and the detail of the bow punch to be the focus so it didn't need any extra embellishing.

 

As an extra challenge this week you can also make a Christmas card using similar ideas/style to your first card. Here's what I came up with:

Again I've kept it simple to make the punch outs the focus. I used the Poinsettia border punch to punch out the edge of the card as it makes a lovely decorative edge. I think you could use this for any lace looking edge too. The banner was made cutting out squares of paper then punching the bows from the edges and stringing them together as in the first card but with this one I glued down the first and last pieces of bunting first then arranged the others around it so the middle piece is at the top.

Don't forget to check out this weeks challenge and have a go, www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com
You can win some of these fab border punches from Docrafts and also a £10 voucher from Ribbon Girl!

x Leo