Dare 2B Artzy 2020 Favorites

 Hi Artzy friends-

Looking back on my creations for this year, it appears that many of my favorites all featured bees, bears, and of course, honey! 

These bears with their honey pots from the Honey Bears stamp set have been perfect for cards all year long, but I especially loved pairing them with this pretty spring paper from the All the Buzz collection.

This card was was so much fun to make, featuring more papers from the All the Buzz collection, and an adorable bee from the Buzzy Beez stamp set.

Here is another fun card featuring bees from the Buzzy Beez and Honey Bears stamps and dies, with my own stenciled background.

This Bear Hugs set was just what we needed this year to makes cards to send to friends and relatives that we weren't able to see in person. And since the masks are a separate stamp and die, I will use these bears for many years to come as well!

Dare 2B Artzy release several amazing new slimline dies this year, (with more to come in 2021!) This Slimline Honeycomb die was one of my favorites! 

Not only was this one of my favorite D2BA cards of the year, it was one of my favorite holiday cards of the season! Isn't this polar bear with the penguin riding on his head adorable?! The stamp set is called Just Chillin', and it's a great set to take us right through the new year!

I'm wishing you all a happy holiday season and I hope you and your loved ones are keeping safe. By this time next year, I hope to be hugging you all in person!

There's still time to enter this month's challenge on the Dare 2B Artzy blog. Enter your "Holiday Fun" card for a chance to win a $15 gift certificate! 

Thanks for visiting, and have a great day! 

See you in 2021!

Avra

Gift Giving Time!

 Hi Artzy friends-

It's that time of year! It's time to make and send cards, shop, bake, wrap, and present gifts from the heart to our loved ones. What better way to present so many types of gifts than with an adorable box/backpack that you create yourself and personalize with your own creativity?!

I have made four of these backpacks now, and my most recent one is definitely the best, so I will share some little tips that I have learned along the way. 

Cindy, the owner of Dare 2B Artzy, has done an amazing job printing step by step assembly instructions on the die packaging, as well as provided a video tutorial for you visual learners. She has also shared many examples of backpacks she has created. My observations are just my opinions, and things that worked well for me. When you get this die, I recommend you make your first one following along with the video or printed directions, and using paper that you don't "care about" until you find what works best for you.

Here is my favorite of the four that I've made.

I chose to create this one without the backpack straps, and it's still equally as cute and useful. 

In my opinion, the backpack version is adorable and unique, and is perfect when paired with an appropriately sized teddy bear or other stuffed toy to present to a child (or adult!). But, for my purposes, I prefer to make the box without the straps. It makes a "neater" more compact presentation, and for me, has less room for error during the "construction process." 

Here are two examples of boxes I made with the backpack straps. It really is a clever design!

Here are my "two-cents" in addition to all of the tips provided on the packaging and in the video:

1)  I like to cut my main panels - front, back and sides, as well as the top, from a nice weight solid cardstock. I then cover the front, back, and sides with panels cut out of my chosen patterned papers and the dies provided. It provides quite a bit more structure and stability to the finish product. I used papers from the Snow Much Fun collection for my two holiday examples, and the SEAS the Day collection for my more summer themed backpack.

2) My other big tip won't necessarily work best for everyone, but I am a liquid glue girl. I know many of you prefer scor-tape, or other double sided tape when creating 3D objects. I tried scor-tape on my first two attempts at making these boxes. Like scor-tape, the right liquid glue (I use Art Glitter Glue) gives me a strong hold, dries fairly quickly, and can be applied to a small area. But it is much more forgiving than double sided tape in that it provides a little "wiggle room", or time to get my pieces lined up perfectly before I press them firmly into place. Like I said, it's a personal preference, but it's what works for me.

3) The only other additional tip I have is if you're making the backpack straps, use a really good quality cardstock. I'm not sure what the difference was, but the navy blue straps I made turned out really nice. The lighter blue ones got creased in a few places. It was probably just me, not being careful enough, but a nice heavy smooth cardstock will be easier to work with.

There are lots of gifts you can tuck inside this roomy box/backpack. It's the perfect size for a set of A2 cards. I plan to do this for my mother-in-law, once I can actually travel to take it to her. It will also hold candy and treats of all kinds, which is what I will fill this one with to give to my husband this Christmas. 

I made a little tag with the Rectangle Fancy Framelit dies that can tuck into the adorable front pocket. The Happy Holidays sentiment is from the Toboggan Fun stamp set.

Now that I've made a box that I love, and know how to get good results, I can't wait to make more!

You can find the Backpack die, as well as all of the fantastic Dare 2B Artzy products here. 

Please join our challenge this month here, by uploading a Holiday Fun themed card for a chance to win a $15 gift certificate!

Thanks for visiting and have a great day!

Avra

Gift Card Holder

Hi Artzy friends -

It's holiday gift giving season! If you're like me, you always need a fun new way to present gift cards.

I give my (adult) children gift cards every year for Chanukah (as opposed to toys and gifts each night when they were younger.) This year Chanukah begins on December 10th so I needed to have a cute simple gift card holder in a hurry! 

This little "basket" will hold several gift cards, or even small treats (Ghiradelli squares anyone?)

I stamped the adorable snowman image from the Toboggan Fun stamp set on white cardstock and colored it with Copic markers.  I then die cut the image with one of the Rectangle Fancy Framelit dies. I stamped the Happy Hanukkah sentiment from the SHELLom Turtle stamp set. I believe this set is discontinued but it can still be found on the Dare 2B Artzy website in the clearance section! This is one of the very first Dare 2B Artzy stamp sets I ever purchased because it was so cute and unique!  I added some GinaK Crystalline Drops (like Stickles) for a little added shimmer on the snowmen's accessories and set it aside to dry.

I then created the 4 1/4" x 3 1/4" holder with a piece of 7" x 5 1/4" paper from the Snow Much Fun collection, as well as a handle from an 8" x 1/2" strip of coordinating cardstock. 

I assembled the basket, and adhered the completed image, as well as a pretty little gem.

Now I just need to make 2 more holders and purchase all of the gift cards for my gifts!

The Dare 2B Artzy design team members have all been busy creating 3D holiday projects to inspire you!

You can see them all in a hop taking place over on Instagram! You can win one of two $10 gift cards! Just look for the Dare 2B Artzy account and the graphic below for all the details! We are also having a sale! Take 15% off if your order with the code XMAS2020 now through  December 6th. You can shop here!

Thanks for visiting, and have a great day!

Avra

Time for Holiday Cards!

 Hi Artzy friends-

Happy Thanksgiving to you! I hope you are all having a nice quiet, safe holiday. I'm sending you all virtual hugs, with the hopes that we will all be able to see other soon for the real thing!

If you're like me, you have good intentions of working on your holiday cards early, but the real card making frenzy doesn't start until after Thanksgiving. Please don't tell me that your cards are already made, signed, and addressed! Haha! 

My husband saw me making this card and loved it! He wants me to make it for all of our family and friends this year. While I don't usually mass produce my holiday cards, this one wouldn't be too difficult to do, so I will definitely be making more of them!

I cut a piece of white cardstock with the largest die from the Wavy Slimline Framelit die set. I love the nice finished look that a dotted border gives on a card panel. I then cut the bottom of the panel with one of the wavy dies from the Curvy Slimline Border die set. The border dies in this set are also dotted, so they pair nicely with the slimline framelits. I placed the white panel with the curved edge in my Misti so I could set up my image and sentiment stamps to stamp right where I wanted them. The stamps are from the Just Chillin' stamp set.  This image is super quick and easy to color and I just love the little penguin sitting on the polar bear's head! 

This set has some other super cute images, as well as some snowflakes included. 

The snowflakes I used here were from the Slimline Snowflake die set.  Some were cut out of glitter paper; some were glittered with Stickles. You could use any kind of glitter or glittery medium you'd like to make your snowflakes sparkle! 

After my panel was complete I cut a strip of paper from the Snow Much Fun collection and adhered that along the bottom of my card base. I then cut a scalloped edge on a strip of solid blue cardstock using another die from the Curvy Slimline Border set. The curve on the scalloped border die is the same as the curve on the die I used on the bottom edge of my card panel, so I adhered that on the back, so that the scallops just peeked out the bottom of my white panel. I then adhered the piece to my card base, lining up the top edges.

You can find lots of winter themed and slimline products at Dare 2B Artzy for all of your holiday card 

making!

And we have a sale to help you with that! Now through Monday, November 30th, enjoy 20% off all stamps and dies with code 202020.

There is still time to enter our monthly challenge for November! Enter your project with the theme "Thankful" for a chance to win a $15 gift certificate! 

Thank you for visiting and have a great day!

Avra

Reindeer Games with Dare 2B Artzy and Tombow

 Hi Artzy friends -

Today I have the pleasure of sharing with you some cards I created with a fun Dare 2B Artzy set, along with Tombow Dual Brush Pen Art Markers.

Be sure to check out the Dare 2B Artzy blog all this week for more inspiration using Tombow products. 

Because I am new to using Tombow markers, I wanted to try out various techniques with them. So - I made 4 cards! This will be a picture heavy post!

Here are the sets of markers I had to work with, along with some neutral colors that I borrowed from a friend. 

There are 108 colors of Dual Brush Pens in all, including a colorless blender.

Dual Brush Pens are a water based marker, with a brush tip and a fine point bullet tip.

They are great for coloring, doodling, journaling, hand lettering, and more. Learning hand lettering is on my "to-do" list sometime soon, and the brush tip is perfect for that!

Now on to my coloring! 

I wanted to choose an image with a lot of opportunity to color, so I chose the Reindeer Games stamp and die sets. This is a whimsical set with some cute sentiments to go with the images.

I stamped the main image, along with the ornaments, on both Bristol Smooth cardstock, and water color paper, using Versafine Clair ink in Nocturne, which is a quick drying, waterproof pigment ink. If you are in a hurry, you could dry it using a heat tool.

Here are the 4 panels of images I colored. I tried: coloring directly on the paper, then blending it out with a waterbrush, coloring directly on the paper, then blending it out with the colorless blender, and scribbling the marker onto a palette and picking it up with a waterbrush. As I mentioned earlier, I tried the techniques on 2 different types of paper. Coloring directly on the Bristol Smooth is preferred to coloring directly onto watercolor paper. Watercolor paper is better if you are adding more water, such as wetting the paper before applying the color.  The first 2 panels are Bristol Smooth; the second 2 are Canson Watercolor paper.

After die cutting all of my images, I added Glossy Accents to my ornaments. I love that the Glossy Accents did not alter the colors of the images. As I did not end up using many of them on these cards, they are ready for me to accent future holiday cards with. So shiny, dimensional, and fun!

Next I created some watercolored backgrounds for some of my cards.

I chose some pretty blues and greens and scribbled them on my craft mat. I then lightly misted the mat with water, and dipped my watercolor cardstock into the color. I continued to add color, add water, and dip and drag my panel through the colors until I was satisfied with the result, drying them with my heat tool in between layers. 

I ended up using 2 of the above backgrounds for 2 slimline cards, and I also created an A2 easel card and a square shaker card.

I cut down one of the backgrounds using the largest die in the Wavy Slimline Framelits die set, and adhered it to a 9" x 4" horizontal card base. I popped up my reindeer and his feet with foam tape. I added my heat embossed sentiment strip, also cut with a banner die in the Wavy Slimline Framelits set. I embellished the card with snowflakes from the Slimline Snowflake dies, an ornament from Reindeer Games, and some additional gems. 

For my 2nd slimline card, I cut a watercolored panel with a die from the Wavy Slimline Framelit dies, and also cut a piece of aqua colored cardstock from the largest die in the set. I heat embossed my sentiment, and a few snowflakes onto the water colored panel, both from Reindeer Games. I layered the two panels onto my 8 1/2" x 3 1/2" vertical card base. I adhered my reindeer, his feet, some light bulbs and holly with liquid glue. 

My next card is an easel card. On the front panel I cut a piece of white fun foam with the reindeer die to pop the image up on. Fun foam is an easy way to give a sturdier base to a detailed image than cutting little bits of foam tape. For the inside of the card I cut a label out twice with one of the Rectangle Fancy Framelit dies - once in white, and once in green. I cut off just the bottom third of my green shape and popped it up with two layers of foam tape onto the white piece to create a "lip" for my easel. I heat embossed my sentiment in gold, and added the reindeer's feet and a sprig of holly to finish off the card. The white label is where I will write my message and sign my card. 

Finally I created a 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" shaker card.

I glued my reindeer image down to a piece of pretty wintery paper from the Snow Much Fun collection, and adhered that to my card base. I then created a frame with a  Square Framelit die, and added a piece of acetate behind my frame. I popped that up onto my card front, leaving a small opening to add my sequins.  I then added foam tape to my opening making sure to close up all the gaps so my sequins couldn't escape. I added a sentiment from the Toboggan Fun stamp set, heat embossed in silver on vellum, and glued on a sparkly snowflake and the reindeer feet. 

I really enjoyed creating this assortment of holiday cards with Tombow markers, and the Reindeer Games stamps and dies, and other products from Dare 2B Artzy! 

We have a sale going on now at Dare 2B Artzy!

Use the code FALL10 to save 10% off all orders, now through November 8th!

Also - join our November challenge with a "Thankful" themed project, for a chance to win a $15 gift certificate!

Thank you for visiting, and have a great day!

Avra

Dare 2B Artzy November Challenge - Thankful

 Hi Artzy friends -

Can you believe November is here?! And with it comes autumn and the season of thanks.

I created this Thank You card with those things in mind, and it's perfect for our challenge this month, which is "Thankful."  

The pretty autumn colored flower pot is from the Bouquet 4 You stamp and die set. This stamp set is perfect for many occasions, and during any season - just change up the colors!

I mounted the image on a vellum die cut using the Rectangle Fancy Framelits dies, over a pretty patterned paper from the Autumn Oasis collection. I added the word "thanks" cut with the Thanks Double Layered Word die, using only one of the layers.

I am thankful that you stopped by today and hope that you will join the challenge this month! You will have a chance to win a $15 gift certificate to the store!

Thanks for visiting, and have a great day!

Avra

Snowy Holiday

Here is the entire size of the die cut, designed to fit on a slimline card.

The die cut I used on this card was cut out of glitter cardstock, and I simply cut it down to fit across the top of my A2 card.

I just love how detailed and intricate this die is!

The first time I attempted to cut my very thick glitter cardstock, I did not get a clean cut (user error), and had to trim the die cut down as you see here. It was a happy accident as I liked how the card turned out, and proceeded to created the second version as well! 

All these cards needed was the Happy Holidays sentiment also cut from dies included with the Slimline Snowflakes die set, and some pretty, festive patterned paper!

There are several more new slimline die sets that are equally as versatile! You can check them out, as well as all of the other fabulous Dare 2B Artzy products here!

There is still time to join in on the October challenge, whose theme is Fall, for a chance to win a $15 gift certificate!

Thanks for visiting, and have a great day!

Avra