A site for my handmade cards, accompanied by my photos and written meanderings which are occasionally witty, often tongue-in-cheek, and rarely profound. Beginning in June 2013, you'll also see lots of NBUS, which is an acronym I coined for Never-Before-Used-Schtuff. Note: my Privacy Policy can be found at a tab below and you can find my NBUS Challenge online. I hope you'll join in the fun there! Thanks for coming by! Have a beverage and enjoy!

June 4, 2013

DD #55, MM #60 ~ A Raspberry Christmas!

Great Morning!

This is a photoheavy post with pictures of the cards from our fun workshop yesterday, but I'm starting with a QACAS card I made for this week's Dynamic Duos and Merry Monday challenges.
 
  • Dynamic Duos is a color challenge and this week's colors are raspberry and wisteria!

Even if you don't play along, you should go over and see the fantastic DT cards!
 
  • Merry Monday is a weekly Christmas card sketch challenge.  Thanks to MM, I now have two Christmas cards made.  That'll be one Yip and two EEs, please!  This site is an excellent fountain of inspiration when you face the fact that Christmas is racing up behind you.  Here is the sketch designed by the talented and tireless Lesley Croghan:

And here is my take:
I stamped a SU! holly stamp on glossy paper to make my own designer background paper.  I cut it into strips to make it work for the sketch, attaching them to the raspberry textured paper.  The sediment is from the Technique Tuesday "Jingle All The Way" set.  The stars were cut from SU! wisteria wonder with an ancient punch and the pearl bling is from SU!.
 
~~~
 
I'm happlily including the following cards for your inspirational pleasure.  They were made by me from kits brought by my friends.  Please note that.  What was interesting was that half of the projects used Raspberry Ripple, too, and none of us knew what the others were making!  It's definitely a go-to color in this neck of the whirled!
 
+++  +++
 
Our hostess, Sara, shared an owldorable tri-fold designed card:
 
 
 
 
 +++  +++
 
Gladys shared this darling "perk-up" card designed for coffee lovers:
 
 
 +++  +++
 
Nancy shared this breathtaking butterfly card.  (She made all the butterflies for us ahead of time, bless her.  They are so amazing, I told her I would love to buy some from her!)
 
 
 +++  +++
 
Kathy shared this brilliant gift-pack designed assortment of thank you cards:
 
Front of packet

Empty inside of packet
 
Inside of packet with cards

 Thank you card set
 
 Individual card front

Needless to say I have some extremely talented real life friends, in addition to all of you!  It was a very productive and fun time.  We missed the ladies who weren't able to join us for this one! 
 
If you have any questions about any of the cards, let me know, and I'll try and get the answers for you.  Please make sure you include information so I can reach you by email.
 
~~~
 
I would like to have you also meet a new friend named Wynneth Happer!  Welcome, Wynneth!  We are so happy to have you along!
 
~~~
 
I'll be doing some gardening as our temps will be hitting triple digits by the weekend, ugh me with a spoon.  Please go enjoy your day, however you're spending it!   No, seriously, enjoy.  LITS*! 

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse.  Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!
 


*Life Is Too Short!

55 comments:

Hannelie said...

Ah... looks like a lot of fun!
Love how you have used the colors for your beautiful Christmas card!

Kim M said...

Love your Christmas card! It turned out lovely!

Michelle said...

Darnell, I love your Christmas card! That holly stamp is gorgeous! I am totally inspired by the card kits your friends put together! Wow!

Thanks for joining in at Dynamic Duos this week. :-)

Redanne said...

Hi Darnell, I love your Christmas card, the design is wonderful. What an amazingly talented group of crafty friends you have! All the cards are gorgeous, I love the owl one, that's so clever. The butterfly die is beautiful. Even we here in the UK are experiencing warm sunny days, we are getting our statutory three days of summer all in one week!! Hugs, Anne x

Tracey McNeely said...

Darnell love your Christmas card is this weeks fabby colour-beautiful! All of the kits are fabulous you must have had a blast! Thanky ou foro sharing with us this week at Dynamic Duos!

cm said...

Another fabulous post - and the eye-candy cards are BONUS! Your card - from colours, to pattern, to layout - is wonderful! The 'kits' you and your friends created: WOW! I'm impressed (and envious!) at how beautiful and unique each one is! Butterfly = swoon; the owl card = adorable (now that's one I'd like instructions for!!); the set of thank you cards - oh-so-charming and the perk-up - sweet! Quite the collection; quite the 'happy-making'! Again, you've started my day off on a bright note - thank you!!
c

Kara Lynne said...

Your Christmas color combo is a fun twist on the red/green. I love the holly stamping. You belong to a mighty talented pool of crafting friends, very fun!

alexandra s.m. said...

Wonderful cards! So much inspiration to be found in this post Darnell!
Thank You~

Sue said...

Love your Christmas card Darnell, great use of those colours.
Looks like your crafty friends are as talented as you, such a wonderful selection of creations and some very inspiring ideas.
Enjoy the sunshine
Sue xx

Colleen said...

Well, of course you know that it was pure genius of you to use those Dynamic Duos colors for your Merry Monday card! Fabulous card...and it sure looked like you all had fun at your gathering!

Karen Petitt said...

All of these are gorgeous Darnell -so many wonderful different ideas -love that sort of get together with crafty friends Karen x

Cindy Major said...

I like the purple and raspberry combo - very fresh! Love the fun font on your sentiment as well. :)

Jessi Fogan said...

You'd have to ugh me with a spoon too - those temps are brutal!
I LOVE the fab combination of cards - what a talented bunch of friends you are!

Lori Turner said...

Very pretty Christmas card using our colors from Dynamic Duos this week :D Love those stars!!! WTG!

Geri said...

Wow - stunning combo of colors for a Christmas card! Love the mix of traditional (the holly stamp) with the non-traditional! The Wisteria (Lane) stars, with their sweet wee pearls, add just the right amount of subtle bling!

Harriet Skelly said...

I love your holiday card - I haven't found a way to use these two colors for the Dynamic Duos - I find them very difficult. Great projects from your workshop!

Carole said...

Fabulous Christmas card and what a fun bunch of inspiration from the kits. Well done.

Happy Dance said...

Spot on with your card. You can move to the head of the class with this one. I wasn't able to come up with anything for DD, and you've just nailed it. Sweet! And don't hate me because I'm cool...perfect 70s here all week! You da bomb again! Bev

Bonnie said...

I was at a loss for what to do with these colors, but you figured it out wonderfully! Love those folk artsy stars and the DP that you made! I'm really glad that you joined us again for Merry Monday!

Joyce said...

Wow-so much inspiration and so many incredible cards. I love yours, and that owl the most.

Lisa Elton said...

I like that you made a Christmas card with the DD colors Darnell, very pretty! And your cards from the gathering are the bomb, you must have had THE best time!!

Cathy said...

Looks like you had a lot of fun with your crafty group! So busy and productive too! Love the raspberry and wisteria colours together Cathy x

Carol L said...

I just LOVE your Christmas card with those funky stars! I just wrote to a company a few days ago requesting they make a die of this exact star! This is the first time I've seen one anywhere, and they're SO cool! This color combo completely stumped me, but I see you breezed right through it easy enough! Great cards!!

JD/ Jill said...

Like a lot of the others who posted in their comments above me...these Dynamic colors this week, has totally thrown me...but you sure didn't have a problem with the color combo. Way to go! Very creative card.
Your cards made along with your stamp friends are really great. I love the ideas that they came up with to do.

Bobby said...

How fun to get together with friends to make a slew of cards, all of which are lovely. I am partial to the owl card (because I LOVE owls) but everyone did a great job coming up with designs.

jimlynn said...

Beautiful card and those colors are so very elegant looking together!
Love all your friends cards too! Fabulous
Lynn

Shannon J said...

Love your card Darnell! And bonus with the "shares" - you do have talented friends! Funny, because I just inked up one of flowers from the set that was used by many of your friends (of course, I can not recall for the life of me what it's called!). It will be the focal point of a card I'm *hoping* to make tonight! As for your card - lovely and gorgeous. I just love a non-traditional card, and the wisteria puts it right in that category. You're a wise woman to get started on Christmas cards now - you're right, Christmas will be here before we know it!

Kim Heggins said...

Wow...after seeing what you all made, I am very disappointed that I could not make it this time, but looking forward to the next class. All of these cards are amazing and so fun.

Sue from Oregon said...

Love your card(and all the friends cards too). That holly stamp is gorgeous!

scrappymo! said...

What a lot of fun you all must have had...and some wonderful makes and takes too!!!

Joan Ervin said...

Your Christmas card is so pretty...love the colors and how you added all the stars!!! All the other ladies made some awesome cards, too!!!!

Anonymous said...

Love the Christmas card Darnell-looks fabulous in this colourway.
What a lovely selection of goodies-some talented crafters there for sure :)looks like you had a fun time-what a brilliant idea !
Nessa xxx

Ros Crawford said...

What a lovely selection of cards! You have a lovely blog and I'm going to take some time to have a look ... thanks so much for leaving me a lovely comment ... Happy to meet you!

Sarn said...

Yep . . . you DEFINITELY have talented friends. Their makes are super. But so is YOURS.

No, YOU enjoy YOUR day!

Hugs from the Cylon xxx

Marybeth said...

Beautiful group of cards here and sounds like so much fun! Your star card is perfect for both challenges! the owl card is too cute. Love the way she changed the wings up a bit very cute idea! Take care!

Unknown said...

You ladies are an awesome combination Darnell! I love your Christmas card too! I'm sorry that I missed the SU! party and sure hope I can make those cards when I get back; did anyone write up Sara's card instructions?

Have a great summer!

Julia Aston said...

what great unexpected colors for a lovely Christmas Card! Isn't it wonderful to have challenges that make us thini outside the box! Looks like you had a fun time creating all those cards - especially love that trifold owl one!

Ellen Taylor said...

Fabulous take on the sketch! Love the raspberry and those fun stars! What a lovely idea to send each other kits! A wonderful collection of cards!!!

maria f. said...

Let's see... raspberry must be "big furry bright pink's" cousin, eh? I'm so jealous that you have real friends who adore paper too. You lucky. And what I really wanna know is how you got that pattern to line up so perfectly on your "designer PP" strips on your card??? (Love that TT stamp set, BTW, and it's waiting for me at my folks'! Not long now...)

Sian Ridley said...

Darnell, darling...it would appear that your GAP tendencies haven't disappeared as much as you thought! I LOVE that the holly pattern lines up PERFECTLY! You have just made my day ;) this card is a real beaut! I really want to play along with this DD challenge, but I don't know whether wisteria wonder is purple or grey?! I can't work it out and I'm not an SU!-er like everyone else seems to be!?

Thank you for your sweet comment on my blog, I'm so flattered that you would be inspired by my card and also pleased that I'm not the only one behind on catching the bunting train! Ha ha! As for the hubs training...I think I was a little late catching him...he'll be 50 soon! Doh! It's not all bad though, he has cooked twice this week already, one time was even unsupervised! ;)

Anonymous said...

Love that you used these colours for such a wonderful Christmas card, Darnell, it's truly inspired and gorgeous! You and your workshop chums are all so talented ... what a fun thing to do 'in real life'! Anita :)

Aileen said...

A yummy creation for Christmas. So stylish and arty. Loving all your groups creations too. Looks like you guys had loads of fun. x

aworkofheart said...

Hey Darnell, long time, I love your Christmas card and I think you could enter it into the shoppingourstash.blogspot.ca they are having a no patterned paper week, and you have created such lovely paper on your own!!! I would love you to check out my blog today, I have made my first card in three, well its been almost 6 weeks, I really have missed everything...just have a bit of an explanation...and you have been so helpful to me...you have such an awesomely inspiring blog...thanks for being you!!!

Mrs A. said...

I say. Those colours look berry nice together as a Christmas card. A really tweet owl of a card twoo. Hugs Mrs a.

MaryH said...

Now this is a diff color for a Christmas card to me (I'm a traditionalist...) but I LIKE it! Love the holly background you made too. It is true, you have some most talented friends in your craft circle. I liked 'em all! Loved the sparkly b/fly too. Gaw-jus. TFS & stay cool.

Kim S said...

Wow! You have great friends!!!

Janet's Joy said...

How unique to make a Christmas card with this colour combo! Great card. Thanks for playing along with us at Dynamic Duos this week!

Susan Joyce said...

Very pretty card for Merry Monday this week Darnell, thanks for playing along. I enjoyed your photo journey of the other cards too.

Nan G said...

All beautiful cards. Really love your Christmas card. May have to CASE you. :) have a wonderful weekend.

Sherry Eckblad said...

You have been really busy. Love your take on the Merry Monday sketch and so happy you found time to play along with us again. Hope to see you next week.

Shaz in Oz.CalligraphyCards said...

fab post Darnell thanks for popping over and for sharing what is happening in your world, I hope for cool gentle breezes to lower the temps for you all over there :D Shaz in Oz.x

Unknown said...

oh wow wow aND WOW!!!! YOUR cards are fab!!! love these!!!!

Anonymous said...

Let's be merry indeed, life is too short, is it not!! Lovely cards designed by you friends too, looks like you had a lot of fun.

HUgs
Brenda

Neet said...

Hi Darnell, lovely set of cards you made and is that owl adorable or what? Love the cards made using it and your sketch card which is quite regal looking.
Think the cads with the holder is a good idea as a gift for someone - such classy looking cards too.
Thanks for visiting me.
Hugs, Neet 17 xx

Allisa said...

Such a fun Christmas card...so glad you now have TWO in your stash....love the other cards that you shared as well. You are way braver than me...I would never leave the stamp room at triple digits, let alone hit the garden! Thanks for playing with us at Merry Monday!