Dannie's Designs

Quint-essential 3x3

As you've seen from my last couple of posts, I've been working on teacher appreciation gifts.  No gift would be complete without a card to go with it.  In sticking with the Quint-essential Flower stamp and the Sycamore Street DSP that I used to make the gifts, here's the 3x3 card I came up with to coordinate.

I was going to add a piece of DSP to the card, but the patterns were so busy that the flower got lost on the card.  So I went with a solid piece of card stock instead.  I used the Sycamore Street buttons and ribbon that were part of the Sale-a-bration goodies this year.  I think it's a great color combination.

Now I just need to have the kids sign the cards for their teachers, bag the gifts up in a cello bag, tie some ribbon around it, and have them deliver the gifts to their teachers.  I had a lot of fun making these gifts.  I hope they enjoy them.  Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps:  Quint-essential Flower
Paper:  Whisper White, Pool Party, Island Indigo
Ink:  Pool Party, Island Indigo
Accessories:  Sycamore Street Buttons and Ribbon, Glue Dots
Punches:  2 3/8" Scalloped Circle, 1 3/4" Scalloped Circle

3x3 card set

Even though I'm a stamper, I rarely send out or give away cards.  Mostly it's because I'm lazy, but it's also because I'm a procrastinator.  I wait until the last minute to get birthday gifts or thank you gifts and then I don't have a card ready.  The more pressure I feel to quickly put together a card, the less I'm able to stamp.  So I wrap up the gift and give it away without a card.  Terrible, I know!

Well, I'm determined to stop that from happening again.  With the end of the school year quickly approaching (not quickly enough if you ask my kids), I need some thank you cards.  I like to bake some homemade goodies and give them as thank you gifts to each of their teachers as well as the people who helped me carpool my kids to and from school.  So I made this quick set of 3x3 cards so my stash is ready.  No more excuses!

Like I said, these were very easy to make.  I stuck with the color scheme in the Polka Dot Parade DSP and added Whisper White.

I stamped the sentiment in each of the colors, punched it out and layered it on top of a couple other punches.  I finished it off with some Whisper White Grosgrain ribbon. So simple. 

Are you ready with your stash of quick cards to give away?  If not, give these a try.  No more excuses!  Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps:  Essentials
Paper:  Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Marina Mist, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Rich Razzleberry, Real Red, Polka Dot Parade DSP
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Marina Mist, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Rich Razzleberry, Real Red
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Whisper White Grosgrain
Punches:  Decorative Label, Modern Label, Word Window

Thinking of You

Every time I sit down to stamp this week, my mind keeps coming up with simple designs.  Rather that fight it, I'm just going with it.

Even though this card is fairly simple, I still think it turned out pretty.  Although the card looks white, it's really Very Vanilla.   I just have horrible lighting in my stamp room. 

I stamped the floral image from the Flowering Flourishes stamp set in Calypso Coral ink several times on the Very Vanilla card stock.  I finished it off with some Calypso Coral ribbon and a Calypso Coral flower.

For the inside of my card, I reversed the stamping and only stamped below the ribbon so there's plenty of room to write in the card.  Like I said, very simple.  You can change the color used and it would be suitable for a variety of occasions.  Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps:  Flowering Flourishes
Paper:  Very Vanilla, Calypso Coral
Ink:  Calypso Coral
Accessories:  Calypso Coral Ribbon, Pop-up Posies Designer Kit, Silver Brad

Pop-up Posies Designer Kit

Don't forget that today is the last day to get...

Visit my website to place your order today.  I'm working on placing an order too.

My schedule has been so busy lately that I haven't taken the time to stamp.  I'm behind on cards that need to get put in the mail.  So today I sat down and made this quick card.

I used the Pop-up Posies Designer Kit and this card came together so quickly.   I layered three of the flowers on top of each other and put one of the white brads (that also comes in the kit) through the center. 

The inside of the card is also very simple.  Just like I did on the front of the card, I used the Polka Dot embossing folder for the white strip.  Now to address it and put it in the mail.  Thanks for stopping by!

Kit:  Pop-up Posies Designer Kit
Paper:  Whisper White, Basic Black, Pool Party
Ink:  Basic Black
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Pool Party Ribbon
Big Shot:  Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder

Simple Card

Today I wanted to share a simple, yet elegant card that I made for a dear friend of mine.

I took a piece of Whisper White card stock and embossed it using the Lacy Brocade embossing folder.  I layered it on some Marina Mist card stock and then tied some Marina Mist ribbon around both layers.  I them mounted that on a Whisper White card base.  I finished the card with some Primas and some Rhinestone brads.

For the inside of my card, I used the same embossing folder but only embossed about 3/4" across the bottom.  I covered the edge of the embossing with the same Marina Mist ribbon so that it would tie in nicely with the front of the card.  Like I said, simple.  Cards don't always have to take a long time to make.

Thanks for stopping by!

Paper:  Whisper White, Marina Mist
Accessories:  Marina Mist Satin Ribbon, Primas, Rhinestone Brads
Big Shot:  Lacy Brocade Embossing Folder

Money Card

My friend Josanne showed me a picture of some "money cards" and asked if I could make some for her.  She wanted to give them out as a thank you to people who helped with her wedding.  Of course I was up for the challenge and gave it a try. 

Isn't that a fun way to give somebody some money as a thank you?  Make it the main focus of the card!  The sample she showed me said "thank you for making our day special."   However; the theme of her wedding is baseball, so I "baseballed" it.  "Thank you for making our day a home run!"

I made this card like a postcard in that it doesn't open up.  I typed the sentiment on the computer, printed it out, cut the layers, cut a slit for the money, and glued the layers together.  It's super simple.  The only tip I would give is to be sure not to put too much adhesive on the back of the white layer.  The money is tucked into the slit in the white card stock and you can't tuck the money in if it's glued down everywhere.  I just glued the two short ends of the white card stock.  That's it.  Quick and simple. 

Thank you for stopping by!

Paper:  Whisper White, Brushed Silver, Night of Navy

Simple Valentine

There's only two more days until Valentine's Day.  Are you ready?  If you need a quick, last minute card idea, this is for you.

I ran the Pink Pirouette card stock through the Big Shot using the Stripes Embossing Folder.  As you can see, I only embossed the bottom two-thirds of the card stock.  I covered up the seam where the embossing ended with a piece of ribbon.  I punched out the hearts from some card stock scraps and then added them to the card with dimensionals.  That's it! 

This is a simple layout that would work for many different occasions.  Change the card stock colors and change the hearts to flowers and you would have a great Mother's Day card.  The possibilities are endless.

Looking for other Valentine's Day ideas?  Simply click here and see all of the Valentine's ideas I've shared on my blog in the past.  Well, back to tending to my sick kid.  The work of a mom is never finished.  Thanks for stopping by!

Paper:  Whisper White, Real Red, Pink Pirouette
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Real Red Striped Grosgrain
Punches:  Small Heart
Big Shot:  Stripes Embossing Folder

Simple Heart Card

Today I wanted to share a simple, quick Valentine's Day card.  I started with this Verve sketch.

The sketch challenge said to make it clean and simple, but that's not something that I do!  I love adding lots of layers, ribbons, and embellishments.  The more the merrier.  After thinking about it for a while, here's what I came up with.

Can you believe it?  I made a one layer card!  I took this picture with the flash off so that you could see that I embossed a 1/4" frame around the outside of the card using my Simply Scored Scoring Tool.

The heart is made from tissue paper.  I folded it so that it was eight layers thick and then cut it out (all eight layers at once) using the largest heart from the Heart Framelits set.  Once it was cut out, I stapled all eight layers together in three places as seen in the photo below.

Next I started with the top layer and gathered and fluffed it up around the staples.  I fluffed and gathered one layer at a time until the heart was full and fluffy.  I added dimensionals to the back of the heart where the three staples were and attached it to the card.  I finished it off with a sentiment.

In keeping with the "clean and simple" theme, I left the inside of the card blank.  That's it.  Once I figured out what I wanted to do, this card came together very quickly.  Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps:  Three Little Words
Paper:  Whisper White, Pink Tissue Paper
Ink:  Melon Mambo
Accessories:  Staples, Dimensionals, Simply Scored Scoring Tool
Big Shot:  Hearts Framelits

Halloween 3x3's

I've tried to sit down and stamp over the past week, but I couldn't do it.  My stamping mojo was gone.  I tried to start several projects, but nothing.  So today I decided to start with baby steps...3x3 cards.  They are simple and so easy to make.  A friend gave me some Halloween stamps a while ago and I decided it was time to ink them up.

See?  Quick and simple.  To color in the witch, I used my Basic Black ink pad and a Blender Pen.  I was going to use my Basic Black marker, but it would have been too dark.  Using the Blender Pen also allowed me to add some shading on her shoes and hat.

I made each one of these with my children in mind.  My youngest daughter absolutely *loves* spiders.  Well, she doesn't like real spiders.  However, if she sees a spider printed on a napkin, a rubber spider, a Halloween spider decoration, etc. then she claims it as hers.  She's so funny.  I think I'll tuck these in their lunch boxes on Halloween so they can have a fun surprise at school. 

I'm off to try some more stamping now that my stamping mojo has had a little warm up.  Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps:  Craft Smart
Paper:  Very Vanilla, Tangerine Tango, Howlstooth & Scaringbone DSP
Ink:  Basic Black, Lucky Limeade, Crumb Cake
Accessories:  Dimensionals, Basic Black Grosgrain, Blender Pen
Punches:  Extra Large Oval

Tuxedo Card

At my last downline meeting we decided to make masculine cards for our card swap.  I think this is an area that many stampers have a hard time with.  This was an easy one for me because I just copied this great swap card that I received from Connie Babbert in one of our recent Control Freak swaps.

Isn't that perfect for the swap theme?  The shirt part of the card is just a piece of Whisper White card stock that is scored seven times.  Simply place the card stock in the paper scorer and score it every 1/4" starting at 1 1/4" and ending at 2 3/4".   In other words, score it at 1 1/4", 1 1/2", 1 3/4", 2", 2 1/4", 2 1/2", and 2 3/4".  Very simple.  I pierced three holes down the middle score line and inserted brads for the buttons. 

The cummerbund part of the card is a piece of Basic Black card stock that measures 4" x 1".  It is also scored every 1/4" across the width of the card (1/4", 1/2", and 3/4").  The three score lines are difficult to see in the photo.

The triangles for the shirt collar are from the Perfect Pennants Bigz Die.  The bow tie is made from the Petite Pennants Builder Punch and the 1/2" Circle Punch.  All of the collar and bow tie pieces are attached to the card base using dimensionals.

It's a very quick and easy card to make.  Simply change the sentiment and it would work for a variety of occasions for the men in your life.  Be sure to check out the other masculine cards and projects that I've shared on my blog previously.  Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps:  Just Believe
Paper:  Whisper White, Basic Black, Polka Dot Parade DSP
Ink: Basic Black
Accessories:  Silver Brads, Paper Scorer, Dimensionals
Punches:  Petite Pennants Builder, 1/2" Circle, Modern Label
Big Shot: Perfect Pennants Bigz Die