Dannie's Designs

Coffee Filter Flowers

Last night I had a great meeting with my downline.  Kelly taught us how to watercolor coffee filters to make these gorgeous flowers.

I used Wisteria Wonder and Concord Crush to color the coffee filter. Even though both of those colors are purple, the red and the blue in the ink tended to separate giving it a gorgeous spectrum of colors. 

Each of the flowers is made from four punched out flowers stuck on top of each other.  The leaves are also made from coffee filters.

I asked Kelly where she learned the technique from and she couldn't remember.  So I apologize for not being able to give credit where credit is due.  I will put together a picture tutorial and post it within the next couple of days.

Here's a closer look at the flowers.  I apologize that the picture is a little blurry.  As I've mentioned before, I need a new camera.  It takes bad pictures even when I adjust the settings for closer photos.  I finally found a camera that I want to get, but I have to wait until it's back in stock.  Then my blog pictures should look much better.  I can't wait!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Paper:  Lucky Limeade, Pool Party, Everyday Enchantment DSP
Ink:  Concord Crush, Wisteria Wonder, Lucky Limeade
Accessories:  Button, Glue Dots, Coffee Filters
Punches:  Fancy Flower, Blossom Petals Builder, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border

Flourishes Sketch

I'll admit it.  I'm addicted to sketch challenges.  Today I discovered a new one too--Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge.  Here's the sketch for today's challenge.



Isn't that a great sketch?  I love it.

 

You probably haven't paid very close attention to the cards I make, but I rarely stamp with images that need to be colored in.  Why?  I'm not very good at drawing or coloring.  You definitely don't want me on your team if we're playing Pictionary.  When it comes to coloring in images, the highlights, shadows, and blending of colors intimidates me.

Today I stepped completely out of my comfort zone and decided to watercolor the flower.  It was so much easier than I thought!  I'm not saying that I'm ready to start watercoloring images of people yet, but the flower was surprisingly easy to do.

I stamped the flower image three times in Stazon Black ink on Shimmery White cardstock.  I colored over the entire image with Pretty in Pink ink using my Watercolor Brush.  Next I took some Rose Red ink and went along the edge of each petal.  Then I took some Regal Rose ink and painted it next to the Rose Red ink.  Last I went over each petal and tried to blend the three colors together.  That's probably not the correct way to do it, but it worked for me.

 

As you can (hopefully) see in this photo, I took the three flowers and cut them out and layered them on top of each other using dimensionals.  The bottom layer is the entire flower, the middle layer is everything but the outside row of petals, and the top layer is just the center of the flower.  This give the flower lots of depth and dimension.   You can also see in this photo that I sewed around all four squares of designer series paper as well as around the larger rectangle layer of designer series paper.



For the inside of my card I added a little interest by using the same ribbon and paper as the front of my card.  I also used the Eyelet Border punch to create a row of scallops.

Thank you so much for stopping by!  ~Dannie

Stamps:  Fifth Avenue Floral, All Holidays
Paper:  Shimmery White, Pretty in Pink, Kiwi Kiss, Rose Red, Raspberry Tart DSP
Ink:  Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Regal Rose, Black Stazon
Accessories:  Rose Dew Drops, Kiwi Kiss Satin Ribbon, Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware, Dimensionals, Janome Sew Mini, Circle and Scalloped Circle Nestabilities
Punches:  Eyelet Border

Simple Sketch

I love this week's sketch challenge on Splitcoast.



I should have known by its simple yet beautiful design that it was from Kristina Werner.  I really like her stamping style.



I was complicating the card by trying to stamp different designs on each of the layers.  Then I remembered the Prints Pack of designer series paper (DSP) that I got for free as a hostess gift.  I used three pieces of the Apricot Appeal Prints DSP and some Pumpkin Pie cardstock.  It's such a pretty color combination.

TIP: When you put together a new stamp set, keep the empty sheet that the stickers came on.  You don't need to keep all of them from every stamp set you buy, just one or two is enough.

Do you see the striped piece of DSP (layer 3 in the sketch) that has the words "embrace life" stamped on it?  I was in such a hurry to put this card together, that I put adhesive on the back of the paper before I stamped the words.  I didn't want to adhere it to the card yet in case I messed up and stamped the words crooked.  How did I fix it?  I stuck the paper down to my empty sticker sheet, stamped the words, and peeled it off the sheet without damaging my paper.  Those sticker sheets come in handy!

I stamped the flowers in Black Stazon ink on Shimmery White cardstock.  I colored them with my Aqua Painter and Pumpkin Pie and Apricot Appeal reinkers.  The shimmer from the cardstock shows through the color.  These flowers sparkle!   I cut them out and mounted them on my card with dimensionals.   

I think I'll be using this sketch for my convention swap cards.  So don't be surprised if you see it again on my blog.  Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have a wonderful day.  ~Dannie

Stamps: Embrace Life
Paper: Shimmery White, Pumpkin Pie, Apricot Appeal Prints DSP
Ink: Black Stazon, Pumpkin Pie, Apricot Appeal
Accessories: Pumpkin Pie Grosgrain, Dimensionals, Aqua Painter

Get Whale Soon

Sorry this post is so late going up.  I was working on it when my brother called me from Afghanistan!  This is the first time I've talked with him since he deployed almost 3 months ago.  He's doing well and it was so good to talk to him.  The only down side is it makes me miss him even more.  Anyway, back to the original blog post...

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This winter the weather has been crazy.  Many of you in the north were getting snow in May.  Two weeks ago here in California it was over 100 degrees.  Yet yesterday I had to pull out my long sleeve shirts for part of the day because I was cold.  This weather can't seem to make up its mind. 

One of the reasons I look forward to the warmer weather is that it means the end of the cold and flu season.  But that doesn't seem to be the case this year.  So many of my friends are sick right now.  I'm just getting over a cold myself.  All of that yucky stuff is supposed to go away as the warmer weather rolls in.  As the winter weather seems to be hanging on longer this year, so are the colds.  So today I decided to make some get well cards.



My inspiration for the layout came from Jen del Muro's card on the Verve blog.  This layout would work with so many different stamp sets.  I'll definitely be using this one again.

I stamped the whale on watercolor paper with Black Stazon ink.  I watercolored him with an Aqua Painter and my Bashful Blue and Going Gray reinkers.  At first I stamped the whale with Basic Black ink and it turned into a mess.  Purple bled out of the black ink as I watercolored the image.  The words were all fuzzy too and you couldn't really read them.  So if you're going to watercolor, use Stazon ink.

I wanted to use a piece of Designer Series Paper that had a soft blue print on it so I used the Le Jardin DSP.  I love the subtle pattern and colors.

Usually when I make a card, I try to fill in all the spaces.  I find myself wanting to put something in the open space below the whale.  My card in yesterday's post also has a big open space on it.  I'm learning to let go and be happy with the open spaces. 

I hope you have a wonderful day today and I'll see you tomorrow!  ~Dannie

Stamps: Pun Fun
Paper: Watercolor Paper, So Saffron, Bashful Blue, Basic Gray
Ink: Black Stazon, Bashful Blue, Going Gray
Accessories: Basic Gray Taffeta Ribbon, Crafters' Tool Kit, Dimensionals, Corner Rounder

Close As a Memory

The Great Swap Girls blog has issued a featured stamper challenge this week.  The challenge was to look at Lori Tecler's SplitCoast gallery, find a card to CASE, and change at least two things.  I chose to copy this beautiful card of Lori's and I came up with this card.



I received the Close as a Memory stamp set yesterday and had to play with it.  I love the flowers and I think the sentiments are beautiful.  I don't know what took me so long to buy the set.

I used Ballet Blue and Always Artichoke Watercolor Crayons for the flowers.  When I first learned how to use the Watercolor Crayons, I was told to color right on the rubber stamp, then to spritz it with water, then to stamp it on the paper.  I was not happy with the results and could never get my image to turn out nice. 

Today I tried something a little different.  I sprayed my rubber stamp with water first, then colored with the Watercolor Crayons, then lightly spritzed it with water again, and then stamped it.  I'm so happy with how it turned out.  I think now that I know how to get a nice image with my Watercolor Crayons, you'll be seeing me use them more often.

Do you have any tips on how to use the Watercolor Crayons?  If so, I'd love to hear them so I can learn different ways to use them.

Thank you for all of your well wishes yesterday.  I'm feeling much better.  It's amazing what sleep can do to boost your immune system.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend.  I'll see you on Monday!  ~Dannie

Stamps: Close As a Memory, Watercolor Vine Wheel
Paper: Watercolor Paper, Bashful Blue, Always Artichoke, Le Jardin DSP
Ink: Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue, Always Artichoke
Accessories: Silver Brads, Kraft Taffeta Ribbon, Dimensionals
Punches: Ticket Corner