I created this flower on Friday to participate in the Flower Challenge. Their challenge was to create a floral card with an older stamp and/or die. I pulled out the Artistic Dahlia stamp that I had purchased from Hero Arts some time ago and never got around to using. I bought it to practice coloring techniques with it and just never pulled it out. 
On Friday, out it came! I stamped it in Distress Oxide Scattered Straw ink to attempt a no line coloring with the new Altenew Artist Markers I just got last week. As soon as I saw the oranges, yellows, and greens in the new set, I knew I had to try them out. After finishing the image, I just wasn’t sure that I liked it enough to enter in a challenge. I knew that I would share it with you, because I’m trying to share all of my practice pieces so you can see my progress and hopefully, it will make someone else brave enough to give some of these techniques a try.
Thankfully I did that on Friday. I have had the flu (YES! I got a flu shot in October!) since Saturday. I was doomed. So many of my students have been missing whole weeks of school due to this pesky bug that’s going around. I haven’t gotten out of bed in 3 days! I just could not miss submitting my design team card for the Paper Craft Crew, so I threw this card together.
It is loosely based on the sketch for this week. I left off the banner piece and turned it a 90 degrees.
This dotted background technique is one that I’m working on and learning from Mindy Baxter over at My Creative Scoop. She has a lot of interesting background techniques and this is one. Sometimes I love how it looks, sometimes I know that I have not quite mastered it. I’m embracing the imperfections!
The sentiment is from Altenew’s Hello Sunshine stamp set. I really like the sentiment. I love the simple font and decided to keep it simple by just stamping it on the card instead of using the banner piece in the card sketch.
I’m not sure it looks anything like the sketch. The rest of the design team followed the sketch almost exactly. Do stop by the Paper Craft Crew and check out all the other cards. Why not play along?
I also have to confess, that until I master alcohol marker coloring, I don’t think no line coloring is for me. This flower looks nothing like the stamp! I essentially created a new variety of Dahlia here. Alas, it’s a learning process!
Here is the Flower Challenge that I am bravely entering my card in:
I love entering challenges. I feel like it’s fun to go around and see what other crafty types are creating with the same challenge. I’ve also made some fun friends leaving comments on their blogs or they leave comments on mine. The paper crafting community is a fun one to get involved in and you do that by jumping in and putting yourself out there. Stop by the Flower Challenge as well. I love this challenge. We ALL have at ridiculous number of floral stamp sets and this is a great reason to pull out one you haven’t used or played with in a while (or ever)!
Thanks for stopping by!
Supply List
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I love how the little crop let’s look like dew, but it’s still so bright, just like the sentiment! Very pretty
I agree! Those little clear droplets look like water drops on your card. I kept admiring them on cards made by other people and finally treated myself to a package. I just love them!
This is a beautiful card and you have done really well with your no line colouring. This technique is hard and does need alot of practice but I think also we need to remember not to be too hard on ourselves. We are our own worst critics. The colours you used are beautiful and although it looks a bit different to the stamp it is most definitely a well coloured flower. I think one of the hardest things with no line colouring is working out where the shadows need to be and I have found that by stamping the flower again on a piece of paper you have with you as you work on the image helps your work on the no line image much easier. Fabulous card and so good to have you participating at The Flower Challenge. I hope we will see you back with us in 2019 Aileen Ryan Design Team.
Thank you so much for your words of encouragement! I will try keeping a separate stamped image nearby for reference next time. Great advice!