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Saturday, December 5, 2020

Friends of Unity December Hop-My Favorite Things

Hello everyone. Friends of Unity are hopping again. This month is all about our favorite things. 


I thought I would do two of my favorite things. The first is to stamp and color Unity Stamp Co flower stamps. And the second is to pretend I know how to watercolor. I stamped two of my favorite stamps and colored one of the images with my Copic markers and the other one with watercolors.

I stamped My Condolences for my cards. I love this flower image. For the sample above I used Prima Marketing Vintage Pastel watercolors. Below is the card I colored with my Copic markers.
For all four of the cards I used sentiments from Aging Gorgeously.

For the second set of cards I used Everything Joyful & Beautiful. This is a big, lovely image to color. The above card used the same Prima Marketing Vintage Pastel watercolors. The sample below was done with my Copic markers.

Be sure to follow along the blog hop and comment and show the love along the way. Thank you for stopping by.

Alaine-you are here






 

Saturday, October 3, 2020

Friends of Unity October Blog Hop-Birthdays

It's that time of month again. The Friends of Unity have a Birthday themed blog hop this month. If you are like me, I am always needing birthday cards so this is perfect for inspiration.


I decided to do both a masculine and feminine birthday card this month. I colored both with my new Prima water colors. I used the Pastels, Terrain,  and the Classic collection.



I used Thanks so Mush for this card. I used the Terrain color palette to color this and thought this sentiment that comes with the kit works well for a birthday. The background was Distress Oxide Vintage Photo swiped lengthwise and then a brown colored pencil added lines for make wood planks. I distress the edges of the image and sentiment with the same Vintage Photo.

  


My next card uses my all time favorite flower stamp from Unity Stamp Co. 

I stamped You are Forever Beautiful and colored it with the Prima Classic and Pastel palettes. I used a double stitch die from Gina Marie Designs and some clear enamel dots from the same place to dress it up a bit. The sentiment is from Aging Gorgeously, the July 2020 sentiment kit.




Be sure to follow along the blog hop and comment and show the love along the way. Thank you for stopping by.

Alaine-you are here.








 

Saturday, August 1, 2020

Friends of Unity August Blog Hop-Sympathy

Hello everyone. It's time again for the Friends of Unity blog hop. This month we are focusing on sympathy cards. It's never fun to need these cards and I find it very helpful to keep some in my stash so I don't have making a card to worry about should the occasion arise. There are so many great cards in the hop. Be sure to scroll all the way down so you can continue along and see all the inspiration we have to offer.


My card this month was completely inspired by Jolande van Oosterhout on the Unity Facebook Show & Tell page. She's been sharing so much inspiration since Covid lock down. She is an incredible artist.

I started with a pile of gel plate prints I made for fun last week using a 5"x7" gel plate and Paper Artsy paints


I selected that beautiful blue one to stamp my flower on. It has some bits of brown on it so I grabbed a brown print for the background layer and cut it down to 5 3/4" square. I wanted it to tie into the flower a little better so I took some of the dark blue paint from the flower print and mixed it with some texture paste and added it through a stencil in the corners. I also mixed some water with the paint and "water colored" some depth and detail into the flower image. Once that was dry I fussy cut it out. I stamped the sentiment onto a piece of left over blue print as well. I used the stamp to stamp just the stem onto the background. I used my fingers to form and shape the flower and glued it to the card front only in the center of the flower.  The sentiment is from Girl Truly. The flower is from Wild & Free



You can see that I didn't really place the texture paste perfectly through the stencil, I was going for an aged mixed media look.

You can see the depth from shaping the flower with my fingers and only placing glue in the center.

Be sure to hop along and comment along the way!!!

Alaine-you are here






Sunday, July 26, 2020

Growing in Unity Blog Hop

Hello Unity friends. It's time for a few of use that were Growing in Unity gals in May and June to do a blog hop. I have a card using a couple of the newest stamps set from Unity Stamp Co. 

Be sure to follow along and comment along the way to win one of two Unity prize packs.


I had so much fun making this card. I used the flower from Sending Hugs to randomly stamp over a 3" white panel. I colored the flowers with Copics in R81, R83 & R85. The leaves are YG61 and YG63. Once all the images were colored I took the black Copic and colored all around them. I stamped the sentiment from Simply and Lovely on a 5/8" strip of white and framed it with to die cuts from a lacy Sizzix die. I placed the two lace dies and the sentiment strip on black card stock and then trimmed my colored panel to fill the space above it. It's actual even. I tried several times to get a straight picture but it wasn't happening. lol. 

Follow along with the hop and be sure to comment!

Alaine-you are here.








Saturday, July 25, 2020

Christmas in July 2020 Hop

Hello everyone. I am participating in something really fun this week. There is a marvelous blog, Facebook group and Instagram just for building your stash of cards.  It's a great way to get inspiration for and make cards ahead of time so you aren't going crazy when life gets super busy during the holidays.

So there is a hop and Linky Party with LOT!!!! of prizes. You can head over to the main page, Build Your Stash Holiday Hop and get all the details. But before you go, scroll down to see a couple of the cards I've been working on. You can also check the cards out at #buildyourstashholidayhop on Instagram. There are already lots of inspiration to see there.


My first card uses stamps for a quick, easy coloring card. 
I used one stamp from the Unity Stamp Co kit Keeping Spirits Bright . I stamped it randomly all over an A2 card base and then colored around it with YG17 Copic marker. I wanted to give it a water color feel, so I colored over some areas more than once to deepen the color. I added a sentiment from the same kit and added 2 tiny jingle bells.

I really love the next card. It reminds me of the vintage Christmas decorations my aunts and grandma had. It is a brand new digital stamp from Angie Blom Digital Designs. Be sure to check it out this week as it is on sale.
I just used on of the printable designs Angie includes with her kits and colored it up. I had some scrap paper on my desk from another Christmas card so I cut it into some holly leaves and added a button "berry".

Don't forget there are tons of prizes to be had. Head over to the Build Your Holiday Stash Hop page to get all the amazing details and see all the other blogs participating. There are some great projects to get you inspired.

I would love to have you follow me on Instagram Alaine_Tanner. I will be sharing lots more holiday inspiration there. 





Saturday, July 4, 2020

Friends of Unity July 2020 Blog Hop

Hello everyone. It's that time again and the Friends of Unity are hopping. I missed you all last month.

This month we are paper piecing. I have to admit, I don't do this much. I love coloring with my Copics so I just don't think to paper piece. It was fun and I will probably try to do more of it in the future.


My first card using traditional paper piecing of using some of that patterned paper I've been hording.

I started by stamping the girl from Only Imagine on white and then on the heart patterned paper from a package from Walmart. I cut out her dress and the top part of her headband and glued it to the white base image. Some quick coloring with Copics using colors to match the background paper and she was done. I used a square stitched die to cut her out and layered her on a scalloped square die. The card is 5 1/2" square.

I've been playing with my gel plate a lot lately and I have tons of backgrounds and scraps laying around. These green pieces seemed perfect for the new cactus stamp Stick Together. I used three different green scraps for the cactus and I had a purple piece that I used for the flowers. I had to stamp this four times to get all the pieces. I then die cut a stitched rectangle from the brown print and from a larger green print and layered everything together. If you haven't used Art Glitter glue, I highly recommend it. It holds these painted gel plate prints like a dream and never warps the paper.

Be sure to follow along with the rest of the hop and leave lots of comments along the way. There are prizes to be won.

Alaine-you are here






Monday, June 8, 2020

Your Soul, Girl card

Hello everyone. It's been a crazy 2020 so far and I have definitely not been on top of my usual routine. I have been getting cards done and I post them all to my Instagram account (alaine_tanner) if you want to go check it out and follow me there.

Today I have a card using a beautiful image from Angie Blom Digital Designs. The set is called Your Soul, Girl and comes with the amazing image and 4 wonderful sentiments.

I haven't colored black hair yet and I thought she would be a wonderful image to try it on. I am not a trained Copic colorist but I am sharing the steps I used to color her hair.

I used B41, 100, C9, C7 and C5 to color the hair. I started by coloring a section all over with the B41.

Next, I used C9 to start adding in the darkest areas, flicking out toward where I wanted highlights. I feel like the trick here is to add only the tiniest amount of this color to start with.

I used the C7 to continue moving the dark areas out a bit. Again, doing only a small amount and flicking it a bit further into the area that would be the highlights of the hair.

Then I used the C5 to flick into the highlights, almost completely covering the blue. I did make sure to not completely cover it. I then grabbed the B41 to go over all of it again. Next I used black 100 to deepen the really dark parts of the hair and then flicked C7 and C5 where I needed to to finish the look I was going for.

The flowers were colored with BG000 and BG 01
The shirt is RV91 and RV93


Be sure to check out the new releases at Angie Blom Digital Designs.
I would love to have you  follow me on Instagram Alaine_Tanner




Friday, May 15, 2020

Growing in Unity day 5

Hello my friends. I can't believe how fast this week went by. I hope you have enjoyed my cards as much as I enjoyed making them.

I'm back to flowers today. They probably win as as my favorites to color at the very least.

I am sorry I don't have the marker colors I used for this one. I remember that they were an unusual combo for me but I don't have the picture of them so I can list them out. This beautiful flower is a fairly new set called Peony Hugs. I masked it off and blended Distress Oxide in Hickory Smoke around it. Then I laid a Hero Arts stencil over it and blended the same color through the stencil. I smudged the edges with a little bit of Black Soot and matted the whole thing on black card stock. The sentiment is from the same kit and has a little bit of Hickory Smoke ink blended over it as well.

Be sure to leave comments. I will choose the winners on Monday and post them to the Unity Facebook pages. Both the Show & Tell page and the Growing in Unity page. If you are picked, please be sure to contact me right away so I can get your information to Unity.

Thanks for joining me this week. I hope you are all staying well and safe and sane. Hugs.

Thursday, May 14, 2020

Growing in Unity day 4

Hello everyone. It's day four of my Growing in Unity week. Boy time is flying by this week. I have a hard time deciding whether flowers or people are my favorite Unity stamps. Today, I'm bringing you two cards with a couple of my favorite girls.

This lovely lady comes from the set Hello, Sunshine Girl. I love her outfit. I colored her skirt with Copic markers in B21, B23 and B24. Her shirt and scarf are Y02, Y00, the bag is E30 & E33. I blended Distress Oxide in squeezed lemonade and trimmed it down 1/4" on the top and one side. I had fussy cut the girl out because I was going to do something else, so I stamped her on my white panel and trimmed it down the glued the colored one one top. The lace on the edge is a Sizzix die. The sentiment is from the same kit and I inked the edges with squeezed lemonade also.

This girl is from the kit called Pretty Girl Smile. She is wonderful don't you think? I believe I used B91, B93 and B97 for her outfit. But I had a mishap with my phone and it got eaten alive by sea water so I lost a few pictures, including the one of the markers I used to color her. I stamped the new background A Faithful Letter and cut it down with a die. I stamped the background stamp Just a Little Clicky and cut it down to make a strip which was matted on black. The girl was die cut with a smaller wavy die as well.


I hope you enjoyed today's cards. Be sure to keep commenting for your chance to win 1 of 2 Unity prizes.

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Growing in Unity day 3

Hello everyone. Welcome to day three of my Growing in Unity week. I decided to use one of Unity Stamp Co's digital stamps today. They are doing some digital releases while we are all staying home right now. 

I had to get the Gingko Greetings image the minute I saw it. Once upon a time, I was a teenage girl in high school in a very small town in West Virginia. Our high school actually had grades 7 through 12 in it so I went to the same school for a long time. This school had a beautiful, glorious Gingko tree out front and I often had classes in the wing that looked out on it. And in the spring and summer, the lower doors to the science rooms were always open and this tree filled our view. One of the things I love about Unity Stamp co is they have so many images that invoke memories and feelings and hopes.

This digital set comes with 2 images, lots of sentiments and 2 printable pages with 8 card layouts already made up for you. I did set up my own cards but if you are new to digital, using the printable pages will make it super easy for you. I colored this image to show the changing of the colors of the gingko tree. I used YG 11, YG 13, and YG 17 for the green ones. The middle ones that are changing colors used YG 13, YG 11 and Y11. The full yellow ones used Y 11, Y15, Y18 and YR23. I cut the panel with a stitched die and used clear Nuvo drops to give the card some texture.

This card uses the 2nd image and I colored it all yellow. That high school tree was the most impressive when it's leaves had changed to the beautiful golden color. I cut the panel with a wavy stitched die and used some organza ribbon for an accent. 


I can't decide which is my favorite but I do know I love both these images and will be using them again.

Don't forget to comment on the blog post this week to have a chance at one of two Unity prize packages. Watch for the winners announcement next week on the Growing in Unity and the Unity Show and tell Facebook pages.



Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Growing in Unity day 2

Hello. It's day 2 of my Growing in Unity week. Today I have a really simple card to share. I had a big fall this weekend and wasn't 100% when I hobbled my way to my craft room. I ended up loving the simplicity of this card and I gave it to my daughter for Mother's Day. I had to use the new stamp set that I just got right off the bat. I love it. I can see pulling out the frame so use with many other sets. 

This stamp set is called Possible Not Easy.  I stamped the two daisy stamp from the set on my card and then positioned the frame around them. I used my Gansai Tambi watercolors to color them up and added some detail with a white gel pen. The sentiment comes from an older monthly sentiment kit called Mama's and Grandma's. I used a beautiful new die from Gina Marie Designs called Flower Pleated Lace Nested die to frame the image and give it some extra pizzazz 

Please be sure to comment all week long for your chance to win one of two prize packages from Unity Stamp Co.

Monday, May 11, 2020

Growing in Unity day 1

Hello every one. I am so excited to be a Growing in Unity gal this week.  I've been looking forward to it since the first of the year. I am starting off the week with a mixed media style project. I have to admit this was inspired by a lovely artist named Tracy Evans that I have recently found. Her videos make it so much easier for me to wrap my head around this style. Those along with Jolande's tutorials on the Unity Show & Tell Facebook board have finally given me the confidence to try this style. 


I know, it's pretty simple for this style card but I had a lot of fun with it and I am sure I will be making a lot more in this style. I used the Unity Kit Hug for the flower and script.

Start by masking off a diagonal strip with low tack tape. Blend Distress Oxides in squeezed lemonade, ripe persimmon, and picked raspberry in between the tape lines.
Lightly mist a stencil of your choice with water and place over the blended ink, water side down. Let it sit for a bit so the water can soak in. Remove stencil and see what you have, if you like it great, if not mist and repeat. Let dry.
Run double sided tape along the edges on both sides, remove the top protective piece and place foil pretty side up on the tape and burnish well. I used shattered gold foil. Take the script stamp from the set and using Versafine Claire Nocturne ink, stamp bits of the script randomly around the strip.
Stamp the flower onto the background. The Versafine Claire ink I used actually rubbed off the foil so use Stazon ink if you won't be layering up the stamped flower.

Smoosh the three ink colors onto your craft mat and then spritz with water, smoosh a scrap piece of paper through the inks until you get a look you like then dry. Stamp 2 of the flowers on this, you don't need the stems and fussy cut them out.
Arrange the 2 flowers over the one stamped on your card and adhere. I used a Q-tip dipped in picked raspberry to add some depth here and there on the flower. Stamp the sentiment from the SMAK kit, Just Want to Be Me, ink the edges with picked raspberry and place on your card. 


Just like that you are done with your card. Please be sure to join me each day this week as I share some cards made with the wonderful stamps from Unity Stamp Co. Be sure to leave lots of comments during the week as I will be picking 2 winners to receive a prize package from Unity.





Saturday, May 2, 2020

Friends of Unity May 2020 blog hop

Hello. It's Friends of Unity blog hop time. This month, we are doing our favorite Angie Girl.  It was way too hard to pick a favorite, so I reached in my Angie Girl box and just pulled one out. 


I ended up with Wakely Girl which actually is a favorite of mine.


I went with a distressed feel and used my Distress Oxides for the background. I smooshed Antique Linen on my mat and misted it with water and then just drug my card front through it until I liked it. When that was dry, I smooshed Brushed Corduroy, misted it with water and then picked it up with acetate and randomly smooshed it around on the card front. I used a circle stencil and randomly stenciled over this with Ground Espresso. I stamped Wakely girl on the background with Ground Espresso and then on a separate sheet with Copic friend ink. The sentiment was stamped with Ground Espresso also.

Copics used:
Sweater-E07, E08, E 09
Boots & Bag-E71, E74, E77
Accesories-B93, B97,YG63,
Hair & Skin-E01, E21, E23, E25

Don't forget to hop along with us and comment for a chance to win a prize.

Alaine-you are here





Thursday, April 23, 2020

Mini Accordion Book

Hello. It's been awhile since I posted. I hope you are all well and finding something to enjoy during these trying times.

I found a lovely lady on Facebook who does a lot of lives and has a style that I love but never manage to do well myself. So I followed one of her lives from this week and made a fun mini accordion book. It took me about 2 1/2 hours because I decided to make front and back pages and I had to create the cover because I don't have the Eileen Hull Needle book die she used. Here is a link to the YouTube video she posted afterwards. Tracy Evans Mini Book

Here are the pictures of my finished book. I don't have any of her stamps but I do have a ton of Unity Stamp Co stamps that worked great. I will try to list the kits I used below but there were so many, I may miss some. The finished book is 2 1/4" x 3 5/8" closed. I used Distress Oxide in Worn Lipstick and Hickory Smoke for the background. I stamped everything in Versafine Claire Morning Mist with bits stamped with the Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide. The white is paint dabbed on with lids and a stylus.

Closed book. The elastic cord came from the Dollar Tree




The front side has 9 pages. The following pages are on the back side and there are only 8.








Unity Stamp Co. kits used: