Friends of Unity December Blog Hop

 Hello friends. November just flew by. I can't believe it is almost Christmas. 

So along with the hop Friends of Unity (FOU) are celebrating 5 years of blog hopping with the Unity Stamp Company family and friends! To celebrate, Unity Stamp Co. is giving away three $25 gift certificates. Winners will be randomly chosen on December 10th from those who comment on every blog in the hop! Winners will be announced December 11th on Crystal’s blog and in the Unity Show and Tell Facebook site. 

The Friends of Unity are hopping today with a fun theme of Glitter and Glitz.

I have to confess that I'm not into glitter and have few items in that medium. However, I do like shiny mediums. 

I used this beautiful new image called Greetings this Season. I used soft Copic colors to color this image. Then I pulled out my Gansai Tambi Starry colors and splattered everything with one of the gold colors. I pulled out my Scallops and Rectangles to cut down the panel. I pulled out some beautiful gold card stock from Simon Says Stamp and used the large scallop to cut a panel. I assembled all this on a black card face and attached to a card base. The gold sequins are from This Calls for Confetti.

Here is a little closer view of all the sparkle.

So my next card was an add on. I didn't think I would have time to make a second card but I had to try this idea and I had some snow day time. I am super excited about how it turned out and I wish you could see it in person. It is just so pretty the way it catches the light.

I used the June Rose stamp for the image and the sentiment. I stamped them in embossing ink and embossed them with fine white embossing powder. Then I used my red Deco Foil and my laminator to foil them. I followed Jennifer McGuire's technique in this video. I found that with my Amazon Basic brand laminator I had to change from the 5mil setting to the 3mil setting to keep it from squashing the embossing powder too much and distorting the image. There is a close up of the sentiment both ways below so you can see what I mean.

Can you see the shine here? It's just so pretty in person.

You can see with the 3mil setting the sentiment has much more definition.

Be sure to follow along with my fellow hoppers for lots of shiny inspiration.

Crystal

Eileen

Amber

Dawn B.

Gaylynn

Rachel

Dawn F

April

Joyce

Alaine-you are here

Kim

Friends of Unity November Blog Hop

Hello everyone. It's that time again. Friends of Unity are hopping this month to the theme of Watercolor. I will have to admit I find coloring images with watercolor a little challenging compared to my Copic markers. Since Fall has finally come here is the PNW, I decided to play with a new stamp and see what I came up with.

I grabbed the Autumn Wonder set from Unity and two of my Prima Marketing watercolor sets. I used the Odyssey and Terrain color palettes because they seemed to have the colors I was looking for.

I started by doing a wash on a piece of watercolor paper and drying it completely. I placed that in my Misti and centered this leave in the wash. A stamp positioner is crucial for this technique. I wet my brush and put a tiny, tiny bit of water in 3-4 fall leaf like colors. Then is using the same brush without adding any more water, I picked up the colors and "painted" the stamp randomly. Then stamp it down on the wash background. Repeat as needed to get full coverage and build up color. If anything gets too wet, you can pick up the puddle with the tip of a paper towel. Once I liked the color, I wet a deeper brown and brushed it across the whole stamp to get some of that lovely detail to show up better. See the close up below.

This gives some lovely, deep color without having to try and use ink pads to ink up bits of the stamp.

I used a deep brown ink to stamp the sentiment. When it was completely dry, I die cut it in an oval shape and assembled the card. The burlap string is from Unity as well.

Be sure to hope along with the rest of the Friends of Unity crew. You will be sure to find some amazing inspiration.

Crystal

Amber

Alaine-you are here.

Bobbie Sue

Kim

April

Gaylynn

Dawn B

Dawn F

Joyce

Rachel

Friends of Unity September Blog Hop

 Hello everyone! I hope you have all had a wonderful summer. We got a late start as far as warm days go here in the PNW but I have been loving the sunshine we have now. It's time for the Friends of Unity blog hop again. We have a fun theme going. Be sure to scroll to the bottom and check out the rest of the hoppers.

Yep, it's a Coffee, Tea and Cocoa hop and boy does Unity Stamp Co have some of the best stamps for this theme.

I started my cards by stamping some backgrounds and then had a hard time settling on the main image I had so many to choose from.

This card uses on of my most favorite background stamps and one of my favorite animal stamps. I stamped the Polka Dance background in SSS Latte ink. I cut this in half on the diagonal and used each piece to make a card. On an A2 size piece of card stock, I used the stamp set Coffee Components and SSS ink in Latte, Cappuccino and Mocha to stamp the upper half. I used a border stamp from the March 2020 Kit of the Month Spring & Things. Everything was inked with one or more of the SSS inks. I cut a domed piece of watercolor paper and stamped the frog from Frankie and colored him with my Zig markers. I inked the edges with Mocha ink and around Frankie with Latte ink. I mounted all that on brown card stock and added it to a card base. 

For this card I grabbed another A2 piece of cardstock and stamped the Pop Dots background stamp using the same inks. I assembled the base and then cut two pieces of watercolor card stock with the Make a Tag dies. I stamped the cup from Love to Go and colored it with my Zig markers. I inked the edges of this and the scallop tag with more of the ink trio. I stapled some beige ribbon to that and the sentiment and popped them on the card base with foam tape. 

Now be sure to check out the rest of the hop and comment along the way. I will be giving a prize away from the comments on my hop.

Crystal

Eileen

Amber

Kim

Bobbie Sue

Rachel

Dawn B

Gaylynn

April

Colleen

Dawn F

Robyn

Joyce

Alaine-you are here

Friends of Unity July Blog Hop

 Hello everyone. I know most of the country has been enjoying summer for a while now but here is the PNW, we are just barely starting to get sunshine and no rain for more than a day in a row.  I'm looking forward to enjoying today which is going to be the only sunny day this holiday weekend.

Today, the Friends of Unity are hopping along and using our stamps and stencils together.

For my first card, I decided to use the stamp and layering stencil I just got from Unity Stamp Co. It is a wonderful, quick way to add color to a stamp and it's so fun and easy.

This is the De Fleur Daisy stamp and stencil. This image is huge and you get so many layers for the layering stencils. I started by stamping it on and A2 card face and then again on an A2 card base. This gave me 2 black and white images. I took the card face and used the layering stencils and a bunch of inks and colored it up. Once it was colored, I used a smaller stitched rectangle to cut this panel down. Make sure the borders are even all around this die before cutting. Add some foam tape and carefully line it up on the stamped card base. Super quick and easy card. I used the Hi sentiment from Gotta Love Sentiments.   I keep that set on my desk always. I added a bit of Winkof Stella glitter pen just to shine it up.

My second cared uses a couple of stencils to make my background, focal point anchor and embellishments. I used Simon Says Stamps Pawsitively Saturated ink Trio 18. I started by inking a card base and and A2 size piece of card stock with the light Morning color first. I used a very large circle stencil and a tiny dot stencil, I don't know who made either on. On the card base, I used the dot stencil and the medium ink color Twilight to ink dots on the card base. On the A2 size card stock, I taped the large circle stencil and inked it with the same Twilight color. Without moving that stencil, I taped the dot stencil over the top and inked the darkest color, Galaxy, through the dot stencil. I used some circle dies to cut the big anchor circle and some small accent circles. I used the extra to mat the sentiment. The darling dog image is called Friends Furever and is new this week from Unity Stamp Co.

Be sure to hop along with the rest of the crew.

Crystal

Amber

Eileen

Kim

Rachel

Dawn F.

Joyce

Alaine-you are here

Dawn B.

Robyn

Friends of Unity June Hop

 Hello everyone. I missed last months hop while helping my son and his wife do a lot of work on the fixer upper they just bought. I am so excited for them.

This months hop is all about the masculine card. I have to admit I struggle with those.

There are a few things I find I always do when making masculine cards. I always seem to use colors from the cool side of the color wheel, the blues, greens, browns and grays. The other thing I always do is find more generic images like this wonderful bird stamp I used on my cards today. The third thing I always seem to do is add some kind of metal element. 

This stamp set is called Full of Surprises and it has some great sentiments along with this awesome bird. Even the stamped border around this card is from the set. I stuck with neutral browns for the Copic coloring. The heart is from the set and I fussy cut it out and attached it with a metal brad.

This time I stayed in the blue family and made a shaker card with this image. I used the heart and Versamark ink to stamp the border. The die used for the opening is from Gina Marie Designs. I attached the sentiment and the fussy cut heart using a Tim Holtz tiny stapler. 

Be sure to check out the rest of the hop for some awesome inspiration.

Crystal

Amber

Eileen

Dawn B

Rachel

Kim

Dawn F.

Colleen

Alaine-you are here

Joyce

Robyn

Friends of Unity April Blog Hop

Hello everyone. How are you doing? I am looking forward to spring weather that isn't rain to show up here in the Pacific Northwest. We have a fun theme this month using our patterned paper. When you think of Unity Stamp Co. you instantly think of their yummy red rubber stamps. But they have a lovely line of patterned paper also. I decided to grab one of those paper packs for my cards today. Be sure to scroll through to the bottom and follow along with the hop. I am always in awe of how talented my fellow Friends of Unity team members are.

My first card uses a sheet of the paper straight from the Coffee Lovers paper pack. 

I cut the bottom of the sheet I picked with all the mugs to 6" x 3 1/4" and mounted it on brown card stock. I then grabbed a sentiment from the stamp set Coffee Lovers and placed that over some brown string. I put this all on a mini slimline card base and I had a quick and easy card that would be awesome to send to a friend.

Now I had a nice big piece off the top of these sheet that had tons of fun words on it so I grabbed it to make another card. 

I used the same Coffee Lovers stamp set and this time I stamped the mug on the leftover patterned paper and on some white card stock. I used my Zig markers to color the mug on the patterned paper and the whipped cream of the white card stock. I cut just the mug out from the patterned paper and the whole coffee cup from the white card stock and paper pieced them together. 

Now I decided I needed some patterned paper to put these on so I made my own. I love using my stamps to make coordinating background paper. I grabbed and A2 size piece of water color paper and smooshed a bunch of Distress Oxide inks on it until I liked the color and drops. Then I grabbed the Coffee Components stamp set and stamped all over that piece with all the different coffee rings and splats. You can see everything I used in the picture below. I used a few more pieces of the original patterned paper sheet to make some elements to anchor the mug and the sentiment from the Coffee Lovers stamp set.

Follow along and leave comments along the way. I will be giving a prize away this month to one of the commenters.

Crystal

Kim

Rachel

Dawn B

April

Alaine-you are here

Amber

Eileen

Bobbie Sue

Joyce

Robyn

Dawn F

Friends of Unity March Hop

 Hello everyone. I hope all is well with all of you. The Friends of Unity are hopping again. We have a color cue for you this month. Kraft, black and white. I've done lots of kraft and black cards but for a minute, I had a hard time figuring out how to incorporate white. I had a great time making this card once I had an idea going.

I pulled out some new and some old favorites of my Unity stamps for this card. And one of their great die sets.

I use Neenah desert storm for my kraft card stock. I cut a piece to 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" and used Lotsa Blots background stamp to start. I stamped it with Versamark ink and heat embossed it with white. Then I trimmed it down 1/4" on the top and side and mounted it on black card stock.  I used Gina Marie Designs Peekaboo Rectangle Scallop frame to cut another piece of card stock. I turned this into a shaker with some acetate and foam tape.  I filled it with Black and White Polka dot sequin mix from Unity.

I cut the Hello using the Chic Script Salutations dies in black and the shadow layer in kraft. Then I pulled out a fun, older sentiment kit for the flower. This kit is from 2015 and the fact that it's still available from Unity Stamp co is one of the reasons I love this stamp company. They are never out of stock and never retire a set. It is called Smile, It's Your Day. I used the smaller flower and stamped the solid piece in black. Make sure this ink is very, very dry and then stamp the outline layer with Versamark Ink and emboss with white embossing powder. Do the same with one of the leaves and then stamp a second leaf outline and emboss it also. And just like that, you have a fun shaker card.

Make sure you follow along the hop and leave lots of comments.

Crystal

Eileen

Rachel

April

Colleen

Dawn F.

Amber

Kim

Joyce

Dawn B

Alaine-you are here

Robyn

Friends of Unity January hop

 Happy New Year everyone. Here's to everyone having a wonderful, crafty year. I got my craft room cleaned up the day after Christmas and have managed to make several cards since then and it is still clean. 

This month the Friends of Unity hop is all about CAS cards. I am not sure exactly what qualifies for this category. Most of the time I think a CAS card means lots of white space and I'm just not good at that.

Be sure to read to the bottom and follow the links for the rest of the Unity Friends hop pages.

I started with an image from the January 2022 kit of the month called Beautiful Blessings. I had it all colored and I decided I needed something more on it so I tried to mask it off and add black paint spatters. You all, I am terrible at that spatter thing. Every method I try does something weird. This time I got some big old splats but I just went with it.  The sentiment is a good reminder at the beginning of the year. I used the mosaic triangle die from Gina Marie Designs for the border.

Follow along with the rest of the hop:

Crystal

Eileen

Dawn B.

Dawn F.

April

Rachel

Bobbie Sue

Kim

Alaine-you are here

Amber

Joyce

Robyn