Friends of Unity January Hop

 Hello everyone. It's time for the Friends of Unity January Blog Hop. I knew I would like this month's theme but I am so in love the the simple elegance this combo has. 

This month we are doing Black & White themes and I couldn't stop making cards.

My first card uses the Buffalo Plaid background stamp that was die cut with a stitched die and mounted on a black card base. I stamped the image from Funny Farm on white card stock cut with a smaller stitched die and matted that in black card stock. The sentiment is from the same kit. I wrapped May Art black string around the image panel and then popped it up with foam tape. The sentiment also was popped up with foam tape, make sure to put a double layer on the end that hangs off the image panel.  

My biggest tip for these cards is to use a high quality, juicy black stamp pad. I stamped everything with my Versafine Clair Nocturne ink because it always comes out crisp and black. 

This card was inspired by some leftovers I had laying around on my desk. The flower and sentiment were rejected from another project and I was so happy to finally use them. The flower is from Magnolia Flowers, a really beautiful kit. This image was embossed with black embossing powder. The sentiment is from You Matter and was embossed with white embossing powder on the black card stock. I grabbed my new, absolute favorite background stamp, Polka Dance background. I cheated on the black & white theme a little and stamped this with Versafine Clair Midnight ink which is a dark gray. I grabbed a doily I had laying around and used that to anchor the flower and sentiment strip. The whole thing was matted with black card stock.

My next card used a technique I learned from another very talented Unie gal, Melinda aka itsacardknocklife on Instagram. I encourage you to go follow her if you haven't yet. She calls it a tattoo style and she is definitely better at it than I am.

I stamped the compass from the November 2019 kit of the Month, Wonder. Then I used 2 sizes of oval dies for my "templates" and traced them with Staedtler Pigment liner pens. I have a set of 6 different tip sizes and use used various sizes for the lines and extra dots. I added the lines coming off the ovals and lots of dots in random places. This panel was matted with black card stock also. I had wrote the Hello because I wanted a simple block style and couldn't find a stamp in my stash. The dies are new from Waffle Flower house and I can't rave enough about the sizes in the 2 sets of nesting ovals. I have wanted nested dies that make smaller borders on the layers forever. I plan on buying the circles also.

Be sure to hop along and comment on all the blogs this month.

Crystal

Kim

Eileen

Dawn F.

Joyce

Amber

Bobbie Sue

Alaine-you are here

Robyn

Brystl Girl Joy in the Ordinary card

Hello everyone. It feels like forever since I have made cards on a regular basis. I adopted a darling 8 month old puppy from a rescue shelter the first of December. She needs a lot of attention and training right now. I finally got a few minutes to make some cards. 

This lovely lady is an Angie girl from Unity Stamp Co. I had to use a new background stamp and a new die also. She was super fun to color, although I am terrible at picking out outfit colors. I wear jeans and t-shirts nearly every day. 

Isn't the staple a fun touch. And look at that wavy die. I colored the girl with Copic markers. I stamped the background with Distress Oxide Ground Espresso and then blended Brushed Corduroy over it. Once I had die cut the girl, I inked around her with Distress Oxide in Antique Linen.The sentiment was stamped with Archival Ground Espresso and inked with Distress Oxide in both Antique Linen and Brushed Corduroy. Supplies are listed below.

Copic Markers

Skin: E000, E01

Hair: E50, Y 21, YR26, E44

Vest: E40, E41, E42

Pants: E43, E44, E47

Shoes: E47, E49

Shirt: B0000, B000, B00

Scarf: B00, B02

Stamps & Die:

Hero Arts Rings Bold Print-background

Brystl Girl- image and sentiment.
Drifting Stitches Borders-die

Simple Blessings card

I am not feeling well today but I really wanted to make something. I decided on simple stamping using my inks for color rather than coloring an image with my Copics.

I am working my way through some new stamp sets. I found one recently that I loved all the images and can't wait so see what else I can come up with.

I started with a piece of Neenah Desert Storm card stock and took the 3 leave images from the set and randomly stamped them in Distress Oxide Ground Espresso.  I cut that down so that it measured 3 7/8" x 5 1/8". I inked the edges of an A2 size piece of card stock with Ground Espresso to mat the leaf piece on.

I took a scrap of Desert Storm card stock and stamped the pumpkin in Distress Oxide Rusty Hinge. Then I inked the top and bottom edge of the pumpkin with Distress Oxide Fired Brick and used my finger to soften the inside edges before stamping over the  Rusty Hinge. I used Ground Espresso on the stem. Then I stamped over the entire thing with Versamark embossing ink and heat embossed it with clear powder. I cut a mat and inked the edges with Ground Espresso and distressed the edges.

The sentiment was done the same way. I stamped it with Distress Oxide Rusty Hinge and then randomly added Fired Brick and Ground Espresso in a few places. Again using my finger to soften the edges of the ink on the stamp before stamping it down over the first layer. I also clear embossed the sentiment as well. It makes the Distress Oxide inks really pop.

I lightly blended some Distress Oxide in Ground Espresso around the edges of the sentiment, leaf, and pumpkin panel before I matted them. I mounted the sentiment and pumpkin panel on the leaf base with foam tape.

I used Simple Blessings from Unity Stamp Co for the card.

Hello Friends Tulip & background

Hello everyone. You may feel like you have seen this before. I have been making backgrounds with my Copic markers. I made this and the blue circle on I used on the Seahorse card to go with the camera image on another card. They didn't work for that so I am finding other things to use them with. I love this tulip so it seemed the perfect choice.

I made the background and colored the tulip. The tulip was fussy cut and them mounted to a white oval. I cut a slightly larger oval and used my Y13 Copic marker to color the edges to make a perfect mat. I placed this on the card and then tied a ribbon along the bottom edge. I stamped my sentiment and them matted it with white card stock colored with a the same Copic marker. All of this was adhered to an A2 size card blank.

To make the background, I colored random sized circles with 3 different Copic colors. I then used a Copic friendly pen to draw messy circles around them. I dotted the white space with all 3 makers, sometimes holding it in place a little longer to make a bigger circle. I then colored the edges of the card stock with my Y13 Copic

Copics used:

Background Y11, Y13, Y15

Tulip-BV02, BV13. BV17

Leaves-YG11, YG13

Supplies used:

Be Unstoppable-tulip

Abundant Blessings-sentiment

Hello Sweet Friend

I have been having so much fun using my Copic markers to make background papers. I made this fun, swirly one and decided it needed a coffee cup image to go with it. I didn't own an stamps so I found a beautiful digital set from a favorite artist Graciellie Designs.

Isn't this a beautiful image. I had so much fun coloring it.

I made this background by using a Copic friendly black pen and drawing random swirls over the page in different sizes. I then took Copic markers in E31, E33, E35 and E37 to color them in. Once they were all filled in, I colored over everything with E30.

I cut a band for the card from brown card stock using a border die. I adhered this to the background, slightly off center and cut the whole panel down with a stitched rectangle die. I mounted that on a brown A2 size panel. I fussy cut the cup out and popped it and the sentiment up with foam tape. 

I got the Coffee & Love set and printed out this cup and sentiment on Neenah 80lb card stock. 

Copics used:

Cup-E55, E57, E59

Band & lid-E53, E55

Flowers-B91, B93, B95, B97

Leaves-YG65, YG67

Flower Centers-Y23, Y26, Y28

I found the perfect sequin mix in my stash. Some of the sequins even had swirls in them.

Supplies Used:

Coffee & Love-digital stamp set

Coffee Au Lait-sparkle blend mix

Twisted Stitch Border die

Stitched Rectangle die

Ho, Ho, Ho-Christmas in July

I had one more background and one more digital image I wanted to play with. I printed this out much bigger than I thought it would be but I had fun coloring it anyway.

Aren't these boots adorable? Crystal Minkler, a creator from the Unity Show & Tell board, that I have loved seeing her cards drew these for Polka Dot Orachard's digital images. I printed them out on Neenah 80lb card stock with a laser printer. 

I made this background with Copics. I used the brush tip of the red for a thinner line. I used the broad tip of the lighter green to draw one strip and then the broad tip of the darker green to draw a double line. I just kept repeating the pattern until the card front was filled.

Copics used:

Boots-C5, C6, C7, 100

Buckle-Y11, Y15, YR21, YR23

Background-YG11, YG17, R29

Supplies used:

Magic of Christmas-digital images

I highly recommend you check out Polka Dot Orchard's digital image packs. Amazing images and lovely prices. You will be seeing more of them here for sure.

Seahorse with Copic background

Hello. Today I am making cards with a bunch of Copic backgrounds I made while watching Netflix this week. It has been super fun, but challenging to use them up.

A friend suggested this Cuddlebug Seahorse for this circle background and I loved how it turned out. The background is pretty bold and everything I put on it, got a little lost. I decided to layer vellum over it. I fussy cut the seahorse and 3 seaweed strands and freehand cut the sand. I mounted everything but 1 strand of seaweed on top of the vellum and one strand of seaweed behind. Then I put adhesive behind the pieces and stuck it to the circle background. I poked 2 holes at the top and tied some natural color thread at the top.

The background was made by using 4 colors of Copics an freehand coloring a bunch of random size circles. Then I took a .5 Copic friendly pen and drew messy circles around the Copic ones. I filled in the white space by dotting the tip of all the colors randomly around. I made some of those dots bigger by holding the tip there just a bit longer.

I blended some Distress Oxide in Antique Linen on some white paper and cut my sand strip. I then  took a sewing pin and Walnut Stain and dotted some texture to the sand. 

Copics used:

Seahorse-Y19, YR24, YR27

Seaweed-YG05, YG06, YG09

Background-B21, B23, B24, B26

Supplies used:

Cuddlebug Seahorse-image and inside sentiment

Vellum

Embrace the Moment-digital stamp

Today I dabbled in the world of digital stamps. There are so many amazing companies out there and digital stamps take up a lot less room. I simple used Microsoft Word to import and resize my image. I definitely will need some practice with that. I didn't get any thing the size I might have really wanted.

I printed the camera and sentiment out on Neenah 80lb card stock with a laser printer. I colored the camera up with Copics and fussy cut it out. I trimmed down the sentiment and gave it banner ends. 

I couldn't find any paper I liked so I made my own. I used 2 Copic markers and varied the strip size my using the different tips and making more than one line with a color. I used one of the blue Copics to color around the edge on an A2 size piece of card stock to make a matching mat. I used the same blue to make a mat for the sentiment by coloring a strip of white card stock all over.

Copics used:

Stripes-Y13, Y15

Camera body-B21, B23, B24

Lens, flash etc-C, C5, C6, C7

Heart-Y13

Supplies used:

Embrace the Moment-digital stamp set 

This set also can be purchased in red rubber from Unity Stamp Co

Take Another Shot-red rubber

White pearl cotton

White enamel dots

thin foam tape from the Dollar Tree

Be Yourself with Bernadette Girl

I love Angie Girls. I am building my collection. This lovely lady is called Bernadette girl and she is a joy to color. 

I didn't have a plan for this lovely lady so I just let the card evolve on its own. 

I colored her up using some warm grays and giving her a lovely pop of red.I will list the colors below. Then I took and edge die and cut down on one side. I followed that up with a stitched rectangle die to give the other edges some interest.

I made her a background using Distress Oxide Pumice Stone ink. I lightly blended a layer over the whole piece of white card stock and then I used a brick background stamp inked up in the same color to add another layer. This was cut down a tiny bit and mounted on a deep red A2 piece of card stock.

I stamped the sentiment in black, lightly blended the Pumice Stone ink over it and cut a banner edge on one side. This was matted with the same red card stock. Then it was just a matter of assembling all the layers and attaching them to a card base.

Copic Colors used:

Jacket-W3, W4, W5, W6

Scarf, boots, heart-R35, R37, R39, R89

Pants-W4, W5, W6, W7

Bag-E55, E57

Shirt-E41, E42

Hair-YR21, Y26, E44

Bricks-W00, W0, W1

Supplies used:

Bernadette girl-image

You Matter-sentiment

Stitched Rectangle die

Brackets, Bevels & Lace-edge die

Vintage Tulip Birthday Card

Hello, it feels like forever since I have made a card. You can tell it's car show season I guess.  I must have been influenced by the Friends of Unity Vintage theme blog hop this month when I went to color these tulips. I thought they had a vintage feel to them so I went with that when I made the card.

I love everything about this card. Usually I wish I had done something different but not this time. 

I started by cutting a stitched rectangle die that was 3 1/8"x 4 3/8" and an A2 size panel of white card stock. I blended Distress Oxide ink in Pumice Stone over both panels.

I then took the Worn Music background stamp and inked it with Distress Oxide in Hickory smoke and stamped it on the smaller panel.

I took my Distressed Dots background stamp and again using the Hickory Smoke ink, I stamped the larger panel.

I used the Hickory Smoke to distress the edges of both panels.

I trimmed down the A2 size panel about 1/8" on the top and side and mounted it to black card stock. I wrapped some string around the middle three times and then mounted that to an A2 size card.

I fussy cut the 3 tulips out and then I arranged them on the smaller panel. I actually cut off a couple of the leaves and then added them back where they looked a bit better on the arrangement. I blended a scrap of white card stock with the Pumice Stone color and then stamped the sentiment with the Archival Distress Hickory Smoke. I cut that to the same width as the smaller panel, matted it with black and then used it to anchor my tulip arrangement on the card.

I matted the small panel with black card stock and used 1/16" foam to mount it to the card base.

Copic Colors used:

Purple flower-V91, V93, V95 & C2 in the shadows

Purple flower leaves-YG61, YG63 & YG67

Yellow flower-Y21, Y23, Y26 & N1 in the shadows

Yellow flower leaves-YG11, G21

Supplies used:

Be Unstoppable-tulip & sentiment

Worn Music-small background 

Distressed Dots-large background

Stitched Rectangle dies-I used the 3rd largest

Distress Oxide inks

1/16" foam tape

black string from a local store Impress Cards & Crafts 

Copic Striped Background

This was a fun card to make. I really shy away from bright, bold colors so I challenged myself to pick some colors I wouldn't normally pick.

I started by coloring the top three red/orange flowers in sort of a triangle.  I then filled in the bright yellow flowers and then I was stuck for which color to use next. A quick internet search for orange color palettes had me finding a beautiful parrot that had the orange and yellow and blue. I figured if it was good in nature, it would work on my card. Once I got the flowers all colored, I realized I was never going to find a coordinating paper. So I decided to make one.

I took the darkest marker from each flower color and started playing with a pattern on some scrap paper. I picked one that I liked and knew would be easy to make and keep the colors even. I cut a piece of white card stock about 1/2 inch larger all around than and A2 card size. Then I just used the chisel end and the brush end to make a striped pattern. I cut that panel down on all 4 sides to about 1/8 inch smaller than an A2 card and mounted it on black cardstock.

 I die cut the flowers and the sentiment and also mounted them on black. I then popped them up using 1/16" foam tape onto my card panel. I used white Nuvo drops for accents. For the die cutting, I actually ran each piece with the die that was the width I needed. Then I moved it down on the paper so cut it shorted. This allowed me to get the square shape and a narrower sentiment strip.

Copic colors used:

Red/Orange flower-R12, R14

Yellow flower-Y15, Y19

Blue Flower-B02, B04

Supplies used:

Love & be Loved-flower heart

Abundant Blessings-sentiment

Mod Rectangles-dies

May you Never Outgrow Bubbles

I got this darling little girl blowing bubbles because it reminds me of my granddaughter. I then needed a perfect sentiment for it and it came today.

I started by coloring the image up. I used Copics for the girl. I then used a water brush and the 3 colors of Distress Oxides that I used for the background to watercolor the bubbles. I die cut the girl down with a stitched rectangle die and mounted it on black, letting just a thin outline show. I popped her and the sentiment up with black fun foam.

I have a swatch book of Copic color combos to reference so I can make quick color choices. Some of the swatches are from Jennifer Dove's series of Copic Color of the Day. I have most of these pinned on Pinterest but as I get marker colors, I add them to my swatch book. I also have a lot of swatches of different colors I play around with to see how they blend. I make these on 2" x 2 1/8" Copic friendly paper and them keep them in coin sheet page protectors fastened together with rings. 

Copic Colors Used:

Hair-E25, E27, E79

Skin-E000, E00, E11

Dress & flower-R81, R82, R85

Outline-BG70

I used this Bubbles template to create the background. It is only an A6 size so I did half the background, moved it, lined it up the best I could and did the other half of the background.

I used make up brushes to blend Distress Oxides in Wilted Violet, Blueprint Sketch and Mowed Lawn through the template. I also smooshed some on my glass mat and water colored the bubbles with them.

I was pretty happy with this card and am sure my little 3 year old granddaughter will love it. She always tells me my cards are "pretty pictures".

Supplies used

Little Bubbles-girl image

Bubble Chicks-sentiment.

Bubbles A6-stencil

Make up Brushes from Amazon

Distress Oxides

Clear sequins.

Patriotic Cards

My favorite stamp company, Unity Stamp Co, had the best Show & Tell board on Facebook. They have weekly mini challenges and this week it is Independence theme cards. I couldn't resist making two. They were so fun to make.

This card started by taking a stamp that was a group of three stars and repeat stamping the background. I trimmed it down and mounted it on blue card stock. I stamped the heart from the Ragged Ol' Flag kit by using mircropore tape to mask off the star section and inking the stripes with Candied Apple  Distress Oxide ink. Then I reversed the mask and inked the star section up with Chipped Saphire Distress Oxide ink. The sentiment and heart are popped up and I used string to "hang" the heart from a blue button.

 I used the same Distress Oxide inks and micropore masking to stamp the flag from the same kit. I stamped some extra stripes and punched a heart & star and cut the letter I out of them. I inked the edges of all the sentiment pieces and used a distress tool to distress up the edges of the flag and the USA.

The sentiment in the kit actually says Handmade in USA so I used the tape to mask off the top and stamp just the USA.

Supplies used:

Ragged Ol' Flag-flag, heart & USA sentiment

LOL Looking Up-stars for background

Distress Oxide in Candied Apple & Chipped Saphire