You're Amazing!

Hello! A quick post today for the Inspired By Challenge #38 ~ Fall Foliage.

I was inspired by the fabulous colors in the challenge photo and also the cup or mug (not sure?) in the photo. I wanted to focus on the rich colors of Autumn with reds, oranges and yellows, but also include the browns. I love the rich brown in the scallop background piece poking out from the behind the watercolored washed background. I die cut the Large Scallop Stackers from Dark Chocolate card stock for that piece. 

I ran Canson XL watercolor paper through the big shot with the Papertrey Ink Book Print Impression Plate and then did a watercolor wash with Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors. I die cut the piece with the Noted: Simply Stitched A2 Vertical dies also from Papertrey Ink. I adhered those layers to a Kraft card base and then set it aside.

I stamped the Tea Cup Floret by Graciellie Designs (sold by Unity Stamp Company) in Gina K's Black Amalgam ink. I heat set it with my heat tool and then colored it in with the same Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors I used on the background, but also used some browns and white for the cup, saucer, and coffee. I added some copper metallic thread to the bottom of the fussy cut image and then popped it up on the card. I stamped the sentiment in VersaMark watermark ink and then heat embossed some fine white embossing powder. I die cut it with a banner die, trimmed it, and adhered it to the card. I am loving how this one turned out!

The Inspired By Challenge just started today so I hope you also get a chance to play along.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Scrapping for Less ~ Brutus Monroe ~ Fall Themed Baby Card

Hello! Today I'm sharing a fall themed baby card... actually, I had so much fun making the first card, I decided to make two cards to share with you! Let's get to it!

My first card has layers using the Lawn Fawn Knit Picky Fall paper pack on a dark brown card base. I stamped the sweet bunnies from the Brutus/Monroe Bunny Kisses stamp set on a piece of white card stock and then stamped them again on a post-it note. I masked the bunnies with the fussy cut post-it note and then blended Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, and  Vintage Photo distress inks. I took the mask off and colored the bunnies using the following Copic markers ~ E30, E31, E35, E53, E55, E57, YR24, R20. I die cut the piece using the large cross stitch rectangle die that I mat on the same dark brown card stock. I stamped the sentiment using VersaMark watermark ink and then heat embossed a fine white embossing powder. I popped up the panel using foam squares and called this one done!

I used similar items for my second card. I stamped the bunnies again on white card stock and used the same mask to protect the image while I blended Wild Honey, Mustard Seed, and Scattered Straw distress ink. I then removed the mask and this time I used Copic markers to color my ground for the bunnies. I used E53, E55, and E57 with a touch of 0 around the edges to softened it up. I die cut the piece using a wonky stitched square die and then mat it on dark brown card stock. I then popped up the piece on a kraft card base. I did debate coloring the bunnies... but I really like how they are the focal point on the card here. The white pops! And because I had so much white popping on the card, I also decided to keep the sentiment white so I stamped it in VersaMark watermark ink and heat embossed a fine white embossing powder. To finish the card I wrapped some natural twine around the card a few times and made a little bow. There you have my two Fall themed baby cards.

You can get this sweet Brutus Monroe Bunny Kisses set here.

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Scrapping for Less ~ For the Love of Pets!

Hello! I'm here today with another look at the August Flavor of the Month card kit ~ For the Love of Pets. For my post today, I wanted to focus on the adorable stamp set included in the Banana Split subscription, rightfully named... For the Love of Pets!

I also decided to revisit this sketch... it was my favorite of the sketches this month and I thought it would be perfect to showcase these adorable images from the stamp set. Both cards are using the same color schemes which was easy to do by just flipping the patterned papers included in the kit to change things up just a bit for each card. I started with a white card base for both cards and then adhered a 4 x 5-1/4" piece of Banana Split card stock. I layered that with a 3-7/8 x 5-1/8" piece of Kraft card stock. I adhered my patterned papers and set those aside.

I stamped the images using Memento tuxedo black ink and then colored them in using Copic markers (I'll list those below). I die cut the images using a Large Cross Stitch Circle die and mat that on a slightly larger circle die cut from the same patterned papers. 

I popped up the main images on both cards.

 I stamped the sentiments and used a banner die to cut them out and also the black layers. I adhered those together and popped them up on the card. To add a little fun embellishment, I die cut the 'meow' and 'woof'' two times from Black Licorice card stock. I adhered the layers together with some liquid glue. I also die cut the yarn ball and the dog bone. I added a little bit of grey to the edges of the bone using a N3 Copic marker.

I moved the embellishment pieces around until I found a good place to adhere them and used a mix of foam tape and liquid glue to adhere them in place. My final touch on the kitty card was to add some white gel pen to the highlights on the fish bowl.

Copic Markers used: Kitty - N0, N3, N5, R20, YR12, YR15, YR16; Fish Bowl - YR12, YR15, B0000, B000, B00; Puppy - N0, N3, E30, E31, E55, E57.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

~ Friends of Unity September Blog Hop ~

Hello! It's time for another Friends of Unity Blog Hop!! Woohoo! I love hopping with my friends!

Before I get any further into my post, we have two new friends hopping with us and I want to officially welcome Kim Klinkovsky and Bobbie Sue McConathy to our hop! Kim has been a sweet supporter of our little hop since we started. She is a fellow lover... AKA... addict of Unity stamps, she has a fabulous blog filled with inspiration - including some really awesome jewelry! And Bobbie Sue has also been a huge supporter of our hop. She just recently started her blog and I was just waiting for an opportunity to invite her to join us. She's a sweet soul and a fabulous cardmaker with so much talent! We are super happy to have both of these wonderful friends join our team!

So please give Kim and Bobbie Sue a huge welcome!

Now let's get back to it... our cue for this month's Friends of Unity blog hop is Wings. We kept the cue simple because it can be used with so many different images... angels, butterflies, birds, dragonflies, etc... that way we had a larger scope of stamps to use which sometimes can make it hard to decide what exactly you want to do. LOL! So instead of just choosing one stamp set to play with, I chose two different sets.

The first set I chose to work with was an easy pick, I bought this Suzi Blu set called Serenity Angel a while back wanting to use it for a card for my niece but the idea, and sadly, the set got pushed aside for other things. So I was really happy to finally get to use this set for this card.

I recently got my hands on some new alcohol inks and I thought it would be fun to work with a rainbow theme. I had already made a background using Wild Plum, Raspberry, Turquoise, and Stream alcohol inks on Yupo white heavystock and I thought it would be perfect for the angel's wings. I stamped the angel on the Yupo and fussy cut the wings out. I stamped her again on white card stock with Amalgam ink and colored her in with Copic markers (listed below). I used my Scan n Cut to cut the angel image out and adhered the wings to the image. I added touches of silver gel pen on the wings and on her outfit. And I also added some clear wink of stella to her hair and the bottom portion of her dress (behind the flowers). I set the angel aside and created my background piece using Poppyfield, Valencia, Sunshine Yellow, and Limeade alcohol inks on Yupo white cardstock. Using the Tim Holtz Rays Stencil, I rubbed some Alcohol Lift Ink over that stencil and rubbed it with a paper towel to get the sun rays on the background. I am loving the new Alcohol Lift Ink!!! So fun to play with! I die cut the piece using the Double Stitch Scalloped Rectangle Frames die from Poppy Stamps. I also die cut a piece of True Black card stock using the same die. I adhered the black and rainbow pieces to a scrap piece of white cardstock because I planned to pop the whole piece up on the Amethyst Allure card base.

{Copic markers used on this card ~ BV000, BV04, BV11, E0000, E00, E21, R000, R17, R20, N5, N7, YR01, YR68, Y06, Y17, Y35, YG03, YG23, B00}

Once I had that part done... I thought the background needed something else. I pulled out my Tim Holtz Mixed Media #2 dies... now at first I thought I would use the die with the flowers, but then I saw the negative pieces of the die sitting on my desk and thought they would be cool on the background and so that's what I did. That was no easy task because there were a lot of small pieces but I placed the die cut wrong side up on a piece of Press n Seal (that stuff in your kitchen to cover your leftovers - it's sticky and perfect for this!) and put all the little pieces on there like I was doing a puzzle. Once I had it filled back in, I added liquid glue to the pieces I wanted on my background and flipped it over and adhered them. Some didn't stick but it was easy to use the die cut as my guide to get the pieces in there. Then I popped up the angel on the card with dimensionals, added a few Peacock Feather jewels from Little Things from Lucy's Cards, and stamped and adhered the sentiment from the set.

Here's a closer look at the angel... I tried to capture some of the glitter in her hair. Not easy to do! But take my word for it... it's there!!

On to my second card... so you remember the black die cut from the first card... well, it was just sitting on my desk next to the left over scallop rainbow piece and they wanted to play too. So... I decided to make a Leftover card! Do you ever do that? It can be a bit of a challenge to use up those leftover pieces but this card came together pretty quickly and I have to say... I Love It!!

I masked off my white card base using microfiber tape. You could use washi or purple tape... even post it notes. Anyhow, I masked it off with about a 1/4" border. I knew I wanted to blend some red and yellow ink behind the die cut so I grabbed my brand new Ripe Persimmon and Mustard Seed Distress Oxide inks... so excited to have these in my collection... and blended them in that bottom right corner. I blended a little and then placed the die cut there to see that I was in the right spot and then I'd blend some more. Once I had that section done, I grabbed the Tumbled Glass and Stormy Sky Distress Oxide inks and blended the rest of the masked off area. Using the Ranger Anti-Static Pouch, I covered the distress oxide background and then stamped the sentiment with VersaMark watermark ink and then heat embossed ultra fine white embossing powder. I pulled off the microfiber tape and adhered my scalloped frame to the black die cut piece and then adhered them to the white card base.

I set that aside and got to work on my dragonfly. Do you recognize those wings?!?! I stamped the dragonfly from the Dreams Take You itty bitty set with Ranger Jet Black Archival ink onto my background that was leftover from the angels wings. I stamped the dragonfly again on white card stock, adhered the fussy cut wings, and fussy cut the whole dragonfly out. I bent the wings up a bit for dimension on the card and adhered just the head and thorax of the dragonfly. And then I spotted the Peacock Feather jewels that were still on my desk and decided this dragonfly needed some bling!! This might just be my favorite Leftover card ever!! 

 One or two of our friends are having giveaways on their blogs for this month's hop so be sure to hop and comment on each of our blogs so you'll be entered into this giveaway. We sure appreciate and love all of your fun comments! 

Now let's get hopping!

Crystal <--- you're here

up next ---> Joyce

Eileen

Robyn

Kim

Dawn

Jeanie

Bobbie Sue

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Scrapping for Less ~ August 2018 Flavor of the Month ~ For the Love of Pets!

Now, who doesn't love furry little kitties and puppies? We have put together a sweet puppy and kitten kit for you this month. We hope you enjoy!! Thanks so much for continuing to support our kits...keep sharing in the Scrapping for Less: Show and Share group and on Instagram. We love to see your shares! Now, hop on with us and see what our fabulous Design Team and guest designers have to share with you! Make sure you check out our Flavor of the Month page to purchase the kit and check out the A La Carte page for some related products! 

The August Flavor of the Month card kit has got to be my new favorite kit!! Oh my goodness... there are so many adorable puppy and kitty stamps! Cuteness overload!!! 

Let's get to the cards...

For all of my cards this month, I decided to pair the collections with the same numbered sketch... so for my first card from Collection One I used Sketch #1.

I paired some of the fun patterned papers for my layers on the card, even using them for the flag strips. I stamped the adorable puppies on a piece of Neenah 110lb smooth white solar crest cardstock with Memento tuxedo black ink and colored them in with copic markers. I then die cut them out and popped them up on the card. I also partially popped up the sentiment strip by only adding foam tape to the bottom portion of the strip and liquid glue to the top portion. I adhered a few sequins in the bottom right corner and called the front of this card done.

Copic markers used for this card ~ E04, E07, E08, E09, E55, E57, N0, N1, N2, N3, N5, N7, R000, R14, R27, R81, R83, R89, Y06, Y35.

For the inside of the puppy card I stamped this sweet sentiment from the Puppy Pals set and also stamped a few hearts.

For my second card I used Sketch #2 with Collection Two.

Every once in awhile I decide to give a shaker another try. I still struggle with shaker cards and this card was no different. I did manage to get this card to work though so I feel victorious! I started out by blending some Mowed Lawn distress ink over the Puppy Dog Bone stencil included in the collection... I think it adds a bit more fun to the diagonal striped patterned paper. I adhered that layer to a white card base. To break up the diagonal stripes I added the yellow horizontal striped patterned paper to the card and set it aside. I stamped the puppies on a piece of white card stock. I masked the puppies with post-it note masks and then blended my clouds. Using a crafting knife I cut around the bottom portion of the puppies and adhered my stitched hills under the puppies to create my scene. I die cut the square frame using two square stitched dies together. I added my shaker elements and adhered the frame to the scene with some foam tape. Sadly, my adhesive wasn't completely dry and two sequins got stuck on the hills but it kind of looks like the puppies are playing with them, right? At least that's what I'm telling myself. LOL My final touches for this card was the metal bone clip that I adhered in the corner with some multi medium matte, the sentiment that I stamped and die cut using a skinny banner die, and on the inside of the card I adhered a small strip of the polka dot paper.

Copic markers used for this card ~ E21, E30, E31, E40, E41, E43, N0, N5, R00, R20, RV11, RV21.

For my third card I used Sketch #3 with Collection Three.

I absolutely adore this collection... the new Scrapping for Less Pretty Kitty stamp set paired with this sweet Kitten Smitten paper from Doodlebug Designs is too stinkin' cute! I love it! The sketch for this card is supposed to be a tall and skinny card, but I decided to make it into an A2 size card. I started by cutting and adhering my patterned paper layers to a Cotton Candy card base. I set that aside and stamped the cute kitty on white card stock. I thought I'd give this kitty a little calico touch and I think she turned out pretty cute. I die cut the kitty with a stitched circle die and mat it on a stitched Black Licorice circle. I popped up the main image with foam tape and then die cut a few more stitched circles to add as embellishments. I stamped the fish bones on the one pink circle and popped it up on the card adhering a little bit of yellow twine... like some yarn for the kitty to play with. I then stamped the sentiment and mat it on Black Licorice card stock. I adhered a few sequins... even adding one to the kitty's paw. So cute!

Copic markers used for this card ~ N0, N2, N3, N5, N7, 0, R00, R20, YR12, YR15, YR21.

To finish off this card I added a piece of white card stock on the inside and I stamped another cute kitty from the set in a light pink ink.

For my fourth card I used Sketch #4 with Collection Four.

This collection has a very cool Cat Paw Print stencil and I used it to add some interest to this card. First I used it on the Sno Cone card base... and then I added my layers of patterned paper that I had mat on Black Licorice card stock. I then stamped the sweet Santoro Girl with Cat on white card stock and colored the image in with copic markers. I fussy cut the image out and adhered it to a piece of white card stock that I had blended just a little bit of Tumbled Glass and Hickory Smoke distress inks for a subtle background. I used the Cat Paw Print stencil to add a few paw prints in the direction that I imagined the cat would have gone around the girl. The sentiment for this card is from the For the Love of Pets stamp set by Scrapping for Less that's included in the Banana Split subscription. Another absolutely adorable stamp set by Scrapping for Less! I popped up the sentiment and adhered a few sequins.

Copic markers I used for this card ~ N0, N1, N3, N5, N6, N8, 100, E0000, E000, E00, R20, R21, R22, R35, BV04, BG70, BG72.

And to finish this card off, I also used the Cat Paw Print Stencil on the inside of the card by blending some Hickory Smoke distress ink.

Here's a look at the Double Dip Sundae subscription.

Here's a look at the Banana Split subscription.

I hope you enjoyed the cards I shared today. I had so much fun creating them to share with you all.

Let's get to hopping and see what the other members of the design team created!

Scrapping for Less

Crystal <--- you're here

up next ---> Desiree

Luci

Stacy

Katie

Courtney

LeeAnn

Tanya

*Guest Designer* Kristie

Make sure to join the Rafflecopter back on the SFL blog to win an awesome prize!! 

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Scrapping for Less ~ Hippo Birdie To You!

Hello! Today I'm sharing a sweet birthday card using the Hippo Birdie To You mini kit from Scrapping for Less. There are two variations of this collection in the Scrapping for Less shop. There's a smaller kit with 6 sheets of 6x6 patterned paper, the Lawn Fawn Year Four stamp set, and 3 coordinating embellishments ---> check that kit out here. Or there's a collection with the items listed above plus the X-Cut die Happy Birthday Cake ---> check that kit out here. Now, if you're just loving this sweet hippo and birdie and you want to add them to your stamp collection ---> check that stamp set out right here.

For my card, I decided to go with a sketch I saw recently on the CAS(E) This Sketch challenge blog. I love checking out sketches to get my mojo working! Sometimes, you just need that little bit of inspiration. I started with a kraft card base that I adhered my layer of brown polka dot paper to. I then stamped out my images on a piece of white card stock. I masked the hippo, birdie and the little hats and then blended my background with my go to distress inks, Tumbled Glass and Mowed Lawn. I pulled off the masks and colored in my images with copic markers (listed below). I die cut the image with a circle die and then adhered it to a scalloped circle die cut from the striped papers in the kit. I popped up the focal image with foam tape. I partially popped up the wood embellishments... where they overlap the scalloped circle they are just adhered with liquid glue. I set the card aside and stamped the sentiment from the set and mat it on a scrap piece of the striped paper. I also popped the sentiment up on the card.

{Copic markers used: birdie ~ Y06, Y18, YR15, YR68; hats ~ BG11; hippo ~ C0, C3, C5, C7; shadow under hippo ~ YG67} 

Now to finish the card off... I wanted to do a little something on the inside so that's where the die in the collection came in handy. I cut a 4 x 5-1/4" piece of white card stock and adhered it to the inside of the card. I die cut the cake out of the striped paper and just adhered it to the center of the card. Just that easy to include a little birthday fun on the inside of the card. That's it for me this time!

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Scrapping for Less ~ Pink & Main ~ A Giveaway!!

Hello! Today I'm sharing my design team post featuring the exclusive to Scrapping for Less -Wild & Free stamp set!! This set was exclusively designed for Scrapping for Less by Pink & Main for the August 2017 Flavor of the Month card kit. I created four cards using the sweet animals included in this cute set. I'm also having a giveaway, but more about that after we check out these cards! Let's get to it!

{Copic markers used ~ E11, E17, R27, N0, N3, N7, BG11, BG15, BG49}

You'll notice that the cards all use the same sketch. I love doing that for sets that include more than one image. With some fun papers and these cute images you can put cards together pretty quickly using a simple sketch like this one. I got this sketch from the CASE This Sketch challenge blog, but my cards and post were done too late to enter... that's ok though, because the sketch was what I needed to start my design!

{Copic markers used ~ Y06, Y26, Y35, YR15, YR68, R00, R14, R20, E31, B00, YG03}

For all of the cards I used up some of the older card stock that I still had in my stash for my card bases. I also used the Our Family Mini Kit from Scrapping for Less... you can check that little kit out here. The kit includes 6 sheets of the Our Family patterned paper from Echo Park, along with three coordinating embellishments. Included in my kit was some paper flowers and sequins so I decided to add those to my cards.

{Copic markers used ~ Y06, Y26, Y35, B95, B97, B99, BG13, BG49}

The remaining layers on each of the cards is the Our Family papers. I like the mix of patterns and solid papers included in the pack, it makes for easy layering and matting for the main images. Scrapping for Less has more mini kits available... you can check those out here. There's also a full pad of the Our Family 6x6 papers available.

For my last card, I thought I'd share how I colored the backgrounds of my little images using Copic Markers B00, B000, 0, YG03, YG17. I started by coloring the grass portion with YG17. I then went over the outer parts of the area with YG03 leaving a slight shadow for the animals . For the clouds I started by outlining a cloud with B000.

I then colored the rest of the sky with B00 being sure not to overlap the B000 lines all of the way. I wanted there to be some variation in the outline of the cloud. To finish off the sky, I went around the inside of the cloud with the 0 colorless blender to blend those two shades of blue and soften the lines.

{Copic markers used ~ Y18, Y35, YR15, YR68, R20}

I then colored in the platypus and mat the image. I popped up all of the images on the card and then adhered a paper flower with a sequin center. That's all my cards for this time!

Now for the Giveaway!! I have this brand new exclusive stamp set to giveaway!! AND I'm going to throw in some other goodies from my stash as a surprise (all brand new items). All you have to do to enter is to comment on my blog. AND for a bonus entry, I'm also sharing this giveaway on my Instagram. You can head over there, like my post and follow me and you'll have another chance to win!! AND for another bonus entry, follow the Scrapping for Less Instagram. You have until 8/17/2018 midnight EST to enter. Unfortunately, open to US residents only. I will announce the winner on my Instagram on 8/18/2018!! 

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal