~ Friends of Unity February Blog Hop ~

Hello!! I'm so excited to share my cards for our Friends of Unity blog hop this month! The cue this month is Friendship... I am very blessed with many friends! I'm also blessed to do this hop with a bunch of my crafty friends!! I had no idea when Amber and I came up with this wonderful hop that these amazingly creative and artistic women would become such dear friends to me. A bonus also is the fantastic group of crafty friends that follow us and support us so I just want to (again) say thank you to all of you fabulous peeps!

It's been a while since I did some mixed media art for a card... or at least it feels like it's been awhile so I just had to get inky with my oxides for this one!!

I trimmed a piece of Ranger Mixed Media cardstock down to a cardfront panel measuring 5-1/2 x 4-1/4". I painted on some clear gesso to prepare the paper, but I honestly don't know if that step was necessary since this paper is made for mixed media art. I just did it out of habit. I also painted an extra large tag from Unity that was in my stash with the same clear gesso. I dried both pieces with my Ranger heat tool. I then blended Spiced Marmalade, Worn Lipstick, and Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide inks on the piece of card stock I had prepared. I then sprayed the paper with water to let the colors move around and blend. I dried the paper with my Ranger heat tool and then grabbed my stamps. I decided to use Unity's Better with Friends stamp set by Jolande and Marleen. I love the mix of stamps in this fabulous set! Perfect for the card I wanted to create! I stamped the script background with Spiced Marmalade oxide ink. I then stamped the splatter with Worn Lipstick oxide ink in a few different places on the paper. I spritzed some water into the palm of my hand and clapped over the card front... a fun way to add splatter to your creations! I then dabbed the splatter dry with a paper towel and set the card front aside.

I stamped the flowers on the extra large tag with VersaMark watermark ink and heat embossed a fine black embossing powder. I dabbed the Spiced Marmalade and Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide inks on my glass mat and used the inks to watercolor the flowers. They seemed to get 'lost' in the background of the card front so I decided to add some Abandoned Coral Distress Oxide ink. I fussy cut the flowers and set them aside. I wanted to add some more black to the card front so I added this beautiful die cut from the Tim Holtz Mixed Media Thinlet die set that I trimmed and adhered to the card front. I then stamped the sentiment with VersaMark watermark ink and heat embossed a fine black embossing powder. I got to thinking... this needs more splatter so I grabbed my black acrylic paint, watered it down a little bit and splattered away. The top right corner needed a little something so I was looking around my studio and saw my very neglected Stampin' Up! Spiral Border punch. Perfect! All that was left was adhering the flowers... I got distracted by one of the kids while adhering this and it ended up more to the left of the card then I wanted but it was stuck. 

Oh, well... I still love it!

My second card has a pretty simple design to it... I stamped the gorgeous flowers using VersaMark watermark ink on Canson XL watercolor paper and then heat embossed a fine black embossing powder. I then watercolored the flowers using some new watercolor markers that I recently purchased that were recommended by a crafty friend. They're called Staedtler Marsgraphic Duo Double-ended watercolor brush markers.... quite a name, huh?! But I have to say, I loved watercoloring with them. I didn't color direct to the paper. I scribbled the watercolor markers on my acrylic block and then used my watercolor pen to lift the color and paint. I sometimes use this technique with my ZIGs so I wondered how these markers would do and I was pleasantly surprised with the results. Next time, I think I'll color direct to the paper and see how they work.

So... want to hear a funny crafty story?! I got done watercoloring these flowers and had the crazy idea to add my nuvo crystal drops right away... well, I realized after my first couple of drops that I hadn't trimmed my panel. I had planned to die cut it with a stitched die or some kind of rectangle die... LOL! Nope, couldn't do that now! So, I carefully trimmed it with my cutter (the following day so the drops were completely dry) and ended up matting it on black and popping it up on a stitched scallop die cut piece of a fun new paper I found at Hobby Lobby by The Paper Studio called Stargazer. Oh my goodness... this paper is so beautiful! I saw it while I was trying to avoid buying paper and I just had to bring it home. My crafty friend, Dawn, can tell you it's true! Right, Dawn?! She was there with me listening to me say, "No more paper. No more paper." And then I saw it and my chant ended and the paper was mine forever and ever! LOL! Anywho, back to the card... I adhered the whole panel on a True Black card base. Since I had the True Black card stock out, I decided to stamp the sentiment on a scrap and heat emboss a fine white embossing powder. I trimmed it up by hand and adhered it to the card. Done!

So my color challenge last month was a bit of a flop. Or possibly, I've misunderstood the power of a hashtag... LOL... since I haven't seen many projects using the hashtag. But I want to say a big thank you to my sweet blog hopping friends that played along!! I so appreciate you all!

Now for a little bit of business... this is actually business for Jeanie's giveaway from last month. She wasn't able to hop this month so she asked me to share her winner. 

And the winner of a random itty bitty stamp is... 

lrkmtJanuary 5, 2019 at 10:09 AM

Wow this card is awesome. I love the gold and the festivity and energy I feel when I look at it!

lrkmt, please contact Jeanie at jeaniehays00@yahoo.com or via Facebook messaging.

Speaking of giveaways... I hear there are a few along our hop! Be sure to hop and comment on our blogs so you can be entered to win a prize!

Now, I think it's about time to start hopping...

~ Blog Hop List ~

Crystal <--- you're here

up next ---> Dawn

Joyce

Kim

Bobbie Sue

Eileen

Thank you friends for checking out my blog post!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal