Joy ~ Love ~ Peace

Hello! I'm back with another Winter themed coffee card for the Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop!

I started this card by first picking my papers, not something I usually do! I just recently purchased the Perfectly Plaid Winter paper collection from Lawn Fawn and the blues and greys just spoke to me. I chose the diagonal plaid and ran it through the big shot with a Tim Holtz Simple Snowflake embossing folder. Sadly, it's hard to see in the picture but it really gives a great texture to the card. I then layered that embossed paper onto a piece of Smokey Shadow card stock from Papertrey Ink. I added some grey ribbon and adhered that whole panel onto a white card base and set that aside. I pulled out one of my favorite Kit of the Month's from Unity Stamp Co. called Unexpected Places and inked up the row of coffee cups. I then inked them up again and stamped them on the plaid paper. I fussy cut all the little coffee cup sleeves and glued them on... a little paper piecing fun! I grabbed another piece of Smokey Shadow card stock and die cut a scalloped edge on both sides. I cut that in half and adhered it to either side of my coffee cup focal piece. I then popped up the whole panel onto the card using dimensionals. I stamped the sentiment from Unity's Comfort to Go on a strip of white card stock and fussy cut a banner. I adhered it to the card and then quickly tied a bow and adhered that, as well. I love how this turned out! I hope you do too!

Go check out the Coffee Loving Cardmakers blog to play along!!

I'm also entering this card in the Tic Tac Toe Challenge 027. I was inspired by the elements ~ Ribbon, Patterned Paper, and Coffee or Tea. 

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Merry Coffee!!

It's finally time for the Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop! I'm so excited!

My card for today is pretty simple.

I stamped the coffee mug from Joy Clair's Christmas Coffee set using Pure Poppy ink from Papertrey Ink. I fussy cut the mug out and set it aside. Now the fun part... finding paper to go with it. I found this super cute paper from a pack I bought in the Target dollar spot. It's perfect! I cut a strip of that and adhered it to the side of a white card base. There was also a fun shiny red paper in the pack that I cut a strip of and adhered to the card. I stamped the steam in Smokey Shadow ink and added a bit of grey ground using a couple copic markers. I had fun with the sentiment... Merry Coffee! How fun is that? I adhered the coffee mug to the card and voila! Love it!

Go check out the Coffee Loving Cardmakers blog to play along!!

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

November Flavor of the Month ~ Thank You

Hello! I have a super quick Thank You card I designed using the November Flavor of the Month card kit. This card came together so fast!

I chose two pieces of scrap paper from Collection One that I had leftover. I die cut a scallop edge on one of the papers and then layered the papers onto a white card base. I die cut the 'Thank You' from the Xcut die in the Banana Split kit and popped on some sequins. This would be such a super easy card to duplicate!

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

A Happy Masculine Birthday!

Hello! I know when it comes to those masculine birthday cards, it can be hard to figure out a design. I found myself in need of a handful of those very cards. Thank goodness I happened upon a great card in Unity Show & Tell that I was able to CASE and duplicate pretty quickly so I can mark that off my to-do list.

I just adore this moose from the Winter Wild SMAK kit. I was super excited to receive it as my gift for being the Growing in Unity girl a couple months ago. I stamped the trees with Peeled Paint Distress Oxide ink by first stamping them off on a scrap so that I would get a lighter image. I then stamped the the moose over the trees using Walnut Stain Distress Oxide ink. I also added a little bit of Vintage Photo and Antique Linen Distress Oxide inks to give the moose a bit more dimension. Once that was done, I ran them through my big shot with my Brushed Off Rectangle die from Papertrey Ink. Then the fun part... which patterned paper to use with it?!?! 

I finally decided on some fun plaid papers from a paper pad by The Paper Studio called Lewis Family Vacation. I am loving these papers!! I chose a few different ones and die cut them using a rectangle stitched die. The leftover scraps from the die cutting made for quick flags! I stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment from the For the Guys kit and cut it down to a flag, as well. And then I adhered the layers to a white card base after stapling the flags to the main panel using mono multipurpose glue. I made 4 of these pretty quick since I used the Tim Holtz Platform. I plan on making some more... I need just a few more and why not stock up?!

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

~ Friends of Unity December Blog Hop ~

Hello and welcome to our first Friends of Unity Blog Hop!!

Amber and I were chatting the other day and realized that we had the same idea stirring... let's start a blog hop featuring our favorite stamps from Unity Stamp Company!! Fabulous!!

That conversation quickly turned into a fantastic group of friends - old and new - that are just as excited to hop sharing their love of Unity. Our name was born... Friends of Unity! 

Enough with this silly intro... let's get inky!

I love wreaths! I think I've mentioned that before, but I am really in love with this Cheery Christmas wreath designed by Graciellie Designs for Unity Stamp Co. The detail to this stamp is simply amazing! I really wanted to make this special so I had to go with the No Line Coloring technique. I stamped the image using Simon Says Stamp's Barely Beige ink. I then pulled out my prismacolor pencils and got to coloring. I had a blast blending and layering color... I love these pencils!

Once I had the wreath colored, I went digging through my endless Christmas papers. I found this gorgeous holly and berry paper in a paper pack by The Paper Studio called Pine St. Square. I die cut the paper with a rectangle stitched die and layered it with a scrap of Garden Green card stock from Stampin' Up! I set that aside and pulled out a kraft card base. I blended the edges of the card base with Vintage Photo and Black Soot distress inks. I wrapped some gold thread around the patterned paper several times and then I adhered the patterned paper to the card base. I tied a little bit of gold ribbon round the thread. And then I decided to die cut the wreath using the Mod Square Stax die from My Favorite Things. I blended the edges of this piece with the same distress inks and then I popped up the whole thing on the card base. To finish off my card I wanted a small sentiment so I used the 'Merry Christmas' from the Entwined Poinsettia kit. I stamped it in VersaMark ink and then heat embossed Ultra Fine Antique Gold embossing powder from Simon Says Stamp.

I absolutely love the way this card turned out! I sure hope that you do too!

~ Let's Hop ~

Crystal O. Minkler <--- you're here

up next ---> Wynne Grob

Eileen Mathys

Robyn Jordan

Jeanie Hays

Amber Trubiak

Dawn Fields


Thanks so much for stopping by for our first Friends of Unity blog hop!!

Hope to see you next month for our second hop!
~ Crystal

Hello Pumpkin

Hello Pumpkin... haha! Is it too late in the season for pumpkin stuff? Well, I happened to see a card challenge today that looked like fun... Tic Tac Toe Challenge! Not surprising the key words that caught my eye were Pumpkin, Beverage, and Chevron...

And this is what I came up with. The design popped into my head and I just had to go for it. I ended up changing it up a bit from how I envisioned it, but I love the way it turned out! The card came together pretty quickly. I used digi stamps that I already had on my desk... Coffee Please by Verve Stamps. I colored them in using copic markers and fussy cut them out. I used a label punch for the sentiment and then punched out a couple pieces of Canyon Clay card stock from Papertrey Ink to layer the sentiment. I used my chevron punch from Stampin Up! for the bottom of the card front. I adhered a piece of Canyon Clay card stock behind the chevron. I added a couple strips of washi tape and some Ripened Pumpkin Nuvo drops. I popped up the whole rectangle stitched panel using dimensionals. I'm loving it!

For once, I'm ahead of the game... or challenge... for this one, so there's still plenty of time to play along. Click on the picture above to go check out the challenge.

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

More Cards with the November Flavor of the Month Kit from SFL

Hello! I had mentioned during the November Flavor of the Month blog hop that I made 4 cards for each collection using the 4 different sketches. I already shared 4 of the cards during the blog hop. Today, I'll be sharing 12 more cards!! So let's just get started!

My first batch of cards feature the elements from Collection One. I really enjoyed using the different papers from Echo Park's Just Be You paper pack that were included in this collection. They made the cards come together so quickly... of course, the fun sketches were also a help!

For this next batch of cards from Collection Two, I used the cute little sheep again... BUT I also wanted to use the fun Cute as a Button stamp set from Sunny Studio that came with the Banana Split level. I can't get over how easy those buttons were to stamp and they look so real! I also wanted to use the Thank You die from Xcut so I used that on the last card.

My third batch of cards from Collection Three came together pretty easily with the fun Geometric Mono papers by PaperMania. I had fun stamping the Peacock Feather stamp a few times for each focal point. I think my favorite card is the one with grey and black feathers, but that sketch was the most fun for me too. So, I guess that would make sense. 

My last batch of cards from Collection Four were probably the easiest of them all. I used the Woodgrain papers in a way that they would contrast each other and help make the focal point shine. I also utilized the stickers included in the kit to make for quick focal point images. But I couldn't leave out the fun Cup of Thanks set by Brutus Monroe... I just had to ink up the 'to go' cup and those cute whoopie pies! Oh my goodness, those were fun to color!

I sure hope that you've enjoyed all the cards I shared with you today! I definitely had fun making them all!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal