~ Friends of Unity January Blog Hop ~

Woohoo! It's time for another Friends of Unity Blog Hop! Our theme for this month is Winter... no Christmas. I don't know about you, but I'm ready for a break from the Christmas cards. I do have some ideas still for cards, but those will have to wait. In the meantime, though, I do love Winter and I thought it would be fun to do a light - mostly white card.

My sweet husband gave me this beautiful coffee mug for my birthday and inspiration for my card hit instantly. In fact, it completely replaced my original plan... so I'll be tucking that idea in my inspiration cap for another time. 

I started with a 5-1/2 x 4-1/4" piece of white card stock that I stamped the Woodland Owl with Memento tuxedo black ink - making sure to keep him to the left side. I stamped him again on a post it note and fussy cut him out for a mask to protect my image. Once the mask was on, I used a few different stamps from a few different kits ~ I Am Who I Am, Never, Hug, and Flower of the Fall. I stamped them using Tumbled Glass, Tea Dye, and Pumice Stone. I really liked the coffee ring-like image to the right of the owl on the mug but I didn't have a stamp that was big enough so... I smooshed some Pumice Stone distress ink on an acrylic block, spritzed it a bit with water, and inked up the bottom of my new owl mug! It was perfect!! I removed the mask and colored the owl using a blender pen. I smooshed the same colors I used for the background, plus Walnut Stain, Antique Linen, and Vintage Photo, onto a large acrylic block and I dabbed the blender pen into the different colors coloring the image until I was happy with the result. I was careful not to go over the areas too much since I didn't use watercolor paper.

 I added a few touches of white gel pen to the dots around the owl. I inked up the sentiment from Winter Blessings using Black Soot distress oxide ink and heat embossed it with Hero Arts Ultra Fine clear embossing powder. 

I die cut the entire panel using My Favorite Things Blueprints 31 and then ran it through my Big Shot with the Papertrey Ink Linen Impression plate. The impression plate gave the panel a bit of texture that you feel on the mug. The picture above shows a bit of the texture from the impression plate. I popped up the panel using dimensionals and just adhered it to a white card base.

I also liked the other wintry sentiment in the Winter Blessings kit, so I inked that up with Black Soot distress oxide ink and heat embossed it also with ultra fine clear embossing powder. I've always loved the idea of finishing a card by stamping the inside. Most of the time, I don't because of time constraints or whatnot, but this time I wanted to be sure to bring the wintry feel to the inside of the card. I stamped the Woodland Owl using Tumbled Glass distress ink... I did stamp off the image once on scrap paper so the image would be lighter. 

I showed my husband this card and he said, "That looks like the mug I got you." I told him I loved it so much it inspired my card. I think he got a kick out of that.

~ Let's Hop ~

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

up next ---> Amber Trubiak

Eileen Mathys

Dawn Fields

Wynne Grob

Robyn Jordan

Jeanie Hays

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

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