~ Friends of Unity February Blog Hop ~

Hello! It's time for another Friends of Unity hop and our theme this month is fitting for the month of February... LOVE! Unity has a huge selection of kits that can be used for Love cards! It's really almost overwhelming... but that's a good thing! That means they have something for everyone's likes and tastes! Yay!

I woke up one morning last week with this very card in mind using the Bryna Girl kit from Unity's line of Angie girls. Isn't it funny how inspiration can just hit you out of nowhere?! And this was before I had even had my coffee! Say what?! Amazing!

I had picked up a bunch of papers from the Hobby Lobby last time I went there and I remembered this super fun distressed cloud paper. I thought, why not run it through my Big Shot with the stitched clouds cover die from Lil' Inker Designs... so I did! How cute!? I adhered it to the top portion of a 4-1/4 x 5-1/2" piece of thin card stock. I adhered a piece of distressed wood paper to the bottom portion for my ground. Once all those were adhered, I ran the whole piece through my Big Shot with a larger die from My Favorite Things. There were really so many pretty papers to play with that I just HAD to add some pink brick papers to the edge with a fun scallop! It covered up a bit of the pretty stitched edge, but I'm ok with that. I adhered my background piece to a kraft card base and set it aside.

Now for the fun... some paper piecing and a tiny bit of coloring. I stamped Bryna Girl using Memento tuxedo black ink and then colored her skin in using E50, E51, & E53 copic markers. I colored her hair in using E51, E55, & E57. I also colored the bottom portion of the shoes with E50 & E53; filled in the background with BG72; and lastly, her bracelet with R14. I stamped Bryna Girl again on a bunch of different papers and fussy cut pieces out to paper piece her outfit and even the tops of her shoes. I love paper piecing... it's a lot like paper dolls with so many possibilities!

 I also paper pieced the heart balloon and fussy cut it. I originally had the string still attached but then I thought it would be fun to use some twine so I used a small circle punch to pop a little hole where her hand is in the pocket. I slipped the white baker's twine through there a couple of times to cover up the black 'string' still on her hand and then I tied the other end to the balloon with a bow. I popped up Bryna Girl and the balloon on the card using dimensionals. I stamped the sentiment on a scrap of white card stock and fussy cut a banner and then trimmed a piece of the distressed wood paper for a mat. I used a staple to attach the two pieces and then popped up the sentiment. I love how this turned out! What do you think? 

Now let's go see what the other hoppers have, shall we?! I believe there's also a giveaway on our hop! Before you hop away though, I'd love to hear your thoughts... leave me a comment below. :)

~ Let's Hop ~

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

up next --->  Eileen Mathys

Robyn Jordan

Jeanie Hays

Amber Trubiak

Wynne Grob

Dawn Fields

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal