~ Friends of Unity August Blog Hop ~ Coffee & Tea

Hello!! It's time for the August Blog Hop with the Friends of Unity and our theme this month is...

Coffee & Tea!

Ahhh... I don't know about you but I just love a good cuppa, be it coffee or tea! I tend to drink more coffee though so for this hop I decided my projects are all about the coffee!! I'm also a huge fan of blues with browns ~ my absolute favorite color combo! So let's get to the projects...

It's been a while since I've worked on a mixed media project. I wasn't sure where this was going to go... but I like how it turned out. I started with a panel of watercolor paper. Using mod podge I added bit of papers... the paper with text is from a pack of Stampin' Up! papers called Typeset Specialty DSP and the other papers are from Heartfelt Creations Coffee Talk Collection. Once I had my papers adhered and the mod podge was dry I smudged some acrylic paints just using my finger to apply it. I also used a bit of bubble wrap to add texture. Some of the bubble wrap spots smudged terribly so I covered them with mod podge and laid antique gold tissue paper over top wrinkling it here and there. I let the mod podge dry and then tore off the excess paper. I applied more mod podge around the edges of the gold tissue paper and also adhered a doily... you can see some of the texture of the doily in the girls face.

 So once all the mod podge was dry, I did some blending with Vintage Photo and Evergreen Bough Distress Oxide Inks. I stamped the coffee girl image from Unity's Itty Bitty set called Best Friends. I just love this girl... she's all full of sass! I also stamped a coffee ring and splatter using my new Ground Espresso Distress Ink! So excited to have this new color in my stash! The coffee ring stamp is from the January 2017 SMAK kit called Progress and Change. The splatter is from the Blow Your Mind kit.

I trimmed the panel down to 4-1/2 x 6 inches and then wrapped some gold thread around it several times after threading the heart charm onto the thread. I added a touch of Ranger Multi Medium Matte around the edges of the heart charm to adhere it in place on the panel. To secure the thread I just used some packing tape on the back of the paper.

My final touch for this piece was the die cut COFFEE. I die cut it twice from white card stock and then once with Lost Lagoon card stock. I adhered all of the layers and then sponged some Vintage Photo distress ink around the edges of the letters. I then adhered it to the panel. Well, it was still too clean... lol... so I stamped a splatter stamp from the Never kit with the Vintage Photo distress ink and that did it. I thought I was done at this point but when I saw it the next morning I decided to not make it into a card, but to mat it and potentially frame it. So, I mat it on Lost Lagoon and then Early Espresso card stocks. I really like how this turned out. I hope you do too!

Now for my card, I started with a 4-1/4 x 5-1/2 piece of Crumb Cake card stock. I blended some Tea Dye and Vintage Photo Distress Oxide inks over the little flower stencil (not sure that it's a flower but we'll go with that) in the Woodblock Prints from Papertrey Ink. I then blended some Evergreen Bough Distress Oxide ink over the Knitted Sweater Stencil from Echo Park. I then blended some Ground Espresso Distress Oxide ink over the Mini Art Is stencil from The Crafters Worshop and the coffee and splatter stencil from Tim Holtz' Mini Stencil Set #3. I stamped the big ornate background stamp from the Never kit using VersaMark watermark ink and then heat embossed fine white embossing powder. I did goof and forget to use my embossing buddy so the powder kind of splattered but we're going with it. I did also heat up the embossed area again and added some more embossing powder... it kind of thickened it up. I die cut the piece using a Wonky Scalloped Frame die from Avery Elle. I did this so I could mat the piece and then pop it up on the card. I mat it using Lost Lagoon card stock from Stampin' Up. I then mat the scalloped frame on Early Espresso card stock and adhered the entire piece to a white card base. I stamped the girl from Dream of Being on a piece of white card stock and colored her in using Copic markers {E0000, E000, E43, E47, E57, C1, R20, RV21, BG10, BG13, BG32}. I fussy cut her out and adhered her to the card. I added a few enamel dots here and there. I stamped my favorite 'happy birthday' stamp from the Abundant Blessings sentiment kit onto Early Espresso card stock using Versamark watermark ink and heat embossed a fine white embossing powder. I trimmed the sentiment and adhered it to the card. And there you have it! My projects for this month's hop.

Here's a look at both projects... it looks like the girls are looking at each other. How funny... I just noticed that while writing up my blog post. LOL

Before we move on to the hopping, I have some business to take care of. Last month I had a giveaway and I need to share who the lucky winner of the brand new Jolly Ol' Santa stamp set is...  drum roll please... the lucky winner is...

Marjorie Dumontier!!!! Woohoo! 

Marjorie please email me at crystalominkler@gmail.com with your mailing address to claim your prize. Prize must be claimed within two weeks.

Thank you to all those that hopped with us last month and, of course, this month!

 One or two of my 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!

Eileen

Robyn

Jeanie

Crystal <--- you are here

up next ---> Joyce

Dawn

Wynne

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal