~ Friends of Unity June Blog Hop ~

Hey there crafty peeps!
It's one of my favorite times of the month... it's time for the June Friends of Unity Blog Hop!!
Our theme or cue this month is Wedding...

My first thought when I was looking at our cue was... Flowers! Flowers always work for a wedding card... so I pulled out my Delectable {Border Backgrounds} kit!! These flowers are gorgeous!!

I stamped the flowers on Canson XL watercolor paper with VersaMark watermark ink and heat embossed a fine white embossing powder. I watercolored the flowers with ZIG Clean Color Real Brush pens... to achieve the pretty colors on the flowers I used Yellow {No. 050} and Light Pink {No. 026} watercolor pens. First I lightly colored the flowers with the yellow watercolor by scribbling the color on my acrylic block. I then used my watercolor brush pen to pick up the color and paint on my panel. Without waiting for the yellow watercolor to dry I did the same with the pink watercolor... scribbling the color on my acrylic block and using my watercolor brush pen to pick up the color and I painted in swirls around the petals of the flowers allowing the watercolors to blend.

I love that the yellow and pink blended to make a beautiful peach color but you can still see the yellow and pink in the petals.... so pretty! I also used two greens for the leaves... Yellow Green {No. 053} and Light Green {No. 041}. I started by watercoloring with the yellow green using the same technique picking up the color from my acrylic block. I always use this technique when I want more control over the amount of color on my project. I then watercolored with the light green... blending with the yellow green but also allowing the light green to dry over top of the yellow green in some spots. I love the defined lines that it gives the leaves when you allow the layers of watercolor to dry in between colors.

Here's a close up of my favorite flowers on the card. I'm so pleased with how it turned out... so pretty!

My second card came together in my mind when I was searching through my background stamps for the Delectable {Border Backgrounds} kit... I happened to see my never-been-inked Barn Wall background stamp ~ a collaboration by Brutus Monroe and Unity Stamp Co ~ and thought it would make for a lovely background with the From This Day Forward kit. I started by stamping the Barn Wall background with VersaMark watermark ink and heat embossed Emerald Creek Patina Oxide Baked Texture embossing powder... WOW!! This embossing powder is amazing!! If you click on my photo above, you can hopefully see the awesome colors and detail in the embossed background. I watercolored the background using a mix of Light Blue {No. 036} and Turquoise Green {No. 042}. Once dry, I die cut the background using a stitched rectangle die and adhered it directly to a white card base using mono multi purpose liquid glue by Tombow.

Next I stamped the beautiful bride and groom image, as well as the flowers in the From This Day Forward kit using VersaMark watermark ink and heat embossed a fine black embossing powder. I watercolored the couple using Flesh Color {No. 071}, Light Gray {No. 091}, Brown {No. 060}, Mid Brown {No. 065} for the bride; and Flesh Color {No. 071}, Light Gray {No. 091}, Dark Gray {No. 095}, Mid Brown {No. 065}, Dark Brown {No. 062} for the groom. I added some sparkle to the bride using the Nuvo Aqua Shimmer pen...

Here's a close up of that shimmer... it's really gorgeous in person!

I ended up taking a couple close up shots because my OTT light kept giving me a shadow... but I think with the two photos you can see the beautiful shimmer. Oh, and this second photo gives you a little close up look at the Patina Oxide embossed background... if you look between the leaf and the purple flower in the bottom left corner. Love it!

I watercolored the pretty flowers blending Lilac {No. 083} and Violet {No. 080} with a touch of Bright Yellow {No. 052} and Yellow {No. 050} in the center of the flowers. For the other flowers {not sure what they are called} I used Blue {No. 030} and then blended them with clean water. For the leaves, I used Pale Green {No. 045} and May Green {No. 047}. I fussy cut the couple and flowers and adhered them to the card... popping up the couple with dimensionals. I then trimmed off the edges of my card base where the flowers were hanging off the edge. To finish off the card, I stamped the sentiment with VersaMark watermark ink and heat embossed a fine black embossing powder and then die cut it with a banner die. I adhered that to a black layer that was also die cut from the same banner die, however, I cut the black layer in half and adhered it just to the ends of the sentiment banner. I also added a touch of the Patina Oxide embossing powder to the edges of the black banner using a VersaMark watermark marker. I popped up the sentiment on the card and called 'er done! I think it turned out pretty nice!

Now before we get to the hopping... a little business. Drum roll please... 

the winner of my giveaway is...

...It's a Card Knock Life!!! 

Please email me at crystalominkler@gmail.com to claim your prize. 

Prize must be claimed within two weeks.

Thanks to you all so much for your continued support of our little hop... and for all of your lovely comments! I just feel awful that I haven't had time to reply to each comment to let you know just how much I appreciate it and I really, truly do appreciate each and every one of your sweet comments.

So real quick... while I was unpacking my Unity stamps I found a box full of grab bag stamps! Yup... a box... not a ginormous box, mind you, but a box full! Anywho, I've decided to give away two grab bags of 25 stamps each!! Woohoo! Winners will be chosen and announced in our July blog hop. So be sure to hop along and comment on each of our blog posts!

Let's get to it, shall we...

~ Blog Hop List ~

Crystal <--- you're here

up next ---> Eileen

Bobbie Sue

Dawn

Jeanie

Robyn

Kim

Thanks so much for checking out my blog post!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal