~ Friends of Unity November Blog Hop ~

Hello there crafty friends!

It's my favorite time of the month... time to hop with Friends of Unity!! 

 This month's cue is all about Giving Thanks!! Perfect for this time of year with Thanksgiving coming up in just a few weeks! I was able to create three cards to share with you all today so let's check them out!

My first card is a simple design with the fabulous Great Blessings kit by the wonderful Angie Blom! I started by coloring the truck with my absolute favorite color and seriously, this is my dream truck! Love it! I finished up the image and then had to go looking for the perfect paper... yup, did this one the hard way! Luckily, the fabulous new Rustic Wood papers from Unity came to the rescue... along with the pretty My Favorite Fall papers by Echo Park. I adhered both of these patterned papers to a piece of copy paper and die cut it with a large stitched rectangle die. I then adhered that to a white card base. I mat the pretty truck image on a piece of white card stock and wrapped it a few times with jute twine tying it off with a bow. I then popped up the panel on the card with foam tape... and realized I'd forgotten to stamp the sentiment!! Ooops... so I used my handy dandy Stamp Platform to position the sentiment just so and carefully stamped the sentiment. I was careful not to push too hard since it was already so many layers in the platform, but it still got a little extra dark on the bottom of the letters... oh, well... it's perfectly imperfect! And I love it!

Here's a close up of the coloring on the truck and pumpkins. 

I used the following copic markers on this card: 

Truck ~ BG70, BG72, N0, N1, N3

Fall Foliage ~ YR15, YR20, YR21, YR24, YR27, YR68, E35, E37, Y000, YG03, YG63

Background ~ BV20, C00, C1

The new Acorns All Over {background} stamp is so beautiful!! I have just been itching to play with it and I had a fun idea to mix a couple of my Brutus Monroe embossing powders. In order not to waste a bunch of embossing powder I added a couple tiny scoops from the Golden Gourd and Penny embossing powders to a coffee filter and then dumped it over my stamped acorn background into another coffee filter. I alternated between the two coffee filters and added a tiny bit more when needed. I didn't waste any of my embossing powder this way AND I was able to achieve an amazing background!!! Here's a couple close up pics of the background...

The pictures really don't do it justice!! In person you can see the two distinct colors from the embossing powders... such a fun technique!

I added a bit of Squeezed Lemonade Distress Oxide spray and then smooshed some Mustard Seed and Wild Honey Distress Oxide inks to finish off my background. I've had these extra bits still on the side of my desk from a previous card project I made for the September Friends of Unity Blog Hop... you can check that out here. I thought they'd be the perfect addition to finish off my card. All of these fun images are from the Change Can Be Beautiful Sentiment kit. 

I used the following Copic markers to color this card:

Leaves ~ YR01, YR15, YR21, YR68, G000, G43, G94, G99

Acorn ~ E21, E23, E25, E27

Pumpkin ~ YR01, YR15, YR21, YR68, E23, E27, G43, G94

Coffee cup ~ R14, R27, YR15, YR68, G43, G99, Y06, Y17, E23, E27, E41

I went back and forth on which card stock to use on my center piece and finally decided on kraft! I die cut it with the Papertrey Ink Brushed Off: Rectangle die and then die cut the sentiment with the My Favorite Things Stitched Fishtail Flag STAX. The center panel and sentiment are popped up with foam tape. I love the dimension it gives the card! 

And I'm entering it in the fabulous Fall | Winter 2019 Coffee Lovers Blog Hop... if you're not familiar with this hop, you've got to check it out {^^just click on the link}. It's a fabulous hop that happens twice a year and it's just so much fun... filled with amazing caffeinated inspiration!! I love it!

My third card just makes me smile... I love this adorable stamp called Shadows Fall Behind You. It looks so much like my sweet daughter {minus her curly hair} and it's been warm enough to play in the leaves with a tank top on... so looking forward to cooler temps here soon! So you may notice the kraft and Brushed Off: Rectangle die... both products from my last card... I just had to use them again!! This time I remembered to stamp the sentiment before adhering the main panel. I stamped it with VersaMark watermark ink and then heat embossed a fine white embossing powder. I popped up the main panel with foam tape. I wrapped the card a few times with Stampin' Up! Tangerine Tango Baker's Twine and tied it with a bow.

Here's a close up of the colored image.

I used the following copic markers to color in this beautiful image:

Skin ~ E000, E00, E21, R00, R20

Hair ~ E31, E35, E37

Shirt ~ BV31, BV34

Leaves ~ Y000, Y06, Y15, YR15, YR21, YR27, YR68, R000, R14, R39, E35, E37

Background/Outline ~ B0000

That's it for my cards this month! I do have a couple of winners to announce...

... congratulations to EM and Cindy Holmes!! Woohoo!!

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

Prize must be claimed within two weeks.

Thank you all so much for your continued support of our little hop... and for all of your lovely comments! I really, truly do appreciate each and every one of your sweet comments. A few of my friends are having giveaways on their blog so be sure to hop and comment on each of our blogs!!

Let's get to the hopping...

Crystal <--- you're here

up next ---> Eileen

Kim

Alaine

Jeanie

Dawn B.

Bobbie Sue

Joyce

Dawn F.

Robyn

Thanks so much for checking out my blog post!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal