~ Friends of Unity March 2020 Blog Hop ~

Hello there crafty friend!!

It's my favorite time of the month... the first Saturday which means it's time to hop with a few of my friends who share an obsession of Unity Stamps!! Woohoo!

This month's cue is Designer's Choice which was so freeing... lol... but then hard to decide what to play with so... I got to thinking we have Easter coming up and Unity just released the latest Sentiment Kit featuring a beautiful Easter Lily!! It was a natural choice!!

So I die cut the stamped image from the Easter Lily Blessings Sentiment Kit with a pretty die called Eyelet Elegance Square from Gina Marie Designs. I then colored the image with the following copic markers:

Lilies ~ C00, C1, C3, Y06, Y15, YG11, YG23

Background ~ V0000, V06

I wanted the lilies to be white so I just used some cool grays to add depth to the already fabulous shading in the stamped image. A touch of yellow to the center of the flower and a bit of bright green for the buds and the leaves. I chose a lovely purple for my background to help make the flowers pop on the card.  

I then found a coordinating piece of purple card stock. I ran it through my big shot with the Wrought Iron Impression Plate from Papertrey Ink. I trimmed it down to 4-1/8 x 5-3/8" and tied a wide organdy ribbon around it with a pretty bow. I adhered it to a white card base and then popped up the main image with foam squares. I trimmed down the sentiment and cut the ends for a banner and adhered it to the card with some liquid glue. I think this turned out lovely.

Once my Easter card was done, I realized that another fun day was soon approaching and it has always been one of my favorite days to make cards for... St. Patrick's Day!! Do you make cards to send for St. Patrick's Day? I know not many people do.

I thought it would be fun to pair some of the brand new Deco Foil Card Fronts by Unity with a couple of fun stamps for some St. Paddy's Day cards!! And how perfect is this adorable owl from the Owl I Do Say Sentiment Kit... he's so cute with his little hat and bow tie!! He paired up so nicely with the Circles A Plenty card fronts!!

And I tied it all together with the cute Happy St. Patty's Button... I stamped this cute stamp four times using Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide ink first and then Pine Needle Distress Oxide ink second... but I dabbed away some of the Pine Needle ink before stamping to let some of the Cracked Pistachio pop through. I die cut those with a circle die and set them aside.

So back to the foiling... I was able to make four cards using two of the Circles A Plenty card fronts. I ran them through my Royal Sovereign laminator with the beautiful Emerald Watercolor foil. I then blended some Cracked Pistachio and Pine Needle Distress Oxide inks over the foiled card fronts with a blending brush. The ink dulled the foil just a tad but I was able to wipe it off with a cloth and the foil was back to super shiny and beautiful!

Once my foiled card fronts were done, I cut them in half... so I ended up with two pieces measuring 2-1/8 x 5-1/2" and two pieces measuring 4-1/4 x 2-3/4". Fun little accents to add to my cards!!

Now it was time to color up all the adorable owls... I tried not to do them all the same. I wanted each of them to be unique, but I did use similar colors for the hat and bow tie just in different ways.

Here's a run-down of all the copic markers I used for the owl cards:

Owl 1 ~ N0, N1, N2, N5, Y06, Y21, YR15

Owl 2 ~ W00, W1, W3, W5, Y06, Y21, YR15

Owl 3 ~ C00, C1, C3, Y06, Y21, YR15

Owl 4 ~ E000, E00, E21, E23, E25, Y06, Y21, YR15

Hat / Bow Tie ~ Y06, Y15, Y21, Y28, YR15, YG11, G16, G19, N0, N1, N2, N5, N7

Once they were all colored, I die cut them with a stitched rectangle die and set them aside. I thought about using a pretty patterned paper for my backgrounds but I couldn't find one I liked that would work with the Circles A Plenty card fronts so... I decided to do some ink smooshing and splattering!! I used the same two greens I'd used to blend on the card fronts and for the sentiment... Cracked Pistachio and Pine Needle. I ink smooshed by dabbing the Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor card stock into the watered down inks on my Mixed Media Glass Mat. I love that I did this four times for each card and absolutely none of them look the same!! So fun!

I splattered the same two inks onto the card fronts in my splatter box... which is just an old shipping box that I layered a few paper towels in the bottom of the box. I trimmed down the card fronts to 4-1/8 x 5-3/8" and adhered them to a white card base. I then adhered the foiled card front pieces and the main images. And to finish off the cards, I popped up the Happy St. Patrick's Day sentiments with foam squares.

Here's a look at all four of the Owl St. Paddy's Day cards!! Love how they turned out!

Phew! I know that was a lot of photos and info, but I sure hope you've enjoyed my cards and that I've inspired you to get inky!

Before we get to the hop list, I'm having another giveaway this month... I have a sweet and adorable Phyllis Harris stamp called No Bunny Compares to share with one lucky winner!! I'll announce the winner during next month's hop. A few of my friends are also having giveaways so be sure to check out all the fabulous creations along the hop and comment on each blog for a chance to win!! 

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. 

Let's get to the hopping...

Crystal <--- you are here

up next ---> Eileen

Amber

Kim

Dawn B.

Robyn

Dawn F.

Alaine

Jeanie

Joyce

Thanks so much for checking out my blog post!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal