~ Friends of Unity April 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!

We're doing something a little different this month as you can see from the cue above... we're using this fun and simple sketch to inspire our creations this month!! I had fun making a couple cards to share with you all. Let's check those out...

I absolutely LOVE this sketch!! I just knew the coffee cup image from the new April 2020 KOM called Hope in Uncertainty was going to be perfect with this sketch!! I did turn the sketch here... I love that you can do that with a sketch! I did a little ink smooshing and splatters with Vintage Photo and Ground Espresso Distress Oxide inks on Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor card stock. I dried the panel with my heat tool and adhered it to a card front of True Black card stock measuring 4-1/4 x 5-1/2". I adhered that to a white card base and set it aside.

I colored up this gorgeous coffee cup with the following copic markers:

Cup/Saucer ~ BG01, BG45, BG49

Coffee/Beans ~ E23, E25, E27, E51

Spoon ~ N0, N2, N4

I fussy cut the image and even the two extra beans. I then popped them up on the card using foam squares. I trimmed the sentiment and popped that up on the card, as well. I really love how this card turned out!! 

Now my second card came together very quickly... I recently finished adding all my Itty Bitty stamps to Evernote!!! Celebrate with me!!! Yay!! If you have taken on that task, you have an idea of why I'm so excited! Lol! Anywho, while I was doing that it was like finding old friends... stamps that I HAD to have but haven't used and they've just been waiting to get inked up. This fun stapler stamp from the Keeping it Together set was one of them and I found the sentiment to be very fitting. I struggled a bit this week with the social distancing, quarantine, and the fear that has become associated with the goings on of the world right now and I had some rock star friends help lift me back up... namely the gals in this very hop!! I love and appreciate each one of them so much! So this card was totally created with them in mind!

I followed the sketch design for this one. I did a bit of ink smooshing and splattering with Black Soot Distress ink on this cool patterned paper I found in my stash from Art-C... it doesn't have a name on it, sadly... and I stamped the sentiment directly on the paper. I then adhered the patterned paper to a kraft card front. I set it aside and stamped the stapler with Memento Tuxedo black ink... it took me a long while to decide on a color to color this. My go-to is always turquoise and even though I think it would have looked awesome, I wanted to use another color so I went with a bluish purple. I used BV02, BV04, BV08, C00, C1, C3. I fussy cut the stapler and popped it up on the card front. And then... I had this fun idea to add some staples! Ha! My stapler didn't want to cooperate... it kept jamming, but I showed it who was boss and got it to work. And I love the added touch it gives to the design of the card! Such a fun and seriously addicting sketch to play with! I will definitely be using this sketch again and again.

So, I have a little business to take care of before we get hopping. I need to share my winner from last month's hop and the lucky winner is...

... Michelle Bridgewater!!! 

You have won a sweet and adorable Phyllis Harris stamp called No Bunny Compares !!! Congratulations!!  Please email me at crystalominkler@gmail.com to claim your prize. Prize must be claimed within two weeks.

A few of my friends are having giveaways this month 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 you.

Let's get to the hopping...

Crystal <--- you are here

up next ---> Eileen

Dawn B.

Amber

Kim

Dawn F.

Robyn

Jeanie

Alaine

Bobbie Sue

Thanks so much for checking out my blog post!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal