~ Friends of Unity July 2022 Blog Hop ~

  Hello there crafty friend!

It's one of my favorite times of the month... time for the Friends of Unity Blog Hop!! Our cue this month is a really fun one that I think all of us have been excited to play with! I can't wait to see all the creations shared by our friends today! So let's get to the cue...

... Stencils!! Yes!! There are SO many possibilities when you create cards with stencils! It can actually be overwhelming if you think about it too hard. LOL! So I decided not to think and just play and see what happens.

My first card features the awesome recently released and it's Back in Stock... De Fleur Daisy {stamp & stencil}... and I'll be super honest here. I struggled with this combo. You may remember when this released I shared a DIY pattern paper that I made using the stencil and then I made 5 cards using the paper. Well, that's because everything I made with the combo just didn't turn out right. Of course, us cardmakers are notorious for being overly critical of our creations so they may not have been that bad, but I still threw them away! 

I didn't give up though!! I decided I'd give them another go and stamped the florals with Gina K. Design Black Amalgam ink on Stampers Select White card stock from Papertrey Ink. I then blended Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Picked Raspberry, Kitsch Flamingo, Tumbled Glass, Wilted Violet, Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, and Pine Needles Distress Oxide inks over the awesome stencils. I very nearly tossed this one too. LOL! If you look closely on the left side of the floral... I messed up those two teardrop flowers. It screams at me every time I look at it, but I know that it's not that bad. So I kept it... a good lesson to keep on keeping on with our creations! 

My only other complaint is that I should have left my stamp in my Stamp Platform so that I could re-stamp the florals again and make the black lines nicer. Some of the oxides went over the lines and lightened them... definitely something to remember for next time! I trimmed up the panel to 4-3/4 x 3-1/2". I die cut a card front of True Black card stock from Papertrey Ink with the largest die from the Loopy Rectangle dies from Gina Marie Designs. It's a lovely layer of texture... a shame it doesn't show in the pictures that well. I adhered the daisy panel to the die cut with my go-to liquid glue ~ Tombow Mono Multi liquid glue. I added a few black rhinestones from the Rainbow Bling rhinestones from Gina Marie Designs and a cute sentiment sticker from the Small Talk sentiment stickers from Tim Holtz / Idea-ology. I adhered the Loopy Rectangle panel to a True Black card front measuring 5-1/2 x 4-1/4" and then adhered my panel to a white A2 side fold card base measuring 11 x 4-1/4"; scored at 5-1/2".

For my second card, I had a fun idea for a different kind of background. I wanted to make a scene card using a stencil that wasn't really meant for a scene card. I chose the Tim Holtz / Stampers Anonymous Mixed Media Stamps/Stencil combo {THMM103} from my stash and thought it would be super fun to pair it up with the adorable hot air balloon in the Sending Up Something Beautiful stamp kit from Unity. I think this turned out pretty cute BUT I may try another version where I lightly ink blend over the panel again after blending over the stencil so there's less white and it's more of a galaxy sky. And then add some white splatter for stars... I don't know. I do still love how this turned out!

I ink blended down my white card stock panel over the stencil with Kitsch Flamingo, Salvaged Patina, and Saltwater Taffy Distress Oxide inks because I had wanted to do a sunrise kind of background BUT the colors weren't right so I replaced the stencil and ink blended Chipped Sapphire Distress Oxide inks over the Kitsch Flamingo on the flourishes near the top. I love the sunset vibe {or galaxy vibe} the colors give to the background!

Here's a quick list of the Copic markers I used:

Clouds ~ BG0000, BG000, BG10, RV10, RV21

Hot Air Balloon ~  Y11, Y06, Y15, BG10, BG11, BG15, RV10, RV21, E41, E43, E44

I trimmed the background panel to 4 x 5-1/2". I stamped the sentiment on white card stock with Black Amalgam ink. I trimmed it up and mat it on True Black card stock. I adhered it to the trimmed background panel and trimmed off the excess card stock from the sentiment. I then adhered it to a white A2 top fold card base. I fussy cut my copic colored images and cleaned up the edges by coloring them with my Memento Tuxedo black marker. I adhered the one cloud to the back of the hot air balloon and then popped up all the pieces on the card with foam tape. What do you think? I like it... I'm pretty sure I need to try ink blending over the white a bit though so it has more of a galaxy background vibe. We'll see if I can find some time for that though...

And my last card using the adorable new release from Unity called Friends Furever just may be my fave for this month!! I had some more fun... this time I layered two stencils together and ink blended through them both to get my sunset background. I layered the Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Mini Stencil Set 43 stencil over the Oval Extraordinaire stencil from My Favorite Things and ink blended with Squeezed Lemonade and Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxide inks over top. I then removed the Tim Holtz stencil and lightly blended a tiny bit more yellow without adding more ink to my brush. This is where I got the idea to blend over the background on my second card. I really think it would change the whole vibe of the card.

Since I was having fun ink blending, I decided to ink blend some 'grass' for the cute pups... I used the negative oval stencil to protect my ink blended 'sunset' and carefully blended some Mowed Lawn Distress Oxide ink... BUT if I was to do this over again I would probably just use some copics to color a little grass underneath them. I think it would have been a cleaner way to ground the images and I could have added a few blades of grass.

Here's a quick list of the Copic markers I used for the pups:

Big Dog ~ W00, W1, W3, W5

Handkerchief ~ R20, R14, R27

Little Dog ~ N0, N1, N3

Collar ~ B0000, B00, B02

Now before we get to the hopping, I chose a lucky winner from the comments on last month's hop to win a fun prize package and that lucky winner is...

... Sue D!! Congratulations, Sue!!

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

Prize must be claimed within two weeks. 

Well, that's it for me this time! Please hop along and enjoy some more inspiration from the Friends of Unity! I'm so excited to see all the creations from our friends this month! I will be doing another fun giveaway this month!! Be sure to hop along and comment for a chance to win! I'll announce the winner next month! 

Let's get to the hopping...

Crystal <--- you're here

up next ---> Amber

Eileen

Kim

Rachel

Dawn F

Joyce

Alaine

Dawn B

Robyn

Thanks so very much for supporting our little hop!

We appreciate you!!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

{Please note that comment moderation is ON. Your comment will appear shortly.}