~ Friends of Unity April 2023 Blog Hop ~

  Hello there crafty friend!

It's the first Saturday of April which means it's time for our Friends of Unity Blog Hop!! Okay... can someone please tell time to slow down. This year is zipping by so fast!! Before we get to the cue and my cards, I wanted to welcome two sweet new friends to our hop. Tammy Hawes and Jane Bosi are joining us on the Friends of Unity team and I am super excited to have these talented ladies join us! I am a huge fan of their creations and I hope you'll give both of them a great big welcome! Now, onto our fun cue this month... 

Butterflies!! I love butterflies!! I think this was actually one of the cues that I suggested for 2023. Unity has a bunch of butterfly stamps. If you do a search on the website just for butterfly 160 results come up! And each of them are so beautiful! Needless to say it was kinda hard to narrow down which stamps to use.

My first card features the beautiful butterfly from the Another Name for Love stamps designed by Gina K. Designs for Unity. I stamped the butterfly with Black Amalgam ink and colored it up with Copic Markers. I fussy cut the butterfly and adhered it to a die cut circle of vellum card stock leaving the wings free so I just put glue under the body of the butterfly. 

I die cut pattern paper with a stitched scalloped die from the Scallops & Circles {nesting dies} from Unity. The vellum circle was then adhered to the pattern paper circle using a bit of liquid glue under the butterflies body again. Here's a quick list of the Copic Markers I used:

Body ~ Y11, Y35, R22

Wings ~ R00, R12, R22, R05, BG10, BG32

I was excited to play with the new sketch I shared in my Tawny Owl Paperie Inky Inspiration Facebook group. Such a fun sketch and so perfect with a bunch of pretty pattern paper layers. I used the Simple Spring {paper pack} for my paper layers adhered to a white A2 top fold card base.

I finished off the card with a few gems from my stash... the Silver Glitter Gems from Close to My Heart. I wanted to add a little sparkle but I also needed to add a bit more adhesive to the vellum card stock. It was sticking up a bit. Adding the gems gave me an opportunity to add a few more dots of liquid glue to the vellum under the gems.

Up next is a set of birthday cards I made using the gorgeous new Rustic Flutter Background stamp along with the butterfly and sentiment from the Beautiful Birthday Wishes. 

I have been working hard to add more birthday cards to my stash AND mail them out. So happy with how this set of cards turned out.

I used Crushed Olive Distress Oxide ink on Limeade Ice card stock from Papertrey Ink. While the ink was still wet I added some fine clear embossing powder and melted it with my Wagner Precision Heat Tool. I used the following Copic Markers for the green butterfly ~ YG11, YG03, G24 {in person this butterfly coordinates much better than it looks in the pictures}.

Each of the backgrounds were die cut using the largest die from the Scallops & Rectangles {nesting dies}. And then they were adhered to a white A2 top fold card base measuring 4-1/4 x 11" and scored at 5-1/2". I stamped the background for this one twice. Thank goodness that card stock has two sides!! But still my embossed background had a couple open spaces in the bottom. I know the stamp is fine though because it did fine with the other inks so I'm thinking my ink pad needs to be re-inked...?

Anywho, for this one I used Kitsch Flamingo Distress Oxide ink over Lavender Moon card stock from Papertrey Ink. I really thought I had grabbed a pink card stock. LOL! Thankfully the two colors work really well together. I used the following Copic Markers for my pink butterfly ~ RV000, RV10, RV13. 

I die cut some vellum card stock with the smallest rectangle die from the Scallops & Rectangles {nesting dies}. I trimmed the longer edge to 2-3/4". I die cut circles from each of the card stocks with a die from the Scallops & Circles {nesting dies}.

I paired up Salvaged Patina Distress Oxide ink with Aqua Mist card stock from Papertrey Ink for this card. I used the following Copic Markers for the aqua butterfly ~ BG000, BG10, BG32.

I gently folded up the wings of each of the butterflies and adhered their bodies to the die cut circles. I then adhered the circles to the vellum 'squares' and added glue behind the circles to adhere the vellum to the cards. 

For my last card I paired up Wilted Violet Distress Oxide ink with Winter Wisteria card stock from Papertrey Ink. I used the following Copic Markers for the purple butterfly ~ V000, V12, V17.

The sentiments were stamped with Sugar Cube Pigment ink from Taylored Expressions on the different colors of card stock and then I heat embossed Alabaster White embossing powder from Brutus Monroe. I die cut each of the sentiments with a Banner Nesting Die {from the March 2023 Whit Kit}. I finished up this set of birthday cards by popping up the sentiments with foam tape.

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 and the lucky winner is...

... Tracy Grauer!! Congratulations Tracy!!

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 hop and check out all the pretty creations shared by our friends!! I will be doing another fun giveaway this month!! Be sure to hop along and comment for a chance to win. {When you comment please leave your name just in case it posts as anonymous.} I'll announce the winner next month! 

Let's get to the hopping...

Crystal <--- you're here

up next ---> Kim

Tammy

Amber

Jane 

Colleen

Gaylynn

Bobbie Sue

Rachel

Eileen

Thanks so very much for supporting our little hop!

We appreciate you!!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

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