Crystal O. Minkler: ~ Friends of Unity July 2023 Blog Hop ~

Hello there crafty friend!

It's the first Saturday of July which means it's time for our Friends of Unity Blog Hop!!

This month's cue is a bit of a challenge for me. It's not a medium that I use too often though I have been trying to play around with it each month. It's a short hop this month with just seven of us hopping... I hope you'll hop along and enjoy some wonderful inspiration from our friends.

Now, onto our cue this month...

... Watercolor. As I mentioned above, this is not my go-to medium. I do have fun watercoloring when I play but I'm much more comfortable with my Copic markers. I did manage to create three cards to share so let's get to it...

First up is the super cute Shoreline Friendship that just released!! I can't help but love this trio of ladies. So fun to color them up with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers. I used Canson XL 140lb water color paper for all of my cards. I struggled with the skin tone on the middle gal. I wanted her a bit darker and it took a few tries to get her to where I was happy.

I paired up these fabulous friends with the Watercolor Stripes {paper pack}. I'll be honest, I was very tempted to just Copic color the gals and say the papers were my 'watercolor' element for this card. LOL! But I had to take the challenge and do a bit of watercoloring.

You can check out my process video here... Watercoloring with ZIGs | Shoreline Friendship |
Unity Stamp Co.

I trimmed the watercolored friends and mat the panel with Summer Sunrise card stock from Papertrey Ink. I die cut a piece of Orange Zest card stock from Papertrey Ink using a square die from the Scallops & Squares {nesting dies} from Unity. I also die cut the orange watercolor pattern paper using the largest rectangle die from the Scallops & Rectangles {nesting dies}. I wrapped the rectangle layer with some white and orange twine from my stash and also made a cute little bow. I adhered my layers together, popping up the watercolored panel on the card with foam tape. I adhered the little bow with a glue dot finishing off the card.

My second card also features a new release... I LOVE butterflies!! I can't help but love when Unity releases new butterflies! I couldn't wait to play with these beautiful butterflies from the Paper Wings stamps. So delicate and beautiful!!

Last month, I actually played with watercolors and I had fun creating a background using my ZIGs so I thought I'd give it a try again for this month's Watercolor cue. I absolutely love the texture in the watercolors... such a fun surprise how they dried.

You can check out my process video here... Quick Watercolor Wash Background | Paper Wings | Unity Stamp Co.

The watercolor wash background was die cut using the same large rectangle die from the Scallops & Rectangles {nesting dies} that I used on my first card. It's a must have die set friends!! The butterflies were fussy cut on the line and I forgot to color up the edges with my black marker so they are a little rough around the edges. I do love how this turned out though!

And my third card... Unity has a few really beautiful Watercolor paper packs. The gorgeous Watercolor Winter {paper pack} that released last year is a favorite of mine so I just had to pull it out and make a holiday card. Y'all know I love Christmas cards!! I paired up the Watercolor Winter 6x6 {paper pack} with the super sweet Brightly Shining Itty Bitty stamp. I thought it would be fun to challenge our friends to ink up a stamp from their stash that hadn't seen ink yet and I've had this sweet stamp in my stash for a really long time and I'm 95% sure I haven't used it before. LOL! But now I have!

I found that the Persian Green and Emerald Green ZIGs combined to make a very similar green to the papers. And I used the Bright Yellow ZIG for the star. I did a bit of a watercolor wash on the Canson XL 140lb watercolor paper using the greens. I then stamped the tree coloring the words with the green ZIG markers and then the star with the yellow ZIG marker. I then used a water pen to outline around the tree and dabbed up some of the pigment with a paper towel. I did this a few times until it left the tree outline for the stamp.

The background layer is die cut using the largest rectangle die from the Scallops & Rectangles {nesting dies}. It's mat with a 4-1/4 x 5-1/2" piece of Tranquil Tide card stock from Stampin' Up. The trees paper was just a scrap from my paper pack. It measures 2-1/8 x 5-1/2" and the Tranquil Tide mat measures 2-1/4 x 5-1/2". I die cut the watercolor stamped tree using a circle die from the Scallops & Circles {nesting dies}. I also die cut a mat from Tranquil Tide card stock using the next largest die in the die set. All the layers are adhered together and then adhered to a white A2 top fold card base. I kept it pretty flat considering how many layers it has on it so it'll be easy to mail.

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...

... Laurie2cats!! Congratulations Laurie!!

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 can't wait to see the watercolor projects our friends have made to share with us. 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 ---> Tammy

Thanks so very much for supporting our little hop!

We appreciate you!!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,