~ Friends of Unity March 2024 Blog Hop ~

Hello there crafty friend!

It's time for our Friends of Unity Blog Hop!! Anyone else amazed that it's March?! Say what?! Where is the time going? If we could just slow down this ride, I sure would appreciate it! Anywho... this month's hop is fun and the cue is open to interpretation so I'm excited to see all the ideas from our friends.

Found in Nature is our cue this month! I had fun with a couple of ideas for this month's hop. 

First up is the beautiful 'shrooms in the brand new Kit of the Month called Love & Good Vibes. I was curious if there were purple mushrooms so I did a google search and there are! They're called Amethyst Deceiver or laccaria amethystina. As they grow older, they fade in color and wither - hence the name deceiver. I tried to color them so the smaller ones were darker and the bigger ones were lighter. It was fun coloring them. I used V000, V12, V15, V17 for the mushrooms and B0000, B000, B00 for the background.

I die cut the mushroom panel using the cool new Scallops & Arches {nesting dies}. I also die cut a mat from Kraft card stock from Papertrey Ink using the largest die from the set. I added a couple strips of washi tape in similar colors. Anyone else have a TON of washi tape and never use it?! Or is that just me? LOL! Well... it felt good to actually use some.

I stapled over the washi tape using my mini stapler from Stampin' Up and then I adhered the panel to a 4-1/4 x 5-1/2" card front of True Black card stock from Papertrey Ink. I adhered the card front to a white A2 top fold card base turned on the side for a landscape card.

I felt the card needed something so I grabbed my Spectrum Noir glitter pen and painted over the tops of the 'shrooms several times. Lots and lots of glitter on these pretty mushrooms. You can really see it on the tall mushroom on the left. So sparkly and fun in person!

Next I wanted to play with the Background of the Month from January 2024 again. The Butterfly Breeze Meadow background stamp is amazing! And if you're not one to color, it's a great stamp to heat emboss. Which is what I did for these four cards.

I applied TE Anti Static powder from Taylored Expressions to the 4-1/4 x 5-1/2" card front of Hawaiian Shores card stock. I stamped the background a couple of times with the help of my Stamp Platform using Sugar Cube Pigment ink from Taylored Expressions. I then added some Alabaster White Embossing powder from Brutus Monroe and melted the powder with a Wagner Precision Heat Tool.

I also heat embossed the sentiments from the Snarky Birthday Greetings. Same steps as above. For my second card I used Raspberry Fizz card stock from Papertrey Ink.

I die cut the floral heat embossed panels using the largest die from the Scallops & Rectangles {nesting dies}. And the sentiments are die cut using one of the dies from the Scalloped & Stitched Sentiment Nesting Die Set. For my third card I used Berry Sorbet card stock from Papertrey Ink.

I adhered my layers to A2 top fold card bases that matched the card fronts. For my final card I used Dark Indigo card stock from Papertrey Ink. Because I used colored card stock for my card bases, I also cut 4 x 5-1/4" panels from white card stock that I adhered inside my cards to write to the recipients of the cards. These were pretty easy cards... the heat embossing was the most time consuming for these.

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...

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

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

Please claim the prize before April 3rd, 2024. 

Well, that's it for me this time! Please hop along and enjoy some more inspiration from the Friends of Unity! I can't wait to see how our friends were inspired by this month's cue. 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 ---> Jane

Amber

Tammy

April

Colleen

Rachel

Kim

Gaylynn

Joyce

Dawn

Thanks so very much for supporting our little hop!

We appreciate you, oh, so much!!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

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