~ Friends of Unity August 2024 Blog Hop ~

Hello there crafty friend!

Welcome to our August Friends of Unity Blog Hop!! This month's cue is a sweet one. I hope you'll hop along with us and enjoy some wonderful inspiration from our friends!

This month's cue is Friendship. I am blessed to have friends from elementary school, high school, college, church, and a bunch of like-minded crafty friends online. My focus for this cue was to create cards to send to some of these friends.

First up is a card of encouragement for a dear friend. I stamped the gorgeous sunflower from the brand new Radiant Resilience stamps six times using Black Amalgam ink on white card stock. I then colored three of the sunflowers and colored just the inner petals of the other three sunflowers.

I die cut the three sunflowers using the second largest die from the Deckle & Stitches Nesting Dies. I fussy cut the three sunflowers around the inner petals. I secured the sunflowers to the die cut panel using washi tape and then I die cut the panel again using the same die. And then I added foam tape to the back of those inner petals and popped them up on the sunflowers. You can see some of the dimension in the photo above.

I die cut a piece of Orange Zest card stock from Papertrey Ink using the largest die from the Deckle & Stitches Nesting Dies. I adhered my panels together and then adhered them to an A2 top fold card base of Early Espresso card stock from Stampin' Up. I trimmed the sentiment and adhered it to the card. Trimmed the excess off the right side and then I added several enamel dots from my stash finishing up my first card. I think my friend will like it.

Here's a quick list of the Copic markers I used to color up the sunflowers:

Petals: YR21, Y06, YR15, YR16, YR27

Center: E21, E23, E25, E29

I created my second card using some leftover pieces from my first card. These are the inner petals that were leftover from the first card. I thought they'd look really pretty on a dark background. So I die cut a piece of Early Espresso card stock using the second largest die from the Deckle & Stitches Nesting Dies again. I adhered the partial sunflowers to the background and die cut the panel again.

And then I thought it would be fun to do some splatters. I went a little crazy with the splatters but it sure was fun! I let the panel dry and then I adhered it to a piece of Summer Sunrise card stock from Papertrey Ink. I wrapped the panel a few times with {Natural} May Arts Burlap String and then I added a bunch of foam tape to the back of the panel avoiding the string.

I heat embossed the sentiment from the adorable Lil' Bloomer stamps. I prepped the Early Espresso card stock with the TE Anti-Static Powder Tool from Taylored Expressions. I stamped the sentiment with Sugar Cube White Pigment ink, also from Taylored Expressions. I dusted the wet ink with Alabaster White Embossing Powder from Brutus Monroe and melted the powder with a Wagner Precision Heat Tool. Once it cooled, I trimmed the sentiment and then I adhered it to the sunflower panel. I trimmed off the excess and pulled the backing off of the foam tape and popped up the panel on an A2 top fold card base of Early Espresso card stock that I turned on it's side for a landscape card. Another lovely encouragement card for a friend.

My last card is a fun one for another friend. These crazy chickens from the Cuckoo stamps are just too much fun!! I hope it brings a smile to my friend's face. These chickens are so funny I decided to pair them up with the Rustic Cowhide {paper pack}. My daughter said they don't go together but I thought it was funny! Dare I say... a bit cuckoo! LOL!

I stamped the funny chickens from Cuckoo using Black Amalgam ink and then Copic colored them to look like some of our chickens. So recently we rescued a couple Silkie hybrid chickens. They are the craziest looking chickens and they look a lot like the two chickens on the right. So I colored those two to look like our Rip {bottom right} and Chewy {top right}. We don't actually have any white chickens but that middle one just looked like it should be white so I went with it. And then the top left is colored like a mix of our brown chickens... I think they are ISA browns and Rhode Island Reds. And the bottom left is colored like our Plymouth Rock Chickens. So much fun!

I die cut the chickens using a die from the Scallops & Squares {nesting dies}. I trimmed the pattern paper to the same height as the square and adhered them together. And I wanted to keep this card simple so I just adhered the panel to a black A2 top fold card base.

Inspiration for my third card is from the Tawny Owl Paperie Inky Inspiration Sketch Challenge 24. Did you know I host a sketch challenge in my Facebook group? I'd love for you to join the group and play along. You can find it here... Tawny Owl Paperie Inky Inspiration.

Sometimes I forget to take photos to share, but I do like to add a white panel in my cards when I use a black {or dark} card base. I also had a strip of the pattern paper leftover so I adhered it inside the card. 

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...

... Denise Bryant!! Congratulations, Denise!!

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

Please claim the prize before September 4th, 2024. 

*** Quick Announcement ***

Unfortunately, Gaylynn has stepped down from our FOU team so she asked me to announce her winner from last month's hop. Gaylynn's July 2024 hop prize winner is Silvia H (Anonymous). Congrats Silvia! Please contact Gaylynn Martling via Facebook Messenger or a note on Gaylynn's contact form located on her blog; within three weeks of this announcement.

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 ---> Amber

Jenni

April

Kari

Tammy

Joyce

Rachel

Colleen

Thanks so very much for supporting our little hop!

We appreciate you so much!!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

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