Scrapping for Less ~ Unicorn Marci with Watercolor Foil Paper

Hi there crafty peeps!

I'm sharing an adorable card today using Unicorn Marci and some absolutely beautiful 

paper from Pink & Main called Watercolor Foil.

I shared a card last week using Unicorn Marci... you can check out that card here ---> Unicorn Marci with Coffee Distress Oxide Watercolor card! I watercolored my card for last week, but for this week I wanted to use bright colors to coordinate the beautiful Watercolor Foil papers so I stamped Unicorn Marci using Gina K Designs Amalgam black ink and then colored her in using the 

following Copic markers:

Skin ~ E000, E21, E51, R20

Hair ~ E42, E43, E44, Y21

Pajamas ~ RV10, RV14, RV17, RV25, N0, N1

Slipper boots ~ N0, N1, Colorless Blender

I die cut the Watercolor Foil papers and adhered them to a white card base. I then fussy cut Unicorn Marci and set her aside. I die cut some clouds that I lightly sponged with some Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink but any blue oxide ink would work. There happens to be this ink in the shop ---> Salty Ocean Distress Oxide ink... which would work just as well when lightly sponged on.

I adhered the die cut clouds with liquid glue so I could adjust them quickly before they set. 

I popped up my fussy cut Unicorn Marci with foam tape. I then stamped the cute sentiment 

on white card stock with Gina K Designs Amalgam black ink, fussy cut a flag, and then popped it 

up on the card. I just love that beautiful shine from the foil in the Watercolor Foil papers! 

So pretty! I sure hope you've enjoyed my card!

Thanks for checking out my blog post!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

~ Friends of Unity October Blog Hop ~

Hello! Happy World Cardmaking Day!! I hope that you get to play on this day for us card making peeps! Speaking of... can you believe that it's October already?! Time is flying by so quickly. I do love the cooler temperatures and the gorgeous colors appearing in the trees. Speaking of trees... wink wink... our Cue for the Friends of Unity October Blog Hop is Leaves.

I LOVE Fall! I've mentioned this in other posts. I just can't help myself... the rich oranges, yellows, reds and even the browns! Sigh... I love love love them! Add to that an adorable fall themed stamp set and Oh My Goodness... again, I say Love!

Another thing that I love... is a good sketch! I found this sketch in my Sketch Journal and thought it would be perfect to showcase this adorable stamp from the Hoppy Fall stamp set. I started by stamping this sweet bunny and a few leaves using Gina K's Black Amalgam on white card stock AND on Canson XL watercolor paper. The card above was colored using the following Copic markers ~ Y000, Y02, Y06, Y11, YG0000, YG61, YG63, YR15, YR16, YR68, R14, R20, R27, N0, E000, E23, E25, E30, E31. I die cut the bunny with the Labels Three die from Spellbinders. I also die cut a piece of Kraft card stock that I cut in half and adhered just on the edges of the bottom and top portion of the main panel. Since the center portion wasn't adhered, I could slide my patterned paper in between the layers of the focal image. I adhered those pieces in place and then popped up the whole piece on the layers adhered to a Kraft card base.

For my second card, I flipped the sketch and also watercolored the image using ZIG Clean Color Real Brush pens with similar colors to the Copic colored version. I changed up the patterned papers a bit but I really love how these two cards turned out.

The inside of the first card. I added a piece of white card stock with a strip of patterned paper and stamped the entire sentiment with Memento tuxedo black ink.

The inside of the second card... just like the first, I added a piece of white card stock with a strip of patterned paper and stamped the entire sentiment with Memento tuxedo black ink.

Surprise!! I have another card!! Did you know that the beautifully colored part of the Poinsettia plant is actually colored bracts which are modified leaves?! A fun fact I've learned and one of the reasons I'm playing with the Poinsettia with Love sentiment kit for this hop. Let's check out the card I made...

I started with a pretty simple sketch idea with a diagonal cut of patterned paper mat on a piece of gold card stock, also cut diagonally. I wanted the words on the paper to stand out so I adhered the mat patterned paper to a white card base. I then stamped the gorgeous poinsettia on a piece of Canson XL watercolor paper (110 lb) using Amalgam black ink. I watercolored the image with ZIG Clean Color Real Brush pens and once it was dry, I fussy cut it out. I added some gold to the center of the flower using a gold gel pen and I also added some glossy accents to the red berries to give them some shine.

I popped up the fussy cut poinsettia on the card using dimensionals and that was it... I absolutely love how this card turned out! I originally wanted to add a sentiment near the top in the white portion of the card, but decided against it. I just love it how it is... so I'll add a sentiment inside or maybe I'll just leave it blank to hand write my holiday greetings to the recipient... who knows?!

Thank you friends for checking out my blog post! I sure hope that you like the cards I've shared today. There are a few giveaways this month so be sure to check out each of the blog posts and comment. We absolutely love all of your comments!

Now I think it's time to get hopping!

Kim

Robyn

Bobbie Sue

Crystal <--- you're here

up next ---> Eileen

Jeanie

Dawn

Joyce

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs!

~ Crystal

~ Growing in Unity ~ Day Five ~ Alcohol Lift-Ink

Hello! I can't believe that it's my last day being the Growing in Unity gal... I'm so bummed, but I'm really excited to share my fifth Source of Inspiration... Technique!

There are so many techniques out there to try in our paper crafting world. 

Most recently Tim Holtz released a new fun ink called Alcohol Lift-Ink that can literally lift the ink from a background piece created using alcohol ink on Yupo card stock AND you can then stamp on regular card stock transferring that ink from the stamped background. (I hope that makes sense. For more details do a search for Alcohol Lift-Ink on YouTube. Tim Holtz shares a wonderful tutorial on how to use this ink). Let's check out what I created, shall we?!

I have to admit, I'm new to alcohol inks... but I've found them very forgiving. What I mean by that is, if you don't like how your background is going you can literally paint some rubbing alcohol over it and just basically start over. In fact, I did this with this piece. The background wasn't flowing how I wanted... it was more splotchy and really not the direction I wanted it to go. So I got my paint brush and my jar of rubbing alcohol and painted all over the piece. I blended the colors of the alcohol ink and really just softened it. From there I was able to add more alcohol ink and using a blending tool with the mini applicator felts I could move the ink around the way I wanted.

For this background, I used Turquoise, Willow, and Butterscotch Alcohol Inks with some Mixative Copper. Now, for the fun Alcohol Lift-Ink technique... I stamped the gorgeous background stamp from the Everlasting Romance set using the Alcohol Lift-Ink and then stamped it again on white card stock. I set the white card stock aside for my second card and dabbed my alcohol ink background with a paper towel. Once I had dabbed it enough so that the ink didn't appear wet, I gently rubbed the background with the paper towel. This process really makes the stamped image pop. I then stamped a portion of the sentiment from the He Will Sustain You stamp set by masking it off. 

While learning how to do this technique, I saw a video by Jennifer McGuire where she cut the background piece similar to this. I loved how it looked but found that a white card base didn't work for this background, but copper did! Before I adhered this to my copper card stock... I pulled out the heart stamps from the God's Sight set. I laid out the background pieces on my mat similar to how they would be on the card and then stamped them with a gold ink (I don't have a copper ink, sadly.)... almost making the hearts look broken. 

I die cut a stitched rectangle piece of Tonic Pearlescent Card - Cosmic Copper and adhered my cut pieces of my background leaving a bit of space in between for the copper card stock to peek through. I wrapped the panel several times with copper metallic thread that I adhered on the back using scotch tape. I then punched a hole and added an antique brad from my stash. I popped up the whole panel using foam tape and adhered it to a Vintage Cream card base. In the picture above, you can see some of the detail in the background and also the hearts that I had stamped. That's it for my first card using this technique. Now onto card number two...

I wanted this card to be more simple... I started with the white card stock piece from the Alcohol Lift-Ink technique. Isn't that just beautiful?! I really loved how it turned out, but I wanted to also use the other stamps in the God's Sight stamp set. I stamped the girl using Old Paper distress ink and then I stamped the sentiment using Gina K's Black Amalgam ink.

I added a few drops of Nuvo Silver Lining drops... sadly one of my drops got messed up a bit, but I think it still turned out lovely overall. 

I had so much fun creating each and every card for you all this week. I sure hope that you've enjoyed my creations this week and that maybe I've helped you find more Sources of Inspiration.

Be sure to leave a comment on each of my GIU blog posts for a chance to win one of two fabulous grab bags of 25 stamps from Unity Stamp Company!!! You'll have until Sunday to comment on each post and then I'll pick two winners on Monday.

You can check out my other GIU days:

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

~ Friends of Unity July Blog Hop ~ Christmas in July ~

Hello! It's the first Saturday of July!! That means it's time for another Friends of Unity Blog Hop!

Before I get started on my cards for this month's hop, I'm super excited to share that we have a new friend hopping with us... Joyce Verdon! I was really excited when Joyce started her blog the beginning of this year. She's an amazingly talented artist and I've been loving on her cards for quite some time. I was even more excited when Joyce said she'd love to join our Friends of Unity Blog Hop! So please give Joyce a big welcome to the hop!! 

Now let's get back to it... this month our theme is Christmas in July. I absolutely love making Christmas cards so when Jeanie suggested it, I thought it was a perfect idea!

For my first card, I wanted to go with a non-traditional color scheme. I was thinking light, pastel colors with a lot of white and some sparkle. I also thought I'd ink the little snowmen from the Snow Way set that I hadn't inked up yet. They looked like they wanted to have some fun!

To start, I made my background... I smooshed some Distress Oxide inks on my craft mat adding a bit of water. I like to work with one color at a time... I think it gives me more control on where the colors go. I start from the lightest color to darkest too, but I often go back and smoosh again with each color. So for my background I used Tattered Rose, Worn Lipstick, and Wilted Violet. I also like to create two backgrounds when I do this technique... it's amazing how different they will turn out and then you can pick and chose which one you want to use and save the other for another project.

Once I was happy with my background and I had it completely dry, I added some white acrylic paint splatters. For this I just add a drop of paint to my palette, spritzed it with a little water, mixed it up with a cheap paint brush from my kids watercolor set, and splattered away. I also used my Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust gel pen to add a bit of sparkly snow by simply making random dots.

Next was my scene... I die cut a few of the Tim Holtz Tree Line dies out of white card stock. I added some clear wink of stella all over the trees and then I added a touch of the stardust gel pen to the edges of the trees... not all over the edge but where I wanted some sparkly snow to be on the trees. I then layered the trees using pop dots just on the bottom portion of the tree line so the front layer of trees would give some dimension to the card. I die cut my Scalloped Stitched Rectangle Frame die from Gina Marie Designs from white card stock. I did that twice and layered them together to give the frame some support because I was going to pop it up on the card. 

My final touch for this card was, of course, these sweet little snowmen! I stamped them with the new Gina K. Designs Amalgam ink and then colored them with the following Copic markers ~ BG0000, BG11, B000, B01, V0000, V01, V04, R00, R20, R81, RV21, Y000, Y06. This was my first time using the Amalgam ink with Copics and it worked beautifully! I fussy cut each of them out and adhered them to the card. Now at this point, I decided to add the sentiment which wasn't the best idea because my white craft ink wouldn't show enough and when I heat embossed it and it still didn't show very well... so it's kind of like a hidden message in the sky. LOL :)

Since my sentiment on the front of the card didn't quite work out... I decided to ink up the inside of the card. I stamped a few snowflakes and this great sentiment from the Like a Snowflake sentiment kit using the same Distress Oxide inks from the background. I think they tie in really well with the front of the card.

Now, I got on a bit of a roll thinking up Christmas card ideas so when I saw this technique in an email I just had to give it a try. And it was a great excuse to ink up this sweet Unity set called Happy Holidays. This set was designed by Jolande & Marleen last year and I just had to have it, but I didn't get a chance to ink it up so I was really excited to get to play with it for this card.

I've gotten a bit ahead of myself though... to create the background, I blended Broken China distress ink over the top two-thirds of the distress watercolor card stock and then blended some Mermaid Lagoon at the top of the card stock. I wet my wide watercolor brush (not dripping wet, but a bit more then damp) and painted from top to bottom letting the brush create some streaks. I cleaned off my brush after every other stroke so the inks didn't get too dark and it kept a nice ombre look. I stamped the branches from the Winter Blessings set around the edge using Mermaid Lagoon distress ink at the top, Broken China in the middle, and then Tumbled Glass at the bottom.

I then stamped the ornament from the Happy Holidays set using Versamark watermark ink and heat embossed ultra fine white embossing powder. Using my water pen I saturated the middle of the ornaments with clean water and dabbed them with a paper towel to lighten the background colors to make the ornaments pop a bit more. Once that was dry, I used my clear wink of stella to add some pretty glitter and also a touch of the stardust gel pen to add some dimension. The sentiment was inked up with Versamark watermark ink on Pacific Point card stock and embossed just like the ornaments with white embossing powder. Those are my cards for this month's hop! So much fun to create and I hope you got some inspiration from them!

I have some business to take care of now, before we move on to the hopping. Last month I had a giveaway and I need to share who the lucky winner of the brand new Kendra Girl stamp set is...  drum roll please... the lucky winner is...

LISA BUSCH!!!! Woohoo! 

Lisa please email me at crystalominkler@gmail.com with your mailing address to claim your prize. Prize must be claimed within two weeks.

Thank you to all those that hopped with us last month and, of course, this month!

Now since I had such a blast making these Christmas cards, I thought I'd do another giveaway... this time the winner will receive a brand new Jolly Ol' Santa set! I was playing around with this sweet new set this week and thought he'd make a great giveaway... so be sure to hop and comment on each of our blogs so you'll be entered into this giveaway. We sure appreciate and love all of your fun comments! The winner will be announced during our next hop! There may even be another giveaway... you never know unless you hop. ;)

Now let's get hopping!

Eileen

Crystal <--- you're here

up next ---> Robyn

Joyce

Jeanie

Wynne

Dawn

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal