~ Friends of Unity January 2026 Blog Hop ~

Hello there crafty friend & Happy New Year to you!

It's time for our first Friends of Unity Blog Hop of 2026!! Woohoo! I'm ready to kickoff a brand new year with our friends and share some fun inspiration with our cue...

Today we are sharing inspiration that we CASEd. What does CASEd mean? It's an acronym for Copy And Share Everything or Copy And Selectively Edit. It is a common practice in the cardmaking community where a card maker is inspired by another person's design and recreates it, either as an exact copy or with some modifications. For example, changing up the colors or using a different stamp. I had a lot of fun with my makes for this one.

My first card features the cute new Cupid Pissy Kitty. Isn't it just too cute?! It was also fun to color up with my Copic markers.

Copic markers used:

Kitty: N0, N2, N4, YR20, YR15, R20

Eyes: C0, C3, YG00, YG11

Sash: RV10, RV02

Wing: C0, C3

Bow / Arrow: E21, E25

My card design was CASEd from cards that Angela Magnuson shared in the Unity Show & Tell. She had blended over a stencil and then stamped a pretty flower silhouette. Her design was very CAS {Clean & Simple}. My design took a left turn. Haha... 

I ended up die cutting my panel and adhering it to a white card base. I die cut the panel using the largest die from the Deckle & Stitches Nesting Die Set. I also popped up the sentiment with foam tape.

I blended Kitsch Flamingo and Picked Raspberry Distress Inks over the fun Layered Hearts {stencil set}. I finished off the card with a few pieces of confetti from the Crystal Opaque Creme Puff Card Bling from A Colorful Life Designs.

Keeping with a love theme for my second card. This time I inked up the adorable birdie from the brand new January 2026 KOM called Margins of Ever After. This cutie is also available separately in the  Wee Little Love Courier stamps. Too stinkin' cute!!

Inspiration for this card came from a fabulous card shared by Danni Bindel. Danni shared a card featuring the Fluff Squad. And funnily enough, she was actually inspired to make this card using one of the Tawny Owl Paperie Inky Inspiration Sketches!! Made me giggle when I realized that. I love how our cardmaking community inspires each other!

I die cut the birdie using a die from the Oval Frames die set from Newton's Nook Designs. Unity really needs to add some fun oval dies to their collection!

Copic markers used to color up this cutie:

Bird: B000, B00

Eyes: C0, C3

Beak / Legs / Feet: YR20, YR15

Heart: RV10, RV02, YR20

Grass: YG00, YG11

 I paired up this sweet bird with the Cloud Hopper Chronicles {paper pack}. So many fun layers in this one. I used paper scraps across the card and then I popped up the trimmed sentiment and the oval using foam tape.

I wanted to play with lots of color for this one. I found a great piece of pattern paper from the Oh Hey! It's Your Day {paper pack} for my background and pulled colors from the papers for my coloring.

My last card was inspired by this lovely card by Amy Marie in the Unity Show & Tell Facebook group. I was pulled into the card by the theme... I love books!! But really the arch is what got my attention. Amy used the beautiful girl from the March 2025 KOM Chapters & Crossings.

I thought the gorgeous flowers from the new January 2026 KOM would look lovely in this card design. These beauties are also available separately in the Where Butterflies Wait stamps. I die cut the flowers using the largest die from the Scallops & Arches {nesting dies}. 

Here's a quick list of the Copic markers I used:

Pink: RV10, RV02

Red Flowers: R20, R14

Yellow Flowers: Y11, Y35, R20, R14

Butterfly: BG10, BG01, Y11, Y35

Greens: YG00, YG11, YG23

Background: B000

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...

... Sabra & Holly Gerdes.!! Congratulations, Sabra & Holly!!

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

Please claim the prize before February 4th, 2026. 

Well, that's it for me this time! Another short hop this month with just seven of us sharing our makes. Be sure to hop along and enjoy some more inspiration! 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

Toni

Jenni

Jane

Dawn

Rachel

Thanks so very much for supporting our little hop!

We appreciate you so much!!

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

~ Growing in Unity ~ Day Four ~ Happy Birthday

Hello! Welcome to Day Four of my Growing in Unity week!

Today, I'm sharing my fourth Source of Inspiration... CASEing. If you're not familiar with this term CASE a crafty acronym for Copy And Share Everything ~ basically it means you copy aspects of a card, like the colors, the design or the product and make your own card based on that. 

For today's card, I CASEd a lovely project made by Unity's Design Team member, Amanda Garrett. Amanda jazzed up some pretty kraft envelopes by stamping on the flap of the envelope and coloring it in. I thought... that would be gorgeous on a card!

I stamped the Border of Magnolias stamp on a 5-1/2 x 4-1/4" piece of Kraft card stock. On that same piece I stamped the Border of Orchids stamp. I stamped both with VersaMark watermark ink and then heat embossed a fine white embossing powder.

I colored the flowers using the same Prismacolor pencils. I started with the darkest purple, added some pink and then blended them together with a white pencil. I loved the way the white pencil pulled the purple and pink up into the petal. It's really gorgeous in person. And on a side note, for some reason the colors in the pictures here are a bit distorted. The kraft is really lighter than it appears here. I blended an olive green and a brown pencil for the stem (it's really not as dark as the picture makes it look).

And then for my Border of Orchids card, I did the same. I used the dark purple pencil to make the spots for the orchid. I added a touch of the pink on the spots and then I blended those colors with a white pencil. I went back in with some more purple and pink here and there to darken it up. I really love how this turned out!

Once the flowers were colored, I die cut them using first a stitched rectangle die that was just a little smaller than a card front. I then die cut the center of the panel using a Stitched Scallop Basic Edge die. I stamped the sentiment from the Let Your Wishes Fly sentiment kit directly on the kraft card base using VersaMark ink and heat set a fine white embossing powder. I popped up the flower pieces using foam tape and there you have my CASEd cards! Thank you for the inspiration, Amanda!

The Unity Design Team is a fabulous source of inspiration! As is, the very talented Unity customers that share in the Unity Show & Tell Facebook group. If you're not a member of the group, I really recommend joining... there's always fabulous creations being shared!

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 can check out my other GIU days:

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Come back tomorrow for my final Source of Inspiration post!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal