Membership Monday ~ July 2022 UU Sunsets ~ Unity Stamp Co.

 Hello there crafty friend!

I am back for another Membership Monday post and this time I've inked up the wonderful July Uniquely Unity membership stamp from Unity called Sunsets. Now... when I saw this stamp I had a different idea for a card and I actually didn't see the name of the stamp until after I was done with my card. I thought it was kind of funny that I saw a moonlit lake rather than a sunset, but that's the awesomeness of stamps and cardmaking. We all have our own creative ideas!

I stamped the image with Gina K Design Black Amalgam ink on Stampers Select White card stock from Papertrey Ink and then I colored it up with my Copics. I die cut the image with the second largest die from the Double Roped Rectangle dies from Gina Marie Designs. I masked the edges and bottom portion of the panel and splattered some Apple Barrel white acrylic paint that I thinned out just a bit with a spritz of water. To get a nice fine splatter I didn't overly saturate my paintbrush.

I set it aside and pulled out a few pieces of Midnight Muse card stock from Stampin' Up. I trimmed one piece for my card front measuring 5-1/2 x 4-1/4" and then I die cut the other pieces of card stock with the Falling Stars {background die}. I popped up the moonlit panel with foam tape. I collected all my die cut stars and started adhering them randomly all over the card front tucking some under the double roped edge of the popped up panel. I love the dimension this gives the card!

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

Moon ~ Y11, Y15, Y35

Clouds ~ Y11

Sky ~ B91, B95, B99, 100 Black

Water ~ BG72, BG96, BG99, 100 Black, Y11, Y15

The sentiment in this kit is for sunsets so I didn't use that one. I used a Layers of Life stamp from Unity called Looking Up... a wonderful set with stars and this fabulous sentiment - "chase the moon. ride the stars" - I just love that! And it was perfect for my card!

Isn't that just a gorgeous stamp! I think it would look lovely with an ink smooshed background too! You can check out the Uniquely Unity membership over at Unity Stamp Co. I'll be back next Monday with a card using the awesome new July 2022 Whit Kit!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

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~ Friends of Unity October 2021 Blog Hop ~

Hello there crafty friend!

Welcome to our October 2021 Friends of Unity Blog Hop!! I can't believe how fast this year has gone by!! Does it seem fast to you, too?! Our hop this month has such a fun cue...

Technique!! I had SO many ideas... it's truly been mind boggling trying to decide which technique to use for this hop! I did finally decide on one simply because I hadn't done it before and I had the perfect stencil to help me do it!

So... I chose to do the Bokeh Technique. Have you tried this technique before? I've always admired cards used with this technique but in all of my 20+ years of cardmaking I haven't once used this technique myself. I remembered though that I have the cool Bokeh Stencil set from Newton's Nook and let me tell you... this stencil made this technique SO easy!! I love it and I'm hooked! I'll be using this one again and again! Anywho... so I started with a couple fun ink blended backgrounds.

For my first card I ink blended Mermaid Lagoon, Squeezed Lemonade and Twisted Citron Distress Oxide inks. And then using a Jumbo Round Sponge Dauber from Gina K Designs I added Sugar Cube white pigment ink from Taylored Expressions over the first stencil in the Bokeh Stencil set. I replaced the first stencil with the second stencil in the set and applied more white pigment ink. Now, I decided to experiment on my next step. For my first card, I used the Gina K Designs Black Amalgam ink and it kinda blended into the background which it's cool... I love the effect! I used the fabulous Insightful Meadows stamp for my cards... love these stamps! I should play with them more often! And I also used a cute little butterfly stamp from the Within Each of Us stamp set. 

For my second card, I used the Wilted Violet, Kitsch Flamingo and Broken China Distress Oxide inks and used the same Sugar Cube white pigment ink over the stencils. After applying my Ranger Anti-Static pouch all over the dried background, I stamped the flowers and the butterflies with VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink and melted a fine black embossing powder.

To finish off the cards, I stamped the sentiment from the Aging Gorgeously {July 2020 Sentiment Kit} with Wow Clear embossing ink on True Black card stock and melted Alabaster White embossing powder with my Mini Wagner Heat Tool. I trimmed the sentiments and popped them up on the cards. This time the flowers and butterflies became the focal piece of the card. I love how this one turned out, too! I really can't choose between them. What do you think? Which one is your favorite? 

That's it for me this time! I hope you'll try out a new technique and have some fun! Please hop along and enjoy some more inspiration from the Friends of Unity... I can't wait to see all the different techniques being shared! I'm sure that some of my friends are having a giveaway so be sure to comment as you hop along.

Let's get to the hopping...

Crystal <--- you're here

Eileen

April

Dawn B.

Rachel

Colleen

Dawn F.

Joyce

Alaine

 

Robyn

Thanks so very much for supporting our little hop!

We appreciate you!!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

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~ Friends of Unity September 2021 Blog Hop ~

 Hello there crafty friend!

It's time for our September 2021 Friends of Unity blog hop!!

This month we have a fun Color Challenge and we're inviting all of you to join in the fun!! We'll have an album in the Unity Show & Tell group on Facebook where you can enter a card or other paper craft  project using our color palette below. So fun!

I love the color palette we decided on... Sage, White & Kraft! I have two cards to share today...

I decided on a CAS card for my first card using my very neglected Prismacolor pencils on kraft card stock. I stamped the beautiful flower from the August 2020 Uniquely Unity kit called It's Your Choice with Peeled Paint Distress Oxide ink. I mat the panel with a piece of white card stock to help the white of the flower pop.

The sentiment is stamped with Wow Clear Embossing powder and then I melted some Alabaster White embossing powder from Brutus Monroe. I trimmed the sentiment and popped it up on the card with foam tape. Easy peasy!

My second card was also pretty easy... I stamped the beautiful star flourish from the Emerge {LOL 2/16} kit with Peeled Paint Distress Oxide inks onto Kraft card stock. And then I added some white acrylic paint splatter to the panel. I die cut the panel with a large stitched rectangle die and then die cut it again with a smaller stitched rectangle die. I adhered the larger piece directly to a white A2 top fold card base and then mat the second die cut with white card stock adhering it on the card.

I stamped the beautiful flower on white card stock with the Peeled Paint Distress Oxide ink and then colored it up with a few Prismacolor pencils. I added a couple foam squares just to the center of the flower and rounded the petals to give them a bit of dimension on the card. It's hard to see in the photos. I stamped the sentiment with Wow Clear embossing ink and melted Alabaster White embossing powder. I trimmed it and mat it with white card stock and adhered it to the card.

 We'd love to invite you to join in the fun!! Create a pretty card or other paper project using the Sage, White & Kraft color palette and enter it in the album in the Unity Show & Tell Facebook group. We're offering up a few fun prizes that will be randomly chosen for those that enter the challenge! Since I'm in the middle of moving, I'm offering a $25 gift card to Unity for one lucky winner. I sure hope you'll join in the fun! We can't wait to see what you create!

Please hop along and enjoy some more inspiration from the Friends of Unity. I'm sure that some of my friends are having a giveaway so be sure to comment as you hop along.

Let's get to the hopping...

Crystal <--- you're here

Eileen

April

Dawn F.

Rachel

Bobbie Sue

Joyce

Dawn B.

Alaine

Robyn

Thanks so much for supporting our little hop!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

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Unity Stamp Company ~ Soul Searching ~ Happy Birthday

Hello there! Today, I'm sharing a pretty happy birthday card that I created using Unity Stamp Company's Soul Searching stamp set from their Layers of Life membership.

I stamped the beautiful floral image on Canson XL watercolor paper using Ranger Archival jet black ink. I then heat set it with my heat tool and then pulled out my ZIG Clean Color Real Brush watercolor pens. So, you may notice that the consistency of the watercoloring is a little off... well, I started coloring and then walked away. I didn't get back to it until the next day. For some reason, I just wasn't able to color the remaining flowers in the same way. Does that ever happen to you?! I know this happens to me, so I tend to color an image in one sitting. Especially when it's something like this with all the same kind of flowers. If it was a mix of flowers, it would have been fine. I would have colored the 'roses' and saved the 'daisies' for next time. But that didn't work for this image. Oh well... I still love the gorgeous flowers!

I finished watercoloring the image and decided to die cut it out using the Pleated Lace Rectangle dies from Gina Marie Designs. I wanted to have some white space between the floral image and the sentiment... so I stamped the sentiment from the Abundant Blessings using VersaMark watermark ink and heat embossed a fine black embossing powder. I adhered the watercolored panel to a black card base. A very simple design... but still a lovely birthday card! I hope the recipient likes it!

Thank you friends for checking out my blog post!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs!

Crystal

~ Growing in Unity ~ Day One ~ Hello

Hello! I am so excited to be the Growing in Unity gal this week! 

I've been thinking and planning for this week for months... but even with all that excitement, I had the hardest time deciding what to share this week.

Sometimes inspiration just hits you and sometimes it just doesn't. You need a little something to get your creative juices flowing... well, I decided to share my Sources of Inspiration. I'll be sharing each day this week a card {or cards} created using one of my Sources of Inspiration.

Let's get to it!

My first Source of Inspiration is a Cue... a keyword or image.

Earlier this month I shared a couple of cards for the Friends of Unity blog hop that I created using the Cue ~ Wings. Well, I was inspired to make another card and thought it would be perfect for my first day of my GIU week. And here is what I created...

I started with a piece of Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor card stock that I stamped the background butterfly image from the Layers of Life Beautiful Moments stamp set using VersaMark watermark ink and then heat embossed a fine black embossing powder. I thought that was nice, but I wanted to add a little something to it so I decided to reheat the black embossing powder and add some Pewter embossing powder. I heated that up and I loved how it turned out. I'm not sure if that's a technique but I sure do like the effect! Next I smooshed the card stock in some Dusty Concord, Shaded Lilac, and Tumbled Glass distress oxide inks. I heat set those and then did some stamping with the circles from the Never stamp set using the Seedless Preserves distress oxide ink. I stamped the other image from the Never set with VersaMark watermark ink and heat embossed the pewter embossing powder.

I die cut the panel using the In & Out Diagonal Stitched Rectangle Stax dies and then mat the piece on a 5-1/4 x 4" piece of Tonic Studios Gleaming Lilac Pearlescent Card. I then wrapped the panel with black metallic thread and popped it up on the True Black card base. I then die cut the 'Hello' three times from True Black card stock and adhered the layers together. I added the Hello die cut and a few Silver Bells Dew Drops to the card and that's my first card for this week.

Be sure to leave a comment for a chance to win one of two fabulous grab bags of 25 stamps from Unity Stamp Company!!! Love me some deeply etched red rubber stamps!

Come back tomorrow for my next Source of Inspiration post!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Growing in Unity ~ Day 2 ~ Moments

Hello! It's Day 2 for my Growing in Unity week! 

Today I'm sharing cards using stamps from Unity's fabulous membership subscriptions. It wasn't long after I discovered Unity, that I had fallen in love with the Kit of the Month stamps. My first card features one of my favorite stamps from the September 2016 Moments Between Moments kit. 

I just love that stamp and I just had to use this fabulous paper I had found a couple of months ago. I stamped the image with Memento Tuxedo black ink and colored it in using copic markers. I also added a bit of glossy accents to the lens of the camera... how fun?! I love it! I kept the sentiment on the front simple because I wanted to tie it in with the sentiment on the inside of the card. 

For the inside of the card I used the stack of cameras stamp from the May 2017 Free Your Dreams Kit of the Month. I stamped it off so it would just be light behind the sentiment. This sentiment is from the Moment Between Moments kit. I just love how this whole card came together!

Another fantastic membership subscription is the Layers of Life. I love the mixed media feel to the stamps in these kits. This stamp is from the September 2017 Love Anchors kit. I stamped the anchor in VersaMark ink on watercolor paper. I then heat embossed some Pewter embossing powder that I found in my stash. I added a bit of color burst around the anchor and spritzed the paper. I just love that it looks like water around the anchor. After adhering all of the layers to a white card base, I added a simple sentiment from another Unity kit called So Glad You Were Born.

Here's a close-up of the texture that the pewter embossing gives to the anchor. 

I love the way this turned out! 

I sure hope you like the cards I shared with you today! Come back tomorrow... I'll be featuring some of my most favorite flower stamps from Unity! You won't want to miss it!

Be sure to check out Berina Febin's post today as well, she's another Growing in Unity girl this week. You can check out her blog ---> here!

Now, don't forget to leave a comment on this post to be entered into a drawing to 

win a grab bag from Unity. I'll be drawing names for 2 lucky winners!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal