Scrapping for Less ~ Prima Marketing ~ Happy Holidays

Hey there crafty friends!

Today, I have a couple more Christmas card ideas using some fun wood foiled icons by Prima Marketing that are available at Scrapping for Less. The beautiful wood foiled icon set that I used is called A Victorian Christmas and it's on sale!!

The set has three different designs included, but for my post today I'm just featuring the one with the sentiment. I think it's a wonderful focal piece for this card design. I die cut a bunch of pine sprigs from the Pine Needle Sprig die set by Gina Marie Designs. I positioned them just the way I wanted and then adhered each piece individually working my way from the branch on top to the branch on the bottom. This way I was able to flip the wood piece over and trim any excess from the die pieces so that it didn't get too bulky underneath and I was also able to keep the die pieces in approximately the same positions. 

I found some pretty papers from my stash that I think look very nice with these wood foiled icons. They're the 6 x 6" Winterberry papers by My Mind's Eye. I die cut two of the pretty patterned papers with a large stitched rectangle die.

I then adhered a strip of the red with white polka dots paper on the side of a pine green card front measuring 4-1/4 x 5-1/2". I adhered the stitched rectangle backgrounds directly to the card front and then using Multi Medium Matte by Ranger I adhered the focal pieces. I just love how these turned out! I sure hope you've enjoyed them too.

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

Scrapping for Less ~ Stamping Bella ~ Tumbleblossom Cluster

Hello there crafty friends! 

Today, I'm sharing a wonderful watercolor card using a medium that I don't use often enough and that is Distress Crayons! It has been a long time since I've used my distress crayons and actually, it's been a good long while since I've watercolored so I thought why not do it now! 

So to start, I stamped the gorgeous Tumbleblossoms Cluster stamp by Stamping Bella four times over a 4-1/2 x 5-1/2" piece of Canson XL watercolor paper with VersaMark watermark ink and then heat embossed a fine white embossing powder. I then scribbled Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge, Festive Berries, Fired Brick, Peeled Paint, and Walnut Stain Distress Crayons on my Tim Holtz Glass Media Mat. I was then able to use my watercolor pen and grab the pigment with my pen and watercolor the panel. I had so much fun!

 I started with the lightest color (Mustard Seed) and actually colored a bunch of the flowers with just that color and then I went back in with the Spiced Marmalade and the Festive Berries to add some rich, darker tones that felt more Fall-ish to me. I used the Walnut Stain to color in the open spaces and I just love the way it makes the flowers pop on the panel. To finish off the panel I added some white gel pen to the tiny little flowers and berries. Once I was done watercoloring, I die cut the panel with a stitched rectangle die and then mat it with a gorgeous reddish orange card stock that I found in my stash. Now the Tumbleblossoms Cluster stamp set doesn't have a sentiment so I dug through some of my Fall stamps and found a gem... the Teresa Talks Fall stamp set!! I love this set and the "fall greetings" sentiment was absolutely perfect for this card! I stamped the sentiment on that same card stock with VersaMark watermark ink and I embossed it with a fine white embossing powder. I trimmed it down and then popped up the sentiment. My first thought when finishing up this card was to find a neutral card base... maybe white or kraft (my go to's!!) but then I got to thinking... I really want that Mustard Seed yellow to pop on this card so I dug through my stash of card stock and found this perfect yellow card stock. Bam! It was perfect! I trimmed it down to a 4-1/4 x 5-1/2" piece and then adhered that to a white card base.

Surprise! I was able to make another simple card using the leftover panel. I used the same yellow and reddish orange card stocks from my stash (both are from past card kits... I'm honestly not sure which colors though) and then I added a strip of some kraft card stock that was also in my stash and had just enough left over for a 4-1/4 x 5-1/2" piece for my card front. I then adhered it to a white card base. To finish this one off, I just stamped and heat embossed the same sentiment. Done!

Here's a picture of both cards using the one watercolored panel. I have another small piece left over from the panel that I'll set aside and I hope to use it on another project. I had so much fun making these cards to share with you today! I hope you're inspired to pull out those neglected mediums in your crafty stash and get some fun crafty time!! 

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

Scrapping for Less ~ Photo Play ~ Fall Breeze

Hello there crafty friends!! 

Today, I'm sharing a Fall themed card!! I am so excited for Fall... I love all things Fall!! Particularly, the cooler weather... I'm way over the hot days of Summer!! I'd much rather have a warm cup of coffee while cozying up with a blanket while reading, so it almost felt cooler just making this card while dreaming of those days ahead.

How sweet is that little fox?! He looks so snug all nestled up with those pumpkins amidst the wreath of leaves. I love making wreaths and I just love how this one came 

together with the fox included. 

I stamped all of the leaves, pumpkins and the fox from the Fall Breeze stamp set by Photo Play on white card stock and then colored them all in with the following Copic markers:

Leaves ~ Y000, Y06, Y17, Y35, E23, E25, E27, R000, R11, R14, R27, YR15, YR21, YR68

Pumpkins ~ YR15, YR21, YR27, YR68, E23, E27

Fox ~ E000, E37, E95, E97, E99

I fussy cut each of those leaves... oy was that something! But definitely worth the effort! I also fussy cut the pumpkins and the fox. I went over the edges of the colored images with my Memento tuxedo black marker and then started laying out my wreath. It wasn't working quite right so I decided to die cut a wreath base using a Wreath die by Gina Marie Designs. Once I had that as my base I was able to lay out the leaves just right.

I adhered all of the pieces to the wreath and set it aside to dry. I then pulled out a 4-1/4 x 5-1/2" piece of black card stock from my stash and blended some Blueprint Sketch Distress Oxide ink in the upper center portion of the card stock for a night sky. I then die cut a circle in a post it note for a mask and masked the black portion of my card stock. I splattered some watered down white acrylic paint for my stars in my night sky. I set that aside to dry and added foam squares to the wreath.

I got excited and popped up that wreath on the card before stamping my sentiment but it worked out since I used my stamp platform to stamp the sentiment with VersaMark watermark ink (which I did twice to ensure it was stamped well) and then heat embossed a fine white embossing powder. To finish off the card, I tied a double bow of jute twine and then adhered it with some Multi Medium Matte.

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

Unity Stamp Company ~ Cuddlebug Owl ~ Sweet Birthday Card

Hello there! Today, I am sharing a sweet birthday card that I made for my niece. Isn't this adorable Cuddlebug Owl from Unity Stamp Company just the cutest you've ever seen!! I love it so much!

I have had this stamp on my desk for a long time just waiting for inspiration.

And finally inspiration came when I resolved to finish a paper pad I had laying around my desk. I thought this pretty pink star paper would pair nicely with the kraft paper in the paper pad and both of those would look very nice with a pink and purple owl. I trimmed the papers to fit on a top fold 4-1/4 x 5-1/2" white card base. I adhered the papers with mono multi purpose liquid glue 

and set the card aside.

I stamped the Cuddlebug Owl using Memento tuxedo black ink and started coloring using the following Copic markers ~ RV10, RV21, V0000, V04, V12, YR15, YR16, YR21, YR27. I die cut the owl with the Pleated Lace Rectangle die from Gina Marie Designs. I popped the die cut image up on the card using stampin' dimensionals. I then stamped the sentiment from the Hugs, Kisses & Birthday Wishes sentiment kit using VersaMark watermark ink and heat embossed a fine white embossing powder. I trimmed the sentiment into a banner and adhered it to the card with a combination of stampin' dimensionals and liquid glue. My final touch for this card was some Sprinkled Sugar Stickles that I applied to the little heart on the owl. Aww... love how this turned out!

Thank you friends for checking out my blog post!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs!

Crystal

~ Friends of Unity February Blog Hop ~

Hello!! I'm so excited to share my cards for our Friends of Unity blog hop this month! The cue this month is Friendship... I am very blessed with many friends! I'm also blessed to do this hop with a bunch of my crafty friends!! I had no idea when Amber and I came up with this wonderful hop that these amazingly creative and artistic women would become such dear friends to me. A bonus also is the fantastic group of crafty friends that follow us and support us so I just want to (again) say thank you to all of you fabulous peeps!

It's been a while since I did some mixed media art for a card... or at least it feels like it's been awhile so I just had to get inky with my oxides for this one!!

I trimmed a piece of Ranger Mixed Media cardstock down to a cardfront panel measuring 5-1/2 x 4-1/4". I painted on some clear gesso to prepare the paper, but I honestly don't know if that step was necessary since this paper is made for mixed media art. I just did it out of habit. I also painted an extra large tag from Unity that was in my stash with the same clear gesso. I dried both pieces with my Ranger heat tool. I then blended Spiced Marmalade, Worn Lipstick, and Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide inks on the piece of card stock I had prepared. I then sprayed the paper with water to let the colors move around and blend. I dried the paper with my Ranger heat tool and then grabbed my stamps. I decided to use Unity's Better with Friends stamp set by Jolande and Marleen. I love the mix of stamps in this fabulous set! Perfect for the card I wanted to create! I stamped the script background with Spiced Marmalade oxide ink. I then stamped the splatter with Worn Lipstick oxide ink in a few different places on the paper. I spritzed some water into the palm of my hand and clapped over the card front... a fun way to add splatter to your creations! I then dabbed the splatter dry with a paper towel and set the card front aside.

I stamped the flowers on the extra large tag with VersaMark watermark ink and heat embossed a fine black embossing powder. I dabbed the Spiced Marmalade and Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide inks on my glass mat and used the inks to watercolor the flowers. They seemed to get 'lost' in the background of the card front so I decided to add some Abandoned Coral Distress Oxide ink. I fussy cut the flowers and set them aside. I wanted to add some more black to the card front so I added this beautiful die cut from the Tim Holtz Mixed Media Thinlet die set that I trimmed and adhered to the card front. I then stamped the sentiment with VersaMark watermark ink and heat embossed a fine black embossing powder. I got to thinking... this needs more splatter so I grabbed my black acrylic paint, watered it down a little bit and splattered away. The top right corner needed a little something so I was looking around my studio and saw my very neglected Stampin' Up! Spiral Border punch. Perfect! All that was left was adhering the flowers... I got distracted by one of the kids while adhering this and it ended up more to the left of the card then I wanted but it was stuck. 

Oh, well... I still love it!

My second card has a pretty simple design to it... I stamped the gorgeous flowers using VersaMark watermark ink on Canson XL watercolor paper and then heat embossed a fine black embossing powder. I then watercolored the flowers using some new watercolor markers that I recently purchased that were recommended by a crafty friend. They're called Staedtler Marsgraphic Duo Double-ended watercolor brush markers.... quite a name, huh?! But I have to say, I loved watercoloring with them. I didn't color direct to the paper. I scribbled the watercolor markers on my acrylic block and then used my watercolor pen to lift the color and paint. I sometimes use this technique with my ZIGs so I wondered how these markers would do and I was pleasantly surprised with the results. Next time, I think I'll color direct to the paper and see how they work.

So... want to hear a funny crafty story?! I got done watercoloring these flowers and had the crazy idea to add my nuvo crystal drops right away... well, I realized after my first couple of drops that I hadn't trimmed my panel. I had planned to die cut it with a stitched die or some kind of rectangle die... LOL! Nope, couldn't do that now! So, I carefully trimmed it with my cutter (the following day so the drops were completely dry) and ended up matting it on black and popping it up on a stitched scallop die cut piece of a fun new paper I found at Hobby Lobby by The Paper Studio called Stargazer. Oh my goodness... this paper is so beautiful! I saw it while I was trying to avoid buying paper and I just had to bring it home. My crafty friend, Dawn, can tell you it's true! Right, Dawn?! She was there with me listening to me say, "No more paper. No more paper." And then I saw it and my chant ended and the paper was mine forever and ever! LOL! Anywho, back to the card... I adhered the whole panel on a True Black card base. Since I had the True Black card stock out, I decided to stamp the sentiment on a scrap and heat emboss a fine white embossing powder. I trimmed it up by hand and adhered it to the card. Done!

So my color challenge last month was a bit of a flop. Or possibly, I've misunderstood the power of a hashtag... LOL... since I haven't seen many projects using the hashtag. But I want to say a big thank you to my sweet blog hopping friends that played along!! I so appreciate you all!

Now for a little bit of business... this is actually business for Jeanie's giveaway from last month. She wasn't able to hop this month so she asked me to share her winner. 

And the winner of a random itty bitty stamp is... 

lrkmtJanuary 5, 2019 at 10:09 AM

Wow this card is awesome. I love the gold and the festivity and energy I feel when I look at it!

lrkmt, please contact Jeanie at jeaniehays00@yahoo.com or via Facebook messaging.

Speaking of giveaways... I hear there are a few along our hop! Be sure to hop and comment on our blogs so you can be entered to win a prize!

Now, I think it's about time to start hopping...

~ Blog Hop List ~

Crystal <--- you're here

up next ---> Dawn

Joyce

Kim

Bobbie Sue

Eileen

Thank you friends for checking out my blog post!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

~ Friends of Unity September Blog Hop ~

Hello! It's time for another Friends of Unity Blog Hop!! Woohoo! I love hopping with my friends!

Before I get any further into my post, we have two new friends hopping with us and I want to officially welcome Kim Klinkovsky and Bobbie Sue McConathy to our hop! Kim has been a sweet supporter of our little hop since we started. She is a fellow lover... AKA... addict of Unity stamps, she has a fabulous blog filled with inspiration - including some really awesome jewelry! And Bobbie Sue has also been a huge supporter of our hop. She just recently started her blog and I was just waiting for an opportunity to invite her to join us. She's a sweet soul and a fabulous cardmaker with so much talent! We are super happy to have both of these wonderful friends join our team!

So please give Kim and Bobbie Sue a huge welcome!

Now let's get back to it... our cue for this month's Friends of Unity blog hop is Wings. We kept the cue simple because it can be used with so many different images... angels, butterflies, birds, dragonflies, etc... that way we had a larger scope of stamps to use which sometimes can make it hard to decide what exactly you want to do. LOL! So instead of just choosing one stamp set to play with, I chose two different sets.

The first set I chose to work with was an easy pick, I bought this Suzi Blu set called Serenity Angel a while back wanting to use it for a card for my niece but the idea, and sadly, the set got pushed aside for other things. So I was really happy to finally get to use this set for this card.

I recently got my hands on some new alcohol inks and I thought it would be fun to work with a rainbow theme. I had already made a background using Wild Plum, Raspberry, Turquoise, and Stream alcohol inks on Yupo white heavystock and I thought it would be perfect for the angel's wings. I stamped the angel on the Yupo and fussy cut the wings out. I stamped her again on white card stock with Amalgam ink and colored her in with Copic markers (listed below). I used my Scan n Cut to cut the angel image out and adhered the wings to the image. I added touches of silver gel pen on the wings and on her outfit. And I also added some clear wink of stella to her hair and the bottom portion of her dress (behind the flowers). I set the angel aside and created my background piece using Poppyfield, Valencia, Sunshine Yellow, and Limeade alcohol inks on Yupo white cardstock. Using the Tim Holtz Rays Stencil, I rubbed some Alcohol Lift Ink over that stencil and rubbed it with a paper towel to get the sun rays on the background. I am loving the new Alcohol Lift Ink!!! So fun to play with! I die cut the piece using the Double Stitch Scalloped Rectangle Frames die from Poppy Stamps. I also die cut a piece of True Black card stock using the same die. I adhered the black and rainbow pieces to a scrap piece of white cardstock because I planned to pop the whole piece up on the Amethyst Allure card base.

{Copic markers used on this card ~ BV000, BV04, BV11, E0000, E00, E21, R000, R17, R20, N5, N7, YR01, YR68, Y06, Y17, Y35, YG03, YG23, B00}

Once I had that part done... I thought the background needed something else. I pulled out my Tim Holtz Mixed Media #2 dies... now at first I thought I would use the die with the flowers, but then I saw the negative pieces of the die sitting on my desk and thought they would be cool on the background and so that's what I did. That was no easy task because there were a lot of small pieces but I placed the die cut wrong side up on a piece of Press n Seal (that stuff in your kitchen to cover your leftovers - it's sticky and perfect for this!) and put all the little pieces on there like I was doing a puzzle. Once I had it filled back in, I added liquid glue to the pieces I wanted on my background and flipped it over and adhered them. Some didn't stick but it was easy to use the die cut as my guide to get the pieces in there. Then I popped up the angel on the card with dimensionals, added a few Peacock Feather jewels from Little Things from Lucy's Cards, and stamped and adhered the sentiment from the set.

Here's a closer look at the angel... I tried to capture some of the glitter in her hair. Not easy to do! But take my word for it... it's there!!

On to my second card... so you remember the black die cut from the first card... well, it was just sitting on my desk next to the left over scallop rainbow piece and they wanted to play too. So... I decided to make a Leftover card! Do you ever do that? It can be a bit of a challenge to use up those leftover pieces but this card came together pretty quickly and I have to say... I Love It!!

I masked off my white card base using microfiber tape. You could use washi or purple tape... even post it notes. Anyhow, I masked it off with about a 1/4" border. I knew I wanted to blend some red and yellow ink behind the die cut so I grabbed my brand new Ripe Persimmon and Mustard Seed Distress Oxide inks... so excited to have these in my collection... and blended them in that bottom right corner. I blended a little and then placed the die cut there to see that I was in the right spot and then I'd blend some more. Once I had that section done, I grabbed the Tumbled Glass and Stormy Sky Distress Oxide inks and blended the rest of the masked off area. Using the Ranger Anti-Static Pouch, I covered the distress oxide background and then stamped the sentiment with VersaMark watermark ink and then heat embossed ultra fine white embossing powder. I pulled off the microfiber tape and adhered my scalloped frame to the black die cut piece and then adhered them to the white card base.

I set that aside and got to work on my dragonfly. Do you recognize those wings?!?! I stamped the dragonfly from the Dreams Take You itty bitty set with Ranger Jet Black Archival ink onto my background that was leftover from the angels wings. I stamped the dragonfly again on white card stock, adhered the fussy cut wings, and fussy cut the whole dragonfly out. I bent the wings up a bit for dimension on the card and adhered just the head and thorax of the dragonfly. And then I spotted the Peacock Feather jewels that were still on my desk and decided this dragonfly needed some bling!! This might just be my favorite Leftover card ever!! 

 One or two of our friends are having giveaways on their blogs for this month's hop 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! 

Now let's get hopping!

Crystal <--- you're here

up next ---> Joyce

Eileen

Robyn

Kim

Dawn

Jeanie

Bobbie Sue

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Scrapping for Less ~ Heffy Doodle & Sunny Studio ~ Happy B-day!

Hi there! Today, I have a fun bunch of cards using Heffy Doodle's Big Bold Words with Sunny Studio's Oceans of Joy. 

I started by blending some Distress Oxide inks on white card stock - one color per card. I used Seedless Preserves, Salty Ocean, Twisted Citron, and Abandoned Coral.

Now, you'll notice this first card is different from the others. I rubbed an embossing buddy over the blended backgrounds but for some reason the Seedless Preserves background still had the clear embossing powder stick to the Distress Oxide ink. So, my octopus just got embossed into the background. My plan B - I stamped the octopus again carefully over the already stamped images with Versamark watermark ink and heat embossed white embossing powder. It kind of gave the octopus a ghostly look... but it's much cuter in person. I also stamped the same sea creatures on a white card base and set them aside.

For each of the background pieces, I also splattered water and white acrylic paint. It was fun to see how the splatter looked on each of the different colors. I die cut the backgrounds with a stitched rectangle die and set them aside. I stamped the sentiment on Vellum card stock using the coordinating colors for each card. I had a bit of trouble with my clear embossing powder sticking to the vellum... for this card with the Salty Ocean ink it looks like water so I thought it was kind of cool. I think it may be time for a new embossing buddy though.

I die cut the vellum card stock pieces with a slightly smaller stitched rectangle die and ran them all through my sticker maker so they'd be easy to adhere to the background piece and I wouldn't have to worry about the adhesive showing. My favorite trick for adhering vellum to cards!

The last step was to pop up all the background pieces onto the card bases. Even though these cards gave me a bit of trouble, I think they turned out pretty cute. This last crab one is my favorite though... and coincidentally it's also the only one that didn't give me trouble! LOL

Here's a look at the stamp sets I used for these cards.

Heffy Doodle Big Bold Words

Sunny Studio Oceans of Joy

That's it for me today! Have a fun & safe 4th of July everyone!

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Snowy Hill Background with Distress Oxide

Hello! I wanted to share a Christmas card that I made and hadn't had a chance to share yet. I made a similar card for a challenge in the Unity Show & Tell facebook group, but I had made this one first.

I die cut a scrap piece of Whisper White card stock from Stampin' Up! so that I could use it for a stencil, of sorts, to make my hills using the negative side (side without the stitches) of the Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Border die. It's a thinner card stock so it was perfect to use as my stencil. I then grabbed a Stampers Select White card stock card base and blended distress oxide inks alternating between Worn Lipstick, Broken China, and Wilted Violet. I didn't mask anything... I was just super careful to leave some white between the layers. I started from the top of the card and worked my way down. Once I got my inks blended to my liking, I splattered some water onto the card and let the distress oxide ink do its magic. I dabbed it a bit with some paper towel. 

I then put it in my little splatter box... what's that? It's a little cardboard box that I have with some paper towels in the bottom. I use it to do my splattering and it really keeps the mess contained. Anywho, I dropped my card in the splatter box and grabbed my white acrylic paint. I put a tiny drop on my palette and spritzed it with some water to make it a bit runny. I grabbed my little paint brush and splattered away. I set it aside to dry and started die cutting snowflakes. These snowflakes are from the My Favorite Things Snowflake Splendor card kit... I just adore them!!! There are so many different combinations that you can do with these. I had a blast making mine!! 

I added some glittery goodness to some of my snowflakes using Fun Stampers Journey Sparkle Silk. I layered a bunch of different snowflakes but decided just to use one on this card. I die cut the Joy from a Wplus9 die set called Seasonal Sentiments die. I used the tiny circle die from the Layered Snowflakes Die-namics set to cut out the center of the 'O' on the Joy. Once I had those cut, I set them all aside and decided to splatter the card some more with the Sparkle silk. 

 OMG! It's so sparkly and pretty! I wish it showed up better on the picture. I adhered my Joy die cut and snowflake to the card. My final touch was a Pretty Pink Posh sequin in Ballerina Pink. In the picture, the sequin looks like a light blue color, but it's a pink sequin. Crazy, right?! Love it!

This is the other card that I made using the same background technique. I stamped the {Planner Gal} Cold Outside image directly on my white card base and then I stamped her again on a post it note and fussy cut her out. I masked the image and blended my hills using the same technique I mentioned above. I pulled off my mask and colored in the image using copic markers. I stamped the sentiment on white card stock and die cut it out using the dies from the MFT Snowflake Splendor card kit. I sponged a bit of the Wilted Violet distress oxide ink around the edges of the snowflake and then adhered it to the card. My final touch was a few sequins here and there.

This is such a fun technique and I bet you could use it for other occasions by just changing up the color combos. I may just have to try that myself!

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Coffee... Santa's Little Helper!

Hello! I'm back with my fifth card for the Winter Coffee Lovers Blog hop!! I started off with a completely different design for this card... but I love the way it turned out!

I started this card, first, by stamping these gorgeous snowflakes from The Ton's Crystal Flurries stamp set. I was lucky enough to win these fabulous stamps from The Ton during the Fall Coffee Lovers Blog hop and I just had to use them for this hop! I stamped several of the snowflakes in different teal blue colors layering the snowflakes in some spots. For my last layer of snowflakes I stamped the images in VersaMark and heat embossed them in silver. It really makes for a stunning background. Once I finished up the snowflakes, I just had to add a touch of 'coffee' to the background so I used the little cluster of coffee beans from STAMPlorations' Latte Love using Ground Espresso distress ink. I cut out the background using the just released Stitched Tag-Corner Rectangle STAX dies from My Favorite Things. I love the look of these dies! I layered the die cut piece on a piece of Lost Lagoon card stock and fussy cut the corners. 

I wrapped some Satin Dark Chocolate ribbon around the piece and adhered it to a kraft card base. I set that aside and then grabbed a scrap piece of kraft card stock. I stamped the mug image from Unity's January 2017 Kit of the Month called When You Smile using a Memento Tuxedo black marker so that I could avoid the marshmallows in the image. I wanted a coffee theme so the marshmallows weren't going to work. Ha! I colored the image in using copic markers {BG11, BG15, BG18, E51, E55, E57} and then fussy cut it out. After fussy cutting it, I decided it needed some silver so I used the Ranger Emboss It pen and traced over the snowflake. I then heat embossed some silver embossing powder and set the mug aside. 

Now the sentiment... I wanted something Christmassy and suddenly remembered a coffee themed Christmas sentiment set that I had from STAMPlorations called Caffeinated Christmas. Such a cute little sentiment... and I have to say, Coffee is not only Santa's little helper... it's good for mama's too! Haha! To finish off the card I popped up the mug and the sentiment {that I had layered on Dark Chocolate card stock} using dimensionals. I had two thoughts when this card was done... 1. I love it! and 2. I have A LOT of coffee themed stamps from many companies!! Yay!

Go check out the Coffee Loving Cardmakers blog to play along!!

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

~ Friends of Unity December Blog Hop ~

Hello and welcome to our first Friends of Unity Blog Hop!!

Amber and I were chatting the other day and realized that we had the same idea stirring... let's start a blog hop featuring our favorite stamps from Unity Stamp Company!! Fabulous!!

That conversation quickly turned into a fantastic group of friends - old and new - that are just as excited to hop sharing their love of Unity. Our name was born... Friends of Unity! 

Enough with this silly intro... let's get inky!

I love wreaths! I think I've mentioned that before, but I am really in love with this Cheery Christmas wreath designed by Graciellie Designs for Unity Stamp Co. The detail to this stamp is simply amazing! I really wanted to make this special so I had to go with the No Line Coloring technique. I stamped the image using Simon Says Stamp's Barely Beige ink. I then pulled out my prismacolor pencils and got to coloring. I had a blast blending and layering color... I love these pencils!

Once I had the wreath colored, I went digging through my endless Christmas papers. I found this gorgeous holly and berry paper in a paper pack by The Paper Studio called Pine St. Square. I die cut the paper with a rectangle stitched die and layered it with a scrap of Garden Green card stock from Stampin' Up! I set that aside and pulled out a kraft card base. I blended the edges of the card base with Vintage Photo and Black Soot distress inks. I wrapped some gold thread around the patterned paper several times and then I adhered the patterned paper to the card base. I tied a little bit of gold ribbon round the thread. And then I decided to die cut the wreath using the Mod Square Stax die from My Favorite Things. I blended the edges of this piece with the same distress inks and then I popped up the whole thing on the card base. To finish off my card I wanted a small sentiment so I used the 'Merry Christmas' from the Entwined Poinsettia kit. I stamped it in VersaMark ink and then heat embossed Ultra Fine Antique Gold embossing powder from Simon Says Stamp.

I absolutely love the way this card turned out! I sure hope that you do too!

~ Let's Hop ~

Crystal O. Minkler <--- you're here

up next ---> Wynne Grob

Eileen Mathys

Robyn Jordan

Jeanie Hays

Amber Trubiak

Dawn Fields


Thanks so much for stopping by for our first Friends of Unity blog hop!!

Hope to see you next month for our second hop!
~ Crystal

Papertrey July Blog Hop Challenge

It's time for another Papertrey Ink Blog Hop!! I almost missed this one completely... I can't believe I forgot about it. I did struggle with the inspiration for this month's hop, but I woke up this morning inspired!!

Here's the inspiration photo for this month's hop. When I first looked at this I just saw a lot of white... now, normally, I love a CAS card which would typically be mostly white space. So, I was really wondering why I was struggling with this one. I guess that will remain a mystery!

Now onto my card... on a side note, I don't know if it's the lighting today because it's mostly cloudy or if it's the white in the card, but I just couldn't get a very good picture... anywho, I heard a little birdie {named Jill *wink*wink*} say that Gran's Garden was a no brainer for this card and I had to agree with her... I mean, the birdie!

First of all, I scored this A2 card so that it opened in the middle of the front... I believe that's a gate fold, but I'm not sure. I then stamped the leaves in opposite corners using VersaMark and heat embossing in white and did the same for the sentiment. Using a blender tool, I then blended Enchanted Evening ink along the edges and into the center leaving the center of the card pretty white. I wiped off the leaves and sentiment with a paper towel to help the white pop a bit. On a scrap piece of white card stock I stamped the flower from Gran's Garden, but I decided to stamp it off first so that it wasn't too dark. I then stamped and heat embossed the other portion of the flower using the same method as the leaves. I stamped the center of the flower using Enchanted Evening and then I die cut the flower and set it aside. I made a quick band to wrap around the entire card to help keep it closed and to attach the flower. I die cut the leaves and debated stamping the leaves... but decided I liked just the plain white. I added a 1" circle just off the side of the band so that I could have the flower hang off the band and give it some support. I adhered the leaves and the flower and then decided the white band needed a little something. I remembered that I received this lacy ribbon as a freebie in a Unity order and thought it was perfect. I dabbed it a bit with Enchanted Evening ink (which is hard to see in the photo, but it's there) and then adhered it to the band using tear & tape adhesive. I don't know that it turned out just how I envisioned it, but I like how it turned out. I hope you do, too!

 Here are the products I used for this card:

Stamps: Gran's Garden (PTI)

Card Stock: White (PTI)

Inks: Enchanted Evening (PTI), VersaMark (SU!)

Adhesives: Tombow Mono Multipurpose liquid glue (SSS), Tear & Tape Adhesive (SU!)

Tools: Gran's Garden die (PTI), Heat Tool (SU!)

Miscellaneous: Ranger Super Fine White Embossing Powder (SSS)

I'd love to hear what you thought of my creation.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal