~ Friends of Unity May 2022 Blog Hop ~

 Hello there crafty friend!

It's one of my favorite times of the month... time for the Friends of Unity Blog Hop!! Our cue this month is a fun one! It's similar to a couple of other blog hops that we have done before that were a lot of fun and I even went back and had a look to see the creations we all shared before. I can't wait to see all the new creations shared by our friends today! So let's get to the cue...

... Things with Wings!! Yay! 

This cue has so many possibilities... butterflies, dragonflies, bats, bees, birds, ladybugs, angels, fairies, and dragons. There are SO many things with wings! And Unity has an amazing assortment of stamps just perfect for this cue! So many that I was overwhelmed with what to use! LOL!

And then I saw this cutie for the amazing new release over at Unity! I just HAD to ink these two up from the One Kind Word stamp kit! Normally I wouldn't be a fan of worms but this has got to be the cutest worm ever! And those big eyes on the bird... love him!!

Here's a quick list of the Copic Markers that I used to color up this little scene:

Bird ~ Y06, Y15, BG10, BG01, BG34, E55, C00, C3

Worm ~ R01, RV10, RV21, RV14

Grass ~ YG11, YG23, G24

Sky ~ B0000, B000, B00

I die cut the colored up scene with the new Make A Tag {die set} and then I die cut a cute paper to coordinate with my coloring. I used the pretty Flutter Away {paper pack}... love these gorgeous papers! I trimmed my sentiment and then I placed it on my die and lined up the tag die over both. I used some Washi tape to secure it in place over the sentiment and then I die cut the sentiment too. I cut two 1/8" strips of black card stock and adhered the sentiment along with the black strips to the tag. I die cut the circle in the top of the tag and used my Crop-a-dile to cut out the hole on the pattern paper. This gave me a place to adhere the cute stitched circle die cut. I found some cute ribbons in my stash and tied them off with some twine that perfectly matched the colors in the tag... done! So cute!!

Another fab new release from Unity's big Birthday Sale... the Endlessly Beautiful stamp kit!! I'm a huge fan of the butterfly stamps available at Unity!! I pretty much have to have them all!! This one with the hot air balloon of butterflies is so unique and beautiful. I love it!!

Here's a quick list of the Copic Markers I used for this pretty card:

Clouds ~ B0000, B00

Butterflies ~ V000, V12, V15, V17, Y06, Y15

Basket ~ E51, E35, E39

Background ~ B0000, B00

Here you can see some of the dimension in the card. I popped up the butterfly hot air balloon along with the cloud underneath it and then I also popped up the bottom cloud. I put a scrap of card stock underneath the bottom cloud to give it a tiny bit more height than the hot air balloon. I also popped up the one mostly yellow butterfly! So much pretty dimension on this card!

I blended some Tumbled Glass Oxide ink over the Cloud & Wave Stencil that I had secured over a 4-1/4 x 5-1/2" piece of white card stock. I used three sides of the Cloud & Wave Stencil so that the clouds would be a bit different. I trimmed the cloud background and adhered it to a blue piece of card stock that I had die cut with the largest of the Postage Stamp {nesting dies}. I trimmed the sentiment and mat it with the same blue card stock. I adhered the sentiment and a few clouds to the cloud background. And then I popped up the hot air ballon, a couple clouds and the butterfly as I mentioned above. I adhered the entire panel to a white A2 top fold card base. If I was to remake this card, I would probably use purple card stock for the postage stamp die layer for a bit of contrast to all the blue and I think it would also help the butterflies pop. But all in all... I like how the card turned out.

For my last card I inked up the adorable Delightful Flutterbys stamp kit... I saw a card shared in the Unity Show & Tell a while back and just HAD to add this cute set of stamps to my collection. This adorable Queen bee is so stinkin' cute!! I paired her up with the sweet Little Princess 6x8 paper pad from Simple Stories. I actually remembered to pick out my papers first for this one and decided to color up her crown with yellows to coordinate with the paper so I thought it would be fun to color up the bee pink... I bet there's a bee out there somewhere in the world that would love to be pink! LOL!

Here's a quick list of the Copic Markers I used to color up this adorable pink bee:

Crown ~ Y06, Y15, Y28, RV10, RV21, RV14

Bee ~ RV10, RV21, N1. N3, N6

Cheeks ~ RV10, RV21, RV14

Wings ~ B000, B00, B02

If you follow my blog and/or my weekly Christmas card posts, you may recognize this card design... it's the current sketch for the Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers for the month of May. I thought it was the perfect design for a cute little birthday card. I cut my pretty papers and adhered them to a 6x6" card base that I scored at 3". I die cut the ric rac using a die from My Favorite Things and had to cut it in half to fit on the card but it's hidden under the popped up Queen bee. I trimmed up the sentiment and adhered it to a piece of pretty paper from the paper pad. I trimmed up the mat for the sentiment and then adhered it to the card. Woohoo! I really love how this mini slimline card turned out! So cute!

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 package and that lucky winner is...

... Mom2Two (Jenni)!! Congratulations, Jenni!!

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

Prize must be claimed within two weeks. 

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! I'll announce the winner next month! ***Google/Blogger is acting weird lately so please include your name in the comments just in case the comment is posted as anonymous we'll still be able to know who commented.***

Let's get to the hopping...

Crystal <--- you're here

up next ---> Amber 

Eileen

Dawn F.

Rachel

April

Bobbie Sue

Colleen

Kim

Joyce

Dawn B.

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 June 2020 Blog Hop ~

Hello there crafty friend!

Today is the day for the Friends of Unity Blog Hop and as always, I am super excited!! I love these hops! I can't wait to see the creations that my friends are sharing this month... so, let's get to it!

Our cue this month: Wings!! Such a fun cue with all kinds of possibilities!

My first card was totally inspired by the Freshly Made Sketches current sketch AND the paper scraps that were literally on my desk!! Love when this happens! Not only do I use up those scraps but I have a beautiful card to add to my stash! The glitter cardstock is from DCWV and it matches perfectly with the colors in the I Am Mom paper pad by Echo Park. I adhered the papers to a True Black card front measuring 4-1/4 x 5-1/2".

I then stamped the circle with type print from the 3 Times as Sweet kit and the butterfly from the June 2014 KOM called In Love with Love on white card stock with Memento Tuxedo black ink. I dried both images well with my Ranger Heat Tool. I knew I wanted to color the circle, but I didn't think it through... I just found some inks and got to coloring. I dabbed my Squeezed Lemonade Distress Oxide ink onto my glass mat and used my watercolor brush to color around the circle. I made sure to not use much water since I didn't use a water friendly black ink. This is where my fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants creating came in... lol! I wanted to add a slightly darker yellow so I searched through my Distress Markers and sadly, I only have Mustard Seed... a little darker than I had wanted but I colored the outer portion of the circle with that and then ended up going over the circle again with the Squeezed Lemonade to lighten it back up. Thankfully the black ink didn't bleed too much! And I really love how it turned out!

I colored the butterfly with the following Copic markers ~ RV10, RV11, R43, B000, B41, Y06, Y11. I stamped the sentiment from the Whit's Words kit with VersaFine Onyx black ink and then fussy cut the butterfly, the circle, and the sentiment. I adhered them all together {leaving the butterfly's wings free to fly} and then popped the circle up on the card with foam tape. Love it!

{You can click that photo to check out the challenge if you'd like!}

I'm playing along with the FMS438 sketch from the fabulous Freshly Made Sketches challenge blog!

I've been on a bit of a watercoloring kick with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers. I've really been having a lot of fun with them actually!!

I stamped the gorgeous dragonfly and sentiment from the Hope & Strength kit with VersaFine Onyx Black ink onto Canson XL 140lb watercolor paper and heat set it with my Ranger Heat Tool.

And then I got to watercoloring!! I even did some ink blending over a stencil! I had a blast making this card! I have a video to share of this one. I hope you'll check it out!

Now, a little surprise... I chose a random number from the comments of the May hop and I have a prize to send to the lucky winner!!!

Congrats SHartl!!! You're the lucky winner of a surprise giveaway!

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

Prize must be claimed within two weeks. 

Thank you all SO MUCH for hopping along with us and commenting!! I appreciate it so very much! 

Let's get to the hopping...

Crystal <--- you're here

up next ---> Eileen

Dawn B.

Kim

Robyn

Dawn F.

Amber

Joyce

Thanks so much 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

~ 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