~ 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

~ 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

~ Growing in Unity ~ Day Two ~ Be Merry

Hello and welcome to Day 2 of my Growing in Unity week!

My next Source of Inspiration is Color! Now for today's post I decided to go with Non-Traditional Christmas Colors. I received a wonderful gift last year from a friend that included card stock samples for Papertrey Ink card stock, so I pulled those little sample cards out to decide on my color combos. I had so much fun combining color combos that I got a little carried away and made four cards to share today. So grab a cuppa and let's get to it!

My first card using Unity's Christmas Magic stamp set has Aqua Mist, Olive Twist, Pure Poppy (Red), and my favorite... Kraft. For the main image I used the following Copic markers ~ R14, R27, Y000, Y06, Y13, YG93, YG95, YG97, N0, N3, N5, N8, E41, BG11, BG32. I stamped the sentiment with Memento tuxedo black ink and then mat the focal image on a piece of Aqua Mist card stock. I wrapped it a few times with a red and white twine... tied it off with a bow. I then popped up the panel onto a Kraft card base using dimensionals.

Here's a closer look... showing the glossy accents on the little Christmas lights in the wreath and the windows on the truck. I even put some on the brake lights. There's some clear wink of stella on the red bow and my final touch for this card was some red enamel dots.

I absolutely had to share this new wintry Angie Girl called Emerson Girl... isn't she beautiful. Now for this card I went with a color combo of Pinefeather, New Leaf, Green Parakeet, and Amethyst Allure. I love how this one turned out! I colored Emerson using the following Copic markers ~ R20, E000, E000, E00, E23, E25, E29, E79, N0, N1, G17, G29, V0000, V12, V15, V17. I mat the main panel on a piece of Amethyst Allure card stock and set it aside. When color is your inspiration sometimes it's a challenge to find the right coordinating items... and I got a little nervous trying to find the right papers for this card. Luckily for me, I'm a bit of a paper hoarder so I found these great papers with greens that work perfectly... it's from The Paper Studio and it's called 12 Days of Christmas. I adhered all of my layers to a Pinefeather card base. I wrapped some purple baker's twine around the last layer of green. I then popped up Emerson on the card and decided to not add a sentiment since the background paper says Merry Christmas. My final touch for this card was some clear wink of stella in the hat and scarf... sadly the picture doesn't show that. 

My next card features this gorgeous stamp set by Tierra Jackson called Cozy Mitts. Now for this card, I wanted a rich color palette with a pop of pink... so I went with Raspberry Fizz, Royal Velvet, Plum Pudding, and Enchanted Evening. I colored the main image using the following Copic markers ~ G17, G29, V04, V06, V09, RV17, R30, E25, E74. I also added some gold accents to the tips of the pine cone using a Uniball gold pen. For the sentiment, I decided to mask it off and just stamp the word Cozy. I stamped the entire sentiment on the inside of the card (no picture ~ sorry) on a white panel that I adhered inside. I found these beautiful wood panel with music notes papers in my stash... they're from The Paper Studio and they're called Pine St. Square. I adhered my layers to an Enchanted Evening card base, also adding a few brads and that finished off card number three.

My final card you may recognize from my entry into the Interactive Card Challenge in the Unity Show & Tell Facebook group. I used a few different stamp sets for this card, starting with the Days a Little Off set that has this sweet snowman. My color combo for this card is Sweet Blush, New Leaf, Berry Sorbet, and Weathervane. I started with a Weathervane card base that I cut the scalloped square window from. I stamped the snowman on a piece of white card stock and then colored it in with the following Copic markers ~ N0, N3, R00, R01, R05, R12, R22, B0000, B000, Yg23, YG25, E35, E57. I then adhered it on the inside of the card so the snowman peeked through the window. I die cut the Merry Christmas sentiment out of white and Berry Sorbet card stock. I adhered them together leaving a bit of the white peeking out. I die cut the holly and berries, sponged a little color on the edges, and then popped them up on the front of the card.

That white panel left from the peeking snowman was not pretty since the Copic markers bled through, but I just covered that up with a piece of Weathervane card stock that I had stamped and heat embossed the sentiment from the Cheerful Prancing sentiment kit.

And now for the Shadow Box portion of the card. Jennifer McGuire has a great video showing how to create these Shadow Box cards. I altered mine just slightly to fit my card. I stamped the trees from the So & So Loves set on a white panel and then colored it in using the same Copic markers I used for the snowman, excluding the greens and browns. I trimmed that panel down and adhered it behind the window. I stamped another snowman and colored it just like the first snowman. I fussy cut it out and adhered it to the side of the window. I had die cut another set of holly and berries that I adhered to the top corner. My final touch for this card was touches of clear wink of stella in the hearts of the trees, the die cut berries, and of course the snowman's hat, scarf and buttons.

I know today's post was much longer and if you've made it this far, I thank you!

I hope you've enjoyed these cards and found some inspiration to use fun color combos for your cards, be it Christmas or any occasion.

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!!! 

If you missed Day One, you can check it out... here.

Come back tomorrow for my next Source of Inspiration post (I promise, tomorrow's post is shorter)!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ 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