~ Friends of Unity December 2025 Blog Hop ~ Unity 2025 Advent Calendar Day 6

Hello there crafty friend!

It's time for our Friends of Unity Blog Hop!! AND I'm sharing inspiration for the Unity 2025 Advent Calendar for Day 6! I had a lot of fun using the Day 6 stamp for this month's fun cue for our blog hop. But before we get to the cue and my cards... we're celebrating 8 fabulous years of blog hopping with you all!! First of all, how has it been 8 years already?! That's just bizarre to me! I've really enjoyed sharing inspiration with you all the last 8 years. I hope that you'll stick around for the next however many years we keep hopping around!! Thank you for supporting our hop and sharing your love on our blog posts!! We appreciate you all SOOO very much!

This month's cue is a Mood Board!! Yay! I had so much fun putting this mood board together. I'm super excited because once again we are hosting a challenge in the Unity Show & Tell Facebook group. I sure hope that you can play along. If you're not familiar with how a mood board works, it's basically just a board of inspiration. There's different textures or images that may inspire you. There's also a lovely color combo. Maybe that gets the creative juices flowing. Or there's a sketch to inspire... whatever part of the mood board catches your interest, I hope you'll join us in the group and play along with the challenge. 

My first card features the beautiful cake slice for Day 6 of the Unity 2025 Advent Calendar. The detail in this small stamp is amazing! I really enjoyed coloring it with my Copic markers.

You can check out my video revealing the Advent Calendar Day 6 stamp and my process in making this card here... Unity Advent Calendar 2025 Day 6 | Unity Stamp Co.

I was inspired by the colors and the sketch for my card design. I used two fun paper packs for this card... the Cozy Christmas {paper pack} and the Where Winter Lingers {paper pack}. The pretty cake and Kraft mat are both die cut using dies from the Scallops & Circles {nesting dies}.

Copic markers used:

Cake: E21, E23, E25

Plate: R20, R14, R29

Frosting: C0, C3, G24, G46

Candles: Y11, Y15

Ground: C0, C1

The sentiment is from the Extended Celebration {front & center stamps}. I heat embossed it with Sugar Cube White Pigment ink from Taylored Expressions along with Alabaster White Embossing Powder from Unity.

For my second card I added some knit texture using an old embossing folder from Stampin' Up. It's trimmed to 4 x 5-1/4" and adhered to a Kraft A2 top fold card base. 

My inspiration for both cards not only came from the colors and a couple of the textures in the mood board, but also from the sketch. This simple sketch makes it so easy to make a card and I think my cards show a bit of variety with this design.

 I stamped the gorgeous floral stamp from the December 2025 Kit Of The Month called Peace, Paws & Possibility and it's also available on it's own in the Winter's Gentle Heart stamp set. I colored it up with Copic markers and then fussy cut it and popped it up on the card with foam tape.

Copic markers used:

Berries / Red Flower: R20, R14, R29

Pine Needles / Greenery: YG11, G24, G46

Pinecone: E21, E23, E25

White Flowers: C0, C2, Y15, Y35

The festive paper strip across the card is a scrap from the Yuletide Memories {paper pack}. Rather than cut strips I decided to just use this scrap to represent the strips in the sketch. I trimmed the heartfelt sentiment and adhered it directly to the card. I chose not to use foam tape because the embossed background has a good amount of texture and I didn't want it to be too much. I finished off the card with a few enamel dots. 

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...

... Sue D.!! Congratulations, Sue!!

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

Please claim the prize before December 31st, 2025. 

Well, that's it for me this time! It's a 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 ---> Doreen

Joyce

Toni

Jenni

Rachel

Dawn

Thanks so very much for supporting our little hop!

We appreciate you so much!!

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

Monochromatic Sympathy ~ Peony Reverie ~ Unity Stamp Co.

Hello there crafty friend! 

It's hard to make sympathy cards. Especially when you need one. I think a monochromatic floral card is nice for a sympathy card. When I saw the gorgeous Peony Reverie I wanted to see what it would look like with a sepia style of coloring. 

I've done sepia colorings before but I think I've colored them on white card stock. This time I wanted to see what it would look like on Kraft card stock. I colored the peonies with just E21 and E25. 

I die cut the panel using the largest die from the Deckle & Stitches Nesting Dies. I adhered the panel to a Kraft A2 top fold card base. I added a touch of white to the center of the peonies using a white gel pen.

The sentiment from the Say It Loud & Clear stamps was heat embossed with a clear embossing ink and black embossing powder. My black embossing powder is very old from Stampin' Up. I had to heat emboss the sentiment twice because of the old ep. It's also contaminated with paper bits and other stuff. Probably time to replace it. Any suggestions for a good black embossing powder? I fussy cut the sentiment and popped it up on the card with foam tape. I really like how this turned out.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

Inky hugs,

Crystal

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