Be As Kind To Yourself ~ Sparkle & Shine Fairy ~ Unity Stamp Co.

Hello there crafty friend! 

Have you seen the new release over at Unity?! So many amazing stamps and goodies!! I fell in love with the Sparkle & Shine Fairy stamps. She's absolutely gorgeous!!

I just had to ink her up and color her with my Copic markers.

 

Here's a list of the Copic markers I used:

Skin: E000, E00, E11, R00, R20

Hair: E21, E23, E25

Crown: V12, V15, Y11, Y15, YG11, G94

Wings: V000, V12, V15, BG10, BG01, BG13

Dress: BG000, BG10, BG01, BG13

Mushroom: C0, C2, W00, W1, R00, R20, R14, R27

Stems / Leaves / Grass: YG11, G94

Wildflowers: V12, V15, Y11, Y15

I die cut the beautiful fairy using a die from the Scallops & Banners {nesting dies} and then I got stuck. I set her aside and started looking through my stash of scraps. I found a fun background that I had made awhile ago but the colors weren't right so I redid it with colors that complimented the fairy.

I stamped the Rustic Flutter background using Evergreen Bough and Wilted Violet Distress Inks. And then I stamped over the background with the Worn Grid background using Peacock Feathers Distress Ink. I just noticed that Worn Grid is no longer available at Unity. I really need to go through my stamps and mark the retired stamps. Anywho, a wonderful alternative is the Tattered Grid Background. 

I die cut the background using the largest die from the Scallops & Rectangles {nesting dies}. I adhered the panel to a white A2 top fold card base and then die cut the top of the banner using the same rectangle die. I then added a few raindrop embellies. Trimmed up the sentiment and popped it up with foam tape. I just love how this turned out!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

Inky hugs,

Crystal

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~ Friends of Unity October 2024 Blog Hop ~

Hello there crafty friend!

It's time for our Friends of Unity Blog Hop!! And I am so excited for this month's cue! It's a fun one...

This month's cue is CASEd It! Such a fun idea for a blog hop and I can't wait to see what our friends made this month!

First up is an adorable kitty card featuring the sweet kitty from A Little Not Fine that just released yesterday for World Card Making Day. Don't ya just want to pick that kitty up and give it a cuddle?! So adorbs!

You may recognize my card design from this awesome card by Gaylynn Martling for the October release. I absolutely adore Gaylynn's card and just had to give it a try with my own spin.

I paired up the adorable kitty with the gorgeous Gosh, I Love You {paper pack}. I die cut the kitty and the sentiment using the dies from Grunge Cuts {tag dies} and Distress Tickets {ticket dies}.

I punched a hole through both of the tags using a handheld punch from my stash and then I tied a pretty bow of {Ivory} Burlap string from May Arts. All my papers are adhered directly to the white A2 top fold card base that I turned on the side for a landscape card, except for the kitty and sentiment that I popped up with foam tape.  

Here's a quick list of the Copic Markers I used to color up the kitty:

Kitty: N0, N2, N4, N6, Colorless Blender

Nose / Ears: R00, R20

Eyes: YG11, YG63, YG45

Ground: E51, E55

Next up is a fun card featuring the cow from Someone Left the Gate Open. So excited to finally ink this cute cow up!

This time I CASEd these fun cards by Beth Artz! Beth shares her creations often in the Unity Show & Tell Facebook group. Love her creations! This is such a versatile card design... I had to give it a go!

I paired the cows up with the awesome Rustic Cowhide {paper pack}. So fun! The cows are both die cut using a die from the Scallops & Circles {nesting dies}.

The fun burlap ribbon has been in my stash forever. I'm pretty sure it's from Stampin' Up. Because it's so thick I popped up the cowhide papers using a thick foam tape. And then the cow circles are popped up on either side of the burlap ribbon using a thinner foam tape. Lots of dimension for these cards!

Here's a quick list of the Copic Markers I used to color up the cows:

Eyes / Teeth: C00, C2

Horns: E51

Face / Neck: N0, N2, N4, Colorless Blender

Nose: R00, R20, N0, N2, N4, E51

Last up is a pretty holiday card featuring the super sweet Simple Little Wishes that also just released for World Card Making Day. I love this Charlie Brown tree!! So cute! 

Some of you may recognize this awesome technique that Jenni Shamblin shared a few months ago for the Christmas in July 2024 {BYSHC} Linky Party. I fell in love with the design but didn't play with it until now and OH BOY am I hooked!! It was so much fun!

You may also recognize the papers from the card I shared on Thursday. This card design is perfect for those scraps and since I was playing with leftover paper scraps, it just made sense to use them again! I do recommend to use copy paper for this technique. It took several runs through my Big Shot with the largest die from the Scallops & Rectangles {nesting dies} to get that background layer cut all the way through.

The adorable tree is die cut using a die from the Scallops & Circles {nesting dies}. The sentiment and tree circle are popped up with foam tape. And then I finished off the card with a few shiny pieces of confetti from the Crystal Metallic Quicksilver Card Bling set from A Colorful Life Designs. 

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...

... Karen Letchworth!! Congratulations, Karen!!

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

Please claim the prize before October 30th, 2024. 

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 the CASEd creations our friends made for 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 ---> Amber

Kari

Jenni

April

Colleen

Jane

Rachel

Joyce

Thanks so very much for supporting our little hop!

We appreciate you so much!!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

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Growing in Unity ~ Day 3 of My 5 Favorite Things

Hello there crafty friends!

I'm back for Day 3 of My 5 Favorite Things for my Growing in Unity week... now today I've decided to share one of my favorite techniques and a few fabulous Unity kits to use with this technique. One of my favorite techniques to use to make a fun background is the Baby Wipe Technique. If you're not familiar with this technique I shared steps for this technique in a blog post a couple of years ago so you can check that out here ---> Baby Wipe Technique tutorial! I have several pictures to share today, so I don't want to add the steps for the technique here too, so please check that out if you're not familiar.

For my first couple of cards, I used the beautiful Make Today kit... this is a mixed media kit created by Jolande van Oosterhout and Marleen van Meerendonk. I absolutely Love the mixed media stamps available at Unity... another one of my favorite things! * wink wink*

I used Raspberry Fizz, Summer Sunshine, and Tropical Teal ink refills on the baby wipe and then just repeatedly stamped the swirly dots stamp all over to create my background.

I was able to make two cards using this technique for the background. I stamped the sentiment from the same Make Today kit using coordinating dye ink and then quickly heat embossed it with a fine clear embossing powder. Since the sentiment was stamped on vellum card stock the ink didn't dry too quickly and I was able to add clear ep to it before it dried. I die cut the sentiments and then adhered them to the card with vellum glue tape (a sweet gift from my crafty friend, Robyn ~ thanks again!!). I mat the cards on coordinating card bases and Bam! There you have two pretty quick cards using a super fun technique!

So, once I got started on those cards I was thinking about other fabulous stamps that would be fun using this technique and I remembered the magical stamps that were released last year (I think, don't quote me on that) that I had to have but hadn't inked up yet. Yup... you know what I mean. I used the Magic Inside All of Us and Something Magical kits designed by Joslyn Nielson for these cards.

So I used Summer Sunshine and True Black inks for my first two cards... getting a Hufflepuff-esque feel for these ones. I have to admit that I don't just stamp that often anymore. I use my stamp platform ALL the time... anyone else do that? So it was super fun to just ink up these stamps and well... stamp. I layered my backgrounds on Summer Sunshine card stock and then adhered them to True Black card bases. I really love how these turned out! 

Once I got started, I couldn't stop so I also made some Griffendor-esque cards using Scarlet Jewel and Harvest Gold ink. I just HAD to use the fabulous owl from the Sending an Owl kit!! Love it!

And my last card using this fantastic and fun technique. I just love how all of these turned out!

This background is probably my most favorite. You can see how the stamps picked up both colors that I had on the baby wipe. So much fun!

Here's a quick picture with all the Harry Potter-esque cards! Such a blast to make!

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

Thanks so much for checking out my blog!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

~ 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