~ 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

Scrapping for Less ~ Sneak Peek September Flavor of the Month Card Kit

Hello! It's the Monday before the reveal of the new September 2018 Flavor of the Month card kit for Scrapping for Less... you know what that means!! I'm here with the first Sneak Peek!!

Eeek! You can just guess that I'm loving this month's kit! It's full of all kinds of yummy Fall goodness... and an adorable owl!! Oh My Goodness!! Love this sweet owl!

Here's another view... I have 3 layers for the die cut 'thankful' that I colored with Copic markers.

I used the following Copic markers for this card ~ Y000, Y06, Y17, YR15, YR68, E000, E11, E24, E35, E50, E55, E70, BV23.

Be sure to come back to the Scrapping for Less blog for another sneak peek tomorrow!

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

You're Amazing!

Hello! A quick post today for the Inspired By Challenge #38 ~ Fall Foliage.

I was inspired by the fabulous colors in the challenge photo and also the cup or mug (not sure?) in the photo. I wanted to focus on the rich colors of Autumn with reds, oranges and yellows, but also include the browns. I love the rich brown in the scallop background piece poking out from the behind the watercolored washed background. I die cut the Large Scallop Stackers from Dark Chocolate card stock for that piece. 

I ran Canson XL watercolor paper through the big shot with the Papertrey Ink Book Print Impression Plate and then did a watercolor wash with Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors. I die cut the piece with the Noted: Simply Stitched A2 Vertical dies also from Papertrey Ink. I adhered those layers to a Kraft card base and then set it aside.

I stamped the Tea Cup Floret by Graciellie Designs (sold by Unity Stamp Company) in Gina K's Black Amalgam ink. I heat set it with my heat tool and then colored it in with the same Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors I used on the background, but also used some browns and white for the cup, saucer, and coffee. I added some copper metallic thread to the bottom of the fussy cut image and then popped it up on the card. I stamped the sentiment in VersaMark watermark ink and then heat embossed some fine white embossing powder. I die cut it with a banner die, trimmed it, and adhered it to the card. I am loving how this one turned out!

The Inspired By Challenge just started today so I hope you also get a chance to play along.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Scrapping for Less ~ Brutus Monroe ~ Fall Themed Baby Card

Hello! Today I'm sharing a fall themed baby card... actually, I had so much fun making the first card, I decided to make two cards to share with you! Let's get to it!

My first card has layers using the Lawn Fawn Knit Picky Fall paper pack on a dark brown card base. I stamped the sweet bunnies from the Brutus/Monroe Bunny Kisses stamp set on a piece of white card stock and then stamped them again on a post-it note. I masked the bunnies with the fussy cut post-it note and then blended Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, and  Vintage Photo distress inks. I took the mask off and colored the bunnies using the following Copic markers ~ E30, E31, E35, E53, E55, E57, YR24, R20. I die cut the piece using the large cross stitch rectangle die that I mat on the same dark brown card stock. I stamped the sentiment using VersaMark watermark ink and then heat embossed a fine white embossing powder. I popped up the panel using foam squares and called this one done!

I used similar items for my second card. I stamped the bunnies again on white card stock and used the same mask to protect the image while I blended Wild Honey, Mustard Seed, and Scattered Straw distress ink. I then removed the mask and this time I used Copic markers to color my ground for the bunnies. I used E53, E55, and E57 with a touch of 0 around the edges to softened it up. I die cut the piece using a wonky stitched square die and then mat it on dark brown card stock. I then popped up the piece on a kraft card base. I did debate coloring the bunnies... but I really like how they are the focal point on the card here. The white pops! And because I had so much white popping on the card, I also decided to keep the sentiment white so I stamped it in VersaMark watermark ink and heat embossed a fine white embossing powder. To finish the card I wrapped some natural twine around the card a few times and made a little bow. There you have my two Fall themed baby cards.

You can get this sweet Brutus Monroe Bunny Kisses set here.

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Scrapping for Less ~ For the Love of Pets!

Hello! I'm here today with another look at the August Flavor of the Month card kit ~ For the Love of Pets. For my post today, I wanted to focus on the adorable stamp set included in the Banana Split subscription, rightfully named... For the Love of Pets!

I also decided to revisit this sketch... it was my favorite of the sketches this month and I thought it would be perfect to showcase these adorable images from the stamp set. Both cards are using the same color schemes which was easy to do by just flipping the patterned papers included in the kit to change things up just a bit for each card. I started with a white card base for both cards and then adhered a 4 x 5-1/4" piece of Banana Split card stock. I layered that with a 3-7/8 x 5-1/8" piece of Kraft card stock. I adhered my patterned papers and set those aside.

I stamped the images using Memento tuxedo black ink and then colored them in using Copic markers (I'll list those below). I die cut the images using a Large Cross Stitch Circle die and mat that on a slightly larger circle die cut from the same patterned papers. 

I popped up the main images on both cards.

 I stamped the sentiments and used a banner die to cut them out and also the black layers. I adhered those together and popped them up on the card. To add a little fun embellishment, I die cut the 'meow' and 'woof'' two times from Black Licorice card stock. I adhered the layers together with some liquid glue. I also die cut the yarn ball and the dog bone. I added a little bit of grey to the edges of the bone using a N3 Copic marker.

I moved the embellishment pieces around until I found a good place to adhere them and used a mix of foam tape and liquid glue to adhere them in place. My final touch on the kitty card was to add some white gel pen to the highlights on the fish bowl.

Copic Markers used: Kitty - N0, N3, N5, R20, YR12, YR15, YR16; Fish Bowl - YR12, YR15, B0000, B000, B00; Puppy - N0, N3, E30, E31, E55, E57.

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