GIU Girl - Day 5 - Winner Update

Hi there!

* WINNER update:  The two lucky winners of the Unity stamp packages are:  Anne Muggaberg, and Tricia Moore.  CONGRATULATIONS!  Thanks to everyone who participated and left such lovely comments!

Day 5!  Can you believe it!  How quickly a week goes!

So when I was trying to pick which of the many ideas were whirling in my head for a last project, I got thinking about what first drew me to Unity.

It was the videos, they were short, they were cool, and they were ideas that I thought I might actually be able to do.

Gradually as I watched them, I began to realize how awesome the stamps were and I started digging around the internet... looking for these "Unity" people... and when I found them, I was hooked!

So for this project, I went back to the beginning and started with a video.  Heather Hoffman shares in it a quick easy technique on how to watercolour using Distress Inks.

Like everyone else, I've got the new Distress Oxide inks in my hot, little hands, so I used them in exactly the same way that Heather shows with the regular Distress Inks.  The technique was so quick, easy and fun!!!

To start with, it looks like a hot mess!

Add some water with a misting bottle and it becomes magical.  I wanted more purple on the one above, so I just took the purple ink pad while the paper was still wet, dabbed it on and misted some more.

This was the end result.  I was trying out several different flowers, which I then fussy cut and used some of them on my page.  

I did my stamping on Strathmore Cold Press Watercolor paper with Potting Soil Archival Ink.  The paper gave the flowers texture and it was strong enough to stand up to some distressing.  The flowers that I ended up using on my project came from the following kits:  April 2014 Botanical Bliss KOM, and November 2016 Midnight Kisses KOM.  The beautiful dragonfly and sentiment are from a set called "Be the Best".

The picture above shows how I gave some dimension to the flowers by layering them and distressing the edges a small amount.  I also tucked one of them under the stamped image.  You can see how I created the space to do that in the photo below.  That's a piece of foam, just like I used in yesterday's project, only cut smaller.  Doing this also allowed me to tuck the ribbon underneath, here and there.  

The cute paper I used for this project, is Wild Whisper Designs "World's Best".  Wild Whisper Designs is a new Canadian paper crafting company based out of Calgary that I just love.  I've gotten to know Heather and Suzy, the designers and I really respect their work and creativity!  Their imagination knows no limits.

Back to Unity Stamps... the other thing that drew me to them is that they are so up-lifting, positive and full of gratitude and other affirmations.  I realized their stamps would make me happy looking at them on a daily basis... so this project is a little flip binder that can sit on the counter and be enjoyed every day.  I added large binder rings to it, because I intend on adding more pages to it!

And so my week comes to a close!

On Monday, I said I would draw the names for the prize packages on Saturday, but I decided that maybe there were those who like to do their browsing on the weekend, so instead I will draw the names Monday morning (early).

To be eligible for the two draws, you just need to comment on each of my blog posts during my GIU week.  If you missed Day 1 etc, you can still go back and see it and comment to win.  Two grab bags of 25 Unity Stamps will be going home with a couple of lucky winners!! 

Thank you for making this such an enjoyable week for me!  It was fun reading everyones' comments and for those that I can find an email for, I will reply back to you over the weekend.

Remember to always make time for crafting!

Linda