Unity GIU Blog Hop

Hi everyone!

Growing in Unity is having a blog hop today!  Visit each blog that I've posted at the bottom of this post, and leave a comment for a chance to win one of TWO Unity filled prize packs!

Life events have prevented me from getting a new project done for the hop, but here are a few favorities that I've previously made with Unity stamps... click on the photos to be taken to the "how to" blog post!

Click on the following links to contine on the Blog Hop:

Eunice

Edelmira 

Katie

Laura 

Linda - That's me!

Joyce

Karen

Selena

Enjoy the Hop friends!

Linda

Growing in Unity - Day 5

Happy Day to you!

For my last Growing in Unity day, and with Valentine's Day looming in a month, I chose to make a Valentine card.

These two cute little birds were calling my name!  They can be found in a Kit of the Month from May, 2017 called "Free Your Dreams".  The frame die that I used for this card is from Avery Elle and is called Dotted Frame.

I used a combination of techniques to colour the birds:  starting by watercolouring with Distress Inks, and doing some finishing up touches with Copics.  I heat embossed them with white embossing powder, which gives them a soft look but it meant I really had to work at colouring the eyes, because I lost some of the details of the stamp with the puffy embossing powder.  Don't you love how he's whispering in her ear???  I'm not sure though, if I like the bow I chose for this card... so let's take a poll... should I remove it and find maybe a burlap bow... or keep it to balance the pink hearts?  Help me out friends!  ;)

When I was creating the distress ink paper for this card, the other day, I also did some up pinks and reds.  This is what I cut the hearts out of.  The hearts are from a die set called "Lovely Moments" by Studio Light.

To create the inside, I used my inked up watercolour paper, and this sweet sentiment from the April, 2017 Kit of the Month "Be My Bird".

So that brings my Growing in Unity week to an end.  Thank you so much for all of your kind, fun, and friendly comments.  They really made me smile!  

One final reminder... if you comment on my blog posts for this "Growing in Unity" week, your name will be entered in a draw for one of TWO grab bags full of 25 Unity stamps that are waiting to go to a happy home!  

I will be drawing for the prizes this weekend.  I will wait until Sunday to give those last minute commenters a chance to get their names in for the draw.  Good luck everyone!

Linda

Growing in Unity - Day 4

Hello!

You couldn't do a Growing in Unity week without colouring an Angie Girl... right??

Aside from the Angie Girls, the thing that I love most about Unity Stamps are the inspiring sentiments that come in the stamp sets.  Both of these stamps come from another Kit of the Month called "Beauty Comes From Being Yourself".

I went for a bit of a shabbier look on this card and distressed all the edges of the mats.

The mats for the Angie Girl card was created from scraps of paper leftover from a Wild Whisper collection called "Floral".  I picked the colours for her coat, etc, from this particular piece of paper in the set:

Thanks for stopping by again and sharing this fun week of "Unity Stamp love" with me!

Please remember to leave a comment in order to have your name entered into a draw at the end of the week.  Two lucky winners will each be receiving grab bags of 25 fabulous Unity Stamps!

ALSO... did you know it's Angela's birthday and a new sale in her honour has started over at Unity Stamp Co.!  I've fallen in love with a couple of the newbies already!  Check it out here.

Happy shopping!

Linda

Growing in Unity - Day 3

Well!  Today was a lot of fun!  Welcome back to day #3 in my Growing with Unity week!

I did some playing with distress inks today, and that always makes for a good time!

I used the technique where you rub the ink pads on your mat, spray the mat with water, and then dip and smoosh your watercolour paper around.  I dried with my heat gun between the different layers of smooshing.  Tim Holtz demonstrates the technique at 6:49 in this video.

Inks used were Peacock Feathers and Salty Ocean.  If you can't read the notes on the photos below... this card is 4.25"x5.5" and the first mat is 4"x5" and mainly coloured with Peacock Feathers with a little Salty Ocean.  The middle photo shows how I glued a piece of white foam down to add dimension to the card.  In the third photo, I glued down the embossed darker piece of watercolour paper which had more Salty Ocean than Peacock Feathers.  This mat is 3.5"x4.5".

 I heat embossed the darker mat with white embossing powder.  The stamp set I used came from a Kit of the Month from February, 2017 called "Unexpected Places".  Such a pretty design!

All that was left to do was add the birthday sentiment from the same kit, and some bling!  It doesn't show well in the photo, but I tore the one end of the strip the birthday sentiment is on... just to distress it a little.

Thanks for stopping by!  If you leave a comment below, your name will go into a draw at the end of the week.  Two lucky winners will each be taking home a grab bag full of 25 Unity stamps!

Hope to see you back for Day 4 tomorrow!

Linda 

Growing in Unity - Day 2

Hi everyone!

Thanks for coming back for Day 2 of my Growing in Unity week!

Today, I have a Sympathy card to share with you.

The front of this card was made using Unity stamp "Be the Best".  I started by cutting a card base out of 110# white cardstock.  I used a die set by Papertrey Ink called Scalloped A2 Die Collection to do this.  I watercoloured the front edges of the card base using Distress Ink "Peacock Feathers".

After watercolouring the edges, I cut a 4"x5" square out of  a  piece of heart patterned paper from Wild Whisper's "Forever and Always" collection.  Over top of this I glued a white gate that I cut out of 110# cardstock using another Papertrey Ink die called "Garden Gate".

Next I cut an oval and heat embossed the dragonfly using Ranger's superfine White embossing powder.  Then I watercoloured the dragonfly using the Distress Ink "Peacock Feathers" ink again.

The final thing I did to the front of the card, was heat emboss a strip of vellum using one of the sentiments included in the "Be the Best" stamp set.  I glued it at the ends and covered the glue with the white pearls.

The inside was made by cutting another rectangle from the Wild Whisper paper, and embossing another piece of vellum, this time using Unity stamp set "Girl Truly".

Thanks again for stopping by.

Be sure and comment below in order to have your name entered in a draw at the end of the week.  Two lucky winners will each be taking home a grab bag of 25 stamps!

Happy Creating

Linda

Growing in Unity - Day 1

Hi everyone,

*Edited to add a new photo.

This is an exciting week for me as I am one of the "Growing in Unity" girls and I will be showing you projects using Unity Stamps each day this week!

It will be an exciting week for YOU as well, because every time you comment at the bottom of my blog posts, your name will go in a random draw at the end of the week.  Two lucky winners will each receive a  grab bag of 25 random stamps!

It can be hard sometimes to find the comment box, so I've created an image showing you to click where it says "No comments".  Once you do, a box will pop up with a place to write your comment. You will find the "No comments" at the very bottom of my post.
For my first card, I chose to use a stamp from an old Kit of the Month, called "Midnight Kisses".  You can find this stamp set here.

A sad confession... I was creating my card at midnight last night and had a malfunction with my heat gun.  I had a bit of a panic because there was no time to create another card.  After debating what to do, I decided to go ahead and show my card as is without the embossing powder melted, and promise to do better tomorrow.  If you've ever had this happen to you and were able to set the powder without the heat gun PLEASE let me know in the comments how you did it!!  

I was able to finish embossing this card today and thought I'd leave the unembossed one in for comparison (my lighting was a little different and the shot is closer).

I love this girl blowing her happy wishes and love toward the recipient of the card!  You can tell she's celebrating and having fun!  She's quite a large stamp, as this card is 6" x 6".

The paper I chose to use for the card are from a collection done by Wild Whisper Designs, called "Just Because".  The embellishments are from my stash.

That's it for today!  See you tomorrow with my next Unity project!!

Linda

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

GIU Girl - Day 4

Hello!  Hello!

Today's card is focusing on one beautiful flower from the October, 2015 Kit of the Month - Beauty Comes From Being Yourself.

I chose to colour the flower with my Copic markers.  Once I chose my background paper, then I took a piece of scrap paper and tried out different colours to see what looked nice with the patterned paper, and used my favorites.

I love to colour with my Copic markers, but I am far from being an expert at it.  I take monthly online colouring classes from one of the nicest and most talented colourists out there ...Alyce Keegan at Kit and Clowder.  Every month I learn something new and get a little bit better.  I can't recommend Alyce enough if you are wanting to learn more about colouring... and we all know Unity has MANY stamps that are perfect for sitting down for a quiet afternoon and enjoying this peaceful style of art.

Alyce even has a free class called "Mindful Me" where she explains the importance of Art Therapy and gives helpful suggestions on how to incorporate time for crafting in our busy lives.  You can see more information about it here.

On this card, I used a couple of dies from Tutti Designs.  The background lacy piece that I used on the front is called "Rose Frame", and inside I used one called "Rose Duo Frame".  You can get them at Frantic Stamper or at DiesRUs where they quite often go on sale.

The inside sentiment "Hello Friend" came from the May 2017 Kit of the Month - Free Your Dreams.

When I was making this card, I made the base from Core'dinations 110lb Smooth Cardstock which gives you a nice sturdy card that stands up without sagging.  This was a tip I got from my cardmaking whiz friend, Allison Cope (Your Memories with Ally) and it has made such a difference in my cards. Click the link to see some of the cards Ally makes... they are really incredible!

The other thing I did, to give it a little oomph... is I die-cut the rose, as well as a piece of foam, with the same round scalloped die (Spellbinders) and glued them together.  This gives some nice, sturdy dimension to the rose and makes it a real focal point on the card.

Thank you once again for stopping by!  I appreciate so much, all the lovely comments that have been left this week!

Now don't forget.... to leave another comment below... because there is a prize of 25 Unity stamps that will be going home with two of  you at the end of the week!  All you have to do, to be entered to win, is comment on EACH of my GIU blog posts this week!

And for even MORE chances to win, comment on Monica's GIU posts as well!

Good luck!

Linda

GIU Girl - Day 3

Hi!  Welcome back!

Today I'm sharing a mixed media tag that I made for my daughter.  When you subscribe to the KOM (kit of the month) at Unity, they always tuck a little "something extra" in your parcel, and a big blank tag was one of the things that came to me not long ago.  So I made a tag to decorate a bottle of wine!

Here's a condensed version of how I made the tag.

Inked it up with Cracked Pistachio and Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxides.  Laid a stencil from Hero Arts over it and sprayed water over top of the stencil.

After removing the stencil, I had a beautiful soft, swirly finish.  Then I added washi tape (inspired by Angela and Whitney's use of cute washi's), inked the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Oxides, and stamped this beautiful sentiment from the "Sentiments for Graduates" stamp set.

Next up, I made some focal pieces for the tag and laid them out to get a feel for how I wanted to put the tag together.  These two stamps are from the February, 2017 KOM called "Unexpected Places".  

Now comes the fun part, adding all the little bits and pieces to decorate your tag.  I go into my craft room with a box and come back with everything that I think might look good on the tag.  Of course not EVERYTHING that is in this box goes on the tag... LOL.  (You can tell by the look of my table that I'm a wee bit of a messy scrapper!)  ;)

No tag is complete without a beautiful bow.  Here's a series of photos showing how I made mine.

When the tag is all done, you have the choice of leaving it as is, or going a little further with the mixed media look and adding splatters.  I'm curious... tell me which look you prefer.

Finally, one last close up of this beautiful girl stamp.  I picked it because she reminded me of my daughter.  She has long curly hair too.

The week is going by quickly!

Once again, thank you for stopping by.

Don't forget that there is a prize of 25 Unity stamps for TWO lucky winners on my blog this week.  All you have to do, to be entered to win, is comment on EACH of my GIU blog posts this week!

And for even MORE chances to win, comment on Monica's GIU posts as well!

Enjoy your day!

Linda