A Joyful Holiday

 Hi Artzy friends -

Today the talented designers from the Dare 2B Artzy design team are showcasing some new seasonal products in an Instagram hop. 

I created this mini slimline card using a pretty bird image from the Joy to the World stamp and die sets.

The solid images in this set quickly make a big impact on your projects - no coloring required! I heat embossed my bird with Distress Embossing Glaze. By repeating my embossing ink and embossing glaze layers, I achieved a shiny "enameled" look. I wish it was easier to capture this in a photo!

To add to the festive, holiday feel of this card, I cut the Slim Mini Snowflake Background die out of silver glitter paper, and mounted it on the white scalloped layer from the same die set. The background paper is from the Deck the Halls paper pack.

Please head to the Dare 2B Artzy Instagram account to hop along for a chance to win a gift certificate to the store, and to also find the code for a sale going on this weekend!

Thanks for visiting and have a great day!

Avra

A Cheery Pop-Up

 Hi Artzy friends -

Today I combined some new Dare 2B Artzy products to create a card that just makes me smile!

This card features images and sentiments from the Scandinavian Songbird stamps and dies. 

The red patterned paper is the B side of the Bright Blooms paper. I took my color inspiration from the new Merry and Bright collection of papers. If you are new to Dare 2B Artzy, you'll notice that all of the beautiful papers are double sided, and the "B sides" are every bit as gorgeous as the "A sides!" 

This card was made with the Pop Up Feature die. The die creates a pop up that can go on the front of an A2 sized card, or can even stand on it's own, as it has room for a sentiment, signature, etc inside. You can even tuck a gift card down into the part that pulls up!

I love how the cute little songbird pops and stands up!

I hope you'll take a look at all of the newest products from Dare 2B Artzy!

Also - please join us in our challenge for the month of August, Anything Goes! 

Link up your project for a chance to win a $15 gift certificate to the Dare 2B Artzy store!

Thanks for visiting, and have a great day!

Avra

Growing in Unity Winners

 Hi stamping friends -

Thank you all so much for your lovely comments on my GIU posts last week! I appreciate each and every one!

The two winners of a $20 gift credit are Kathy Jarrett Dippner and Mary M. Reiner!  

Please email Kelli@unitystampco.com within 2 weeks to claim your prize, and put "winner from Avra's GIU week" in the subject line. Congratulations!

I hope you will all subscribe to my blog so I can continue to share my creations with you!

Thanks for visiting and have a great day!

Avra

Growing in Unity, Day 5

Happy Friday, friends!

Welcome to my 5th and final day as a Growing in Unity gal for 2021!

Today's cards were created with one Unity kit and some fun backgrounds, in two different formats.

The images are from a whimsical kit called Birdyful. My first card is a slimline card, sized at 8 1/2" x 3 3/4".  I colored my image with Copic markers and cut it out with a banner shaped die. the stenciled background is created with a slimline stencil from Pinkfresh Studios. 

My second card was created in a mini slimline size, 6" x 3 1/4". The background  layers were cut with slim mini dies from Dare 2B Artzy.  This sentiment is from the Aging Gorgeously sentiment kit. 

I hope you enjoyed my cards today, and all this week, using a wide variety of stamps from Unity Stamp Co! 

Don't forget to comment on this post, and each post this week, for a chance to win a $20 gift credit to Unity Stamp Co. I will choose two winners on Monday.

Thanks for visiting and commenting - it means a lot to me! 

Have a great day!

Avra

Summertime Friends

 Hi Artzy friends -

Now that (Christmas in) July is over, I am holding on to a little bit of summer with this ocean friends slimline card.

The adorable manatees and the octopus are from the Seas the Day stamps and dies sets.

I cut the 3 background layers with dies from the Rectangle Slimline Framelits set and the Wavy Slimline Framelits set. The blue bubble patterned layer and the red and white striped strip,  (adhered on the inside edge),  are from the Otterly Awesome paper, in the Seas the Day collection. I just love everything in this collection for summertime themed cards!

I thought by adding the word "friends" to my card, I will be able to use this card for so many occasions, by simply adding the appropriate sentiment or note to the inside before mailing. The word stamp is one of 17 individual words in the new A Single Greeting stamp set! They can mixed and matched, or used individually, on all of your cards or scrapbook pages!

Enjoy these last weeks of summer - I know I will!

Thanks for visiting and have a great day!

Avra

Growing in Unity, Day 4

Happy Thursday, friends!

Welcome to my 4th day as a Growing in Unity gal for 2021!

Today's cards feature a product category that is fairly new to Unity Stamp Co. They are just starting to carry a few word dies, and this set is so unique and fun, and it coordinates with the sentiment kit Say it Big. The dies used on these cards are also called Say it Big. The set also contains a shadow die for each of the 4 words for lots of design possibilities!

My first card is on its way to a high school graduate in the family. In addition to the large Congrats die and and sentiment from Say it Big,  I used the image from Just Because and colored it with Copic markers. I cut an additional Congrats out of black fun foam and layered it behind my cardstock diecut for extra dimension.

I am always in need of birthday cards for friends and family so the 2nd card I created was with the Birthday word die from Say it Big along with a sentiment stamp from the sentiment kit. The cute mouse image is from Special Delivery Mouse.  I colored the image with Copic markers and cut it out with a dotted circle die, and layered it on a slightly larger diecut dotted circle. I glued together 3 layers of the Birthday diecut to give it dimension.

I hope you enjoyed my cards today! Check out Unity's selection of images and sentiments, as well as new word dies, that you can use for many occasions!

Don't forget to comment on this post, and each post this week, for a chance to win a $20 gift credit to Unity Stamp Co!

Thanks for visiting and have a great day!

Avra

Growing in Unity, Day 3

Happy Wednesday, friends!

Welcome to my 3rd day as a Growing in Unity gal for 2021!

I have two special cards to share with you today.

During the early stages of the pandemic in 2020, when businesses were shut down, including our beloved stamp companies, Unity figured out a way to continue bringing beautiful images to our homes. Because the business is family owned, a limited number of family employees were able to do some work remotely. So they created some digital images that customers could purchase, download, and print at home to color and make cards with. 

The first image is called There Will Be Sunshine, and it comes with some beautiful sentiments that were especially meaningful during a time when we couldn't be with our loved ones, but are also appropriate anytime you need to send out some encouraging words. I colored the image with Copic markers, and matted it on two die cut layers. 

For my next card I did something a little different. I recently purchased a new to me brand of white ink and I wanted to try it out. I had purchased this image as a digital stamp as well, but when Unity subsequently created it in red rubber I had to purchase the kit. It's such a beautiful timeless image. The kit is called Ginko Greetings, and it comes with 3 pretty sentiments. Since I am always in need of birthday cards to send to my friends I chose this birthday greeting, and heat embossed it in silver. I also added some clear gems to finish off my card. I love this simple line image and am anxious to try embossing it as well, on different colors of cardstock.

I hope you enjoyed today's cards. Check out Unity's selection of images and sentiments that you can use to create cards to brighten someone's day!

Don't forget to comment on this post, and each post this week, for a chance to win a $20 gift credit to Unity Stamp Co!

Thanks for visiting and have a great day!

Avra

Growing in Unity, Day 2

 Happy Tuesday, friends!

Welcome to my 2nd day as a Growing in Unity gal for 2021!

Today I have two cards to share that I created with border background stamps from Unity Stamp Co.

Border background stamps are a relatively new addition to Unity's product line and I own several of them. They are so pretty, so much fun to color, and always provide the perfect space to add a sentiment to your card.

My first card was created with the She Sells Sea Shells border background (That's almost as hard to type as it is to say!) This image was so much fun to color with Copic markers. It screams "summer" and it provided me with a little departure from the frequent floral images I gravitate towards.

The sentiment I chose is from Bunches of {Love}, which is one of my all time favorite sentiment kits, and I heat embossed it in silver. 

My next card was created with the Strawberry Fields border background stamp and it's one of my favorites. I have a "thing" for strawberries! I colored the image with Copic markers and added a sentiment that I thought paired perfectly with the image. I honestly am not sure which kit this sentiment is from, as I had received it as part of a grab bag at one time. I finished off the card by adding some clear "droplets", some of which look like drops of dew on the berries and flower petals!

I hope you enjoyed today's cards. Check out Unity's selection of border background stamps! All of Unity's stamps are "cook to order" meaning they are manufactured and packaged as orders are placed, so you never have to worry about an "out of stock" situation! 

Don't forget to comment on this post, and each post this week, for a chance to win a $20 gift credit to Unity Stamp Co!

Thanks for visiting and have a great day!

Avra

Growing in Unity, Day 1

Happy Monday, friends!

I'm excited to be able to share some of the cards that I have created with Unity Stamps this week!

Be sure to visit every day, and comment on each post, to be eligible to win a $20 gift credit to Unity Stamp Co. Two of you will be randomly drawn at the end of the week for this generous prize!

Unity Stamp Co is a family owned, US based company that manufactures high quality red rubber stamps in just about any design style you can imagine. Be sure to check them out if you haven't!

You'll notice from my posts this week that I enjoy coloring images, especially florals! I also love that Unity offers thousands of sentiments so you can always mix and match your Unity stamp sets (also referred to as "kits") to be sure your card conveys the exact sentiment that you need for any occasion. 

Today I am sharing two floral cards created with background stamps. I love when an image takes up all or most of the entire card front!

The first card was created with Obsessed With Floral, a single image background stamp. This stamp covers the entire front of an A2 sized card, and there are many ways to create a beautiful card front with it. I chose to stamp the image in black and color it with Copic markers. I added a light misting of a shimmer spray to give the whole card a little bit of shine.  I also added a word die, layered on black fun foam to give it dimension.

It was difficult to capture the shimmer in the photo but it's there! 

My second card today was created with Array of Fall. This image comes with a very pretty "thankful" sentiment but I chose to make this a birthday card with a sentiment from the Aging Gorgeously sentiment kit. Each month, Unity releases a sentiment kit. This is a kit that usually features one focal image plus several sentiments, all following a certain theme. I own many Unity sentiment kits (for birthday, sympathy, holiday, etc) and I reach for them frequently to find just the right sentiment for any occasion I need to make a card for. 

This image was also stamped in black ink and colored with Copic markers. I love how the image fits perfectly in the corner and takes up most of the card front, while leaving plenty of space to add a sentiment. 

I hope you enjoyed my cards today, and are inspired to go check out Unity's huge selection of images and sentiments. I'll be back tomorrow!

Thanks for visiting and have a great day!

Avra