Growing in Unity, Day 4

Thursday, April 5, 2018

Watercoloring

Welcome to Day 4 of my GIU Week!

Please leave a comment each day this week, to be eligible to win a fabulous prize of 25 Unity stamps direct from Unity! Feel free to leave suggestions as well - I am always excited to learn new and different ways of doing things when it comes to stamping and making cards! Also feel free to look for me on Instagram after the week is over, to see what other crafting I’ve been up to!

Many of Unity’s images are perfect for watercoloring!
I have several examples to share with you today.
First is a floral heart image from the February 2018 Kit of the Month. I colored the image using Brea Reese Glitter Inks, and a Zig Clean Color Real Brush marker for the blue background. The “love ya” stamp is from Life is Better.

The next two cards feature the Done in Love kit. I watercolored the stamped image with Brea Reese Glitter inks and Zig Clean Color Real
Brush markers. The background pieces were created with a stencil and either Ranger Texture paste with Tim Holtz distress reinker mixed in (the pink one), or Nuvo Embellishment Mousse (the silver one). The sentiments are heat embossed on vellum - Hello Friend is from the May 2017 Kit of the Month, and Home Sweet Home is from the March 2017 Kit of the Month.

The following three cards are created with the Happy Moments kit. All three were colored with Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers. The orange one was stamped with Versafine black, and the pink and purple ones were heat embossed in gold. I love water coloring an embossed image - the embossing “traps” the color so you can’t go outside the lines. The sentiments, from the same kit, are stamped and/or embossed on vellum and adhered to the card. I die cut and adhered the color coordinated stitched scalloped frames. These are some of my favorite cards from this week!

The next card is from the February 2018 Kit of the Month. I stamped on watercolor paper with Versafine ink, then painted rainbow stripes with Brea Reese Glitter Inks. This is really shimmery and pretty in person!

And finally, I painted this image from Good Days with Distress Inks. I die cut a frame out of Dare 2B Artzy patterned paper and white heat embossed the sentiment on vellum.

Thank you for popping in today; don’t forget to stop by tomorrow!

Growing in Unity, Day 3, part 2

Oops! I forgot a photo on today's post! These are some of my favorites so I wanted to be sure to share them!

These are also created with the distress oxide water painting technique, and the sentiments are stamped on vellum.
The floral image is from Now & Always, and the sentiments are both from the December 2016 sentiment kit, ...special wishes.

Growing in Unity, Day 3

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Distress Oxide Water Painting

Welcome to Day 3 of my GIU Week!

Please leave a comment each day this week, to be eligible to win a fabulous prize of 25 Unity stamps direct from Unity! Feel free to leave suggestions as well - I am always excited to learn new and different ways of doing things when it comes to stamping and making cards! Also feel free to look for me on Instagram after the week is over, to see what other crafting I’ve been up to!

Today I am sharing a fun technique I picked up from Jennifer McGuire’s blog a few weeks ago. On these cards I stamped and heat embossed my images in white.
I then blended various colors of Distress Oxide inks over the panels.
I used a wet paintbrush or a water brush to “paint” areas with water only, where I wanted to remove the color. I love the soft effect you get! The floral images I used on these cards are from Now and Always. The sentiments are from Now and Always, Sweet Owl Just Because, ( heat embossed in white on vellum), Special Wishes sentiment kit, (stamped in black Archival ink on vellum), Bunches of {love} sentiment kit, and Let Your Wishes Fly sentiment kit, ( stamped directly onto card panel with Archival Ink.)

Thank you for visiting today! See you on day 4!

Growing in Unity, Day 2

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Shaker Cards

Welcome to Day 2 of my GIU Week!

Please leave a comment each day this week, to be eligible to win a fabulous prize of 25 Unity stamps direct from Unity!
Feel free to leave suggestions as well - I am always excited to learn new and different ways of doing things when it comes to stamping and making cards! Also feel free to look for me on Instagram after the week is over, to see what other crafting I’ve been up to!

I took advantage of a recent Unity sale on all floral kits and really beefed up my flower collection! You’ll see me using some Unity floral themed stamps almost every day this week.

This was my very first time trying shaker cards, and I’ll be making more. I need to do something with all of the sequins and other doodads I’ve been collecting! It was also my first time coloring with colored pencils on Kraft cardstock.

I stamped and colored the images from Quiet Essence (flower and bee), and Gladness Touch Your Life, with colored pencils on Kraft cardstock.

For the first card, I die cut a frame panel with a stitched oval die. I added some shimmer to the bumble bee’s wings with a Wink of Stella pen, and fussy cut him out. I added some gold “sprinkles” that I got at Target behind the acetate window. Then I cut and popped up the panel frame with foam tape. I also popped up the bee and the embossed sentiment, (cut into a banner strip), Just Saying Hello, from the So Very Grateful sentiment kit.

For the second card I die cut a circle frame, and added a stitched circle die cut frame (2 layers) around that to add dimension. I added some pink sequins behind the acetate window and popped up the panel with foam tape. I used 2 layers of foam tape on this one, as opposed to a single layer on the the first one. This allowed freer movement of the shaker elements inside. I stamped and die cut the Hello sentiment from Best Wishes and Blooms, and popped it up on the front of the card.

Thanks for looking today; see you tomorrow!

Growing in Unity, Day 1

Monday, April 2, 2018

Happy Birthday

Hello, Unity Stamp lovers! I am so excited (and yes, a little scared!) to be a Growing in Unity Girl this week! I am really not much of a blogger, so I dusted off this blog, which hasn’t been used in quite some time, especially for this occasion!
Please leave a comment each day this week, to be eligible to win a fabulous prize of 25 Unity stamps direct from Unity!

Feel free to leave suggestions as well - I am always excited to learn new and different ways of doing things when it comes to stamping and making cards! Also feel free to look for me on Instagram after the week is over, to see what other crafting I’ve been up to!

Now for today’s post -

I’ve got several family birthdays (as well as other occasions) during April and May, so my GIU week came at a perfect time for me to get busy and make cards.
I used the Happy Birthday Balloon kit to make these 3 perfect-for-anyone birthday cards. So many of my cards are very floral and feminine so it’s good to have some cards ready that can be used for a man as well as a woman. I stamped the balloon on patterned papers and cut out the ballon only. (That’s the extent of paper piecing I’ve tried! I’m looking forward to trying something more complex soon, although I’m not a big fan of fussy cutting.) Then I stamped the balloon on the card panel, not worrying about overlapping the balloons or strings. I adhered the balloons in the appropriate places on the card front. For one card I die cut the word “birthday” a few times, adhered the cuts together to give it some dimension, and heat embossed the top layer in black. For another I heat embossed “Happy Birthday” from the Special Wishes sentiment kit in white, on black paper. On the 3rd card I added a touch of black and white twine to coordinate with the black and white striped paper I adhered the panel to.

Another birthday kit that works for anyone is the Hugs, Kisses & Birthday Wishes sentiment kit. The owl image was colored with colored pencils and blended with odorless mineral spirits (aka Gamsol) on white card stock. I die cut the image panel, and cut it again out of kraft card stock to create a kraft frame.

Thanks for stopping by today; I hope you pop in again tomorrow!

Test Post for Growing in Unity

Hi there and welcome to my "bare bones" blog! I am attempting to post this to facebook so I can be prepared for my Growing in Unity week in April. This card was created with a stamp from the October 2017 KOTM. I colored this festive girl with prismacolor pencils, blended with Gamsol. I also added some Nuvo Crystal Drops for some sparkle on the tree and background.

Dare2BArtzy April

This month's challenge is Polka Dots!