Mothers Day Card

Happy Friday!!! 

I am so happy! It's almost my and my husband's 25th Anniversary, so we're celebrating this weekend!Yay!!!

This card has nothing to do with that. this is the Mother's Day card for my amazing Mother-in Law! She's an awesome person. And hey, she raised my great husband!

This is the Unity stamp, Hello Pretty. Love the bottles with a single stem in each. So simple and pretty. Cooped up Notes is stamped along the bottom.

They are colored with Copics.

I am throwing this card in the mix for Unity Friends with Flair, and Retro Sketches.

Enjoy your weekend, and Stamp On!

Joyful Flowers!

I love these funky flowers! This is another card for a dear friend of mine!

The stamp is from the Unity Itty Bitty, "Be Joyful". I paper pieced the flowers, then shaded with Copics. Love Copics! I added some Tim Holtz Distress Glitter in the centers.

I like the distress glitter because it adds s little sparkle, but it's more subtle. Yum!

This card will be added to Unity's Friends With Flair, and the Unity Be Inspired Challenged! There are some great cards in both places!

I'll be back soon! Lots of cards to make!

Have an extraordinary day!

Owl Pals Card

I love these little owl buddies! I'll name them Midge and Madge. :-)

 So stinking cute! The stamp is from Unity of course. The set is Owl Pals. I colored the image with Copics (it looks much more smoothly blended in person).

See  that gold sparkle? Copic Atyou Glitter Pens. I used a lot of them on the card, but it's hard to pick up the sparkle. I'm glad I could show you the gold!

This card is for a very special friend who is going through a cancer struggle. This is the perfect stamp for it. I'll be right by her side. 

I'm sharing this card for the Unity Be Inspired Challenge and Friends With Flair.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday Cupcake!

Cupcakes for my friend!

 

I love these Unity Stamps, and I love cupcakes! :)

This Basic Gray paper went perfectly with the yummy stamps! I colored them with Copics. Sooo many Copics!

I am submitting this for Unity Friends With Flair.

Thank you for stopping by!

Love This Little Guy!

 I had to ink up this little guy, Bernie! He's so adorable, and so me ;)

He went to my boss! He was colored with Copics, with some glitter from Copic Spica pens. You can see in the picture below a little bit. 

You can also see I inlaid the image die cut. Love the look! 

I am linking this up for Unity's Friends with Flair, and the Unity Challenge.

Thank you for stopping by!

And Merry Christmas!

A Gift for my Daughter, and a Challenge

I have wanted to make this for my daughter for a long time. I finally took the time this week. And I love it. I'm so excited. I think she will be too :)

I should have taken pictures along the way, but I never think about that until I'm done :p

By the way, the canvas is much less green than it looks on my monitor at work ;).

I started out with a 12x12 canvas, a stencil, and some gesso. I never thought it would work out this good! I laid the stencil on the canvas, and spread some gesso over it. When I lifted it I was amazed with how defined the pattern of the stencil was. I got the idea from Angie Blom. She used textured paste. Loved hers, and thought I'd add that to the canvas for my daughter. 

The canvas was painted with a combination of a few Liquitex Soft Body acrylic paints. After that was dry I used Martha Stewart Tintable Antique Effect with a little brown acrylic paint. You use very little paint in the Antique Effect, paint it allover, then wipe it off. I love the effect. It settles in the little nooks and crannies. I also used it over the heart, and on the edges of the patterned paper. 

The heart was torn out of simple printed paper from SU. The wings were cut out of the same paper. I painted the heart red with my fingers. I didn't want it to be perfectly painted. Then I used a toilet paper roll to make some big circles. I added some small dots with Unity's Distressed Dots.

All of the papers, and the lace, were adhered with Mod Podge! Love that stuff!

The words, from the Donna Downey Adore Unity Stamp Set, were stamped with black paint. I wanted it to really show up. 

So, there you have it! 

I'm linking this up in the Unity Challenge. Go see what others have posted. Some great ideas out there!

Thank you for stopping by!

Valentines for Vets

It's time for Valentine's Day cards for the Veteran's Home. I love this Unity stamp, Love Never Fails!

 I colored the image with Copics. Love this color combo! 

I hope the vets like them :)

This card is linked to Unity Friends With Flair ;)

Have a great weekend!

Anniversary Card

My Mom and Dad's 50th Anniversary is tomorrow. We're having a big party for them. :) I got up early this morning and made a card first thing. It's like me to forget to make cards for special occasions. 

 I die cut all of these little shapes and layered them. I love the way it turned out! The paper is from a My Mind's Eye 6x6 paper pad from Michael's. 

The sentiment is Unity, of course. It's from the February, 2012 Kit of the Month, Lucky to Have You. I used just the words from the bottom of the stamp.

I'll be back later this week with pics from the things I made for the party. :) I  was in charge of the decorations. I can't wait until tomorrow for the party!

Thanks for stopping by. Have an awesome weekend!

A little More Unity

Here is one of the cards I made for the Veterans at our local Veterans' Home for Veteran's Day.

I am also using it for the Unity World Card Making Day Fall Theme Challenge. 

I used Unity's Simple Blessings. Great set for fall.

The designer series paper is by SU.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Have an awesome day!

A Little Unity

Happy little mushrooms, and a cute little happy snail! 

I made this card for Unity's World Cardmaking Day shaped card challenge.

I only have one picture because my computer is being repaired, and I don't have access to my photo editing software :( 

The cardstock is SU Crumb Cake. The ds paper is My Mind's Eye. Happy paper! I think paper piecing is an awesome way to go when you have solid areas. I did use Copics to add a little dimension. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a great day!

Independence Day Cards for Vets

It's time to make cards for the residents of our Home for Veterans for the 4th of July. I'm doing four different designs, and here is one of them.

I used the Unity Carnivale Alpha to spell out FREE, and made a little banner. 

The "Thanks to you" was computer generated. 

 The paper is called Old Towne Tavern by The Paper Loft. 

I didn't have enough of any one design, so I used three or four different ones for the card fronts.

 I glued the banner pieces onto the linen thread, and mounted them on dimensionals. 

I wrapped the ends around vintage brads.

I'm sharing this on Unity's Friends With Flair!

Thanks for stopping in. Have an awesome weekend!

Grad Card For A Beautiful Young Lady

Tomorrow is the last graduation open house of the season for us. The young lady this card is for is our neighbor's granddaughter, and we've known her her whole life. Time sure does fly!

 The paper I used is from Crate Paper's Portrait Collection. So many beautiful papers! 

I used a stamp from Unity (I know, big surprise). The sentiment is from the January, 2011 Kit of the Month. Perfect for graduation.

I used the Deconstructing Jen Sketch. Instead of another piece of paper down the middle, I'm using the design of the paper. 

Thanks for stopping by! Have an awesome weekend!

Happy Friday!

I don't know about anyone else, but I am sooooo happy it's Friday! No work this weekend, and tomorrow is our 22nd anniversary :) Great husband, great years!

 I made this card for the Unity Challenge. This month the challenge is Stripes. Great paper by October Afternoon made it easy. The stamp set I used is Undeniably You. It has the dress image and four sentiments!

Thank you for stopping by. Have an amazing weekend!

Edited to add: If tpgirl happens to read this post, you were the winner of my Growing in Unity week. I need a way to contact you for your prize :)

Last Day of Growing in Unity

This is my last day of my Growing in Unity week. It's been fun, and I truly appreciate everyone's kind comments :) This post is going to be long on pics, and short on words.

My first card uses the bird stamp from the February, 2011 Kit of the Month, "the best is yet to be". Paper is from Basic Grey Picadilly (loving that paper). I like the little frame around the image :)

I'm linking this card up to the Unity Kit of the Month Sketch Challenge.

My next card is the anniversary card for my husband (22 years this month). 

The ticket stamp is from Unity's "here's the ticket" set. The sentiment from the February, 2011 Kit of the Month, and it fits perfectly in the space on the ticket!

 I cut the strips of paper (Stampin' Up) to mimic the ticket shape. I sponged Weathered Wood Distress Ink around the edges of the strips as well as the ticket. 

This card will be linked up to The Deconstructed Sketch #50. 

 My final project is a notepad holder. The sentiment is from the Melody Ross set, "All Worth It". I love the sentiment! Great advice. I also used the Christy Tomlinson stamp, "Tattered Chicken Wire". The birds are from the Melody Ross set, "Love Life". 

The paper I used is Christy Tomlinson's new paper. Ok, I think I'm addicted to paper. 

 Here is a peek at the inside.

Whew, that was a long one, and not so short on words after all. 

Again, thank you for stopping by! I really appreciate all of the great comments!

I will be back on Sunday with the winner of the two Unity Itty Bitty Stamps~!

Have a great day!

Growing in Unity, Day 4!

Today I have another canvas!

I really do enjoy making these.

There are a lot of mistakes creative liberties on this. More on that later ;)

 This canvas is deep. That makes it stand up on its own easily. Bonus!

I Mod Podged some book pages on the canvas first. Some of the pages I came across were pretty risque! I thought it best to leave them off since I'm not sure what I'm doing with this yet ;)
I cut and punched a border for this baby. Love pretty papers!

I thought it would be awesome to cover the whole thing with Picket Fence Distress Stain. Looked great, but I wanted a darker, more aged look. Hmmm, what to do, what to do...

Well, I have a re-inker for my Old Paper Distress ink. I'll just smear some of that over the whole piece.

It would have been genius, if the Distress Stain were permanent, which it's not. I knew that, but I went with it.Yikes! That was some icky, sticky muddy looking, oily feeling mess. I know this because I used my fingers to apply the re-inker. I let it sit for a looooooong time. Tick Tock Tick Tock...

 It was beyond icky. This stuff was not drying. So, I wiped it off with a paper towel, and I loved what I was left with! I did go back over it with the Distress Stain a bit. Overnight it dried much more. 

I stamped the Unity Itty Bitty "My Heart Belongs" with Staz-On, and painted the heart with Liquitex ink. Then I stamped the sentiment, cut it out, and distressed it. I doodled around the image and the top and bottom borders, and over the sentiment.

I decided I needed a little more, so out came the Magic Mesh and some paint. Then I lightened the paint and dabbed a little more on with some bubble wrap.  

 After all of the, ahem, new techniques I love the end result! It's messy and imperfect, and me! 

Thanks for making it all the way through my rambling :) I hope it makes sense.

I really appreciate you stopping by. Now make sure you comment for a chance to win! One more day, and tomorrow I'll have a few things to share.

Have an awesome day!

Growing in Unity, Day 3

Today I have a canvas for you.

The first thing I did was Mod Podge tissue paper onto the canvas. 

I love the texture it gives to the piece. 

The background color comes from Faber-Castell Gelatos. Awesome stuff!

I used a Prima mask and Studio Calico Mister Huey for the green swirl design.  

 This is where the Unity "Harmony" Stamp Set comes in. I love that set! I'm all about peace, love, and harmony! I stamped the images in black StazOn. I went over the peace sign with a Faber-Castell  Big Brush Pitt Pen, then smeared it with my finger to cover the peace sign. 

Remember the Magic Mesh from back in the day? I have some that I never used, and  I use it on almost every canvas I make. I use it as a stencil and dab paint over it. It makes a great design. This time I used white Model Magic for some texture and dimension. 

I wanted a little more on the canvas, so I stamped the winged heart, but I stamped it with Glimmer Mist! I smeared it on the stamp with my fingers.  

 Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to come back tomorrow, and comment for a chance to win some Unity Stamps!

Have a great day!

Growing in Unity, Day Two :)

Thanks for stopping by to check out day two of Growing in Unity.

 The stamp is "It Suits You", a Unity Itty Bitty. I wanted to go retro beach with this one. The perfect paper for that is October Afternoon's Seaside. 

The suit was colored with Copics. Then it was popped up. 

The die cut is inlaid. I cut the shape out of both the patterned paper and the cardstock, and placed the cardstock shape inside the patterned paper cut out. 

 And it couldn't be one of my cards without buttons.

Now don't forget to comment for a chance to win two Itty Bitty's from Unity!

Thanks for coming by! Don't forget to stop back tomorrow for another project!

Have a great day!

Growing in Unity, Day One!

Welcome to my first Growing in Unity post of the week! 

I'm happy to share some Unity love with you all, while giving you a chance to WIN a cool prize! :)

Make sure to come back every day this week and leave a comment on each Growing in Unity post. At the end of the week, one lucky commenter will pick two Unity Itty Bittys!

This adorable stamp is from the June, 2010 Kit of the Month, Fly...Free. I decided to add a little nest, and some texture by giving them a nest made of tiny pieces of felt. I was inspired by the lyrics of the song on the patterned paper along the bottom of the card.

 The paper is one of my all time favs, October Afternoon's Thrift Shop. 

The frame is SU's Crumb Cake. It's made of what was left after die cutting a shape using Nestabilities. I popped it up over the image for dimension. 

A variety of punches were used to make the layers. All of the edges were inked using Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Old Paper. It's my go-to ink for aging. And of course, I had to add some buttons ;)

I really look forward to sharing Unity with you all week! And don't forget to comment every day for a chance to win:)

By the way, if you like what you see, feel free to subscribe. It's that little box up in the right corner ;) And if you've subscribed previously you will need to do it again as I have changed subscription providers.

Thank you for stopping by. Have an awesome day!