Friends of Unity September Blog Hop

Hello, again, Unity Stamp Co. friends! Back again, with another blog hop. Please welcome 2 new great additions to our team, Bobbie Sue McConathy and Kim Van Zant Klinkovsky! This month there are 4 friends offering giveaways (including me). To WIN leave comments on EACH blog in the hop AND check back on next month’s hop for the WINNERS from this month’s giveaways.

With this month’s theme, Wings, my fellow bloggers went in a variety of directions. For one of my cards, I decided to make a Sympathy card. I used 4 kits total on this one: Give it Up - Let it Go (which I also used on the second card), ...beautiful life, blessed memories; Life Touches; and Border of Bells.

To start, I stamped the flower from Life Touches on watercolor paper using gray archival ink. I then used Distress inks to add color and color splashes. I ended up using a gold Posca pen on the flower center, covered the whole flower with a Spectrum Noir Glitter pen and outlined the flower with a black pen. I then took another watercolor sheet and added the same colors to the paper by dipping the paper into the colors on my craft mat. I then used a TCW stencil with Black Soot Oxide to add grayish script and branches. I was then ready to emboss the bird image on that background using black archival ink and a black embossing powder. I embossed the sentiment on cream cardstock using the same products. I used a Kat Scrappiness die on the flower and trimmed the rest by hand. I found a matching patterned paper and backed all with black cardstock. I added gold thread and sequins and called the cardfront done. I then pulled another cream paper out and stamped a sympathy verse on it in black, added a border using Black Soot and one of the Distress inks I used earlier and darkened the edges using the same ink.

I made one other card with this set. I had received a bird patterned acetate sheet from a class I took and have never used it. Well, lol and behold, it goes quite well with this stamp. This card was made using distress inks to color the watercolor paper and a bit of gold Perfect Pearls powder (I used the same Perfect Pearls to add a luster to the brown Stazon stamped wooden birds). I had already selected the patterned paper I wanted to coordinate with. I made enough paper to use as the background for the stamped image and sentiment and for the shaker. This card was pulled together with a burlap doily, sequins, enamel dots, washi and eyelash string.

Hope these cards and the others shared on this blog hop help to stimulate your creative ideas! Remember, if you wish to participate in the giveaways, be sure to comment on every blog entry in this Hop and check back next month. We, all, on the Friends of Unity design team, are always interested in your feedback! That’s why we use our own stash to offer giveaways.

We are NOT sponsored by Unity Stamp Co., but they approve our hop. We are huge fans of the company, their products, the owners and staff, and the Unity Show and Tell community, which is why this Hop was started. Just wanted to share our theme based designs and some of our favorite stamps.

Friends of Unity blog hop:

Crystal Minkler
You are here —> Joyce Verdon
Eileen Mathys
Robyn Jordan
Kim Van Zane Klinkovsky

Dawn Fields
 Jeanie Marie Hays
Bobbie Sue McConathy

Thanks for stopping by! Till next time, happy crafting!