Let Beauty Find Its Way Card

So, I was supposed to be cleaning up and I spotted this window ephemera piece in a Kaisercraft ephemera kit, that I obviously hadn’t put away (and still haven’t because instead I created this card). And I was driven to pair it with a standing Unity girl stamp, which I found in the Erica Girl kit. And then, I was driven to find paper I could pair it all with, which I found lying around and not put away either... My Mind’s Eye Lost & Found Market Street. Some may call this serendipitous and others just a fun excuse not to clean up. I’ll say nothing!

After looking at the pad and window and stamp, I realized I’d be paper piecing her outfit again. So I found multiple papers I could use, and began it all by stamping the girl on the first pink sheet that I thought could make a wall. Keeping everything in place in my Misti, I then decided where to adhere the window, affixed it, and then stamped the girl again, now focusing ink on the window. I decided I wanted to add another piece of paper where the wall and ground meet, found a neutral piece in the pad, adhered it and stamped again focusing on the feet. Once done, I pulled the paper base out of my Misti.

Next I stamped the bag, the pants, the coat and shirt on different papers and fussy cut them out. I stamped  the bag again on Bristol and red paper pieces to embellish the bag a little and fussy cut those out. Next I stamped the human parts of the girl on Bristol paper and used colored watercolor pencils on all parts and black pen on the hair.

I used watercolor pencils to color the flowers and leaves on the background. To blend everything together I added dots on the background for shading similar to the stamp shading using a black pen. I also adding shading using a green and a blue watercolor pencil around the girl and window. To make the flower centers and buttons pop, I used a white gel pen.

To complete the card, I stamped the sentiment from the kit and fussy cut out 2 portions. I backed each part with ephemera from the same kit as the window. I used another paper from the pad as a first layer, added a white ribbon and matching enamel dots to complete the card.

Overall, I had great fun putting this together... so much more fun than cleaning, and I think it turned out pretty cute. I also have the perfect person in mind for this card. Let me know what you think... till next time, happy crafting!

Artist Trading Card Catch Up

Haven’t posted trading cards in awhile, so I thought I’d share some of my favorites over the last few months. Used several different techniques on these, but all were created using a combination of Unity stamps.

The heart set background was created using acrylic paints, embossing powder with a Unity heart stamp, a stencil and paste and my own scribbles. The background on the Shine ATC, was created using a magazine artist paper and adding acrylic paint colors with a stencil to evenly distribute colors. 

The Soul Joy background was created using a 12x12 paper from a pad, stenciling on green leaves and adhering a flowery napkin to get the background colors I wanted. The Good Day background was just created with watercolors and adhering but up boots from a paper pad. I tried to recreate the colors in the watercolored boot image.

For the Love set, I watched a bunch of Tracy Evans YouTube videos, because a) l absolutely love her style and b) I love her voice and accent ;-). It was created using a couple circle dies. For the top circle, I die cut another paper and partially stamped the Unity image through the circle and the traced the outline. The 2 bottom circles are actually die cuts, again with partial images. I also stamped on a stencil, spritzed it with water and laid it on top of each ATC, holding it in place to get the ink transferred. For the Amazing set, I was inspired by another art journaling artist...and I can’t find her name. I took a sheet of Bristol paper and used a combination of Perfect Pearls, cream acrylic and red pigment powder to create a variegated background. I added some background stamping all over. Finally, I drew lines with pencil and added heartfelt words and artistic thoughts randomly all over the sheet. I then cut it down to ATC’s. I created star cutouts using 3 sizes of dies and patterned paper. The girl was embossed, and watercolor added to her.

Hope you enjoyed seeing the different looks you can create with backgrounds. Thanks for stopping by! Til next time, happy crafting.

Friends of Unity April Blog Hop

Welcome back to another blog hop! April’s hop is all about the Birds and the Bees... bet you thought you knew all about those already, huh? 🤣 Well, who knows, maybe we have a few more things to teach. 

As usual with this hop, we’ll be giving away some Unity stamps, so be sure to leave a comment on each blog for a chance at winning some! I’d also like to announce that

Karen Connor

won some Unity goodness from me from last month’s hop. Please PM me your address, Karen!

So, for this month’s cards, I got my inspiration from the super talented artist Tracy Evans. Check out her pretty cool YouTube videos yourself! 

For the first card, I cut down Bristol paper and taped up the sides with Purple tape. I then pulled out Daler Rowney’s Rich Gold and Cream acrylics, a Brea Reese Ocean Green paint, and a brayer. I first added a little cream paint, then some light touches of the gold. I next added more gold, using a makeup sponge and TCW’s Love Frame stencil. I then added some flower centers using the green paint with the same stencil. I added more cream, gold and green paint to the heart center. 

Next, I pulled out Unity’s Thoughts from the Past and Vintage Passport and stamped portions of them using Versafine Brown ink. I then outlined the stamp and stencil images with a brown watercolor pencil and a stabilo pencil and added both color and shadows. I also added color to the edges and pencil marks before taking off the tape.

Next I stamped and embossed the owl image, from Sending an Owl, using Brutus Monroe Coffee Espresso powder, onto a buttery colored card scrap. I added a little of the gold color to the bottom portions of the owl and then fussy cut it out. I restamped and embossed the envelope portion of the image on white paper and colored it in using the paints.

Next, I stamped and embossed the sentiment from the kit onto Bristol paper, using Speckled Egg oxide ink and glaze embossing powder. I added a few envelope details and cut that down. I backed the sentiment and the painted paper with brown cardstock. I adhered everything together, added crystals and called the card done.

For the next card, I pulled out the You’re You kit, and an old SMAK kit, Stories to Tell. I started by stamping the bird stamp using some green oxides and a green Gina K ink and then covering the branch and bird areas with Versafine black ink. I then added dots of metallic gold and black Gansai Tambi watercolor to the bird and branches. I followed that up with a black micron pen to add feathers to the front of the bird and used a Posca white pen for highlights.

I then traced an oval around the image using an oval die and a green graphite watercolor pencil. I pulled that color in a little using a paintbrush and water. I then masked off the area outside the oval and used background SMAK stamps to add texture. I then masked off the oval and added more background stamps  using both the green and black stamps. I used another discontinued kit I picked up called Circa Journal. I added both the green pencil and green oxide to the ovals in the corner. Finally, I stamped the sentiment, die cut it and added the green and stabilo pencils again.

Wanted to share with you, I also tried some of Tracy’s techniques on ATCs I recently sent out. See below. More on that in another post. Her techniques are so unique and fun to try.

So, hope you enjoyed these... now onto the remainder of the hop. Remember to post a comment before you leave! So, you should have got here from:

Rachel’s Blog

To continue on go to:

Robyn’s Blog

And if you want to start at the beginning go to:

Crystal’s Blog