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