Friends of Unity February Blog Hop

 Wow, it’s already February and I’m back with another Friends of Unity post! This one had me a little stumped until I decided what the theme meant to me! The theme this month is…

To me, this theme was all about ensuring the card expressively emoted the feelings meant by the sentiment. And it was also an opportunity to find and use some special sentiments.

Before I get started, I wanted to remind everyone that my friends and I do random giveaways every month from our own stash. All you need to do to be eligible to win is to leave comments on each post… including your name! Last month, I announced I would be doing a giveaway, so based on comments received, the random winner is 

Becca Yahrling

Becca, please PM me with your address and I’ll be sending along a package to you shortly!

The first card was created to inspire the recipient to find some joy in rising above whatever hardship is bringing them down. So, I deliberately made it as festive and colorful as I could. I used a very loose style to use stamps from Unity’s My Heart is With You. I used oxide inks to stamp the dress, flowers and stems. I added added watercolor and pencil to match the background paper colors from the Polkadoodles Country Friends paper pack.

I die cut a frame, added foam tape and a sequin mix to create a shaker card. I stamped and embossed the sentiment from the kit using a Wow green powder, added a metal embellishment, fancy string and called the card done. I tried to de-emphasize the images to make the sentiment the primary focus. 

For the second card, I used a gift bag sentiment. I created my own background. First, I used a combination of oxide inks with the smooshing technique - 3 pinks and Speckled Egg blue. After stamping Worn Music in several areas, I embossed those areas using a soft blue Seth Apter powder. Using gesso, I covered the paper and added pieces of torn patterned papers. I then used random heart stamps all over using the same inks. I pulled out a pink acrylic paint and blended the background together. For the final touch, I used a stencil and paste to add texture and white touches. 

On Bristol paper, I embossed the old phonograph image from Better With Age using the same blue powder and cut it out. I then took a small tag and blended the oxide inks all over the tag. I embossed the sentiment on the tag, added heart stamps and used the same stencil and paste. I used a silver ribbon, a silver puffy heart and inked the edges of the tag. 

I die cut a doily using a Couture Creations die and gray paper scraps. I then ink blended the blue oxide all over it.

To complete the card, I die cut the background paper I created, added the phonograph, doily, tag and clear crystals. Again, I’m hoping the sentiment is standing out and is enhanced by the rest of the card. 

Must admit I do like the background paper I created… (dare I say it, more than the card 🤭🤣). Another side note… my husband and I are huge music fans; another reason why I chose the sentiment!

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check out all the blog posts in the hop and leave comments, including your name, for your chance to win some Unity goodies! You may have come here from:

Gaylynn’s blog

Or you can start at the beginning with:

Crystal’s post