Friends of Unity September Blog Hop

 Hello… finally, I’m back for another Friends of Unity Blog Hop! It’s been a minute! I’ve been reenergized lately trying out some, new to me, techniques, I thought I’d share, given this month’s cue is:

First technique I used was inspired by Denise Love’s Abstract Art YouTube videos. She’s so engaging, informative and inspiring with her free style use of water based art supplies. Her no judgement - just fun approach is so freeing from my more own personal perfectionist traits, that I find it a perfect way to balance myself. I also think her art work style makes for great card backgrounds! So, with that introduction, here’s the 2 free hand sheets I produced using graphite pencils, Gansai Tambi watercolors, acrylic inks, palette knife, end of paint brush and Posca pens.

I ended up adding more marks using gold paint, metallic paste and stencils. I then cut down both sheets for card bases and looked for stamps. I decided I wanted to add some images but wanted to match colors in the abstract art pieces. So, I pulled out some oxide inks, watercolors and Primary Elements and Magicals shimmery pigments and created this coordinating paper.

I used these Unity stamps to create the following 2 cards: She and He, Remember to Breathe and Donna Downey’s She. I also used Gold embossing powder, watercolors, enamel dots, Washi tape, sequins, freebie ephemera, a brad and twine in the creation of these!

Recently, I’ve been playing with coffee staining papers after being inspired by others’ attempts at eco dying. I decided to try a new colorful leaf impression technique with marginally interesting results. Check out Cory’s Art Cafe cool video here demonstrating what I tried to emulate: https://youtu.be/QlL1fqJEfxg?si=6Ufuxaxp2_SAWYpH. 

I pulled together more leftover coffee, a modge podge of Lindy and Ranger sprays, alum water, 2 metal grids, some twine, copy and watercolor papers, and a bunch of leaf snippets. Here’s the somewhat interesting unveiling results (after a couple days of outside drying time). Tap on YouTube to see larger view of video!

Clearly, I have more studying to do - on best plants to use, best sprays (oxides not as useful, some colors not as pretty) and technique.

However, here’s the resulting cards I made inspired by a couple of the sheets I produced! I used Unity’s Fa La La La La kit and their Never Be Afraid kits for images, and Pumpkin Season for sentiments! I used leaf stencils on both of these, first with oxide inks, second with hand colored paste. I used a yellow cardstock for pumpkins and leaf in first card with enamel dots.

On this second card, I used another of the papers I created for the leaves, and combined with sequins and a tag.

Well, that’s it for techniques… now I’m tuckered out and time to try watercoloring again ;-)! Thanks for stopping by! Let me know if you’ve tried any of these techniques!

Be sure to leave a comment for a chance at winning some Unity goodies from my own personal stash! I’ll be announcing the winner next month in my October post! Now, on to the rest of the hop!

Next up in the hop is:

Rachel

Or, you can start from the beginning here:

Crystal