Friends of Unity December Blog Hop

 Finally, we’ve reached the end of the year and can turn our attention to creating holiday cards with this month’s theme:

This Friends of Unity monthly hop, focused on Unity Stamp Co products, began 7 years ago - as of this month! It was created by our fearless dedicated leader, Crystal, and her fun awesome counterpart, Amber! It’s been a pleasure to be part of this creative group… and has certainly challenged my creative capabilities! Congrats to both for making this hop such a great source of inspiration! 

So, before I begin, a reminder that we do giveaways every month from our personal stash! To be eligible to win, you just need to add your comments down below. As a matter of fact, I promised to do a giveaway last month choosing a winner from commenters on last month’s post! I’m pleased to announce that

 

Glennis F

is the winner from last month! Congrats and PM me your address info so I can send out some goodies to you!

So, I made a huge mess in my craft room creating both of these cards! I have embossing powders from 5 different collections littered all over…time for a hand vac, must say! And I made messes all over of all the craft supplies I used…papers, pastes, acrylics paints, sprinkles…you name it! They also challenged me as I took many wrong turns in creating these…however, I think I saved them from the dumpster fires they were moving to become ;-) !

 My first card shown here was created with a couple different Unity stamp sets - Woodland Visitors and Winter Shake Up, and a paper from the White Winter paper collection (last 2 - parts of the Dec 2020 Whit Kit). I clear embossed the snowman image using Black Soot Achival ink onto Bristol paper. I used watercolors to add some color and shading. It’s clear from both these cards I used cooler non traditional colors. Then, I stamped the snow stamp from the other kit all over the image twice, once using a holographic powder and the second time using a white powder. So the snow globe glass portion of this card is very glossy and sparkly. Finally, I stamped the globe outline from the other kit on top of the image and fussy cut the image out.

Next, I stamped the snowglobe image onto yellow scrap paper and fussy cut that out. I added pencil shading to the bottom. It’s clearly not a perfect blending job, but… sometimes perfect is not a good fit with more grungy old fashioned style images. I adhered the “globe” piece from above. I found a random script paper that I thought fit with the color scheme and embossed the sentiment on it. Finally, I paired it all with black paper and a polka dot one from the paper collection. With that, I called it done! Actually, I think I can use this one as a masculine card. Must admit, I kind of like these 2 kits together!

So again, I pulled out two Unity kits, no, take that back, actually three kits to create this next card! Kits used were: A Walk in the Woods, Blessed Adventures and Wonder and Wonder. I started by watercoloring a background, adding some free hand tree shapes. I then stamped the forest stamp over the top using navy ink and clear embossing powder. I used dark blue watercolor to darken the edges of the trees and white acrylic paint to add snow effects on the trees and on the ground. I added watercolor tree shadows at the bottom. I then used a Stamperia Stencil with white paste and sparkly glitter over the top to add snow effects. I also added some white paint spatters over the top. So the background is pretty sparkly and again is a combo of cool blue and muted yellow.

Next, I stamped the deer again on Bristol paper and proceeded to add watercolor and pencil with the same color tones used in the background. I did use a dark blue pen to deepen some of the shadows. I stamped the sentiment using a navy ink and holographic embossing powder into yellow coordinating scrap paper. I die cut a backing for the sentiment using navy paper, the same as used in the foundation of the card. I used gold strips to outline the sentiment. To complete the card, I added enamel dots, a gold mesh, and a little North Pole sentiment strip.

While, definitely not perfectly crafted cards, I do think they represent the theme pretty well. Thanks for stopping by! I do hope these two cards provide a little inspiration and some ideas for your own card making this season!

Now, on to the rest of the hop, you may have come here from 

Rachel’s blog

You can move on to

Dawn’s blog

Or you can start from the beginning with

Crystal’s blog

BYSHC Sketch 52 - Studio Light Lantern

 Well, this new Build Your Stash Holiday Card sketch was a challenge, but let me play with a pretty Studio Light Grunge stamp called Lantern! Here’s Sketch 52:

And here’s the Studio Light stamp set I used:

 

I fell in love with the picture on the sleeve of the stamp set so much, I almost recreated it… if only I was that good a watercolorist! I started by clear embossing the image on watercolor paper and preceded to watercolor that! I then cut it down and added Glossy Accents to the lantern’s glass windows. I have maybe used them once or twice before… but this time seemed a perfect use! Here’s the Glossy Accents embellishment:

I ended up recreating the sketch by creating a red window and pairing the image and window with old Authentique paper. I distressed all the paper edges to add the “grunge” effect. I added a red ribbon over the paper strips on the top and bottom. Finally to complete the card I added preprinted paper sentiment strips I picked up from Unity Stamp Co. and some sticky sparkly embellishments.

So, this all made for a colorful and different card! Let me know what you think!