Friends of Unity February Blog Hop

 Hello, welcome back to another Friends of Unity Blog Hop! Our theme this month:

Had a bit of difficulty with their one as I continued to want to add a complementary color in the mix! Not sure why I was stuck, but I was! So, I ended up making 3 cards trying to address the theme. Hopefully, I’m not too far off! 

Before I continue on with the first card, I wanted to remind you all that giveaways are happening in this blog hop. To be eligible to win, all you need to do is comment below. Last month, I promised to do a giveaway using the comments I received on last month’s post. So now, I’d like to congratulate 

Meghan Kennihan

On winning a giveaway from me! Please PM me your address so I can send along a package from me in the next two weeks. Thanks for participating! BTW, I will be doing another giveaway this month so be sure to leave a comment below!

For this first card, I used a membership kit called Difference Maker from December 2023 coupled it with the Blossom Avenue paper pack. I first used watercolors on a watercolor paper trying to match the colors in the patterned paper. I heat embossed the flowers/leaves on the paper. I then created masks for the flowers/leaves and proceeded to add background stems behind/around the embossed images. I added color and shading to the plants. I then heat embossed the sentiment from the kit and added sequins. Finally, I backed that paper with brown paper and pulled the card together adding a green twine.

I went to town so to speak with this second card! Oh my, I used so many kits! Blame it on a paper from Nostalgic Amour. It’s messy and all over the place… but could be inspirational, if you are into this sort of thing! 🥴 So, the kits used are: retired New Year, New Chapter 2020 SMAK kit, retired Feel and Give Love 2017 SMAK kit, retired Key to Joy, retired Let it Go and Focus, Enjoy the Ride, retired Vintage Ledger, Tiled Letters, and retired Thoughts from the Past. Again, with this one, I watercolored the background to match the paper. Then, I started stamping and watercoloring some more! Finally, I stamped and then restamped the letters on another sheet. I cut them out and added foam behind. I added a metal key with a glue gun and a smaller one with sticky dots. I added twine and liquid dots… and even added watercolor shadows on those. It’s a hot mess, but I kinda like those sometimes. And wow, besides the SMAK kits, I had no idea of how many other retired kids I owned! Notice a lot of those are mixed media designs, which I kind of love.

Okay, so I had to make one more… which turned out to be my fav! I ended up using a watercolor background again that I had made and not used for the above card, because the paper I used had ridges in it… a little hard to stamp on. So instead I started searching through my stash for coordinating papers with the tones on the watercolored background. I ended up finding a Simple Stories heart paper and some 49 & Market butterfly ephemera and Washi tape to match.. I used the January 2025 membership kit called Kinda Made for Each Other and Magnolia Flowers kit on this one. After stamping the image on Arches paper using Tea Dye Oxide ink, I watercolored the flower. I added 3 strips of Washi tape and 2 ribbons to the bottom of the background paper after cutting it down. I then silver embossed the sentiment at the top and along the edges. I added the ephemera and crystals and called it done once assembled.

Thank you for stopping by… hope there’s a little inspiration here for you! Now on to the rest of the hop! Remember, before you go, to leave a comment with your name to be eligible to win another goodie bag from me!

You may have come here from 

Doreen’s blog

Or, you can start from the beginning with 

Crystal’s blog