Friends of Unity September Blog Hop

Hey there… wow, summer is almost over… where did it go? I’m sure many of you have had the hottest summer…but ours has been the coolest! Just crazy! But… I’m not complaining… and it’s time for another blog hop! Our cue this month is:

And, I had a lot of fun with this one! But, before I start reviewing my first creation… it’s time to announce the winner from last month’s blog comments! As you know, we do giveaways from our own personal stash every month. So, I’ll be creating a crafty gift parcel to send out to my lucky winner:

Kristi

Please PM me with your full name and address, Kristi, and I’ll send it out shortly thereafter. And thanks, for commenting!

So, after watching an Instagram short from another vendor and remember seeing the same technique used last year, I decided to try to create a little fall decor. I used Unity’s Falling Leaves paper pack and an oval die to form a pumpkin shape. After picking out from darkest to lightest the papers I’d use, I die cut the pieces and inked the edges with Black Soot oxide ink. I then formed the pumpkin and glued the pieces together. I decided to fussy cut out my own topper after tracing an outline with a pencil. I then fussy cut out the stem “ridges” from the paper leftovers and glued them on. 

I then turned to stamping leaves from the Hope is Stronger August 2022 Kit of the Month and Thankful Oak. I stamped them on leftover papers again. I ended up using a die from Simon Says Stamp that matched the size of the background leaves and that also had a curlicue top die I could attach to the stem. After adding color to the top leaf branch using alcohol markers and Posca markers, I fussy cut it out. I then fussy cut out leaves from the leftovers papers to help fill in. I found a preprinted sentiment…not sure where I got it from that I used an oval die on. I inked up all the edges on everything and started to assemble it. I used a hole puncher on leftover papers and added Posca pen highlights. I glued them on and added a bottom border and called it done! This was a fun exercise that I could envision using again with less busy paper and maybe something for Halloween.

For my next effort I turned to tags! Now, I attended a crafting session earlier this summer where I learned about creating a master board. You can do a search on YouTube on how to create these. Essentially, you gather up coordinating paper scraps and start glueing them onto a large sheet. Once the sheet is filled up you can write on it, stamp on it, use stencils and paste, add Washi, etc! Anything goes! I ended up using Unity stamps on it. Looks a mess, doesn’t it?

I cut down the page and used some of it for the following 2 tags. Some of the paper scraps had come from a Simple Stories Simple Vintage Essentials paper pack. I pulled out a very large tag and cut down the background paper for the tag, Bingo Bingo, from the pack. I then formatted one of the master board papers to be slightly smaller than the tag and added a burlap edge to it. After viewing my stamp collection, I decided to try using an image and a sentiment from A Beautiful Mindset, 

2/21, Kit of the Month. I stamped both on papers from the pack. For the sentiment I also used a background stamp on the paper and backed it with a lighter paper. I used my Prismacolor pencils on the image and fussy cut it out. I used an oval die on paper from the pack to offset the image. I distressed the edges, pulled it together, added clear dots and ribbons to finish the tag.

I really love this tag for some reason… not sure if it’s the colors, the image or the sentiment! Oh well… on to the next one!

This time, I ended up using a tag die right on the leftover master board scrap. I decided to use a mushroom stamp on this one and a sentiment from Change the World Kit of the Month, June 2020. I heat embossed the image on a paper from the pack and again used Prismacolor pencils to color it in and add the ground. I used a piece of ephemera to carefully fit and stamp the sentiment on. After distressing all the edges, I added twine, a metal leaf embellishment, background paper, a brad and ribbons to finish the rest.

I really like this master board idea to create background papers and clearly you don’t need to make them as busy as mine was. A little secret… I originally created it with ATCs in mind, i.e. Artist Trading Cards, which I did use it for (will be next post). They are a much smaller size, so since the perspective had to be smaller, I used smaller cut up paper pieces. But, I think it was still usable for these tags.

Well, there’s a few ideas of what you can use your stamps for! Hope you’ll get a little inspiration from this post and others in the hop! Remember, add a comment on the blogs, with your name to be eligible to win some Unity goodies! Thanks for stopping by, now on to the rest of the hop!

You may have come here from:

 Toni’s blog

You can follow on with:

Kari’s blog

Or, you can start from the beginning with:

 Crystal’s blog