Unity- Friends with Flair

Hello everyone.  It is Friday.  It has been a busy day.  I was out most of the day running errands, so I was not sure if I would make it home to post my card.  I tried to post a few weeks ago and the link had already closed so I missed that opportunity.  Summer schedules are a bit crazy, but trying to create whenever I can get the chance.

For today's card I used the Itty Bitty by Angie Blom called Sunflower-miss you friend.  I added the sunflowers to a mason jar and colored with Copic markers.  I punched a lace border (Martha Stewart) and added a strip of pattern paper.  I thought the top looked a little empty and added a bit of washi tape and a button.  (The washi was in the "as is" section of Michael's, it had lost its packaging but was still really cute, looked in good shape and bonus was a quarter the price of the original. We all through out the packaging anyway, so it was a great find.  Check out those "as is" sections in your Michael's and you might also find a great bargain).

The sentiment came from a Jillibean soup set with the tag and I tied it with brown and white baker's twine.
Fun, sweet card.  Thank you for stopping by, I love to hear from you all.  Let me know what "bargain" you have found recently.

Unity-Friends with Flair

 Hello, I wasn't sure if I would get this posted today.  But I made it.  I used the Itty Bitty, Big Summertime Bouquet.  The sentiment in this set says, "there are so many Beautiful reasons to be happy".  God provides all those beautiful reasons and I am so thankful.  I like the Recollections 110 lb cardstock for card bases.  It is a nice, sturdy weight and now they carry white, ivory and black.  I like the black base with the white panel on the inside, which I stamped in Memento London fog ink.  I also stamped the bouquet image on the envelope.  I have started trying to complete the "whole" card package.  I usually only make the outside and leave the rest blank, but I found I like the finished doing inside and envelope as well.
Have a great Memorial Day and if you are around tomorrow check out the OWH Memorial Day blog hop.  It is their final year to collect and send out cards, so come join in on the fun.

Unity-Friday Friends with Flair

Hello Fellow Unity Friends,
Today's card was used playing with Distress markers and inks to color in the Unity Itty Bitty set:  Thanks a Bunch.  I used a SU! die to cut out the thanks and colored it with distress inks and glued to card.  I added a few sequins for some shine and done.

Just a quick, clean and simple card.  Enjoy your weekend and thanks for stopping by.

Unity-Friday Friends with Flair

 Happy Friday!
For some reason this week seemed extra long.  It is always crazy busy at the end of a school year.  Only a few more weeks left and out for the summer.
Today for Unity FWF I played with coloring on Kraft cardstock.  I used color pencils on top image and I used watercolor technique with Distress markers on the trio of cards (below).  I used the Unity February Sentiment kit: Bunches of Love and had some much fun creating a set of cards using different coloring mediums.  I made matching envelopes by stamping just the flower portion of image on envelope using sand chalk ink.  It is subtle, yet beautiful.
I rounded the corners of the Kraft panel as well as the card base.
I love all the sentiments in this set, but only used 3 of the 9 included.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you will pull out some of your older supplies (like colored pencils) and use them on a project.  Have a great weekend and thanks so much for your lovely comments on my card last week.

Unity: Friday Friends with Flair

 Hello, It has been a long time since I have posted with Friends with Flair.  I have missed it. Life has a way of getting busy.  I hope to be able to post more often as the school year and sports commitments wind down.

Today I used the Itty Bitty by Angie Blom called Big Summertime Bouquet.   I love this set, it is a lot of fun to color.  I mounted the circle on a doily after coloring the image with Copic markers.  I recently bought the refills for my markers and refilled them so I am good to go.  I used some embossing folders for the background pieces and mounted it on a black card base.  When using a black card base it is necessary to add a panel on the inside to write your sentiment so I stamped the image in London Fog and the sentiment in tuxedo black.  I also stamped the image on the envelope to complete the set.

Enjoy the sunshine and warmer temperatures and thanks for stopping by and leaving me a comment.
Have a great weekend.

Friday Friends with Flair

 Hello Everyone!  Good to be back and creating with Unity.  I had to take a few weeks off with getting dd ready for college and settled in.  It has been so hot here that I find it just zaps my creativity, how about you?

Today I used Unity's Itty Bitty; Untamed Beauty.  I am in love with mason jars, so I stamped a mason jar from Inkadinkado's mason jar set and colored with distress inks.  I colored the image with Copic markers and pulled out my sewing machine to stitch at bottom of card near sentiment.  This has been on my chicken list for quite a while, but I finally cleared a space for my sewing machine and gave it a go. I really like it.  I added some ribbon and gems for a finishing touch and voila.  Enjoy!   Thank you for stopping by.

Unity Friends with Flair

Hello Friends with Flair.  Just a quick post today showing these cute mason jars cut using a Sizzix Bigz die.  You can cut the large and small jars with lids and the side piece to make this into a treat box.  I cut each of the jars out of recycled cardboard (cereal boxes) and cardstock.
On the large jar I stamped with a script background stamp in distress ink and then stamped the flower from the Unity; Feel the Joy set in Versa Mark and white embossed.  I then used distress inks to ink up jar to look like one of those blue Ball jars and then stamped the sentiment in black ink.  I added a bit of lace under the jar lid.  I don't know if you can see it well in the picture but I added the embossed lines on the jar lid, they just cut flat, but I wanted to try to make them look like "real" lids.  On the smaller jar, I embossed the paper and inked and added a shear ribbon around jar.  These are super fun to make and I can't wait to try to figure out what I can fill them with.
Thanks for stopping by and feel free to give suggestions for filling these pretties up.

Unity Friday Friends with Flair

Hello Friends with Flair,
Today I have a card that I made for my husband.  He loves the Lord, He loves giraffes and he wears bowties.  What a great combination huh?  Well I think so!
I used this beautiful giraffe from the Phyllis Harris set "Big Time Special".  I colored him with my copic markers and cut him out and added a bowtie to his very long neck.  The scripture stamp is from Hobby Lobby and the die cut is from the Spellbinders A2 card making kit.
Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend.

Unity Friends With Flair

Hello Friends with Flair.  I have been playing with some "new to me" Unity Stamps and some card sketches.  I used the Itty Bitty- Summertime Bouquet by Angie Blom with the Sweet and Sassy SSS04 card sketch.  I have been pinning card sketches on Pinterest so that I can refer to them when I am card making for inspiration.  This sketch I believe I followed fairly closely. 
I stamped the image with Archival ink from Ranger so I could watercolor with Tim Holtz Distress markers.  I scribbled some ink on an acrylic block and then used water brush to apply color to the image.  I used Spellbinder dies to cut out image and matte.  I stamped the sentiment from the kit directly to dp.  I love how it turned out.  Let me know what you think.

Unity Friends with Flair

 
 

 Hello Friends with Flair.  I am back with more graduation cards.  I customized these cards for some of the young ladies within my church who were graduating from high school this year.  I used the Phyllis Harris set; Reach for the Stars.  I used watercolor paper and Tim Holtz Distress markers to paint these images.

I used an acrylic block to add color from the marker and then I used a water brush to pick up the color and add to my images.  You can see that even though I used similar colors in each image they turned out slightly different each time.
I love this set and the other sentiments that are included and it was a lot of fun to paint these images.  I find it very relaxing. Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you have a great weekend.

Unity Friends with Flair

Hello Everyone. It is Friday and time for Friends with Flair.  I made a watercolor card using my new Phyllis Harris set that I won as blog candy on Patty's blog:http://scrapclose2theheart.wordpress.com

She contacted me and told me I won one of her give aways.  I did not expect it to be an entire set.  So happy.  I love PH stamps.  I decided to play with the water color distress markers and color these images.  I used my new corner chomper deco edge (that I purchased with my 60% off coupon at JoAnn's recently).  I still thought it needed something so I added a piece of glitter tape from American Crafts.  What so you think?  Should I have left it alone or does the tape add something?

 

I survived my dd graduation party and I had everything ready without too much stress.  I made her a banner and hung up pictures for each year, so that everyone could see how she has grown.  Many didn't think she had changed much.  I stamped 3X 4 cards so that guests could jot her a note of encouragement, I made her hat box for cards, 8 centerpieces for the tables and the food.  Gotta love Pinterest for ideas.  I thought I would share some of the pictures.  Tomorrow is the big day, the actual ceremony.  It is hard to believe that I have one graduating.  Where does the time go?

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping in for a visit.

 

 

centerpiece for tables with my daughters avatar as jar embellishment

card box made from copy paper box with larger piece of cardboard for mortarboard

Graduation themed food.  Diploma Swiss cake rolls and Pirouline cookies wrapped with pull and peel Twizzlers.  I also made Banana Split Bites which was a piece of strawberry, banana slice and pineapple slice on small picks and frozen.  Then dip in chocolate and add nuts or coconut to top.  These were a big hit.

Graduation hat Reese's mini Reese's cups.

Friday Unity Friends With Flair

Hello everyone, another week passes with all of it's craziness.  Still I managed to make a few cards. I am also trying to work on the decorations for my DD graduation party (two weeks away and counting, please pray I can get done what I need to for this event).

I played some more with water colors for the focal image and then over stamped the background with this lovely image from the Unity set; Bold Insight.  I went in and water colored the flower heads with purples.  I embossed the script embossing folder onto purple cardstock and inked with Distress inks.
Added a few finishing touches like the ribbon, inking the edges and then popped up image.  Pretty clean and simple.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

Unity Friends with Flair

 Hello it is finally Friday and Friends with Flair.  This has been a tough week for our family.  Our 1.5 year old cat had gotten really sick and we took her to a vet and they started us on a treatment and we did not see any improvement.  She was actually getting sicker and weaker by the day.  When we called back they said that they did not want to see her they wanted us to drive 1.5 hours to another clinic.  We weren't in the position to do so, so we called another local vet.  They agreed to see her, but told us they did not know if she would make it.  They would do what they could.  We were praying for this little, sweet girl.  Our family loves her so and she is so good.  They kept her for the day to rehydrate her and load her with vitamins and antibiotics and we took her back home in the evening.  Slowly we started to see improvement.  The next morning she was a little more spry and by afternoon I had coaxed her to eat. She hadn't eaten in a week.  Ughh!!  Praise God.  With each day she is getting stronger and back to her old, curious self.  I wanted a card to thank the vet who agreed to see her and saved her life and this Phyllis Harris set seemed perfect or should I say purrfect :)  I paper pieced the chair and cut the girl out of cardstock after coloring her with Copic markers.  I used Spellbinder postage A2 die set for rug and added fringe.  (The fringe does not want to lie flat.)  I cut a rectangle (Spellbinders) for ottoman and popped up with foam adhesive.  This is the stop for the chair.  This is an easel card.  Below you can see the card folded flat and it fits in a standard A2 envelope.

 Thanks for stopping by and I am so happy that our story has a happy ending.  It really was touch and go with the sweet girl, but she does seem to be on the mend.  She reports back to the doctor early this next week for a follow-up and we will see what he thinks of her progress.
Have a great weekend.

Unity Friends with Flai

Happy Friday!  It is sunny and almost 65 degrees today.  Glorious day.
I made a shabby chic card today.  I have been playing with my Distress inks quite a bit lately.  I love this look when others make it but when I do, I think it looks messy.  Oh well, maybe it will grow on me.
I made the card by embossing top half and bottom half (leaving middle section without embossing) with beaded ribbon embossing folder.  I stamped the sentiment and houses from Unity's Dutch Mustard Soup set.  I only colored the heart and added Glossy Accents.  Side note:  Does anyone have trouble with Glossy Accents clogging up and what do you do?  I have tried unclogging with a pin but will inevitably slice the tip.  I have also tried leaving in a stick pin, but then it rusts.  So now I have a rusty, sliced tip that Glossy Accents blobs out the end.  I think I can replace the tip, but I need a tip to keep it unclogged or a way to unclog it that won't destroy the tip.  Help!
I added a piece of red patterned paper and then words piece (Colorbok, Flea Market collection), I added stitch lines and made stick pin by stamping stick pin from Sew Cute set and cutting out heart and adhering to straight pin.  The ribbon is Tim Holtz seam binding that I inked with Walnut stain distress ink, as I did card base.  I added a button with some linen thread and finished.  Thanks for stopping by and let me know what you think.  I do so appreciate your comments.  Have a great weekend.

Unity Friends with Flair

Hello Everyone.  It is Friday and it has been a crazy weather week.  It has been in the 70's and back down in the teens, to today possibly in the 60's again.  Whew!  This weather and deciding how to dress each day and whether my kids need a jacket or not is exhausting.
For today, I decided to try my hand at a single layer card on Kraft cardstock using colored pencils.  I must admit I had to dust the colored pencils off a bit, they have not been used in a while.  Copic markers have become my coloring medium of choice for a while, but I have seen some cards with the colored pencils on Kraft and I really liked it so I thought I would give it a go (plus the pencils do not bleed to the inside like Copics would and the bleeding does not make for a good single layer card). I used two Unity sets today, the sentiment is from Quiet Essence and the flowers are from Best Wishes and Blooms.
I stamped the sentiment in black ink and then covered with paper tape (which I found at the Dollar Tree).  It makes for a quick and easily removable mask or I have even used it to make my own customized Washi tape.  I stamped and colored the flowers.  I added some white dots to fill in space and voila, a single layered card.  I will try this again soon, I really liked the outcome.  Thanks for stopping by today and I hope Spring is upon you.

Unity Friends with Flair

It is Friday and the sun is shining and it is not freezing.  All good things.  I was going through my Unity stamps and I have a few cases (I keep my unmounted stamps in CD cases) of unmarked Unity stamps.  These are ones that I received as part of orders and as part of drawings, so I thought I would use a few to make a CAS card.  I used the sun image (so cute) and inked with two colors of Memento ink and tuxedo black for face.  I stamped the note paper and punched the edges with EK Success punch.  I took the "You simply Shine"  sentiment from the set Shine On and the "thank you" from the Country Pumpkin set.  Wow, I had a hard time finding a thank you sentiment in all my sets, maybe need to do some shopping.  We just need a good excuse, don't we.  I will have to wait for a while, since it is not in the budget currently.  I made the envelope with the envelope punch board (this size is not on the board markings).  I cut the paper to a 4.5 inch square and punched and scored at 2 inches and then followed the score lines to repeat the punching and scoring on remaining three sides.  I used flower and leaf punches for the foliage and added some pearls and voila, quick and simple.  I need a few of these to send to some lovely ladies who helped me with an event last week.  Thanks for stopping by.  Hope this card sends a little sunshine your way.  Have fun crafting and have a great weekend.

Unity Friends with Flair

 Hello Everyone.  I have a new (to me) toy   tool to play with and I needed to use it to make my dd a small appreciation gift to take with her for her host on her college visit.  I thought it would be nice for her to give a small token to the young lady who volunteered to let her stay with her.  I used my We R Memory Keepers gift bag punch board.  I made a gift bag at the largest size to fit in a couple of packages of microwave popcorn.  The packages would not allow the gift bag to fold in on the sides so I decided I needed to make a "gift bag topper"  I had seen ladies make them to go on "store bought" bags so I thought "how could I do this?" Then I looked on my craft space and the 2 inch piece of cardstock I just cut off  was sitting there, staring me down.  It said "me, me."  So I thought I would put in on the punch board and repeat what I had done to make the gift bag and voila a "gift bag topper" was born.

For today's post I used the smallest gift bag size to make a gift bag to share with you.  The width of the cardstock required for a small gift bag is 10 inches and the height can vary from 4-12 inches.  I made mine about 8 inches.  I used the remaining 10 inch wide piece to make the "gift bag topper".  Remember the topper has to be the same width as the original bag you built and the length needs to be at least 2.5 inches to properly sit on bag, anything shorter and it wants to fall off.
Today I used Unity's Treasure to Me set to stamp the flowers and leaves.  I used my Sizzix die for flower pot (which I inked and then chalked for depth).  I added a tag (QuikCuts) with sentiment from Jillibean soup.  It is a smaller version of some of the stamps in the Dutch Mustard set.  I found it at Michael's and thought it would be perfect for this small tag die that I purchased on clearance around Christmas.  I also matted my image my Perfect layers tools.  I have had them forever, but have all but forgotten them due to my increased use of Spellbinder dies.  I was reminded of them a few days ago and dusted them off and used it to make a perfect 1/16th of an inch border around my image.  Does anyone else have tools you have long forgotten, we need to remember to look around and use some of those great tools again.
I received the envelope punch board for Christmas and it is very versatile and I was singing it's praises to my husband, who then decided to buy  me more punch boards for my birthday and it took quite a while but they finally arrived this week and I couldn't wait to play.  The gift bags are quite small, but they are perfect for bags of treats or small gifts, if you wanted a larger gift bag to hold a shirt or stuffed animal you would need to use a purchased gift bag.  The widths of the gift bags cannot be altered since it is set by the markings on the board.  I can see many uses for the sizes I can make and the boards are quite easy to use, once you have made a couple.  So if you are looking to purchase any of these boards (I have tried all except flower maker), I highly recommend them.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope this information was helpful.  Have a great weekend.

 Gift bag topper:  cardstock was 10 inches wide (because I made the small gift bag) and 3 inches deep.  I used the gift bag punch board, following directions I used to make gift bag and folded the lid box and used red line tape to seal flaps, then I cut a piece of cardstock to the dimensions of the top of lid and adhered to cover the flaps.  I also cut a piece of 10 inch wide white cardstock and punched with border punch and place on punch board but this time only scored the lines for the gift bag, so that I could easily fold the trim and attach to lid.  Decorate as you wish.  I have looked at a lot of videos and blogs about these punch boards, but I did not see anyone make a "topper", so I hope this helps to make this more versatile for you.

Unity Friends with Flair

Hello Friends with Flair.  It is Friday and it has been bitterly cold here and we are supposed to get more snow over the weekend, so what better than to play with this sweet stamp that just evokes the warmth of sunshine.
 I love Phyllis Harris designs as you probably could tell from my previous postings.  I do own more Unity stamps than Phyllis Harris, but I have not been able to show them much love, but I hope to in the near future.  I stayed with warm colors for the background papers.  I colored the image with Copic markers and added a bit of ribbon.  I hope this will brighten up the day of the recipient.
Thanks for stopping by and stay warm.

Friday Friends with Flair

Hello there!  I am on a roll.  I have now posted to FWF two weeks in a row.  Woohoo!  No, kidding aside I hope to be able to create and blog more frequently than I had been doing this past year.  I rearranged my craft space and now have an 8 foot table to make my creations.  My DH bought me a new paper cutter for Christmas.  The Fiskars ProCision paper cutter and now it has a permanent home upon the table.  If you have not seen this cutter you need to check it out.  I was looking for a new paper cutter and doing research because my old cutter was cutting "wonky".  Yes, "wonky" is a technical term.  It had become warped and no matter how hard I tried to cut straight I would get some uneven cuts.  I loved my cutter, because I knew it like the back of my hand, I could measure any size easily but was becoming more and more frustrated with the uneven cutting.  I was looking at different cutters but when I would read reviews online, other crafters would tell of their disadvantages and I did not want to buy something that already was more at a disadvantage to what I was using.  I never looked at the ProCision cutter, probably because of the price tag, it is heafty, but my DH read the reviews and yes, he used a coupon to buy it for Christmas.  It has a permanent blade (never needs to be sharpened or replaced).  This is the first big advantage.  It has a dual rail system to house the blade (so no more warping).  Second advantage.  It has a large cutting platform, high bumpers to stop the paper, it folds for easy storage or travel.  It can cut up to seven pieces of cardstock at once, it cuts chipboard and other heavier materials.  In short, I love it.  So if you are looking for a new paper cutter, please check this one out online.  I found many people doing tutorials and reviews and all love it.

On to my card:  I decided to stay with the "love theme".  I bought Darice EZ Frames, I think you get 7 different frames (ovals, circles, squares, rectangles in different positions on A2 card front.  I was having trouble finding the correct sandwich to emboss the card but leave the window blank.  I finally figured out the best sandwich for my Big Shot was the base platform (tabs closed), cutting plate, embossing folder with paper in it and then the EZ Frame.  Run through machine and outside is embossed and window is blank, then you can stamp image of choice.  I chose another Phyllis Harris (I will give you my heart) stamp this week to go inside my Darice, Hearts embossing folder.  I inked with distress inks.  I cut the corners with the scallop corner chomper and mounted on pink cardstock.  To make the window stand out more I used the window as a template to draw stitching lines.  I also tried turning the cardstock over and using the window template as a guide to use embossing tool to get a raised edge on the window.  I colored the image with Copic markers.  Thanks for stopping.  I enjoyed making this card to add to my list of cards to send out to bless others.

Unity-Friends with Flair

Hello I wanted to play with Unity Friends with Flair again this week.  This card was made with a really cute set from Jillibean Soup called Dutch Mustard.  As you can see from the photo it has lots of cute images like flowers and butterflies and sentiments.  This set also comes with the frames around the images, I stamped them in different colored inks and used my Fiskars scallop punch to punch out the circles.  I added a small piece of dp and some ribbon to finish off the design.
You can't tell from my photo but the background white cardstock was embossed with Cuttlebug folder and circles were popped up with dimensional tape.  I also added glossy accents to the butterflies and the centers of the flowers.  Thanks for visiting today, have a great weekend.