Day 2

Hi again! Thanks for coming back, it's a special day today!
 Twenty-Eight years ago today, my husband and I got married. Tomorrow is the Thirty-First anniversary of our first date. Wow! I'm very lucky & grateful he is still here. On the first of the year he suffered a noticeable heart attack. I say noticeable because he had already had several that he had ignored. Stubborn man. It's definitely a blessing he is still with us. It's been a long road of recovery (for us both!) and we are still getting used to his condition. I think I'm still in shock.
 We never intended to have a double anniversary but the Memorial day holiday messed up our elopement plans and we just went with it! Since then, we have always celebrated both of our anniversaries, and I always make him two cards, one to celebrate our union and one to express my love for him. :)
I used a few different Unity kits to create his cards this year.

 For this card I used the heart from Create Today. The Sentiment and Mini Hearts (4 to represent each child we have) are from Love Is A Magical Thing, which I won in a challenge last year. I also used a border stamp in the opposing corners. I don't know the kit name of that one. It was in a grab bag I got a couple weeks ago. By the way, Unity grab bags are great! You really don't want to miss your chance to win one. Commenters on my GIU blog posts are entered into a drawing that will take place at the end of the week.  

 

 For the background on this one I adopted a technique Whitney Magnuson shared in a recent live video demonstration. She coated her paper with oxide ink, (I used regular distress ink in 3 colors) and poured a little puddle of water into her hand then clapped over the paper causing the water to splatter and leave diluted markings. For my panel, I dipped my hand in water and flicked it at the paper. Probably went with flicking on a subconscious level, imagining it was my husbands eyeballs! LOL! Well, that's what he gets for scaring me! Right?!
I used the MISTI stamp positioner tool to create a shadow effect on the sentiment then added some shadow with colored pencil to the hearts. The sentiment, mini hearts and border are heat embossed with Stardust embossing powder by Stampendous. I accented the rest of the card with silver glitter.

 For the card I'll give him tomorrow, I noticed that the swirl/vortex stamp in the Keep Wild kit resembles the icon our favorite band, Collective Soul uses. You don't even know! This is OUR band! We both love them so much! We were even lucky enough to meet the members by chance a couple times. Anyway! I used a versamark pen to add the arrow at the bottom of the swirl and give it a uniform embossed look. The background color was made with a paper towel dipped in wet ink and dabbed onto the paper. I used a sentiment from the Let Your Dreams Bloom kit. It worked perfectly!

The White panel is embossed with the larger swirl stamp from the Keep Wild kit. I used hardware tape, also known as HVAC tape to make accent silver borders for both panels. I think it brought the card up another level in specialness. ;)

I have a little tip to share with you all. I'm a frugal girl, and like I mentioned before, I rarely throw away scraps. You might be able to tell, I love raised panels. Instead of using the expensive foam mount tape, I fold scrap paper to fit the size of my panel and build it up to the depth I want, then stick it all together. It creates a very sturdy panel and adds control over various depths. I also use sticky backed craft foam sheets from the craft spot in the dollar store. You can get 20 sheets for $1! I recently received a huge stack of sticky craft foam sheets for free. Score! I save the foam mount tape to use on smaller fussy cut pieces, like the shaker frame and Unicorn from yesterdays post.  :)

Don't Forget!

See you tomorrow!