Swinging in to say, Happy Friday! 

Today, I have a very special mixed media piece I created to hang in Little Moon's room here at Nonnahs. 
To create this cute scene I masked out the owls from Every Day Wonderful Owls. Then I lined up the little girl on the swing from Happy Mind Happy Life and extended the rope to the moon using Staedtler sketch pens. Now, this is where things went wrong, I used different pens to fill in the masked gaps around the edges of the moon. I don't know what I was thinking... apparently, I wasn't! The ink from the pen I used to do that (I can't even remember which pen it was) bled and created a green tint that I just couldn't get past. 

I wanted to watercolor the whole background so I tried masking fluid for the first time. It was interesting and very simple to do. I will definitely use it again. However, I noticed the ink bleeding in various areas, so I need to research the best inks to use with it. Some of the tintings didn't bother me because it's a colorful scene and I knew it would add interest rather than ruin it. I tried to fix the area around the moon because it looked like a shadow and I wanted it to look more like a glow. The background was painted with Daniel Smith's Iridescent Electric Blue from the Luminescent line. It. Is. Gorgeous. So vibrant and shimmery! 

For the sake of not overworking the paint any more than I already had, I stamped the moon again on gold foil paper and adhered it to the piece, and was much happier with the look.
Little Moon loves rainbows. LOVES them. So I paper pieced the little rainbow t-shirt onto the little girl in the swing. I used gel pens to color her and add "moon dust" to her hair and also for the rope. I tied little bows from embroidery floss to anchor the swing to the moon. Don't miss the tiny hot pink toes and fingernails! So cute! 

The stars were added by outlining randomly from the Star Confetti stencil then they were colored in bright colors and coated with transparent glitter and a few in purple foil.
Fun Fact: Little Moon's legal name actually means "golden moon." When my daughter decided on what to name her, I was excited to immediately have a nickname for her and began to call her Little Moon or Auri Moon. Recently, I discovered that the meaning of Auri is gold. She was born on the first full moon of 2018. Kismet. So of course I'm even more drawn to the moon now than ever, and of course, her room must be personalized! 

That does it for my week this year! I hope you have enjoyed the things I shared. Make sure you leave a comment on each post from this week so I can select one of you to receive a gift card from Unity! 
Stay tuned for a few follow-up creations I'll share during the upcoming blog hop as well! See you then! 
Happy Creating! 
<3 
Shannon

Hi again! I'm glad you're back.
Today, I have a very special card I created for my daughter. It will be her Mothers Day card. I had hoped that I would have more to share with you all today, but life happens, right? 
I am really pleased with how this card turned out. It was unplanned and unexpected, yet looks as if it was meant to be. I had colored and cut out the floral crescent called, World Needs Your Light last week and it sat waiting for me to be inspired to use it. The crescent moon stamp from the Magical Summer Days KOM also sat there waiting. I imagine they got pretty chummy being shuffled around, looked at, and tossed back over and over the past few days. Once I had the moon embossed and cut out, I picked up the floral one and held them together, I couldn't help but notice they snuggled up together perfectly. Next, was finding the perfect sentiment, which isn't hard with Unity Stamps. I chose to use part of a sentiment rather than a whole phrase from the sentiment kit called, Patience With Yourself. 

    

I hope you'll be able to return again tomorrow as I close out this fun week! I love reading your comments and appreciate all the kind words that have been posted. Thank you! 
See you tomorrow! 
<3 Shannon  

I can make that!
Hi there! Glad you're here and hope you're having a good week. 
Today, I'm sharing a couple of inspiration pieces. My first one is a slimline sized card inspired by a new series of printed papers I'm gaga for. I decided not to share the link because it's from a competitive company and this week is all about Unity. When I saw the different designs of loose watercolored style paintings that abstractly look like landscapes, I thought, "I can make that!" Ha! Well, I need a lot of practice and a lot more patience to work with watercolor. Mine doesn't really look like the inspiration but I do like how it turned out. I use the sentiment kit called, No Better Words, as well as the full moon from the SMAK kit, Look Up & Get Lost. After the panel dried I splattered it with white acrylic paint, then stamped and embossed the moon in white and the trees in black with some stardust powder sprinkled in to look like light from the moon coming through. The water area reflection was done by lifting color using water and the round moon from the No Better Words kit. I love the slim sentiments in that kit and think they're perfect for cards where the art wants to shine. 

My second inspiration piece comes from a tapestry I came across while looking for items for my granddaughter's bedroom. Instead of a card, I made it a 5x7 framed piece and really like it.  
I used the moons from Look Up & Get Lost, the Star Confetti stencil, and floral bits from, In My Garden and Circle of Friendship. I stamped and embossed in layers, green, then pink. The moons are silver. The little flowers and butterflies were hand cut and added separately. The whole panel was spritzed and splattered with shimmer and stars. 
What has inspired you lately? 

Thanks for stopping by & have a great Wednesday! I'll be painting and playing with my Little Moon all day! 
<3 Shannon

 Shimmer or Shine

Hi there! It's day two of this fun week and like yesterday, I have two slimline cards for you showing two looks, the same but different. Both cards feature the crescent moon and star clusters from the SMAK kit called, Look Up and Get Lost, now I know you're thinking, "Wait a minute! SMAK kits were retired!" Yes, that came to mind for me after I had created four cards using that kit (it's my favorite ever!), I had a mini-meltdown thinking I'd have to start over. I reached out to Kelli at Unity and she reminded me that even though the membership for SMAK was closed, the kits are still available. I was so relieved and happy to hear that!
My first card has a watercolored background using purples and blues (Daniel Smith watercolors), very loose and saturated. I also splattered some pearly greens and golds all over. The stamp images were embossed in white and I just wasn't happy with the stars, so I double stamped and embossed and it looked worse. The image was offset a bit and the embossing powder bubbled. It was a mess. I was close to tossing it out. I used the Itty Bitty, Sun, Moon, and Stars for the sentiment. It's embossed on vellum in a midnight blue color. 

Instead of tossing that first card out, I started on a different one with a softer, cleaner look. For this card, I used the same colors with a more controlled stroke and less water. I stamped the image with clear embossing powder and filled in the moon with paint and the stars with glitter. It shimmers beautifully The sentiment is the Itty Bitty called, You Are Magical, it's stamped on vellum, embossed white, sprayed with adhesive, and finished off with a coating of pretty transparent glitter. As I worked on this one I kept the first one in mind thinking of remedies. I decided to try foiling on top of the stars, so I coated each one with a liquid glue pen and when it was tacky I used deco foil from Unity and peeled it off. It worked great and now it's so shiny! I don't dislike it anymore and learned a few good lessons. Which team are you? Shimmer or Shine? 

Thanks for all your comments yesterday! I loved hearing from you! Have a great day! 
Happy Everything, 
<3 Shannon

 

Welcome back Unity friends!

Time seems to be moving a lot faster; this week snuck up on me! To help me decide on what to feature this week, I asked for suggestions in the FB Unity Show & Tell. I had an idea in mind, but wanted to see what others would be interested in. One of my Unie sisters suggested a theme from my moon collection, that happened to be something I was already thinking about, so I ran with it! 
Another suggestion, was to use Unity background stamps, and that's what we're starting the week with.

For todays cards, I used the beautiful Celestial City background stamp, and an Itty Bitty from Donna Downey called, A Certain Darkness. 

The first card is stamped with Versamark ink on black linen cardstock, then embossed with gold powder. The entire panel was spritzed with homemade shimmer spray (gold eye shadow, glycerin & alcohol). The sentiment is also embossed in gold on vellum paper, framed in gold from a die cut from Gina Marie Designs. I finished it off with a few gemstones (Amazon nail art). 

The second card uses the same stamps on a panel created with lots of ink blending and paint splatters. It's fun to get messy sometimes! The background image was also stamped with Versamark and embossed with silver powder. I die cut a silver frame and embossed the sentiment in silver on a piece of smoky blue vellum. I spritzed with homemade silver shimmer spray and embellished it with punched stars from the same silver paper and tiny holographic stars (I've had them forever and cannot remember where they're from). I used the little triangel cuts from the frame die to make shooting stars.  

I really ejoyed making these cards. I'm not sure which one is my favorite, I love the monochromatic style of the first card, but also love the fun holographic colors on the second card. Which is your favorite? 
If you are familiar with the GIU week, you know what to do next! If youre not familiar, Unity geneorusly gives a gift card to someone that comments on this blog all week long, so be sure to come back each day! See you tomorrow!
<3 Shannon