Unity Hop!

Hello! Welcome to MY very first blog hop ever. Of course, I've hopped before as a reader, but never as a blogger. Unity hops are so inspiring and fun. They also give away prizes to commenters! Make sure you visit each blog and leave comments so you can be counted in the prize drawings.

Today, I am showing a couple of seasonal items. First, Merry Christmas in July! My husband and I are crazy for Christmas. We love those sappy movies on Hallmark, and count down the days to be able to put up the twinkling lights and the tree. (Shhhhh! I still have my little tree up here in the Art Room ;) ) We acknowledge the feeling of Christmas monthly by celebrating Twenty-Fifthmas. :~D Christmas music, a movie or even a Christmas style meal. Sure, we are crazy. But whatever! It's FUN! Since we are so close to the 25th and it's July, why not start with Christmas cards!
Despite all my love of the holiday, I am never prepared. This year I will, at the very least, have my cards DONE!

My first one is really different for me. I've always admired the striking cards and wrappings featuring black as the dominate color. I never felt confident enough to pull it off myself until last year, when I made a Christmas card using the flower from Jolande's & Marleen's Blow Your Mind kit.  There was something about that Magnolia looking flower that lead me to see a Poinsettia, so I played with it and fell in love! I made some in other traditional colors but the Black and White one is still my favorite. The tag is stamped with the Far Better Things Ahead sentiment kit.  

But, That was last year!
This year, I'm playing with Reindeer and loving the outcome.
My first card features All Santas Reindeer, if you look closely, you can see their names are all cleverly outlining the antlers. It paired perfectly with the Wonderful Time of Year sentiment

My second card features the Magical Holiday deer. We all know who that silhouette belongs to! ;)
My daughter gifted me a vintage style Christmas paper stack featuring a lot of black so I used a few patterns and they really helped capture the 50's vintage vibe I was going for with these fantastic Unity Reindeer.

Finally, Because it is summer, and I love my birth month of July, I have to share a summery card too.
When I saw Speedy I could not wait to pair him with Fishy Philosophy.  Aren't they great together? This card was so much fun to create! I used Jolande's & Marleen's Bubbles from the You Can Do It kit, as well as the long twisty flower stem from the I Am Who I Am kit for some sweet seaweed effects.

Whew! I hope you're feeling the inspiration spirit & enjoyed your visit to my blog today! Be sure to follow the links to visit all the hopping Growing In Unity girls this week. Don't forget to comment! You could win some yummy Unity stamps. 
Thanks for spending time with me today! XO
Shannon

Anna Natalia
Shannon Horch
Suzanne Shaft
Heather Bolli 
Linda Pekrul
Lynda Lindley
Lee Ann Barrett 
Belinda Beshirs
Suzi Baker McKenzie
Monica Edwards
Alyson Kerr Esposito

UNITY STAMPS GRAB BAG WINNERS!

Thank you for all the lovely comments last week! I enjoyed my time as.a GIU Girl very much and hope to get the chance to do it again next year.
Here are the 2 lucky winners of the 25 piece Unity Grab Bags {{{{Drum Roll}}}}

Congratulations to

KAREN L. 

&

SHELLY

 

Please send an email containing your full name and address to scrapaholic007 (at) yahoo.com so we can get your prize mailed to you! 

Day 5

Hi there! Today is my final day as a featured GIU Girl. I'm a little sad, and I am already looking forward to next year. :)
Today, I'm sharing something special, a framed piece, created with stamps from my favorite Unity Stamp Co. Illustrators, Donna Downey & Phyllis Harris

The Poppy stamp's from Donna's Wild & Free kit are simply incredible. And Huge!
Pictured below, is a standard, composition sized Art Journal cover I created using both Poppies in the kit. The card is a standard size 4.25x5.5in card. I'm pretty sure its the biggest stamp I own.
My framed art measures 8.5x6.5 inches outside the frame.

Phyllis Harris creates the most adorable children images. I'm so drawn to them, because they resonate with my own inner child. Her Happiness is... kit is just irresistible! I wanted to use the girl in the swing in an unusual setting and the big, open poppy just seemed perfect. I masked the main images and arranged them into the scene I wanted to depict. Then I stamped them all using black Archival ink. In hindsight, I think I would have liked the outcome even more if I had used colored inks. I'll just have to make another one! I used Gesso on the flower petals to give them a visible texture, then painted it with neon paints. I colored the girl with Inktense pencils, and accented everywhere else with gel pens, chalk and glitter glue.
I took photos outside before framing it. Hopefully, you can see the glittery bits. Its so pretty, much brighter and eye catching in person. The wild flowers at the bottom are also from Donna's kits called, Create Today and Insightful Meadows. They were stamped at half strength with grey ink.

Here are a couple more cards using Happiness is...  (I didn't even realize I colored her clothing the same colors! HA!) and another favorite Phyllis Harris kit called, Every Breath.
(The sentiment on those cards are from a different company)

The backgrounds on the Journal cover, and the two wishing cards is the, "Salted Watercolor" technique. It creates beautiful backgrounds! The secret is to use a lot of color, Ice Cream Salt, and do not move it until it is completely dry. The rock salt leaves bits of crystallization behind on the paper and it shimmers in the light. Here is a short video I made a while back for it.  

I hope you've all enjoyed the projects I created this week. I loved my GIU experience & reading your kind comments. I swear, the stamping and crafting community are always the kindest people I encounter! Truly!
Now,  Go comment & Good Luck in the drawing for the 25 piece Grab Bag!

P. S. I saw a photo of a winners grab bag the other day, and she was over-the-moon, happy with the selection she received. :) Don't miss out! Remember to comment on each post this week.

Day 4

Welcome back! It's day 4 of my GIU week & I have had a blast with my projects. I thought it would be fun to share something unusual today. If you are a regular follower of Unity on Facebook you know Angela and Whitney are well known for making tags to sample their new releases during live broadcast on Facebook. Their creations are always beautiful, but I never know what to do with tags, so I make Postcards. It's like a tag but not. LOL! :) Today, I'm sharing two random & weird postcards. If you like them, let me know! I'd love to send them to two randomly chosen commenters. YAY! Happy Mail! 
I love Raggedy Ann and La La Loopsy dolls. When I saw Unity's Frazzled image, I thought she resembled a perfect mash-up of the two. I had to have her. I had a lot of fun with this piece of mail art. My Frazzled girl is surrounded by layers of paint, stenciled shapes, ink, torn bits of book pages and she's standing in a Row of Poppies.

The background on this one also features grungy wire and paint splatters from the Blow Your Mind kit.

On my second Postcard I used the kit You Are Cute. Aren't they CUTE?! GAH! I think these two look great uncolored, surrounded by vibrant colors. I accented the background and her balloon with the trio of Hearts from the kit, Love Bug and used the gungy dots from the kit, Everything on the hill.  

Both Postcard images paired perfectly with the sentiment, "You're weird, I like that." from another favorite, called Carlee's Christmas. Both cards also have highlights of shimmery glitz and are sealed for protection. :)
I made a card last year, using only little girl from You Are Cute. It's easy to get more from combo images like this by using them solo too.

Thank for stopping by today! I hope you enjoyed your visit! Be sure to leave a comment if you'd like to win a Grab Bag of 25 stamps from Unity Stamp Co. Also, If you'd like to be entered to receive one of these postcards let me know which you'd like to pull from your mailbox. :) Join me tomorrow for my last GIU 2017 project. <3

Day 3

I was introduced to Art Journaling a couple years ago while seeking to expand my artistic abilities. I discovered it was a prefect blend of skill and therapy. I love it. I've met quite a few other artist through Facebook groups dedicated to art journaling. One group is a "paint and pass." Each person has a journal and sends it to group members who then create art in it and pass it to the next person. This group had no theme, just create art.
I had just started working in a fellow artists journal the week I received a Unity grab bag I had ordered. My creativity was a little slow to flow on the pages, so I set it aside and went through the grab bag. It contained a few artsy pieces, a dotted border, a paint swoosh, encouraging words and a heart, all of which started to spark inspiration. I have no idea why, but the heart made me think of the bleeding heart plant, so I decided to create one. I was also inspired to create the little bit that hangs from the flower and a leaf by cutting a piece of excess rubber into their shapes.

So many materials went into these pages, it was like a mad scientists lab. A little of this and little of that... Paint, Ink, Glue, Markers and more. All the images on the bleeding heart page are Unity Stamps. The Butterfly is from the Keep Wild kit. The sentiment "dont be pushed..." Is from a Unity & Donna Downey kit called Empowered Words . "PROVE them wrong" and SHE is a Masterpiece on the other page are also from Donna Downey kit called, As I See It. 
The remaining stamps were all in the grab bag: Paint swoosh(white) Dotted border, Heart, Be Fearless. As well as many others I haven't used yet.

The woman was hand drawn and painted. She is accented with shimmery goodness the camera didn't pick up so I took a little video for movement.

There's a little surprise for the Art Journal owner. These pages glow in the dark. :) It was a challenge to get a photo, I'll tell ya!

Want to win a Unity grab bag of your own? Comment on all the post here from my week as a GIU Girl. TWO lucky people will win a grab bag of 25 fabulous red rubber Unity images. 

Thanks for stopping by! See you Tomorrow!

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!

Day 1

Well, Hello there! I've been looking forward to this week for months! Ok, I've been full of anxiety thinking about this week for months! Hahaha!
I'm proud to be representing Unity Stamps this week. They're a small family business and know how to take care of their customers and make amazing stamps. The quality of their product is truly the best I have ever used. Really!


Project 1
 Remember several years back. when Chevron prints were all the rage? Everything was Chevron. Everyone wanted Chevron. I'm pretty particular about trendy things, but I was in love with the Chevrons. I sought out background stamps with the zig-zagged peaks all over it, nothing had me grabbing my wallet until I saw Unity's Chevron background designed by Jillibean Soup. It was exactly what I was seeking, and my very first Unity purchase.
Naturally, Its only fitting to start my GIU week with it.
I make a lot of goofs in my creative process, most of my favorite pieces came to be from a happy accident. My background colors were applied while playing around with my diy gelli plate. I had put the paints on too heavily and the important Chevron details were smooshed. Oh, by the way, I also never throw potentials away. Never.  Favorites! 
 Back to the card details, I needed a rainbow card for my little neighbor who will be turning 5 next month. So, I dug out my smooshed Chevron, and used my MISTI to align the stamp on the painted surface. I inked it up with white craft ink. It was looking good. Lots of texture showing from the paint and ink mixture. Then, I sprinkled Stampendeous Stardust embossing powder all over it. OOOOH! LOVE! Sparkly Rainbow Chevrons! Win Win. Of course the only thing fitting for rainbows and sparkle is a Unicorn! Unity's "I am Unicorn" kit is exactly what I had in mind.  The Unicorn is flocked, all fuzzy and soft, and her mane sparkles from shimmery gel pen inks. Finally, her horn is very regal and strong, gilded in silver glitter.

Yellow is my little neighbors favorite color, and it was lacking on the rainbow panel, so I added it in accents. A shaker framed in glittery yellow, an embossed Chevron strip, and a big fat yellow bow.  I also colored, and glossy coated the mini heart stamps from the I Am Unicorn stamp kit. They made the perfect embellishment to finish it off.

 The sentiment inside the seed bead filled shaker are two different Unity stamps.  The Happy Birthday one is actually a dirty worded stamp. LOL! (I'm not seeing it on the site anymore. booo!) To make it more fitting for a youngster, I masked the "B" word out and added, "Make a Wish" from Plenty of Pandas Set. Lastly, I sprinkled in some glittered dots for interest.

Let me know what you think! Be sure to leave a comment for a chance to win some Unity Stamps!

Guess what? I get to choose two of you to WIN a Unity grab bag of 25 stamps, just for leaving a comment on my posts here this week, so be sure to comment and come back for more all week.

Thanks for stopping by! Come Back tomorrow for my special Anniversary post!