Growing in Unity Day 1

Happy Monday!  I don't think I've ever been so excited for a Monday before but today starts my week as a Growing in Unity gal!

I've been stamping for almost 10 years and Unity stamps and I are a perfect fit. I discovered Unity about 4 1/2 years ago when they were just a brand new company starting out and their great images by talented artistas and quality red rubber have become the staple of my craft room.

I've got a lot of projects to share with you each day this week and you could win some Unity stamps by commenting on each Growing in Unity post this week.  Next Monday I will be picking one winner by random from all of the comments to win 2 Itty Bitty stamps of their choice courtesy of Unity Stamp Co.

I also have a GIVEAWAY and will pick randomly from the comments a winner to receive some great Unity stamps that I have lying around in my pile of doubles (just follow my blog and comment for a chance to win)!

Let's get this party started with a round of cocktails!

 Unity stamps used for this were A Round of Cocktails and Let's Uncork.  I used my Tim Holtz Distress markers to color the stamp.  Colors used: Peeled Paint, Forest Moss, Fired Brick, Aged Mahogany and Dusty Concord.  The paper is a really old one from my stash by Reminisce called Simply Red.

This stamp set was so much fun I couldn't just stop with one card!  Seriously, true story.  This was my hubby and I almost 15 years ago over drinks with mutual friends at BW3 which is now known as Buffalo Wild Wings.  It's been one great adventure since then!

Supplies used:  Unity's A Round of Cocktails, American Crafts/Amy Tangerine's Yes Please 6x6 paper pack.  Washi from Target.

Stop by tomorrow to see another project (or maybe two) and remember to comment for a chance to win some Unity love!

A good Snapshot...

Blogging from my phone for the first time since my laptop died yesterday.  Wah, wah!  I ordered a new battery for it and hopefully that is all that is wrong otherwise I've got some lost pics from the past month which would devastate me.  Of course it would choose now to die as well because I was trying to set up my posts for next week because I am the Growing in Unity gal starting on Monday!!! I've got lots of great projects that I am so excited to share with you all and even some prizes I will be giving away! Hopefully my computer will be fixed by then so you don't have to see bad cell phone pics.
Today I am sharing this sweet camera/photography loving Suzie girl (I just adore all of the Angie girls!) and I made this card super quick yesterday morning for a friend of mine who is going back to school this semester to take a photography class.  She's got 3 little ones 4 and under and I think it's incredibly awesome that she is making the time to go back to school and learn about something she has come to love!  Also it was the perfect opportunity for me to ink up this lovely lady!

Stamps used are by Unity Stamp Co. Suzie Girl and sentiment and the flowers are from the original Angie Girl-Dream with your Heart.  I stamped them on watercolor paper and had fun playing with my watercolors.  The chevron and heart paper scraps are from a 6x6 Amy Tangerine Sketchbook paper pack.
That's it for me today, I don't like typing this much from my phone.  Head over to Unity's blog for the Friends with Flair links today and I look forward to seeing you all back next week for my GUI posts where I will have some Unity love to give away!Friends with Flair

A sympathy card and a memories album

Whoa, it has been A LONG TIME since I have blogged. I have missed it and especially Unity's Friends With Flair so much! Life has become VERY busy with the arrival of my 3rd baby over the summer and what little free time I can squeeze in goes to crafting but I often forget to take pics and certainly don't even come close to having the time to blog my creations recently. Last week I remembered that I have a Growing In Unity spot coming up in September so I tried super hard today to make a little chunk of time to get back on the blogging horse.  Hiya!

My project that I am sharing today was one I put together last month for a friend who lost her precious 2 year old daughter to her lifelong illness.  My heart was breaking for her and her family and I wanted to do something/anything to try to help them heal.  She has 2 older girls as well (6 & 8) and all I could think of was how horrible it would be to mourn one baby and still try to do your best to put on your mom face and be strong to comfort your other children. 

I used to be an avid scrapbooker until I ran out of time to do it.  Now I am an avid Project Lifer because I can record so many precious memories in much less time.  I thought that it would be great if there were a way for my friends daughters to record their memories of their beloved sister and thought that a Project Life Mini Album would be something that was doable for them.  I got them each their own albums and then went through my stash of PL cards as well as made many of my own cards from Unity stamps. 

Unity had just released this beautiful angel stamp from Phyllis Harris and it was perfect.  I was very inspired by Angie Blom's gorgeous coloring on her canvas and used the same colors on my card.  I kept it super simple and added some sparkle to the wings with a gold sparkle gel pen.  Both of the papers have a beautiful shimmer to them and on the inside of the card I used the stamp There is no footprint too small to leave an imprint on this Earth.

 I used one of the butterflies from Unity's Butterfly Beauty to make an insert for the front of the album.  Her sisters said that green was Gabby's favorite color so coloring them in with my green copics was a no brainer.

 I made a title card with stamps from a few different SMAK kits and used my neglected Big Shot machine to die cut some letters.

 Here are some of the cards I made using so many of my Unity stamps from kits, itty bitties, SMAK and KOTM. 

Getting ready to wrap the albums up and drop it in the mail.  My thoughts and prayers are with this family every day.  I hope that these albums help the girls through some of their grief and healing as well as record their precious memories in an album they can cherish forever.

If you've stuck with me this long, thank you!  It has been a long post and most surprisingly of all my 2 month old has napped through the entire time!  Hoping to get back to blogging somewhat frequently but right now I am cherishing the time spent with my babies and what little creative time I have.  Happy Friday and Labor Day Weekend!

Merci

Finally found some time to blog some of the creations I've been working on, hooray!  For this card I used Unity's December 2012 Kit of the Month.  I wanted to play around with my Tim Holtz distress markers and watercolor so I stamped with Memento ink onto watercolor paper.  Mistake.  Even though I waited for the ink to dry before coloring it still bled.  It actually looked really horrible until I decided to just spritz the whole thing with clear glimmer mist and then soak up the excess ink.  You can still tell that it bled but it's not as bad and it has a beautiful shimmer to it now.  :)  The papers are from Crate Paper's On Trend collection.  I wanted to leave it sentiment free but it just didn't look finished to me that way so I finally added a miniaturized version of a banner from the stamp kit and the Merci stamp.  I'm always short on Thank You cards anyways!

If anyone has any tips on using T.H. distress markers with watercolor I sure would appreciate it!  Next time I think I'll try it using Staz-On ink and see if I have better results.

Love is in the pages of our Story

I think this may be my favorite stamp from the December 2012 KOM by Unity, I just love books and all of the great sentiments to go along with it!

I used Kraft paper, a spellbinders die cut for the scalloped circle and then clear embossed the Kraft with Unity's Plump Polka background stamp.  I stamped the books with Tim Holtz Walnut Stain distress ink and colored it in with distress markers.   I also colored the flower with distress marker to match.  I used my stamp positioner but it slid a little so the books are a little off center which really bugs me.  Oh well, guess that's the beauty of handmade creations!

CELEBRATE!!!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!  I certainly have missed Friends with Flair the past few months.  Life gets hectic and I've barely been able to find the time to craft let alone blog anything.  I do have a backlog of projects that need to be blogged so hopefully I'll find some more time to catch up soon.

I wanted to play along with the new Unity {be inspired} Challenge and was inspired by the color challenge and especially that picture of the pinwheel in the clouds which reminded me of several stamps that I've had for a while that had yet to be inked (yikes)!


Here is my creation:

I clear embossed Written in the Clouds for the background and paper pieced Happy Pinwheels.  I used bamboo skewers as the sticks and popped up the pinwheels and the celebrate banners.  The paper is from My Mind's Eye Dilly Dally collection.
 

Thanks for stopping by today, I can't wait to browse through everyone's FWF entries and see what you've been working on!

14 Years

2013 already!!!  I know I for one am still typing and writing 2012 and needing to backspace and erase a lot.  On January 6th my husband and I will have been together for 14 years!!!  Sometimes it seems crazy to me that we've been together for so long and that I was blessed to be able to meet the love of my life so young and to have all of these wonderful years to grow together as a couple, husband and wife and now parents.  Even through the rough times he's still the one!

Here is the card I made for him with inspiration from this awesome card by Brigit Scraps.  I used stamps from Unity's November and December Kit of the Month.  The papers are from Glitz.  The ink is Worn Lipstick distress ink.

I even finished the inside of the card with more Unity stamps of course!  More Nov and Dec Kit of the Month and SMAK kits from November 2011 and January 2012

 I am linking this up to Unity's Friends With Flair which is like having a party to go to every Friday.  I love looking through all of the lovely Unity stamp friends wonderful and inspirational entries every week!