Your wings exist...

I started making some tags this week to swap. This took me a few days of doing a little here and there and waiting for things to dry but all 5 of them are finally done so I'm linking them up to Friends with Flair since it's Friday and there is some Unity on here! I'm also linking up to the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge: Something New for the New Year.

 I tried a few new things here. The tag was sprayed with some Heidi Swapp Color Shine in teal, citron, and gold. It was my first time using them and they have a gorgeous color and shimmer! When that dried I stamped Unity's Woodgrain Script.
I then cut some hearts out of a natural fabric, used a bird stencil and painted them with gelatos. I have never used gelatos on a fabric before either and they blended so nicely.  When those finally dried I doodled some stitches around it and added it to the tag with a brad. The sentiment is from Unity's Your Wings Exist set, one of my favorite sentiments and sets! I fussy cut the sentiments out and sponged with some Mustard Stain distress ink and finished with some ribbon from the awesome 3 Girl Jam!

I don't make a lot of tags and still feel pretty new to the mixed media scene, this is also my first tag swap, yikes! I really hope the recipients like them. I would love to hear your feedback!

I'm linking this up to the Simon Says Stamp Have a Heart Challenge.

Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful weekend!

Hugs,
Crystal

Grateful

TGIF!!!  Seriously, I have never been so happy for a Friday before.  It was my oldest daughters first week of Kindergarten and it's ALL DAY, that is C-R-A-Z-Y!  Anyway, it's been a bit of an emotional and exhausting week and in about 40 minutes I get to pick her up and start our weekend, YAY!!!

Quick post today for Unity's Friends With Flair.  I have been wanting to do a card swap for a while now but with 3 littles at home my craft time has been very minimal this past year.  With my oldest starting Kindergarten this week and my middle starting preschool next month I thought I might have a few more hours in the day to craft so I signed up for one finally!

Here is the first card I created for it.  I made 7 of them (6 to mail out and 1 for myself).  I rarely create more than one of a card design so I had to factor that in when making it.  The theme was fall so I grabbed this fabulous Bold Bloom from Unity and colored it with my Faber-Castell gelatos and stamped multiple times on watercolor paper.  The sentiment is from Unity as well, an old Kit of the Month called All Seasons from September 2011.  It is popped up for some dimension.  The mini pearls are from Martha Stewart.
 

Have a happy weekend everybody!

Entering into Mountains Plains Crafters Fall/leaves challenge and Unity Friends With Flair.

You have made a difference.

I haven't played along with the Unity Stamp Company Challenge for a while but I needed to make a card for my sons speech therapist and I new what stamps I wanted to use so I decided to give the card sketch a go.  Here is what I came up with:

Here is the sketch:

I had a tough time with this one!  I stamped the flower and sentiment (from the Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful KOTM) onto watercolor paper I had cut into an oval and used some very old Luminarte twinkling H2O's that I had forgotten about to color it in.  Thanks to Terri Burson at wavingmywand for reminding me that I had these beauties!

For the card base I used watercolor paper as well and sprayed it with a yellow Glimmer mist and an Sunset Dylysions spray.  After that dried I stamped Unity's Whimsy Border with an orange gelato on the bottom and splattered some orange watercolor up in the top left corner. 

The sentiment banner is where I had some problems. The sentiment is from another Unity KOTM called Let Love Grow.   Eventually I got the embossing to come out clear after about 3 failed attempts.  Then it was crooked on the black paper and that bothered me so I cut it down and then cut it down some more until I was left with a very small piece of paper that didn't look right under the oval.  After playing around with a lot of options I just moved it off to the side and added the orange ribbon up in the opposite corner and called it done.

The whole card has a beautiful shimmer to it.  Here are a couple of close ups to try to capture that.

I recently started a Facebook page for Crystal Amaris Creations and I would love it if you use FB to stop by and "like" my page to stay up to date on news and giveaways!  Thanks for coming by today and I hope you all have a very crafty week!

Birdie duet

I am learning that sometimes a page comes together fairly quickly and everything just works out in a way that makes me smile.  That was this page (quite the relief after my last page).  I only had a short amount of time to play during naptime today and was able to make this page from start to finish (with a heat gun used for drying between stages).

I started with some gelatos (orange, yellow and some pink) scribbled onto the page and then used a wet brush to move and blend (my first success with this technique).  After drying that I used some Picked Raspberry Distress Ink and sponged it over a stencil (Heidi Swapp Confetti).  Then I stamped a border stamp (Dylysions Around the Edge) around the edge and used another stamp from that set inked up with some Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink and stamped randomly.  I then grabbed another stencil (DCWV) and applied gesso over it in a few spots.  I stamped She Script (Unity Stamp Co) up in the right hand corner and then got an idea to use some pretty chipboard birds from Melody Ross (which I applied with a gel medium) and found this perfect bird cage stamp set from Unity Stamp Co called Birdie Duet.

 

 

I used a white gel pen to detail around the birds on the cage and a Pitt Pen to detail around the chipboard birds.  After that I called it finished.  I am still unsure about when a page is "done" but I called this one done when the kids woke up from nap. 

 

Thanks for visiting and happy crafting!

Art Journal color explosion

I started playing in my art journal last week and it is SO, SO addictive!  I love the freedom of taking a blank page and turning it into anything I can imagine, no boundaries.

This first page came about from playing with my Dylusion ink sprays and creating a colorful background.  I stamped the Sun Frog (Paula Best stamp) onto watercolor paper and added wings (Unity Stamp Co Wings of Hope) using some clever masking and used some Dylysions to color it. 
I stamped the clouds (Unity Stamp Co Up in the Clouds) several times and then stamped the hot air balloon (Inkadinkado) over and over.  I used my white gel pen to help define the clouds and balloons.  I stamped the sentiment (Unity Stamp Co Wings of Hope) and cut out and decoupaged onto the background.  I stamped the zig-zag stars (Unity Stamp Co May 2014 SMAK) and outlined with the gel pen.  I put the frog down over that and stamped the Go Fly (Unity Stamp Co Nov 2013 SMAK) to finish the page.

The next page started with me attempting to blend my gelatos onto the paper.  I've tried this technique several times with not so good results.  Same with this one.  I spritzed it with water and took a brush to try to blend it as well but it just looked very unblended and too crazy.  In an attempt to tone it down I covered it with a layer of gesso and that seemed to make it better.  I stamped the dandelion (Unity Stamp Co Insightful Meadows) and then stamped the clouds (Unity Stamp Co June 2013 SMAK) which I colored in with watercolors.  I wrote the wishes, not weeds with a Pitt Pen as well as the journaling lines and the pollen pieces that are flying on the breeze.  I used a few border stamps to finish it off, the polka dots (Unity Stamp Co You Make My Heart Puffy) in a purple distress ink and the scroll (Unity Stamp Co You are Simply the Best) with a black archival ink and finished it off with a few doodles from my gel pen.

I am having so much fun playing with different techniques and exploring new ways to use products.  I am sure you will be seeing many more art journal/mixed media type pieces from me! 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Flower Child

Friday is here and so is Friends with Flair!  I've got blog candy to give away today as well as a wild little beauty to share with you using a few different stamps and techniques.  First the card.  ;)

I inked up this beauty from Unity's Let Your Inner Beauty Shine on watercolor paper and had fun going color crazy with different shades of blues and greens.  I fussy cut her and added some little sparkly bling to her 'do.  The ikat background from Unity's You Are Simply The Best KOTM was created with gelatos applied to the stamp and spritzed with water.  The sentiment is from Unity's Whitney Girl kit and stamped onto washi tape with Staz-On.

I love the mix of colors on here and how it turned out. She is totally wild and unique! Now for the blog candy!

 

GIVEAWAY!!!

I just started a Facebook page for my blog yesterday and I would love it if you are on FB and could stop by and "like" it.  I have a grab bag of Unity stamps to give away today to one lucky commenter on my blog.  To qualify please be a follower of my blog and for an additional qualification like Crystal Amaris Creations on Facebook and come back and comment again to let me know you did.  I will post a winner on Tuesday.  Thank you!

 

Looking forward to hopping through all of your fabulous blogs and seeing what you've been up to with your Unity Stamps!  Have a happy Memorial Day Weekend!