Unity FWF: Itty Bitty tag cards

Itty Bitty as in Unity's Itty Bitty stamps.  These are small stamps that come singly or sometimes with a second stamp.  I tried these out today to make a card and ended up making 3.  The large tags are also from some of Unity's "freebies" that come with orders.  Strangely the ink I used is black but turned blue as it soaked into the tags.  But never the less I had the papers picked out and went ahead with my idea of these simple cards.  I thought these would work nicely as happy mail rather than having a specific purpose.  I like the feeling of happiness, beauty and laughter that are the themes of these stamps.  Small tags I made with MFT Tag dies.  I was particularly happy using the washi tape on the second card.  It's clear with blue and orange triangle patterns.  I've been waiting a long time for the perfect moment to use it.  Using the washi makes me happy...I'm using my stash!!!

Materials used:  Itty Bitty "Big Summertime Bouquet",  "Time to Laugh Flowers" and "Beautiful".
Patterned paper from AC's Halloween 6x6 pad and assorted washi tape.

Thanks for looking and your comments.

Unity FWF with Esmerelda

I have nick-named her Ezzie.  She is adorable with so much personality.  I started with a heavy cream colored card stock, and sponged on assorted Distress Inks for the background.  Then stamped a variety of other Unity stamps (see list below).  I masked Ezzie with Eclipse paper and stamped the ghosts in white ink and got the translucent appearance I was hoping for.  Also stamped the accompanying Boo (just the boo in a sentiment stamp)...Please ignore the up-side-down boo.  It was late and I start making mistakes around midnight.  The panel was then edged in Distress Black Soot and layered on a pumpkin colored panel which I adhered to a lavender card base.  Ezzie herself was colored with Distress Markers in the same colors as the background behind her.

Thanks for looking and your comments.

Unity stamps used:
Esmerelda Girl
Totally Happy (crow on fence)
Stitched Daffodils (for the ground)
Retro Mod Clocks (don't ask me why I threw that in:)
3 Boo's (ghosts and "boo")

Unity FWF: Bevy of Beautiful Butterflies

An assortment of Distress Inks on a craft mat went a long way and colored this gorgeous Unity stamp from Butterfly Beauty collection.  Background is Unity Chicken Wire.

Such an easy technique with colorful results.

Thanks for your comments.

OCC Day 8: More Graphic Stamping

More ideas for using graphic stamps.  I really like this idea of making patterned borders.  I think they have a very Art Deco look.  Using graph paper to help line up the stamp was a huge assist in getting the stamps to line up fairly straight.

OCC Stretch Your Stamps: Day 7 - Graphic Stamps

Well this is really a different look for me.  I enjoyed making these cards and the fact that I actually had the stamps that were used in the lesson was a plus!  I have not played very much with these stamps so it was great exploring techniques and looks with them.  Day 8 uses them again so you may be seeing more of these stamps.

The stamp set is Rounded Diamonds from Avery Elle.  The bold sentiments are a set from MFT.  Muted inks are SSS dye inks and the brights are Hero Arts Neon.

OCC Day 6...More Outline Stamps

But this time on balsa wood!   My first attempt was an epic fail.  However the fact that I even had balsa wood is rather amazing...had it for years.  But it is 3x3 inch sheets and not much to work with.  So today while I was on my way to a big box craft store, I realized there was a newly taken over art store on my way there and stopped.  Good move.  Found just what I wanted and it worked perfectly.

My card is a real mix of my stash.  I combined MFT "Die-namics Office Supplies" for the clipboard dies, the "with love" is from my mystery stash and these lovely flowers are from Unity Stamps Itty Bitty collection called "Wishing You Joy".  This stamp was perfect for this outline class.  I used Distress Markers to color the flower and added a few purple jewels to give it some sparkle.

Thanks for looking and leaving a comment.

OCC Stretch Your Stamps Day 5

Don't ask what happened to day 3 and 4.  I may get back to them.  Meanwhile I liked and enjoyed making today's lesson of watercoloring an outline stamp.  It could have been anything but the lesson showed a flower used and I was wanting to use this new, huge flower for a sadly, but much needed sympathy card.

There was one major part of this lesson, debossing the stamp, that I omitted and will hopefully give it a try soon.  But the simplicity of stamping in Distress Ink and pulling the color out with a water brush was ideal for what I wanted for this card.  The flower and leaf stamps are from the Unity Stamp SMAK collection "Wildflowers and Wings".

Changing up the look of my blog

I made this blog about 5 years ago?  I think a little remodeling is recommended.  So it may look different every time you visit until I settle on something that appeals to me.  I have no idea what I am doing, LOL.

Stand by...

Unity Friday's FWF Time!

Boy Friday's sure come up fast...thank goodness, yes?

I was thinking last night how cool it would be to have a wall of cling board.  Then I could just slap all my Unity stamps up right in view and make my collage cards so easy.  Then I realized that I probably would never put them back in the right place and it would be pretty crazy.  Well I had fun pulling down some stamps to make this card.  I started by stamping the woman from "Best Friends" on Eclipse paper to make a mask.  Then stamped her in the center of my off white card stock, masked her and her hand, sponged on several Distress Inks to cover the paper and went to town with my current favorite set of "Full Circle Moment"  (an LOL set) and finished with the sentiment from July's KOTM "Beautiful Inside and Out".  I did some light coloring of her face, hair and body with Copic markers.  The card is layered on gorgeous card stock from Club Scrap's Milestones.

OCC Stretch Your Stamps: Day Two

I've not played with Perfect Pearls very much so when this lesson came up yesterday I was quite excited.  This JudiKins leaf background stamp was ideal for this technique.   I really like the richness of Perfect Pearls and it's depth of colors.

Online Card Class: Stretch Your Stamps - Day One

Really it's day 3 of class already but who is keeping track?  Not me!  This is one of the things I enjoy about OCC...you can sign up for classes and take them at your leisure.  I prefer to try to keep up but in real life it's not that practical.

Day one had us making background pieces with large background stamps.  With some embossing powder and watercolors, the backgrounds really turned out interesting.   This is a background stamp from Hero Arts.

The first two cards are made with the above panel.  I did not follow (shocker) the actual card designs, great as they were.  But this process was fun and encouraged me to play with it and my dies.  I used the stamped and embossed panel to die cut the feathers and birds for the two below cards.

My third card is again from a background stamp, a JudiKins wood mount of butterflies from many years ago.  This time simply inked with multiple Distress Inks, spritzed and stamped.  I did follow the card design on this one.  Getting those inchies straight is a chore and I'm not sure I would do this again.  I'm not fond of being so exact, LOL.  However, I am happy with the results.

Thanks for looking:)

More Strawberries

Yes, more.  These little jewels are becoming addictive.  This time I used Stephanie Barnard's Elegant Flip-It card die to show off her luscious strawberries from her "strawberries2stamp set and dies.  In my 6x6 paper stash I was thrilled to come across the tiny strawberries paper from Prima.  How lucky was that?  Combining the Elegant dies, Mini-flowers and the fabulous strawberry leaf dies that are embossed made for a fun card to play with and put together.  I couldn't stop myself from making those darling flowers and leaves.  A few candy dots for the flower centers was just the ticket to finish the card.

Thanks for looking.

Card closed:

Flower detail:

Card opened:

Unity FWF Friday 8-1-14

Oh my goodness...it's August!

Today's FWF is made with two sets of Unity stamps.  The flowers are from Insightful Meadows and the sentiment and butterfly are both from Gina and Me.  A truly fast and easy card.  I dabbed Mini Distress Ink pads directly onto the stamps, spritzed with water and stamped on watercolor paper.  How easy is that?  Then also stamped in a light color directly onto the card base for a shadow look.  The tag was cut from MFT Tag Stacks.  My butterfly was cut using my Klic-N-Kut and then stamped on.  Various levels of foam mounting tape give the card some extra interest.

Thanks for looking: