Graciellie Designs Birthday Blog Hop

Good morning! I am excited to to be joining Graciellie Design's team of Ambassadors. Graciellie is an artist I deeply admire and her heart is as beautiful as her art.

Today we are having a blog hop in honor of her birthday, showcasing the June release of new digital stamps in the shop. First up is this gorgeous daisy from Tulips and Daisies. I printed off one large flower and two small. I went with the simple white flower palette, just giving the valleys some simple shading, with a pop of yellow in the center. I arranged them on this fun Polka Dot paper from the Summer Sunshine digi paper pack and double matted.

My second birthday card features Hey Friend. I watercolored the feather, leaf, and flower. I cut the base out using a wonky stitch die, wrapped some twine, added my sentiment, and again double matted. 

I hope you have enjoyed this stop in the hop. Be sure to visit all the blogs and comment for your chance to win $25 to the shop! You're going to want to win this and pick up some fabulous digi stamps and/or paper packs. Until then, enjoy 40% off everything in the shop, no coupon needed.

Next up, be sure to visit the fabulous Sathya Kala for your next stop in the hop. And start here if you need to find the beginning.

Until next time, happy crafting!

Unity Repeat Stamping Challenge

This week's challenge in the Unity Show & Tell group is to do repeat stamping. Repeat stamping is a great way to make your own custom background instead of using patterned paper.

For this challenge I used two Graciellie kits; My Sympathies and Hey Friend. I stamped the leaf from the My Sympathies kit randomly onto my card base then watercolored them, then added some splatters. I created a banner cluster that included my sentiment and stapled it to the base. I wrapped some twine around the base, then adhered it to a mat piece.

Hey Friend

My Sympathies

Unity Acetate Challenge

This week's challenge in the Unity Stamp Co's FB group is using acetate. Our challenger used pre-printed acetate, but that's not something in my stash and we were given carte blanche in what sort of acetate we used, so I went with a shaker card, I love the interactive properties of shaker cards and I wanted to try out the new steampunk pieces die by Tim Holtz. I also had a little piece left over from my alcohol ink session from last week and thought it would look great on the other side of the window.

First of all, I used the Brutus Monroe Barn Wall for the inside of my ship. I inked up my watercolor paper with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink by smooshing the paper into a puddle of ink, then I stamped the wood grain using Ground Espresso Distress Ink. Next I die cut a circle to insert my window into. I cut the parts I needed from the the Tim Holtz die. I used bronze and silver paste on the washers and bolts, taping my piece of acetate to the back. To make the shaker housing, I ringed the backside with foam tape, added some sequins and micro beads, and adhered it to the stamped bottom piece. Like I said, I had a small bit of the ocean alcohol ink background left that became my background, stamped  out and fussy cut Speedy, and added him to the ocean. This window fit nicely into the die cut circle and I adhered the whole card front to a mat piece. I finished off the card with a sentiment from Let Your Wishes Fly, a burlap strip, and a couple of hearts.

I think I might try making my own pre-printed acetate next. What do you think?  Be sure to follow me and sign up for email updates to see my results. Until next time, happy stamping!

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Unity May Challenge

Hello! I played along with this months challenge on the Unity Stamp Co's FB page; use a Unity Girl.  Unity has a fabulous range of girls, with the Angie Girl being the most prominent. I used the girl that reminds me of myself. He hair reminds me of mine and I love photography. The only difference is that I cannot wear yellow! I look awful in it, so I'm enjoying this yellow outfit. I used the planner girl Tell A Story and Stronger Together. I watercolored this pretty seaside scene, from Stampin' Up called By The Bay, for the girl to photograph because I love to adventure.

I love playing along with these challenges because they stretch me and often get me out of my box and make something new.

Thanks for joining me today, be sure to subscribe via email to keep up with what's going on in my craft room. Until next time, happy stamping!

Super Sleeper

It's time for our mid month reveal at CSI. I just loved the color palette for this case. And bonus, the testimony prompt was quicky pet traits! Sydney's quirky trait is in how she sleeps. She loves to make a hammock between my legs and stretch out as far as she can go. I call this her Superman pose.

I started with a plain white base and added some torn paper and washi tape. Since the floral is so packed with cuteness, I needed minimal embellishments. I used clouds from three Unity Stamp Co kits, a couple of pieces of flair from A Flair For Buttons, and a few wood bits.

Come help us solve this case and upload your layout to the CSI Facebook page for you chance to win a prize from one of our amazing sponsors!

 

The Case File

 

 

Sending Up Something Beautiful

 

Little Outer Space

 

Flannel Holiday 1 Flair

 

More Cameras Flair

Alcohol Ink Panel Cards

I spent some time playing with alcohol inks the other day. Oh, man, they are so much fun and I can't wait to explore all you can do with them.

For these cards, I used Sailboat, Citrus, and Indigo alcohol inks, as well as rubbing alcohol and the Ranger Blending Solution. I moved the ink around by blowing into a straw. I love the different pools and whirls this technique makes. Using the Ranger lift pad, I stamped the bubbles using Unity Stamp Co's You Can Do It kit. I cut out two panels and adhered them to a white card base that has Peacock Feathers ink spatters.

This card uses jellyfish from Unity Stamp Co's She Mermaid kit that I stamped, colored, and fussy cut . The sentiment is from Unity Stamp Co's Hugs, Kisses & Birthday Wishes sentiment kit.

 

For this card I used Stampin' Up's Sea of Textures' octopus and cut the net from the coordinating die set. The sentiment came from one of Stampin' Up's Sale a Bration's sets, By The Bay.

Products used (affiliate links). Thanks for using my links, it really helps!

Urban Panther

Today I have an A Flair For Buttons layout for you. I spent all weekend celebrating National Scrapbook Day. What a needed day for me and what better way way to celebrate than being able to bring you a layout using some super cute flair. My adorable kitty climbed the tree the other day and did what she does best, act adorable. She found it's a great place to be around, yet safe from the toddler grandson, and provides a great view to survey her kingdom.



I had this cute woodland paper and the Little Things and Just Clouds flair sets were perfect. They added to my story and accented my papers so well.

    

Come visit the shop and find the perfect accent to help you tell your stories! Until next time, happy scrapping!

Coastal Pocket Mini

Recently Unity Stamp Co celebrated their 11th birthday and to kick off the festivities, they did a FB live, with projects. One of the projects shown by Angela was this fun patterned paper folded pocket card. You can see the video here. It's the first project shared. I thought that it looked like a quick, fun project that packs a punch. I thought, "Hmmmm....these pages would make a great mini album", so I made four of the pocket cards, one backwards so I'd have a solid cover, bound them together with my Cinch binding machine and set to work capturing memories of being in my favorite place with my favorite guy.

Like I said, I made four of the pocket cards, assembling one of them backwards to give me a solid cover. I used St Tropez by Prima. Such a beautiful collection and perfect for my coastal photos.

 

I used one of the journaling cards in the kit for my frame and added some of the coordinating gems and chipboard elements, a sentiment and shell from The Ocean Is Calling SMAK kit from Unity. The beach flair from A Flair For Buttons was the perfect final touch.

Here is are the inside pages. I made personalized tags using the WRMK Tab Punch Board. What a useful tool this is! You can make tabbed tags any size you need!

 

 

 

 

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