Unity GIU, Day Five: 1 Stamp, 5 Projects: Art Journal

And so it has come, my last day as your GIU gal for Unity Stamp Co. It's been a great week and I hope I have shown you that your stamps can be used for more than just card making. 

To finish off my week I have decided to get whimsical and colorful spread for my art journal. An art journal is a fabulous place to play around, try out new techniques, and just create for the fun of it. I decided to go all rainbow. I saw a cute meme on Facebook the other day and it inspired this page. The Cuddlebug Zebra is the star, with a guest appearance by the cloud from Sending Up Something Beautiful Be sure to see how it was made by viewing the video below.

Cuddlebug Zebra

Sending Up Something Beautiful

Thanks for joining me this week. I hope I was able to show you how to stretch your stamp stash to use in a variety of project formats. Be sure to leave comments on all the days so that you have a better chance at winning one of the prizes! Until next time, happy stamping!

Unity GIU Day Three: 1 Stamp, 5 Projects: Canvas

Welcome back to day three of my GIU week. I'm exploring different ways to use our stamps by showing a variety of projects.

Today the cute lil zebra will be starring in a canvas. I have a little display of wooden animals that I bought back from Africa and this canvas fits right in. The sunsets there are seriously amazing. I think it's all the dust in the air, so I made my background to reflect the amazing sunset. Yes, my burlap is back, this time as a stand in for grass. Be sure to watch the video to see how this came together.

Cuddlebug Zebra

Be sure to tune in tomorrow for my next project, showing you how to stretch your stamps in so many ways. Be sure to leave a comment each day so you can have a chance to win one of the prizes! Until tomorrow, happy stamping!

Unity GIU Day Two: 1 Stamp, 5 Projects: Layout

Welcome back to day two of my GIU week. Hopefully you tuned in to yesterday's post. If not, go ahead and take a look. I introduced my intention to use one stamp kit and show how versatile it can be by using it on five different types of projects. Today I'm taking a look at how to use stamps in scrapbooking.

For this project, I made an embellishment spot to add to my layout of zebra seen on my recent trip to Tanzania, Africa. Pundamilia is the Swahili name for zebra. I really enjoyed the zebra sightings. They are super smart, friendly, family oriented, and just fun to watch. I love their stripes. The coolest zebra encounter I had was seeing a very pregnant female, close up. She was so close that we could see the baby moving inside her! 

I stamped the Cuddlebug Zebra out onto a circle spot, colored the grasses the color of the dry season and added it onto my layout. Simple and easy way to stretch your stamps for different formats of paper crafting. You can see how this came together in the video posted below.

Cuddlebug Zebra

Brian Guy

...Meant For Adventure

Be sure to leave a comment on each post this week to be in the running for a prize of your very own deeply etched red rubber! You don't want to miss out. And be sure to visit the Unity site to check out what's new and what's on sale. I'll see you tomorrow with another type of crafting project using our favorite cuddly zebra. Until tomorrow, happy stamping!

Unity GIU Day One: 1 Stamp, 5 Projects: Card

Hello, fellow Unies! Welcome to my GIU week 2020. This week I thought I would look at different types of projects to use our stamps on. And for an added bonus, I am using just one kit all week, with a few supporting kits here and there.

The star of this week is the adorable Cuddlebug Zebra. Isn't he just the cutest? I got to go on safari in Tanzania, Africa last year and I came to love the zebra. All the cats were so cool and I got to see a lot of them, but the zebra are everywhere and they are so smart and seem very caring within their herds and look really cool against the golden grasses, a look that I tried to convey in my card with the color palette and burlap texture. Be sure to check out the video of how it was put together below.

Cuddlebug Zebra

Be sure to leave a comment to be in the running for a prize of some deeply etched red rubber of your very own. Tune in tomorrow to see this lil guy in action on a project of a different kind. Until then, happy stamping!

Creating A Scene

Happy Thursday and welcome to the blog. How are you all getting on with your Christmas shopping? May I suggest a Unity Stamp Co gift card for that stamper in your life? I know it would be greatly appreciated.

Unity has so many great background stamps and a few scene stamps. I love building a scene for my main subject, so I pulled a couple out to create a scene for an Angie Girl and Angie Guy. Make It Happen Girl and Brian Guy are the stars of this week's cards. I paired Make It Happen Girl with Cafe Delights and Brian Guy is hanging out in A Walk In The Woods. Be sure to watch how they were made in the video below.

Cafe Delights

Make It Happen Girl

A Walk In The Woods

Brian Guy

Use one of the many background or scene stamps to create a place for your subject to hang out in. No background stamp? No problem. Build your own using as many kits as you like. You have a week to upload into the album in the Show & Tell group, in order to be eligible for a prize. Until next time, happy stamping!

Stamping Gifts

Happy December! It's the season of giving and what better gift to give than one made with your own hands? I love giving and receiving handmade gifts. I like to think about my recipient as a create a little something special just for them. If you also love to give your heart in a gift, this is the challenge for you!

I have been giving handmade ornaments with the Christmas cards, to my co-workers, for years. When I saw the new wood slice die/embossing folder from Tim Holtz, I knew I wanted to make ornaments. As soon as I saw A Little Mousy, I knew I had found my stamp! This is such a cute kit, very versatile, and was a fairly simple project to make. Cut and ink the wood slices, stamp and color the image, cut out and add to the wood slice. You can see the process in the video below.

A Little Mousy

Tim Holtz Mini Tree Rings

For this challenge, I task you with making a gift of some sort. It can be a pack of cards, canvas, coaster, jewelry, ornament, the sky is the limit! Bless someone's day with a gift from your heart and hands. The challenge will be open all month, so you have time. Be sure to upload to the Unity Show & Tell group to be in the running for a prize. Until next time, happy stamping!

Unity Challenge - Black & White

Hi and welcome to another Unity Stamp Co mini challenge! I have a simple card and some thoughts on the rule of odds for you today.

Today I am sharing a simple card using just black and white. White paper and black ink. There are plenty of great images you can use that don't need any added color. For this project, I used Damn Girl and a sentiment from Not Always...But. I love the lacy background! My gems were placed using the rule of odds. The brain loves to have things arranged in odd numbers. Even numbered things confuse our brains. I'm not sure why, but this is a classic interior designer rule in arranging photos, vases, other decor, and it works for adding embellishments to our art pieces too. Check out the tutorial here.

Make a black and white creation. Put your colors away and use the textures found in your black and white supplies. Be sure to upload to the Unity Show & Tell FB pagefor the chance at winning a prize! Try to keep the rule of odds in mind too, I think you will find it helpful.

Until next time, happy stamping!

Lawn Fawn Galaxy Kitty Card

I recently picked up Lawn Fawn's Keep On Swimming. The kitty that is in the set is so cute. He's supposed to be looking up at the fish in the bowl, but I thought it would be fun to have him looking up at the night sky. I thought using some of the sentiments from Critter Chats would be super fun. I love the translations.

1. Build galaxy sky by blending bright spot onto watercolor paper with Distress Oxide inks
2. Build up the night sky using Blueprint Sketch and Black Soot Oxide inks.
3. Spritz with water and flick white paint for stars
4. Die cut with decorative border die
5. Die cut hill with hill die, then die cut the bottom portion with first border die
6. Color and cut out kitty; glue down on hill
7. Emboss sentiments with white on black cardstock; adhere to card

Until next time, happy crafting!

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Kitten At Play (with video)

I've been making these Kitten At Play cards, using Unity Stamp Co's Kitten Encouragement, for a while, but I wanted to do a video showing how to use the wobblers. Also used is Let Your Wishes Fly. Wobblers can be found here. I hope you find it helpful so you can make these fun, interactive cards too.

Here is a video showing just how it's put together. Thanks for watching!

Until next time, happy crafting!

GIU Day One - Design Principles

Yay, I'm so excited to be your GIU this week! I've decided to bring some basic design principles for card making and scrapping, for that matter. I love to always be learning and why things work and what engages the viewer, so I hope you find these helpful. If not, you can at least look at the pretty cards! Oh, and possible win some deeply etched red rubber of your very own. Who wouldn't want that?

Today's lesson is on grounding. What does that mean? Does it mean always including a ground in your work? No. It simply means anchoring your focal image so it isn't "floating" there, confusing your viewer. There are many ways to ground and most of them don't include dirt.

Grounding to the Ground

Ok, well, one of the ways is to ground to the "dirt". I love the Angie Girl line and I like to make sure the head to toe girls are grounded and not floating on my card base. The brain is confused as to why she's weightless otherwise, even though it is just on paper and 2-D. This doesn't just hold true to people, but objects too.

Tricia Girl, Tuxedo Bunny

Grounding to Design Elements

Not all Angie Girls are head to toe. Some are just the torso, so how do you ground these? Glad you asked! You can ground them to the additions you make to your card. Some twine, washi tape, a banner, your sentiment, a die cut shape. This way she isn't a ghostly apparition, just floating there. And as above, the principle works for all sorts of objects. No ghosts carrying vases either.

Don't Be Perfect, I Want You To Know

Grounding in the Sky

Ok, you'd think that you wouldn't need to ground say a hot air balloon or a bird, because they are in the sky and meant to float. No, the brain understands this, but I always feel like my card is more complete if I do anchor these things. Clouds are my favorite way to anchor in the sky, but birds or design elements work too, even a sun. I'm not sure why I feel like they hold up my balloon or whatever, but they do.

I hope you have found this helpful. These are just some of the things I think about when I'm assembling my cards.

Hoppy & Hedgie

Be sure to comment to be entered into the random drawing for a grab bag of deeply etched red rubber, from your favorite stamp company! And be sure to follow me and subscribe via email to keep up to date on what's going on over in my part of the world.

Until next time, happy stamping!

Stick Pin Tutorial

Beaded stick pins are quite popular these days in scrapbooking.  They can also be kind of expensive.  If you have a few pretty beads and a handful of head pins, you can make your own for a lot less!  A lot of bead stores will sell beads singly too.  Here are just a few easy steps to making your own pins.

Please forgive some of my out of focus photos.  It is really dark here today and I am trying to do this on my own and the camera was giving me fits on focusing.

First collect your supplies.  I used some crystals, some pretty pearls and flat head pins.  You could use fancy head pins for an added cool look.  I used Glue Dots to hold the beads on the pin where I wanted them, but you can also use Superglue.  I just didn't want to wait for it to dry.

Arrange your beads how you like them on the pin

I used a piece of a glue dot to hold the beads in place on the bottom bead.  I just stuck it on and formed it around the pin.  You could use Superglue here too.  Just remember to hold it upside down until it has dried enough to hold.  Then follow the package directions on how long it should sit until used.

Oi la, here you are; pretty pins to stick into an embellishment, under ribbon or however else you come up with for them!

Happy stick pinning!