Growing in Unity Weekly Winner

 Winner, Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

It was a great week making cards and reading all your sweet comments.Thank you all, I know I was a little rusty but you all kept me going.  So here you are the winners, 

1. Miwa

2. Ida

The names were picked via the magic of the random generator from the internet. You each win a $20 credit. Cock a doodle do for you!  So now you can use  he credits to purchase you have their eyes on. There a huge sale so there is no better time than the present  To redeem please email kelli@unitystampco.com to claim your gift credit within 2 weeks.  In the subject line put "winner from Laura's GIU week." 

Congratulations!

LB

Day 5 {Growing in Unity} Your my favorite

Hello Fellow Card Makers:

I am sure if any of you are a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle or teacher, you have been ask "Who is your favorite"? or have heard "I know that (insert name here) is your favorite". I tell who ever I am with, they are "my favorite". It worked until all my nieces and nephews figured out that I said that to whoever I was with at the time.  I say things to my kids like "you're my favorite" and they say "REALLY" and I reply "Your my favorite son"(I only have one) or "your my favorite...kid who goes to Creighton".  My soon to be daughter-law-even gets into it and says "We know Yao is your favorite kid".  All which I deny.  Today all the lovely people who have given my such nice comments this week are "my favorite".  So this card is for you! Thank you for your sweetness 💌

Do not forget to comment with some love or criticism, all is appreciated.  You could have a chance to win one of two 20.00 gift card toward a Unity purchase. Thanks again Unity and friends for letting me have this chance to get back into card making.  

Supplies

Otter Little Things -Unity Stamp Company

Whits Words- Unity Stamp Company

Scallops and Rectangles Nesting Dies -Unity Stamp Company

I am 6x6 paper pack- Simple Stories

Copic Markers

Foam rectangles

Jet Black Ink -Gina K from Whit Card Kit

Glitter Glue

Sticky rhinestones -stash

{Growing in Unity}-Day 4 Birthday Card and bifocals

 Hello Fellow Unity Craft Friends:

Today I am sharing my goto Birthday Card layout.  Since it comes from the "here's my thought" Front and Center kit (formally known as Sentiment Kits), it also my go to wedding and send to a friend to let them know I'm thinking of them card.   I love that the sentiment is big, I do not have to do anything but add some embellishments and it is good to go.  I made this card with my non-non-progressive bi-focal glasses on because I was going to a meeting and wanted to look "smart".  I came home made this card than realized there were issues with how I lining up my edges.  Oh well I do think I looked smart so I achieved that goal. Do not judge -the bi-focal sadness in real for an old lady who wants to buy trendy glasses by not pay the progressive lens cost. Like I say to my kids all the time "The Struggle is Real" and they reply..."to you-you do this to yourself".

Have a great day.  Do not forget to comment just to let me know "my struggle is real"! Also for the chance to win an awesome gift card from Unity Stamp Company.

1. Chose two 6x6 papers.  I like to alway use a floral and a striped for contrast.  Cut each to 4.25 x 5.5 card size.  Go over 1 1/2 inches and  from your right side on 4.25 on top floral paper and cut angel then go up an 1/2 inch on bottom on your left and cut angle.   Line up and attach floral paper to striped.

2. Stamp your sentiment on white paper copic appropriate paper and highlight words, if you want a little pop of color.  Cut to 3x3 inches. Cut a solid coordinating card stock piece 3.5 inches by 4 inches and place on top to give it the polaroid film look and glue on learning a .25 board from top and sides

3.Glue on at an angle and embellish. I added teal sequins and flowers with epoxy dote in middle and glue doted on corner. 

4. Pop it in the mail and make someones day.

Supples

Here's my Thought Unity Stamp Company

Jet Black Ink- Gina K

Copic markers-Y13 RV25 BG13

Embellishments and paper from my Stash

Glue dots-Echo Park

Sequins

Day three- {Growing in Unity}-What the Cluck

 Hi Unity Friends:

This will have to be a quick one as I am wore out.  I worked the holiday weekend in addition to  my regular days.  Plus before that I spent all day at the MN State Fair drinking and eating my way through with my husband.  We were there for 9 hours and walked almost 24,000 steps. When we left in the morning I said "we'll only stay until noon".  There is something about a beautiful day, the smell of fried food and being with 150,000 people that just makes me happy, how could we leave early?  A trip to the fair is not complete until you check out the animals in their respective barns. By far my favorite animals to look at are the chickens.  Did you know that there are 100's of different chicken breeds in the world? I know at least 5 people that have chickens in the Twin Cities in their backyard and get eggs daily from them.  I love to look at all the different colors, shapes and sizes of chickens.  Plus there is always that one rooster that just does not stop crowing.  A day at the fair inspired these lovely gals below. 

The card layout is nothing fancy.  I liked the look of the die I cut out, stamped with the chicken wire and then blended some gathered twig distress ink on to that for a wood look.  I also stamped out two extra flowers and spread on multimedia matte to add shine and dimension.  Don't forget to add your comment for a chance to win one of two prizes from Unity Stamp Company.  Have a "cluck'n" great day. 

Supplies:

Coolest Chick Ever-Unity Stamp Company

Chicken Wire Background-Unity Stamp Company

Stitched CU Comp Diagonal Die- Die-namics

Brush Markers-Karin

Ground Expresso and Gathered Twig Distress Ink-Tim Holtz

Blending tool-Ranger

Multimedia Matte-Ranger

Adhesive tape

Double sided tape-3M

Growing in Unity Day 2 Clean and simple...Say what?

Welcome Back to Day 2 of {Growing in Unity} Friends:

Today I am sharing a card that was super fun to make and very frustrating at the same time.  I am not really what you call artistic.  I always say I am a technician, I put things together.  I can not seem to color or blend well even after watching numerous Copic coloring You Tube videos and going to classes. Like I eluded to yesterday day..."I am a mess". My area at scrapbooking retreats generally spans two tables and the floor a space 5 feet around me. You have heard of the saying "it takes a village", well for me it takes my whole scrapbook office to create a few cards.  I love the idea of Clean and Simple(CAS) but it only works in my head not in the final product. I have be a fan girl of the Unity Designer Team member Tenia Nelson for years. I love how she just makes her cards on a white base pop. If you don't know her work go to the Unity blog site and click on the design team and go to her blog and "check it" as she would say.    So is my attempt at working with white to make a CAS card. It actually turned out close to my vision in my head, but it was bit UGLY getting there. 😉

Here is how I created these cards.

1. Stamp out leaves, sprinkle with WOW gold glitter embossing powder.  This came in a Whit Card Kit for 2021. Initially I was attempting to use the Juicy embossing ink on red, yellow and brown paper.  I was not getting the impact I wanted.  I switched to brown ink on Kraft paper and like it much better.  I than used my heat gun to set the embossing powder. 

2. The Fall y'all bundle comes with dies! Click the link below to purchase because the bundle is on sale. The therapeutic value from make the leaves is worth the price alone even if you do not put them on a card.  I cut the leaves out by running the stamp with the matching die through my Big Shot.  In addition to the stamped leaves, I cut out 3 more of each leaf on white card stock and glued all three pieces together and then adhered to my cut out stamped leaves to give them support and dimension. 

3. I took a precut 4.25 x5.5 inch white cardstock and trimmed .25 inches on one of the long sides and one of short sides.

4. Using my Misti I stamped the sentiment on bottom for 4 x 5.25 sheet of cardstock. Embossed it and set with heat gun. 

5. I then placed double sided foam tape, cutting to customized size, and stuck on back of leaves. Using my T-ruler I allowed about a 1/4+ inches to have a straight line to place on leaves and spaced out by basically eye balling it and loosely placing maple leaf at 2.75 inches.  Removed the back of the double sided tape and adhered them to the card.

5. I wrapped thin twine around my card twice and tied a bow.  I could not decide on whether I like the epoxy white dot or not but I went with them.

6. The final step was taping to an A2 card base I had scored on my scoring board. 

7. I was really obsessed with how well the maple leaf turned out so than I was side tracked by making them.  If you look closely at the bottom picture you can see one I made.  Next week am going to use them to make more cards.

               

Thanks for checking out my blog.  Make sure you leave a comment for the chance to win one of two prizes that will be chosen at the end of the week.  If you have won a prize from Unity in the past 6 months you are not eligible, but comment anyway- It will make my day.

For those of you who follow the Mighty NDSU Bison- "Horns Up"!

Supplies:

Fall y'all bundle  -Unity Stamp Company

Juicy Embossing Ink- UnityStamp Company

Craft Cardstock- American Crafts

Wow Gold Glitter Embossing Power- Whit Kit October 2021 membership

Gatherer Twig Distress Ink- Tim Holtz

Glitter Glue

Misti

STAMPendable Stamping Tool

White smooth A2 Precut papers

Thin Twine-American Crafts

White epoxy Dots- Echo Park

Adhesive Tape-Tom Bow

Big Shot-Sizzix

Purple Tape- Unity Stamp Company(no longer available)

Growing in Unity- Day 1-It has been awhile!

Hello to my fellow Unity Stamp lovers:

I had not realized that it had been so long since I had participated in {Growing in Unity}. It does make sense, I that is about the time I went back to my regular gig as a Speech-Language Pathologist in a permanent position verses being on call while my kids were growing up.  My kids are almost all grown and flown as they say. I just have one still in high school and she is our third child, can you say Independent?. I miss the craziness of having 3 kids living at home. I am not going to lie I did like it for awhile when my son moved back home during the beginning of Covid.  It was fun being a family of five again.  We cooked, we baked and played a lot of board and card games. I even took 3 months off from work, as I was working as an Outpatient therapist at the time and our clinic was closed.  I had grand plans to organize, clean and create.  The truth of the matter is none of that happened. I did crossword puzzles and watched most of the episodes of "Say Yes to the Dress-Atlanta"(I do me love me some Lori and Monty). 

That is why I lead off my week with the Life Update-Still a Mess stamp. It sums my life up in one stamp set. I feel like I should make it into a business card and hand it out to the people I meet. I embrace the chaos it seems, always have, I think I always will. 

This card is pretty basic card, with no real tricks or tips to share.  Just that the wood frame die cuts are kind of a challenge. The grain indents kept separating when I was trying to glue them on, but I do like how the black wood grain frame keeps that vintage kitschy look. 

This is a fun card and I know exactly who I am sending it to. I hope you enjoy my posts this week. Remember to comment below for a change to win one of two prizes offered by Unity!

Supplies

Unity stamp Still a Mess

Unity Pattered paper The Secret of Change

Pink glitter Epoxy dots- Whit Card Kit July 2021

Black Paper- American Crafts

Twine- American Crafts

Wood Frame Infinity Dies- Hero Arts 

Vintage Photo Distress Ink- Tim Holtz