c'est la vie: 2018

Thursday, November 08, 2018

Unity Stamp Company & My Sweet Petunia Blog Hop

HEY! We’re co-hopping today with My Sweet Petunia—YEET!

Guess what?! Unity will be giving away two Unity filled prize packs and My Sweet Petunia is giving away a $60 gift certificate. Read through my entire post to see how you can have a chance at getting your hands on a prize.

I’ve got a couple of projects to share with you for the hop today. The first one is a chipboard tag using the “Warm & Cozy Season” stamp set by Angie Blom.

I live/love to photo-piece her creations and make something totally personalized and mine. Try using a photo of yourself or someone else and pictures of real-life clothing and accessories. You have to get a little creative using Photoshop or a similar computer application but it’s so worth it once you get the hang of it. Instead of paper-piecing, give photo-piecing a try. I’d love to see what you come up with. Of note, I do like to use my Silhouette to fussy-cut the image and tag/tag pieces.

Here’s another perspective of MY chipboard tag.

Here’s a look-see and link for this NEW Unity stamp set:

Here’s another project I did with a NEW Itty Bitty, entitled, “Special Delivery Mouse” by Lisa Glanz.

This is such an adorable little stamp. Oh my goodness! I used the image to adorn a tag for a little bag holding some little goodies to give to friends or family. To color, I used Derwent Inktense Pencils. The bag and tag were cut using my Silhouette.

Here’s a look-see and link for the NEW Itty Bitty:

We have TWO amazing Unity filled prize packages to give away PLUS a $60 gift certificate to My Sweet Petunia. Leave a comment on EACH design team member’s blog in the hop for your chance to win. You have until Monday, November 12th to leave a comment. Winners will be picked and announced Tuesday, November 13^th on the Unity Stamp Company and My Sweet Petunia blogs.

To find out whose blog to hop to next, please visit either link below for the entire hop list.

Unity Stamp Co – https://blog.unitystampco.com/2018/11/celebrating-unity-stamp-company-brown-thursday-with-a-special-hop-with-my-sweet-petunia/

My Sweet Petunia - http://blog.mysweetpetunia.com/2018/11/bundle-up.html

PLEASE share your lovely creations on Facebook with the Unity {show & tell) Facebook group.

Lots of us check-in there daily.

LINK: https://www.facebook.com/groups/434773279941105/

Thank you all for hopping along with us and leaving comments.

Thursday, October 25, 2018

Unity & Beth Duff Designs Blog Hop!!

Hey—Happy Thursday in October!

I’m SO lucky to be participating in the Unity & Beth Duff Designs Blog Hop today with a chipboard tag adorned with one of the NEW Beth Duff releases, “Choose What to Become”.

Here’s a peek at my chipboard tag!

Of note, I used the flower from the kit to make a dimensional embellishment for my tag by fussy-cutting the stamped image three times using my Silhouette, scrunching them in my hands to add texture, and then adhering the embellishment to the tag using a jewel brad.

To add a little more interest to the sentiment, I underlined parts of it using a black Copic multiliner.

Lastly, I decided to add a little punched heart at the base of the stamped wreath.

The crown is from a digital scrapbook paper kit I got a few years back and I thought it just went well with the sentiment, etc.

Here’s a peek at the entire kit, “Choose What to Become”.

I LOVE IT!

We have TWO amazing Unity filled prize packages to give away. Leave a comment on EACH design team member’s blog in the hop for your chance to win.

{We will announce the winners on the Unity blog TUESDAY night.}

Be sure you take advantage of Unity’s latest promotion.

PLEASE share your lovely creations on Facebook with the Unity {show & tell) Facebook group.

Lots of us check-in there daily.

LINK: https://www.facebook.com/groups/434773279941105/

Thank you all for hopping along with us and leaving comments.

The next one on the hop is the very lovely and talented Crystal!!

Angeline
Camille
Crystal
Donna
Echo
Gaylynn
Karen
Kary
Kris
Mandi
Maria
Noelle
Robyn
Sharon
Shemaine
Beth Duff Designs
Niccole
Lynnea
Annie
Rachel
Unity Stamp Co

Thursday, September 27, 2018

Unity & Brutus Monroe Blog HOP!!

Hey—Happy Thursday! Today I’m participating in one of the most-anticipated hops of my crafty life and am sharing an 8-1/2-x-11-inch scrapbook layout as part of the Unity & Brutus Monroe Blog Hop. YES!

Here’s a peek at the layout using all four of the NEW background stamps rolling out for today’s hop.

I used Spilled Paint, Barn Wall, Hit the Brick, and Dance with Denim on my layout above simply by stamping them onto cardstock and using my Silhouette to cut out the various circles on the layout and strips that make the border on the bottom of the layout. You could also utilize a punch if that’s what you have in your crafty arsenal. Of note, the strips were adhered to my layout using a zig-zag stitch.

To save time and energy, but mostly to be happy with the end results, I used a sketch I found online at https://www.studiocalico.com/blog. They have quite a few sketches I use from time to time.

The selfie of my daughter and me in the layout was taken during a concert at the Ironstone Amphitheatre in Murphys, California, this past August when we saw Bush, The Cult, and Stone Temple Pilots. We had a blast together. It was a great show and a beautiful venue to relax and sip wine. I’m definitely going there again. Check it out if you live nearby.

Here’s a close-up of the layout.

These background stamps are so versatile. You can use them on all of your craft projects including cards, mixed media canvases, tags—you name it. I really don’t know which one is my favorite. That’s why I used them all.

LOOK!!
We have FOUR amazing Unity filled prize packages WORTH $100 each to give away. Leave a comment on EACH hopper’s blog listed below for your chance to win. PLUS join us for our Instagram (@unitystampco) hop. Leave a comment on each of the hopper’s instagram posts for an EXTRA chance to win.

{Winners will be announced on the Unity Blog Tuesday, October 2nd.}

Be sure you take advantage of Unity’s latest promotion.

PLEASE share your lovely creations on Facebook with the Unity {show & tell) Facebook group.

Lots of us check-in there daily.

LINK: https://www.facebook.com/groups/434773279941105/

Thank you all for hopping along with us and leaving comments.

The next one on the hop is the very lovely and talented Donna!!

Amanda
Angeline
Camille
Donna
Echo
Gaylynn
Heather
Karen
Lisa
Mandi
Maria
Noelle
Robyn
Sharon
Shemaine
Stephanie
Brutus Monroe
Berina
Heather
Jess
Lauren
Marie Nicole
Sharon
Waleska
Unity Stamp Co

Thursday, July 26, 2018

Unity’s July 2018 Blog Hop!

How’s July been treating you all? I hope you’ve found some time to stamp and create with some Unity stamps. Just hide inside with the air conditioner going, sipping a cold drink, and get your stamp-on. It sounds lovely!

For this month’s hop, I’m sharing a couple mixed media chipboard tags I put together using a couple of the new releases with this month’s SMAK kit.

Here’s a tag using one of Angie Blom’s NEW Angie Girls, Emerson.

I also incorporated this month’s SMAK Kit in the title and with stamping the stars. You could make such a cool background with the stars in no time at all.

One of my most favorite things to do with the Angie Girls is photo piecing. That’s when I manipulate a selfie and piece it in the blank space of the Angie Girl.

Here’s another look at my tag.

Here's a peek at the Emerson Kit and this month's SMAK Kit.

Here’s the other chipboard tag I completed using the “Always Had My Heart” kit by Tierra Jackson.

Sometimes I like to accessorize the stamps with hats. That’s what I did with this snow person. I found the bunny-eared fedora photo online. Then I printed-and-cut it using my Silhouette, adhered it to chipboard, and popped it from the snow person using dimensional dots.

This is such a sweet little image. So adorable!

Here’s another photo of the above tag.

Here's a peek at Tierra Jackson's kit I used above.

We have TWO amazing Unity filled prize packages to giveaway. Leave a comment on EACH blog in the hop (including the Unity blog) for your chance to win.

PRIZE WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED MONDAY NIGHT

Be sure you take advantage of Unity’s latest promotion.

PLEASE share your lovely creations on Facebook with the Unity {show & tell) Facebook group.

Lots of us check-in there daily.

LINK: https://www.facebook.com/groups/434773279941105/

Thank you all for hopping along with us and leaving comments.

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Unity’s June 2018 Blog Hop

Greetings from my craft room this lovely June! I hope you all are enjoying summer weather and good times with friends and family.

For this month’s hop, I’m sharing a 5-x-7-inch mixed media canvas I put together using one of the NEW sets from the Graciellie release.

QUICK PROCESS: First I applied some distress paint to the edges of the canvas and allowed time for it to dry. I stamped right onto printed tissue paper using solvent ink and adhered the stamped/printed tissue paper to the canvas with gel medium (allow time to dry). I framed the canvas with some Faber-Castell Pitt Artist pens and filled it in here and there with distress ink and acrylic paint. I paper-pieced four of the flower portions of the stamp, fussy cut them, machine-sewed a button in the middle, and crinkled it to give it some dimension and interest. It was adhered to the canvas using a dimensional zot.

Here’s another picture of the canvas from a different perspective.

This is such a lovely stamp set. It’s my favorite from this release.

We have TWO amazing Unity filled prize packages to giveaway. Leave a comment on EACH blog in the hop (including the Unity blog) for your chance to win.

PRIZE WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED MONDAY NIGHT

Be sure you take advantage of Unity’s 10th Birthday Celebration promotion!

PLEASE share your lovely creations on Facebook with the Unity {show & tell) Facebook group.

Lots of us check-in there daily.

LINK: https://www.facebook.com/groups/434773279941105/

Thank you all for hopping along with us and leaving comments.

Tuesday, May 01, 2018

Unity’s 10th Birthday Celebration Blog Hop!

HAPPY Birthday! Wow—10 Years. Congratulations to everyone at Unity Stamp Company!

For this month’s hop, I’m sharing a 5-x-7-inch mixed media canvas I put together using the NEW Obsessed with Florals Background Kit created by Angie Blom with a sentiment from this month’s Kit of the Month.

QUICK PROCESS: First I applied some distress paint to the canvas and allowed time for it to dry. I stamped right onto printed tissue paper and adhered the stamped/printed tissue paper to the canvas with gel medium (allow time to dry). I framed the background stamp with some Faber-Castell Pitt Artist pens and filled it in here and there with distress ink and acrylic paint. I stamped the sentiment and fussy cut it, so that the format of the sentiment is how you see it on the canvas. Then I adhered a die cut heart and wrapped the canvas with some jute twine.

Here’s a peek at the kit.

Here’s a look—see at another canvas I created earlier this month. I believe this one is 8-x-10-inches.

The butterfly was a recent Unity freebie and the sentiment is from last month’s Layers of Life kit.

We have TWO amazing Unity filled prize packages to giveaway. Leave a comment on EACH blog in the hop (including the Unity blog) for your chance to win.

PRIZE WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED MONDAY NIGHT

Be sure you take advantage of Unity’s 10th Birthday Celebration promotion!

PLEASE share your lovely creations on Facebook with the Unity {show & tell) Facebook group.

Lots of us check-in there daily.

LINK: https://www.facebook.com/groups/434773279941105/

Thank you all for hopping along with us and leaving comments.

Thursday, April 12, 2018

April 2018 Unity Stamp Company HOP!

Hey!

For this month’s hop, I’m sharing a 5-x-7-inch mixed media canvas I happily put together using the NEW Cuddlebug Platypus Kit that was created by Tierra Jackson.

Here’s a peek at the CUTEST kit.

When I was creating this, I was feeling a bit sassy and wanted that feeling to extend to my canvas. I wanted to accessorize and make things extra special. With this cute little image by Tierra, I decided to give it a little unexpected attitude using photo accessories I found online and then used them to photo-piece the platypus.

How do you like it?

Yay or Nay?

How do you get your feelings to transfer to your creations?

I also utilized this month’s Kit of the Month on my canvas, using the sentiment, background stamp, and bee. I thought it just went with the sass of my platypus. The rest of the background is a combination of acrylic paint with printed tissue paper.

Well, I hope I’ve inspired you to accessorize a Unity stamp once in a while and would love to see everyone’s take on it. I mean he’s just even cuter now because he’s MINE.

I think I’m going to try and fold in some unique accessories for future projects. It’s unexpected and I’m quite looking forward to it.

We have TWO amazing Unity filled prize packages to giveaway. Leave a comment on EACH blog in the hop (including the Unity blog) for your chance to win.

PRIZE WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED MONDAY NIGHT

Be sure you take advantage of Unity’s NEWEST promotion!

PLEASE share your lovely creations on Facebook with the Unity {show & tell) Facebook group.

Lots of us check-in there daily.

LINK: https://www.facebook.com/groups/434773279941105/

Thank you all for hopping along with us and leaving comments.

Monday, March 12, 2018

March 2018 Unity Stamp Company HOP!

It’s almost Spring where I live and we’re experiencing very nice Spring’ish weather today—blue skies, fluffy white clouds, and mild temperatures. Later tonight, clouds will be rolling in and we’ll still be experiencing Spring weather, just the wet type tomorrow and through the rest of the week.

I LOVE rain. Let it RAIN!

For today’s hop, I’m sharing a chipboard tag I made using the latest AngieGIRL--Adella.

LOOK!
I’m a mermaid!

As most of you know, I like to use the AngieGirls as a paper doll canvas and insert my selfies in the blank space of their faces. THIS is my favorite crafting experience. It makes me giddy really.

Basically, you scan the stamped AngieGirl into photo editing software and insert the selfie into the blank face portion of the stamp. I usually make my selfie black and white and skew it a bit here and there to ensure a good fit in the stamped image. You know, so I look cute and stuff.

I paper-piece it with digital scrapbook papers and/or color it by various means of markers, pencils, etc., and then my Silhouette Cameo does the fussy cutting of the image and sentiment. Then I just LOVE to layer my tags and use dimensional dots to pop things up here and there.

My mini crafty room is like a playful carnival sometimes.

Here’s another view of my chipboard tag.

LOOK!
I’m a mermaid (again)!

Here’s a peek at the entire kit, Adella by Angie Blom:

We have TWO amazing Unity filled prize packages to giveaway. Leave a comment on EACH blog in the hop (including the Unity blog) for your chance to win.

PRIZE WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED MONDAY NIGHT

Be sure you take advantage of Unity’s NEWEST promotion!

PLEASE share your lovely creations on Facebook with the Unity {show & tell) Facebook group.

Lots of us check-in there daily.

LINK: https://www.facebook.com/groups/434773279941105/

Thank you all for hopping along with us and leaving comments.

Thursday, February 08, 2018

February 2018 Unity Stamp Company HOP!

Happy Hop Day, Unity enthusiasts!

For today’s hop, I’m sharing a 5-x-7-inch mixed media canvas I made using Tierra Jackson’s latest stamp set, “All Cylinders”!

To begin, I painted my canvas using white acrylic paint. While the paint was drying, I printed my collaged background, using digital papers and accents by Glitz Girls, onto tissue paper. Once that was printed, I heat set it using my heat tool. I adhered my tissue paper background onto the canvas using gel medium and used my heat tool to help that dry. Then I applied more gel medium over the top. Using a black Faber-Castell Pitt pen, I doodled the border around the canvas. The sentiment embellishments were printed onto photo paper and adhered to the canvas using adhesive. The car was paper pieced and adhered to the canvas using 3D Zots.

Here’s a peek at the entire kit:

Last month, I shared on the Unity Blog an 8-1/2-x-11-inch scrapbook layout I created using last month’s Uniquely Unity stamp set, “Hello My Dear Friend”.

I decided to pair that elegant set with a recent photo of my daughters. It was my youngest daughter, Gwen’s, first Winter Formal dance of high school. Gwen is on the right. Brandi, my oldest daughter, jumped in for a picture wearing the dress she wore to her Winter Formal when she was in high school. I was smitten with the photo.

Somewhere I have an original photo of the two of them from Brandi’s dance when Gwen was just a wee little thing posing with her big sister. I’m hoping to scrap it with this one someday, kind of a cute side-by-side comparison/then-and-now kinda thing. What do you think? I’d love to hear some feedback.

Here’s a close-up of the layout.

TIP: You can fussy cut a sentiment if you just need one of the words for your project. “Hello” was fussy cut from the sentiment that was in last month’s Uniquely Unity set.

We have TWO amazing Unity filled prize packages to giveaway. Leave a comment on EACH blog in the hop (including the Unity blog) for your chance to win.

PRIZE WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED MONDAY NIGHT

Be sure you take advantage of Unity’s NEWEST promotion!

PLEASE share your lovely creations on Facebook with the Unity {show & tell) Facebook group.

Lots of us check-in there daily.

LINK: https://www.facebook.com/groups/434773279941105/

Thank you all for hopping along with us and leaving comments.

Thursday, January 11, 2018

Unity’s FIRST Hop of 2018!

HAPPY New Year to you all--I hope your holiday wishes came true!

Today I’m sharing a couple of stamping projects I completed using some Unity Stamp Company stamp sets.

Here’s a tag I put together using a NEW stamp set by Tierra Jackson entitled, “Lift Me Up Birdies”. SO cute!

I envisioned these little guys wearing Hawaiian/Aloha shirts for some silly reason, so that’s what I did. They were paper-pieced with photos of my favorite Hawaiian shirts. It made ME giggle. What would you do with them? I can’t wait to see!

Here’s a peek at the stamp set by Tierra Jackson.

Here’s another photo of the same tag.

Next is an 8-1/2-x-11-inch scrapbook page I did in December for the Unity blog featuring the December SMAK Kit: “Let it Go” with a photo I recently took of my daughters during lunch at Ariel’s Grotto in California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California, with one of their favorite princesses, Belle. Dream Come True!

You can use Unity SMAK kits/LOL kits to help create unique scrapbook pages, cards, mixed media, and everything in between.

To begin my scrapbook layout, I chose a scrapbook sketch I found online, edited/printed my picture, and then just stamped using a sentiment and images from this month’s SMAK Kit. Voila! If you’re anything like me, you may be a bit behind on scrapbooking 2017 memories. I plan on doing more scrapbooking this coming year. I hope my scrapbook page inspired you to get caught up on your scrapbooking or to START! You just need pictures, patterned paper or cardstock, and stamps. Unity Stamps!!

We have TWO amazing Unity filled prize packages to giveaway. Leave a comment on EACH blog in the hop (including the Unity blog) for your chance to win.

PRIZE WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED MONDAY NIGHT