GIU Day Five - Graduation Wishes

Hi everyone! Today is my last day as a GIU girl and this is my final project. My cousin is graduating from college this month and Unity's Graduation Wishes is perfect for today's card. 

I colored the image with Copic markers. I'm very glad that I have both warm and cool grays because if I used only one shade for both the hair and the gown, the entire image will look very blended together and nothing would stand out. Here's a complete list of all of the colors I used: 

(from darkest to lightest shades)

CAP & GOWN: ......... C9 / C7 / C5

HAIR: ..................... W9 / W7 / W5

SKIN: E04 / E11 / E21 / E00 / E000

SASH (Blue): ................. B39 / B37

SASH (Yellow): ............. Y18 / Y13

Then I stamped the varsity letters with VersaFine Clair Blue Belle ink and the sentiment with VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink. After layering with patterned paper and vellum, the card is complete. 

I hope you enjoyed today's creation. Don't forget to comment on this week's post for a chance to win Unity's awesome prize bag! 

GIU Day Four - Lotus Encouragement Card

Hi everyone! I'm a little late with my fourth GIU post, but here it is! This set is called Steps of Courage and I thought it's perfect for an encouragement card. I was actually inspired by the sentiment from this set, and decided to have the black and white image contrasting the cheerful, rainbow background.

I ink blended the background with Picked Raspberry, Mustard Seed, and Peacock Feathers Distress inks. Then I stamped the image onto a separate piece of cardstock and fussy cut it out. After that I mounted it with two layers of foam tape and adhered some sequins to finish off the card. Thanks so much for stopping by, I'll be back with my last post tomorrow!

GIU Day Three - Kissmas Hedgies

Hi there, crafty friends! Welcome to my third day as the Growing in Unity girl. Unity has a whole line of Itty Bitty stamps and I decided to give this Kissmas Hedgie set some love today. <3 

Since the image is itty bitty, I went with repetitive stamping and only colored the middle image to create the highlight effect. I used Prismacolor pencils because the pigment still shows really well on kraft colored cardstock. 

After stamping the sentiment on a small banner with Hero Arts Unicorn pigment ink, I mounted several layers of cardstock and embellish the card with gold thread and red stitched ribbon. I hope you enjoyed today's simple card. Thanks to everyone who has left comments on my first and second GIU posts, I love reading them and they truly warm my heart. :) 

GIU Day Two - Flurry Snowman

Good afternoon, crafty friends! Welcome to my second GIU post showcasing the adorable Winter Frosty snowman!

This little guy is perfect for the upcoming holiday season. I decided to choose a not-so-traditional palette to watercolor him. All of the ZIG Clean Color Real Brush markers I've used are listed below from lighter to darker shades. If used the same marker twice, it will be indicated in parenthesis. 

SNOWMAN: ........................................ No. 303 / No. 302

SCARF (PINK): ................................... No. 021 / No. 082

SCARF (TEAL): ................................... No. 049 / No. 042

BUTTONS: ........................................................... No. 092

HAT & NOSE: ...... No. 050 / No. 052 / No. 070 / No. 061

HOLLY BERRY: ................................................... No. 024

HOLLY LEAVES: ................................. No. 053 / No. 400

BACKGROUND: (No. 302) / No. 032 / No. 030 / No. 038


What is a holiday card without some gold sparkles?! I love splattering gold and white paint droplets onto the background for some extra pizzazz. They certainly make a difference, don't you think?

Then I die cut the panel with Lawn Fawn's Stitched Rectangles die and mounted it on Stampin' Up's Rose Red cardstock. After adhering the snowflake die cuts from the Seasonal Tags Framelits set, my card is complete! I love how this turned out, and I hope you do, too!

P.S. Unity is generously giving away 2 prize packs for 2 random commenters. Don't forget to comment below for a chance to win some awesome stamps!

Challenges Entered:

Dies R Us: Snowflakes

GIU Day One - Watercoloring, Paper-Piecing, and Sentiment Background

Hi everyone! This week I'll be sharing a couple of creations featuring Unity stamps as the GIU girl, and here's the first! The stamp set is called George & Scarlett. It's my very first Angie Girl stamp and I love it dearly. So I thought I'd dedicate my first post to this set. 

I combined simple watercoloring with paper-piecing to dress up the images. I used ZIG Clean Color Real Brush pens, and I watercolored a faint halo around the couple as well so they stand out more from the background. 

Paper-piecing is a really fun and easy technique and I'm surprised that it look me so long to try it out. I paper-pieced the vest and the skirt using patterned paper from the DCWV Fresh Floral Stack. 

For the background, I used the bold Stripe Builder stamp set from Concord & 9th. I stamped it with VersaFine Onyx Black ink and then picked out various sentiment stamps from Winnie & Walter to stamp on top of it. For the ink to show on a black or dark layer, you would need to use pigment inks. I went with VersaMagic dew drops, my go-to inks, today.

Finally, I embellished the card with some washi tape, a couple of enamel dots, and a piece of silver thread, and the card is finished! I hope you enjoyed my creation. Don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win some Unity stamps! 

Christmas Background ft. STAMPlorations

Hello, stamping friends! Can you believe that it's December already?!? Time sure flies, and we have a new CUTplorations challenge for ya!


I was inspired by the clipped notes and decided to create a large postage stamp using the Warm Hands, Warm Hearts set. After stamping the images quite randomly with Memento Onyx Black ink, I colored the them with Copic markers.


I love STAMPloration's metal dies, especially the Christmas ones! For today's card I used the Season's Greetings CUTplorations Dies. I die cut it from gold glitter and black cardstock, and adhered them together. This way, it creates a shadow effect and makes the gold lettering pop against the busy background.


I also splattered on gold acrylic paint to add some interest to the card panel.


After the paint has dried, I adhered all of the elements together at a slanted angle; another inspiration from the cue image! Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope you'll find some time to craft during the lovely holiday season. And if you do, give this fun challenge a try! 

Nutcracker Christmas Bendi Card ft. Winnie & Walter

Hi everyone! It's Day 4 and the final day of Winnie & Walter's November release premiere! Today we are showcasing Nutcracker Kisses and Yetitide Greetings sets as well as their coordinating dies, but I decided to create a scene just using the Nutcracker stamps. (Psst! I did create a card yesterday using Yetitide Greetings, click here to read more about it.)  

This is such an adorable and unique set! The Nutcracker looks especially cute, don't you think? If you look close enough, you might notice that this card is 3D, too! It's my first time creating a bendi card, and I have to say that it's hands down the easiest 3D technique, ever! 

All of the images today are colored with Copics. Since I'm starting to get more and more comfortable with alcohol markers, I decided to try a new way of creating textures on trees. And I'm really glad that I got out of my comfort zone because the result definitely makes the tree look more realistic; the layered flicking texture also adds a different depth to the card overall because for all of the other images I just did simple blending. 

I ink blended the background with Distress Inks, and splattered white and gold paint droplets to add some interest. Then I stamped the sentiment with VersaFine Onyx Black ink and heat embossed it clear.

I'm super excited and can't wait for Christmas to come. Are you looking forward to Christmas, too? I hope you like today's Christmas card and have been enjoying the premieres of this new release. As always, thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Colorful Stamping ft. Winnie & Walter

Hi everyone! Welcome to Day 4 of Winnie & Walter's November Premiere! I'm super excited to share these cute new critters with you! :)

Today we are releasing the Snowy Holiday with Evelin T Designs as well as the coordinating die set. I chose this adorable deer image as the focal point of this card. 

If you've been following the previous W&W premiere post, you'll recognize that I used the In a Word: Grand Merry as the background. I stamped all of the sentiment stamps (except the scripty one) with a solid color and they fit perfectly within the new Essentials: Tilda Cutaways! 

Then I used the Scenery: Dotty stamps to add circle accents to the background. Honestly, how cute and versatile is this stamp set?! I just love, love, love, LOVE it! 

Here is a peek of the new Yetitide Greetings with Evelin T Designs stamp set. Come back tomorrow for more inspirations and eye candies on the Winnie & Walter blog! 

Lastly I stamped small sentiments from each set to complete the card. I haven't done so much stamping in one card in a long time, and I certainly miss it! I hope you enjoyed my creations as much as I did when I created them. I'll be back tomorrow for another W&W Premiere post, but until then, have an awesome day!

Watercolor Stripes & Floral ft. STAMPlorations

Hi everyone! Welcome to November's CUTplorations challenge! This week we are focusing on fall colors and giving thanks at STAMPlorations. I love the cue image (shown below) and was heavily inspired by the bright, yellowy-orange florals. Let's take a look at my card. :)




I'm using STAMPloration's Blossom Sprays #2 as the focal image of today's card. After stamping with VersaFine Onyx Black ink and clear heat embossing, I decided to use my ZIG Clean Color Real Brush pens for some quick and simple watercoloring. Here is a list of all the colors I used:

FLORAL: No. 050 Yellow / No. 052 Bright Yellow / No. 070 Orange / No. 020 Red

FLOWER CENTER & BRANCHES: No. 072 Beige

BIG LEAVES: No. 053 Yellow Green / No. 033 Persian Green 

SMALL LEAVES: No. 049 Green Shadow / No. 033 Persian Green


Then I painted some stripes onto another piece of watercolor cardstock. I used Blueprint Sketch Distress ink. (It's my favorite shade of blue <3 ) I also splattered Twisted Citron Distress Oxide ink to add some more interest to the background.


Finally, I adhered a gold glitter die cut using the Forever CUTplorations die, and completed the card with a small "Thankful" sentiment from Jillibean Soup's Handwritten Sentiments. I hope you enjoyed this floral card, and are inspired to come join the challenge. I'll see you there! 

No-line Watercolor Embossed Christmas Bells ft. STAMPlorations

Hello everyone! Welcome to the Special Christmas CUTplorations release blog hop. I'm super excited to share a cool and not-so-common way to use the new cover plate die. Let's take a look!


I decided to emboss a piece of watercolor cardstock with the die instead of cutting through it; you get all of the gorgeous details, but you don't have to worry about sticking them on piece by piece.


Then I colored the bells, the bow, and the holly leaves with ZIG Clean Color Real Brush markers. The colors I used are listed below:
No. 050 ...........Yellow
No. 052 Bright Yellow
No. 061 ..Light Brown
No. 024 .......Wine Red
No. 400 Marine Green


After that I distressed the edges with Mermaid Lagoon and Chipped Sapphire distress inks. My friend said that the blue borders really pull your attention to the bells, what do you think? I personally like the ink blended borders because they make the embossed details pop even more. Finally, I added a black die cut sentiment and that finishes off the card. I hope you enjoy the new dies and the hop, and I'll see you soon. 

Penguin Snow Globe ft. Winnie & Walter

Hi everyone, and happy World Card Making Day! I hope you are enjoying the celebration on the Winnie & Walter blog so far. :) I love being inspired by challenges and I hope you'll like the one I'm hosting today: the Stamp Images Mash Up challenge! Stretching the use of my stamps and dies is certainly one of my favorite crafting techniques, and I think combining images from 3 different stamp sets is a fun way to do so. Here's the card I created for today: 

I picked out a couple of images from Season's Tweetings with Evelin T. Designs, In Bloom: Elsa's Flora, and Wish Big with Evelin T. Designs to create this snow globe scene. You might wonder where I used the Wish Big set; the cupcake stamp from it is disguised as the snow globe base! I simply fussy cut along the bottom edges and trimmed the top portion. After coloring all of the images with Copic markers, I used my Scan N Cut to cut out the holiday foliage images (you could also use the coordinating digital elements or hand cut them out). Finally I die cut the penguins with Season's Tweetings Cutaways and we're ready to assemble the card! 

The "Wishing You A" sentiment is built from two stamps in the Sentimental: Birthday set. You can avoid piecing stamps though, if you use Sentimental: Winter. The "Merry Christmas" part is from Krumspring Stamps, but since the company closed down a while ago, I'll link several alternative sets you could choose from: 
In a Word: Merry / Comfort + Joy / Tagged: Holiday Cheer / The Big, The Bold, and the Merry 

Are you ready to take on the challenge? I can't wait to see your stamp images mash up creations! 

'Tis the Season to be Grateful ft. STAMPlorations

Hi everyone! Welcome back to the CUTplorations challenge! STAMPlorations is resuming all of the challenges this month, so you'll have lots of places to play at. :-)

Check out this month's inspiration photo!

image source: Ilaria Bagnasco

I decided to create a relatively CAS card by stamping the autumn image from Coffee for All Seasons.

I colored the image with ZIG Clean Color Real Brush pens. The colors I used are:
Pumpkin: No. 061 / No. 023 / No. 064
Coffee Cup: No. 075
Cap & Leaves: No. 046 / No. 044
Yellow Background: No. 067 / No. 050

I added some interest to the card by embossing a stitched square die from Lawn Fawn. Then I drew a frame of white dots with a gellyroll pen and splattered some gold acrylic paint. 

Lastly I added a gold Grateful CUTplorations die cut and that finishes off the card. I hope you'll feel inspired and join the challenge, too. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day~