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Friday, May 26, 2017

Victorine Originals Father's day Challenge #3

Victorine Originals
Father's Day
Challenge #3

It's all starts today!!!

Hey crafty friends today is my first post as a design team member of Victorine Originals.
And the Father's day challenge starts today.
I hope you head on over to the Victorine Originals blog and join in with us!!!

I made a Fathers Day card to inspire you.
I used the "man on boat" stamp and "Happy Father's Day" sentiment stamp from Victorine Originals stamp company.



My first step was figuring out what paper this stamp went well with and after searching thru my stash, I found a blue paper that looked like a lake or ocean.
The pattern was perfect. 
I stamped my image in black, going back over the silhouette with a black marker to darken the image. I left the shadow below the boat alone as to make it look more like the shadow of water moving behind.

I then took some markers and crayons to color in the sunset. I added some twine to add that little extra that it needed. Masculine cards always seem to be the hardest for most. But I think what it all comes down too is finding embellishments that you can use for them, knowing that special persons hobby or likes and finding a stamp that is masculine does help too. 
I finished up my card by layering it with different color papers and making those layers pop off the card with 3-D sticker adhesive and stamped the Happy Father's Day sentiment, also using 3-D sticker adhesive.

I hope you were able to find some inspiration in my card to make your own for your loved one, but don't forget to enter yours in the challenge for your chance to win.
Head on over to the challenge blog now!!!
To find out all the details and rules.
You got 2 weeks to enter.


And don't forget to check out Victorine Originals website too and see the amazing stamps they have to offer and guess what if you do place an order, you can get free shipping by using my special code:
AMY'S FRIENDS
That's right, free shipping!!! Woot!!!
Please note: the code cannot be used with a gift card if you win a challenge, but is for those who are placing an order.

ThanK you for visiting today!
Hugs
Amy 


Monday, May 8, 2017

GIU 2017 Winners post and announcement!!!

Growing in Unity
Winners
And
Special
Announcement!!!

Good afternoon crafty friends.
I am posting today to announce my winners for my week as a Growing in Unity Girl!!
And another announcement too.

First off I want to thank Unity and all the wonderful people there for allowing me to join in again this year.

Thank you Sharon for being my GIU partner as well. You did an amazing job and your projects were wonderful.

And a big Thank You to everyone who left such sweet comments on my blog all week long. They really mean alot to me and my future projects. 
I hope everyone was inspired to try something new as that is my main focus when creating.  We all need to learn to think outside the box and push ourselves to new limits.  

So.. let's get onto the winners.


My two winners for this week drawn by random are .. 

Nancy Briscoe
&
Dale Sue Glass

Congratulations ladies!!!
Please send your snail mail info to me @amy_cj79 (at) yahoo (dot) com

Please do this immediately as I need to send your info over to Unity for your prize. If I don't hear back from you then your prize will be forfeited. 
We wouldn't want that. 

If you enjoyed this week, please follow my blog so you won't miss out on more inspiration from me. 
I was invited to join the Victorine Originals DT. I am super excited to be joining in and working with such talented ladies. 
So please follow me so you don't miss out on what great things are coming. 
Please come back and see what we will be up too. I will add links to our blog and challenges soon. 
I will be doing a more formal announcement of this as soon as I can kick this head cold. 

Thanks for visiting.
Hugs
Amy


Friday, May 5, 2017

GUI Day 5 2017

Growing in Unity
Day 5

Well, Today is the last day for my week as a Growing in Unity Girl.
It flies by way to quick.
I cant believe we are already on the last day.

Well, cant slow it down or stop it, so we might as well get on with it.  What do you think?

My favorite project and creation so far and I get to showcase it for GUI!!!

Here is my day 5 creation for you all.



I absolutely love it!!
I am such a Native American Indian lover...
Probably because it is apart of my history, But I love dream catchers and arrow head's and just learning about the history.

I actually will be hopefully going to a pow wow later on this month.  And I am super excited.
It is going to be fun.

now back to my Project.
I love this dream catcher stamp,  It was already chosen to be the centerpiece of this canvas.
I just had to build around it.
I used black gesso to seal my canvas, Then painted it black.
After it dried, I painted some dark blue on it.  I did not cover all the black, but most of it.

I then started adding my pieces. I had these feathers from Creative Embellishments that I have been holding on to forever.  I mean forever.  I knew a project would come up that they would be perfect with.  And it did.
I also painted them with blue and white to make them stand out.
I chose a few pieces of scrap paper from my stash, distressed them a little too.  I had these cool papers, I actually received a while back from a Unity order.  They were apart of my free gift.
I cut them in the shape of a tag and stamped my image twice. Once in White and once in black.  I wasn't aiming for the images to be lined up completely as to give it a different look.
After a while of adding and moving pieces around, my boyfriend was really strong about it needing some real feathers.
I took his advice and really glad I did.
Tthe best advice I can give someone who wants to try a 3D type canvas, is to keep moving and adding and taking away pieces until you get the look you want.
It takes some time, but in the end. It really helps everything come together.
 I added peices of string, and the little extra things I found in my stash.  My final thing to do was give it a splash of white paint right on top. It really made the whole canvas pop.

This was so fun!! I love Mixed Media.  It is messy but who doesn't like the feeling of finishing an amazing project and looking down at your arms, hands and possibly your clothes and really knowing you worked hard to achieve this.  
(sometimes my furbabies like to get a little paint dropped on them too. Its all apart of the fun).

here is a few more pics of my canvas




I hope you enjoyed this project as much as I did.
I had so much fun this week, Creating and being able to share and inspire everyone.  I hope I helped you think about stepping outside the box to try something new.


Don't forget to head over to Sharon's blog and check out what she has created for you all.
Leave a comment Here and on Sharon's blog for your chance to win.  There will be 2 winners from each blog.
So comment away.

Thanks for stopping by...

HUGS
Amy

Products used: 
Unity Stamp company: Without Fear, without limits (Dream catcher, sentiment)
Creative Embellishments: feather chip board
Petaloo: flowers
Ken Oliver: color burst for flowers
Deco Art: Black Gesso, Black paint,titanium white acrylics.





Thursday, May 4, 2017

GUI Day 4 2017

Growing in Unity
Day 4


Welcome back crafty Unity fans.
Day 4 has arrived and if you remember right I had this planned for my Tuesday project.
But its nice to mix things up a bit.

Today we will head back to card making.
Here is today's project.



This photo was taken with the flash o so you can see the sparkle. 


When I saw this stamp, I immediately thought of my Grandma.
She always has loved getting flowers.
Even though, usually it is hummingbirds that scream Grandma, so do these flowers.
I decided to make her a mothers day card with this stamp.
I colored it with Ken Oliver's new Mineral Burst.
Love the shine they give.

Mothers day has been tough for me the last 10+ years, since my mom passed away.  I have had a hard time joining in and sending cards, let alone making them myself.
My mother was and still is my biggest inspiration. 
My best friend, the greatest mother anyone could ask for and plus, she was so creative too. 
I am blessed to know, I got my creative side from her.
So today....
I wanted to showcase another great woman in my life...
Her mother, My Grandma!!!

She is the strongest woman I know... I could tell you stories that would leave you in Wow's and ah's!!!
None the less... She is amazing.
Always has been rooting for me and taking care of me in one way or another, even if it is what seems to be the smallest thing, a little advice goes along way.  So to me... It is huge.  

She is such a blessing to me.
I will be sending this card out with a letter as well as some previous projects I have made, just for her.

Since I have other things to give her too, I also made this tag for her.




It is simple, yet perfect for her and I know she will love it.
I used the same image yet turned it and only used the top half of the stamp. I colored it using my super doodle gel pens. I felt it only needed a small amount of color and turned out beautiful.

I hope you enjoyed my creations today, and were inspired in one way or another.
come back tomorrow for another amazing project (It is my favorite so far).  Don't miss it or your chance to win.  2 winners, 2 blogs... a goodie bag of stamps and all you have to do is leave a comment. 

Don't forget to head over to Sharon's blog and check out what she has created for you all. She has some great ideas and her projects are so pretty.
Leave a comment Here and on Sharon's blog for your chance to win.  There will be 2 winners from each blog.
So comment away.
I am also entering this card in a mother's day challenge over on the rubberneck stamp blog. Firat challenge in a while. You can check that out here: http://rubberneckerblog.com/mothers-day-rubbernecker-challenge-8/

Thanks for stopping by...

HUGS
Amy

Products Used: 
Unity Stamp Company: Without fear - without limits
Ken Oliver: Mineral Burst
The Robin's Nest  paper collection



Wednesday, May 3, 2017

GUI Day 3 2017

Growing in Unity
Day 3

Welcome back for Day 3 of Growing in Unity.
It sure has been fun sharing my creations with you this week.
Cant believe its almost over.
But its not over until its over right?  

So lets get going.....
For day 3, I have a little something special for you.







This is one of my favorite projects so far.
I loved how it turned out.

I started out with a  blank canvas. Using my Deco Art Media paints and crackle paste, I jump right on painting away at my canvas.  I kinda had a vision of what it would look like but really didn't know what my background would look like.  All I knew was it needed to be darker than I normally would choose. 
I just played with the colors
to be honest. 
I added a little crackle paste to add some texture.

As I waited for my canvas to dry, I searched thru my craft stash and started putting things out on the table that may just go.
I had a hard time at one point as I was adding flowers and other pieces, it just wasn't coming together like I had envisioned it.
But I didn't give up, I would walk away for a bit and come back and the next piece fit together.  
I found and old book in my stash and tore out a page, colored it up a lil with Ken Oliver Mineral Burst and added my image.
this was really the base to it all.
Finally it all came together and each piece fit where it belonged.

Here are a few more pictures of the final Canvas.







I am proud of how it turned out.
Remember, you can too do this, it just takes you trying.
I hope you enjoyed this project as much as I did.

Don't forget to head over to Sharon's blog and check out what she has created for you all.
Leave a comment Here and on Sharon's blog for your chance to win.  There will be 2 winners from each blog.
So comment away.

Thanks for stopping by...

HUGS
Amy


Products Used:
Unity Stamp Company: Without fear - Without limits
Love story clips 2012 Smak Kit (I Believe)
Fiskars: Butterfly punch (baby butterflies)
Ken Oliver - Color burst, Liquid Metals and Mineral Burst
Petaloo: flowers
Creative Embellishments: Chip board piece
Deco Art: Crackle past, Gesso, Antiquing cream (Patina Green), Transparent yellow Iron oxide, paynes grey, Diarylide yellow.

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

GUI Day 2 2017

Growing in Unity
Day 2

Welcome back for another day of GUI.
The wind here is crazy today so I had to switch up my Tuesday post for my Thursday Post.  Really hard to take a picture outside with the wind trying to whip your cards around. 
No fun... But we will still make it thru.



Here is the project I have for you today.


I am stepping out of my comfort zone with this project.
I haven't done much when it comes to heat embossing.
So this is a learning experience for me too.



I found this cute little lantern at the store a couple weeks ago.
But it was just plain Jane.
It already had the distressed paint, but the glass needed something.
I decided to see if I could emboss the glass using Unity Stamps.
To my surprise it worked out pretty well.
Just time consuming. 

You stamp with either Embossing ink or clear ink to start.
(sometimes you may slide around a bit and have to clean the glass and re-stamp it)
After you stamp the glass, add whatever color embossing powder you would like.
Now because this is glass, your embossing powder will stick to some of the other parts of glass besides where you stamped.
so you will need a dry paint brush to brush away what you can around the stamp.... this is the time consuming part I was talking about. 
I actually watched a couple YouTube videos to see if I was doing this part right and the idea of using a softener sheet from your laundry room was suggested.
It was a fail for me because when you rub the glass with the sheet, it leaves a film on it.  Had to clean my glass and start over.
After you are happy with your image,
Heat emboss with your Heat gun.
(I honestly was a little afraid at first to apply heat thinking the glass would shatter in my face.  And as much as I still believe this could happen, It didn't. Happy dance on that one)


Here are a few pictures of the images in the dark while the candle is lit. 

the front



back.



Side 1


Side 2 


I hope you enjoyed this project today and it inspires you to try something new too. 

Don't forget to head over to Sharon's blog and check out what she has created for you all.
Leave a comment Here and on Sharon's blog for your chance to win.  There will be 2 winners from each blog.
So comment away.

Thanks for stopping by...

HUGS
Amy


Products used:
Unity Stamp Company - Sunshine makes me happy (bird)
                        - Growing in Unity (Tree)
                                   - Phyllis Harris - Every Breathe  
                            - Without fear/without limits 
Embossing Powders: -Tim Holtz Distress (Withered Wood)
           - All night media (clear)
                                        - Scrapbooking made simple (poodle skirt)






Monday, May 1, 2017

GUI Day 1 2017

Growing in Unity
Day 1

Hey crafty Unity Fans
Its my week as the Growing in unity Girl.
Im happy yo be back again this year to inspire you all to get crafty and step out of your comfort zone. 



Too start it out this week, I made 2 cards with a lil different styles using the same stamp. 

Here's my first card...




This one is more clean and simple. 
I left this pretty girl uncolored for a more clean look. I love the way this stamp looks with a little color behind her, so I stamped the image on a light color Designer paper from Queen and Co. (Mother Nature).
From the same collection, I used other color pages to add my layers to make the imagr pop more. 
Adding the sentiment "You got this". 
I popped it off the card using 3D dots and added some washi tape behind it. 
Feeling my card needed a lil more, I added some flowers by Petaloo. 

For my 2nd card, I wanted it to be a lil more spunky and fun. 




I spritzed directly to the card stock with Deco art media shimmer mister
(Turquoise), for my base. 
I then stamped the image to white card stock and using my GELATOS and water colored the image in with a paint brush. 
Using core'finations pastels card stock I cut it down to size and using just a pair of scissors, distressed the edge all the way around it. 
I added some paper flowers I spruced up with Ken Oliver colorburst and liquid metals spritzing with water to achieve a tye dye look. 
This card is more on the mixed media side but fun none the less.

I hope you enjoyed my projects today.
Hopefully i inspired you to try to mix this up a bit. 
Just wait until you see what else you can create using Unity stamps.
Stop by tomorrow to see.

Now head over to a new GUI girl, my partner this week, Sharon's blog @
dannyandpeteysmom.blogspot.com and check out what shes been up too.

Make sure you visit my blog every day this week, be inspired and leave a comment for your chance to win some Unity!! And dont forget, this year we have two designers each week, please also visit Sharon's here and see her amazing creations too.

Hugs
Amy

Supplies used:
Unity Stamp Company: Kit of the month- without fear, without Limits.
Ken Oliver: Color Burst - ultramarine blue
Liquid Metals - metallic amethyst
Queen & Co. - Mother Nature collection
Deco Art Media - shimmer mister, turquoise.
Core'dinations pastel 6×6 yardstick
Petaloo paper flowers
Faber Castell - GELATOS