So it's St. Patrick's Day and normally many of us are out at the local parade, drinking at a local bar or enjoying corn beef, cabbage and soda bread. But this year, we are all being asked to stay at home due to the highly contagious Corona virus. It's a scary time, I must admit, however I'm going to make this time at home count. Among many other things, I'll catch up on crafting.
Yesterday, I felt a little overwhelmed in thoughts and emotions after we shut our business down temporarily. I went into my craft room to "craft it out," but I just couldn't think. So I grabbed a Kit of the Month by Unity and decided I'd use EVERY SINGLE STAMP. And I did... except for one sentiment!!!
This is the May 2016 Kit of the Month called "A Summer Story." Sometimes, I fall in love with certain stamps, but I know that they are all amazing in their own way. So this challenge was to make use of all of them (not just my favorites). For my first card, I took advantage of the latest "Outside Your Window" Unity stamp that was released TODAY! Adding the beautiful Angie Girl in this kit made it a perfect match!
For my second card, I used an embossing folder I've never used. (Yep... this is the perfect time to take a look at some of your older supplies and give them new life.) I used the technique where you put ink on one side of the embossing folder and then embossing it. I cut out a couple of the butterflies and also stamped the sentiment.
For the third card, I used this beautiful girl and a sentiment. Inspired by Heather Hoffman's (of House Built of Cards) recent blog post on Unity and just took some scraps from a paper pad of year ago and layered them on the card base.
Now the fourth card was just because I was craving some sweets. 🍦Using colors similar to Starbucks, I colored this frothy image with copics and used some old green sequins. I'm totally chipping away at some of these craft supplies I've been hoarding.
For this card, I had summer nights at the beach in mind. The first step was to stamp and emboss the stars with white embossing powder. Once that was done, I used Chipped Sapphire, Seedless Preserve, Victorian Velvet and Antique Linen Distress Inks to blend the background. I splashed some water and some Spectrum Noir Glitter Ink to complete the background. Finishing it with a stamped sentiment, and some clear stars. Layered on some coveted glitter paper and done! Card #5!!!
Here's a little something different. Truthfully, I didn't even know what to do with this frame image. Then, I thought... make it a shaker!!! When in doubt, shake it out!
So I had something in mind with this card, but it wasn't happening. I first tried ink smooshing, but it looks messing. So I just watercolored it to smooth the color out. But then I couldn't figure out how to blend it. So I just went with water coloring the green and the purple, trying not to mix them. Blah! It didn't look great. So... I went back to what I know. I copic colored the flowers and leaves. Still looked weird. Then I added some dots around all the images. That distracted the eye from the messy water coloring. I used a My Favorite Things Stitched Rectangle die and cut out a portion of the card. To add another visual distraction, I added a purple ribbon in a bow. I backed it on black card stock and added it back to the card. Added a few clear dots and it's done!
For the last card, I kept it super simple. Light watercoloring of this image and drew a border to add a little something to this clean and simple card.
I didn't use one single sentiment from this kit, but I'm so excited that I got to make use of so many of these amazing stamps all from one single kit. I have to say, I love being part of the Unity Kit of the Month Membership. If you're not a member, definitely consider becoming a member to any of the four different memberships as it's guaranteed happy mail! 💌
I hope you enjoyed this little crafting while quarantined challenge! I'll be challenging many of you within the week and offering an awesome prize for a few lucky followers.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and I hope you're all safe during this crazy time!
Happy Crafting!