~ September 2026 - Friends of Unity Blog Hop ~ Anything But a Card!

 

Hello crafty friends and welcome to my stop on the Friends of Unity September 2026 Blog Hop! Our theme this month is "Anything But a Card."

This is always a fun prompt to get the creative juices flowing! At first you think "how hard could this be?" The next thing you know you are thinking...."what in the world am I going to make?!?!" Pinterest is my best friend....so is my daughter! She wanted to create an art piece for her dorm room with a jean pocket to hold sunglasses and other stuff. Since I had to cut up a pair of jeans for that project, I decided to finally create a junk journal! No idea what I'm doing! 😆

I found an old journal that I had to tear out a few pages that were one of my kids school notes but then all was good! I tore the insides out and then covered the outside with some denim! I added a few bits and baubles, likely will add more! Covered the inside cover with a scrap piece of pink gingham fabric. Lots of glue and "gravity" to get all the glue to dry it's finally ready for page production!

Again, no real direction, just remembering some of the videos I had seen come across my feeds....I ink smooshed, then added a printed dictionary page that has words like: journal and journey. I then stamped the typewriter from the June 2023 Kit of the Month {from the countryside}. The butterfly was in a Unity thank you gift. The tags, brads and button are from stash. The journaling stickers at the bottom are from a Tim Holtz metallic sticker book.

Next page is a couple pages back in the book. I started with another dictionary page with words like: love, love-bird, lovable. Torn edges, inked with salvaged patina. I then cut the word "love" out with a heart die from Unity (now appears to be discontinued). Inked that heart with spun sugar. Stamped and die cut the beautiful  Seraphim Wings. Lots of colors on this giant butterfly! Stamped the "love" stamp from that set, with seedless preserves and then second and third and fourth generation to fade it out. "Hello" and "Beautiful" are both from the September 2023 KOM {harvest hues}. I added a button and then flicked onto the page, picket fence distress stain, black soot distress stain, antiqued bronze distress mica spray. 

Well, that may be about as much as my brain can handle without a plan 🤣 onto the next project!

I went looking for an idea of what could come next, then I found the cutest little album (link is here) posted to Pinterest in 2012!

As you can see I started with the postage stamp nesting dies and just went from there.   I cut 6 "pages" out of some cardboard mailers. This made 10 pages for photos. 

Lots of dies used on these....in addition to the postage stamp dies, I used the make a tag die set, the scallops and squares, scallops and arches, scallops and rectangles,  scallops and banners, and scallops andcircles.

Stamps sets used are May 2026 Kit of the Month oh baby KOMpanion set, twinkle twinkle itty bitty (retired), fairy from 2024 Advent Calendar, sentiment from Twinkleheart, wild about you (giraffe) itty bitty (retired).  Papers from several kits too...cozy textiles (WK 10/2020), hydrangea harmony (WK 6/2024), enveloped in love (WK 3/2022), cloud hopper chronicles (WK 6/2023), pastel gingham perfection (WK 3/2024).

I managed to get two albums finished! WHEW! The boy album is not quite as elaborate, but that's how boys are anyway! LOL

I started the same way with the die cut cardboard using the postage stamp nesting dies. Next I made each page! Using similar stamps and Unity papers. Some additional sets used were "hello sweet baby" sentiment is from a retired itty bitty called sweet elle. Additional paper packs used are Fields of Summer (WK 9/2021).

I am absolutely in love with these two albums! I feel that there will be more in my future! 🤣

Thanks for visiting! Hope you are inspired by the many talented ladies sharing their blogs! To start at the beginning, you can visit my friend Crystal. Ready to move on... Rachel is next, enjoy!