~ December 2025 Friends of Unity Blog Hop ~ Mood Board

 Welcome to the last Friends of Unity blog hop for 2025! That's crazy to say!! I first want to thank everyone that has visited or commented on my posts this year. I am always blown away by the wonderful things that people share! I am truly humbled!

Secondly, I want to acknowledge the fact that the Friends of Unity Blog Hop celebrates 8 years this month of December! WOW! Thank you for keeping this amazing hop going!

The prompt for December is this fantastic "Mood Board!" So just as the name implies, it's whatever your mood feels while looking at this inspiration photo. To be 100% honest, I had a hard time getting into this month! As with every one of you, it's a busy time of year! My brain has 700 tabs open at once!  But I finally nailed down what I would share based on this amazing image!

I have been wanting to get some gift tags completed for this year, but hadn't had a chance as of yet, so what better time than the present (no pun intended)! All the different images, colors and textures led me to create a smaller project!

I have a template that I created to print "to: from:" spaced just so to be cut up and used for tags. I took some sheets of kraft and white and printed some. To those I added, to the other side, some stamping!

I started with the kraft pages first. This tag above was created using the three snowflakes from the November 2023 KOM called {festive flair}. I stamped them all over the panel with ink on 3 embossing ink, then sprinkled gina k. white embossing powder over and heated! I used one of the make a tag die set to cut them out. I wanted to utilize the sketch from the mood board (I see now that my stripes are going in the opposite direction! LOL). I cut strips of red cardstock at 1/8" and added them to the front of the tag. The "christmas delivery" stamp is from the 2023 Unity Advent Calendar! It appears that I am missing the smallest circle from the scallops and circles nesting die set so had to use a different set. Lastly I added some natural burlap twine from may arts ribbons!

I used the Merry Christmas and branches from the October 2024 KOM called {sweet bliss of christmas}. 

Merry Christmas from October 2024 KOM {sweet bliss of christmas} and on the edges is the pinecone and pine bough bunch from the November 2023 KOM {festive flair}.

Wanted a subtle background to stamp over, so I used the pinecone and pine bough bundle from the November 2023 KOM and stamped it with ink on 3 embossing ink and let it dry. Creates a tone on tone effect. Next I stamped over that the Merry Christmas and branches from the October 2024 KOM {sweet bliss of christmas}.

Next onto the white pages! While I was stamping the white snowflakes above, I grabbed some speckled egg and hickory smoke distress oxides and did the same thing to the white pages, trying to utilize the grey/cream color on the mood board. Die cut them as well with the make a tag die set. 

The "joy" stamp is from the 2020 Unity Advent Calendar and the snowflake is from the 2024 Unity Advent Calendar! I used lumberjack plaid distress oxide for joy and white pigment ink and shimmer glitter embossing powder for the snowflake.

I also wanted to showcase the warm fuzzy sweater knit in the upper right corner as well as the cozy mug of goodness in the bottom left corner! These two things go hand in hand in my book!

I stamped the ...woven warmth November 2023 BOM with antique linen distress oxide then die cut with the make a tag die set and distress inked the edges with vintage photo. The cute mug overflowing with marshmallows is from the 2021 Unity Advent Calendar and the sentiment, which I cut into smaller pieces, is from Cherished Holly {Front & Center November 2021}. Stamped, then fussy cut and attached. 

When I had the original thought about making tags, I thought I would need to make more things.....certainly "tags" wouldn't be enough to fill an entire blog post! :| WOWOW was I wrong! Seven sets of gift tags ready to be attached to gifts going every which way!

I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season! Come back and hop with us in January!

To start from the beginning, please visit Crystal's blog. If you are ready to move on.....hop on over to my friend Rachel's blog!