~ January 2026 Friends of Unity Blog Hop ~ Case'd

 Hello and welcome to the new year! Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog which is part of the Friends of Unity Blog Hop! Each month is a new prompt and each month we feature the amazing products from Unity Stamp Co.!

The prompt this month is called "CASE'd." What this means is Copy and Share Everything! It refers to the practice of creating a card or project based on inspiration from others. Including elements from the original design while making personal changes. You will be giving credit or "props" to the original artist while expressing love for their work by creating something of your own inspired by their original! The Unity Stamp Co. Design Team is a wealth of inspiration! I am inspired every day by them! My camera roll is full of screenshots of their amazing talent!

This first one is inspired by the sweet Angela Magnuson! She posted this beauty a few months ago and I absolutely love the simplicity and elegance of this one!

I didn't have a heart stencil, so I made one! I used the Stitched Up Hearts nesting dies and a sheet of acetate. The die set appears to be no longer available, but I believe Angela used the Heart of the Matter - Stencil. I used Antique Linen and Vintage Photo Distress Oxides to ink blend around the heart. Next I inked up A Faithful Letter with Tea Dye Distress Ink and stamped over the stencil. The beautiful floral is from the July 2025 KOMpanion stamp set called Meadow of Memory which I inked up with VersaFine Clair in Nocturne. I die cut this panel and another solid (came from a Tim Holtz pack) using the Deckle & Stitches Nesting Die set. I splattered on a watered down tea dye using a water brush over the entire panel. The birthday sentiment is from July 2021 {Front and Center Stamps}...tree of love. Lastly I added some clear dew/water drops and some natural colored twine!

Angela's card for reference.....hard to photograph but you can find the tutorial here on YouTube!

Next up is the amazing talent of Crystal Minkler and April Sarandrea! Always inspired by these amazingly talented ladies! I'm going to change up the occasion of the card and make another birthday card but followed closely the coloring of the image. I make Christmas cards all year, but the birthday cards sometimes sneak up on me! LOL ;)

Started with the Chirps & Cheer (UU 4/25) set which I stamped onto white cardstock with VersaFine Clair and colored with KingArt Alcohol Markers. In looking at April's coloring on the listing samples, I added what looked to me to be white gel pen on the edges of the flower petals too. I then die cut the tag with the Make a Tag nesting die set and the square the image is on with Scallops and square nesting die set. The little tab was die cut with a tag punch from Stampin Up. The papers I chose are from Oh Hey! It's Your Day!  The ribbon on the tag didn't originally pan out as expected so I had to "fix" the top of the tag and try again! :)

I assembled all the pieces on the cardbase and then added the Birthday sentiment from July 2020 {Front and Center Stamps} ...aging gorgeously and some red enamel dots from Gina Marie Designs!

Crystal's original that inspired me! 

I have sooooooo many screenshots saved that I just had to make one more! Now this one didn't start out as a "Unity" CASE'd card, but I made it that way! LOL

I saved this shot mid-December from a Stampin Up post. I am always on the lookout for ways to use up scraps. I liked this layered weaved look, and I know I have plenty of scraps because I save EVERYTHING! LOL

Scraps are from Country Loving, I used Meadow of Memory again, but the other floral image. I also utilized the digital cut file! Colored the image with my KingArt Alcohol Markers. I then stamped the sentiment onto another piece from the Country Living pack and embossed with clear embossing powder.

original card that inspired my card!

Thank you for following along with us this month! Please visit my friend Jane, she is next on the hop! If you would like to start back at the beginning to be sure you didn't miss anything amazing, visit my friend Crystal!

{BYSHC} Falling for the Holidays 2025 Linky Party - Warm Winter Wishes

 Day 3 of the {BYSHC} Falling for the Holidays 2025 Linky Party and I have yet another card featuring some of our amazing sponsors!

Today's card uses three sponsors products and ideas!  

Started with this sweet frothy mug from Christmas Joy Mugs by Angie Blom Digital Designs, you have seen a few of these images so far in this linky party....you will likely see more! :) I colored it in pink and blue, using KingArt Alcohol Markers. The background papers are from Unity Stamp Co. Cozy Textiles (WK10/2020). I loved Crystal's card that she posted here, so I secretly.....shhhhh.....CASEd her design :) The postage stamp nesting dies and sentiment strip from simply holiday are both from Unity Stamp Co. as well! I loosely followed {BYSHC} Sketch 10 too!

I am also entering this into the Jingle Belles Rock Pink Christmas Challenge. Each October, the ladies at Jingle Belles Rock (Stephanie and Lauren) post the pink challenge in honor of October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month! They have offered to donate $2 each for each card posted to the challenge! What an amazing outpouring of support!

sketch 10

Refuge

 I was needing some creative time….it eases my mind and helps relieve my stresses. What a perfect stamp to do that!! 

This stamp is from Unity Stamp Co., part of their {itty bitty} collection. It’s called Refuge. Creating is a stress reliever for me. The New Year should bring calm but sometimes it’s just the beginning of a year of change. My youngest will be graduating from high school in May and then possibly off to college. My oldest is getting ready to move out on his own. While it should be a time of excitement and joy I’m feeling anxious. 

I had created this ink smooshed manilla tag some time ago but it was a large tag, I wanted to make it smaller. I found a card in the Unity site made by Lisa Arana and created something similar! My background paper is from a pad I picked up at Joann's made by Craft Smith. The ink smooshed piece and the brown panel behind are cut using the smallest scalloped rectangle from the nesting die set and then I cut the corners off to make a tag. I die cut the focal piece with the postage stamp nesting dies. Then stamped the image with versafine clair in nocturne. I ink blended around all the panels with vintage photo. Then I watercolored the feather with some watered down distress oxides in crackling campfire, lumberjack plaid and shaded with stormy sky. Next I took the leftover ink from coloring and splattered it on the piece. To the tag I splattered some distress mica spray in antique bronze. The ribbon was wrapped around a gift box we received (I keep everything!) Enamel dots from GinaMarie Designs and twine from MayArtsRibbon.

Lisa's card for reference.

This may just sit on my desk for a while to remind me that God is in control! <3 Thanks for looking and letting me ramble on! :) Until next time! 

~ October 2024 Friends of Unity Blog Hop - CASEd It! ~

 Welcome to October! This month's theme is near and dear to my heart....CASEd It! Do you even know how many cards I have screenshot, saved on Pinterest, printed and have in a file.......more than I care to admit! Let's just put it this way.......I have PLENTY of card designs to choose from! CASEd means to copy someone else's card and to do your best to recreate it or "CopyAndShareEverything!" But don't forget to give credit where credit is due!!  

It took me a hot minute to figure out which cards I wanted to recreate....as I mentioned I literally have thousands saved! Enough to last a lifetime! :)  But alas, I ultimately decided on three.....

First is a card by Julissa Sargo from the Plaid Builder stencils examples from the Unity website. I had created this background some time ago, but it got put aside. Just found it and the lightbulb went off! I did not mask off the section for the sentiment, so had to improvise! I used Journee Girl and fussy cut her out, like Julissa's card, then added a sentiment and a paperclip. The sentiment words are from a kit called Full of Fall by Tierra Jackson, but since I don't have the set (and it wasn't configured as I needed) and I liked the sentiment, I typed it up and printed it out! :) Die cut with the scallops and banners nesting die set. 

Julissa's card for reference!

Next is Lisa Arana's Watercolor technique!! My nephew got married a couple weeks ago and the dress code was black tie formal :/ So I figured a soft neutral card would work since I have no idea what the colors are. I used the same floral set, He Provides, but a different script background...a faithful letter.

Colors I used on the flower boquet are speckled egg watercolor pencil, then used hickory smoke oxide w/ water to blend out the pencil. Next I used some walnut stain pencil and added some shading. For the leaves I used peeled paint pencil and a mix of forest moss and old paper distress inks. Water, blend, mix, water, dab, mix, blend.....

Then I watered down some speckled egg pencil and went around the image and then splattered some watered down white acrylic paint and shimmer watercolors onto the image before I fussy cut it out. 

The background started with a 110lb piece of white cardstock, versamark and white embossing powder. Ink smooshed hickory smoke, vintage photo and forest moss. Smoosh, blend, water, smoosh, blend, etc. Lastly, I splattered some tea dye ink to bring in some dimension. I couldn't find any newsprint that would work, since my background is lighter than Lisa's. But this piece of green polka-dot paper that came in a KOM goodie bag works perfectly!

Lisa's cards for reference!

Lastly I've chosen Crystal Minkler! While I didn't have the exact same snowman, I think Snowmie will work!

The blue on blue on blue, die cut and splattered with white is what I loved about this one! I stamped the snowman onto watercolor paper with Versafine Clair, colored in with some water and distress watercolor pencils. Fussy cut this cutie out and added some shimmer watercolor, which unfortunately are not really very visible any more! Grabbed the scallop and rectangle nesting dies and used the two largest to die cut those panels. Mounted the snowman and sentiment using foam adhesive to pop up! 

Crystal's for reference! Looks like I needed more white splatter! LOL

Ok, but maybe one more! LOL I was going through my saved inspiration photos and saw that I had saved this one FOUR times! :| Who does that?!? Well Tenia has been a favorite of mine for some time. The first save of this one was in June 2022! I love how she uses multiple layers, pops things up, use of staples and washi and how creative and interesting her cards are!

Here's my take on her card. While I didn't have the same rose, leaves or the same washi, the look is very similar! I used Numbers, Etc. itty bitty (appears to be no longer available), Gotta Love Sentiments, the rose is from KOM December 2016 {always been you} and leaves are from KOM August 2016 {open your soul}. You may be saying to yourself...that rose looks different than what's in the kit. That's because I cut it down a little bit. It was a little too big for what I needed so you do what you need to do! Stamped the numbers and sentiment with Versafine clair, stamped the rose and leaves in versamark and embossed with white embossing powder. I then ink blended over the embossing with Saltwater Taffy. Because I used distress ink and not distress oxide, the water trick didn't do quite the job I needed it to. So I splattered on some watered down white acrylic paint. Washi tape from stash, rose gold staples and multiple layers of foam adhesive! I LOVE it!!!

Tenia's card for reference.

I could do about 1,000 more CASEd cards, but that would make for a long blog post! LOL For the time being, enjoy these four and I have no doubt that there will be more!

Thank you for hopping with us this month! Be sure to leave me some love! I get so excited to hear what y'all think! To start the hop at the beginning you can visit Crystal here, or to move on to the next stop, April!