Growing in Unity Blog Hop!

Turns out that this is my 700th Blog post!

The girls from July and August 2018 Growing in Unity are delighted to be hop, hop, hopping today!

If you are following the hop you should have arrived from Helen Smit's blog.

Here's the full hop in case you get lost along the way!

Jennifer Mitten
Jeanie Marie Hays
Denise Sayers
Sue Nagata
Aimee Phillips 

Helen Smit
Jo Avery - You are here!

Teresa Godines.

For my hop creations I decided to use the gorgeous kit I picked as my GIU prize: Stories to Tell (smak 8/18).

I've not had time to play with this set, so picked out the stunning smaller sunflower image to be the focal point of my card and tag. I think it was this image that originally drew me to the set.

Just look at all the different images in this kit - what a beaut! You can see why I bagged this one as my prize.

I hope you've enjoyed your visit here today. Don't forget to leave a comment as there are two lovely Unity prize packs up for grabs along the route of the hop.

Thanks for hopping with the GUI gals today. Your next stop is the blog of the lovely Teresa Godines. Have fun, and thanks for visiting!

Growing in Unity - Day #5

Thanks for joining me for my final day of GIU.

Today, we are kinda back where we started on day #1 with Whatever Comes Next by Angie Blom. I really do love this stamp set!

This time, she was coloured (with Promarkers and pencil crayons) and cut out so that I could drop her onto a stenciled background. I'm loving grey and yellow as a colour combo right now, so decided to go with this for my grande finale make! The sentiment is from the set, and a few pieces of washi tape complete the card.

Thanks for your company this week; don't forget to comment on each of my posts to go into the draw for a fabulous 25 stamp Unity grab bag! Thanks also to Kelli and all the gang over at Unity FB for giving me the chance to be a GIU girl!

Growing in Unity - Day #4

Holy moly, how can this be day #4 of my GIU week?

For my card today I got smooshy with water colour paper and Distress Inks and Oxides.

I really love this Itty bitty Summer Citrus stamp as it's just so much fun! The image was stamped onto the paper using my Misti and then I heat embossed with clear powder. I used my stamping block to smoosh the inks onto the paper and set it aside to air dry. After everything was dry I went back in with ink on a slim bush to add detail to the glasses and leaves. The cute sentiment comes with the stamp. I hope you like the effect of the limited palette of colours - I always think there is something super-summery about pinks and yellows together.

Thanks for joining me for day #4, and don't forget to leave a comment to be 'in it to win it' when I draw the two lucky grab-bag recipients after my final day of GIU tomorrow.

Growing in Unity - Day #3

Welcome to day #3 of my GIU week! Thanks so much for all your lovely comments, I'm sorry I have a 'no reply' thingy on my blog, but please know that I'm reading them all each day!

Hands up if you love paper-piecing Unity images? Yep, me too! 

For today's card I decided to use this sweet image called: More like a Sister. I achieved a CAS look by using the image of the girls, but I'm sure the more artistic of you could create a lovely scene with a gorgeous sunset - there are so many possibilities with this set! The paper-piecing is subtle here, which I think works well for this image.

Whenever I'm paper-piecing, I try to find patterns that don't look out of proportion with the characters. Also, I think it's a great way to use up those precious little scraps of pretty paper that we just can't bear to throw away!

Thanks for dropping by again today and don't forget to leave a comment so I can put your name into the grab-bag draw at the end of the week! See you tomorrow for day #4.

Growing in Unity - Day #2

Welcome back, it's day #2 of my GIU week and I'm buzzing to share my second card with you.

I think this little beauty may have been a free gift as I can't trace it over at Unity, but if it's gorgeous sunflowers you're after there's plenty right here.

To make my card I selected water colour paper and stamped my image in Versa Fine ink. This gave a nice, crisp image to emboss with Hero Arts clear embossing powder. I used a stencil to create a soft Distress Ink background after carefully masking the main image. I then watercoloured with matching Distress Inks and matted and layered in coordinating colours.

I don't know about you, but I tend to find it easier to water colour embossed images. I think this has something to do with the raised surfaces created by the embossing powder: it makes little 'reservoirs' which contain the ink/paint perfectly.

Thanks for sharing day #2 with me. You can find day #1 here if you missed it. Don't forget to drop by again tomorrow, and leave a comment to be in with a chance to win a 25 stamp grab bag at the end of the week. I'll be randomly drawing the names of two lucky people and it could be you!

Growing in Unity - Day #1

Welcome to day #1 of my Growing in Unity posts!

I'm delighted to be the GIU girl for this week and am very grateful for the chance to showcase some of the gorgeous products available from Unity Stamp Co.

I've long been a fan of Unity stamps and can actually remember a time when you could purchase their products here in the UK (I have the Susie Blu stamps to prove it!). I've swooned over all things Unity for quite a while, and eventually decided to take the plunge and buy the stamps direct from the company in the US. This turned out to be a very simple and pain-free thing to do... Almost too painless, if you know what I mean!

I thought I'd start my week with one of my all time favourite Unity images. Is it just my imagination or does this actually look more than a little like someone rather special at Unity?

Whatever Comes Next by Angie Blom

I used my Misti to get a good, crisp image and then partially coloured using my Promarkers. I just thought this was a different effect to try. The sentiment stamp comes from a grab bag which I won on my friend Gail's GIU week last year.

I very much hope you've enjoyed my first day as a Growing in Unity girl. Don't forget to visit and comment on my blog each day this week so you can be in with a chance of winning a fabulous 25 stamp grab bag donated by those lovely people at Unity.

See you tomorrow for day #2!