Unity Blog hop winners

Thank you for all those who hopped in the GIU blog hop this weekend!!! 

All the GIU gals did a fantastic job! 

Here are our 2 winners: 

Marla P. (comment on Carisa's Blog) 

Renee Topping Drew (comment on Amy Martin's blog). 

Congrats ladies!! Please contact kelli - kelli@unitystampco.com to claim your prize!

Unity Blog Hop

Good Morning.

Hope you are all enjoying your summer.

My family just returned from a trip to Vegas and Palm Springs.
Of course we  chose to visit during a heat wave.  When else would we go???  LOL.
We experienced temperatures of 121 degrees.
It will be a trip we will always remember.







Today I am joining the Unity Blog Hop.

Many of the Unity gals will be hopping and
sharing some wonderful inspiration.

There will be a second hop later July 23 with the other talented GIU gals from the last few months.
So mark your calendar.

Unity will also be giving away a price pack to 2 lucky people from the comments left on the blogs.
The more blogs you comment on the better chance to be one of the lucky winners.
The winners will be announce on the Unity blog.



For my project I chose the pretty flower arrangement from the
A Summer Story KOM





I just love the country feel of the image.

Continuing with my goal to use up scraps,
 I used papers that I made my Father's Day cards with this year
I thought they worked with the country theme.

The celebrate is a die cut that I stacked 4 time to give it the dimension I wanted for the card.


Hope you enjoy my project today.

The next stop is Helen Mazengarb blog.


And if you get lost.... here is the line up.

Unity Stamp Blog

Iona B Unny

Teresa Godines - you are here

Helen Mazengarb

Sandra van Blaricum

Pam Nezrick Loris

Amy Martin Jones

Brittany Kohl

Carisa Zglobicki

Samantha Jackson-Houp

Thanks for dropping by



Teresa 

Growing in Unity winners

Good Morning

I'm just stopping in to announce my two winners from my last weeks Unity post.

There was 161 wonderful comments left during the 5 days of post.

Thank you all for all the kind words.

Using Random.org I pulled two numbers from 1-161

Two Sisters Scrapbooking

And 

Amy Martin

Congrats!!!

Please contact me through my profile on the right 

with your mailing address so we can get your prizes out to you.

Have a great week

Teresa

Growing in Unity Day 5

Hello there,

Happy Friday.

Hope you have some wonderful plans for the weekend.  

I think there is going to be some spring rain for us this weekend.  So maybe no outdoor plans for me.

I first want to thank everyone for the wonderful 

and inspiring comments you have left.  

You are all so very kind.

And a  I want to send big thank you to Unity Stamps
for continuing the Growing in Unity program,

Once again

My image today comes from

 the She found Joy kit

I guess I needed some good spring images since we had a very wet winter.

This card is pretty straight forward.

I  stamped and colored this image using alcohol markers.

Then cut out the image using an oval die.

The border I used the scrap cut out of the card from yesterday and glued it to the floral paper.

(I'm being a good girl and using those scraps)

I then made a cutout using the same oval die so that I could seat the image into the background layer.
I wanted to be sure to cut the border at the same time so that everything lined up.  

The oval die set I have had the embossed oval too.  

I usually use it on the inside but this time I used it on the outside to add a large frame.

And added this beautiful sentiment embossed in gold on vellum.

I added a little sparkle to each of the flowers using the glitter markers.

That is pretty much it.    

Thank you for spending the week with me.

I hope you enjoyed all of my projects and found some inspiration.

Don't forget to drop in and see Samantha's last project for the week

at Sammibug's Scrapshack

I will keep the comments open until Sunday 

and will pick a two lucky winners Monday.

They will be posted by Tuesday night.

Thank you everyone!!!

Teresa

Growing in Unity Day 4

Good morning and 

 Happy Friday Eve.  

My week as a GIU gal is winding down. 

But we still have today and tomorrow together.

The projects I have for today are more Mother's day cards.  

Its been more than 10 years since my mom passed away.

In the years following her death, it was hard to even think about making Mother's day cards.

My hubby was great.  He would go to the store and purchase cards for his mom 

and both of our grandmothers sign our names and send them out.  

But as time went by I found it easier to create cards for this occasion. 

Since my mom is not longer with us, I make sure that I put some extra love for the

card I create for my Grandmother who is going to be 91 years old this year. 

We are blessed to still have her.  

In the last couple years I have included my sisters and sister-in-laws in the Mother's day mail.

I  sort of feel that I am passing around my mother's love.  

Now I make at lest 6 cards for occasion.

For today's project I am using the flower from the 

Never Loose Sight kit

I don't own this kit but receive the stamp in a grab bag.  

Oh, do I love this flower.  

I first stamped the flower and embossed it with the Aged Taupe Enamel.

Let me be honest.  I tried the aged silver first but did not like the effect.

I then colored the flower with orange and red alcohol markers 

And used various greens to color the leaves

This color scheme was chosen because my grandmother loves red.  

I then created the background and repeated my stamping and coloring process.  

I find that I create a lot of backgrounds because 

I can't find paper that I have envisioned for the project in my stash. 

Since my sample (practice piece) turned out so well I decided to 

use it to layer the flower and leaves.  

I couldn't help myself.  

I stamped and colored it again.

This flower has become one of my favorite images.  

Now I am thinking about purple flowers.  

And I am pretty proud of myself.... Mother's day cards done a month before.  

That is sort of one of my crafting goals this year.  

Not waiting until the last minute.

Thank you for stopping it.

Please be sure to visit Samantha at Sammibug's Scrapshack

for more inspiration.

We are both giving away a couple grab bags of stamps.

Comment each day to increase your chances.

And don't forget to stop in at the Unity store.  

It is Thursday and there will be an awesome new sale going on.

See you tomorrow.

Teresa

Growing in Unity Day 3

Good morning.  

I can't believe it is day three of my week as a GIU gal.

It is always amazing how fast the week goes when you are having so much fun.

I wanted to get started on my Mother's Day cards.

If you know me, you know that I am a sucker for flowers.   

I don't know how many flower stamps I own but I can't resist buying more.  

That is one of the reasons I chose this set from Unity.  

She Found Joy set 

I was inspired by this piece of art that had these 

beautiful red flowers surrounded by a dark grey background, 

I wish I had a copy or link so I could share.  

It is stuck in my memory.

I use that same idea but not as dark. 

Especially since I was thinking about Mother's Day.

I chose to go with blues and grays.

After I was finished coloring I thought the background was a little flat.

So I dug out a stencil and some distress ink and added the background.  

I used my test piece on my second card.  

It turned out so nice that I could not throw it out.

the only difference is that I colored the flowers a little darker on the square card.

As you can seen I might just bee hooked on stamping on Vellum.   

I love how it adds the softness to the sentiment.

I hope that you have been visiting Samantha's blog (Sammibug's Scrapshack)

Here is the link to get you there 

Remember to leave a comment every day to increase your chances to win

a grab bag of 25 stamps from Unity.

I will have two winners an Samantha will also have two winners. 

See you tomorrow

Teresa

Growing in Unity Day 2

Happy Tuesday!!

Today is day 2 for my week with Unity.

Thank you for all of the wonderful and inspiring comments yesterday.

Remember to comment everyday for a chance to win a grab bag of stamps from Unity.

And you have to visit Samantha Jackson-Houp's blog for more inspiration

Samantha will also have a couple winners at the end of the week.

And please take a moment to visit the Unity Stamp Company.
They also have a fun blog and a wonderful group on Facebook.

For my project today I wanted to add a little fun to the week.

I fell in love with these little owls right when they were released.

They became my impulse buy that weekend.

You Are a Hoot

I find these guys very versatile.
I've used them for birthdays, thinking of you and Valentine's day cards.

For my first card I wanted to use my story book die.
I've had it for about 6 months and have not used it.
We won't discuss the other things I have stashed away.  LOL

I was going to just use the owls but then
I went digging into my grab bag of images
and found the little package, the birthday hat and the sentiment.  

I knew they would be fun to use with this star paper.
I added a little black to the stitched outline just to give a some separation
from the images and the paper

I have also been trying to use up scraps from previous projects.
 It always seems to be an overwhelming job.
I was able to find a few items to use on my second card.
The Polaroid frame was hiding in that pile.

Hope you enjoyed my projects today.

I'll be back tomorrow with more projects.

Until then.....

Be sure to visit Samantha's blog

And remember to to leave comments everyday to increase your chance
of winning a grab bag of Unity.

Thank you

Teresa

I will be entering the first card in the following challenges

Simon Say's Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes 

Growing in Unity Day 1

Good Morning and Happy Monday.

This week I am the one of two Unity gals sharing projects for the Unity Stamp Company.  

I am sharing the week with the talented Samantha Jackson-Houp.  

I hope you find some wonderful inspiration this week.  

Also be sure to leave a comment each day because 

there will some lucky winners of a Unity Grab bag.  

This is the 4th year I have been a GIU Gal and

 I am honored to be a part of such a wonderful group of crafters.  

For my project today I wanted to try a technique I have not tried.   

Stamping on vellum.  

 I chose to go with the birdcage image from the

She Found Joy kit.

I took a class at last years Scrapbook Expo and we were given some vellum flowers to work with.

They were stamped and embossed using embossing enamel and
we colored them on the back with chalk ink.

So, of course I need to buy some of the enamel.  

On thing I discovered was that your images can't have too much detail.  

If they do the chunky enamel will blend the lines together.  
I also found that each of the enamel colors I purchased were not were not the same.
Some colors the chuck were large and some were smaller 

I found that the the colors that had smaller chunk worked better

Next challenge was to color the image.

  I first tried to color on the back with my alcohol markers.

   That left streaks that showed through and the color was not as vibrant as I wanted.

  

I then tried the Spectrum Noir Sparkle markers.  

I discovered I could color and even blend colors a little better.  

These I used these markers on the front of the image

 and I could clean off any color I got on the embossing.  

And the color was nice and vibrant.  

I just had to let the color dry for a little while.  

The first card I used the first image I colored.  

The bird cage is colored with a very dark purple alcohol marker.

The flowers and bird was colored using the sparkle markers on the front.  

To be sure there was sparkle on the bird cage I used a clear sparkle marker on the front.

The second card I only colored on the front using the glitter markers.

I went with lighter colors so that I do some blending with the markers.

I mounted the image with a pattern background.  

I like the softening effect of the vellum and it adds to the dimension of the projet. 

I finished off the center of the flowers with a enamel dots
on the first card and some jewels on the second.

Please take a moment to see what Samantha has made today.

And don't forget to comment each day.

Thank you for stopping by.

Teresa 

I will be entering the first card in the following challenges

Simon Say's Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes 

Coffee Lovers Hop Take 2

Good morning!!!  

Hopefully you are enjoying your cup of coffee this morning.  

I'm here to share another project I created for the coffee lovers blog hop.  

While going through a stack of paper I had from a paper swap,

 I found this sweet tea cup patterned paper. 

I decided that I would use it for a project for this hop.  

My only issue was that the color was too muted and I wanted to brighten up the project,  

In that same stack of paper I found this awesome green paper,  

I knew right away it was going to be a great combination of patterns and colors. 

I punched out the border and then laid the paper across the tea cup patterns and realized I did not like how the pattern was showing through,   

After going through different options I decided to us a strip of vellum paper to soften the pattern just behind the punched border.  

I wanted to keep everything simple and let the pattern paper do the work.  

I just went with this simple sentiment from the Unity company and added a vellum stamped rose. 

Speaking of Unity.   I will be showcasing Unity projects next week.  

Try to stop by because there will be a blog candy.  

Hope you have a wonderful day

Teresa 

I will be entering this project into the following challenges

Coffee Lovers Spring Blog Hop 

Word Art Wednesday - Anything goes

Perk Up

Hello there.

Hope everyone is well.  

There is a lot of fun activities going on around blog land these days.

This week is the Spring Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. 

I have worked on a few projects for this hop to share.

For my first project I wanted to make something a little masculine because I wanted to combine the project with a challenge from the Rubbernecker Stamps.

For me this one was easy.   

At Christmas I picked up this great truck image. 

 It is a Christmas set but I thought this truck would be very useful.   

I did use it on some Valentine day cards.  

The cup image and sentiment is from the Greeting Farm.  

I just love the though of this old fashioned truck showing up with that giant cup of coffee.

Especially on Monday morning.  

Hope you find some time to hop.  

Thanks for dropping by

Teresa 

I will be entering this project in the following challenges

Coffee Lovers Spring Hop

Rubbernecker stamps - Masculine challenge

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge -  Use more than one die cut

Long time..No blogging.

Wow!!!  

It has been a while since I made a post.   

Where have I been?   

I sort of wonder the same thing.  Time definitely flies right by.    

During the month of November I spend any extra time I had making cards for a Caring Hearts Holiday Card Drive.
 I can't remember my total number of cards created but I think it was 60.
My contribution was small compared to the 64,000+ cards they receive
 and delivered to 300+ Senior centers and homes.   

December of course was completing all the holiday to do lists and spending time with family.

January I was back creating cards for the Cards from the Heart Valentines card drive.
 I sent off 80 cards which is not my personal best for this drive.
Winter collected 7,268 cards that were sent to various children's hospitals across the US.  

So I guess I've been very busy.  

So... as long as California does not float away with all the 

wet weather we have been having, I am back to blogging.   

Over the next few days I am going to share some of the cards I created for the Valentines card drive.

  

Usually when I make the cards for the drive I use designs and colors for boys and girls of all ages. 

When I started coloring this card I drifted towards pink.

I decided to frame it in black so that it did not become an overwhelming pink color.  

 This card actually is going to my MIL to send to one of her granddaughters.  

Thanks for stopping by and hanging with me.  

Teresa

I will be entering this card in the following challenges.

Rubbernecker Stamps - Love and Romance Challenge

STAMPlorations - CAS card Challenge - Anything Goes/ Color Twist Hot Pink