Growing in Unity Day 4

I can’t believe I’m already at DAY 4!!! This week is truly flying by and I’m so grateful for this opportunity from Unity Stamp Co. I love going into my craft room and just pulling everything out and playing. Sometimes I feel the need to get crafty, but I don’t have a project in mind. Those days, I’ll pull up Pinterest and search whatever medium I want to play with and just scroll through until I see something that inspires me. Other times, I know I have a project coming up that I want to prepare. That was the case for today’s projects.

This year, I decided to do December Daily. I bought all the things to be prepared and I look forward to working with them, but I wanted more stamping. My October 2020 KOTM, Hello Winter Days, arrived just in time! This kit had some great images to prepare journal cards, die cuts and backgrounds for my project.

I also pulled out a few other stamps to work on this project that I’m keeping in an iris project case so I don’t have to go searching for everything when the time comes.

I pulled out my all-time favorite kit for Christmas stamping, September 2015 KOTM, Our Hearts to Yours and stamped out the decorative lightbulbs. I had initially planned to do a card with these. I grabbed some cardstock panels that I have pre-cut and stamped the ornaments with Versamark ink and then added snowflake tinsel embossing powder and heat embossed them. I stamped a sentiment from the same kit and thats where I should have left it to send as a card…I’ll most likely create this same card and just add some sequin embellishments to send out this season.

What I actually did next was pull out my Distress Oxide inks in Hickory Smoke, Aged Mahogany, Forest Moss, Candied Apple and Lucky Clover. I used a smaller blending brush and blended ink over just the ornaments. I used the Hickory Smoke for the hanging stem and then alternated my red and green shades. I then used a microfiber cloth to buff the excess ink from the embossing. I repeated the process for the second card base I had prepared as well. I loved how the ornaments looked, but I didn’t like them as a whole card, so I fussy cut them out to use as embellishments for my Christmas pages.

Next, since I was moving down this path of creating for the Christmas album, I decided to make some 3×4 and 4×6 cards for my pocket pages. I pulled out some navy blue, dark red and dark green cardstock to work with in addition to my white cardstock. When I cut an 8.5×11 piece of card stock, I end up with 2-4×6 cards and 2-3×4 cards with a few scraps left. Whenever I have decent sized scraps, I put them into a drawer to use while card-making. Anything smaller than a sentiment strip, I let go once I’m finishing crafting for the day. I pulled out my embossing powders and heat gun again along with my MISTI, Versamark ink, Versafine onyx black ink and got busy. I left quite a bit of space for journaling or embellishing when I put the album together on several of the 4×6 cards.

I also pulled out Presents X 5, Poinsettia Wishes, Magical Holiday, Caught Under the Mistletoe, Forever and Ever, and Take the Moment. I ended up preparing quite a few cards for my album and may end up using some of them in my full-size scrapbook or even for creating cards next year!

I always love the look of rose gold embossing powder on a navy blue. For my other card pictured, I stamped the image with Versamark ink and let it dry without adding anything else. It makes it appear like a tone-on-tone stamping technique.

Here, I stamped the scooter and wagon in Versafine onyx black ink. I used my stormy sky, weathered wood and hickory smoke distress oxide inks to blend over the wagon image and forest moss with evergreen bough for the ground area. I may color the scooter in later with my Tombow markers, or just leave it black & white. The mug was embossed with a dark red Hampton Arts embossing powder. The ornament was also embossed in the same rose gold powder from above – not quite the same effect, but still quite pretty. The Peace, Love, Joy, Noel was stamped first in Versafine onyx black, then Versamark and a clear glitter embossing powder. Next I used forest moss, evergreen bough and lucky clover distress oxide inks, blended over the entire card and I buffed it out with a clean cloth.

I used a gorgeous gold glittered embossing powder for the tree, and did 2 layers of white embossing powder for my deer. Then, I used the same gold glitter embossing powder on the nose to really highlight it.

I had so much fund creating these cards, I may just have to do this for any albums I plan to work on in the future! I’m pretty sure I’ll go back into my craftroom and create more when I find some spare time!

I was able to run a few of the scrap pieces of cardstock through my Xyron sticker maker to embellish the simple stamping.

I used stormy sky and weathered wood distress oxide inks with a blending brush on the tree card and left the ornament card black for now – I may color the ornaments in later when I see what picture I pair with it.

I love the detail of the tree-lined road and thought a simple sentiment would really make a great card.

I set up 2 iris containers full of stamps and embellishments for my December album so when I want to work on the project, all I have to do is pull them out and get to work.

I hope you enjoy looking through this project. I’m so excited to have so much of the leg work done already and I can’t wait to work through my album next month! Please take the time to check out Unity Stamps – there are so many other Christmas themed stamps than what I’ve shown here and they are all wonderful!

Thank you so much for stopping today. Be sure to leave a comment each day to be entered into a giveaway offered by Unity Stamp Co. They are giving away 2 grab bags full of their stamps at the end of my week. Each comment you leave will give you an entry into the drawing. Tomorrow will be my last post, but there are so many other great ladies that will be creating over the remaining weeks in 2020, be sure to check them out as well!