Friday, May 26, 2017

Welcome to the Unity & My Sweet Petunia Blog Hop & Giveaway!



     Thanks so much for stopping by to see my projects utilizing the amazing MISTI, by My Sweet Petunia, and beautiful stamps from one of my favorite companies, the Unity Stamp Company.   


     This is my very first blog hop and I'm so excited to be included in this one specifically.  If you haven't heard, I head up the MISTI Fan Club as President in Chief (totally made up) and am honored to be one of the stops on this ride.  Imagine my surprise when I found out we were spotlighting Unity as well!  I just love their stamps and pretty much stalk their Facebook site hourly.

     Here are my projects I created.  I hope you enjoy them!


     My first project was using Unity's May Sentiment Kit,  ...happy snail mail. It''s such a cute set and I immediately fell in love with it!  I used my MISTI to stamp and emboss my image perfectly.  For a little flair, I put three dots of different colored Nuvo Drops in the mushroom circles and swirled them together using a straight pin.  I think it's kinda cool.  I thought I made this up all on my own, but a friend said she saw someone else do it....doh!  (maybe Jennifer McGuire)




     This little snail is so cute, I thought I'd make a note-card and matching envelope real quick.  My MISTI Creative Corners helped me stamp off my image over the side of the paper, giving me a sturdy corner to work with.  They also helped me create my rough square on my envelope, which I drew over to make thicker.




     Lastly, I used one of my favorite Unity stamps, Mystical Mermaid, to create a card using what I call "selective embossing."  I first stamped on my watercolor paper using the MISTI and black detail ink.  I then watercolored the image.  After I was happy with the look, I took a VersaMarker and colored directly onto the red rubber of the stamp where I wanted gold embossing.  Hopefully you can see in the picture that it's her body and hair piece embossed and not her arms, hair or flowers on her fins.  I then took the same marker and dabbed all the dots to make them look like bubbles using silver embossing powder.




     Thank you so much for taking a moment to look at my creations.  It was very fun to collaborate with these two amazing businesses.

     ***Watch my quick video below to see how easy it is to transition between stamping with thin, clear photopolymer stamps to the thicker red rubber, foam mounted stamps.





GIVEAWAY: As a spectacular THANK YOU for visiting all our pages, Unity & My Sweet Petunia are having a drawing to award prizes for those that comment on every site. 

     Unity will award three (3) prize packs.  One to each of the three winners.
My Sweet Petunia will be awarding winners choice of MISTIS. Please comment by May 30th, 2017.  The drawing will be held at noon (CST).  Winners will be posted on both My Sweet Petunia and Unity blogs on May 31st, 2017.  Good luck to everyone!

     Here is the listing of bloggers participating in this fun endeavor!  Make sure you comment on every blog to qualify for the prize drawings!










Monday, May 8, 2017

Make it Monday 284: Background Stamping with Sentiment Stamps 

Papertrey Ink Challenge

Melissa Phillips, Designer for Papertrey Ink, suggested a wonderful technique today for her Make it Monday challenge at www.papertreyink.com.  Her video showcased how you could stamp a subtle background behind a focal image by using a sentiment stamp.  Her video is found HERE.

Since Mother's Day is this weekend, I took the opportunity to create a card, using this technique, for my Mother In Law.  She recently lost her husband and I'm sure this first Mother's Day after his passing will be very, very hard on her.  She's a special lady in my life and I hope my card, seen below, will bring a smile to her face.

Here's my technique for aligning my sentiment evenly:
I used my Mini Misti and "L" ruler from my Creative Corners to lightly pencil in straight lines.  After my lines were all stamped, I erased the pencil.
  


The finished card is below.  



Supplies Used:
Papertrey Ink stamp set:  Nostalgic Notions
Papertrey Ink stamp set:  Banner Style
Papertrey Ink coordinating Die:  Banner Style
Papertrey Ink cardstock:  White & Harvest Gold
Papertrey Ink Dye Inks:   Harvest Gold, Berry Sorbet, Summer Sunrise, and Sweet Blush

Thanks for taking a look!!!  Have a wonderful week!

Big Junkie Love,
Marci

Thursday, May 4, 2017


Your Vibe Attracts Your Tribe!

     The thoughts that cross your mind when starting a new endeavor certainly can sound like a broken record.  I've been quite nervous to start a blog and put myself "out there" for the crafting community to see.  I've been stalling ferociously.

     Finally, I just told myself to pretend I'm chatting with my crafty friends and let go of the hardness of it.  Goodness knows I can chat.  Now there's just a record of it, with pictures.  (And maybe some videos here and there).

     My first card is an homage to a Facebook Group I started with friends of mine, Stamp Junkies.  If you've not heard of us, please search us out on Facebook and ask to join.  The site is 2 years old and was started primarily due to our love of the MISTI.  We wanted a cool place to share our passion and show what the MISTI is about.  Fast forward two years later:  I've got a TRIBE of people in a crafting community including fellow stampers, business owners, bloggers, designers and friends.  Here's what I created from that inspiration.



     The beautiful red rubber stamp, Quinn Girl, is designed by Angie Blom for Unity Stamp Company.  I think she portrays my feelings behind my tribe and because I love neutrals, I wanted to make a card that nods to Unity's style as well as my own.   

     I began by pulling out my Mini MISTI and removing the black foam insert because my red rubber stamp has foam on it.  Had I been using a photo-polymer clear stamp, I would have left the foam in place.
Easily remove the black foam insert for stamps with foam

     I then stamped my image with Brutus Monroe Raven Detail Ink.  This is a phenomenal black ink that is safe for alcohol markers and it is waterproof, when dry, so you can watercolor with it as well. I love the dual purpose it serves.  In the picture below, you can see after I colored with my Prismacolor pencils, the colors fade the black ink because I can't stay in the lines.  

     Luckily, my stamp was still on my MISTI and I was able to stamp her again, right over the colored image, using VersaMark ink and heat embossing with a black fine embossing powder.





     I added some Martha Stewart Liquid Gilding, Gold, to the feathers and also splattered tiny dots around her.

     I was recently inspired by a video that showcased using fabric on cards.  I mounted her on fabric and then onto black corrugated cardstock.  My favorite embellishment was the letters spelling out Tribe along the side.  These are from Ideology and were originally black.  I painted them with the gold gilding to coordinate.

     The finishing touch was stamping the sentiment on the inside of the card.


And isn't it the truth?


Thanks for joining me on my first card posting.  I'm sure there's lots of practice yet to come.

Big Junkie Love,
Marci









 




Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Congratulations to Iliana Garza Myska

Patent #9,975,909

Approximately 2.5 years ago, I purchased a stamping tool by the name of MISTI, which stands for the Most Incredible Stamping Tool Invented.  It has certainly lived up to its name in my life.

To make a long story short, I purchased the MISTI, have used it every time I create a card, found new friends, started a Facebook Group called STAMP junkies, met my hero, and have been talked into starting my own blog.

Tonight, I've settled on a design and this is my very first public post.  I've been thinking, since CHA in January, what my first blog post would be.  Nothing could ever be better than this.

MISTI received her Patent.  Dreams do come true if you fight with your heart.


Thanks for believing in me Chris Dayton, Iliana, Jeff Mooney, Lydia Fiedler, Julie Brase, Kim Pietruszewski, Lou Wittmer, Gina K, Suzanne Babb-Moore, Mama (Denise), Jessica Frost-Ballas, and everyone who likes to look at my cards or chat about the crafting industry.  

I think my passion is to share my love of stamping, the supplies we love to use to create, the people behind the companies we love to buy from, and the designers who create art.  

I'd like to share my passion with you all.

Chris, you can quit nagging now.

Love, Marci