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!

My Sweet Petunia

Heather Hoffman

Ilina Crouse

Echo Noble

Jeanne Streiff

Angie Blom

Maureen Wong

Kary Lim

Kia Gibson-Clapper

Angeline Choo

Giovana Smith

Stephanie Gold

Lee Ann Barrett

Lisa Arana

Chris Dayton

Maria Levine

Dina Kowal

Sharon Nettleship

Vicki Garrett

Karen Maldonado

Stephanie Severin

Donna Baes

Julie Warner

Mandi Mance

Anna Wight

Noelle Reece

Angela Bode

Shemaine Smith

Tosh Leyendecker

Kris Lancaster

Kelli Hull

Gaylynn Martling

Marci Snee   **You are here

Joslyn Nielson

Maria Sabina

Stephanie Muzzulin

Ceal Pritchett

Robyn Weatherspoon

Unity Blog

Good Luck and happy hopping!

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