Friends of Unity Blog Hop: Kraft Black & White

 Hello everyone! 

It's time for another Blog Hop with my friends :) 

This month we have a few special projects for you - in keeping with our theme and also a few tributes.

If you arrived here via Dawn's Blog, welcome! She designs amazing cards, doesn't she? I am always wowed by her creativity month after month! (if you want to go back to Dawn's card, check it out HERE).

Let me show you my first card this month using our theme of Kraft, Black and White.

I am going to give you 100% disclosure here: I don't know if there is any card that is faster than this one! (laughing hysterically here!) I pulled out my KOTM from almost a year ago (April 2021, called Love Dwells Here).  The branches with the birds reminded me so much of spring (whenever it decides to show up!) and it was paired with a sentiment from the same kit. Simple. Fast. Easy to pop in the mail to brighten up someone's day. 

Next, I went with tons of white space and used a fun technique with my alcohol markers on vellum - by just simply laying down varying shades of taupes and browns with my stampin' blends, I was able to drop alcohol on the vellum, creating the swirls of neutral color. (Fake alcohol ink? SO COOL!) I used a beautiful floral image from Another Name For Love and the sentiment was from another KOTM I had close by (May 2017).  I added just a couple embellishments to this one to still keep it CAS. I LOVE that alcohol marker technique and can't wait to create some more designs using it! 

My final design for our Friends of Unity hop is a nod to both our cue this month... and the world with it's eyes all on Ukraine.

The sunflower has come to be known as the flower of this country in crisis, and its quite coincidental I created this card almost a month ago - before we knew that everything would be so chaotic. It feels surreal. Who knew this card would take on much as much meaning as it does now, 

I designed this card using a sunflower from an older collection (Sept 2019 KOTM called All Kinds of Holiday Love) and I simply added some neutral shading to it, and fussy cut to pop up from the white layers  I added a few die cut grasses and sprigs from an SU die set called Honeybee  Blooms. That is a Tim Holtz stencil that created the  kraft colored pattern on my white layer.  I also masked off a portion of a sentiment from May 2017 KOTM and used Yana Smakula's Spellbinder Die (Scripted Sentiments). 

The world is heavy right now and alot of my last few days have been spent processing the crisis going on in the world around us. As a Ukrainian my heart is in pieces at the turmoil of the country - we are all lifting prayers up and crafting and cardmaking (for me personally) has been a go-to for trying to de-stress and distract myself from that heaviness. 

If you are a fellow cardmaker, you understand what a good thing it is to have a hobby in times like this. Especially a hobby that has the capacity to make OTHERS smile by making something. That's what I love about Unity - even the name inspires togetherness and unison. 

So go and shower people with cards (and some love!) It sounds cheesy but really - the world needs more of it. 

All of my amazing friends have designs some pretty darn special stuff this month - please do visit them all - the next stop on the hop is Kim's Blog.

Peace, Love n Ink

Amber