Friends of Unity Blog Hop - Celebrating Friendship

 

Hi crafty friends! 

August has arrived and I cannot believe how fast summer is flying by - for me, anyway! 

July was filled to the brim with hot weather, visiting and ... well, excitement (forest fires and evacuation warnings are now going to be called excitement) The month whizzed by since our last Blog Hop but I had a bit of time here and there to sneak in time to get inky, but not much! 

Our theme this month is all about friendship and Crystal kicked things off this month with some beautiful cards to inspire you. (If you want to start there first.... check it out HERE )

 It is hard to believe, but this Friends of Unity hop has been around for so long, I think of these far away ladies as friends and our love of Unity and making cards has created that bond! Finding a little tribe/community like Unity to encourage and inspire each other has been a blessing! And this month, we want to inspire YOU with some fun designs honouring friendships of all kinds. 

My first project this month is a wine tag with a bit of sass ;) Because it never hurts, between friends, right? 

I love bringing a bottle of vino to a girlfriend as a gift, and adding a handmade tag is always a nice touch.
I have a die from My Favorite Things  that I use SO much - and I decided to use watercolor paper to give it that "spilled wine" look with some Raspberry Ripple ink. A few ink "smooshes" here and there and it was perfect!
Next, I inked up Age Gets Better With Wine and heat embossed it with clear. I do this alot when I watercolor to hold the color in place  - I simply used an Aqua painter brush and filled in that wine glass with the same Raspberry Ripple ink. (I am also quite clumsy and I have been known to knock over water glasses etc and ruining projects - so Aqua Painters are great for messy crafters like me!HA) 

I grabbed a sentiment from one of Edgy's sets called Oh Sh*t  ;) A little sassy but fun! I stamped it on some pattern paper and die cut using Scallop and Stitched nesting dies. This tag was ready to add to that Cab Sav I wanted to gift to a friend. 

Next up, a card for another friend.

I just adore all of the Phyllis Harris stamps that Unity has, and this one called A Sky With No Limit is well loved over here in my crafty space - this image reminds me alot of my daughter and her friend when they were little girls - they still have that lifelong friendship which is rare nowadays. 

I inked up the image with Stazon AND a layer of Versafine in Onyx Black... why? Because I stamped on watercolor paper but I also wanted to heat emboss the sentiment and image  so that I could once again use an Aqua Painter and stay in the lines. ;) I also used my Zig Realbrush markers for this one. 

You really use very little water with the Aqua Painter and I have alot more control with it as well.

I added some ink blending around the grass area and also decided to bring out my cloud stencil to add a quick sky to the background. I love one of Unity's newest nesting die sets, called BIG Scallops and Rectangles - I use it alot. And finally I simply added a heart I had in my stash that I had cut with the Dashes & Frills Heart dies - it matched the little girl's dress perfectly :)

I hope you visit all of the stops along our Hop this month and prepare to be inspired - friendship is the glue that holds this world together. Powerful stuff.

Next stop is Jenni's Blog! Check it out HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping in!

Peace Love n' Ink 

Amber