Jan 2025 Friends of Unity Blog Hop - Shop Your Stash - Everything Old is New Again

 

Hello again, crafty friends! 

Happy New Year to all of you and welcome back to another Blog Hop with the Friends of Unity! 

We are back with another fun cue to inspire you to create this month and it is likely an easy one for most of us ;)  We are encouraging you to use some of the crafty goodness in your stash - from stamps to paper and everything in between! I have been a Unity Junkie for many years! (How many? I will get to that a little further into this post). What's not to love? Unity is amazing 💕 I went nuts this month because (admittedly) I have alot to dig into. LOL 

Crystal kicked things off for our first Hop of 2025 - if you would like to start with her Blog, you can check out her card designs HERE.

Now, let me show you what I found in my hoard (I mean STASH!!) 

I had alot of distractions each time I went to look through all my Unity goodies - but these two cards came together using NO stamps! Instead, I decided to use my Wood Whittles sentiments. If you are an avid Unity addict you know that we sometimes get a little brown paper bag full of all kinds of freebie goodies - and these two cards are made using a small sampling of those! I love seeing what is included and they always seem to coordinate so nicely! I have a healthy collection of this little brown bags and the Wood Whittles work great for quick cards! 

Next up, another dive into my stash and a little mash-up with something (slightly) new! 

I originally wasn't going to show you these, and save them for another Blog Hop but they were too cute not to share! 

These Cut Apart Sentiment strips were released a little while ago and I have used a few for various cards, but the cat ones were waiting for a moment just like this. They worked great with the debut of Purr-ty Cats stamp set. Minimal coloring again for these cards, and I dug into my older stamps for the chair and cushion images from My Happy Place - I found some funky paper and fussy cut that cushion and then just added a bit of ink blending for the background (Tim Holtz Old Paper/ SU So Saffron which IS an oldie!) The tiny flowers are some Ephemera I had in my stash as well. 

Finally - after a deep dive, I created this card.

I really wanted to use a Unity stamp from my stash that was around for awhile and this is the quintessential red rubber for the theme this month. This is the sweet little image that made me fall in love with Unity (and Donna Baes -  a DT Member - haha) She designed a card MANY years ago using this stamp from the Fresh Beginnings kit (Apr 2009 Kit of the Month) It was featured in a card making  magazine and I was so  in love with it... I guess you could say it was love at first sight! The kits back then had so many wonderful, whimsical images I adored.

I inked up this simple little stamp and colored with Copics, and wanted to give the card a nostalgic nod since the stamp is such an oldie - so this style of card was all the rage back then... 

With ribbon ... and buttons... and BRADS (who could forget those?!) Even the paper is a walk back in time LOL 

I hope you enjoyed going through my stamping goodies with me - and I hope it encourages you to "shop your stash" - I designed a few more cards using some beautiful old Unity stamps but I will save them to share another day ;) 

Next up on our Blog Hop is Jane! You can see what she created for you over HERE. 

Here's a full list of Friends of Unity Blog Hoppers this month! 

Crystal

Amber (that's me!) 

Jane 

Dawn

April

Toni 

Jenni 

Joyce

Rachel

Doreen

I would love to see what you create using our cue as inspiration! Share your lovely cards and be sure to tag me - I love seeing them all! 

Peace, Love n Ink 

Amber