Just Sayin'...: Growing in Unity {Day 2}

Tuesday, September 21, 2021

Growing in Unity {Day 2}

Welcome to day 2 of Growing in Unity! I know most if not all of us have been impacted by someone in our family, friend group or even ourselves by cancer. For me, I have a Grandmother, Mother, Aunt, Mother-In-Law and a few friends who have all had or have breast cancer. Today's post is dedicated to them and to remind all of you (public service announcement) to make sure you get to your annual appointment. Next month is dedicated to remind people to get their checkup, but I thought I would get a head start....Get those TA~TAs checked!!!!

Not only do I love that Unity Stamp Company has so many amazing images, I have fallen in love with their sentiments. They are perfect for so many circumstances. My first two cards we made with many of the same steps so I am going to talk about them together.

I really love the little dots and doodles that usually accompany Angie Girls and some of the Fashionistas. My problem in the past was, when I would fussy cut the image out, do I keep the dots or do I cut them out. So what I did to solve the problem was, I would stamp the image on the panel I was going to adhere the fussy cut image to and then just omit the doodles and dots when I fussy cut it. That way I can keep them but cut close to the image. Here I used Karen Girl and Hope {Fashionista}. The Sentiments are from Here Today, Here Tomorrow and If It Weren't For Cancer.

I knew I wanted the cards all to match so I really didn't need to use watercolor paper for these two, but I used it for the third so I kept it consistent. I started out by stamping the image and sentiment on the main panel using watercolor cardstock and the image I was going to color on X-Press It cardstock. I have been told that if you use Copics on watercolor paper, it will just absorb the color into the paper and use up your ink quicker. That is why I generally use Neenah and X-Press It cardstock when coloring with Copics.

Next, I blended Catherine Pooler "It's a Girl" ink on part of the panel for the Karen Girl card. Then, I put the stencil down and used the same ink to blend over it. You can see when I took the stencil off, that the stencil got on the image, but it doesn't matter because it will get covered up. (I like that it eliminates the step of masking the image)

I colored both images that I stamped on X-Press It cardstock with my Copics and fussy cut them out. I used foam tape on Karen Girl to pop her up on the card panel. I glued the Fashionista directly to the main panel. Both of these cards are mini slimline cards so, I cut the watercolor down to 6" x 3 1/4". The Karen Girl panel was then attached to a 6 1/2" x 3 1/2" piece of pink cardstock. Next, I planned how to add my sentiment to the Fashionista card.

There are a couple of things I want to mention about vellum. My first suggestion is, sometimes we have sentiments that are big and they will cover all the coloring we just did. I like to stamp the sentiment on vellum so you can still see the image under the sentiment. Which brings me to my second suggestion. I know we are always trying to find creative ways to attach vellum to cards without the adhesive showing. My tip here with the Fashionista card is, fold one side over (in this case the left side) behind the cardstock and glue it in the back. Then, on the front, I use clear glue and put a very tiny dot behind a couple of the letters from the sentiment before pressing it down. When it dries, you cannot see it.

After I attached the sentiment, I added foam tape and attached the panel to a 6 1/2" x 3 1/2" piece of pink cardstock. To finish both cards, I attached them to a white 6 1/2" x 7" card base scored in half at 3 1/2" and added some bling.

For this card, I used the All Things Are Possible set. I started out by ink smooshing the "It's a Girl" ink on a panel of watercolor paper. After I dried it completely, I blended the the same ink over the stencil and cleaned the ink off the stencil. Then I lined it back up on the panel and spread Glossy texture paste over the stencil in some areas. I put that off to the side to dry and cleaned the paste from the stencil so it wouldn't dry on it.

Next, I stamped the butterfly on X-Press It cardstock and colored it with copics. Because I only colored the outside of the butterfly with Copics, I wanted to add something to the inside. I stamped a mask of the butterfly and cut out the inside part of the butterfly.

Next, I lined up the mask over my colored butterfly, put the stencil over it and blended ink through the open part of the butterfly.

That gave me cute little dots inside my wings.

To finish up this card, I die cut the watercolor panel as well as the center of the panel. I added foam tape to pop it up on grey card base. Then, I popped the butterfly up on foam tape and stamped the sentiment on a strip of watercolor paper. I attached them to the card and added some bling.

Copics used:

Karen Girl

Hair: E31, E25, E29

Skin: E000, E00

Top: R81, R83, R95

Pants: W00, W1

Shoes: T0, T2, T6

Hope {Fashionista}

Wrap and top: R81, R83, R85

Sweater and boots: W0, W1, W2, W4

Pants: T0, T2

Skin: E000, E00