Growing In Unity Day #5

Growing In Unity

Day #5

Saved By Grace

I'm ending my week with the beginning. 

This right here was my very first sketch Unity accepted and made into a stamp. 

Angela saw it in my Washi Horse fb group and said that it needed to be a Unity stamp. 

That just about made me the happiest gal on earth.

So what inspired the cross? 

When I sketched it I was wanting an Easter image that brought softness and elegance to the cross. This is what emerged. Everything here is organic yet is carefully put together. I wanted this cross to radiate beauty and to remind us of what a beautiful and generous thing Christ did for us when he went to the cross. 

Jessica Pickeral did the sentiment and font design for this set.

This means a lot to me because it reminds me of our purpose; to Glorify God. I pray before I sketch asking God to guide my hand and give me inspiration. That might sound strange to some of you but He truly does guide me. In this project above, the 'bible page keeper' I like to call it, I used a combination of Jane Davenport watercolors and Arteza fine-liner pens. The long strand of beads is from my oldest daughters bracelet that broke as a young child and I never had time to fix it. The one bead on the end belonged to my grandmother. That is meaningful to me because she used to drag me out of bed every Sunday morning for Church; I hated it at the time. It was she who planted the seed in my heart for the Lord. I will forever be grateful to her for that. I can still hear her voice singing in the car on the way to Sunday school. I miss her so so much. As you'll read below you'll understand the significance of using my oldest daughters beads.

So this... this is my life verse. I have needed time and time again to go back to this verse to help get me through. It's been my calm during so many storms of worry that I have for my oldest girl. (those beads on the 'page keeper' above remind me to pray for her on a daily basis). Just being real with you all here.

If you don't have a life verse, I encourage you to think about where you struggle and need help the most. Google that need or struggle... let's say it's worry... look up (verses about worry kjv). Read a few and write down the one that sticks out to you. When you start to feel those struggles just remember the verse. God promises his word will not return void.

I stamped the cross onto this vellum and then hand lettered my life verse onto it . When you don't have a Bible Journal, vellum is a great way to journal without writing or coloring over the Word. I used my Arteza fine-liner pens to color. The vellum already had splashes of color on it. I had found that at Tuesday Morning.

Remember to leave a comment on each of my blogposts this week and you'll be entered to win one of 2 -25 stamp grab bags from Unity.

I hope you've enjoyed my week and learning about the inspiration behind some of my sketches.

Growing In Unity Day #4

Growing In Unity

Day #4

Here's the Scoop!

I'll tell you about the process of this slimline card before the inspiration behind the stamp.

 This stamp is actually smaller than what is pictured here. It only has 3 scoops of ice cream rather than the 5 shown (I'm not counting what is shoved down into the cone). This was super easy to increase the stack. All I had to do was stamp twice and cut out the scoops I wanted to add.

I used Neenah paper and Gina K Amalgam ink. I find that these work best with the Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. I just used two colors for each scoop to keep it simple. One for the main area and one to darken the edges. 

This slimline die is from Kraftgali. You get a very nice set of stitched 2 in 1 dies. You get 3 different sizes plus two more for sentiments. The price is fair and shipping affordable. No I don't work for them. Lol

I used some Glossy Accents on the cherry and on the sprinkles that are on the waffle cone. You can kind of see them below.

Now to give you the scoop on the inspiration. Every week my girl and I go grocery shopping at our favorite Amish store. They have an ice cream counter with Amish made ice cream of course. I basically bribe Eden with ice cream to behave in the store while I shop. So on our way out, if she behaves, we both get an ice cream. They stack these cones very high. I actually have to ask them to NOT stack it so that she doesn't make a mess. They would have stacked hers 3 times as high and it only costs $1; any higher and its $2.

Eden's favorite flavors include anything pink. ha! My favorite flavor is pistachio. FYI...this isn't helping my waistline....at .... all. 

So here's to summer ice cream cones stacked high!!!

You can get this stamp in the Unity July 2020 Kit of the Month LIFE IS BETTER IN FLIP FLOPS. I have some more stamps in that kit too that you can check out. The beach girl and the flip flops are mine. I also helped come up with some of the sentiments to accent those stamps.

Comment on each of my blog posts this week to be entered to win one of 2 -25 stamp grab bags from Unity!

GIU Day #3

Growing In Unity

Day #3

It's a bookmark!
Thanks So Mush, size is perfect for this type of project (and also slimline cards). The sentiment is from Cuddlebug Dragon.

Arteza watercolor brush pens made this a snap! The splatters help add to the organic feel. I chose these colors because I wanted an earthy yet magical look. The colors are not natural in context yet not crazy either. It is somewhere in between and that is exactly where this little mushroom world is. Polka Dot Orchard  hand dyed crinkle ribbon paired perfectly. I just folded over the one end of the paper and tied the ribbon around it.

So now for the part about the inspiration behind the stamp! 

Do you remember what it is like to imagine like a child? Do you remember what it is like to let your imagination create another world? My sister and I used to spend from sun up until sundown outside... in the woods. I can't believe we weren't eaten up by a bear or some fantastic wild animal. I wasn't much of a girly girl. We would build forts and have stick-sward fights. But none the less we were in our own world having magical adventures.

Fast forward many years. My own children are the ones running through the woods and imagining other worlds to reside. My girl is partly tom-boy and also girly girl. She loves dirt, fairies and gnomes. She is always creating her own adventures to take her brothers on. When we find a mushroom in the woods she is convinced it is a fairy umbrella. This stamp was inspired by her imagination and her love of fairies and the world in which they live.

Leave a comment on each of my blog posts this week to be entered to win one of 2-25 stamp Unity grab bags.

Hope you enjoyed stepping into Eden's little mushroom fairy world.

Growing In Unity Day 2

Growing In Unity 

Day 2

Spring Wildflowers

Spring feels so liberating to me and I like to take walks to look for the very first wildflowers of the season. My little girl can't help but want to pick them and bring them home. The tax ditch near where I live is always teeming with life. It's the place where the animals come for a drink and the first flowers emerge. There is where Eden picked a handful of wildflowers. As we walked back she held them out and said, "Here mommy. These are for you!" Totally warmed my heart. I put them in a mason jar and set them in my kitchen widow. They looked so pretty I grabbed the jar and went to my craft desk to sketch them.

I used Jane Davenport watercolors here. For the background I used 2 different shades of blue mixed on top of my glass media mat. I pressed the watercolor paper on top of it to get this 'sky' effect. After the watercolor dried I used some Prisma colored pencils to add the white and some orange in the center of the flowers.

You can't see it in the picture but there is wink of stella all over the place. I felt like it needed a border so googled doodle borders. I found this one example that I felt would work. So easy and simple to draw a line and add some dots to it. 

This jar is available in the Change The World KOM 2020.

Every time I see it used I can't help but think of warm spring walks, little hands and her big heart.

Make sure you leave a comment on each of my blog posts this week to have a chance to win one of 2-25 stamp grab bag packs directly from Unity!

Growing In Unity Day 1

Growing In Unity

Day 1

 This year I have started the journey of being an Artist for Unity. I feel so blessed to have this opportunity; feeling so much love from the Unity team and my crafty friends. Jessica Pickeral has helped me so much by being the gal behind the scenes. She does all of my rending of images and sentiments for me. We put our heads together for sketch ideas and sentiments. I am truly grateful for the help and encouragement she and Angela have given me.The flowers added to this image were Angela's idea! This bird is featured in the June 2020 Kit Of The Month.

This week I wanted to challenge myself as well as give you all a little background info about the stamp images

First lets chat about the project. 

I have to admit that no line coloring terrifies me for some reason. So... I decided to try it. I figured if it didn't turn out right I'd just trash it. I surprised myself with this one. I didn't even realize that the versa mark would kind of collect the color giving me the lines I very much craved. I used watercolor pencils which made it even easier. I was able to go back and add more color after it dried. If you haven't tried no line water-coloring I suggest trying with watercolor pencils.

If you know me at all you know I have a thing for birds. I grew up raising chickens so it was only natural for me to want them later in life. I get fresh eggs daily and I just love it. But of course...this is not a chicken. lol. I love other birds too. I have feeders set up so that I can sip my morning coffee on my back porch and enjoy them. 

This sketch was referenced after the Eastern Phoebe. Although usually gray I decided to paint it blue. According to All About Birds The Eastern Phoebe is a plump songbird with a medium-length tail. It appears large-headed for a bird of its size. The head often appears flat on top, but phoebes sometimes raise the feathers up into a peak. Like most small flycatchers, they have short, thin bills used for catching insects.

I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about the inspiration behind this stamp. I also hope that it encourages you to create and try something new.

Comment on each of my GIU blogposts this week and you'll be entered to win a huge 25 pack of grab bag stamps directly from Unity!  

Thank you so much for your support friends!

Friends of Unity July 2020 Paper Piecing

Friends of Unity

July 2020

Paper Piecing

I wanted to use my chair,my 2nd release with Unity, from the May 2020 KOM and celebrate the 4th as well. Why not? I made it happen! I don't really feel like I need to do a lot of explaining here because it's just a bunch of paper piecing. Snip-snip-cut-tape-glue-pop up-and stamp a little!

This Soldiers name is Charles Guy. But in my world his name is either Dominic or Pete ( I have two nephews serving). The frame is from a grab bag I received from Unity. Men willing to serve our country are the reason we get to have an Independence Day. So I can't help but take our freedoms and hold them close to my heart.

You could literally stamp this chair on any patterned paper and magic is going to happen! I used Brutus Monroe's patriotic Stars & Stripes paper pack and some random old leftover scraps for the background. The sentiment Forever Grateful is from the set Forever Greatful for our Freedom.

Stars of Worn are on the background and The star on this pillow is the Army star from Unity in America.

I hope you enjoyed my scene building with paper piecing!

Hop along with us and leave a comment on each blog to be eligible to win prizes. I will be giving away a surprise bag of random Unity sentiments.

Crystal Minkler (start)
Dawn Fields
Jeanie Hays (you are here)
Alaine Tanner