Growing in Unity Blog Hop ...

Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best. ~Author unknown, quoted in The Ladies Repository: A Monthly Periodical, Devoted to Literature, Arts, and Religion, September 1874, commonly misattributed to Henry Van Dyke and Henry David Thoreau

Good Morning!

If you came here from Ginger Pelfrey's blog, you are on the right track ...
If not, the complete blog hop list is at the end of this post so make sure you stop, look and comment on each one!

In early September I was lucky enough to be a “Growing in Unity Gal” and spent a week sharing Christmas cards I made using my Unity Stamps. I loved the challenge of it and I look forward to next year’s event.

This week, I am participating in small blog hop with several other GUI gals to share some more cards made with Unity stamps as well as give two lucky commenters a chance to win some Unity Stamps of their very own!

For this hop I wanted to play with my new set of Unity Stamps as well as some goodies that have not seen the light of day for a while … namely, watercolor paper, embossing powder and Twinkling H2O paints!

After a few trial and errors with my paints, here is my card. I have to say I love how well the image stamped and heat embossed. Even those little fine lines picked up nice and clean. 

Here are some close ups of the flowers so you can see the embossing and the fine sparkle from the Twinkling H2O paints. (and yes, the card really does shimmer with those colors in the light.) 

Supplies

• Image & Sentiment (Unity Stamps KOM 2015 “Halo Dirty”)
• Card stock, base (The Paper Studio)
• Card stock, black (Stampin Up!)
• Card stock, metallic (Neenah)
• Cold Press 140lb watercolor paper (Canson)
• India Ink (Memories)
• Pearls (Stash)
• Sharpies – used to color the pearls
• Twinkling H2O (ColourArte)
• White embossing powder (Stampin Up!

Now comes the HOP part ....

Make sure you visit all of our blogs and comment fo a chance to win a Unity Prize package!

1 Ginger Pelfrey

 http://myheartspleasure.wordpress.com

ME! ---> 2 Cara Malmrose http://creativechaosbycara.blogspot.com/

3 Stephanie Puccini 

Http://stephieree80.blogspot.com

4 Victoria Moore Beall 

https://beallvicki.wixsite.com/nonniescards

5 Anya Lynet 

Www.maiaink.blogspot.com

6 Tami Carlson French 

Www.teamgingerbread.blogspot.com

7 Unity Blog 

http://theunitystampco.blogspot.com

Thanks for stopping by and good luck!
(Hugs) Cara

Water Ballet ...

Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall. ~Larry Wilde, The Merry Book of Christmas

Good morning Everyone!

Today is my Growing in Unity 2017, Day 5 and final show and tell!

I’m sure you can tell that I love Christmas and I love making Christmas Cards! I hope you have enjoyed my cards as much as I have enjoyed sharing them and reading all your wonderful and sweet comments!

Today’s card features another little favorite of mine … a Penguin! Funny little flightless birds that appear so awkward on land as they waddle around on their flippers but perform amazing ballet in  the water! I just love to watch them.

This 5 x 7 card features one of the few penguin images I own and I love that I always get a nice, crisp & clean image when I use this Unity stamp.

Supplies

• Image/Sentiment “Tinsel in a Tangle”
• Card stock from The Paper Studio and Stampin Up!
• Confetti embossing folder from Close to My Heart
• Cross Stitch #2 embossing folder from Sizzix
• Design Paper (unknown) from my scrap bin
• Glitter glue from Studio G
• Heirloom Ornaments 2012 dies from Spellbinders
• India Ink from Memories
• Prisma Color Pencils
• Rhinestones from Made by Me
• Silver card stock (unknown) from my scrap bin
• Sparkle punch from McGill
• Yellow vellum (unknown) from my scrap bin 

If you are interested you can find out more about Unity Stamp Company by visiting their website and social media sites:

UnityStamp Company 

Blog 

Pinterest 

Facebook 

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to comment for a chance to win some awesome stamps! I'll be drawing two names and announcing them sooooon!

(Hugs) Cara

His Presence ...

He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree. ~Roy L. Smith 

Good morning Everyone!

Today is my Growing in Unity 2017, Day 4 show and tell!

For this card, I am simply using one of Unity Stamps awesome sentiment stamps for my Christmas card. I loved how this card turn out so much I made 3 more.

Supplies

• Sentiment “His Presence”
• Card stock from The Paper Studio
• Cross Stitch Ovals from Gina Marie Designs
• Cross Stitch Rectangles from Gina Marie Designs
• Design Paper “Oh Deer” from Close to my Heart
• Gold Sequins from my stash
• India ink from Memories
• Organdy ribbon from Jo-Ann Craft Store 

If you are interested you can find out more about Unity Stamp Company by visiting their website and social media sites:

UnityStamp Company

Blog 

Pinterest 

Facebook

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to comment for a chance to win some awesome stamps!

Once in a Lifetime ...

It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it. ~John Burroughs, "Winter Sunshine"

Greetings to my crafty Peeps this fine Wednesday morning!

Today is my Growing in Unity 2017, Day 3 show and tell!

I also have a thing for snowflakes!

I am not sure why, since I am a Arizona born Desert Rat through and through … I hate being hot, but I hate being cold to the bone even more!

But there is that … something … that snowflakes have that fascinate me to no end. Maybe it’s the knowing that, like us, they are each beautiful in their own way and there is no two alike. Maybe it’s the knowing that, like us, they have a limited time available to them to provide pleasure and beauty to this world…

I do have quite a few snowflake stamps but none like this one. Like my Angels, I love to find those snowflakes that are different from what people expect. The main reason I bought this one is that it is so very different and I fell in love with that one little tiny word “believe”.

For this 5 x7 card, I used an embossing folder for the background, lightly tapped with some VersaMark and embossed with gold embossing powder. The image and sentiment were also stamped and heat embossed.

Supplies

• Image/Sentiment “Magical Days”
• Card stock from The Paper Studios
• Gold embellishments from Close to My Heart
• Gold embossing powder from Stampin Up!
• Gold foil tape from Close to My Heart
• Gold rhinestone ribbon from the Dollar Tree
• Softly Falling embossing folder from Stampin Up!
• VersaMark 

If you are interested you can find out more about Unity Stamp Company by visiting their website and social media sites:

UnityStamp Company

Blog 

Pinterest 

Facebook

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to comment for a chance to win some awesome stamps!

Angels, Angels and more Angels! ...

Be an angel to someone else whenever you can, as a way of thanking God for the help your angel has given you. ~Quoted in The Angels' Little Instruction Book by Eileen Elias Freeman, 1994

Hello!

Today is my Growing in Unity 2017, Day 2 show and tell!

I have a thing for Angels and Angel wings…

I was born in December, very close to Christmas and every year my mom has given me a special angel for my birthday. Some are small and some are large, like the life size brass angel wings she gave me for my 50^th birthday! (They are AWESOME!) To this day I am always on the hunt for the Angels and wings that are different or have something special that separates them from standard mass produced pretty angels we tend to see in the stores.

Surprisingly, I don’t have a large collection of Angel stamps so when I saw this stamp set “Make Snow Angels” I dropped it right into my shopping cart! He is sooo cute with such a sweet expression on his face! Seriously, combined with the sentiment that comes with him, he is perfect anytime you want to create a pick-me-up card for someone special!

For this 5 x 7 card, I created a sparkly border with some glue and fine glitter. I also added glitter to the chipboard snowflakes and the image itself

Sadly I could not get a really good picture of the sparkly no matter how hard I tried! :O(

Supplies

• Image/Sentiment “Make Snow Angels”
• Alcohol markers
• Card stock from The Paper Studio and Stampin Up!
• Chipboard snowflakes from Close to My Heart
• Design paper “Snowflakes” from Ever after Scrapbook Co.
• Extra fine Glitter from Sulyn
• India Ink from Memories 

If you are interested you can find out more about Unity Stamp Company by visiting their website and social media sites:

Unity Stamp Company

Blog

Pinterest

Facebook

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to comment for a chance to win some awesome stamps!

(Hugs) Cara

Charlie Brown Memories ...

And, so, Christmas comes to bless us! Comes to teach us how to find the joy of giving happiness and the joy of being kind.

~Gertrude Tooley Buckingham, "There Will Always Be a Christmas" (1940s)

  

It’s finally here! Yay! I have the wonderful opportunity to be a Unity gal for Growing in Unity 2017!

I stumbled across Unity Stamps a little over a year ago. They carry a nice variety and the quality just can’t be beat. They have become my choice for rubber stamps.

For the next 5 days I will be sharing cards I made using a Unity image and the best part (besides spending time in my craft room playing with some awesome stamps) is that at the end of the week, I will draw two winners from all the comments left on each post and the winners will each receive a bundle of stamps from Unity … So, make sure to come back and comment every day!

If I am asked to describe my crafting style, I would say mine is more or less CAS. While not all my cards lean to CAS, it does seems to be my go to style and the card I am sharing today pretty much holds to that.

“Small Stuff Christmas” is one of my absolute favorite Unity stamps. It really takes me back to my childhood and the annual event of settling down with the my Mom and brothers to watch one of my favorite Holiday movies, “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. This is a well-loved stamp set and will see more use here shortly as I finish up my Christmas cards for the year!

Supplies

• Image/Sentiment “Small Stuff Christmas” from Unity Stamp Company
• Alcohol Markers
• Card stock from The Paper Studio and Stampin Up!
• India Ink from Memories
• Prisma Color Pencils
• Red Glitter Glue from Stampin Up!
• Softly Falling embossing folder from Stampin Up! 

If you are interested you can find out more about Unity Stamp Company by visiting their website and social media sites: 

Unity Stamp Company

Blog

Pinterest

Facebook

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to comment for a chance to win some awesome stamps!