Growing In Unity 2022 Day 3

Welcome back! It's Day 3 of Growing In Unity and I got to try a new technique today!

Before I go into that, remember that there are two (yes, 2) $20 gift cards up for grabs for two lucky random commenters so be sure to head back to Day 1's Post Here to see both Day 1 and Day 2 and comment there.

Isn't this background stamp image simply amazing?! Look at the detail! This is the Daisy Days stamp from Unity Stamp Co. This is a full card sized image but I wanted space for a sentiment so I put some washi tape down and stamped the full image over it. I then pulled the washi tape up (and got Versafine ink all over my fingers from not paying attention) and had a blank space. I pulled out the "Bloom from Within" stamp set and stamped the sentiment in the blank space.

I loved how this turned out so quickly and so detailed, that I made two other cards like it with different colors in the background. This is the one I liked best as I just adore the black details on Kraft cardstock. I love keeping things simple but by all means, add ideas in your comments about embellishments for this card so I have some things to play around with.

See you back tomorrow for Day 4!

Set of Birthday Cards

As you know, I switch teams occasionally at work. This is because of shift changes both at my level and at the supervisor level (people move to other departments, new people come in, some just switch to make their work schedule work with their outside-of-work schedule).
I recently switched teams (my goal is to have this one stay the way it is for a while). One person from my old team took over handling the team celebrations and asked me to make a set of random birthday cards for her to use. I was delighted to be asked to make them!

Here they are:

For this one, I used yellow paper and green bling from my stash.
The sentiment is from the CTMH Art Philosophy Celebration stamp set stamped in CTMH Sweet Leaf ink.
The orange patterned paper is from DCWV.

Inspiration for the above "Celebrate" card

The grey card base for the card above is from Recollections.
The 'b' and the 'star' are from the DCWV Alphabet stack.
The candle and the "hip hip hooray" banner images are from the CTMH Artiste Collection Birthday stamp set.
The banner was stamped onto a white chipboard banner piece that came in the Cricut Artiste set.

All of the patterned papers on the above card are from the Celebration stack.
The card base is white cardstock from WalMart.
The black and kraft papers are from my scrap stash.
The twine is from a large spool from Michaels.
The buttons are from my embellishment stash.

The kraft paper is from Recollections.
I used Darice Nesting Wavy Squares dies to cut the kraft paper. For the white layer, I traced the inner side of the wavy square die and cut the shape by hand.
The sentiment and the image is from the CTMH February Stamp of the Month, Balloon Animals. The image was stamped in CTMH Outdoor Denim ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.
 

The candle image (stamped twice) and cupcake image is from the CTMH Artiste Collection Birthday stamp set, stamped in CTMH Chocolate ink.
The sentiment stamp is from the CTMH Art Philosophy It's a Party stamp set. It was stamped in CTMH Chocolate ink and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder.
The kraft paper is the negative space from the previous animal ballon card.
The green patterned paper is from a DCWV stack (I can't remember which one).

Dashwood Wedding Invitations

My boyfriend and I have a couple of friends that are getting married this summer. We both are part of the wedding and my main gift to them is to make their wedding invitations. I always make a few extra since it's easy to make them while mass-producing than to make them individually if needed later. I made a total of 75 invitations.

I do not have pictures of the inside, but the invitation wording was printed directly onto the cardstock in the inside.
Here is the final product:

The card base is cream cardstock from Recollections by Michaels.
The background piece is kraft cardstock, the dark brown pieces are from an Earth tones collection, both from Recollections. All three pieces were dry embossed through my Cuttlebug using the Darice Wood Grain embossing folder.
The tag was cut from the same cream cardstock as the base using the Darice Bookplate Dies. The tree image is from the Always Grateful stamp set by Close to my Heart. It was stamped in Sweet Leaf ink also from Close to my Heart.
The extras are twine and eyelets.

I presented a ton of card ideas to them and they chose three that they liked the best. I then made three prototypes based on those ideas.
The final product was inspired by this card created by Linda Aarhus:

Here are the other three prototypes and their inspiration:

Inspiration

Embossed and inked clouds, birds on wire embossing on vellum overlay

Inspiration, found on Pinterest

Dark brown base, white top layer, jute/nylon ribbon, tree image cut from the Sweethearts Cricut cartridge

White on Kraft - Inspired Anniversary Card

The wonderfully talented Heather from Houses Built of Cards created this beautiful card that I just had to attempt:

My supervisor at work asked for an anniversary card for her husband. I had this picture saved for a while and decided I wanted to attempt something similar. By the time I did the white coloring, it was late into the night and I skipped the vellum or any of the fun shaped mats. I kept it simple.

For the front:
 
I used Versafine Black Onyx ink to stamp the Unity image.
I used a white Crayola colored pencil for the accents.
The kraft paper is from Recollections by Michaels.
The card base is white cardstock from Walmart (found in the printer paper aisle).

For the inside:

I used the same kraft paper from Michaels.
I ran the kraft paper through my Cuttlebug using the Darice Bookplate Dies. On white cardstock, I traced around the outer part of the die and cut it out by hand. This gave me the white border. I wanted it to pop against the white card base so I inked the edges with black ink. Unfortunately, some of this ink smeared a little.
The sentiment is from the Another Reason to say Thank You set by Unity.

This is the supervisor that, as you may recall, requested that I put something in the inside of the cards because she never knew what to write. I didn't know their relationship at all, but I thought this sentiment is perfect for any successful relationship.

Notes to self:
 
Be sure to have a pencil sharpener near me when attempting to do more white on kraft (or use a white gel pen).
Work on a better card inside (strip of paper, mat with writing area).

Welcome cards for new teammates

We have a fairly high turnaround in our department at work. It is mostly internal (people get promoted or move to other departments). Because of this turnaround, we have many new training classes that join us throughout the year. I happened to be on a team that was receiving five new team members from a new training class. The management and supervisors hand write messages in corporate note cards for the new employees. I wanted to create something from the team as a whole to show the new employees that we were excited to have them join us.
As a new employee in training, it can be hard to feel welcomed because there isn't much interaction with current employees.

I found a card I liked on Pinterest and then adapted it.
Here is the blog that the Pinterest entry links to. Jackie provides a great tip for lining up the squares easily. I did not read her blog post so I didn't follow her tip. I just laid the squares on the paper until they looked aligned to me. I think it turned out pretty darn good for not measuring.

This is the original inspiration card:

I love the little banner at the bottom, but I was working on these later in the evening and decided to keep it simpler by just stamping on the card itself.

Here is my card:

I used a white card base (I buy it by the ream at Walmart in the printer/office supply section).
The kraft piece is from Recollections. I bought a package of the smaller pieces on clearance some time ago at Michaels.
The patterned papers are from the DCWV White Ginger stack.
The sentiment stamp is from the Close to My Heart Hello There stamp set. This came with the Twitterpated Workshop on the Go (back when they used to include the stamp set with the kit).
I stamped it with VersaFine Onyx Black ink.

I have leftover squares and will be making another set of these note cards for my current supervisor. This was a little time consuming to get everything lined up and I cut the 1-inch squares with my paper trimmer (note to self...must purchase a punch for this next time), but I think they turned out to be pretty darn cute!

Artiste Cupcake quick birthday card

I needed a quick birthday card for a coworker. I knew it was his birthday, but I kept putting it off thinking I had more time to make a card (story of my life...).
I used kraft paper by Recollections that I purchased at Michaels.
The blue/teal paper is from Stampin' Up. I don't know the name of the color. I bought some loose sheets of paper from a friend who was getting rid of her crafting supplies.

The stamped images are from the Close to my Heart Artiste Cricut collection.
I love these collections because they come with stamps, paper, sometimes die-cuts, and a Cricut cartridge that all coordinate together.
To line the sentiment stamp up, I used a sticky note on the blue paper and then stamped the image. Then I adhered the kraft cupcake piece on top.

Super simple and quick to make and perfect for my coworker since he loves cupcakes!