Friends of Unity January Hop

 Hello everyone. It's time for the Friends of Unity January Blog Hop. I knew I would like this month's theme but I am so in love the the simple elegance this combo has. 

This month we are doing Black & White themes and I couldn't stop making cards.

My first card uses the Buffalo Plaid background stamp that was die cut with a stitched die and mounted on a black card base. I stamped the image from Funny Farm on white card stock cut with a smaller stitched die and matted that in black card stock. The sentiment is from the same kit. I wrapped May Art black string around the image panel and then popped it up with foam tape. The sentiment also was popped up with foam tape, make sure to put a double layer on the end that hangs off the image panel.  

My biggest tip for these cards is to use a high quality, juicy black stamp pad. I stamped everything with my Versafine Clair Nocturne ink because it always comes out crisp and black. 

This card was inspired by some leftovers I had laying around on my desk. The flower and sentiment were rejected from another project and I was so happy to finally use them. The flower is from Magnolia Flowers, a really beautiful kit. This image was embossed with black embossing powder. The sentiment is from You Matter and was embossed with white embossing powder on the black card stock. I grabbed my new, absolute favorite background stamp, Polka Dance background. I cheated on the black & white theme a little and stamped this with Versafine Clair Midnight ink which is a dark gray. I grabbed a doily I had laying around and used that to anchor the flower and sentiment strip. The whole thing was matted with black card stock.

My next card used a technique I learned from another very talented Unie gal, Melinda aka itsacardknocklife on Instagram. I encourage you to go follow her if you haven't yet. She calls it a tattoo style and she is definitely better at it than I am.

I stamped the compass from the November 2019 kit of the Month, Wonder. Then I used 2 sizes of oval dies for my "templates" and traced them with Staedtler Pigment liner pens. I have a set of 6 different tip sizes and use used various sizes for the lines and extra dots. I added the lines coming off the ovals and lots of dots in random places. This panel was matted with black card stock also. I had wrote the Hello because I wanted a simple block style and couldn't find a stamp in my stash. The dies are new from Waffle Flower house and I can't rave enough about the sizes in the 2 sets of nesting ovals. I have wanted nested dies that make smaller borders on the layers forever. I plan on buying the circles also.

Be sure to hop along and comment on all the blogs this month.

Crystal

Kim

Eileen

Dawn F.

Joyce

Amber

Bobbie Sue

Alaine-you are here

Robyn