Showing posts with label Unity Stamp Co.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Unity Stamp Co.. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Splitcoast Tutorial: Kissing with a Twist

I had a couple of tutorial slots this month that I wasn't able to fill, so guess who gets to fill them! I have a list of tutorials from our archives that need video updates, so I chose one from 2008 - it's called Kissing with a Twist, and it's a classic kissing technique where you twist a secondary stamp on a solid background for a unique texture.


I was able to get 3 cards from a single inking, so that's my addition to Beate's tutorial. I used a solid stamp from Impression Obsession (D6144 Solid Rectangle), a small floral stamp from Penny Black, silhouettes by Dina Wakley, and sentiments from Unity Stamp Co. 


Check the tutorial page for the video - you'll see me make all 3 of these backgrounds in just about 2 minutes! This second one was a bonus using the leftover ink on the stamp and an uninked floral stamp.


For this background I misted the stamp to lift the leftover ink. I love this silhouette - but I kind of want to put a clown hat on it.

Hope you're having a good week! I had some big changes of plans that have got my head very full, but we'll muddle through! Cheers!

Thanks for stopping by!



Ideas, Supplies, Machines, Paper & More

Wednesday, August 02, 2017

Splitcoast Tutorial: Step Pop-Up Card

This week's tutorial over on Splitcoast is an elegant Step Pop-Up Card. Here's mine, which fits a couple of our Dare To Get Dirty challenges this week! 



This card is designed to stand on its own, and it's got a pop-up element as well as a little depth for a scene on the inside cover. My background inside the card was done using Clearsnap dye inks spread on a craft sheet, misted and printed. The girls were stamped in the same dye ink, and colored with Copic markers.






I don't normally mix stamps from different companies, but I do relax that rule for challenges like these. The girls are from one of Phyllis Harris's images at Unity Stamp Co, the beach background is from Bad Axe Trading Co. (no longer in business), and the quote stamp is one of my designs that's still available from Our Daily Bread designs. The arch die is from Spellbinders and the fence is from Impression Obsession.



Dare To Get Dirty is a week of fun, challenges, and prizes for our Fan Club members at Splitcoaststampers! So much of our site content is free, but there are some special 'perks' and members-only content for paid members. Dare To Get Dirty is our annual "thank you!" to the members of our Fan Club. This year we are throwing 35 challenges at them in the course of a week! It's a lot of fun behind the scenes, hosting the challenges and encouraging these sweet ladies as they jump in with us and see what it's like to get a little Dirty! Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Splitcoast Tutorial: Pencil Indenting

 It's my turn to share a tutorial over at Splitcoast, and I wanted to take one more opportunity to show off the Chameleon Color Tones Pencils with a fun and easy technique - it's called Pencil Indenting, and it's a great way to add texture and finely detailed highlights to pencil coloring.


I chose a couple images from Unity Stamps by Phyllis Harris because her images always have such beautiful details and motion in them. (This set is called Life Is Better, and I used a sentiment from Inky Antics.) In this card I used the technique to add highlights to the little girl's hair and shirt and the puppy's fur. 


On the second card I used the technique to add a pattern to the girl's dress, then added highlights to her hair, the dandelion, and the seeds blowing in the air. (This set is called Every Breath and the sentiment is by Marcella Hawley.)



This was such a fun card to make, and the Color Tones pencils made color choices and shading so easy. I worked from light pressure on the image to very heavy pressure in the background, and they performed just perfectly.


I also used a battery eraser to add highlights to the images, which you'll see in the tutorial video - this is the one I have:


... and you can find it HERE on Amazon! I was playing with it today on PanPastels as well as Distress Oxide inks - it's a lot of fun and such a useful tool to have.

By the way - if you're interested in purchasing a set of Color Tones pencils for yourself, be sure to use this discount code!


Thanks for visiting me today!

Thanks for stopping by!



Friday, May 26, 2017

My Sweet Petunia and Unity swap hop!

I'm so thankful to be a part of a community that thrives on relationship and encouragement! It's so fun to be a guest in a joint blog hop with two companies that really live this out. Today I'm hopping with designers from Unity Stamp Co. and My Sweet Petunia! Keep reading for more info on how YOU could win a prize from one of these two companies! 

If you just happened on the blog hop today because you're a regular reader of my blog, and you'd like to view the entire hop, you can start back at the My Sweet Petunia blog - you'll find a full list of participants there, and all the details you need. If you're already hopping and you arrived here from Maria Levine's blog, you're doing just fine.



My samples are all colored using Chameleon Color Tone pencils, since I have a set here to review! It was nice to have such beautiful images to work with as I took the pencils through their paces. I also wanted to be sure to showcase how the stamps could be used with the MISTI, so I used a different technique with each of my cards. Here we go!



This is Grace Girl, a new addition to Angie Blom's signature line - I colored the image using a single pencil - the Color Tone pencils are double-ended, with a light and dark tone. For the background, I masked off the image, and positioned the sentiment stamp from the set toward the center of my MISTI. 


Each time I inked the sentiment, I moved the panel, stamping at even intervals to create a background. While the image was still masked, I brushed some of the same ink around the image to give it a warm glow.



This second image (Grace Upon Grace) is by Phyllis Harris, one of my favorite stamp artists! I used the MISTI to stamp the image in a dark brown ink, then moved the panel over about 1/4" and stamped in a light grey. This gave me a shadow to work with, and accentuated those gorgeous curls and the details of the fern branch.



I colored in the image in a loose, scribbly style. I love working this way - it's a little more abstract and fun.



For my third card, I blended the pencils with mineral spirits. This snail is the main image for a huge and wonderful sentiment set (Happy Snail Mail) that has all kinds of sayings for mail art, belated cards, and everything in between. This background is a Watercolor Imprint technique I've been working on - I'll share a tutorial on that in a month or two. This was one of my practice panels that was within reach, and I was so happy that it matched!



I wanted the snail image to be sort of 'borderless' so I used a light ink, but I also wanted his little eyes and antennaes to show. After stamping, I left the stamp in my MISTI so I could restamp in the exact same place. When I was done coloring, I put the panel back, and inked up just the eyes and antennaes with a black marker. 




I love that little trick - it really gives life to a borderless image!



Now for the fun stuff - thanks for hanging with me this far! 


Be sure to leave a comment on my blog and on the blogs of the rest of my friends below (look at them all - what a lot of talent in one list!!) Everyone who leaves a comment on all the blogs in the hop will be entered in a drawing for 3 prize packs from Unity and winner's choice of an Original or Mini MISTI from My Sweet Petunia! Please comment by May 30th at noon Central to be eligible. Winners will be posted on both the Unity Blog and the My Sweet Petunia blog on May 31st, so be sure to check back.

Thank you again for visiting me!

Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, April 24, 2017

Distress Oxide backgrounds

I finally got my set of Distress Oxide inks this last week...! They have been fun to play with, though I haven't given them a full test yet. I probably won't do a full review post on these because there are already plenty of good reviews out there, but I do like these, and look forward to using them more. :)


I needed a stack of thank you cards, so I started with a stack of fun backgrounds - most of these were done using a Wrinkle-Free Distress technique with the Distress Oxides, and others were done using a fun stencil technique that I'll be sharing in a couple of weeks.


I did test the Oxide inks with bleach and they happen to be very reactive, even after 2 days of drying time, so that was fun and very good to know. I filled up an inexpensive waterbrush with full strength bleach, and brushed it inside the outlines of my stamped images (these are from DoCrafts) to remove the ink and create some areas to color.


I stamped a thank you stamp (Unity Stamps) in the open area of the note pad, then used watercolors to color in the pencil and add some shadows. I made 7 cards altogether, and here are 2.


I'll share this stencil technique and a couple others on May 10th - it's very easy to do!

Have a wonderful week! I'll see you Wednesday with a new Splitcoast tutorial! :)
Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, June 10, 2016

Mix-Ability challenge: Scratch Art

It's my turn to host the Mix-Ability challenge this week, and it's time to do a little scratch art! My kids love the pre-made scratch art papers, but you can get the same effect with supplies you (or they) might have already. Here's the skinny:



To make my sample, I actually started with a stamped image (Unity Stamps) as a guide for my coloring... I used a light color so the outline wouldn't show through.


Once I had my color base down (Gelatos and Distress Crayons), I covered the panel with black Distress Crayon (of all the mediums I tried, this one worked best for me, with the best and smoothest coverage).


With the MISTI, I restamped the image in the same place using white chalk ink...


I used the end of a paintbrush (this one has a chisel end) to scrape around the outline, revealing the color beneath.


I added some extra etch marks in the flower - that will take some more practice to perfect... when you're used to adding shading, it's hard to reverse your thinking to remove highlights! Probably should have chosen a smaller image too... but there it is...


The sentiment is from Unity Stamps as well. In the background... I had a lot on my mind, so I scribbled out a prayer in a quick scrawl.


This next piece was an experiment too - just wanted to see if I could accomplish a fade out with the scratch technique. I stamped the poppy in Versamark Habanero ink first, then did some coloring with Distress Crayons over the top, stamped in white for a guide, and scratched off the outline where it covered the crayon coloring.


You can tell that I'm stressin' when my color combos get a little crazy... and that's when I'm so grateful for an art form that helps me channel my thoughts out onto something that's outside my head. Art is definitely good therapy!

The sentiment here is from a set that I designed that's in limbo right now until I decide how to revamp it. It's a fun mix-and-match set that needs a new twist, I think!


I added just a few highlights with a small stylus just for  a tiny bit of contrast.

This was a fun one - I hope you'll try it out!
Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, June 01, 2016

Splitcoast Tutorial: Mirror Image Stamping

This week's tutorial over on Splitcoast is a new twist on a reflection effect - Lydia brings us her Mirror Image Stamping technique. Using the MISTI and a solid background stamp, you can get a perfect reflective image.


I used a Phyllis Harris set from Unity called Always from the Heart, and just created an extra little pool for these sweet friends to be standing in. Since the pool is colored first, their little feet ended up a bit blue, but that sort of works too. I also noticed that those two little dots in the sky were intended to be birds, but the pencil sketching didn't render well - I think I'll just trim those out. After stamping, the rest of the background was colored with PanPastels, and the girls were colored with Coloursoft pencils.


I've done a reflective technique using acetate, but using the MISTI lets you use a solid rubber stamp to get a more precise image. I didn't have a solid stamp so I used the back of a naked rubber background stamp, and that worked pretty well.


Hope you're having a good week - I'm still sorting and packing, and I added just a few items to my for sale page - you can check that HERE, and please email me if you'd like something!
Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Splitcoast Tutorial: Coloring Transparent Objects

Here are a couple of samples that I made for Jennie's tutorial on Coloring Transparent Objects! This was such a fun tutorial to follow - Jennie's such an experienced teacher so it was fun to add her to my collection of tutorial authors. :)


The tutorial features balloons, but I wanted to show that it could be used for other objects too... I just didn't have too many to choose from that had overlapping transparent objects! I found this image from Taylored Expressions - maybe tomorrow I'll play around with some masking to expand the gallery a little more.


I colored the image with Touch Twin Markers. The sentiment is from Unity Stamps, and the background panel was one of my test panels for the Stamped Masking tutorial we shared last week.


My second card features an image from A Day For Daisies - I love to peek over there for freebies now and then! I love her sweet and sentimental style. (And now with Evernote I can actually remember what digis I have!) Again, the sentiment here is from Unity Stamps.


Hope you'll give this one a try! xo
Thanks for stopping by!