GIU Wrap Up and Winner!

Before I say anything else, I wanted to thank you all for the comments you left last week.  I generally try to respond to every comment left on my blog but between the number that were left by folks with accounts without email addresses attached to them (meaning I CAN'T email you back) and simply the sheer number of comments left, I'm not able to reply to all of them. 

Quite a few of you left comments and questions that I do want to respond to and since so many of them were repeated, I'll here.  However, the winner of the Itty Bittys first.  Drum roll.....

Gaylynn, congrats!!! (comment left April 9, 2013 at 11:10 AM.)  I'll send you an email about this.

So.  To answer some of the questions/respond to some comments I read last week.

• What do I think of the Inktense pencils?

I like them.  I have a box of Staedtler watercolor pencils that I've been using for quite a few years but I really wanted to try the Inktense ones after hearing so much about them.  I will say I was thrilled thrilled that I had an ACMoore coupon and gift certificate when I bought them.  I'm not sure I'd want to pay what they usually cost- they're darn expensive.  However, they do blend beautifully and have a great intense color to them.  I love the range of colors that are available.  I only picked up the 12pc tin to start but I can see myself getting more... with a coupon.  :)

• Why color on the back of the acrylic sheet when the stamped image is on the front? (Friday's ornaments card)

There's actually 2 reasons for this.  First, sometimes when you color, the markers will smudge or erase the line or another color.  Sharpies are particularly prone to doing this.  Second, even if the line stayed intact, lets face it.  No one stays in the lines all the time- sometimes you color on the line.  If you were seeing that side of the image, the coloring may overpower the line.  However, if you color it and then flip it back over, the black line is always on top of the colored image and therefore, the line appears crisp and clean.

• I'm a sucker for fussy cutting.  Only 2 of the 10 cards last week weren't fussy cut.  Sometimes it's intentional, sometimes it's how I deal with a botched coloring job or other mistake (washi tape embossing gone bad for instance.)  
• I haven't done much paper piecing but with the little fussy cutting fetish I seem to have, I don't know why I don't do more.
• My favorites last week were the pieced mushroom and the torn underwear (I probably giggled the whole time I made that one.)  They also seemed to be the two projects that got the most comments.

Again, many thanks for your comments last week!  I appreciated them all!

GIU- Day 5

Happy Friday all!  Thanks for joining me for my last Growing in Unity day!  As you know, I've been doing two cards a day from Unity stamps I hadn't inked and today is no exception.  Well, it wasn't supposed to be.  However, things can only go right so many days in a row before something's likely to go wrong.  Day 5 is apparently the day where it goes wrong.  Figures, right?  Murphy couldn't keep his fingers out of it and the law of averages determined that four days was enough.  SO.  Welcome to something a bit different.

I wanted to use "A Little Bit of Washi" for today's cards.  The first one, not so bad.  The second, not so good.  A technique I've really wanted to try is embossing on black- I've seen some stunning projects done that way.  It went splendidly until I got to the last 2 "tape" lines.  Yeah.  Murphy.  Turns out that my red EP is too dark to use on black.  Purple wasn't spectacular either so I played with it.  While I didn't finish a card from the piece, I did grab a picture of it so you can see where I was going with it.

Great idea.  Not so great execution.  So.  The first card.  I was going to do this as a one-layer card but it turned out that I must have had red ink on my fingers because once I was finished with the original, I saw a smudge.  And then a fingerprint.  And then a smudgy fingerprint.  MMURRPPHHHYYYYYY!  So.  I did another fussy cut project.  Of course, it was somewhat blah on a plain background so I added some yellow stitching.  Didn't stand out.  Red stitching with the yellow.  Too bold- overwhelmed the yellow.  Let's add green.  While we're at it, what the heck, do 'em all. 

Next!  There were actually a few sets I wanted to try so this gave me the chance to pull in another.  "Ornamental Season" is one I got but hadn't used because I really wanted to spend a bit of time making it pop and when mass producing my Christmas cards, that's not real time-effective.  I stamped the image with Staz-On onto a scrap of plastic from a report cover.  I colored the back of the sheet with Sharpies and a silver paint pen.  

Well, I'll say it for the last time.  Please make sure you leave comments for me on all of this week's GIU posts.  I'll be drawing a winner from all comments on Sunday and the winner will get two Itty Bittys of their choice from Unity.  Good luck! 

Ingredients:
Stamps: (A Little Bit of Washi, Ornamental Season): Unity
Ink: (Silver, Black Staz-On): Tsukineko, (Real Red, Only Orange, Summer Sun, Green Galore, Brilliant Blue, Concord Crush, Lovely Lilac): Stampin' Up
Paper: Stampin' Up
Misc: (Embossing folder): Sizzix, Sharpies, (Embossing powders): JoAnn's, Washi (the black strips of washi are real): Unknown

Challenges:
The Paper Players: #140: Something recycled/repurposed (plastic sheet from report cover)
Jingle Belles: Earth Day Special (there's that report cover again!)

GIU- Day 4

Happy Thursday all!

I have two more cards for you today, both a bit simpler than some of my previous projects.  This set has cracked me up since I first saw it and I had to ink it up this week.  Had to.

By the way.  If you're planning to do faux stitching and can't lay your hands on a white gel pen, a very fine paint brush and white acrylic do a nice job.  Granted, some of the stitches will come out a bit thick but then again, you've never seen what damage I can do with a sewing machine.  Just sayin'.

Please make sure you leave comments for me all of this week.  I'll be drawing a winner from all comments on Sunday and the winner will get two Itty Bittys of their choice from Unity.  Good luck!

Ingredients: 
Stamps: (Change is Good): Unity
Paper: Designer Paper (1st card): DCWV, (2nd card): My Mind's Eye, (Cardstock): Stampin' Up
Ink: (Basic Black, Whisper White): Stampin' Up
Misc: (Watercolor pencils): Staedtler

Challenges:
The Sweet Stop: Sketch SSS205:

GIU- Day 3

Welcome to Growing in Unity, day 3!  Today I used the "Slow and Steady" stamp- I love this whimsical image.

I was lucky enough to win a Simon Says Stamp April 2013 card kit from Jennifer McGuire's blog (Thank you!) and the majority of the materials used on the yellow/print card are from that kit.  I wanted to do a paper-piecing card and this kit was just perfect for it.

Please make sure you leave comments for me all of this week.  I'll be drawing a winner from all comments on Sunday and the winner will get two Itty Bittys of their choice from Unity.  Good luck!

Ingredients:

Stamps: (Slow & Steady, Quotes a'la Happy, Splendid Things): Unity
Papers: (Patterned Papers): Fancy Pants, (CS): Stampin' Up,
Ink: (Basic Black): Stampin' Up
Misc: (Watercolor pencils): Staedtler, (Enameled Stripe Heart): Queen & Co, (Pearl pen): Viva Decor

GIU- Day 2

Sorry if you saw an early version of this post yesterday.  It got away from me before I managed to schedule the post time.  The joys of computers.

Anywho.  Welcome back!  For today's Growing in Unity projects, I used the fun "Halloween Greetings" set.  LOVE the witchy gal!

I've been wanting try coloring on kraft paper and I just picked up a small set of Derwent's "Inktense" pencils so this was the perfect opportunity.  Of course, after doing a more muted card, I wanted to do a bright one also so there's card #2.

Please make sure you leave comments for me all of this week.  I'll be drawing a winner from all comments on Sunday and the winner will get two Itty Bittys of their choice from Unity.  Good luck!

Ingredients:
Stamps: (Halloween Greetings): Unity
Papers: (CS): Stampin' Up, (Designer papers): Stampin' Up, My Mind's Eye, Graphic 45, Target
Misc: (Green glitter glue): Studio G, (Watercolor pencils): Staedtler, Derwent

Challenges:
The Kraft Journal: Favorite kraft project of 2013

GIU- Day 1

Hi all!  For those of you joining here this week for my "Growing In Unity" week, welcome!  To those of you who are normal subscribers, hey!  It's me!  I'm still around!  I know it's been a long time but I've been busy and without any crafting mojo whatsoever so I just took some time off to see if I could get it moving again.  Turns out that it needed a bit of a jump-start to get going.  Due to an immediate need to spend time with her family, this week's original GIU Gal needed to switch with someone so I moved to this week from the end of Sept.  Nothing like forcing yourself to be crafty if it doesn't seem to want to come on its own.

When I was planning my projects, I decided I wanted to use some stamps I haven't had the chance to ink.  Then, I couldn't decide what style I wanted to make the card in so I jumped at the idea of making two cards for each day, both with the same stamp or very similar ones from the same set.  It's been rather fun working on the two cards simultaneously.

So.  Day 1.

I kept these two rather simple because of the bold colors and images.

The first one I inked the stamp, misted it with water and then stamped on dry watercolor paper.  I wasn't entirely thrilled with the result so I did go back and mist the stamped image lightly to increase coverage.  The second one was done the same but on damp watercolor paper.

Please make sure you leave comments for me all of this week.  I'll be drawing a winner from all comments on Sunday and the winner will get two Itty Bittys of their choice from Unity.  Good luck!

Ingredients:
Stamps: (Donna Downey's Poppies, With Sympathy): Unity
Paper: (CS): Stampin' Up, (Watercolor paper): Royal Langnickel
Ink: (Fired Brick Distress): Tim Holtz, (Basic Black, Whisper White. Summer Sun): Stampin' Up
Misc: (Black Diamond Stickles): Ranger, (Fan embossing folder): Stampin' Up