Hello Sentiment Saturday…

It is the beginning of something new on the Unity Stamp Company Blog. I’m so excited to spend the 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month with you!!!

Hello, my name is Lisa Arana. You’ve probably seen my face around. I’ve been with Unity for a long, long time and has a special place in my heart. I found Unity in 2009, joined the design team in 2010, started designing stamps in 2011 and my love for all things Unity just keeps going strong.

Most of the stamps I design for Unity are for the monthly sentiment kits and I’m excited to be featuring the stamp kits for these posts. There are so many… I can’t wait to share each one and maybe give you a little insight into how and why I designed them the way they are. It will be a walk down memory lane for me and hopefully I’ll inspire you just a little along the way.

Are you ready? I’m ready.
Let’s get this party started with our first card in this brand new blog series.

Featured Stamp Kit

This sentiment kit is from February 2014… an oldie but still a goodie. I reach for this one often and immediately wanted to use this kit for my first card. Each kit starts with a focal image and for this one, it is that lovely flowers & vine. It is a simple image to color and so easy to pick the perfect sentiment for the middle to match any occasion. Also, the combination is large enough to be the center of your card and can make for a quick card when you need something last minute.

The Video

The Card

The Details

Isn’t it lovely? It may seem like a simple image, but you can do so much to dress it up or leave it clean and simple. Today, I’m adding just a bit of a cutout effect to add some dimension to the image and it just pops {literally} off the page.

First, I started out with covering my card base in kraft cardstock. I just adore kraft. I wanted a neutral look to this card, so I stuck with kraft, blue and green. I used my MISTI to help stamp out my vine image and sentiment. That MISTI is such a big help, I always get the best image possible. When I was done stamping, I grabbed my sadly ignored Prismacolor colored pencils and went to town coloring in my image. I used 3 teal colors for the flowers, starting with the lightest, then adding the middle and darker shades to the center and darker parts of the flower. At the end, I used the lightest color all over to blending the 3 colors together going in with a bit of darker if needed. I did the same thing with 2 green colors for the leaves.

Next came the die cut and cut outs… after I finished coloring, I laid my die cut over my image to center it all and ran it through my die cut machine. So easy peasy. I just love the scallop edge, it gives the featured image a lovely frame. Then, I grabbed my X-acto knife and slowly cut around each leaf. Go slow peeps and add just enough pressure to cut through the paper. You don’t have to press so hard you can’t slide the knife. I like to practice on some scrap paper to get the feel of the knife.

Lastly, I popped that scallop panel up with some foam adhesive and lifted each leaf up so they really pop. A little bit of string with a sweet bow to finished off the bottom and then, I felt like the card needed some sparkle! So, I added some clear sequins, clear Nuvo Drops and a clear Wink of Stella over all the flowers and leaves… because you can never have enough sparkle.

Thanks for joining me today. I hope you are inspired to try some cutouts with your images. If you do, I’d love to see. Join us in the Unity Show & Tell Facebook group to share your card and tag me.

Supplies

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