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Pawsome Peepers

Happy Friday!  This is Julissa of Paper Gems by Jules on the blog today. Are you enjoying all the birthday fun at Unity?  Let’s keep the party going with these adorably Pawsome Peepers from this latest release!  Earlier this week I posted a survey on the Unity {show & tell} Facebook page to see which stamp you’d like to see on today’s blog… and ya’ll picked these sweet puppers!  So let’s get inky…

Let’s kick off the blog with this adorable little dachshund… let’s call him Dougie after Whit’s cutie canine.  He’s about to eat your homework, but it’s okay… because You Did It and Graduated!  I paired this little pup with the Snarky Graduation stamp kit and stamped the graduation cap first and then Dougie.  I also did some repeat stamping with the “You Did It” and added the Congrats in the middle pairing the sentiments from both kits.

I also stamped the Jot It Down background and crumbled it up, making it look like little Dougie is about to feast on your last piece of loose leaf.  With a little foam tape I added him right over the crumbled part of the paper.  Stenciled in some stars from an older Unity stencil and layered it all together.  This card can be for a pup graduating canine academy, someone graduating veterinarian school or anyone that loves dogs that’s graduating!  Fun for all!

Supplies used:

Let’s do another one!

Okay… this little cutie kind of looks real!  Those eyes, right?  I found a die set I had of a box and thought, what a fun way to present this pawsome puppy!  I stamped and fussy cut him out. Die cut the box and shaded both.

For the background, I started with a white piece of card stock and used two shades of green Dylusions Ink Sprays to spray just the lower right hand corner.  I started with the lighter color and then the dark color closer to the corner.  Then die cut it using the Stitched Rectangle die.  I added gold string, random washi tapes that had the same color themes and then cut a sentiment from Cut Apart Sentiment Strips and foiled it!  Yes, these sentiment strips can be foiled!!  I also die cut some gold paper with the Fall Out Hearts background die and added a few on the background and the box… so fun!

Products used:

Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you found some inspiration!  Take advantage of this birthday deals on stamps and snag those crafty supplies with they last!

Until next time… Happy Crafting!

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Write a New Story

Happy Friday! It’s Julissa of Paper Gems by Jules kicking off the month of March with this AMAZING new March 2023 Whit Kit:  Write a New Story.  Are you a reader or have friends that love to read? This kit is sooooo for you!  And this kit totally holds its own, but I wanted to pair it with another fun kit:  February 2021 Sentiment Kit: … Not the End of Your Story.  Let’s get into it!

 

So I started by stamping this book lovin’ girl from the February 2021 Sentiment Kit: …Not the End of Your Story.  I decided to keep the colors into three tones:  Taupe, Grey Blue and Sage.  Based on these colors, I found Distress Inks and Copics to match.  The entire card started with ivory card stock. I even stamped her on ivory and colored her with Copics. Once done coloring, I die cut it and inked the edges using Speckled Egg & Frayed Burlap Distress inks.

Copic Colors Used:

  • Skin: E25, E23
  • Skirt & Shoes: YG97, YG95
  • Books: BG72, BG93, E84, W2

Now for the heart of books!  I wanted to try something and unfortunately, I didn’t record it, but I’ll try it again for sure.  I wanted to foil this image, but wasn’t sure if my Copics would get ruined if I used Decofoil Transfer Gel first, so I first stamped the image with black Copic friendly ink in the Misti.  (When stamping in your Misti, make sure to use a corner so you can restamp it again. Oh, and leave the stamp in there!) Next, I colored all the books using the same book colors from the girl image.

So now for an experiment.  I used a dauber and gently inked the books using Decofoil Transfer Gel.  You want to make sure the gel is lightly on the stamp to avoid any globs, but you’ll stamp the image over the already stamped and colored heart.  If everything lines up, the gel will hit all the same spots and you’ll let it dry. Once dry, you can foil the image. I used gold foil. But I LOVED how it turned out.  Next, I die cut it out using the Scallops & Stitched Rectangle Nesting dies.  Adding a few washi tapes, the sentiment and layering it with foam tape to create dimension and your card is done!

Book yourself this weekend to make time to craft and try something new.  Subscribing to the Whit Kit or any of the other memberships at Unity will definitely keep you booked solid for any crafty time!

Supplies Used:

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you found some inspiration.  Until next time…

Happy Crafting!

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Golden Majestic Moths

Happy Friday!   It’s Jules of Paper Gems by Jules again on the blog and today I’m touching on another topic that you all wanted to know more about… foiling!  And if we’re talking about foiling, we need to talk about the amazing Unity toner card fronts.  I mean, anytime Unity collaborates with another company, we all win!  These Unity/Decofoil card fronts are sooooo great to work with, so let’s dive in!

Today’s card will feature the NEW sweet little dachshund stamp called “Such a Weenie” and the Majestic Moths Toner Card Front along with some Gold DecoFoil.  And note that all of these products are available at the Unity Stamp Co. online shop!

To start, color in your images.  The great thing about these toner card fronts is that you aren’t bound to foil them.  You can color them and love them for the beautiful designs that they are, but today… we’re going to have some fun with foil.

This is my foiling recipe.  Now I won’t say that it’s 100% fool proof because, well, it’s art.  However, there are really two factors that will prevent you from getting a completely flat covered foiling:  wrinkles in the foil, or space between the foil and the paper.  So your best bet is to add shims.  You’ll need to test your laminator to see what works best, but I use thick watercolor paper on top, then the foil, then the toner card front and last a piece of card stock.  All of this goes inside the parchment paper provided with the toner card fronts, like a sandwich.

I added some very light blue dots to fill in the space in the background and added this cute little pup.  But if you’re still following along, I have another crafty tip for you.  Years ago, I went an event in NYC and got to Kathy Racoosin of The Daily Marker and she taught me a great way to add texture to an animal when coloring with Copics!  Take a little bit of colorless blender and add it to a terry cloth (you only need a little) and gently tap it on the section of the animal.  The colorless blender alcohol will push away the color in various spots giving it a more textured look.

Don’t you love that?!   I love learning new techniques and sharing them with all my crafty friends.  Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope you got some new ideas for your next crafting adventure.

Until next time… Happy Crafting!

Jules