to friendship and fun...

Hello my wonderful friends!

It's time for another Unity hop!
This week is super special because we celebrating friendship with the new Gina & Me kit from Unity, and the Ang & Me supplies kit from Gina K. with a combined blog hop from BOTH companies!  I know, that means more blogs, but it also means more prizes! Unity and Gina K. are BOTH choosing winners! 
(besides, it's tons more inspiration! LOVE.) 

If you are arriving here from Kary's blog you are right on track... if not, go ahead and start at the beginning by clicking HERE.. You don't want to miss any of the fabulous inspiration (or chances to win!)

Ok, so I'm seriously loving the flower and butterfly in the new Gina & Me kit! Totally fell in love with the first time I saw the kit. And the papers in the Ang & Me Supplies kit are FABULOUS! The card stock is a nice weight, and the pattern paper has an awesome finish too!  I also LOVE that this all came about because two wonderful women are such DEAR friends even though they are in the same business. The world needs more friendships like this!

While I was working on this card, my 10 yr old niece was watching... She was asking me all sorts of artsy questions, than she threw one at me that kinda surprised me...

"Do you ever make a mistake in your art?"

HA!  I'm pretty flattered that she has elevated me to the superhuman capabilities of being perfect, but I had to pop her bubble and I told her:

 It happens ALL THE TIME! It's just a part of learning.. and part of art.  

As if the universe wanted to prove my point, just minutes after that,  I set something down that wasn't quite dry, and smeared brown ink across the white part of the card, and had to start over. 

Yes, I make mistakes. It happens, and it's ok.  Sometimes I have to remind myself of that!  (I actually like this version of the card much better.)

To get that fabulous arch of flowers, I used the Inkadinkado Circle Stamping Gear. Works GREAT with Unity stamps!  (it also made it quite easy to redo the card!)

I also did a little watercoloring with June's KOM.... I used Distress Markers to color on the stamp with various colors, I than spritzed it with water and stamped. After it had dried, I used a damp paint brush to smear the ink inside the flowers just a tad. SUPER quick and easy!  I love the look of it though!

(BTW... have you seen the new KOM, SMAK, and LOL?  Totally in love, and can't wait for mine to get here! How about you?)

And... 
For those of you who don't know... I pretty much always do a tutorial... just cuz I love to!

This week, I thought I would share a fun way to jazz up some of your bold, solid stamps...

Stencil Stamping

Step 1: lay a stencil over a bold, solid stamp... the heart from the new Gina & Me kit is perfect!

Step 2: use a marker spritzer (I use THIS one) to spritz ink through the stencil, and onto the stamp. You can concentrate ink in some areas more than others for fun fades!

your stamp will look something like this... super fun!

Step 3: press stamp to paper like usual.

You can get all sorts of cool effects with this... try fades, or using multiple colors... Tons of fun!

Don't forget---
 Leave a comment on EACH blog in the hop (including the Unity blog) for your chance to win. I know there is twice as much hop this week... but that means more winners, so make sure to hop through all of the Gina K. team too! The winners for Unity, will be announced Saturday night on the Unity blog.

Your next stop is Lisa!

Enjoy!