brown thursday awesomeness...

Hello my wonderful friends!

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!)

It's time for another Unity hop!

(and sale… this one's a HUGE one!)

Ok, so in case ya don't know, in the USA, the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) is one of the BIGGEST shopping days of the year, and the following Monday is Cyber Monday where all the online stores have their big sales. Yup, pretty much it is all a huge scheme to get you to spend money… I mean, to help jumpstart your holiday shopping…

 Well, at Unity, we do something called "Brown Thursday" the week BEFORE Thanksgiving, and Unity donates $1 from EVERY SALE to RICE BOWLS, a fabulous group who turns that money  into FOOD for KIDS in NEED. Yeah, suddenly, getting a jump start on your seasonal shopping sounds pretty AWESOME, huh! And we got the fairly awesome deal of 55% off SITE WIDE, along with some other great incentives for you, because we kinda LOVE doing that!

We also love to release new stamps… pretty much every week. Here's one of the BRAND SPANKIN' NEW ones from Phyllis Harris. (Around the edges, I used Beautiful Elements… a newer set that I absolutely LOVE! So excited when it came in the mail!)

Can we say "AWWW" FACTOR?

Sorry, with the silver background, it is was hard to get the lighting right in the photo… it says "Sometimes we just need someone to be there." How TRUE. I am SO thankful for those precious people who have 'just been there' for me!

One of those people that have been there for me, is this little ANGEL. I know, not what you typically think of when you think of "someone to be there", and she isn't even mine. However, she is one of my angels. I get to play with, cuddle, sing to, and hold this SWEET little one every Sunday, and each time my heart heals just a little more. I LOVE her. And I'm so glad her momma trusts me with her little girl while she is teaching!

I used both Unity's current LO sketch and color challenge for this page. (Check out the details HERE…. super simple to enter, and you have a shot at $150 worth of stamps!) The stamps come from this month's SMAK kit "Trust Your Soul"… If you want to get JUST this month's kit, click HERE, if you want to subscribe and get a new SMAK kit delivered to your door, click HERE

You may have noticed, that this month's color challenge is a little different… one of the colors is SPARKLY silver. Love the idea. HATE the glitter flaking off all over everything… so, I thought I'd share with you a fun way to get that BLING on your projects with out the MESS on everything else!

Step 1: Stamp your image with a clear embossing ink.  This fabulous heart background is from the Trust Your Soul kit. LOVE.

Step 2: completely cover the image with a "sticky embossing powder" then return extra powder to the jar. These go by different names depending on the brand...Heat and Stick, Simple Stick… Sticky Embossing Powder… You get the idea. Instructions for use will be on the jar… follow the suggested directions for best results….I'm just sharing the basics.

Step 3: Heat the sticky powder… again, follow directions on your particular brand for best results. For mine, I simply hit it with a heat gun (just like I would for any embossing powder)…. The biggest trick is DO NOT OVERHEAT! As soon as it changes to clear and shiny, it's done. Heat it too long, and it just soaks into the paper and becomes useless.

Step 4: QUICKLY, while the image is still hot, press some silver leafing over the image. Use your fingers to make sure it is good and stuck. My embossing powder suggest quickly hitting it with the heat gun again at this point to make sure everything is nice and stuck.

Step 5: Let it COOL before doing anything! Once it is cool, you can use a soft scrubby to rub off all the extra leafing. (I'm just using one of those cheap kitchen sponges what have the soft sponge on one side and the course scrubby on the other)  Be sure to save what scraps of leafing you have. You can use them for other projects!

I like to do a quick cleanup with a lint roller to get off any stubborn pieces of leafing…

And the end result is a FOILED stamped image! Sparkly, and NOT going anywhere! 

Alrighty guys, go check out the rest of the hop, then get some shopping done!

Don't forget---
 Leave a comment on EACH blog in the hop (including the Unity blog) for your chance to win.  The winners will be announced Saturday night on the Unity blog.

Your next stop is Rachel!

Enjoy!