Look at all this UNITY!!!

I made this card for the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge to use paper piercing on your card! I took the sketch from Our Creative Corner and away I went. Instead of matting the circle, I accented it with paper piercing. I changed the rectangle in the original sketch to an oval. It just worked better for me!










This is a new release from Unity from a couple of weeks ago! I won it by leaving a comment on the April guest designer's blog post for Hip Hop Thursday! The Unity folks are super generous! I finally got to see the new packaging that has been so talked about. It really is nice. I worked off the SCS sketch challenge 224. I went with green for most of the card and I did some water coloring! What a great stamp for that! I can't wait to paper piece this set too!






This one was for the Clean and Simple "monochromatic" challenge. There isn't much to say here other than I made my card really big, like 5.5 x5.5. I have never done this and I'm not really sure that I like it! This other thing to note is that I tried a button/bow treatment that I read about on Nichole Heady's blog. I really like how that turned out and I am sure that I will do that again!





I made this card for a Unity Hip Hop Challenge, to create a card that could be used any time, not for a special occasion. I kept it clean and simple! I love the look of this border and will likely try it again! It was fun to fill in the circles and squares.












This was the other Hip Hop challenge from that particular Thursday. The challenge was to create a card with something that you would see in nature. I have a few Unity trees, so I went with this one. I tried to replicate some of the Cherry Trees that I have seen blooming lately. It just didn't turn out quite like I wanted it to. It also met the criteria for CAS09, to distress. For the distressing, I roughed up the edges of my card stock, did some sponging and faux stitching. I need lots of work on that last technique. I don't think my faux stitching is very believable.



This last card I made for the Inspiration Challenge 174 on SCS. The polka dotted paper is reminiscent of a pattern sold by this company for dishes and kitchen accessories. The orange color is a little out of my comfort zone, but I think it works with that paper! I also found some nice satin ribbon at Michael's so I got some in black and brown. I'm sure it will prove to be very versatile!

Here are the specifics on the cards (and the SCS links):

Thanks -
Stamps: Sentiment O'Simple (Unity)
Paper: Kraft, Tangerine Tango, Shabby Princess dp
Ink: Basic Brown
Accessories: Brown satin ribbon, metal button, hemp twine, scallop edge punch, glue dots

Carefree Tree -
Stamps: Carefree moments (Unity)
Paper: Very Vanilla, Pixie Pink
Ink: Sahara Sand, Color Box Twilight, Chocolate Chip, Craft White, Creamy Caramel
Accessories: WCC, blender pen, mat pack, paper piercing tool, stamping sponge, edge distressing tool
Techniques: distressing, faux stitching, sponging

Hi card -
Stamps: Retro Border (Unity), Sentiments O' Simple (Unity)
Paper: Whisper White
Ink: Cameo Coral, So Saffron, Certainly Celery
Accessories: Celery Twill Tape

Chocolate Tree -
Stamps: Dream Tree (Unity), Sentiments O'Simple (Unity)
Paper: Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Brown satin ribbon (Michael's), linen thread, cream button from stash, glue dots, stampin' dimensionals
Techniques: cas

Plant a Tree -
Stamps: Plant a Tree (Unity)
Paper: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke dp
Ink: StazOn Timber Brown, Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke, Ruby Red, Cameo Coral, Summer Sun
Accessories: aquapainter, mellow moss taffeta ribbon, glue dots, stampin' dimensionals
Techniques: water coloring

Enjoy card -
Stamps: Linden Branch (Unity), Sentiments O'Simple (Unity)
Paper: Whisper Whtie, Bravo Burgundy, Always Artichoke, Parisian Summer dp
Ink: Bravo Burgundy, Always Artichoke
Accessories: Liquid Pearls, Large oval punch, Scallop oval punch, craft knife, Nestabilities
Techniques: paper piercing

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated.