Inked by Eileen

Saturday, April 1, 2023

Friends of Unity April Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to our Friends of Unity April Blog Hop. We are featuring a butterfly theme this month. My pickings were slim this month as I didn't realize how FEW butterfly stamps I had. I'm glad I found this one, as it was new in the package, so I must have seen something that inspired me when it first came out.

Clean and simple always seem to be what I am drawn too. This was quick one pulled together with some embossing resist, one of my favorite techniques! I just needed to decide on which oxide combination I would use for this. I saw someone share a blend of darker than this but it looked like sunset I recently saw and went with those colors.

Hop along with the other Friends of Unity and see what they created with this theme:

Eileen Mathys (last but not least)

Stamps:

Pure Magic- Uniquely Unity (Unity Stamp Company)

Love Story (Unity)

Stay in Touch (Unity)

Paper:

Stampers Select White (Papertrey Ink)

Canyon Clay (Papertrey)

True Black (Papertrey)

Ink:
Versamark

Versafine Clair Nocturne

Crackling Campfire Distress Oxide (Tim Holtz)

Dried Marigold Distress Oxide (Tim Holtz)

Antique Linen Distress Oxide (Tim Holtz)

Accessories:

Clear Embossing Powder (Brutus Monroe)

Disclaimer:
We all on the Friends of Unity design team appreciate every single comment we get.
That's why we use our own stash every month for a giveaway.
We are NOT sponsored by Unity Stamp Co. but, they do approve of our hop, and that make us all very happy.
We started this hop because we love Unity. That's it. This hop is our way of showcasing our cards made with our favorite stamps!!

Saturday, March 4, 2023

Friends of Unity March Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to our Friends of Unity March Blog Hop. We are featuring a Winnie the Pooh theme this month. I simply could not be more excited about this theme. I love Disney and especially Winnie the Pooh.

Classic Pooh was the theme we went with for the nursery for our youngest child. Very cute and neutral as we opted to not find out the gender of our baby. My mom convinced me that it is truly the one and only surprise you will ever have in life. This little one just turned 25 in February. I never regretted waiting until the end to find out... and applaud those who do wait for the gender reveal as well.

I have a friend who loves Pooh as well, and with her birthday coming up in March I decided to combine those two elements (as I did last year as well). She was also the one who inspired me to get into paper crafting, so it is only fitting. I was inspired by a recent sketch from Newton's Nook Design when creating this card.

Hop along with the other Friends of Unity and see what they created with this theme:

Eileen Mathys (you are here)

Joyce Verdon

Alaine Tanner

Stamps:

Sweet Little Smiles (Unity Stamp Company)

Gotta Love Senitments (Unity)

Paper:

Stampers Select White (Papertrey Ink)

Birthday Girl (Echo Park)

Ink:
Tuxedo Black (Memento)

Mowed Lawn Distress Oxide (Tim Holtz)

Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide (Tim Holtz)

Accessories:

Sizzix Big Shot

Grassy Border (Lawn Fawn)

Cloud Border Stencil (Newton's Nook Design)

Copic Sketch Markers

Saturday, December 3, 2022

Friends of Unity December Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to our Friends of Unity December Blog Hop. We are featuring a glimmer and glitz theme this month. My favorite glimmer and glitz option is heat embossing.

I opted for a clean and simple-ish design that really let the embossing take center stage. At first I colored one of my images, but found that I preferred the simplicity of the all gold image with no distractions.

Unity is celebrating our 5th anniversary of hopping and is giving away (3) $25 gift cards. The winners will be chosen from those that comment on every blog. You will have until December 10th to get this done and Crystal will announce the winner on USnT on the 11th. Good Luck!!

Hop along with the other Friends of Unity and see what they created with this theme:

Crystal O. Minkler

Eileen Mathys (you’re here)

Stamps:

All Kinds of Holiday Love KOM 9/2019 (Unity Stamp Company)
Distressed Dots (Unity)

Paper:

Classic Kraft (Papertrey Ink)

True Black (Papertrey)

Ink:
Versamark

Accessories:

Wagner heat tool

Gilded embossing powder (Brutus Monroe)

Anti-Static Powder tool (Taylored Expressions)

Friday, October 21, 2022

Falling for the Holidays 2022

Welcome to Build Your Stash Falling for the Holidays Linky Party! Let the creativity of the next eight days inspire your creativity and get you in the mood for some holiday cards. Now is the time where we start to see holiday decor in the stores, and we turn our minds to shopping for the holiday. In our neck of the woods the leaves are on the ground and there is a nip in the air. Mornings are cool and days warm up... but light jackets are almost a necessity. I prefer fall to spring, but I enjoy living in an area where we can see the seasons change in every facet of nature.

I have always said Christmas is my favorite season (minus the weather that goes along with it) and this is the holiday that I own the most stamps for. I especially love Christmas music. I didn’t marry a Grinch, so once November is here, it’s Christmas music all the time. We usually have to stream it online because some of our favorites don’t get played as often, while others get played a tad too much. That can be said for music on any station during anytime of the year.

We hope that you are inspired by our creations and will play along with us, so make sure to check out our BYSHC blog. We have awesome sponsors that have generously offered up wonderful prizes, so don't miss out!

Stamps:

Greatest Part of Christmas- Host Exclusive (Stampin Up)

Paper:

Poppy Parade (SU)

Garden Green (SU)

Stampers Select White (Papertrey Ink)

Plaid~ Open Stock (Hobby Lobby)

Ink:
Garden Green (SU)

Accessories:

Sizzix Big Shot

Knit Sweater embossing folder (SU)

Banners Pick a Punch (SU)

Tree Punch (EK Success)

Saturday, October 1, 2022

Friends of Unity October Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to our Friends of Unity October Blog Hop. We are featuring anything but a card this month. This month I decided to share a quick and easy gift card holder. I was inspired by this video. Nothing is better than using what you have and not buying special dies to create this. I used the Stampin Up note cards as indicated in the video, but I think a standard A2 card could be modified easily to work.

I have purchased dies to make gift card holders in the past and find that they take several steps to make and assemble just one. This video was quick and simple and will more than likely be something I will create again. I love clean and simple, and if its quick too... that seals the deal! I hope you are able to watch the video and consider creating this quick gift card holder too.

Hop along with the other Friends of Unity and see what they created with this cue:

Eileen Mathys (you’re here)

Joyce Verdon

Dawn Bryson

Robyn Jordan

Stamps:

Holiday Hugs Kit of the Month October 2016 (Unity Stamp Company)

Paper:

Hello Christmas patterned paper (Echo Park)

Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink)

Stampers Select White (Papertrey)

Basic White Note Card (Stampin Up)

Ink:
VersaFine Clair Nocturne

Accessories:

Sizzix Big Shot

Subtle embossing folder (SU)

Seasonal Label dies (SU)

Saturday, September 3, 2022

Friends of Unity September Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to our Friends of Unity September Blog Hop. We are featuring a coffee, tea, and cocoa theme this month. Hard to believe that unofficial end to summer is here and kids are heading back to school next week in our area.

For my card I decided to use one of the new stamps for my creation. This brought me back to a favorite background stamp, and I just recreated a past Friends of Unity favorite from 2020 and simply changed out the center element. The earlier creation was inspired from the very talented Echo Noble, and I brought the same colors forward onto the mug and loved the end result.

Hop along with the other Friends of Unity and see what they created with this color scheme:

Crystal O. Minkler

Eileen Mathys (you’re here)

Dawn Fields

Stamps:

Frondescence (Unity Stamp Company)

Warm Fall Hugs (Unity)

Paper:

Cocoa Bean (Papertrey Ink)

Stamper Select White (Papertrey)

Terracotta Tile (Papertrey)

Ink:

Memento Tuxedo Black

Vintage Photo Distress Oxide (Tim Holtz)

Accessories:

Sizzix Big Shot

Copic Sketch Markers

Rectangle Stitched Dies (Papertrey)

Saturday, August 6, 2022

Friends of Unity August Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to our Friends of Unity August Blog Hop. We are featuring a holiday theme this month. I decided to make a Halloween card, a season that I have never made cards for in the past. Now that I have grandchildren old enough to look forward to getting something in the mail, why not make something for them?

This card is a quick and simple layout that I have used several times in the past. This time I utilized a border background stamp instead of taking a smaller stamp image and stamping it many times over. This made the card a much quicker and easier process. Using any one of the many Tierra Jackson Halloween characters, this card can quickly be replicated featuring your favorite too!