Unity Stamp Co. Weekly Challenge

This is the inaugural installment of the Unity Stamp Co. Weekly Challenge. A bunch of Unity Stamp Co. fans have created a weekly challenge, leading up to Hip Hop Thursday in the Unity forum on SCS.

This week's challenge was to CASE a card made by one of Unity's super-talented design team members. I'm lucky enough to be in the Great Swaps Girls group with two Unity DT members, AJ and Maren, so I decided to pick one card from each of their galleries. If I had had just a little more time, I would have cased a card from Erin's (another GSG member) gallery, too.

The first card is based on this one found in AJ's gallery. I kept some elements of the layout the same (image panel against the left side of the card, layered on a slightly larger piece of patterned paper), while changing a few others, along with the color scheme and the stamps used.

For the main image, I used a stamp from the Gratitude=Joy stamp kit. I inked the image in Really Rust ink, then rolled the edges of the leaves in Close to Cocoa ink. After I stamped the image on a piece of vanilla cardstock, I added some speckles with my color spritzer tool. I haven't used this tool much--in fact, I think this might be the first time that I actually used it without totally messing up my stamped image. I added a pair of brads to the empty space at the left side of the image.

I liked the buttons on AJ's card, but with my design, I needed to make an adjustment to how they were used. I used just one large button, threaded with twine, at the edge of the patterned paper panel. I also changed the shape of the sentiment panel to fit my design. I really like this layout and I bet I'll use it again.

Materials Used:
Gratitude=Joy stamp kit (Unity Stamp Co.); Really Rust and Close to Cocoa Classic inks, Cameo Coral, Really Rust, and Very Vanilla cardstock, color spritzer, glue dot, dimensional (Stampin' Up!); patterned paper (Scenic Route); copper brads (Making Memories); button, twine (Walmart)

The second card is based on this one in Maren's gallery. I used images from the same stamp kit, Remember Happiness (the August Kit of the Month), but adjusted the layout to fit a standard sized card.

I stamped a trio of the small doodle flower image on a piece of white cardstock and colored them in a monochromatic pink color scheme using Copic markers. I added a tiny pink rhinestone to the center of each flower. In the lower right corner, I stamped the "daydream" sentiment in a dark rose ink (hmm . . . I just noticed this is the same sentiment as in the first card--wonder what that means?). I added a line of paper piercings from the edge of the panel to the sentiment. The image panel is distressed around the edges, layered on two panels, and attached to the cardfront with dimensionals.

For the cardfront, I used the same black layer with stitching around the edges, then attached to a white card base. It's a good thing that the paper strips across the cardfront cover my not-so-straight machine stitching!

Be sure to stop by the Unity member company forum at SCS to participate in the challenge. I think there may even be a prize for participants . . .

Materials Used:
Remember Happiness stamp kit (Unity Stamp Co.); Tuxedo Black ink (Memento); white cardstock (Xerox); markers (Copic Ciao); Rose Red Classic ink, Rose Red, Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, and Basic Black cardstock, distressing tool, mat pack and paper piercing tool, dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); white grosgrain ribbon, pink self-adhesive rhinestones (Michaels); sewing machine