Hip Hop Thursday! UNITY!

Today has been a bit of a sad day for me. My step-grandma passed away last night. They still arent exactly sure why. Since my grandpa passed away a year ago this october, she had been put into a nursing home (she had diabetes and was one dialysis). So she wasnt in prime health condition, however she hadnt doing poorly either. Thankfully i had gotten to talk to her recently since gabe was born, we were sure to make that call. Thank God we did. Its so hard to remember how quickly you may lose a loved one. And it's all together too easy to forget to call someone you havent talked to in awhile like a grandparent. And i know talking to them can be rough. Sometimes its hard to keep focus. Or you get to hear about a story you've heard a thousand times. Or a loved one who has already passed gets brought up in every conversation that just makes you sad. Sad that they are gone. Sadder that you know they cant go a day without being upset they are gone. Obviously the last statement was the case with my grandmother. Everytime i talked to her she brought up my grandpa. It's hard. Death is always hard. So just remember as trying as those conversations may be... they are precious! Don't forget to call. Dont forget to write. Dont get too caught up in your own life that you forget to take time for those that truly matter.

Ok - that was SO not where this post was supposed to go today. But i needed to get that out.

Well, after a morning of dropping off Jack at school... and then out running errands (not fun) and then back to pick up Jack from school only to learn that he had 2 accidents (of both kinds) today at school and my growing frustration with his new regression on potty training and then to come home and call my mom back at which time she told me about my grandmother... needless to say i wasnt having a very good day. And as i was sitting and eating lunch i suddenly remembered that today was THURSDAY! And i LOOOOOOOOVE thursdays because thursday is HIP HOP day at Unity! Really.. i think thursday is my favorite day of the week. School for jack, good TV at night... and HIP HOP! Hip Hops are always so fun and now that i've particiapted in quite a few of them... i feel like i really know the other gals that has discovered the wonderful Unity Stamp line and hip hopping. So it's like, a day of the week i get to chat with my friends!

So that being said - i participated in one of the challenges for today which was to use our favorite sentiment on a card. The quote did not have to be unity. It just needed to be shown on the front of the card. Well... ironically, one of my favorite quotes of all time is also a Unity Single stamp! My luck! So i created this card...



The photo isnt the best. I was trying extremely hard to get it done by the challenge deadline time of 5:00. And of course Jack did NOT want to nap today so therefore, i was having a bit of difficulty getting it done. I suppose i could have taken another photo after my rush of getting it posted... but that takes up more valuable time and quite frankly... i have another challenge i want to do!

Here is how the card was created...
My card base is 5x7. I have some 5x7 envelopes that were given to me and i dont really make 5x7 cards. However, the unity stamps are large and i LOVE their size, but i figured, i could get away with using them on a larger card. So i did. :)
To make my sentiment... it's actually very very simple. Here are the steps...
1. Stamp (or print) onto a transparency. If you are stamping use STAZ ON ink. It dries so much faster. In fact, even printer ink takes forever to dry, so my advice is to find a stamp you want to use, and use staz on ink! It will dry within a few minutes but just give it time. A transparency isnt porous at all, so you have to let the ink itself dry, not just wait for it to absorb into the paper. I was also told by someone on splitcoast that you could stamp with paint. Hmm... i hadnt thought of using paint on both sides... another time i just may try that!
2. Once your sentiment or image is dry, flip the transparency over and brush paint onto the backside. Nice thing is since the transparency is clear (duh) you can see exactly where you want to paint. You can even experiment with different tools to paint with to leave some texture lines if you'd like. Just be sure your paint contrasts with your ink color.
3. Now just flip it back over to make sure you have paint everywhere you want to have paint. Then put your transparency over cardstock that contrasts with your paint color. To group all of mine together, i adhered my brown cardstock to the blue mat but to get the transparency on there, i punched holes using Stampin Up's Slot punch. A regular hole would have worked too. And then i tied it on there with ribbon.

Ok, the other details on my card...

Cardstock: Groovy Guava by Stampin Up!, Brown from Hobby Lobby
Patterned Paper: American Crafts
Stamps: becoming Butterfly sentiment; butterfly from Growing in Unity (www.unitystampco.com)
Ribbon by American Crafts
Stickles in Fruit Pink and Cinnamon

Thanks for coming by today!