Unity Stamps Anything Goes Challenge

This week’s challenge over at the Unity Show and Tell Facebook page is to use any Unity girl stamps to create a card, scrapbook page, mixed media project or anything else, using Unity Stamps only.

I love mixed media so I took the opportunity to play with Donna Downey’s stamp Kit, Calliope.  The girl’s image is 5×7.

This is an 8×11 canvas board that I primed with clear gesso so I could work on the face.  I first worked on the background and left a space for the image.  I used several Unity Stamps after laying down three different colors of Deco Art media fluid acrylics in Pthalo Blue, Hansa Yellow Light, and Liquitex heavy body acrylic in Payne’s Gray.

After the acrylic colors dried, I started stamping randomly using Unity Stamps Numbers, Etc.; the script from the Let it GO & Focus set; Donna Downey’s Peony and She; and Layers of Life kit Paper Hearts.

 I also added some doodles with my white Signo pen.

Then I went to work on the girl’s face and body.  I first stamped her on Rice paper so I could get a good impression then glued her with matt medium.  Some of the colors I used on the face were Americana acrylic in Fresh Tone, Golden Brown, Natural Buff, White and Liquitex Basics in Light Portrait Pink. For the lips, and cheeks, I used  the Tombow Art markers.

While that was drying, I used Donna’s stencil and applied gold and green Art (C) molding paste I found on clearance at Michael’s.  Great stuff, by the way!  It came in three small containers with three different colors – enough to try out!

I used one of Heidi Swapp’s stencils and her glittery silk screen molding paste here…

…and here.  It was the first time I used it and was very impressed with the creaminess and the shine – just like her glimmer mists!

after everything was dried, I stamped the She stamp on regular printing paper so it would have a good impression, cut it out, and glued it on the canvas with matt medium.

Then I worked on her hair, glasses, and dress. I used three different colors of Tombow pencils and ArtDeco Interference to make it shine.  I also added shading to her face and body using Pitt Markers.

I added glossy accents on the glasses and a few white lines to make it appear as the glare on the glass.

Thanks for stopping by to see my project and leave me some love in the comments.

Happy creating you all!

Carmen

Several Cards I Have Created in The Last Few Weeks

Here are some cards and other mixed media projects I’ve created, but haven’t posted.

My grandson Sage stayed with us for a few days this summer and wanted to surprise his girl friend.  He said he wanted a folder to tell her how much he loved her.  “Grandma, can you make something for Emma?”  What do you want me to make?  “Oh, just take a folder and do your stuff on it!”  He loved it!  You should have seen the look in his eyes when I gave it to him.

Emma’s Folder

I used stencils, spray paint, acrylics and a black marker

 

The back of the folder with a silhouette of a person dancing.

Close up of the stencil I used and the word Celebrate!

This is a mixed media canvas for a dear friend of the family who just found out she has Ewing’s Cancer, a rare form of bone Cancer.  She is so sweet and only 14 years old.

A closeup of the quote:

It didn’t take long for her to start loosing her hair, so I sent her a card to cheer her up!

I used a couple of Unity stamps for this one.

One of my cousins asked me to make a Sympathy card for a coach who just died, so I dusted off my Cricut and cut out a few images from the Basketball cartridge.

I also used my single stamps and stamped the inside.

Finally, I’ve been taking some Craftsy card classes and these are a few of the cards I’ve created.

The lessons were given by Catherine Pooler – so much fun!

Road Trip to Mount Rushmore – June 2015

One of my husband’s life long dreams was to see Mount Rushmore!

My daughter and my grandson joined us and it turned out to be one of the best vacations ever!!

We started out going to Santa Fe and spending a couple of days.  We’ve been to Santa Fe, but didn’t have the time to look around.  This time, we spent the whole day enjoying the city.  Here are a few pictures:

My husband has heard so much about the Loretto Chapel where the mysterious spiral staircase is located that we made our first stop here:

We also  did the tourist thing of shopping for bargains:

haa haa, I don’t know what I was demonstrating,

We couldn’t leave Santa Fe without going to the Georgia O’Keeffe museum.  So inspiring!

We checked this place out because it had smoothies,

I ended up having a virgin red chile bloody mary, yumm!

Having a great dinner!

Now on to Colorado to stay at our time share near Vail.  This is the scenery on our way there.

The closer we got, the more snow we started seeing on the road.

We finally arrived at our destination and were glad we left the snow behind!

We had nice weather all around and got to enjoy long walks to the lake,

and the creek,

The water was perfect for white water rafting!

The lake was peaceful, though.

 enjoying nature,

Tulips

A bee searching for honey in a lavender bush.

 

and pretending we were kids again!

 We sat at this cozy garden and watched people go by.

We also visited Eagle, down the road and admired the bronze art on the sidewalk.

Midweek we went to Denver to pick up our grandson and went through the one mile long Eisenhower tunnel.

After picking up Sage from the airport, we went to visit our old neighborhood in Aurora, Colorado.  We hadn’t been there since 1983 so we couldn’t find our previous homes. After some searching and googling, we found our house on Olathe St. in the Mission Viejo neighborhood and the Berry home in Smokey Hill.

We couldn’t leave Denver without visiting Casa Bonita.

This restaurant used to be a Safeway store and was remodeled and converted into an old Mexican villa, complete with caves, waterfall, and a gorilla.

My daughter was reminiscing how she and her brother would love to go there not for the food, but for the entertainment.  The menu hasn’t changed a bit; it’s still not very good, but eatable.

When you get to your table, they present you with a flag you can raise when it’s time for a refill or some of their famous sopaipillas.

We headed back to Avon Colorado and began the fun part for Zonia and Sage.  They went hiking, biking, and water rafting!

Biking near Vail Valley

At the end of the week they went white water rafting on the Eagle River, but I haven’t been able to find their pictures online.

When we lived in Colorado, we used to visit the towns in the rockies – our favorite town was Estess Park.

This is a picture of the famous Stanley Hotel.

We drove to Cheyenne, Wyoming and went to an Hispanic event.  It was their first so it was held at a small park.  Adjacent to the park is a railroad museum and this is where we took this picture.  I’m too short for this!!

The next day we started on our trip to North Dakota.  There was so much rain and flooding we had to be rerouted and it took two more hours to get to Keystone.  This is where both Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse memorial are.

Since it was still early enough in the afternoon, we decided to go to the Crazy Horse memorial because it was on the way to Keystone.

Can you believe this is as far as they’ve gotten on the monument?   Everyone’s question is “When will it be finished” the answer from the guide is always “When we get enough funding.”

This is a replica of how it will look when it’s completely done!

You can pick a rock from the left over rocks to take home.  No, Sage, you can’t take that on the plane!!

Are you kidding me?  You want to take that big rock home, honey?

Finally made it to Mount Rushmore.  The monument is a lot smaller than the Crazy Horse Monument.  It fits in the head of the warrior.

The family in front of the monument..

.

…and this is a closeup after walking up 252 steps!!

We were all so happy to be there finally!

We just had to stop at Sturgis where they hold the biggest motorcycle rally in the world!!

But the biggest highlight of my summer was when my sister and I attended the Imitate Jesus Regional Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses.  Best convention to date!!

Next post, I’ll be downloading the projects I’ve completed for Life Book 2015.  Until next time, happy crafting!!

Spring Time In Paris

Michael’s stores is having a trip to Paris giveaway on their Face Book page.  You can read more about the contest at Michaels.com.  Today is the last day to enter!

I’ve been working on this mixed media project for three weeks.  I took it to my acrylic painting class and worked on it while my teacher gave me pointers. I googled Paris in the Spring time and this is the picture I chose.  It’s a picture of the Eiffel tower taken from a park filled with flowers and trees.

It’s a 16×18 canvas.  I used acrylic paints for the background as well as tissue paper, stencils, stamps, and molding paste.  For the inside of the tower I used speckled molding paste and black acrylic paint.  For the metal around the tower I used a bronze acrylic paint marker by Sakura and bronze acrylic paint.  I also added different color stickles to the flowers and trees just to give it a bit of “shine” all around.

I may not win anything, but if I don’t enter, I’ll never know what the judges think!

The first picture I took inside and I like the way the tower shimmers so I entered that one into the giveaway.  The second picture was outside next to my lavender bush.

Thanks for stopping by!  Let me know what you think!

Happy crafting,

Carmen