Growing in Unity Blog Hop 2019

Hi Everyone - Welcome back to Better When I'm stamping! Hopefully, you have been visiting the blogs on the hop and have arrived at the last one (mine), but if you haven't visited the other blogs, I will be linking to all of them at the end of this post.
For the hop, our task was to use our favorite current Unity stamp set.  I chose "...hugs, kisses and birthday wishes". It's actually the set I earned for my week as a GIU gal.

 I love this set for so many reasons! First, it has a ton of birthday sentiments, which is really nice because I get tired of using the same ones that I have over and over. Second, it's good for guys and girls (and if you are like me, guys cards are harder to figure out than girls) - this set it just depends on how you color it.

Third, I think this set would work great for some paper piecing, too! Plus, it has a sentiment that cracks me up - it's on the second card photo (just a front, not a finished card, but I wanted to show more than one sample of coloring on the owl stamp).

Thanks for looking at my owl cards.  The pink one will go in the mail this week to a friend for her birthday.  Now onto the blog hop, because there are prizes to be won and other blogs to visit (if you didn't start at the beginning).  Remember to comment on each blog to be entered.

Lee Ann Barrett

Shannon Edwards

Brianna Jackson

Jeanie Marie Hays

Bobbi Sue McConathy

DeAnn O'Neill (that's me - be sure to leave a comment here and on each of the blogs)

Thanks for stopping by! - DeAnn

Growing in Unity Day Five: The Favorite

Welcome back for my last day as a GIU Gal for Unity Stamps.  This week has really flown by and I've enjoyed reading all your comments.  As promised, today's card was made using my favorite Unity stamp set "Grey Skies Happy".  I don't suppose it will surprise anyone that it is a Phyllis Harris set - I LOVE all her sets!  I think there are several reasons that this is my favorite set.  The rainy weather theme is perfect for Washington state.  The set reminds me a little bit of one of my favorite childhood books Ramona the Pest, which is probably why I always end up coloring the rain boots red.  I also tend to color the image kind of the way little girls around 3 or 4 like to get dressed - they put on their prettiest items or the ones they like best with no regard to whether they go together or not.

I hope you can read the sentiment.  Photographing that part of the card was tricky.  In case you can't read it - it says "You make me happy when skies are grey".

Thank you so much for stopping by this week and thank you to Unity Stamps for allowing me to participate in Growing In Unity 2019!  Now, you have one more chance to enter to win some Unity Stamps for yourself.  You have until midnight on April 6th to leave a comment to be entered in the contest.  All comments posted after that time will not be entered into the drawing.  So, here's today's question:  What is your favorite Unity stamp and what makes you like it so much?

Thanks so much for stopping by, be sure to check back next week for the names of the winners of the contest! See you soon - DeAnn

Growing in Unity Day Four: Owl I need is a little inspiration

Hello! Welcome to the fourth day of my week as a GIU Gal.  The card for today took a long time to think through.  I knew I wanted to use the owl stamp (Looking For Love), but I wasn't sure how I wanted to put it together. Usually, when I am in need of inspiration, I will just pop over to Pinterest or check out the examples made using the stamp at the stamp company's website. Guess what?! I couldn't find any examples for this stamp.  Zip! Zilch! Nada!  So, I looked at other owl cards, but they just made me want to buy more stamps and really didn't inspire me.  I stamped the owl on some paper and started playing around with it and then, I left it in my craft room and thought about it - for hours!  Do you ever do that? Just mull ideas over in your mind trying to decide exactly how you want to make a card?  That's part of my process, especially when it's an image that I know I want to use, but haven't decided on the colors or papers that will work best.
So, I thought about this owl all day.  I thought I'd put my card together after dinner, but dinner got interesting when my oven decided to throw out an error code and overheat. So, we had to shut off the power to the oven, cool it off and try to problem solve, oh, and still throw together something for dinner.  So, this card was finished at 1 am, which sounds late, but I'm a night owl (ha! I think I just made a pun).  I'm pretty happy with the end result, which is usually what happens when I have a stamp that stumps me for a bit.

Just one more day to go and I've saved my favorite stamp for the last day, so I hope you come back tomorrow.  Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered to win Unity stamps for yourself!  Today's question is: What do you use to inspire you when you are card making?
Thanks for stopping by!  See you tomorrow. - DeAnn

Growing in Unity Day 3: The Unity Stamps that started it all

Thanks for joining me for Day 3 of my GIU week. Today, I'm using the Unity Stamps that were my introduction to the company. I stumbled onto Unity during a blog hop, I'm not even sure it was a Unity blog hop, but somehow by exploring the different blogs I saw a card made using both of these Itty Bitty sets and immediately fell in love and placed my first Unity order.  The names of these sets are: Perfect Day Hummingbird and Too Much, Too Often Daisies 

Don't forget to leave a comment so you can be entered to win some Unity stamps for yourself!  There will be two winners. Today's question: What is your favorite animal to stamp and use in your cards?  And yes, cartoonish animals count, too.  Thanks for stopping by!  See you tomorrow! - DeAnn

Growing In Unity Day Two: Reminds me of Kansas

Welcome back to Day Two of my Growing In Unity Week.  I loved reading your comments and finding out how long you have been a fan of Unity Stamps.  I found Unity Stamps (or maybe they found me) about 3 or 4 years ago during a blog hop.  I saw the most adorable card and just had to have the stamps!
Today's card is also featuring a Phyllis Harris stamp set, this one is called Face the Sunshine.  I love the sunflowers and the girl's hair blowing in the wind, both of which remind of Kansas.  I grew up in Eastern Kansas about an hour away from the capital, Topeka and even though there are a lot more trees in Eastern Kansas than the open plains of Western Kansas, it's still crazy windy most of the time! When I was going to college, I lived closer to the Kansas/Oklahoma border and there were a few fields that were completely filled with sunflowers!  I loved to drive by those fields and see the sunflowers move their faces to follow the sun!

If you love Phyllis Harris stamps, be sure to check out the sale Unity Stamps is having right now.  They have the Phyllis Harris stamps (and others, too) 50% off!  I don't know when the sale ends, so don't wait too long to check it out!

Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered to win some Unity stamps for yourself.  Today's question is: What is your favorite flower to stamp and color?  

Thanks for stopping by!  See you tomorrow with a new card! - DeAnn

Growing In Unity Day One: Merry Christmas!

Welcome to Day One of my week as a Growing in Unity Gal for Unity Stamps!  I am excited to share some of the cards I create using Unity's amazing stamps. Today is a special day for my family, it's my son's eighteenth birthday!  It also happens to be April Fool's Day, which is why the title of this post is "Merry Christmas"!  In honor of April Fool's Day, I am sharing my favorite Christmas stamp from Unity Stamps.  It's called 'Unto Us' (you can click on the name to see the stamp set at Unity's website).

The stamp set was designed by Phyllis Harris - she's one of my favorite Unity stamp artists, so you will see a couple more of her stamps used this week. Speaking of this week, I hope you will join me each day this week to see what I've made and to enter to win some Unity stamps!  Entering is easy, just leave a comment on each post this week (I'll have a question for you to answer) and 2 winners will be chosen to win some Unity stamps!!  Today's question: How long have you been using (or admiring) Unity Stamps? Just leave your answer in the comments below and you'll be entered! Thanks for stopping by, see you tomorrow!

Birthday Card

This is a birthday card I made for my niece last year.  Unfortunately, this year she got a text message as I had been sick and wasn't up to making a card.  This one was made using stamps from Pretty Pink Posh  The name of the set is Birthday Friends Stamp set.  I think it's one of the cutest birthday stamp sets I've seen.  In case you were wondering, my niece loved the card!