MY FIRST HIP HOP THURSDAY with UNITY!

First of all, I can't believe I'm doing a UNITY hip hop!  This is so exciting for me to be able to share with you the awesome news that I am a member of UNITY STAMP CO.'s scrapbooking design team!  I have been a fan for quite a while now, and I just love love love their red rubber stamps.

When I first discovered this hobby, I started out stamping on my layouts when I was part of a kit club that offered stamps with each kit.  I thought everyone stamped on layouts!  I then got into making cards and other crafty projects, but now I am back to my first love.  Memory keeping. 

Unfortunately, I don't have a layout to share with you today, but a project I made using UNITY's "She Sprouted Wings" available in stores. This stamp set designed by Melody Ross spoke to me, and I just knew it deserved a themed project dedicated to my late Grandmother, Rita Louise Minion.  This was made using a 7 Gypsies Printer Tray.

Here is the set so that you can find the stamps in the project.

I have wanted to make bottle cap art for a while now, and I had an idea to use this woman as my first piece of art.  I stamped her once on the glimmer misted paper, then again on white paper.  I colored her head with COPICS, then cut her out and placed her into the bottle cap (which by the way is from a Bud Light Lime Beer - YUM!).  I put a good amount of Ranger's UTEE into the cap and melted it in the toaster oven. 

I really tried to stick to a color theme of brown, blue, and cream.  I threw in a little lime green here and there for contrast.

My grandmother was diabetic, so I added the Jenni Bowlin sticker (drug store), the R is for RITA, and the The End signifies her passing, with a beautiful butterfly to remind me of her beautiful life.  The stamp set has empowering sayings, worthy of my grandmother's tale.  She was a woman of great class, and spunk, and she lived her life beautifully and with passion, and with heart.  She LOVED.  She always SMILED.  She had her own hat business, sewed, knit, created art, she was inspiring!

I felt like this project needed journaling, so I created 2 tags to be hidden on the back.  I spent some time hand writing my thoughts on the back of these misted tags.

She and my grandfather loved to travel, and experience new things.

I often wonder what her dreams were.  I wonder if she ever felt like her dreams didn't matter and that her family always came first.  She was a giver, always thinking of others.  I wonder if she ever took any time for herself.

I used buttons, and these Maya Road shapes (sewing machine and dress form) to signify her craftiness in making hats and clothes, knitting, etc.  I colored the chipboard, then applied Glossy Accents by Ranger.  I also distressed the printer tray by painting streaks of cream colored acrylic paint.

I hope you enjoyed your visit and I look forward to making more projects with UNITY stamps!

If you want to win yourself some UNITY stamps, simply leave a message on this post and I'll draw one winner to win this cute KITCHEN LOGIC stamp set!

Now onto the next blog to continue the Hip Hop...

Jessica Diedrich