Unity Hop for 50K Friends!

There is a lot of excitement in Unity land today!! We are celebrating FIFTY THOUSAND Facebook friends! That's HUGE! I love the community over at the Unity facebook page, especially the Unity Show and Tell group. If you aren't already in that group, make sure you join it immediately! So much inspiration found over there :)

To celebrate 50k, Unity has released 5 brand new kits for $10. I'm using the new "Mice of You" kit, perfect for Valentine's Day...

Isn't he so so cute? This card gave me a lot of trouble. None of my layouts were working for me, but once I found that constellation paper (Dear Lizzy - Serendipity) it just pulled everything together! The mouse looks like he's dreaming in the sky, with hearts and stars all around!

I colored the image with Copic markers and die cut with a Spellbinders nestabilities die. The sentiment is cut into a banner and matted on top of some glitter washi tape. Those cool stars are from DCWV and they're actually tiny mirrors!

50,000 fans deserves a huge sale, right? These little banners speak for themselves. Happy Shopping!!

Make sure you leave comments along the hop for your chance to win this amazing prize pack! You have throughout the weekend to hop, comment, and shop the sale! Have fun and get inspired :)

Your next stop is the beautiful SHILO

Watercolor Snowmen + Winners!

Have you sent out your Christmas cards yet? Do you even plan to send any? I've spent the past 2 hours simply writing addresses on envelopes! Ahhh!!! It must get finished!

In the meantime, I get distracted by playing with pretty stamps and watercolors :) This time my holiday gift tag was inspired by Jill Foster's wonderful watercolor creations for Ellen Hutson's 12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist!

I love these singing snowmen! I used a cute stamp from Unity Stamp Co called "A Caroling we Go" and watercolored with my Faber Castell Design Memory Craft Aquarelle pencils and some Distress Markers. I used Archival Black Ink on watercolor paper so the stamped image doesn't smudge while I'm coloring.

Jill Foster's Tag

I finished the tag with some Glossy Accents on the lamp post and the hand bell. And of course I added a healthy serving of Stickles on the snow :)

WINNER TIME!

I used Random Number Generator to select my two winners. Random.org picked my blog posts for Days 5 and 12... 

So my winner from DAY 5 is.... JENNIFER MITTEN! CONGRATS!

So my winner from DAY 12 is.... SHARTLE! CONGRATS!

Please email me at rwkrafts(at)gmail(dot)com with your shipping address and I'll get your goodies out ASAP! 

Thank you to everyone who left such fun comments over the 12 Days of Holiday Inspiration... don't worry, I still have PLENTY of stuff to give away so stay on the look out! ;)

<3 Rachel

Peace Tag

Popping in with a quick late night post to share a holiday gift tag and a reminder for prrriiizzzesss!!

I'm always a huge fan of Ellen Hutson's 12 Tags with a Feminine Twist! I've already made two inspired tags, and today I'm sharing one more (and another tomorrow!).

I immediately fell in love with the tag by Dawn Woleslagle. The black, white, and gold was heart stopping! 

Dawn's Tag

I cut out the heat embossing part and found a lovely striped paper from My Mind's Eye 'Marketstreet' collection, so I used that for the base of my tag. I did a coat of Wink of Stella over the gold stripes to make them shimmer. I die cut the snowflake and peace from DCWV Foil paper in gold and silver.

Ok now quick reminders! Make sure you check out THIS POST for a list of all of my 12 Days of Holiday Inspiration. Then leave comments to enter for a chance to win a BOX FULL of amazing prizes!! I'm picking winners tomorrow afternoon!

<3 Rachel

Psychedelic Reindeer Head (oh, yes) - Day 12

For the final day of the 12 Days of Holiday Inspiration I am excited to bring you.....

Something. Completely. Different.

This is a project that has taken a week to finish, but the time was well spent! I now have a funky psychedelic reindeer head as part of my Christmas decorations.

The base of this project is a fun new product from DCWV called DIY Wall Zoo which is available at Joann's. They have a variety of animal heads that you piece together with heavy duty cardboard. 

I coated the entire reindeer with Faber Castell Gesso. I knew I wanted to use spray inks to color my reindeer, so the coating of gesso can make the inks more vibrant. Above is a photo of my reindeer half sprayed. Many many MANY many many sprays were required :)

I used just about every color of Dylusions Spray Ink that I owned, especially the yellow, teal, lime, purple, orange, and hot pink. For the mount piece and the antlers I used a combination of Prima Bloom Sprays and then a layer of Dylusions. The Bloom inks leave a cool metallic finish. I also covered the base in Buffalo Snow/Glitter ... just because :)

This reindeer needed to get into the holiday spirit, and these little ornament earrings were the perfect addition. I couldn't stop laughing at it while I was taking these pictures (it's true, ask the hubs).

The dogs are sufficiently afraid of it...

So I think I'll keep it up for a little while longer :)

I hope you've enjoyed this 12 day inspiration event! I've had fun reading all of your comments and pushing myself to make something new each day. Below I'm sharing the links of each day of my hop. Remember to leave comments for a chance to win a huge prize box (a ton of DCWV, among other things!)

DAY 1 - Hand Painted Ornaments

DAY 2 - Advent Calendar (and Video)

DAY 3 - Merry and Bright Tag

DAY 4 - Winter Foxes Card

DAY 5 - Joy Love Peace Card

DAY 6 - Snowy Scenery Card

DAY 7 - Snowy Yeti Card

DAY 8 - Joyful Reindeer Tag

DAY 9 - Make Magnets with your Stamps

DAY 10 - 2013 December Daily (and Video)

DAY 11 - Solid Cardstock Card

DAY 12 - You are here ;)

TWO BOXES FULL OF PRIZES!

PRIZES! I NEED TO GET RID OF ALL THIS STUFF IN THAT PHOTO! SOME OF IT CAN BE YOURS! As part of the 12 Days of Holiday Inspiration Event, I will be giving away a SWAG BOX of fun goodies to a lucky commenter! Comment on all 12 days to increase you chance of winning. And I PROMISE it will be PACKED with crafty goodness... I'm in the holiday giving spirit after all! ;) PRIZE UPDATE! I WILL BE GIVING AWAY TWO (2!) HUGE PRIZE BOXES! Thank you guys for all your sweet comments throughout this event!!!

I will announce my lucky winners on Monday! Now hop along to all the other talented blogs!

Donna Bowman 

Rachel Kleinman (that's me!)

Ceal Pritchett

Ardyth Percy-Robb 

Jennifer Cuthbertson 

Lynn Kopas

Misty Buck

Solid Cardstock Christmas Card - Day 11

Welcome to Day 11 of the 12 Days of Holiday Inspiration Blog Event brought to you by "The Inspiration Crew"! We’re just a group of online crafty blog friends who love being creative. This time we're doing a 12-day event to provide you with tons of Holiday Inspiration.

We're making crafty projects using products we like and some of us are even offering prizes! Check each blog and the information there for what prizes are being offered and when the winners will be announced on that blog. 

At the bottom of this post is a list of all the crafty ladies participating in this event. Be sure to visit all the blogs each day for loads of fun Holiday craft ideas.

My card for today focuses on the versatility of solid colored cardstock. Not a single pattern paper was used today, folks! Plus, every piece of cardstock here (except the card base) came from DCWV Christmas and Winter Mat Stack. Just one mat stack necessary for this adorable winter scene :)

I used Lawn Fawn 'Stitched Hills Die' for the snow and Simon Says Stamp 'Village Die' for the adorable houses and trees. The sentiment is also die cut from DCWV red glitter paper (included in the mat stack!) from Papertrey Ink's Wet Paint collection. I even paper pieced that adorable Lawn Fawn Winter Penguin and gave him a blinged out scarf and skates :)

The background uses Faber Castell Design Memory Craft Whipped Spackle with the Simon Says Stamp 'Falling Snow' stencil. I applied some clear Wink of Stella glitter to every little drop of snow, the trees, and the penguin. To finish the scene, I added Liquid Applique to the roof tops. I'm linking this card up with the current Simon Says Stamp challenge - Bling!

PRIZES! I NEED TO GET RID OF ALL THIS STUFF IN THAT PHOTO! SOME OF IT CAN BE YOURS! As part of the 12 Days of Holiday Inspiration Event, I will be giving away a SWAG BOX of fun goodies to a lucky commenter! Comment on all 12 days to increase you chance of winning. And I PROMISE it will be PACKED with crafty goodness... I'm in the holiday giving spirit after all! ;) PRIZE UPDATE! I WILL BE GIVING AWAY TWO (2!) HUGE PRIZE BOXES! Thank you guys for all your sweet comments throughout this event!!!

HELP ME GET RID OF ALL THIS BRAND NEW STUFF!

Donna Bowman 

Rachel Kleinman (that's me!)

Ceal Pritchett

Ardyth Percy-Robb 

Jennifer Cuthbertson 

Lynn Kopas

Misty Buck

Completed December Daily 2013 - Day 10

Welcome to Day 10 of the 12 Days of Holiday Inspiration Blog Event brought to you by "The Inspiration Crew"! We’re just a group of online crafty blog friends who love being creative. This time we're doing a 12-day event to provide you with tons of Holiday Inspiration.

We're making crafty projects using products we like and some of us are even offering prizes! Check each blog and the information there for what prizes are being offered and when the winners will be announced on that blog. 

At the bottom of this post is a list of all the crafty ladies participating in this event. Be sure to visit all the blogs each day for loads of fun Holiday craft ideas.

Today I'm sharing my (finally) completed 2013 December Daily! You'll see the simplicity of my album, but that's what I had to do when I made the album 11 months late ;) Please watch the video and enjoy!

If the video doesn't show up above, please CLICK HERE for the direct YouTube link!

PRIZES! I NEED TO GET RID OF ALL THIS STUFF IN THAT PHOTO! SOME OF IT CAN BE YOURS! As part of the 12 Days of Holiday Inspiration Event, I will be giving away a SWAG BOX of fun goodies to a lucky commenter! Comment on all 12 days to increase you chance of winning. And I PROMISE it will be PACKED with crafty goodness... I'm in the holiday giving spirit after all! ;) PRIZE UPDATE! I WILL BE GIVING AWAY TWO (2!) HUGE PRIZE BOXES! Thank you guys for all your sweet comments throughout this event!!!

HELP ME GET RID OF ALL THESE NEW STUFF!!!

Donna Bowman 

Rachel Kleinman (that's me!)

Ceal Pritchett

Ardyth Percy-Robb 

Jennifer Cuthbertson 

Lynn Kopas

Misty Buck

Make Magnets with your Stamps - Day 9

Welcome to Day 9 of the 12 Days of Holiday Inspiration Blog Event brought to you by "The Inspiration Crew"! We’re just a group of online crafty blog friends who love being creative. This time we're doing a 12-day event to provide you with tons of Holiday Inspiration.

We're making crafty projects using products we like and some of us are even offering prizes! Check each blog and the information there for what prizes are being offered and when the winners will be announced on that blog. 

At the bottom of this post is a list of all the crafty ladies participating in this event. Be sure to visit all the blogs each day for loads of fun Holiday craft ideas.

I'm actually out of town right now visiting family in Phoenix, but I wanted to share a post I created for the Sweet Stamp Shop a couple months ago. I think it's pretty fitting for the 12 Days of Holiday Inspiration so please enjoy!

Today I’m here to share a fun way you can turn ANY stamp into a magnet. Since I’m ready for Christmas, I created a little holiday city scene…

Step 1: Stamp your image on sturdy white cardstock, color it, and fussy cut. In this tutorial I used ‘Holiday Town’ stamps and colored with Copic markers.

Step 1 - Stamp, Color, Cut

Step 2: Trace your image on a piece of chipboard. Frugal Tip! I almost always use cardboard from cereal boxes. Reduce, recycle, reuse am I right? Once you’ve traced it, cut it out and give it a light coat of Gesso on both sides. This will help make your finished magnet sturdier.

step 2 - Trace, Cut, Gesso

Step 3: Once the gesso has dried, glue the two pieces together using a strong liquid adhesive. Now you can add any glitter accents to your building (I used Star Dust Stickles). Let them dry.

step 3 - glue, glitter, dry

Step 4: Coat your entire image with a thick layer of Glossy Accents. TIP! Use a needle to poke any air bubbles from the Glossy Accents. If you don’t pop those bubbles, they will dry there! Now put it to the side, step away, don’t touch… I left mine to dry overnight completely.

step 4 - glossy accents, pop bubbles, let DRY

Step 5: Use hot glue to adhere a magnet behind your building! All finished! Now make as many as your heart desires!

step 5 - glue magnets

Now that I’ve got all these adorable holiday magnets, I need to get them to my fridge!

And here they are again holding up last year’s holiday post card…

You could create all kinds of fun scenes and rearrange them depending on the season. Or what about creating your own alphabet magnets?? The options are really endless… so get crafty and make your own magnets! This is a great craft to get the kids involved in, too!

HELP ME GET RID OF ALL THIS BRAND NEW STUFF!!!!

PRIZES! I NEED TO GET RID OF ALL THIS STUFF IN THAT PHOTO! SOME OF IT CAN BE YOURS! As part of the 12 Days of Holiday Inspiration Event, I will be giving away a SWAG BOX of fun goodies to a lucky commenter! Comment on all 12 days to increase you chance of winning. And I PROMISE it will be PACKED with crafty goodness... I'm in the holiday giving spirit after all! ;) PRIZE UPDATE! I WILL BE GIVING AWAY TWO (2!) HUGE PRIZE BOXES! Thank you guys for all your sweet comments throughout this event!!!

Donna Bowman 

Rachel Kleinman (that's me!)

Ceal Pritchett

Ardyth Percy-Robb 

Jennifer Cuthbertson 

Lynn Kopas

Misty Buck

Joyful Reindeer Tag - Day 8

Welcome to Day 8 of the 12 Days of Holiday Inspiration Blog Event brought to you by "The Inspiration Crew"! We’re just a group of online crafty blog friends who love being creative. This time we're doing a 12-day event to provide you with tons of Holiday Inspiration.

We're making crafty projects using products we like and some of us are even offering prizes! Check each blog and the information there for what prizes are being offered and when the winners will be announced on that blog. (I HAVE A VERY IMPORTANT PRIZE ANNOUNCEMENT AT THE END OF THIS POST!)

At the bottom of this post is a list of all the crafty ladies participating in this event. Be sure to visit all the blogs each day for loads of fun Holiday craft ideas.

I created a festive gift tag that is inspired by Tim Holtz's December tag, and I used techniques to color the deer inspired by Jennifer McGuire's tag for Ellen Hutson's 12 Tags with a Feminine Twist. I'm also entering the tag into the current Simon Says Stamp Holiday Challenge!

Jennifer McGuire's Tag for Ellen Hutson

Tim Holtz's December Tag

I started with a basic manila tag and dabbed Antique Linen Distress Paint over the new Holiday Knit Stencil. Once the stain completely dried I sprayed three colors of Dylusions Sprays: Crushed Grape, Vibrant Turquoise, and Fresh Lime. Once the spray inks dried, the Holiday Knit stencil pattern begins to show through :)

I applied some Faber Castell Whipped Spackle over the Tim Holtz Stripes stencil to add texture. I love how the Whipped Spackle absorbs some of the dye so the spray ink colors subtly show through. I die cut the Mini Reindeer and Mini Snowflakes out of Grungeboard, then painted them with acrylic paint. I used a stencil over the reindeer and lightly rubbed some Frayed Burlap Distress Ink to give the pattern. Finally I adhered the dies, added some Stickles and it's all finished!

PRIZES! I NEED TO GET RID OF ALL THIS STUFF IN THAT PHOTO! SOME OF IT CAN BE YOURS! As part of the 12 Days of Holiday Inspiration Event, I will be giving away a SWAG BOX of fun goodies to a lucky commenter! Comment on all 12 days to increase you chance of winning. And I PROMISE it will be PACKED with crafty goodness... I'm in the holiday giving spirit after all! ;)

HELP ME GET RID OF ALL THIS AWESOME STUFF!!!!

PRIZE UPDATE! I WILL BE GIVING AWAY TWO (2!) HUGE PRIZE BOXES! Thank you guys for all your sweet comments throughout this event!!!

Donna Bowman 

Rachel Kleinman (that's me!)

Ceal Pritchett

Ardyth Percy-Robb 

Jennifer Cuthbertson 

Lynn Kopas

Misty Buck

Snowy Yeti - Day 7

Welcome to Day 7 of the 12 Days of Holiday Inspiration Blog Event brought to you by "The Inspiration Crew"! We’re just a group of online crafty blog friends who love being creative. This time we're doing a 12-day event to provide you with tons of Holiday Inspiration.

We're making crafty projects using products we like and some of us are even offering prizes! Check each blog and the information there for what prizes are being offered and when the winners will be announced on that blog.

At the bottom of this post is a list of all the crafty ladies participating in this event. Be sure to visit all the blogs each day for loads of fun Holiday craft ideas.

Happy Yeti! It's probably been a whole year since I've busted out this adorable yeti (why? I don't know) and he is just ready to celebrate. I created this scene for the Lawnscaping White on White challenge as well as the Simon Says Stamp Holidays challenge.

To break up all the white, I made sure to use a lot of different textures. The yeti is paper piece from DCWV Flocked paper (so he's actually fuzzy to the touch!), the hills are die cut from DCWV white glitter card stock, and the background is DCWV Embossed White Cardstock. I used chunky Buffalo Snow to cover the trees and the little ice block. 

The Lawn Fawn products I used are "Stitched Hills Die", "Forest Border Die", "Yeti Set Go", "Snow Day", and "Critters in the Arctic".

PRIZES! I NEED TO GET RID OF ALL THIS STUFF IN THAT PHOTO! SOME OF IT CAN BE YOURS! As part of the 12 Days of Holiday Inspiration Event, I will be giving away a SWAG BOX of fun goodies to a lucky commenter! Comment on all 12 days to increase you chance of winning. And I PROMISE it will be PACKED with crafty goodness... I'm in the holiday giving spirit after all! ;)

HELP ME GET RID OF ALL THIS FREE STUFF!

Donna Bowman 

Rachel Kleinman (that's me!)

Ceal Pritchett

Ardyth Percy-Robb 

Jennifer Cuthbertson 

Lynn Kopas

Misty Buck

ETA - Linking up to the Paper Issues "Say it ain't snow cold outside" linky party!