Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Growing in Unity: Day Three

Happy Snowy Wednesday from the midwest!  Snow started falling (and sticking) at about 8pm last night.   Today is day three of my Growing in Unity week, in which I am posting five consecutive days of posts sharing projects I have made using Unity Stamp Company's high-quality red rubber stamps.

I know Thanksgiving Day is tomorrow, but since it falls so late in November this year, many of us have already thinking about Christmas cards and gifts for some time.  My first two projects are Christmas themed, as I have been working on Christmas for weeks already.

My first project uses a fun stamp kit called Impurr-fect Christmas.  This set is designed by Angie Blom, and makes me smile, as we have cats at our house who enjoy our Christmas tree even more than we do.  


I used my Original Misti to stamp this image and greeting simultaneously with embossing ink and heat embossed with antique gold before coloring my image with Copic Markers.


The next is such a simple way to decorate a hostess gift at holiday time.  I used the sweet little scraggly holiday tree image from Small Stuff Christmas, also designed by Angie Blom.  I love this little mini kit, and it gets used so much each year.  There's something so humble about it, that this Charlie Brown-style tree is one of my all time favorite Christmas stamps.

Using my MISTI, I stamped it onto a skinny wine tag, in charcoal brown ink, then added just the few areas of color with Copic markers.  After coloring, I re-stamped with embossing ink and heat embossed in clear.  I added a strip of both glittered and striped washi tape to decorate the tail of the wine tag, and added a simple kraft sentiment strip above.


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This is one of the sentiment kits, Special Wishes, designed by Lisa Arana.  


I used the split floral image to make a very simple Thinking of You card by stamping the image and sentiment in black ink, and coloring with colored pencils.


As you can see, there are 18 separate stamps included in this kit.  Once they are removed from their sheet of rubber, they can create quite a little pile at the bottom of their storage bag.  In yesterday's post, I shared my storage solution for the large subscription kits.  Storing those full kits vertically, with the stamps clung to the EZ Mount card makes them not only easy to find, they stand straight and take up minimal space in my crowded office.

Today, I'd like to show you how I store these smaller kits similarly. 


Here is how I store them in a single layer, so they stand easily and take up much less room in my storage bin.


I'll show you how I do this, using this sentiment kit, that I still hadn't gotten around to finishing yet.  This is the kit Girl Truly, also by Lisa Arana.  It has a large floral cluster image, as well as 8 sentiment stamps.


I've removed it from the ziplock storage bag.


The first thing I will do is cut the lower folded flap from the paper insert with my Rototrim paper trimmer,  (which is the absolute best paper cutter I've ever owned. No lie.).


Now I'm going to laminate the insert using these Scotch 5" x 7" Thermal Laminating Pouches.


I place the printed insert into one of the thermal pouches, with the seam at the bottom of the paper insert.


Then I feed the pouch, seam side first into my heated laminator.  I use the 5mil heat setting.


The 5" x 7" thermal pouch doesn't completely cover the entire insert, but it does cover 90% of it, (with zero waste), and now the insert is both sturdy, and coated enough that the cling stamps will stick to it.
The fun part now, is peeling off all of the paper backings and making the stamps all fit!  With many of the sentiment kits, it can be a bit of a challenge!


Now my sturdy stamp storage insert can slide right back into the storage bag, and get filed alphabetically into my bin!



This storage works great for me.  The stamp kits take less room, stand tall in my double-sided fridge bins, and they are so easy to flip through to find the one I'm looking for!


That's all from me today.  Again, thank you for stopping by, and spending a few minutes of your day with me.  I'll be back again tomorrow with more things to share!

If you would like a chance to win a special prize pack of fabulous Unity red rubber stamps,  please a comment on this, or on any or all of this week's Growing in Unity posts.  TWO lucky winners will be randomly chosen from the list of commenters.  Winners will be posted on this blog, as well as on the Unity Stamp Company Growing in Unity Facebook page after Dec 7th.

Have a wonderful day!


42 comments:

  1. You are sharing so many comments for storage of stamps. I love the Christmas tree it is one of my favorite I have a Charlie Brown tree I use every year it even plays the music

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  2. You do such great cards and love all your storage tips....

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  3. Thanks for the great storage tip! Beautiful cards also!

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  4. I love the Little Christmas tree image on the wine tag. This is such a great idea. I am excited to try this. I love your tips on storage too. Thank you for the inspiration!

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  5. Beautifully done! Not only are your cards beautiful, but you information and ideas are wonderful thanks for all the great tips

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  6. Beautiful cards once again! Thanks for all of the great storage tips.

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  7. Fun projects! We have Weiner dogs do a Christmas tree is just not a possibility so we found a tabletop Charlie Brown Christmas tree 4 or 5 years back. It's my hubby's favorite decoration! Lol. Awesome tips on stamp storage.

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  8. Great card and tag - I never would have thought to emboss after coloring - what a great idea to refresh those lines. And another great storage idea - thank you!

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  9. I just got a pack of the laminating pouches for this very thing! Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

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  10. Beautiful cards! Thanks for the storage tips.

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  11. Sweet cards and tag! I especially love your no line coloring ( it is purrfect!! ) on the Impurrfect Christmas card. Thanks for your storage tips each day!

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  12. Love your projects! The Special Wishes kit is one of my first and favorite sentiment kits. I don't know why I didn't think of laminating the insert when I started collecting Unity stamps! I've been laminating a separate sheet of cardstock! Grrr!

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  13. I love your Christmas projects, and thanks for the great storage tips too

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  14. Love all your tips & tricks! Great cards too - love the kitty/Christmas Tree one especially!

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  15. Thank you for all of your great storage ideas. I love all 3 of these beautiful cards. I never knew how to use that split floral one but now that I see it I must have it! My fav card is the cats in the tree because I love my fur babies! Happy Thanksgiving🦃🦃🦃

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  16. Thank you for your tips! Awesome idea on the storage! I’m going to have to try it. Love your cards...especially the wine tag!

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  17. Love that Christmas tree! Your storage idea are very helpful! I am going to look for the laminating sheets next trip to Michaels!

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  18. Great cards, again! The cats tree just went into my cart. My storage of sets is very similar.
    Thank you for sharing your talents.

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  19. All are gorgeous! I Love that wine tag! I love all your pictures!

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  20. Great cards and you are a wealth of info! TFS! Love the Charlie Brown tree!

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  21. I love your coloring! The “Thinking of You” card is so, so pretty! And TFS all the storage pics and info too.

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  22. Awesome cards and tag! I am in love with the Impurr-fect Christmas stamp.... gotta have it!
    Thanks for the tips on stamp storage too!

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  23. Love the cards! Have a wonderful thanksgiving!!!

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  24. Love the tag! Thank you for the storage ideas.

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  25. Great projects. I like that you did the tree in gold before coloring it. I get in such a habit with the black that I forget how nice projects look in other colors.

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  26. Thanks for another storage tip. I’m going to have to get organized!

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  27. Beautiful carda and love the wine tag. Thanks for the storage tip!

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  28. Gorgeous cards! Love that tree with kitties; I've never seen that one before. And I love the wine tag - one of my fave stamps by Unity!

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  29. The wine tag is perfect! I’ve seen some before, but they were longer and yours is the right scale. thank you for sharing all the great ideas. I have the kitty tree stamp, gotta get that out and make some cards

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  30. Great card and wine tag. I love the storage idea and now know what I’ll be doing this weekend

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  31. Love the tag...I have that little tree!!!!

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  32. Love the tree and cats. I have that stamp and just can't get the same detail...I will have to practice some more.

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  33. I especially like the tiny tree!!!

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  34. Wowza! Cards and wine bottle tag, lovely. Stamp storage, brilliant! Thanks for sharing with us!

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  35. Fabulous post (again!) love that Charlie Brown-esque bottle tag and your whimsical coloring of the cat tree. I need to get some of those dew drop beads you used on the lovely Thinking of You card.

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  36. Beautiful cards and awesome storage tips! Thanks Chris ❤️

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  37. Catching up on the posts I missed while traveling. So glad I did.

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  38. Fantastic coloring on your crazy cat Christmas tree! Such great inspiration on your blog!

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  39. Your coloring is beautiful.
    Wish I could do as well.
    Loving the storage ideas.

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  40. You used the split floral image to make a very simple card by stamping the image and sentiment in black ink. Look really good. Now it's time to avail limo service west palm beach for more information.

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