Saturday 16 March 2024

Color Hues #83

Good afternoon. 
We are halfway through March so it's time for a new colour combo from Color Hues.
We've a full house today so I hope the auto publish is working! It's lambing time here, so everyone wants to see the cute new lambs, especially our granddaughter!
Here is my take using the new pairing.


When I was deciding what to make using these two colours, I saw a card using these two sweet girls and remembered I had them in my stash and never used them, so here is their first outing. I thought the colours worked really well with their faintly Victorian attire. To be honest my starting point was a selection of blue and cream DP that my friend gave me years ago, so not even sure of the make. Anyway, I decided to use one of the DPs in the background, only a snippet but just enough to create a background behind the MFT, square frame. The Copics used for the blue element are not quite what I had in mind but overall they worked. As always neutrals are welcome along with our challenge colours.

So after colouring, fussy cutting the girls out, I attached them to my frame and glued the snippet of DP onto my pale cream coloured card. I stamped the Uniko greeting with Altenew Mangrove Root, I thought that black would be too much of a contrast on the pale cream card. I chose the square frame as the original image had the girls sitting on a wall, but I cut it off to better fit with the design.

Well that's all from me but for more cream and blue inspiration why not check out the rest of the Color Hues DT here along with our GD here

Monday 11 March 2024

Revisiting Spring Botanicals

Good morning and welcome.
Today the Uniko team are revisiting a previously released stamp set, well a series actually!
There are 4 stamps in the Spring Botanicals set, Daffodil, Snowdrop, Tulip and Crocus. In my card I've used 2 of them, Crocus and Snowdrop.


My inspiration was the flowers that were blooming at the time I made it. The snowdrops were in full bloom at the top of the drive and the crocus were adding some welcome colour to the long grass in the back garden. I chose the purple ones as the birds have decimated the white and yellow ones!! Still they do look fab pocking up in the longer grass. I did think of adding some daffodils but thought it would be too busy. This uses the same technique as this card, I really like how it focuses the eye but I used a slightly larger pair of dies to accommodate the flowers.

On a panel of white card, I stamped and masked the crocus and snowdrops to create a pleasing arrangement, then coloured the flowers and leaves with Copic markers. I was tempted to colour the background but left it white in the end. I took two nesting circle dies and lined them up evenly to create a frame die, securing with tape so they didn't move whilst cutting. Once cut, I removed the dies and cut a frame from fun foam, gluing the foam behind the coloured, die cut frame.
Using the largest circle, I die cut a circle from scrap paper and glued the frame onto it and then the center was placed back and glued too, matching the pattern of flowers. The finished panel was then added to a 5 x 7 base card and the simple white on black sentiment, Pure Florals-Peony, added on pads.

Well that's what I came up with but what about the rest of the team?
Just follow the links to see what the rest of the BAs and Bev have made using this great group of stamp sets.

Don't forget to leave a comment as you hop along because as usual Bev is offering a prize to one lucky comment left along the hop. Simply leave some comment love before Midnight GMT Monday 18th March 2024 and she will select a lucky winner to receive a £15 eGift Code to spend in the store!

Before I go, how about some March Madness from Bev?



Happy Hopping!

Joining in over at:-


First signs of Spring                                                      

Tuesday 5 March 2024

Namesake Day

 Good morning. We've got a brand new challenge over at Cardz4Guyz today, something of a new one to me, we are celebrating Namesake Day, always the 1st Sunday in March. Namesake Day is all about the origins of surnames and given names or who or what they were named after. While you share your name or surname with many other people, there is always a reason why your parents gave you that name!

USE A LETTER FROM YOUR NAME IN YOUR DESIGN

My given name is just Julie, no middle name but if my Mum had had her way it would have been MYRA! Thanks Dad for standing up for me, and apologies to any Myras out there but I do prefer Julie!! There were a lot of Julies born around the same time as me, there was even a Julie with the same birthdate as mine at school. No idea why that was, must have been someone in the news. My married name is self explanatory, BEECH, of or near the Beech tree but my maiden name was Hilton, meaning of the farmstead on the hill. I do love a bit of family history so surnames have always had a fascination for me.

So here's my card using another LOTV image, a Judo Boy, using my initials, JB, as inspiration as well as B for birthday! It will be another card for the Grandson stash, the youngest has a really busy social calendar!!


After printing him off, I coloured with Copics and fussy cut him out and then put him to one side.
I printed off some NitWits DP, when the computer deigned to work and cut my white panel with an MFT border die. I repeated the cut and coloured the second one with a green Copic to match my DP. 
DP was added to an A6 side fold card and the panels added, then the Uniko sentiment was added to one side. Finally the 'Judo Boy' was added on pads and some of the marks from the original image lost when it was fussy cut replaced using a black fine liner.

So where will your name take you? We'd love to see your takes in the gallery.
Check out what the DT have come up with here if you need more ideas.

Joining in over at:-

Masculine or Feminine

I know a lot of people struggle with masculine cards but I love making cards for my Grandsons and their friends. I'm not really a girly girl and flowery embellishments just look wrong on my makes, with masculine makes I don't need to worry!


Friday 1 March 2024

Color Hues #82

Is it really March? Well it must be as there's a brand new challenge at Color Hues.
This time we've got a lovely fresh, springlike combo. Here's my take.


My teamie Carol has made some fab cards using Concord & 9th's turnabout stamps over the years, so I was tempted to treat myself to their Blooms Turnabout set a while ago and this colour combo was the perfect time to ink it up.
I don't have the jig but by making sure my base card panel was the same size as the placement sheet, it worked out fine. I chose a couple of Altenew mini cube sets for the inking, Tropical Forest and Sweet Dreams. There are four turns so I used all 4 of each set, makes it so easy!!
Once the panel was stamped, I stared at it for quite awhile trying to decide what to do with it! Loved the panel and didn't want to mask all those pretty blooms, so simply added a sentiment roundel, Uniko, from my stash, white embossing on pale grey. Trimmed and mounted on a simple matching white A6 base card to complete.

So where will these new colours take you? As always we love to see your makes in the gallery. For more inspiration check out the rest of the team here, along with our GD.

Tuesday 20 February 2024

More than one fold

Morning.
It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge from Cardz4Guyz.
This week we would like to see masculine cards made using:-

FANCY FOLDS 
(more than 1 fold)

Now as many will know this isn't my style but I had a bit of head scratch and came up with this card using a mix of ancient free DP and an LOTV image.


To start I made my base by scoring a panel of white card 4 times to create the mountain and valley format. On a separate piece of matching card I die cut the background panel and then used the same die to draw around the die on the inside over some DP of a crowd, that came in a Making Cards Cards for Men mag over 10 years ago!! When cut out freehand and glued to the panel, it creates a neat border.
In the same mag was some grass DP which I edged with a grass punch, MS, and then glued to the front of the valley sides. The crowd was then added to the back and a scrap panel of card was added as an easel to give extra stability.


You can see a little better what I mean here.
The cute footballer, LOTV, was coloured with Copics then fussy cut and placed on the middle mountain fold. A sentiment, hot foiled in gold, was added to complete.

So where will this challenge take you?
For more inspiration please check out the rest of the DT here.

Joining in over at:-

Digi or Physical stamp
They both have their place, you can do different things with both, horses for courses. Here I've used Digi as I enlarged the image to fit the scene. That's the real advantage, sizing up or down, oh and mirror stamping is soo much easier, not that I've done that!

Seeing Red


Sunday 18 February 2024

Release Day Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & Giveaway

Good morning!
It's finally here, release day for the fab new release from Uniko.
As is tradition we are having a blog hop and giveaway where you can win a £25 eGift certificate simply by leaving some love on the BAs and Uniko blog!
So without further ado here is the full release in all it's glory!

First off is the fab new MCM Birthday.


This card uses the new MCM Birthday along with MCM Christmas and a few from other older sets to create this masculine card. 
Blue for a male recipient or change the colours for a more girlie take!

                                                      
 Mid Century Modern Birthday £11.50
                                                                                                                                                 Copyright  Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

Next is a card using MCM Everyday Sentiments and BB MOD Builder.


If you remember yesterday's card this is another piece of the same panel but I played around with the background, bleaching out some of the cells, then die cutting the panel to fill the openings. Bold white on black embossed sentiments complete.

       
                                                                                                                             Mid Century Modern Everyday Sentiments £6.50
Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

This card has BB MOD Builder front and center, with a little help from Hello Lovely and Birthday Sentiments.


On a panel of white card, I stamped the BB MOD Builder in a very pale ink, Altenew Limestone I think, then coloured each cell with Copics in a rainbow effect. The panel was trimmed and the sentiment added. Next I stamped the large floral image across each corner of my A6 base card in black and added the rainbow panel on pads.

Background Block MOD Builder £6.50
Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

Finally I played around with the new Ink and Flip stencil and Bokeh Hearts stencil.

I used the more open stencil as a mask whilst I inked the Bokeh Hearts then the smaller one for the Geometric Heart element. I used a couple of DIs for this, Kitsch Flamingo and Picked Raspberry. As it's so busy, I left off a sentiment.

Stencil - Ink & Flip Layering Geometric Heart £8
Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date
So that's it. What do you think? There's lots more up on the BA's blogs for you to explore but don't forget to leave some love before you go for your chance to win. Bev will be selecting someone from all comments to win the prize!

Happy hopping!


Joining in over at:-

  
For a Male /Boy

Pink!




Saturday 17 February 2024

Introducing... Background Blocks MOD Builder

Morning all, it's the final day of our new release introductions at Uniko. Today we are focusing on a new addition to the background blocks stable, Background Blocks, MOD Builder.
You may recognise the pattern from one of Bev's earlier released stencils MOD Builder stencil.
Here's what I came up with using it.


On a panel of white card, I inked a rainbow of colours using DI inks, then stamped the block with matching ink over the top. I decided to make a slimline card as my inked panel was slightly too large for a standard A6 without loosing the rainbow effect. The frame was cut from white and the panel placed under, after stamping and heat embossing in white the sentiment from Mid Century Modern Birthday set. 
So what do you think? There's lots more inspiration on the BA's blogs here.

I'll be back tomorrow for the full release day BA blog hop and GIVEAWAY!!