Uniko Challenge

 Morning all, it's time for a brand new challenge over at Uniko. Here's my take on the theme.

For my design I used the fab Pure Florals Gerbera daisy outline stamp in Altenew's Industrial Diamond ink, to create an all over background and then die cut 3 circles to create a spotlight effect. The Copic coloured sections were popped up on matching white fun foam circles. 

Using Copic alcohol markers for colouring is my go to method, love the variety of bright colours and the way they blend together. I have tried other alcohol markers, Promarkers and the Altenew ones but always revert back to my Copics. 

A sentiment strip from my stash, made up of a couple of sentiments from two different sets, Beautiful and Bee Happy that I used here was added to complete. As it takes a bit of time to get the layout of the words right, I stamped a few in different inks and embossing colours on both black and white strips for use later, this one is Platinum WOW on black.

The finished panel was trimmed to reveal a border when added to an A6 note card.

Please check out the rest of the team on the Uniko blog, as well as our fab GD Elaine.

You'll also find all the Ts and Cs there as well.

Thanks for stopping by.

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Favourite colouring medium

When are polka dots not polka dots?

The answer of course is when it's snow! Well it is in this example for the latest challenge at Cardz4Guyz where our theme is:-

Make Your Own Background

I do like to make my own backgrounds, even when I have loads of DP that needs using up!

For this example I took inspiration from a couple of challenges that sparked the idea.

The Paper Players are all about polka dots and there's a sketch over at Less is More, so I combined both to create my card.

I used a Background Block from Uniko called Scattered Polka Dots, they make great falling snow, which I stamped with Versamark on a scrap of card and heat embossed with white EP, before inking with Salty Ocean DI to create the sky. It may be May but here in the UK we've had some freakish weather, 4 season's all in one day, including hailstones and snow, so it was fresh in my mind!

I'm still on my use it up crusade, so I found this little penguin left over from a sheet of LOTV digis I printed off over Christmas and coloured him with Copics before fussy cutting him.

Rather than use a simple greeting banner, I cut another scrap of white card to represent a snowy landscape and glued my penguin to that, adding the sentiment to one side.

I trimmed the inked panel down to size, added the penguin and then the finished panel to an A6 top fold white note card, following the sketch at Less is More.

So what will you do, we'd love to see your ideas in the Cardz4Guyz gallery. If you want more inspiration, check out the rest of the team here.

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Color Hues #18

 Good afternoon peeps. We are half way through the month so its time for a brand new colour combo from Color Hues. Here's my take on the new colours.

I love these AI ladies, they are great characters and come with some equally fun and snarky sentiments.

This old biddy from their Never Too Old Laugh Lines set, was stamped then coloured with Copic markers and fussy cut. I must admit Copic isn't awash with teal colours so I used a mixture of Blue/greens and actual green to get the right colour.

I embossed a panel of white card with a really old Cuttlebug number EF and added the sentiment across the bottom, with the fussy cut lady stood to one side. She reminds me of an English teacher from my grammar school days, Miss Ruff. She taught spoken English to us 'garls' in the first form and I can still hear her rolling her Rs and enunciating her words clearly, we were obviously oiks and needed polishing into ladies! She walked into class with her arms clasped under her ample bosom, greeted us with a 'Good morning garls', sat at the desk and released her hands to allow the bosoms to fall onto the desktop! How we didn't all burst out laughing I don't know but perhaps we weren't the complete oiks she thought we were!!!

Anyway, enough of my reminiscences, where will these new colours take you?

There's plenty of fab inspiration over at the Color Hues blog from the rest of the DT and our GD, should you need it.

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STAMPlorations Challenges, a Reminder

 Afternoon folks. The merry month of May is almost halfway over already! Still it means that you still have time to join in over at this month's STAMPlorations challenges. Here's a little reminder for the Theme and Photo prompt one.

I took my inspiration from the feather and music score in the photo as well as the theme. I chose the larger of the two peacock feathers from the Feathery stamp set for this design, which sort of dictated the colours too.

On a panel of scrap card, I stamped it repeatedly and embossed with white EP. Then I took the score stamp from the Scribbly Splattery Grunge set and stamped in the gaps with Versamark and heat embossed with gold EP. Not too much gold, just a hint.

When dry, I went in with some Peacock Feathers, and Cracked Pistachio DOx and inked over the embossing. The excess ink was removed from the embossing with a dry cloth before I splattered the panel with water, left for a minute or two then patted with a dry cloth to remove the water and ink, to give a bit of texture.

On another scrap of card, I experimented with some Brusho stamping. I first wet my peacock feather stamp with water, stamped with my MISTI onto white card a couple of times, then sprinkled the panel with Sea Green Brusho, then repeated the stamping with water. The result was a bit too pale, so I went in with a fine brush dipped in water and pulled out some of the Brusho to create a more filled in look. The eye of the feather was coloured in with a dark blue Zig watercolour marker, then cut with the co-ordinating die .

To complete the card, I added two panels of white textured card over the top of the inked one, added the die cut feather and a stamped sentiment from Balloons and Banners stamped in black on a matching strip of card. The finished panel was trimmed to just under A6 size then added on pads to an A6 note card. 

For more inspiration and for all the Ts and Cs, please check the STAMPlorations blog and get crafting!

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Anything Goes

Happy 29th Birthday from your 110lb friend!

 Good evening. We are coming up to the halfway point of May so it's time for a new challenge at Perfectly CAS.

Here's my card inspiration, can you guess the theme?

Rather than take the route of stamping the main image repeatedly, I repeat stamped the sentiment to frame the central unicorn image! This is the first outing for this Gerda Steiner grinning unicorn and I teamed it with this fun sentiment from AI. I think they work well together!

On an A6 white note card, I stamped and then masked out the unicorn and added the black sentiment underneath. Without removing the sentiment stamp from my MISTI, I cleaned the ink off and repeat stamped the sentiment, this time in pink, moving the base card an even amount each time to create the background. How did we do this before the Misti was invented?

I finished the card by adding a little bit of rainbow Copic colouring on the mane and tail and gave the body some dimension with shading.

How will you interpret the theme, we'd love to see but if you need more inspiration, check out the rest of the team over at Perfectly CAS.

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Wonky Stripes Rule at Uniko

Good morning Uniko fans.

I'm over on the Uniko blog with some bright and breezy ideas featuring various Wonky Stripes!

Some of you early risers will recognise the left hand card as one I posted earlier for my GD over at ATSM, check out this link for more info.

Here are a few close ups of the other cards I made using various Wonky Stripe stamps and stencil and some of my favourite peony blooms and the fab gerbera stencil.

Using Copic colouring, gold embossing, BB Wonky Stripes  and the small bloom from Pure florals Peony.

Wonky Stripes stencil and the fantastic large bloom from Pure Florals Peony, just stamped with black on white and fussy cut.

Last but not least, using BB Solid Wonky Stripes and Large Gerbera Stencil.

I love this gorgeous large gerbera stencil, just like the blooms themselves, inked with Spiced Marmalade DI and added detail using a matching Zig watercolour marker. They won't grow in my garden so just have make do with them from the shops!

All the details can be found over on the Uniko blog.

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 Beautiful Blooms

                     

  

How do you choose a favourite, but I just love a sunny gerbera!

Guesting over at ATSM!

 Good evening. It's just like old times posting at this time but I'm only the GD over at ATSM for their latest challenge. Here's my card.

This card has been made using the Uniko Wonky Stripes stencil and some stamped, coloured and die cut foliage and flowers from the Uniko's Originally Organic Additions, stamps and matching dies.

It's part of a group of cards that will be making an appearance a little later on today!

Using a selection of DIs, I inked through the stencil onto a panel of white card, blending them into a rainbow then put to one side.

From some scrap white card, I cut the flowers and leaves before stamping the outlines and colouring with Copic markers. I use a homemade die cut jig to place the cut elements into so that I can rapidly stamp the small elements with my MISTI.

I'm really trying to use up all my odds and ends of card this year to eek out my dwindling supplies. I'm hoping to get out and replenish my white cardstock very soon but it's been needs must during lockdown! So I looked through my stash and selected some off cuts of linen effect card and created two panels. 

I cut my A6 stenciled panel in half and glued it to a scrap of white copy paper from which I had cut 1cm from one long and one short side. This allows a border to show around my finished panel. The two panels of linen effect card were a little too narrow for my taste, so I added a couple of strips of gold mirror card to each side and glued them all down, trimming away excess. 

The leaf sprigs and flowers were arranged over the stenciled panel, a black and gold sentiment strip added and the finished panel popped up over a linen effect A6 top fold card on pads.

For more inspiration from the ATSM team please check out the ATSM blog.

So that's all from me for the moment but please pop back in a few hours for some more Uniko inspiration!

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Leaning on the garden fence

Good morning folks, I hope all of you in the UK had a fab Bank Holiday despite the awful weather. I managed to cut the grass between the deluges on Sunday. I can't complain as the garden was in dire need of some rain. The driest April for many years and frosts at night have played havoc with my veg, the greenhouse is bursting and I'm getting fed up of moving tomato and pepper plants inside at night as I haven't got enough horticultural fleece to tuck them up in at night. Apparently there is a shortage according to the local nursery, they are short of some themselves. Anyway the OH is pleased that the rain has come as the sheep in the fields are grazing the grass bare, so hopefully it will start to grow quicker than they can eat it!

Talking of other halves, this little guy from LOTV always reminds me of him and our dog Max, except Max would be under the wooden fence exploring rather than looking!

I made it for the new challenge over at Cardz4Guyz which is:-

MONOCHROME

Using a selection of Copics from the E section, I coloured this image in a monochrome palette. After colouring, I added some clouds and grass with some soft DI stenciling.

A rectangle die cut from the front of my card frames my image and a sentiment, also from LOTV, stamped in matching brown complete.

For more masculine, monochrome inspiration please check out the Cardz4Guyz blog.

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Hope the wooden fence

 counts

 No option for me

Hopperhop

 Good evening. It's time for a new challenge over at HLS CAS. This month we  are having fun and games! Here's my card as your inspiration.

Last weekend my two Grandson's came to visit for the first time since last October. It was great to see them running around and letting off steam, getting lots of pleasure from being in the open air and not being reliant on their screens! Mind you the eldest, aged10, got a little bit sulky after a couple of hours and wanted to go home so he could play on his devices but the youngest, 31/2 was quite happy to run around in the long grass and see what insects he could find and be amazed by the blue sky filled with aeroplane vapour trails!

Oh for the days before iPads and Switches when you had to make up your own games, just like this cute Young Rebel from Nellie Snellen that I've had for simply ages. Called Hopperhop, for some reason, he's definitely having fun and games and enjoying the blue sky and fresh air on his hobby horse. You don't see them around much these days but I remember playing on them with my friend when we were young.

Once he was coloured with Copic markers, I fussy cut him out and put to one side whilst I inked the background. Using an MFT cloud stencil, I inked the sky and added a little bit of green for some grass for my little chap to play on. I popped him up on pads over the background and a LOTV sentiment completes.

So where will the theme take you? If you need more inspiration there are lots more interpretations over on the HLS blog.

I'm linking up over at:-

   

Color Hues #17

Hi and welcome to a brand new color pairing at Color Hues.

I must admit my go to theme for these challenges is usually floral but today I went masculine with this music inspired design.

This is the first outing for this MFT Turntable die which I got at Christmas, using the turntable as a record.  I found some slightly shiny black card and die cut a few records and played around with the design. I even cut a few smaller records but eventually, I settled on just this one large disc and a background of Uniko notes, stamped in shades of red and orange. An embossed Paper Smooches sentiment complete.

So where will the colours take you, you haven't failed us yet so we are so looking forward to seeing your creations in our gallery! The rest of the DT have come up with lots of different ideas, so why not take a closer look if you're stumped?

Make each day your Masterpiece

Good morning folks. May is here and it's time for a brand new challenge over at STAMPlorations Theme and Photo Prompt.

Here is my inspiration based on this month's theme and photo.

I chose to take my prompts for the design from the colours in the image as well as the musical score and the wings element of the theme.

On a piece of cream marbled paper I traced the outline of the Flutter Zen 1 layering die, and then stamped the score stamp from Scribbly Splattery Grunge in brown to fill the area outlined.

From an A6 piece of textured cream card, I trimmed off a centimetre border on two sides then die cut an aperture with the Flutter Zen 1 layering die. Beneath the aperture I stamped the sentiment from Softly in matching brown ink. 

To complete the card I glued the stamped panel onto a base card made from the same cream card and then popped the top panel over it on pads.

So that's about it from me only to remind you that there's more inspiration from the team on the STAMPlorations blog, where you'll also find all the Ts and Cs.