Uniko July Mini Release and Blog Hop

Good morning!

It's release day at Uniko so as usual we are having a BA blog hop and giveaway. All the details can be found on the Uniko blog where you can also find links to the BA's own blogs for you to comment for the chance to win a £20 e-gift card!

So to start here is a card using the BB Rays.

 

Instead of a sunny vibe I've gone cool and Christmassy. The BB Ray was stamped around a central spot in Salty Ocean DI, wiping off the edges to create the fade away effect. The snowflake was cut from the same card as my base and added to the vellum die cut circle and white circle die before adding to the stamping. My sentiment from Stunning Snowflakes was stamped in Versamark and embossed with WOW Sparkling Platinum EP. A few pieces of snowflake confetti add to the wintery feel.

My second card uses the Scattered Polka hearts Stencil and Pawprints Hearts with the addition of the paw print from the Wild stamp set.

I first cut a heart from a panel of white card before dry embossing with the stencil. On a separate smaller panel I traced the heart shape onto it with a pencil before stamping the heart and rainbow of pawprints. When dry, I added it behind the opening and then the sentiment on a matching white strip of card. The finished panel was then popped up on pads over an A6 white base card.

This next card uses the Scattered Polka Hearts stencil, incorporating a couple of the heart stamps from Background Builders Hearts. 

Before embossing the panel with the stencil, this time I brayered on some Salty Ocean DI. A scrap of DP and a thin inked scrap card border separate the top panel with two fussy cut hearts and a simple sentiment. A perfect masculine card for an engagement or anniversary or even a wedding.

My final card uses the new Tropical Leaf 2 stencil and some stamped elements from Paradise and Paradise Leaves together with a sentiment from Wild.

I first stenciled the large leaf with Twisted Citron DOx, then using the mask, added the stamped leaves with Altenew's Tropical Forest ink set. The gaps were in filled freehand with dots of matching ink. My sentiment from Wild was stamped in black and the Wild element was fussy cut from white card and added. Almost a OLC!

So that's all from me but don't forget to leave a comment before you leave for a chance to win that £20 e-gift card! Here are the links for the rest of the team to help you navigate the bog hop.

Anita 

 Bev 

Hannelie

Izzy

Jane

Julie -that's me

Steph

Wiebke

Before you leave don't forget to leave a comment here and happy hopping!

Introducing - Paw Print Hearts and Stencil Scattered Polka Hearts

Good morning, I'm back with the final introduction post for the Uniko mini release. Today we are showcasing Pawprints Hearts stamp set and another stencil, Scattered Polka Hearts. 

Here's my first card using one of the stamps from Pawprints Hearts.

The large pawprint was stamped onto a die cut panel of white card with Versamark and heat embossed with white EP. I then moved the panel and stamped again with Altenew's Obsidian to create a dark shadow, or that was the intension. Obsidian is a lovely bold black but it just sits on the surface and takes an age to dry and although I removed the excess ink from the embossing it smudged into the embossing. At first I was disappointed but when I looked at it again I rather liked the effect I had created. A simple sentiment from the same set completes the panel which was then added to an A6 base card with pads.

My second card uses a combination of the Scattered Polka Hearts stencil and the Pawprints Hearts stamp set.

On a panel of white card, I blended a rainbow with a selection of DIs keeping it quite light then added the stencil over it and repeated the inking but using a firmer hand. I cut it in half, added it to an A6 note card then added the white textured panel over the top. A thin sliver of black card just sharpens up the design without adding bulk. My pawprint was stamped with Altenew's Silver Stone and the large sentiment added with black ink.

So that's all from me for today, pop back tomorrow for the full July reveal and a chance to win in our blog hop.

Introducing - Tropical Leaf #2 Stencil

Good morning. It's the second day of introducing the new mini release from Uniko.

Today we are showing the second of the Tropical Leaf stencil series, a huge Monstera leaf. Here's how I used it, combing it with the hibiscus flowers from the Paradise set.

I first taped the stencil down over a panel of white card and stamped the solid flowers through it, adding the stigma and leaves after. I washed and dried the stencil then replaced it and added Versamark with a sponge applicator before heat embossing with clear gloss EP. I was now able to add the background colour without it effecting the stamped elements. For a belt and braces approach I also used the mask which comes with the stencil. If you are very careful, I suppose you could get away with just using the mask.

I wanted to have tropical greenery background so used as election of DOx and DI inks to avoid a flat, solid background.

To make the card, I simply cut down the panel, added it to an A6 white note card, added a pre stamped sentiment from my stash (Beautiful and Bee Happy), with a couple of slivers of gold linen effect card.

So that's all for today, but there's lots more over on the BA's and Uniko blogs.

I'll be back tomorrow with the final introduction.

Introducing - Background Blocks Rays

Seconds out, round two!

After yesterday's sneak peeks, I'm back with the first of the introducing posts for the mini July release from Uniko. Today I'm sharing  cards using the new Background Blocks Rays stamp.

My first card is a bonus one. I played around with the BB Rays stamp when I first got it, the stamping or more probably my Versamark pad was a bit off, but I didn't mind the faded texture effect I got, after all it was just a trial piece! Anyway I thought I would turn it into another card as after a few days lieing on my desk it looked fine to use! The die, STAMPlorations I had out for an earlier make and thought I would use up my practice piece, placing  the house in the center of the sunburst rays for a new home card.

My second card, but the first card I made, uses Versamark and clear EP on yellow card again.

This time, I used an old Memory Box die called Calm Countryside for my stamped panel to sit behind. The yellow panel was stamped with Versamark and embossed with clear glossy EP. The image again didn't stamp fully first time, always tricky to see Versamark on coloured card and I really should have stamped again to get a better coverage, however the slightly distressed effect was fine in this context! I've now bought a reinker for my Versamark pad and it's stamping much better!!

My simple greeting is from last month's Sunshine and Rainbows set.

That's all from me today but I'll be back tomorrow with some more of Uniko's July release.

British Racing Green

 Good morning, it's happy time chez Beech as it's my birthday, I may be doing a little retail therapy later on!!

It's also time for a new challenge over at Cardz4Guyz. This time we are looking for you to make a masculine card with -

SOMETHING RECYCLED

Well as I'd had my old road atlas out for the last challenge, I thought I would use another piece for this card. Sorry the photo is bleached out but I photographed it during last week's heatwave!

In fact the whole card front is made up from bits and bats I found lying around the craft room.

As I said earlier the map is from an old road atlas, the little driver from LOTV was a leftover from another project and the frame was waste from which I had previously die cut a panel which I enlarged to fit by cutting away 1/4" from the inside of one edge. The only un recycled element is the stamped sentiment but the banner was in the bits box!

The digi, Racing Green from Lili of the Valley, was coloured with Copics, fussy cut and added to the background, I did cut out the exhaust clouds and add them too, along with a few speed marks which I added back with a black fine liner. He's one of LOTV's new digi's and it's his first outing and coloured to match his background.

What could you recycle into a project? Why not check out the rest of the team here and then join in?

I'll be back in two shakes of a lamb's tail for the first of my Uniko July release posts, but first..

I'm joining in over at:-

July Uniko Mini Release Sneak Peeks

Morning, just popping round to tease you with a few sneak peeks of the upcoming July mini release from Uniko.

They will be available for purchase on Friday 24th July at 9am BST. 

There are a couple of stamp sets, an animal focused one and another addition to the popular Background Blocks stable!

These last 2 peeks are new stencil additions. The first is a wonderful addition to the Tropical and Paradise collection of Uniko products. The last will be useful all year round for weddings, anniversaries and of course Valentine's Day, to mention just a few.

I'll be back tomorrow with a few ideas about how to use the!

See you then!!!

Color Hues #45

Afternoon, time for a new colour combo at Color Hues. Here's my design.

I must say that I found this challenge rather a challenge! It appears that I don't have any peach coloured ink!!! No time to get some, they'll have to go on the shopping list, so I had to think again and came up with a Copic coloured die cut spray of flowers. 

I had to look up the recommended combo for peach and even though there is a Copic called Peach, R32, the recommended set for blending is R00, R11 and R12 with under colouring of BG70, so I went with that, except I don't own an R12!! I improvised with R02 and YR02. The grey I went with C5, C3, C1 and 0, I know it looks a bit purple in the pic but it's definitely grey!!!!! 

The die cuts are from an Altenew set, Rose Flurries, I only used a couple of the blooms along with some leaves and the bud sprig. My background was stenciled using STAMPlorations Dots All Over stencil and Memento Gray Flannel ink to match the leaves. My sentiment banner is made up from a couple of Uniko sets combined.

So where will you go? I had lots of ideas but didn't have the ink to follow through on them but we'd love to see your take in the gallery. 

The DT and our two GDs  have come up with some fab ideas for you if you need the inspiration, check them out here.

Joining in over at:-

  

Christmas in July

Evening all.

It's time for a new cue word over at Perfectly CAS and here's my take.

Continuing with the theme of Christmas in July, what's more festive than Santa? The team at CAS Christmas also have that as their theme this month and as the set was already out after an earlier make, well why not?

I cut a frame using an old IO die and again from fun foam, gluing them both together for a bit of dimension. The MFT Santa was stamped and coloured with Copics before fussy cutting. A scrap of DP was placed behind the frame, Santa was trimmed down and placed to appear as if he was leaning through a window.

My Uniko sentiment was stamped on some scrap card and added below. Simples.

Where will the cue card take you? We'd love to see but if you need more inspiration check out the rest of the team here.

Joining in over at:-

 

No option for pets!

Christmas in July

Rocking Santa!

 Good afternoon. The temps are a little lower today thank goodness but are set to rocket again by Sunday! The garden needs so much tidying at the moment as things go to seed but it's hard to spend more than 10 minutes at a time out there. 

This morning we spent a pleasant hour at a plant hunters fair and I spent rather a lot! Well I am planting up a new border at the front of the house so that at least I can look at something pretty rather than the weed strewn area belonging to a neighbour! It used to be an area for watering cattle after/ before milking when the farm was in business but we had used it to store tons of cobbles dug up from the old yard during the renovations. I used some of the larger ones to make a border and my OH made the edging of a path through it, from a pallet of old half bricks that had collapsed behind the cobbles!

I started the project last year, so I have managed to plant up part of it already with a few home raised perennials and annuals as well as some garden center alpines. Here's what it looks like after a lot of hard graft but it will be staying this way until the weather is more conducive to planting out! Some of the gravel pile will be used for the brick edged path.

     

Anyway as the sun is beating down and I have time on my hands, I thought I would retreat to my cool craft room and join in over at a couple of challenges with this card.

The team at JUGS want to see rocker cards, the team at ABC Christmas are wanting N for New or O for Old and As You Like it want warm or cold colours, so here is my take!

Santa is an old Sizzix die, the DP is from a pad that I picked up over 10 years ago from the Factory Shop and the sentiment is a die from STAMPlorations, also old, cut from a gold panel that a collegue from work gave me many, many years ago. The red scalloped semi circle was from the bits box, as was the kraft circle. Santa's face was coloured with Copics but I paper pieced his cap with some scrap red card.

Quite a simple card really but fun for a little person.

Joining in over at:-

O is for Old (DP, Dies and gold card)

Favourite, warm or cold colours

Well if Santa's involved then it has to be the warm end of the spectrum, who wants a cold and dreary Santa on their Christmas card!

Card4Guyz 300th blog post

Good morning.

I hope you are managing to keep cool during this latest heatwave in the UK, knowing our weather it will change and we'll bemoaning the fact that it's too cold!! Our walls are very thick 3 bricks, an airgap then insulation but even then the heat gets through, so it's been a case of cooling the house down as and when. Keeping the heat out in the first place is the best as once the solid floors heat up they radiate the heat back!!!

Anyway over at Cardz4Guyz we are celebrating our 300th post. That means that I have done that many posts too as I was there right back at the beginning!

So for our theme Caz has chosen the theme of:-

CONGRATULATIONS

Lots to go at there, graduation, new job, engagement, wedding, passing your driving test but I chose New Home with this design.

This card was made for an ex-neighbour's son who moved to a fab new house.

Using the page of an old road atlas that refers to the village to which he moved, well as near as I could make it, I die cut the horizon using a STAMPlorations die and backed it with a similar panel of white card to give it strength. The little heart was a left over from an IO Heart of Hearts cut. The background panel was inked with Salty Ocean DI and the sentiment is a Woodware and Pink and Main combo.

So what will you be celebrating? We'd love to know and look forward to seeing your cards in the gallery. There's more inspiration, if you need it, over on the Cardz4Guyz blog.

See you soon.

Uniko BA post Merry Monday

Morning!

I'm up over on the Uniko blog with some Brand Ambassador inspiration. The crafting world is hitting the Christmas in July theme hard and so are Uniko, there have already been some fantastic Christmas inspiration from the team over at Uniko and there are plenty of challenges out there with the same theme. So no excuses, get your Christmas stamps out and make a start on your stash!!!

Here are three designs that I hope will inspire you to try something different.

All the details on how I made them are on the Uniko blog here.

GD at The Male Room

 Morning all. Today I'm guesting over at The Male Room for their latest challenge. I won their embossing challenge with this card and was asked to GD as a result. So without further ado, here is my card.

Their new theme for this month is-

There were a few ideas spiralling about in my brain but in the end decided on this design using the Paper Smooches Zoo Crew set.

I had a die cut white panel left from an other project which I stamped with an array of outline crocs from the set in Memento Tuxedo Black. I realised it wasn't the right card for Copic colouring, so on a scrap of Copic friendly card I stamped one again then coloured him with Copics before fussy cutting him out.

The fussy cut croc was then glued over one of the outline ones and the stamped sentiments, also Paper Smooches added. The completed panel was then attached on pads to an A6 white base card.

That's it really but there's no doubt some more fab inspiration from the Male Room team here.

Thanks to the Male Room DT for asking me to guest this month.

Jingle All The Way

Good evening. 

There's a brand new challenge starting at HLS CAS and here's my take.

So no excuses not to get your stash Christmas of cards up to speed! My take uses the cute Santa from MFT and a scrap of NitWits Christmas DP for the background. I found this example of Santa holding a tray of pressies on Pinterest and thought it was a good idea, so that's where my card started.

I found a small panel of red Bazzil card in the stash, cut it to A6 and cut an oval from the center. A small snippet from another project created the snow drift and the DP completes the sandwich.

I drew a line on some Copic friendly card, masked and stamped the pressies before fussy cutting and adding to my little scene. The sentiment is stamped and heat embossed in white EP. The finished panel was added to an A6 base card, simples.

Where will you go? We'd love to see your takes but if you need a bit of inspiration there's plenty over at HLS CAS from the team.

Joining in over at:-

"Have yourself a Merry LITTLE Christmas" (Cards for Children)

Playing cards with Michele Ferguson

Good afternoon.

Over at Color Hues we have a new colour combination for you but we are also playing along with the wonderful Michele Ferguson - I card everyone, as part of her Playing Cards With ...  series of posts. So without further ado here is my take on the colours and Michele's theme of Stars and or Stripes.

I need to get a wriggle on with my Christmas card stash, so as someone reminded me recently, blue and red make a good Scandinavian Christmas combo. I rooted in my stash of DP and found some red from a Marianne Designs Scandinavian Christmas set and although the blue had been used previously, I found some other suitable in the Christmas DP box!

The stars were punched from the DP and then arranged onto a thin frame of white card, cut from a scrap of card with 2 circle stacked dies. A few small silver gems were added to complete.

The frame for the wreath was cut from some white linen effect card trimmed to leave a border on my A6 base card with a square die and the sentiment from Uniko stamped in red below.

Now it's over to you. You don't need to follow Michele's theme of stars and or stripes just keep it to the Color Hues colours of red and blue. Of course if you want to use Michele's theme then that's perfectly fine too!

There's more red and blue inspiration from the rest of the team here and why not pop over to Michele's blog and say hello too.

Joining in over at:-