Uniko 11th Birthday Release In Review and a Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & Giveaway!

Good morning, hope I find you well.

Some of the Brand Ambassadors at Uniko didn't all get their stash for the 11th Birthday release until after the release day due to problems with the Post Office and other things, so we are back with a few more ideas using the release and another chance for you to win with a Blog hop and giveaway! 

I was lucky enough to get most of my stash but not all and have finally got my sticky paws on the fab Falling Hearts Serenade stamp set!

Here's my first card using Spring Botanicals- Crocus, I just love it!!

When we had snow at the beginning of March, the crocuses in the wild area of my garden were in flower, their purple heads just peeking above the 3 inches of lying snow. Once the snow stopped and the sun came out they looked very pretty against the sparkling snow and blue sky, so I decided to have a go at painting them.

A piece of torn copy paper served as a useful mask for the foreground snow and after stamping, decided not use the background technique I used here and here. This time I simply added a wash of Ultramarine watercolour for the sky, leaving a few gaps to give texture. The foreground I left plain to work on later. I then worked on the crocus flowers, removing the masking before adding detail using Zig watercolour pens. To create the snow, I just added shadow with a dry brush and some Payne's Grey watercolour, except on the right where I used a little more water in the mix. One of the blooms didn't work out as I would have liked but the overall effect I'm pleased with. The A5 panel of watercolour paper was trimmed to size and added to an A4 base card. I didn't want to spoil the pic by adding a sentiment, so left it off.

My next card uses the Falling Hearts Serenade stamp as well as a few small hearts from Big and Bold Love.

On an A6 panel of white card, I stamped and heat embossed with white EP the Falling Hearts Serenade quite a few times, filling in the gaps with some smaller hearts. From an A6 panel of masking paper, I die cut a heart to create a frame. The A6 panel was then placed over the stamped panel and the the heart aperture was inked through with Worn Lipstick DI. The heart die cut was then put back into the panel to mask the red heart, the outer panel was removed and the rest of the panel inked with Weathered Wood DI. Once the central heart was removed, I added the fussy cut Happy, Christmas Sentiments, and the Anniversary, Flower Power #7, stamped in black on a white strip of card on foam pads. A few PPP sequins complete the design.

Finally another using the Falling Hearts Serenade stamp set. A simple gold embossed image, a few additional hearts and a sentiment that would serve for a wedding, engagement or anniversary from the Wonderful Day set.

The large stamp was stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with gold EP on a panel of white card, along with a few extra hearts and sentiment. This was then trimmed and added to a panel of gold textured card and then on pads to a 5 x 7 white base card.

So now it's over to you. Just leave a comment here for a chance to win a fab prize, before hopping off to see what the rest of the Brand Ambassadors have made.

Bev is going to choose one lucky winner from the comments, to receive a Uniko Clear Stamp & Stencil Bundle worth a minimum of £30. It will be a mix of the new release featured in the hop with a few of her favourites mixed in too.

Simply leave a comment along all stops of the hop before midnight BST Saturday 8th April 2023 and she will randomly select a lucky winner and announce ASAP after the closing date.

Happy hopping!

 Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie -that's me

Steph

Vinita

Super Striker

Good morning. It's the Spring Equinox today, so summer is almost here! We also have a brand new challenge at Cardz4Guyz. This time we would like your designs using

ANY COLOURING MEDIUM

As regular visitors here will know, Copic markers are my default setting for colouring, so this was an absolute no brainer! Here's my take.

I found this little chap in my to colour box, it's a digi from LOTV called Super Striker. He's in the strip of Liverpool FC, to keep my Son in law happy and I doodled the front of his shirt with their logo and sponsor's name using white gel pen and a touch of Copic marker for colour. The layout I used, I'd seen on Pinterest and had been waiting for just the occasion to use it. 

I printed off some NitWits DP in roughly Liverpool colours and die cut a net using an hexagonal cover plate die from Sizzix, the green stripe was some scrap coloured with matching green Copic marker. My sentiment was stamped on a tab cut using an old Marianne die and tucked under the edge of the square panel. To assemble, I glued my DP across my 7 x 7 square base card, added thin strips of red card above and below, added the green strip and the mock netting. The image I mounted on red card and slipped it through the red ring of card. Just snip the circle for ease and rejoin it at the back where it doesn't show! The finished panel was added to the card on pads.

So where will you go with the colouring element. Will it be crayons, watercolour or alcohol markers like me? We'd love to see your take in our gallery. For more inspiration check out the rest of the team here.

Joining in over at:-

Just Stripes for me

Birthday Cards

Color Hues #60

It's mid month and time for a new colour combination at Color Hues. Here's my take.

I thought of the turquoise and blue of a Mediterranean Sea for my card, though I haven't seen too many mermaids! 

On a panel of white card I inked all over with Peacock Feathers DI and using a piece of scrap paper as a guide, I inked in some Salty Ocean DI to create the effect of sunlight passing through the water. My Whimsey Stamps Goldie mermaid was stamped in the bottom left corner then again onto some Copic friendly card. Using a mix of blues and turquoises, I coloured the image and fussy cut both the snail and Goldie. As I was going to place her over the original stamping I didn't bother cutting out all the twiddly bits, they would be there once I glued my coloured mermaid and snail over! I used a small paint brush to add more bubbles and outlined them with a black fine liner, the sentiment is from MFT's GillFriend. 

The frame was sitting in my bits box, so I added the scene behind it, trimmed any excess away and then added the whole panel to an A6 note card. 

I think this will be going to my Grandson's party stash for one of his many parties!

So that's it from me but please check out the rest of the team and our GD here for some more fab ideas.

Hope to see you in our Color Hues gallery soon!

Joining in over at:-

Something beginning with B - Bubbles

Recliner King

Good morning, how are you this morning? Hope I find you well and not too chilled with this Arctic blast we've had the last couple of days. They say March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, well we can only hope! Anyway it's time for a brand new challenge at Cardz4Guyz and for this fortnight I chose the theme of :-

MAKE US SMILE

They say laughter is the best medicine but surely it's great to laugh on your birthday too. 

Here's my inspiration using another Ai stamp set.

I made this for my bestie's partner, I hope he enjoyed it!

After stamping the recliner king, I fussy cut him and put him to the side whilst I looked for some backing paper.

I found a sentiment background in my bits box that I made using some STAMPlorations sentiments awhile ago, check out how I made it here. For this card I did tone down the orange background by adding some Vintage Photo DI over the top.

I was going to add a spring mechanism to the back of the recliner king to make him wobble but he was a bit too heavy for my card springs and he fell away from the background when the card was stood up, so didn't use them in the end, just added him on foam pads. The sentiment from the same set, was stamped and added on pads also and the panel double mounted onto a square kraft base card.

So what will you do to make us smile? As ever the DT have lots of ideas to help you here. We'd love to see what tickles you!

11th Birthday Release Day and Blog Hop and giveaway at Uniko

Well it's release day and you can finally get to play with the new Uniko goodies for yourselves!

I've loved playing with the new stamps and stencil and had so many ideas on how to use them, but here are a few I got around to making!

You might recognise the background to this card from an earlier post made up of spring sentiments, then it was green behind a rabbit! The fussy cut crocus was stamped and coloured using Copics this time, V04, 06, 09 and V17 for the petals.

I couldn't resist making this next card, another watercolour using Spring Botanicals Crocus.

This time I stamped the central bloom then used masking fluid to mask, then stamped the left one, masked again, then the right and masked with the liquid masking. When dry, I flooded the background with a mix of Cadmium Yellow and Prussian blue, added some crinkled up cling film and left it to dry. I did check carefully that there were no beads of damp colour on the masking before carefully removing it and painting in the petals and leaves. The frame was cut using an Avery Elle die and then mounted over the top of the dry painting with foam pads, I left the sentiment off this time.

Next I have a fun birthday card using the bunny from Hoppy Easter and some pretty NitWits DP, the die is MFT.

Whilst I had my watercolours out, I made this simple card using Up and Away.

Look closely and you may notice that this balloon has an extra panel or two. While I was painting the dark blue panel the dog came in and nudged my arm and so I smudged a bit over the lines, so had to extend the colouring to cover it up! Of course the pinky purple one had to be extended to match too.

Finally I used the Up and Away set along with the Cloud 9 stencil for this slimline design.

So that's it, what do you think? Don't forget to leave a comment before you hop along to the rest of the team for a chance to win a fabulous prize.

Anita

Bev

Julie - that's me

Steph

Joining in over at:-

 
                                               Spring Blooms

Fashion Monger Dahlia

Good evening. After a couple of months off to re-group we are back at HLS with our challenges. Today we launch the March Anything Goes Birthday challenge. So here is my contribution, featuring Altenew's Fashion Monger Dahlia stamp set.

This was made for a good friend of mine who loves red flowers! An elegant card for an elegant lady! The set is a layered stamping one but for this I went with just the outlines stamped and heat embossed onto watercolour paper. The three blooms were coloured with some Candied Apple DI smooshed onto a craft mat, the shadows added with a Zig Watercolour marker, as were the inner cream petals. The leaves were coloured with a wash of Zig markers in two shades of green and then when dry, fussy cut along with the blooms. 

I printed off some black and white, diagonal striped DP, adding it to one side of a panel of white card, together with a strip of black card. The fussy cut leaves and blooms were arranged over the strip, sentiment(Uniko) stamped and a few old HLS gems added. The completed panel was then added to a 5 x 7 white base card.

Why not join in our new challenge, check out the rest of the DT for more fab inspiration.

Joining in over at:-

No topping this time!

Introducing Up and Away and Cloud 9 Stencil

Good morning! It's day 3 of the introductions for Uniko's 11th Birthday release.

For my inspiration, I've combined the new stamp set and stencil to create this fun card.

On some more scraps of NitWits DP, I stamped the smallest of the 3 balloons from the set and fussy cut them out. On a panel of white card, I stencilled in the clouds using the new stencil before adding the balloons and baskets. I had a frame left from cutting out a panel for an earlier card, so after stamping the sentiment, I popped it up on foam pads over the panel and added the whole lot to an A6 note card. 

We get plenty of balloons flying over us from a small airfield nearby but none in such pretty spring colours! Sometimes they are really low and we can wave to the people in the basket and hear the roar of the gas as they try to gain height, much to the annoyance of our little pooch!

Here's one that floated by last September.

For more ideas about the new release, why not check out the rest of the team, I'll be back on Saturday with the full reveal!

Anita

Bev

Julie - that's me

Steph

Color Hues #59

 Good afternoon! I'm back again with a new colour pairing from Color Hues! I went all festive with my take.

I had a couple of ideas in my head for this challenge but as I haven't made a start on my Christmas stash yet, I thought I would go down that route.

I made my wreath using some evergreen branch dies from IO which I cut from some sparkly green as well as some other plain shades of green. Once cut, I die cut a hoop of the dark green using a couple of circle dies and stated adding the branches until I had the right look. A few sparkly gold gems and a ribbon bow complete.

I used the layout at The Paper Players for inspiration, adding the wreath to a die cut panel of cream card over a slightly larger gold one and finally onto a small square base card. The sentiment is an oldie but goodie from Woodware.

So where will this colour choice take you? There's lots of fab inspiration from the rest of the team as well as our GD on the Color Hues blog. See you there!

Joining in over at:-

D is for Die Cuts

Introducing Hoppy Easter and Everyday Spring Sentiments

Morning and happy St David's Day!

It's day 2 of the introductions for Uniko's 11th Birthday release. Today we are focusing on the stamp sets Hoppy Easter and Everyday Spring Sentiments.

First off is a cute Easter card using Hoppy Easter and some scraps of DP.

The set has a solid rabbit and an outline rabbit, so for this I used the outline image stamped on some matching scraps of NitWits DP, fussy cut and added to a die cut panel of white card. I found some white pompoms in my stash and added some cottontails! The sentiment says it all really.

The second card features the same outline rabbit as well as sentiments from Spring Botanicals, Crocus, Tulip, Daffodil and Snowdrop together with the new Everyday Spring Sentiments.

I've used this technique quite a few times to create background panels, setting the sentiments out in my MISTI and stamping and heat embossing with white EP. It takes awhile to do so I made a few and will be using them later. 

This time I stamped my bunny outline and facial features, which Bev kindly added separately and coloured with Copics before adding him to a panel of vellum. To give him added strength I backed him with another simply stamped, fussy cut one on the under side of the vellum panel. The sentiment strip I made stamping Happy from everyday Christmas Sentiments and Easter form the Spring set. I also backed this strip in the same way as the rabbit.

I used a stitched die to cut down my background panel, added it to a white base card, then added the vellum panel complete with sequins.

I'm sure these new sentiments will come in very useful and can be combined with other sets in the same series for lots of useful sentiments.

To see what the rest of the Brand Ambassadors have been up to, just click on the links.

 Anita

Bev

Julie - that's me

Steph

I'll see you back here, same time tomorrow for more of the brand new Spring release.