Merry Christmas

Hello, hope you are all ready for the big day. Our first visitors are arriving shortly, road works and traffic permitting, so I thought I'd take some time for myself before they arrive to share this card I made for them and to join in a couple of challenges too!

I always like to personalise my cards to family and this LOTV image was chosen to represent my son and his family. After colouring with Copics, I fussy cut the scene and put it to one side. The base card is A5 which I covered with some NitWits festive DP, red background and a white background one for the center. The top panel was cut, then embossed twice with a really old Cuttlebug EF that rarely gets used but was perfect for this scene of tree decorating. The fussy cut scene was added to the bottom of this embossed panel and added to the card on foam pads. A simple stamped Uniko sentiment completes.

That's all for the moment but best wishes for a fab festive period.

Joining in over at:-

Something Cute and Christmassy

Anything Goes

Mega Christmas Challenge -add a sentiment

Cute and Stripes

Afternoon, I'm back with another Christmas make, this time featuring a couple of cute Margaret Sherry mice and a panel of stripes made using scraps.

 

How cute are these mice holding a pressie? Quite a simple background for these fussy cut meeces, off cuts from the scrap drawer rearranged on a panel of white to create a pattern. Not enough to cover the whole area but I quite like the contrast.

After stamping, colouring with Copics, they were fussy cut and added to my panel with foam pads, a simple Woodware greeting completes. All mounted flat on a small square, green base card.

The first of our trees, ancient artificial, is now up and the other is still standing in the garden awaiting the chain saw. Sadly it has grown far too vigorously since we replanted it after a Christmas 10 years or so ago and has to come down before it takes the nearby wall first! At least we will have the benefit of it again before it becomes fire wood. That's a job for the weekend.

Joining in over at:-

Cute and Cuddly Christmas

Y - You choose and Z for Stripes

Bah Humbug!

Morning all.

Christmas is nearly here but we have one further challenge for you at Cardz4Guyz before the big day. We would love to see your cards for blokes that feature a-

CHRISTMAS GNOME or ELF

Here's my take using another of my Brusho panels.

I was wondering the other day what's the difference between a gnome and a gonk, well apparently gonks only ever show their noses! Who knew? I can see this grumpy chaps eyes, so he's definitely a gnome! In fact he's a Stamping Bella gnome, one of a trio that I bought a while ago, coloured with Copics and then fussy cut. He does look a little too grumpy, hence the title of the post. I was going to add it to the card but my design didn't look quite right, so left it off. It's a simple layered design, Brusho cling film panel to which I added some Brusho SprinkleIT iridescent gold glitter with the Brusho and a couple of die cut snowy hills and trees. This time I wet my panel BEFORE adding the Brusho and SprinkleIT, the effect is much better than the first try here. I love how the SprinkleIT makes the sky shimmer and sparkle. A simple Uniko sentiment completes.

We'd love it if you joined in with this final challenge of the year and should you need more gnome or elf inspiration, check out the rest of the team here.

Merry Christmas

Joining in over at:-

#719- Add a sentiment

Faux Watercolour Poinsettia

Welcome. I've another Christmas card, this time for the challenge over at The Flower Challenge.

Their challenge this month is to use gold on your cards. This poinsettia is from Penny Black which is great for the faux watercolour technique. The MISTI helps a lot too as it allows you to keep adding colour and water to the stamped image. I used MM paper which is slightly darker than the base card I used so the thin mount of gold takes away the direct comparison between the two. I did add some dilute Chipped Sapphire DI around the stamped image which helps too.

After my panel was dry, I cropped it, mounted it onto the soft gold paper and stamped the greeting, Uniko, with Versamark and gold EP, before adding to an A6 base card. Love the subtle effect of the faux watercolour!

Of to join in over at:-

Anything Goes, option Christmas

Winter Flowers and/or Foliage

Penguin Stack

Morning all. 

I've sent all my Christmas cards for this year, so now I can share some of my makes.

Here's one I made for my daughter and family.

I've mentioned before that my Son in Law loves a penguin, so this LOTV image was perfect as it matched their family, two adults and two kids!

I coloured the penguins with Copics, personalising each penguin with the colour of their scarves. Red and white for Liverpool fan, dad Joe, blue and white for Wednesday fan, mum Nich, festive colours for eldest grandson and a rainbow one, his fave for the youngest.

After fussy cutting the penguin stack, I put it to one side and concentrated on the background. A DL card base with a panel of NitWits DP and a couple of die cut hillsides with trees create a seasonal backdrop. A little bit of Sprinkled Sugar Stickles on the trees, snow and star gives just the right amount of festive sparkle. No sentiment on the outside as I thought it would detract from the image.

So that's all for the moment, hope you're all well on with your Christmas prep, still got a couple of trees to put up but all bought pressies wrapped and hidden from little prying eyes! Just a few more bits n bobs to find.

 Joining in over at:-

Your favourite person to make for at Christmas

I love to make cards for family at Christmas, it's a chance to personalise the designs and to size up my creations from the standard A6 card size.

Something Die Cut

Uniko Release Day, Blog Hop and Giveaway!

Good morning. I'm back with a few more ideas using the new release from Uniko.

There's been lots of fab inspiration from the team so far but today you can get your hands on the ne release from today!  They're available now from the Uniko website HERE.

So without further ado, here are a few more ideas to inspire you.

First off is the new Background Block, layered stripes.

Background Blocks Layered Stripes £6

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

Do you remember me saying how it reminded me of a 70's Op Art poster, well I had another go and created this.

A fun, masculine card with my own bit of single point perspective on the sentiment, Framed Balloons.

After stamping in black, I die cut a few circles from the panel and then replaced them so that the pattern was reversed. I decided to leave the top of the panel hanging off the edge of the sentiment panel, I think it gave a more balanced look. It does looks a little more like my O level art piece! I kept it monochrome by leaving the sentiment un coloured and mounting it onto a black base card.

Next up is the Back Builders Perspective stamp.

Background Blocks Perspective £6

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

Much like my introduction design, this design has two of the images, one at 90' to the other, centers matching.

Using a rainbow selection of pencil crayons, I coloured in some of the areas and then attached one of my stash of  sentiments. The finished panel was then added behind a square frame and onto a square base card.

Finally it's the new Ink n Flip snowflake stencil.

Stencil - In & Flip Snowflake  £4.25

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

This card was a combination of the new stencil and the Large Snowflake1 stencil. 

On a panel of dark blue card I inked through the Ink n Flip stencil to create my snowflake using white pigment ink. Again I thought the contrast between the blue and white inking was too stark, so added the Large Snowflake 1 stencil over the center and inked through with more white ink. Using a WOW embossing pen, I coloured in the exposed blue card, then added some sparkly blue EP and heat set. Another of my stash sentiments and a few diamantes complete.

That's it from me for today but be sure to leave some comment love either here or on the other Brand Ambassador blogs or on social media. You have until midnight Friday 15th December 2023 to comment and then Bev will randomly select a winner to win a £20 eGift Certificate.

 Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie 

Steph

Vinita

Happy hopping!

Joining in over at:-

 

Introducing Uniko Ink and Flip Snowflake Stencil

Good morning peeps. It's the final day of introductions for Uniko's mini December release. Today we are focusing on the Ink and Flip Snowflake stencil. This the second in Bev's Ink and Flip series.

Here's the first idea I had with my first try of the new stencil.

 

On a panel of white card, or so I thought, I inked through the stencil with Blueprint Sketch DOx. What I actually realised half way through was that it wasn't plain card but a panel I'd stamped on with a text stamp with Versamark then not used!! Once the ink went onto the panel it gave a very subtle ink resist effect. I quite liked this effect so carried on with the panel!

Once I'd created my snowflake, I decided the white was too much of a contrast, so blended a soft layer of the same ink to knock it back. I used a WOW embossing pen to scribble 'frosty' lines and heat embossed using silver EP. The panel was then trimmed down, added to a white base card and the layered sentiment, made from Doodle Flowers and Christmas sentiments.

This second card is a much subtler effect. I used Peacock Feathers DI this time and started by using the mask from the Large Snowflake1, inking over the mask before inking through the Ink n Flip stencil.

Again I knocked back the white by dragging some of the inking over the white areas and trimmed it down to fit my base card.

The sentiment from Snowflake Serenade was first stamped in black then keeping it in the MISTI, I cleaned the stamp, added WOW embossing pen to the wonderful and stamped again, adding silver EP and heat embossing. The completed sentiment was then fussy cut and added with foam pads. 

That's it from me for the moment, but I'll be back tomorrow with our Blog Hop and Giveaway!

In the meantime, check out the rest of the team for some of their ideas using the new stencil.

 Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie 

Steph

Vinita

Introducing Uniko Background Blocks Perspective

 Good morning. It's day 2 of the latest release introductions from Uniko. Here's my idea using the new BB Perspective.

This is basically a lesson in single point perspective and I often used to use the idea to create some fun lettering. Here I've stamped the image then coloured each section with pencil crayons in festive colours.

A simple sentiment from my stash, I create lots whilst I've got the stamps in my Misti, mounted on gold and a couple of die cut holly sprigs coloured with Copics complete.

My second card uses the same stamp but I stamped it twice, rotating it 90' so that the centers matched.

I drew in some extra lines to each shape obeying the single point perspective, then coloured using Copics in a rainbow of colours. The outline letters, create a simple sentiment.

That's all for today but I'll be back tomorrow with our final introduction before Release Day.

 Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie 

Steph

Vinita

CAS Christmas

 Evening all.

Just popping by to join in a few challenges with this cute penguin card.

I needed a few more cards so went down the quick CAS route. 

The girls at G7cardmakers, are playing with clingfilm smooshing. Regular readers will know I like a bit of clingfilm magic so I decided to have a play after watching Strictly this weekend. I made a couple of panels using Brushos and MM paper as I didn't feel like getting my watercolours out. This could have been a mistake as the end result is a little subdued in the effects department. If you look closely there is some patterning in the panel I used for the sky but not as much as I would have liked. Think it was a mix of too much Brusho and MM paper.

Anyway, half the A6 panel serves as a good backdrop to this cute LOTV penguin that was languishing in the bits box. I printed him out with Al's laser printer and it doesn't like Copic friendly card and sheds the ink, so I had to draw a few lines with a fine liner to bring him back to life and fussy cut him out to get rid of the stray ink particles! 

The panel was added to an A6 white top fold note card, a die cut snowy horizon cut using a Marianne die placed over the panel and then the penguin, replacing some lines that were lost when I fussy cut him. A simple sentiment from Uniko completes.

That's it from me for the mo, better get on with Christmas prep!

Joining in over at:-

Christmas

Introducing Uniko Background Blocks Layered Stripes

Good morning Uniko fans. This morning we are introducing another fab Background Blocks stamp, perfect for those hard to make masculine cards. When I first saw the stamp it took me right back to my youth!

Back in the early 70's I sat my GCSE Art exam after devouring the latest edition of Sounds magazine on the bus on the way to the school. On the back page was a selection of Op Art posters for sale and one of them was very like this panel, but on a much larger scale. When faced with the Art paper, one of the possible themes was an abstract painting with the theme of 'One on top of another'. The poster came into my mind and that was it, off I went. If I remember correctly there were some circles involved with my take and grey was also included.

For this card I simply stamped the image in Altenew's Obsidian onto a white A6 note card and added shadow lines with a 4B pencil. The sentiment is from Framed Balloons. A VERY simple design.

Another idea that came into my mind was this.

The overlapping reminded me of a ball of wool, so I stamped it onto a piece of pink DP with Picked Raspberry DOx, die cut a circle from it and cut a tail of 'wool' from some more of the DP.

On a plain white base card, I drew a couple of knitting needles and coloured them with Copics before adding the circle die cut from the panel to which I'd added some DOx around the edges with a blending brush, then the freehand cut tail. To complete, I added the Happy Birthday with pale grey ink.

That's it from me for the moment, but I'll be back tomorrow with another new stamp introduction.

Check out the rest of the team for some of their ideas using the new stamp.

 Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie 

Steph

Vinita

Uniko New Release Sneak Peeks

Morning all.

A new month and a new release is coming from Uniko. Here are a few sneaky peeks to whet your appetites.

First up is another fab Background Block stamp.

 Next is another in the Background Block series.

Finally as it is just a mini release, Bev has designed another addition to the Ink & Flip stencils. This one has a wintery theme to it and will pair beautifully with lots of previously release wintery products.

As is the norm, Bev and all the Brand Ambassadors will be sharing inspiration each day of the week, culminating with our traditional Blog hop and Giveaway on Friday.

So see you back here same time tomorrow for some fun inspiration.

Happy Birthday Little Rebel

Good evening.

In the midst of all the Christmas hype, spare a thought for those Christmas birthdays. I always feel sorry for those with birthdays in December and early January, they don't get a fair crack of the whip!

Anyway the new challenge at HLS Birthday gives you the chance to make something for those forgotten December birthdays or even one for your stash! Sadly this will be our last challenge for some time, but hope to see you back here soon.

 

I started off after I found this little chap half coloured in in my bits box and decided to give him some love. After finishing colouring him in, I fussy cut him and put him to one side whilst I made the card base. 

I found an old cream base card and trimmed it down to be square, then added the frame cut from kraft and a panel embossed with an old Sizzix EF. To brighten the frame up, I also added a thin circular frame in matching cream card. The embossed panel was added to my base, followed by the frame on pads then the Little Rebel. (Nellie Snellen). A LOTV sentiment was stamped in brown on cream and slipped under the cute little chap to complete. One card that went into my Grandson's birthday card stash.

So what will you make? As always we love to see what you make in our gallery. For more inspiration please check out the rest of the girls in the DT here.

Joining in over at:-

No option for me but the colours are appropriate!

It's our Birthday, Happy 14th Birthday!

Color Hues #77

Afternoon folks.

December already, I can't believe it and I'm nowhere near with my Christmas prep, are you?

Anyway over at Color Hues we have a new colour duo for you but as we realise, many of you have lots going on, we will be running this colour challenge for the WHOLE of December. That gives you plenty of time to get making and even time twixt Christmas and the New Year when hopefully things slow down a bit!

Here's my take, which I made awhile ago whilst playing with stencilling over embossed resist.

This card was inspired by a card I found in my Christmas inspiration box of received cards by my friend Sarah, Sazzle Dazzle. 

On an A5 panel of white card, I stamped a text stamp with Versamark, removing some of the ink with a cloth to get a patchy effect, then heat embossed with silver EP. Over the top of this I inked through with the Uniko Snowflake stencil with Kitsch Flamingo DI and then again in some areas with Picked Raspberry DI. 

I cut the panel into 2, 1/3 2/3rds attaching the larger panel to my white base card and adding a strip of silver glitter paper before stamping this HLS sentiment in Picked Raspberry DI and Altenew Silver Stone ink. I did make another card with the left over that'll save for another time!

So where will; this new duo take you? We love seeing the gallery light up with your ideas, and you never disappoint us with your creativity. If you need more inspiration, pop along to the blog and check out the rest of the DT and GD. You never know you could be a GD if you catch the eye.