Westies in the Snow

Good morning.

Have you done all your Christmas prep yet? I'm still working at it but I still had to make a card for my final GD spot at Sparkles Challenge which starts today. This month our theme is:-

CHRISTMAS TRANSPORT

Not sure where to go, I looked through my stash and found these cute Westies. It's from a very old set which came with a mag many, many years ago! As you can tell from my previous post, I love to create little CAS scenes to set my fussy cut characters in, so here is my take.

I've been trying to use up some of my bits n bobs from my stash that I put to one side as too good to chuck! This blue sky started off as an inky Yupo panel for a DT post, I think. The trees were also cut from a scrap of white from the stash and the doggies were similarly stamped on some leftovers. 

These cuties were then coloured with Copics, fussy cut and added on top of the snowy landscape. A simple Uniko sentiment completes.

So what ideas will you come up with? We'd love to see your makes in the Sparkles gallery this month.

Joining in over at:-

AG

Anything Christmassy

Mega Christmas Challenge

Cute Christmas

Penguin Parcel Delivery

Good morning.

How are your festive preparations going? Mine are slow, still plenty to do but hopefully all cards are written and posted if needed but id you are in need of a last minute idea, how about the latest challenge at Cardz4Guyz where our theme is:-

CREATE A CHRISTMAS CARD or TAG 

I find CAS a good route for both quick and masculine makes, so here is a really CAS card using a LOTV penguin and a scrap of paper made with Brusho and some Brusho Sprinkles and a die cut horizon.

I did really want the blue panel at the top of the card but silly me glued it to the bottom!! Anyway I rather like the look in the end. The cute penguin from my to colour box, was coloured with Copics and fussy cut before I added him to snowy die cut landscape, Marianne, and the lines from the original sketched back in with a black fine liner, Uniko sentiment completes.

So where will you go with your Christmas card  or Tag? There's lots more from the DT over on the Cardz4Guyz blog if you need it and then why not join in?

Merry Christmas!

I'm joining in over at:-

AG

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Cute and Christmassy

Color Hues #100

Afternoon all from the UK. 

Today we have a new colour combo at Color Hues and it's a special one, it's the last of 2024 but it is also our 100th challenge!!! I can't quite believe it, just like I couldn't believe it when Nancy asked if I would be part of the team. So happy to have been asked and the time has just flown by, Nancy you are the glue that keeps us going!

To celebrate this momentous event, Nancy has graciously decided to offer a prize of a box of once or never used Spellbinders goodies!!

 This challenge will also be open the entire month so that everyone has enough time to play along. 

At the close of this challenge on December 29th, Nancy will pick one overall winner and 3 runner-ups as we always do.  Then, she will take those names and put them in a hat, and choose the prize winner from those 4 names. 

Should the winner rejects the prize package she will pick again. As always, the overall winner will be eligible to be a guest Designer with us for a future challenge. 

So now you've settled down after all that excitement, here's my take on the colours.

I needed a card for an old friend and colleague's birthday, so this was the perfect opportunity to make one for her.

I've used Stamping Bella's Uptown Quinn in her Boots, coloured with Copics and fussy cut. The background is stencilled with a mix of Blueprint Sketch and Salty Ocean DI over Crafter's Workshop Aspen Trees stencil, fading out towards the bottom of the panel. Finally I added a Uniko sentiment to my die cut frame. To be fair I had a slight hiccup with this frame. I found one in my stash that I must have made a while ago but it was from some different card stock, so I went looking for the die I'd used to make another to match the card I'd used on the stencilled panel. After much fruitless searching, I decided that I would have to use a slightly larger Hero Arts rounded rectangle die, I have absolutely no idea which die I had used originally which was just a bit smaller!! 

OK, that's all from me but please check out the rest of the team here.

Joining in over at:-

Fall or Winter

Winter                                 AG or Winter

12 Days of Christmas at Uniko, Inspiration and a Giveaway!

 This year Bev is hosting 12 Days of Christmas Inspiration & Giveaways up until 12th December, with the winners announced on Friday 13th December. There will also be videos, so be sure to check out Uniko's YouTube Channel.

Today we are starting things off by having a Christmas Party, card making style, with a linky link up to enter a new Christmas card using Uniko products. Even if you are super organised and have finished all your cards for this year, it's a great way to get a head start for next year!

Here's my inspiration for you!

I was inspired to create this card after I had seen a cut out design by Bev recently, it reminded me of a card I made a few years ago. To make this, I first stamped the Framed Snowflakes stamp with Altenew Turquoise ink and then again with Versamark and white EP on Turquoise card. I then infilled the open area using some extra snowflakes and a few dotty stamps. I kept the small stamps in my MISTI until I had stamped BOTH images, if not you can't match up when you die cut the openings!

To create the baubles, I used a balloon die and cut both panels simultaneously, also important to be able to add the darker baubles into the openings! This way you get a twofer but if you want you can just cut one and place the uncut one underneath to show through the openings. 

A few lengths of silver string created the hangers and bows and the white panel was then popped up with foam pads. A simple sentiment in matching turquoise completes.

That's it from me but there's lots more inspiration from the team to check out below, but don't forget to leave some love as you go!

Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie - that's me

Steph

Vinita

Christmas party rules are easy, simply create a new Christmas card using Uniko products. You can use sentiments, embellishments, dies, papers etc. from other brands, but Uniko products must be the MAIN focus of your card.

Maximum 3 entries per person.

The Linky is open now and will close 23:59 GMT Wednesday 11th December 2024 and the Uniko Brand Ambassadors will vote for their Top 3 with the prizes as follows -

1st Prize - £25 eGift Code

2nd Prize - £15 eGift Code

3rd Prize - £10 eGift Code 

Plus a bonus prize For a lucky comment along the hop - £10 eGift Code.

Looking forward to seeing all the festive inspiration in the gallery on the Uniko blog.

Merry Christmas!

Playing with a Theme and Sketch

Morning, time for another new challenge from Cardz4Guyz. This time our theme for your masculine makes is:-

GRATEFUL, THANKFUL, BLESSED

Here's my card using a few bits I had hanging around!

I'd been playing around with the theme for quite awhile but was spurred into action when I saw the sketch over at The Paper Players, regular visitors know I love a sketch!

I found some old hessian scraps in my drawer, which I cut to fit diagonally across my card base before adding my central panel of die cut and then embossed Kraft panels over white. I did notice that my memory of the sketch was slightly off the actual after I'd glued the hessian strip down, hope that's OK! 

The scrunched up a leaf I die cut from some Brusho covered card for another project and never used but I pimped it up by adding some Inka gold wax. The gold embossed sentiment was stamped with a Sugar Pea sentiment onto a die cut white panel. As this is a masculine card, I didn't feel the need to add extras and kept it pretty CAS.

That's it from me but be sure to check out the rest of the team here.

Joining in over at:-

 

Color Hues #99

Afternoon folks. 

November is whizzing by and we are already past the mid point, so it must be time for a new colour duo from Color Hues. Here's my card with a pretty pastel theme.

My LOTV digi snowman was first coloured with Copics, then fussy cut, first bit done, now to layout. Tricky, I always seem to rely on old favourites for this but I rang the changes by using a neglected Sugar Pea die to cut a panel of white card, into which I cut an oval aperture for my snowman to sit. 

I thought he need a little help with the background, so embossed the die cut oval with an EF that came free with a mag adding a hint of Tumbled Glass EP. A simple Uniko sentiment completes.

OK, that's a wrap but please check out the rest of the team here and join in.

Uniko Poinsettia

Morning all. I'm back with another of my inspiration cards for Sparkles. This month we are looking for your makes on the theme of -

CHRISTMAS FLORALS

When I read this I knew exactly which stamp I was going to use, the fab Uniko Pure Florals - Poinsettia. I was unsure about what design I would use until I caught a You Tube video by Michelle Short CASEing Therese Calvird and the rest as they say is history!

In the video, Michelle used some pretty marbled DP but I Didn't have any, so decided to make my own using alcohol ink and Yupo paper, I used what inks I had including Valencia, Flamingo, Dandelion and Coral, with a little bit of gold foiling.

The rest was pretty simple, two large images, black on white, fussy cut and mounted over the inky panel. The Uniko stamped sentiment was embossed with gold EP on black card before being fussy cut. The sentiment was popped up with foam tape and some silver crystals coloured with yellow Copic marker were added to the centers to complete.

That's it, a really simple make, even easier if you have some suitable DP!

For more inspiration please check out the rest of the Sparkles team and then why not join in?

Joining over at:-

Christmas

A Sunday Afternoon Derby

Good morning. 

There's a brand new challenge starting at Cardz4Guyz today, our theme is:-

YOUR FAVOURITE 3 COLOURS

I must admit that I found this rather difficult to chose just three colours and in situations like this I look to challenges to inspire me but a few weeks ago when I first started thinking of my card nothing pinged in my head. Anyway, I then had a look at my old designs to see which colours I ACTUALLY do use, a lot of red and blue. This did at least give me an idea and it was further cemented when I came to make this card.

Eventually it was rather a last minute make but as I was getting my thoughts together and settled down for an afternoon's crafting on Sunday, there was lots of talk on the radio about the Sheffield derby. For those not into football (soccer) it's a league match between the 2 biggest Sheffield clubs, Wednesday and United. I'm in the United or red camp, whilst my kids are in the Wednesday or blue side of the city. With all these different threads running through my head I settled on my favourite teams colours of red and white but then after colouring I thought is white even a colour so there were a couple of colours missing, so in a nod to family unity I used this blue frosty background from my stash, making red, blue and brown. Do black and white count, hope not!

My fussy cut and Copic coloured image is from LOTV, Dachshund through the Snow, and the sentiment is Uniko. The finished panel was added with foam pads onto a white base card. Doesn't he look all cosy and warm in his hat, scarf and gloves, even his hound looks tasty warm in his coat and hat!

So what are your favourite colours, we'd love to see your interpretations in our gallery. Pop over to the Cardz4Guyz blog to see what the rest of the team have come up with.

Joining in over at:-

#296 Birthday

It's Beginning To Look Like... Uniko October/November Reveal, Release, Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

Good morning, time for a few more ideas using the stamps from the new release which are available on the Uniko page now.

My first card is simply another way to use the Framed Fairy Lights.

Once the lights were stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with white EP, I added dark blue watercolour to the background and coloured the lights with Zig markers. The panel was trimmed to the edge of the embossed frame and added to a note card, a simple white embossed sentiment from the set completes.

My second card uses the BB Snow Flurry and Christmas Pop stamp sets to create this little scene.

The Trees were stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with white EP before cutting out, the snow flurry was simply stamped in dark blue ink and cut to leave a small border. A small panel of matching white card was scored using a scoreboard and added to the Snow Flurry panel and the trees added on top. The sentiment from Peace on Earth was with Versamark and Silver EP.

 

This next card was inspired by a comment my daughter made when she was over about it being the lines of a carol so why not include some music in the design.

On a panel of white card I stamped the JOY from Big n Bold with Versamark and heat embossed with gold EP. I then added the text and music in black and a couple of holly sprigs for added festive charm. I hope I haven't infringed any copyrights with my stamped snippet of score!!

My final card uses that fab poinsettia stamp. 

I have to admit that this should have been used in a card earlier this week but life got in the way as well as an inky splat on the OLC I was making!! Anyway I decided I had spent too much effort on colouring it to not make a card and while pondering what to do I came across the Case a DT member at JUGS. When I saw Elizabeth's card I knew I could use my poinsettia!

I used the same orientation as her card, the circle aperture, the floral motif, red and green colours along with gold embossing on the flowers but put my own spin on it.

I stamped the poinsettia with  Altenew Silver Stone ink first as I wanted to colour it with Copic markers and they don't mix well with EP, so I left the stamp in my MISTI whilst I coloured it.

Once coloured, I placed it back into the MISTI and stamped over it with Versamark and embossed with gold EP and fussy cut it out, that got rid of the red inky splodge!

The top panel I had in my stash and I used the Festive Foliage stencil to emboss a panel to put behind the opening. The Merry, instead of a die cut, was stamped, embossed with gold EP and fussy cut and the Christmas part stamped onto the embossed panel. 

My fussy cut poinsettia was added to the aperture so that a few sepals were hanging over the edge and then the whole panel was added onto a base card with foam tape. I know the original card had layers of die cuts to give dimension but you can't do that with fussy cutting so easily, the foam pads have the same effect.

So that's all from me but please check out the rest of the team to see what they've been up to. Don't forget to leave some love along the way for a chance to win the entire release!!! The winner will be announced on November 11th 2024.

Natalia

Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie -me

Steph

Vinita

So what do you think about the new release? Looking forward to seeing what you all think in the comments!

Joining in over at:-

It's Beginning To Look Like... Introducing Uniko's Framed - Fairy Lights

Morning, it's the final day of introductions at Uniko. Today we are focusing on a new framed stamp, Fairy Lights! Here are a couple of ideas I came up with.

First of the block is this card.

To start, I took a panel of white card and stamped the frame image with Versamark and heat embossed with white EP. I then coloured each of the fairy lights with Zig watercolour markers before using an embossing pen and clear EP. Once cool, I inked over the whole piece of paper with Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot DOx.  The clear embossing resisted the inking to let the lights shine! The panel was then cut in two across the middle and I added each half of it to the edge of an A6 note card. The top and bottom of the framed fairy lights were then covered with a sentiment panel to fill the gap.

This next card shows that you don't need to use the whole stamp. 

Here I've just stamped the long edge onto some white card, coloured with Copic markers and added to a base card, followed by two panels of black, one stamped with the sentiment. A couple of thin strips of gold glitter paper glued at the join add a bit of festive sparkle.

So that's all from me but please check out the rest of the team to see what ideas they've come up with.

Natalia GD

Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie -me

Steph

Vinita

I'll be back tomorrow with our traditional blog hop and giveaway, see you then.

Color Hues #98

Afternoon folks. 

It's the first of the month so there must be a new colour duo from Color Hues.

This time Karen has chosen an unusual combination for the time of year, well that's what I thought at first but then I thought and decided it was VERY appropriate and came up with this take on a sketch I found online.

What says red and black more than a Santa?

To start, I stamped the MFT Santa, coloured him with Copics and fussy cut him out to use later.

On an A6, top fold, white note card, I added a panel of black and white striped DP, followed by some white card embossed with a Cuttlebug EP. In my bits box I found 2 circles of white card, embossed the smallest with a Honey Bee EF and glued it over the stitched one. A hand cut banner from a scrap of red card and HO HO HO, cut from the same using MFT's small alphabet dies, were added to the embossed panel followed by the circles and Santa.

So that's it from me, but please check out the rest of the team here along with our two GDs Izzy and Colleen B.

We are looking forward to seeing your takes on the new colours in the gallery.

It's Beginning To Look Like... Introducing Uniko's BIG & BOLD Joy

Morning all. It's the penultimate day of the new release introductions from Uniko.

Today we are introducing another in the Big n Bold series, Big n Bold Joy.

Here's my first idea using this set.

Using the sketch from The Paper Players, I started by embossing a panel of white card with my Winter Foliage stencil. This was then cut in 2 and added to my base card, as per the sketch. On a circle of matching white card, I stamped the JOY with Versamark and heat embossed with gold EP before stamping the small leaflet repeatedly to create a wreath. A few red berries were then added with a stamp from BB Vines Winter Additions.

On a strip of black card, I stamped the To the World with Versamark and heat embossed with gold EP, adding it to the joy wreath. Finally using the Peace on Earth set, I stamped a further sentiment. 

My next card mixes Christmas Pop, In the Forest stencil, Big n Bold Joy and Christmas Sentiments.

On a panel of white card, I started by adding some lime green trees in a grid using the small tree from Christmas Pop, I then added more, firstly with a dark green, then a mid tone green. I wasn't completely satisfied so used a small section of the stencil to fill in the gaps. I centered the similar shaped stencil tree over the palest tree in each group, before softly inking through with Twisted Citron DI, moving the masked stencil until I was satisfied with the coverage.

The JOY was stamped in red on some scrap white card and fussy cut before gluing onto my tree panel and the sentiment strip was stamped with part of the Wishing You A stamp from Christmas Sentiments and then embossed with  gold EP.

Why not check out what ideas the rest of the team have come up by clicking the links.

Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie -me

Steph

Vinita

So that's it from me for today, see you back here tomorrow for another brand new release from Uniko.

Joining in over at:-