It's Beginning To Look Like... Introducing Uniko's Background Blocks Snow Flurry

Good morning. As I mentioned yesterday, we are launching a brand new addition to the Background Blocks series, Snow Flurry. Here's what I've made with it.

My first card uses Christmas Pop set against an aperture with the BB Snow Flurry in the background.

On some white card, I stamped the block with Altenew's Turquoise ink and the trees with their Limeade ink. The trees were fussy cut and the BB panel added onto an A6 note card so that it fit under my die cut aperture panel. The layout loosely matches the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches, squished down! The snowdrift was cut freehand from some scrap and as I had the Peace on Earth set out I used that for a simple greeting. The trees and snowdrift were arranged around the opening and the top panel added with some foam tape. 

My second card is a simple shaker card.

 

This time the BB Snow Flurry was stamped onto a scrap of white and put to one side whilst I made my shaker element. I cut an MFT frame from white card and glued some acetate from some packaging to it. When dry, I ran my anti static bag over the acetate then added some foam tape before turning it over and adding some glitter, beads and a few die cut snowflakes. The panel was then cut to size and added to seal it all in. The shaker element was then added to a white base card that I'd already stamped the sentiment in matching ink to.

So that's all from me for today but please check out what the rest of the team have been up to.

Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie -me

Steph

Vinita

I'll back tomorrow with another new release.

Joining in over at:-

It's Beginning To Look Like... Reintroducing Uniko's Pure Florals Poinsettia

Morning, time for another reintroduction from Uniko. Today we are sharing inspiration using the re released Pure Florals Poinsettia. I'm so happy that Bev has re released this set as it's my go to Christmas floral! I think she might have got fed up with me badgering her to bring it back!

So for my inspiration, I decided to make a card using a technique I've not used before with this stamp, and I can tell you that was difficult!

For this card, I stamped the fab head of the poinsettia twice with Versamark onto vellum before heat embossing with white EP. A poinsettia has really tiny yellow flowers in the center of the head, the red and green 'petals' are really modified leaves. I took one of the images and fussy cut the whole of the head and then cut the center out from the other. 

I chose a lovely festive red base card and using the ribs of the leaves, carefully glued the poinsettia to it. The smaller center was similarly glued over the large one. A simple white embossed sentiment from the set completes.

Here are a few other ideas that I've come up with over the years using this set. Just click the pic to find out all the details of how I made them.

So are you pleased like me that Bev has decided to reintroduce this fab set?

Why not pop along to the rest of the team and our guest Natalia to check out what they've been up to.

Natalia

Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie -me

Steph

Vinita

I'll see you back here tomorrow for the launch of a brand new stamp!

Autumnal Trees

Morning, it's a two post morning here on my blog but this one is to announce the new challenge at Cardz4Guyz. This time we would love to see your take on 

 A TASTE of AUTUMN/FALL

Autumn is supposed to be the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness and these last couple of days it's been filling the mist part but not the fruitful so much. The winds last week have smashed the climbing beans and the squash, which I managed to get under cover before the fruit was damaged too much. However a couple split with the fluctuation of water levels at the beginning of September. Far too much rain fell, flooding our yard and at one point it was lapping the house wall! Still I think I can use them sooner rather than trying to keep them!

Anyway here is my take.

This is one of my fave tree images from Chocolate Baroque, I think. They were part of a bargain bin at Port Sunlight a few years ago so no packaging!

I used the MISTI to create the image, using a mix of ink, water colour pens to create the soft autumnal look of the foliage. The MISTI allows you to keep adding colour and water to blend the inks without too much hassle. I left a few gaps in the foliage, my art tutor always said to leave some for the birds to fly through! 

I cut the panel down once dry and framed it with a die cut frame cut with an MFT die, slipping my Sugar Pea sentiment under the side edge. The whole was then added on pads to a square base card made from the same card as the frame.

That's it from me but please check out the rest of the team here.

Joining in over at:-

                    Autumn                           A/G option of Autumn Colours

It's Beginning To Look Like... Reintroducing Uniko's Christmas Pop

Morning all.

Today we are reintroducing the Christmas Pop stamp set. So rather than go for a straightforward stamped image I went for this as my idea.

A couple of years ago I used the Christmas Pop stencil to create these cards but this time I've used the outline image from the stamp set.

The tree outline was stamped with a pale ink, I used Altenew's Limestone, on some mixed Media paper and then I added some plain water to the triangular part of the image, followed quickly by three shades of green watercolour paint and let the water move the colour around. When the paint was dry I repeated the technique with brown for the trunk. Once completely dry, I added the gold embossed lines and star with Versamark and Gold EP plus an embossed sentiment from Peace on Earth.

That's all from me for the time being but why not check out what the rest of the team and our guest Natalia have been up to. 

Natalia 

Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie -me

Steph

Vinita

See you back here tomorrow for more festive inspiration with another stamp intro.

It's Beginning To Look Like... Uniko October/November Release Sneak Peeks!

Good morning, it's beginning to look like Christmas at Uniko. 

Bev has a new release this week and here are a few sneak peeks of the stamp sets. Two are reintroductions of much loved favourites along with some additions to stamp series already in the Uniko stable. I bet some of you will recognise the oldies but goodies, so why not see what else there is?

This stamp set had its debut in 2016 and the next, originally debuted in 2012!! 

The next 3 peeks are all brand new.

So what do you think? Are you excited to see some clear stamps return from retirement? We'd love to know what you are excited to see more of .

Color Hues #97

 Afternoon all. I can't believe that we are over halfway through October, but we must be as it's time for a new colour combination from Color Hues. Here's my take using the new colours.

Having olive in the duo put the idea of foliage into my head but after I found this old biddy in my to colour box I knew exactly which direction I was taking.

Cracking out the Copics, I chose a selection of dark yellows Y21,26 and 28, including one Y26 actually called MUSTARD! The olives were the end of the YG range, YG91, 95 and 97. As neutrals are allowed, I coloured the skin with E50, 00 and 21 and E04 and E 95 for the face. The whites are perversely C5, 4, 3, 1 and clear blender, shadows E71. 

The background panel was embossed using a Cuttlebug EF and as it was too short for my A6 card base, I cut the bottom off and added it to the bottom of the base card, covering the gap with the sentiment strip. Both sentiment and biddy are Ai.

 So where will these two colours take you? We'd love to see your makes in the Color Hues gallery but should you need more inspiration, please check out the rest of the team here.

Country Boy at Heart

Morning all. A busy morning here on my blog, so if you are looking for my Sparkles card then please click here.

Over at Cardz4Guyz our new theme for you is:-

T is for ......

 I've gone for T is for Tractor for my card.

There are lots of other ideas for T but as I needed a card soon for my Husband I went with this!

My tractor is from Woodware and I stamped and coloured it with Copics to match his, though that one is slightly newer and more round on the edges!

The little scene through the aperture was made up of scraps of NitWits DP from my stash, fussy cut and overlaid with each other onto my base card. The top panel was die cut with an MFT die and then added with foam pads over the top of the scene. I fussy cut the tractor and added it along with the strip sentiment from the same set. The circular sentiment is a two part one from LOTV which I die cut and mounted onto a yellow die cut.

So where will this theme take you? The team have some fab ideas and have come up with some great things starting with T! Why not check them out here and then join in!

Chocolate Baroque Toadstools

Morning all. A busy morning here on my blog, so if you wish to find my Cardz4Guyz post then please click here.

Now it's time to share a card for my guest spot over at Sparkles. 

This month our theme is:-

TOADSTOOLS and/or MUSHROOMS

When I saw the theme, I knew the exact stamp I needed, one from a set I bought a few years ago from Chocolate Baroque at Port Sunlight. No trip there this year sadly as the event has been cancelled, so sad. 

There are plenty of assorted fungi in our fields at the moment as well as a large crop of some that are eating my oak sleeper, raised beds, they're loving the warmth and the damp!

Anyway, here's what I came up with.

Rather than use the whole of the stamp, I used the central few mushrooms/toadstools.

To start, I stamped the whole strip with Altenew Morning Frost to create a no line look to the finished image. Coloured with Copics, I then fussy cut the central group, adding some white gel pen to the caps.

I found the aperture panel in my stash and secured the toadstool grouping behind it. It looked a little lost, so added some die cut foliage behind before popping the whole panel onto an A6 note card. A gold foiled sentiment from my stash completes.

So how will you be inspired? We are looking forward to seeing all your cards in the Sparkles gallery, but should you need more inspiration please check out the rest of the team here.

Joining in over at:-

Season of Autumn

Autumnal Colours

#802

Favourite Card Shape

I used to make only square cards but they are so wasteful when making the bases from A4 cardstock and as a gal from Yorkshire I couldn't 'thoil it' as they say. So now, I usually make A6 sized rectangle cards as I can get 2 from one piece of A4 card!! Square cards are definitely for very special occasions!

Uniko Release Day Blog Hop and Giveaway

Good morning, it's time for our Uniko release day blog hop and giveaway!

So here are a few more ideas using this fun stencil release.

First off is this Christmas card I made using the Geometric Christmas Tree stencil set.

On some white card, I inked the tree with Mowed Lawn DI but on the second pass I wiped the stencil clean then replaced it and added some Cosmic Shimmer Aurora Sparkle embossing paste over the top to give my tree a little extra oomph. When dry, I cut up the tree and glued the pieces over a strip of gold mirror card, adding a freehand cut pot and a punched glitter star. The finished tree was then popped up on pads over a white base card to which I had added a stamped sentiment panel from my stash. I make loads at the same time as it takes ages to set them out even in a MISTI!

 Stencil - Ink & Flip Layering Geometric Christmas Tree £8

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

Next is another piece of my Cobweb panel made using the Cobweb stencil set.

This time I simply added it to an A6 white, side fold card after adding some glitter EP to the back lines in the web.

On some scrap white card, I stamped HAPPY using Alphabet Outlined and filled in with a web effect pattern, fussy cut them out and glued underneath the panel. I stamped birthday in black then drew the spider dropping down from the Y freehand.

Finally another cobweb based card using the same LOTV image as Thursday's card.

For this card my starting point was the panel I made when first trying out the stencil pair. I used some Hickory Smoke DI to ink the background before adding the two cobweb layers to complete the panel.

I had the top panel in my stash from another project, so slipped the cobweb background underneath then added the sentiment by masking off WISHING so that I could write WITCHING and added Happy Birthday. I had this little girl on my desk as I was initially going to use her for my DT post at Color Hues. I simply added her to the front and drew in a few lines to ground her to replace the ones I cut off.

 Stencil - Ink & Flip Layering Cobweb £8

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

That's it from me but please check out the rest of the team to find out how they've used their new stash!

Don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win a prize!

Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie - me

Steph

Vinita

Make sure you've commented along the hop as Bev will be giving away 3 Ink & Flip Stencils of the winners choice. Comments will close for the chance to win at midnight Sunday 13th October 2024 with the winner announced on Monday 14th October 2024. Any comments left after this time will not be included.

Joining in over at:-

Introducing Ink n Flip Geometric Christmas Tree Set

Morning all.

It's time to share the second of the new Ink n Flip release from Uniko.

Today we focus on the two part Geometric Christmas Tree set.

It consists of a background stencil and Bev's signature style Geometric Christmas tree. Here is my first idea.

For this card I stencilled the tree element onto some white card. I was going to keep it simple at that point but somehow I got a smudge of black ink in the open space so decided to fussy cut my tree and then ink another background!

On a panel of red card, I inked through the background stencil with Candied Apple DI to leave a paler red tree shape opening in which to place my tree. The tree was placed back over the background with foam pads and a Simply Said Blocks red stamped sentiment complete.

My second card is similar to others I've done this week, inking through a stencil, Scandinavian Christmas, with Unicorn White ink and then when dry, stencilling in the tree to reveal the pattern beneath. 

I used a mix of Mowed Lawn and Twisted Citron DI for the tree and Vintage Photo for the trunk. A little masking paper around the truck ensured that the brown ink stayed where it was meant to be! Another red stamped sentiment completes.

That's it from me but why not check out the rest of the team have been up to.

Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie - me

Steph

Vinita

Come back tomorrow when we will have our tradition blog hop and giveaway.

Introducing the new Ink n Flip Layering Cobweb stencil set

Morning all.

I'm so excited to reveal the first of the new Ink n Flip stencil sets, Cobweb.

Here are a couple of ideas using bits n bobs from my stash as well.

This is my first idea using the web part of the stencil.

I took an A5 panel of black card and went mad adding cobwebs all over it with Hero Arts Unicorn White ink! Then I filled in the gaps with a light covering of the white ink. Spiders are a real problem here in the countryside and I am forever evicting them and removing their webs from windows and doorways. This year seems the worst ever, so webs are very common, in fact the other day I opened the blind in the kitchen window to reveal a huge web complete with giant spider, across the outside of the glass shimmering with dew. They are beautiful and I'm OK with them if they would only stay OUTSIDE!

Anyway as I was looking at the finished panel I thought I would extend the threads from each web and add some extra bits of web with a black fine liner.  I cut an A6 sized panel from the larger one and attached it to an A6 base card. Then, I stamped a large black dot, form MCM Floral on some scrap white card and added some legs before fussy cutting it and adding googly eyes. The BOO was cut from white card using an alphabet die set. 

I had plenty of 'web' back ground left over, so added a narrow panel to some purple card to create a background for this LOTV image coloured with Copics and fussy cut.

This time my sentiment was made by stamping FABULOUS from You Are, Yes You and cutting away the BU section, replacing it with die cut BOO. The rest of the sentiment was made up various Uniko sets, Christmas and Birthday Sentiments.

So what do you think?

That's all for now from me but please check out the rest of the team to see what they've been up to.

Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie -me

Steph

Vinita

See you back here same time tomorrow for another stencil intro.

New Release Sneak Peeks

Morning all.

Just a quick post to tease you with the Uniko upcoming release sneak peeks.

As you may have gathered, the two stencils are in the fun Ink n Flip series!

 

The whole team will be back tomorrow with the first introduction.

Can't wait to show you these fab new products.

Color Hues #96

Good afternoon folks, it's been a busy day here on my blog but it's also time for a brand new colour duo from Color Hues.

This time it was my choice of colours and as we approach that witchy time of year, I went with a colour duo that reflects that.

Here's my card, not a witch in sight but a similar theme none the less!

Last year I used an LOTV witch for a similar colour challenge so this year I went with a little wizard from them instead. He's a digi called Abracadabra which I coloured with Copic markers, V09, V12,15,17 for the purple and Y38, YR09,YR16,YR18 for the oranges and then fussy cut.

Matching the DP and trim to the image I created this layout. A big tip for matching solid card is to get some white and colour it with the same Copic markers you've used in the image, can't fail to match then, I used V09. The circle of card was in my white bits box but it looked too plain, so I embossed it with a spider's web Cuttlebug EF.

To finish I found this fun sentiment in a magazine freebie sheet of stamps.

So where will my colours take you?

I'm looking forward to seeing what you make with them. Don't forget that as well as the colour duo, neutrals such as brown are always welcome too.

To see what the rest of the team and our GD have done, check out the Color Hues page here and have some fun!

Joining in over at:-

Make it Masculine

Scooter Boy

Good morning. It's a busy time on my blog with the new Uniko release so if you were looking for day 2 of the seasonal Ink n Flip revisit just click here.

Meanwhile it's also time for a new challenge at Cardz4Guyz. Our new theme for you is:-

WHEELS

So we'd like to see anything that features wheels, tractors, cars, bikes etc as the focus of your card. Here's my take.

The other week I ran off a few images on an A4 sheet of card, I only wanted one of the images for another project, so put the left over images in my to finish box. I try to do this so that they are on hand to colour when I need and I don't have to faff about printing off the odd image and waste card. This cute boy on his scooter from LOTV was one of them and he fit perfectly with the theme. 

I used one of the Jill Foster sketches again as I thought it suited the image. The denim blue panel was embossed with a Sizzix EF before being added to an A5 white base card. I was going to just colour the image and add to the embossed background but my digi panel was just a tad too small. So after using Copics to colour, I fussy cut them out and added them to a scrap panel of white card then onto my embossed panel with pads. The little movement marks were lost when I fussy cut the image, so a black fine liner and a steady hand put that right! 

A very simple CAS card, perfect for a little guy. There's plenty more inspiration from the rest of the team over on the blog here, so why not pop along and then join in.

Joining in over at:-

M is for Masculine

Flippin' Seasonal Fun at Uniko Day 2, Snowflake Revisit

Good morning, over at Uniko we are continuing our Ink n Flip revisit with a new look at Snowflake.

Here are a couple of ideas I came up with.

Firstly I used a similar technique to the Christmas Star card from yesterday but used a stamp this time.

On a panel of white card, I stamped the BB Falling snow stamp over it with Hero Arts Unicorn White ink, then when completely dry inked lightly over both sides of the stencil with Salty Ocean DI to create the snowflake.

The panel was then trimmed down, added to a top fold A6 card, a strip of holographic card and sentiment complete.

This second card uses the Framed Snowflakes and I repeated the technique.

This time I trimmed away the excess and mounted the stencilled panel onto silver card and then onto a side fold blue card. I found a die cut snowflake in my stash and added it to the center before my sentiment, stamped in black on a strip of white card.

For more fab ideas why not pop along to see what the rest of the team have been up to.

Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie

Steph

Vinita

I'll be back tomorrow with a sneak peek at the new release.