World Card Making Day

 Morning peeps, happy world card making day!

It's a been a hectic week for me, with visits from one lot of grandkids mid week and another visit today, Flu jabs, dog at the vets for teeth removal, hairdessers appointment, catching up with my bestie, and trying to get my washing machine sorted. As a result I've been absent from my craft room and have only just got around to sharing this card I finally completed last night after the flu jab, 10 to 8 at night! Can you believe it? So here it is.

Bev said I could share an older make for World card making Day, but when I went to look I saw one using this fab stamp and decided an afternoon painting would be just the ticket after a hectic few days, then my bestie rang for a catch up after her month in Portugal. You know what it's like, an hour had sped by and the painting had barely started!!

So down to details. Pure Florals - Poinsettia stamped in Versamark on an A6 panel of plain white card then heat embossed with gold EP. A mix of DIs for the painting, along with a pale orange for the central flowers. My aim was to use the colours from Color Throwdown, hope that tiny nod to orange is sufficient! To fill in around the flower head, I sketched in some foliage with a WOW embossing pen and more gold EP.

The sentiment is from the same poinsettia set and the Christmas from Cheistmas Sentiments.

To celebrate Bev, is having a little competition

Simply make a card that uses a Uniko product. You could use a stamp, stencil, designer die or even a digital product. There are some free downloads HERE. 

Next, share it on social media (Instagram, Facebook or even Pinterest) and be sure to tag @unikoltd so we see it! You can even link up your card up at Uniko here. If you don't do social media or have trouble linking up, email me your entry to bev@uniko.co.uk

You have today and tomorrow (Sunday 5th) to get your entries in.

3 winners will be randomly selected from those entered across all platforms to win a Uniko prize bundle. Winners will be contacted and announced here on Monday 6th October 2025

So what are you waiting for?

Joining in over at:-

Color Hues #119

Good afternoon and welcome to a new colour duo from Color Hues. This time teamie  Marcia has chosen an autumnal duo for you or perhaps you think it evokes something else. Anyway here is what I came up with.

Sadly I needed a sympathy card last week and they are never easy cards to make, but the image I chose evokes a calm feeling when used with the colours.

I used a Creative Expressions/Chocolate Baroque red rubber stamp that I picked up in the bargain bucket at Port Sunlight a few years ago. It came without packaging, hence I'm unsure of the brand. To create the soft water colour effect I used a mix of DIs and water colour markers and water spritzing onto MM paper. A mixture of Rusty Hinge, Wild Honey and Barn Door DIs created the tree with a dark brown marker for the branches. Some of the ink was also smooshed onto a craft mat and added with a damp brush to the base of the tree to ground it. 

The frame is MFT and the sentiment Crafters Companion, stamped with Memento Espresso Truffle. The layout a nod to the one at Paper Players.

The trees here are not quite in their autumnal pomp yet but it wont be too long now I don't think, love the colours of autumn.

So where will these colours take you, we're looking forward to seeing your makes in the Color Hues gallery but if you should need more inspiration please check out the rest of the DT here.

Joining in over at:-

Uniko BA Inspiration and a Challenge reminder

 Good morning and welcome to a post to remind you all about the ongoing Uniko FB VIP Challenge. Here's my take on the colour challenge.

My starting point was this card made by my Color Hues teamie Bonnie. She used a background stamp but as I don't have that exact stamp, I thought I could use Season's of Beauty to create a similar feel.

I started by embossing the poinsettia and foliage with white EP on an A6 panel of Mixed Media paper. I smooshed some of Altenew's Desert Night ink onto a kraft mat then wet the whole MM panel with water and added the ink with a brush and some smooshing. The water makes the ink lighter than the original, literally diluting the colour. To achieve the patchy look, I removed some of the ink with a piece of kitchen roll before it dried. I haven't used Altenew's ink like this before and it is not as forgiving as Distress Inks, which I usually use but the colour was a better match to the swatch.

On some scrap white card, I stamped the poinsettia with Carved Pumpkin and Ripe Persimmon DI for the 2 top layers. I filled in some of the white around the sepals with more Carved Pumpkin. The foliage and green sepals I inked with Forest Moss and Peeled Paint DI, adding water to blend out the lines.

My yellow flowers we originally stamped with Wild Honey DI but they got a bit lost, so I added some dots of white gel pen over and a touch of a yellow Copic marker.

On a circle of white card, I used the Desert Night ink to stamp the sentiment and on a slightyly larger one, I added some of the same ink to create a matte. The elements were then fussy cut and added to my sentiment panel. Meanwhile, I added my inky background to a 5 x 7inch white base card and then placed the layered focal point on to that.

That's it from me for today but please consider joining in over on Facebook for a chance to win an e-voucher worth £10 to spend in the Uniko store. You've got until October 10th to play.

Joining in over at:-

Color Hues #118

Afternoon, time for a brand new colour challenge from Color Hues. 

For this challenge Jules has selected a calm colour pallette of soft blue and green but for me this was a challenge, the colours are a bit tricky to replicate in Copics but I hope I've managed to get as close as possible with this little chap, neutrals are always welcome!

 

This is a digi image from Lili of the Valley which I printed off onto some Copic friendly card before colouring. For the blue I went with the grey blues of the B90 set and for the sage green I used mainly BG90s with a touch of YG63, E71 for shadow.

The sentiment is from a magazine freebie, which I stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black. The finish panel was trimmed down to just under A6 and then mounted on some really old DP from the stash before being added to a 5 x 7inch white base card.

So there we have it, but there's plenty more fab inspiration from the rest of the girls over on the Color Hues blog, along with our GD Birgit Looking forward to seeing all your makes in the gallery.

Have fun!

Joining in over at:-

CAS

Sept - Birthdays

Make it Cute

CASEing me

Morning all.

As it's well over halfway through September we have a new challenge from Cardz4Guyz. Rather appropriately our new theme for you is:-

AUTUMN/ FALL

So here is my take.

Simple, no fuss design, perfect for a bloke.

As well as a couple of challenges, I had a trawl through my old cards to see if I could come up with some inspiration for this challenge and found this card from 2014!!

Using the idea of leaf openings on a square to show the colours underneath, I created the panel. My original was a square so I went with a rectangle. The background panel was one I found in my stash, Brusho in autumnal shades, which I cut down to size before adding the punched squares. The punch is an ancient one and I was surprised it actually worked! Do you remember those days when dies were few and far between and punches ruled. I tried to alter the angle of the openings but with a punch you are limited!

Once I had my central panel, I added it an A6 base card on pads and then the gold embossed sentiment from LOTV mounted on a slither of linen effect gold card.

That's it from me but please check out the rest of the team over at Cardz4Guyz. Looking forward to seeing your makes in the gallery.

Joijning in over at:-

Trees, Leaves and Plants

#317 Fall

Uniko Non Release Month Blog Hop and GIVEAWAY!

  Welcome to the September 2025 Non-Release Uniko Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

After a hectic couple of months over the summer, there's no release this month. So on non - release months like this, Bev likes to challenge the Brand Ambassadors to look back at a previously released product and give it some more love, it's always nice to revisit older sets and provide more inspiration don't you think?

This month the Brand Ambassadors have been set a difficult challenge, to choose a favourite or favourites from one of the 2025 Releases! 

So far in 2025 we have had the following products released...

January 2025

Background Builders Flower Power

Flower Power #11 

Simply Said Blocks Occasions

Sparkle Sentiments

Stencil - Ink & Flip Layering Flower 

Stencil - Ink & Flip Geometric Gem

Stencil - Layering Picked Posies

February 2025

Alphabet Solid

Background Blocks Waves

Bright Butterflies

Stencil - Layering Bright Butterflies

Stencil - Layering Organic Blooms

Organic Blooms

Spring Botanicals Primrose

Stencil - Geometric Happy Birthday

April 2025

Butterfly Serenade 

Originally Organic Flower Garden

Stencil - Layering Flower Fusion

Stencil - Layering Spring Blossom

Stencil - Ink & Flip Diamonds

July 2025

Background Blocks Merry Christmas Scramble

Background Blocks My Favourite Colour

Flower Power #12

Stencil - Layering Bauhaus Christmas Blocks

Stencil - Ink & Flip Christmas Tree Pattern

Stencil - Ink & Flip Snowflake Pattern

August 2025

Background Blocks Bauhaus

Background Blocks MOD Builder Circles

Background Blocks Swiss Dots

Background Builders Mid Century Modern

Stencil - Ink & Flip Mid Century Leaves

Stencil - Layering Retro Lines 

Wow, that's a lot of products to choose from, so which to choose, anyway here's what I came up with.

As you can see I chose Spring Botanicals - Primrose and I usedmy favourite technique too!

For this card, I stamped the image onto watercolour paper with a pale ink and then masked it with liquid masking fluid. Once dry and FULLY covered, I added some spray starch then sprinkled some Brusho crystals over and watched the magic happen! then added some scrunched up cling film over the whole panel and left it to dry. I usually use watercolour for this technique but in a craft group I've just joined we have been playing with this exact technique, so thought I would do it this way. 

Having left the panel to dry overnight, I carefully removed any Brusho from the masking with a piece of damp kitchen roll. If I hadn't done that I would have risked the ink transfering to the image when I removed the masking. As it was Imust have left some and ended up with a few smears of blue green on my image. Not to worry I just used a colour for the blooms that would hide it!!

Once the masking was carefully removed, I set to work colouring in the image. The Brusho had dried with a paler section to the top left so decided to have the light coming from that direction. So with a photo off t'internet as reference, I used water colours to fill in adding shadows where necessary.

For a bit of a change I used a couple of Hero Arts rounded edge rectangle dies to create a frame.

This was then added to my coloured panel, now to the card.

I wasn't sure how to go with this , where should the sentiment go? In the end I decided, appropriately, to make an easel card and put the sentiment on the inside raised on pads as a stop.

A 5 x 7inch base card was scored on the front and folded to create the easel and a panel of matching 5x7 card with the framed image on pads was then added to the front edge of the fold.

So that's all from me but why not check out what the rest of the team have been upto and which product/s they chose.

 Don't forget to comment along the hop for your chance to win a £25 eGift code to spend in store. 

Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie - me

Steph

Vinita

I hope you left some comment love along the way, Bev will randomly select a comment to win the £25 eGift code on Monday 29th September 2025. So be sure to comment before then.

Have you joined the Uniko VIP Facebook group? A new challenge starts today with a colour theme and by entering a card there you have the chance to win £10 to spend in store! 

Happy crafting!

Color Hues #117

Afternoon all.

Can you believe that it's already September?! Mind you it's looked a lot like autumn around here for a couple of weeks, the apples are ready for picking and the hedgerow trees are laden with berries. Anyway as it's the 1st of the month it must mean a new colour combo from Color Hues. Here's my take on an autumnal colourway.

To be fair this challenge crept up on me and I needed a quick make. Life has been hectic, our 17 month old washing machine did a weird thing, a full program but the washing was completely dry at the end! That was nearly 3 weeks ago, we've had one visit from the Bosch repair man but he couldn't fathom it out so another spare part ordered and he is due this morning to see if this works. He looked completely baffled when he left last time so I'm not holding my breath! I'd forgotten what hard work hand washing was!! Just the essentials, the linen basket is over flowing with towels and sheets which I couldn't do anything about.

 

Update - Washing machine now running but error lights flashing on dosage monitor!! :( 

Update update - Man coming on Thursday!!

Update - It was as I suspected, a loose cable after all the new parts were fitted, touch wood we are go!

5/9 Update - How wrong was I! New fault on the display now, engineer here Wednesday, I'm not a happy chappy. Good job it's still under warrenty!!

So back to my make. After a hunt through the stash I remembered this dahlia layering stamp set from Altenew and luckily it had an ideas leaflet in it too. These layering stamp sets are great for including shades of the same colour, hence perfect for a Color Hues challenge! I had my DIs out from a previous attempt on a card that ended up in the bin, so went with them, Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade, and Carved Pumpkin for the petals and Mowed Lawn and Twisted Citron for the leaves. A little bit of Vintage Photo was used for the center.

The set came with matching dies so no fussy cutting required. After die cutting, I assembled the spray and stamped a background with Uniko's Background Block Mid Century Linear in black. I didn't use the sentiment from the dahlia set but another Altenew one from I Adore You, white heat embossing on a black panel. A very quick and simple design with a little help from Altenew!

So where will the new colours take you? If you need some more inspiration please check out the rest of the team and our GD here. We'd love to see your takes in the gallery.

Joining in over at:-

Final Week of Guesting at JUGS

 Afternoon, I'm here with a card made for my final week of guesting with the girls at JUGS. This week is stencil week and so I couldn't help myself and reached for the fab Christmas Layering Bauhaus Blocks stencil from Uniko. Then I thought why not combine it with the regular Layering Bauhaus Blocks set, win win in my view!

I've gone large for this card, a full A5 white base card with an A6 panel for the stencilling. 

To start I inked through the Christmas set onto the middle of my white A6 panel using Mowed Lawn, Candied Apple and Worn Lipstick Distress Inks, before filling in and around with a mix of the regular Bauhaus Stencil and Christmas one, keeping to the same colours. Just using these colours makes the standard stencil feel festive!

Once complete, the panel was trimmed to neaten up and double mounted onto some red and green card. A sentiment from one of my first ever Uniko purchases, not even sure of the name now but it's well used, was stamped with more Candied Apple and then embossed with clear super fine EP from WOW. I've learnt the hard way that stamping in a colour then adding clear EP is so much cleaner than using coloured EPs and easier on your pocket too!

So that's it, thanks to the girls at JUGS who've made me feel so welcome these past few weeks, as usual they have some fabulous ideas to inspire.

Looking forward to seeing you in the JUGS gallery.

Uniko's VIP Facebook Challenge

 Morning all.

Since the11th of the month there's been a new challenge over on Uniko's FB VIP page. This time our theme is - 

ANYTHING GOES!

Here's my card using Originally Organic Flower Garden and a combination of Uniko sentiments.

I've used a mix of heat embossing and stamping with a water colour resist to create this little scene.

Looking forward to seeing your UNIKO products in the FBVIP gallery.

Joining in over at:-

Favourite colouring medium

For pretty floral scenes like this you can't beat watercolours. The soft blends you can achieve are perfect for backgrounds as well as the actual leaves and flowers, they create such an airy feel.

Guesting at JUGS

Good afternoon, it's my 3rd week of guesting over at JUGS. It's Mood board week there and this is my take.

I focused on the blackboard and apple elements, creating this simple teacher thanks card. I know it's not the right time of year but it will come in for my Grandson next July!

I reached for my Clearly Besotted A Class Act stamp set, stamping one of the standing pupil characters along with the owl teacher, apple, the blackboard and sentiment.

After colouring with Copics, I then fussy cut out the elements, including the tiny apple! For the blackboard, I stamped the sentiment onto a piece of black card with Versamark and heat embossed with white EP. It was then trimmed down and added to the coloured easel over the top of the stamped board.

On a square panel I arranged the elements, sticking all but the owl flat and popping up her on some foam pads.

A small panel of yellow was added beneath the white square before adding to a small white square base card.

So how will you interpret the pic? As always the JUGS team have lots of fab ideas for you. Looking forward to seeing your makes in the gallery!

Joining in over at:-

Sailing By

Morning, time for a new challenge at Cardz4Guyz.

For the second of our now monthly challenges we would like to see your projects on the theme of:-

BOATS

I don't have too many boat images but I immediately thought of my cute little LOTV guy and his sailing boat.

This is another take on a Jill Foster sketch, using a Do Crafts EF,  a Memory Box happy die and the aforesaid LOTV Sailing By. 

After stamping the image, colouring with Copics and fussy cutting, I die cut the happy 3 times, colouring one layer with a matching Copic. I think it must have been a different card as it looks so much darker than the boy's shorts! I layered up the die cuts to give the happy a bit of extra dimension and strength and stamped a Uniko sentiment birthday onto a scrap of white card.

An A6 panel of white card was embossed with the EF, it reminds me of waves, which I then trimmed down and added to my white A6 base card. All the other elements were then glued on flat.

So that's all from me, but please visit the Cardz4Guyz blog to see what the rest of the team have come up with and then why not join in?

Color Hues #116

Afternoon all.

I can't quite believe we're over halfway through August already! This summer has been one of the sunniest, driest in many years, 1976 was probably the last one quite as bad as this. Our large pond has shrunk beyond recognition and even the herons and egrets have flown off for better pickings!

Anyway, it's time for a new colour challenge from Color Hues and it was my turn to choose, here is what I came up with.

I found Sunny from Stamping Bella in my box of coloured and to colour images, no idea where from!! She was already coloured and in the correct colours and even fussy cut, so my original idea of a nautical theme went out the window. Mind you after rooting through my stash of DP I almost did go down that route as I couldn't find a suitable DP in the correct colours until I found a sheet of free DP from years ago, no idea of brand but could be NitWits. 

I cut a panel from the sheet on an angle, mounting it onto an A6, white, top fold base card. Next I added a panel of white card embossed with an EF. I know its the wrong way round but I quite like the debossed look! The sentiment, also Stamping Bella, was stamped on a circle of white and mounted onto a Copic coloured slightly larger one. Sunny was then added to complete.

So what theme will these new colours inspire in you? Please use only these colours but neutrals, gold and silver are also allowed, but please have fun!

For more inspiration please check out the rest of the team and our GD here.

Guesting at JUGS

Good afternoon, it's time for a new challenge from the girls at JUGS where I'm honoured to be serving as their August GD. Here's my design for this weeks challenge.

 

I love these fab Ai ladies, they always make me smile. Not sure which one I'd be but they are both having a great time.

After using Copics to colour, I decided on my layout. However the DP I thought I could use wasn't quite right so made my own using Copics and a straight edge for the stripes and a montage of Uniko sentiment stamps in matching colours. A Copic coloured piece of Grosgrain ribbon covered up the join.

The fun ladies are laughing so much I decided to use a wobble mechanism and set them above an embossed white circle mounted on, yes you've guessed it, a Copic coloured larger plain one.

The sentiment was computer generated and cut with a really old Sizzix die.

So what will you make to fit the theme? For more fabulous inspiration, please check out the JUGS team here.

Joining in over at:-

Uniko August Release Day, Blog Hop and Giveaway!

Good morning and welcome to release day at Uniko!

As usual we are have a blog hop and giveaway to celebrate, but first here are a few more ideas using the new release.

This card almost didn't get made. I started it after seeing a pic of some 1950's fabric but was disappointed when the Squeezed Lemonade DOxide I used for the pale elements from Background Builders MCM wasn't as bold as I wanted compared to how it worked on this panel. Anyway I put it to one side and carried on with other ideas.

 

Background Builders: Mid Century Modern £11.50

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

Picking it up after a couple of days, I decided to continue the pattern using the elements from the set, adding more ovals in Faded Jeans DOx and Black Soot DOx for the smaller element. Trimmed down, I added it to an A6 white base card and stamped the sentiment, a mix of MCM Birthday and MCM Sentiments. A strip of black card was also added and that was it. In the end I rather like the bold masculine feel of this design.

Next I have a design that uses the Ink & Flip Mid Century Leaves stencil combined with BB Swiss Dots.

Background Blocks Swiss Dots £6.50

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

Ink & Flip Mid Century Leaves £4.50

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

Using a selection of Distressed Oxides, Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, Wilted Violet and Salty Ocean, I inked a panel of white card with both sides of the stencil to create the basic pattern. Once completely dry, I replaced the stencil over the inking and stamped the Swiss dots through it with Versamark, heat embossing with white EP. No flipping the stencil, as I thought I had enough texture with just alternate leaflets. Using a straight edge and a black fine liner, I drew a line down the middle of the paired leaflets. The panel was then trimmed down and added to a 5 x 7inch black base card on foam pads. Sentiment, MCM Sentiments, heat embossed white on black completes.

This stencil has an Orla Keily vibe so I used some of her colours to make this card and stamped the central line using an element from the Background Builders set. Sentiment from my stash of Doodle Flower ones on kraft.

There are 2 more Background Blocks in the release, Bauhaus and MOD Builder Circles, both with a retro vibe.

Background Blocks Bauhaus £6.50

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

Background Blocks MOD Builder Circles £6.50

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

Finally there's the layering Retro Stripes from yesterday.

Here I've played with the stencil to see how I could modify it.

Instead of using all of the stencil, I just used one section, inking each with a progressively darker ink, Altenew's Tea Party set. There are 4 inks, so the middle one is just the second lightest inked more heavily. I tried moving the stencil to make the pattern into an arch but it didn't work, then tried it again by reversing the arc. This was more successful but the join was obvious, so still having my new large number dies out, added a die cut red 16 to cover the glitch! Simple sentiment in black added and the trimmed panel added to another 5 x7 inch black base card.

Layering Retro Lines Stencil £14.50

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

That's all from me but as usual Bev and the other BAs have created some more inspiration using the new products. Be sure to hop along and comment for your chance to win a £25 eGift Certificate to spend in store. Comment before 24th August 2025. Winner will be announced week of the 25th August 2025, open worldwide. 

 Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie - me

Steph

Vinita

Happy hopping!!