Too Many Candles

 Morning all, rather a damp Bank Holiday for a few of us but the rain was sorely needed to fill the water tanks and quench the parched ground. 

Anyway, it's time for a brand new challenge over at Cardz4Guyz. This time our theme is perfect for masculine cards as it's:-

SHADES of BLUE

Here's my take.

I decided to use some DP in shades of blue from my scraps drawer to cut out a few candles with my MFT Birthday Candles die set, along with the flames cut from card scraps. I've had this set for ages and this is it's first outing so I will be linking up over at Darnell's NEBUS challenge!

I had this aperture panel floating around in my bits box, so before it got beyond use I decided to trim it down and frame my die cut candles with it. A die cut sentiment, sorry can't remember the brand, was added to my top panel before it was popped up on foam pads over my candles, which I'd previously glued to my base card. A very simple and easy to replicate design, just switch up the colours for a totally different vibe!

So what would you do? As always we look forward to seeing your MASCULINE makes in our gallery. The team have come up with some other ideas for you here, if you need them ;) .

Joining in over at:-

Happy 16th Birthday!

#824 AG

#74

 

CASe a Card and a GD spot

Morning. This is an early morning post for my GD spot at AAA Cards Challenge. I won the challenge a few months ago for this card. So here is my card for the latest challenge.

The theme for this challenge is Follow my lead, so basically it's a CASe of the inspiration card below.

I don't know if you have heard of Ardyth Percy Robb's LIMES concept to help with your inspiration.

L- List

     I- Include

     M- Modify

      E- Exclude

S- Spin

Here Sue's card is a graduation card, white on black, gold embossed edge, long sentiment, negative die cut and sentiment at 90'.

For mine I included the embossed edge, negative die cut, white on dark background.

I modified it by rotating 90', made the background dark blue and the embossing silver and made it a Christmas card.

I didn't really exclude anything.

For the spin I suppose I used an A6 side fold card.

On a panel of dark blue card, I stamped the snow effect with Versamark along one long edge. The stamp was a freebie many years ago so no idea what brand it is.

From a panel of white card I'd trimmed down to be slightly smaller than my A6 base, I cut out the NOEL using Altenew's lower case bold alphabet dies, leaving enough room for my strip sentiment from Uniko to be added below.

For more inspiration check back at AAA for all the details and thanks to the AAA girls for asking me to guest.

Spring/ Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop with Uniko

Good afternoon!

Uniko are proud to be sponsoring a prize on the Spring /Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop this year. Here is my contribution to the hop.

On a panel of Mixed Media paper, I stamped the coffee cup from I love Coffee, in rainbow shades before using the same shades to watercolour them. I used DIs in Candied Apple, Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Salty Ocean, Mowed Lawn, Peacock Feathers, Chipped Sapphire, and Wilted Violet. Once dry, I stamped the Uniko emblem from the set in matching ink. The sentiment was stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with white EP, popped up on pads.

So what have some of the other members of the team been up to? Why not pop along and check them out, leaving some love along the way for a chance to win a £25 eGift code to spend on some Uniko goodies!

You have until Friday 30th May 2025 to comment.

 Bev

Izzy

Julie - me

Steph 

Vinita

All details of the hop can be found on the Uniko blog.

Happy Hopping!

Color Hues #110

Afternoon. 

Can you believe we already over halfway through May, the days are hurtling by. As it's the 16th of the month we have a new colour challenge at Color Hues. This time we have a very feminine duo, chosen by Karen, here's my take.

 

I'm back to my cute images with this card, using an old LOTV rubber stamp, Coffee Time, it was one of the first stamps I purchased from them, Harrogate Stamp fair I believe nearly 20 years ago! I've also used one of my go to sketches, combining an embossed panel and some DP. I first used this layout way back in 2014 according to my records but can't be sure where I found the sketch! It's been modified over the years and adapted, probably a Sketch Saturday originally!

Copic pens are not great for choice when it comes to purple tones, so the bulk of this plum element is the card, but I did find a scrap of NitWits DP for the background that matched the theme. I used V01, 12 15 and RV34 for the plum, the nearest I could get to the red purple I think was needed and a selection of pinks in the RVs 10, 11, 13, and 14.

After fussy cutting the image, I set it to one side to make my base for it to sit on. From a panel of A6 white card, I cut a circle out with a die and then ran it through a large dot EF, brand unknown! On an A6 panel of plum card, I cut a slightly smaller circle to provide a frame inside the white panel, looks a bit wonky in the photo but it is just the angle. Both these were cut down to reveal the base card and a hint of the purple before gluing together. The DP panel was added to my base card, then the top panels on pads. My coffee drinking friends were then added, foam pads to left the top half off the DP and glue at the bottom and a Uniko sentiment completes.

So what ideas will you have for the new colour pairing? As always we love seeing your makes in the Color Hues gallery but should you need more inspiration, then why not check out the rest of the team and our GD here.

Joining in over at:-

Favourite Sketch and Why?

I like the simplicity of the sketch as well as it's versatility, male female, cute, graphic. The circle aperture makes a nice change from a circle die cut with which to frame the image. What ever your take this sketch works, just change the image, EF or colours and you've got a different look! Here's one I made 10 years ago for a bloke.

Patch and Puss, It Takes Two

Morning, time for a new challenge from Cardz4Guyz. 

This time our theme, chosen by Jolanda is:-

USE THE SKETCH

Here's my take.

 

This is a digi from LOTV which I've combined with some scraps of DP and some red card to create the design. The digi, Patch and Puss It Takes Two, was coloured with Copics and mounted on red card to leave a thin mount showing. This was repeated with the 2 panels of DP, NitWits and the sentiment, MFT, was stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with white on a small panel of the same red.

Using the sketch, I added all the layers to an A6 side fold white note card and voila!

So now it's over to you, we're looking forward to seeing your MASCULINE takes on the sketch, which you can rotate or flip as you wish. 

To see what the rest of the DT at CArdz4Guyz have made check out the blog here.

Joining in over at:-

Happy birthday!

Uniko BA Non Release Blog Hop & Giveaway plus Facebook VIP Challenge

Morning all. Hope you are making the most of this sunny weather. Lovely as it is, we are in sore need of some rain to replenish the water butts, ponds and to give the garden a good soak. We should have been heading over the tops to visit our granddaughter, and her mum and dad of course, but the OH and I have been struck with a lousy cold and were not up to the travelling, nor would it have been fair to inflict it onto them. Hopefully we can get over to visit them soon. 

As there isn't a release this month from Uniko, the BAs and Bev are sharing their favourites from the 2025 releases so far. This is quite a daunting task choosing from the array of fabulous stamps and stencils but I eventually plumped for Spring Botanicals Primrose. 

I'd seen a few images online over the years of strips of coloured card under outlined stamped images and when I saw that this month's challenge over at The Flower Challenge was to feature spots or stripes it was the perfect opportunity to try my hand.

On an A6 panel of white card, I glued a few strips of yellow and green cardstock at an angle. Then using a really old Go Create die, must be nearly 20yrs old, I die cut a central section. The same die was used to cut another frilly panel from fun foam and both die cuts were then glued together. The original panel was glued to an A6 white note card and the die cuts added into the opening. 

I stamped the primroses onto vellum with Versamark and heat embossed with white EP before fussy cutting the image. Using the flower centers and leaf ribs, I added glue to secure the posy onto the raised panel, adding a sentiment from Originally Organic Flower Garden. A couple of Glossy Accent dots complete the design. 

That's all from me but why not pop along to see what the rest of the team have chosen to showcase from the 2025 releases. Don't forget to leave a comment for your chance to win a £25 eGift certificate.

  Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie - me

Steph 

Vinita

Over on FB Uniko is encouraging you to share your birthday themed makes with our VIP challenge with another chance to win. So why not pop along there and link up your makes.

Joining in over at:-

Color Hues #109

Afternoon folks, it's a new month, can you believe it, so we have a brand new colour combo for you at Color Hues. Here's my take. 

This was a tricky one for me to be fair, all I could think about were daisies and Leeds Rhinos colours!

I have used this colour combination before to make my friend Jenny's birthday card, including the obligatory rhino, but it is nearly a year 'til I need another one, so wanted to do something more floral as I've not done that for awhile. After a lot of stash searching I remembered this set I had from Sizzix which creates ATCs but you can always make a card by adding an ATC to a base card, can't you?

The blue is from a Gelli plate pull that was in my stash from a while ago and the die cut panel was simply cut from white card and the centers coloured with a Zig marker, sentiment is HLS. A very simple and easy make, once I found the die set!

So what will you make of the colours, looking forward to seeing your makes in the gallery. If you need more inspiration please check out the rest of the team and our GD here.