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!

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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.

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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.

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