Christmas in July Uniko's FB VIP Challenge

 Morning all. As it's the 11th of the month it's time for a new challenge over at Uniko's VIP FB page. All through July we at Uniko are celebrating Christmas in July, so that's our theme for this months competition. Here's a very simple OLC using Winter Foliage for your inspiration.

I apologise for the pic, it was either too dark or too bright for a photo today!

I used the sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches along with the OLC option at ABC Christmas Challenge as inspiration, it's also Christmas in July at CAS on Friday. All elements are simply stamped using DIs, but I used a small blending brush and more Peeled Paint for the evergreen bough. A simple gold embossed sentiment completes.

Joining in over at:-

O is for OLC

Christmas in July

Color Hues #113

Afternoon all. A new month has begun, so it's time for a new challenge at Color Hues but it's also Christmas in July over at Uniko! What says Christmas more than a Christmas sweater?

The Color Hues pairing chosen by Tracey had me reaching for the Background Builders Christmas 2018 set to create a fun sweater!

I simply stamped and embossed in white, 3 of the Scandinavian star strips and bookended them with the diagonal stripe one. I cut away the neck opening with a circle die and cut a welt with two more circle dies from the leftovers, trimming the panel down to reveal a white border when added to my white base card. I finished it off with a simple sentiment from Uniko's Christmas Sentiments.

So what will the new colours inspire you to create? Looking forward to seeing your makes in the Color Hues gallery. For more red and white inspiration why not check out the rest of the team and our GD here?

Flippin' Fabulous Ink & Flip Masculine Inspiration Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & Giveaway @ Uniko

Good morning. Today at Uniko we are focusing on Masculine cards featuring Ink n Flip and other stencils. Over on the Uniko blog there are plenty of ideas from Bev and the other BAs and whilst you're checking them out why not leave a comment for a chance to win! Here are a couple of cards I made using the Ink n Flip Delightful Diamonds stencil which was recently released.

To start, I inked a panel of A5 white card with the stencil and a selection of green and blue DIs, moving the stencil around until the panel was completely covered. On my first pass I used Twisted Citron and added a hint of Peacock Feathers at the edges. After wiping the ink off, I flipped and went with Salty Ocean and a hint of Blueprint Sketch.

Now how to use the panel? This first card is very simple, a panel attached to an A6 base card followed by a die cut speech bubble stamped with the sentiment and a few punched stars and dots from black card added.

This second one came about after I die cut a circle from the trimmed down panel to place my sentiment but it didn't look quite right, so I popped the circle back in and noticed that if I rotated it 90' most of the white lines matched up to create a fun pattern over which I could add the sentiment stamped on a white circle die cut. Think I will play around with this idea further, a series of circle die cuts perhaps.

The end result has a sort of Pop Art vibe which I think is great for a masculine card, but change the colours and it would work equally for a female recipient!

So that's all from me but why not check out the rest of the team here:-

Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie - that's me

Steph

Vinita

Don't forget to leave a comment and you could win an Ink n Flip stencil of your choice.

Joining in over at:-

Polishing the Motor

Morning all and welcome.

Today sees the start of a brand new two week challenge at Cardz4Guyz where the theme is:-

CHECKS or PLAID

This is the last of our two week challenges as we are going MONTHLY after this challenge ends, but meanwhile here is my card on the theme.

I've gone for plaid with this image from LOTV, Elbow Grease and some NITWITS plaid paper from the stash. After printing off the image and colouring with Copics I fussy cut it out and put it to one side.

On an A6 base card, I added a panel of plaid DP containing the sentiment, Uniko, before adding another white panel, cut away to reveal the DP on foam pads. The fussy cut image was then added and a few details lost from the image by fussy cutting were added back in and coloured. I even made his cap look a bit plaid too!

So you've got TWO whole weeks to get your ideas entered into the Cardz4Guys gallery. If you need any further inspiration then please check out the rest of the team here.

Happy Birthday Nich

Today is my daughter Nichola's birthday and this is her birthday card which I'm also sharing over on the Uniko blog.

It's a full on year in the Beech family for birthday's, both our son and my OH have big 0 birthdays whilst Nich and Grandson Ben have one's that end with a 5, my other grandson, granddaughter and myself are the odd ones out! Anyway here is her card, hope she liked it!

I'm sharing this as my BA post for Uniko using the recently released Bright Butterflies layering stencil.

Any Man Can Be a Father

 Afternoon, just popping by to share this Father's Day card I made using LOTV's #7 Bear. I decided to use this image because of the JUGS challenge to use numbers and as luck would have it I can also enter the new challenge at Passion for Markers because they are focusing on Animals! There's still also the  chance to enter another card at Creative Inspirations, For the Boys.

After stamping the image and colouring with Copics, I stamped the sentiment, a mix of Card-io ones, and then trimmed my white panel down so that a border from the red base card would show, simples.

Joining in over at:-

One for the boys

Animals

Color Hues #112

 Good afternoon and welcome. 

Today we are already over halfway through the month of June, so it's time for another colour duo from Color Hues. Here's my take on the new colours.

I wasn't sure about the Cobalt element of this duo so I looked at my paint palette and matched it to my Cobalt Blue watercolour pan and used the nearest match to it from my card stash. The peach I used for the dress is a mix of Copic markers that I found from Vanilla Arts, E93,95 and R30, with a little B41 for shadow. This is a combination I've not used before and looking at my colour chart I probably wouldn't have until I looked at the Vanilla Arts site but I think works well.

My young lady is from a Stampingbella set, Uptown Girls Victoria and Juliette, but I only wanted the one girl for this design, so a bit of judicious masking and redrawing of the arm was required! I think she's sipping a Peach Bellini!

The night sky was suggested by the card stock, so a simple white card circle and a couple of MFT's City Skyline die cuts in black were added. I added a few small pieces of gold glitter paper behind some of the windows to bring the buildings to life and framed the scene with an aperture panel.

My girl was fussy cut and added to the panel together with the stamped Uniko sentiment before overlaying the cobalt blue base on foam pads.

Well that's all from me but why not pop over to Color Hues to check out the fabulous ideas that the rest of the team and our GD have come up with here.

Looking forward to seeing your makes in the Color Hues gallery.

Joining in over at:-

#179 Birthday

Sentiment or not

I would say that I always use a sentiment UNLESS it detracts from the image such as a watercolour floral or scene such as this card or this but it's very unusual!

Use a circle

Uniko FB Challenge

Good morning all. 

This month on Uniko's FB VIP Challenge we are focusing on MASCULINE cards. I know many of you struggle when it comes to cards for the men in your life, I'm pretty outnumbered in the male department so I'm used to producing cards for blokes of all ages but it doesn't get any easier!

With Father's Day fast approaching, I thought I would make one for the Grand kids to give to their dad, think this might be OK for the eldest who is in the middle of his mock exams, CAS works well for male cards and I'll make a cuter one for the youngest later!

I made this using one of Bev's MCM stencils, MOD Background Builder -Circles and a muted palette of greens and blues.

The stencil is designed so that you can cover whatever size of panel you would like but for this I just needed a strip across the card base to match the sketch at AAA Cards. I also mixed up the pattern to extenuate the columns rather than the circle aspect of the stencil. 

After placing the stencil on my white A6 card base, I inked each section individually using a mask I made from some scrap acetate from some packaging, die cut with a small square die, it cuts down the risk of inking in the wrong place!

To fill up my line, I had to replace the stencil over the inked section to take the pattern as near to the edge as I required. I used the paler colours first before adding the dark blue over the top of some of the shapes, trying to create a pleasing pattern. Once finished, I stamped the sentiment, Simply Said, with the same dark blue ink.

That's all from me but please join in the fun over on Uniko's FB page.

Joining in over at:-

Under the Sea

Good morning all, time for a brand new challenge at Cardz4Guyz. This time our theme is:-

SEASHELLS

Now when I saw this theme I was initially stumped but after looking through my stash, I came across an under the sea themed set that came with a magazine a few years ago that had mermaids, octopi and other assorted sea life along with a few shell stamps! Here's what I came up with.

The shell stamps were very small, so I decided to use them to create a background panel for my A6 card. Using the shells plus a seahorse, starfish and sea urchin I stamped with white ink over a panel of grey paper from the stash. 

Once satisfied with the background I started on the central greeting. I found this white embossed on grey sentiment, Uniko, in my stash mounted on white card. Around this I glued some green conifer branch die cuts, Sizzix, which reminded me of sea weed and three shell images. This time I stamped onto MM paper with Gathered Twigs DI and used a damp brush to pull the colour into the shell outlines. A little extra ink smooshed onto a mat was used as as when. A touch of pink on the conch shell was added using a Zig marker.

The whole lot was then added to my white base card, leaving a border around the grey panel to echo the sentiment one. It just goes to show what you can achieve when pushed and don't forget the small stamps when used together can pack a punch!

So where will the theme take you? For more MASCULINE ideas please check out the rest of the team here. 

See you in the gallery!

Joining in over at:-

One for The Boys

Color Hues #111

A new month and a brand new colour challenge from Color Hues. 

Sheri is hosting and has chosen a warm summery feel for her colours. Here's my take.

Coral is many things to different people but I went with the colours from Altenew's inks, Coral Bliss and Coral Berry for my take. They remind me of the paper thin petals of the wild poppies that are currently bursting into life in my gravel. I love poppies, so any excuse to paint them is to be embraced!

First off, I stamped the largest poppies from Altenew's Poppy Garden with their Limestone ink onto some MM paper for a no line effect. Then, I watercoloured the flower heads with a mix of Coral Bliss, Vineyard Berry and Coral Berry by smooching the pads onto an old dinner plate to create a palette and then adding some water. For the leaves I used a trio of Zig watercolour markers. The poppy centers were painted with the same markers in shades of black and grey. Another warm grey marker was used to give a little cast shadow to the petals.

I wanted to create a lattice for my blooms to sit on, so after looking through my stash, I settled on a Creative Expressions die and made a mini slimline card for a change. To assemble the card, I glued two of the lattices together and added them to my base, before adding the fussy cut flower heads and leaves. A simple foiled sentiment completes.

So which direction will these two new colours take you? As always the team and our GD have some fabulous inspirational makes, should you need it here!

Joining in over at:-

Nature

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.

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