Patchwork Hotair Balloon

Morning all.

Over at Cardz4Guyz we have a new challenge starting where Caz has chosen the theme of -

HOTAIR BALLOONS

I thought at first I would use my Uniko Up and Away but in the end used this sweet digi from LOTV called Patchwork Hotair Balloon.

After printing off the digi, I used Copics to colour before fussy cutting him out. Copics are my go to for colouring characters like this cute bear. I love the flexibility of the nib as well as the range of colours and shades and tones. It allows me to get a smooth, graduated look to my colouring that I haven't achieved with Promarkers or the Altenew alcohol ink pens, their nibs are too firm for my taste.

Rather that phaff with the tiny details on the balloon, I simply shaded each panel then added white gel pen over the top on two of the panels and a darker shade of the turquoise on the others. I chose the colours to match my DP which was a scrap in my bits box!

My DP was attached to my card blank, leaving a white strip above and below, because it was too small to fully cover it, then the next layer was added. This was made again using a scrap of linen effect card which I die cut with a couple of cloud dies. and cutting another smaller one to add over the top, I ended up with the largest cloud left over for another project. On more scrap white, I used my darkest Turquoise marker to colour 2 strips of card which I added to the top and bottom edge of the die cut panel. My sentiment, Uniko was stamped onto an oval die cut and added below the basket. The finished panel was then added on foam pads over the DP.

So where will the new theme take you? Don't forget it needs to be MASCULINE in focus!

For more ideas check out the rest of the team over on the C4G blog!

Joining in over at:-

Favourite Colouring Medium

(Copics are my go to for colouring characters like this cute bear. I love the flexibility of the nib as well as the range of colours and shades and tones. It allows me to get a smooth, graduated look to my colouring that I haven't achieved with Promarkers or the Altenew alcohol ink pens, their nibs are too firm for my taste.)

Color Hues # 139

Afternoon folks.

We are already halfway through the month of August so we have another colour duo for you from Color Hues! Marcia has chosen a duo which literally radiates the summer heat we are experiencing here this year. Here's my take using one of the Stampingbella's Snapshots images.

I was looking through my stash of images and found this partially coloured one, I must have decided to put it to one side, then forgot about it! Anyway, it was perfect for the new challenge.

I used Copics to colour the image, trimmed it down and then went looking for some DP to use in my design. 

In my orange/yellow DP pile, I found a piece of Japanese paper that my friend Jenny brought back from visiting her son in Japan many years ago! It was a perfect colour match, the orange and yellow blossom and waves outlined in gold.

This is a solid rubber stamp and I always struggle to get the sentiment in the correct place, I much prefer the polymer variety for this reason!

Anyway, that's all from me but please check out the rest of the team and our GD Priscilla for more yellow and orange inspo.

Uniko's Christmas in July Release and Blog Hop

It's release day at last and is always the case we are having a blog hop and giveaway!

But first here are a few more ideas using the latest release to tempt and inspire.

First off is the Christmas Star stencil. For this I've combined it with Christmas Scramble and the rays from Sparkle Sentiments.

Stencil - Ink & Flip Christmas Star, Star £5

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

Second is a card made using Rustic Snowflake and a couple of other snowflakes stamps from older sets in a OLC! I love it when new sets coordinate with stash you already have.

Rustic Snowflake £7.00

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

Thirdly using probably my favourite of this release, Modern Poinsettia layering stencil. With a stencil this good you don't really need much to make a fab card.

Stencil - Layering Modern Poinsettias £14.50

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

And finally we have a card using another of the Winter Garlands, holly this time.

Background Builders Winter Garlands £12

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

So that wraps up this little Christmas *almost* in July 2026 release. I hope you love the products as much as we do. As always the Bev and the other Brand Ambassadors are here to inspire you a little bit more.

Be sure to comment along the way for your chance to win a £20 eGift Certificate to spend in store. Winner will be announced Wednesday 26th August 2026.

Bev

Denise

Julie -that's me

Natalie

Happy hopping!

Introducing Winter Garlands

Good morning.

It's day 4 and the final of Uniko's Christmas in July introductions. 

Today we introduce Winter Garlands. It comprises of 3 beautiful foliage garland stamps, perfect for Christmas and other occasions too. Here's one idea I came up with using the Fir tree garland.

On some MM paper, I stamped the garland with pigment ink repeatedly down the panel, leaving space for my sentiment. I used MM paper and pigment ink because I wanted to colour using a watercolour technique. 

Once the ink was dry, I coloured the berries and foliage with some Altenew ink smooshed onto an acrylic mat. I used Evergreen and Heartbeat, the paler green was just more diluted ink.

My sentiment, Christmas Wishes, was stamped and heat embossed with WOW primary red EP. I also heat embossed the berries in clear EP, having first used my WOW embossing pen over the top of the red ink wash.

The panel was then trimmed and added to an A6 base card.

For more inspiration why not check out the rest of the team over on the Uniko blog, I'm suer they have had some great ideas on how to use this new stamp set.

Tomorrow is release day with the usual blog hop and giveaway so I'll see you same place same time tomorrow!

Introducing Layering Modern Poinsettias Stencil

Welcomem we are onto our 3rd introduction for Uniko's Christmas in July release. Today we focus on a brand new layering stencil based on a previously released stamp set.

Here's a simple idea using Layering Modern Poinsettias and Festive Sentiments.

There are 5 layers to this, building up the layers as you go. I chose to use the Pink Cosmos set from Altenew for my inks to colour the main image as they come in graded colours, perfect for layering, along with their Olive ink for the green sepals. Mustard Seed DI was used for the centers and dots. I tried to get some additional dimension by concentrating the ink towards the center of the large poinsettias.

Once I'd inked my panel, it was trimmed down and my simple sentiment added in black. It's such a fab stencil I didn't think it needed more!

So what do you think? For more intros, why not check out the rest of the team over on the Uniko blog.

See you back same time tomorrow for our final introduction.

Introducing Rustic Snowflake

Morning and welcome to day 2 of the introductions for Uniko's Christmas in July release.

Today our focus is on the Rustic Snowflake stamp set whose style you may recognise from other sets in the Rustic series. Here's what I made, the set comes with some sentiments and a few smaller snowflakes which I haven't used for this design.

I had a few bits of homemade watercolour DP left over from an earlier make here, but not enough for a swing card. So I just made a simple square card, stamping and embossing in white onto a previously diecut panel. This was mounted onto white then added to my base panel. The whole coloured panel was then added to my square white base card. As kit was quite busy I left of any greeting which can easily go on the inside of the card. 

For another intro come back at the same time tomorrow but first why not check out the rest of the Uniko Brand Ambassadors over on the Uniko blog to see what they've been upto!

Introducing Ink & Flip Christmas Star

Morning all.

It's day 1 of Uniko's Christmas in July release introductions.

Today Bev and the BAs are focusing on an brand new Ink n Flip design, Christmas Star. Here's what I did.

I've kept it very simple as the stencil speaks for itself, a simple gold star using Mustard Seed DI and some jewelled gold EP powder for the center and sentiment on a white base card.

Why not pop over to the Uniko blog to see what the rest of the team have come up with and I'll see you back here same time tomorrow for another introduction.

Joining in over at:-

Uniko's Christmas in July Release Seak Peeks

Good morning, I hope you've had a good weekend and are raring to go.

Over at Uniko it's release week and as always we start by whetting your crafty appetite with a few Sneak Peeks of the up coming release.

First off we have another of Bev's fab Ink n Flip stencils.

 

I think you are going to find this so useful for your festive makes.

Next is a brand new stamp set which matches a couple of earlier released stamp sets in the Rustic series, another for your Christmas stash!

Third is another stencil, this time a layering one featuring my favourite festive floral, a poinsettia.

Some of you may recognise the poinsettia from a previous release!

Finally we have a stamp set featuring festive foliage.

So have we whetted your appetite?

Tomorrow Bev and the Brand Ambassadors will be introducing the first of the Christmas in July release, so I'll see you then!

Color Hues #138

Good afternoon all and happy Yorkshire day!

I may no longer live in God's own county but as they say 'You can take the girl out of Yorkshire but you can't take Yorkshire out of the girl!'

So as a new month dawns so does a brand new colour pairing from Color Hues. Here's my card based on the new pairing of Navy and Teal.

I was wondering what I might do for this challenge when I remembered a You Tube video by Ardyth Percy-Robb using watercolour to create DP and also a fun flip card here and here, so off with it I ran! I loved it so much I made a similar card a few days ago here for Uniko's Christmas in July.

I love how enthusiastic Ardyth is with this technique and in her second video she showed how you could create a panel of DP in just a few colours, perfect for the Color Hues challenge,

Hers was a mix of purples and blues but I had to use navy and teal! I did add some white gold paint squiggles and some white gouache splatter. As the finished panel suggested a Christmas card and I'm still in Christmas in July mode, I added a die cut snowflake, make unkown, to the design. Ardyth explains the process far better than I could so if you are interested please check out the links.

Here is what the inside of my flip design looks like.

Like Ardyth I couldn't get enough of the idea so made another with my leftovers, but that's for another day!

So where will the current Color Hues duo take you? As always we are looking forward to seeing your makes in the gallery. If you want some more inspiration, please checkout the rest of the team here along with our GD.

I'll si'thi!