Color Hues #140

A new month and a new colour combination from Color Hues.

Nancy is hosting this challenge and she has gone with a combination similar to this card. I did initially think of using a similar masculine image but while I was rootling through my printed off images I came across one I'd not used before from LOTV, Annabel Roller Girl and I thought the colours would suit this tomboy image.

I used Copics B91,93,95,97,99 for the blues, along with a collection of Es for the browns and found a piece of NitWits paper I bought in a pad many years ago from LOTV's shop in Farsley which matched the colours perfectly. I think I'd been saving the pad and completely forgot about this dotty DP. I have lots of NitWits digi papers but my paper is not as firm as the pad version so I was hanging onto it!!

My top panel was embossed with another vintage EF, Cuttlebug, which I've had for nearly 20 years but is a goodie that doesn't get out to play much these days. The DP was glued to my base card, then the die cut and embossed panel added with foam tape before Annabel was added on top. No sentiment as the EF says it all!

So where will this new colour combo take you? As always the rest of the team have some fab inspo over on the Color Hues blog along with our wonderful GD Michele.

Looking forward to seeing your makes in the gallery!

Joining in over at:-

There are lots of lines I could have played along with but I think I'll go with 

Layers - For the Kids - Circles

Here's one I made earlier!

I was cleaning up the front end of my computer yesterday and came across this card I made a few months back using Uniko's Pure Floral Rose and it's perfect for a few challenges that are just coming to an end so I thought I would share now!

It's on the same lines as one I made using Uniko's Peony set here. The ladies at my Wednesday art group loved it and so I did a class to show them how to watercolour a stamped bloom but in the end I used the Lily set as it was simpler for them to paint. Perhaps now we have done a simple flower we may go back and try this bloom.

I used watercolours instead of inks to paint my rose which I stamped with a pale ink on mixed media paper so that the outline didn't show. The finished bloom was then fussy cut and attached to my die cut panel on which I'd stamped the greeting, a mix of Doodle Flowers and an older set, You Are, Yes You, with Memento London Fog.

The diecut panel was then added to a white top folding note card.

On another note, the garden is finally looking a little more green after the deluges of the last couple of days. However the water tank isn't as full as we thought it would be. Reason? The heavy rain washed grot off the tractor shed and blocked the newly cleaned gutters and blocked the filter so it was going straight down the overflow! Anyway the OH found out before the next set of thunderstorms arrived yesterday, so hopefully it will get topped up now all the grot has been washed away!

Joining in over at:-

 

Summer Blooms

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!

Uniko Christmas in July

 Hi, I'm up on the Uniko blog with a quick reminder that there is still time to enter our FB VIP Challenge on the theme of Christmas!

I was thinking what I could use for my inspiration when I can across some Gelli plate prints I made some time ago and it got me to thinking, what could I do with them? I had also recently seen a video on You Tube by Ardyth making a swing card, so I thought I would have a play. Here is my end result.

Not your usual Christmas colourway, something a little different!

The Gelli print was made using the Let it Snow stencil and Distressed Oxides in Picked Raspberry and Seedless Preserve which I pimped up with an extra layer in White Gold watercolour paint.

I made a 41/4" square base card from white card and then trimmed my Gelli panel to 33/4", glueing it around the edges only, the reason will become clear next! I die cut a circular aperture using a circle die from The Greetery and removed the two layers. As I hadn't glued the center down, I could use the center of the panel for the middle of my card! To make it stand out against the other panel, I added more Seedless Preserve DOx and then die cut a slightly smaller circle from it, this was then glued to my white circle.

To create the center of the card, I cut a panel of white card 4"x 8" and then scored it at 21/2", 41/2" and 61/2". The rest of my Gelli panel was cut into 2 strips 33/4" x 13/4" and glued them to the two middle panels.

The largest panel was glued to the right of the center fold of the card and the smallest to the left of the front panel. If you follow the link Ardyth explains it so much better!

I cut a Snowflake using the Sparkling Snowflake die but it was too large to fit through the opening, so I trimmed it down and added it to my pink circle. The sentiment from Pattern Building Christmas Tree stamp set was stamped in Picked Raspberry DOx and added before I glued the the die cut onto the inner panel. Again Ardyth explains it wonderfully!

Ardyth says that she is obcessed with this design and I must admit I am a little bit too!!

So if you haven't joined in over at FB why not have a play and join us there?!

I'm joining in over :-

29/7 edited to add at

Monochrome Winter Wishes

Thanks Kate!

Anyone For Cricket?

 Morning all. It's time for a new card challenge over at Cardz4Guyz where this month we would like to see your MASCULINE cards on the theme of:-

SUMMER

I don't know about anyone else but this summer has been a scorcher so far, even before it was officially summer! Anyway as the mum to a cricket mad boy, summer means cricket, so here is a cricket themed card.

When my youngest was in his teens, I drove him all over the local area to play and practice cricket, when I wasn't playing tennis that is! I can still remember taking a car load of pubescent teens to and from matches, a heady mix of testosterone and sweat!! Not sure why they wanted to come with me, perhaps it was the music I played.

Anyway this is a simple CAS creation using an old LOTV image I found stamped but not coloured in my stash. Coloured with Copic markers, I fussy cut it out and added it to an A6 white note card, I sketched in some of the grass outlines I lost by cutting him out colouring the crease with more Copic marker to ground him.

What does summer evoke in your mind? The rest of the team have come up with some fab ideas here on the theme should you need them.

So looking forward to seeing your makes in the gallery.

Joining in over at:-

Summertime

Color Hues #137

Afternoon all.

We're already over halfway through July so it's time for a new colour duo from Color Hues. Here's my card using the new pairing.

 

I'm still working on my Christmas stash, so when I saw the colours Jules had chosen, I had images of Santa all in red with his black boots running through my head but in the end just went with his hat!

A few years ago I made this card using the full Sizzix Santa, after seeing a card made with just Santa's hat and lots of sparkle. So today I've gone with just the hat and some gold paint splatter.

After partially cutting the top of the die in white, I cut away the hat and cut another in red, piecing that over the white base. On a panel of black card, I splattered some yellow and white gold paint through a mask of scrap paper. Whilst it was still wet, I added some jewel gold EP and set with a heat gun.

My sentiment was free with a magazine far too many years ago to remember, which I stamped and embossed with white EP. The splatter resulted in the vague shape of a head, so this informed the placement of Santa's hat.

That's about it really, quite a simple card in the end.

Now it's over to you, how will you use this new pairing? If you need more inspiration why not check out the rest of the girls over on the Color Hues blog.

Looking forward to seeing your makes in the gallery!

Uniko Christmas in July

Morning all.

I'm on the Uniko blog with an idea for a Christmas card for Uniko's Christmas in July.

Here's my design which is another for my Christmas card stash.

I'd seen a card on Pinterest where the front of the card was covered with die cut Christmas baubles and thought I could use the stamp and or stencil to get a similar effect.

On an A6 white card panel, I created rows of interlocking baubles using one of the baubles from the MCM stencil using a mix of Distress Inks, before adding the centers with one of the detail stamps from the matching stamp set. I thought I could add more dimension by adding a darker area over the white embossed detail. To achieve this, I stamped the shape from the stamp set onto some scrap paper, then traced over it onto a piece of acetate from some packaging and cutting away the center to create a stencil. 

Hangers were added with sparkly platinum WOW EP and some really old holographic gems added to each center. As the background was so detailed I kept the sentiment simple, Season's Greetings from Christmas Sentiments, stamped with black on white and mounted on black.

That's all from for today but please check out some of the other BAs and Bev for more Christmas inspiration throughout July ideas on the Uniko blog!

Joining in over at:-

Stencils

Uniko June release in July!

Evening, just popping by with the last of my use it up cards from the Uniko June release.

I had a few bits leftover from last week's release and was determined to use every last bit!

Here's the final make incorporating Waffle Flower's postage die cut frame.

 

I used the leftovers from my Chevron Duo stencil panels to fill in the gaps on the panel, adding a Big n Bold Happy sentiment and a few silver die cut dots.

A very simple design that was basically made from leftovers! It's also a reminder that there is just over a week for your entries into the Uniko FB VIP Challenge where the theme is stencils!

Color Hues #136

Afternoon all.

It's 1st July which means were heading into the second half of the year, can you believe it?

Well over at Color Hues it's time for a new colour combo and it was my turn to choose. My mind went to Christmas in July with my choice of colours but you don't need to follow that route. As you will see from the other members of the team there is a huge diversity of takes on the new colours. Here's my take.

I really needed to start on my Christmas stash, so here I've use Hero Arts Winter Trees stamp and a die cut deer from iO.

I simply stamped the tree image onto a panel of cream card with Versamark and heat embossed with gold EP. I trimmed it down and added the gold embossed sentiment, Uniko, before adding the die cut stag. I cut two, one from black and one from kraft as I wasn't sure which would look best but eventually use both, the black one slightly off set behind the kraft one to create a shadow. My panel was mounted on some really old black and gold DP I found whilst looking for the cream card and again onto my cream base card.

Where will this new colour duo take you? As always the team and I are looking forward to seeing your makes in the Color Hues gallery. Should you need more inspiration why not check out the rest of the team here.

See you in the gallery!

Joining in over at:-

L is for Let it Snow!