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!

Release Day @ Uniko

Morning all, it's release day at Uniko!!

Here are just a few more ideas using the new June release.

Have you ever thought about the off cuts that are leftover when you trim a stencilled panel down to the size you want for a project? Well I thought exactly that when I had lots of little strips left over from this month's projects. This first card uses the BB Scramble ThankYou and some inky strips from The Chevron Duo stencil.

Background Blocks Thank You Scramble £7.00

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

Stencil - Ink & Flip Chevron Duo £5

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

In my earlier post I used DI in Salty Ocean and Peacock Feathers to create some stencilled panels but I needed some contrast for some of the letters so on some plain scrap card, I used some Picked Raspberry DI to create a mini panel which I over stamped the Thank You image. For the turquoisey stencilling, I used a different method and cut up the thin strips and stamped them by inking the stamp and pressing the card over the letter I wanted. All the letters were then fussy cut. On another scrap of white, I stamped the Scramble Thank You in black, coloured the flower with Copics and placed the fussy cut letters on top. Still not quite happy, I added Peacock Feathers to a couple of the blue letters and more Picked Raspberry to the two pink letters before glueing them down.

My panel was trimmed and added to a leftover piece of the holographic card from earlier and mounted the whole lot onto an A6 white note card.

This second card uses the scraps from Ink n Flip Triangulate woven to give an abstract pattern.

Stencil - Ink & Flip Triangulate £5

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

I did cut some of the leftovers into smaller strips to ensure I had enough to fill the apperture, finally weaving them together to get this effect. The woven panel was laid over the opening and glued into place before flipping it over and adding the Bauhaus Blocks sentiment and a few die cut black dots. The finished panel was then added to the base card on foam pads.

Finally I have this card which uses the left over panel from the Modern Floral layered stencil.

Stencil - Layering Modern Blooms £13.75

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

I followed an old Jennifer McGuire tutorial over on You Tube for the layout.

Sentiment is from Pure Florals Peony, embossed and fussy cut and the text strip is Everyday Sentiments stamped in Picked Raspberry.

So what do you think of the release. I'm sure you will love the versatility, really important when our purses are stretched and purchases are considered!

For more inspiration why not check out the rest of the BAs below leaving some love as you go for a chance to win a £20 eGift Certificate to spend in store. Bev will draw a lucky winner from all comments left on BA blogs and/or socials and announce the winner on July 6th.

Bev

Denise

Izzy

Julie -that's me

Natalie

Vinita

Thanks for visiting!

Joining in over at:-