Uniko

Good morning folks.

It's the start of a brand new challenge over at Uniko.

Here's my card to inspire you.

I used one of the large Doodle Flower stamps from the last release and the smaller ones from BB Doodle Flowers around the sentiment from Birthday Sentiments.

On some white card, I stamped the larger flowers and also one of the BB Doodle Flower with black ink.

For something different to my usual Copic colouring, I inked some Mustard Seed DI over each flower and then some I left yellow and others I added Carved Pumkin, Ripe Persimmon and Dried Marigold DI with a blending brush, adding more colour towards the edges and allowing some of the yellow to show. After fussy cutting the blooms, I added the dark centers with a C10 Copic marker, its not quite as stark as black.

On an A6 white base card I stamped the large sentiment and then arranged the flowers around. When satisfied with the arrangement, I glued them down and trimmed any overhang away. Using the small 3 dot stamp from BB Layered Floral, I added some dots between the orange flowers, then some white gel pen to the center of the flowers. The finished flowers remind me of the Rudbeckia and Helianthus flowering in the garden at the moment.

So that's about it from me but for more Autumnal inspiration please check out the rest of the team here and our lovey GD Nonni.

Uniko's July release in review

Today the Uniko Brand Ambassadors are revisiting the July release to share a few more ideas using some of those stamps and stencils, as well as showing how to incorporate other Uniko sets. There's also a chance to win by commenting along the way.

So this is my first card to inspire you.

For this card I've used Block Party Summer as a background combined with elements from the Paradise stamp set and a sentiment from Simply Said Blocks III.

I played around with a new technique when I first got hold of the stamp that I saw Jennifer McGuire using. I stamped the background with Versamark and heat embossed with white EP on MM paper.

Using some DI inks in Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean and Mermaid Lagoon, I added colour straight from the pad randomly over the embossing. I then spritzed it with water containing some perfect pearls and set it aside to dry. Once it was really dry, I sandwiched it between a couple of pieces of typing paper and ironed over a towel to remove the embossing. Only use the paper once or you may transfer embossing where you don't want!

The end result left a soft, shimmery panel that is completely flat. I didn't use this panel for the release day as I wasn't sure how to use it but I then picked up on the tropical bloom in the background stamp and used the toucan and foliage from the Paradise set and the tropical flower from Block Party Summer to create the design. These elements I coloured with Copics, fussy cut them and added to a die cut aperture in my now trimmed down panel. A sentiment was stamped in black, trimmed and added to complete the coloured elements. The finished panel was added to a white linen effect base card on pads.

My second card focuses on the BB Grid stamp which I used to create a subtle background for the peonies from Hello Lovely.

To start, I stamped the large spray from Hello Lovely onto a panel of white card and them made a mask for it which I fussy cut. After placing the mask over the stamped image, I stamped the grid over the panel with Versamark ink. I wasn't too bothered about completely covering the stamp with ink as I was aiming for a shabby chic look on the finished panel. I then added white EP, removing where not required with a soft paint brush, and heat embossed. I got slightly carried away with this section and forgot to remove the grid pattern from around where I was going to stamp the greeting!

I then removed the mask and coloured the flowers using coral coloured Zig Markers. Using the plain acetate backing of the BB Grid stamp, I added some Zig marker and added some clean water, then used the acetate to stamp colour over the panel, adding more when required and also to deepen the colour in  certain areas. When satisfied with the coverage I added some splatter in the green and coral over the whole panel. Finally I stamped the greeting, from Wonderful Day.

I used an ancient peach coloured base card which I trimmed to size and added Abandoned Coral DI around the edge before adding my trimmed down panel, leaving a border all around.

My final card features BB Layered Floral and a sentiment from Simply Said III.

Instead of stamping a solid image, I tried a faux layered effect by adding a partial inked flower over the original stamped image and blended it out with a damp paint brush. I rather like the subtle effect this gives you.

I used the reds from Altenew's Red Cosmos and the greens were from Tropical Forest.

Over at The Flower Challenge they want us to use dies along with flowers, so as we don't have a matching die cut, I used a stacked pierced rectangle set from Avery Elle to die cut my finished panel.

I also cut some pink fun foam and mounted two of the layers before adding them back onto a white note card. A sentiment strip stamped in a matching coral pink completes.

To see the full July release, check out the Uniko blog

To see what the other Brand Ambassadors have come up with check out the links below.

Bev
Hannelie

Izzy 

Jane 
Julie -that's me

Rahmat

Steph

Don't forget to leave a comment on all the stops along the hop. Bev will be randomly selecting one lucky comment winner to win a £20 eGift Certificate. Commenting to be able to win will close at Midnight BST my Sunday 22nd August 2021. The winner will be announced on the blog before the end of August.

I'd like to join in over at:-

  

Release Day at Uniko

Good morning. 

It's time for the full release and blog hop at Uniko, so grab a cuppa and settle in.

My first card uses the Doodle Flower set and Squared stencil.

This card started off as a bit of an experiment using alcohol inks on my Gelli plate. You can't take a print directly but have to add a layer of acrylic paint over the top. Check this link on how to do it.

For my panel I used the same purple, deep pink and lime green alcohol inks as in the tutorial and some household emulsion paint that I had under the sink as my craft acrylic had completely dried up from lack of use! 

The flowers from Doodle Flower and BB Doodle Flower, were stamped onto the piece of copy paper I used to dab away the excess once I'd added the stencil, embossed with gold EP and fussy cut before some detail with a couple of Zig Watercolour pens was added.

Likewise, the sentiment was heat embossed with gold EP and sequins added to complete.

My second card featured BB Layered Floral set and my go to layout for using leftover panels.

If you remember this card from Wednesday, you'll recognise the pattern. When I die cut the panel for that card, I had a long thin strip of the stamping left so I turned it into this card. The two narrow pink strips started as a scrap of white card that I dragged a matching pink ink cube down each edge and then trimmed and added to the top white panels. A simple sentiment from the Simply Said Block III stamped in matching ink completes.

The next two cards use the Tropical Leaf stencil, matched with Doodle Flower sentiments.

This card also has a few of fussy cut elements from Block Party Summer and a Toucan from a previously released Paradise set.

On a panel of lime green card. I stenciled the Tropical leaf all over it using Mowed Lawn DI in varying degrees of intensity, cut in half and trimmed down to leave a small border when attached to an A6 white card. 

On a die cut white card panel, I stamped the sentiment then added the other tropical elements and used pads to layer it up over the base.

This second take is the other half of the panel but just a simple gold embossed greeting on dark green and mounted on gold mirror card. Very much a masculine card.

So that's it from me but don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win the WHOLE July release, as you hop along to the other BAs. You have until midnight BST on Sunday August 1st to comment.

Bev
Hannelie

Izzy 

Jane 
Julie -that's me

Rahmat

Steph

Introducing Background Blocks Layered Floral and Simply Said Blocks III

Good morning. Time for another reveal at Uniko. Today we are showcasing the new Background Blocks Layered Floral set and Simply Said Blocks III.

Here's a card using the floral set.

This is a two part stamp with a few extra mini stamps. For this card I stamped the floral element in two shades of Pink before adding the foliage stamp with some lime green. This was repeated twice and a few spaces were filled with some more tiny leaves. 

Once the panel was dry, I used a slimline die to cut the frame and center panel. Using the happy die from Big n Bold Happy, I die cut once from the flowery panel and again from pink fun foam, layered the two together and popped them back into the panel, not forgetting the tiny bits from the a and ps. A stamped sentiment from the same Big n Bold set complete the greeting. The frame was attached to the base card and the flower panel added inside.

My second card features Simply Said Blocks III. 

Using the colours from this week's JUGS, a few of the sentiments were stamped, cut out and added to panel with a die cut shaped heart. I used Altenew's Teal Cave, Honey Drizzle and Silver Stone. On a white A6 card, the BB Scattered Hearts was stamped with grey. The completed panel was then added over the top with foam pads. I quite like the unusual colours, it could be used as an anniversary card to a fella, not too mushy!

Well that's it for today but don't forget to check out the rest of the team, comment as you hop along for the chance to win some Uniko goodies.

Bev
Hannelie

Izzy 

Jane 
Julie -that's me

Rahmat

Steph

I'd like to join in over at:-

                                                               Feminine/ For a Lady