Beautiful Blooms I Revisited, Blog Hop and Giveaway!

Hi and welcome to a post revisiting Uniko's Beautiful Blooms I stamps and matching dies set.

This maybe one of Bev's older designs but is new to me and it has proved very versatile since I got my hands on it!

I've tried to use the stamps and dies here in different ways using different mediums in the hope that it shows how versatile this set is.

My first card uses the smallest flower stamp which I stamped onto MM paper before heat embossing with white EP. 

Once the heat embossing was complete, I watercoloured the background with some Prussian Blue w/c and filled in the spaces left by the embossed stamping of the flowers with a pink mixed from the purple and crimson in my paint set. The arc was cut away using an Avery Elle die just for a change and mounted onto an A6 note card. The sentiment from Wonderful Day was stamped with Altenew Starlight ink to match the background.

This second card uses stamping and watercolour to create a softer effect again using some fussy cut masks from Post Its.

The flowers were stamped with Altenew's Razzleberry ink with a little yellow from my Zig watercolour markers. I used water to pull the colour from the stamping over the white areas and blended the yellow with some water too before stamping. The sentiment from Spring Botanicals -Daffodil was stamped and heat embossed with gold EP. Finally I trimmed the stamped panel down, matted it with some gold paper and added to an A6 card on pads. This is a trick to divert the eye from the contrast between the MM paper and off white base card.

These next two cards should really have been just one but I didn't think it through enough before I started to stamp.

The first one is simple stamping and masking but the second is what the first should have been. I realised after stamping that I SHOULD have cut the out the arrangement with dies first then use the openings to place the stamps in the MISTI, SO much easier. Well it is until you realise that you've cut one of the flowers out upside down!!

For the second card, I die cut an arrangement using the small bloom and leaf, then using the top panel as a jig, I stamped the lower layer, masking where necessary. As I said above I accidentally die cut one of the blooms upside down but a judicially placed sentiment from Floral Vines sorted it out! 

 The die cut panel was then popped up over the stamped layer on pads. The first is simple masking and stamping, then a cut down panel and strip of old sparkly Co're dinations card from my stash that happened to match the flowers!

Why not check out what the rest of the team have been up to with these stamps and dies.

As usual Bev is offering a prize to one lucky comment left along the hop. Simply leave some comment love before Midnight GMT Thursday 25th January 2024 and she will select a lucky winner to receive a £15 eGift Code to spend in the store!

 Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie -me

Steph

Vinita

Happy hopping!!

Joining in over at:-

Loving the new logo girls!

 

Introducing Uniko Background Blocks Layered Stripes

Good morning Uniko fans. This morning we are introducing another fab Background Blocks stamp, perfect for those hard to make masculine cards. When I first saw the stamp it took me right back to my youth!

Back in the early 70's I sat my GCSE Art exam after devouring the latest edition of Sounds magazine on the bus on the way to the school. On the back page was a selection of Op Art posters for sale and one of them was very like this panel, but on a much larger scale. When faced with the Art paper, one of the possible themes was an abstract painting with the theme of 'One on top of another'. The poster came into my mind and that was it, off I went. If I remember correctly there were some circles involved with my take and grey was also included.

For this card I simply stamped the image in Altenew's Obsidian onto a white A6 note card and added shadow lines with a 4B pencil. The sentiment is from Framed Balloons. A VERY simple design.

Another idea that came into my mind was this.

The overlapping reminded me of a ball of wool, so I stamped it onto a piece of pink DP with Picked Raspberry DOx, die cut a circle from it and cut a tail of 'wool' from some more of the DP.

On a plain white base card, I drew a couple of knitting needles and coloured them with Copics before adding the circle die cut from the panel to which I'd added some DOx around the edges with a blending brush, then the freehand cut tail. To complete, I added the Happy Birthday with pale grey ink.

That's it from me for the moment, but I'll be back tomorrow with another new stamp introduction.

Check out the rest of the team for some of their ideas using the new stamp.

 Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie 

Steph

Vinita

11th Birthday Release Day and Blog Hop and giveaway at Uniko

Well it's release day and you can finally get to play with the new Uniko goodies for yourselves!

I've loved playing with the new stamps and stencil and had so many ideas on how to use them, but here are a few I got around to making!

You might recognise the background to this card from an earlier post made up of spring sentiments, then it was green behind a rabbit! The fussy cut crocus was stamped and coloured using Copics this time, V04, 06, 09 and V17 for the petals.

I couldn't resist making this next card, another watercolour using Spring Botanicals Crocus.

This time I stamped the central bloom then used masking fluid to mask, then stamped the left one, masked again, then the right and masked with the liquid masking. When dry, I flooded the background with a mix of Cadmium Yellow and Prussian blue, added some crinkled up cling film and left it to dry. I did check carefully that there were no beads of damp colour on the masking before carefully removing it and painting in the petals and leaves. The frame was cut using an Avery Elle die and then mounted over the top of the dry painting with foam pads, I left the sentiment off this time.

Next I have a fun birthday card using the bunny from Hoppy Easter and some pretty NitWits DP, the die is MFT.

Whilst I had my watercolours out, I made this simple card using Up and Away.

Look closely and you may notice that this balloon has an extra panel or two. While I was painting the dark blue panel the dog came in and nudged my arm and so I smudged a bit over the lines, so had to extend the colouring to cover it up! Of course the pinky purple one had to be extended to match too.

Finally I used the Up and Away set along with the Cloud 9 stencil for this slimline design.

So that's it, what do you think? Don't forget to leave a comment before you hop along to the rest of the team for a chance to win a fabulous prize.

Anita

Bev

Julie - that's me

Steph

Joining in over at:-

 
                                               Spring Blooms

Introducing ... Mid Century Modern Frames

Morning all, it's day 2 of the Uniko release and today we are previewing Mid Century Frames. A set of 3 frames and some text for you to use in lots of different ways. Here's my take using just one of them.

On a panel of white card, I stamped an arrangement of the simplest frame in black. On a Post-It note I stamped the same frame and cut away the center to create a mask. Using the that, I inked the centers with a rainbow of colours. When dry, an assortment of sentiments from Everyday Sentiments and Floral Sentiments were stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with white EP.

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

Here's another card using another frame from the set.

A simple retro themed card using the text and atomic stamp as well. The black pole was added using a black fine liner and the Mid Century Modern stencil

The frames were stamped and coloured with Copic markers, sentiments added for a quick graphic card.

That's it for today but I'll be back for the final release introduction. Check out the rest of the team for some fab inspiration as well.

Uniko BA Inspiration and a Paper Players Sketch

I'm up on the Uniko blog with some BA Inspiration using the latest challenge at The Paper Players.

Here are a couple of cards I made.

I love a sketch, they are a great way to get inspired when your mojo is not quite working as it should!

For this I started by stamping the small outline rose and two of the leaflets from Pure Florals Rose, in Versamark and embossing with gold EP. Using some Candied Apple, Mowed Lawn, and Pealed Paint DI smooshed onto my craft mat, I water coloured before fussy cutting out. A little shadow was added using one of my Zig watercolour markers.

The central strip was stamped using a selection of Simply Said sentiments in Altenew Evening Gray on a strip of paper, before adding to an A6 base card. A piece of textured white card from my stash was mounted onto some gold card and the Floral Vines sentiment stamped and embossed with the same gold EP. The rose spray was then added to the top panel and attached over the central strip.

My second card uses the poinsettia from Season of Beauty, Christmas Sentiments and the Winter Foliage stencil.

Details of this card are over on the Uniko blog.

 

Joining in over at:-

Uniko's 10th Birthday Bash

Today is a BIG day for all you Uniko fans. We are celebrating 10 years since Bev launched the Uniko brand. A lot has happened to all of us in the intervening years, designers have come and gone but there are still some fabulous stamp sets, dies and stencils in Uniko's catalogue. So to celebrate, we are having a fun party for the whole of February with lots of fun activities for you to participate in.

Here's my card to get the ball rolling, celebrating 10 sensational years of Uniko design.

I always think that balloons are a great way to celebrate, so I dug out my Balloon Bash Stencil and got inky! After adding my balloons using the three different outlines on the stencil using DIs, I added some extra pzazz with a sprinkling of water to add the pattern. The water was removed carefully with a clean piece of kitchen paper and then left to dry. When dry I added the strings freehand with a black fine liner and pencil for the bit of the string behind the orange balloon, to an A6 base card.

For the sentiment I wanted to celebrate Bev's 10 years, so I dug out the first set I ever bought from Uniko called Classic Numbers, now retired and the relatively new Floral Vines set. On a strip of black card, I stamped the 10 and sentiment in Versamark and embossed with white EP. The Happy Birthday from Floral Vines was added in black ink and the sentiment strip added below on pads. The finished panel was then added to my base card with pads.

So, as part of our 10 year celebrations there will be ten quests for you to complete. Each quest will give you the opportunity to win. 

If you complete all ten quests correctly there will be one random draw special prize of an £100 eGift Code to spend in store.

Today sees the beginning of the first quest. Simply create a birthday card using Uniko products and share it using the linky at the bottom of today's Uniko post. There are some more birthday card ideas from the Brand Ambassadors over on the blog too if you need a little inspiration.

There is plenty of time to join in on this first quest as the deadline for submission is midnight (GMT) on Monday 28th February 2022.

Quest 1 Prize - A Uniko Birthday Product Bundle 

Maximum Entries 3 Per Person.

If you don't own any physical Uniko products you are welcome to use these FREE Uniko Digital images to create your card.  

Check out the Uniko blog tomorrow for our next quest and all the other quests that will appear daily on the Uniko blog all through the month of February!

I'd like to join in over at:-

AG, option of using a stencil

Introducing Background Blocks Grid and and Diagonal Stripes

Good morning.

Two new stamps are revealed today at Uniko, both from the Background Blocks group. When I saw that Bev had released this first design, I was so pleased as I have been looking for some time for such a stamp to enable me to create this pixilated effect.

 

On a panel of MM paper, I stamped the grid in Altenew's Limestone ink, then stamped and masked this bunch of Cosmos flowers. Using my Zig watercolor markers, I painted each little square. It's a painstaking technique but I love the effect. As it's quite a busy panel I decided to just trim it and mount on a white linen effect base card and a simple sentiment strip from Pure Florals Peony, all on pads.

This a CASe of a card I made more than a couple of years ago using the BB Bold Stripes and the Pure Florals - Gerbera. Stamped image coloured with Copics, masked then over stamped in grey with the BB Diagonal Stripes. A few sequins and sentiment added complete.

Why not check out the rest of the team for more ideas?

Bev
Hannelie

Izzy 

Jane 
Julie -that's me

Rahmat

Steph

Don't forget to leave a comment as you visit the BAs as Bev is choosing random comments on the lead up to release day for the chance to win some Uniko goodies!

I'd like to join in over at:-

edited 22/7 (thanks Loll)

Uniko New Release Blog Hop and Giveaway

 Good morning folks. Its time for a little blog hop featuring the latest release from Uniko. So grab yourself a cuppa and get hopping!

First off the block is a Twofer featuring Floral Vines.

This first card uses the bleaching technique and heat embossing.

I made a frame with the Floral Vines stamping it onto a panel of smooth white card with Versamark, then heat embossing with white EP. I then added DOx in Picked Raspberry and Seedless Preserve over the top, keeping the center paler and the edges darker, buffing of the excess from the embossing when dry. Using a fine brush I used water to remove the colour where I wanted and blotted with a dry paper towel to lift the colour. If it doesn't work first time, just go back in again until you get the result you want.

To complete, I added a white, heat embossed sentiment from the same set.

The second card featuring Floral Vines, uses fussy cutting and Copic colouring.

On a panel of linen effect card, I stamped the Floral Vines in green, removing the ink from the solid line at the bottom. On a separate piece of scrap white card, I stamped it again in black.

Using more Copic markers, I coloured the leaves and added more dots of colour both freehand and with the small stamp from the Floral Vines set.

My sentiment, again from the same set was stamped in matching green on an ancient Spellbinders die cut ribbon tag. Some matching pink grosgrain ribbon was threaded through the tag and the fussy cut blooms added so that they hung over the edge of the tag, the whole lot was then popped up on pads over the outline on the card.

This third card uses the Framed - Floral Vines stamp, which I stamped onto a white base card, masking off the top right corner.

I extended the frame and leaf with a black fine liner, coloured the leaves and flowers with Copic markers and added the large sentiment from Birthday Wishes. A simple OLC!

My final card uses the fab large gerbera stencil and Background Blocks Solid Wonky Stripes.

On a panel of white card I inked through the stencil with Picked Raspberry DI and Black Soot for the center. Once I removed the stencil I went back in to give the petals some definition with a matching Zig watercolour marker brush. The stencil is so large that it is easy to add extra details like this. To create the detail in the center, I added some Hickory Smoke DI to the stencil details.

On a scrap of white card, I stamped Background Blocks Solid Wonky Stripes in black to create the end panel. To finish I added a sentiment from Pure Florals Peony of white heat embossed on black.

So what do you think of the new release? There's lots more inspiration on the Uniko blog from the rest of the BAs as well as all the details about the hop.

So for a chance to win the whole release leave a comment here and then check out the rest of the team and leave some love there as well!

 Bev

Hannelie

Izzy

Jane 

Julie - that's me

Rahmat

For all the details and to get back on track if you get lost along the way, check out the Uniko blog here.

Happy hopping!

I'd like to join in over at:-