Introducing Background Blocks Swiss Dots

Morning, day 4 of the intros for the latest Uniko release. Today it's another Background Block, Swiss Dots. Here's how I used it.

After stamping on a panel of white card, I die cut a square from it and put it to one side whilst I stamped a few flowers and foliage. I used the recently released Originally Organic Flower Garden stamp set for the blooms, stamping in a pale ink onto Copic friendly card. I also stamped some leaf clusters from the Originally Organic Stamp set. All were coloured with Copics and fussy cut before being arranged onto my square panel and glued down. The completed panel was then added to a white A6 base card with foam pads after a simple greeting from the Originally Organic Flower Garden stamp set was stamped in black.

So what have the rest of the team been up to? Why not clink the links to find out?

 Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie - me

Steph

Vinita 

See you back here same time tomorrow for another intro.

Joining in over at:-

Flowers

Introducing Layering Stencil Spring Blossom

In our final day of intros for Uniko's April release we have another layering stencil for you, welcome Spring Blossom!

Here are a couple of ideas for you.

To start the design process, I first stencilled over an A4 panel of white card, then cut it into 2 A5 panels. Here's the first idea I had.

I had the remains of a white die cut A5 panel from earlier in the week, so decided to use it to make the card. I wanted a sentiment to follow the line of the die cut, so used the long sentiment from Pure Florals Cosmos and bent it to fit before stamping. A stamped bloom from Organic Flower Garden was inked with the same DIs as the panel before cutting out and added to the die cut panel. I used the stamped version as it is slightly larger than the stencilled one and gave more impact. A couple of green leaves were fussy cut and added under to complete the top panel. I thought it needed a little something to contrast with the two panels, so added an inked curved trim to match the edge of the die cut. This was then added over the inked panel to create the card front.

Next is this design using the other A5 panel made using the stencil.

This is very simple. I just cut my remaining A5 panel at about 2/3rds and marked the base card where the edge would come before stamping the bold Happy Birthday which is a mix of MCM Christmas and MCM Everyday Sentiments in silver EP a couple of times. The panel was then glued down and the leftover glued beneath, trimming away the excess.

Wondering what the rest of the team have come up with, then why not check them out below.

  Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie - me

Steph

Vinita

See you back here tomorrow for the full release and blog hop!

Joining in over at:-

Introducing Originally Organic Flower Garden

Morning.

Another day of introductions for the Uniko April release. Hope you're loving these new stamps and stencils because I am!

Today we focus on one set from the Originally Organic group featuring some fab little stems and blooms plus a cute new font for the sentiments.

Here's my first idea using the stencil from yesterday and the larger flower outline, there are two, and the stem.

On a panel slightly smaller than my base card, I inked through the stencil with Salty Ocean DI, feathering out my inking to get the desired effect. Next I stamped the stem, followed by the largest outlined flower. I coloured the bloom with black marker pen to create a silhouette but decided to keep the leaves open. My sentiment from the set was stamped and the panel popped up on foam pads.

My next card is one of a couple I made from stamping onto MM paper, when I first got my stash, more of the other later in the week!

For this panel I stamped and heat embossed with white EP. When cool, I added some liquid masking fluid to the flowers and leaves and left it to dry. If you are very careful by using EP you could get away without masking but it is easier this way. 

Using my water colours, you could use DIs smooshed onto a suitable surface, I wet the stamped panel with plain water then painted a wash of blue across the top half and green across the bottom. Before it was dry, I added some rock salt crystals to the bottom half and left it to dry thoroughly. Once it was, I swept the salt into the bin to reveal the pretty pattern where the water/paint had been absorbed by the salt, clever eh? I think it looks a bit like tiny wild flowers in the grass. The masking fluid was then removed and the flowers and leaves were painted in with more watercolours. 

I cut a frame for the little scene by die cutting a rectangle from a panel of white card, smaller than my base card, stamping the same sentiment in black before gluing the MM panel to my base card and popping the frame up over on foam pads.

Enough from me, why not check out the rest of the team here to see what they've been up to?

  Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie - me

Steph

Vinita

So that's all for today but pop back tomorrow to see an other intro from the Uniko April release.

Joining in over at:-

April AG, no option

Use a stencil

Birds, animals, flowers, nature

Clean and Simple or Fussy and Fancy

I'd choose clean and simple nearly every time, as I find the simple no clutter style lets the image sing. Also I find it difficult to add layers and fussy things up, the end result always look wrong to me!