Sunshine and Smiles

Well the year is running away, it's half way to 2020 already!
The summer here has so far been a bit on the damp squib side but the temps over the weekend were more like it! There has even been talk of cutting hay. We finally got the water tank up and lined so that's going to be the signal for a drought!!
Anyway, its July and time for a new challenge at HLS CAS. Here's my inspiration for you.

Can you guess the theme or have you come from the HLS blog? Well it's -

Now my first thought was die cuts but then I remembered this technique I found whilst trawling YouTube when I was incapacitated.
Instead of colouring the stamped image you colour the space around it leaving the negative space,
Jennifer McGuire calls it Negative Space Colouring.

I took the outline stamp from Uniko's Pure Florals Gerbera and stamped it with Versamark in the corner of a small square of white card, stamping it again on to a Post-It with black ink and fussy cutting it to create a mask.
After stamping in Versamark, I used WOW Gold Pearl EP to heat emboss and then used my mask so I could blend the background. I used three DOx colours, Abandoned Coral, Candied Apple and Fossilised Amber. Removing the mask reveals a pure white outline image, unless your mask wasn't accurate then a spot of white gel pen will cover up!
The coloured panel was mounted on foam then onto a white square scalloped die cut and added to a white base card. The sentiment from Mama Elephant stamped in Altenew's Lava Rock completes.

For more fab inspiration, check out the rest of the team here

Joining in over at:-


diagonal -die-cut, yellow, florals

DT Inspiration - One Layer, Masking, Bold Flowers and Stencils

Just a quick post to say that I'm up over at the Uniko blog with a piece about one layer cards and masking with these cards.

  

Check out the blog for more details.

Joining on over at:-

  

   

Uniko Stencil Saturday

Hi and welcome to a post that I have been dying to share for a few weeks now.
I was approached earlier in the year to join the brand new stencil design team over at Uniko and just jumped at the idea. I love the stamps that Bev has brought out and working with the new stencils alongside the rest of the Uniko team was a no brainer.

For those who haven't been here before, you'll get an idea of my style and what to expect by checking out these posts on my blog, here and here.

For my first official post with Uniko, I decided to use the fab Pure Florals: Rose , Pure Florals: Gerbera stamps and three of the stencils, Broken Lines, Lattice and Wonky Stripes, but showing two different styles.

Here's my first card.

This sums me up perfectly I think, clear, crisp, with nothing much added but a lot of different techniques!

I got my Dream Weaver standard embossing paste out for this and added some through the Wonky Stripes stencil onto a panel of white card, not being particularly neat about it. Just between you and me, I tried to be neat and tidy but it looked wrong, I got some bleed under the stencil and it didn't really show up against the white base.

The small outline rose and leaf were stamped and embossed with white EP, before washing in some colour using my Zig pens for the bloom and leaves.

A frame, die cut from silver textured card, was cut using a Spellbinders ornate frame and a simple square dies, the sentiment from the Gerbera set was stamped on a strip of black card, then embossed with more white EP and slipped under the bloom. The final panel was assembled then added to a plain white base card.

My second card uses the same rose set and two stencils but has a totally different look.

For this I was influenced by this card, which I saw awhile ago on Pinterest and thought I could use as inspiration. I loved the contrast with the slightly grungy background and the monochromatic blooms.

The roses this time were stamped in black Momento then shaded with Copic pens, C10, C7, C5, C3, C2 and the blender pen, before fussy cutting them out. 

My background panel was created by inking with two DIs, Blueprint Sketch and Chipped Sapphire.

I then placed the Lattice stencil over and spritzed it with water, dabbing the excess away, leaving the water to bleach away the DI exposed. I wasn't too bothered about a crisp look so it didn't matter if the water bled under the stencil. After a few minutes I removed the stencil and dabbed the panel with a piece of kitchen roll to remove the water and ink, then added some more of the Chipped Sapphire through the stencil towards the edges and some splats of watered down white emulsion paint. You know the stuff you get in tester pots from the DIY store, it makes a fab substitute for acrylic paint! Some of the splashes take on a blue hue as the water reacts with the DI. I really should have stopped there but went on to add some Black Soot DI around the edges and over the dry panel using the Broken Lines stencil. The fussy cut roses were arranged to create a pleasing bouquet and then I added a black with white embossing sentiment strip. My trimmed panel was placed on a white base card, voila!

So that's it for my first official Uniko post, I can't wait to start work with the rest of the fab team over at Uniko. Thanks Bev for the opportunity to be on the DT. Hoping for a long and fruitful collaboration with fellow stencil DT members Sarah G, Linda and Wiebke, as well as the rest of the girls at Uniko.

Hope you've been inspired to look at stencils in a new way!

Joining in over at:-

  

Favourite way to add a Sentiment & WHY

Using a stamped banner to add a sentiment allows you to make the odd mistake and not ruin a card, I've had too many last minute boobs, even if I do now have a MISTI to help overcome that!

                                                                                                     Love hearts and Flowers

Happy 6th Birthday Uniko

Morning all folks and welcome to Uniko's 6th Birthday Treasure Hunt!

Over 6 years Uniko has produced 104 (not including 2018s) clear stamp sets  and today the Design Team and a couple of 'special guests' have created a FUN clear stamp set treasure hunt blog hop for you to join in on. The aim of the treasure hunt is for you not only to be inspired by each of the projects the DT and our guests are sharing, but also to find a NAME of a clear stamp set from each of the 6 years Uniko has been going, from 2012 - 2017. 

I was so pleased to be asked by Bev if I would contribute as one of their 'special guests' to the celebrations by making a card using one of my favourite sets, Pure Florals: Gerbera. It was the first Uniko stamp set I bought a few years ago but was originally released in July 2012.

I wanted to showcase the lusciousness of the whole set, so using this card  as inspiration I went ahead. I love the look of large cover stamps but really find it hard to justify the cost, as they are not something that can be used on a regular basis. So I decided to make up my own faux one using most of the stamps and a lot of masking. A good friend has a birthday this month, red is her favourite colour and it also suits the bold gerbera image. The gold and black works well with the red for this, so here is the end result. 

To start, I must apologise for the picture quality, there was so much gold embossing I couldn't quite get the right level of light without it reflecting on part of the card. This was the best of half a dozen photos!

I started by stamping the outline gerbera on my black card base, then embossed with gold EP, masked that and added stamps and masks as I moved up the panel. For the sentiment strip I wanted to use a gold background with a black border so I inked black card through a homemade stencil with my Versamark pad and heat embossed in the same gold EP. The happy birthday from, Classic Numbers, was going to be stamped with StazOn but when I got mine out it was bone dry, so I stamped in Versamark and embossed in black EP. It gives a rather 3D effect I think.

When all the embossing was complete, I used my Prisma crayons to colour the bloom, so apart from the sentiment the whole card is one layer.

There are lots of other examples of this fab stamp on my blog here, here, here, here, here and here. I really do like these bold blooms!

Now down to the treasure hunt details.

Each person along the hop has created a project using a clear stamp set from the year they were allocated. They will also mention the year that the clear stamp set was released somewhere in their blog post. 

There are 11 amazing and inspirational designers in the hop and one DT Member has created 2 projects using 2 clear stamp sets from the six years, so there are 2 clear stamp sets from each of the 6 years to be found. Easy peasy!

Jot these answers down as you hop like this for example: 

2012 Pure Florals: Poinsettia / Pure Florals: Gerbera

2013 Background Builders: Round In Circles

2014 Explosion!

2014 Balloon Bash

2016 Originally Organic

2017 Reach For The Stars

Then email your answers to bev@uniko.co.uk by 9am GMT Sunday 18th February 2018. You will then be entered into a prize draw.

The Prizes!

Bev will randomly select THREE winners from all the correct entries that name 6 clear stamp sets from each year (2012-2017), to receive an in stock clear stamp set of their choosing.

Bev will also randomly select ONE lucky winner to receive a £60 eGift Certificate to spend in the Uniko store to those who correctly name and email all 12 clear stamp sets from each of the 6 years! 

If you would like to hop along here are all the links to the participants.

Bev
Carol 

Deborah 
Izzy 

Jane 
Julie -You are here

Lindsey

Rahmat
Sarah G

Sarah P
Wiebke 

Happy Hopping & Hunting!


I'm joining in over at:-



  
No topping                                    Anything with flowers