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 Challenge #66

Good morning. It's been a busy few days here in the craftroom and I'm here again to let you know that there is a brand new challenge starting over at Uniko. Here's my take on it.

I love the combination of the soft green polka dot background and the bright pink gerbera.

I don't make many slimline cards, they were something I made many years ago when I first started making cards but they have made a resurgence in recent months. Recently, I even treated myself to some new dies to make slimline cards.

The background was made using the BB Scattered Polka Dots stamp, stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with white EP repeated over the length of the panel. Using some Bundle Sage DOx, I then added some colour. The choice of colour was influenced by the photo over at Inkspirational, loved the soft effect it gave. The Gerbera was stamped then colored with my Zig watercolour brushes and fussy cut. The white frame was cut using a Creative Expressions die and the opening made larger by cutting away the center on my trimmer, the original was a little too large for my tastes. As there was such a large space for my greeting, I added some die cut letters in white with a hint of black showing from behind and a a stamped sentiment from Pure Florals- Peony in white EP on black. All elements were glue flat onto the background.

So where will you go with this challenge, we'd love to see them in our gallery. There's more details to be found on the Uniko blog as well as links to all the BA's and GD Dhruvika's inspiration too.

I'd like to join in over at:-

Uniko Challenge

 Morning all, it's time for a brand new challenge over at Uniko. Here's my take on the theme.

For my design I used the fab Pure Florals Gerbera daisy outline stamp in Altenew's Industrial Diamond ink, to create an all over background and then die cut 3 circles to create a spotlight effect. The Copic coloured sections were popped up on matching white fun foam circles. 

Using Copic alcohol markers for colouring is my go to method, love the variety of bright colours and the way they blend together. I have tried other alcohol markers, Promarkers and the Altenew ones but always revert back to my Copics. 

A sentiment strip from my stash, made up of a couple of sentiments from two different sets, Beautiful and Bee Happy that I used here was added to complete. As it takes a bit of time to get the layout of the words right, I stamped a few in different inks and embossing colours on both black and white strips for use later, this one is Platinum WOW on black.

The finished panel was trimmed to reveal a border when added to an A6 note card.

Please check out the rest of the team on the Uniko blog, as well as our fab GD Elaine.

You'll also find all the Ts and Cs there as well.

Thanks for stopping by.

Joining in over at:-

Favourite colouring medium

Revisiting Pure Florals Gerbera blog hop and giveaway

Hi and welcome to another fun non release Brand Ambassador blog hop at Uniko!

This month we are giving some love to my favourite stamp set and one of my first purchases from Uniko too, the Pure Florals - Gerbera. I've used it lots of times over the years but here is my latest creation.

I went for a watercoloured effect this time, with a little bit of fussy cutting.

The large outline gerbera was stamped on watercolour paper with Versamark and embossed with white EP. I added the stem by drawing a couple of thin lines with the fine tip of a Versamark pen and embossed with the same EP.

Using a small paintbrush, I added water to the petals and stem before adding colour with my Zig pure colour brushes. When dry, I added some details to the petals with the same pens.

Then I repeated the process around the edge of the flower, but with more water adding some Salty Ocean DI around the petals. Adding water further out than needed, allows the final area of colour to have a softer edge.
After deciding on how large to make my panel, I trimmed it to size, fussy cutting the petals where they over hung. The trimmed panel was then attached to a slightly larger one that I edged with Picked Raspberry DOx . I popped the whole lot up on pads over a white top fold A6 card I'd previously stamped with the sentiment from Birthday Sentiments in Altenew's Pure Graphite.

My second card uses the colours from this week's Color Throwdown, tricky colouring the blooms in white on white card and the theme at Seize the Birthday!

To start, I took a panel of white card and stamped and masked my design using Altenew's Silverstone ink. Then I used Copic markers to colour, using shades of grey to give the shape to the white blooms.
My sentiment strip was stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with white EP using elements from Pure Florals Peony.

If you are interested in checking out some more of my older gerbera designs, here are some from the archive, just click on the pic for more details on how I made them.

        

        

    

As I said it's one of my favourite stamp sets, outline or solid stamp, Copic marker or watercolour. It's such a versatile set and so pretty too.

There's even more gerbera love over on the rest of the Brand Ambassador's blogs, why don't you pop over there.
As usual we have our giveaway, so be sure to comment along the hop for your chance to win the Pure Florals Gerbera Clear Stamp Set. 
(An alternative prize will be offered if the winner already owns this.)
You have until midnight Sunday 22nd March 2020 to comment along the hop.

All the details can be found on the Uniko blog as well as the BA links if you get lost along the way!

Bev
Carol 
Hannelie

Izzy 

Jane 
Julie - That's me
Linda

Rahmat

Sarah P
Wiebke 

Happy hopping


Joining in over at:-


Took inspiration from the colours and the flower elements


Pretty Pastels


       

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