Uniko Stencil Release Day and Blog Hop

So it's time for the full release at Uniko. 

Hope you've enjoyed the new stencil release so far so why not grab a cuppa and join in our 9th Birthday Blog Hop. Here are a few more cards I made with the brand new stencils.

The first one is made using the fab Rose stencil. 

I was trying to find different ways to use this fab large rose and came across a card by the talented TaeEun Yoo on Pinterest. Her gorgeous card uses a different stencil but I used the same technique, I think. 

On a panel of dark pink card, I inked through with some white pigment ink, removed the stencil then left it to dry. When fully dry, I went in with my Polychromo pencil crayons to give definition to the petals. I don't use them quite as often as I should so I hope the effect looks OK.  I am ashamed to say that after colouring the flower I was left staring at it for a couple of days trying to decide how to make a card. In the end I gave in and CASEd TaeEun's card layout. 

I trimmed down the panel, added it at a jaunty angle and trimmed off the excess before adding a sentiment strip that I had in my stash, made by putting a couple of small sentiments from Pure Florals-Peony together. When I do something like that I make quite a few using different colours and EP and save them for later use as getting the elements lined up is time consuming. To lift the strip I added a bit of gold glitter paper from the stash, a few PPP gold sequins complete.

My second card took inspiration from the rainbow wall in the latest Time Out challenge.

After inking my rainbow through the mini Mix Geometrics stencil with DI, I die cut the large English Country Garden butterfly die and popped it up with a second one cut from fun foam. The sentiment strip from Pure Florals - Cosmos was stamped on a die cut banner and embossed with white EP, before adding it across the middle of the butterfly. With all the hot weather we had last week there have been lots of butterflies fluttering around the garden, so I thought it would work well.

Finally, this card also features a butterfly but this time it's the stencil variety. The colours chosen being the latest ones over at JUGS.

To begin, I placed the open butterfly stencil over a piece of white card and inked through with Dried Marigold DI. Removing the stencil revealed a soft, solid, orange image. Carefully laying the detailed stencil over this, I added Picked Raspberry to the outer edges and Candied Apple DI to the center.  Before removing the stencil, I added some Black Soot DI to the body and antennae ends. I love the way the soft orange shows in the fine lines of the butterfly's wings and the way the wings appear to almost shimmer. The body didn't look dark enough, so I added some Zig watercolour pen detail in black as well as the antennae ends.

I decided to have my butterfly flying out of the panel, so I laid my rectangle die over the image and marked where it crossed the wings, then fussy cut towards the center of the image, just enough to allow the die to slip under, then secured with tape and die cut as normal. Once cut, I removed the die and fussy cut the rest of the wings. The sentiment, from Birthday Wishes was stamped in black then embossed with clear EP.

I thought a thin frame of gold glitter paper hi-lighted the orange shimmer of the wings so added it under my butterfly panel, before finally adding it to a black 5 x 7 card base with pads. I was going to add some sequins but in the end left them off.

So for a chance to win some Uniko goodies, leave a comment here then hop along following the links below. If you loose your way just head back to the Uniko blog where you'll also find all the links and the Ts and Cs.

Don't forget to comment along the way, as there will be one lucky winner from those comments left, selected to win ALL the stencils released today. You have until 10pm BST Sunday 27th June 2021 to leave a comment. Winner will be announced on the blog on or around the 28th June 2021.

Bev
Hannelie

Izzy 

Jane 
Julie -that's me

Rahmat

Steph

Happy hopping

I'd like to join in over at:-

 

Uniko Challenge

Morning all.
The months are whizzing by, mid summer has gone and we are heading towards high summer.
It's time for a brand new challenge over at Uniko.

Here is my inspiration for you based on our new theme.

My garden is just coming to it's full glory, the plants after having a hard time during a very dry April, have relished the rain of recent weeks and are lush and full of promise. The soft muted colours of Spring are slowly making way for the vibrant ones of high summer.
Last autumn I decided to create a new herbaceous border out of a rather tatty piece of lawn against the neighbours fence. The grass was marked out with a hosepipe and then the OH sprayed it off, I slowly dug over the new bed due to a rather wet winter and added some lawn edging, before planting my small nursery of plants that I had accumulated from garden visits, seeds and a bargain bucket at a favourite garden center, most of which are now flourishing. One of my favourite plants are the Hemerocallis lilies, I've never grown them before but I love their bright colours.
So when I saw the theme, I just had to use the Pure Florals Lily stamp set.

I chose a bright blue base card to reflect the sky on a hot summer day and the bright pinky orange colours of my new lilies.

To start, I stamped the large lily bloom with Altenew Morning Frost onto Mixed Media paper, using their Maple Yellow and Coral Blush inks to watercolour in a no line technique. Detail was added with my Zig watercolour pens before fussy cutting the lily.

On a strip of black card I stamped the greeting from Pure Florals-Peony and heat embossed it with gold EP. The gold 'Sending' die cut was threaded with the black strip and then glued down under the bloom which was added with foam pads.

OK, that's all from me for the mo but please check out the rest of the team and our wonderful GD Anrushee for more inspiration here.

Joining in over at:-


Anything but white



   
                                                   In the Garden

Uniko challenge, a reminder

Welcome to a post to remind you that there is still time to enter the challenge over at Uniko.

Here is my card, hopefully fulfilling the brief!

I chose some bright and cheerful DOx inks to match the flowers from The Card Concept, to colour this panel which I had previously stamped, masked and heat embossed in white with the Pure Florals Lily set, love the tropical feel to this colourway.
You might recognize the background as I made it at the same time as my watercolour one from the start of the challenge. It was as easy to make 2 as just one using my MISTI. This time I used plain white card.
On the finished embossed panel, I added DOx in Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade,
Abandoned Coral and Candied Apple and blended them from light to dark over it.
Once the ink had dried, I buffed up the panel to remove extra ink from the embossing with a bit of kitchen roll and added some peachy orange fun foam to the back, keeping the glue to the edges only.
Using a rectangle die, I cut the center away to leave the raised frame. The center came away with only a little help from a craft knife as the glue had squished out! The central foam was then free to be used in another project.
The frame was glued to an A6 base card and the unmounted center panel was slipped in to the center and glued flat to the base card.
On a strip of black card, I embossed the sentiment and added a gold glitter die cut 'Sending' popped up on black foam.

That's all from me, but for more bright and happy Uniko inspiration, please check out our fab GD Viv and the rest of the team here, along with all Ts and Cs.


Joining in over at:-

       


I was inspired by the colours of the floral elements to create my background for this clean and layered card.

Uniko challenge

Good morning.
I hope you are all well and not struggling too much with everything going on at the moment.
If you are struggling to occupy your spare moments, perhaps you might like to join us for Uniko's latest challenge.
Here is my card based on the theme.

As usual I needed to get some inspiration for my design, so used a couple of challenges out there. I used the colour theme at Less is More and the layout from Freshly Made Sketches.
The gifts were made by stamping Background Blocks Scattered Polka Dots and Background Blocks Pinstripe I on scrap card. The pink dotty one was embossed with white EP and inked with Picked Raspberry DI, The tall red one was inked with Altenew's Ruby Red, then stamped with Pinstripe Blocks and embossed with clear gloss EP. Finally the smallest was stamped with Picked Raspberry DI and heat embossed with clear gloss EP.

The little bows were die cut from grey using a Memory Box die as well as some thin strips of the same grey card. A larger strip of the grey card was attached to the base card before adding the sentiment strip, made from Pure Forals Peony.
The completed 'gifts were added and a few tiny sequins added to complete.
I think the design is quite versatile, leave the sequins off and change the colours and it would make a great masculine card or use Christmas stamps and change the sentiment for a quick Christmas card.

Check out the rest of the team at the Uniko blog for more inspiration.
Before I forget please also check out the work of our guest designer, the fab MacMable.
All Ts and Cs can be found on the Uniko blog.

Joining in over at:-

 
  

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


       

Uniko DT inspiration

Morning all.

Just popping by to say that I'm up on the Uniko blog today with a card combining stencilling and flowers. 

Check out the Uniko blog for all the details.

Bev's 40th

Good morning.

Today is a special day at Uniko, it's Bev's birthday, but it's not just an ordinary birthday she's, whisper it quietly, 40!

To celebrate the DT are holding a birthday party over on the Uniko blog and you are invited to take part with your birthday cards.

Here is mine which I gave to her on Saturday at the Happy Stampers Festival in Port Sunlight.

Not wishing to push the actual age to the fore, I tucked the silver die cut numerals between two of the leaf clusters after mounting the water coloured and embossed Pure Florals Peony largest bloom over a die cut silver frame. The die cut sentiment is from Poppy Stamps and the stamped one from the peony set.

If you would like to celebrate with us just pop along and add your card to the Uniko blog here, where you'll also find all the details. Thanks to Jane for organising this surprise party.

I'd like to join in over at:-

Heat Embossing

Feminine with AG option