Fooling the eye with Uniko's Christmas Pop

Hi peeps.

Today sees the start of a brand new challenge at Cardz4Guyz -

TRIANGLES

I went with a Christmas theme!

Using Uniko's Christmas Pop stamp set and some rainbow coloured inks makes this OL card, really quick and simple. Your eye is fooled into thinking that these simple triangles are trees by the addition of a star atop and the fact that we assume that Christmas trees are roughly this shape!

More details on the stamp set and ink colours can be found on the Uniko blog.

More triangle inspiration from the DT can be found on the Cardz4Guyz challenge blog.

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Uniko challenge

Morning peeps.
The year is whizzing by and it's time for a brand new challenge over at Uniko.
This time we have a really simple theme with a little twist. Here's my take.

Can you guess the theme? It's -

For my inspiration, I was drawn to the colour of the leaves in this glorious pic.
After such a hot summer the leaves are just turning crispy and missing out on the glorious colour changes we normally see, though there are plenty of berries in the hedgerows. The rowans, hollies and hawthorns are laden with bright red berries so from a distance you get a shimmer of red over the whole hedge. The fieldfares, thrushes, blackbirds and others will have a feast! Conkers were raining down on Wednesday with the very strong winds courtesy of Storm Ali and so was the beech mast. In fact some landed on my windscreen as I drove to Sainsbugs and an acorn or some such landed with a fair old ping on the card roof too!

Anyway back to the card. I started by dripping some Copic refill ink onto Yupo paper and left it to dry. Think I was a little too generous with the ink as it left ridges on the panel as it dried.
When dry, I used the Nature's Treasures II stencil with Dreamweaver gold embossing paste to create my  pattern. It took awhile as I had to leave each leaf stalk time to dry, if the stencil comes into contact with the paste when even damp it lifts it off. It did happen to me but I managed to hide the offending boo boo under the sentiment strip! I even quite liked how the texture showed through from the background panel in the end.

As I said earlier my gold embossed sentiment strip, using So Much, was laid across the completed panel, carefully masking my 'tiny' error!

My second card uses the same stencil but this time I used DOx ink in Spiced Marmalade, Fossilized Amber and Abandoned Coral, to colour a white panel. The Camouflaged HELLO was cut from the inked panel and again from brown fun foam before replacing all the bits back into the spaces on the panel after the Beautiful script was stamped. A few sequins complete the card. Very simple to do.

OK, that's it from me but please check out the team here as well as our GD for the month, the wonderfully talented Hannelie at Desert Diva

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You have until midnight GMT on Friday 26th October to enter and the winner will be announced on Friday 2nd November, 8.00am GMT

Check out the Uniko blog for all the Ts and Cs.

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Hope stencils apply too!

Uniko Blog Hop, revisiting all over stamps and stencils

Over at Uniko on non - release months like this, Bev and the Design Team look back at a previously released product and give it some more love together with a Blog hop and GIVEAWAY!

Usually it's just one product that was released the previous year or a once favourite that hasn't seen much air time. However, this time Bev couldn't decide on the product, so as a team we randomly selected a stamp set and then went a little polka dot crazy and added in some popular sentiment sets too!

I went totally polka dot crazy with this card for my daughter's Brother in Law's forthcoming nuptials in the Big Apple. She's not big on flowers, so requested something that was more suitable for an urban style wedding.

On an A6 panel of white I inked through the stencil in an arc with a Versamark pad, before embossing with silver EP. I then moved the stencil around and repeated, 1st with Silver Pearl EP, then Hologram Sparkle EP and finally with Memento London Fog. The sentiment from Birthday Wishes was also stamped in the grey ink but embossed with a clear EP. 

I wanted to have a hint to the NY event, so added a skyline with 3 strips of a die cut in shades of grey card that matched the confetti effect of the stencilling.

My finished panel was trimmed and then added to another of silver glitter paper, before beiging glued to a 5 x 7 white base card.

My second card uses the two Simply Said Blocks sets for an all over background pattern.

Using Autumnal colours I stamped my brick background using 5 of the blocks, Thanks. Thank You, Hello, Smile and Just a Note. The thanks was then cut from the finished panel with an alphabet die and again from brown fun foam. Before replacing the thanks into the die cuts, I stamped the 'You're Awesome' in Brown and heat embossed it with clear EP. The stamped die cuts were glued onto the foam ones then replaced into the spaces. The whole lot was mounted onto a white basecard, 

You don't have to use the thanks idea, different blocks would work just as well with a different die cut word or phrase.

For more inspiration check out the rest of the team here.

Bev
Carol 

Izzy 

Jane 
Julie - that's me
Linda

Lindsey

Rahmat
Wiebke 

Comment on your way around for the chance to win a Uniko £20 eGift Certificate, you have until midnight BST Saturday 22nd Sept 2018 to comment.

I'm joining in over at:-

Went with the orangey colours from the photo

Something beginning with B

Bricks, blocks and brown

Mix and Match small stamps and a few extras!

Good morning peeps.

It's week two of my GD stint over at JUGS, so here is my card for your inspiration.

Now can you guess what is hand drawn?

I wanted to make a wreath but I couldn't get the full coverage with the stamps I had about so after stamping the first 4 sprays with the Uniko Originally Organic Additions and the flowers from Big and Bold - Hello, using my homemade wreath maker, I drew in a few more leaves, some berries and a tiny flower and coloured every thing in with Copics. The greeting, also from Uniko, Simply Said Christmas was stamped and embossed with gold EP. My finished panel was then mounted on a panel that I'd previously edged with a Versamark pen and embossed with the same gold EP. Both panels were then mounted on a white, 5 x 5 square base card. 

Go on, be brave and add some hand drawn elements to your project, we'd love to see them.

By the way, if you are a subscriber or you just pick up a copy of Craft Stamper, you'll spot me in the October issue in part of an article featuring Uniko stamps!

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AG

It's Release Day @Uniko

It's the big day, from today you'll be able to buy the August release from the Uniko shop.

So just to tempt you all a little more here is some more inspiration.

This first card uses the Beautiful set.

Gold embossed fussy cut blooms were coloured with Zig watercolour pens and mounted on a strip of green card under a die cut white panel. The panel was stamped with the greeting before popping it up on pads over the blooms. A few translucent sequins add an extra touch of sparkle.

My second card for you uses two stamps from the Happy Hexagons, the Framed Flowers stamp and one of the phrases from Big n Bold Hello.

All the panels were stamped with their various elements with Versafine before heat embossing with white EP. When dry they were inked with DI in Weathered Wood, Dried Marigold and Broken China DOx. I trimmed and popped my Framed Flowers up on pads over the background panels. 

My third uses the same large hexagon but this time it was stamped using a homemade wreath builder stamp. You can use the Gina K version if you have it or look at this DIY tutorial!

I used bold and bright Copic colours to colour certain areas in a repeat pattern. The greeting from So Much, was stamped in black on the panel and also on a separate die cut circle before placing it over the center of the pattern, doing it twice allows you to place the circle centrally and if it's not quite large enough for all of the text to be visible!

This just goes to show how versatile these stamps are! One stamp used as the main feature then again in a background role!

Hope we have tempted you with these last few posts but just to remind you, here are all the sets available at the Uniko shop from today.

So what do you think? We'd love to hear what you do, so leave a comment here and as you hop around the rest of the DT.

Bev

Carol

Deborah 

Izzy 

Jane 

Julie - that's me

Linda

Lindsey

Sarah G

Be sure to comment along the hop for your chance to win the ENTIRE Release!! You have until Midnight (BST) 2nd September 2018 to comment and the winner will be announced soon after.

Happy Hopping!

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Day 3 of the Uniko August release

Well, what have you thought of the stamps you've seen so far, fab aren't they. Well here are two more to add to your wish list.

This card uses the Big n Bold - Hello sentiments.

To start, I inked up a panel of white card with Picked Raspberry DOx, concentrating colour in various places over which I glued die cuts from a Tim Holtz set, they remind me of roses. 

On a scrap of white card I stamped the large hello and embossed it with gold EP before fussy cutting it out. On a strip of black scrap, I stamped the How are you? and embossed with white EP, then cut out the banner. I decided I needed a little more black to balance the pink, so added some home made DP (black Copic and a ruler) down the left side of my card before adding the pink panel and sentiment strip. The fussy cut hello was then popped up on pads over the banner.

The second stamp is Framed Florals.

For this example I stamped it with Versamark on dark blue card then heat embossed with white EP.

I repeated this with the sentiment from the Big n Bold Hello,trimmed down the panel and attached it to a white note card on pads. Simples.

So what do you think? We'd love to hear what you do, so leave a comment here and as you hop around the rest of the DT.

Bev
Carol 
Deborah 

Izzy 

Jane 
Julie - that's me
Linda

Lindsey

Sarah G

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for the full reveal.

Joining in over at :-

  

I spy something beginning with B - Blooms, Bouquet and Blue

Uniko Preview Day 2

Morning all, it's day 2 of the previews of Uniko's August release.

Yesterday we re-introduced the 'So Much' mini clear stamp set HERE, be sure to check out all the inspiration and comment along the hop ;)

Today we are focusing on 2 totally different sets, Background Builders: Happy Hexagons & Beautiful. 

Happy Hexagons is great for building backgrounds, patterns or just use one of the elements as the focus.

Here's what I did with just one of the large hexagons

I stamped the Art Deco looking hexagon in gold EP on black then fussy cut eight of them to create this take on a Christmas Wreath. The bottom layer was stuck to the black base panel and the top with pads for added dimension. A scrap of Christmas ribbon was tied into a bow and added along with some Nuovo drops in Red Berry Gloss. The finished panel was mounted on a slightly larger red square and then on a cream 5 x 5 base card. The center panel was cut with a circle die and stamped in matching gold EP using the Simply Said Christmas Merry Christmas.

This is just one idea, but there are lots more over on the Uniko blog and on my fellow DT's blogs.

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AG Christmas

The second set Beautiful is more feminine with a couple of gorgeous blooms and sentiments.

For this example, I used the colours from The Paper Players and the layout from Freshly Made Sketches. The blooms are heat embossed with white EP on Vellum and fussy cut after being coloured with Polychromo pencils in shades of orange. The basket weave strip was inked with Scattered Straw DI and embossed with a EF. I used some foliage from the bits box and a frame made from the same card as the base using 2 dies from the Sizzix Framelits set, Label Ornate #2.

So what do you think? We'd love to hear what you do, so leave a comment here and as you hop around the rest of the DT.

Bev
Carol 
Deborah 

Izzy 

Jane 
Julie - that's me
Linda

Lindsey

Sarah G

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for more inspiration as we reveal 2 more sets from the release.

Joining in over at:-