Uniko BA Inspiration

Evening all. Have you got all your Christmas cards made and posted? I hope I have but I do have a few spare just in case.

So today I'm up on the Uniko blog with an idea for a New Year card that was inspired by a couple of challenges. What do you think? 

On an A6 top fold, white note card, I stamped the Background Blocks- Party Confetti in Versamark and embossed with jewelled gold EP. On a separate panel of white, I used the numerals from the Alphabet Solid set to create the 2026 in more of the jewelled gold EP. This was mounted on a slightly larger black one then added over my confetti with foam pads. A simple sentiment from Simply Said Blocks Christmas in black completes.

The layout of this card is also a nod to the CAS Colours and Sketches as it users the square layout of this former 2025 sketch made seasonal.

This layout is a square one and mine is rectangular but the 4 squares are represented on mine by the numerals of the year! The gold EP always says celebration but it also reflects the saris in the photo inspiration over at Time Out!

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I chose the sketch #560

Color Hues #123

Afternoon peeps, is it really December already?! November passed me by in a haze of Olbas oil, tissues and menthol sweets as I tried, along with my OH, to get rid of an awful cold that seemed to drag on for the whole month. Anyway as I wasn't feeling upto housework, :), it gave me the perfect excuse to play with some new stash that I'd bought back in the summer, Waffle Flower's Postage Collage starter set.

Here's what I made for the new Color Hues challenge.

Initially, I bought just the starter kit but finally decided to buy the Christmas stencil set at Port Sunlight back in October. There are far too many lovely sets and they aren't cheap as they consist of 4 separate stencils, so it took me awhile to choose. I love poinsettias so this one spoke to me!

I have restricted my colours to those of the latest Color Hues colour duo and some neutrals, so my poinsettias are shades of pink, as are my scandi stars, all arranged on some new to me card I also picked up at Port Sunlight, Warm Taupe from Lime Tree Crafts. It has a subtle texture that I liked and hope to get more next time I see his stand. I do like kraft card but sadly getting some that's not too dark is difficult of late, this might become a good substitute in the meantime!

Once I'd filled in the patterns using the stencils, including a bit of sparkle using a gel pen on the reindeer, cut up the panel and stamped some of the postage elements in black before rearranging onto my panel. I stamped Merry Christmas, Uniko, onto black and heat embossed with white. All the postage elements were glued flat but I popped the sentiment up on foam pads. The trimmed down taupe panel was then added to an A6 white note card.

So where will this colour duo take you? We're looking forward to seeing your makes in the Color Hues gallery which will be open for the whole MONTH!! So lots of time to make something, perhaps use some of your gifts from Santa, once all the relatives have gone, or perhaps in a quiet moment whilst they're still here ;)!

For more fabulous inspiration please check out the rest of the team here along with our GD.

MERRY CRAFTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

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white/Christmas/die cuts

Uniko Blog Hop featuring MCM Baubles

Morning all. It's release day at Uniko for the MCM Bauble stencil and masks and as per usual we are having a blog hop and GIVEAWAY!! 

All week Bev and the Brand Ambassadors have been using the new stencil and masks together with the MCM Baubles clear stamp set to create some fab inspiration. Now you can get it for yourself but first there are a few more ideas on how to use it and the matching stamp set, here's mine.

I used the masks and the stamp set coloured with Copics, to create this image. 

I started by stamping the larger of the two baubles and then masked it with the mask before stamping the two smaller baubles. Keeping the masks inplace, I then stamped the evergreen bough from Winter Foliage with Altenew's Evergreen ink. Still with the masks in place, I used a small blending brush to flesh out the boughs before finally removing the masks and colouring the baubles with Copic Markers.

The bauble hangers from the stamp set were added and heat embossed with platinum EP, drawing the strings with a black fine liner. A simple sentiment completes.

If you aren't the colouring sort, here's the same layout but using the stencil and mask.

I used a mix of DIs and gold EP for the hangers in this example.

This final card is what you get when it's dark and miserable outside and you really don't want to do much at all. I found myself looking at tutorials on YouTube! 

I'd seen a tutorial for watercolouring Christmas lights a couple of years ago here and found getting the shape of the bulbs consistent problematical, I needed a stencil! So after using the stencil as intended, I went a little off piste so to speak and created this.

Using the oval apperture I drew lightly around the shape with a soft pencil, but as the bauble had a point, I had to freehand the bottom of the bulb. Once all five bulbs were spaced out evenly on my panel of mixed media paper, I drew in the screw heads and the wire before following the video as best I could. I don't have the specific watercolours that were used, so substituted those I did have. When fully dry, I stamped and embossed the sentiment from Christmas Sentiments in WOW Platinum Sparkle. Once complete, I trimmed the A5 panel down and mounted it onto some silver holographic card in my stash and then onto an A5 base card.

So that's all from me but as usual we have a traditional Blog Hop and Giveaway, so lets look at what Bev and the other Brand Ambassadors have created for today. Be sure to leave a comment along the hop for your chance to win a £20 eGift code to spend in store.

 Anita

Bev

Julie -that's me

Izzy

Natalie

Steph

Vinita

Happy hopping!

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Introducing MCM Baubles stencil and masks

Good morning. 

Earlier this week Bev introduced a brand new stencil to Uniko's stable, MCM Baubles. It comes as a stencil but also contains the masks, always useful I think. Yesterday Bev and Anita showed you what inspirational ideas they had, today Izzy and I are giving you some more inspiration using the new release and of course the MCM Bauble stamp set.

Here is my first idea, very much along the lines of this card I made for the Uniko VIP FB challenge but it was also inspired by the moodboard at JUGS.

For my earlier make I used masking tape to mask off a simple tree shap but this shape would be very fiddly to mask without the stencil!

I stated by placing a piece of white card under the largest bauble in the stencil, securing with masking tape before adding it to my MISTI. The openings for the rest of the baubles were filled with the masks and a piece of scrap paper added across the bottom of the card to avoid any unwanted ink!

Then I stamped away using Seasons of Beauty and Winter Foliage to fill the opening. Removing the stencil and masks relevealed the floral center in the shape of the bauble. The hanger and string from the MCM Bauble set were then stamped with Versamark and embossed with gold EP. The sentiment was simply added with black ink.

My second card was made using just the stencil to create a soft background of baubles inking a white panel with Altenew's Coral Bliss ink, moving the stencil as I went. Once the background was completely covered, I stamped a few strings with the stamp from the stamp set.  

The focal point was created by inking the ornament from the stencil with Altenew's Heart Beat then adding the hanger and string by stamping. It looked a bit sad just plain so thought about using the other stamps from the set but instead just doodled some patterns with a sparkly red gel pen and a bit of dark grey too. The hanger looked a bit lost so I inked over that too with the red pen. I still wasn't satisfied, so created a fine frame using some red glitter paper and Altenew's Fine Frames die. A simple sentiment stamped on some inked card and mounted on a scrap of glitter paper completes.

So that's all from me for the moment but there'll be more inspiration from more of the team tomorrow and Friday before our release day blog and giveaway on Saturday.

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Happy 70th Birthday

Morning all.

Another month has whizzed by and it's time for a brand new challenge at Cardz4Guyz. This week Billie has chosen this theme as purple is her favourite colour and it's her birthday, happy birthday Billie!

A BIRTHDAY CARD WITH SOME PURPLE

So here is what I came up with.

You can just about see his purple braces and belt, along with some colourful purple laces!

I made this card for my Hubby's 70th after seeing a similar card on Pinterest. Luckily I managed to buy the fab stencil the designer used, Dutch Doobadoo, so was able to combine an old Mo Manning digi, Introducing Oscar, to create this. Braces aren't my OH's go to but the overall look was what I was going for, however the tall rangey guy in jeans and boots is pretty much on point!

Oscar had been printed off a while ago and all he needed was colouring, I used Copic markers, then fussy cut him out. The background was stencilled onto an A5 white base card using a mix of DIs, Vintage Photo, Weathered Wood and Wilted Violet. I searched long and hard for a sentiment but eventually printed one on my computer onto some card and die cut it with a circle die, edging it with more of the DI.

So that's all from me, but please check out the rest of the team here for more inspiration.

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#505

#317