Monday, 23 June 2025

BA Inspiration - Bright Butterflies Layering Stencil

Good morning, Julie here with a little bit of BA Inspiration using a stencil released earlier this year, Layering Bright Butterflies .

It's my daughter's birthday today and she loves the colour purple, and hates florals, so butterflies are always a good option for a card theme. Here is what I came up with. 


This is a 5 x 7 inch card, so it needed quite a few butterflies to cover it. My idea was to give them a bit of dimension by layering the top wings over the base ones. To achieve this I started by inking through the outline stencil with a soft lilac, Wilted Violet DI and a light hand. On some scrap white card, I also inked the top half of the butterfly. Each layer was then added using more of the Wilted Lilac, increasing the strength of the inking with each layer. A white gel pen was then used to add a small dot to the center of all the circles and a larger center for the flower.

Now to the tricky bit, fussy cutting all the elements. I chickened out on the body and antennae and used a die from an MB set cut some from silver glitter paper. The top half of each butterfly was added with foam pads and the silver body with glue.

I made a base card from an A4 piece of lilac card and cut a smaller rectangle with a die to create the raised central panel. This was raised up over the card front with a panel of purple fun foam. The butterflies were then arranged over the whole card and attached with glue or foam pads where necessary. All over hanging bits were trimmed away. To add more interest, I mixed up a thick mix of white acrylic paint and water and splattered it all over. A few clear sequins were added for even more bling!

My sentiment, MCM Everyday Sentiments, was stamped on white and heat embossed with silver EP before being fussy cut and glued to the finished card.

So that's all from me for today, I did veer from my normal clean and simple style but it was for my daughter's birthday card!

Happy crafting! 

Thursday, 19 June 2025

Amazing Layering Bauhaus Blocks Stencil

Happy Thursday.

What a scorcher for The Beans sports day today, so proud of them for doing their best, supporting each other when they were in the same race, supporting their friends and fellow key stage 2 students. It was a lovely morning spent.

After I got home I decided to ink up the Layering Bauhaus Blocks Stencil, because it simply wouldn't be a masculine month of inspiration if this didn't get used.




I've got into the habit to record my card making and I have shared a YouTube Short HERE of the process. Twenty four minutes reduced to 60 seconds! 

I chose a random colour combo of Blueberry, Oceanside and Lemongrass to ink the three layers of the stencil. It can be a bit of a lengthy process, especially if like me you fill the card. But I quite like how relaxing it is.




Originally I only had the one card in mind, with the panel trimmed into a triangle and adhered using foam tape. But when I trimmed the panel I instantly thought the offcuts were too good to go to waste. So I simply adhered them to another card base.

My sentiment choice is from Everyday Sentiments.

Crafty Hugs


Tuesday, 17 June 2025

A Quick, Colourful Masculine Card & YouTube Video

Hello & Happy Tuesday. 

Today I have a A Quick, Colourful Masculine Card & YouTube Video, HERE if you would like to watch and make along with me 😃





I've used Background Blocks Splatter, Background Builders Seeing Stars and Everyday Sentiments on my card here, but really any Background Block, Background Builder and sentiment would work for this layout.




That's all from me today.

Crafty Hugs








Monday, 16 June 2025

Masculine Monday, Card Of The Week AND a Winner!

Hello & Happy Monday. 

How are we into the second half of June already? The days and weeks just seem to be going by so fast. But I'm back in the studio today after a jam packed weekend to kick this new week off with this week's Card Of The Week.

Continuing with masculine makes for June, I chose this card from way back from February 2014 when Explosion! was originally introduced. 





This small but mighty clear stamp set packs a punch and is perfect for masculine cards. As always this clear stamp set is 15% off this week in the Card Of The Week section on the website.




I'm going to have some fun inking this set up again this week and I'll be sharing inspiration across social media when I do.

Before I go today, I was reminded that I hadn't announced the winner of the May Non-Release Brand Ambassador Blog Hop. My apologies for my brain fog! 

The lucky winning comment is from Kailash.

Kailash
May 14, 2025

Your cards are gorgeous!


Congratulations Kailash! 

Please send an email to bev@uniko.co.uk to claim your £25 eGift Code. 


Thank you to all that take the time to hop along with us and leave such lovely comments. 



Crafty Hugs



Thursday, 12 June 2025

Brand Ambassador Inspiration: Happy Father's Day

  Hello everyone!

Happy Thursday!


Vinita here! Today's card I am sharing is for my Dad! Happy Father's Day to everyone!

Father's Day is observed on the third Sunday in June 15th. Mark your calendar and be sure to let your dad know he rocks!





I am excited to be sharing a Father's Day card! This is a one-layer CAS card with a lot of textures!

I started by stamping the Uniko Background Blocks Art Decoratifs stamp in the centre. I heat embossed the image in Wow opaque bright white EP. I blended some DI and added some water droplets. Then I stamped the floral image in Jet black ink using the Originally Organic Flower Garden stamp set.  I doodled some leaves by adding lines and dots inside. The sentiment happy is from the Bauhaus Blocks stamp set, and the Father's Day sentiment is from the Simply Said Blocks stamp set. Added some pearls for more textures.


Look here...... I have used a floral wooden button! Boy, I hoard these things!!!
I hope you enjoyed!

Happy crafting!


Monday, 9 June 2025

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Monday Blues

Good Morning, 

Steph here today with my Uniko Brand Ambassador Inspiration post for June. As we are focussing on masculine makes this month, I have dug out some older Uniko stamp sets and focused on blue hues. 

My first card uses the Uniko Block Party Coffee Love stamp set. I started by sweeping my white card with a light grey cube ink pad and then stamped and coloured the image. I added faux 'planks' using an embossing board before attaching to a card blank using foam pads. 

Sticking with the grey ink and blue alcohol markers, I changed my stamp to Uniko Background Blocks Equaliser stamp set. I used the sentiment and the extra musical notes stamps from the set to finish off the card.

And finally for today, I created a birthday card with the Uniko Up & Away stamp set. I stamped the hot air balloon and basket before colouring in and fussy cutting out. I attached this to piece of card on which I had stamped clouds, the flag tail and the sentiment. 


That's all my cards for today which hopefully has given you some masculine inspiration for Father's Day this coming weekend (in the UK).


Much love

Steph x 

Friday, 6 June 2025

Spring/Summer 2025 Coffee Lovers Blog Hop WINNER

Hello & Happy FriYAY! 

Today I am popping by to announce the winner of the Spring/Summer 2025 Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. Thank you to everyone that took the time to hop along and comment. But before I get to the winner I have one more hot drink card to inspire you.





For my card I dusted off I LOVE Tea. I had this fun idea to stamp the garden of flowers from Originally Organic Flower Garden inside the cup and I was delighted to see the stems fit inside perfectly.




I stamped the solid flower from the set onto the side of the tea cup and added one of the sentiment options from I LOVE Tea, before colouring with alcohol markers.

Isn't it great when you can combine new and old products for more creative options?

Ok, now onto the winner. I used random.org to select a lucky comment. 




And the lucky winning comment for the £25 Uniko eGift Code is...

Sun fun cards from everyone - they're all so wonderful. I especially like your second with the pink flowers! Thanks for being a sponsor!



Congratulations Judy! 

Please send an email to bev@uniko.co.uk no later than Saturday 21st June to claim your prize. 


Crafty Hugs