Christmas in July - Brand Ambassador Inspiration with Background Builders Christmas 2018

 Afternoon, Julie here with the first of many posts celebrating Christmas in July with Uniko!

Over at Color Hues their new colour combo is red and white, so I thought I would use that to spark an idea using Background Builders Christmas 2018, some red card and white heat embossing. Here's what I came up with.

I've used this set a couple of times to make 'jumper' style cards as the patterns always remind me of Christmas sweaters! There are a few strips which you could combine to make a pattern but I stuck with just two.

For this card, I simply stamped and embossed three of the stylised snowflake strip onto an A6 panel of red card and bookmarked it with the hatched lined stamp strip. A simple partial circle die cut out of the red panel followed by a die cut welt made from two stacked circle dies, suggests a neckline. The red panel was then trimmed to leave a border when attached with glue to my A6 white base card.  A simple white heat embossed sentiment from Christmas Sentiments completes, a very simple card in the end.

Here are a couple more ideas along the same lines from a few years ago.

This uses a zipper die set from MFT and the tags below are simply strips of card with fussy cut collars, die cut circles, butchers twine, a couple of buttons and some ribbon bows!

So that's all from me today but don't forget to look out for more Christmas inspiration to kick start your Christmas stash from the BAs as well as a new release later in the month.

So for the moment I'll say bye and happy crafting!

Flippin' Fabulous Ink & Flip Masculine Inspiration Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & Giveaway 🎉

Hello & Happy Weekend. 

I thought it would be nice to wrap up a month of masculine card inspiration with some FLIPPIN' fun 🤩  

Uniko's Ink & Flip Stencils launched in August 2023. A concept I discovered when designing a star. Originally I thought I needed one or more layers to achieve the look I wanted, but to my surprise I realised I only needed one. 

I'm proud of where this concept started and how it has expanded and evolved. From a single layer stencil, to two layered stencils for a more complex look and more recently all over patterns. 

Ink & Flip adds a new level to simple geometrics, which I often reach for when making a masculine card. So let's have a look at which stencils the Brand Ambassadors were inspired to use for the hop today.

Be sure to leave a comment along the hop and on any or all of the Uniko socials for your chance to win your choice of Uniko Ink & Flip Stencil. Comment by Sunday 6th July 2025 and a random winning comment will be selected and announced week of 7th July 2025.

Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie

Steph

Vinita

That was FLIPPIN' inspirational. 

Thank you for joining in with your hop and for all your comments of support on Friday on social media. If you feel you'd like to see more of these stencils in action, be sure to check out the videos on Uniko's YouTube channel. 

Crafty Hugs

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! 

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

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

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

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!