August 2018 Release Sneak Peeks!

Hello!

Sorry that it has taken SO long for me to organise the next release here at Uniko, life got a little crazy at one point. Now we are half way through the Summer holidays here in the UK and the majority of my time is keeping The Beans entertained & having days out to enjoy the sunshine we have been having.

Anyway, it is finally time to share the August 2018 Release Sneak Peeks with you - YAY! So let's get to the peeks...

First up a peek at an addition to the geometric Background Builders. This set has many fun possibilities and is great for your masculine themed projects and pairs wonderfully with the previously released Bee Happy clear stamp set ;)

Those that know me know that I like a new floral and this little set is one of those that has a 'beautiful' floral duo and sentiments to match.

I've had many requests for more BIG & BOLD sentiments, so here is the next in the series. Can you guess the word from this peek?!

This next peek is a fun framed floral stamp. It has so many fun possibilities and it features some Flower Power and other motifs from current clear stamp sets. I'm looking forward to showing you more of this stamp in the coming days ;)

Lastly, I decided it was time to 'officially' release this little clear stamp set...

This was the Release Day freebie from back in December 2017, called So Much. From Release Day (19th August), it will be available for purchase. I'm looking forward to sharing more with you all using this set.

That's all the Sneak Peeks for this little release! Be sure to join us tomorrow, as the DT and I begin the product introductions :)

Until then, I would love to know what you think of the sneak peeks! 

Hugs

CAS Colours & Sketches #285 - Sketch

Hey!

Welcome back to another week at CAS Colours & Sketches. This week our hostess is Wei and she has this fun sketch HERE and seen below...

This is such a fun sketch and I had so many ideas, it was hard choosing which one to go with! I decided to ink up my Bee Happy clear stamp set to cheer myself up as I wasn't having a particularly good day when I made my card...

Love how it turned out, shame about my poor photography this morning :( Not much time to do it with 2 crazy nearly 4 yr olds running round! 

That's all from me today, I hope thatI have inspired you to join in on the challenge?! If you need a little more inspiration, pop on over HERE to see what the CC&S Design Team have created.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs

CAS Colours & Sketches #284 - Colours

Hello August!

A new month means a new hostess over at CAS Colours & Sketches and as the northern hemisphere is in the full height of summer & people on their holidays, this month is a multiple hostess month. This week our hostess is Patricia and she has this challenging colour combo HERE and seen below...

I love blue and green, but the Cajun Craze threw me at first! However, I had an artistic idea and I have been wanting to free hand paint some background lines, so decided to give them a whirl on todays card using watered down Cajun Craze...

I decided to dust off Kindness Blooms, stamping the blooms in Pacific Point (the closest blue to Blueberry Bushel I own) and the leaves also from the clear stamp set in Old Olive (the closest green to Mossy Meadow I own).

I layered the blooms and leaves onto my watercolored lines panel, adhering some with double sided tape and some with 1mm thick foam adhesive. The sentiment is from Originally Organic Additions and I finished the blooms off with some Cajun Craze enamel shapes.

That's all from me today, I hope thatI have inspired you to join in on the challenge?! If you need a little more inspiration, pop on over HERE to see what the CC&S Design Team have created.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs

Uniko Challenge #48 Reminder 'It's so much more friendly with two', Optional Twist FOR A CHILD

Hey!

The Design Team and Guest Designer are here today to remind you about the July/August 2018 Uniko challenge.

We have another fun and easy challenge at the moment and we hope this sweet quote will spark your creativity and encourage you to play along. If you'd like even more of a challenge then please twist with us and use the quote to create a card for a child.

Challenge Guidelines:

* You can use any products/stamps to enter the challenge, but we do LOVE to see you use your Uniko products. Plus, there is an extra chance to win a prize if you do ;)

* Email entries welcome, just email a photo of your card to bev@uniko.co.uk and I will add it to the Uniko Flickr gallery and link up!

* Share the challenge graphic in your post and link back to the challenge if possible ;)

We have the very talented Trina P joining us again as our Guest Designer for this challenge. Wait till you see how clever she has been with her card!

Guest Designer - Trina P


Such a clever mix of Uniko goodies with those fun and funky images!

And here's some more ideas from the Uniko DT to help kickstart your creativity.

Jane

Lindsey

Rahmat

Sarah G

Wiebke

Now, if you need more incentive to play along with the challenge here are the details of the prizes.  

THE PRIZES

• Main Winner Chosen By the DT - £25 eGift Certificate
• Random Twist Winner - £4 In Stock Clear Stamp Set of Winners Choosing
• Random Uniko Stamps Winner - £4 In Stock Clear Stamp Set of Winners Choosing
• Top 3 Chosen By DT - 150 Loyalty Reward Points

You've got plenty of time to play along with this month's challenge. The deadline for submission is midnight (GMT) on Friday 24th August 2018 (7.00pm EDT).

CAS Colours & Sketches #283 - The Double!

Hey!

This week over at CAS Colour & Sketches is Timeless Tuesday, AKA The Double! Our hostess for July is Jeanne and she has come up with this sketch and colour combo seen HERE and below, to inspire your card making...

And this is how I have combined the two...

I've been thinking about activities and outings with The Beans over the holidays and with their obsession with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, I was thinking of taking them to Butterfly World down the road from us. This got me to having butterflies on the brain and with English Country Garden Butterflies clear stamp recently coming back in stock, I thought I would give my set some inky love!

The colours are nice that they can be adapted to a variety of themes and I opted to use a Pretty Pink Posh Scalloped die to resemble the garland part of the sketch. I added a little bit of dimension to the scalloped layer and to the butterfly, but using 1mm thick foam adhesive doesn't make it overly bulky. 

The sentiment is from Simply Said and I also added a light covering of clear Wink of Stella to the butterfly. Hopefully this will add little cheer to someones day this week when I get it in the mail and let them know that I am thinking of them :)

Anyway, the CC&S Design Team have created more awesome inspiration to share with you, so hop on over HERE to see and also find all the challenge details & link up!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Hugs

Simple Mixed Media

Happy Friday .......

Looking forward to the weekend? ..... I know I am, it's been a busy week.

I've got a project for you today showing how you can use one of the Uniko Stencils to add a little touch of mixed media to your cards, and also compliment the pretty Originally Organic Clear Stamps and matching Dies .......  looks great, and it's so easy to do.

 
I started by stenciling the design directly onto my card blank ....... I used Victorian Velvet Distress Ink and the pretty Uniko Lattice stencil.  I kept most of the ink in the centre of the card, and faded out the colour and the design towards the edges, leaving some white space.

With the stencil still in place I then went over the top of the ink with a Transparent Gloss Texture Paste ..... not sure this really shows up in the photos but trust me, in really life it does shine and the texture looks fab ......

Once this was dry ..... and it didn't take long in this heat!!! ..... I attached a simple die cut frame using foam pads.  I wanted to frame a section of the stenciled design to create a background for my focal point. You can see I went for the jaunty angle look with the frame, but kept my sentiment straight .... I think it creates a nice contrast.

I stamped the flowers and leaves onto white cardstock, added colour using Nuvo Aqua Flow Pens for the leaves ..... new additions into my craft room, and I must say I'm loving them! .....

I used Victorian Velvet Distress Ink again for the flower heads, so that they would tone in nicely with the background.
I used the matching dies to cut them all out, and attached them onto the frame.

A few dots of white gel pen adds a little more detail to the flowers .... and I've used the same stamp set to add some detail on the inside .....

Check out your stencil collection and see what pretty backgrounds you can create .

Thanks for stopping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day and have a great weekend.

Cheerio until next time .....

CAS Colours & Sketches #282 - Sketch

Hey!

I'm back & I think I have finally found my card making creative mojo again! I think I hit a bit of a burnout with doing 2 shows & a release on the bounce and then not quite 2 weeks ago I had to say a very hard goodbye to Mr Cat. He had been my fur baby for 15 years and it has been very strange and lonely (when the Beans are at nursery) without him.

I haven't been totally uncreative in my time away from blogging, I have been working on some magazine commissions due out around September and I have designed a NEW clear stamp release for August! 

Anyway, I am finally back in Design Team mode and catching up on my CAS Colour & Sketches responsibilities with this weeks sketch seen HERE and below by the lovely Jeanne, our hostess for July.

This sketch is so appealing to me, I love angles on cards and when I saw the current challenge over at AAA Cards HERE and seen below, I couldn't resist combining the 2 with my love of geometrics too...

As you can see I was inspired to dust off Background Builders: Round In Circles. I also gave my Catherine Pooler inks a good whirl to create the beautiful rainbow colours - LOVE!!

The sentiment is from Pure Florals: Cosmos, which is now back in stock, along with a few others - YAY! I am super pleased as to how this card turned out ;) 

Anyway, the CC&S Design Team have created more awesome inspiration to share with you, so hop on over HERE to see and also find all the challenge details & link up!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Hugs