Uniko Studio DT Inspiration...Balloons Shaker

Hello,

Carol here, warmly welcoming you to my Uniko Studio DT showcase, where I bring out a few of my Uniko Studio products to give them some extra love.  

I've noticed, as I'm sure many of you have, a trend of balloons - stamps, dies, stencils - appears to be popping up everywhere. So...as one *very* influenced by trends *grin*, as well as by a number of designers who balloon cards are blowing me away, I decided to follow suite, in creating a relatively simple stenciled balloons shaker birthday card. Nothing fancy-schmancy, but hopefully a design that will bring a smile...

Sentiment: Birthday Wishes

Stencil: Balloon Bash

Distress Inks, Studio Katia sequins

Nothing fancy-schmancy, but hopefully a design that will bring a smile...especially to those of you who find balloons as uplifting as I do! 

~carol

Stencil Sunday

Hi it's Julie and welcome to another Stencil Sunday at Uniko.

Today I'm going to share a couple of cards made using a wreath builder/ turnabout stamping jig that some of you may be familiar with. If you haven't got one here is a link to how to make your own.

Some of you may even have used one with your stamps to create some fun cards, like I did here, but this time I'm going to use a couple of stencils. I was inspired to have a go after seeing this Jennifer McGuire video.

My first card uses the wonky stripes stencil and the So Much clear stamp set.

I used Distress Inks in a rainbow palette and rotated the card panel under my stencil every time I changed colour.

1.  Tape your wreath template down so that you can place the stencil over the top, securing across one edge to create a hinge. This will allow you to lift it and move the card panel around.
2. Place your card panel to be inked, into the template, ensuring that at least one corner will fit snugly into the bottom left corner.
3. Lay a piece of tape or masking paper over the area you don't wish to add ink to.
4. Ink the area required then rotate the square to the next corner and ink again.
5. Continue until you have completed all 7 rotations.

If your square is the same size as the jig then you will end up with a space for stamping in the centre, but don't worry if it is not completely symmetrical as you can always add a die cut over the middle!

Once my panel was complete, I mounted it on a slightly larger piece of black card stock and then onto a 5" square white card base. From matching card, I cut a circle and stamped my sentiment in black before mounting it up on foam over the coloured panel.

This second card uses the Broken Lines stencil and a more restricted palette.

I followed the same technique, rotating my card panel in the jig and keeping the stencil in the same place with some tape. This is a slightly larger panel so you have to be careful and remember which corner you rotate! A larger white die cut circle completes with the addition of an ombre coloured thanks from All Occasions Sentiments #6, fussy cut after stamping and colouring with Copics.

The panel was mounted on a panel of  matching paper and then onto a 5" square base card.

You can use a rectangular panel but you need to be aware that the pattern will be slightly different depending on where you place your corner!
 The link to the You Tube video shows you much better than I can describe so it may be a good idea to check it out if you need a more visual tutorial.

That's all from me for today, I hope I've inspired you to look at your stencils differently and have a play!

DT-Inspiration - Stencil with a simple kind of airbrush

Hello, Wiebke here with a new DT-Inspiration Post.
Like always, I used a stencil to create my card.

For this card I got a bit of inspiration from my kids. ...
Do you know a kids crafting stuff called BlowPen?
We got them a while ago. In the box were special markers with a blowing lid, some paper stencils and lots of colourful chaos and fun!

I have no airbrush system.
But something similar (please don't hit me for this comparison if you are a airbrush-lover!): The Spritzer Tool from Tim Holtz!
It's also a kind of an easy "airbrush" system, like the kids pens.
My idea was to use this tool with one of my stencils to get similar effects like the kids with their BlowPens. (I'm not sure what kind of ink is in these pens, cause it's just a kids crafting and gaming stuff. but I will try them and then see how much light and time resitance the ink has.)

The most important thing with the spritzer tool is to have good moistured markers! I used my Distress Ink Markers and gave every Marker one or two drops of the Distress Refresher directly on the nibs and let it soak in for some minutes. 
It's so much easier to get the colour mist out of the pencils with this liquid helper!

I started to spray the big "Pure Florals - Chrysanthemum" stencil with shades of yellow, followed with oranges and reds.
When you use a delicate stencil like this big flower, be careful to spritz from above, not from the side to avoid spritzers beneath the stencil.
When I was happy with the colour gradients I used a lightly dump pencil and watercoloured a bit to get a smooth blending.

To finish the card I stamped my sentiment out of the "Birthday Sentiments" Set on another piece of white cardstock and gut in "in shape", used corner jumpers to get nice round shapes and adhered it onto the Chrysantemum.

For the background of my panel I used a simple way: a fabric tape in two fitting colours with a gap between the stripes (in the size of the "Wishes" sentiment). The fabric has a nice haptic texture and is a great possibility to get some extra interest into a mainly CAS design.
To finish the floral layer with some round clear epoxy shapes.

I hope you got an inspiration to get some "fresh air" into your crafty space! - Let's sprinkle!

Hugs & Greetings from Wiebke

Uniko Stencils with glimmer paste and Foils - by Rahmat

Hello friends, Rahmat here. I am up with some inspirations using the Uniko Stencils today.

I have used glimmer paste and foils here.

The first card is made using a grey card stock, I sponged worn lipstick distress oxide on the card front and used a clear glimmer paste on top, its super glittery, and very hard to picture.
I have used the Happy die with glitter card stock, and lined it with a grey framed die.
I kept the colors limited to grey and pink.

Watch the shimmer on these cards here

https://www.instagram.com/p/ByMuwn2AAAY/

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I have used 2 shades of green distress oxides here, and again used the clear glimmer paste over the stenciled design . The sentiment is from 2 sets and I stamped in different shades.

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I have used the star stencil here and did foiling using the blue foil. The sentiment is heat embossed on vellum and a strip of white card stock in blue fluorescent  powder from  WOW.

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This one is the negative from the above foil, I added it to a toner sheet to get the negative blue transferred and then I used it again with the rainbow foil for the stars.
The sentiment is heat embossed on vellum, and I have left out the "STARS" part, I am hoping that people can figure that out with so many rainbow stars.

Products Used:
Mehndi Stencil


 Seeing Stars


Stylized florals
 

I hope you like my inspirations today!


       Thank you for stopping by, I really appreciate your kind  feedback :) Have a great day!
                                                                     

DT Inspiration - Alcohol inks, stencils and Bold sentiments

Bonjour !

Izzy here ! This year I wanted to try alcohol inks and I'm just starting to discover all the possibilities they offer. So today I wanted to show you what I've done with my alcohol inks, texture paste, stencils and bold sentiments die cuts.

What I love with the AI is that their colours are very bright and used on Yupo paper (or similar), they give a beautiful bright and shiny look. I had to try a technique I saw on Jennifer McGuire blog to make great backgrounds.

Here are my cards...

For this card I used the Fun Flowers stencil together with the Fun Flowers stamp set. On a Yupo paper I popped texture paste through the stencil and let it dry. Meanwhile I stamped the Background blocks : pinstripe in black over the white card base, I die cut the Big & Bold : Happy sentiment in a black paper and I stamped in black the flowers of the Fun Flowers stamp set then fussy cut them.

Once the texture paste dry, on a felt applicator I put 3 alcohol inks, a bit of blending solution and I blended them onto the textured Yupo paper.

Then I adhered this Yupo paper strip over the white card base as well as the bold sentiment. I glued the flowers with Glue dots. To finish I stamped the other part of the sentiment.

For this card I used the Confetti stencil and the Big & Bold : Wish sentiment. I also used texture paste through the stencil and once dry I used my AI and blending solution together with a paint brush to make this sort of rainbow colours pattern. 

The sentiment is also done with AI on a paper similar to Yupo. Once dry I die cut the AI panel with a scalloped die and glued it on the white card stock. I also die cut an oval shape in a white card stock and I stamped the rest of the sentiment on it. To finish I die cut the bold sentiment and glued it onto the white oval cut.

I really love these bold sentiment dies, and I really hope that Bev will release some more for the other bold sentiments of the collection. 

So for my last card I had to create the die cut of the Big & Bold : Hugs stamp. It is long, tedious and much less beautiful than a real die cut. Here is how I did it...

For this card I again used texture paste through the Stylised Floral stencil, let it dry and then I randomly sponged the AI with a felt applicator. I cut this panel with a heart shape die and I glued it on the white card stock. Then I glued the bold sentiment on top of it.

To finish my card, I die cut an ampersand, I foam mounted it on the card and I stamped the rest of the sentiment from the Big & Bold : Hugs stamp set.

And that's it ! I still have a lot to learn with alcohol inks but in the end I will find a way to use all these trials on cards ! They are a fabulous background for the Big & Bold sentiments !

Thanks so much for popping by and have a great Sunday !

June 2019 Non-Release Design Team Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

Hey & Happy Weekend!

Welcome to the June 2019 Non-Release Design Team Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

For those of you who are new around these parts I will explain what this post is all about...

Here at Uniko HQ it is just myself behind the screen, blogging, designing, packaging stamps & orders through the Uniko online shop, customer service and all the things in between. I *usually* release new product every other month for a number of reasons, but mainly so I can keep up with everything!

On non - release months like this month I like to set myself and the Design Team a challenge to look back at a previously released product and give it some more love. 

With Father's Day just next weekend, I thought it would be useful for some masculine card inspiration! So I set the Design Team & myself the challenge to use the previously released Explosion! Explosion! Additions & Designer Dies Explosion Collection for this months revisited hop!

This collection of Uniko products are perfect for those hard to create masculine cards! The comic book and Pop Art trends are still going strong in the paper crafting world too ;)

As usual we have our GIVEAWAY, so be sure to comment along the hop for your chance to win a £25 eGift Certificate code to spend over on the Uniko website. You have until midnight BST Saturday 15th June 2019 to comment along the hop.

Bev

Carol 

Izzy 

Jane 

Julie

Linda

Lindsey

Rahmat

Sarah P





Wiebke 

What an inspirational hop, so many new ideas, I hope you all enjoyed it too :)

Thanks for joining in on the fun.

Hugs

DT Inspiration - Using Happy Succulents

Hi! It's Jane here today with an idea about putting those Uniko stamps to good use.

I have a bit of a fear of heat embossing and decided to try a technique I'd seen used around blogland to try to overcome this.  It's a fairly forgiving way to use heat embossing if you're like me and get powder everywhere it shouldn't be even after using one of those dusting bags!

The heat embossing is done in stages one stamp at a time and then inked over with colour before stamping another image and repeating. This means that some of the embossing powder sticks to where you've added the coloured ink. It gives a speckled effect between the stamps and disguises any mishaps beautifully!

I created two panels in this way and then chopped them up before adhering to a white card base. The sentiments were then stamped on top.

Supplies:

Stamps: Uniko, Happy Succulents 

Ink: Versamark clear + clear embossing powder; Ranger distress, wilted violet & mermaid lagoon, picked raspberry & cracked pistachio

Thanks so much for looking today.  And keep crafting!

Jane