June 2018 Design Team Blog Hop WINNER!

Hey!

Thanks for stopping by today, I'm here to announce winner of the June Design Team Blog Hop. Random.org helped me select a lucky comment from all those left along the hop and chose...

Ksenija @Sweet Kobylkin11 June 2018 at 17:14

Jane, that was a surprise as I've been scrolling down watching your CAS cards... Boom! An explosion. The 3rd card is so unusual for your style, and I really like it  - Sweet Kobylkin

Congratulations Ksenija! Please email me at bev@uniko.co.uk no later than 1st July 2018 to claim your prize.

Before I go, how about a card...

I am super duper excited to have a debut feature in the NEW issue of Practical Publishing Die Cutting Essentials magazine, with this little number along with a few others.

The feature is all about creating cards for men and focuses on the recently released and popular Designer Dies Explosion! Collection, along with the coordinating clear stamp sets, Explosion! and Explosion! Additions.

Here is a look at the first page of the feature in the magazine and another of the cards...

I can't wait to receive my copy in the mail! The magazine is available for purchase now and I hope that you enjoy the feature if you get a copy ;)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Hugs

CAS Colours & Sketches #277 - Colours

Hey!

Welcome back to week 3 of June. This month at CAS Colours & Sketches and Wei is our hostess.  This week HERE Wei has a fun colour combo to inspire your card making...

Here's how I used them...

As usual I am running late, it seems to be the story of my life at the moment! I made my card using the CAS(E) this Sketch! sketch seen HERE and below, as I was inspired by all the stars on the sketch! 

It seemed the perfect match of sketch, colours and stamps, as the card came together surprisingly quick! I used Background Builders: Seeing Stars and a sentiment from Simply Said Blocks II.

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 #276 - Sketch

Hey!

Welcome back to week 2 of June. This month at CAS Colours & Sketches and Wei is our hostess.  This week HERE Wei has a fun clean and simple sketch to spark your card making...

So many ideas for this sketch, but limited time meant that I went for the super quick option of creating a window for my sentiment and some simple stencilling. 

I used a MFT die to create the window and used the 'Sending Hugs' sentiment from Simply Said Blocks II. I then used my Uniko Scattered Polka Dot stencil to create a fun trio of coloured polka dots, moving the stencil slightly for each colour. 

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

June 2018 Design Team Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

Hey!

It's time for another Uniko Design Team Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY - Whoohoo!! 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. 

Usually I choose just one product that was released the previous year or a once favourite that hasn't seen much air time. However, this time I couldn't choose between the clear stamps in the Beautiful Blooms range, so I challenged the Uniko DT to use all 3 OR their favourite!

Beautiful Blooms I Clear Stamp Set

Beautiful Blooms I Designer Dies

Beautiful Blooms I can be bought as a clear stamp set and designer die bundle HERE.

Beautiful Blooms II

Beautiful Blooms III

My thinking / reasoning of designing the Beautiful Blooms series was to have some modern blooms that didn't necessarily reflect a particular flower. They are open for interpretation as to what YOU the stamper believes the flower to represent. I feel this allows for more creativity and individuality to stampers projects.

Anyway, lets see how the design team have been inspired to use the products and be sure to comment along the hop for your chance to win your choice from the 3 clear stamp sets being featured. You have until Midnight (GMT) Monday 18th June 2018 to comment.

Happy Hopping!

Bev

Carol 

Deborah 

Izzy 

Jane 

Lindsey

Rahmat

Sarah G

Sarah P

Hugs

DT Inspiration - One Layout Three Cards

Hi! I'm here today to share three cards I've created using the same layout and lots of Uniko goodies.

First up is this card:

One of my favourite ways to create is to CASE the work of other crafters. There are so many talented crafters around it's almost impossible not to be influenced by their creations, but to actually CASE another person's card always seems a much more literal copy of their work and as such needs to be acknowledged. So here's a link to the card I've used as inspiration for this post - Leigh Penner.

I used Uniko's Equaliser stencil to produce the same colour pattern and spacing. The inks are distress oxide which give a lovely creamy effect. I added a large sentiment to finish off. Quick, easy and just how I like it!

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Birthday Sentiments
Stencil: Uniko, Equaliser
Inks: Ranger distress, black soot, peacock feathers, fossilized amber, worn lipstick, fired brick, antique linen; Versafine, onyx black

I completely changed up the colours for my second card, but kept the large sentiment and a similar layout of strips of stamping.

Of the three cards this is actually my favourite and really shows the versatility of Uniko stamps. I'm thinking this card is fairly unisex, but with a switch of colours could easily be made more masculine or feminine.

Supplies:
Stamps: uniko, Simply Said Blocks, Birthday Sentiments, All Occasion Sentiments #2
Inks: Mememnto, tuxedo black, rose bud, bahama blue

So having covered a celebration and a birthday it seemed only fair to break out some Uniko Christmas stamps.

This is another quick and easy card to create and as I used my misti tool could easily be mass produced on a production line colour by colour basis.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Background Builders Seeing Stars, Fesctive Sentiments, Simply Said Christmas, Rustic christmas
Inks: SU, real red, old olive; Mememnto, tuxedo black

Thanks you for your time today. I hope I've given you some food for thought. And keep crafting!

CAS Colours & Sketches #275 - Colours

Hello June!

A new month means a new hostess over at CAS Colours & Sketches and Wei is our hostess for June. As usual we are starting things off HERE with a colour combo...

Summer is starting to bloom and these colours scream florals to me, so that is exactly what I reached for! I decided to reach for a trio of clear stamp sets I've not given a lot of inky love to for a while, Beautiful Blooms II, Flower Power #6 and Natures Treasures II.

I did some fairly simple masking and stamping, along with some generation ink stamping (stamping off), to achieve the lighter shades of the colours. The sentiment is from Simply Said Blocks II. Once I had created my cluster of flowers and leaves I fussy cut them out and adhered it to my base card using foam adhesive. 

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

DT inspiration - Pure Florals coasters

Bonjour !

Izzy here. To start June month, I wanted to share with you what I've offered to my mother for Mother's day which was last Sunday.

A few years ago, I bought some coasters in ceramic that were waiting to be decorated. As I was looking for an idea for this special day, I wanted to try stamping on them and what better than the Pure Florals collection to do it !

 As the coasters have a porous texture, I had to use Memento Luxe ink to stamp the images, and I coloured them with Fabrico markers from Tsukineko . These two mediums, once dry do not blend with water, so that you can clean the coasters with a wet cloth when dirty.

For this coaster, I used the large outline rose of the Pure Florals : Rose set. As for a card, I used the masking technique on this coaster. I first stamp the rose, then with a post-it note I mask it to stamp the leaves and the bud. Then I coloured the image with two red (#114 &#156) Fabrico markers for the flowers, and two green (#110 & #167) markers for the leaves.

For this one, I used the gorgeous lily of the Pure Florals : Lily set. As I didn't want the outlines of the flowers to be too dark, for all the coasters, I used second generation stamping to stamp the images. I used the Memento Luxe Gray flannel ink. I coloured the Lily with (#106, 110, 134 & 161) Fabrico markers. 

Next is the beautiful chrysanthemum from the Pure Florals : Chrysanthemum set. I used the large outlined stamp. I think this one is my favourite since I succeeded to blend perfectly both colours. This ceramic absorbs very quickly the ink so that it is quite difficult to blend inks together and that's why it's hard to hide the markers lines. I coloured this one with (#111 & #132) Fabrico markers.

Of course I had to also make one with the stunning gerbera from the Pure Florals : Gerbera set. My mother loves flowers and except the lily, they have all these gorgeous flowers blooming in their garden. For this coaster, I used the two outlined stamps and I tried to make a gradient pink tone, the wide open one being clearer than the one we only see in profil. As I told you before, it's hard to perfectly blend the colours without lines marking. But I finally like the result. This one is coloured with ( #106, 115, 134, 161) Fabrico markers.

I love how they finally look all together, so I hope that Bev will design other Pure Florals flowers to make new ones for me ! 😉

I hope you get inspired with these coasters, I wanted to show you the versatility of the Uniko stamps which can be used also on other medium than cards. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a fabulous June month !

Izzy xx