A BIG Surprise!

Hey & HAPPY Weekend!

So much has happened since I last posted here on the blog, I did have posts planned but my day off with my husband on Friday took a surprising change of direction. 

Some of you might already know & some might have had a feeling & to some this might come as a complete surprise...

On Friday my husband took the day off work to come to my first ultrasound scan of the baby we are expecting in September - YAY! So, I was all set to announce the news to you all here on the blog on Friday afternoon. 

However, this happened...

Yep, we found out that we are not just expecting one bundle of joy but TWO! They are also identical twins! We don't know the sex yet but we will be finding out in about 4 - 6 weeks. Twins run in both our families so in the back of my mind I knew there was a small chance but we never imagined it would happen!

So along with the surprise of finding out a 20 min scan appointment turned into 3 hrs in the hospital to see various practitioners! It took me a while to get my head round the fact I was having a baby, then came the nausea & extreme tiredness - hence my lack of posts a while back. Now, I am just about getting my head round the fact that our lives will get a little more CrAzY with two on the way! 

Don't worry, things won't change too much here at Uniko Studio HQ, with working from home AND very excited grandparents who live 20 min away I will have plenty of people on hand to help! I was in the process of organising myself & now that is top of my list :) 

That's all I have to share with you all today, but I will be back tomorrow to share a couple of the projects from yesterdays class at The Paperlane. Until then, thank you for stopping by today :)

Throwback Thursday

Hey!

I'm back today after a few days off from blogging with this weeks Throwback Thursday post. Did you enjoy the Uniko Studio Challenge Guest Designer reminder post HERE? I thought Barb did a wonderful  job using the challenge colours & optional theme. Then yesterday we had Ren-Yi on the blog HERE showcasing the new Explosion! set. 

Anyway, let me get back to Throwback Thursday. I chose this card seen HERE and below to revisit...

The original card was made to highlight Uniko Studio Classics Summer digital download paper collection. This is my new version of the card above...

I've chosen a lovely Spring yellow and green palette, perfect for the current "Less is More" challenge seen HERE. 

I kept the design & layout similar to the original but I am liking the freshness of this new card more - might just be the happy spring colours?! 

Before I go I thought I would share a little sneak peek at a couple of the cards we will be making on Saturday in the Uniko Studio classes at The Paperlane...

All the details on how to book your place in a class can be found HERE. Still a couple of places left in the afternoon class. For those of you too far away to attend, I promise to share the full cards & details with you! 

Ok, that's all from me today, I had best be getting the class kits together! I'll be back tomorrow with more to share, until then, thank you for stopping by today. 

Supplies

Card Stock: White (Boyes) PTI Lemon Tart

Ink: VersaFine Onyx Black, VersaMagic Tea Leaves

Stamps: Uniko Studio Label Love: Birthday & Label Love: Thank you

Accessories: PTI Doily Details Die, SU! Lucky Limeade Bakers Twine & 1 3/4" Circle Punch.

[Design Team Inspiration] A Wow Card

Hello there, it's Ren-Yi here, hijacking the blog to show you something fun and easy. 

I'm putting the new Uniko Studio set "Explosion!" to good use. Don't you love how the title of this stamp set as an exclamation mark on it? I love it.

Well here is the CAS version of happy bright colors...


I wanted to show the explosion off as the center of the card. So I used Versamark to stamp off the Explosion silhouette on the Aqua card stock again and tried to cut out the best I could with the Xacto. It's not as clean as I would like it, but you know what that means. I will be bugging Bev to make a die for this and she won't hear the end of it. 

Explosions! makes me think of Batman from the 1960s and how the screen would flash up with "POW" and "BAM." And somehow I wanted it to be whimsical and loud, so I decided to have some neon shades (I swore I would never buy neon inks and refuse to get on that bandwagon, but the one time I could use them... Darn!) So Mister Huey Neon mists and the most pigmented pink ink had to suffice - there you have it.



Anyways, there is plenty of time to enter our Uniko Studio challenge. Maybe this fun card will get you going?

[Uniko Studio Challenge] No. 7 - Guest Designer Barb Murphy

Hello everyone! We have our guest designer Barb Murphy with us today to share with us her project:

I'm so excited! I recently won Uniko Studio's Challenge #6 (with a fabulous sketch courtesy of Gayatri) and with that came not only a gift certificate to the Uniko Studio store, but also a guest designer spot for the next challenge! The challenge format is a bit different now, but better, I think...a color inspiration and theme suggestion.

These colors are beautiful. The challenge called for using some or all colors as well as the added theme or technique of distress or vintage. I incorporated all of the colors and used inks to distress the papers.

The Graphic Flowers were die cut from a distressed text print paper and all edges were inked with Pumice Stone ink using a fingertip sponge dauber. 

The sentiment stamp was inked lightly so it would stamp a distressed image.  

The banner flags and flowers were adhered to the card front. A piece of hemp twine was loosely curled and adhered to create a nest behind the wood button.

Finally, the card's width was trimmed down to 3-3/4" and alternate corners were rounded...and that's it!

If you do nothing else today, please pop over to the Uniko Studio blog and hit follow or subscribe. I hope you'll join me in playing along with this fabulous color/theme challenge. If you don't have any Uniko Studio products of your own, there are freebies available too!

Before I sign off, huge thanks to Uniko Studio for giving me the chance to be a guest designer this challenge. It's been a blast! 

Happy Crafting!!

Barb

Supplies:

Stamps: (All Occasions Sentiments #3) Uniko Studio

Dies: (Graphic Flowers) Uniko Studio

Inks: (Hawaiian Tropic) PTI (Pumice Stone) Ranger

Card Stock: (Fine Linen, Terracotta Tile) PTI (all others) Bazzill

Pattern Paper: (Fine Linen Distress Dots) PTI (Daily News) Basic Grey

Trim: (10# cream twine) Hemptique

Accents: (buttons) Maya Road

Tools: (corner rounder punch) WRMK

An InLinkz Link-up

Hello Spring!

Hey & Happy Monday!

Spring seems to have arrived here in the North East of the UK - YAY! The sunshine seems to make everything seem happy and bright, like the CAS card I have to share with you today :)

I was inspired by THIS card by Maile Belles that I came across on Pinterest, I love the angled layout and had to give it a go myself. It's a good layout for using up small isn scraps of white CS you might have left laying about like I do!

I used the 'Hello' from All Occasion Sentiments #1 and seeing as it is so spring like today & the flowers are starting to appear in the garden I chose to pair it with Flower Power #2. The current challenge over at "Less is More" HERE is to use yellow and green - perfect for a spring themed card.

Short & sweet from me this afternoon, there is still A LOT of spring cleaning to do in the studio! Be sure to stop by the blog tomorrow for some Uniko Studio Challenge inspiration from our guest designer. Until then, thank you for stopping by today :)

Supplies

Card Stock: White (Boyes) PTI Simply Chartreuse

Ink: VersaFine Onyx Black, SU! Summer Sun & PTI Summer Sunrise

Stamps: Uniko Studio All Occasion Sentiments #1 and Flower Power #2

Accessories: Foam Adhesive & Masking paper

The Saturday Show!

Hey & Happy Weekend!

It's been AGES since I last did The Saturday Show, in fact the last one was in December - oops! How time flies!

Let's get to it...

I'm starting off with a few Uniko Studio Design Team projects, as with a bunch of the team not getting their release goodies in time (bad me) you might not have seen them. These first few are by Stacey. On the first card above Stacey has used Background Builders: Squared & the Best Wishes sentiment from A Gift For you.

And how about this for packing some 'POW' using the new Explosion! set...

I just love the bright & cheery colour combo Stacey has used. Such a FABulous layertastic card. Next we have Uniko Studio Design Team member Amber...

The card says it all really - Awesome! Here Amber has used Background Builders: Squared with All Occasion Sentiments #2. This next card from Amber combines A Gift For You with some fab patterned paper, I love all the polka dots and the colours are so fun.

And I just had to share this card from Nicki using Explosion! and Background Builders: Squared, a fabulous masculine card...

Ok, now onto some FABulous Uniko Studio customer creations...

First up are two floral beauties by Anita from Neet & Crafty. I *love* how the cluster of flowers from Flower Power #2 'pop' against the grey stripes - perfect. Next Anita has used Flower Power #3 to create this stunning wedding card...

Loving the colour combo on this card & how the flower fits perfectly into the die cut heart. Be sure to stop on by Anita's blog HERE for more wonderful creative inspiration.

Next we have a creation by Sarah at Sazzle Dazzle Crafts...

On this first card Sarah has used A Gift For You, I'm loving the colour combo of this card, the bold pink paired with grey = yummy! The vellum sentiment strip works perfectly too. Be sure to stop on by Sarah's blog HERE for more awesome inspiration. 

This next card by Felicity shows perfectly how versatile Uniko Studio products can be...

How fun is this? Can you tell which stamp set Felicity has used? It's Jolly Christmas and Felicity has been a genius and turned him into a Jolly Leprechaun! This next card is also by Felicity and uses the recently released Background Builders: Squared...

*love* the colours on this card & a perfect masculine thinking of you card. You can find Felicity's creations HERE on Splitcoast Stampers, be sure to stop on by for lots of lovely inspiration.

Lastly today I have a creation to share by Laura at LE - Designs...

On this striking beauty Laura has used Pure Florals: Chrysanthemum & matching dies. I *love* the bright & bold colour combination and how Laura has used the and layered the dies - FAB! Be sure to stop on by Laura's blog HERE for more exquisite creations.

I hope you've enjoyed The Saturday Show today, I sure have, I *love* seeing what all you lovely  & much appreciated customers create using Uniko Studio products :) I don't always know where you all are in blog land so send me an email to direct me there! Or if you don't have a blog you are more than welcome to email me photos to beverley@unikostudio.com

Ok, that's all for today, I'll be back tomorrow with more to share & until then, thank you for stopping by today :)

Friday FUN!

Hey!

YAY for Friday! It's almost the weekend :) I'm off out with the girls tomorrow for a retail therapy outing to the City of York, it's a lovely Yorkshire city with quaint shops and a beautiful cathedral, well worth the visit if you are ever up in the North of England!

Anyway, I found some time to have some inky fun and play along with a couple of challenges to create this card...

I feel like I am getting back into the swing of things here in the studio and my creativity is returning too. I used the new CAS(E) this Sketch! layout seen HERE and below. I love the clean lines of this sketch.

I also used the current ColourQ colours seen HERE and below.

And as I've used doilies AGAIN, I'm entering it into the Crazy For CAS challenge HERE.

Today is operation tidy the studio, as I've been an untidy person & have lots laying around all unorganised! I need a good sort out too and I have already started listing a few items for sale on my eBay page HERE. 

Ok, I'll be back tomorrow with The Saturday Show, as it's been a while and I have some super Fun cards I've spotted around blog land & been emailed to share with you. Until then, thank you for stopping by today :)

Supplies

Card Stock: SU! Crumb Cake, White (Boyes)

Ink: SU! Crumb Cake. PTI Hawaiian Shores & Summer Sunrise. VersaFine Onyx Black

Stamps: Uniko Studio Decorative Doilies - The Hands Of Time, Background Builders: Round In Circles & A Gift For You

Accessories: Corner Chomper