Uniko Challenge #51 - Anything Goes, optional twist Love

Hey! 

Welcome to the January/February 2019 Uniko Challenge. 

This is our first challenge of 2019 and we've chosen a really simple theme to ease you back in - Anything Goes. But for those of you that are already into the swing of 2019 challenges and would like more to get your teeth into we've added the optional twist of LOVE.

We have the amazingly talented and super creative Trina P joining us as out Guest Designer for this challenge. I'm sure you all know of her and are just as impressed by her cards as we are, but it's always worth a visit to her blog to check out what's she's been up to.

Guest Designer - Trina P

Aww! How cute is that!

The Uniko DT have also made cards to inspire you to join in and play along.

Bev

Carol

Izzy 

Jane

Julie

Linda


Wiebke 

Are you ready to play?

Well, just in case you need some 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 - £5 In Stock Clear Stamp Set of Winners Choosing
• Random Uniko Stamps Winner - £5 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 challenge. The deadline for submission is midnight (GMT) on Friday 22nd February 2019 (7.00pm EDT).

Hugs,

Simple Stamping and Stenciling~Uniko Studio DT Inspiration

Hello,

Carol here, 'giving some love' to a variety of my Uniko stamps and stencils today; hopefully, my trio will make you smile and, perhaps, even offer a bit of inspiration (which would thrill me to bits and pieces!).  Nothing super-duper fancy, as you'll see; rather, just a whole lot of inking, a bit of dry embossing and a curved panel die cut.  Clean and simple; the kind of card to make when time is at a premium.

As all three share the same design, I'll just dive in with the basic ingredients and 'how-to'...

Card 1

Lower panel: base of Tattered Rose Distress Oxide 

(I used Bristol cardstock for this section; Michael's heavy weight cardstock for the top portion)

Stencil: Nature's Treasures II; Tea Dye Distress Oxide

Stamp: English Country Garden: Butterflies

Sentiment:  Simply Said

Card 2

Lower panel: dry embossed (hard to see in the photo, but definitely there)

Stencil: Fun Flower

Stamp: Fun Flower; stenciled with Ripe Persimmon Distress Oxide; leaves with Versafine Clair)

Sentiment:  Simply Said

 Card 3

Lower panel: base of Distress Oxides - Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky, Chipped Sapphire

Stencil: Let It Snow; Stormy Sky Distress Oxide

Stamp: Stunning Snowflakes; various ME pigment inks (I love pigment inks...just sayin')

Sentiment:  Simply Said; and 'Winter' from Stunning Snowflakes

So...I'm ready with two birthday cards and one 'just because'! Easy to recreate! If you decide to give these techniques/styles a go, do let me know! I'm always on the lookout for dazzling inspiration and ways to elevate the way I use my Uniko stamps, stencils and dies!

Have a wonderful day!!

DT Inspiration - stenciled resist technique

Hello, Wiebke here to share some inspiration with you!

For today I made a colourful "sound card" with a stenciled resist technique.

The Uniko products I've used are the Equaliser stencil and a combination of the stamp sets Life is a Song & Most Wonderful.

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Magic of Music

Magic of Music - Detail

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About this card & technique:

For the stenciled resist technique I first applied a clear embossing paste through the Equaliser stencil onto the paper. After it was complete dry I started adding the colours - this time I used Zig Clean Color Real Brushes and blended them with a moisturised cloth and a brush and some water.

(When you don't have clear embossing paste you can also use clear embossing powder - apply the embossing ink through the stencil and then add the powder - don't forget to use a antistatic powder tool before!)

The embossed areas will stay white / in the colour of your paper and pop out of any colourful background!

Some colours tint clear products - if you want it really clear you need to check the combination of your materials before!

In this case it was ok for me to get some staining, it reminds me more to the old "Winamp Music tool"! ;-)

I cut down my paper in the shape of the equaliser blocks (with a similar edge around) and adhered it to my cardbase. The sentiment is a combination of two different Uniko stamp sets - Life is a Song & Most Wonderful,

To repeat the clear part of the background I used clear embossing powder for the first part of my sentiment "believe in the magic of" and white powder for the "music" and the note.

To add some sparkle, I drew a slim line around the sentiment with the amazing Sakura Gelly Roll - clear star pencil.

The headphones are a die cut (sorry, I have no brand name). I combined a normal black and a pearlescent black paper to get some optical dimension. The shells are adhered on the card with some 3D pads, for the rest I used a strong fluid glue.

To get the full list of all used supplies please hop to my blog.

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Musical greetings from Wiebke.

January Non-Release Design Team Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

Hey & Happy Weekend!

Welcome to the first Non-Release Design Team Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY of 2019 - 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, like last January, I have given the Design Team a huge task of choosing to use their favourites from those released in 2018. Thats a total of 23 new clear stamp sets, 2 re-introduced clear stamp set, 14 stencil designs and 2 new designer die collections to choose from!

Let's see what the design team favourites are and how they have been inspired to use the products. Be sure to comment along the hop for your chance to win a Uniko £25 eGift Certificate. You have until Midnight (GMT) Saturday 19th January 2019 to comment, winner will be announced Sunday 20th 2019.

Bev
(Using Wonderful Day & sentiment from Pure Florals: Peony)

Carol 

Pure Florals: Chrysanthemum Stencil,  Simply Said Blocks 

Izzy 
(using Winter botanicals: sweet broom)

Jane

(using Beautiful)

Julie

(Using Pure Florals = Peony and Wonderful Day sentiment)

Linda
(using Nature's Treasure's II stencil & Just Because)

Rahmat

(Using Pure Florals: Peony)

{Coming Soon}

Sarah G

Sarah P
(using Beautiful)

 
Wiebke 
(using: Natures Treasures II Stencil - (2018/05) & Pure Florals - Rose Stamps (2017-12))

WOW! Wasn't that a fun hop. It certainly looks like all the florals were a BIG hit with the Design Team. 

I'd LOVE to know what your favourite product released in 2018 was, be sure to add it to the comments, I might just pick a random winner to win their favourite ;)

Thanks for joining in on the fun.

Hugs

Peony Love

Hello friends, Rahmat here.
I am up with my inspiration using the recently released Pure Floral - Peony.
I got these stamps much later than the release, so thought of sharing it with more inspiration for you guys.
I am hooked with coloring for past 2 years, and I am still very much enjoying it, its pretty therapeutic.

Today I have 2 cards, One with plain colored image and white BG and the other with colored image and a colored BG.

The first one is stamped and colored using the distress inks.
I have let the image be the star here, didn't feel like adding anything else here. I had stamped the sentiment on the image.

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If you follow my instagram @rahmat.ccc, you would have seen how I am experimenting with backgrounds nowadays. So I did one for the peony as well.
I stamped the image in Versafine ink and used a pink alcohol marker to color it, adding some shading as well.
Then I masked the image and did some inking and stenciling, followed by white pigment ink stamping for the Bokeh effect. After going back and forth I decided to add the sentiment onto the image, and I like how it looks. I added the front panel with foam adhesive.

I hope you guys like my Inspirations with the peony stamp, and if you already haven't got it, maybe you should consider getting it.
Its a beauty whether colored or left uncolored.

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

DT inspiration - Eraser technique

Bonjour !

Izzy here. Today I want to share with you a technique that I recently discovered on Papierelle's blog and that I particularly love. This is the Eraser technique.

For this technique I used the Pure Florals Peony stamp set released this past December together with the Large Background French Script stamp released in May 2018.

All you need for this technique is a pencil, sandpaper, a sponge, an eraser and a stamp. And the process is very easy : 

1. Rub off some graphite of the pencil over the sandpaper.
2. Pick up the graphite with a sponge and sponge it onto your card stock
3. Stamp the image you chose on top of this sponging
4. And to finish, erase the surfaces of your image you want to be white

Easy peasy, no ?

To make my card I cut a rectangle of Strathmore Bristol and I sponged it with the graphite. I stamped the gorgeous peonies with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I also stamped them on post-it notes to use them as masks to be able to stamp the French Script Background with a light gray ink.

Then I erased the inside surface of the peonies and I used my new loved pencil brushes to colour them. If you try this technique you will notice that the choice of the paper is important. Depending on the paper, it is sometimes hard to completely make the surface white. For this card I've used Strathmore Bristol because it's a very smooth surface and I knew it's compatible with the use of the Zig Clean Colour pen brush as watercolour pencils.

Even with this smooth card stock I didn't succeed to totally erase the graphite on the peonies. But I loved the vintage look it gives mixed together with the pink watercolour that's why I went on. To finish I sponged Black Soot Distress ink on the edges of the card stock. Once everything was totally dry I sprayed a fixative to be sure that the graphite would not smear everywhere.

I adhered this panel on top of a white card stock and I stamped a birthday sentiment which comes from the Pure Florals Chrysanthemum set. I love how this card looks, the peonies really stand out over the grey background !

I hope I inspired you with this gorgeous stamp set. It completes so beautifully the Pure Florals collection. It's my new favourite and a must have !

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a fabulous day !

Izzy xx

Stencil Sunday - One Stencil Three Ways!

Hey!

I do hope you are all having a wonderful weekend, we are making the most of chill time at home before normal schedule resumes on Monday as the Christmas Holiday break comes to an end. Can you hear my cheers already as I get back 2 hours a day to work & create! 

Don't get me wrong, it has been a memorable Christmas and New Year, with lots of fun and games. However, this Mummy needs a routine again & scheduled time to work! 

Anyway, today I am introducing a new regular feature here on the blog, Stencil Sunday. With Uniko having 22 stencil designs available HERE on the website, I thought it time we give them some more inky love and air time! One Sunday a month a Design Team Member or Guest Designer will share some stencil inspiration with you. 

I'm kicking things off today using the Let it Snow stencil from the December Release and I have used it three ways, creating three cards. 

Let's have a look...

First up I decided to go colourful. I reached for my favourite Distress Oxide Inks in Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers and Fossilised Amber. I blended them through the stencil and before removing the stencil I then added some glitter paste over the top for added sparkle - yum! 

With plenty of Winter birthdays coming up, I decided to use the panel to create a clean and simple birthday card. The die cut is a Papertrey Ink die and the sentiment is from Wonderful Day, also from the December Release.

Next up I decided to dust off more of my dies, and stencilled the snowflakes through a heart shaped aperture...

Valentine's is not an occasion I go overboard on making cards for, but I thought it would make a nice congratulations card for an anniversary or similar occasion.

The sentiment from Simply Said Blocks II is stamped in SU! Real Red ink and adhered to the card using foam adhesive. 

My final card today was the result of a happy accident! I was attempting to ink through the stencil with my white pigment ink, onto a distress ink background. However, my stencil moved and ruined the piece :(

So instead of giving up (which normally I would), I decided to carry on inking the stencil and laid it inked up side down onto a piece of kraft card stock. I then laid a plain piece of printer paper over the top and smooshed down to transfer the ink. 

The result of a mottled, distressed snowflake BG was perfect to pair with my recent Snowflake Die purchase from The Stamp Market. As I am still in need of thank you cards post Christmas, I used the sentiment from Simply Said Blocks II.

That's all I have to share with you today, I hope I have inspired you a little to ink up your stencils today ;)

Thanks for stopping by & Hugs