[Uniko Studio Challenge] No. 8 - Guest Designer Laura Elliot

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

Hello all,
I am very humbled to be acting as Guest Designer for Uniko Studio following my challenge win last month for my vintage card. I can tell you, my Mum is so excited about receiving it for Mother’s Day! I was really surprised when I checked to see who had won and found it was my card.  I thought all the other cards entered were amazing and so did not expect that I would be given the top spot. 

I’m loving the new format of the Uniko Challenges, aren’t you? There is just so much to inspire you – a picture, a colour palette and a phrase too – we are spoiled for choice. I just love seeing how people can interpret the same stimuli in so many different ways.

So now on to this month’s challenge. I adored the colour palette we were given. Together with the floral picture, it really gave me that fresh spring feeling. 

I have to say, I was feeling very nervous about Guest Designing – I am a relative newbie in the world of card making and so it feels like everything is a learning curve….perhaps even the most seasoned crafters may still feel this too. I can’t tell you how many card ideas I started and then scrapped, and then went back to when the next idea failed too….eventually I returned to my very initial idea. They do say to go with your first instincts don’t they!! After seeing the gorgeous cards of inspiration by the Design Team, I felt the pressure was on to create something half as wonderful! I really hope you feel I have succeeded in that.

My very first Uniko Studio purchase was the Pure Florals: Chrysanthemums stamps and they have become so very special to me because of the recognition I have had for cards made using them – my vintage card included. I decided therefore that I owed it to them to use them again for my Guest Design spot card.

I decided to use both blues and greens in my design. The thing that really caught my eye in the photo was the really defined green lines on the white flower and I knew that the Chrysanthemum flower stamped in green would be a prefect representation of this. As well as this stamp I also made use of the Bright Butterflies Dies, Bright Butterflies accent stamp in order to create the look of lace ribbon and finally, a sentiment  from All Occasion Sentiments 1.

So here is my card to share with you all.....

I really hope I have given at least one of you some inspiration to join in with this challenge. Even if you don’t own any Uniko Studio stamp sets or designer dies (you really must buy some because they are truly amazing), you can still join in using some of the fantastic free digital downloads.

I would like to appeal especially to anyone who has maybe not dabbled all that much in card making yet. I was in the exact same position just 6 months or so ago and it really was by looking at such amazing blogs as Uniko Studio that I was inspired to dip my toe in the water and am now fully addicted. I started off with just one Uniko Studio stamp set and now I am gradually working my way through buying up the whole collection.

Have a try, look at the layouts others use, think outside the box and above all, have fun. I find card making so very relaxing (when it goes well!!) and I hope you will too. As you begin to get more confident, so too will your creativity.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at Uniko Studio for allowing me this amazing opportunity to Guest Design for them and I would like to thank those of you who have written such lovely comments about my cards. I hope to return the favour to as many of you as possible.

Good luck everyone and I am so excited to see all of your gorgeous entries.

Laura xx

Resources used:
Stamps – Pure Floral: Chrysanthemums, Bright Butterflies, All Occasion Sentiments 1 (all Uniko Studio)
Dies – Bright Butterflies (Uniko Studio),  Xcut Square Parenthesis dies
Ink –  Memento Summer Sky, Papermania seafoam white EP
Cardstock – Smooth Ivory (Papermill Direct), Blues, navy and green cardstocks from stash

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