Saturday 28 October 2023

October 2023 Release in Review, Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & Giveaway

Happy Weekend!

Welcome to our October 2023 Release in Review, Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & Giveaway. As the Brand Ambassadors didn't receive their goodies in time to join me for the October Release introductions, I thought it would be nice to have another blog hop to celebrate the release.

If you missed the original release day blog hop & formal introductions, you can catch up HERE. The giveaway is closed on that post, but to keep tradition I have another giveaway listed at the end of this post. 

Enough talk, lets get to the inspiration...




















Now for the giveaway. Simply comment along the hop for your chance to win a £20 eGift Code to spend in store. Commenting will close for the giveaway midnight GMT Sunday 5th Nov 2023 and I will randomly select a winner and announce Monday 6th Nov.

I hope you have enjoyed this revisit hop 😊 

Before you go I have one more treat in store...


Click to Read!



Crafty Hugs 


Friday 27 October 2023

12 Days of Christmas Inspiration & Giveaways - Day 6

                              

 

Hello & Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas Inspiration & Giveaways - Day 6

Every Friday, I will have a new Christmas themed card or project to share with you, along with a video showing how I made it. Plus, if you watch the video you will find out what the giveaway is and how to enter for your chance to win 😊 All the videos are HERE on the Uniko YouTube Channel.

In todays video I am giving fresh creative love to one of Uniko's unique concept stencils, Ink & Flip Christmas Star.





I've been wanting to create a shaker card using the star for a while, but being out of acetate for the standard shaker window card, it pushed me to try the full shaker cards using old thin acetate packaging.




I love how easy it was to create the shaker, a lot less time consuming with the foam tape on traditional shaker cards taking the most time! 




Be sure to head on over to YouTube HERE and watch me make a new version of the card, showing how the ink & flip stencil works AND this fun style of shaker card.

I hope you enjoy the video and don't forget you need to watch to find out about the giveaway and how to enter to be in the chance of winning. If you have any festive requests for upcoming 12 Days Of Christmas videos, please add them to the comments here or on any of Uniko's social media.

Crafty Hugs



Thursday 26 October 2023

Birthday Banner & Watercolour Splatter!

Hello & Happy Thursday.

Today I am sharing a card using Background Builders Triangulate. I realised this past weekend I haven't shown much inky love to it. I can't even remember when I last made a card using it. I had an idea in mind to create a birthday banner and this is how it turned out...





I started by stamping the smaller triangles from the set in a rainbow of colours & fussy cut them out, they are pretty easy being straight edges. 





I then stamped the the linear background builder in a wavy line to create the 'string'. It wasn't until after I had adhered the triangles using foam adhesive, that I decided I wanted to add watercolour splats. So I then had to create masks to mask off the pennants! 





To finish my card I stamped the sentiment from Birthday Sentiments in gold pigment ink. I then adhered the panel to my card base.

It was fun to use a stamp set I hadn't used for a long time, it's definitely inspired some more ideas, so I am sure you'll be seeing more soon! 

Thanks for stopping by.

Crafty Hugs 

Sunday 22 October 2023

Stencil Sunday BA Inspiration - One design Three stencils

Bonjour !

Izzy here with a Stencil Sunday for my Uniko Brand Ambassador inspiration. As my dear teamy Steph was mentioning it in her last Brand Ambassador Inspiration post, Christmas isn't all that far and I then realised that I don't have a lot of Christmas cards in my stash !

If my mojo is very low at the moment, Steph, with her gorgeous Christmas cards made me want to play with my Uniko stencils. So I took off my stash my favourite Uniko's stencil when it's about Christmas and I made this first card.


I love the In the Forest stencil, since it has been released, I have used it every year for my greeting cards. Here I used it directly on the double white card and I brushed two shades of green and a bit of black. The result was nice but I wanted even more firs. So I turned the stencil and I brushed another layer of the same inks.

On a piece of white card stock I stamped Santa from the Jolly Christmas set, I coloured it with coloured pencils and I fussy cut it. I die cut a square of Vellum paper on which I stamped and I black heat embossed the sentiment coming from the Background Builders Christmas 2018.

To finish my card I foam mounted Santa on the Vellum. I turn the Vellum and I put squares of foam tapes behind before adhering it on the card base.

As I loved how we can see through the lovely design made with the stencilling, I kept this design for my two other cards.


For this second card, I used the Winter Foliage stencil that Bev recently used for her beautiful card (see HERE). With a small brush, I applied the different colours.

On the Vellum, I stamped and I gold heat embossed the sentiment coming from the Christmas Wishes set. I stamped the foliage from the Winter Foliage set and I die cut each piece with the matching dies.

I assembled the card in the same way as the previous one.


For this last card I brushed non-traditional colours through the Let is Snow stencil to make my background. 

After looking for what I could put on the Vellum, I tried these little trees from the Background Blocks Scandinavian Christmas set.


I coloured them with Promakers, I fussy cut them and I foam mounted them on the square of Vellum on which I previously stamped and black heat embossed the sentiment from the Christmas Sentiments set.

To finish my card and to make these little trees even brighter I put some Stickles on them.

Well, that's all the Jolly, Bright and Merry I have to share with you today. Have a lovely Sunday and thank you so much for stopping by.













Friday 20 October 2023

12 Days of Christmas Inspiration & Giveaways - Day 5

               

 

Hello & Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas Inspiration & Giveaways - Day 5

Every Friday, I will have a new Christmas themed card or project to share with you, along with a video showing how I made it. Plus, if you watch the video you will find out what the giveaway is and how to enter for your chance to win 😊 All the videos are HERE on the Uniko YouTube Channel.

In todays video I am giving fresh creative love to one of my favourite Christmas / Winter themed collections, Winter Foliage. This collection includes Winter Foliage Clear Stamps, Winter Foliage Designer Dies and the Stencil - Winter Foliage. I've combined all three on my cards.




I dusted off a few supplies that mostly only come out at Christmas, ribbon and sparkly gold stencil pastes! Making a second card I changed how I made my card a little second time round to make it a little more sleek and how I intended.









And this is the version of the card I made during my video HERE.








I hope you enjoy the video and don't forget you need to watch to find out about the giveaway and how to enter to be in the chance of winning. If you have any festive requests for upcoming 12 Days Of Christmas videos, please add them to the comments here or on any of Uniko's social media.

Crafty Hugs




Thursday 19 October 2023

Autumnal Thanks & a Winner!

Hello & Happy Thursday, 

Apologies for my quietness around here and socials, its been a week of forced rest and recovery from a horrible chesty cold the Beans brought home from school and kindly shared with me and the whole family.

Anyway, luckily I made this card before I was poorly and saved it to share with you all for when I announced the winner of the October Release Blog Hop.






I've said it so many times before, but I always try to add in some smaller stamps to fill the gaps when designing stamp sets. These little accent stamps can create big impact, which I have hopefully shown on my card.

I revisited an old technique, of which the name has currently left my brain! Where you ink the stamp with a light shade and the roll the edges in a darker shade or even dap with a small blending brush. This gives aa natural looking effect to the image.




I used scotch tape to mask the section for the sentiment and then stamped the leaves. I used a variety of Concord & 9th colours with an autumnal feel. I then inked an acrylic block with a few of the colours to add watercolour splats before stamping my sentiment & accenting with two fussy cut leaves.

I've mainly used Autumn Serenade, but also the leaf from Big & Bold thank/s/ful from the October Release, which leads me on nicely to the winner.

Thank you for all the lovely comments here on the blogs and around social media, they are appreciated by us all. So with the help of random name generator, the lucky comment is...

An array of beautiful cards, Steph; each one really highlights how wonderful this new release is. I'm especially smitten with your snowflakes; a pretty wintry wonderland, indeed!
~carol


Congratulations Carol! 

Please drop me an email at bev@uniko.co.uk along with your mailing address and I will get your goodies in the post to you.


We have another Release in Review Brand Ambassador Blog Hop coming at the end of the month for another chance to win & lots more inspiration. Plus, I will be back tomorrow with Day 5 of Uniko's 12 Days of Christmas inspiration and giveaways! 


Crafty Hugs

Tuesday 17 October 2023

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Snowflakes

Good morning everyone, 

Steph here today with my Uniko Brand Ambassador Inspiration for this month. 

We seem to be having a mix of weather in the UK from heat waves to all of a sudden very cold and autumnal weather and then back to warm weather again. So I thought I'd throw in a few snowflakes just to remind us that Christmas isn't all that far away...yes I'm trying to ignore that fact too! 


My initial idea was to have three beautiful inked panels peeking through a die cut aperture of the snowflake but I really didn't like it once I had done so I resurrected the remainder of the panel and inset a beautiful silver snowflake instead. Here I have used Uniko Let It Snow stencil with white ink and Uniko Sparkling Snowflake die. The sentiment is from the Uniko Christmas Sentiments stamp set. 

My next cards are slightly different as I didn't have enough of the remaining inked panels to use as above. So I adapted the design and used the snowflakes cut from the panels instead. 



I like the patterned snowflakes against the plain card base for some CAS cards ready for Christmas. For these cards I have use Uniko Christmas Folk Snowflake stencil and Uniko In The Forest stencil.

Much love
Steph x

Friday 13 October 2023

12 Days of Christmas Inspiration & Giveaways - Day 4

                    

 

Hello & Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas Inspiration & Giveaways - Day 4

Every Friday, I will have a new Christmas themed card or project to share with you, along with a video showing how I made it. Plus, if you watch the video you will find out what the giveaway is and how to enter for your chance to win 😊 All the videos are HERE on the Uniko YouTube Channel.

This week I have a festive Mid Century Modern card to share...





It was nice to give some fresh inky love to Mid Century Modern Wreath Builder again, I don't think it has been inked since its release.




Quite a bit of fussy cutting again this week, but I spared you from watching and listening to my croaky cold voice! 





I hope you enjoy the video and don't forget you need to watch to find out about the giveaway and how to enter to be in the chance of winning. If you have any festive requests for upcoming 12 Days Of Christmas videos, please add them to the comments here or on any of Uniko's social media.

Crafty Hugs

Tuesday 10 October 2023

National Coffee Day Coffee Lovers Blog Hop Uniko Winner

 


 

Happy Tuesday!

Apologies for my lateness in announcing the winner of the National Coffee Day hop. It's been a busy time with shows and a new release.

Anyway, with the help of Random.org a winner from all the lovely comments left has been selected and I am pleased to announce the winner of the...




is...

I love that sentiment and love the colors . Thank you ! Happy Coffee Day!

Congratulations Lee! I have sent you an email.

Before I go I have a new card to share with you as I fancied pairing the NEW Autumn Serenade with I LOVE Coffee and this is how it turned out...





I started by stamping the main swirling leaves from Autumn Serenade in a selection of Concord & 9th inks, Spiced Cider, Sunflower, Stardust, Avocado, Artichoke, Wheat and Nutmeg. I used my MISTI to blend and repeat stamp to get a nice autumnal coverage. I then added a sentiment strip and the coffee cup from I LOVE Coffee, adorned with a leaf.





That's all from me today.

Crafty Hugs


Saturday 7 October 2023

October 2023 NEW Release, Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

Hello, Happy Saturday, Happy World Card Making Day AND Happy New Release Day!

Wow! Could the weekend be any better? 

I hope you have enjoyed my introductions this week and I'm super excited to share these new products with you. They will be available to purchase at 9pm BST tonight HERE on the website.

But, let me first formally introduce them. 

First we have the next addition to the BIG & BOLD series with BIG & BOLD thank/s/ful. This set is super versatile, making two large sentiments. But you can make a third when you pair it with BIG & BOLD You.

The set also features a two step leaf in both solid and outline form along with a variety of accent sentiments. 




BIG & BOLD thank/s/ful  £11
Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date


Next we have Autumn Serenade. 



Autumn Serenade £11
Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

The large swirling stamp has been calling for this autumnal look for a while now and linking it to BIG & BOLD thank/s/ful with the same leaf image makes it even more versatile. Like other clear stamp sets in the Serenade series, it features mix and match sentiments, along with lots of fun accent stamps. 

Keeping with an autumnal seasonal feel and upcoming Armistice Day I am delighted to add Uniko's version of poppies to the floral line up. Though it has lots more creative potential.



Remembrance £11
Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date


Lastly, but by no means least we have the next addition to the Framed Series with Framed - Snowflakes. It was time to add more snowflakes to the Uniko line up and I think this makes the perfect addition. 



Framed - Snowflakes £11
Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

And now we have the formal introductions done, let's get to more inspiration using them. Be sure to leave some comments love either on their blogs or social media. You have until midnight Saturday 14th October 2023 to comment and then I will be randomly selecting a winner to win the entire release.


 Anita


Bev


Izzy



Julie 







I hope you have enjoyed this release 😊

Crafty Hugs