You're Going to Flip - Brand Ambassador Release Day Blog Hop & Giveaway!

Happy Weekend! 

I do hope you've enjoyed You're Going to Flip Week here on the blog and you're as excited about this new stencil, as I am 😃 It is now available HERE on the website to purchase and if you are coming to Stamping Together in Port Sunlight today, I will have stock with me. I will also be doing a LIVE demo on the How To Craft Network using this stencil. The live is recorded and I will share it once it is available in case you miss it. 

Anyway, back to this fun stencil...

This is designed like the previously released Ink & Flip Geometric Heart Layering Stencil. In that you can use each layer individually or use them together. 

Let's have a look at some more inspiration from the team. 

Be sure to comment along the hop for your chance to win a Flippin' Good Prize! Commenting to win will close midnight BST Sunday 28th April 2024 and I will announce the winner on the blog 29th April. 

Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie

Steph

Thank you so much for joining us this week, for all the lovely comments and support. 

Crafty Hugs

You're Going to Flip - Introducing Ink & Flip Geometric Butterfly Layering Stencil

Hello & Welcome to You're Going to Flip Week! 

It's been such a fun week on the blog, I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. Today though, I am super excited as we finally get to introduce you to the NEW Ink & Flip Geometric Butterfly Layering Stencil. 

So let's get straight to the hop...

Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie

Steph

Wow! I absolutely LOVE seeing how the Brand Ambassadors use new products. They always think of things I haven't thought of! 

This new stencil will be available on the website HERE tomorrow at 9am BST and I hope you will join us here on the blog for our usual Brand Ambassador Release Day Blog Hop & Giveaway.

Crafty Hugs

Uniko Sponsors - Passion For Markers

Hello & Happy FriYAY! 

First Friday of the month and the last few days of the school holidays for The Beans. Hence why I have been a little quiet here on the blog. I have been working around them! But it's been mainly admin and packing lovely orders, thank you 😊

So, I am a little late with sharing this, but Uniko is the proud sponsor of Passion For Markers challenge, seen HERE. 

The theme is New Beginnings and I decided to make a New Year card, simply because it is a New Year and here's what I created...

As you can see it isn't your 'usual' New Year card. So why did I choose the butterfly from English Country Garden? 

Butterflies are a powerful symbolism of growth and new beginnings and to me I wanted a simple but powerful and positive start to this new year. Plus I knew it would look pretty in these shades of peach and hint of aqua! Totally inspired by Pantone Color of The Year - Peach Fuzz.

I used Stampin' Up Blends in Calypso Coral and Bermuda Bay (Light) for simple colouring to my die cut butterfly. I adhered using foam tape and added a few Oceanside enamel dots around the sentiment from Christmas Sentiments. 

There is still time to join in the challenge for your chance to win a Uniko prize. Check out and enter HERE.

Crafty Hugs

June 2021 Stencil Release Sneak Peeks

 Hello & Happy Wednesday! 

Today is a fun and exciting day at Uniko as I get to show you some sneak peeks at some NEW Uniko Stencils that will be joining the growing collection. There are no clear stamps being released this month, BUT you won't have long to wait as there is another release coming in July! 

Anyway, lets get to these sneak peeks...

First up we have the next addition to the Pure Florals Stencils. A few people guessed right with the flower when I shared a peek a while back on my Instagram stories! I'm excited to be building this series in stencil format as I feel it breathes fresh inky life to the stamp sets.

Next up I couldn't resist a new geometric design...

You know how I love a good geometric for masculine cards! Plus they always pair nicely with florals too. So many fun options with this new stencil.

Lastly for this mini stencil release I have bundled these last two peeks together, as that is how they will be sold as a bundle purchase...

You might recognise this too from a popular clear stamp set. I really don't know why it has taken me so long to bring this combination to the stencil range! I have had SO much fun playing with this combination and pairing the with the stamps ;)

Be sure to pop by tomorrow as myself and my awesome Brand Ambassadors start the introductions. Oh, the prettiness and inspiration over the next few days is amazing! 

All will be available for purchase HERE on the website Sunday 20th June at 9am BST. 

Crafty Hugs

 

Mini Uniko Logo Stencil - Guest Designer Tara Cardwell

 Happy Saturday! 

Did you see that the Mini Uniko Logo Stencil that was the FREE gift for our 9th Birthday celebrations is NOW available to purchase on the website HERE.

Today I have a Guest Designer joining us with some inspiration using this mini stencil. Please give a warm welcome to Tara Cardwell one of the lovely owners of my favourite craft stores, Seven Hills Crafts! 

Hello Everyone, Tara here. I've been playing with the new floral stencil today but when I saw it, I saw not a flower, but a butterfly - and here's how I did it.

I die cut a circle from cream card and taped the stencil in place and used a detail blending tool to ink in shades of brown, red, orange and yellow to give a sort of "red admiral" feel.

Once I was happy with my first stencil shading, I took it off, cleaned it, flipped it over to get a mirror image and inked again with the same colours.   That left me with the following "wings" and a couple of brown bits in the middle.   I used the brown bits to help me pencil draw a thorax to connect the wings.  I then just used a couple of markers to shade the thorax.   I drew the antenae with a brown fine liner but a brown pencil would work too.

To give more butterfly like detail I added a few dots of stickles in red and crystal.  

I mounted the circle onto a square kraft base card and used more crystal stickles to add a flight trail and then stamped a sentiment either side of the trail using stamps from Big & Bold Happy to finish the card.

Hope that gives you some ideas how to stretch yours stash beyond the original design!

I hope you have enjoyed todays feature and a big THANK YOU to Tara for inspiring us all. 

Crafty Hugs

 

DT inspiration - Getting inspired with challenges

Bonjour !

Izzy here. I hope you are all well after this summer break. Here, a new school year has just started last Monday and so the weekly routine too !

Anyway, I had some time to play in my craft room and today I wanted to share with you the cards I made with the English Country Garden : Butterflies set and its matching dies.

Last month I showed you how I get inspired by the things that surrounded me. This time, for my choices of designs and/or colours, I've been inspired by several currently underway challenges. It's a game I love to play with : to combine several challenges together.

The idea of my first card comes from the Time Out challenge and the word "Rainbow" in their quote...

I stamped all the butterflies in different colours and I cut them with the matching die. Then I place them on my card. Once happy with their placement, I fixed them together with masking tape doing a grid that I placed in my Big Shot with an oval die on top. 

With the masking tape, all the little bits stay attached so I turned them upside down to put adhesive foam behind. Once all covered, I placed them back on the double white card, pressing a little bit to be sure they all adhered well. Then I took off the masking tape and I cut along the edges the parts that go beyond.

The sentiment comes from the Beautiful set.

This results in the second card with the remaining parts of the cutout of the first card...

For this card the sentiment comes from the Simply Said II set.

For my third card I get inspired by the AAA Cards sketch and the colours of the Addicted to CAS challenge...

Once again the butterflies were stamped and cut with the matching die, then I adhered them with glue dots. The sentiment comes from the Flower Power #8 set

My last card is a combo of the Freshly made Sketch and the Colour Throwdown challenges...

For this card, I used the Pure Florals : Peony set to make part of the sketch. I stamped the peony in dark blue over an an iridescent cream card. And this time I used the bigger butterfly of the set.

I stamped it with Versafine blue ink over the same iridescent cream cardstock. The only colours I had in my stash to match the ones of Colour Throwdown were Distress inks. So I tried to use them on this paper as watercolour. And I'm so happy they reacted perfectly with this kind of paper and it even gives a beautiful shimmer to the colours.

You may have a better look on this picture...

For this card, I used a sentiment from the Simply Said Blocks set. 

Et voilà ! That's another way to get inspired for making cards. You will find more details on the inks used on my blog. 

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

CAS Colours & Sketches #283 - The Double!

Hey!

This week over at CAS Colour & Sketches is Timeless Tuesday, AKA The Double! Our hostess for July is Jeanne and she has come up with this sketch and colour combo seen HERE and below, to inspire your card making...

And this is how I have combined the two...

I've been thinking about activities and outings with The Beans over the holidays and with their obsession with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, I was thinking of taking them to Butterfly World down the road from us. This got me to having butterflies on the brain and with English Country Garden Butterflies clear stamp recently coming back in stock, I thought I would give my set some inky love!

The colours are nice that they can be adapted to a variety of themes and I opted to use a Pretty Pink Posh Scalloped die to resemble the garland part of the sketch. I added a little bit of dimension to the scalloped layer and to the butterfly, but using 1mm thick foam adhesive doesn't make it overly bulky. 

The sentiment is from Simply Said and I also added a light covering of clear Wink of Stella to the butterfly. Hopefully this will add little cheer to someones day this week when I get it in the mail and let them know that I am thinking of them :)

Anyway, the CC&S Design Team have created more awesome inspiration to share with you, so hop on over HERE to see and also find all the challenge details & link up!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Hugs

My Five Faves From Year 5 of Uniko

Hey!

I'm here today to share my last five faves from year 5 of Uniko, I've really enjoyed this little birthday celebration feature and I hope you have too?! Though I am a little sad it has come to an end, I am also a little happy, because that means tomorrow is February Release Sneak Peek time - Whoop Whoop!

Anyway, let's see what I have chose to share with you today...

I LOVE Tea and Beautiful Blooms III go hand in hand, as you can hopefully see by the card above. They were designed and released at the same time and I just love this card and how it showcases both the clear stamp sets. It makes me long for warmer weather too! 

I can't believe I haven't chosen a butterfly card to share as one of my faves yet! So when I came across this one I HAD to add it today! English Country Garden - Butterflies clear stamp set, in a beautiful rainbow of colour. This card makes my heart happy :)

Next I have a Marvellous Mehndi card to share...

When I released this clear stamp set last year and even though it was designed to an emerging and  growing trend this year, I really wasn't sure how customers would respond to it. I was delighted and overwhelmed with the response to it along with the rest of the Sept/Oct 2016 release :)

I couldn't do a five faves without adding a Bob the Toucan card, which also features the Hibiscus flower and leaves from Paradise clear stamp set. Another set partially designed at Uni and partially designed prior to our Wedding announcement.

Lastly, but by no means least my final favourite features Winter Foliage, another popular clear stamp set from the Sept/Oct 2016 release. I chose this card because of how CAS it is, you know I love CAS and this turned out just the way I had envisioned it to :)

Well, that wraps up my Five Faves from year 1 to year 5. What an amazing five years it has been, thanks to YOU! Without YOU I wouldn't enjoy what I do so much. Your love, support and understanding (even more so now) as I juggle day to day life with Uniko and two crazy beans means SO much to me. 

THANK YOU!

I do hope you will join me tomorrow, we've LOTS going on?! First we kick off the February Release with some Sneak Peeks?! Then, I've another little FREEBIE for you all ;)

See you soon!

Hugs

Aloha Butterfly!

Aloha!

I'm popping by today, all be it later than I had planned with another card using the NEW Uniko Release stamps! This time I have combined them with another older set, English Country Garden - Butterflies...

I though I would use my sketch over at CAS Colours & Sketches HERE and seen below again. There is still plenty of time to enter the challenge this week, I'd love to see you in the gallery ;)

Another quick and CAS card, the tag is stamped with the solid hibiscus flower and stem using SU! Summer Sun and Melon Mambo. The butterfly is stamped in VersaFine Onyx Black and selectively coloured using my SU! Markers. I added a good covering of Wink Of Stella to the butterfly too ;)

As the Aloha! challenge is still going on over HERE at Addicted to CAS, I thought I'd enter in over there again too. 

That's not quite all from me today, I have one more card to share over HERE with this weeks Stamp Of The Week. Yep, I am finally back into the swing of things and have a few cards lined up this week over on the website blog.

Thanks for stopping by today, I will be back tomorrow with more to share.

CAS Colours & Sketches #176

Hey!

I'm excited to say that for this month over at CAS Colours & Sketches I am the hostess, which means I have picked the colour combos and drawn the sketches to *hopefully* inspire you all. I do hope you like them and I really look forward to seeing you join in :)

Ok, so it's the first of the month which means it's a colour challenge. I think I have started things off with a pretty fun and simple combination...

With Summer just around the corner (for some of us & supposedly us in the UK!) I thought florally inspired combination would be fun.

Though I decided to go with butterflies for my card...

This set English Country Garden Butterflies is due back in stock over the weekend (available for pre order now along with other clear stamp sets) and so I thought I would dust my set off and give it some love.

I was also inspired by the current Freshly Made Sketches sketch seen HERE and below for the layout of my card. 

Iv'e been wanting to get some more ink blending practice in and so I masked a rectangle off and started blending the Rose Red to Blushing Bride and then to So Saffron, going back & forth between the colours blending until I was happy with the result! I still need a little more practice I think but I am enjoying the results.

The butterfly is stamped in VersaMark onto vellum and heat embossed with detail white embossing powder. After I fussy cut the butterfly out I decided to add some Wink of Stella to it for a little subtle sparkle. The sentiment also from the set is stamped in VersaFine Onyx Black ink.

I do apologise for being absent on the blogs recently, just when I think I am getting back into the swing of things I come down with a hacking cough and snuffles :( It's half term too which means all the playgroups we go to are closed and it's been a tough week keeping the beans entertained! 

Ok, that's all from me today, I do hope you will pop by the CAS Colours & Sketches blog HERE to check out the rest of the Design Team & Guest Designer Fiona's inspiration. I look forward to seeing you in the gallery & have fun!