Stencil Sunday - Patchwork Bauhaus Christmas Blocks

Happy Sunday. 

Today I have a fun card to share with you that I also created in a video and shared over on the Uniko YouTube Channel today HERE.

Recently I have seen quite a few patchwork style designs while browsing Pinterest and I had a fun idea to create a card in this style and use the new Stencil - Layering Bauhaus Christmas Blocks in the design. 

Here's how the finished card turned out. 

Fun, isn't it? 

I had no idea how this card would turn out, but I just went for it and I think there is so many ways you could develop this card design. For example you could add the images from the stencil to inch squares cut out and added with dimension or add tone on tone patterns to the coloured squares incorporating the original Stencil - Layering Bauhaus Blocks. 

Just a little heads up in case you've not seen the Uniko newsletter, social media or don't watch the video straight away...

Check back tomorrow for more inspiration and some Bank Holiday Bargains over on the website!

Crafty Hugs

March Meet The Maker - Colour 🌈

Happy Wonderful Wednesday. 

Today on March Meet The Maker, it's all about colour. 

I love 💕 colour and I find it really hard to choose a single favourite, so I love the  🌈  instead! However, I thought it would be fun to share a few of my favourite cards that I've made fairly recently, and a few from the archives that I think show my use of colour.

Products Used - Ink & Flip Stencil Layering Hexagon & Simply Said Blocks III

As you will see, I love a white background. Personally I think this helps colours pop, especially brights. Here I used lots of my go to colours, raspberry pink, orange, yellow, green, turquoise and bright blue. 

Products Used - Stencil - Layering Bauhaus Blocks, Christmas Pop & Simply Said Blocks Christmas

Not only do I love bright colours, I love pairing them with fun geometric designs and one of my favourite paper crafting techniques, spotlighting. 

One of my aims when I started Uniko was to bring more creative and fun designs that could be used for masculine cards. 

Everything I saw here in the UK, to me seemed to be so 'traditional' with images of sports, wood work and cars. Whilst there is nothing wrong with those types of images on stamps I used to use them, but they didn't spark creativity other than different colouring mediums and techniques. 

The colours I remember them in being muted shades of blues and browns and maybe a few greens. All colours I love but they just didn't give the WOW factor! 

Products Used - Background Blocks Linear & Mid Century Modern Frames

Driven by my love of pattern and design history, I've channeled this into some of my most popular collections like the Mid Century Modern & Art Deco. 

Simple lines and geometrics provide the tools for funky designs and are perfect for a splash of bright cheerful colours. 

Products Used - Background Blocks Mid Century Modern, Mid Century Modern Florals & Stencil - Mid Century Modern Circles & Stars

These next couple of cards are from the Uniko archives! My three 'go to' colours, raspberry pink, aqua/turquoise and yellow. 

Those who have been round here for sometime know I have an ink pad addiction. A new brand of inks that  have a rainbow of colours, I will give them a whirl. And I always start with these three colours as they work so well together! 

Products Used - Pure Florals Cosmos

Yes, I used a tiny bit of green to for the stems. I never used to be a lover of greens but over recent years I use it a lot more.

Lastly for today I couldn't resist a rainbow colour card.

Products Used - Background Blocks Halftone, Background Builders Round In Circles, English Country Garden Butterflies & Simply Said.

What's your favourite colour or colour combination? 

I apologise for not having anything new to share today, I've had my head down designing newness all day and I am rather excited about what I've been up to! 

I'll be back tomorrow with more to share.

Crafty Hugs

12 Days Of Christmas Inspiration & Giveaways - Day 10 Framed Fairy Lights

 

 Hello & Happy Tuesday.

Today I am bringing the light and the colours to hopefully brighten your day. I thought it was only right that I used another clear stamp set from the Uniko November Release, Framed - Fairy Lights. It deserves to shine and be in the limelight!

For my card today I wanted to show the lights used without the frame. I simply stamped the framed lights onto a smaller panel, heat embossed with my favourite sparkly EP Stardust and mat layered the panel onto black card. 

I coloured the lights with a rainbow of alcohol markers and added a sentiment from Festive Sentiments Outlined. I coloured the sentiment with a black fine liner and adhered to the card using foam tape for impact and dimension.

Question for you here on the blog, can you spot how many lights I missed adding colour to? You'll have to look carefully as with the loops of wire they are hard to spot! 

Today's prize is Framed - Fairy Lights and Festive Sentiments Outlined. 

I am still having technical issues and need my husband's help again with my video for today, so it'll be uploaded this evening when he gets home from work! 

Crafty Hugs

Back In Stock!

Happy Monday!

I'm delighted to say that our popular and highly requested Stencil - Layering Bauhaus Blocks is back in stock 🙌🏻 Thank you for all the lovely backorders, they are winging their way to you today.

Restocks always inspire me to create, so I have a new card to inspire you all too, this is what I came up with.

I used the current Color Throwdown colours for my card as they totally inspired me, you can see them HERE and below. 

My use of aqua is minimal, but I think the enamel dots are quite the little accent in amongst the bold trio of colours. I think the card has a very Autumnal feel with these colours.

I had planned to incorporate one of the Bauhaus Blocks inside the die cut window, but instead I opted for the Happy Wishes sentiment from Mid Century Modern Wreath Builder. 

That's all I have to share today, back to packing lovely orders and LOTS of show prep for Lincoln on Sunday! 

Thanks for stopping by.

Crafty Hugs

PEACE, LOVE, JOY

Hello & Happy Monday!

I'm starting the week off with another festive card and one that uses and combines non-traditional Christmas products.

I love alphabet stamps and of course our Alphabet Outlined, but it is often a clear stamp set I easily forget about and neglect. But it's such a versatile stamp set and one maybe I should keep in mind more often. I was thinking about how I could incorporate the alphabet on my card and as I often do, I started browsing through Christmas cards I've made previously to spark inspiration. 

I came across this one using Festive Sentiments Outlined and Peace on Earth HERE and seen below. 

And this is how I took the inspiration and came up with something new...

A colourful and eclectic mix of Uniko products! With the alphabet stamps being a larger scale I first needed to change the orientation of my card from portrait to landscape. I then divided my card panel into 3, lightly drawing lines with a pencil to keep my stamping as straight as possible! 

Once I'd stamped the words, I set the panel aside to dry while I stamped the dove from Peace on Earth and the heart from BIG & BOLD Love. I fussy cut them both out and added some glitter using a glue pen. 

I then went back to my words, used an eraser to remove the pencil lines and coloured the letters with Stampin' Up! Blend Markers. Before assembling my card I stamped the tiny string of lights from BIG & BOLD Merry on the ends of JOY.

I then adhered the panel to my base card using foam tape and added the dove and heart with foam tape as well. To finish I added some colourful Nuvo Drops to the Christmas lights. 

This was a fun to make and was a great way of stretching some non-Christmas products. Now I am thinking about other words and combinations! What words would you choose for a Christmas card using this layout/style? 

Hope your week has started well.

Crafty Hugs

Slimline Thank you!

Happy Saturday.

Autumn is here, I love the change in season. The cozy nights, the crisp air & change in colours. But I am still all for the bright rainbow colours!

With The Beans out for the day with their grandparents, I've been in the studio preparing for the Autumn & Winter season, but I also had some creative time. It's been a while since I used this set, so decided to ink up the Just Because clear stamps to create a rainbow slimline card. 

I enjoyed inking, stamping & fussy cutting to build this card. But dies are definitely on the mind for this set! 

I used Concord & 9th Ballet Slipper, Honeysuckle, Buttercup, Aqua Sky and Oceanside. I then added a the Thank You sentiment from Everyday Sentiments and finished off with some sparkly clear Nuvo Drops. 

What's coming up?

October sees a fresh batch of show prep with the Stamping Together show in Port Sunlight first on October 8th, just 2 weeks away! 

This is one of my favourite shows and I can't wait to get back & see some of you there. AND I am excited to have a little giveaway for one of you to win.

WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS TO ENTER THE SHOW

AND 

£10 spend at the Uniko* stand! 

Simply comment on this post here on the blog, Instagram or Facebook. I will choose a lucky random winner from those left across the platforms next Saturday 1st October 2022. 

* The £10 spend is gifted by myself as a little extra. Please only comment to win if you are able to attend the show. The winners name will be given to the show organisers to enter for free.

You can purchase tickets HERE too.

THEN...

Sunday 9th October 2022 Uniko will be 'almost' on home turf at Newcastle again for Stamperama! All the details and ticket purchase can be found HERE. 

On Sunday 16th October I will be demoing on the Dies to Die For stand at Stamp Magic in Doncaster. There will be a small selection of Uniko products available to purchase on their stand. 

A busy, but exciting month ahead! So watch this space for a bunch of restocks arriving next week.

I think that is all I have to share. Thanks for stopping by.

Crafty Hugs

Uniko Super Sunday Guest Brand Ambassador - Anita from Neet & Crafty

Happy Sunday & Happy Last Day of January! 

I don't know about you, but January has been the longest year ever! So I am super pleased to welcome a new month tomorrow AND Uniko's Birthday month. 

But before we get to that I have a super duper, inspirational Guest Brand Ambassador joining us on the blog today. Please give a warm Uniko welcome to Anita from Neet & Crafty...

Hi There, 

I’m Anita (Neet or Neets), and for those that don’t know me, I live in Torquay in South Devon.  I have always been creative, enjoying art and cross stitch from a young age, and then in 2005 I purchased my first cardmaking kit and that was it, I was hooked!  I began just making cards for friends and family and, as my hobby evolved, I then discovered the fabulous online crafting community.  I wanted to become part of it so in 2013 I created my blog, Neet & Crafty, and that’s when I discovered so many wonderful craft and stamp companies, Uniko being one of them.  I’ve loved watching Bev’s business grow (as well as my Uniko collection!) and have so much admiration for what she has achieved, while also bringing up her lovely twins.

Thanks so much, Bev, for inviting me to be featured in your Super Sunday Guest Designer Spot…what an honour!

I’ve made a little selection of feel good cards that hopefully inspire, these including the themes of love and friendship.  I hope you like them.

For this first sweet card I combined stamps from Background Builders Classics and Simply Said.  I die cut a heart window first in my upper panel and then marked the area on the card base that would show through the aperture, masked it off then stamped the various border designs in varying shades of pink.  The sentiment was heat embossed in white to show through the raised panel.

For these two love themed cards I used the Large Scattered Polka Hearts background stamp and sentiments from the You Are…Sentiments Outlined set.

For the first I heat embossed the background hearts in white and used emboss resist to blend over the top with Distress Oxides in a diagonal gradient.  I then used a vellum wrap with the sentiment heat embossed in white.

The next is a similar design but in reverse.  I used my MISTI to stamp the polka hearts multiple times, creating a gradient of pale to deep pink.  Here I heat embossed the sentiment on a die cut heart from black cardstock and popped it up on 3D foam.

My next make used the gorgeous Bee Happy stamp set.  I adhered some honeycomb/hexagon patterned paper to the lower half of my card base and then die cut an angled stitched edge from my upper panel.  This was then stamped in black, grey and honey shades using various stamps all from the same set, with a little Copic colouring on the bee.

This selection of Uniko creations wouldn’t be complete without using one of the Flower Power sets, and here I’ve combined blooms from Flower Power #2 with leaves from Natures Treasures II and the sentiment from Hello Lovely.  I used really bright summer colours here, started with the leaves and then stamped and die cut the flowers, using their co-ordinating dies, before adhering them in a cluster on glue dots.  The stamped sentiment and some vertical score lines finished off this one layer card.

I chose stamps from Just Because, Beautiful and Hello Lovely for this friend card.  On a pale green panel I stamped the same image in different orientations both in green and also heat embossed in white.  The sentiment was heat embossed on a green strip and a further smaller strip adhered on 3D foam.

It wasn’t until I was making these that I realised how much the flower stem from the You Are, Yes You set resembled the flower in my blog logo!  I combined it here with the Background Builders Pinstripe II stamp and the sentiment from Originally Organic Additions.  I stamped the flower in a pale ink before colouring and then masking it to stamp the pinstripes.  With the stem stamp still in my MISTI, I then restamped it over the original image before heat embossing in white. 

WOW! 

Well, I don't know about you, but I was blown away by Anita's creativity. Isn't this just a stunning line up of Uniko goodness?  

Thank you SO much Anita for being our Super Sunday Guest Brand Ambassador.

Stencil Sunday - Colourful Wonky Stripes & Striking Silhouettes

Happy Sunday & welcome to another Stencil Sunday!

I'm not gonna lie, this past week has been a tough one, lockdown life has been a struggle and I am trying to keep up the positivity and battle through. Finding some mojo to create has been hard, but this afternoon I forced myself to come in my studio and make something.

It actually felt good and I was happy when two of my favourite challenges could be combined to make one CAS card! First I used CAS Colours & Sketches HERE for my colour inspiration and then AAA Cards HERE for my one layer & product choice! 

These colours are so cheerful and I chose to ink up the Stencil - Wonky Stripes with them. I used a little bit of masking to ink up each of the individual lines and then used my MISTI to stamp the foliage silhouette from Happy Days. 

The sentiment is also from Happy Days and I think it is rather appropriate for these current times. I've decided to schedule in 30 minutes each day, dedicated purely to creating a card and having that 'me time' in my happy place.

That's all from me today, time for me to go and get my two not so little monkeys to go to sleep! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are all hanging in there too.

Crafty Hugs Bev x

CAS Colours & Sketches #277 - Colours

Hey!

Welcome back to week 3 of June. This month at CAS Colours & Sketches and Wei is our hostess.  This week HERE Wei has a fun colour combo to inspire your card making...

Here's how I used them...

As usual I am running late, it seems to be the story of my life at the moment! I made my card using the CAS(E) this Sketch! sketch seen HERE and below, as I was inspired by all the stars on the sketch! 

It seemed the perfect match of sketch, colours and stamps, as the card came together surprisingly quick! I used Background Builders: Seeing Stars and a sentiment from Simply Said Blocks II.

That's all from me today, I hope thatI have inspired you to join in on the challenge?! If you need a little more inspiration, pop on over HERE to see what the CC&S Design Team have created.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs