Countdown to Christmas - Wednesday WINNER!

 Happy Wednesday!

I'm here today to announce the WINNER of the Cracking Christmas Prize from THIS blog post here! If you snooze you loose so they say ;) The odds were really good for these lucky entrants.

Anyway, without further ado, random number generator on Google selected No.10 as the winning entry. 

Congratulations too Dee Earnshaw!

Dee, please send an email to bev@uniko.co.uk along with your postal address so that I can get your goodies on their way to you.

Thank you to all who entered the giveaway, your continued support, comments & love here at Uniko are much appreciated. There is another chance to WIN Uniko goodies on Saturday with our 2020 Christmas Party, so be sure to stop by & join in on the fun.

Before I go today I do have a quick wintery Christmas card to share with you...

I'm still dreaming of that white Christmas! I was organising some of my non Uniko stencils and came across the MFT Square Extraordinaire stencil and decided to have a play with it. I used Distress Oxide Speckled Egg to ink through the stencil and then before removing the stencil I stamped the Background Block Falling Snowflakes over the top with the same colour.

The large snowflakes and sentiment are from Stunning Snowflakes and I stamped them in Altenew Dark Night ink. I finished the snowflakes off with a little White Blizzard Nuvo Drops to the centres. 

I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday! 

Crafty Hugs Bev x

Countdown to Christmas - Two For Tuesday

 Happy Tuesday! 

Welcome to Day 9 of Uniko's Countdown to Christmas :) 

Today I have my usual 'Two for Tuesday' cards. This time I have used the same main stamp and I have gone for one traditional Christmas colour scheme and one modern Christmas. Let's have a look. 

First up is my traditional colour scheme, green, red with a hint of white. I've had this gold embossed Framed - Holly since release day and I fancied having a go at filling my usual card size with equal spacing around all the edges.

For this I simply trimmed my stamped & embossed panel in two! I've then creatively hidden the divide with some ribbon and added my sentiment to a die cut label. With adding this extra detail and sentiment focal point I have not added any further colour or embellishment to the holly design.

My next card is my modern Christmas colours, rainbow! I have been wanting to do this after I made one of the release day cards. I feel it really pairs well with the 'Have a Holly Jolly Christmas' sentiment from Christmas Wishes!

I stamped my Framed - Holly in VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink and coloured the holly leaves with a rainbow selection of Copic Markers. 

A fairly quick card to make depending on how fast you are at colouring and how many distractions you get while colouring, LOL! 

That's all from me today, it's a little quieter in the studio now that I am fully caught up on posting lovely orders and prizes :) Which reminds me, there is just NINE hours or so until the WIN it WEDNESDAY Giveaway HERE. Be sure to link up your name and enter. 

I will be back tomorrow with more to share, until then, thank you for stopping by today. 

Crafty Hugs Bev x

Countdown to Christmas Day 7 - Merry Monday!

 Happy Monday!

Welcome to day 7 of the Uniko Countdown to Christmas. Today I am in a Merry mood as I feel like I am almost caught up on various things in the studio & with Christmas! So I am following suit with my Merry mood and sharing some BIG & BOLD Merry Christmas cards with you...

My first card is super CAS and is really easy to make when you have a stamping platform, so even though it looks time consuming, it isn't. It is a design easy to mass produce and with the Altenew layering ink collections, the colour varieties are easy and effortless too!

For this card I used Rouge, Crimson & Velvet from the Red Sunset ink collection and I also stamped and embossed the last Velvet layer with my favourite Stardust embossing powder. The layers of coloured card are what I had in my scrap box and they match the ink colours really well.

For my next card I again went CAS and this time with a non-traditional colour scheme. The BIG & BOLD Merry is stamped in Aqualicious ink from the Altenew Sweet Dreams collection. The coloured card stock layer is Concord & 9th Aqua Sky.

I drew two pencil lines to be able to stamp the little string of lights from the set and then used Nuvo Drops in pastel shades to colour the baubles.

That's all from me today, but I hope you're having a Merry Monday! I will be back again tomorrow with more to share.

Crafty Hugs Bev x

Countdown to Christmas Day 6 - Stencil Sunday!

 Happy Sunday! 

Welcome to day 6 of the Uniko Countdown to Christmas. Stencil Sunday is long overdue and so what better way to get back into the regular feature than with a Festive Stencil Sunday? Today I am giving some fresh inky love to the Stencil - In The Forest and also the NEW Stencil - Christmas Pop Trio.

Surprisingly, as I have not been a huge lover of the colour green in the past, I am absolutely loving this green & white combo this year and incorporating this fun bitty polka dot ribbon!

When it comes to using stencils I keep things pretty simple! For this first card I inked through the In The Forest stencil with Altenew Hunter Green ink, I wanted it to be a slightly light shade than the ribbon for a little bit of contrast.

Before I removed the stencil I then used my VersaMark ink pad to ink over the top of the green ink so that I could then emboss the trees with sparkly Stardust Embossing powder.

The sentiment is from the NEW Christmas Wishes clear stamp set, which I have popped up with some 1mm thick foam adhesive. The bow makes this card a little bulkier, so I think it will be a hand delivered card ;)

This lead me onto my second card for today combining In The Forest with the striped Christmas tree from the NEW Stencil - Christmas Pop Trio. 

This time I masked off a section to ink the background of In The Forest trees and I decided not to add the embossing to them this time. Instead I added the sparkle of the Stardust embossing powder to the striped Christmas Pop Trio tree.

I added ribbon down the edge of the stencilling to hide the 'join' and the sparkly Christmas Pop Trio tree is adhered using 1mm thick foam adhesive. The sentiment is another from the NEW Christmas Wishes clear stamp set.

I really enjoyed making these two cards today and the layout are nice and simple to adapt to other themes of cards, not just Christmas cards!

That's all from me today, I hope you enjoy the remainder of your weekend & I will be back tomorrow with more to share. Until then, thank you for stopping by today and joining in on the fun here at Uniko.

Crafty Hugs Bev x

Countdown to Christmas Day 5 - Sparkling Snowflakes

 Happy Weekend!

I know we are only on day 5 of the Christmas Countdown (and I have just realised I got ahead of myself yesterday HERE and have now edited my post), but since advent started the days just seem to be going quicker for me and I keep thinking of all the Christmassy things that I still want and need to do - LOL! Anyone else feel the same?

Today I am sharing a snowflake anniversary card. One of my new fitness friends saw that I made cards & commissioned me to make a card for her 8th Anniversary with her fiancé. They are both HUGE Disney lovers, so she requested something with a little inspiration from the film Frozen. This is what I came up with and I am super happy to report that her fiancé loved it! 

If you don't know by now, I'll tell you again... I LOVE SNOWFLAKES! So I was in my element making this special card. 

Of course I used all Uniko products ;) The large snowflake is the Designer Die - Sparkling Snowflake and I paired it with the coordinating stamp from Stunning Snowflakes. I used Altenew inks in Dusk and Sea Glass to stamp the snowflakes and added some of my favourite White Blizzard Glitter Nuvo Drops.

The centrepiece snowflake is inked and embossed with Stardust embossing powder for a little extra impact. I also lightly ink blended the edges of the snowflake. The sentiment is from Simply Said II and embossed in white onto a strip of Pacific Point card from Stampin' Up! 

I have no doubt that you will be seeing some more snowflakes in the coming days as we continue the Countdown to Christmas ;) But for today, this is all I have to share!

Until tomorrow, thank you for stopping by today.

Crafty Hugs Bev x

Uniko Challenge #62 Reminder - 'Tis The Season + optional twist Sparkle

 Hey!

The Uniko Brand Ambassadors and our Guest Designer are here today to remind you about the November/December 2020 Uniko challenge.

We have a very topical theme of 'Tis The Season with the optional twist of Sparkle.

Challenge Guidelines:

* You can use any products/stamps to enter the challenge, but we do LOVE to see you use your Uniko products. Plus, there is an extra chance to win a prize if you do ;)

* Email entries welcome, just email a photo of your card to bev@uniko.co.uk and I will add it to the Uniko Flickr gallery and link up!

* Share the challenge graphic in your post and link back to the challenge if possible ;)

We're super delighted to welcome back Sathya as our Guest Designer and she has created another incredibly beautiful card to inspire you to play along. 

Sathya

How stunning is the gold against the dark blue!

The Uniko Brand Ambassadors have also been super busy creating awesome cards to give you ideas and spark your creativity. 

Hannelie

Jane 

Rahmat

Sarah

Wiebke 

Now, if you need more incentive to play along with the challenge here are the details of the prizes.  

THE PRIZES

• Main Winner Chosen By The Brand Ambassadors - £15 eGift Certificate
• Random Twist Winner - £5 eGift Certificate
• Random Uniko Stamps Winner - £5 eGift Certificate
• Top 3 Chosen By The Brand Ambassadors - 150 Loyalty Reward Points

You've got plenty of time to play along with this month's challenge. The deadline for submission is midnight (GMT) on Friday 1st January 2020 (7.00pm EDT).

Hugs

Countdown to Christmas Day 3 - Christmas Wishes

 Happy Thursday!

Welcome to Day 3 of Uniko's Countdown to Christmas! 

Today I am sharing some Christmas Wishes, with a little Throwback Thursday spin for good measure...

I love a good sentiment and I love a good font, mix them together and you have another sentiment stamp set to add to the collection! I think sentiment stamp sets are one thing you can't have too many of, that's probably why I keep designing them ;)

Anyway, this first card layout is a throwback favourite to when Background Builders: Christmas first came out in 2013! You can check the original card by Amy Wanford (Aimes) out HERE.

As you can see I have used the same holly stamp & style of ribbon but paired them with the 'Season's Greetings' sentiment from the NEW Christmas Wishes clear stamp set. This is definitely a last minute 'go to' design when I know I'll need more Christmas cards!

This lead me onto my second card for today...

Another throwback layout to 2013, with THIS card I made. I think I have used this card for other occasions too?! It's a lovely CAS layout for using background building stamps.

A super CAS design, fairly easily mass produceable and mailing friendly too. I opted to not add glitter to the outline holly leaves on this occasion, but it would be a lovely sparkly embellishment idea for next time!

That's all my Christmas Wishes for today, I hope I have given you some creative Christmas sentiment inspiration. This stamp set has been super popular this release (thank you), there are less than a handful left on the website, so be quick if it's on your Christmas Wishes list! 

Tomorrow is our Uniko Challenge #62 Reminder, I will be combining the Countdown to Christmas post with my challenge reminder card on the blog tomorrow.

OH, and before I go... Did you see yesterdays post, WIN IT WEDNESDAY?! You might just want to check it out HERE.

Until tomorrow, thank you for stopping by today! 

Crafty Hugs Bev x