Autumn is in the air 🍂

Hello & Happy Wednesday.

Another evening blog post for me today, the days just seem to be running away from me. Those six hours the boys are at school just fly by and before I know it, it's time to walk back and get them! 

Autumn 🍂 is in the air.

Although the first day of autumn in the UK us next week, the signs have been slowly creeping in the past couple of weeks. Slightly darker mornings, the light fading earlier and that crispness in the air that accompanies both. The leaves are already starting to change colour and fall too.

I don't have a favourite season. There are things I love about them all. Today I was inspired by the changing of the season and embracing the rustic feel of autumn.

I think I achieved this with my chosen colours. The Nature's Wonders collection from Altenew. Like many of the Brand Ambassadors, I was inspired to ink up the recently restocked, Season Of Beauty clear stamp set! 

As you can see I decided to pair the larger foliage sprig with the Stencil - Wonky Stripes. I am loving the movement this combination creates. Especially with stamping the foliage so it falls off the edge of the panel. 

What is your favourite thing about autumn? 

Until tomorrow. 

Crafty Hugs

 

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Season of Beauty

Hi Everyone, 

Thanks for joining me, Steph, today where I am focusing on the Uniko Season of Beauty stamp set. 

This is a ‘new to me’ stamp set but I have been a big fan of it since it was released. As it was my first use of the set I had a good play about and stumbled upon a technique that I have completely fallen in love with - faux water colouring.

For my first card I inked up the poinsettia outline and before I stamped it, I spritzed the stamp with water. I then stamped onto watercolour card and the effect is beautiful. I followed up with inking the inner leaf part of the poinsettia using the same colour ink and various leaves and stems using differing colours of green, spritzing each with water before stamping.

To finish my card I layered it onto a Kraft card blank, heat embossed the sentiment from Uniko Most Wonderful stamp set in gold on black and added some gold embellishments to the gaps.

I was enjoying this technique so I carried on and changed the colour scheme to purple for my second card.

For my third sample I decided to spritz the watercolour card with water instead of the stamp and the effect is quite different.

Initially I wasn’t as pleased with the result because of the more ‘blocky’ look but after I adhered it to the black card it seemed to really come alive. For this card I used a heat embossed sentiment from the Uniko Simply Said Blocks Christmas stamp set.

Us Uniko Brand Ambassadors all seem to be on a roll with Christmas inspiration. See recent inspiration from Weikbe here, Jane here and Issy here.

Much love

Steph x

Marvellous Mehndi Monday!

 Hello & Happy Monday!

I hope your week has started off marvellous. Today I was inspired to create a card using Marvellous Mehndi clear stamp set. I shared this graphic seen below which I created a while back using an image from a card I had made using the stamp set combined with the coordinating Stencil - Mehndi Mandala. It's been so long since I used this stamp set, that it sparked some creative mojo.

I'm getting better at stepping outside of my regular 10.5 x 14 cm size cards and opting for slimline. I think this large mandala in the set lends itself well to these larger card canvases. 

For my colour choice I was inspired by the colours over at CAS Colours & Sketches seen HERE and below. I've had these Stampin' Up! In Colours on my desk for ages, they were just waiting for the right project!

My sentiment is a mix from Doodle Flowers and Simply Said Blocks III. I think these combine really well and who doesn't want to receive a card saying this?

I'm a busy bee in the studio this week, so much fun in the pipeline and I can't wait to share it with you!. But for now you will just have to trust me on that  - haha! Okay, I best get on an get these Beans to bed, so I can have a bit of chill time too 😉 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Crafty Hugs

 

Festive Friday - Winter Foliage

 Happy FriYAY! 

I think I am more ready for the weekend than The Beans - haha! It's been a long week getting used to an early start routine again and I didn't think them starting 10 mins earlier would make much of a difference. How wrong I was on that front! 

I shouldn't complain too much as I get a peaceful night off as they go to swimming lessons and then stay over with the grandparents till tomorrow. That means more crafty time for me - woohoo! 

I did however find some time earlier to make a little teeny tiny dent in my Christmas cards crafting and made a couple using my favourite Winter Foliage and sentiments from Christmas Wishes.

First up is this simple holly wreath I have created using the holly leaves from Winter Foliage. This clear stamp set does have Designer Dies to match, that hopefully will be back in stock soon. But today I quite enjoyed sitting and fussy cutting them out. 

I drew round a circle die so I could stamp and place the leaves in a fairly nice circle. I then stamped the sentiment from Christmas Wishes which is quite apt for this design.

My second card today I used all of the stamps from Winter Foliage to create another CAS design. Which had less fussy cutting and was a fairly quick card to put together. 

I rarely make the same card twice, but just in case I run out of time making different Christmas cards or loose the mojo, I have a design or two I can turn to and whip up a few. What about you, do you create batches of all the same designs or are all your Christmas cards different?

It's been a muggy, thundery, rainy day here in the North East, so not quite the Christmas card making weather, but I still had fun anyway!

Crafty Hugs

 

Floral Congrats

 Hello & Happy Thursday! 

I thought I had better show my face here on the blog as it has been a while 🙈 with the boys starting back to school on their birthday (again) it seemed to add a new level of chaos for this mummy. And since then I feel like I have been digging my way through the remnants of chaos to find my desk in the studio. Which along with some admin, took me a little while in clearing space to create!

Anyway, enough of my 'excuses' and how about some creativity. I stencilled this Flower Power #8 flower a while back and at the time wasn't quite sure how to use it.

Then today I remembered THIS awesome card seen below also, by Brand Ambassador Steph and it jump started me to create this card. I fussy cut the flower out and adhered it to a black square mat. I overlapped the edge slightly as I feel it creates a little more interest.

I then added some Gloss - Ebony Black Nuvo Drops to the petals. Once they were dry I adhered the panel to a white square card base and finished off with a couple of sentiments from Simply Said Blocks. I'm pretty pleased how this turned out.

It's pretty much full steam ahead in the studio as I prepare for the September Release. The sneak peeks and introductions will soon be here and start on the 20th. Along with that I am preparing for what was Happy Stampers. It now has a new name Stamping Together Festival and is set to go ahead on the 30th October. I am still awaiting some details, but I am looking forward to seeing some of you again soon!

That's all from me today, but I will be back again soon with more to share. 

Crafty Hugs

 

 

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - More Christmas cards

 Bonjour !

Izzy here. Have you seen last Saturday Jane's post in which she showed us a bunch of beautiful Christmas cards ? 

Today it's my turn to show you some cards which will be added to my Christmas stash. It's never too early to begin with !

I started with a simple card using the Season of Beauty and Simply Said Blocks Christmas sets. I started by stamping the sentiment block and I masked it. Then I used 3 shades of blue to stamp the winter foliage of this set.

This card was so easy and quick to make, I decided to make it in three other colours, I only changed the sentiment.

For this card, I stamped the Background Blocks Scandinavian Christmas on a black card stock and I gold heat embossed it. Then I used the Winter Foliage Clear stamps and I stamped the branch on black and red card stocks and I heat embossed them with gold powder. Then I cut them with the matching Designer Dies. The sentiment comes from the Christmas Wishes clear stamp set.

For my third card I played once again with the Winter Foliage stamps and Designer Dies to make a dimensional wreath. Everything is stuck with Glue Dots. In the middle I stamped and I heat embossed the sentiment (from Christmas Wishes) with white embossing powder.

For my last card, I used the Background Blocks Horizontal Stripe that I stamped in black on a white card stock. I cut it and I foam mounted it on a white card base. I made some splatters with gold paint. I stamped the gorgeous poinsettia from the Season of Beauty stamp set in red shades and the leaves and pine branch in green. I fussy cut everything and adhered it on the background with Glue Dots. I die cut a sentiment in gold mirror paper.

I also made another Christmas card with Uniko's products for the latest Less is More challenge, you can see it HERE.

So please to have more to add in my Christmas stash !

Thanks so much for visiting Uniko. Take care and have fun crafting !

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Christmas Cards Using Winter Foliage Stencil

 Hi!

It's jane here today with a whole bunch of Christmas cards using the Winter Foliage stencil as the starting point.

Each card began with an inking through the stencil with a different medium.

The four pieces were then all die cut in the same way.

And the first four all follow the same card design.

Card 1, above, uses brusho powder through the stencil and card 2, below, also uses brusho. I simply wet the brusho powder more to spread the colour.

Card 3 is inked up using Memento colours selectively with a small brush.

Card 4 uses Nuvo green envy glacier paste mixed wit golden crystal glimmer paste and is soooo sparkly!

And that's where I meant to stop, but there were four little squares left over from the die cutting. so waste not, want not, I created card 5.

And in the same spirit of not wasting a thing I took a negative print of the brusho smeared stencil and used it as a background for card 6. The trees are from the Christmas Pop Trio stencil.

Quite a productive afternoon's work I'd say!

Thanks so much for looking, I really appreciate you taking the time.

Stay safe and keep crafting!

Jane

x