Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Birthday cards

 Bonjour !

Izzy here with inspiration cards combining products of the last release as well as older products. 

April is for me the busiest month in my agenda in terms of birthdays. I have at least one birthday to celebrate each week, so I really need to make cards !

As I still had all the products of the last release on my desk, I played with them again.

For my first card I used the Framed- Floral Vines set that I really love, it is so versatile. On a white card stock I stamped the frame and I heat embossed it with gold embossing powder. Then I coloured it with markers. 

When I wanted to mount this panel on the double white card, I found that something was missing so I played with the little circles from the Floral Vines set and I stamped and gold heat embossed them on the double white card and I coloured them with colour pencils. 

I foam mounted the framed panel on the double card. I stamped and gold heat embossed a little frame on a piece of Vellum. I fussy cut it and I glued it on the panel. To finish I stamped and I heat embossed the sentiment from Simply Said Blocks and I adhered it on top of the Vellum.

I went for a masculine look for my second card. If you know me, you know how much I love blue. So when I received the last release, I couldn't resist and I stamped the Background Blocks Solid Wonky Stripes in shades of blue. And of course I immediately saw some waves and I knew that I wanted to combine it with the Nautical Treasures sail boat. 

To make a visual game with lines, I also stamped some thin stripes on the sails with the Background Blocks Pinstripe. 

To finish my card, I stamped and white heat embossed the sentiment (from Simply Said). I foam mounted the wonky stripes background on a double card and I also foam mounted the sail boat previously fussy cut.

For my last card, I opted for old goodies : the Spring botanicals Tulip stamp set and the Broken Lines stencil.

Some time ago I received a gift card for a Art Supplies shop and I finally bought the Minc foil applicator machine. Only recently I bought some gel to use it with stencil. I decided to try it as a background for these beautiful tulips, and I really love the result.

I used the no-line colouring technique for the tulips and I played with my colour pencils to give them some dimension. The broken lines background is foam mounted on the double red card and I adhered the tulip with little adhesive foam squares.

Now here is a sneak peek of the birthday card I made for the Less is More challenge that starts today...

I hope that my cards will inspire you to make your birthday cards stash growing and/or to come and play along at Less is More.

Thanks so much for visiting today. Have a fabulous weekend, stay safe and get crafty !

Merry Monday - BA Inspiration

 Good morning folks, Julie here with a little bit of BA Inspiration. 

In keeping with my aim to create all my Christmas cards before the end of November, I'm back with some Merry and Bright Christmas inspiration for you.

For my inspiration, I used the latest challenge over at CAS Christmas, where their cue word this month is RAINBOW. Rather than use the larger stamps from our Christmas sets, I used some of the smaller ones and used them in unusual ways in a rainbow theme.

My first card uses the tiny tree from Christmas Pop and stamped it in a rainbow pattern following the line of my die cut snowdrift. 

I first cut a snowdrift from some scrap card and traced a line in pencil as a guide for my stamping, then starting roughly in the center and working outwards, I added my rainbow of trees. After stamping the sentiment from Festive Sentiments onto the snowdrift, I glued it onto my card, as simple as that.

My second card is probably my favourite of the three. When I was teaching, many years ago, Rene Magritte was one of the artists that we used as inspiration, especially the paintings where he paints features of the face but without the actual face being there, such as Les Belles Relations and The Paysage de Baucis. The features are in the correct anatomical place so your brain fills in the gaps. This card is a little like that, this time it's Rudolf!

The antlers are from Background Builders:Vines, Winter Additions, the baubles are stamped with the small flower center from Wonderful Day and his nose is the flower center from Kindness Blooms. His eyes were drawn freehand with a black fine liner and his nose was made shiny by the addition of some Glossy Accents. A few hand drawn lines for the strings and the same sentiment from Festive Sentiments completes.

My final card was a little trickier to make and had a bit of a shaky start!

My first attempt ended up in the bin as I managed to get an inky splodge in the bottom corner after I had completed it, this is the second attempt, after an initial dry run on some scrap paper!

I doodled some lines in the rough shape of a tree in pencil before adding the bulbs from Background Builders Christmas 2018. Once the ink was dry, I drew over the pencil lines with a black fine liner then left it again to dry before rubbing away  the pencil lines and coloured the bulbs with my Zig watercolour markers. To give the bulbs more impact, I gave them a coat of Glossy Accents, the same sentiment completes.

Well that's about it from me for the moment. I hope I've inspired you to use those tiny stamps that sometimes get forgotten and to think outside the box when it comes to your cardmaking. 

Keep safe out there.

Partially colored Mandala - BA Inspiration

 Hello friends Rahmat here today with my inspiration .

I am showcasing the Marvelous Mehndi set today.

I have kept the color scheme simple with just 2 colors, and only colored it partial for fun.

The sentiment is from Uniko but a retired set and smaller part is from another current one.

     Thank you for stopping by, I really appreciate your kind feedback. Have a great day!     

                                                       

Two For Tuesday - Simply Said Blocks

 Happy Tuesday! 

It's still the Easter holidays here, with The Beans not going back to school until Monday 12th April, so a few more days to fill with playing and eating chocolate! 

Anyway, I managed to fit in some creative time yesterday while everyone was busy and made a couple of cards using Simply Said Blocks.

Yes, this set is mainly sentiments, but I did include a couple of stamps without a sentiment on and I wanted to show two cards, two colour ways with a slight difference in stamping! 

I started out with this zesty orange colour combo simply using the Altenew Warm & Cozy ink collection, super easy! For this card I used the whole length of the block in the stamp set to stamp the 4 colours in the collection. I've then used the bow and string from Balloon Bash to stamp the gift detailing. The sentiment is one of my favourites from Floral Vines.

I was pleased how this turned out, but it lead on to this second card. This time I wanted the gift to be a little thinner and taller. So I masked off the edges of my card to the width I wanted the gift to be. 

I chose a lovely pink-red ombre colour combo,  Altenew Tea Party ink collection for this card, because I also wanted to decorate the stripes with the heart pattern contained in the stamp set. Again I used the Balloon Bash elements like on the first card and the same sentiment. However, I could have used a number of sentiments from this stamp set really as it includes a good variety. 

That's all from me today, I hope you are having a wonderful week so far. If you're using Uniko and on social media, be sure to tag me or #unikostamps so I can find your creations and share them :)

Crafty Hugs

 

WINNERS!

Happy Easter Sunday!

I hope you have all had a wonderful day, however you celebrate the holiday. We have had a wonderful chilled out, chocolate filled & unexpectedly sunny day. I shared the Easter egg hunt I did for The Beans over on my Instagram stories. 

I am popping in this evening to announce some winners of recent giveaways that have taken place. All of the winners have been selected using random number generator. 

First up is the winner of the Release in Review Brand Ambassador Blog Hop HERE. 

Congratulations 🎉 Hilary

HilaryJane20 March 2021 at 18:54

3 amazing cards, love them all and you have made each look so different. Uniko stamps are quite incredible. I have these ones on my wish list, I particularly want that gerbera stencil as I already have the stamp xx

You have won the ENTRIE 9th Birthday February 2021 Release. Please email me at bev@uniko.co.uk no later than 18th April 2021 along with your postal address to claim your prize.

Next is the winner who left a comment on any of the Uniko Brand Ambassador International Women's Day posts. My post can be found HERE.

Congratulations 🎉 Melissa

Melissa SunshineHoneyBee

Wonderful variety of artwork on the creations.
Melissa
“Sunshine HoneyBee”

Please email me at Please email me at bev@uniko.co.uk no later than 18th April 2021 along with your postal address to claim your prize.

Lastly for today is the winner who left a comment on any of the Uniko Spring Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop posts. My post can be found HERE.

Congratulations 🎉 Marisela

Marisela Delgado 

Wonderful cards!

20th March 2021 at 4:07 am

Please email me at Please email me at bev@uniko.co.uk no later than 18th April 2021 along with your postal address to claim your prize.

Thank you to everyone who joined in on the fun and left such wonderful comments, your support is appreciated by us all here at Uniko.

Don't forget that there is still time to take advantage of the discount code & offer this Easter holiday. 

Crafty Hugs

 

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Background Blocks Wonky Stripes

 Hey!

It's Jane here today with four - yes four instead of my usual three - cards using both the new Background Blocks Solid Wonky Stripes and the previously released Outline Stripes.

This is a super quick way to build up a little stash of birthday cards too. 

I started with the monochrome versions. I stamped the wonky stripes in black down the right hand side of the card base and then die cut a stitched edge from white card to place on top.

I then used the ever popular Flower Power range for the flower and stem. #2 is the flower, #1 & #3 for the stems. The ink pad is Versafine Clair, nocturne.

I finished off with a sentiment from the new Floral Vines set.

I love the drama of the simple black and white scheme, but decided to repeat the cards using the Kaleidacolor Riviera ink pad. No better way to get an immediate hit of several colours. I also changed up the border die.

I echoed the outline and solid of the wonky stripes by choosing the outline and solid flower and stem stamps and cut them all out using the matching Flower Power dies.

So what do you think? Colours or black and white?

Thanks for looking today. Stay safe and keep crafting!

Jane

x

Uniko Challenge Reminder #64 - Signs of Spring + optional twist Easter

Hey & Happy Good Friday!

The Uniko Brand Ambassadors are here today to remind you about the March/April 2021 Uniko challenge.

But before I get to that, as it is a long Easter weekend here I have a discount code & loyalty points offer for you to use in store :)

Okay, back to the challenge! It's a super easy theme of Signs of Spring with an optional twist of Easter.

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 delighted to welcome back Stephanie as our Guest Designer for this reminder post.

 Isn't that just the most inspired use of the Mid Century Modern Floral stamps? Love the rainbow line up!

Let's take a look at how the Uniko Brand Ambassadors have been inspired by this challenge.

Bev

Hannelie

Izzy

 

Jane 

Julie

Rahmat

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 23rd April 2021 (7.00pm EDT).

Hugs,