CAS Colours & Sketches #208

Hey!

It's Tuesday, which means it is time for another CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Karen is our hostess for the January challenges and as it's a 5 week month we have our new Timeless Tuesday Challenge, AKA the Double!

This time for the double challenges we are revisiting an old sketch and allowing the use of retired colours. THIS is what Karen has challenged us with this week...

Don't forget to create a CAS 'Clean & Simple' card for the challenge to be considered as a winner for the challenge!

This is what I came up with...

This double stumped me at first, the colours are totally out of my comfort zone, even though Sage Shadow was a fave of mine back in the day. The sketch stumped me too, it's an easy CAS sketch, but I was over thinking things. 

When I looked at my selection of Uniko clear stamp sets, Marvellous Mehndi jumped out at me. I designed this set to a Escape Souk design trend, and the colours reminded me of some of the trend inspiration photos. So that's how this card came about!

The images and large flower from Fun Flowers are stamped in Chocolate Chip ink, dark enough to highlight the challenge colours, but not to 'out standing'. By selectively colouring sections of the paisley images and flower detail and having an LOTS of white, the design is kept CAS.

Ok, that's all I have to share with you, but be sure to check out all the Design Team inspiration HERE on the CAS Colours & Sketches blog and I hope to see you in the gallery :) Challenge End Time: 6:00 p.m. Eastern U.S. time/11:00 p.m. London U.K. time Monday, January 23, 2017

Hugs

Supplies:
Uniko Clear Stamps Fun Flowers & Marvellous Mehndi
Ink: Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip
Card Stock: Stampin' Up! Whisper White
Accessoires: Stampin' Up! Markers Cajun Craze, Peach Parfait and Mint Macaron. Whisper White Ribbon. 

Design Team Inspiration - CASE Yourself

Hello, it's Jane here with an idea that I hope will inspire you to get out your crafting goodies and get creating.

Have you ever thought to CASE one of your own cards? Well I decided to go way back into my Uniko stash and look for a card that I could use to change up a bit.

This is the card I found:

I made this card in February 2014 and as you can see it has a CAS masculine theme. I wanted to keep the CAS - that's my preferred style - and the layout, but turn it into a more feminine version. Here's what I came up with:

I changed the colours - an easy way to immediately make it look more feminine - and substituted the angular Background Builders Squared with the softer Background Builders Vines. I kept with the sentiment from All Occasion Sentiments #2, but replaced the buttons with a flower head, raised on foam pads, from Flower Power #5 and the stem from Flower Power #1.

Then I got to thinking how about a matching tag? Uniko stamps are so versatile and mix and match with each other so easily that this idea was a doddle to produce. I used the same stamps for the left hand strip and created the sentiment using Simply Said which includes a smaller version using the same fonts as the main card, ('birthday' is a partial stamping).

The flower head is a smaller version of the one from Flower Power #5 and is included in Background Builders Vines - love how Bev does this large and small version with some of her stamps. The stem and leaves are from Nature's Treasures I.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Background Builders Vines, All Occasion Sentiments #2, Flower Power #1 & #5, Simply Said Birthday, Nature's Treasures I 
Inks: SU, melon mambo, wisteria wonder; Memento, pear tart 

Well that's me done for today, hope I've given you food for thought and that you're enjoying the return of this DT inspiration feature to the Uniko blog.

Thanks for looking and enjoy your day!

 

Design Team Inspiration - Moody Grey

Hi there, it's Sarah P here with a little Design Team Inspiration post for you.

I'm hoping you spotted our revisit posts earlier this month when Bev asked us to dust down and breath new life into the fabulous Beautiful Blooms I stamps and dies. While they were out on my desk, I couldn't resist a little longer play with them.

For me creating my own backgrounds with stamps is always so much fun; not only can the images be in the foreground but using subtle background stamping pulls everything together for a coordinated and elegant look. I also fancied having a go with grey tones which seem very popular, especially as I've just decorated my daughter's room in these colours too.

Here's my card using a bold sentiment from All Occasion Sentiments #2, delicate sentiment from Simply Said I, mini sprig of foliage from I LOVE Coffee along with the beautiful blooms set.

I placed the 3 leaf stamps from Beautiful Blooms I onto an acrylic block and randomly stamped them to create a tone on tone effect on some grey cardstock. The ink used is Hero Arts Shadow ink in Charcoal. The sentiments and bloom were stamped in the same ink and mounted onto a wonky stitch die-cut panel with 3d foam and to finish a few gems from my stash 

I hope you like how I've worked these sets and it's given you some inspiration.

As always, thanks for stopping by

Sarah P 

CAS Colours & Sketches #207

Hey!

It's Tuesday, which means it is time for another CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Karen is our hostess for the January challenges and has another fun sketch challenge HERE and seen below. 

Don't forget to create a CAS 'Clean & Simple' card for the challenge to be considered as a winner for the challenge!

This is what I came up with using the sketch...

As soon as I saw the sketch I knew I wanted to use a Uniko Background Builders clear stamp set. As the popular Background Builders: Round In Circles has just come back in stock, I decided to use that. 

The MISTI tool was perfect to use to stamp the rainbow background with ease and once I had done all the colours the curve of the background stamp helped me to place and stamp the sentiment from Simply Said. I added a few Stampin' Up! enamel dots for a little added interest to the design.

Be sure to check out all the Design Team inspiration HERE on the CAS Colours & Sketches blog and I hope to see you in the gallery :) Challenge End Time: 6:00 p.m. Eastern U.S. time/11:00 p.m. London U.K. time Monday, January 23, 2017

Hugs

Winner & A Card...

Hey & Happy Monday!

I do hope your week has got off to a good start? Mine started a little wobbly with a sleepless night and snotty beans, but all turned out to be an OK kinda day - phew! Anyway, someone's week is going to be improved considerably (I hope) as I am here to announce the winner of the January 2017 Design Team Blog Hop and GIVEAWAY! 

Thank you to everyone who hopped along and left such lovely comments. Random.org has helped me pick the winner from all the comments left...

And the lucky comment was left by...

Preety11 January 2017 at 11:02

Beautiful card :) love the flower design and colors used. Thanks for sharing!
Cheers
preety

Congratulations Preety! Please send me an email to bev@uniko.co.uk by Monday 30th January 2017 along with your postal address. I can then get your prize on its way to you.

How about a card before I go...

This card was inspired by a challenge I came across by joining in on the current TIME OUT Challenge HERE. The current Guest Designer at TO and person they are CASEing is Ksenija from Sweet Kobylkin. Ksenija happens to be running a Chasing Mojo challenge HERE, which is to CASE a card in the gallery on the post or someone else in blogland. 

I chose THIS card by Victoria Shipunova. I was first drawn to the swirly floral stamped image framing the sentiment. I was inspired to recreate this using Uniko clear stamps Originally Organic in particular and then the vibrancy of the colours.

Way back in October at the Happy Stampers Festival, I did a little retail therapy as well as running the Uniko stand, its got to be done, right...? ;) I purchased a few more Zig Clean Colour Brush Pens to go with the little quartet I already owned. Shamefully (hangs head), I've not got round to opening them, let alone using them. So, with the lovely Darnell inspiring blogland to use their NBUS, I am joining with NBUS #9. 

This time I used new stuff on my card and one of the optional themes CASEing. I do plan on having a go at the other optional theme of the NBUS challenge which Deborah also inspired me to have a go at HERE, the hidden message. So, all being well I will have more to share later in the week :)

Until then, thank you for stopping by.

Hugs

Supplies:-

Uniko Clear Stamps: Originally Organic

Card: Stampin' Up! Whisper White

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories: Zig Clean Colour Brush Markers, MISTI & Stampin' Up! Enamel Dots

DT Inspiration - Hidden Message

Hello! It's Deborah here with you this morning continuing our DT Inspiration series. I've been wanting to try out the "hidden message" technique for sometime, so decided to try it out here. I've used the wonderful Beautiful Blooms 1 set which was featured in the Revisit blog post - and I was late for that one too! Here's my finished card:

Here's a step-by-step on how to create a hidden message on your card.

I used my MISTI to rough out the layout.

I used a mask to protect the large flower and stamped the leaves and smaller flower around it.

I used a T-square ruler to make sure that I line up the die cut correctly and tape it in place. Then run it though your die-cutter. I also made four more plain white die cuts - making sure to keep all the little bits.

I use my MISTI to make sure that the smaller sentiment is straight and do a test printing.

I always decorate the inside of my cards too - so I cut a panel of coloured card for the mat layer and on the white panel repeat the smaller flower and add a greeting.

Here's a close-up photo showing the depth of the die-cut word.

I was inspired by the colours from this week's CAS Colours & Sketches - so warm and pretty. Thanks for stopping by, do let me know if you found this help.  Hugs

Uniko Challenge #39 - Anything Goes with an Optional Twist of Love

Hey!

Welcome to the January 2017 Uniko challenge and our first challenge for 2017. We have another fun and easy challenge this month to spark your creativity and I have changed the frequency and length of the challenges this year to hopefully give you a little more time to join in on the fun.

So this month we have the following challenge...

Anything goes! Don't you just love these kinds of challenges, I sure do. I love seeing everyones creativity and individuality shine through their creations.

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 ;)


This month we have another awesome Guest Designer joining us, Izzy from Izzy Scrap. Izzy has been a regular participant in the Uniko Challenges and was the lucky winner of Challenge #37. Now check out this stunner Izzy has created...

Isn't this just amazing? I love the embossed circle frame around the stamped heart using a selection of tiny Uniko clear stamps. Be sure to hop on over to Izzy's blog HERE to find out more and leave some love.

As always the Uniko Design Team have some FABulous inspiration for you too, be sure to follow the links to their blogs to find out more and I am sure they'd love a nice comment too ;)

CLICK HERE to see more from Beverley

CLICK HERE to see more from Jane

CLICK HERE to see more from Lindsey

CLICK HERE to see more from Rahmat

CLICK HERE to see more from Sarah G

CLICK HERE to see more from Sarah P

Aren't these just super! Now, if you need more incentive to play along with the challenge here are the details of the prizes. as I said at the beginning of the post, I have changed the length and frequency of the challenge. The challenges are FIVE weeks long, giving us a total of SIX challenges this year.

THE PRIZES

• Main Winner Chosen By the DT - £25 eGift Certificate
• Random Twist Winner - £4 In Stock Clear Stamp Set of Winners Choosing
• Random Uniko Stamps Winner - £4 In Stock Clear Stamp Set of Winners Choosing
• Top 3 Chosen By DT - 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 24th February (7.00pm EDT).

Hello Friend

Hey!

Today was a much needed bean free day! I took some time to myself this morning to catch up on a little sleep and a couple of my favourite TV shows. The beans are finally getting their last 4 back teeth and as much as they have not suffered with pain, it seems the norm for Josh to wake at least once during the night. Only mummy can sit with him until he falls back to sleep and then we get the 6 am wake up call! Overall they are really good, but boy I needed a rest this morning.

Anyway, this afternoon I have been catching up on work and designing and I decided I needed a little break and set to making this card...

I had been perusing Pinterest this week and was inspired by THIS card by Yana Smakula, I loved the ombre stripes and the bold black sentiment. So had ago using my Altenew inks, Mama Elephant die  and paired them with Beautiful Blooms III and a sentiment from Simply Said.

It's also been an age since I joined in with a card challenge, so decided on a 'Hello Friend' card so that I can join in over at AAA Cards HERE. Their current 'Hello' challenge ends on Saturday.

That's all from me tonight, I had better finish up a couple of things before bed. The design team and I will be back in the morning to inspire you with the first Uniko Challenge of 2017 - yay!

Ok, until then, thank you for stopping by :)

Hugs

Supplies:-

Uniko Clear Stamps: Beautiful Blooms III and Simply Said

Inks: Altenew

Card: Stampin' Up! Whisper White

Accessories: Mama Elephant Die, Clarity Stencil Brushes, Wink Of Stella, MISTI & Stampin' Up! Enamel Dots

Design Team Inspiration - a mix of 4 Uniko sets

Hello all this is Rahmat.
I am up with another inspiration for you all.

This is the card I made.

The color inspiration was from a picture from my another challenge post.

I have used these 4 sets below to create this card.

I started with the background buiders -  round in cirlces set, and stamped the stringed circles in a bright pink pigment.

Followed by stamping the flowers from Flower Power #6, and background  builders - winter vines addition set. The ink is SU - calypso coral.
Finally stamping the sentiment from the Pure Florals -cosmos set, on a white strip.

I hope I have provided some inspiration to mix and used some of the Uniko stamps you have in your stash.

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

                                                                    

CAS Colours & Sketches #206

Hey!

It's Tuesday, which means it is time for another CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Don't these weeks go fast?! Anyway, Karen is our hostess for the January challenges and has another fun colour challenge HERE and seen below. 

We've used Stampin' Up colour names for reference; however, you may use any companies' products for your cards as long as you match our colours as closely as possible. You may also use neutral colours (white, cream, kraft, brown, grey, or black) for card layers, sentiments, and image outlines. However, in order to be considered for our weekly winners, you must not use any other colours.

Don't forget to create a CAS 'Clean & Simple' card for the challenge to be considered as a winner for the challenge!

This is what I came up with using the colours...

With two pinky colours I opted for a floral card and Beautiful Blooms I clear stamp set was still on my desk. This set is getting a whole lotta love at the minute as the Uniko Design Team & I have revisited it HERE. There is a blog hop and GIVEAWAY too, so be sure to check it out ;)

I used my MISTI tool to stamp the smaller of the blooms in Watermelon Wonder onto the matching die cut. The sentiment is from the Uniko retired clear stamp set Strike A Pose! and I added a couple of Stampin' Up! Flirty Flamingo enamel dots to accentuate the finished design. The layout of my card is using the CAS(E) this Sketch! sketch seen HERE and below. 

Be sure to check out all the Design Team inspiration HERE on the CAS Colours & Sketches blog and I hope to see you in the gallery :) Challenge End Time: 6:00 p.m. Eastern U.S. time/11:00 p.m. London U.K. time Monday, January 23, 2017

Hugs