DT Inspiration - Blue Daffodils

Hi there friends!

It's Sarah P here sharing a little DT inspiration for you this morning which I've combined with my Less is More Challenge post HERE and our latest challenge for this fortnight where we are CASEing a Guest Designer and previous winner of our challenges; Aileen of Colour and Sparkle

Here's my card and if you read on I've shared a photo of Aileen's card.

As soon as I saw her floral beauty I knew I'd have to use something from the Uniko range, especially as there's so many elegant florals to choose from! Sticking with Aileen's colour combo of blues I've gone non-traditional using the Spring Botanicals - Daffodil set. Who says we can't have 'blue' daffodils? They might not appear in nature but I think they might catch on! What do you say?

I started out by stamping the daffodils in Versamark ink and heat embossing with Hero Arts white embossing powder before water colouring with my Zig Clear Brush Pens. The die-cut sentiment is from Waffle Flower and I've layered it 3 times for added dimension and coated both the flowers and the sentiment in Tonic Clear shimmer pen.

If you'd like to have a go at CASEing Aileen's card and playing along at the Less is More challenge  then you have until 10pm BST on Friday, 13th April 2018 and the link you need is HERE

Aileen's CASE card

Thanks for calling by the blog today and I hope you feel inspired.

Sarah P

Uniko Challenge Reminder #46 - Colours, optional twist Easter

Hey!

The Design Team, Guest Designer and myself are here today to remind you about the March/April 2018 Uniko challenge.

We have another fun and easy challenge this month which we hope will spark your creativity. It would be great if you twisted with us and shared an Easter card, but the pretty and fresh colours from the palette are sure to inspire you for lots of other occasions too.

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 the very talented and awesome crafter Michele joning us as our Guest Designer.

Her use of die cuts is so inspirational and she's created this wonderful card to inspire you:

Guest Designer - Michele

We have the second half of the Uniko DT joining in with this reminder post and they have awesome cards using Uniko goodies that are sure to fire up your creativity.

Jane 

 

 

Lindsey

Rahmat

Sarah G

 

Sarah P
 

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 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 20th April 2018 (7.00pm EDT).

DT Inspiration - One Layer, Masking, Bold Flowers and Stencils

Hi, Julie here to share my first post here at the Uniko blog.

I would like to share a few card ideas where I've mixed stencils and bold flowers.

Here are a couple of ideas using my favourite Pure Florals Gerbera, along with Wonky Stripe and Scattered Polka Dots Stencils.

Both these cards are one layer designs involving masking. I know many of you hate the idea of one layer cards but with a little forward planning the results are so rewarding.

All you need is some decorators tape, Post Its, your stamp and stencil.

On a panel of white card, I stamped my gerbera, then again onto a Post It or masking paper if you prefer. I fussy cut my gerbera mask and placed it over the stamped one on the panel.

I have a selection of card panels where I've cut the middle away for use in other cards that I save for occasions such as this, it allows me to place my stencil where I want without messing up the main card. I secured it with some painters masking tape to the stencil and base card.

Needing a smaller aperture for these designs, I added some Post Its around the edge, a little more tape secures.

 (Sorry I forgot to take a pic while the gerbera mask was in place)

Now you're clear to ink away with the ink of your choice, I used DI.

Now your only decision is how to colour the bloom! For the dark pink and dots, I went with my Zig watercolor brush pens and Copic markers for the pale one. Using watercolour on ordinary card is fine so long as you don't add loads of water and overwork it, the surface then degrades and gets pilly. The sentiments came from a variety of sets. The first mixes Birthday Sentiments with Christmas Sentiments and the second is from Pure Florals: Cosmos.

If you don't have the confidence to do all the OL thing you can also add fussy cut blooms to a masked stencil panel.

For this I just used the stencil and card frame, no extra masking and cut the coloured Pure Florals - Rose blooms out, arranging them over the stenciled panel. Sentiment this time from Simply Said Blocks. More details are to be found here .

That's it from me, hope that I've shown that OL cards aren't that scary after all!

CAS Colours & Sketches #265 - Sketch

Hey!

Can you believe March is nearly over? This year is flying by! Our hostess this month over at CAS Colours & Sketches has been Fiona and we've enjoyed wonderful inspiring challenges. This weeks sketch HERE is no exception.

This week started off nice, with some lovely Spring sunshine. It reminded me of a sentiment in the recently released Spring Botanicals Daffodil clear stamp set. So I decided to focus my card using the sketch around the sentiment...

The pennant feature in the sketch reminded me of a currently retired Uniko clear stamp set called Wonderful Washi. You can view the set and cards HERE on Pinterest. The set was launched when Washi tape was a huge trend. I decided to dust off one of the stamps, masked my layer and stamped it using my MISTI.

The Daffodil flower head is one that I have had stamped and watercolored for some time and all it required was fussy cutting! 

Super simple and short and sweet from me today, but I hope I 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

6th Birthday Linky Party WINNERS!

Hey & Happy Monday!

I had planned on writing & sharing this post earlier in the day, but my day took an unplanned turn with Bean no.2 developing the chicken pox spots :( Not what I really wanted, but better this week than during the Easter Holidays, as they break up from nursery on Thursday. Hopefully he will be back to normal next week and we can enjoy some days out.

Anyway, I am here today to announce the WINNERS of the 6th Birthday Linky Party I held HERE. 

Firstly our main winner is...

#27 Milka

Congratulations Milka! 

You have won a £25 eGift Certificate to spend over on the Uniko website. Please email me bev@uniko.co.uk by Tuesday 3rd March 2018 to claim your prize.

Next we have our random Uniko Winner, all those who used a Uniko product on there entry were entered into the draw and I used random.org to pick the winner who is...

#42 Cat C

Congratulations Cat! 

You have won an in stock clear stamp set (any value) of your choosing. Please email me bev@uniko.co.uk  with your clear stamp set choice and postal address by Tuesday 3rd March 2018.

Lastly, but by no means least we have our Top 4 also voted by the design team. In entry order they are...

#4 Sue

#13 Ishani

#33 Lady Joyful

Congratulations Ladies! 

You have all won an in stock £4 clear stamp set of your choosing. Please email me bev@uniko.co.uk  with your clear stamp set choice and postal address by Tuesday 3rd March 2018.

Thank you to everyone who joined in on the fun and helped us celebrate 6 wonderful years! 

Hugs

March 2018 Design Team Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

Hey!

It's time for another Uniko Design Team Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY - Whoohoo!! For those of you who are new around these parts I will explain what this post is all about...

Here at Uniko HQ it is just myself behind the screen, blogging, designing, packaging stamps & orders through the Uniko online shop, customer service and all the things in between. I *usually* release new product every other month for a number of reasons, but mainly so I can keep up with everything!

On non - release months like this month I like to set myself and the Design Team a challenge to look back at a previously released product and give it some more love. 

Usually I choose just one product that was released the previous year or a once favourite that hasn't seen much air time. This month with the recent additions to the Design Team, The Stencil Design Team and having released last month a co-ordinating stencil to the previously released Fun Flowers clear stamp set. I thought it would be nice to showcase both the stencil and clear stamp set.

Anyway, be sure to comment along the hop for your chance to win a £15 eGift Certificate to spend in store. You have until Midnight (GMT) Saturday 7th April 2018 to comment.

Happy Hopping!

Bev

Carol 

Deborah 

Izzy 

Jane 

Julie

Linda

Lindsey

Rahmat

Sarah G

Sarah P

Wiebke

Hugs

DT inspiration - The gardener's notebook

Bonjour !

Izzy here. Now that spring is here, gardening desires germinate in our minds. At least, that's the case with my husband.

Two years ago, he decided to make a small vegetable garden. The first year we had the pleasure of savouring tasty tomatoes, last year, in addition, we had beautiful squashes and this year he plans to add beans and zucchinis !

This is a very good idea but every year he wonders when he has planted, what varieties he has planted ... in short, all the questions of the Sunday's gardener ! That's why I thought that a notebook, in which he could note all this information, would be very useful.

I had in my stash this all new notebook but on which liquid soap had spread. So I decided to make a new cover. And that's what I did with it...

I cut a Kraft cardstock to the size of the notebook cover to make this project. The longest thing to do was to stamp the title, but I preferred to start with that because in case of a mistake, I would not have to start all over again !

I first stamped the title on an acrylic panel so that I was sure to place the letters correctly on the kraft cover. All the images have been stamped first with Distress ink and then with Versamark to be able to emboss them with clear powder.

To make this cover I used several stamps sets. I started with the yellow flower on the left from the Flower Power #2 set. I masked it then I stamped the two wonderful pink cosmos from the Pure Florals: Cosmos set. I also masked it and I followed with the Uniko flower from the Flower Power #3 set and a second flower of the Flower Power #2 set. Always playing with masks, I stamped the Spring Botanicals Snowdrop and I finished with another pair of Cosmos. 

The fun part was to colouring them with Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils. As the top part of the cover was too nude, I decided to stamp randomly some fluttering butterflies from the English Country Garden Butterflies set. Then I adhered the panel over the notebook with double sided tape.

I love how this panel looks, the colours are very bright even over the kraft paper ! 

I hope I inspired you to use your stamp for something else than a card ! And the good news is that my husband used his notebook this weekend !

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous day ! 

Izzy xx

CAS Colours & Sketches #264 - Colours

Hey!

Our hostess this month over at CAS Colours & Sketches is Fiona and we've already had two wonderful inspiration sparking challenges. This weeks colour combo HERE is no exception and is so bright and cheerful...

Due to a poorly bean with chicken pox and one without, both of them off nursery and throw in some sleepless nights and work deadlines, I've not had a whole lot of creative time :( 

Anyway, here's what I came up with though using this weeks colours...

Yep, I still have the Kindness Blooms clear stamp set within arms reach! I had a look around my favourite challenges and saw the current CAS(E) this Sketch! sketch seen HERE and below and knew the set and colours would work.

I started by stamping both sizes of bloom in Stampin' Up! Rose Red, fussy cut them out and layered them with 1mm thick foam adhesive. 

I then stamped my sentiment and adorned it with colourful polka dots stamped in all of the CC&S challenge colours using the small circle stamp from the Kindness Blooms clear stamp set too. 

Super simple from me today, but I hope I 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