Uniko Super Sunday Guest Brand Ambassador - Anita from Neet & Crafty

Happy Sunday & Happy Last Day of January! 

I don't know about you, but January has been the longest year ever! So I am super pleased to welcome a new month tomorrow AND Uniko's Birthday month. 

But before we get to that I have a super duper, inspirational Guest Brand Ambassador joining us on the blog today. Please give a warm Uniko welcome to Anita from Neet & Crafty...

Hi There, 

I’m Anita (Neet or Neets), and for those that don’t know me, I live in Torquay in South Devon.  I have always been creative, enjoying art and cross stitch from a young age, and then in 2005 I purchased my first cardmaking kit and that was it, I was hooked!  I began just making cards for friends and family and, as my hobby evolved, I then discovered the fabulous online crafting community.  I wanted to become part of it so in 2013 I created my blog, Neet & Crafty, and that’s when I discovered so many wonderful craft and stamp companies, Uniko being one of them.  I’ve loved watching Bev’s business grow (as well as my Uniko collection!) and have so much admiration for what she has achieved, while also bringing up her lovely twins.

Thanks so much, Bev, for inviting me to be featured in your Super Sunday Guest Designer Spot…what an honour!

I’ve made a little selection of feel good cards that hopefully inspire, these including the themes of love and friendship.  I hope you like them.

For this first sweet card I combined stamps from Background Builders Classics and Simply Said.  I die cut a heart window first in my upper panel and then marked the area on the card base that would show through the aperture, masked it off then stamped the various border designs in varying shades of pink.  The sentiment was heat embossed in white to show through the raised panel.

For these two love themed cards I used the Large Scattered Polka Hearts background stamp and sentiments from the You Are…Sentiments Outlined set.

For the first I heat embossed the background hearts in white and used emboss resist to blend over the top with Distress Oxides in a diagonal gradient.  I then used a vellum wrap with the sentiment heat embossed in white.

The next is a similar design but in reverse.  I used my MISTI to stamp the polka hearts multiple times, creating a gradient of pale to deep pink.  Here I heat embossed the sentiment on a die cut heart from black cardstock and popped it up on 3D foam.

My next make used the gorgeous Bee Happy stamp set.  I adhered some honeycomb/hexagon patterned paper to the lower half of my card base and then die cut an angled stitched edge from my upper panel.  This was then stamped in black, grey and honey shades using various stamps all from the same set, with a little Copic colouring on the bee.

This selection of Uniko creations wouldn’t be complete without using one of the Flower Power sets, and here I’ve combined blooms from Flower Power #2 with leaves from Natures Treasures II and the sentiment from Hello Lovely.  I used really bright summer colours here, started with the leaves and then stamped and die cut the flowers, using their co-ordinating dies, before adhering them in a cluster on glue dots.  The stamped sentiment and some vertical score lines finished off this one layer card.

I chose stamps from Just Because, Beautiful and Hello Lovely for this friend card.  On a pale green panel I stamped the same image in different orientations both in green and also heat embossed in white.  The sentiment was heat embossed on a green strip and a further smaller strip adhered on 3D foam.

It wasn’t until I was making these that I realised how much the flower stem from the You Are, Yes You set resembled the flower in my blog logo!  I combined it here with the Background Builders Pinstripe II stamp and the sentiment from Originally Organic Additions.  I stamped the flower in a pale ink before colouring and then masking it to stamp the pinstripes.  With the stem stamp still in my MISTI, I then restamped it over the original image before heat embossing in white. 

WOW! 

Well, I don't know about you, but I was blown away by Anita's creativity. Isn't this just a stunning line up of Uniko goodness?  

Thank you SO much Anita for being our Super Sunday Guest Brand Ambassador.

Uniko Challenge #63 Reminder - Anything Goes + optional twist use a stencil

 Hey!

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

It's a super easy theme of Anything Goes with an optional twist of Use A Stencil(s).

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 ;)

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

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 19th Febraury 2021 (7.00pm EDT).

Hugs

Brand Ambassador Inspiration : Always & Forever

Hi there!

Hannelie here today with not one, but four cards to show you a variety of designs and color ways with the Always & Forever clear stamps set!

Lots of photos to follow 💕

Card #1:

Card #2 :

Card #3:

Card #4:

For all the cards I used : 

Always & Forever clear stamp set

For Card #1 , I used the Alphabet-outlined stamp set to create the background. I used a heart shape mask (die cut) and stamped the X's and O's randomly .

A single black rhinestone to finish off the card.

For Card #2, I used the Quilted stencil as background.

For Card #1 & 2 :

• Inks used : Altenew Ruby Red & Versafine black ink

I used my Silhouette cameo to cut out the stamped images and popped it up with foam squares over the stamped/stenciled BG

For Card #3: 

• Inks used : Spun Sugar, Faded Jeans & Iced Spruce Distress Oxide Inks
• Sentiment from Simply-said-blocks

For Card #4 : 

• Inks used : Spun Sugar & Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide Inks
• Flat back pearls

For Cards #3 & 4 I used the Quilted stencil as BG and my Silhouette cameo to cut out the stamped images. Foam squares were used to pop up the stamped hearts over the stenciled BG.

Thank you so much for popping in to take a look... I hope you feel inspired 😊

Hannelie

Stencil Sunday - Colourful Wonky Stripes & Striking Silhouettes

Happy Sunday & welcome to another Stencil Sunday!

I'm not gonna lie, this past week has been a tough one, lockdown life has been a struggle and I am trying to keep up the positivity and battle through. Finding some mojo to create has been hard, but this afternoon I forced myself to come in my studio and make something.

It actually felt good and I was happy when two of my favourite challenges could be combined to make one CAS card! First I used CAS Colours & Sketches HERE for my colour inspiration and then AAA Cards HERE for my one layer & product choice! 

These colours are so cheerful and I chose to ink up the Stencil - Wonky Stripes with them. I used a little bit of masking to ink up each of the individual lines and then used my MISTI to stamp the foliage silhouette from Happy Days. 

The sentiment is also from Happy Days and I think it is rather appropriate for these current times. I've decided to schedule in 30 minutes each day, dedicated purely to creating a card and having that 'me time' in my happy place.

That's all from me today, time for me to go and get my two not so little monkeys to go to sleep! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are all hanging in there too.

Crafty Hugs Bev x

Festive Friday - Get more from your sentiments, some BA Inspiration

 Good morning, hope you are well and keeping safe and sane! Julie here with a little bit of Festive BA Fun this Friday. 

I have made a resolution to make Christmas cards all through the year, so that I'm not rushing around at the end of November making them like I was last year! Hopefully I won't have as much time on my hands this year, meeting up with friends and relatives will be at the top of my agenda, so I need to use this 'free' time to get ahead. So far I've made four!

So for my first Festive Friday post, I am concentrating on SENTIMENTS. Yup those little stamps that come with the more interesting stamp sets or the fab sentiments sets such as Festive Sentiments and Most Wonderful. 

Another resolution I made towards the end of last year was to use up my scraps and backgrounds that I have accumulated and it was after rummaging through these, that I got the idea for my theme for this post.

My first card uses a LOT of sentiments that I got together from my Uniko sets, some old and some new, some current, others sadly retired. I made them way back in 2019 but didn't use them all and in the spirit of waste not want not, here is my card design.

To make the panels, I started by laying an A5 panel of card in my MISTI, then arranged the stamps to cover the whole area. When satisfied with the arrangement I closed the MISTI door and inked up the stamps with Versamark and then stamped on to the card panel, added clear EP and heat embossed. I didn't remove the stamps and used a selection of different coloured card in festive colours to create multiple backgrounds which I can use later. A selection of little stamps were used to fill in any gaps too small for a sentiment.

For this card I took a bright red stamped panel and added it to an A6 card base, trimming off any overhang. The snowy landscape was cut twice using a Marianne die and added to the bottom of the card and excess trimmed away. A little Wink of Stella adds a bit of sparkle. No need for a sentiment as they are there in the background!

Here are a couple more ideas using the same technique that I made with the first of my panels, you may recognise them. 

   

Just click the image if you want to find out more.

Of course sentiments aren't just for Christmas, you can use any of your sentiments to create a background!

Keeping up the theme of making sentiments center stage, here is my second card. 

This uses a few sentiments in different fonts and sizes that I stamped onto card, heat embossed with fine white EP and trimmed down. The colour of the strips were chosen to match my backing which I stamped using Background Blocks Falling Snowflakes and the separate snowflake stamps from Snowflake Serenade in non traditional colours. I used a die cut funky Christmas tree as a template to create the centerpiece, adding each trimmed down strip starting from the bottom. A star punched from holographic card and a holographic gem on the red pot complete. The completed panel was then added to a red A6 note card. 

Here is the same idea from 2019 using a more traditional colourway.

So that's about it from me for today. I hope I've given you a few ideas for using those very useful sentiment stamps.

Stay safe and keep crafting!

WIN it Wednesday!

 Happy Wednesday!

I hope everyone is having a good week so far, mines been as crazy as ever, but that just seems to be lockdown life at the moment! 

Today I thought it would be nice to have another WIN it Wednesday. I did a couple of these during the countdown to Christmas for some added cheer during these crazy days. So as the crazy continues I thought I would have it as a regular feature once a month.

With Valentine's Day fast approaching I thought a LOVE themed prize would be good. So let's have a look and see what this months prize is...

To be in the chance of winning this prize package* of Always & Forever, BIG & BOLD Love AND You Are Sentiments Outlined simply leave a comment on this post no later than Midnight GMT Sunday 31st January 2021. 

The winner will be randomly selected and announced on the blog during the first week of February. Please just one comment per person and I do have comment moderation on! 

* If the randomly selected winner owns any or all of the prize an alternative prize will be offered. 

And as it's always nice to see the stamps in action, here are a couple of cards from the Uniko Brand Ambassadors from when the stamps were reintroduced and released in 2020.

AND before I go, don't forget that we have the January 2021 Non Release Blog Hop and Giveaway HERE. Commenting for opportunity to win closes Midnight GMT Saturday 23rd January, so be quick! 

Have a wonderful remainder of your Wednesday and thanks for stopping by today :)

Crafty Hugs 

Bev x

Blue Monday...? More like a Mid Century Modern Monday Here!

 Happy Monday! 

So today is supposedly the most depressing day of the year and along with being Martin Luther King Day, it is also known as Blue Monday. 

TBH I've been too busy juggling 'lockdown life' to even think about Blue Monday! BUT I did manage to squeeze in a couple of cards in between home learning (priorities...right?) and I am here today to hopefully add some cheer to you day with some Mid Century Modern Florals inspiration. 

I may have taken a little bit of inspiration from it being Blue Monday with my chosen colours and they aren't 'traditional' Mid Century Modern colours. But I was also inspired by the current Just Us Girls challenge seen HERE.

I recently treated myself to a new Mid Century Modern book for inspiration and because I just love looking at and learning about surface pattern design! But I have been looking at the patterns created with the geometrics during this style period and recreated my own version using elements from the Mid Century Modern Florals clear stamp set.

I used Altenew colours Iceberg, Eastern Sky and Ultramarine for my trio of blues, stamping the detail in black ink for it to stand out. The sentiment is from Birthday Sentiments and I have raised it slightly using 1mm thick foam adhesive.

This lead on to my second card for today...

I had to make at least one of my cards floral! For this card I started out by stamping the Background Block Mid Century Modern II onto a piece of card in the Ultramarine ink twice to create a long strip to fit across my card. Almost representing the ground. 

I then stamped a selection of  the elements in the same shades of blue as the first card to build my own Mid Century Modern flower. There are so many mix and match possibilities in this set. 

Again, I used the same sentiment and just added a few Nuvo Drops to the flower centre and to accentuate the sentiment. 

That's all from me today. I hope that 

January 2021 Non-Release Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

 Hey & Happy Weekend!

Welcome to the January 2021 Non-Release Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY! With a New Year in full swing I thought it would be a good time to bring back some of the fun and inspiration that has slipped away in recent months.

So I am pleased to bring back the Non- Release month blog hops. 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 Brand Ambassadors a challenge to look back at a previously released product and give it some more love. 

With Valentine's Day not too far away, I thought I would choose something 'lovely' to challenge the team! So I have picked one of my FAVES, Hello Lovely. 

Hello Lovely

As usual we have our GIVEAWAY, so be sure to comment along the hop for your chance to win the Hello Lovely Clear Stamp Set. An alternative prize to the same value will be offered if you already own the set.  You have until midnight GMT Saturday 23rd January 2021 to comment along the hop.

Bev

Carol 

Hannelie

Izzy 

Jane 

Julie

Rahmat

 

 Sarah P

 

Wiebke

 

 

What an inspirational hop, so many new ideas, I hope you all enjoyed it too :)

Thanks for joining in on the fun.

Crafty Hugs Bev x