Good morning
Monday 28 November 2022
Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Snowflake Serenade
Tuesday 22 November 2022
Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Water Coloured Stencilled Christmas Trees
Friday 18 November 2022
Festive Friday!
Happy FriYAY!
Now onto my inspiration for the day...
Can you tell I am starting to panic that I've not made nearly enough Christmas cards, as usual?! I really need to get the international ones posted and probably the ones for family & friends in the UK ;)
Anyway, back to what I have made today. It's been ages since I inked up Winter Foliage, it's an oldie, but still a firm favourite.
Thursday 17 November 2022
Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Warm Christmas Wishes
Bonjour !
It's Izzy here. I echo Bev's post (see HERE) with 3 hot drink inspiration cards. Coffee being also the theme of the last challenge at The Day of the Month Card Club, I had to make a card for my reminder post. So I pulled out Uniko's I LOVE COFFEE stamp and made this card.
Wednesday 16 November 2022
Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Foiling - failure or fancy project?
Hey there
Most of us crafters love a clean card as result of our crafting process. Even most of the things we buy as 'wonky' have clear and straight lines and we can work in a clean style with them.
What are we doing with shifted or slipped stamp or stencil impressions? With a bit of luck it is a small failure and we can put something on top to cover it or there is a part we can use from bigger impressions. But often such a failure is going directly into the trash.
Right now, there is a hype to foiling.
It looks so amazing, when you have details with this special kind of 'bling' on a card!
Sadly, the machines for this technique aren't cheap, the supplies you need in addition also cost their money... Until now I wasn't sure if I want spend as much for this technique as it would need.
I found some simple sheets of foil with an easy instruction to use. Just for a first try.
The instruction said, you simply have to add heat and a little bit of pressure and the foil will be transfered! Sounds simple, right?
For my very first try I planned to use a more simple shape without too many details.
I took the Christmas Pop Trio Stencil and used one of the trees.
Plastic Stencils and direct heat aren't a good combination, so I decided to use Embossing Ink and Heat'n'Stick Powder to fix the foil on my paper. This powder is used like Embossing Powder, but at the end you have a sticky area, not an embossed one. Perfect idea so far!
But then something went wrong!
I used my laminator to reheat the Heat'n'Stick Powder with the foil on top to optimize the transfer of the foil, waited a moment to cool it down and removed the sheet of foil - and there wasn't only foil in the areas of the tree, but also everywhere around!
I finally recognized right now the foil is covered with a temperature activated layer!
Next try with a second paper, another foil and the same technique, but with less heat in the laminator.
The result was a bit better, but still not what I expected!
Disappointed and also a bit angry about these failures, both sheets went to my paper-trash-box.
After a while I took them out again, cause the shimmer of the foil on the papers was so beautiful!
Maybe I can cut or punch out some embellishments?!
The longer they were laying on my table, the more I liked them!
At the end I used them both as they were!
One has exciting pattern around the tree so I let it, the other one I cut out close to the edge of the tree.
I added some metallic rivets as ornaments (to cover some small areas without foil) and a sentiment of the 'Simply Said Christmas' set with Heat Embossing on both cards. (This set is retired but you can add any Christmas Sentiment you love!)
What do you think? What's the solution - trash or create something fun & a bit fancy?
Have a creative day!
Greetings from Wiebke
Tuesday 15 November 2022
Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Background Blocks Scandinavian Christmas
Morning all,
Thanks for joining me, Steph, today as I showcase another great festive stamp from Uniko. For this month I decided to use Uniko Background Blocks Scandinavian Christmas because it has been sat in my stash unused and I just knew it would look great with some heat embossing.
So straight on to my first card:
Who doesn't love a bit of gold and blue?! Here I have heat embossed the stamp using gold embossing powder on dark blue card. I have picked out the details by colouring in shades of blue which has given a really lovely elegant look to the card. The sentiment, from Uniko Festive Sentiments stamp set, is also heat embossed in gold and adhered over the background. I have used a mat of gold mirror card to frame centre panel and I felt a Kraft card base would look rustic, although a white one would work too.
My second card is similar in layout however I went for red card and clear embossing powder this time.
Monday 14 November 2022
Merry Mid Century Modern Monday!
Hello & Happy Shiny New Week.
I thought I would kick off the week with a festive Mid Century Modern make. I've had this sparkly Mid Century Modern Squares background made for a while and it has just been sat waiting for the perfect addition.
Then on Saturday it came to me that I hadn't inked up Season Of Beauty for a while and that the layered poinsettias and foliage would look lovey against the dark sparkly background.
It's a little busier than my usual CAS style, but I think the sparkly background adds to the festive feel. What do you think?
I used Gina K Glitz Glitter Gel through the Stencil and I used Concord & 9th inks in Cranberry, Poppy, Honeysuckle, Evergreen & Wheat for the stamping. I kept the card sentiment free as I felt that would have been a bit much, instead I will stamp the sentiment inside the card.
It's a fun and busy week in the studio, lots of designing new products for 2023 and so many exciting things happening for Uniko next year too ;) That's all I can say for now!
I'll be back later this week.
Sunday 13 November 2022
Stencil Sunday - MOD Background Builder
Hello & Happy Sunday!
I'm on a creative roll and I am back today with a couple of cards I made yesterday while I had a few Bean free hours. I couldn't resist inking up the newly released MOD Background Builder. This stencil has been super popular and there are not many left on the shelves as I type.
I have so many ideas using this stencil, I have just two of them today. I will save the others for another post soon ;)
First up is this colourful birthday card.
I've been itching to use the Gina K Texture Paste through this stencil since I came up with the stencil design! I love how this paste makes adding colour to a darker card base super easy.
The process is a little slow, as you have to wait for the paste to dry and then applying the colour can be time consuming. However, I think you will agree the results are so fun. To finish the card I added a sentiment from Simply Said Blocks and my favourite Nuvo Drops.
Today I really wanted to show the versatility of this stencil and how it can be used with other Uniko products and for a variety of occasions. For my second card I went monochrome and created a sympathy card.
I used a light grey ink to add the MOD Background Builder to the upper left corner of my white card base. I then chose the silhouette foliage from Just Because to stamp up the side of the card. I used a trio of grey inks and my MISTI to ensure solid stamping. My sentiment choice is from Everyday Sentiments.
That's all from me today & thank you for stopping by.
Crafty Hugs
Saturday 12 November 2022
Hello Friends & A Winner!
Hello & Happy Weekend!
Apologies for my delay in announcing the winner for the Stencil Release Giveaway HERE, this week hasn't quite gone as planned, but it's turning around now. I was sure to get some creative time in last night and combined a few stamp sets to create this clean & simple card.
~carol
Friday 4 November 2022
Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Autumn Rustic Wreath
Hello!
Today my cards have been inspired by the glorious colours of Autumn.
Thursday 3 November 2022
Stencil Release Day & GIVEAWAY!
Hello & Happy Thursday!
I am delighted that you have stopped by today and thank you if you have been following along with us this week. I know its been a while since I last had a release and I apologise for that. I design all the products myself and inspiration went a little wayward for a spell, but I had these stencil designs up my sleeve, so thought I would release these until the next stamps come out.
Let's have a look at all 4 stencils...