July/August 2023 Release Sneak Peeks

Hello & Happy Monday.

What better way to start off a new week and end the month, than with some New Release sneak peeks? As you've seen this month has been... 

So it would only be right to continue the theme with a few new Uniko Christmas products! Let's get to the sneak peeks...

There is a bit of a theme with this release, one of my favourites and hopefully one of yours too. If you haven't guessed already, it has a Mid Century Modern vibe! 

This first peek is a fun Mid Century Modern inspired builder set with a mix of sentiments and elements to create some funky and fresh festive makes.

This next peek is a little add on set...

And lastly in the Mid Century Modern theme is another fun builder set, which you've been seeing all month in the graphic above! 

Next we are switching gears a little to an addition to the Art Deco series of stamps...

Lastly, but by no means least for the clear stamps in this release we have an addition to the Everyday Sentiment series. I think you will find this one super useful and versatile, not just for Christmas, but all year round.

And finally there is a new stencil...

This might not look much from this peek. However, when you see it in action, it's going to blow your mind (hopefully) and add so much fun to your Christmas and possibly year long crafting! 

So what do you think? 

I'd love to know what you are excited to see in action. Which leads me to say, I hope you will join myself and the Uniko Brand Ambassadors as we begin the official introductions tomorrow. 

All the products will be available 9am Sunday 6th August 2023. 

Crafty Hugs

Stencil Sunday - Flower Power #1 Festive Style!

Happy Sunday!

It's been a while since I did a Stencil Sunday post and I've been meaning to ink up the Stencil - Flower Power #1 for a while, so that's just what I did. And of course, I made it festive.

I usually go for a white background, but decided to 'soften' the look of this card with a Kraft card base instead. For the inking of the stencil I used Poppy, Cranberry and Mushroom and the sentiment is stamped in VersaMark and heat embossed in white. 

For the centre of my modern poinsettia flower I used a trio of larger dots from an upcoming clear stamp set and I finished off my card with Black Gloss Nuvo Drops.

I hope you are having a lovely weekend.

Crafty Hugs 

Festive Floral Friday - Modern Poinsettia Wreath

Hello & Happy Friday.

It's the first day of the school holidays and it is pretty much a washout! The Beans have been quite happy playing gadgets and generally enjoying some downtime. So I have taken the opportunity to be in the studio and getting creative. I've all the upcoming release on my desk, so there is a bit of creative chaos happening.

Anyway, I've been wanting to create another modern poinsettia card for a while and as my wreath builder stencil was out in my MISTI, I got to stamping one using the solid flower from Flower Power #1.

Once I stamped all the flowers, alternating between Poppy and Cranberry inks from Concord & 9th, I added a trio of dots using a little cluster from Originally Organic Additions. The filled the centre of the dots using a black fine liner. Lastly, you know I love a bit of fussy cutting, so cut the wreath out!

With all these new goodies in reach, I couldn't resist adding a sentiment and bow embellishment from one of the stamp sets. It was a perfect match made in heaven 😉

It's almost time for swimming lessons and if this rain continues at this rate, we will be swimming to the swimming lessons! 

Crafty Hugs

 

Christmas in July - Wintery Wednesday

Hello & Happy Wednesday! 

I'm continuing with Christmas in July and today I have a colourful winter card to share with you. Stunning Snowflakes still to this day remains a firm favourite of mine, even after 10 years. This is another Uniko clear stamp set that remains timeless and ever popular. Though it is a clear stamp set I feel I have neglected, so it was time to give it some fresh inky love!

And because I couldn't decide on a colour, I opted for rainbow! Not quite the full rainbow, but some cheerful colour choices. The day started off sunny here in the North East, but it is now back to raining and quite a dark afternoon. So this certainly adds some colourful cheer.

Only one more day before school is out for summer, so I am making the most of my 'quiet' time in the studio! Lots of festive creativity in progress and I am getting so excited to share the NEW release with you, luckily not long to wait! 

Crafty Hugs

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Pure Florals: Gerbera

Good morning, 

Steph here today and for my Uniko Brand Ambassador post this month I wanted to use a big floral but keep the colour scheme simple with just pink, black and white / silver.

My first card uses black ink to stamp Uniko Pure Florals: Gerbera onto pink card. I teamed this with Uniko Sentiments Outlined which I filled in using a silver gel pen. Finally I added pink enamel dots and layered the panel onto a black card blank.

Next up I swapped the pink card for black and the black card blank for a light pink one! I heat embossed the Gerbera using white powder, masked and stamped the leaves before heat embossing those in white too. I added light pink pencil to the floral and stamped and heat embossed the sentiment using light pink powder. The sentiment is from Uniko Doodle Flowers stamp set. 

My final card for today sticks with the colour theme but this time I have used white watercolour card and brushed three areas with pink. I over stamped these with Gerbera's and layered the panel onto a black card blank. I heat embossed Uniko Birthday Sentiments onto black card and adhered this to the panel. 

Thanks for joining me today and I hope you have gained some ideas for creating with Uniko Pure Florals: Gerbera stamp set yourself. 

Much love

Steph x

Merry Monday - Winter Foliage

Hello & Happy Monday! 

Today I was inspired to create a card using the Stencil - Winter Foliage paired with some of the Winter Foliage clear stamps.

I started with the stencil and used a small blending brush from Waffle Flower (shader 0) to colour each of the different elements in the stencil design. I then cleaned my stencil and placed it back over, using Nuvo Moonstone Glimmer Paste to add the beautiful sparkle.

I then embellished the card with a sentiment from Simply Said Blocks Christmas and the holly leaf & berry cluster from Winter Foliage, using the coordinating Designer Dies Winter Foliage to cut them out. Both the sentiment and holly cluster are adhered to the card using foam tape.

That's all from me today, it's back to sorting stock from being in Doncaster on Saturday and preparing lovely samples for the up coming release 😊 Plus all the things I feel I *need* to get done before school is out for summer after Thursday! 

Crafty Hugs

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Zesty Cards

 Bonjour !

Izzy here with two inspiration cards that I'm combining with the current challenge over at Addicted to Stamps and More where I used the beautiful layering stencil Zesty.

Playing with this stencil for my Addicted to Stamps and More card, I wanted to give even more love to it so I made this two zesty cards, just the ones you like to receive in summer.

For this first one, I used 2 layers of this stencil set to make the coloured background with Catherine Pooler "Limoncello" and Distress "Mustard seed & Twisted Citron" inks. 

To add a bit of dimension, I added the third layer with the juicy splashes on which I only drew the outlines with a black fine liner. I flat adhered this panel on a double green card.

On a white card stock, I stamped this gorgeous lemon from the Organically Zesty set. With Prismacolor pencils I softly coloured it. Then I fussy cut it and I glued it on a green die cut circle.

To finish, I adhered this lemon on the double card and I stamped the sentiment coming from the same Organically Zesty set.

For my second card, I only used one of the 4 stencils of this layering set. On a square pastel blue card stock, I first used the stencil as an embossing folder. Then I filled in the blank spaces by stencilling with a blue colour pencil.

I had on my desk for a long time these two cocktail glasses, and I thought they would be great on this embossed panel. So I coloured them with new pastel coloured pencils and I fussy cut them.

To finish my card, I flat adhered the embossed panel on a double pastel blue card, I glued the two glasses and I stamped the sentiment coming from the Organically Zesty set.

And now here is a sneak peek of the card I made with this stencil for the Addicted to Stamps and More challenge...

I hope that I inspired you to make fresh and zesty cards. I really love the layering stencil Zesty and the Organically Zesty set that you can find HERE and HERE.

Thanks so much for visiting today. Have a fabulous day and get crafty !

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Mid Century Modern Christmas

Good morning and welcome to another Christmas in July post! 

Over at Cardz4Guyz challenge, their theme is Christmas in July and here at Uniko we are also getting our festive hats on in the run up to the new release. I decided to put into practice one of the ideas I had for the MOD Background Builders Circles stencil I didn't use for the release back in January. Here is my first take.

I created a Christmas tree using the stencil and a tip I saw on Jennifer McGuire's You Tube channel. Taking an A6 panel of white card, I placed the stencil on it so that the 4 units of the middle section created my bottom branch, leaving enough room for a sentiment. Then using a mask created by cutting a small square from some scrap acetate, I went ahead and inked the elements in, moving the mask as I went. The inks I used were the 3 darkest of the Altenew Tropical Forest set and also their evergreen ink pad. Once complete, I moved on to the next row and so on until I got to the top where I used the extra elements found on the edge of the stencil.

The sentiment, Christmas Sentiments, was stamped and embossed with gold EP and a few red punched foil circles complete.

Pleased with my first attempt, I decided to make another, this time using the MOD Background Builder stencil and the same Altenew inks and the acetate mask.

This time I used some larger gold punched circles to decorate and the same sentiment completes.

OK, that's all from me for today, hope I've given you a few ideas to kick start your Christmas makes. I know I am falling behind in my Christmas card makes!

Happy crafting. 

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Christmas in July!

  Hello everyone!

Happy Saturday!

Vinita here presenting two inspiration cards using the same stamp set for Christmas in July celebration! Love the Season of Beauty clear stamp set from Uniko so much with so many variations and detailed stamp set it is!!!

Card 1

Sometimes I really love the card with lots of white space!

I started by stamping the outlined poinsettia flowers and heat embossed them using Primary ebony regular Wow EP.

Stamped solid flower image inside using crackling campfire DI and added some splatters here and there using fired brick DI.

Can you see the shine of the black EP! Finished it off with a sentiment using the same stamp set!

Card 2

I love experiments and came up with this art print idea using the same stamp set with stripes!

On a piece of white CS, I stamped the Horizontal stripes to create the background using cracked pistachio DI.

Stamped some solid big poinsettia flowers randomly using abandoned coral DI

And then small poinsettia filler flowers on the same flower designs using crackling campfire DI.

Now stamped the outlined flower image overlapping with stamped images and heat embossed using opaque bright white EP. Added the dots in the flower centre using fired brick DI. Before adhering this focal panel to my card base added a red CS layer with an embossed sentiment.

Hope you like the artistic look of the repeated pattern and are inspired to create yours!

Happy crafting!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Background Blocks Arts Decoratifs

Good morning and happy Friday!

Anita here, back with some colourful inspiration for you today.  I'm not going to lie, this card took quite a while to create but I'm so pleased with the result so I'm glad I persevered with it.

The main image here is Background Blocks Arts Decoratifs and the sentiment is from the Bauhaus Blocks stamp set.

I began by stamping the main image in a grey dye ink so it wasn't too dark and then left the stamp in my Misti to return to later.  Next came the intricate part...I used lots of little post-it notes to mask off each section and then ink blended within each section with various combinations of Distress Inks.  Initially I was going to fill every section but in the end chose to leave some white.  Once dry I re-stamped the image using VersaMark ink and heat embossed with Platinum embossing powder.  The sentiment was heat embossed using the same powder. 

I love how this has a stained glass window look so I think I'll revisit this technique again using different colours.

Thanks for popping by.  Wishing you all a lovely weekend, we're almost there!

 

PEACE, LOVE, JOY

Hello & Happy Monday!

I'm starting the week off with another festive card and one that uses and combines non-traditional Christmas products.

I love alphabet stamps and of course our Alphabet Outlined, but it is often a clear stamp set I easily forget about and neglect. But it's such a versatile stamp set and one maybe I should keep in mind more often. I was thinking about how I could incorporate the alphabet on my card and as I often do, I started browsing through Christmas cards I've made previously to spark inspiration. 

I came across this one using Festive Sentiments Outlined and Peace on Earth HERE and seen below. 

And this is how I took the inspiration and came up with something new...

A colourful and eclectic mix of Uniko products! With the alphabet stamps being a larger scale I first needed to change the orientation of my card from portrait to landscape. I then divided my card panel into 3, lightly drawing lines with a pencil to keep my stamping as straight as possible! 

Once I'd stamped the words, I set the panel aside to dry while I stamped the dove from Peace on Earth and the heart from BIG & BOLD Love. I fussy cut them both out and added some glitter using a glue pen. 

I then went back to my words, used an eraser to remove the pencil lines and coloured the letters with Stampin' Up! Blend Markers. Before assembling my card I stamped the tiny string of lights from BIG & BOLD Merry on the ends of JOY.

I then adhered the panel to my base card using foam tape and added the dove and heart with foam tape as well. To finish I added some colourful Nuvo Drops to the Christmas lights. 

This was a fun to make and was a great way of stretching some non-Christmas products. Now I am thinking about other words and combinations! What words would you choose for a Christmas card using this layout/style? 

Hope your week has started well.

Crafty Hugs