Merry Monday, some more Christmas in July BA Inspiration

Good morning, Julie here with a few 'krafty' ideas for some Christmas makes. Here are my ideas using various Uniko stencils and stamps and kraft card.

I was looking through my stash the other day and came across a couple of panels of kraft card that I'd made a while ago and not used, so decided as my Christmas card pile is not what it should be, I should turn them into cards.

This first card started off as a stencilled panel using Winter Foliage stencil. I made it and used a snippet for this card back in 2022, so it's about time I used it!

I first secured the stencil to a panel of kraft card then inked through with Hero Arts Unicorn White pigment ink. Carefully removing the stencil so as not to smudge the ink, I set it aside to fully dry and washed the stencil. Using the white ink allows the dye ink I used after to pop off the kraft, otherwise it would soak into the card and be rather dull in comparison.

Once completely dry, I replaced the stencil over the panel and inked through with a mix of Evergreen Bough DI for the holly leaves, Festive Berries DI for the berries and Mowed Lawn DI for the ivy leaves. The evergreen sprigs were a mix of both greens. My pine cones were inked with Ground Espresso DI.

To make this card, I cut the panel into two, and attached it to a kraft base card, for sparkle a strip of red glitter paper was added and finally a sentiment embossed with gold EP.

This second card uses the smaller of the two panel pieces, glued to a red base card, a thin strip of gold mirror card and a large heat embossed sentiment in gold.

Finally I had a sentiment panel that had gone wrong, the top half was smudged but I didn't throw it away, just cut the messy section away and trimmed it to form the central panel of my card.

Trying to think what to do with the piece I had left, I went looking through my ideas folder and found this.

No name so I can't link back but I also found this by our old BA Hannelie, here, so mine is a bit of a mashup!

I found some tape in my stash, Lidl I do believe, and cut a triangle from the sentiment panel. Here is one using blue that I made at the same time. It's so easy to make loads at the same time as arranging the small individual sentiments does take some time, even in a MISTI! The tape was wrapped around a panel of kraft then the center panel added over on pads, a simple punched white card star and gold embossed sentiment completes.

So that's all from me for today, hope I've given you some ideas to get your Christmas makes up and running.

Stencil Sunday BA Inspiration - Christmas in July

 Bonjour !

Izzy here with 3 Christmas cards inspiration made with 1 foil, 3 stencils and 4 inks pads.

From seeing Christmas in July cards everywhere, I decided to give it a try and I chose to use summer bold colours such as red, pink, green and gold (for the sun we are missing here !).

I will start the show with the MOD Background builder Circles stencil.

First I placed the stencil on a white card stock and I started with the pink colour by masking all the other parts and I repeated the same operation for the other colours. 

For the gold foiled parts, I first applied some transfer gel and I let it dry. When clear, I put some gold foil on the concerned parts and I ran it through the hot laminator. I flat adhered this panel on a gold double card.

To finish, I stamped and I gold heat embossed a sentiment, from the Simply Said II set, on a stripe of white card stock and I glued it on the card.

As I loved the colours of the first card, I decided to go on with them and this time, I played with 

the Flower Power #1 stencil. 

I first die cut a stitched square in a white card stock. I placed the stencil on top and I applied the 4 inks. I flat adhered the panel on a double green card.

As for the sentiment from the Christmas Wishes set, I stamped it on a white card stock with no-line colouring ink, then with a glue pen I wrote on top of it. I put a piece of gold foil on top and ran it brought the hot laminator. 

To finish, I fussy cut the sentiment and I glued it on the card.

For my last card, I used the Scandinavian Christmas stencil for the background and the Big and Bold Happy Designer die for the sentiment.

With mini applicators, I inked the different shapes figuring on the stencil except for the stars that I filled with transfer gel and I let it dry. Once dry I covered the stars with gold foil and I ran it through the hot laminator.

I die cut the Happy word in a gold mirror paper and I stamped the Christmas word with pink ink on a stripe of white card stock.

To finish, I flat adhered the background panel on a pink double card, and I glued the sentiments on top.

Well, that's all the Jolly, Bright and Merry I have to share with you today. Have a lovely Sunday and thank you so much for stopping by.

Brand Ambassador Inspiration: Stencil Christmas Cards

  Hello everyone!

Happy Saturday!

Vinita here with some Christmas in July inspiration cards. I have fun making samples with MOD Background Builder Circles. I really like how they turned out!

Card 1

 I created a stencilled panel in the festive Christmas colors using Distress inks lumberjack plaid and cracked pistachio by masking the stencil. 

I added the panel to a red color card stock and adhered that panel to my white card base. The sentiment is from the Most Wonderful stamp set. The addition of red pearls enhances the beauty of this card, isn't it!

Card 2

I came up with an idea for a type of pinwheel flower using it somewhere. How would it work initially? The end result is here.

What do you think? Pretty funky Christmas card in rainbow colors! The colors of the pinwheel flowers and the background is created using the Distress inks pine needles, mowed lawn, crackling campfire, carved pumpkin, uncharted mariner, chipped sapphire, picked raspberry, and wilted violet.

 The sentiment is from the Season of the Beauty stamp set. The colored rhinestones are added to the center of the flowers.

Go and make some funky pinwheel flowers for yourself. The MOD background Builder Circles is such a fun and versatile stencil, you definitely go for it!

Thanks for visiting today!

Happy crafting!

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Christmas in July

Good morning, 

As it’s July, I’ve chosen to go with the Christmas in July theme for my Uniko Brand Ambassador inspiration. Uniko has lots of wonderful Christmas stamps and stencils (matching die sets available too!). 

For my cards I have focussed on the Uniko Let It Snow stencil. 

For my first card I have used Versamark ink through the stencil and heat embossed in white embossing powder, directly onto the Kraft card base. I then die cut a smaller rectangular piece of white card and used the inner word die from the Uniko Big & Bold Snow die set to cut the word snow towards the bottom of the panel. I used a separate piece of white card to stamp and heat emboss the snowflakes and 'let it' sentiment all from the Uniko Big & Bold Snow stamp set. 

For this card, I started with a panel of white card and used glitter paste to create a fabulous background (so sparkly!). On a smaller piece of white card I heat embossed the sentiment and snow swirls from the Uniko Big & Bold Snow stamp set. 

My final card uses a 'smooshed' background created using Picked Raspberry and Broken China Distress Oxide inks. Once dry I used Versamark ink through the stencil and heat embossed in white. On a spare piece of smooshed card I die cut the inner word die from the Uniko Big & Bold Snow die set and white heat embossed the smallest snowflakes from the Uniko Big & Bold Snow stamp set. I die cut the inner word from white card two more times and adhered them behind the smooshed one to create dimension. I adhered this to the outer word die cut from white pearl card, before adhering directly to the card front. Finally I added the rest of the sentiment from the Uniko Big & Bold stamp set, stamping this in Pickled Raspberry ink. 

Which one catches your eye?

Much love

Steph x

A Winner, a card & a kitty!

Happy Thursday! 

I'm here with a winner for our recent June Release Blog Hop. If you missed it, you can catch up HERE with all the wonderful inspiration. The release is selling out fast, so be quick to purchase before it sells out! 

I will be getting a restock and a restock of other requested items, but it'll be towards the end of August. If there is anything you've been after, drop me a comment or email and I will add it to the list.

Ok, so without further ado, the randomly lucky winner is... 

SmilynStef

29 JUIN 2024 À 13 H 52 MIN

Great cards … love that blue & orange combo especially

Congratulations Stef! 

Please drop me an email, along with your postal address and I will get the goodies in the mail to you. A big thank you to everyone who took the time to comment, I know I appreciate the comments and I think I can speak for the Brand Ambassadors too. And a big thank you to them too, the creativity was so inspiring. 

In other news, you may have seen on social media our new little furry addition. Meet Cali the Calico kitten!

And here is my card inspired by our new addition! 

For this card I used the Paw Print Hearts Clear Stamp Set for the large paw. I inked the stamp first with Spiced Cider and then used a dauber to apply splodges of black ink. Hopefully you can tell my colours were inspired by our new bundle of fluff! 

I fussy cut the paw print out and adhered to my card using foam tape. I then added a mix of sentiments. The Welcome part is from Everyday Spring Sentiments and the Little One is from Simply Said II. You could easily switch up the sentiments to Happy Birthday or whatever occasion you fancied. I finished off the design by adding a little orange heart enamel to the paw and then adhering the panel to my base card using foam adhesive.

That's all from me today, thank you for stopping by. 

Crafty Hugs

 

Technique Tuesday - Blackout with Uniko Stamps

Hello & Happy Tuesday. 

In between our new furry addition, Cali (the Calico kitten) playing and napping, I've managed to record a new video for you all and it's now available to watch HERE on the Uniko YouTube Channel.

Last Wednesday I shared THIS card over on the website blog and social media. I used the Stencil - MOD Background Builder for the same technique. 

I then realised that you might not know this technique, or you might. But all the same I thought it would be a fun video. 

Here's a look at the card I made in the video... 

I thought I would use this weeks Card of the Week products, Background Blocks Splatter, Balloon Bash and Everyday Sentiments. 

Have you seen the new feature on the website? 

Every Monday I upload a new card and all the products used are 15% off until the following Monday.

For the background colours I used Honeysuckle, Sorbet, Creamsicle, Sea Foam and Oceanside. For the balloons I used Peacock and Dragonfruit. 

I do hope you'll pop on by to watch the video. 

Crafty Hugs

 

Merry Monday with Rustic Christmas

 Happy Merry Monday!

Another late post from me, but I had to share this fun festive card I finished this morning. I managed to photograph it before the good light started to fade this afternoon. 

I've been wanting to use both these products since they came back in stock a while back. For the Kraft card background I used the Stencil - Christmas Folk Snowflake and inked through with Wheat ink. 

I then trimmed a bit off the top and bottom to adhere to a Cranberry card base before adhering my focal Christmas Tree from Rustic Christmas. 

I stamped the tree in Parsley ink and then added the baubles using black for the string & bow and Cranberry for the bauble. I decided to keep the front sentiment free and finished off with a simple star enamel from my stash. 

A simple, yet classic Christmas card. What do you think? 

Crafty Hugs

 

Throwback 'Tangle' Thursday!

 Hello & Happy Thursday.

Firstly, a very Happy 4th July to all my American customers and friends. Wishing you a lovely day with friends, family and making memories. 

Today I have a little Throwback 'Tangled' Thursday and a trio of finished cards to share with you. 

Not long ago I shared some stencilled cards filled with Zentangle doodles, or tangling it is also often referred to. You can catch up HERE if you missed it. A few days later I shared this peek on social media and in the Uniko VIP Facebook Group of a couple more cards I started using more stencils. I ran a little giveaway too, to see who could guess the Uniko Stencils I'd used, so it's always worth following on socials! 

If you need a little help guessing, I used the Stencil - Ink & Flip Christmas Star and our very popular Stencil - Mid Century Modern Shapes.

It's taken me a while, but last night I finished the cards by adding some fun sentiments to them. Lets have a look...

I started with the Ink & Flip Tangled Star and added an aqua ombre Big & Bold Wish. As the coordinating Designer Dies Big & Bold Wish are currently out of stock, I fussy cut the word out and adhered using foam tape. 

I accented with the accompanying 'Upon a Star' sentiment to tie in with the star theme and finished with a trio of Oceanside enamel dots.

Next I moved onto the card where I used the Stencil - Mid Century Modern Shapes. 

For this tangled creation I started by inking the shapes onto my card in a rainbow of colours. I then moved the stencil and used a fine liner to add the outline shapes before filling with doodled designs.

With the card having a Mid Century Modern theme, it seemed fitting to add a Mid Century Modern sentiment from Mid Century Modern Birthday. Again I fussy cut the sentiments and I was quite detailed as I didn't want to hide too much of the pretty background.

Lastly for today I have the finished card I started in my recent YouTube video where I was demoing the NEW Stencil - Ink & Flip Layering Geometric Hexagon.

In the video I only inked the background part of the stencil collection and after the video I decided to replace the stencil and draw the lines with a black fine liner and go in and add lots of pretty doodle patterns.

To finish the card I added the Thank You Friend sentiment from Mid Century Modern Everyday Sentiments and added a trio of Dragonfruit enamel dots.

Such a fun technique to create striking cards. Have you given the technique a try? 

That's all from me today.

Crafty Hugs

Summer Inspiration with Guest Designer Joanna Laverty

Hello, Happy Monday & Happy July! 

Here at Uniko we are not only kicking the month off with a new release landing in store this past weekend, (if you've not seen all the fun & newness check HERE and HERE). We are also starting it with an amazing Guest Brand Ambassador, please let me introduce and hand you over to Joanna Laverty.

My name is Jo, but also known as Have Faith In Cards, and I have been crafting for over 10 years now. What started out as a way to avoid buying a generic Birthday Card, has turned into such a beautiful journey of improving my creativity and trying out new styles and techniques. The crafty community is a beautiful community to be part of, and I have been inspired by so many crafters, and I hope that I have been able to inspire back.

For this first card, I used the Ink and Flip Geometric Butterfly stencil and the help of the Sarah Renae Clark Colour Cube to create this Butterfly filled design. The color scheme is not something I would have ever thought of to pull together but it works so well, especially with the flip design element of the stencil! 

I used a variety of Distress Oxide Inks to stencil in the butterflies over a square piece of white cardstock, and once complete, adhered the cardstock to a larger dark blue/grey square cardstock using foam tape. Next I took some burnt orange cardstock and using the 'Everyday Sentiments' stamp set, embossed 'Thinking of You' onto the card using a white embossing powder. I die cut the sentiment and placed it onto the centre of the design with some foam tape.

To finish off the design, I adhered some enamel dots to the front centre of each butterfly, choosing dots which matched the colour palette chosen for this design.

Taking the Ink and Flip Geometric Butterfly stencil, I first used the background stencil to start my design. Taking a white cardstock and side one of the background builder, I used Distress Oxides in Squeezed Lemonade and Ripe Persimmon, working yellow from the centre into the light orange red. Once complete,I cleaned side one of the stencil, flipped it over, and started to complete my background using side two. For side two I used the Distress Oxides in Festive Berries and Wild Honey, working the golden yellow from the centre into the gorgeous red.

Next I took the butterfly stencil and embossed two different powders for each side. For side one I utilised yellow and orange powder, and for side two I used a sparkly golden powder. Once complete, I die cut the layer using a stitched rectangle die cut and adhered the layer onto a card base.

Next I took some burnt orange cardstock and using the 'Everyday Sentiments' stamp set, embossed  'Congratulations' and 'Celebrate' onto the card using a purple/red embossing powder. I die cut the sentiments separately and adhered on the base layer using foam tape. To finish off the design, I applied some embellishments to the card in matching colours. 

For my last card I took some watercolour cardstock and some pink shimmer powder, I lightly covered the card with the powder and sprayed water over it to create this gorgeous background. Once dry, I took a rectangle die cut to create the base.

Next, using some paste and the MOD background builder stencil, I started to build on top of the base layer. Taking shimmer powders in blue, green and gold, I mixed some powder separately into some opaque white paste to create  3 unique colours, then with a small spatula, applied the paste over the stencil.

I don't use paste often, but when I do, I am always reminded of how much I enjoy the results. One the paste layer was dry, I took the  'Everyday Sentiments' stamp set, and stamped 'With Sympathy' to the top left using Pink ink. To finish off the design I adhered some rainbow bubbles randomly to the design. 

WOW! I think you will all agree with me how stunningly beautiful and eye catching these cards are by Jo, using these popular Uniko Stencils and clear stamp sentiments. The colours are simply wonderful and I am inspired to check out the colour cube! 

Thank you so much Jo for agreeing to Guest Design and give such wonderful creative treatment to these Uniko products. 

What a wonderful way to start of a new month, I am inspired to get creating.

Crafty Hugs