Christmas in July Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Scandinavian Christmas

 

Hi there

Anita here and today I have some Scandinavian style Christmas cards to share with you using two products, the Background Blocks Scandinavian Christmas clear stamp and the Scandinavian Christmas stencil.  It certainly felt very strange making these Christmas cards in the middle of our UK heatwave!  

I have three cards for you with very different looks.  

The first of two using the Background Blocks Scandinavian Christmas clear stamp...

I simply stamped the image using Altenew Winter Lake ink and coloured the linear images using Copic Markers.  I then stamped the greeting in the same blue ink which is from the Pattern Building Christmas Tree stamp set.

For this next card, on a die cut panel I stamped the main background image in Altenew Crimson ink.  Without moving the stamp in my MISTI I restamped in VersaMark ink and then heat embossed using clear gloss embossing powder.  I then masked off the rectangular area of the image and ink blended over the heat embossed image with Altenew Nimbus ink.

In this next image you can see how the heat embossed images resisted the Nimbus ink.  I finished with a stamped greeting from the Festive Sentiments stamp set.

For my final card I used the Scandinavian Christmas stencil...

I kept this one quite traditional by inking through the stencil using Distress Oxide ink in Candied Apple.  I then adhered a die cut panel which had a die cut oval aperture cut into it to create the window.  The sentiment, heat embossed in white, is from the Pattern Building Christmas Tree stamp set.  I added a few final dotted details to the images using a white gel pen.

I hope you're enjoying Christmas in July this month, there's still lots more to come from Bev and the team.

Thanks for visiting today - happy crafting!

Take care

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Slimline Christmas

Morning all, 

Since my waist is not looking very slimline this Christmas, I thought I’d better make my cards slimline instead! 

This card started out with the lovely bold sentiment from the Uniko Mid Century Modern Christmas stamp set. My next plan was to use the Christmas tree from this set but I managed to temporarily lose it (later found to have dropped into a desk drawer!). So, change of plan and to keep with the trees, I chose the Uniko In The Forest stencil and two shades of distress oxide ink. Finally a cute die cut bow to finish off the card.

Sticking with trees I selected the Uniko Pop Trees stamp set (sadly now discontinued) and teamed it with a sentiment from the Uniko Festive Sentiments stamp set. 

For my last card I used Uniko Background Blocks Scandinavian Christmas stamp to create a beautiful panel to the side of the card. I then added the doves and sentiment from the Uniko Peace on Earth stamp set keeping the rest of the card CAS. 

Much love

Steph x

12 Days of Christmas Inspiration & Giveaways - Day 2

 

Hello & Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas Inspiration & Giveaways - Day 2

Every Friday, I will have a new Christmas themed card or project to share with you, along with a video showing how I made it. Plus, if you watch the video you will find out what the giveaway is and how to enter for your chance to win 😊 If you missed day 1, you can catch up HERE.

Today I chose one of our most popular, seasonal Background Blocks, Scandinavian Christmas. This Background Block features lots of images from other popular festive clear stamps, making it super easy for lots of creative options. Plus the detail it contains, there isn't a lot needed to make a beautiful card. 

This first card is what I made prior to my video. I heat embossed with some new to me embossing powder, Verdant from Funky Fossil. It is a beautiful green with flecks of gold. My sentiment choice is from Simply Said Blocks Christmas.

This second card is the version I made during the video. I do hope you will pop over to YouTube HERE and watch. 

I hope you enjoy the video and don't forget you need to watch to find out about the giveaway! 

Crafty Hugs

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. 

For the background, I used the gorgeous Framed-Holly stamp. I first stamped it with a no-line colouring ink and I coloured it with colour pencils. Once finished, I stamped on top with black ink.

 

I used the I LOVE coffee stamp set to make the cup. I stamped it in red, the sticker in black and I masked the edges to stamp some holly leaves from the Framed-Holly stamp set. I fussy cut it and I foam mounted it on the holly background. 

As this card was originally intended for my reminder message for DotMCC, I added a holly leaf and changed the berries to coffee beans. And to finish, on a black strip, I stamped and I white heat embossed the sentiment coming from Christmas Sentiments set.

While making this first card, another idea came to me and I couldn't help but put it into action by making this second card.

To be honest, this is the first cup I made, but I didn't like it with the holly background. I still found it pretty so it would have been a shame not to use it. To decorate this card, I used the Quilted stencil with a red mechanical pencil. 

This pattern is reminiscent of Nordic Christmas decorations, so I used the set Background Blocks : Scandinavian Christmas to make the background. I simply stamped and white heat embossed it on a die cut red card stock. To remain in the Scandinavian style, I used a double kraft card. The sentiment comes from the Simply Said Blocks Christmas set.

To tell you the truth, the irony is that I never drink coffee. So I also wanted to highlight the very pretty I LOVE TEA stamp set with this last card.

On a slimline white card and using masks, I stamped the cup several times in rainbow colours. Still with masks, I decorated each cup using the Scandinavian Christmas stencil. And I used the Christmas Sentiments set to finish this card.

Having used Uniko's wonderful products for these three cards, I then decided to share them with you in this inspiration post and I finally made another card for the DotMCC reminder post. 

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.

To add some variety I use various colours for the details this time and felt the sentiment would be better in white.

Finally I had a little play about with my third card.

I heat embossed the Background Blocks Scandinavian Christmas using clear embossing powder on white watercolour card (my original plan was to use watercolour paints but I changed my mind). I then stamped Uniko Background Blocks Diagonal Stripes over the top alternating the colours between red and green ink. I was aiming for a candy cane look! Again the sentiment strip was added and the panel was framed with green card before being adhered to a red card base. 

So, which is your favourite?! 

Hope you are all getting along ok with your Christmas crafting and maybe I just inspired you to dig out the Background Blocks Scandinavian Christmas stamp (or stencil!) and have some fun! 

Much love

Steph x

Lots of Lovely Restocks AND a WINNER!

 Hello & Happy Thursday! 

I hope you are all well, staying warm and safe. It's a chilly one here in the North East of the UK, there are definitely signs of Autumn in the air. Only ONE more week before The Beans head back to school, unfortunately on their 7th Birthday! Can you believe that, SEVEN?! 

I'm a total mix of emotions, my babies growing up SO fast, the end of Summer and lots of fun days out, but then I am looking forward to gaining some of my time and day back to be in The Studio! I have more NEWNESS coming in September - yay! 

So, incase you missed it on social media or via the newsletter, there is still time to take advantage of this...

With the newness coming I have also received a few festive restocks this week that have now been added to the website. This includes, the popular Christmas Wishes from last year. Background Blocks Scandinavian Christmas, Background Blocks Horizontal Stripe, Season Of Beauty and our ever popular Winter Foliage. 

Christmas Wishes

Background Blocks Scandinavian Christmas

Background Blocks Horizontal Stripe

Season Of Beauty

Winter Foliage

Now before I go today, I have the WINNER of the July 2021 Release Revisited Brand Ambassador Blog Hop HERE. Thank you to everyone again who took the time to hop along and leave such lovely comments. 

Without further ado, the lucky comment selected randomly is...

Carole Dixon

15 AOÛT 2021 À 14 H 29 MIN

Fabulous design and I like the corner positioning and zingy colours. Clever!

Congratulations Carole! 

You have won a £20 eGift Certificate to spend in store. Please email me by Saturday Sept 11th 2021 at bev@uniko.co.uk to claim your prize.

That's all I have to share today, but as I am Bean Free today thanks to Grandparents taking them out for an early birthday treat - yay! I now have some time to create some of the ideas that have been building up in my head.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Crafty Hugs

 

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - A Merry & Bright Christmas

Hello there! 

It's Sarah here with my latest Brand Ambassador Inspiration post for you. 

Getting into the Christmas spirit and inspired by so many A-list crafters out there, particularly Laura Bassen and her 'paper stripping' techniques! I can honestly say I'm hooked on this look!

Anyway I've teamed the Scandinavian Christmas Background Block on this collection using a tone-on-tone effect. The paper stripping pieces are embossed using the Festive Sentiments Outlined set. Sunglasses at the ready ... it's a BRIGHT look!

Do you find there's always some stray embossing 'dots/smudges' on projects? It drives me up the wall but I've managed to disguise these areas with some conveniently placed holly or enamel dots and fingers crossed no-one will notice what they're covering!!!

 

Thanks for calling by and I hope you've enjoyed this little inspiration post and enjoy your day. 

I hope your Christmas makes are coming along well.

Brand Ambassador Christmas Card Inspiration

Hi, it's Julie here with a little bit of Christmas inspiration at Uniko.

Whilst trying to come up with some different ideas for Christmas cards, I remembered this card using a turnabout stamp and it also reminded me of this card I made a couple of Christmases ago.

Here is my take, using some Uniko goodies.

Using a black, A6 side folding base card and after giving it a healthy going over with my anti static pad, I arranged some foliage radiating from the centre of the front panel. I used the large solid stem from Sweet Broom and the small spray from Season of Beauty, then infilled with part of the evergreen bough from WinterFoliage. 

Using my Misti, I stamped with Versamark then heat embossed with white EP. Flipping the card 180', I repeated the process. To fill in the other corners I placed the same elements on the card front but had to carefully mask off some of the stems so that they didn't overwhelm the centre and repeated the process of stamp then emboss. There was a slight gap in the centre which I filled with some small evergreen boughs from the Background builders: Vines Winter Additions.

On a panel of Vellum I stamped the Merry Christmas from Festive Sentiments and embossed with red EP, then added a die cut thin frame before adding it to my base card. It looked a tad empty, so added a couple of punched holly sprigs before adding Nuovo drops for some more a festive finish to the base and vellum panel.

My second card uses the Background Block- Scandinavian Christmas stamp. 

The different images on this stamp reminded me of decorations on a Christmas tree, so I decided to make a card along those lines.

Here is the end result.

To begin, I took a scrap of acetate my OH was throwing away, and made a stencil by die cutting a simple tree shape.

Using my MISTI, placed an A6 red card base under the stencil, secured it with the magnets and stamped the image with Versafine and used some fine gold EP to heat emboss. The sentiment in the same gold EP is from the Pure Florals Poinsettia set. When finished, I noticed there was a mark in the card stock along one edge, so although I wanted it to be a OLcard, I had to trim the panel down and add it to another base card. Waste not want not! I also decided to add some Fired Brick and Vintage Photo DI to give my red card stock a little more richness

Hope I've given you some inspiration for those Christmas cards you need to make. Happy crafting.