Smile, it's Monday!

Happy Monday.

I love a brand new week, and after last week I am ready for a fresh one! And what better way than to start with a Spring card. It was a gorgeous day on Saturday, the sunshine was out, it was warm and a delight to be in the garden, even if it was hard graft. Just one more fence hole to dig out with the jack-hammer! 

Anyway, the sunshine and lighter days inspired my card today... 

I'm quite proud of myself that I chose some colours I wouldn't normally reach for. I started with a Sunflower card base, then I selected Spiced Cider to stamp the diamond detail from Background Builders Delightful Diamonds, plus the tulip from Flower Power #11. 

Of course I used Parsley for the stem & leaves, but in hindsight I should have used Avocado to match the enamel dots. Lastly I used the Smile sentiment from Organic Blooms.

If you fancy watching the process, you can catch it HERE over on the Uniko YouTube channel. 

Before I go today, have you seen the various workshops, aka Uniko Stamping Retreats that are available to book? 

First up I have a new venue here in the North East, The Biz in Hartlepool. This is less than a 5 minute walk from the train station.

Booking is open HERE for Sunday 19th April 2026, 10am-4pm.

Next, I am absolutely delighted to be collaborating with Ruth @ruthgetscrafty for a Uniko and Stampin' Up! Mashup workshop. This fun workshop will combine Uniko and SU! products and you will create a variety of fun and creative projects. 

This workshop is based in Yeadon, Leeds, West Yorkshire.

Booking for this workshop is open HERE for Sunday 9th May 10am-3pm

Last up I have another fun collaboration workshop. This time with the lovely Tracy from Dies to Die For. With the success of last years workshop in Warrington, we have another on Sunday 31st May 2026 10am -3pm. 

Please note the new location of Antrobus, Northwich. Spaces are filling fast and there is less than a handful left! 

Booking is open HERE. 

That's all my new for today, have a wonderful Monday.

Crafty Hugs

Birthday Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Mix and Match

Welcome, 

Steph here and today I am using the Uniko Flower Power and Background Builders to mix and match my three cards. I took my inspiration from this lovely card created by Bev during the January 2025 release. 

For this card I have used Uniko Flower Power #11 from the January release and Uniko Background Builders: Delightful Diamonds stamp sets. For the sentiment I have used Uniko Birthday Wishes stamp set. 

Here I have used Uniko Flower Power #2 and Uniko Background Builders: Round In Circles stamp sets with a sentiment from Uniko Birthday Sentiments stamp set. 

And finally, I have paired Uniko Flower Power #1 with Uniko Background Builders: Seeing Stars and again a sentiment from Uniko Birthday Wishes stamp set. 

I hope you like this set of clean and simple cards and I hope they breathe life into your Uniko Flower Power and Background Builders sets again. 

Much love

Steph x

Mixed Media Monday - Guest Brand Ambassador Trish Latimer

 Happy Monday & Shiny New Week! 

Today I am bring a new feature to the blog and a theme that from an Instagram poll not long ago revealed that many of you would like to see more of, Mixed Media. As you know I lean towards clean & simple, but it is a style I dabble in now and then. More so when I was lucky enough to have a feature in Craft Stamper magazine. This of which leads me nicely to introducing our Guest Brand Ambassador to kick off this feature. Please give a warm Uniko welcome to Trish Latimer.

I'm Trish Latimer, full time mixed media artist. Former editor of Craft Stamper, current addict of all things painty! You can usually find me in my studio covered in paint, glue and very occasionally glitter too......

www.instagram.com/trishlatimerart

For this art panel, I scraped some texture paste through the Wonky Stripes Stencil and let it dry. Creating the rainbow is great fun, although a little messy! I used acrylic inks, but paint will work too. Simply add a small dot of colour, then spray with water. The colour will move around, giving a washed out look. The important thing to remember is to make sure each colour is dry before adding the next, otherwise you'll end up with a muddy mess. 

Once the rainbow was done, I added splats of white paint and the stamped words. This panel was glued to a wooden box frame, but of course this effect can be done as a flatter project, in an art journal or as a greetings card front.

Another art panel, but a totally different look! This one is a much more pastel affair. I painted pieces of card in my chosen colour scheme (of course you can use ready coloured card!) and then white embossed lots of designs all over them. I drew a scallop shaped template, and used this to cut down my card. Each identical scallop nesting underneath the next. 

I used the diamond shaped stamps from Background Builders Delightful Diamonds as the flower 'petals', white embossing those, cutting them put and then gluing them together. The flower stem was created by wrapping white cord around a bamboo skewer, then trimming to size. 

Again, I put this panel onto a wooden box frame for display, but the idea is another than can be easily transferred to cards!

WOW! Are you picking your jaw up off the floor like I am right now? 

Trish had no idea what products I was sending and has created two fabulous mixed media projects with completely different feels and I am inspired by them both. I am loving the rainbow colours and dimension of the first card and texture paste is something I always neglect to use but the results like Trish has achieved is amazing. Then we have the soft pastel shades with beautiful white embossing and creative flower making on the second. 

I hope you have enjoyed todays feature and a big THANK YOU to Trish for inspiring us all. 

Crafty Hugs

 

Brand Ambassador inspiration : Diamonds and peonies

 Hi there!

Hannelie popping in today to share two "same but different" designs. 

I remember when we moved to the middle east, one of the first phrases I learned here, was "same same but different". It still makes me smile because it is such a descriptive saying!

I think the two cards I made are a good example because they share the same elements, color and layout, but has quite a different feel to it.

First card :

Second card:

 I used :

• Pure-florals-peony-clear-stamp-set
• Background-builders-delightful-diamonds
• Zig markers
• Versafine black ink
• Misti
• Silhouette cameo
• Gold rhinestones
• Foam squares 

Thank you so much for visiting me here at Uniko today!

Hannelie

Introducing... Background Blocks Solid Wonky Stripes and Background Builders Delightful Diamonds

 

Hello & Happy Friday!

Welcome to Day 2 of the 9th Birthday February 2021 Release product introductions. If you missed any of the sneak peeks, you can catch up HERE, HERE and HERE. AND yesterday I kicked things off with a highly requested stencil introduction, Uniko Stencil Pure Florals Gerbera. Be sure to catch up HERE.

Today I am introducing two of the new clear stamp sets, Background Blocks Solid Wonky Stripes and Background Builders Delightful Diamonds. 

So lets have a look at these in action...

First up is Background Builders: Delightful Diamonds. Like all of the previous geometric Background Builder clear stamp sets I have released this set features a selection of long building stamps and a variety of smaller stamps. 

For this first card I was heavily inspired by a recent Mid Century Modern pattern I had seen and that used these vibrant and cheerful colours.

I would have not necessarily of added the lime green & orange into the mix, but I really love this combination. I combined the 'burst' stamp from Mid Century Modern Florals into the mix, along with a sentiment from another new set being introduced tomorrow.

Next, I wanted to use one of the longer building stamps from the set to create this fun border along the edge of my card. I decided to continue with some of the same colours. 

I stamped the solid diamond pattern twice along the edge in lime green and it was easy to do it by eye, so I didn't use my stamping platform. I then used the grunge style diamond in a slightly darker shade of green to add some detail over the top in a couple of places. 

This time I paired Balloon Bash with the diamonds and added the same grunge detail to the fussy cut balloon. Loving this new sentiment and I can see myself using it a lot!

Next, I decided to get inky with Background Blocks Solid Wonky Stripes. Like with all the previous Background Block stamps, this is a 6.5 x 9.5 cm block of pattern and it is super quick to make cards with! 

I almost always use my stamping tool when using Background Block stamps, especially those with more solid areas. For this first card I selected bright and cheerful colours to stamp the block and it is such a happy result. 

I love getting new stamps to play with and I love even more to look through my stash to see what to use with them. As you can see I have used the large butterfly from English Country Garden Butterflies. It was lovely to give some fresh inky love to this stamp set!

Again, I have snuck in a peek at another of the new sentiments being introduced tomorrow! Another of which I can see getting a lot of inky love. 

For my last card today I decided to create a fresh Spring green card. I used a couple of green inks and varied where I applied the ink when repeatedly stamping it to get a nice coverage on my card. 

I've then added the same sentiment and this time gave some fresh inky love to one of the leaves from Natures Treasures II. 

That's all from me today, I will be sharing more of these sets on Sunday, RELEASE DAY! Until then, I'd love to know what your thoughts are regarding these sets and how you might use them! I might even select a random comment to win a prize.

Don't forget, there is still time to join in on the Birthday Linky Party HERE and also enter to WIN the HUGE Prize HERE!

Until tomorrow, thank you for stopping by.

Crafty Hugs