Uniko's Top 25 Products of 2025 - Number 10

Hello & Happy Tuesday. 

We're into the top 10 of Uniko's 25 Products of 2025. These have been determined by sales this year. Coming in at number 10 is Bauhaus Blocks. 

I was delighted to see this clear stamp set in the top 25, so I couldn't resist making a couple of new cards in a video. You can watch this HERE on the Uniko YouTube Channel. I also share my insights into using the Taylored Expressions Magnetic Glass Board and the NEW Misti Light. Both are available from Dies To Die For.

As it's Tuesday, I have two cards to share. 

Let's have a closer look at the first card.

For this first card I stamp the blocks on an angle in opposing corners. I like to do things in threes or odd numbers, I find it pleasing to the eye.

I used a trio of Stampin' Blends to colour various parts of each of the blocks, in Light Summer Splash, Light Pumpkin Pie and Light Strawberry Slush. Once I stamped the sentiment I adhered the panel to my card using foam adhesive.

For my second card I went for a slightly longer card than I usually use, 10.5 x 15cm. I stamped all five blocks from the stamp set, coloured and then fussy cut them. Next I adhered the blocks using foam adhesive and added the thank you sentiment, also from the set. 

I hope these new ideas inspire you.

Crafty Hugs

Uniko Birthday Inspiration Through The Years - Part 5

Happy Friday.  

Welcome to day 21 of the Uniko 13th Birthday Celebrations and part 5 and the final of my Inspiration Through The Years. If you missed part 1,  part 2, part 3 and part 4, you can catch up HERE,  HERE, HERE and HERE.

Today I am sharing new inspiration from 2023 and 2024. For me personally I feel 2023 was the beginning of a little revival for Uniko as I added to the ever popular Mid Century Modern Collection, but also designed some new and innovative stencil designs, including the Ink & Flip Stencils. 2024 was a continuation of this revival which sparked new designs to explore and release this year.

Let's have a look at a couple of my favourite cards from 2023 that inspired my new version I'm sharing today. 

It may be no surprise to you that I chose the Stencil - Layering Bauhaus Blocks. This stencil was originally released in May/June 2023 and was an instant hit and still remains to be. 

I took the original concept of the Stencil - MOD Background Builder in that you can create an instant focal point, but that you can also easily move the stencil to fill a larger background with the pattern. As you can see from the title I was inspired by the Bauhaus Design Style and this time created a 3 layer stencil to create the pattern and bring more colour to the background. 

The beauty of this geometric pattern is that depending on the colours you choose you can make it both masculine looking and feminine looking. The pairings with other products, sentiments and layout choices are endless. 

It was a delight to ink this stencil up again.

Here I was inspired a little by the colours of the second card above and the layout/technique of the first. When the stencil was released I also released the Bauhaus Blocks Clear Stamps that pair beautifully with the stencil. So I opted to use those on my card too, along with a sentiment from the same set. 

I know the Bauhaus Blocks Clear Stamps are currently out of stock, I will do my best to have them back with the next batch early March. 

Lastly is 2024 saw the development and expansion of the Ink & Flip Stencils along with a couple more additions to the Mid Century Modern Collection. It was a tough decision on what to choose with so many favourites, but here is what I chose and the card to inspire a new card.

Background Blocks MOD Builder and Mid Century Modern Birthday were both released in February 2024. The MOD Background Builder is purposefully designed to be smaller than the stencil, mainly because I wanted the patterns to offset each other. 

And Mid Century Modern Birthday came about because I wanted a large birthday sentiment option in the same font I created for Mid Century Modern Christmas and Mid Century Modern Wreath Builder. Mid Century Modern Everyday Sentiments was also released the same time. 

Here's my new card.

For this new card I simply stamped the block in a new layout, stamped the sentiment and heat embossed in my favourite Stardust embossing powder. I then coloured the block in a similar way to my original card, but with brighter colours.

And that wraps up looking back at Uniko Through The Years! 

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I have and it has provided you more inspiration to create with your Uniko supplies. 

Before I go today, I know, it's a really long post. There is still time to join in on and enter...

Uniko's 13th Birthday Linky Party

Grand Prize Giveaway - Win Stamps For a Year

Grand Prize Giveaway - Win Stencils For a Year

PLUS, did you know that Uniko has a VIP Group on Facebook for Uniko customers and fans? 

The group is a private and safe space to share your Uniko creations. Today I have launched a monthly challenge over there to inspire your makes and there is a little incentive to join in too. A chance to win £10 to spend in store to one randomly selected entry.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2723159841326437/

Use the link above to find the group and answer the questions, an admin of the group will approve and then you'll able to join in on the fun. I hope to see you there. 

Crafty Hugs

Uniko Birthday Mash-Up With Seven Hills Crafts - Part 1

Happy Thursday.

Today I am delighted to have a special guest join Uniko for our birthday celebrations, Tara Cardwell. Tara is the owner of Seven Hills Crafts, my 'go to' online store for all things paper craft that aren't Uniko of course. I am also part of Tara's Design Team, which means I get to use and play with all my favourite American brand products! 

Anyway, Tara and I are sharing a SHC-Uniko mash-up on the blog for a couple of days to celebrate this birthday milestone. I will now hand you over to Tara.

I've made a masculine birthday card using one of my all-time favourite Uniko Stamps - Bauhaus Blocks which is brilliant for anyone who is a fan of mid-century graphic design.

To give my card a masculine feel, I decided to stamp the blocks onto black mixed media card which is robust enough to take water but smooth enough for embossing.  I embossed the stamp in white and then used my LuminArte shimmer watercolour paints to fill in the blocks.  Shimmer paints give such different colours on black than on white - the purple is actually a light blue!  I love the results you get on black.

To create the card I trimmed the blocks, added 4 directly to the card and popped one up in the middle on foam tape for added dimension. The sentiment is where the SHC mash-up comes in, as that set is a Kristina Werner one packed full of useful birthday sentiments.

Thank you so much Tara for inspiring us with this vibrant Bauhaus Birthday card and for joining in on the fun here at Uniko.

I'll be here tomorrow with a fun Uniko / SHC mash-up card to share with you and hopefully inspire you. 

Crafty Hugs

More Birthday BA Inspiration

Good morning.

Julie here with some more Birthday themed inspiration for Uniko's 13th Birthday celebrations.

My friend's birthday is later this month so I thought I would combine it with a BA post using her favourite colour of red. 

So what red flowers could I use, I thought roses, then the fab Gerbera stamp but finally decided on the gorgeous poppies in the Remembrance stamp set. The sentiments were not suitable for a birthday but poppies are always a cheery bloom, evoking open fields, blue skies and summer! Here's what I made.

I used my watercolour wash with masking fluid technique for this card, fuller details on this technique can be found here.

After stamping on Mixed Media paper with a pale ink, I used Altenew's Limestone, I added masking fluid and left to dry. A trick I saw recently says to run your brush through a bar of soap before dipping in the masking fluid and I think it does stop your brush from clagging.

When completely dry, I added water to my panel and flooded in 3 shades of green water colour. I also added a few areas of red to suggest poppies in the background. Try to keep the darkest greens to the area around the flowers, it will dry lighter, then I added my sheet of crumpled snappy wrap and left to dry fully. Only when it was COMPLETELY dry did I remove the snappy wrap and then the masking fluid.

Now it was just a case of colouring in the outlines with watercolour paint. Once dry, I trimmed my panel and added it to a panel of red card and then onto a 5 x 7 base card. The sentiment from Bauhaus Blocks was stamped on a scrap of matching paper completes.

That's all from me for the moment but please pop back tomorrow for more birthday inspired makes.

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Masculine Monday

Morning all, 

Steph here today. Welcome to my Uniko Brand Ambassador Inspiration this month where I am focussing on those oh so difficult masculine cards, using Uniko Bauhaus Blocks stamp set.

For this card I started off with Uniko Background Blocks Linear stamp and used green ink on cream card. On another piece of cream card I stamped one of the stamps from the Uniko Bauhaus Blocks stamp set, also in green ink, and after colouring with alcohol markers adhered this with foam pads. The sentiment is also from the Bauhaus Blocks set and stamped in black ink. Finally the whole panel was adhered to a black card base. 

For my next card I chose a different one of the Bauhaus Blocks and stamped it in black, blue and green ink, following which I coloured each with alcohol markers in coordinating colours. On a separate piece of card I stamped a red block and coloured with red alcohol markers. This I adhered to the panel using foam blocks. I then stamped the 'Happy Father's Day' sentiment in red using a mixture of Uniko Everyday sentiment sets. I then stamped the letters DAD from the Uniko Alphabet Outlined stamp set, coloured and adhered these to the panel using foam pads. 

For my final card today I started off with the Uniko Mid Century Modern Shapes stencil and three distress oxide inks. After randomly stencilling the background I stamped the Bauhaus Block in black and coloured random areas with a black alcohol marker. 

I hope this has given you some inspiration for masculine cards, and more ways to use your Uniko stash.

Much love

Steph x

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Birthday Inspiration

 Bonjour !

Izzy here. As Bev already mentioned it, February at Uniko is a month of celebration, and this year Uniko is celebrating its 12th birthday ! As every year, there's so much planned for February at Uniko so stay tuned to discover what Bev has prepared to enchant you !

Today I'm here to inspire you with a card and of course it is a birthday card. As I already told you, I always struggle when it comes to make a masculine card but recently my teamie, Steph, made a post (see HERE) where she shows that stripes and a good colour combo solve this problem.

So that's what I've done. I dug out the beautiful Bauhaus Blocks set and I used it with a more or less masculine colour combo.

First I stamped with no-line colouring ink each square of the set on a piece of white card stock. With alcohol markers, I coloured them. Then I put them back in the MISTI and I used Versamark ink to be able to heat emboss them with gold embossing powder.

I fussy cut each square and I flat adhered them on the white double card and then to finish, I gold heat embossed the sentiment coming from the Sentiment Outlined set.

Et Voilà ! That's all for me today but don't forget to come back everyday since you will discover all the great surprises Bev has prepared for you. You can also treat yourself with the great 12th Birthday Stamping Retreat where you will have a fun day of stamping ! For more information click HERE.

Uniko's Customer Top 10 of 2023 - Number 4

Hello & Happy Thursday.

I am here today to share Uniko's Customer Top 10 of 2023. Today we have the 4th most purchased product, Bauhaus Blocks.

This clear stamp set, perfect for masculine cards debuted in June this year. Again, due to its popularity it is currently out of stock, but don't worry, it'll be back early January. 

I have a few masculine birthdays in January & February, so it was a good opportunity to get creating with this stamp set. Here's what I made today...

I started by choosing a Mid Century inspired colour palette, light & dark teal, mustard yellow, chocolate brown and burnt orange. I then stamped and coloured the blocks.

I decided to stamp & fussy cut the middle block, adhering it to the card with foam adhesive. The birthday sentiment is also from the set and adhered using foam adhesive. 

A simple, yet (in my opinion) effective card. I hope you are having a lovely day, thanks for joining me again today.

Crafty Hugs

Stencil Sunday - Layering Bauhaus Blocks

Happy Sunday.

A late post from me today, but I squeezed in a little crafty time this afternoon and couldn't wait to share what I made. It's been ages since I took inspiration from a card challenge, but when I saw the current CAS Colours & Sketches Layout HERE and seen below I was inspired to ink up the Stencil - Layering Bauhaus Blocks, which is due back in the studio tomorrow.

Here's what I came up with...

I started by die cutting 3 small squares,  they are roughly 3cm square. I then masked off each of the Bauhaus blocks on the stencil I wanted to use and went through each layer using Altenew inks Mangrove Root, Sea Forest and Marshland from the Natures Wonders collection.

I used the line stamp from Background Builders Classics and stamped it in the lightest shade, Misty Moor from the same ink collection. The sentiment is from Bauhaus Blocks and I used foam adhesive to secure the squares in place and also adhere the panel to my base card. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Crafty Hugs

Jolly Bauhaus

Hello & Happy Weekend.

It's a little grey, wet and windy here today, perfect weather for staying in and crafting. Which is what I plan on doing. Well, alongside the usual weekend chores! 

Hopefully the card I have to share today brightens up your day...

I was inspired to create a background with one of the square designs from Bauhaus Blocks and knowing that I wanted to add sone colour, I decided to heat emboss the squares. I used VersaMark ink and clear gloss embossing powder to do this.

I then went over the embossing with Concord & 9th Poppy, Marmalade and Honeysuckle inks to create this vibrant ink blended background. I felt it needed a little more detail, so decided to die cut a circle window to stamp my sentiment inside. I had debated a square window, but thought a circle would bring more contrast to all the squares. I then adhered the panel to my base card using foam adhesive.

My sentiment choice is from Mid Century Modern Wreath Builder for the Jolly Wishes. Which in hindsight I wished I stamped slightly higher up in the circle aperture. The sending part is a partial sentiment from Simply Said Blocks II. Finally my usual enamel dots to add the finishing touch.

That's all I have to share today, thank you for stopping by.

Crafty Hugs

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!

 

Bauhaus Geometrics & a Winner!

Happy Saturday.

What a beautiful day here in the North East, sunshine & warmth makes it feel like summer has arrived. I've had a very lazy Bean free day and I've made a few cards to share with you over the coming days. Along with designing some fun new products, but you'll have to wait a bit longer to see those ;)

Anyway, as I am announcing the winner for the May/June Mini Release, I thought I would make another card using the Bauhaus Blocks clear stamp set. This time I decided to pair it with the Stencil - Christmas Pop, without the Christmas look! 

I simply wanted to create this fun geometric background along the sides of my card base. I used Concord & 9th Cobblestone, Buttercup & Marmalade for my colours. The Bauhaus Block is adhered using foam tape and I added a few enamel dots for good measure. 

Now I've shared my card, how about we get to the winner. Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment here and across the social media platforms, your support, comments and lovely orders all make my day and I am sure I speak for the Uniko Brand Ambassadors too.

The lucky winner chosen from the comments left across social media is .

Karen Adams @karen_rock_paper_scissors_ 

Congratulations Karen! 

Please send Uniko a DM on social media or an email via bev@uniko.co.uk along with your postal address and I will get your goodies in the post to you.

Crafty Hugs