Autumn Vibes 🍂

Hello & Happy Monday

Today I squeezed in a little creative time in between show prep. I am travelling down to Farnborough on Wednesday for The Creative Craft Show. I've never done a 3 day show before, so this will be an experience! If your'e coming to the show, you can find me on the Dies to Die For stand G28. I will have Uniko's full inventory with me 😀

Today had a hint of autumn in the air, so I was inspired to dust off Natures Treasures II and make this quick and easy card. 

I didn't fancy using kraft card as my base, as I often do with autumn cards, but I wanted something a little softer/warmer than grey. So I reached for some Sahara Sand (now retired) I have in my card stock stash. 

Using one of the large leaves from the set and stamped it in black ink randomly. I then added a sentiment combination from Doodle Flowers, stamped on a piece of pink card I found in my bits box and adhered with foam tape. I finished with a trio of rhinestones to add a little sparkle.

Hope your week has stared well.

Crafty Hugs

Birthday Wishes

Happy Tuesday.

This week is my birthday week and I decided to bring all the birthday inspiration. Yesterday I shared this fun Balloon Bash card. You can watch the YouTube short of me making it HERE.

Today, I thought I would share one of the cards that we made during the Uniko and Stampin' Up! Mashup on Saturday.

On this card I paired the Stencil Layering Retro Rainbow with a butterfly from a Stampin' Up! set called Extraordinary Life. The sentiment is from Simply Said Blocks III.

For the three rainbow arches I used SU! Basic Grey. I started by inking light and increased the intensity for each arch. For the butterflies I used Calypso Coral, Pumpkin Pie, Melon Mambo, Poppy Parade, Old Olive, Lost Lagoon and Night of Navy.

I love showing how Uniko products can be paired with other wonderful companies, and I think this turned out pretty well. 

I'll be back with more to share this week, and a special offer too, so stay tunned.

Crafty Hugs

Swiss Dots & Bright Spring Blossom Card & Video

 

Happy Monday. 

I thought I would start the week of with another fun Background Blocks Swiss Dots and stencil combination. 

Remember THESE cards I shared pairing the Background Blocks Swiss Dots and Layering Picked Posies. Well, I fancied trying something similar with different colours and a different stencil. 

I chose the Layering Spring Blossom stencil along with a current favourite colour combination of Wildberry, Plumberry and Rainforest. I also used VersaFine Clair Morning Mist to stamp the Swiss Dots. 

You can watch the video HERE where I embark on this creative adventure. 

And here is the end result...

A different result for sure and maybe a little too busy for my usual liking. But it was fun to create and experiment with different colours and combinations. 

That's all from me today, have a wonderful Monday.

Crafty Hugs

MOD Circles HB2U

Happy Thursday.

I'm finally back with a new card to share. 

Well, it's actually a card I finally got round to finishing! I stamped this panel during this video HERE when I introduced the Background Block MOD Circle Builder.

I went ahead and added some colour using some Stampin' Blend markers and then the panel sat on my desk. I simply couldn't decide how to finish the card or what sentiment to add.

Today I settled on adding HB2U using Alphabet Solid stamped in black, fussy cut and adhered using foam adhesive.

I think finishing this card has given my creative mojo a little boost, so hopefully I will have more to share in the coming days.

Crafty Hugs

A Blooming Birthday Card And A Winner!

Hello & Happy Monday.

I'm starting the week off with finally announcing the winner of the April 2025 Release Day Blog Hop. Thank you to everyone that took the time to hop and comment.

I also finished this card in honour of todays post too.

This was a panel I stencilled at Crafterama Lincoln using the Stencil - Layering Spring Blossom and some of the new C9 colours. 

I finished the card with a sentiment and flowers from Originally Organic Flower Garden. My reason for the sentiment is because this month the Uniko VIP Facebook Challenge is Anything Goes Birthday. 

Ok, now onto the winner of the blog hop. 

I used random.org to pick a lucky comment and it chose this comment number

And the lucky comment is...

*Vicki*

28 avril 2025 à 20 h 38 min

All of your creations are just gorgeous! I love your composition of each and how you’ve managed to make so many different styles too! Love your use of the “J” for “JOY” creations so much! Thanks for sharing your lovely creations with us at the Alphabet Challenge!

Congratulations Vicki. Please send me an email at bev@uniko.co.uk no later than 26th May 2025 to claim your £25 eGift code to spend at Uniko.

Did you see the wonderful inspiration from the Brand Ambassadors HERE, yesterday? Don't forget to hop along and comment for your chance to win a £25 eGift code to spend at Uniko.

Crafty Hugs

Hello May

Hello May & Happy Thursday. 

I'm finally caught up after the April Release and Crafterama Lincoln, and I found some time yesterday to finish one of the Ink & Flip Delightful Diamonds panels I inked and stamped during the countdown to release.

Don't worry if you missed out on the stencil, I have some more arriving soon. It's a holiday weekend, so it might take a couple of days extra, but more are coming! 

I inked this panel and started stamping the diamonds during my YouTube video HERE. And as it's my husband's birthday today, I finished the card off with the Happy Birthday from Mid Century Modern Birthday. 

I kept some spaces unstamped and minimal fuss. Just fussy cutting the sentiment and adhering using foam tape and a few Poppy enamel dots to finish.

I must have inked this stencil up 6-8 times on Sunday, so I have lots of panels in different colour ways to finish and share.

That's all from me here today, time to celebrate my husband, spend some time together while the boys are at school and then I think it is the traditoinal Birthday ten pin bowling! 

Crafty Hugs

March Meet The Maker - Product Story

 Hello & Happy Monday.

Today is the final day of March Meet The Maker and the final theme is product story. So far I've talked about the Originally Organic Collection, Ink & Flip Stencils & the popular Mid Century Modern Collection. 

There are lots of products that have stories, but I thought for this final day I would highlight the Stencil - MOD Background Builder. 

This stencil was the start of my 'builder' style stencils. The idea being that you can have an instant focal pattern, but that you can also move it around easily to fill a larger space.

I happened upon this 'builder' style from my surface pattern days and learning Adobe Illustrator in that this is a similar format to use to create and seamless pattern. And this was one I had created in my portfolio of designs. 

This shows the stencil used as an instant backdrop/focal point for the flower from Flower Power #3, accented with a sentiment from Simply Said Blocks.

This next sample shows how the stencil can be used as an all over pattern. I've accented with elements from the corners of the stencil and a sentiment from Everyday Sentiments.

Lastly for today I thought I would make a new card to share with you. 

I went for a little tone on tone ink blending for this card. First ink blended some Oceanside onto the white card panel, but faded it out towards the top. 

I then used Peacock from the bottom, through the stencil and then Oceanside towards the top. For my sentiment I used Birthday Sentiments as I still had it out on my desk. 

I love this stencil format and it was the spark that gave me the inspiration to go on to design the Stencil - MOD Background Builder Circles and then I expanded the format to design the Stencil - Layering Bauhaus Blocks. I can confirm there will be new designs coming in this format this year!

And that wraps up March Meet The Maker. I hope you have enjoyed the blog series as much as I have and it's given you a little more insight behind the scenes. 

Crafty Hugs

 

Birthday Inspiration with Uniko Alumni Brand Ambassador Sarah Platt

Hello & Happy Tuesday!

It's a terrific Tuesday as I am absolutely thrilled to have another Brand Ambassador Alumni joining us today, the lovely Sarah Platt..

Sarah joined the Uniko family in August 2014 having been a regular participant in Uniko challenges and valued customer. 

What drew my attention to Sarah was her use of bright colours and clean style. Just like she has used today in her trio of birthday cards made especially for Uniko's 13th Birthday.

On this first card Sarah has used Background Blocks Wonky Stripes with die cut balloons decorated with elements from Balloon Bash. The sentiment is from Anniversaries Arts Decoratifs. 

I love how Sarah has continued the theme and colours, simply switching up the background block and balloon placement for a slightly different look. Here Sarah has used the Background Block Arts Decoratifs.

And for this last card Sarah has used Background Blocks Party Confetti.

A big thank you to Sarah for joining us today and taking part in the Uniko 13th Birthday Celebrations. Be sure to leave some comment love here on the Uniko blog and across social media platforms if you use them. I will be randomly selecting comments through the month to win some prizes.

Crafty Hugs

Uniko Birthday Mash-Up With Seven Hills Crafts - Part 2

Happy Friday & Happy Valentine's Day 💖

Welcome to part 2 of the Uniko Birthday Mash-Up with Seven Hills Crafts. If you missed yesterdays post   with the lovely Tara, owner of Seven Hills Crafts, you can catch up HERE. 

Today is my turn to bring the inspiration using some products from the Seven Hills Crafts website paired with something from Uniko. Here's what I chose...

If you know me, you know I love pattern. I couldn't resist these fun Geo Mod Stencils by Kristina Werner with Concord & 9th. All these fun elements just called my name. 

These elements scream 1980's to me and having grown up in the 80's they appeal to my inner child! I went for some bright colours for this first card using Sweet Pea, Fig and Oceanside. I then decided to add the striped elements in black.

To make it a mash-up I needed to use Uniko for the sentiment. I reached for the HAPPY from Everyday Love Sentiments and the Birthday from Birthday Sentiments.

I couldn't stop at just one card, so I made a second.

For this card I chose Pink Lemonade, Lilac and Sea Glass for my colours. I also decided not to layer the stencils exactly, like I did for the card above. 

These stencils really do give so many options as to how you layer the elements they contain. I wanted a few more flowers and some of the other elements that didn't fit on my card above.

Again I chose to ink the striped elements in black and this time I used the large birthday from Uniko's Mid Century Modern Birthday and the smaller happy from Mid Century Modern Wreath Builder.

That's not all from me today, be sure to check the Uniko Website Blog this afternoon for a card and I might just have a giveaway filled with LOVE 💖

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

CAS Birthday Inspiration with Uniko Alumni Brand Ambassador Jane Taylor

Happy Wednesday

It's a wonderful Wednesday as I am absolutely to have another Brand Ambassador Alumni joining us today, the one and only Jane Taylor.

Jane joined the Uniko family June 2015 having been a valued customer and regular participant in Uniko challenges and events. I was drawn to Jane's clean & graphic style of card making. 

I'm delighted Jane agreed to make a card to help celebrate Uniko's birthday this month, let's have a look.

Just look at this colourful card. 

Jane has used the Designer Dies Big & Bold Happy layered over a colourful stencilled background. The stencils Jane has used are Explosion! and Mid Century Modern Shapes. Such a fun combination. The accent birthday is from Everyday Sentiments.

A big thank you to Jane for joining us today and taking part in the Uniko 13th Birthday Celebrations. Be sure to leave some comment love here on the Uniko blog and across social media platforms if you use them. I will be randomly selecting comments through the month to win some prizes.

Crafty Hugs

Brand Ambassador Birthday Inspiration

 Bonjour!

Izzy here. I hope that you are enjoying the festivities and the fabulous discount that Bev is offering to celebrate the 13 years of Uniko.

To go on with the celebration, I made a card with the beautiful Layering Picked Posies stencil from the last release.

I had the chance last year to benefit a sales on CraftStash and I bought the exclusive Picked Posies Collection. So happy to have done it because the dies work beautifully with the flowers from the stencil. 

February is also my mum's birthday month so I made this card for her.

So, on white card stock I stencilled the flowers, the leaves and the hearts of the flowers with different inks and I then die cut them with the dies.

In the collection pack there was also this gorgeous Picked Posies Quilted Background Impression panel die. So I used it on a white square piece of card stock. Once cut, I flat adhered it on a double yellow card.

I also die cut a circle to be able to stamp and gold heat emboss the sentiment coming from a combination of the different sets Everyday Sentiments, Everyday Love Sentiments and Everyday Family. I foam mounted it on the card.

 To finish my card, I foam mounted the flowers and the leaves all around the sentiment to make like a flower wreath.

Et Voilà ! That's all for me today. Don't forget to come back everyday to discover all the great surprises Bev has prepared for you. 

Pure Florals Inspiration with Uniko Alumni Brand Ambassador Rahmat Gouse

 

Happy Monday.

I hope you are enjoying all the festivities and inspiration so far, and I am delighted to be starting the week off with some Alumni Brand Ambassador inspiration from the one and only Rahmat Gouse.

Rahmat joined Uniko in September 2016 having been a avid follower, participant in Uniko challenges and customer. Rahmat soon fell in love with the Pure Florals collection and worked her beautiful colouring skills with the florals. 

So I am delighted to share some more stunning cards Rahmat coloured and made especially for today...

I love Rahmat's colouring, and fussy cutting, and creative talent brings these florals to life. Be sure to follow Rahmat on Instagram HERE if you use that social media platform.

Products Used

Pure Florals Rose

Pure Florals Gerbera

Anniversaire Arts Décoratifs

Sentiments Outlined

Stencil - Quilted

Stencil - Stylised Floral

A big thank you to Rahmat for joining us today and taking part in the Uniko 13th Birthday Celebrations. Be sure to leave some comment love here on the Uniko blog and across social media platforms if you use them. I will be randomly selecting comments through the month to win some prizes.

Crafty Hugs