Hello Friends & A Winner!

Hello & Happy Weekend!

Apologies for my delay in announcing the winner for the Stencil Release Giveaway HERE, this week hasn't quite gone as planned, but it's turning around now. I was sure to get some creative time in last night and combined a few stamp sets to create this clean & simple card.

I've said it so many times, it really sparks my creativity when restocks arrive in the studio. Background Builders Round In Circles was part of the batch of restocks that arrived the other week and the single line builder I have used here was calling to be inked up. 

I used my MISTI to stamp the background & used my Copic Markers to colour the circle design. I then stamped the sentiment from Floral Vines before die cutting the circle.

I often neglect this small solid butterfly from English Country Garden Butterflies, but I thought it was perfect stamped in Concord & 9th Honeysuckle. I used the coordinating Designer Die from the English Country Garden Butterflies collection and adhered to the circle focal point. 

So now I've shared my little bit of creativity, how about the winner. I used Random.org to select a winner from those left across all the blogs and social media and that lucky comment winner is...

Carol

Bev, how wonderful to see this new stencil release – so pretty and versatile, covering occasions throughout the year. With all the stencil challenges popping up, these would make for some amazing showcases and entries! Given that it’s snowy and cold here, the snowflake stencil has really caught my eye; a festive, frosty delight!
~carol

Congratulations Carol! Please drop me an email to bev@uniko.co.uk with your postal address by Saturday 19th November 2022 to claim your prize.

Thank you to everyone who joined in on the release fun and for all the lovely orders.

Have a lovely creative day.

Crafty Hugs 

Two For Tuesday - Pure Florals Cosmos

Happy Tuesday! 

I seem to be on a creative Two For Tuesday roll, and this week it is Pure Florals Cosmos getting the creative attention. 

It's been a while since I took my time and did some Copic colouring. I kept things simple, just choosing a trio of purples to colour the cosmos blooms. But created a little interest by making a window style card and also colouring onto a stone coloured card base. 

Having cut a window on this first card, this sparked the idea for my second card. This one is very CAS and uses the partial cut window for the spotlight effect.

I kept the cosmos colours exactly the same, just shading and adding more of the darker purple for the cosmos layered behind.

Pure Florals Cosmos is just one of the clear stamp sets coming in the next batch of restocks due in the studio, if the order goes to schedule, on Friday. 

Along with Pure Florals Cosmos, there is Background Builders Christmas 2018, Background Builders Seeing Stars, Block Party Christmas, Pattern Building Christmas Tree and Simply Said Blocks II. These are all available on back order.

That's all from me today.

Crafty Hugs

Hello September!

 Hello & Happy September!

I can't believe we are in September already. The summer seems to have flown by in a flash. It is back to school chaos as The Beans return on Monday AND luckily they get to celebrate their 8th Birthday tomorrow with no school! 

In between baking cakes today I managed to squeeze in a little crafty time. As much as I have enjoyed the summer, I have missed my daily routine in the studio and getting creative. So as much as I would happily have the school holidays last a little longer, I will be glad to get back in the studio!

Todays card was a fairly quick make as I had already stamped and fussy cut the leaves from Natures Treasures II a few weeks ago. They've just been sat waiting to be used! 

I decided to pair them with BIG & BOLD Hello. Mainly as I wanted a Hello September / Autumn inspired card with a modern twist of using neutral tones, but not just browns. I added a little bit of dimension with the fussy cut hello and the upper most leaf using foam adhesive.

September is an exciting month as next week we have another batch of requested clear stamp restocks arriving next week. These include, Background Blocks Halftone, Background Builders Squared, Pure Florals Gerbera, Pure Florals Peony and Snowflake Serenade. These are all available on backorder over on the website and any orders containing a backorder will be posted 7th / 8th September. 

Orders over £25 are being posted via Signed For Delivery at no extra cost to you, due to the postal strikes. As well, please allow extra time for your orders to arrive due to the strikes. I have no control over this and if I used a courier I would have to increase postage costs and I don't want to do this. 

In other news, Uniko is super excited to be in Harrogate on the 10th and 11th at the Crafterama show. This will be our first time in Harrogate AND doing a two day show! You can purchase tickets HERE.

Before I go I have one more little announcement. I know times are hard right now and we are all feeling the pinch. So in celebration of The Beans 8th Birthday tomorrow I am offering 10% off all orders from today, until 10am Monday 5th September. 

That's all from me today! 

Crafty Hugs

Merry Monday & A Winner!

Happy Monday!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and you were able to spend some time getting creative. I had planned to spend some time in the studio creating, but an old shoulder injury decided to surface and so I spent the weekend resting it instead.

Anyway, enough of my woes, I am here today all be it late 🙈 to announce the winner of the Sept/Oct 2021 Release Blog Hop & Giveaway. But before I get to that I do have a card to share...

Today I thought I would make a quick CAS card using some of the newest festive stamps at Uniko. I've been pretty much obsessed with the string of lights from Pattern Building Christmas Tree and today was no exception! 

I used a sentiment from Christmas Sentiments and added my usual Nuvo Drops to the lights. I love the added dimension and sheen like a light bulb they give. I added some sparkly card I had in my off cuts box to add a mat layer and a little more interest to finish. 

Okay, so how about that winner! 

Thank you to everyone who hopped along, who commented along the way, to all those who supported on the social media platforms and for all the lovely orders too. Random number generator helped me pick the winner and the lucky comment is...

CraftyUnicorn3 October 2021 at 16:30

They say "small is beautiful" and those tags certainly are. I love the dark shading on the pointsetta

Congratulations! 

Please send me your postal address in an email to bev@uniko.co.uk no later than 31st October 2021 to claim your prize.

Have a wonderful week.

Crafty Hugs

 

Throwback Thursday and Last Chance!

 Hello & Happy Thursday! 

Today I am doing a little reminiscing with a throwback Thursday. 

Unfortunately, the time has come to say farewell to a couple of clear stamp sets. I never find this easy and it really does take me a while to let them go. BUT, as much as I do love these sets, trends change, just like the seasons AND there is always so much newness around the corner.

So what are we saying farewell to? 

Decorative Doilies - The Hands Of Time

Firstly it is with a heavy heart we are saying farewell to Decorative Doilies - The Hands Of Time. This stamp set holds a special place in my heart. I originally designed elements of this set at college while studying for my degree in Textiles and Surface Design. 

This set is closely connected to the two clear stamps I launched Uniko with back in February 2012, Today, Tomorrow and Always Time and Today, Tomorrow and Always Extra Time. These sets were designed for my final major project and I poured hours of research, drawing and designing into them as I learned Adobe Illustrator. 

Here are a couple of my favourite cards made using this set. You can see more on Pinterest HERE.

And for old times sake, I have a fresh card to share with you using this set...

Yep, I am still on that slimline card band wagon! However, I was inspired by the new sketch over at CAS Colours & Sketches seen HERE and below for the layout of my card. They have also requested it to be slimline.

The sketch was perfect for using lots of the doilies from the set. The hardest part was selecting which largest doily to showcase as the main feature. 

I knew I wanted this card to be super colourful, so I opted for this one as I love colouring it in rainbow! I love how it turned out. I used a selection of Stampin' Up! markers to colour the doily and then I used some of the coordinating inks to stamp the backdrop of doilies. I used all but two doilies for this card. 

The sentiment is from Simply Said Blocks III and I added some enamel gems to add the final touches. I know this won't be the last time I ink up these stamps. They will forever remain a firm favourite. Especially when it comes to quick sparkling Christmas cards. However, it will probably be the last card I make and share here on the blog using it.

The next stamp set we are bidding farewell to is...

Background Builders - Vines 

This is another stamp set from the early years of Uniko, April 2014 to be exact! Here are a few of my favourites using this set. And you can see more HERE on Pinterest.

And a close up of a different card 

And again, for old times sake, a new one...

It's funny how you don't use a stamp set or product for a long time, but when you finally ink it up and start creating a whole host of ideas come to mind! 

For this card I selected one of the long leafy stamps to create this garland across my card. I then stamped a variety of the tiny flowers in a selection of inks. I tried to choose colours with an autumn feel, but it came out pretty summery.

You might recognise some of the flower designs from the Flower Power series. Don't worry those aren't retiring just yet, they'll be about for a while longer. The sentiment I have used is from Floral Vines.

So that's it, my Throwback Thursday and a farewell to these two stamp sets. It's been lovely looking back and I know for sure these early stamp sets will always have a special place in my heart and crafting stash. 

There are still some available on the website HERE at bargain prices, waiting for a loving inky home.  Once they are gone the product will be removed from the website 😢 

That's all from me today.

Crafty Hugs

 

Marvellous Mehndi Monday!

 Hello & Happy Monday!

I hope your week has started off marvellous. Today I was inspired to create a card using Marvellous Mehndi clear stamp set. I shared this graphic seen below which I created a while back using an image from a card I had made using the stamp set combined with the coordinating Stencil - Mehndi Mandala. It's been so long since I used this stamp set, that it sparked some creative mojo.

I'm getting better at stepping outside of my regular 10.5 x 14 cm size cards and opting for slimline. I think this large mandala in the set lends itself well to these larger card canvases. 

For my colour choice I was inspired by the colours over at CAS Colours & Sketches seen HERE and below. I've had these Stampin' Up! In Colours on my desk for ages, they were just waiting for the right project!

My sentiment is a mix from Doodle Flowers and Simply Said Blocks III. I think these combine really well and who doesn't want to receive a card saying this?

I'm a busy bee in the studio this week, so much fun in the pipeline and I can't wait to share it with you!. But for now you will just have to trust me on that  - haha! Okay, I best get on an get these Beans to bed, so I can have a bit of chill time too 😉 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Crafty Hugs

 

Brand Ambassador Inspiration : Nature's Treasures II & Background Builders - Squared

  Hi there!

Hannelie here today with a set of CAS cards using the Nature's Treasure II and Background Builders Squared stamp sets. I think the two sets are a fantastic match and I love the way the cards turned out!

Here they are :

Card #1:

Card #2 :

Card #3 :

I used :

• Natures-treasures II stamp set
• Background-builders-squared
• Anniversaire-arts-decoratifs-clear-stamp (sentiment on card #1)
• Floral-vines-clear-stamp-set ( sentiment on card #2)
• Simply-said-blocks (sentiment on card #3)
• Promarkers
• Altenew ink
• Versafine black ink
• Misti
• Silhouette cameo

The possibilities are endless with these two sets. Even with the same color palette you can achieve so many different looks!

Thank you so much for popping in ... I hope you feel inspired to try different looks with the same stamp set !

Hannelie

Friday Focus - Floral Vines

 Happy Friday! 

It's been the longest shortest week for me, like the week has gone pretty quick, but I am feeling tired at the same time! 

Anyway, I managed to squeeze in some creative time yesterday and decided to create a couple of cards using Floral Vines.

I've my usual CAS style for these cards today and chose summery colours to shine through these Spring showers!

I started with simple design using the Floral Vine focal image along the side of my card with a simple 'smile' sentiment. I added trio of circles to emphasise the sentiment and add a little finishing touch.

This lead to my second simple card design...

This time I used a little masking and then used a border / building stamp from Background Builders Arts Decoratifs and the 'Just For You' sentiment. 

As you can see I kept the colours the same as my first card for ease and continuity. I really love how this simple duo turned out.

Thats all from me today, I hope you have enjoyed this little Friday Focus on Floral Vines today.

Crafty Hugs

 

No Tricks, Just Treats - Happy Halloween!

 Happy Weekend 

&

 Happy Halloween!

I know not everyone celebrates the occasion, but with the way 2020 has panned out so far, I think we all deserve some treats ;) So in celebration I have a couple of offers on the Uniko website...

FREE Worldwide Shipping is usually only on orders of £50 or more, so I've reduced the minimum spend by half. Also, if you spend over £30 you can choose an in stock Uniko Stencil for FREE! 

What's not to love about these treats?! 

Be quick as they end tomorrow Sunday 1st November 2020 at Midday GMT.

I managed to squeeze in a little creative time too and made this Autumnal card using Natures Treasures II and my all time favourite Happy Birthday from Simply Said Blocks.

I'm still crushing on these Concord & 9th inks and used a couple more colours I'd not tried yet. The layout of my card is also inspired by the current CAS Colours & Sketches challenge seen HERE and below.

I did mark out the centre of my card & a line at the top to leave a border and then just stamped the leaves in various Autumnal colours. I decided to add a few berries in Cranberry ink using the trio of berries from Rustic Wreath.

A quick & simple card, that I am rather pleased with. Plus, it was nice to get inky and creative too ;) I hope you all have a lovely fun, chocolate, sweet filled day! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Crafty Hugs Bev x