Be More Dolly 💖

Hello.

I'm back in the studio after a few days away in South Wales with my family. It's been 27 years since I last stepped onto Caswell Bay Beach and this time I got to share it with them and relive some treasured memories of my childhood summers.

Sunshine, sea, sand and family time was definitely what my soul needed and I feel like I have come back recharged and refreshed. 

The card I am sharing today isn't the one I had planned, but with the news of Dolly Parton's death yesterday made me sad, but also inspired to share my little tribute to honour such a wonderful person. 

I love this quote...

"You can't just sit around and think of all the things you want to do. You've got to think of what you want to do, and then you've got to get out and make that happen." 

Dolly Parton

This is for you, Dolly.

I admit that I wasn't the biggest fan of Dolly's I didn't listen to her music a huge amount or follow her full career. But growing up in the 80's and 90's you couldn't not know about Dolly. Maybe subconsciously Dolly's approach to life has rubbed off on me and inspired me more than I realise, who knows.

But her death has reminded me to continue being unapologetically me and why I started Uniko. To share my love of pattern, design and love of paper crafts. To be unique and not follow or keep up with what everyone else is doing. 

So I start down and made a card to honour her. I chose the Stencil - Ink & Flip Christmas Star, Star and inked it in Sweet Pea and Berry Kiss. I then went back and inked over the Sweet Pea sections with VersaFine and heat embossed with clear sparkle EP.

I then added a trio of the small English Country Garden Butterflies, which I fussy cut and coloured with pink markers. My sentiment is from Just Because. 

That's all I have to share today, but before I go I do have some Christmas in July and Christmas *almost* in July Release winners to announce.

8th July Rustic Wreath - Glennis F

15th July Stencil Ink & Flip Christmas Star and Christmas Star,  Star - Kath B

22nd July Background Blocks Christmas Scramble - Lynne

Christmas *almost* in July Release £20 eGift - Greta

Thank you to you all for the lovely comments, continued support and custom. I appreciate you all.

Crafty Hugs

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Autumn has arrived!

Hi all, 

Steph here with my Uniko Brand Ambassador post for October and given that the weather has now and truly turned, I thought I'd celebrate Autumn rather than moaning about how cold and wet it is! (But I might still moan a bit!).

For this card I have used Uniko I Love Coffee stamp set, just what is needed on a soggy autumnal day! My floral background uses Uniko Beautiful Blooms II stamp set which I think works beautifully in the orange and browns I have chosen for my card. 

Using fawn / brown based colours I turned the Uniko English Country Garden - Butterflies into moths for my next card. I stamped the solid butterfly over the background and added one of each the small and large butterflies using foam pads. 

My final card uses Uniko Winter Botanicals: Sweet Broom stamp set. I masked a section across the upper part of the card on which I later stamped the sentiment from Uniko Floral Vines stamp set. 

So that's my autumnal inspiration to match the autumnal weather (might be nicer if the rain would stop!). Thanks for stopping by.

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Sponsors - Passion For Markers

Hello & Happy FriYAY! 

First Friday of the month and the last few days of the school holidays for The Beans. Hence why I have been a little quiet here on the blog. I have been working around them! But it's been mainly admin and packing lovely orders, thank you 😊

So, I am a little late with sharing this, but Uniko is the proud sponsor of Passion For Markers challenge, seen HERE. 

The theme is New Beginnings and I decided to make a New Year card, simply because it is a New Year and here's what I created...

As you can see it isn't your 'usual' New Year card. So why did I choose the butterfly from English Country Garden? 

Butterflies are a powerful symbolism of growth and new beginnings and to me I wanted a simple but powerful and positive start to this new year. Plus I knew it would look pretty in these shades of peach and hint of aqua! Totally inspired by Pantone Color of The Year - Peach Fuzz.

I used Stampin' Up Blends in Calypso Coral and Bermuda Bay (Light) for simple colouring to my die cut butterfly. I adhered using foam tape and added a few Oceanside enamel dots around the sentiment from Christmas Sentiments. 

There is still time to join in the challenge for your chance to win a Uniko prize. Check out and enter HERE.

Crafty Hugs

Thankful...

Hello!

Firstly, Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends, wonderful customers in the USA and to those that are marking the holiday. I wish you all a lovely day, however you are celebrating. Although, we don't celebrate the holiday here in the UK, I always like to take the opportunity to let you know how thankful I am for all that support me & Uniko.

So here is a card in honour of the occasion...

I was inspired to give some fresh inky love to the Large Background Sketched Foliage, it's been a while and seeing all the leaves waiting for me again in the back garden, it inspired my colours.

I masked off the edges of my card base before putting the panel inside my MISTI to stamp the large background. I'm currently enjoying using a variety of colours on one stamp & using a stamping tool makes it super easy. My raised sentiment is from Autumn Serenade and adhered using foam tape. 

As always, once I get creative it lead onto another card...

This time I wanted to create a look of a window, so I created a raised die cut window to adhere above the stamped foliage background, using foam tape. I then added the smaller butterfly from English Country Garden Butterflies, which I doubled up using the solid butterfly stamped in Honeysuckle & then I adhered the partially coloured outline butterfly over thee top, secured down the middle.

The card made me smile, so I decided to add the smile die cut from Uniko's Exclusive Picked Poise Collection, available on CraftStash. See link on left hand side of the blog! 

 

I also had another reason for using the Large Background Sketched Foliage. And that is, as much as I love this stamp, I have made the sad decision to retire it once it has sold out. This stamp along with 3 others are in the SALE and RETIRING sections on the website. 

Which nicely leads me onto remind you, in case you missed the newsletter this week of Uniko's Thankful For You, SALE & Surprise Discount Codes with every order.

I decided to do #blackfriday a little different this year. Of course there is a SALE. 

BUT, I am also giving back to everyone who places an order between 21st - 27th November 2023*. Receive a surprise discount, from £5-£25 to use with your next order. 

* Code cards look like this (with a code on them obviously 😉) and they are tucked inside an envelope. So even I don’t know what I’m putting in your orders. It’s totally random as to who gets what discount. But you are guaranteed the minimum of at least £5. 

Have a wonderful day!

Crafty Hugs 

BA Inspiration Post with Pure Floral Gerbera stencil

 Hello friends!

Happy Wednesday!

It's time for some inspiration with me!

Today I wanted to showcase the Uniko Pure Floral Gerbera stencil and paired it with English Country Garden butterflies with two different looks!

Card#1

Who are ready for fall!!! I love the fall colors as the leaves begin to change and the weather turns cooler!

Here is my interpretation of the fall colors........

I started with using Distress inks and white pigment ink using the Gerbera floral stencil in fall colors. After blending the inks I fussy cut the floral image.

On a white piece of CS, I used MOD background Builder stencil and stamped the sentiment from the Yes, You Are stamp set. I love the soft look background with stripes!

Then stamped the largest butterfly and watercolored it with my ZIG watercolor brushes, die cut it.

In the end, I assembled all the elements with some die-cut leaves. 

Card#2

Once again I used the Pure Florals Gerbera Stencil to showcase its beauty!

I started with white pigment ink on a wine-red CS. For a detailed and deep look at the centre, I overlapped the centre with aged mahogany DI.

I stencilled the flower 2 times with the same method. Now on a white CS base at the top, I stencilled some wonky stripes look by overlapping it using Wonky stripe stencil with the same colors.

Now added a sentiment white strip with my inked flowers and some cute stamped flutters-by. I accented it with some white pearls and some Posco white paint dots in the centre of the flowers.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Happy crafting with Vinita!!

 

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 

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Using English Country Garden Butterflies

  Hello!

It's Jane here today using a well loved stamp set, English Country Garden Butterflies, with a newer stencil, Pure Florals Chrysanthemum combined  with Nuvo Shimmer Powders.

I used watercolour card and placed the Pure Florals Chrysanthemum stencil over it. I then sprinkled on three colours of Nuvo Shimmer Powder - cherry bomb, blue blitz & sunray crossette - and spritzed it with water.

This was my first try with the powders and I was excited to see the result. I wasn't disappointed and the colours look even more special in real life as they really do shimmer and catch the light.

Once everything had dried out I stamped the English Country Garden Butterflies and greeting on top using Versafine Clair nocturne ink. 

I'm thinking now it would have been even more special if I had heat embossed the butterflies, but I wasn't sure how the powders would react to the heat. Maybe if you know you could leave me a comment below?

Thanks so much for looking today, I really appreciate your time.

Stay safe and keep crafting!

Jane

x

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - CASE Myself

This is a second special Birthday-surprise for Bev!

Today it's on me to join into the fun of the CASE myself event on the Uniko Blog!
There's a difference to the other participating crafters - they are all Alumni Team Members who just came back to celebrate the 10th Birthday of Uniko with Bev, the team and all customers...
But I am still an active member! During the next days you will see what I'm talking about... the February Release is coming closer - just a few days left until the Sneak Peek and Introducing Days will start! 😀

Beverley released her very first stencil designs in autumn 2017.
I was so honoured when Bev asked me to join a small team with a focus on stencils! Sure I wanted!
During the years I had some Guest Designer postings, but wasn't a permanent member of any team before!
On February, 17th 2018 Bev introduced our new Stencil Design Team on the Uniko Blog
- Sarah Gray, Julie Beech, Linda Walmsley and me.

But first let's return to the CASE myself event!
Is there anything closer than using my very first contribution I made as fresh team member of the Stencil Design Team and CASE it?
Definitly not!

This is the card I used as CASE inspiration:

K1-907 - fly by balloons

I made three new cards.

For the first one I used the Equalizer block Stencil, The English Country Garden Butterflies Stamps and Dies and a sentiment of the Anniversaire Arts Décoratives set.
Here I've used the layout and the colours of the balloon card. I also took the three different colours of the balloons to the butterflies. The background isn't embossed here, but the front of the butterflies and the sentiment are. The butterflies are adhered one side flat, the other one with a mix of 1 mm and 2 mm dimensional pads.

K1-1561 - Birthday Butterflies

The second one is made with the Honeycomb Pattern Stencil and the Bee happy and Simply Said Blocks II.
Here I've used the layout, but different colours. Again I intensified the colours from top to bottom. The three bees are identical, but (like balloons in the wind) they fly in different directions. The sentiment isn't on a banner this time, but it has a black background like in the original card.

K1-1560 - Bee Wishes

And the third one is in the background like the one before, but I changed the sentiment to one of Floral Vines and the bees to "the one" of Mid Century Modern Florals.
Maybe you can remember, where you have seen these bees before?
If not, hop here or here and you will find my funny special own bee-creations - it's like a second act of CASEing myself.
The little rings and dots give an optical kind of black background for the sentiment, but with a lighter, less bold look.

K1-1559 - Happy BeeDay

To see the full lists of supplies and some more pictures, please follow the added links to my blog.

Stay inspired and be excited, what the Uniko BA-team will show you soon!

 

Greetings from Wiebke