March Meet The Maker - Meet Me - Bev Brown AKA Uniko.

Happy Monday 😃

Today is day 1 of March Meet The Maker 2025 and having followed for quite a few years from the side lines, I dipped my toes in once but couldn't keep up! I decided this was the year to commit and join in on the fun. 

Especially as March is looking quieter compared to January and February. Plus, with all the celebrations last month, I gained quite a few new followers. So this is a good opportunity for me to tell you more about Uniko.

Today is Brand Re-Introduction. 

So I've called it, Meet Me.

Hello I’m Bev and I am Uniko 😃

I design all the products and lovingly package and check them for any imperfections. Providing you, my lovely customers with top quality, unique and innovative products is my aim. I am pleased to say it is very rare a faulty stamp passes my eagle eyes! 

And I do a happy dance every time I’m packing a wonderful order and my heart bursts with joy when a customer tags me @unikoltd when they share a card or creation using Uniko products ♥️

If you message, phone or send an email to Uniko, it’s me on the other end of the line. I am always happy to help and do my best to answer as quickly as possible. If it’s technical related and I don’t know the answer, I have to contact my tech support. AKA as husband 😂 He works full time & so I often have to wait until he’s not busy for his help! Other than him, it’s just me here. 

However, I am honoured to have a wonderful team of Brand Ambassadors…

Anita @craftyneet 

Izzy @izzyscrap 

Steph @morticraft 

Julie @sportyjules56 

Vinita @craft_craver 

These beauties help me on the blog and across social with amazing creative inspiration 🥰

AND I can’t forget to mention Claire @earlybirdstamps who has been by my side at all the craft shows I take Uniko too since the very first one ♥️

I know not everyone is on social media to be able to tag/share their makes with me. So why not snap a photo and email me instead. The beauty above is by Ruth @ruthgetscrafty on Instagram.

Before I get to todays card, how about 5 things about me you might not know… 

1. I love colour and I have an ink pad addiction 😂
2. My favourite number is 3 
3. I love cats 🐈‍⬛ 🐈 Jelly (almost 4) and Cali (almost 1) are my fur babies. 
4. Chocolate is my weakness, especially Salted Caramel M&Ms and Brownie M&Ms 😋
5. When I’m not crafting or on mum duties to my twin boys you might find me reading a good book. I like mystery, crime, thriller and psychological thrillers 📚

It wouldn't be a Uniko post without some inspiration, so here's what I made today. 

I've had this stencilled Layering Bright Butterfly fluttering around my desk since I inked it some time last week! So it was calling to be adhered to a card. 

With little time to create before the light of the day faded I put together this really CAS card. I think it took me longer to find the Floral Vines clear stamp set to be able to stamp the sentiment I wanted, than it did to put the card together! 

Thank you again for all the wonderful release day orders on Friday and over the weekend. You are all awesome.

Welcome to Uniko if you are new around here 😃 

Crafty Hugs

A Warm Welcome ❤️

Hello & Happy Tuesday.

I am delighted you have stopped by here on this final day of January. As today I get to give a warm welcome to our newest Brand Ambassador, Vinita Jain. 

Vinita has been a long supporter, follower and customer at Uniko. So I am delighted to hand you over for a brief introduction from Vinita herself.

Hello! 

My name is Vinita Jain and I am from India. I am 54 years old. I came to crafting in 2013 when I took early retirement from Kindergarten teaching in 2012. It changed my whole life! Since then I'm addicted and spent my whole time ( and money) crafting as a hobby. I love to experiment with different techniques and colouring mediums. With Uniko Brand Products when I worked for the first time, I noticed their excellent quality, so many universal designs, fun and interesting. To create with them is a pleasure! 

I am honoured to be part of this exciting adventure and hope to inspire you with my creations!

Have a wonderful day!

And here are a few of Vinita's favourite Uniko creations to date...

Beautiful Blooms II, Stencil Scattered Polka Dots & Sentiment from Pure Florals Cosmos.

Stencil - Pure Florals Gerbera & Sentiment from Pure Florals Cosmos.

Marvellous Mehndi 

Stencil - Stylised Floral & Sentiment from You Are, Yes You.

I think you will agree with me how beautiful and colourful Vinita's creations are. I can't wait to see what Vinita creates to share with us here on the blog.

So welcome Vinita!

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

New Brand Ambassador - A Warm Welcome to Steph!

Happy Thursday! 

I am delighted today to be giving a warm welcome and introduction to our newest Brand Ambassador, Steph Mortimer. I'm sure you are familiar with Steph's work around blog land as she is on a few challenge design teams and is a frequent participant in previous Uniko Challenges. If not, I am passing you over to Steph for a little introduction....

Hello, my name is Steph and I am over the moon to be joining the Uniko team as a Brand Ambassador. It has been a dream of mine for a while so I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet! So, here’s a little about me by way of introduction. 

I live in Derbyshire with my husband and twin girls. Like many crafters I have been creating in one form or another since I was a child but what first captured my heart was cross stitch. It wasn't until I was looking for wedding stationary that I caught the paper crafting bug. Not being able to find anything that I liked, I purchase a Big Shot machine and a few staple items and set about making my own. 

My first papercraft obsession was stamps, quickly followed by dies, but I have since managed to amass ink pads, alcohol markers and now it seems patterned papers a plenty! My natural cardmaking style is CAS, but I am always looking to learn new techniques and push myself out of my comfort zone so I do occasionally like to throw everything at a card in a very un-CAS like way! 

I was first introduced to Uniko by Brand Ambassador Alumni, Lyndsey Bowe and I have spent many a happy hour crafting in her dining room and routing through her Uniko collection. I now have an impressive Uniko collection of my own and I’m so happy I will be using them even more now I’m part of the team.

Welcome Steph! 

I asked Steph to choose a few of her favourite Uniko makes so that I could share them with you to give you a flavour of her style if you are unfamiliar with her creations. Let's have a look...

Absolutely love this combination of Uniko Peonies and English Country Garden Butterflies. I think you would agree with me that the colouring and colours are stunning.

Simple Art Deco elegance with this card using our Background Builders Arts Decoratifs and Arts Decoratifs stamp sets. 

And lastly but by no means lease this beautiful starry sky CAS card...

Now you can see why I am delighted to have Steph join us here at Uniko and I am sure you are all as excited as I am to see Steph in action, so keep your eye out for Steph's first inspiration post coming soon here on the blog.

I would love it if you would leave some welcoming comment love and be sure to pop back tomorrow for the start of our next challenge - yay! 

Until then, thank you for stopping by today.

Crafty Hugs

 

Website Open For Orders - Uniko Style!

Hello.

Happy July & HAPPY re-opening for orders day! 

I've been waiting for this day for months and finally, it is here and I am a bag of nerves waiting to see if the orders will roll in. It certainly has been and still is strange times, but it feels good to be getting back to some kind of normality. 

The website is open to accepting orders and I have decided to start with a twice week Post Office run to post your lovely orders. The days for posting orders will be Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.

All orders will continue to be sent via First Class Mail in the UK and standard Airmail for Europe & International orders. Orders are not sent with tracking unless they are of £50 value or more. Please allow extra time for your order to reach you and you will receive an order complete email once your order has left the studio.

Please be assured that I am and have been taking the Covid 19 pandemic seriously here at Uniko HQ which is also our home. My work area is kept clean and regularly wiped down and I have been undertaking regular hand washing. We have adhered to all the lockdown regulations and have remained symptom free and have had no contact with anyone who has had symptoms of the virus.

To celebrate the reopening I made a card to share with you and it seemed apt to use my much loved Uniko Style clear stamp set. 

Along with finding inspiration and joining back in on the fun this week at one of my go to challenges, CAS(E) this Sketch! seen HERE and below, I also sought inspiration from the Uniko branding colours for my card.

I started by using the Uniko Stencil Scattered Polka Dots and lightly applied Altenew Aqualicious ink through a small section to the left. 

I've then stamped and fussy cut the Uniko Style layered blooms using the Altenew Sweet Dreams and Cherry Blossom ink collections. The sentiment is a current favourite from Hello Lovely and I finished the card off with some Nuvo Stone Drops in Lady Liberty. 

It's lovely to be back in business and I am looking forward to sharing more creativity with you soon! Be sure to hop on over to the WEBSITE and check out the SALE page for awesome all the awesome bargains I had on prior to lockdown!

Crafty Hugs

Stencil Sunday - Hello Friend

Happy Spring Forward!

It's daylight savings here in the UK. I am looking forward to warmer days & longer & lighter nights, that's for sure. Shame the clocks couldn't fast forward a few weeks instead of just one hour, right?!

Anyway, I thought I would brighten up your weekend with a Stencil Sunday creation and check in over here too! I posted HERE yesterday, so if you missed it, pop by & have a read.

I was totally inspired by the challenge over at CAS(E) this Sketch! seen HERE and below. And I have to say I am really pleased at how it turned out.

It was pretty simple really. I masked off sections of the stencil to replicate the sketch design and used a different Spring colour to ink through the Uniko Stencil - Doodle Flower. The sentiment is from BIG & BOLD Hello.

That's all I have to share with you today, but I am super happy to have found some creativity this weekend and join in on some of my favourite challenges too!

Stay safe & at home. Crafty Hugs

Introducing... BIG & BOLD Hello and Framed Florals

Hey!

Welcome back to day three of the August 2018 Release product introductions. Thank you for all the lovely comments and support around social media for yesterdays introductions, I do love reading them all :)

Today we are introducing another 2 new clear stamp sets, BIG & BOLD Hello and Framed Florals.

Here is a little look at BIG & BOLD Hello, the next in the BIG & BOLD series...

This little stamp set has been designed for sometime, well, the sentiment part that is! It has been sitting there in my archives waiting for some tiny accent stamps and one day whilst doodling, these little accent stamps appeared and became the perfect accompaniments ;)

I used the tiny trio of accent stamps to create my own patterned paper design. I added some White Blizzard Glitter Nuvo drops to the flower centres for a little sparkle embellishment and the bold 'hello' is stamped, fussy cut & adhered to the card using foam adhesive.

Lastly, I have Framed Florals to introduce to you...

This was kind of a 'happy accident' stamp! I was simply playing around with various motifs which you will recognise from the Flower Power & Originally Organic series and this stamp design was born! 

I love how striking the design is against colourful backgrounds. For this card I went back to my original Mini Distress Inks in my favourite colours, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Picked Raspberry & Peacock Feathers to create a ink blended background. I've then simply stamped the image, fussy cut it and adhered it to my card base. The sentiment is from Simply Said.

That's all I have to share with you here using these new sets, but why not grab a cup of your favourite beverage and hop along with myself and the team...?

Bev

Carol 

Deborah 

Izzy 

Jane 

Julie

Linda

Lindsey

Sarah G

Well, I thoroughly enjoyed that hop and I am all inspired to get inky! I'd love to know your thoughts on these clear stamp sets and which is your favourite of the two, that is if you can decide?! 

That's all from myself and the Design Team today and all 5 of the new clear stamp sets have been introduced, which means.... TOMORROW is RELEASE DAY!!

Hope to see you then for the full reveal, release, Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!!

Hugs

Hello Friend

Hey!

Today was a much needed bean free day! I took some time to myself this morning to catch up on a little sleep and a couple of my favourite TV shows. The beans are finally getting their last 4 back teeth and as much as they have not suffered with pain, it seems the norm for Josh to wake at least once during the night. Only mummy can sit with him until he falls back to sleep and then we get the 6 am wake up call! Overall they are really good, but boy I needed a rest this morning.

Anyway, this afternoon I have been catching up on work and designing and I decided I needed a little break and set to making this card...

I had been perusing Pinterest this week and was inspired by THIS card by Yana Smakula, I loved the ombre stripes and the bold black sentiment. So had ago using my Altenew inks, Mama Elephant die  and paired them with Beautiful Blooms III and a sentiment from Simply Said.

It's also been an age since I joined in with a card challenge, so decided on a 'Hello Friend' card so that I can join in over at AAA Cards HERE. Their current 'Hello' challenge ends on Saturday.

That's all from me tonight, I had better finish up a couple of things before bed. The design team and I will be back in the morning to inspire you with the first Uniko Challenge of 2017 - yay!

Ok, until then, thank you for stopping by :)

Hugs

Supplies:-

Uniko Clear Stamps: Beautiful Blooms III and Simply Said

Inks: Altenew

Card: Stampin' Up! Whisper White

Accessories: Mama Elephant Die, Clarity Stencil Brushes, Wink Of Stella, MISTI & Stampin' Up! Enamel Dots

CAS Colours & Sketches #163

Hey!

Welcome to another challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches, a new month and a new hostess. This month Jane is our hostess and she is kicking the month off with a FAB colour challenge...

I'm not a lover of greens, they scare me a little! So, I took the easier route and went with floral for my card...

I'm not quite back up to full on mojo crafting after being ill and the result isn't quite what I had planned but it is growing on me! 

I hadn't planned on a watercolour wash type background behind the flowers it just kinda happened after I wiped the excess ink from the embossed flower. My baby wipe was wetter than I thought and spread the colour from the flower, so I just went with it and swiped some more!

I've used the Cucumber Crush green in the stems and the sequins (not quite the same shade but as close as I have). and the Mint Macaron is layered behind the stamped panel. The sentiment is from the new Simply Said clear stamp set and the flowers are from Pure Florals: Cosmos.

That's all from me today, be sure to check out the challenge and DT samples HERE and I look forward to seeing you in the gallery.