Color My Heart Colour Dare Challenge #446

 Hi Everyone

A great Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge #446 for you today. We simply require the use of all three colours, with optional free colours of black, white and silver too (but no additional colours).

For my card I used Distress Oxide inks in Squeezed Lemon, Blueprint Sketch, Hickory Smoke and Uniko stencil Mini Uniko Flower. The stencil was free with a purchase of the recent Uniko release but I do know that Bev is going to add them to the store soon. I love this style of Chrysanthemum and I also have it in the stamp format. 

I had to layer the ink on a few times to get the strength of colour I desired due to the dark nature of my card base. Finally I added a Uniko sentiment from the set Sentiments Outlined and heat embossed in yellow. A few years ago I found some posts of what I thought was embossing powder in a charity shop but they are actually called Meltdust and I think they were originally intended for use with specialist paper and a laser printer however I have found they work just fine as embossing powders as long as you don't overheat!

So, time to head over to the Color My Heart Color Dare blog and check out all the fantastic inspiration from the rest of the Design Team. Then get your creative juices flowing and join in! I look forward to seeing how you interpret the colour scheme.

As AAA Cards are still celebrating their 7th birthday I will be entering this card into their challenge #190.

AAA Birthday are also celebrating their birthday but they are the tender age of two! I will be entering their challenge #25.

And finally as this is all about the stencil, I’ll be entering Happy Little Stampers May Stencil Challenge. 

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Giraffe, Tiger & Zebra Print Stencils

Morning All

Thanks for joining me to today for my first Uniko BA Inspiration post. 

Today I am showcasing a trio of cards made using Uniko Giraffe, Tiger and Zebra print stencils. I love animal print so I was super excited to get these when they were first released. Here, I have used them with metallic embossing powders to make super luxurious cards. 

My first card uses the Tiger print stencil through which I have applied embossing ink. Before I added the ink, I masked off a rectangle in the bottom right where I wanted to stamp the 'WILD' sentiment.

Once inked, I removed the stencil and applied the metallic embossing powders one at a time. I used gold, silver and copper powders. After I had heat embossed the tiger I stamped the 'WILD' sentiment onto the same piece of card. I also stamped the 'HAVE A' and ‘BIRTHDAY’ onto separate pieces of black card before applying powder and heat embossing. The sentiments are from the Uniko Wild stamp set. The stencilled panel is layered onto a Kraft card blank and the additional sentiments have been added with foam pads.

My next card uses all three animal print stencils and in much the same way as the tiger card, I have inked through the stencil with embossing ink and added metallic embossing powder. Once heat embossed I die cut the squares and layered them onto a larger square of black glitter card. The final square is a sentiment from the Uniko Birthday Sentiments stamp set which I have heat embossed in gold.

And for my final card, I created a black slimline card blank and heat embossed the zebra print stencil down the left hand side and the giraffe print stencil down the right hand side. I then heat embossed the letters and numbers HB2U (Happy Birthday 2 U) from the Uniko Alphabet Outlined stamp set. I created some banner shapes from the leftover embossed pieces from the previous card and added these to the top right of the card to finish.

I have to say that these have turned out even better than I imagined so I'm really pleased and I hope you like them too. 

That's all from me for now.

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Challenge #65

Morning all

Welcome to my first official post as part of the Uniko Design Team! I’m here to tell you about  challenge #65 that goes live today and the theme is ‘Anything Goes’ with the optional twist of using die cuts. 

As always there is a generous prize for the winner chosen by the Design Team as well as Uniko loyalty points for the top three. There are extra prizes for randomly drawn winners who chose to use the optional twist and those who used Uniko products. The challenge is open until 25th June so there’s plenty of time to join in! 

For my card I used one of my favourite Uniko products, Beautiful Blooms I stamp set and coordinating dies. I started off by cutting the small bloom into a triangle of white card stock followed by cutting the two leaves either side. I then used this as a stamping guide by laying it over another triangle of white card and lining up the small bloom. I removed the die cut triangle before stamping the bloom in fuchsia. I covered the bloom with a mask (stamped onto a sticky note and fussy cut for closest trim to edge) and replaced the die cut triangle to help line up the leaves. I removed the die cut triangle again but left the mask in place and stamped the leaves. Then it was just a case of layering the stamped triangle onto teal and fuchsia card and adhering to the bottom right corner of the card front. I used foam pads to attached the die cut triangle over the stamped triangle. For the top left corner I stamped the Uniko Sentiments Outlined stamp in teal onto a white triangle which I layered onto teal and fuchsia card stock. 

Here is a close up of the bottom corner so you can see the dimension and the die cutting.

It wasn’t until I had completed my card that I realised I had used the Uniko brand colours! 

Be sure to visit the Uniko blog where you can check out the fantastic inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and our wonderful guest designer, as well as join in the challenge. 

Thanks for visiting,

Steph x

Uniko Brand Ambassador

Good morning lovely people!

I can’t even tell you how excited I am to be sharing the news that the lovely Bev at Uniko has asked me to join her Design Team as a Uniko Brand Ambassador. 

I am bursting with pride and joy over this as I’ve been a big fan of Uniko for many years now. 

Pop over to the Uniko blog  and check out the awesome creations by Bev and the rest of the Design Team.

If you are new to Uniko then head over to the online shop and check it out. For my international followers, Uniko does ship worldwide. 😁

That’s all from me for now but keep your eyes peeled for my first Uniko Brand Ambassador post tomorrow. 

Much love

Steph

Happy 7th Birthday AAA Cards!

Good afternoon all,

A quick post today to wish AAA cards a Happy 7th Birthday! 

As it happens I’ve been making some number birthday cards thinking ahead for when my children might be able to celebrate with their friends again! At the same time I’ve used up some of the many thin strips of card stock I seem to end up with regularly! 

That’s all for now as it’s been a busy week and I’m just too tired to think of anything witty to add! But do check back midweek as I have a rather exciting craft announcement to make! 😁

AAA Cards game #190.

Much love

Steph x

Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge #444

 Hi everyone 

Welcome back for another Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge #444. Today we have another Tic, Tac, Toe board for you to choose your colours either from a row, a column or diagonal but feel free to add the other colours from the board and the free colours as listed also. No additional colours are allowed.

We reference Close To My Heart colour names but any brand can be used as long as it’s a very close match.

I was very excited to see the rose gold on this board and knew straight away I was going to use it but the only rose gold thing I currently own is some Wow! Fab Foil which I’m still trying to get to grips with. It looks much easier on online demonstrations than it actually is!

I decided to use the rose gold to imitate a marble effect background.

First I took Peach and Ballerina coloured inks and blended them randomly onto white card. Then I made trails of glue and left it to go tacky before laying down the Fab Foil. 

Once I was happy with my background I die cut the Altenew Burlap Texture die from Mink card and laid this on the bottom right. 

I stamped the Uniko Beautiful Blooms III in Peach, Ballerina and Sangria coloured ink and Blue Belle and Glacier for the stems and leaves. I actually used Lawn Fawn inks in the following colours to match the TTT board: Apricot, Ballet Slippers, Cranberry, Forget-Me-Not and Mermaid. I fussy cut the flowers and arranged them over the Burlap die cut. 

I decided to use an off cut of the marble effect background for my sentiment (Stampin Up! Delightful Dozen) which I stamped in Versamark ink and then added Wow! Bonding powder. Whilst still hot I laid over more foil and burnished with a bone folder, lifting off the foil when cooled. I used a scallop edge die to cut a frame from Mink card and adhered both to the top left of the card.

I do wish that you head over to the blog to see the rest of the Design Team’s fantastic projects. It’s really great to see how different all our styles are and you get a very good spread of inspiration. 

Much love

Steph x

Christmas Craft Creations May 2021

Hi all

It’s time for more Christmas crafting as we go live with this month’s Christmas Craft Creations challenge. This month we are getting a head start on all those tags we are going to need for the presents. Or alternatively a lovely Artists Trading Card.

I’ve never got into the ATC thing so I made a pair of gift tags.

I knew I wanted to use the wonderful Winter Foliage stamp set from Uniko but I wasn't sure what background to do. Then I hit upon Gina K's carved wood technique and I was in love! So I did one background as embossed and one as debossed more out of curiosity than anything and to see which I preferred...I love them both!

First I cut my tag shapes using Clearly Besotted’s Tag Along die set. I then used Sizzix Branches embossing folder and added the embossed lines to look like wood planks. I ran Doe and Walnut Lawn Fawn ink pads down the tags and also did a little blending to take off some of the stark white. I thought it needed a little something more so I also dragged Hickory Smoke Distress Oxide ink pad down the tags and that was a game changer! I then stamped up the various elements from the Uniko set and fussy cut them before adhering to the tag. I added the twine loop and a bit of red ribbon to each to finish.

So I’d love to see your Christmas tags and ATC’s. Hop over to the Christmas Craft Creations blog and join the challenge as well as taking a look at the fabulous creations from the rest of the team. 

There is also a Design Team call over on the blog so go check out the requirements and see if it sounds like something you would like to join in with! 

Thanks for visiting 

Steph x

Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge #443

Welcome everyone 

Challenge #443 for Color My Heart Color Dare is now live and it’s a good one:

Choose three of the colours in the wheel ensuring they are side by side and get creative! The only free colours for this challenge are black and white.

On my card I used Yellow, Yellow-Green and Green. I wanted to make a masculine card as I’m short on those in my stash so I went with a black card base. I cut the Altenew Burlap Texture die from white card and built up the Altenew Monstera dies using my three chosen colours. I added a die cut sentiment in yellow to finish. 

Aside from the piecing together of the monsteras, this was quite a quick card to make so I decided to make it again this time using Green, Blue-Green and Blue.

I hope you like my take on the challenge and look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery. Pop over to the Color My Heart Color Dare blog to join in. Check out the rest of the Design Team’s fantastic projects and leave them some love if you have time. We all love a kind comment! 

Much love

Steph x

The Male Room Challenge #150

Well hello there!

Thanks for stopping by and checking out the new challenge from The Male Room. Challenge #150 has the theme Water/Beach.

I don’t tend to make many beach themed cards, maybe because I live in the middle of the UK and don’t often go to the beach! So this theme really got me thinking. I remembered a stamp set I received with Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine and wanted to use it as I hadn’t yet had chance to ink it up. 

I wanted to keep the colour scheme simple with just blue, black and white. I gave the sky and sea a watercolour wash after I had stamped the lighthouse and gull.

I layered the focal image onto a slightly larger layer of blue card. I then used foam tape to adhere this to a layer of white card that I have embossed straight lines across. I was reflecting the white planks of a beach hut and it does look good but it’s difficult to pick up on the photo! I wrapped this panel with bakers twine and then attached this to the card blank with more foam tape. Finally I heat embossed the sentiment onto a blue card flag and attached. 

I am really pleased with how this card turned out. I hope you like it too and will join us in the challenge. Inspire me with some beach themed cards! Don’t forget to take a look at the brilliant Design Team makes too. 

I would like to wish AAA Birthday challenge a very happy birthday and enter this card into their challenge #25.

I would also like to enter into the May Anything Goes with Watercolour challenge over at Happy Little Stampers.

See you again soon!

Steph x