Color My Heart Color Dare #450

 Welcome back everyone,

I love, love, love this week's prompt at Color My Heart Color Dare. We have a fantastic inspiration photo for challenge #450. 

How beautiful is this photo? So select your three colours (not including the free colours of black and white) and get creative! Will you use the peacock as inspiration? The feathers? Or just the colours?

I chose to get inky for my cards and I had a great time smooshing some distress oxides over some heat embossed butterfly images.

The butterfly stamp is from Uniko set English Country Garden - Butterflies. First I heat embossed the three butterflies with Wow! Opaque White powder. I then dabbed Distress Oxide ink onto an acrylic block, spritzed a little water to loosen the ink and dabbed the card over the ink. I did this separately for each colour so they didn't mix and go muddy. A little blast with the heat gun helped to dry the ink and move it around a little. The first card was done on watercolour card but the second was done on regular stamping card stock. I think it works better on the watercolour card as it can take more of the ink and gave the lovely pooling in the wings of the butterflies. 

I layered this panel onto black card and then the card front. I heat embossed the sentiments onto black card also. These are from Taylored Expressions and are absolutely great because you stamp the full block of 18 sentiments and use the die to cut them all in one go. Lots of sentiments left over for the next set of quick cards! 

I adhered the sentiment with foam pads and added Nuvo drops to the panel. The black drops have not come out particularly well and the liquid seemed thicker than the yellow so I will have to practice some more with this one.

That's it from me for now. I do hope you will head over to the blog and check out the rest of the Design Team's fantastic creations, leaving them some lovely comments too. 

Please do join in with this challenge as I'd love to see what beauty can be created with this great inspiration photo. 

Much love

Steph x

Uniko June 2021 Stencil Release, Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

Hey there!

Welcome to everyone. I’m so glad you’ve been able to visit today as we have a review of the Uniko stencils release and a Brand Ambassador blog hop which means there are goodies up for grabs. Yay!

So here are all the stencils release this month: 

All of the NEW products are available for purchase over HERE on the Uniko website. 

As you can probably tell from yesterday’s post, I loved the English Country Garden Butterfly stencils so I have used the second one for today’s card. The crisp edges of this stencil are just fantastic.

This card makes me feel very tropical and makes me yearn for a foreign holiday! I have used three colours of Distress Oxide inks and blended them through the stencil. I have then simply stamped the butterfly and sentiment from Uniko English Country Garden Butterflies stamp set in orange and layered the panel onto pink card. 

I have also created a new baby card with the Mixed Mini Geometrics stencil since it reminds me of building blocks in the nursery.

For this card I used gloss texture paste mixed with different colours of ink and spread them through the stencil being careful not to mix them and make them ‘muddy’ in colour. I added fussy cut elements from the Uniko Sweet Baby stamp set using foam pads.

*** Don’t forget to visit and leave a lovely comment on each of the Uniko Brand Ambassadors blogs for a chance to win the ENTIRE release! Good luck. ***

Bev

Hannelie

Izzy

Jane

Julie

Rahmat

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Introducing... Stencil English Country Garden Butterflies Bundle

Good morning!

Day three of the Uniko Introductions and today is a stencil bundle consisting of English Country Garden Butterfly I, English Country Garden Butterfly II stencil and a Butterfly mask.

Well now, who just swooned over these because I know I did when I first saw them! 

For this card I only used English Country Garden Butterfly I stencil and applied Distress Oxide ink through it, darker in the middle and lighter towards the edges. I removed the stencil and added shading with alcohol markers. For a final flourish I added Wink of Stella but a photograph never picks this up. I fussy cut around the butterfly so I could adhere it to my card with foam pads under the wings to give it some dimension. 

So that concludes the Uniko Introduction posts for this month but absolutely come back tomorrow as we will be having a Brand Ambassador blog hop with giveaways. In the meantime pop over to the Uniko blog to see the amazing designs from the Brand Ambassadors. They really are great I promise. 

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Introducing... Stencil Mixed Mini Geometrics

Morning all,

Welcome back for the next Uniko Introduction and today it’s the Mixed Mini Geometrics stencil.

Another great addition to the Uniko range I’m sure you’ll agree.

This stencil reminded me of building blocks in a nursery so it would be ideal for a new baby or 1st birthday card. 

I decided to have a great time getting inky with this one so I mixed various colours of ink with some gloss texture paste and added them one at a time through the stencil, being careful not to overlap them too much.

I used my stencilled piece as a background and used the triangle as my inspiration for the edge of the  top section of the card. I also picked out the star and added a die cut one to match.

I urge you to head over to the Uniko blog to check out what the rest of the team have made. I can tell you that they are fabulous! 

Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for the next Uniko stencil introduction. 😁

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Introducing... Stencil Pure Florals Rose

Hey everyone,

Welcome to day one of the Uniko Introducing blog posts. Today we are introducing the Pure Florals Rose stencil. She’s a beauty!

My immediate thought was a beautiful red rose but I mixed it up a bit by using red card instead and stencilling white texture paste through the stencil. 

The stencil is such a good size I didn’t feel the need to add much more other than a sentiment and a few enamel dots. To give you an idea of size, my card blank is 6 inch square.

I hope you love this start to the new release and pop over to the Uniko blog to see more fantastic makes by the Brand Ambassadors. And don’t forget to come back tomorrow to see the next new release stencil!

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Stencil Sneak Peeks June 2021

Good morning all,

I always find a sneak peek rather exciting so without any further procrastination here are the June 2021 Uniko stencil sneak peeks:

This month we are all about the stencil but don’t worry, you won’t have to wait long for some stamp sneak peeks heading this way in July! 

I hope that’s got you all stirred up! We start showcasing the new designs each day this week so pop back here or to the Uniko blog tomorrow to see the first one in full! There is some amazing inspiration coming too! ☺️

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Background Builders: Seeing Stars

Hi everyone,

I’m here with another Uniko Brand Ambassador Inspiration post and today I am using the Background Builders: Seeing Stars stamp set.

It’s been a while since I inked this lovely set up and today I’ve made three completely different cards to show just how versatile these Background Builders sets are.

My first card is one for the children and a pocket shaker card. I’ve used a combination of large and small stars to create a background which I have given a watercolour wash and coloured with alcohol markers. I secured the acetate on three sides at the back of the stamped panel before adding the sequins and beads. I then closed off the fourth side and attached to the card blank using foam tape. All sentiments used on these cards are from the Uniko Anniversaire Arts Decoratifs stamp set.

With my next card I have tried to create the look of a parcel by using the long star stamps in a crisscross and adding the large stamped stars to mimic a bow or topper. Finally I have added a tag with the sentiment.

For my last card I kept the design simple but added Wow! Fab Foil for a touch of luxury. I think the teal looks great against the dark grey card. 

Hopefully I’ve given you some ideas to go off and ink up a Background Builders stamp of your own. There are a number of shapes available now the range so the possibilities are endless.

Much love

Steph x

Color My Heart Color Dare #448

Hi everyone

We are back again with a new colour challenge this week at Color My Heart Color Dare. Challenge #448 asks you to use at least three of the colours shown and in addition to this you can use black, white and gold.

We reference Close To My Heart colours but you can use any as long as they are a very close match. Please reference the colours you have used too. 

I chose to use Cinnamon, Peach and Sage.

Unusually for me, I have gone with quite a fussy design. I bought the oval dies a while ago and haven’t had chance to use them until now. I cut the smaller oval from Peach card but as I didn’t have any Sage card I blended Lawn Fawn Sage Leaf ink over white card stock and cut the largest oval from that. I adhered the two together after I had stamped the sentiment using Lawn Fawn Guava ink. I die cut some leaves from the leftover Sage card and I die cut the flowers from Peach and Cinnamon card. I glued them together and adhered to the card front after shaping them and added pearl drops to the centre.

This was one of those cards that started off differently in my mind but as I started making it I didn’t like what I was creating so I changed it quite a bit!

Head over to the Color My Heart Color Dare blog and check out the fabulous makes by the rest of the Design Team. Please do join in as we love to see your creations and I love to see how differently everyone approaches the challenge. 

Much love

Steph x

Christmas Craft Creations June Challenge

Morning everyone,

Welcome back for another Christmas Craft Creations challenge. This month we are looking for Heat Embossing:

I decided to try and get as much heat embossing as possible into my design so I started off by stamping a script background (this is a small stamp so I’ve used it three times here) onto red card and heat embossing in Wow! Opaque Bright White powder. I cut this panel out leaving a narrow border before matting onto gold mirror card and then a Kraft card base. I then heat embossed the reindeer and stars in Wow! Gold Rich powder onto green card and fussy cut before adhering to the script panel. I cut the sentiment and border from a die I received with a UK magazine, Die Cutting Essentials. I pressed the ‘Happy Christmas’ part of the sentiment into Wow! One Hundred and One powder and carefully heated until I was happy with the result. The One Hundred and One powder is a mix of black and white (think Dalmatian!) and is a chunky product which gives a raised effect. 

Whilst I had all the heat embossing tools out I decided to make a second card with the same colour theme.

My top tips for heat embossing would be:

Ensure you use an embossing buddy to stop any stray powder ending up on areas you don’t want it

I have to highly recommend Wow! Powders because I have tried a few and these are the best (I am in no way connected or sponsored by them, this is just my honest opinion!).

Use a heat tool (not a hairdryer) and let it warm up for a full 30 seconds before aiming at your powder. 

Move over the powder evenly but do not linger as this can over heat or burn the powder and card.

I hope you will join us in this month’s challenge. Head over to the blog for more inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and leave them some love. 

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Challenge #65 Reminder

Morning all

I'm here with a reminder about Uniko challenge #65 which has an 'Anything Goes' theme and an optional twist of 'Use Die Cuts'. There are prizes up for grabs and some are randomly selected so it's well worth joining in. 

I have made a couple of quick cards today because it's school half term here in the UK which means craft time is limited! But the good thing about today's cards is that you get two for one! 

I grabbed a couple same size pieces of white card and stamped the Uniko Background Blocks Graffiti Texture stamp, one in black and one in rainbow inks. (My rainbow has to have pink in it because my girls insist there is pink in the rainbow!). I then ran one panel through the die cutting machine using the Uniko Big & Bold Wish dies and used this panel to line up the die for the second panel before running that through the machine too. I stuck the panels straight onto the card front and pieced in the opposite colour die cut word. The word didn't 'pop' as much as I would like so I carefully went around the word with a black fine liner. Finally I heat embossed the sentiment from the Uniko Big & Bold Wish stamp set in white powder on to black card and added using foam pads. 

Now do head on over to the Uniko blog and check out the wonderfully generous prizes you could win just by joining in!

Thanks for stopping by today,

Steph x

Uniko blog

The Male Room Challenge #151

 Morning all

We are live with a new challenge at The Male Room and this month we are looking for the theme Dads and Grandads:

I interpreted this to mean making a card for my Dad and with Father’s Day in June I went right ahead and made his Father’s Day card. 

It’s not been an easy year for anyone but my poor Dad has undergone radiotherapy, very sadly lost his brother and suffered an inflamed disc in his spine teamed with a very nasty abscess which required six weeks of IV antibiotics. 

After all that, I very much hope my sentiment rings true and that we will be able to celebrate with him, even if we just get a good day to sit outside. 

Now pop over to The Male Room blog and check out the rest of the Design Team’s fantastic creations and see how they interpreted the theme. Please do join in yourself too. 

Much love

Steph x