Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge #488

Good afternoon all, 

Welcome to this week’s Color My Heart Color Dare challenge #488 which has some lovely bright Spring colours:

I’ve been a bit lacking in creative mojo recently so I started by looking through my patterned papers and found a nice striped one in shades of Wild Berry. Following on from this I noticed I already had a floral stamped and die cut in Sundance so all that was left was to throw in a third colour and decide on a layout.

The floral is one of my favourite Uniko stamps called Beautiful Blooms I. As I was looking through my overflow of stamped images, I noticed a scrap of card stamped with green stripes and thought that would give a lovely background to the floral. It wasn’t big enough for what I needed so I made a new piece using Uniko Background Blocks Pinstripe stamp. I also had the sentiment pre cut and glued because I ran a few of these off last year in various colours to keep on hand for such occasions! It’s a great set from The Ton called Many Sentiments Cover Plates dies. 

Hopefully I’ve inspired you to look through your stash from pretty papers and overflow items to create a quick card from and join in our challenge. As always, there is more fabulous inspiration from the Design Team over on the Color My Heart Color Dare blog. 

Much love

Steph x

Finally crafting for me!

Hi all, 

So I’m finally at a stage where I can craft for me and not because I need to get a Design Team entry done! Don’t get me wrong, I’ve not got my whole year sorted when it comes to Design Team work but I’m far enough ahead to take a break from it for a bit!

So I was looking through my stash of patterned papers, of which there is more than I will ever use, and I came across this lovely tropical summer set that I couldn’t resist using. 

My first card was inspired by this card made by @fifig60 on Instagram. Sadly the sentiment stamp Fiona used is out of stock everywhere but I managed to get something similar. 

Having discovered the beautiful papers I carried on with my ‘drinks’ themed cards.

A simple die cut cocktail glass with lime slices felt right agains this tropical background. I could do with a holiday like that!

And my final card became a shaker with a cocktail umbrella to finish off this sparkly drink!

Hmm, not feeling nearly as tropical today as I was when I was making them yesterday since it’s absolutely tipping it down in the East Midlands today. 

I will be entering my cards into the following challenges:

Happy Little Stampers March Anything Goes with Dies challenge 

(Cards 2 and 3)

Less is More challenge #460 - Bit of Bling

(Card 3)

Much love

Steph x

Cards for Ukraine

Hey Everyone, 

You'd have to be living under a rock if you weren't aware of the terrible situation facing Ukraine right now. I've seen lots of beautiful Blue and Yellow cards posted over the last week in support of Ukraine and I join in today with the following card. 

Here I have used Uniko Background Blocks Nautical Stripes and teamed it with the recently re-released Uniko Fun Flowers stamp set. I couldn't think of a better sentiment than simply 'love'. 

You may or may not be aware that the fabulous card crafter, Yana Smakula, is from Ukraine and has some ways you can support Urkaine on her blog.

I will be entering this card into the following challenges, both of which are new to me:

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #205 V is for Vibrant

Taylormade Cards 4 U March Challenge - Spring Flowers

Thanks for joining me today.

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Brand Ambassador Inspiration

Welcome! 

After all the fantastic birthday celebrations for Uniko’s 10th birthday in February, I didn’t feel like stopping the celebrations just yet! 

As I had the Uniko Balloon Bash stencil out, I decided to use this for my Brand Ambassador inspiration post. It is such a delightful stencil to use and you can create quick but stylish cards with it easily. I also focused on slimline cards for this showcase.

For my first card I have simply used one balloon shape and blended red, orange and yellow balloons in clusters up the card. I used watercolour card as I find  it easier to blend on, and distress oxides which I prefer to the original distress inks. I have added a sentiment from Uniko Birthday Sentiments set and finished off with enamel dots. 

Changing up my colours, I blended different shaped balloons across the top of my card, overhanging the edge. This time I added strings to the balloons using a ruler and metallic gel pen. The sentiment is again from Uniko Birthday Sentiments set which I have stamped in dark grey before heat embossing with clear powder.

For my final card today, I’ve used the balloon stencil to create a hot air balloon. I did this by simply blending the balloon as usual but before I removed the stencil I outlined it with metallic gel pen. I drew further curved lines inside the balloon and joined them to a hand drawn ‘basket’. I masked off my balloon and used Uniko Rainbows and Clouds stencil to create my background. The sentiment, again from Uniko Birthday Sentiments set, is heat embossed in silver to finish. 

I hope this has reinvigorated the birthday spirit for you and that you can see just how simple and effective the Uniko Balloon Bash stencil is. I love it!

Much love

Steph x

Color My Heart Color Dare #486

Hey everyone, 

Thanks for joining me today as we launch Color My Heart Color Dare challenge #486.

This week we have a 3, 2, 1 recipe PLUS use a coloured card base. It looks tricky at first glance but once I got started I found this a really great challenge. I took my inspiration from some floral patterned paper and the rest flowed from there. 

So my 3 colours are pink, green and light blue and out of these I have used pink for my card base. My 2 neutrals are black and white and my 1 is the glitter (Stickles) I have added to the hearts and bow. I love how Stickles changes colour to match the card you put it on. This card was a simply construct with die cut rectangles and a sentiment stamped from Uniko Spring Botanicals Daffodil stamp set. I die cut a bow using Waffle Flower Mini 3D blow die. This is a great die by the way! And three little hearts in green card which then got covered in Stickles. 

I really hope you will take on the challenge and show us what you make over at Color My Heart Color Dare. I had so much fun making for this challenge. I can tell my teammates also had fun making their excellent creations so go check out the blog now! 

Much love

Steph x

The Male Room Craft Challenge #160

Hi everyone, 

Welcome to this month's The Male Room Challenge where the theme is 'Animals'.

This is such a good theme as it is open to all sorts of interpretation. What  animals will you choose?

I went with jungle animals. I stamped and coloured the macaw, chameleon and tropical frog last year but I haven't had any inspiration to turn them into a finalised card. When I was thinking about making this card I suddenly remembered the wonderful Large Tropical Paradise Background stamp from Uniko and I knew it would work perfectly. I stamped and heat embossed the background stamp onto watercolour card and coloured using inks and water brushes. Once this was dry I attached the sentiment strip and adhered the animals using foam pads. 

I hope you have been inspired to join in today. Don't forget to pop over to The Male Room Challenge blog to get even more fabulous inspiration from the rest of the Design Team. 

Time Out Challenges are celebrating their 8th birthday this month so I wish them many happy returns as I link up my birthday card. 

Much love

Steph x