Papercraft Challenges #116 - Spring Blooms

Good morning all, 

Today we have a new challenge from Papercraft Challenges and the theme is 'Spring Blooms'. 

I also have to tell you that this will be my last post as a Design Team member for Papercraft Challenges. After two years on the team I have decided it's time to have a change but I wish the Papercraft Challenges team all the best and hopefully I'll be over there joining in some future challenges! 

I have lots of Spring Blooms in my stash so it was pretty hard to choose but I haven't used this stamp from Pretty Pink Posh for a while and I love the simplicity of it. 

This month we are sponsored by Little Crafts and there will be a surprise gift for the randomly chose winner.

Now it's your turn to join in the fun over at the Papercraft Challenges blog.

Much love

Steph x

Papercraft Challenges #104 - Easter

Welcome all, 

This month the theme at Papercraft Challenges is Easter. I love creating Easter cards. I think it's because Spring is my favourite season! 

I stamped my spring wreath and then rather stupidly decided to fussy cut it out. Stupid really because it was a real pain to do and it doesn't add to the card by being cut out in any way!! But never mind, lesson learnt. I added the Easter eggs using foam pads and stamped the sentiment in the centre. 

Looking forward to seeing your Easter cards and of course you can see the other lovely makes by the rest of the design team over on the Papercraft Challenges blog. What will this month's prize be? It's a surprise from our sponsor Little Crafts. 

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Spring Botanicals Revisited Blog Hop & Giveaway

Hi all, 

Every other month the Uniko Brand Ambassadors are doing a product revisit. This month we are bringing inspiration using the Uniko Spring Botanicals range.

I love to see the spring flowers emerge so in these cards I’ve used spotlight colouring to highlight the beauty of the blooms as they emerge from the ground. 

Here I have used Uniko Spring Botanicals Snowdrop. I stamped it onto two pieces of card colouring one with grey tones and one with true spring colours. I die cut a large circle from the grey tone piece and lined it up with the coloured version, adhering with foam pads for dimension. 

I applied the same principle to my next card but used Uniko Spring Botanicals Tulip and die cut three smaller circles for the spotlights. 

For my final card I wanted to see what the spotlight would look like if it was a square. I think it looks like a window and works well with the Uniko Spring Botanicals Daffodil. 

You can get lots more amazing inspiration from the Brand Ambassadors on our blog hop. If you leave some love along the way you could be the lucky winner of one of the Spring Botanicals stamp sets. 

Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie

Steph

Vinita

There’s currently lots of Spring challenges out there so I’d like to enter my cards into:

Double D challenges First Signs of Spring

The Four Seasons Spring Season March 24 challenge 

Stamping Sensations March challenge

🌷 Spring 🐣 - Card 2

Inkspirational Challenge #311 - Clean and Simple 

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Feb / Mar Release In Review

Hi all, 

Due to the various postal issues around the globe, some of the Uniko Brand Ambassadors did not receive their Uniko Feb / Mar goodies in time for the introductions and release day so we are doing an end of month 'Release in Review' so they can join in. 

I chose to use the wonderful Uniko Spring Botanicals Crocus stamp set again because it's just so lovely! I also loved the way Bev mixed it with the other Spring Botanicals stamps here so I decided to do the same. I don't have as much patience for masking as I do for fussy cutting (despite it being a fairly similar process!) so I stamped and fussy cut my florals before arranging them on to a card front stencilled using Uniko Quilted stencil. I like the sentiments on the Uniko Spring Botanicals Daffodil stamp set so I used those here. 

My next project is a recreation of the Easter bunting I made during the introductions as I have been asked to make some for my great niece! This time I used the Uniko Hoppy Easter stamp on patterned papers to change it up a bit. 

I hope you liked my little review of the Uniko Feb / Mar release and don't forget that there is lots more fantastic inspiration from the rest of the Brand Ambassadors on the Uniko blog hop (as well as a GIVEAWAY!)

Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie

Steph - that's me

Vinita

Much love

Steph x

Uniko's 11th Birthday Reveal, Release, Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

Hi everyone, 

Welcome to Uniko's 11th birthday reveal, release, Brand Ambassador blog hop and GIVEAWAY!

Spring Botanicals Crocus

These beauties took a little while to colour and fussy cut but I think the final result is worth it. It’s hard to see from the photo but this is a floating frame which really does look quite impressive with the beautiful large crocus heads. 

Hoppy Easter

When I saw these cute bunnies I immediately wanted to make them into bunny shaped cards! They are quite small as the whole stamp set is A6 in size but honestly it just makes them cuter! 

Up & Away and Everyday Spring Sentiments

Quite often when I look at the component parts of a stamp set I see how it can be used in different ways and for me the hot air balloons in this set made me want to create a fantastic large floral bloom! The sentiments from the new Everyday Spring Sentiments set matched perfectly too.

Cloud 9 Stencil

Earlier in the week I mentioned how well the Up & Away stamp set would work with the Cloud 9 stencil so I created this card to prove it! 

Falling Hearts Serenade

For this card I had the great idea that I would attempt to mirror stamp the image and create a full heart…many attempts later and I gave up with the mirror stamping…clearly not a technique I’m cut out for! In the end I lined up each individual element on the left hand side and stamp and heat embossed them one by one. Yes, I’m that insane! Looks good though I think. 

Everyday Love Sentiments & Bokeh Layering Hearts Stencil

I love the font style of this set and teamed up with Uniko Everyday Sentiments, Everyday Spring Sentiments and Christmas Sentiments you really do get a very useful group of mix and match sentiments for many occasions.

Unfortunately I don’t have any inspiration images to show using the Bokeh Layering Hearts but I do know they are going to be just fab! The hearts have been sized to fit within each other and also to work with other heart stamps in the Uniko range such as Big & Bold Love.

So that’s the lot! It’s always great to find out which release items have captured your heart so do let us know. Be a bunny and hop over to all the Uniko Brand Ambassador’s blogs to leave some love and be in with a chance of winning a £30 eGift Certificate to spend in the Uniko store. 

Anita

Bev

Julie

Steph - that’s me

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