Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge #472

Hi everyone, 

We have another Crazy 8 challenge over at Color My Heart Color Dare this week for challenge #472. We have noticed that the Crazy 8 challenges are not as popular as some others but they aren't as scary as they seem! Simply select a minimum of 4 colours from the square and create something beautiful. 😊

As always we refer to Close To My Heart colour names but any brand is fine as long as it is a VERY close match. For this type of challenge I usually go a bit wild and use all eight colours (!) but today I restrained myself and challenged myself to use just the required four.

My colours are Papaya, Mink, Silver, Sapphire and Gold...as you can see I didn't stick to my challenge of only four colours!!! I threw the Papaya in at the last minute as I needed something to lift the whole card.

It's been a while since I made a hexagon card so I die cut a card base in white, layered up the gold and Papaya and added a Sapphire frame. The trees are fabulous dies from Funky Fossil called Quirky Trees, which I cut from Sapphire, Mink, Gold and Silver card. The sentiment stamp is from a super set from Uniko called Anniversaire Arts Decoratifs and I thought it would suit this card well.

Hopefully you feel inspired to give this challenge a try and if you hop over to the Color My Heart Color Dare blog you will get some more fabulous inspiration from the rest of the Design Team. I love how different the makes look due to the different colours we each select. 

Much love

Steph x   

Uniko Challenge #68

Morning all, 

Thanks for joining us today as we launch Uniko challenge #68. The theme for this challenge is ‘Celebrate’ with an optional twist of Reds and Greens.

The theme and colour twist lend themselves beautifully to a Christmas card as Christmas is definitely a celebration in our household. 

I used the recently released Uniko Pattern Building Christmas Tree stamp set to make a gorgeous background panel in red, green and gold before adhering to a card blank. I then stamped the solid tree from the retired set Uniko Christmas Pop in red, green and gold. Once cut out I adhered to the panel.

I’m looking forward to seeing what you guys create for the challenge and if you need more inspiration then head over to the Uniko blog as the Brand Ambassadors have once again done a marvellous job. 

Much love

Steph x

Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge #470

Good afternoon all, 

Welcome to Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge #470 which is a Tic, Tac, Toe challenge.

I chose to use the right hand column of French Vanilla, Carolina and Sapphire. As always we reference Close To My Heart colours but you are free to use any brand providing it is a VERY close match! 

These three colours made me instantly think of a seaside theme. I decided to use my three colours to make the same card three times as I couldn't make up my mind as to what the best order of colours would be. I'm still not sure which I like the best!! 

The background stamp is from Uniko and is called Background Blocks Nautical Stripes. The porthole stamp and all the other seaside stamps are from two sets I received with magazines in the UK. 

Here are the other cards I made with the same colours. Which do you like best?

Don't forget to pop over to the Color My Heart Color Dare blog and check out the fantastic makes by the rest of the team, and join in the challenge! 

Much love

Steph x

Christmas Craft Creations November Challenge

Good morning all,

Welcome to this month's Christmas Craft Creations where the theme is Fun Fold.

This was a tricky theme for me but I came across this lovely template online called Star Fold Card and I thought it was perfect for Christmas, the star on the tree or the star in the sky.

This is the card folded. I started out with a 12" square of card and created an equilateral triangle, 12" on each side. I marked at 4", 6" and 8" on each side and scored from each one to the other creating a triangle in the centre and smaller triangles to the outer corners. 

I then cut the various shapes from patterned papers and stuck down before stamping the circle sentiment twice and die cutting. The second circular sentiment is on the inside and was layered onto more patterned paper and a scalloped edge circle to finish. This is the card opened out. 

I hope this inspires you to take part in the challenge. Check out the Christmas Craft Creations blog for more inspiration from the talented Design Team. 

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Creative Christmas

Good Morning all, 

For my Uniko Brand Ambassadors post I thought it would be quite nice to showcase a different way to use some Uniko non Christmas stamps mixed with the traditional Christmas sets for creative Christmas projects. 

My first card uses Uniko Background Blocks Doodle Flower stamp teamed with the more recently released Uniko Doodle Flowers stamp set. I have used red and green for the petals to resemble a Poinsettia. The sentiment is from Uniko Simply Said Blocks Christmas stamp set. 

My second card uses the foliage silhouette from the Uniko Just Because stamp set and I have teamed it with some white berries to create a hanging stem of mistletoe. I have used chalk ink over the black card in order for it to show up. The sentiment is a mixture of Uniko Christmas Sentiments stamp set, Uniko Most Wonderful stamp set and Uniko Big & Bold Hugs stamp set.

My final card for today uses Uniko Flower Power #3 stamp set. I have stamped the solid floral in two shades of green before fussy cutting and turning upside down to build my Christmas tree. The decorative elements have all come from the recently released Uniko Pattern Building Christmas Tree stamp set teamed with a sentiment from the Uniko Simply Said Blocks Christmas stamp set.

I hope you like my three cards today and that I have got you thinking about different ways in which to use your stamps. 

Much love

Steph x

The Male Room Challenge #156

Morning all

Welcome to this months challenge from The Male Room. The theme for challenge #156 is Gnomes.

This is a perfect theme to fit in with any Christmas cards you might be making right now. I however, made my card earlier in the year and had much more Spring/Summer vibes in mind! 

Just look at all that lovely sunshine that we are no doubt all missing right now! I used Clearly Besotted Under the Weather stencil and Distress Oxides to create the background. Staying with Clearly Besotted I used the Garden Plushies stamp set for the gnomes and added a die cut fence from My Favourite Things Animal Farm Fence set. I wanted to keep the card quite light so I used a light green layer (as opposed to dark green) before adhering it to the base. The sentiment is also Clearly Besotted and is heat embossed in white. 

I hope you like my ray of sunshine during the winter months and hope you will pop over to The Male Room blog to check out the rest of the Design Team’s makes and join the challenge this month. 

Much love

Steph x

Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge #468

Welcome! 

For today’s Color My Heart Color Dare challenge #468 we have an interesting inspiration photo:

The style represented by the photo is quite a distance away from my own crafting style and although this is a colour challenge, I usually like to use the photo as my design inspiration. With that in mind I used the patchwork effect of the apron and tried to match my papers to the patterns and colours too. I went with brown, blue, orange, yellow and white.

The design is not my own, I was inspired by this card on Pinterest. 

I used various papers from my stash and a sentiment from Clearly Besotted. 

The rest of the Design Team are over on the Color My Heart Color Dare blog with their fabulous creations so please do check them out. We would love you to join in with the challenge and see what spin on the inspiration photo you can bring!

Much love

Steph x

Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge #466

Hey all, 

Welcome to this week’s Color My Heart Color Dare challenge #466. The colour palette for this week is divine and I had a hard time deciding what combination to go for!

As always, we reference Close To My Heart colours but you can use any brand as long as it’s a very close match. 

In the end, my card dictated the colours as I was making it. I had intended to use more of the colours above but it just didn't need it so I stuck to Rosemary, Ballerina and Sangria.

I also made two cards because I had so many of the die cut pieces left! 

As you can see, I'm short of Thankyou cards in my stash!! 

For the first card I have adhered the mosaic panels over the card base but for my second card I have die cut the inner die only from the white card panel and have inlaid the coloured pieces. 

Head over the the Color My Heart Color Dare blog and check out the wonderful creations by the rest of the Design Team (there are some beauties!). Hopefully you will be inspired to join in. I can't wait to see how all the other possible colour combinations turn out. 

Much love

Steph x

Christmas Craft Creations October Challenge

Morning all

Here we have a great, but I thought quite difficult, challenge over at Christmas Craft Creations. We are looking for black and white plus only one other colour. 

It took me a while to think about what colour to add to my card, but in the end I had to go with traditional red! 

I made a tag in the style of Santa's coat! I used the Clearly Besotted Tag Along die to cut a tag from red card which I then embossed in a folder I received with a UK magazine. I also embossed the white strip with the same folder and cut a black strip for the belt. I added a white 'buckle' using a small postage stamp edged die. The ribbon on the tag is recycled from a Lindt bunny!! I felt like the background needed something so I embossed the snow fall and added a white heat embossed sentiment to finish.

I can't wait to see what you choose as your colour and what you create with it. For more inspiration do head over to the blog and see what the Design Team made, check back mid month for even more delights from the Reminder Team. 

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Flower Power #1 Stencil

Morning all, 

Thanks for joining me today for my Uniko Brand Ambassador post where I am showcasing the recently released Uniko Flower Power #1 stencil. 

For all three of my cards I have used a blue and pink palette but in different ways. I have also made use of the recently released Uniko Christmas Sentiments stamp set, which I love!

This card focuses on the blue hues and I thought the stencil could represent snowflakes. 

With my second card I added in more pink and highlighted this with some pink sequins. 

Finally I moved the stencil to each corner of my card stock and ink blended a soft mix of blue and pink. This left a nice gap in the centre for lots of lovely sentiments.

I hope these give you some inspiration on how to create a few quick Christmas cards using the stencil and sentiments. They would work well in a number of different colour combinations too. 

Happy crafting!

Steph x

The Male Room Challenge #155

Morning all

Welcome back for another challenge from The Male Room, #155. The theme for this month is Black and White...tough but fun! 

I used the fantastically fun Vintage Gentleman die set from First Edition Craft. I die cut the two different styles of moustache several times from white card and two of each from black card. Following some very lightly pencilled grid lines I glued the white moustaches to a white piece of card to create a faux embossed background. I adhered the four black moustaches over fours of the white ones and then I white heat embossed the cheeky sentiment from Hampton Art LOL Officially Old stamp set onto black card. I then adhered the panel to the card blank using foam tape.

I hope you are inspired to join in but if not, head over to the blog for more fantastic ideas from the Design Team. 

Much love

Steph x

Uniko September/October 2021 Reveal, Release & Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

Hello!! 

Lovely to have you all here for the Uniko September/ October 2021 reveal, release and Brand Ambassador blog hop and GIVEAWAY! 

I like reveal and release day because we get to show you the stamp sets and stencils in their entirety and having to make a second card for one or each product really gets the imagination going. (And at this point I’m just going to add that you really do need ALL of this release!! I can’t stop playing with them!!).

First we have Uniko Background Builders: Winter Wonderland:

Isn't it divine?! For my second inspiration card I wanted to use the 'North Pole' stamp that I did not use in my first card (here) and I teamed it with the compass stamp from the Uniko Nautical Treasures stamp set.

Here I simply stamped the compass and north pole stamps directly onto the card blank, filling in the gaps with the snowflakes from the BB: Winter Wonderland set. I stamped the north pole stamp onto black card (in chalk ink) and laid this on top using foam tape.

The next stamp set introduced this week is the Uniko Christmas Sentiments set.

Here I have teamed it with the Uniko Flower Power #1 stencil, also from this release.

I used the stencil to draw through on the back of some white, red and green glitter card. I cut out the petal shapes and adhered them on top of each other as shown. I fussy cut around the edge, added a gold glitter brad to the centre and adhered to a black card blank. Finally I stamped the sentiment in chalk ink onto a thin black strip and adhered this over the top using foam pads.

And the final stamp set to reveal is the wonderful Uniko Pattern Building Christmas Tree.

You get a good few stamps in this set and you don't have to stick to a traditional Christmas tree as shown by some of the Brand Ambassadors on the Uniko blog yesterday. I really love the light string so I used that for my card today.

I stamped the light string a couple of times across the card before colouring in. I did the same with the other stamps to create a top and bottom border. The sentiment is from the Uniko Christmas Sentiments stamp set, also on this release. I told you this set would get a lot of use!! 

So all that remains is for me to say make sure you head over to the Uniko Blog to start the Brand Ambassador blog hop. Leave a lovely comment along the way and you could be in with the chance of winning the ENTIRE release! Just in case you get lost along the way, here's a list of the blogs to visit:

Bev

Hannelie

Izzy

Jane

Julie

Rahmat

Steph - that's me!

Wiebke

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Introducing... Pattern Building Christmas Tree

Morning All, 

Here we have the final introduction in the Uniko September (oh ok, and a little bit of October!) 2021 mini release. This stamp set is called Pattern Building Christmas Tree and as the name suggests, you build your own pattern! So you can imagine that the possibilities are endless. 

My card here today shows the stamps used in a traditional format, as a tree, but maybe not traditional Christmas colours! I have used chalk inks and stamped onto smooth white card before die cutting and adhering to the card blank with foam tape.

Head over to the Uniko blog to see the different interpretations of this set by the Brand Ambassadors and be sure to head back here tomorrow for the Uniko blog hop and release GIVEAWAY!

Much love

Steph x