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

Miss Moo is Two!

Hi everyone, 

Strange blog title?! So my great niece turned two las week. Her name is Amelia but her pet name is Miss Moo, so Miss Moo is two! 

This along with her love of Koala's were the driving factors behind the very special birthday card I made for her.

I die cut three circles from a piece of white card the size of a slimline base. Behind these apertures I stamped Clearly Besotted Birch Background II, and also onto the middle size circle cut out which was then adhered to the end of the row. The letters are cut using Altenew Tall Alpha dies and I have stacked two on top of each other for dimension. The koalas and the leaves are from the Clearly Besotted Cute Koala set and I have fussy cut them out before adhering in place. Finally I found a heart stamp that was just the right size and stamped twice, fussy cut and added to the top right hand corner.

Since Time Out Challenges is celebrating their 8th birthday I will link up this card there and wish them many happy returns! 

Much love

Steph x

 

Uniko 10th Birthday February 2022 Reveal, Release, Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & Giveaway!

Good morning all, 

Welcome to the Uniko 10th Birthday February 2022 Reveal, Release, Brand Ambassador Blog Hop and GIVEAWAY!! 

So, no procrastinating today, straight into the product reveals and more of my cards using them.

Background Blocks Cogs:

My first card (here) was a masculine design so for today's card I have gone feminine and used a sentiment from the BIG & BOLD You stamp set (also on this release) that struck a cord with me:

Next up we have Background Blocks Splatters:

If you were here earlier in the week you will remember that I made two cards with this stamp, one that looked like a coffee spillage and one that might result from a really big sneeze...! Well today's card is inspired by what my husband saw when he looked at the stamp, land and sea. It is teamed with Uniko Nautical Treasures stamp set and Uniko Everyday Sentiments stamp set (see below).

Some very useful sentiments included in the Everyday Sentiments stamp set and as you can see, I've used lots throughout the Introductions and on my cards today. 

Next an addition to the BIG & BOLD series in the form of BIG & BOLD You stamp set which I have teamed with the Flower Power #7 stencil and mask set for my next card (below):

I used all three of the Flower Power #7 masks to leave a white floral area and ink blended around them. The large size of the BIG & BOLD You sentiment made a perfect partner for this background and I found the little circle configurations very useful for infilling and adding interest to the card. 

Now for some more Fun Flowers fun with the Fun Flowers stencil and mask set which I have again teamed with the re-introduced Fun Flowers stamp set.

I love the addition of the masks with this stencil because it enabled me to overlap the florals without it resulting in a muddy mix of colour. I used acrylic paper here which seems to give the Distress Oxides a really bright and fresh finish. I added some detail by using the Fun Flowers stamps.

This card is similar to my introduction card (here) but this time I fussy cut the florals and added them to an orange background (because the other card wasn't nearly 70's enough!) using foam pads, before adding a sentiment from the Everyday Sentiments set.

The final Fun Flowers addition is the Fun Flowers Spray stencil and mask, which I think has a very elegant look about it. 

I used both the mask and stencil to ink the inner parts with Versamark ink before removing the stencil and inking the outer edge. I added the gold embossing powder and set with a heat gun before fussy cutting leaving a gold edge. I adhered this to a black card blank with a slightly shorter front than back and added acetate for the bottom section, which is seen better in the next photo. 

Last, but by no means least, we have the Framed Balloons stamp:

This is such a fun stamp and here I have used only the top part where I have repeat stamped and coloured before layering up with foam pads. It's sort of a decoupage effect.

Well wow! What another fantastic release from Bev and Uniko. 

As always we have the Brand Ambassadors blog hop and the chance to win a £10 eGift Code. All you have to do is visit each of the Brand Ambassadors blogs and leave a lovely comment, but of course I know you will do that anyway because of all the amazing creativity on display. 

Anita

Bev

Hannelie

Izzy

Jane

Julie

Steph - that's me

Wiebke

The products on this release will be available to buy from 10am GMT today over over on the Uniko shop website. Happy shopping!

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Introducing - Framed Balloons

Hey there, 

Thanks for joining us for the final of the Uniko Introductions before the BIG REVEAL tomorrow. Today we have just the one stamp to introduce but it's a fabulous one: Framed Balloons.

I told you it was fabulous! I turned my card into a shaker by cutting out the centre of the frame and adhering acetate across the gap. I stamped the sentiment onto a piece of card before colouring with alcohol markers. I added lots of silver sequins (possibly too many!) before sealing the two layers together with foam tape. The balloons are colours with alcohol markers too but the party confetti is filled in with nuvo drops for texture and dimension.

Head straight over to the Uniko blog to check out the awesome creativity of the Uniko Brand Ambassadors and remember to join us tomorrow for the full Reveal, Release and Brand Ambassador blog hop. 

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Introducing and Re-introducing - Fun Flowers Stencil & Mask, Fun Flowers Spray Mask AND Fun Flowers Clear Stamps!

Good morning, 

It's a Fun Flowers kind of day today for the Uniko Introductions, and Re-Introduction.

Firstly we have the Fun Flowers stencil and mask set and the Fun Flowers stamp set which I have used together on my cards today.

Here I have used one of the masks to keep the floral white and ink blended the Seedless Preserves Distress Oxide around it before trimming the card and adhering down the centre of a card blank. I did lightly blend some of the ink onto the flowers too just to remove the starkness of the white. I used the same ink to stamp one flower from the Fun Flowers stamp set and the sentiment from the Uniko Everyday Sentiments stamp set also on this release (see introduction here).

For this card I used the stencil (rather than the masks) and more of the Fun Flowers stamps to create my 70's inspired background. I die cut the 'happy' from the background using Uniko BIG & BOLD Happy die set and the 'BIRTHDAY' sentiment is from the Uniko Everyday Sentiments set. 

Finally for today we have another addition to the Fun Flowers series again in the form of a stencil and mask set.

Using the mask part of this set I applied various colours of ink to the flowers and leaves and gently blended outwards. I added the sentiment from the Uniko BIG & BOLD You stamp set (also introduced on this release here).

Hoping you love these introductions, I already know you will love the products! Don't miss out on seeing what the other Brand Ambassadors have created because they have done an amazing job.

Final introduction up on the blog tomorrow and then the big reveal on Sunday.

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Introducing - BIG & BOLD You & Stencil Flower Power #7

Glad to see you back for Day 2 of the Uniko Feb 2022 Introductions. Today we have a stamp set and a stencil to show you. 

First up we have BIG & BOLD You stamp set.

I thought the foliage stamp was just darling so I created a wreath in two shades of green using it. I used the yellow die cut circle to guide my stamping and I wasn't intending to use it on the card but in the end I though it looked great with the green and orange so I kept it! I stamped the sentiments in orange and fussy cut the 'you' (although I'm sure it won't be long before we see a die set to compliment this set!).

Next up we have the Flower Power #7 stencil. Each time a new one of these series of stencils come out I think it's the best!! This one is no exception and since you get the mask to go with it this opens up so many more possibilities. 

Here I have used both the stencil and then the mask (to cover the yellow) to enable me to get a layered effect. I have added a sentiment from the Uniko Sentiments Outlined stamp set.

I hope you have liked my cards today and I urge you to head over to the Uniko blog to see even more beautiful creations from the Uniko Brand Ambassadors. 

Don't forget, we have more Introductions coming tomorrow!

Much love

Steph x