Uniko Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Stretch Your Stash

Morning All, 

Last year I used my Uniko non-Christmas stamps to make Christmas cards (see here) and I thought I'd give it a go this year with my Uniko stencils. It's always good to see what other ways we can use our products and stretch our stash with a little 'outside the box' thinking! 

My first card didn't take too much imagination as I thought the fabulous Uniko Layering Stencil - Zesty would fit beautifully as dried orange slices in a Christmas wreath. I teamed this with one of my favourite stamp sets, Uniko Winter Foliage. 

After a look through my Uniko stencils, I spotted that the Uniko Mid Century Modern Shapes stencil had the perfect shapes to 'build' a Christmas tree! A little stickles added some tree lights and a sentiment from Uniko Simply Said Blocks Christmas stamp set completed the card. 

For my final card I used one of my favourite stencils and certainly not one you would class as a Christmas stencil, but it's perfect for an animal print lover at Christmas time! The stencil is Uniko Tiger Print and I have teamed it with Uniko Sparkling Snowflake die.

The good thing about this card method is you get two for one! Here I have used the die cut snowflake to make a second card. 

I hope you have got your Christmas cards well under way but don't panic if not, all these cards are quick to make (but only if you like fussy cutting in the case of the first card!). 

As this may be my last post pre Christmas, I will sign off by wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Much love

Steph x

The Male Room Challenge #169

Hey all, 

Thanks for joining me today as we launch this month's The Male Room challenge. The theme for this month is Transportation. You have me to thank or blame for this theme, depending on your view point! 

When I first thought about this theme I was thinking about trains because my nephew is a huge train fanatic! However, as this was selected for the Dec challenge I was compelled to use my Santa's sleigh stamp from Clearly Besotted set Pop Up Christmas. 

First I started by making a card blank from teal card and stamping over it with the sentiment in Versamark ink. The sleigh and characters were stamped on white card and coloured using alcohol markers. The sleigh was cut into a rectangle and the corners rounded with a punch. The characters were fussy cut and added with foam pads for dimension.

I hope you are getting along well with your Christmas crafting, but don't worry, it's not too late! You could make a Christmas card for our challenge and use a sleigh like I have, or a truck carrying a Christmas tree. Or even a card piled high with presents! Whatever you decide, do be sure to take a look at the fabulous inspiration by the Design Team over on The Male Room blog.

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Brand Ambassador Inspiration - BB Scandinavian Christmas

Morning all, 

Thanks for joining me today as I showcase another great festive stamp from Uniko. For this month I decided to use Uniko Background Blocks Scandinavian Christmas because it has been sat in my stash unused and I just knew it would look great with some heat embossing. 

So straight on to my first card:

Who doesn't love a bit of gold and blue?! Here I have heat embossed the stamp using gold embossing powder on dark blue card. I have picked out the details by colouring in shades of blue which has given a really lovely elegant look to the card. The sentiment, from Uniko Festive Sentiments stamp set, is also heat embossed in gold and adhered over the background. I have used a mat of gold mirror card to frame centre panel and I felt a Kraft card base would look rustic, although a white one would work too. 

My second card is similar in layout however I went for red card and clear embossing powder this time.

To add some variety I use various colours for the details this time and felt the sentiment would be better in white.

Finally I had a little play about with my third card.

I heat embossed the Background Blocks Scandinavian Christmas using clear embossing powder on white watercolour card (my original plan was to use watercolour paints but I changed my mind). I then stamped Uniko Background Blocks Diagonal Stripes over the top alternating the colours between red and green ink. I was aiming for a candy cane look! Again the sentiment strip was added and the panel was framed with green card before being adhered to a red card base. 

So, which is your favourite?! 

Hope you are all getting along ok with your Christmas crafting and maybe I just inspired you to dig out the Background Blocks Scandinavian Christmas stamp (or stencil!) and have some fun! 

Much love

Steph x

 

Uniko Nov 2022 Stencil Release Day, Blog Hop and GIVEAWAY!

Here we are! 

The full release of the Uniko Nov 2022 stencils:

MOD Background Builder Stencil

I'm not sure if you can make it out but I thought the pattern looked like Christmas sweeties! Here I have simply inked red distress oxide through the middle stencil and added the white details using a gel pen. The sentiment is from Uniko Simply Said Blocks Christmas stamp set.

Flower Power #6 Stencil

This stencil very much reminds me of the Irish rose style painting you used to get on ceramics so I designed my card in that style. The sentiments from Uniko Birthday Wishes stamp set and Uniko Originally Organic stamp set not only match the style of my card but mix and match with each other beautifully too.

Large Snowflake One

As soon as I saw this stencil I knew it would look great with Uniko Background Blocks Cogs stamp and I was not disappointed! I love how this has turned out. First of all I used the mask to be able to stamp the cogs and leave a clear space in the centre. I used three shades of ink to give an ombre effect and stamped the cogs twice next to each other. I then swapped out the mask for the stencil and inked the inside, concentrating the darker colour to the edges. The sentiment is from Uniko Christmas Sentiments stamp set. 

Large Snowflake Two

And finally for today we have a softer edged snowflake. For such a simple looking card this actually has a lot of features but I don't think they have photographed well! I used the stencil to give me a shape to dot on some stickles. To try and give the snowflake more definition I then ran the piece (once dried!) through the die cutting machine but with the stencil in place and using an embossing mat. This is the detail that I don't think has photographed particularly well. I then die cut the panel as I wanted to just use part of the snowflake. the sentiment is once again from Uniko Christmas Sentiments stamp set. 

What a fabulous array of designs, I'm sure at least one must take your fancy! My favourite? Hard to say but I was very pleasantly surprised by how well the Uniko Large Snowflake 2 transfers to card and I can't wait to play about with it some more. 

Be sure to follow the blog hop and leave some beautiful comments along the way for your chance to win the entire release! 

Anita

Bev

Hannelie

Izzy

Jane

Julie

Steph - that's me!

Wiebke

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Introducing Stencil Large Snowflake 1 and Large Snowflake 2

Welcome! 

Today we are introducing two new stencils, Uniko Large Snowflake One and Large Snowflake Two. These are perfect to get your Christmas crafting started. 

The Uniko Large Snowflake One stencil makes a really great impact due to it's geometric edges. For this card I used the mask, rather than the stencil, and inked around this. I added a sentiment from the Uniko Christmas Sentiments stamp set.

For my second card I wanted to do a very sparkly snowflake. Not having any glitter paste (or so I thought until I discovered some in my stash after I had made my card!!), I mixed stickles with translucent gloss stencil paste. I wanted the Large Snowflake Two stencil to stand out so I kept the sentiment simple, using one of the strips from the Uniko Background Builders: Winter Wonderland stamp set.

Go check out the rest of the Brand Ambassadors inspiration on the Uniko blog and don't forget to pop back tomorrow for the full release, blog hop and GIVEAWAY!

Much love

Steph x

The Male Room Challenge #168

 Hello everyone, 

The theme this month for The Male Room challenge is to include a pop up element.

Oh gosh, I think I rather overthought this make and decided to try and make pop up weaved element. It was a nightmare!! I strongly advise avoiding trying to recreate this card and I am in awe of anyone who can just make one of these up with ease! 

So my pop up element is meant to be a bauble and would probably benefit from a hanging element but by the time I got to this stage I’d had enough. This was my third attempt to get the mechanism to work. Safe to say I’ll not be making anymore of these! 

Here’s a closer look at the pop up.

I left the outside of the card simple so that all the surprise is in the opening of the card. 

I did however get to play with my foiling machine for the sentiment on this card so it’s not all bad! This sentiment uses the ‘waste’ part of the foil as I have a solid plate which transferred this to the card and I was able to die cut it with the sentiment outline die. 

Now we want to see your creations with their pop-up elements over at The Male Room challenge. Please head over to the blog and give the rest of the Design Team some love. Join in the challenge and show me how it’s done! I need to see some inspiration for next time I come across a pop-up challenge as I can’t attempt this one again!! 😂

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Introducing Stencil Flower Power #6

Welcome back! 

This is the second Introduction in the Uniko Nov 2022 stencil release. If you missed day one you can catch up here. Today it is the turn of the Flower Power #6 stencil, which of course matches with the Uniko Flower Power #6 stamp set. 

The Flower Power #6 stencil inspired me to create a 'tile' effect to my card so I used white stencil paste with the detailed flower part of the stencil onto blue card. I added the leaves using the Flower Power #6 stamp set and the sentiment from the Uniko Floral Vines stamp set.

Pop over to the Uniko blog to see the inspiration from the rest of the Brand Ambassadors and as always, leave some lovely comments too. 

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Introducing Stencil MOD Background Builder

Morning everyone, 

Today we are Introducing the Uniko MOD Background Builder stencil. This stencil is right up my street as I love this style. I used autumnal colours as it's looking very much like this in the UK at the moment and the colours are just so inspiring, also a perfect match to this stencil I thought. 

Don't forget to hop over the the Uniko blog to check out the beautiful creations by the rest of the Brand Ambassadors and leave some love! 

Much love

Steph x

Uniko Nov 2022 Stencil Release Sneak Peeks

Morning All, 

Welcome to the exciting sneak peeks for the Uniko Nov 2022 stencil release. There is a lovely mix of Christmas and none Christmas stencils for you to feast your eye on. Just the sneak peeks today but come back tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday for the Introductions. Thursday sees the full release, Brand Ambassador blog hop and GIVEAWAY!

So here we go:

Hope that's got you excited to see more.

Much love

Steph x 

Uniko Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Christmas Stencils

Hello everyone, 

I hope October finds you well. I am here today with my Uniko Brand Ambassador post and I am still very much on the Christmas crafting wagon! I do think Christmas craft might be my favourite.

This month I have focussed on stencils because I think you can make cards pretty quickly with stencils (if you exclude the paste drying time!), you can usually get two cards out of one run of the stencil (A6 size cards) and they add interest without adding bulk for lower postage costs.

For my first two cards today I used the Uniko Christmas Folk Snowflake stencil and white stencil paste. 

Once the stencil paste had dried I cut down the panel to make two and adhered to the card bases. I started off with the Kraft card but I definitely prefer the one mounted onto a red card base. To this, I added a heat embossed sentiment from the Uniko Festive Sentiments stamp set which I fussy cut, mounted onto velum and fussy cut again.

My next cards use the Uniko In The Forest stencil, one with white stencil paste and one with glitter stencil paste.

As the stencils are detailed and the focal point on the card I didn’t want to add anything more than a simple sentiment, again from the Uniko Festive Sentiments stamp set and also heat embossed, fussy cut and layered onto velum.

I hope these designs have given you some ideas for quick Christmas cards and ignite your passion for stencils! 

Much love

Steph x

The Male Room Challenge #167

Good morning all, 

I hope this morning finds you well? This month at The Male Room challenge we have a theme of CAS or Clean and Simple:

Now then, this is right up my street!! I really enjoy CAS crafting so the challenge for me was about what images to use. As I was looking around the craft paraphernalia (great word!), I noticed some images I had stamped but not yet coloured or fussy cut. So, those were the ones that ended up on my card.

These lovely trolls are from a stamp set by Clearly Besotted called Good To Be Bad. I already had them stamped so I set about colouring them with alcohol markers and then fussy cut them out. To keep the card simple I added a small amount of ink blending to the bottom left corner followed by a sentiment from the same set stamped over to the right. To this I adhered the image and the card was done. Perfect for a young boy's birthday I thought. 

Hopefully you have been inspired to join in and take up the CAS challenge. Maybe you could use some of your ready created stash for inspiration as I did? Or pop over to The Male Room blog and check out the oodles of wonderful talent on display by our Design Team. 

Much love

Steph x

Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge #516

Hey everyone, 

Today we have Color My Heart Color Dare challenge #516 and it is a triple play (use all three colours):

We reference Close To My Heart colour names but you can use any brand as long as it is a very good match. 

I have had this die for a while but this is the first time I've had chance to use it and I'm really pleased with the results. I like the shadow effect from the three challenge colours. 

I'm sad to say this will be my final challenge with the Color My Heart Color Dare team...for now! Life has become hectic and sometimes we have to make hard decisions to keep our sanity, and for me I've had to reduce the time spent crafting. Hopefully this won't be forever and the team may allow me to come back! 

Do head over to the Color My Heart blog and check out the amazing work by the rest of the Design Team and join in the fun! 

Much love

Steph x

Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge #514

Hi all, 

Thanks for joining me today for Color My Heart Color Dare challenge #514. Today we have a really lovely inspiration photo for you.

Don't forget to choose at least three colours visible in the photo, not including the free colours of black, white and gold. 

I selected a couple of shades of blue from the lovely water in the photo. I also had to pick a couple of the gorgeous greens. Finally I added a little yellow from those fabulously autumnal leaves. I have used a layering stencil here and I had so much fun. I will definitely be trying this out in every colour combination I can think of! 😂

I decided to die cut the finished panel to fit a slimline card base and I added my sentiment in black and white to stand out.

Please hop over to the Color My Heart Color Dare blog for more fabulous inspiration from the Design Team and join in with the challenge. 

Much love

Steph x