Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Wednesday Workout with some Autumn Themed Stencilling

 Morning all, Julie here with a little bit of BA Inspiration using stencils.

I'm helping out a friend on one of her challenge blogs up until Christmas and their latest challenge is Autumn so I thought I would have a go using some stencils that I haven't used or one not in a while! Here is my card using the Nature's Treasure stencil and the French Script stamp.

On a panel of white card, I stamped the script with Versamark before heat embossing with gold EP, then inked through the stencil, roughly covering the text and trying not to overlap the sprigs.

Rather than use a single colour for each leaflet, I blended a couple to get a graduated effect. The colours used were Mustard Seed, Carved Pumpkin and Vintage Photo Distress Inks. Once the text was covered, I dried the ink and then as the background looked a little too stark, I blended Antique Linen over the panel before trimming and adding to my cream base card. A strip of gold mirror card and a heat embossed Happy Birthday complete.

My second card uses the Mid Century Modern Shapes stencil and the Nature's Treasure II stamp set.

I was just playing around with the same inks from the card above as they were still on my desk, looking to make an interesting pattern by moving the stencil around so that each shape overlapped the next. The foliage was stamped in Altenew's Obsidian ink and is a great contrast to the softer blended DIs. I found the frame in my bits box and I think it just sets off the panel perfectly. What do you think? No sentiment this time, think it would spoil the look.

So two totally different designs but linked by the colours and the use of stencils. I hope I've encouraged you to have a play and see what comes about. 

Happy crafting. 

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Techniques with Embossing Glaze

 Hi there,

 do you love Embossing Powders as I do?
Have you ever heard of the special one called Embossing Glaze?
If not - it's a translucent but colourful Embossing Powder with some more special effects.

In the first card I made for you I created amore or less translucent rainbow with the "Rainbows & Clouds" Stencil over a very soft pastell blue background.
But first I had stamped and heat embossed the "Large Background - French Script" in white.
After the melting process of the powder I used the Stencil again and added some fluffy clouds with white Embossing paste.
The sentiment "Time to celebrate the good times" is one of the "Birthday Sentiments", heat embossed in a fitting light blue.
For some more interest I added some clear little rhinestone drops as raindrops.

The second card has a very similar layout, but I stamped the script background in gray (without embossing), just added the rainbow with the same Embossing Glaze colours as before.
I planned to add embellishments in the same colours, so I took twelve white sequins, added sticky ink to them, dipped always two of them into one of the powders and heathed them up. Then I put a drop of clear glitter glue to them.
The sentiment of the "All Occasions Set #3" is stamped with the same Ink I used for the background on Vellum and then I added the same colour of Embossing Glaze to it (hickory smoke).
I glued the edges of the Vellum on the backside of my layer and embellished it with my "special gems".

For the next card I created a blended Sunset scene and added plants and shadows with different stampsets - "Just because", "Happy Days" and "Natures Treasures I".
The lighter shadows of the black embossed plants are made with the Glazes.

For this glazed "Pure Florals - Peony" I added several times Embossing Ink with a Dabber and then thin layers of Glaze.
I was able to mix and match the colours with every layer and then melted every one on top of the black stamped flower.
With every layer it went darker and more intense! So beautiful! Love this kind of "watercolour look".

 

 

The last card is a bit different to the peony. I used the "Pure Florals - Gerbera Stencil" and one of the Peony sentiment stamps.
This time I didn't add the embossing Ink with a dabber (I tried, but it was too much ink for a stencil and turned out in a mess!), instead I used a pen and "coloured" the areas very quick and in a distressed way. I added and mixed the red and orange Glaze powder for the petals and the yellow for the center.
Melted every layer and as a last step I added black Embossing Powder to get some wild and dramatic lines to the flower.
Love this big and bold flower!

Hope I brought you some ideas to use the Glazes in different ways... there are many more to try!
For those of us who love Embossing Powders they are a very "nice-to-have" and "test and try" medium to play with.

Greetings from Wiebke

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Spring Botanicals Tulip

Good morning

Anita here with my very first Brand Ambassador Inspiration post!  There are so many wonderful products in the Uniko range I was spoilt for choice but, with the official start of Spring this coming Sunday and this being my favourite flower, for my first post I had to share some inspiration using Spring Botanicals Tulip.  So I have a trio of makes for you today, all quite different.

Wonderful colouring with markers isn't one of my talents so for this first card I've used ink blending...

On some white cardstock I stamped the tulips image and then stamped it again onto some masking paper.  Instead of masking the image, I cut out the negative space and masked the background.  I then ink blended with Distress Inks.  I cut out the image using a pierced square die and another slightly larger from plain white cardstock.  I heat embossed the sentiment, also from the Spring Botanicals Tulip set, using white embossing powder on black cardstock and adhered it like a tab.  The die cut panels were then layered up with dimension.

For this next card I used very simple tone on tone colouring...

My first step here was to stamp the image in a pale lilac ink onto some lilac textured cardstock.  I left the stamp in my stamping platform as I would need to re-stamp later.  I added some tone on tone colouring with alcohol markers, lilac shades for the petals and I chose grey for the leaves just to add a little shading.  Once complete I placed the panel back into my stamping platform, stamped in VersaMark ink and heat embossed in white, along with the sentiment, also from the same stamp set.  It's so much easier to emboss afterwards so you don't have to avoid the embossing and I've heard that embossing isn't too good for marker nibs either.  To finish this one the panel was die cut with a stitched rectangle and adhered flat to the card base.

And for my third of this trio I left the image uncoloured and just added colour to the background...

I stamped the image and masked it using the mask I'd previously cut from the first card.  I then laid the Stylised Floral Stencil over the top and blended through with Distress Ink, fading it out.  For a little more background interest, with the mask still in place I lightly stamped in grey with the Large Background French Script Stamp, just keeping the stamping within the area of the ink blending.  To finish, I used a sentiment from the Spring Botanicals Tulip set, heat embossed in white on a black die cut panel.

I hope you find some inspiration from these.  I'd love to be more creative with my alcohol markers but much more practice is required so, while I'm still learning, I'm always looking for different ways to add colour.  I had great fun making these.

I'm so glad Spring is (almost) here, it's my favourite season.  The daffodils are in full bloom in the UK and the tulips won't be far behind.

Crafty hugs to you all

Happy New Year & Winners!

 Hello & Happy New Year!

I do hope your 2022 has begun well and that you all had a wonderful festive season. I had a lovely break and enjoyed all the festivities with The Beans & family. I even got to see my brother, if only on his doorstep as he had Covid, for the first time in over 2 years. 

The only thing I am disappointed in, is how quick it went by! And how are we even on the 3rd January?! 

Anyway, I squeezed in a little creative time this morning after The Beans left for the pantomime with Grandma & Grandad. Here's what I was inspired to create....

Yep, another Happy New Year card! I've needed a few this year, because, as usual I left sending Christmas cards to the last minute. Will I ever learn to be early?

Anyway, my starting inspiration for my card today came from my most liked card on Instagram last year. Which I happened to share about yesterday on socials. It is this card below, from when I introduced the Stencil - Pure Florals Gerbera HERE.

I started with the Large Background French Script which I have used on my inspiration card. However, I chose to use elements from Mid Century Modern Florals as my focal interest along with a sentiment from Christmas Sentiments. 

Again, like the other New Year cards I have made, I chose a purple colour scheme. It's not usually my go to colour, but as a shade of purple is Pantone's Colour of The Year, it has inspired me to use it more. I used Altenew Hydranga, Ultraviolet & Andromeda. I added some Mid Century Modern star bursts accented with Nuvo Crystal Drops Violet Galaxy. And then finished off with some Nuvo Crystal Drops in Gloss Ebony Black. 

Okay, so that's my creativity for today. How about some overdue winners for the 12 Days of Christmas, Giveaways 🎉 

Day 1 - Pattern Building Christmas Tree, Background Builders Winter Wonderland, Christmas Sentiments 

Subhashini20 December 2021 at 05:25

What a wonderful way to cheer others during Christmas. Thanks for your kindness Bev

Day 2 - Pure Florals Rose, Background Blocks Horizontal Stripe 

Sue Brian Symens - @sentsue

Day 3 - Stunning Snowflakes, Background Blocks Scattered Polka Dots

Karen Davies - Facebook 

Day 4 - Mid Century Modern Florals, Background Blocks Mid Century Modern, Background Blocks Mid Century Modern II

Nancy Storms - @made_by_nananas

Day 5 - Hello Lovely, Simply Said

frommycraftroom19 December 2021 at 01:08

I love that stamped and heat embossed! such a pretty card. Thanks for another chance.

Day 6 - Alphabet Outlined, Organic Wishes

Kami Colella - @kamibabes

Day 7 - Stencils - Flower Power 1, 5, 8

Gerrina19 December 2021 at 14:03

Wow this is stunning! Love stencils and your use here of them with the colours is super! Hugs, Gerrina

Day 8 - BIG & Bold Merry

Linda - @lindarubar

Day 9 - Floral Vines, Most Wonderful

LesleyG22 December 2021 at 08:05

It is indeed very festive, such a pretty colour, and I love how the sentiment can sit under, over or inside, and some fabulous sentiments too! Xxx

Day 10 - Anniversaire Arts Décoratifs, Background Blocks Arts Décoratifs

Denise Bryant - Facebook 

Day 11 - Stencil - English Country Garden Butterflies Bundle

Jennifer Ingle - @justjingle

Day 12 - BIG & BOLD Happy clear stamp & designer die collection

Mac Mable24 December 2021 at 16:38

Fabulous New Year cards with the pantone colour and thank you once again for the inspiration Bev x. I love Uniko and I love your products x. Merry Christmas to you and your beans x.

CONGRATULATIONS 🥳 to all the winners!

All winners were randomly selected from comments left here on the blog, Instagram and Facebook. 

Winners, please contact me a bev@uniko.co.uk with your postal address and which day prize you have won. If you already own any of the prize offered, please state this in the email and I will offer you an alternative prize. If I have not heard from any winners by Saturday 22nd January 2022, the prize will be offered to another winner. 

THANK YOU so much 😊 for joining in on this fun event. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and sorry it has taken me longer than expected to announce the winners 🙈

Crafty Hugs

DT inspiration - Eraser technique

Bonjour !

Izzy here. Today I want to share with you a technique that I recently discovered on Papierelle's blog and that I particularly love. This is the Eraser technique.

For this technique I used the Pure Florals Peony stamp set released this past December together with the Large Background French Script stamp released in May 2018.

All you need for this technique is a pencil, sandpaper, a sponge, an eraser and a stamp. And the process is very easy : 

1. Rub off some graphite of the pencil over the sandpaper.
2. Pick up the graphite with a sponge and sponge it onto your card stock
3. Stamp the image you chose on top of this sponging
4. And to finish, erase the surfaces of your image you want to be white

Easy peasy, no ?

To make my card I cut a rectangle of Strathmore Bristol and I sponged it with the graphite. I stamped the gorgeous peonies with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I also stamped them on post-it notes to use them as masks to be able to stamp the French Script Background with a light gray ink.

Then I erased the inside surface of the peonies and I used my new loved pencil brushes to colour them. If you try this technique you will notice that the choice of the paper is important. Depending on the paper, it is sometimes hard to completely make the surface white. For this card I've used Strathmore Bristol because it's a very smooth surface and I knew it's compatible with the use of the Zig Clean Colour pen brush as watercolour pencils.

Even with this smooth card stock I didn't succeed to totally erase the graphite on the peonies. But I loved the vintage look it gives mixed together with the pink watercolour that's why I went on. To finish I sponged Black Soot Distress ink on the edges of the card stock. Once everything was totally dry I sprayed a fixative to be sure that the graphite would not smear everywhere.

I adhered this panel on top of a white card stock and I stamped a birthday sentiment which comes from the Pure Florals Chrysanthemum set. I love how this card looks, the peonies really stand out over the grey background !

I hope I inspired you with this gorgeous stamp set. It completes so beautifully the Pure Florals collection. It's my new favourite and a must have !

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a fabulous day !

Izzy xx

CAS Colours & Sketches #273 - Sketch

Hey!

Welcome back to another FUN CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. This month Cathy is our hostess and has this wonderful sketch HERE to inspire your clean and simple card making this week...

So many possibilities with this fun sketch, but here is how I decided to use it...

I reached for the recently released silhouette from Just Because and the Large Background French Script. I thought the sketch lent itself well to some masking and stamping for the lower rectangle and some spotlight stamping for the top focal rectangle. 

I was going to keep my colour scheme totally monochrome, but thought that might be a little too depressing for a sympathy card. So I used Altenew Dew Drops for the silhouette stamped on the upper rectangle. 

That's all from me today, I hope thatI have inspired you to join in on the challenge?! If you need a little more inspiration, pop on over HERE to see what the CC&S Design Team have created.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs

May 2018 Release in Review Day 1

Hey!

Welcome to the May Release in Review Day 1 (a day late).

So I am a little late with my posts due to being ill and being a mummy taking priority. I had all good intentions to be all prepared, scheduled  have cards made, photographed and ready to go and the time (as usual) slipped away from me and illness struck this past weekend too :(

Anyway, as a couple of the Design Team didn't receive their goodies in time for the countdown and release day festivities, I thought it would be nice to have them be in the limelight and have a release in review week.

Today (Monday), we are taking a look at Just Because and Large Background French Script clear stamps.

And here is some new inspiration using them from Carol and Rahmat. Be sure to click on their links for all the details and more inspiration on their blogs....

Click HERE to see more from Carol

Click HERE to see more from Rahmat

WOW! I am so inspired by these 2 projects. I love the rainbow of colours on Carols silhouette, simply seamlessly done and perfectly CAS. With Rahmat's card I had to go for a closer look as she has transformed the silhouette image beautifully and with so much detail. 

Don't go far, as I will be sharing day 2 shortly! 

Hugs

Introducing... Just Because and Large French Script Background

Hey & Happy Monday!

Welcome to back to day three of the May 2018 Release product introductions. What a BEEautiful showcase of inspiration HERE on the blog hop yesterday. I sure do LOVE seeing how the Design Team are inspired to use the new products. They were certainly busy bees too with all that they created!

Today we are introducing 2 more products, Just Because Clear Stamp Set and Large French Background Clear Stamp. I've combined both the sets on this card...

I am absolutely loving the Altenew Sweet Dreams ink collection and I have used 3 of the shades from this set on my card. I started by inking the Large Background French Script in Dew Drops. I then stamped the silhouette image from Just Because in Aqualicious and the sentiment from Simply Said Blocks II is stamped in Teal Cave.

I added a mat layer of Stampin' Up! Bermuda Bay card stock and some matching enamel dots to finish the design off. 

Ok, that's all I have to share here, but myself and the Design Team have more inspiration on the hop below :)

Bev

Deborah 

Izzy 

Jane 

Julie

Linda

Lindsey

Sarah G

Sarah P

Hugs

Release Schedule...

Sneak Peeks 1st - 4th May 2018, these little teasers give you hints at what is in store!

Introducing... 5th - 11th May 2018, here you will see a closer look at the products being released with a daily blog hop with the Uniko DT.

Release Day! Saturday 12th May 2018 9am BST you will get to see the products in their entirety and purchase them HERE on the website! As usual there will be a Design Team Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

Extra PRIZE Info! Alternative prizes will be offered to those that may already own the prize offered. Winners will be announced on Saturday 11th on the Winners Page HERE.