A Special Thanks to Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking Magazine Blog Hop

Today there is a HUGE blog hop taking place to honour and say thank you to an awesome magazine & all the people who have been a part of Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking as sadly it is no longer to be, leaving a huge hole within the paper crafting community.

I cannot recall the exact date I came across Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking magazine, but I have a feeling that it was back in 2005 when I was on my jolly holidays in Orlando Florida and I came across the magazine in the craft store Michaels. Then when I started blogging back in 2008 as a hobby I became more familiar with it. 

My greatest memory & moment was when I was contacted by Susan Opel who asked if Uniko Studio would like to be featured. Well, I jumped at the chance, what an honour. The stamp set being featured was my first stamp set I launched back in February 2012, Today, Tomorrow & Always Time. I sent some sets across the pond for their designers to work their magic with.

To say I was beyond excited when I saw that Laura Bassen, Kim Kesti and Lisa Johnson had all worked their magic with the set. Below is the card by Laura...

Anyway, I had to join in and send my thanks to ALL that are involved with the magazine to let them know how much they have been an inspiration to me, for giving my little company a chance & to be featured and also to let them know how much they will be missed, not only by me but a huge amount of people in the paper crafting community. 

This card is dedicated to them...

I think this was the hardest card to make thinking of what products to use, I finally settle for a couple of NEW releases from Uniko Studio's Christmas collection. Background Builders: Vines Winter Additions and Rustic Christmas, all the supplies are listed below.

So, thank you Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking for all that you have brought to not only me but the whole paper crafting community. I'm sure this blog hop will show how many people you have touched and inspired AND how BIG a loss you will be within the community.

If you've just stumbled upon this hop you can start at the beginning HERE at Jennifer McGuire's blog, but if you've been hopping along you should have come from Danielle Walls of Neat & Tangled and your next stop along the way is Tracey McNeely of In My Creative Opinion.

Enjoy the hop & thank you for stopping by :)

Supplies
Card Stock: SU! Old Olive. White (Boyes)
Ink: VersaMagic Tea Leaves & Red Magic. VersaFine Onyx Black
Stamps: Uniko Studio Background Builders: Vines Winter Additions, Rustic Christmas, Flower Power #3 and Label Love: Thank you.
Accessories: Foam Adhesive

Spring Fresh!

Hey!

Wow! What a lovely Spring day it was yesterday here in the North East of the UK. It was lovely to hang washing out on the line and also I enjoyed a bike ride in the sun to the gym of all places! It was very refreshing.

Talking of freshness I have a Spring Fresh card to share with you today...

I started giving the studio a Spring clean yesterday and decided to use up some digital patterned paper scarps and do a bit of paper piecing. I've been wanting to do this for some time now with the Gerbera flower. You just need a bit of patience to sit and fussy cut the pieces out! 

Below is a closer look at the paper pieced flower...

 

I used the current Freshly Made Sketch for the layout of my card. You can see the sketch HERE and below.

I'm finishing up the studio Spring clean today hopefully! Have a great day & thanks for stopping by!

Hugs

Supplies:

Card Stock: SU! Pretty In Pink. WPlus9 White

Ink: VersaFine Onyx Black

Stamps: Uniko Studio Pure Florals: Gerbera, FONTiments - Birthday

Accessories: PTI Autumn Rose Ribbon. Star Dust Stickles

Paper Crafting Crush!

Hey!

Happy Weekend :)

On Thursday I came across THIS blog post by Taheerah, which is all about her paper crafting crush. It all began over on Clean & Simple but I'm a little late to that party! However, it got me to thinking who my paper crafting crush is, this didn't take me long. 

I can't remember exactly when my paper crafting crush began with this person but her Clean & Simple style & general paper crafting 'WOWness' has captured my attention for many years. Can you guess who my crush is...? 

No? Maybe these projects below will give you a hint...

Source: studiocalico.typepad.com via Beverley on Pinterest

Source: mailebelles.blogspot.com via Beverley on Pinterest

Yep, it's the FABulously talented Maile Belles! 

I am often inspired by Maile's card layouts, colour combos and general paper crafting style & today's card was inspired by this card that I spotted on Pinterest yesterday...

Source: mailebelles.blogspot.com via Beverley on Pinterest

I kept the colour scheme & general layout the same but used a Uniko Studio Decorative Doily & decided to keep it sentiment free...

I'm not a lover of gold embossing but it's good to step outside the comfort zone now & again. I'm liking  the gold with light pink & wouldn't have given it a go if I hadn't been inspired by Maile. 

Who is your paper crafting crush? I'd love to know.

That's all from me today, I hope you all have a super weekend & find plenty of paper crafting time!

Hugs

Supplies:

Card Stock: WPlus9 White

Ink: VersaMark

Stamps: Uniko Studio Decorative Doilies The Hands Of Time

Accessories: Gold EP, Gold Glitter, DST & Rhinestones all from stash.

Holes are trendy?

Hey!

Happy Wednesday! Happy half way to the weekend - whoop! 

Today, we're trending on the blog. Would you believe holes on your paper crafts are trendy?! Yep, good old paper piercing is back, so grab your sharp pokey tool and mat and get piercing! 

DT member Amber got me noticing this trend more when she did her February Release post HERE. It also just so happens that it is the current challenge over on Less Is More HERE, so I had to have a lil go myself and created this lil card...

It's those BRIGHT Butterflies again! Haha! I started out by using Ambers technique of paper piercing round a Sizzix Framelits Flower Die, I then stamped and fussy cut out the butterfly (SO can't wait for those dies to arrive!) I then popped it up using foam adhesive and stamped the sentiment and butterfly trail.

That's all from me today, kinda short & sweet! I'm out of the studio today doing some market research in York and also visiting my friend from Uni and while I am there I thought I'd pop into a few wedding dress shops to look at some dresses and book some fittings, time is ticking towards the BIG day and I haven't sorted my dress!!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Hugs

Supplies:

Card Stock: PTI Berry Sorbet

Ink: PTI Hawaiian Shores, VersaFine Onyx Black

Stamps: Uniko Studio BRIGHT Butterflies, FONTiments - Birthday

Accessories: Piercing Tool, Foam Adhesive & Rhinestone

February 2013 Sneak Peeks Day 2

Hey!

Welome back for the next & last few Sneak Peeks for the February 2013 Release! I'll get straight to them so here is peek no.4 ...

This peek is of the second clear stamp due to be released HERE on the website tomorrow! It has a Birthday theme, quite appropriate as Uniko Studio will be 1 year old tomorrow!

Peek no.5 is of a NEW digital paper collection which features some lovely BRIGHT colours, patterns & trendy wording styles!

It wouldn't be a release without an Eclectic Mix digital paper collection which brings us to the last of the sneak peeks for this release. Short & sweet this month but each product packs a punch & has loads of mix & match options! 

Be sure to pop by the blog tomorrow for the February 2013 Release, Reveal, Design Team & Guest Designer Blog Hop. There will also be a Birthday Prize package up for grabs too so you'll want to stop by for that too!

Thanks for stopping by & I'll see you here tomorrow!

Hugs

Playing With Paper ...

Hey All!

I'm a little later than usual today with my post, I apologise for that. I took a day out yesterday with my former part-time college friends to a local historical house for some chatter and inspiration looking at lovely vintage furniture and textiles. Therefore I didn't make it into the Studio until today to make a couple of samples.

So without further ado here is my first card to share with you all ...

Today I am focusing on using the Modern Lattice Digital Downloadable papers available from the Uniko Studio website. I LOVE the designs in this collection, even if I do say so myself! Lol! The ditsy floral patterned paper that I have used in this first card is my FAVE! 

This card was super simple to make after cutting my card base from SU! Sahara Sand CS I then cut a panel of patterned paper the same width as the card base but only 7.5 cm in height. I then trimmed the patterned paper at different intervals on an angle. I then adhered then to the card base using my glue pen leaving a gap in-between each piece. A simple sentiment from Fontiments - Birthday & a cluster of buttons finished the card off nicely.

This next card is also super simple too and uses another 2 of the patterned papers from the collection. I used the butterfly punch from SU! and another sentiment from Fontiments - Birthday. If I received this card I'd SMILE! 

I have one last card to share with you all today ...

On this card I have used 2 more patterned papers from the collection to make the flower which is die cut using a Sizzix die from SU! The sentiment is also from Fontiments - Birthday. 

I hope you have enjoyed the projects I have shared today & that it has inspired you to use patterned papers in a CAS way! I'll be back tomorrow with the last Uniko Studio product focus from this release. Thanks for stopping by today!

The day after ...

WOW!

What an exciting day yesterday was! Thank you for all that visited, commented & purchased! I appreciate all the support for Uniko Studio :) 

Anyway, it's the day after release and for the next six days I am going to focus on one product a day and share some information about the product and projects using the product!

Today, I am sharing a couple of cards I have made using Decorative Doilies - The Hands of Time Digital Downloadable patterned papers.

Now, the paper cover only shows 6 of the 12 patterns available in the pack so I thought I'd share a swatch sheet of all 12.

For £2.75 your getting 12 patterned papers that match Stampin' Up! Colours AND also coordinate with the stamp set Decorative Doilies - The Hands of Time! The Stampin' Up! Colours are Rose Red, So Safron, Daffodil Delight, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Marina Mist, Pool Party & Calypso Coral. 

How about a couple of cards ...

The patterned paper I have used on this card is one of my favourites! I love the floral element mixed with the circles. This card was super simple to make. I started off by printing the patterned paper at the original A4 size onto a sheet of white paper. I use a slightly thicker paper for printing digital papers that is 160 gsm and is available from Staples. Sometimes I print onto CS but it really depends on what I plan to make with it! 

Once I had trimmed the digital paper panel to size I used my glue pen to add some Prisma Glitter to areas of the paper, below is a close up...

I also added a tiny rhinestone to the middle for some extra sparkle! I stamped the sentiment using Fontiments - Birthday, punched the frame out once stamped to make sure it was centred and added some more tiny rhinestones. Looking at the card now I wished I had off centred the sentiment frame but overall I am pleased with the outcome!

For the card above I used the 2 papers either side of the one I used above shown in the swatch picture. This time I cut out the white flower on the Rose Red paper and 2 of the flowers from the other paper. I glittered the petals of the top 2 flowers and layered all 3 together before adhering to the card base with some foam pads.

I decided to leave this card sentiment free so that it can be used for any occasion. I might just make a few more to make a set, switching the different coloured flowers around and colours used for the card bases.

Later in the week I will share some more ideas using the digital papers and perhaps a little tutorial! Thats all I have to share with you today, but I will be back tomorrow to share some more projects using another of the NEW products released. You'll have to pop by to see which one it is that I chose to work with! 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Hugs

April 2012 Reveal

The day has finally arrived, I cannot contain the excitement any longer! I can now share with you all the products being released TODAY over on the Uniko Studio WEBSITE! Grab yourself a drink and sit and relax as I introduce you to all the NEW stamp sets and Digital Paper Collections! 

Fontiments Birthday £15.95 

Copyright Uniko Studio  2012

www.unikostudio.co.uk

Fontiments Birthday is a trendy sentiment set that allows you to mix and match fonts to create a unique birthday sentiment for your card. The size of the sentiments allows you to make them the focus of the card, but they are not too big to compliment image stamps on cards & projects. The set contains 30 stamps in total.

Fontiment Fancies - Swirls & Flourishes £15.95 

Copyright Uniko Studio  2012

www.unikostudio.co.uk

Fontiment Fancies - Swirls &Flourishes is a versatile set that would look lovely on almost any type of project. The swirls and flourishes contained in this set can be used on their own as well as paired with a special sentiment, such as those contained in Fontiments Birthday.

There is a variety of shapes & sizes of swirls & flourishes contained in the set which allows you to mix, match and combine images to create a unique stamped project.

Decorative Doilies - The Hands Of Time £15.95 

Copyright Uniko Studio  2012

www.unikostudio.co.uk

Decorative Doilies - The Hands of Time provides a different take on a popular trend of doilies! It has a mix of solid & liner stamps which will create a multitude of possibilities!

This set co-ordinates beautifully with the previously released Time & Extra Time sets as well as all the NEW sets being released!

Background Builders Lattice £15.95 

Copyright Uniko Studio  2012

www.unikostudio.co.uk

Background Builders Lattice is a different take on a popular trend of the lattice style that we are seeing not only in the crafting world but also in interiors & homeware!

This set is a background building set which has a mix of solid & liner stamps which will create a multitude of stamped backgrounds!

The set contains a total of 9 stamps 4 background building strips that are designed in such a way to make lining up the edges of each image super easy, allowing you to stamp an entire card front in no time! The set also contains 5 smaller individual stamps to create even more background & focal possibilities to your stamped projects.

So, what do you think? Which set is your favourite?

Along with these 4 stamp sets Uniko Studio is also introducing 2 Digital Downloadable Paper Collections ...

Decorative Doilies - The Hands of Time Digital Paper Collection £2.75 

Copyright Uniko Studio  2012

www.unikostudio.co.uk

This digital download provides a different take on the popular trend of doilies. The download contains 12 patterned papers which are inspired by & use images from the Decorative Doilies - The Hands of Time stamp set. The paper collection also contains different but complimentary imagery not contained in the stamp set, which provides even more versatility when combined with the stamp set. The possibilities are endless!

An added BONUS is that the colours of these digital downloadable papers are a perfect match to Stampin' Up! colours. The colours featured in this collection are, Rose Red, So Safron, Daffodil Delight, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Marina Mist, Pool Party & Calypso Coral.

Modern Lattice Digital Paper Collection £2.75 

Copyright Uniko Studio  2012

www.unikostudio.co.uk

This digital download is bang on trend! The lattice style is not only popular in the crafting world but also in interiors & homeware. The download contains 12 patterned papers which are inspired by & use images from the Background Builders Lattice stamp set.

The paper collection also contains different but complimentary imagery not contained in the stamp set, which provides even more versatility when combined with the stamp set.The papers also coordinate perfectly with the majority of stamp sets available from Uniko Studio.

An added BONUS is that the colours of these digital downloadable papers are a perfect match to Stampin' Up! colours. The colours featured in this collection are, Pumpkin Pie, Poppy Parade, Baja Breeze, Basic Grey, Very Vanilla & Sahara Sand.

All the digital downloadable papers accommodate those who use A4 size papers and those who use 8 x 11″ papers. Contained in the zip file is a folder containing the A4 and 8 x 11″ paper files it is then your choice which paper size you print! Once you have completed your purchases from the website you will be sent an email with a link to the download. Be sure to save these files to your computer as you will only be able to download them twice. Once you have them on your computer you will be able to use them over & over again! 

Now we have all the formal introductions done how about a few projects using these products?!

This first card uses the largest single outline stamp from Background Builders Lattice and one of the Celebrate stamps from Fontiments Birthday. I have also used 6 of the digital patterned papers from the Modern Lattice Digital Paper Collection. I simply stamped the image and cut them out to create a patchwork effect. 

For this card I used Decorative Doilies The Hands of Time. Once I had cut the small squares I lined 3 of them up and stamped the doily image using Black Memento Ink. I then coloured each of the hands in with Copic markers to create a lovely rainbow effect. I added some Prisma Glitter to the white areas inside the doily for that added sparkle!

For the card above I used Fontiment Fancies - Swirls and Flourishes. This card demonstrates how the swirls and flourishes can be combined to build a frame. There are SO many possibilities! The sentiment is from Fontiments Birthday.

For this last card I have used Fontiments Birthday as the focus. This sentiment set has SO many mix and match possibilities! 

Well, thats all from me today! If you want to see more ideas and samples using the NEW stamps and digital papers then POP on over to the Design Team blogs! KERRY & AMY have some FAB projects to share too.

I'll be back tomorrow with a few more cards to share! I hope you have all enjoyed seeing everything, I'd LOVE for you to tell me your FAVES and MUST haves! LOL!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs

I Just Wanted to Say ...

Thank You! 

It's only been 3 weeks and already I feel LOVED! The blog here has reached 50 followers and Facebook 44 so I wanted to say THANK YOU to all that are following me, commenting & enjoying what Uniko Studio has to offer! 

I'd LOVE more followers and for you all to keep spreading the word about Uniko Studio! But for now I am happy and I will tell you a lil bit about the card I have made today.

This is a cute little 4 1/4" square card. I used Soft Stone (PTI) CS which is a great neutral. It's not too grey and not too white so it's just right! LOL! I stamped the 3 circles image onto the base card using Versamark ink which gives a lovely subtle background detail. You can just about see this on the lower left of the card in the photo.

I then stamped the clock face from the Time set in Black Memento Ink and used my Copics to colour it in. I just did simple one colour colouring with no blending but just alternated the colours in the clock face. The clock face is simply cut out by hand and layer onto a 1 3/4" circle punched from Hawaiian Shores (PTI) CS.

I then used a frame paper punch from Fiskars {I think} and punched one from white & one from Basic Grey CS. To get the white frame inside the grey frame I simply cut each of the punched pieces in half and layered the white frame just inside the grey frame. I then used double sided tape to adhere the clock face  to both sides of the frame.

The whole piece is then mounted onto the card base using foam pads & then I stamped the sentiment below in Memento Black ink. Simple, but effective and another way to stretch your paper punches a lil further if they aren't quite big enough! 

I hope you have enjoyed todays card and you are inspired to have a play with paper punches & stretch them a lil further! 

Thanks for stopping by today! Be sure to check back tomorrow to see who the winner is of the stamp set from the blinkie giveaway!