December 2018 Release WINNER!

Hey!

I'm popping in today to announce the Winner of the December 2018 Release Blog Hop! With the help of random.org the lucky comment was no.94 and the lucky commenter is...

Becca Yahrling11 December 2018 at 23:56

Snowflake Serenade is my favorite as well. :-) And your card is so lovely with minimal coloring. I also love the stencils and what you have done with them. The flower - stunning!

Congratulations Becca! Please send me an email to [email protected] no later than 31st January 2019, along with your mailing address. I will then get your prize in the mail to you!

Thank you to everyone that joined in on the release celebrations and took the time to comment and hop along with us :) 

We will be having a revisit of this release in the New Year, with another chance to win the clear stamps, so stay tuned!! 

Hugs

Let it Snow .......

Happy weekend ......

Good morning! It's Linda here with a little bit of last minute Christmas card inspiration for you .... or maybe you're super organised and it's an early idea for next years cards. Either way its a nice simple design, using the pretty Let It Snow stencil from the last release and a little bit of Brusho magic

I don't know about snow ..... it's been a little wet where I am.  No white Christmas for us I'm afraid, so I've created my own little flurry of snowflakes.

I used the stencil along with some Versamark ink which I lightly sponged through the design onto a piece of white cardstock.  I then heat embossed with a detail white EP powder.

Next, I sprinkled a tiny bit of Cobalt Blue Brusho powder over the top, keeping the powder towards the top edge of my card.
I then spritzed with a little water and let the Brusho powder do it's magic,

I wanted to create this ombre effect so I kept most of the colour at the top edge of the card, letting it fade out gradually as the water took it down over the embossed snowflakes.

Because the snowflake design had been heat embossed, this acted as a resist to the Brusho colour, and when I mopped up all the excess water the snowflakes really came to life again ..... so simple to do and no two pieces will ever be the same.

A simple sentiment, a touch of glitter, and some sparkly sequins add the finishing touches.

I hope you've managed to get all your festive makes done in time for the big day.
Not long to wait now.

Thanks for popping by.

I'd like to wish you all 

 a very Merry Christmas

 and a 

Happy and Healthy New Year

Have a great time ..... I hope Santa brings you everything on your list .... and more.

See you in 2019!

Cheerio until next time ......

Tartan Happy New Year

Good morning, Julie here to share a card I made for the current challenge over at Cardz4Guyz. The theme there is New Year - New Beginnings, so I thought of making a tartan inspired card to celebrate Hogmanay.

The background to this card was made using the stamp strips from Background Builders Christmas 2018 set. I was inspired by fellow Uniko DT member Sarah P to create the background after I saw this fab card. 

I used a panel of red card a gold liner pen and three of the strips, the 3 stripes, diagonal lines and the wrong side of the Ho ho ho!

The diagonal line strip was laid across the panel and inked in Versamark before heat embossing with white EP, repeating to get the required pattern.

The 3 line stamp was inked in Altenew's Hunter Green and stamped in a tartan pattern followed by the Ho Ho Ho stamp which I reversed to get a plain image in Altenew's Ruby Red. When dry I added some gold lines with a fine gold marker and a straight edge.

The panel was then trimmed down to size and added to a white base card. 

From some gold glitter paper, I cut the 2019 and added it to the same cut from red fun foam.

On a banner of black card, I stamped the sentiment from Simply Said Christmas and heat embossed with white EP and then popped it up on a strip of foam.

That's it from me see you again soon.

CAS Colours & Sketches #302 - Seasonal Sketch

Hey!

Oh my! I am running terribly behind this week on all areas of life :( I'm finally here with my final DT card for CAS Colours & Sketches. It's been a blast being on the DT and I will miss being part of a wonderful team. However, my life is so busy at the moment, something had to give.

Anyway, the countdown to Christmas has begun and over at CAS Colours & Sketches the Design Team are getting into the festive spirit too. This week the challenge HERE is to choose a sketch from 2018 and make it seasonal.

I chose to use the colours from challenge #295 seen HERE and below...

And here is how it festive...

I LOVE snowflakes! With all the talk of the possibility of snow this weekend and having recently purchased The Stamp Market Snowflake Die, I had to put it to use! 

I die cut the snowflake from some left over sparkly card (Stampin' Up! I think) and paired it with some heat embossed snowflakes from Background Builders: Christmas and the 'Let it Snow' sentiment from Simply Said Blocks Christmas. For good measure and simply because I love the stuff, I added some Simply White Gloss Nuvo Drops!

There is still time to join in on this last CC&S challenge for 2018 and there is more inspiration from the CC&S Design Team over HERE. Be sure to check out which colour combo they've all chosen to make seasonal :) I look forward to seeing you in the gallery and happy festive CAS card making! 

Hugs

A Cracker of a Card

Hi, it's Lindsey here from the Uniko DT with a little "upcycling" inspiration for you!

I've used the card leftover from 2 Christmas crackers for my cards. 

The patterned glittery card was too good to throw away!

 I'm sure I'm not alone in the crafting community of hoarding lovely snippets of paper and card ...

My first card uses the upcycled card die-cut to provide a background for my the Uniko snowflake die set.  The sentiment is from the Christmas Simply Said Blocks set.

Quick, easy and simple is what I'm after for making a batch of Christmas cards!

For my second card, I stamped the bauble from the Christmas Sparkle stamp set onto the upcycled card and then "fussy cut" it out.

These cards would be perfect for the current Uniko challenge; we're looking for celebratory cards, with the optional twist of gold - and what better occasion to celebrate than Christmas?!

If you'd like to enter a card in this month's challenge, and why wouldn't you?  There's prizes to be had! You can link your card up HERE.  The challenge finishes on 21 December and winners will be announced on 4 January.

I look forward to seeing your cards in the gallery!

December 2018 Release eGift Certificate Winners!

Yay!

It is finally Release Day & all the new products you have been seeing will be going live in an hour over on the website HERE.

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who has left such wonderful comments across Social Media this week, you have kept me going and smiling :) I appreciate each and everyone and sorry I don't get time to respond/reply to them all. 

Anyway, as promised I have 5 lucky winners for a £10 eGift Certificate to spend in store. These were all chosen randomly and I have made sure there is a winner from all of my social media / blogs...

Day 1 - Rizwana

Day 2 - Carole Dixon

Day 3 - Rosali 

Day 4 - Jackie Elliott

Day 5 - Tracey A

Congratulations to you all! 

If you were not a winner this time, there is still time to join in on the December 2018 Reveal, Design Team Blog Hop & Giveaway HERE! Just comment along the hop to be in the chance of winning the ENTIRE Release! 

Hugs 

December 2018 Reveal, Design Team Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

Woohoo! 

Finally the day has arrived and the December 2018 Reveal, Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY is here! The Release will be available to purchase HERE at a NEW time of 9pm GMT tonight. 

Ok, so how about a look at the three new clear stamp sets AND the two new stencil designs!

Wonderful Day £9 

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2018

www.uniko.co.uk

Snowflake Serenade £9

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2018

www.uniko.co.uk

Pure Florals Peony £15

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2018

www.uniko.co.uk

Stencil In The Forest £3.50 

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2018

www.uniko.co.uk

Stencil Let it Snow £3.50 

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2018

www.uniko.co.uk

For RELEASE DAY ONLY*, I am offering the full December 2018 Release as a BUNDLE OFFER, saving you 10%. 

PLUS...

FREE Worldwide Shipping is available on orders of £30 or more (reduced from the normal £50 minimum spend).

*offer will end at 9pm Wednesday 12th December 2018 & or until stocks of clear stamps last. Stencils will be available in the offer, even if they are available on backorder. 

Now I have formally introduced all the NEW products and mentioned the RELEASE DAY ONLY offers, how about a FUN blog hop and a ton of inspiration from the Design Team.

Bev

Carol 

Izzy 

Jane 

Julie

Linda

Lindsey

Sarah G

Sarah P

Be sure to comment along the hop for your chance to win the ENTIRE Release!! You have until Midnight (GMT) Friday 14th December 2018 to comment and the winner will be announced soon after.

Happy Hopping!

Hugs

Introducing... Pure Florals Peony Clear Stamp Set

Hey!

Welcome to Day 4 of the December 2018 Release product introductions. 

I am so happy you have decided to pop by again. Today is the last of the December production introductions and I have saved a new favourite till last! 

As December is a super busy time for everyone, it is just me doing the product introductions for this release. Though the Uniko DT will be joining me on Release Day for our traditional blog hop :)

This clear stamp set is similar to Pure Florals Lily, in that it only contains outline images. The first 2 florals in the series, Gerbera and Chrysanthemum contain both solid & outline stamps for a 2 step stamping flower.

My reason for 'changing' things up when I designed the Lily and the Peony is that I wanted to create a flower that can be 'built' together with individual stamps to create a bouquet of flowers or that they could be stamped alone individually. Therefore I didn't have room in the set for solid stamps.

This picture below shows how all of the images in the set can be used to build a complete bouquet.

And here is how I have used Pure Florals Peony...

Here I have stamped just the 2 main peony blooms in VersaFine Onyx Black ink. There is so much lovely detail to these stamps that adding colour to the flowers themselves isn't always necessary. I decided to keep the focal images with no colour and I was inspired to add just the Coral colour to the mat layer and part of the sentiment. 

I was totally inspired by Pantone's colour of 2019 - Living Coral :) 

That's all I have to share with you here today, but I do have one more card HERE on the website blog!

As it is the season of giving, each day of the introductions I will be randomly selecting one lucky comment from either this blog post, the Uniko website blog post, Facebook or Instagram to receive an eGift Certificate code to the value of £10! So be sure to leave a lovely comment ;) Winners will be announced on Tuesday 11th December before the release!

Winners will be announced on Tuesday 11th December before the release at 9pm GMT!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Hugs

Introducing... Snowflake Serenade Clear Stamps

Hey!

Welcome to Day 3 of the December 2018 Release product introductions. 

I am so happy you have decided to pop by again. The countdown to the December Release is in full swing and this is the fun part where you get to see the sneak peeks in action. Be sure to catch up and comment on days 1 & 2 HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE. I have a little giveaway each day, see details at the end of the post! 

As December is a super busy time for everyone, it is just me doing the product introductions for this release. Though the Uniko DT will be joining me on Release Day for our traditional blog hop :)

Anyway, let's have a look at another new product Snowflake Serenade clear stamp set. This stamp set plays on the wintery side of the season, making it versatile and not just for the Christmas & Holiday period. The clear stamp set features a lovely main large swirling design comprising of snowflakes & holly leaves. There is a trio of sentiments and a trio of accent snowflakes in varying size.

Here's how I have used the stamps for my showcase today...

I've stamped the large swirling design in Encore Silver ink & heat embossed it in Stardust EP for added sparkle. I changed the orientation of the stamp, repeating the above to fill in other sections of my card layer.

I used one of the sentiments from the set & decided to embellish the design with the smallest  die cut snowflake from Designer Dies Snowflake Trio. I've die cut this from a silver shimmer card stock scrap I had in my stash.

Just the one card from me today using this set, I was thrown off track mid week with hubby being involved in a little car accident. He managed to stop his car from hitting the one in front, but was then hit from behind, squishing our car into the one in front. He's fine apart from a gash to his head and a few aches and pains. Though I spent the majority of the afternoon in A&E with him to get him checked over. AND crazily I plan a release for the day after a little family weekend away!!

Anyway, as it is the season of giving, each day of the introductions I will be randomly selecting one lucky comment from either this blog post, the Uniko website blog post, Facebook or Instagram to receive an eGift Certificate code to the value of £10! So be sure to leave a lovely comment ;) Winners will be announced on Tuesday 11th December before the release!

Winners will be announced on Tuesday 11th December before the release!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Hugs

Introducing... Wonderful Day Clear Stamp Set

Hey!

Welcome to Day 2 of the December 2018 Release product introductions. 

I am so happy you have decided to pop by again. The countdown to the December Release is in full swing and this is the fun part where you get to see the sneak peeks I shared HERE in action on cards & projects. 

Yesterday I introduced 2 NEW Uniko Stencils called In The Forest and Let it Snow. You can catch up HERE and HERE. 

As December is a super busy time for everyone, it is just me doing the product introductions for this release. Though the Uniko DT will be joining me on Release Day for our traditional blog hop :)

Anyway, let's have a look at the second product and new clear stamp set called Wonderful Day. This new clear stamp set is a fun modern & trendy floral building set. It features both solid & outline stamps, leaves, foliage and 4 lovely sentiments.

I've packed nearly all of the images contained in the set on this bright & cheerful one layer card! The main bloom (yellow) and bloom detail stamps (orange) can be used as 2 step stamps and lined up perfectly. However, I wanted to have a more quirky design and have the layers offset. 

I used Altenew Fresh Lemon, Orange Cream & Olive inks. Then pairing Dandelion Yellow and Ripened Pumpkin Gloss Crystal Nuvo Drops to create the coloured dots & centre of the flowers. I'm still getting to grips with my new photo/lighting, so there is a bit f a reflection/shine to the Nuvo Drops (sorry!). 

I have another one layer card to share, which is a CASE of the lovely Deepti. You can check out Deepti's card HERE on Instagram and over HERE on Deepti's blog.

I was so inspired by Deepti's layout and 'quick' colour adding technique that I had to give it a go and the Wonderful Day clear stamps seemed the perfect fit too! 

The squares of colour were created by simply stamping the mini ink cubes directly to my card. Such a fun thing to do and each time they come out slightly different depending on the pressure you apply.  The colours I used were Aqualicious, Coral Berry & Warm Sunshine.

For the floral design I have used the flower outline images and added in leaves and foliage. I've also used another of the sentiments contained in the set.

That's all I am sharing here today using this new floral set, however I do have one more card to share over HERE ;)

As it is the season of giving, each day of the introductions I will be randomly selecting one lucky comment from either this blog post, the Uniko website blog post, Facebook or Instagram to receive an eGift Certificate code to the value of £10! So be sure to leave a lovely comment ;) Winners will be announced on Tuesday 11th December before the release!

Winners will be announced on Tuesday 11th December before the release!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Hugs

Introducing... Uniko Stencils - In The Forest and Let it Snow

Hey!

Welcome to Day 1 of the December 2018 Release product introductions. 

This is the fun part where you get to see the sneak peeks I shared yesterday in action on cards & projects. 

As December is a super busy time for everyone, it is just me doing the product introductions for this release. Though the Uniko DT will be joining me on Release Day for our traditional blog hop :)

Anyway, let's have a look at this first 2 product and new Uniko Stencil additions, In The Forest and Let it Snow.

To create the card I am sharing here today, I decided to combine both the stencils. I wanted the card to have a wintery rustic feel with a Scandinavian influence. I kept to a classic black, white and kraft colour combo too...

I used some slightly textured black paper and white stencil medium for my 'Let it Snow' background. I still need a bit of practice with this glossy stencil medium, but it really does give lovely results.

To create the little trio of trees, I masked off all of the stencil apart from the trees I wanted to use. I started with the middle tree and then did the trees either side. I simply used VersaFine Onyx Black ink through my stencil for them.

The panel was matted with white & then adhered to the card using foam adhesive. I poked 2 little holes through my card to the lower left of my focal image and threaded some linen thread & a jingle bell, tying it in a simple bow.

That's all I am sharing here today, but over HERE on the website blog I have a couple more bonus makes to share with you using these stencils ;)

As it is the season of giving, each day of the introductions I will be randomly selecting one lucky comment from either this blog post, the Uniko website blog post, Facebook or Instagram to receive an eGift Certificate code to the value of £10! So be sure to leave a lovely comment ;) Winners will be announced on Tuesday 11th December before the release!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Hugs