Uniko - Super Sunday Guest Designer Spot

Good morning, everyone

Today I'm super excited as I'm being featured in Uniko's Super Sunday Guest Designer Spot.  I was so honoured when I received the invitation from the lovely Bev and I've had great fun creating with lots of my Uniko stamps.

This post is a bit photo heavy as I got a bit carried away and created quite a few cards, once I started I couldn't stop!  I've centred all these cards around Uniko's current themes of love, kindness and friendship, I hope you like them.

Card #1

For this first sweet card I combined stamps from Uniko's Background Builders Classics and Simply Said sets...

I die cut a heart window first in my upper panel and then marked the area on the card base that would show through the aperture, masked it off then stamped the various border designs in varying shades of pink.  The sentiment was heat embossed in white to show through the raised panel.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Background Builders Classics, Simply Said
• Dies: Xcut - Heart Nesting Dies; Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles
• Ink: Altenew - Frosty Pink, Coral Berry, Ruby Red, Grapevine; VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Brutus Monroe - Alabaster White

Cards #2 and #3

For these two love themed cards I used the Scattered Polka Hearts background stamp and sentiments from the You Are…Sentiments Outlined set...

For this first one I heat embossed the background hearts in white and used emboss resist to blend over the top with Distress Oxides in a diagonal gradient.  I then used a vellum wrap with the sentiment heat embossed in white.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Scattered Polka Hearts, You Are...Sentiments Outlined
• Ink: Distress Oxide - Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry, Festive Berries; VersaMark
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles
• Embossing Powder: Brutus Monroe - Alabaster White
• Vellum from stash

And an alternative using the same stamp sets...

This one is a similar design but in reverse.  I used my MISTI to stamp the polka hearts multiple times, creating a gradient of pale to deep pink.  Here I heat embossed the sentiment on a die cut heart from black cardstock and popped it up on 3D foam.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Scattered Polka Hearts, You Are...Sentiments Outlined
• Dies: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles; Xcut - Heart Nesting Dies
• Ink: Altenew - Frosty Pink, Coral Berry, Ruby Red; VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Brutus Monroe - Alabaster White

Card #4

My next make used the gorgeous Bee Happy stamp set...

I adhered some honeycomb/hexagon patterned paper to the lower half of my card base and then die cut an angled stitched edge from my upper panel.  This was then stamped in black, grey and honey shades using various stamps all from the same set, with a little Copic colouring on the bee.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Bee Happy
• Ink: Altenew - Sunkissed; Hero Arts - Soft Granite; Memento - Tuxedo Black
• Die: MFT Die-namics - Stitched Basic Edges
• Patterned Paper - Doodlebug - Kraft in Color (kraft)

Card #5

This selection of Uniko creations wouldn’t be complete without using one of the Flower Power sets, and here I’ve combined blooms from Flower Power #2 with leaves from Natures Treasures II and the sentiment from Hello Lovely...

I used really bright summer colours here, started with the leaves and then stamped and die cut the flowers, using their co-ordinating dies, before adhering them in a cluster on glue dots.  The stamped sentiment and some vertical score lines finished off this one layer card.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Flower Power #2 (and companion dies), Natures Treasures II, Hello Lovely
• Ink: Altenew - Pinkalicious, Orange Cream, Maple Yellow, Parrot; Versafine - Onyx Black

Card #6

I chose stamps from Just Because, Beautiful and Hello Lovely for this friend card...

On a pale green panel I stamped the same image in different orientations both in green and also heat embossed in white.  The sentiment was heat embossed on a green strip and a further smaller strip adhered on 3D foam.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Just Because, Beautiful, Hello Lovely
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles
• Ink: Altenew - Frayed Leaf; VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Brutus Monroe - Alabaster White

Card #7

It wasn’t until I was making these that I realised how much the flower stem from the You Are, Yes You set resembled the flower in my blog logo!  I combined it here with the Background Builders Pinstripe II stamp and the sentiment from Originally Organic Additions.  I also thought I'd work with my blog colours too...

I stamped the flower in a pale ink before colouring with Copics and then masking it to stamp the pinstripes.  With the stem stamp still in my MISTI, I then restamped it over the original image before heat embossing in white. 

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - You Are Yes You, Background Blocks Pinstripe II, Originally Organic Additions
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles
• Ink: Memento - London Fog; Altenew - Mountain Mist; VersaMark; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Embossing Powder: Brutus Monroe - Alabaster White
• Coloured with Copic markers

I'm linking up with the following challenges:

Card #1

Sweet Stampin' - Love

NBUS - Challenge #22 - both stamp sets are new to my stash for this GD spot

Card #2

Alphabet Challenge - V is for Vellum

Card #7

Just Us Girls - Challenge #569 - Masking

Fusion - Flowers (using the inspiration photo)

Thanks so much for taking a look at my cards today and I hope they have given you some crafty inspiration.

And many thanks to Bev for thinking of me and for providing this Guest Designer spot.  I thoroughly enjoyed making all of these.

Less is More Challenge #435

Good morning

It's Saturday and time for another new challenge over at Less is More.  This time we have a Recipe challenge for you.  So as always, just follow the CAS guidelines and follow the theme which is...

We have a wonderful Guest Designer joining us for this challenge, Caroline Paton of KISS - Keep It Sweet and Simple, who was our November challenge winner.  She has made a really cute 'In a Row' card so please do take a look and say hi.

Ok, on to my card and I've used a die to create my row, one that's been in my stash for some time but so far unused...

Although this looks super simple it did take a bit of time to create as it was quite fiddly.  I die cut the row of flowers, keeping the flower centres off to one side, and left a wide section below to stamp the sentiment.  I then coloured all the flowers with Copics, together with those little yellow centres.  Once trimmed to the exact width of my card base I added a wide strip of 3D foam behind the sentiment section and then individual tiny pieces of 3D foam behind each flower head.  I adhered the strip to my card base and the sticky sections which showed through the blue flowers then allowed me to adhere the yellow centres back in place.

Materials used:

• Die: Lawn Fawn -Straight Flower Border
• Stamp: Altenew - Happy Mail
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Coloured with Copic markers

Challenge entries:

AAA Cards - CAS Game #181 - Up to One Third

Happy Little Stampers - January Anything Goes with Dies challenge

NBUS - Challenge #22 - first use of this die

As always, the challenge will be running for the next fortnight, so there's plenty of time to get your entries in.

Perfectly CAS January 2021 Challenge

Good evening

I'm here to share the details of the new challenge over at Perfectly CAS.  After a six month break it's full steam ahead, the challenges being for clean and simple cards using just one third or less of the design space.  

And the January challenge has lots of scope for you, here's the cue card...

I decided on some background stencilling and some simple stamping, and wanted to put one of my new stencils to use.  I didn't receive any crafty things this Christmas so I thought I'd treat myself instead!

This was super simple.  I blended through the stencil fading up from the bottom corner.  The leaves were stamped in dark grey and the flower head in two tones of grey.  The sentiments were stamped in black and I finished with some teeny clear gemstones.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Funky Fossil - Scattered Straws
• Stamps: Mama Elephant - Brushed Florals, Altenew - Thinking of You
• Ink: Distress Ink - Shabby Shutters; Altenew - Pure Graphite, Industrial Diamond; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Gemstones from stash 

Challenge entries:

AAA Cards - CAS Game #181 - Up to one third

Just Us Girls - Trend week #566 - Use a Stencil

Happy Little Stampers - January Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes

Make My Monday - Challenge #139 - Something New in your Stash (stencil)

Use Your Stuff - Challenge #413 - All About the New (new stencil)

NBUS - Challenge #22 - new stencil

Moving Along with the Times - Challenge #126 - New (stencil)

STAMPlorations - January Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes

Stencils are fast becoming one of my favourite tools to use on my cards so I'm looking forward to seeing your stencilled CAS cards in the gallery this month :)

Less is More Challenge #434

Hi there

After the challenge took a break throughout December, it's now time for the first Less is More challenge of 2021.  Our Theme challenge for the next fortnight is...

We have the super talented Heather joining us as Guest Designer for this challenge, who was our October challenge winner.  Please do pop over to her blog to take a look at her project for this challenge and to say hi.

Upon searching through my stash I realised I have very little to fit this theme, so perhaps I need to treat myself to some new goodies!  I had nothing crafty for Christmas so that makes it ok, right?

So, I decided to go with the accessories part of the theme, and something that is very appropriate for the freezing cold weather we are having in the UK at the moment:

As with most of my cards these days, I began with a stitched die cut rectangle.  I used the stamps from the set to build the focal image and then re-stamped on post-its before cutting out to use as masks.  I then blended through a stencil to create the knitted pattern to surround it.  Next I coloured the image with Copics before stamping the sentiment and adhering the panel onto the card base using fun foam.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Concord & 9th - Winter Wear
• Stencil: Skull and Cross Buns - Knitting Pattern
• Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black; Distress Ink - Cracked Pistachio; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Coloured with Copic markers
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles

Challenge entries:

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #396 - Make Your Mark

STAMPlorations - January CAS Challenge - Anything CAS goes

Just Us Girls - Trend Week #566 - Use a Stencil

It's great to have lots of challenges up and running again for the new year so I'm hoping you'll join me and the LIM Design Team for this one.

Happy Little Stampers January 2021 CAS Challenge

Good evening

After a six month break, the Happy Little Stampers challenges are up and running again.  That time has absolutely flown by!  And today it's the turn of the CAS challenge, so here's this month's cue card...

After so many festive makes it was lovely to make something with a completely different theme...

This was a pretty simple make.  I die cut the upper panel and the rest is purely stamped, absolutely no masking involved.  The little flower I added on the flamingo was an outline image so I just coloured that in with a Copic marker.  The panel was adhered on a panel of fun foam.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Let's Flamingo, Flag It, Simply Succulent (flower)
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles
• Ink: Altenew - Cotton Candy, Coral Berry, Ultraviolet, Caribbean Sky, Moss, Dark Chocolate, Volcano Lake; Memento - Tuxedo Black

As with all the Happy Little Stampers challenges, the linky will remain open until the end of the month so there's plenty of time to play along.