Uniko Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Rustic Christmas

Good morning!

I'm sharing two cards over at the Uniko blog today, here, and I decided to dig out an "oldie but goodie" stamp set for these, Rustic Christmas.  I just love the perfect little tree in this set so have kept these cards clean and simple so it takes centre stage.

You can find all the information regarding the steps taken to make these cards over on my Uniko post.

First up, I've tried to create a northern lights sky as my backdrop...

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Rustic Christmas
• Ink: Distress Ink - Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, Picked Raspberry, Black Soot, Chipped Sapphire; Versafine Clair - Nocturne; VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Brutus Monroe - Alabaster
• Accents: Sakura - White Gelly Roll 10

My second project is another one layer card, again, super simple...

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Rustic Christmas
• Ink: Versa Color - Magenta, Violet, Turquoise, Evergreen; Versafine Clair - Nocturne
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Clear Gloss
• Accent: Doodlebug - Sprinkles: Graduation Assortment

I hope this gives you some inspiration and encourages you to have a rummage through your stash to see what older stamp sets you have that could be inked up.  Thanks for taking the time to visit and I wish you a lovely Wednesday.

Perfectly CAS November 2021 Challenge

Good evening

The November challenge at Perfectly CAS is just launching and, for those of us in many parts of the world heading into winter, we have a challenge that makes you think of the complete opposite, here's the cue card...

I usually rummage in my craft stash for things like palm trees, pineapples, hibiscus flowers and flamingos for this theme but this time I thought of something completely different and managed to use some products in my stash that haven't yet been inked up.

Here's my card...

I began with a die cut scalloped rectangular panel.  I then laid a brush stroke stencil over the panel, just for positioning purposes, and stamped the fish.  I stamped these again on masking paper and covered the images so I could ink through the stencil with Distress Oxides.  I removed the stencil and masks and coloured the fish using Copics.  I stamped the bubbles and lightened the centres with a white gel pen, then added a few more white 'sparkles' in the water.  To finish I stamped the sentiment and adhered the panel flat to the card base.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Best Fishes
• Stencil: Clearly Besotted - Brush Strokes
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Scalloped Rectangles
• Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black; Distress Oxide - Peacock Feathers, Salvaged Patina, Mermaid Lagoon; VersaFine Clair - Nocturne
• Coloured with Copics
• Accents: Sakura Gelly Roll Pen - White 0.8

Challenge entries:

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #418 - Birthday

STAMPlorations - November Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes

NBUS - Challenge #32 - first use of stamps and stencil

Happy Little Stampers - November Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes

I'm absolutely loving this brush stroke stencil so I can that one getting a lot more use in the future.  The challenge link will close a few days prior to the December challenge so there's almost a month to play along.  I hope you can join us for this one.

CAS(E) this Sketch! Guest Designer!

Hi there

I'm absolutely thrilled to be joining the fantastic CAS(E) this Sketch! team this week as a Guest Designer.  When Chrissy invited me I was so excited, how could I refuse?  This is such a well loved challenge so I'm delighted to be part of it.

So, I won't waffle on any longer, here is this week's sketch to get the brain cogs going...

And here is my card...

I began by drawing a faint pencil line around a circular die onto the card base.  I then stamped the three baubles.  The tops of the baubles are also stamps and I drew the strings using a silver gel pen and a ruler.  Next I die cut five each of two different leaf dies from white cardstock.  I then laid these down on some scrap paper and sprayed them with Cosmic Shimmer Mist and left them to dry overnight.  Then came the fiddly bit!  I arranged the first leaf dies evenly around the circle and once in position began sticking these down with Tombow liquid glue, just on the first four or so leaves so the uppermost part remained unstuck, erasing the pencil lines as I worked my way around.  I then adhered the remaining fern leaf dies in between, adhering under and over the previous die cuts, all following the same direction.  I stamped the bold sentiment in silver ink and the finishing touch was some Glossy Accents on the baubles.  I love the shimmer and shine on this card, the pearl shimmer of the wreath just adds that little something to the white on white.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Card-io Majestix - Dotty Snowflakes; Clearly Besotted - Holiday Sentiments
• Ink: Versa Color - Orchid, Seafoam, Sky Blue, Silver
• Pen: Sakura Gelly Roll - Silver
• Dies: Britannia Dies - Leaf Strip and Fern Strip
• Accents: Cosmic Shimmer Mist - Pearl; Glossy Accents

Challenge entries:

Inkspirational - Challenge #69 - Word prompt 'Shine'

Dream Valley - Challenge #95 - Anything Goes

Love to Create - Challenge #142 - Make it for Christmas

613 Avenue Create - Challenge #98 - Anything Goes

I can't wait to see what the rest of the Design Team were inspired to create from this sketch, their cards and the challenge details can be found at the CAS(E) this Sketch challenge blog, here.  

I seem to have been on a little Guest Designer sprint this week and you're probably sick of seeing me popping up here and there in blogland!  But I've had a great time joining in with these fabulous teams.  The craft blogging community is such a wonderful place to be, don't you think?

That's all for the moment, bye for now...