Uniko February/March 2023 Release - Introducing...Hoppy Easter and Everyday Spring Sentiments

Good morning

More today using stamps from the upcoming release from Uniko.

Today, the team are showcasing two new sets...Hoppy Easter and Everyday Spring Sentiments.  Hoppy Easter is a cute set with, you've guessed it, the Easter bunny, with an outline and solid image.  And the sentiment set has lots of great Spring themed words using the font which features in many of Bev's already popular sets.

Here's my first card using the Hoppy Easter set...

I stamped the outline image of the bunny, along with the facial features, directly onto the card base and coloured him in using Copics.  I then die cut an oval aperture from some gingham patterned paper and adhered it over the card base so his face was peeping through.  The sentiment stamped in black finished the card.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Hoppy Easter
• Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black
• Coloured with Copics
• Die: Lil' Inker Designs - Stitched Ovals
• Patterned Paper: Docrafts - Boofle

And for my second card I used the solid bunny image, along with some of the words from the Everyday Spring Sentiments set...

I stamped the solid bunny in a sandy brown shade and die cut him out with an oval stitched die.  I then sprinkled on some chunky embossing enamel to create the tail, heating from below so as not to blow the powder out of position.  Flock or a cotton ball would have been better for the dimension I was after but this bunny will have to make do with a shiny tail! :D 

To create the sentiment strips I used masking tape and ink blended the pink and yellow strips, before then stamping a selection of the sentiments in black.

Materials used:

• Stamp: Uniko - Hoppy Easter, Everyday Spring Sentiments
• Ink: Altenew - Sand Dunes, Buttermilk, Frosty Pink; Versafine Clair - Nocturne
• Embossing Enamel: Stampendous - Chunky White Deep Impressions
• Die: Lil' Inker Designs - Stitched Ovals

Don't forget to pop over to the main Uniko blog, here, to see more card examples from the team.

The new products will be available to purchase from the Uniko website from 4 March at 9.00am GMT.

I'll be back with more introductions tomorrow.  Enjoy your day! 

Clouds and Rainbows Bookmarks

Hi there

I've been busy making more bookmarks this weekend.  This little collection I started yesterday and the first few took me a little time to make while I figured out the best way to put them together.  I then continued with a few more today and those came together a little quicker.

They all follow the same basic design, but all differ slightly in the placement of the stencilling and die cuts, have different designs on the reverse and I've added a selection of ribbons and twine.

For each I began by inking up the cloudy backgrounds using a stencil.  I then die cut the rainbow from six different pastel shades of textured paper, and put these all together in different sequences of rainbow order. I adhered the rainbow strips in different positions on the backgrounds and die cut the tall tag to create the base of each bookmark.  I then partially die cut more tags, just using the bottom half and used cloud dies to cut different variations which were then layered up on the base of each bookmark.  I die cut more tall tags from different patterned papers and adhered these to the back.  Each was finished with grosgrain ribbon and some twine.

The next three were the ones which I made today and I changed up the backgrounds by stencilling the clouds in different pastel shades, and placing the rainbows lower down to show more of the background.

Materials used:

• Dies: MFT Die-namics - Tall Tags Duo, Stitched Rainbow; Lawn Fawn - Puffy Cloud Borders
• Stencil: MFT - Cloud
• Ink: Distress Ink - Tumbled Glass, Shaded Lilac, Spun Sugar
• Coloured Cardstock: Papermania
• Patterned Paper: DoCrafts - Designstax: Boofle
• Accents: Grosgrain Ribbon - American Crafts; Twine - Doodlebug

Thanks so much for looking.  I'm having great fun making these bookmarks, I hope you like them.  

Merry Mouse

Hi guys

Sharing another Christmas make with you today.

These stamps are from two Clearly Besotted sets I had yet to ink up, and they work brilliantly together.

I began by stamping and masking the mouse image on Strathmore Bristol cardstock, then stamped the fireplace before watercolouring with my Zig markers.  To add a little interest to the card base I stamped and heat embossed the outline snowflakes with a pearl embossing powder.  The panel was die cut with a stitched rectangle and mounted on fun foam.  To finish I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in white on a strip of black cardstock.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Cosy Christmas, Merry Mouse; Docrafts - Snowflakes
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black; VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White, White Pearl
• Coloured with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles

Challenge entries:

Cards in Envy - Hang Your Stocking with Care Card Challenge

Sweet Stampin' - Anything Christmas / Last Minute Christmas Cards

It's work for me tomorrow but hopefully I'll have time for another post before the big day.

Clearly Besotted June Release Teasers: Flutter By Me & Brushed Sentiments - Guest Designer!

Good morning!

And welcome to the final day of teasers ahead of the Clearly Besotted June Release!

I have two more cards for you today, using two more new A6 stamp sets.

And if you love butterflies you're going to adore Flutter By Me.  The images in this set are so pretty and quite different to a lot of butterfly sets I've seen before...

I masked a white cardstock panel to create a horizontal strip and blended with Distress Oxide inks in Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet and Mermaid Lagoon before splattering with water droplets and blotting with a paper towel.  Once completely dry I stamped the butterflies in Versafine Onyx Black ink, and also the sentiment which is from this new set.  The panel was then popped up on 3D foam and to finish I added some silver Doodlebug Sprinkles.

Challenge entry:

Allsorts Challenge - Week 469 - Insects, Bugs, Bees and Butterflies
Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #294 - Clean and Simple





I couldn't stop at one card using these beautiful butterflies so I made another, and this one also uses a sentiment from another new A6 set called Brushed Sentiments, a fabulous mix of greetings and sentiments in lovely mixed fonts.

And I waited until today to share this card as it has hopefully made its way to Canada to the lovely Trina, my teamie at Less is More, who is celebrating her birthday today.  Happy Birthday, Trina! x

You'll be forgiven if you think I've become an awesome watercolour artist, but this is in fact a fabulous sheet of patterned paper from DoCrafts Papermania capsule collection called Elements Pigment.  I stamped the butterfly in VersaMark ink over the patterned paper and heat embossed it in white using Altenew Pure White embossing powder, and I paired it with a leaf image from another CBS set called, Magnolia Blooms, currently half price in the clearance sale.  I thought these images worked really well together.  The paper was die cut using a Wonky Stitched Rectangle die by MFT and popped up on 3D foam.  I then finished by heat embossing the sentiment in white onto a strip of black cardstock.

Challenge entries:

AAA Cards - CAS Game #116 - The 4th Big Birthday Bash
CAS-ual Fridays - Challenge #200 - 8th Birthday Celebration
Seize the Birthday - Patterned Paper




So there you have it, I think you'll agree that this is a fabulous release.  And if you're anything like me you're purses will be a little lighter after tomorrow evening!  The release will be available to purchase from 8pm BST on 1 June 2018 from the Clearly Besotted store, here, and from Simon Says Stamp.

Please following the link to the Clearly Besotted blog, here, where the full release will be shared, and also to catch up with the awesome Design Team who have been sharing lots of teasers.

All that remains is for me to say a massive THANK YOU to Jenny and Stephanie for inviting me to Guest Design using these fabulous products, I've had a ball :) xx

Watercoloured Snowman

Good afternoon

Back today to share another card I made last month whilst staying with Sarah up north.  This snowman stamp was an absolute bargain from The Works.  It was £1...and also buy one get one free!  So he, along with another little Christmas stamp obviously fell straight into my basket!

I stamped the image on watercolour cardstock in VersaMark before heat embossing in white.  I then watercoloured him using my Derwent Inktense pencils.  I used a stitched rectangle die to cut him out, and mounted it on a larger rectangle cut from the same stack.  Before mounting I added some score lines to my card base to add a detailed frame, then adhered the panels with a sentiment flag underneath.

Materials used:

• Stamps: DoCrafts - Mini Clear Stamp: Christmas Assortment; Happy Little Stampers - Mixed Christmas Sentiments
• Ink: VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Wow - Opaque Bright White
• Dies: MFT Die-namics - Stitched Rectangle Stax; Stitched Sentiment Strips 
• Coloured with Derwent Inktense pencils

Challenge entries:

Creative Inspirations - Challenge #284 - Winter/Christmas

Christmas Cards All Year Round - December Challenge - Anything Goes

Uniko - Challenge #44 - Christmas

I'm just sorting through photos of cards I've not yet shared so I'll be back with more very soon :)