Uniko 14th Birthday February 2026 Release - Introducing...Background Blocks My Favourite Colour is Rainbow

Hi there

I have another introduction from the upcoming Uniko release for you.

Today the team are showcasing another new Background Blocks addition...Background Blocks My Favourite Colour is Rainbow.

I kept this one super simple...

I simply stamped and heat embossed the sentiment and images from the stamp set and heat embossed in white, before letting the emboss resist technique do its magic, blending four shades of Distress Oxide to create the six rainbow shades.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Backgound Blocks - My Favourite Colour is Rainbow
• Ink: VersaMark; Distress Oxide - Squeezed Lemonade, Tumbled Glass, Kitsch Flamingo, Festive Berries
• Embossing Powder: Brutus Monroe - Alabaster

The team are sharing lots of products showcasing this new stamp set today, which you can find over on the Uniko blog, here.  I'll be back tomorrow to introduce the final stencil set of this release.

All the new products will be available from Saturday 28 February 2026 at 9am GMT.

Thanks so much for visiting today.

Uniko Christmas in July 2025 - Introducing...Background Blocks Merry Christmas Scramble

Hi there

Back for day two of the new release introductions from Uniko and today it's a fun new addition to the Background Blocks collection...Background Blocks Merry Christmas Scramble.

Here's my first card and I chose the emboss resist technique...

I began by inking up the image in VersaMark and then heat embossing in white.  I then ink blended the background using three shades of Distress Oxide ink to create a frosty vibe.  To add a snowy feel I splattered with some water droplets and then blotted with a paper towel which lifted away the colour.  I used a stitched rectangle to die cut from the inked panel and then adhered this flat to my card base.

Materials used:

• Stamp: Uniko - Background Blocks Merry Christmas Scramble
• Ink: VersaMark; Distress Oxide - Salvaged Patina, Peacock Feathers, Mermaid Lagoon
• Embossing Powder: Brutus Monroe - Alabaster White
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles

And now my second card, I embossed it again but this time in gold...

I stamped and heat embossed the image in gold in the top left corner of my card base.  I then ink blended down from the corner using two shades of Distress Ink, fading it out.  I'm not entirely happy with this one.  I ran out of my white cardstock and couldn't find the same brand again.  This new pack I bought is a lovely weight but obviously not as smooth as you can see from the ink blending.  It's great when using Oxides but not such a great result with dye inks.  I'll have to continue my hunt for A4 cardstock which is great for ink blending and Copic colouring!

Materials used:

• Stamp: Uniko - Background Blocks Merry Christmas Scramble
• Ink: VersaMark; Distress Ink - Candied Apple, Aged Mahogany
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Gold Rich

Don't forget to check out the Uniko blog, here where my fellow Brand Ambassadors are sharing their fabulous makes.  You'll find so much more inspiration there.  I'll be back tomorrow to introduce more from the release - in fact it's two new products tomorrow!

All the new products will be available from Thursday 31 July 2025.

Thanks for visiting.

Uniko Christmas in July Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Scandinavian Christmas

Hi guys

I'm over on the Uniko blog today with some Christmas in July inspiration using two Scandinavian Christmas products.  I have included full details of how these were made over on the Uniko post, here.

The two products I have showcased are the Background Blocks Scandinavian Christmas clear stamp and the Scandinavian Christmas stencil.  

I have three cards for you with very different looks.  

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Background Blocks Scandinavian Christmas, Pattern Building Christmas Tree
• Ink: Altenew - Winter Lake; coloured with Copic markers

And another using the stamp...

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Background Blocks Scandinavian Christmas, Festive Sentiments
• Ink: Altenew - Crimson, Nimbus; VersaMark; Versafine Clair - Nocturne
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Clear Gloss
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles

For my final card I used the Scandinavian Christmas stencil...

Materials used:

• Stencil: Uniko - Scandinavian Christmas
• Stamp: Uniko - Pattern Building Christmas Tree
• Ink: Distress Oxide - Candied Apple; VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles; Lil Inker - Stitched Ovals
• Accents: Signo Uniball pen - white

I hope you're enjoying Christmas in July this month, there's still lots more to come from Bev and the team.

Thanks for visiting today - happy crafting!

Take care

Uniko March 2024 Non-Release Brand Ambassador Blog Hop and Giveaway!

Hi there

It's time for another Non-Release Brand Ambassador Blog Hop and Giveaway at Uniko.  On non-release months the team revisit previously released products and give them some well-deserved love.  For this month, we are revisiting the gorgeous stamp sets in the Spring Botanicals series.

I have two cards for you today, both were made for Mother's Day, which was yesterday in the UK.  They are both very similar in design but I've used different techniques on each.

First up I've used the beautiful Spring Botanicals Daffodil stamp set...

I stamped the daffodil directly on the card base and then stamped and cut out a mask.  As well as covering up the daffodil, I also masked off the bottom right corner with low tack tape.  I then ink blended the background in three shades of Distress Oxide Ink and then sprinkled some water drops and blotted to remove the colour.  The sentiments were heat embossed in white on some black cardstock and these were adhered on 3D foam.  To finish I added some scattered clear gems.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Spring Botanicals Daffodil
• Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black; Distress Oxide - Rustic Wilderness, Squeezed Lemonade, Dried Marigold; VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opague Bright White
• Clear gems from stash

For my second card I used emboss resist with Spring Botanicals Snowdrop and the sentiment is from the Simply Said stamp set...

On a die cut panel I stamped the snowdrops in VersaMark ink and heat embossed in white.  I then blended up from the bottom corner using two shades of Distress Oxide.  I then "painted" the snowdrops with water and blotted with kitchen paper to remove the ink.  I stamped the sentiment in black and adhered the panel flat to the card base.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Spring Botanicals Snowdrop, Simply Said
• Ink: VersaMark; Distress Oxide - Speckled Egg, Shabby Shutters; Versafine Clair - Nocturne
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opague Bright White
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Scalloped Rectangles

Here are all the Spring Botanicals stamp sets in their entirety...

Bev is offering  a prize to one lucky comment left along the hop. Simply leave comments along the hop before midnight GMT on Monday 18 March 2024 and the winner will receive a £15 eGift Code to spend in the store!

Don't forget to take a look at the main Uniko post, here, where the rest of the team are sharing their projects.  For ease you can hop along to all the Brand Ambassadors as follows:

Anita (that's me!)

Bev

Izzy

Julie

Steph

Vinita

Uniko also has some March Madness for you...

Check out the store, here, to pick up some bargains.  Thanks for taking the time to visit today :)

 

Uniko Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Autumn Vibes

Hi there

I'm over on the Uniko blog today, here, with a trio of cards with an autumnal theme.  I've used the same little batch of ink colours on all of these cards.

You can find a step by step description of each make over on the Uniko blog post.

First up, I've used one of the Background Blocks stamp sets, Layered Modern Floral...

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Background Blocks Layered Modern Floral, Simply Said
• Ink: Altenew - Sunkissed, Orange Cream, Autumn Blaze, Sea Forest, Marshland, Espresso
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Scalloped Rectangles

My second project is a one layer card using the Beautiful Blooms III stamp set...

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Beautiful Blooms III, Organic Wishes
• Ink: Altenew - Fired Brick, Autumn Blaze, Orange Cream, Sunkissed, Mangrove Root, Sea Forest, Marshland, Espresso

And for my final card, I've revisited a layout/design I used to use a lot, using the Organic Wishes set...

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Organic Wishes
• Ink: VersaMark; Altenew - Sunkissed, Autumn Blaze, Sea Forest, Mangrove Root; Versafine Clair - Fallen Leaves
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles

Thanks for taking a look, have a lovely Wednesday!

 

Perfectly CAS October 2021 Challenge

Good evening

We're well into October now so it's time for a new challenge over at Perfectly CAS.  This challenge is all about keeping your cards truly clean and simple and limiting your design to one third or less of the overall surface.  Here's this month's cue card...

I decided to step away from flowers for this one and used a feather from a set that's been around for a long time but one that I haven't yet inked up...

It's been a while since I used the emboss resist technique and that's pretty much all that is involved here.  I used some anti-static powder before stamping the feather and sentiment in VersaMark and then heat embossed them in white.  I then used some large post-it notes to mask off the top and side of the card and ink blended, first in Salvaged Patina, fading it out just far enough to cover the sentiment, and then I added some Peacock Feathers to darken up the top corner.  

Despite using anti-static powder to avoid stray bits of embossing powder, a few stray bits did blow off the feather when using my heat gun.  It's advisable to use your heat gun on the underside when doing emboss resist to avoid this...shame I didn't remember that on this occasion!  No worries though, I'm still happy with it.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Tickle My Fancy; Altenew - Wildflower Garden (sentiment)
• Ink: VersaMark; Distress Oxide - Salvaged Patina, Peacock Feathers
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White

Challenge entries:

NBUS - Challenge #31 - First use of the feather stamp set

STAMPlorations - October CAS Challenge - Anything Goes (Optional: Ombre)

Thanks for taking a look.  Sympathy cards are never easy to make when needed, so why not use this challenge as a chance to make one to keep on hand.

Honey Doo Crafts - October 2019 Release - Selection Four

Hi guys

I'm back a little earlier than I was last night!  In this post you'll find my final few cards made using products from the latest release at Honey Doo Crafts.

All the stamps and stencils from this release are already available to buy from the store, but if you want to see more of them they will be showcased on Hochanda tomorrow, Thursday 24 October at 12pm and 4pm (Sky 673, Freeview 85).  If you can't catch the live shows, they will be available on catch up at Hochanda's website.


Ok, so another of the new stamps is called Floral Turn Around and I've paired this with a sentiment from an existing set called Just in Case...

On a panel of white cardstock I stamped and heat embossed the floral flourish image in gold.  I then blended over in three shades of Distress Ink, with the lighter of the warm tones in the centre.  I then 'painted' the flowers with water and blotted to lift the colour away.  I adhered the panel flat to the card, embossed the sentiment also in gold and blended the sentiment strip in the same way.  This was adhered on 3D foam before finishing off the card with some enamel dots.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Honey Doo Crafts - Floral Turn Around, Just In Case
• Ink: VersaMark; Distress Ink - Ripe Persimmon, Carved Pumpkin, Squeezed Lemonade
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Gold Rich
• Enamel dots from stash

Challenge entries:

Allsorts - Challenge #542 - Add Something Gold and/or Silver

STAMPlorations - October CAS Card Challenge

Next up is another new set called Flower Burst, I've used the New Job set for the sentiment and also used the new Tartan stencil for the background...

I blended the whole of a white cardstock panel with Milled Lavender Distress Ink before laying over the Tartan stencil and inking through with Seedless Preserves.  I stamped the flowers, leaving the stamps in place in my MISTI, coloured them with ProMarkers then re-inked them before heat embossing in white.  These were then fussy cut, along with the leaves which were heat embossed on vellum.  After layering and adhering in a cluster I stamped the sentiment on a fishtail sentiment strip and slotted this underneath one flower to finish.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Honey Doo Crafts - Tartan
• Stamps: Honey Doo Crafts - Flower Burst, New Job
• Ink: Distress Ink - Milled Lavender, Seedless Preserves; VersaMark; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White
• Die: MFT Die-namics - Fishtail Flag Stax
• Coloured with ProMarkers
• Vellum from stash

Challenge entries:

Dream Valley - Challenge #212 - Add a Sentiment

The Flower Challenge - Challenge #37 - CAS

STAMPlorations - October Stencil Challenge

And finally, I've used the Flower Burst set here again, with the new Retirement set and new Grate stencil...

I ink blended through the Grate stencil onto some blue cardstock and die cut with a stitched rectangle.  I then stamped and heat embossed the flowers and the sentiment in white.  I added some white to the petals with a white coloured pencil to make them pop from the background and adhered the panel on fun foam.  Some enamel dots were then added to the flower centres.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Honey Doo Crafts - Grate
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles
• Stamps: Honey Doo Crafts - Flower Burst, Retirement
• Ink: Distress Ink - Shaded Lilac; VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White
• Accents: White Polychromos pencil; enamel dots from stash

Thanks so much for visiting today.  I hope you like the new products as much as I liked making these cards and please do tune in to the shows tomorrow or catch up if you are able.

Have a lovely evening x


(AD - some products kindly gifted for design team purposes)

Less is More Challenge #400

Good morning

It's new challenge day at Less is More and this will be our 400th Challenge!  I can hardly believe that when I became a member of the Design Team I joined for challenge number 225, back in May 2015!  Where on earth has that time gone?

So, let's get straight to it, and this time we have a Recipe challenge for you and it's all about using the little images in your stash...

Skull and Cross Buns continues as our sponsor for July so by playing along you are automatically in with a chance of winning our monthly prize.

Being a member of the Skull and Cross Buns Design Team was perfect for me as the majority of their stamps fit within the challenge criteria this week.  I have four samples for you, all showcasing SACB products.


Here's the first...

You'd be forgiven for thinking I've broken our rules with the dotted banner on this one, but I created this by using a little row of dots from the Planner Banner set, here.  I used my MISTI to ensure consistent placement across the card.  I stamped the little images within a square die cut and coloured with ProMarkers before popping it up onto another slightly larger die cut.  I finished by stamping the sentiment in lilac and added some shimmery sparkle to the bee's wings.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Skull and Cross Buns - Planner Banner, Quirky Sentiments, Spring Motifs
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black; Versa Color - Heliotrope; Memento - Tuxedo Black
• Dies: MFT Die-namics - Pierced Square Stax
• Coloured with ProMarkers
• Accent: Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen - Clear

Challenge entries:

Alphabet Challenge - I is for Insect
CASology - Week 348 - Shimmer

I kept my next card super simple...

This is purely just a stamped sentiment surrounded by lots of other tiny images, all from the same stamp set.  To add some interest I used hammered cardstock for the base, which you can just about make out in the photo below, it was really difficult to capture it...

Materials used:

• Stamps: Skull and Cross Buns - Modern Wedding
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black; Altenew - Coral Berry, Forest Glades, Andromeda, Moon Rock

Challenge entries

STAMPlorations - Summer CAS Card Challenge - Anything CAS Goes
AAA Cards - CAS Game #144 - Maxi White Space

This next card is a CASE of a card I found recently on Pinterest by the super inspiring Donna Mikasa, you can find it on her blog, here.

I used emboss resist on the card base, stamping and heat embossing the images in clear embossing powder then blending over with Distress Oxide inks.  Then just simply adhered an offset panel flat to the base, with the sentiment stamped in black.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Skull and Cross Buns - Crafting is my Super Power
• Ink: VersaMark; Versafine - Onyx Black; Distress Oxide - Squeezed Lemonade, Picked Raspberry, Shaded Lilac
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Clear Gloss

Challenge entries:

Try It On Tuesday - Colours of the Rainbow
STAMPlorations - Summer Theme and Sketch Challenge - Stamps and Anything Goes

And finally...

I began by inking through a sun ray stencil and then stamped the palm tree image in black.  I die cut the scene with a circle die then heat embossed the sentiment in gold.  I sliced a strip away from the front of the card and stamped the tropical leaves along the edge of the inner part.  The die cut was then adhered overhanging the edge.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Clearly Besotted - Sunny Day
• Stamps: Skull and Cross Buns - Tropical Party, Quirky Sentiments
• Ink: Distress Oxide - Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, Abandoned Coral; Versafine - Onyx Black; VersaMark; Altenew - Frayed Leaf, Moss
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Gold Rich
• Die: Hero Arts - Infinity Circles

I think this would be a great opportunity to use the little images in your craft stash so why not join in by linking up to our gallery.  There's a fortnight to enter and you can find lots of inspiration from my teamies over on the main challenge post, here.