Uniko 10th Birthday Celebrations - Featuring Special Guest Keren Baker

 

 

Hello & Happy Wednesday!

Along with so many wonderfully talented Brand Ambassadors over 10 years, Uniko has been honoured to have so many creative Guest Designers, including todays special guest, Keren Baker.

Keren has not only been a guest, helping to introduce our July 2019 release, but has also showcased Uniko products in print for a number of magazines. 

Here's the first card that Keren chose to CASE, it is one of the cards she made during the July 2019 introductions using Originally Organic Additions.

This card still amazes me to this day, I love how creative Keren was in selecting one of the smaller stamps from the set to create this floral bough and framing the sentiment. So much beautiful detail and fussy cutting as the Designer Dies didn't launch at the same time! You can read more about this card HERE.

And here is how this card looks with a awesome geometric twist using Background Builders Happy Hexagons. 

Again, so much wonderful detail and fussy cutting. I love the layers and how Keren has created triangles from one of the large hexagon stamps.

It has been a delight to have Keren join us for this special occasion. Don't forget if you've been inspired by these cards to create your own you can add it to our Linky Party.

Huge thanks for dropping by today. Check back tomorrow for another amazing prize giveway!!!

Crafty Hugs

BA Inspiration - Wonky Stripes Rule!

 Morning all, Julie here with a little bit of Wonky Stripe inspiration! Here are four cards made using the two wonky stripe stamps and the wonky stripe stencil.

My first card was inspired by the challenge at CAS Mix up, where their theme is stencils and rainbow colours and a GD spot over at ATSM where the theme is stencils and die cuts.

I used a selection of DIs to ink my rainbow on an A6 panel of white card through the Wonky Stripe stencil, stamped the die cut Originally Organic Additions elements and coloured them with Copic markers. A couple of strips of linen effect card frame half the stenciled panel. I used scrap pieces of linen effect card and they were just a little too small so added a couple of slivers of gold mirri card to fill the gap. A sentiment from Pure Floral peony was stamped on black and embossed with gold EP, picking up the gold strips.

My second card uses the other half of the inked panel and a fussy cut large peony bloom.

A panel of linen effect card was glued over the stenciled panel and the fussy cut bloom added. I decided to leave the peony uncoloured as I thought it would detract from the rainbow edge. The sentiment is from the same Pure Florals- Peony set.

As with the last card I used a rainbow panel but this time I used the BB Wonky Stripe stamp.

It's difficult to use embossing and Copics without making a mess of your pens, so the trick is to stamp in a pale coloured ink, I used Altenew's Limestone, colour the image and then add the embossing over the top. If you use your Misti, just leave the stamp in place and make sure that you put your stamped panel back exactly where it was before. Don't cut it down until the embossing is complete!

Again as the background was quite lively, I used the simple outline of the small peony bloom from Pure Florals -Peony over my trimmed down panel. The coloured panel and bloom were added to an A6 note card on pads and a sentiment strip stamped with a greeting from the same Peony set completes.

Finally, I just had to use the large gerbera stencil again with the solid BB Solid Wonky Stripes as an accent along the bottom.

After inking the stencil with Mustard Seed and Twisted Citron in the center and Spiced Marmalade DI for the petals, I added detail with a matching Zig watercolour pen and blended the center of the flower with a little more Twisted Citron. The stencil doesn't have a stem, so I added one free hand and coloured it with green Zig pens.  

On a strip of white card, I stamped a couple of times with the BB Solid Wonky Stripes stamp in Altenew's Obsidian ink. My pad is still quite new and juicy so there is a little splatter where it shouldn't be but I think I got away with it! On another A6 note card, I added the stamped panel, then the trimmed down gerbera. 

My sentiment strip is made up from the words from two different sets Beautiful and Bee Happy. Once I got them laid out on my Misti, I stamped a few more to use in other projects, as its quite tricky to get the words lined up. You never know when you'll need a sentiment strip!

And take a deep breath... 

Hope you liked the ideas here, I sort of got carried away with my theme!

Anyway, look after yourselves and keep crafting until next time.

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - florals your way

Hello friends, I am up with a few floral cars using Uniko goodies today.
I had colored these using the Prisamcolor pencils.

These were stamped the flowers from Originally Organic set in the Lawn Fawn Grey ink and the coloring was done using the pencils.
I stamped a bold thank you sentiment from All Occasions set here.
I dabbed the base with pine needle DI to create some interest and added a white strip over that.

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This was stamped the Happy Succulents using the grey ink from Lawn fawn and the color pencils color very well over the grey, I managed to achieve the no line coloring look here. The colored front is added to a white base and a few jewels to finish off the card. The sentiments is from the Pure floral - Peony set.
 I did add a white strip at the bottom to create some interest on this card.

     Thank you for stopping by, I really appreciate your kind feedback. Have a great day!

                                                            

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Originally Organic Additions

Hello! 

Sarah here with my first Brand Ambassador Inspiration post of 2020! 

Firstly, I'd like to wish you all a Very Happy New Year. I hope you've all enjoyed the festive season and ready to move on to a little 'spring time' theme. I certainly am with all the dark and miserable early mornings we're experiencing of late in the UK!

With Spring in mind I'm featuring the beautiful Originally Organic Additions Collection. The set has coordinating dies and easily teams up with lots of other Uniko sets; as I've done here using a sentiment from the Wonderful Day set plus a die-cut butterfly from English Country Garden: Butterfly collection.

For the first one I stamped the 'heart' image directly onto my cardbase using the Misti to line up a second panel to use for the negative die-cut areas of the card and for the image on the second card. The images are coloured using Promarkers with some added detail using Polychromo pencils plus a touch of glamour dust. 

The first card shows the focal 'heart' image slightly off-set and tilted to the left whereas this one has the image straight on the cardbase and popped up on 3d foam. I die-cut the centre section in turquoise cardstock to coordinate with my colour scheme and having heat-embossed the sentiment in-laid it inside the 'heart'

I hope you feel inspired by these ideas. Personally I find this set brilliant for many occasions; due to the 'heart' style image. It works well for weddings, anniversaries, mothers day as well as general birthday / every day cards. Adding the dies into the mix opens up loads more opportunities for shaker cards and other techniques making it super versatile. 

Thanks for calling by and I hope you too have a wonderful day!

DT inspiration, A Stamped, See Through Card

Hi Julie here with a little bit of DT inspiration this Sunday. 

I was inspired to make this card for my daughter's birthday after seeing this video, being on the sick list earlier this year allowed me far too much time to watch You Tube videos! 

She love's butterflies and purple and turquoise colours so that's the route I went down.

Jennifer McGuire calls the technique stamped see through cards as you can literally see through the front panel!

This is how I went about the construction. 

There are a lot of steps but the end result is worth it, I think.

1. Cut a piece of scrap paper to 5 and a half x 7 and a half inches.
2. Using some white card cut a piece 5 x 7 inches and a small top folding card 3 and a quarter x 4 and a half inches.
3. From more of the same white card cut a few of both large and small butterflies from the English Country Garden dies. Retain the outer so that you can use it as a jig to stamp your butterflies more easily, works well especially with a MISTI.
4. Place the die cut outer in your MISTI and then the stamps in the opening, close the door. Open and then place your die cut back into the space and stamp with black ink.
5. Keep stamping until you have sufficient to cover your card front.
6. Repeat the process with the Original Organics Additions stamps and dies. I used two of the large hearts and a few of the single sprays. 
7. Colour as required, I used my Zig watercolour brushes.
8. Arrange your foliage and butterflies over the scrap paper, overlapping as you go. The more overlaps the sturdier your card front will be. Jennifer McGuire uses Gladwrap Press n Seal at this point but not having any, I had to secure with low tack masking tape. Trim away the overhang.
9. Remove scrap paper and secure each overlap with strong glue until you have a complete panel. Remove all tape  and carefully score a line about 1/2 inch from the top. This is your hinge.
10. Trim the panel to be slightly less than 5 inches wide, just enough to create a narrow border against the white back panel. Hook the fold over the back panel and using strong glue, attach the front. (If you use tape tap a little talc on the exposed tape so that it won't stick to the envelope!) Trim the top panel to match the back if needed.
11. To make the greeting panel, cut a piece of matching coloured card stock and a white frame using stacking dies. I used a die cut greeting from my stash but you could stamp and heat emboss one in white if you wish. Attach to the card front.
12. On the small top folding card stamp the greeting on the inside, I used Birthday Wishes and glue to your panel of 5 x 7 card. This allows you to write your greeting and not spoil the effect from the front.

And that's about it.

I know that seems a lot of effort but it does make a really special card. Perhaps save it for that special person or occasion!

So there you have it, hope I've inspired you to try something a little different.