uniko, Author at Clear Stamps Sets for Cardmaking & Paper Crafts

03 Nov

Christmas Folk Snowflake

Wow!

What a busy few days here at Uniko HQ, you guys have kept me out of mischief with all your lovely release day orders. I am so happy to see so many new, returning and loyal customers and I am glad that you love the products I have designed.

THANK YOU for keeping my little business and dream alive 🙂

Today I thought I would share a card I have managed to make this afternoon in-between the chaos of family time at home this weekend.

When I design new products, one of the elements I like to try and incorporate is how products can be mixed, matched and work together. And this is what I have done with one of the background stamps from Background Builders: Christmas 2018 and the Stencil – Christmas Folk Snowflake.

The main image of the snowflake both in the stamp set and the stencil are the same. It is just the smaller details I have added to make the designs different. So they work together beautifully, but not overly repeating the image too much.

For this card I used Altenew Ruby Red ink to stamp the Christmas Folk Snowflake across the top and bottom of my base card. I then trimmed a piece of white card to 10 x 10.5 cm for my focal image and masked off one Christmas Folk Snowflake on the stencil. I used the same colour ink to ink through the stencil.

The sentiment is a combination of Simply Said II and Most Wonderful. And to finish the card off I used some Stampin’ Up! Real Red card to mat the focal layer, adhering it to the base card using foam adhesive. Some White Blizzard Glitter Nuvo drops finished the centres of the snowflakes perfectly.

I hope I have inspired you a little and to look at your Uniko products you have or other manufacturers and see how they can be used together.

Thanks for stopping by today 🙂

By uniko Cards, Christmas, New Release Background Builders, Card, Christmas, Christmas Folk Snowflake, Clear Stamps, Merry Christmas, Most Wonderful, New Release, Simply Said, Snowflake, Stamping, Uniko, Uniko Ltd, Uniko Stamps, Uniko Stencils 1 Comment Read more...

30 Oct

October 2018 Reveal, Design Team Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

Woohoo!

Finally the day has arrived and the October 2018 Reveal, Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY is here! The Release will be available to purchase HERE at a NEW time of 9pm GMT tonight.

Hopefully you have hopped on over from HERE, where I have formally introduced all the NEW products. Now I have a couple more cards to share using some of the new stamps & stencils.

First up I have a card using Winter Botanicals: Sweet Broom…

I thought I’d try my hand at some more no line colouring, using my trusty Prismacolor pencils. This card took me about 3 nights to finish! Considering I only get from around 8/8:30 pm – 10:30/11:30 pm to work, that wasn’t bad for me. Plus, I usually loose patience and ditch what I am colouring!!

Once I had finished colouring I let it be and simply mounted it onto my card base using foam adhesive and kept it clear of a sentiment so I can use it for any occasion, not just Christmas.

Lastly for today (unfortunately my creative time is limited this week with The Beans off nursery for half term) I reached for one of my new favourite stencils, Quilted…

I wanted to try some tone on tone ink blending and thought it would pair nicely with Organic Wishes, which I did for this card.

After assembling my card I went in and added some White Blizzard Nuvo Glitter Drops to the Dandelion ends and to the centres of all the flowers of the inked stencil.

That’s all I have to share with you for today, but I know that the team have an abundance of inspiration to show you using the new products.

Be sure to comment along the hop for your chance to win the ENTIRE Release!! You have until Midnight (GMT) Friday 9th November 2018 to comment and the winner will be announced soon after.

Happy Hopping!

Hugs

By uniko Blog Hop, Cards, New Release, Stencils Cards, Clear Stamps, Colouring, Handmade, New Release, No Line Colouring, Organic Wishes, Release, Stamping, Sweet Broom, Uniko, Uniko Ltd, Uniko Stamps, Uniko Stencils, Winter Botanicals 26 Comments Read more...

29 Oct

Introducing… BIG & BOLD Merry and Background Builders: Christmas 2018

Hey!

Welcome back to day 4 of the October 2018 Release product introductions.

This is the fun part, you now get to see all the sneak peeks in action. The Design Team have worked their socks off and created an abundance of inspiration to share with you over the coming days 🙂

Thank you for all the comment love yesterday here and on social media. If you missed the first 3 days of introductions, you can catch up HERE, HERE and HERE.

Today we are introducing the final two clear stamp sets, BIG & BOLD Merry and Background Builders: Christmas 2018.

This card was totally inspired by one the lovely Keren Baker shared on Instagram HERE. I loved how Keren had weaved the paper strips and so I wanted to recreate this with stamps. One of the stamps in Background Builders: Christmas 2018 is a line of small diagonal lines. Which when stamped & overlapped, it creates a plaid style effect.

The sentiment is from the new Simply Said Blocks Christmas and I added in the holly leaves from Winter Foliage. I used Nuvo Drops to create the holly berries.

As usual my AWESOME Design Team have created projects to share with you all too. Be sure to hop along, commenting along the way. You never know, I might just pick some random comments to WIN some prizes this release 😉

Carol

WOW! This has been a fun few days of product introductions and I for one have loved seeing how my Design Team bring the products to life. So, we have reached the end of the product introductions, which means tomorrow is the BIG day!

We will have our usual Reveal, Design Team Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY at 9am tomorrow here on the blog AND the RELEASE will go LIVE at 9pm GMT over HERE on the website.

Hugs

By uniko Blog Hop, Cards, Christmas, Introducing, New Release Background Builders, Card, Christmas, Clear Stamps, Handmade, New Release, Stamping, Uniko, Uniko Ltd, Uniko Stamps 12 Comments Read more...

27 Oct

Introducing… Winter Botanicals: Sweet Broom & Quilted Stencil

Hey!

Welcome back to day 3 of the October 2018 Release product introductions.

This is the fun part, you now get to see all the sneak peeks in action. The Design Team have worked their socks off and created an abundance of inspiration to share with you over the coming days 🙂

Thank you for all the comment love yesterday here and on social media. If you missed yesterday, you can catch up HERE, where myself & the DT introduced 2 Stencil Designs and an addition to the Simply Said Blocks series. You can catch up HERE with day 1, where myself and the Design Team re-introduced Background Builders: Christmas and Jolly Christmas clear stamp sets.

Today we are introducing Winter Botanicals: Sweet Broom & another Stencil, Quilted. Hopefully you have hoped on over from HERE where I have shared a couple of cards that we made at last weekends Uniko Stamping Retreat.

I’ve just the one card today to share, using Winter Botanicals: Sweet Broom…

My thinking behind this card was that I wanted to recreate the feel of first frost (or first snow as parts of the NE of the UK have experienced yesterday) on winter foliage.

I chose to use Altenew inks in two shades of grey to stamp the outline and inner detail of the foliage images, then added lots of glitter to the white spaces left. There is so much sparkle on this card! The sentiment is from Pure Florals: Poinsettia.

That’s all I have to share today, but my AWESOME Design Team have created projects to share with you all too. Be sure to hop along, commenting along the way. You never know, I might just pick some random comments to WIN some prizes this release 😉

WOW! That was another inspirational hop, so many new ideas of how to use these new stencils and sentiment stamps. I hope you enjoyed the hop & will come back tomorrow for the last product introductions.

Hugs

By uniko Cards, Christmas, Introducing, New Release Card, Christmas, Clear Stamps, Florals, Glitter, Handmade, New Release, Seasons Greet, Sparkle, Sweet Broom, Uniko, Uniko Ltd, Uniko Stamps, Winter Botanicals 8 Comments Read more...

26 Oct

Introducing… Stencils Scandinavian Christmas & Christmas Folk Snowflake AND Simply Said Blocks Christmas

Hey!

Welcome back to day 2 of the October 2018 Release product introductions.

This is the fun part, you now get to see all the sneak peeks in action. The Design Team have worked their socks off and created an abundance of inspiration to share with you over the coming days 🙂

Thank you for all the comment love yesterday here and on social media. If you missed yesterday, you can catch up HERE where myself and the Design Team re-introduced Background Builders: Christmas and Jolly Christmas clear stamp sets.

Today we are introducing 2 new stencil designs Scandinavian Christmas & Christmas Folk Snowflake AND 1 new clear Stamp Set, Simply Said Blocks Christmas! Hopefully you have hopped on over from the beginning of the hop HERE. Be sure to pop over if not to have a look at how I used the Christmas Folk Snowflake Stencil.

Here are a couple more cards using todays products…

This stencil features lots of motifs that are from previously released clear stamp sets, such a Peace On Earth, Rustic Christmas & Background Builders: Vines Winter Additions.

I kept my card pretty simple when it came to inking through the stencil, I feel as though I am still a beginner when it comes to using them in my card making! Again I used Candid Apple DI and left off the sparkle this time, as I knew I wanted a sparkly dove from Peace On Earth. The sentiment is also from Peace On Earth and the die cut polaroid frame is Lawn Fawn.

Next up I had an idea to use Simply Said Blocks Christmas on it’s own, to form a bright and modern looking Christmas tree…

I did ‘cheat’ a little as the HAPPY sentiment & tree stump is from Simply Said Blocks and the star is from Jolly Christmas! I kept the rest of the card super white & simple so that the bright colours, sentiments and design took centre stage.

All the tree elements are adhered to the card using foam adhesive and I added a little Nuvo Glitter Drops in White Blizzard to the star.

I hope I have inspired you a little, but I know my AWESOME Design Team will with what they have created. Be sure to hop along, commenting along the way. You never know, I might just pick some random comments to WIN some prizes this release 😉

WOW! That was another inspirational hop, so many new ideas of how to use these new stencils and sentiment stamps. I hope you enjoyed the hop & will come back tomorrow for the next product introductions.

Hugs

By uniko Blog Hop, Cards, Christmas, Introducing, New Release, Stencils Card, Clear Stamps, Colours, Handmade, New Release, Stamping, Uniko, Uniko Ltd, Uniko Stamps, Uniko Stencils 11 Comments Read more...

26 Oct

Re-Introducing… Background Builders: Christmas AND Jolly Christmas

Hey!

Welcome to the first day of the October 2018 Release product introductions.

This is the fun part, you now get to see all the sneak peeks in action. The Design Team have worked their socks off and created an abundance of inspiration to share with you over the coming days 🙂

Today we are re-introducing Background Builders: Christmas AND Jolly Christmas clear stamp sets. These two clear stamp sets were first introduced WAY back in October 2013 HERE and HERE. You can also find more ‘old’ inspiration using the clear stamps HERE and HERE on Pinterest.

Hopefully you have hopped on over from HERE at the start of the hop. I have shared a couple of new cards there using these 2 re-released clear stamp sets.

I’ve made a couple more cards to hopefully inspire you…

Firstly I wanted to pair the snowflake builder stamp with the Designer Dies Snowflake Trio. I tried my hand at some partial die cutting too!

After stamping the snowflake background I added tiny drops of Nuvo Glitter Drops in White Blizzard to all the snowflake centres for a little bit of subtle sparkle. The sentiment is a new one from another clear stamp set we will be introducing later this week. The pearls are from Little Things By Lucy’s Crystal Collection – Sweet Pea.

I was having so much fun getting reacquainted with Background Builders: Christmas, that I used it for my second card to share with you today too!

Even though I absolutely LOVE snowflakes, I think the 2 step stamp holly in this set trumps the snowflakes! It is beautifully festive and pairs with other Uniko clear stamps, such as this sentiment from All Occasion Sentiments #4.

After a busy few weeks I was feeling a little tired and ‘meh’ so I treated myself to some more Altenew inks and this little ‘Lil Inker Bow Die. It is too darn cute and pairing it with some old Papertrey Ink polka dot paper was the perfect finish to this clean and simple card.

I hope you enjoyed the hop & will come back tomorrow for the next product introductions!

Hugs

By uniko Blog Hop, Christmas, Introducing, New Release Background Builders, Challenge, Christmas, Clear Stamps, Designer Dies Snowflake Trio, Handmade, Holly, Jolly Christmas, Seasons Greetings, Snowflake, Stamping, Uniko, Uniko Ltd, Uniko Stamps, Uniko Stencils 12 Comments Read more...

25 Oct

October 2018 Release Sneak Peeks!

Woohoo!

It’s time for another NEW release and to share some official sneak peeks with you! If you follow @unikoltd on Instagram, you might have seen a few peeks I have been sharing here and there 😉

This month I have 4 NEW clear stamp sets, 2 re-release clear stamp sets AND 3 stencil designs! They will all be available to purchase at a NEW release trial time of 9pm GMT Tuesday 30th October.

Anyway, I will remind you of that as we progress through the release festivities. How about I share some peeks with you…

Firstly, here are the 2 peeks of the clear stamp sets coming back from retirement. Those who have been followers and customers of Uniko for a few years might recognise these.

Next we have peeks at the 4 new clear stamp sets…

And lastly, but by no means least the 3 new stencil designs…

As you can see it is a pretty BIG release and I can’t wait to share projects and ideas using them all 🙂

My awesome Design Team are going to help me do this too and we will be back tomorrow with the start of our traditional product introductions.

I hope you will join us at 9am tomorrow and I would LOVE to know what you think of the sneak peeks.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs

By uniko New Release, Sneak Peeks Background Builders, BIG & BOLD, Christmas, Clear Stamps, New Release, Simply Said Blocks, Sneak Peek, Uniko, Uniko Ltd, Uniko Stamps, Uniko Stencils 1 Comment Read more...

13 Oct

Uniko Sponsors AAA Cards

Hello & Happy Sunday!

I do hope you are having a good weekend so far? It’s been a busy one here as Uniko is super happy to be back at Stamp Magic. Be sure to pop and say ‘Hi’ if you’re attending the show today.

Anyway, Uniko is super duper happy to be sponsoring one of my favourite challenges this fortnight, AAA Cards.

This fortnight the challenge HERE at AAA Cards is moonlight. I have to admit I struggled with this theme at first and had to mull it over. But then, after thinking about it, there are quite a few directions you can go in!

This is what I came up with…

{Click Photo for a Closer Look}

With Christmas on the brain and only 11 weeks to the big day, I thought I would take the opportunity to make another card for the stash!

I dusted off Rustic Christmas and a sentiment from Most Wonderful to pair with an ink blended background using Altenew inks. I added lots of droplets of Nuvo Glitter Drops in White Blizzard to represent falling snow in the moonlight.

{Click Photo for a Closer Look}

I hope you’re inspired to join in on the challenge & I look forward to seeing you in the gallery too!

Until then, thanks for stopping by!

Hugs

By uniko Cards, Challenge, Christmas Card, Challenge, Christmas, Clear Stamps, Handmade, Most Wonderful, Rustic Christmas, Uniko, Uniko Ltd, Uniko Stamps 2 Comments Read more...

05 Oct

Uniko Challenge #49 – Wonderful World with Optional Twist THANKS

Hey!

The current Uniko Challenge is in full swing and today The Design Team and Guest Designer are here to remind you that there is still time to join in on the fun.

We have another fun and easy challenge at the moment and we hope the Wonderful World around us will inspire you to play along. If you’d like even more of a challenge then please twist with us and create a card to say THANKS.

Challenge Guidelines:

* You can use any products/stamps to enter the challenge, but we do LOVE to see you use your Uniko products. Plus, there is an extra chance to win a prize if you do 😉

* Email entries welcome, just email a photo of your card to bev@uniko.co.uk and I will add it to the Uniko Flickr gallery and link up!

* Share the challenge graphic in your post and link back to the challenge if possible 😉

We have the very talented Hannelie joining us again as our Guest Designer for this challenge. Her card is an absolute delight and so very creative. It’s sure to inspire you to play along.

Guest Designer – Hannelie

And here’s what I made a while back but never shared…

I made this for the last Uniko Stamping Retreat back in the Summer. The technique station was all about playing with Brusho’s and I created this fun background using the Natures Treasures II Mask.

I’d normal avoid all this messy, as I like clean and simple! However, sometimes messy can be kept clean & simple by not adding too much fuss and layers to a design. I have done this by letting the leaves & ink take the limelight and just added a simple sentiment from Simply Said Blocks.

That’s all I have to inspire you, but some of The Design Team have more inspiration to share with you…

Now, if you need more incentive to play along with the challenge here are the details of the prizes.

THE PRIZES

Main Winner Chosen By the DT – £25 eGift Certificate
Random Twist Winner – £4 In Stock Clear Stamp Set of Winners Choosing
Random Uniko Stamps Winner – £4 In Stock Clear Stamp Set of Winners Choosing
Top 3 Chosen By DT – 150 Loyalty Reward Points

You’ve got plenty of time to play along with this month’s challenge. The deadline for submission is midnight (GMT) on Friday 26th October 2018 (7.00pm EDT).

By uniko Cards, Challenge, Design Team Inspiration Autumn, Fall, Leaves, Mask, Natures Treasures, Simply Said Blocks, Stencil, Thanks, Uniko, Uniko Challenge, Uniko Ltd, Uniko Stamps, Uniko Stencils, Wonderful World 1 Comment Read more...

21 Sep

September 2018 Design Team Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

Hey!

It’s time for another Uniko Design Team Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY – Whoohoo!! Apologies for my lateness in posting, I simply ran out of time before vacation to prep and didn’t have the energy on a night whilst away to work!

Anyway, this month I couldn’t decide on the product and as a team we randomly selected a stamp set and then I went a little polka crazy and added in some popular sentiment sets too…

Large Background Scattered Polka Dots

Large Background Scattered Polka Hearts

Simply Said Blocks

Simply Said Blocks II

Stencil Scattered Polka Dots

Stencil Scattered Polka Hexagons

These clear stamp sets and stencils are perfect for all sorts of backgrounds for all sorts of occasions that the Design Team will show you. They are a perfect addition to anyones crafting arsenal!

Here is what I decided to make…

I was inspired to use the Large Background Scattered Polka Dots and Large Background Scattered Polka Hearts to create a couple of cards to look like wrapped presents.

I started with the Large Background Scattered Polka Dots, stamping it in VersaMark ink and embossing in white onto my favourite Coastal Cabana card stock. I then wrapped white bakers twine around as you would with string around a present and secured it in a bow. I’ve then mounted the panel to a matching card base using foam adhesive. The sentiment from Simply Said Blocks II is stamped onto a Pretty Pink Posh die cut tag and adhered to the card.

I used the same design process for my next card using the Large Background Scattered Polka Hearts, but this time I changed the orientation to portrait.

This time I stamped the polka hearts in Altenew Coral Berry ink and again the sentiment is from Simply Said Blocks II.

That’s all from me, but let’s see how the design team have been inspired to use the products and be sure to comment along the hop for your chance to win a Uniko £20 eGift Certificate. You have until Midnight (GMT) until midnight BST Saturday 22nd Sept 2018 to comment.

Happy Hopping!

Hugs