Revisited Clear Stamp Sets

March 2024 Non-Release Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

Hello & Happy Monday.Welcome to the March 2024 Non-Release Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY! Hopefully you have hopped on over from HERE. You will find the list of Brand Ambassador blogs and they have so much beautiful inspiration to share with you.

Here’s what I have to share with you…

My first card is the reverse of THIS one I made and shared the other day HERE.

I’m all about ‘quick’ colouring at the moment and all for the bright cheery colours too! So these circle die cut masks were a fun option to add colour with interest. I used Everyday Spring Sentiments for the Happy Easter.

Quick colour option and ink blending for my second card too! This time I went for a rectangle aperture and some blues, yellows and greens to compliment the Spring Botanicals Snowdrop.

As usual I am offering a prize to one lucky comment left along the hop. Simply leave some comment love before Midnight GMT Monday 18th March 2024 and I will select a lucky winner to receive a £15 eGift Code to spend in the store!
Before I go, how about some March Madness?

Happy Hoppin’!
Crafty Hugs

January 2024 Non-Release Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

Hello & Happy Thursday.

Welcome to the January 2024 Non-Release Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY! With a New Year in full swing I thought it would be a good time to bring back some of the fun and inspiration that has slipped away over time.


So I am pleased to bring back the Non- Release month blog hops. For those of you who are new around these parts I will explain what this post is all about…


Here at Uniko HQ it is just myself behind the screen, blogging, designing, packaging stamps & orders through the Uniko online shop, customer service and all the things in between. I *usually* release new product every other month for a number of reasons, but mainly so I can keep up with everything!


On non – release months like this month I like to set myself and the Brand Ambassadors a challenge to look back at a previously released product and give it some more love. Plus, I think it’s always nice to revisit older sets and provide more inspiration and not just from me.
So without further ado, lets see the products I decided upon for January…

Beautiful Blooms I and Designer Dies Beautiful Blooms I 

So let’s have a look at my new creations I made using these…

First up I decided to use a technique that I haven’t used for ages, partial die cutting. I think I avoid this technique as it can be more time consuming than straight forward die cutting!

I started by stamping the large bloom in Honeysuckle ink. I then created a mask to place my die over the stamped image. I create a mask as these dies are one of my first sets and they are solid dies, meaning you can’t see through them.

I then worked out where I wanted to die cut too, 7.5 cm up from the bottom of my card. To die cut, place just the top section of the die inside the die cutting plates, up to the measurements. Once you die cut, use a cutting knife to trim across the straight edges.

On my base card I used the Background Blocks Linear stamped in VersaFine Clair Morning Mist. I then adhered the die cut panel using foam adhesive. I then finished with a sentiment from Simply Said Blocks and a few enamel dots.

For my second card I decided to use just the stamps and another fun technique, spotlight stamping.

Again, this was a little trickier and takes a bit of patience. I placed both layers in my stamping platform and used low tack masking tape on the base card when stamping the images on the square. I then removed the tape and square layer to stamp the image in a lighter shade of pink.

Again the top square layer is adhered using foam adhesive. This time I used a sentiment from Everyday Sentiments and kept the card free from any embellishment.

That’s all from me today, but be sure to head on over HERE to the start of the blog hop for all the Brand Ambassador blog links. If you comment along the hop you will be in the chance to win a £15 eGift Code to spend in store. Commenting closes for the giveaway Thursday 25th January 2024.

Happy Hoppin’!
Crafty Hugs

11th Birthday Release In Review Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & Giveaway!

Hello & Happy Friday!

As you may remember, there was a delay with post and a few of the Brand Ambassadors didn’t have chance to fully showcase the 11th Birthday products on the official release post HERE. So I thought it would be nice to have a Release in Review Blog Hop. Plus, you get to see lots more creativity in one place using all the new goodies.

Hopefully you have hopped on over from HERE and the start of the hop. And you won’t want to miss leaving a comment on all the stops as of course I have a giveaway!

Shop The Latest Arrivals 

Now let’s get to the inspiration I have for you today using some of the products you can see above.

First up I was inspired to use the Stencil – Bokeh Layering Hearts to create this fun and colourful card.

Obviously the name of the stencil implies the idea behind it, to create a soft out of focus layered look. But when I design products I look at ways to get more creative options.

Like I have used on my card today. The large heart is sized perfectly for the LOVE word to fit inside. Once I had a selection of inked hearts I adhered them with foam adhesive, layering them slightly and added a few heart enamel dots and a partial stamped sentiment from Up & Away.

Talking of Up & Away, that’s what I used for my next card today…

Today I decided to make a slimline card. I started by stamping the sentiment and the smaller hot air balloons. I then masked the hot air balloons before ink blending a soft sunny sky.

I then added some soft clouds using the Stencil – Cloud 9 before removing the masks and colouring the balloons with Copic Markers.

Lastly I added one of the larger hot air balloons, that is stamped with the Background Blocks Graffiti Texture. I then adhered the fussy cut balloon using foam adhesive.

For my third card today I continued the sky theme and combined Stencil – Cloud 9 with the clouds from Up & Away.

Kraft card stock is perfect for white fluffy clouds! And I couldn’t resist using the love is in the air sentiment again.

Lastly for today I couldn’t resist using Hoppy Easter to create another fun and colourful card.

I stamped the solid bunnies in a selection of colourful inks and used my MISTI stamping tool to help me line and space them. I then had a great idea to add fluffy bunny tails. I’m hoping The Beans won’t realise I raided their craft box for them!

I think they turned out super cute, though it adds quite a bit of bulk, so definitely a card that won’t be posted! The sentiment is from Everyday Spring Sentiments.

That’s all from me today, but be sure to check out all the wonderful inspiration from the Brand Ambassadors.

Now for the giveaway. I am going to choose one lucky winner to receive a Uniko Clear Stamp & Stencil Bundle worth a minimum of £30. It will be a mix of the new release featured in the hop with a few of my favourites mixed in too.


Simply leave a comment along all stops of the hop before midnight BST Saturday 8th April 2023 and I will randomly select a lucky winner and announce ASAP after the closing date.
Crafty Hugs 

Art Deco Inspired Cosmos

Happy FRI-YAY!

I hope you are all well and enjoying the Spring sunshine today 🙂 I’ve been pottering in the studio today and now that I am all caught up on packing lovely orders and emails, I have a couple of cards to share with you.

With a bunch of clear stamp sets arriving in the studio this week, this card idea popped into my head while packing orders and I had to make it! I shared a peek at the first card over on Instagram yesterday.

I wanted to make a colourful card and without thinking what colours to use I just randomly selected a rainbow of colours. I used these to colour the Background Block Art Decoratifs.

I’ve also been seeing a lot of monochrome florals around social media and so I decided to keep the Pure Florals Cosmos like this. I fussy cut them out and popped them onto my card using 1mm thick foam adhesive. The sentiment is from Floral Vines.

This card then lead to this next idea where I have simply reversed my colouring.

I’ve kept the layout, stamps and sentiment all the same and just coloured the Pure Florals Cosmos in the rainbow of colours and I really like how it turned out.

As I said at the beginning of my post, lots of lovely and popular restocks arrived in the studio. These include the three stamp sets I have used today, along with Background Blocks Mid Century Modern, Background Builders Seeing Stars, Just Because and Simply Said Blocks II.

Thank you for popping by today.

Crafty Hugs 

No Tricks, Just Treats, Happy BOO Day!

Happy Weekend & Happy Halloween!

I know not everyone celebrates the occasion, but with the way 2020 has panned out so far we all deserve some treats. So to celebrate the occasion I have a couple of offers this weekend 🙂

FREE Worldwide Shipping is usually only on orders of £50 or more, so I’ve reduced the minimum spend by half. Also, if you spend over £30 you can choose an in stock Uniko Stencil for FREE! 


What’s not to love about these treats?! 


Be quick as they end tomorrow Sunday 1st November 2020 at Midday GMT.

I’ve been lucky and inspired to get creative and as I don’t own any spooky or Halloween stamps I had to put my thinking cap on and this is what I came up with…

I was linking up Simply Said Blocks over HERE on the Uniko Blogspot blog earlier today and one of the samples I made for this set when it was first released peeked into view. It was one of my favourite cards as I loved making the fun background.

So I thought I would replicate it in some fun Halloween inspired colours. As I was stamping it my brain was ticking as to how I could decorate the card with a spooky sentiment. That’s when using Alphabet Outlined to spell the word BOO came to mind and the HAPPY and DAY sentiments from Birthday Sentiments were the perfect accompaniment to finish the sentiment.

I am still crushing on the Concord & 9th inks and these fun colours and I finished the card off with some star enamel dots.

I hope you have a SPOOKTACULAR sweet filled day!

Crafty Hugs Bev x

Stunning Snowflakes

Hello & Happy Thursday!

I am finally back with a card to share! It feels like it has been forever since I had a good creative session. I am just squeezing something in here and there and most times it takes me more than a day to make one card!

I also just feel as though I am getting on top of things and then something happens and causes me to be constantly chasing my tail or just seriously lack mojo to sit and create 🙁

Last week I was feeling miserable as I pulled a muscle in my neck exercising. Apart from feeling sorry for myself, I found it extremely painful to sit at my desk for any longer than a few minutes. So that hindered my creativity.

This week I have the unexpected company of The Beans for two weeks, all thanks to Covid and someone in their class bubble testing positive. So, from Tuesday this week it was back to mummy home school. Luckily it is half term next week, but the boys still have to self isolate until the end of Monday 2nd Nov – it’s been a long few days already!

BUT, last night I had some energy and was inspired to make a card – yay! I’ve been itching to ink up the Stunning Snowflakes clear stamps since they came back in stock.

Even though my creativity has lacked a little, it hasn’t stopped me purchasing new goodies – haha! Including the NEW Concord & 9th ink cube collection!

You must know how I love ink and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on these beauties when they arrived back in stock at Seven Hills Crafts!

Last night I set to testing their ink blending capabilities. The pads are the same foam style as the Catherine Pooler inks and The Stamp Market inks and having tried ink blending with those in the past, I was sure the results would be good.

They didn’t disappoint. I use blending brushes and the inks went on nice and smooth. I used Aqua Sky and Oceanside for the background and the same colours to stamp the snowflakes.

I die cut the Designer Die Stunning Snowflake and added some ink blending to that before adding it to my card with foam adhesive and smothering it with Nuvo White Blizzard Glitter drops! I love the natural curl to the snowflake points that happened as it dried. To finish the card off I added the ‘Let it Snow’ sentiment from Simply Said Blocks Christmas.

Hopefully it won’t be as long until I share more creativity! I’m keen to try out more of the Concord & 9th ink colours, so I am sure I will be back soon.

Until then, thank you for stopping by.

Crafty Hugs Bev

Happy Birthday, HB2U

Hey & Happy Thursday!

I hope everyone is well and getting some creative time in. I am managing to get a little crafty time here and there 😉 and had time Monday to start making this card which I finished yesterday, but only got time to properly photograph today! The joys of working from home and being a mummy 😉

With a restock of the popular Art Deco theme stamps I released back in February arriving in the studio the other week, I have been itching to ink up the Background Block Arts Dècoratifs again.

This is such a fun stamp and suitable for so many occasions and for feminine and masculine cards alike. I actually enjoy making masculine cards if I have the supplies to do them and I find geometric styled products lend themselves perfectly for masculine cards.

I set to stamping the background block to cover my base card and then used a selection of cool grey Copic markers to colour in a random selection of the geometric shapes in the design.

I then used the ‘Happy Birthday’ sentiment from our very popular Simply Said Blocks clear stamp set and the Alphabet Outlined clear stamp set to create the HB2U, which I added some bright colours to, so that they stand out from the background.

I hope I have given you some more inspiration for making those pesky masculine cards!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Crafty Hugs Bev

Aloha!

Happy Monday 🙂

I finally got round to making a card at the weekend after surviving week 1 of the school holidays & rubbish weather. I think by the theme of my card, I am hoping that tropical weather is on its way to the NE of the UK soon!

It has been a while since I inked up the Large Background Topical Paradise and even though I am the slowest at colouring, it was nice to sit and relax a while and dream of being back in Hawaii all those years ago!

I used the hibiscus flower and Aloha sentiment from Paradise clear stamp set to embellish the card and adhered using my usual 1mm thick foam adhesive.

It’s a busy week here in the studio as the restocks I order will be arriving tomorrow – yay! I am also finalising the next release for the beginning of September, all being well.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and the weather improves here in the UK so we can enjoy getting out a bit more!

Thanks for stopping by & Crafty Hugs

Bev x

March 2020 Non Release Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

Hello & Happy Weekend.

This month is non-release month at Uniko and on non-release months myself and my awesome Brand Ambassadors revisit a previously released clear stamp set. 

This month we are revisiting Pure Florals Gerbera and giving it some fresh inky creativity.

As usual we have our GIVEAWAY, so be sure to comment along the hop for your chance to win both the Pure Florals Gerbera Clear Stamp Set.  An alternative prize will be offered if the winner already owns this.

You have until midnight Sunday 22nd March 2020 to comment along the hop.

I thought I would start with a pretty pink card and use a quick colouring technique. It’s a good one if you’re not one for spending ages on colouring, but you can achieve colour depth and shading.

I started out by stamping the solid Gerbera stamp onto a panel of card stock using The Stamp Market Fresh ink to create an all over background.

I then stamped a single image onto a small scrap of card using the same colour of pink. Selecting a slightly darker colour of pink I shaded in areas of the petals to create depth and make it look realistic.

I repeated my process for the leaf using The Stamp Market Leafy and a slightly darker shade of pencil.

The flower is adhered to the card using foam adhesive and then I have tucked the leaf in and adhered using double sided tape.

Lastly for today I have a simple Copic coloured bloom. I have been getting some practice in with my Copic markers (still have a long way to go), and I had some Coral pinks I wanted to play with.

The layout of my card is from this weeks Freshly Made Sketches seen HERE and below.

As you can see from my photo I have coloured around the edge of my bloom. The matching dies are currently out of stock (sorry) and so I didn’t cheat and went back to basics with some fussy cutting. I have seen this technique used a few times around social media and I love the effect it gives.

Apart from my base card, this card was made from scraps I had left over from other projects. Having a coloured block like the navy card is a great way of using up pieces, as it the piece I have used for the sentiment. The sentiment is from Birthday Sentiments.

That’s all I have to share with you today, but be sure to stop by all the Uniko Brand Ambassador blogs and comment along the way for your chance to win.

Carol 

Hannelie

Izzy 

Jane 

Julie

Linda

Rahmat

Sarah

Thanks for joining in on the fun.

Hugs

Happy New Year!

Hello & Happy 2020!

I do hope you all had a lovely and safe New Years Eve and have enjoyed a wonderful New Years Day. I have been soaking up the last of the family time, as hubby heads back to work tomorrow 🙁 The Beans still have a few days left of the school holidays and lucky for me are off out tomorrow afternoon to the pantomime!

I managed to sneak in the studio yesterday morning to make this quick ‘Happy New Year’ card. The doily I have used from Decorative Doilies – The Hands of Time reminds me of fireworks and it is nice to have it currently in stock to showcase and use on my card today!

I’m not setting any resolutions or words for the year, as I find I forget so easily and they always seem to go astray as the year progresses. One thing I will be doing is setting myself some monthly goals to achieve throughout the year, some personal and some to grow Uniko and myself as a small business/business owner.

One of my goals for January is to create brighter cards! I was surprised at how little the bright colours were in my ‘Year of Colour’. The muted and neutral tones really took centre stage, with the brights so small around the edge.

So for my ‘Happy New Year’ card I selected some bright Copic colours to create rainbow fireworks! The sentiment is from Festive Sentiments Outlined and I coloured it with a black fine liner to stand out against the rainbow.

That’s all I have to share with you today, it’s almost time for The Beans to go to bed – yay! This mummy is worn out – LOL!

Until next time, thanks for stopping by.

Crafty Hugs!