Challenge Archives - Clear Stamps Sets for Cardmaking & Paper Crafts

20 Nov

Uniko Challenge #62 – ‘Tis The Season + Optional Twist Sparkle

Hey!

Welcome to the November/December 2020 Uniko Challenge.

The theme for this challenge will come as no surprise – well ’tis the season after all! And if you’re fed up with this dreary year then why not add in a little sparkle to your card too.

We are delighted to welcome Sathya as our Guest Designer and she had created this adorable card to make you smile.

Have you spotted the Uniko sentiment? It’s always fabulous to see Uniko goodies mixing so well with other products. It woud be lovely if you had time to pop over to Sathya’s blog and leave her a super comment – HERE.

I’m super excited for Christmas and as always ‘Dreaming of a White Christmas!’ So, it might be no surprise to you all that I’ve created a snowflake card – haha!

And a rainbow snowflake too! I just love the Concord & 9th inks I bought last month (I think), the colours are dreamy and they ink and stamp beautifully.

Anyway, I decided to dust off the snowflake in BIG & BOLD Snow for my card today and paired it with the ‘Let it Snow’ sentiment from Simply Said Blocks Christmas.

I’ve added a tiny bit of sparkle to each of the snowflake centres using Nuvo Glitter Drops White Blizzard.

As usual some of the Uniko Brand Ambassadors have joined in with the challenge launch and created beautiful cards to inspire you. So be sure to head on over HERE to see them and follow the links to their blogs for more details.

Need a little more inspiration? How about some prizes!

THE PRIZES

Main Winner Chosen By the DT – £15 eGift Certificate
Random Twist Winner – £5 eGift Certificate
Random Uniko Stamps Winner – £5 eGift Certificate
Top 3 Chosen By DT – 150 Loyalty Reward Points

And as we’re feeling festive we’re giving you an extra week to play along with this challenge. The deadline for submission is midnight (GMT) on Friday 1st January 2021.

Crafty Hugs! Bev x

By uniko Uncategorised BIG & BOLD Snow, Challenge, Snow, Snowflakes 0 Comments Read more...

24 Nov

Uniko Sponsors AAA Cards

Happy Weekend!

I hope your weekend has been lovely so far and you have had some creative time. If you need a little inspiration, why not join in on the new challenge over at AAA Cards.

This fortnight I am super happy to let you know that Uniko is the sponsor for the challenge. You could win an in stock clear stamp set (any value) from the Uniko website – how good does that sound?

The challenge this fortnight the challenge is ‘Made in Minutes’, with an optional twist of ‘Ink Blending’. You can find the challenge HERE and link up.

And here is what I have made in minutes, just over 7 to be exact & I’ve posted a photo of my timer too below!

The key to making a card in minutes is to have an idea of the layout you want to use, you need all the stamps, colours of ink and card cut to size and ready on your desk.

This is often the hardest part of card making, knowing what to use. I don’t know about you, but the more choice of supplies you have, the harder it is to know what to use or make!

When I find myself in a situation like this, I look at my stamps and see what I haven’t used or inked up for a while. Background Builders: Seeing Stars is a stamp set I’ve not inked up in a long time and I thought it would pair nicely with a sentiment from Birthday Sentiments.

Here is how long my card took me to make once I had everything figured out and ready to go…

I hope I have given you a little inspiration to join in on the fun over at AAA Cards. Until next time, thanks for stopping by & I look forward to seeing you in the AAA Cards Challenge Gallery!

Hugs

By uniko Cards, Challenge, Masculine AAA Cards, Background Builders Seeing Stars, Birthday Card, Challenge, Masculine Card, Stars, Uniko, Uniko Ltd, Uniko Sponsor, Uniko Stamps 2 Comments Read more...

27 Oct

Winter Foliage Inspiration

Happy Sunday!

Last night was daylight savings here in the UK, so I decided to put it to good use once The Beans were settled in bed last night and made a whole bunch of Christmas cards!

Did you see yesterday’s post HERE? The October 2019 Post Release Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY is in full swing. And just by commenting along the hop you have the chance of winning the ENTIRE release 😉

I was a little sad that I didn’t get time to make all the cards before my post went live, so last night I set to making a couple of those I intended to make. First up a card using the new Stencil – Winter Foliage…

I had an idea to do a lot of masking and ink up the stencil with a couple of shades of brown, green and red to create this beautiful background. The layout of my card was inspired by the Freshly Made Sketches layout seen HERE and below.

To finish the card I added one of the Festive Sentiments Outlined sentiments and added some Nuvo Drops in Autumn Red to the single berries in the design. The card was pretty time consuming, but I really like the results.

Lastly for today I have a card using the Designer Die Winter Foliage Collection. This card was a little quicker to make, but again I’m loving the end result.

I decided to use the same sentiment and this time coloured it with a black fine liner instead of red. I then die cut the berries and holly leaves from my panel. To stamp the coordinating images from Winter Foliage clear stamp set, I temporarily adhered the panel to my base card and placed this inside my MISTI.

I was then able to position the stamps to stamp perfectly inside the die cuts. Once stamped I then adhered the panel permanently with foam adhesive.

That’s all I have to share for today, but I will be back during the week with more! Until then, thank you for stopping by today.

Crafty Hugs

By uniko Cards, Challenge, Christmas, New Release Card, Challenge, Christmas, Clear Stamps, Handmade, New Release, Sketch, Stamping, Uniko, Uniko Designer Dies, Uniko Ltd, Uniko Stamps, Uniko Stencils, Winter Foliage 6 Comments Read more...

26 Oct

October 2019 Post Release Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

Happy Weekend!

Welcome to the October 2019 Post Release Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY! Hopefully you have hopped on over from HERE, where I have introduced todays blog hop and given you a little refresh of the October Release which went live on the website HERE a couple of weeks ago.

Today I have a few more cards to share with you using some of the new products. I was hoping to have more to share, but the ideas in my head will have to wait until I have some more creative time 😉

First up I couldn’t resist using Season Of Beauty, this large clear stamp set has so many creative possibilities and one idea I had when designing it was to build my own Poinsettia flowers using the leaves in the set.

I used two shades of pink/red Altenew inks to stamp each flower, starting with a light shade for four leaves opposite each other and then a dark shade to fill in the gaps. The largest flower is fussy cut and adhered to the card using foam adhesive.

My apologies for my terrible photos of this card, I need more practise (still) with my light set up and my iPhone always struggles with these bright pinks!

Next I wanted to use the Background Blocks Scandinavian Christmas to execute a white on kraft idea I have had in my head for some time now.

For this card I used my MISTI to stamp the background block purposefully off centre in Unicorn White Pigment Ink and then heat embossed with WOW! Opaque White EP.

Then onto some small strips of kraft card I have stamped the peace, love, joy sentiments from Festive Sentiments Outlined with VersaFine Onyx Black ink and then I have coloured the sentiments with a white gel pen. I love the result and the sentiments look fab adhered over the edge of the stamped background using foam adhesive.

Next was time for a shaker card as I haven’t made one for ages and the new stand alone Designer Die Sparkling Snowflake was calling to be used!

I love making shaker cards, though they are quite time consuming! The results however out weigh the time taken to add all the foam adhesive around a fussy design 😉 Plus, the sparkly sequins are such a happy sight too!

One thing I must try harder on is thinking about sentiments and sentiment placement prior to assembling cards. Especially cards that take as much time as this! I could have left it sentiment free, but I felt it needed one when complete. I’ve added the ‘Let it Snow’ from Festive Sentiments Outlined, which is stamped onto a light scrap of Pool Party card and again adhered using foam adhesive.

Lastly for today I have used Festive Sentiments Outlined to create a reasonably quick CAS card…

Again, my iPhone really doesn’t like photographing red with lots of white, so it seems to have a pink shade to the white card 🙁 Anyway, the current sketch over at CAS(E) this Sketch! seen HERE and below was perfect.

I used my larger MISTI to stamp the sentiments and then simply coloured them in with marker pens and adhered the panel with foam adhesive to a red card base.

That’s all I had time to create this week for the hop, but I have so many more ideas and cards I want to make and share using these new products, that you’ll see more in the coming days and lead up to Christmas!

Now it’s time for some inspiration and a fabulous blog hop with my awesome Brand Ambassadors. Be sure to comment along the hop for your chance to win the ENTIRE Release! You have until Midnight GMT 2nd November 2019 to leave a comment and a winner will be announced shortly after.

That was one fabulous and inspirational hop! I hope you all enjoyed it too and don’t forget to comment along the way to be in the chance to win all the NEW goodies!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Crafty Hugs

By uniko Blog Hop, Cards, Challenge, Christmas, Design Team Inspiration, New Release Background Blocks, Cards, Challenge, Christmas, Clear Stamps, Handmade, New Release, Stamping, Uniko, Uniko Ltd, Uniko Stamps 22 Comments Read more...

18 Oct

Stamp Focus… Season Of Beauty Part 1

Happy Friday!

I thought I’d pop in today with a trio of cards I have made using the NEW Season Of Beauty clear stamp set and show you a little more of how the foliage stamps in the set can be used. This set is so fun and has so many possibilities all year round.

First up I was inspired to use some non-traditional foliage colours and really wanted to join in on the current colour challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches seen HERE and below my card.

I love a bit of colour blocking and foliage silhouettes, the result is a simple one layer card. I paired the large foliage silhouette with one of my favourite sentiments from Originally Organic clear stamp set.

Next I decided to go for something more ‘foliage traditional’ with a trio of Altenew greens…

This card was inspired by another challenge, this time the current sketch challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches seen HERE and below.

I felt the foliage silhouettes suited the movement of the elements of the sketch. Some simple stamping and fussy cutting with sentiment stripe adhered with foam adhesive. Plus my favourite Nuvo Drops accents to finish the card.

Lastly for today, a rainbow…

Who doesn’t love a rainbow and how cute do the small foliage silhouettes look in a rainbow of colour? I used a selection of Catherine Pooler inks for this card and I just love how the colours look together. The sentiment is from Simply Said Blocks II.

I hope my cards have shown you how this clear stamp set isn’t just for Christmas and can be used all year round. If not, I have some more cards to share in part 2 coming in the next few days!

Until then, thank you for stopping by & have a wonderful Friday.

Crafty Hugs

By uniko Cards, Challenge, New Release, Stamp Focus Cards, Challenge, Clear Stamps, Colours, Handmade, New Release, Season Of Beauty, Uniko, Uniko Ltd, Uniko Stamps 8 Comments Read more...

16 Oct

Stamp & Designer Die Focus – BIG & BOLD Snow

Hey & Happy Hump Day!

I’m still here dreaming of a white Christmas and I don’t think this feeling is going to pass any time soon! And as it doesn’t look like snow is expected any time soon I thought I would get my snow fix by inking up BIG & BOLD Snow and giving the NEW Designer Dies another outing.

Often these mini clear stamp sets can be overlooked as to how much you can do with them. But add in some coordinating designer dies and it can breathe a whole new life into the stamps and opens so many more possibilities.

Today I have a trio of cards to share with you using both the stamps and the dies…

As you know I am a huge fan of aqua shades and when paired with snow or snowflakes, it’s no surprise it has to make an appearance!

I started with this card as I wanted to try out the stamp / die spotlight technique with the largest of the snowflakes in BIG & BOLD Snow, paired with the large snow stamp & matching die.

I started by stamping & die cutting the word snow, to see where I would place it on my card & where to place the snowflakes around it. I then did cut the snowflakes and temporarily adhered the layer to my base card to stamp the snowflakes. I finished the design off with some small accent snowflakes and some White Blizzard Nuvo Drops.

Next I wanted to create a one layer ombre card…

Thank goodness for stamping tools and the ease of creating a staggered ombre look and also for adding sparkle to a stamped layer. This is what I have done with the last darkest stamped snow.

To finish the design I used the positive snowflake die cuts from the first card, adding the stamped image inside the die cuts in Aqualicious ink and once I had adhered them to the card I finished the design off with some of the smaller stamped snowflakes and again White Blizzard Nuvo Drops.

Lastly for today I was inspired by this weeks Freshly Made Sketches sketch seen HERE and below my card. I decided to keep with the same aqua colour scheme, using my blender brushes to create the perfect base colour card.

And here is the sketch I followed…

I love how you find the perfect sketch to fit with the products you are currently using and this one came together pretty quick too. This time I used the smaller of the snow sentiments and added just one stamped and die cut snowflake.

That’s all I have to share with you today using these products, but I will back with some more new release product inspiration tomorrow. Heads up, if you’re on Instagram, be sure to check out my feed HERE later today as I have a Win it Wednesday coming!

Okay, best get some more work done before the daylight has gone!

Crafty Hugs

By uniko Cards, Challenge, Christmas, Designer Dies, New Release BIG & BOLD, BIG & BOLD Snow, Card, Challenge, Christmas, Clear Stamps, Designer Dies, Handmade, New Release, Sketch, Snow, Snowflakes, Sparkle, Stamping, Uniko, Uniko Designer Dies, Uniko Ltd, Uniko Stamps 2 Comments Read more...

12 Oct

Less Is More Sponsor & Guest Designer

Happy Weekend!

I’m super excited to be here this morning, not only because Uniko is Octobers sponsor over at Less is More and that I am guest designing with them this week. BUT also because the Uniko October Release is NOW LIVE in store and available to purchase!

If you want to check out the cards I have made & shared yesterday about the October Release, pop on over HERE! I also couldn’t resist showing how one of the products being released, Festive Sentiments Outlined, can be used all year round…

This fortnight the challenge is Rainbow. Who doesn’t LOVE a rainbow?! There are so many ways to interpret this challenge onto your card (don’t forget to keep it CAS) and I opted for a rainbow colour scheme.

Rainbows make me happy, all those colours in one place is just a delight to see! As they make me happy I thought it appropriate to use the HAPPY sentiment from Festive Sentiments Outlined. I used my MISTI to stamp this three times on my card, coloured the inside of the word with Copics in a rainbow colour scheme and finished with the birthday sentiment from Birthday Sentiments clear stamp set.

This wasn’t enough rainbow for me! So I set to thinking how I could keep the design CAS but add more rainbow colour. Ta-dah! A rainbow base card. I used my blender brushes to create a rainbow base card using a variety of Altenew ink colours. I adhered the stamped layer to it using foam adhesive for a little dimension and I was done. A CAS card with lots of colour!

That’s all the rainbow I had time for, but the Less is More team have lots more inspiration for you. Be sure to head on over HERE to see the rainbow delight awaiting you and all the challenge details and the link up for the challenge.

Thanks for stopping by & I hope you check out the New Release too 😉

Hugs

By uniko Cards, Challenge, Guest Designer, New Release Birthday, Card, Challenge, Clear Stamps, Colours, Happy Birthday, Less is More, New Release, Rainbow, Stamping, Uniko, Uniko Ltd, Uniko Sponsor, Uniko Stamps 6 Comments Read more...

25 Sep

Decorative Doilies & a HUGE Restock!

Hey & Happy Hump Day!

I’m here today to share a card with you and also let you all know about a HUGE restock that is expected in the studio next week, including Decorative Doilies The Hands of Time, of which I have used on my card today…

I thought it was time for some ‘old’ favourite restocks, that have been out of stock for some time and it’s been ages since Decorative Doilies lined the shelves. Its a space struggle to keep everything in stock at once along with releasing new designs, hence the time in-between restocks.

As you know restocks always inspire me to dust them off and give them some fresh inky love. And when I saw the new sketch this week over at CAS Colours & Sketches seen HERE and below, it was perfect to use for my card layout. I love it when that happens too!

I’ve had a few new inky supplies arrive in the studio recently, including these The Stamp Market inks. I admit it, I’m a sucker for ink pads! So I thought I would give a trio of them a whirl on my card. They are similar ink format to the Catherine Pooler inks and so far I am happy with my purchase and they stamp beautifully.

For this card I started by stamping the large Leafy green doily. I then made a mask from a Post-it to stamp the small Melon doily. The Party pink doily is stamped, fussy cut and adhered to the card using foam adhesive. As is the Happy Birthday sentiment from Simply Said Blocks. To finish the card I used some of my favourite Glossy White Nuvo Drops.

Before I go today, I thought I’d let you know the clear stamp sets being restocked and that are now available on backorder. Any backorders placed will begin to ship on 2nd October and any orders placed between 4th-6th October will be shipped on the 7th as I will be at Happy Stampers Festival. I look forward to seeing you at the Uniko stand if you’re attending 🙂

Okay, the restocks are…

What I’ve used on my card today…

That’s all from me today! Thanks so much for stopping by & have a wonderful day.

Hugs

By uniko Cards, Challenge Background Blocks, Birthday, Card, Challenge, Christmas, Clear Stamps, Handmade, Happy Birthday, Restocks, Sketch, Stamping, Uniko, Uniko Ltd, Uniko Stamps 3 Comments Read more...

19 Sep

Uniko Challenge #55 – Anything Goes with Optional Twist Autumn

Hey!

Welcome to the September/October 2019 Uniko Challenge.

We have that all time favourite theme of Anything Goes for this new challenge, but if you’d like to challenge yourself a bit more then go with our twist of Autumn.

We’re really delighted to have Myra as our Guest Designer for this challenge. I think this must be a first for Uniko a Guest Designer who is only 8 years old! She is following in her mum, Anushree’s footsteps and sharing her blog to showcase her wonderful talent.

Such a gorgeous card and an assured future in crafting for sure!

I don’t know about you? But I can’t choose a favourite season. There is something I love about all of them and I love seeing the change from season to season too, especially the colours. Right now in the UK the mornings are crisp and fresh, the afternoons (recently) filled with warm sunshine and then, simply delightful evening sunsets.

Anyway, how about some inspiration! Shockingly Uniko doesn’t have any Autumn specific products, but there are a few which lend themselves to all seasons, like the Large Background Sketched Foliage, which I reached for to create my first card.

As you can see from the photo, I have been treating myself to new inky goodies. Seriously, I just can’t resist ink pads. I have a real addiction to them and colour – haha!

These are from The Stamp Market and I have used 3 of the colours from their first Colour Crush Collection, Melon, Leafy & Mossy. They stamp beautifully and I also gave them a spin with my Tailored Expressions Blender Brushes. They are the same style / format of ink as the Catherine Pooler inks and like those, then blend really nice and smooth. I’ve used my usual Stampin’ Up! Whisper White CS.

Once my ink blended panel was dry I placed it in my MISTI and stamped the Large Background Sketched Foliage in the darker shade of green, Mossy.

Not wanting to draw too much focus from the background, I finished the card off with a simple sentiment from You Are, Yes You.

This leads me nicely onto my second card…

Having used the sentiment from You Are, Yes You, I saw the little quirky leaves in the set and thought they would make for a lovely tumbling Autumnal leaf background. I selected a trio of Autumnal colours from my (ever growing) Altenew ink collection and set to stamping a random background.

I used a sentiment from Birthday Wishes stamped in VersaFine Onyx Black ink onto a favourite Papertrey Ink (Ink to Paper) die I have in my stash.

I hope I have inspired you to join in on the challenge & look at your stash to see what could be used for an Autumnal twist. If you need some more inspiration, be sure to check out what my awesome Brand Ambassadors have created…

And, in case you need some 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 – £5 In Stock Clear Stamp Set of Winners Choosing
Random Uniko Stamps Winner – £5 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 challenge.

The deadline for submission is midnight (GMT) on Friday 25th October 2019.

Hugs,

By uniko Cards, Challenge Card, Challenge, Clear Stamps, Colours, Handmade, Leaves, Uniko, Uniko Challenge, Uniko Ltd, Uniko Stamps 2 Comments Read more...

10 Aug

Words of Encouragement

Hello & Happy Weekend.

It’s been a pretty gloomy, rainy and windy day here. With a hint of Autumn in the air, I wanted to create something with some bright colours and use some simple words of encouragement.

I had a good look through my stash and I decided to use Background Blocks Doodle Flower. This is such a fun stamp to add pops of bright colours.

I kept my card design really simple, allowing the block of pattern to take centre stage. I stamped the block in Catherine Pooler Midnight ink and coloured with some bright Stampin’ Up! Stampin’ Blends.

The three small sentiments are from Simply Said Blocks and I stamped them onto some small scraps of coloured card to tie in all the colours and to make the sentiments pop a little more against the background.

A pretty quick card to make, I didn’t time myself, but it must have taken me less than 20 minutes. So I thought I would join in on the fun over at AAA Cards with their current challenge HERE, Made in Minutes.

Before I go today, I thought I would share another quick card using *some* of the crafty stash I have purchased this year! Even though I design my own products, I like to support other small business and I simply can’t resist adding other awesome companies products to my stash and they often include stamps!

Like these fabulous Chubby Unicorns from Funky Fossil Designs!

I don’t normally go for cute stuff, but these were just the right amount 😉 I have paired the stamped unicorn with the Rainbow & Clouds Dies from ‘Lil Inker. The sentiment is a Uniko one, from Simply Said Blocks II.

That’s all from me today, I hope I have added a little cheer to your day.

Thank you for stopping by 🙂

Hugs

By uniko Cards, Challenge AAA Cards, Background Blocks, Card, Challenge, Clear Stamps, Colours, Doodle Flower, Flowers, Handmade, Stamping, Uniko, Uniko Ltd, Uniko Stamps 3 Comments Read more...

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