Posts tagged “Christmas”

Introducing… Mid Century Modern Baubles

Welcome to the fifth and final day of the product introductions for our July/August Release. 

Hopefully you didn’t miss day 1, 2 or 3 product introductions, but if you did you can catch up HEREHEREHERE and HERE.

Today myself and the Brand Ambassadors are showcasing another fun addition to the Mid Century Modern inspired products with another fun Christmas themed set, baubles! If you love the Mid Century Modern (MCM) series as much as I do, I think you will love this new addition and I am sure you will have fun pairing it with lots of the current products in this series. 

Mid Century Modern Baubles features 3 fun bauble designs and a selection of Mid Century inspired decorations. Plus, like all the MCM we’ve introduced this week you can mix and match to your hearts content with new & previously released!

For my first card I used the larger of the baubles which I decorated with one of the oval shapes, sentiment and burst image from the set. This set contains a different bow shape to MCM Wreath Builder, but I did use the holly leaves and berries from the set.

Next I decided for a cluster of baubles and used all three of the shapes on one card. This is 14 x 14cm square card base, so hopefully you can visualise the size of the baubles.

To colour this trio of baubles I created a reverse mask, so using the outline you would usually discard. I then used my blending brush to quickly colour each of them.

I then used the shapes and burst image to decorate. The diamond shape behind is also from the stamp set. I’ve used Pebble ink onto Pebble card stock for a tone on tone effect. The sentiment is another mix and match from the set.

Lastly for today I wanted to pair a bauble, firstly with the pine branch from Winter Foliage and add some pattern using Background Blocks Mid Century Modern II.

I opted for a bright Honeysuckle pink colour and appropriately added the Merry and Bright sentiment. Even though I’ve used quite a lot on this one card, it has a bit of a clean & simple look to it.

So that’s it. All of the products have been introduced, which means tomorrow is Release Day!

I’d love to know what’s on your shopping list. 

All the products will be available at 9am BST on the website HERE. I hope you will join us on the blog for our usual Reveal, Release, Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

Plus, I will be going Live on Facebook around 7pm BST to talk through the products and a few of the cards. As always I will save the video and share to our YouTube channel.

Crafty Hugs 

Introducing… Background Blocks Arts Decoratifs Christmas & Everyday Family

Welcome to Day 4 of the product introductions for our July/August Release. 

Hopefully you didn’t miss day 1, 2 or 3 product introductions, but if you did you can catch up HEREHERE and HERE.

Today myself and the Brand Ambassadors are showcasing a fun addition to the Art Deco inspired products with a new background block AND a new addition to the Everyday Sentiment series.

First let’s have a look at the new Background Block…

As you can hopefully see, I designed this new block to coordinate with the previously released Background Block Arts Décoratifs.

On this first card I have used the Background Block Arts Décoratifs on my Evergreen base card, heat embossing n gold ink.

I then stamped and heat embossed in gold the new Background Block Arts Décoratifs Christmas. I fussy cut the block out leaving a small border and adhered to my card using foam adhesive.

For my second card using the new block, I went colourful…

I stamped the block in black and coloured with alcohol markers. I then fussy cut the block out and adhered to a piece of Poppy card stock before adhering to my card base with foam tape. My sentiment choice is from Mid Century Modern Wreath Builder.

Lastly for today I finished the rainbow card I started during my Facebook Live demo of the Ink & Flip Stencil – Christmas Star.

The second product we are introducing today is a new addition to the Everyday Sentiments, with Everyday Family.

This clear stamp set doesn’t need a huge explanation. It contains a HUGE variety of family sentiments with some clever mix and match options to cover a variety of spelling options! Here I used the Nephew paired with a sentiment from Birthday Sentiments.

That’s all from me today.

Crafty Hugs

Introducing… Mid Century Modern Wreath Builder

Welcome to Day 1 of the product introductions for our July/August Release. 

Today myself and the Brand Ambassadors are showcasing one of the new additions to the Mid Century Modern series with this fun wreath builder clear stamp set. 

If you love the Mid Century Modern series as much as I do, I think you will love this new addition and I am sure you will have fun pairing it with lots of the current products in this series. Plus, on Release Day I will be showing more uses for this set, than just festive cards!

But first, let’s have a look at this stamp set in action…

For my first card I’ve gone for a 14 x 14 cm card base. The wreath is approximately 8.5 x 9 cm, so it doesn’t get ‘lost’ on a big card, but also fits nicely on a standard size card, as you will see.

The wreath comes in separate solid and outline stamps, but they are not the same. This is so they can be stamped layered like I have easily. Plus I think it creates interest and options with them being different.

I’ve added one of the sentiment options from the set, which I have fussy cut. Then I have embellished with some berries and the holly leaves also from the set.

For my next card I wanted to pair the wreath with some older, but much loved and ever popular Mid Century Modern products.

As you know I am a clean and simple card maker, but I love pattern too. Often it can be tricky getting balance of incorporating lots of white space and adding pattern. So to keep the balance the trick is to think about the card layout and techniques you can use to achieve the clean & simple style.

‘Some’ would say that this isn’t clean & simple. But we all have our own interpretations of the word and style and to me this fits on the upper end!

As you can see I used just the solid wheat for this card and overlapped them in Concord & 9th Sprout & Parsley inks. I then used a pencil to lightly draw a line where I wanted to cut straight and then around the wreath to reveal my base card.

I used Concord & 9th Cranberry card for the base and stamped the Background Block Mid Century Modern in Cranberry ink for a tone on tone effect. Again I have embellished with a fussy cut sentiment, holly leaves and berries.

Lastly for today I have another card pairing previously released Mid Century Modern products…

This card is sentiment heavy! I’ve used 5 of the 6 sentiments from the set on this one card! I wanted the sentiment to be the focus and the holly leaves to be the accent.

But I also wanted some Mid Century Modern pattern so opted for this layout and used Background Blocks Mid Century Modern II.

Fun, right?

These 3 cards only scratch the surface of the potential this clear stamp set holds. I know the Brand Ambassadors have worked their creative magic with this stamp set too, so be sure to head HERE and hop along.

I can’t wait to show you more of this set later in the week and coming weeks! Until then, thank you for stopping by today.

Crafty Hugs

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!

Happy Thursday.

The serious countdown is on now, with less than two weeks till Christmas Day!

As usual I am still making Christmas cards and added a little more pressure to myself when I committed to sending some to a residential home. I wanted to pay it forward and spread Christmas cheer to those who need it and some who don’t have family and friends.

Today I decided to dust off Jolly Christmas, this Santa puts a smile on my face when I see him, so I am hoping it will be the same for others.

I’ve paired him with the ‘Ho Ho Ho’ background builder from Background Builders Christmas 2018 and a Merry Christmas sentiment from Festive Sentiments.

How are your Christmas preparations and plans coming along? Apart from Christmas cards and the fresh food shop, I think I am just about sorted.

Before I go today, I have one more thing to tell you about…

I hope you will join Uniko on Saturday 14th December at 9am GMT for a Christmas Party with inspiration & prizes!

Warm Crafty Hugs!

The Holly & The Ivy

Happy Friday!

Oh my, the days are just flying by and the last Christmas posting dates are fast approaching. I feel like I still have a mountain of Christmas cards to make and post – ack!

With no new release here until January 2020, I thought I would do some much needed restocks. This week a HUGE batch of clear stamps arrived in the studio – YAY!

As you know, I love a good restock. It inspires me to dust off stamps I’ve not used for a while and give them some fresh inky love. One of the clear stamp sets that came back in stock this week is Background Builders: Vines, and this is how I was inspired to use it today, along with Background Builders: Vines Winter Additions…

These stamp sets were designed to be used independently, but also together. I just LOVE how this card turned out. I used the vine boughs from Background Builders: Vines and embellished them with the ivy leaf, holly leaf and berries.

The sentiment is from Festive Sentiments and I popped it up on the card with some foam adhesive.

That’s all I have to share with you today. I hope you all have a wonderful day and find some time to be creative.

Crafty Hugs 

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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


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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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…

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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.

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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.

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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.

Sarah P

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

Rainbow Snowflakes

Hey!

Where did Monday go?! I had all good intentions to pop in yesterday with the card I am sharing today, but the day got away from me!

Anyway, how about some rainbow snowflakes…

 

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I never tire of colour and part of card making and paper crafts is being creative and adding your own spin on things. So rainbow snowflakes, why not?!

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Also, never underestimate the power of a small stamp either 😉 This snowflake from BIG & BOLD Snow is just 2cm in diameter, but look at the fun I’ve had with it and the coordinating Designer Dies BIG & BOLD Snow Collection.

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I used 1mm thick foam adhesive to adhere the snowflakes to my card. This thickness means you get some dimension, but it isn’t too bulky and still fits through the mail as a normal letter 😉 The sentiment I have used is from the popular Simply Said Blocks Christmas.

Okay, that’s all from me today, I hope you have enjoyed this little bit of Christmas inspiration. Until next time, thanks so much for stopping by today.

Crafty Hugs


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…

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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!

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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.

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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…

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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.

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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.

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And here is the sketch I followed…

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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.

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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


Peace, Love, Joy, New & Old

Hey!

I’m finally back with the card I had planned to share yesterday, but time and energy just simply slipped away. And before I call it a day I thought I’d pop by quick today!

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I love to stretch my supplies. Even more so when much loved older clear stamp sets get a new lease of fresh inky love when combined with the NEW.

This card design of combining the mirror image doves from the previously released Peace on Earth clear stamp set with Festive Sentiments Outlined, was one that came to mind when I was putting the sentiment set together and deciding on the sentiments.

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Replicating what I saw in my head onto my card came out just as I saw and I am in love with the clean and simple results.

Okay, a super CAS card for today, but hopefully an inspiring one! Thanks for stopping by & I hope to back tomorrow with more to share.

Crafty Hugs