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08 Dec

December 2023 NEW Release, Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

Hello, Happy Friday AND Happy New Release Day!

I hope you have enjoyed the introductions this week and I’m super excited you have stopped by so I share these new products with you. They are NOW available to purchase HERE on the website.

Hopefully you have hopped on over from HERE where I have introduced the new products and you will also find the links to the Brand Ambassador blogs.

Here’s what I came up with for today…

First up I decided to ink up Background Blocks Perspective and pair it with Mid Century Modern Florals. I started by stamping my favourite combo of stamps to create the flower, which I fussy cut out.

I then stamped the block which I coloured with two shades of orange and grey. I originally wasn’t going to fussy cut the block out, but I smudged my stamping and so had no choice but to cut it out and adhere it using foam tape!

My sentiment choice is from Bauhaus Blocks and I finished the card with enamel dots.

Keeping with the floral theme, I added some Beautiful Blooms II flowers to the Background Blocks Layered Stripes.

I started by stamping the block in Dove ink across the top of the card. You might be able to guess that I have hidden the join in my stamping with the beautiful blooms! My sentiment is from Simply Said Blocks II.

For my last card today I inked up the Stencil – Ink & Flip Snowflake. This card didn’t turn out how I intended either, sometimes it just goes that way after mishaps!

I started out being inspired by The Pantone Colour for 2024, Peach Fuzz. So I inked up the snowflake with Grapefruit and then Sorbet.

I then stamped the sentiment from Snowflake Serenade, which I accidentally dropped on the top of my card. Hence why the most of my snowflakes and embellishments are at the top of the card to cover my mishap!

I hope you have enjoyed this last release of 2023 😊


Now I have announced all the happy news, I have some not so happy news 😞
At the end of last month my manufacturer informed me of an increase in prices (again) as of January 2024. I have resisted increasing my product prices for the last couple of manufacture increases and it has been quite a number of years since I last increased them. 
I know the cost of living is affecting so many people and I hate to do this. But to keep Uniko going & bringing fresh, unique designs I unfortunately have little choice. 
As of Monday 8th January 2024,  product prices will be as follows…
StampsSmall (A7) – £6.50Medium (A6) – £11.50Large (A5) – £16 (Price Remains Unchanged)
Stencils – £4.50


I thank you all for your custom & support here at Uniko.
Crafty Hugs 

By Blog Hop, Cards, Christmas, Floral, New Release, Stencils 2 Comments Read more...
07 Dec

Introducing… Ink & Flip Snowflake

Happy Thursday.

Welcome to the last day of the December 2023 mini release introductions. Today we are introducing the next addition to our unique Ink & Flip Stencil series, Ink & Flip Snowflake.

Just like the previously released Stencil – Ink & Flip Star, which you can see in action HERE. The result, a beautiful geometric snowflake. You might recognise this product from some peeks I shared of the Uniko Stamping Retreat a few months ago. The attendees of the retreat were the first to test the stencil & receive it as their free gift.

Here is some inspiration using this new design…

You know me, I can’t resist rainbow colours and at least one make with a new product has to be in that colour scheme!

I used Concord & 9th inks for stencilling and my sentiment choice is from Christmas Wishes.

Along with rainbows, it is almost certain I will make a shaker card! I am loving these full panel shaker cards, they are so much quicker to make.

I used an Aqua Sky base to ink the snowflake and for the first ink through I used Oceanside. I then cleaned and flipped the stencil & applied Peacock for the second side.

I decided for this shaker to add my sentiment from Festive Sentiments Outlined, to the outside of the shaker. Definitely a hand deliver card as this makes it a little bulky.

That’s all I have today. This stencil, along with all the products we’ve introduced this week will be available tomorrow, 9am GMT Friday 8th December 2023. 

Crafty Hugs

By Blog Hop, Cards, Christmas, Introducing, New Release, Stencils 1 Comment Read more...
06 Dec

Introducing… Background Blocks Perspective

Happy Wednesday. 

Welcome to day two of the December 2023 mini release introductions. Myself and the Uniko Brand Ambassadors are here to get you over the festive mid week hump with LOTS of beautiful inspiration.

This release we are adding to the popular Background Blocks series and the next addition to the series is  Background Blocks Perspective, let’s have a look at it in action…

This background block is such a fun design and perfect for masculine cards. I was scrolling through Pinterest the other week and came across lots of Zentangle and I was inspired to add this to the background. Along with a rainbow of colours of course!

This was not only fun to make, but also relaxing. My sentiment choice is from Simply Said Blocks II and Simply Said Blocks III.

Next up I went for something a little more clean and simple, but still with a masculine vibe.

I chose a bold red and grey to colour the block. I then fussy cut the block out and sliced it in two along the longest length. This was so I could frame the Happy Birthday sentiment from Floral Vines.

That’s all I have today using this new background block, I will be sharing more on Friday and I have some non masculine makes! To see more, be sure to hop on over HERE and see what each of the Brand Ambassadors have made.

Crafty Hugs

By Blog Hop, Cards, Introducing, Masculine, New Release 1 Comment Read more...
05 Dec

Introducing… Background Blocks Layered Stripes

Happy Tuesday.

Welcome to the first day of the December 2023 mini release introductions. This release we are adding to Uniko’s popular Background Blocks series. I love pattern and I love quick, clean & simple cards. Background Blocks fit the bill for all these and prove to be such versatile additions.

This next addition to the series is Background Blocks Layered Stripes, let’s have a look at it in action…

I’m still in FULL on Christmas mode and although I didn’t create this background with Christmas in mind, it is easily adaptable for all occasions.

For this card I went for a really non traditional Christmas colour scheme, Honeysuckle, Marmalade & Nectar. I used all 3 colours on the background block, using my MISTI to repeat stamp.

I then trimmed the block pattern out and adhered it to my base card using foam tape. I’ve embellished with a few Winter Foliage & Natures Treasures II die cuts, along with a heat embossed sentiment from Festive Sentiments Outlined.

Keeping with the festive theme for my next card, I wanted to show how the background looks repeat stamped and this time I offset the design towards the left hand side of my card.

I used Poppy ink to stamp the background and my ‘trick’ here to hide the join is to cover with a sentiment and embellishments! I used a cluster of images from Winter Foliage and a sentiment from Simply Said Blocks Christmas.

For my final card today using this background I wanted to show that you don’t have to use the full background.

Here I stamped the background in Oceanside and then again with VersaMark to heat emboss with WOW! Clear Sparkle embossing powder. I then used a stitched square frame die to cut out a section of the background to resemble a gift box.

I’ve adorned the box with a Poppy red bow from Mid Century Modern Wreath Builder, again heat embossed with Clear Sparkle EP. My sentiment is from Floral Vines, making this card suitable for Christmas or a wintery birthday.

That’s all I have today using this new background block, I will be sharing more on Friday and I have some non festive makes! To see more, be sure to hop on over HERE and see what each of the Brand Ambassadors have made.

Crafty Hugs

By Blog Hop, Cards, Christmas, Introducing, New Release 1 Comment Read more...
28 Oct

October 2023 Release in Review, Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & Giveaway

Happy Weekend!

Welcome to our October 2023 Release in Review, Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & Giveaway. As the Brand Ambassadors didn’t receive their goodies in time to join me for the October Release introductions, I thought it would be nice to have another blog hop to celebrate the release.

If you missed the original release day blog hop & formal introductions, you can catch up HERE. The giveaway is closed on that post, but to keep tradition I have another giveaway listed at the end of this post. Be sure to hop on over HERE for all the Brand Ambassador blog links.

Enough talk, let’s get to the inspiration. I am sharing the cards in the order I made them.

First up Remembrance. I’ve been seeing a trend across social media recently with these beautiful fretwork frames using those offcuts/strips of card and it’s been on my creative list to give it ago.

I started with a top fold card and used a pencil & ruler to mark out a frame to cut out using my craft knife. I don’t have aa rectangle die that would give me an equal sized frame all the way round and in my mind that’s what I wanted!

I’ve been saving up strips of white card and used double sided tape to adhere them. As you might see, I weaved the strips to give the fretwork frame a bit more stability.

As you can see I stamped and coloured one of the Poppies with alcohol markers, fussy cut it out and adhered it using glue to the framework. I finished with a sentiment from Simply Said Blocks II and some enamel dots.

Keeping with a poppy theme I reached for Uniko Style to pair with Big & Bold thank/s/ful to create this card.

I’ve been wanting to dust off Uniko Style since it came back in stock and it has paired beautifully with this bold sentiment.

I used a variety of Altenew inks in shades of pink and red to stamp these blooms. I did use my Misti Stamping Tool so I could repeat stamp the solid flowers where necessary.

I used my Misti to stamp the thanks sentiment too, fussy cut it out and adhered using foam tape. The friend part of the sentiment is also from the set and I finished with some Ebony Nuvo Drops.

Next I turned my attention to Autumn with Autumn Serenade for another fun frame card and a bit of spotlight stamping of sorts.

This time I did use a die to cut the window for my top layer. The frame is a little thicker this time so I was able to stamp & fit a little more of the serenade of falling leaves on it.

Again I used my Misti to stamp sections of the serenade on the opposing corners on the top frame layer and then again on my base card. I added the sentiment and a few of the smaller single leaves and a few enamel dots to finish.

Lastly for today I inked up Framed Snowflakes to create a fun sparkly shaker card.

I’m a little addicted to these full panel shaker cards! If you missed it, I shared one HERE in my 12 Days of Christmas Inspiration & Giveaways Day 6 video on YouTube.

I didn’t want the frame of the snowflakes to be inked, so I trimmed my panel of Oceanside card to 8.5 x 12cm. I then used Peacock ink to add shading around the panel to create a spotlight effect before partial stamping the lower half of the Framed Snowflakes in VersaMark ink and heat embossing. I stamped this lower part of the frame on the top and bottom of the panel. In hindsight I wished I had used black ink to stamp & heat emboss like I did for the single accent snowflake.

My shaker mix is a mix of sequins, snowflake sequins and glitter glass. My sentiment is from Simply Said Blocks Christmas.

Now to the Giveaway, simply comment along the hop for your chance to win a £20 eGift Code to spend in store. You have until midnight Sunday 5th Nov 2023 to comment and the winner will be announced Monday 6th.

One more treat before I go…

Crafty Hugs

By Blog Hop, Cards, Christmas, New Release 10 Comments Read more...
07 Oct

October 2023 NEW Release, Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

Hello, Happy Saturday, Happy World Card Making Day AND Happy New Release Day!

Wow! Could the weekend be any better? 

I hope you have enjoyed my introductions this week and I’m super excited to share these new products with you. They will be available to purchase at 9pm BST tonight HERE on the website.

Hopefully you have hopped over from HERE where I have formally introduced the NEW products and you will find links to all the Brand Ambassador blogs.

And now I have some more inspiration for you using them in order of introduction.

First up, BIG & BOLD thank/s/ful.

On Tuesday when I introduced this clear stamp set, I mentioned another sentiment combination this set would provide and here it is. Though, there is a tiny catch, you do need to have the previously released BIG & BOLD You clear stamp for this one.

I’ve gone for soft pastel shades for this card, using Pebble for the sentiment. I used my stamping tool to stamp this, so I could get a really crisp and even stamped image.

For the flowers which are the poppy heads from Remembrance, fussy cut out I ink blended Grapefruit and Sorbet onto some scrap white card and stamped them in black.

The leaves are from BIG & BOLD Thanks and I did the same, ink blended some Aqua Sky onto scrap card before cutting out.

You might need sunglasses 😎 for this next card the green is quite bright.

I created a DL card to showcase Autumn Serenade this time and I have stamped the falling leaves 4 times around my card to fill the space.

I added glitter to the open leaves for that frosty sparkle and chose the Fall Breeze and Autumn Leaves sentiment this time.

Next we have Remembrance and this time I used a sketch from Freshly Made Sketches seen HERE and below for my layout.

I loved the overlapping circles on the sketch and I instantly pictured overlapping poppy flowers.

I used a trio of Stampin’ Blends to colour the poppies before fussy cutting them out.

I used foam adhesive to give them a little lift off the card and added the Thinking Of You sentiment from Simply Said Blocks II.

Lastly, and by no means least we have Framed Snowflakes. This time I wanted to give the smaller stamps a whirl, quite literally!

I’ve not used my Altenew Stamp Wheel for a bit, so dusted it off for this card. It made stamping the mandala of snowflakes really easy.

That’s all I have to share for today, I hope you have enjoyed this release 😊 Don’t forget the products will be available on the website tonight at 9pm.
Crafty Hugs 

By Blog Hop, Cards, New Release , , , 9 Comments Read more...
06 Aug

2023 July/August Reveal, Release, Brand Ambassador Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

Hello, Happy Sunday AND Happy New Release Day!

I’m super excited to share these new products with you and they are now officially available to purchase over HERE on the website. For the formal introductions and all the Brand Ambassador blog links, head on over HERE.

Be sure to leave some comment love either on their blogs or social media. I will be randomly selecting a winner to win the entire release and will announce the winner Saturday 26th August 2023.

Let’s have a look at these products in action a bit more…

I’m starting with Mid Century Modern Wreath Builder and I wanted to show how these clear stamps have more than a festive use to them. The wreath as you can see can be used for more than just Christmas, I also see sunshine rays!

And I was inspired to pair it with our Stencil – Cloud 9 and a sentiment from Sunshine & Rainbows.

This lead me onto my next card.

Still thinking of sunshine, it reminded me of flowers and sunshine, so I had to pair it with Mid Century Modern Florals.

And I think they pair pretty nicely, even if I do say so myself. As you can see I added some glitter to the inside of the outline wreath.

Keeping with the non festive theme and wreaths on the brain, I turned the Mid Century Modern Christmas triangle geometric into a rainbow wreath for this fun birthday card.

It’s not very often I make a slimline card, but I had so much fun making these wreaths I made two! The centre is decorated with the bow from Mid Century Modern Wreath Builder which are stamped in black and hear embossed with stardust embossing powder.

My sentiment is from Floral Vines paired with the NEW Everyday Family.

For my second card I wanted to recreate this card HERE, paring the same stamp as above with the Bauhaus Blocks.

I overhung the triangles off the edge of my card, keeping them the same size on the left, but altering the size on the right. I then left space at the bottom for one of the blocks and a sentiment.

Lastly for today I had to get festive with my cards. First using Mid Century Modern Baubles, firstly creating a monochrome one layer card.

A simple bit of masking and Copic colouring finished with some clear Wink of Stella.

My next bauble card was inspired by Vinita’s second card HERE, to combine the Stencil – MOD Background Builder.

I started by lightly stencilling the design in the background using Pebble ink. I then stamped and coloured 3 baubles using the reverse masking technique again.

Finally I embellished the baubles with some more elements from the set and mixed and matched a sentiment using the Happy from Mid Century Modern Frames.

One last card as I couldn’t not use the new Ink & Flip Stencil or the Background Block Arts Décoratifs Christmas, so combined them on one card. This was inspired by one of Steph’s cards today HERE.

I started by inking the stencil just the once on my standard size card 10.5 x 14 cm in Poppy ink. But I wanted it slightly darker so went over softly with Cranberry ink.

I then inked and stamped the background block twice so I could colour and fussy cut the main focal Christmas tree out. Which after selectively colouring some of the second stamped background block red, I adhered the Christmas tree with foam tape. And lastly added the fussy cut bow from MCM Wreath Builder, coloured in red.

My aim was to create a card that looked like a gift with a gift tag & bow.

Phew! What a mammoth post. I hope you have enjoyed this release?

Happy shopping and hope to see you over on Facebook at 7pm this evening. I will be taking a look at the new products, along with making a card or two in the live. Don’t worry if you can’t make it or you don’t do Facebook, I will be saving and uploading the video to YouTube.
Crafty Hugs 

By Blog Hop, Cards, Christmas, Floral, Masculine, New Release, Stencils , , , , , , , , , 10 Comments Read more...
05 Aug

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 HERE, HERE, HERE 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 

By Blog Hop, Cards, Christmas, Introducing, New Release , , , , 2 Comments Read more...
04 Aug

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 HERE, HERE 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

By Blog Hop, Cards, Christmas, Introducing, Masculine, New Release 2 Comments Read more...
03 Aug

Introducing… Ink & Flip Stencil – Christmas Star

Welcome to Day 3 of the product introductions for our July/August Release. 

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

Today myself and the Brand Ambassadors are showcasing a fun and in my opinion another innovative Uniko stencil. This stencil has a fun ink & flip feature and this design creates a Christmas Star.  

Enough talk, let’s have a look at the creativity and join me around Midday (BST) Live on Facebook as I demo this new stencil.

First, here is a look at the stencil…

As you can see from the product picture, it doesn’t look like much. Just 4 angled rectangles. Which, I am sure you could get creative with.

However, the concept of this stencil is to ink through, clean and then flip the stencil vertically, so what was once on the left, is now on the right. This will then reveal a star.

For my first card, I wanted to go rainbow. The sentiment I had in mind from Reach For The stars being my inspiration.

This took a little brain work to work the ink colours out. So Ideally line up your 8 colours and then start with colour 1, missing out 1 colour until you get to the point to clean your stencil & flip.

Then start with the first colour you skipped and repeat, missing the colours you’ve used. Ta dah! You then have a rainbow background and beautiful star.

My second card for today was an experiment. I wanted to see what the result would be if I inked through the stencil with my card rotated 45 degrees. And then inked again with it straight.

This is the result. It created an almost kaleidoscope effect. I only used two shades of aqua ink and I think if I were to do it again I would use 4 shades.

I also think you would get a fun result if you used a standard size card, like 10.5 x 14 cm.

I finished off may card with some Gansi Tambi gold ink splats and sentiments from Simply Said Blocks III.

If you are a visual learner, like me. I think this stencil needs to be seen in action to understand how it works. So I will be going live on Facebook around Midday (BST) today to demo the stencil.

Like before I will share the live recording on You Tube and share a link from all social platforms. I will edit and add a link to this post too!

YouTube Link HERE

Crafty Hugs 

By Blog Hop, Cards, Christmas, Introducing, New Release, Stencils , , 2 Comments Read more...