Posts tagged “Masculine”

Uniko Challenge #57 Anything Goes & Optional Twist Cool Winter Colours

Hey!

Welcome to the January/February 2020 Uniko Challenge.

We’re kicking off 2020 with an Anything Goes theme and have added in the optional twist of Cool Winter Colours for those of you that like to challenge yourselves even more.


We’ve the amazingly awesome Trina P joining us as our Guest Designer and I know you’ll adore her awesome card.

How fabulous is that! Do pop over to her blog and let her know how clever she is – HERE

In January & February I have a few male birthdays & so I thought with the cool winter colours twist of the challenge I would make a masculine birthday card.

For my blues I chose the Altenew Sweet Dreams colour collection of inks and blended them onto my card base using my Taylored Expressions blender brushes. I do love how handy the blender brushes are and seem to be able to control them a little better than the standard foam pad tool!

I kept my design simple by using the Background Block Graffiti Texture and stamping it in Teal Cave ink and the sentiment from Simply Said Blocks stamped in the darkest shade Galactic Stream. The sentiment is adhered to the card using foam adhesive.

Be sure to check out all the inspiration from the Brand Ambassadors HERE on the challenge post & you will also find the link up to the challenge there too.

Need a little more incentive to join in? How about some 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 21st February 2020.

Crafty Hugs,

Sailing Through The Week Like…

Happy Hump Day!

Who’s sailing smoothly through the week and who’s like me and sailing choppy waters?!

I can’t believe how much time has passed since I last shared inspiration here *gasps* with horror! Thanks for hanging in there with me in my absence recently. I promise I have been a busy bee behind the scenes 😉

Anyway, how about some Nautical Treasures inspiration…

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I’ve had these cards made & photographed for probably a month now! The last few weeks of the summer holidays here in the UK got a little busy with family visiting and day trips out. Then The Beans turned 5 *GASP* on the 2nd September and they started BIG school (full time) on the 3rd!

It hasn’t quite been smooth sailing as we all adjust to a new routine and to top it off this past weekend the dreaded back to school flu/cold bugs hit ME!!

Anyway, this masculine duo was inspired by my awesome DT member Jane. I love it when DT members think outside of the box when it comes to alternative uses for products and using the Tiger Print Stencil was Jane’s genius idea. You can see Jane’s inspiration HERE.

Sailing1bSo when I needed some waves for my cards I instantly thought to recreate Jane’s idea, which I have done for both designs.

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Hopefully I’ve given you a little mid week inspiration to look at your crafty stash to see how else it can be used and all being well, my next post won’t be as long a wait as this one!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Hugs


Stamp Set Focus – Background Builders Classics

Hey!

I had planned on writing this blog post last night, but the motherhood exhaustion hit post Bean bedtime and I just chilled instead – sorry!

Anyway, this is one of those types of post that I keep meaning to do more of and then life/other work gets in the way. I had also envisioned I would use more of the stamps from the clear stamp set I am focusing on, but I kinda got hooked on just one of the stamps! Please tell me it’s not just me that has these problems 😉

For my first ‘Stamp Set Focus’, I wanted to use the recently released Background Builders Classics. I felt it needed a little more inky love.

For my first two cards I used the same layout (inspired by Jane’s Uniko DT post HERE). I used the horizontal stripe stamp from the set more as an accent, rather than to build a background too.

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For this first card I dusted off some older clear stamp sets. The large bold HAPPY is from All Occasion Sentiments #2 and it is so much fun to stamp it in a rainbow of colours! The flowers are from Flower Power #7 and the smaller script birthday is from Simply Said Birthday. I added a few Nuvo Drops to finish of my design.

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As I still had the horizontal stripe stamp positioned in my MISTI, I stamped up another to create my next card. This time combining it with a sentiment from the recently released Sentiments Outlined and accented with some blooms from Beautiful Blooms II.

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I love how quick this card was to make, just a little bit of simple stamping and masking for the blooms and a little dimension for the stamped panel.

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Next I switched up the orientation of my card and used another of my favourite techniques and paired the stamp with some other ‘older’ Uniko stamps.

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Using a stamping tool means your stamp is always in the same place for repeated stamping. This is handy for this technique, where I have used water  based markers to colour my stamp. I have done this technique quite a few times, like HERE.

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I used Stampin’ Up! markers in Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade and Costal Cabana for a lovely tropical palette to go with images from Paradise and Paradise Leaves.

Lastly, I wanted to ‘build’ a background and this is the result…

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Having created a bold background I wanted to showcase it in a way not to take too much focus from it and it also needed a pop of colour.

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I used Stampin’ Up! dies to create the HAPPY, which I die cut each letter 3 times and adhered them together with glue. I wanted them to have some dimension but not too much to make the card bulky. Again I used the partially stamped sentiment, script birthday from Simply Said Birthday.

I hope I have inspired you a little and given you some new ideas and techniques to try out. I sure had fun using this one stamp!

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs


Current BEST Seller!

Hello & Happy Monday!

Thank you to everyone who has made the July 2019 Release a fabulous one, thank you for all your awesome orders and comments over the weekend. All orders that were placed have been shipped today 🙂 there is one happy small business owner in the studio this evening – THANK YOU!

As I was busy packing orders over the weekend I was amazed at how many people were still ordering this little stamp from the May 2019 Release, Background Blocks Mid Century Modern

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So it got me looking at the stats on the website and this little stamp has been the best seller for THREE months! I never thought such a little design would prove to be so popular. It makes me happy that it does as it is a fave of mine too 😉

This in turn inspired me to ink it up again…

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The layout for this card was inspired by the current sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches seen HERE and below, plus a mix of supplies I had already stamped on my desk!

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I partially inked up the Background Block Mid Century Modern stamp with Altenew Gray Denim ink. I then stamped the new ‘Have a Perfect Day’ sentiment from Sentiments Outlined and to make it stand out a little more I decided to fill in the sentiment with a black fine liner.

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To finish the design I arranged a cluster of tropical flowers and foliage from Paradise and Paradise Leaves. It turned out a little more ‘busy’ than I had planned in my head, but I still like the end result.

Lastly for today I have a super CAS card using this background…

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The layout of this card is from the current sketch over at CAS Colours & Sketches seen HERE and below and I love how I unexpectedly made a more masculine card to show the versatility of this fun background.

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I’ve used minimal supplies for this card, VersaFine Onyx Black ink to stamp the background. VersaMark & WOW Opaque White EP to stamp the mixed sentiment from Simply Said and the recently released WILD clear stamp sets. And to finish the design I added some Liquid Mercury Nuvo Drops to three of the dots in the pattern.

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That’s all I have to share with you today and I hope you have enjoyed this little snippet of knowledge and inspiration about and using this little background stamp. I will be back tomorrow with some more cards using the NEW RELEASE, but if you’ve not checked out the Release Blog Hop, be sure to hop on by HERE to the start.

Until tomorrow, thank you for stopping by.

Hugs


Re-introducing Nautical Treasures AND Introducing Background Blocks Nautical Stripes, Anchors & Fleur De Lis Stencils

Hey!

Welcome to Day 3 of the July 2019 Release product introductions.

Hopefully you have hopped on over from our lovely Guest Designer Keren’s blog HERE. If you missed the start of the hop and introduction to todays products, you can catch up HERE.

Today we are re-introducing a previously released and retired clear stamp set, Nautical Treasures. Plus, I have designed some new products to go perfectly with it! Introducing the newest Background Block, Nautical Stripes and 2 new stencil designs, Anchors and Fleur De Lis.

Today I have a couple of clean & simple nautical inspired cards to share with you. First up I have one pairing the new Background Block Nautical Stripes with the sail boat from the previously released and retired Nautical Treasures.

 

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This card was really quick to make. I stamped the Background Blocks Nautical Stripes in Altenew Desert Night ink. I always use my MISTI for this, so I can repeat stamp for a perfect impression, especially with the more solid stripes in the design.

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The sail boat is stamped in Catherine Pooler Midnight ink, fussy cut out and I added a stencilled anchor to the sail. The sentiment is from Nautical Treasures.

Lastly for today I have this quick and easy card…

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This time I decided to use the thick stripe from Background Builders Classics, which we introduced on Monday. Again I used Altenew Desert Night ink and my MISTI to stamp. I then stencilled one anchor to strip of white card & tied through some bakers twine. The sentiment is from Simply Said.

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Unfortunately that is all I have to share with you today, my mojo was exhausted with the recent heat here 🙁

However, my AWESOME Design Team and wonderful Guest Designer this month, Keren Baker have worked their magic with today’s products, so be sure to hop along & see them…

Bev (that’s me)

Carol 

Sarah P

Wiebke 

WOW!

That was a phenomenal inspirational hop, so many creative designs and lovely to see fresh inky creativeness with Nautical Treasures too!


I hope you enjoyed it and you will join us again tomorrow for another product introduction and LOTS more inspiration 🙂

Hugs

Uniko Challenge Reminder #53 – Anything Goes + Optional Twist Masculine

Hey!

I’m here today along with our Guest Designer and Design Team to remind you about the May/June 2019 Uniko challenge.

We have an Anything Goes theme at the moment, but with Father’s Day here in the UK coming up in June we’ve also added in the optional twist of Masculine just in case.

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 Radhika joining us again as our Guest Designer. She has created another fabulous masculine card to inspire you.

How fun & quirky is this masculine card? Be sure to head on over to Radhika’s blog & leave some love 🙂

I made time for some creativity yesterday in the studio 🙂 It’s been a hectic month with so much going on and to keep up with, that I feel I’ve missed making cards for the fun of it.

Anyway, this is one of the cards I made…

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With Father’s Day fast approaching I thought I had better make another card! Explosion! Additions is an awesome clear stamp set for making masculine cards. The fun halftone explosions look FAB stamped in bright colours & I’ve accented the large ones with some smaller explosions stamped in shades of Grey.

I used Catherine Pooler inks for the large halftone explosions in Suede Shoes, Rockin’ Red & Limoncello, such clean, bright & crisp stamped images. Plus I didn’t even use my MISTI, these came out perfect using an acrylic block. I used Altenew Gentleman’s Grey collection for the smaller explosions.

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The die cut DAD was an ‘ah ha’ idea I had using the MFT Happy Birthday die I bought at Happy Stampers Festival. Though I’ve not used it as ‘happy birthday’ on a card yet, I was thinking what other words I could make from it and this was one of the results – haha!

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I’ve layered the white die cut letters which I have partially stamped with the Background Block Halftone, with some black die cut letters to make them stand out a little better from the background.

Now, if you need a little more incentive to join in on the challenge, here are the prizes up for grabs…  

  • 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 month’s challenge. The deadline for submission is midnight (GMT) on Friday 19th April 2019 (7.00pm EDT).

I look forward to seeing you in the gallery HERE and be sure to check out the Design Team inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Hugs


Introducing… Background Blocks Graffiti Texture

Hey!

Welcome to Day 3 of our 7th Birthday & February 2019 Release product introductions. The last two days have been so fun and colourful. If you have missed any of them you can catch up HERE and HERE.

I’m back again today with my guest designer and the design team to show you LOTS of inspiration! This time we are introducing a new Background Blocks Graffiti Texture clear stamp Hopefully you have hopped on over from the start HERE where I have introduced these 2 new products a little.

How about a closer look at the cards I have made using it…

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This stamp to me speaks masculine and the randomness of the design appears as if it would be difficult to achieve a seamless pattern. However, with a tiny bit of masking I was able to stamp the block down one edge of a Smokey Slate card stock base.

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I added a sentiment from Simply Said Blocks I which is layered with a piece of red card and adhered using foam adhesive. I finished the design with a trio of Nuvo Drops.

For my next card I decided to continue with the masculine theme and the grey colour scheme…

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For this card I stamped the block in Altenew Silver Slate ink. I then stamped a trio of the stars from Background Builders: Seeing Stars in Aqualicious, Fresh Lemon and Orange Cream added the same sentiment from Simply Said Blocks I and some enamel stars.

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Lastly I wanted to show how this background block can be used for a feminine card…

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I was inspired by a couple of my favourite card challenges to create this card. First up the colour combo is from CAS Colours & Sketches seen HERE and below. Then the layout of my card is from Freshly Made Sketches seen HERE and below.

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To make this card I stamped the graffiti block in Rubellite and Pink Diamond ink. I then die cut a two sizes of Sizzix Framelits hearts. The sentiment is from the ‘secret’ clear stamp set being introduced on the 10th 😉

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Once I had arranged the die cuts how I wanted them, I went in and added some stamped hearts from Flower Power #3. I also added some White Blizzard Nuvo Glitter Drops to the smaller stamped hearts to add a little sparkle.

That’s all I have to share today using these products, but I know Ruth our Guest Designer this month along with the Design Team have SO much more to share with you.

Hop on by to see what Ruth has created HERE and this is the order of the hop following Ruth…

Also, don’t forget the enter the HUGE giveaway over HERE to WIN Stamps For A Year! If you need help entering the giveaway as you don’t have a blog or social media to link, send me an email and I will assist you 🙂

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Thanks so much for stopping by & joining in on the 7th Birthday February Release fun 🙂

Hugs

Introducing… Stencil Abstract Triangles & Birthday Wishes

Hey!

Welcome to Day 2 of our 7th Birthday & February 2019 Release product introductions. How fun & colourful was yesterday? It sure brightened up my Wednesday! If you missed it, you can catch up HERE.

I’m back again today with my guest designer and the design team to show you LOTS of inspiration! This time we are introducing a new Stencil Abstract Triangles & Birthday Wishes Clear Stamp Set. Hopefully you have hopped on over from the start HERE where I have introduced these 2 new products a little.

How about a closer look at the cards I have made using them…

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I had this crazy idea to rainbow the Abstract Triangle stencil and I am glad I did as the results are FAB! I used my Altenew Inks for this as I have more colours to choose from and I didn’t want to repeat the colours too much. It was just a matter of masking off each triangle to apply the colour and move onto the next.

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I trimmed my card to exactly 6 x 6 ” and place my stencil central, this left a nice border around the edge. I layered it onto a black card base and added the BIG & BOLD Happy die cuts & clear stamp sentiment to finish the design.

Next I used the same technique of placing my stencil to create a border down the vertical sides. This time I used Distress Oxide Inks and I trimmed my panel horizontal to create a slightly raised panel when adhered to my base card.

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I added a slight sprite of water to the ink blending, added another of the sentiments from Birthday Wishes and a trio of Nuvo Gloss White Drops.

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Lastly I have one more card using Birthday Wishes and to continue the rainbow theme I created a watercolour rainbow block panel for my sentiment to be stamped onto.

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I used smooth watercolour card, an acrylic block & Zig Clean Color Brush Pens. I coloured my acrylic block with the Zigs in a rainbow format, spritzed them and also my panel of watercolored card and stamped it in place. I had a little ink movement as I lifted, but still the results were good.

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I used my MISTI tool to stamp the sentiment as even though the watercolour card is smooth, it still took a couple of stamps to get a crisp image. The trio of circle stamps are from yesterdays BIG & BOLD Happy clear stamp set and I also added some colourful Nuvo Drops to their centres.

That’s all I have to share today using these products, but I know Ruth our Guest Designer this month along with the Design Team have SO much more to share with you.

Hop on by to see what Ruth has created HERE and this is the order of the hop following Ruth…

Also, don’t forget the enter the HUGE giveaway over HERE to WIN Stamps For A Year! If you need help entering the giveaway as you don’t have a blog or social media to link, send me an email and I will assist you 🙂

WINstampsforayear

Thanks so much for stopping by & joining in on the 7th Birthday February Release fun 🙂

Hugs

 

August 2018 Reveal, Release, Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

Woohoo!

Finally the day has arrived and the August 2018 Release is NOW available to purchase HERE on the website. We have our traditional Reveal, Release, Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY! Hopefully you have hoped on over from the start of the hop HERE.

I managed to squeeze in a little more creative time in between admin jobs and created a ‘twofer’ using the new Background Builders: Happy Hexagons clear stamp set…

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First up is this funky design!

I used one of the larger single hexagons to create this background. I didn’t use my stamping tool this time, I just eyeballed it and there is no particular sequence, it is totally random. I then used my Stampin’ Up! markers in bright colours to create the stripes.

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I trimmed and adhered the panel to some black card before adhering to my white card base. The ‘hello’ sentiment is from BIG & BOLD Hello, stamped, embossed in white & fussy cut out. I really *need* some dies to match these BIG & BOLD sentiments 😉
Next, I went for another brightly stamped masculine design using the hexagons, but with a softer overall feel to the card…
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I used my favourite Altenew ink colours to again stamp the larger single hexagons, just by eyeballing it. I layered the panel with some Basic Grey card and added the ‘You Rock’ sentiment from Simply Said Blocks.
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The current challenge over at Twofer Card Challenge HERE and seen below is ‘Geometrics’, hence me making a twofer with Background Builders: Happy Hexagons!
Twofer August 2018
Unfortunately, I only had time to finish these two cards 🙁
I did start making some watercolored cards very late last night, but ran out of energy to finish them, so I will be back tomorrow with those to share 🙂

I know the Design Team have been much more organised and have prepared lots of wonderful cards to inspire you using the new products, so be sure to hop along their blogs below…

Be sure to comment along the hop for your chance to win the ENTIRE Release!! You have until Midnight (BST) 2nd  September 2018 to comment and the winner will be announced soon after.

Happy Hopping!

 Hugs

Uniko Sponsors “Less is More”

Hello & Happy Weekend!

I am here bright and early this morning to tell you that Uniko is super happy and proud to be sponsoring “Less is More” again.

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As you can see, this week the theme is ‘friendship’ and for my Guest Designer card I thought I would dust off Reach For The Stars and Background Builders: Seeing Stars

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I recently had a little Stampin’ Up! splurge as I couldn’t wait to get my hands on some of the new and returning colours! One of the colours I couldn’t wait to use was Grey Granite, those who know me, know that I LOVE grey. I think love might be an understatement, lets say obsessed!

Just yesterday I was talking to my husband about painting some rooms in the house and I said I had picked up some paint chips on the way past the DIY store. He knew before he even looked that the majority would be shades of grey – LOL! I love it as a base colour to accessorise with other colours, like I have with my card today…

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I was super happy to see that Altenew Silver Stone ink is a really good match to the Grey Granite card, which I used to stamp my sentiment. The star in the middle from Background Builders: Seeing Stars is stamped in a slightly darker shade, Altenew Industrial Diamond ink. I then used my Prismacolor Pencils in Light & Dark Aquamarine to colour it. The 2 smaller stars are stamped in Altenew Aqualicious and Teal Cave. I finished the stars off with some clear Wink Of Stella too for that subtle sparkle.

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The layout of my card is from the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge seen HERE and below.

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I’ve so many friends I could send this card to, so I think I will be replicating this design with other colours & the Grey Granite!

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OK, that’s all from me today, I’ll be spending time with The Beans and hubby today, before a little night out with some of my old nursing friends, celebrating ones retirement. It’ll be nice to catch up with them 🙂

Anyway, be sure to head on over to the “Less is More” blog here and join in on the fun.

Hugs