Posts tagged “Sparkle”

Merry Monday & Winners

Hey!

I’m alive, kicking and back in the studio this week, after what seems forever in recovering from the flu and sinusitis – ugh! It’s been a rough few weeks, but I think my mojo has returned along with my (almost) good health – yay!

I usually have my Merry Monday post over on the Uniko blogspot blog, but I am also here to tell you about the newest Uniko Challenge which started on Friday HERE.

I am *so* behind on my Christmas card making with being ill and I have *so* many Uniko stamps that I have not used in such a long time, including Background Builders: Christmas 2018.

This clear stamp set features a fun outline Christmas Tree building stamp and when I saw the current sketch over at CAS(E) this Sketch! seen HERE and below, I was inspired to use it to follow the sketch.

I selected a trio of Comic Markers to colour the trees and then added some much need clear Wink of Stella sparkle and some teeny tiny Nuvo Drops to represent Christmas lights. My sentiment choice is from the popular Simply Said Blocks Christmas.

Okay, how about some LONG awaited winners?!

Firstly I have the winner of the Uniko October 2019 Post Release Blog Hop HERE. Random.org has helped me select the lucky comment left along the hop and the winner is…

Greta27 October 2019 at 00:29

Great variety of cards! I especially love the first & fourth ones!

Congratulations Greta! Please send an email to bev@uniko.co.uk along with your postal address.

Lastly for today I have the winner of the Fall/Winter Coffee Lover Blog Hop extra giveaway I had HERE.

Verna Angerhofer Edit Reply

I love all the pretty designs. Thanks for being a sponsor too.

Congratulations Verna! Please send an email to bev@uniko.co.uk along with your postal address.

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 

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


Introducing… Winter Botanicals: Sweet Broom & Quilted Stencil

Hey!

Welcome back to day 3 of the October 2018 Release product introductions.

This is the fun part, you now get to see all the sneak peeks in action. The Design Team have worked their socks off and created an abundance of inspiration to share with you over the coming days 🙂

Thank you for all the comment love yesterday here and on social media. If you missed yesterday, you can catch up HERE, where myself & the DT introduced 2 Stencil Designs and an addition to the Simply Said Blocks series. You can catch up HERE with day 1, where myself and the Design Team re-introduced Background Builders: Christmas and Jolly Christmas clear stamp sets.

Today we are introducing Winter Botanicals: Sweet Broom & another Stencil, Quilted. Hopefully you have hoped on over from HERE where I have shared a couple of cards that we made at last weekends Uniko Stamping Retreat.

I’ve just the one card today to share, using Winter Botanicals: Sweet Broom…

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My thinking behind this card was that I wanted to recreate the feel of first frost (or first snow as parts of the NE of the UK have experienced yesterday) on winter foliage.

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I chose to use Altenew inks in two shades of grey to stamp the outline and inner detail of the foliage images, then added lots of glitter to the white spaces left. There is so much sparkle on this card! The sentiment is from Pure Florals: Poinsettia.

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That’s all I have to share today, but my AWESOME Design Team have created projects to share with you all too. Be sure to hop along, commenting along the way. You never know, I might just pick some random comments to WIN some prizes this release 😉

Sarah P

WOW! That was another inspirational hop, so many new ideas of how to use these new stencils and sentiment stamps. I hope you enjoyed the hop & will come back tomorrow for the last product introductions.

Hugs

 

Featured in Cards & Crafts for Christmas

Hey!

Happy Weekend & HAPPY long Bank Holiday weekend to all in the UK, you’ve got to love an extra day to the weekend!

Today I am back to share a little more about the Uniko feature in Cards & Crafts for Christmas, which I shared on social media on Friday.

I am always truly honoured to be approached by editors to design digital stamps and have my cards featured. I also love sharing things for free, which brings me on to the feature in Cards & Crafts for Christmas….

I also LOVE snowflakes, glitter and sparkle, so when I received the brief my heart skipped a beat and these are the snowflake digital stamps I came up with and a snippet of the feature from the magazine…

The digital stamps can be downloaded from www.simplycardsmag.com and the digital stamps in the magazine can be found HERE, you will need to register to be able to download them.

I’d LOVE to see if you use these freebies or any of the free digital stamps I have designed in the past. I have links to some of them HERE.

So if you have made something and blogged about it, email me a link to bev@uniko.co.uk OR if you have posted it on social media, such as Instagram or Facebook, be sure to tag @unikoltd or  use the #unikoltd or #unikostamps and I will be able to find them.

That’s all from me today, but I will be back again soon with more to share! Until then, thanks for stopping by and enjoy the freebies 😉

Hugs

25 Days Of Christmas Tags – Day 21!

Hey!

I’m super happy you’ve popped by today as here at Uniko we are super excited to be part of a wonderful festive event…

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This is the 7th year the lovely and creative Tracey McNeely  from In My Creative Opinion has organised this fun and festive event to spread Christmas Cheer.

Uniko are honoured to be one of the 25 sponsors of the event and to be taking part 🙂

Sponsors 2017

Myself and the Uniko Design Team have got our festive on and created some Christmas Tags to share with you, so let’s get to the inspiration!

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First up I decided to go a little ‘Traditional’ with a classic red, white and gold combo. I don’t think Festive Sentiments has left my desk since it was released last month!

I dusted off one of my all time favourite Papertrey Ink Tag Sale dies, this is No.5 I love the curved top and the notched bottom of this tag shape and it as a good size, not too big, but not too small!

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So for this tag I simply die cut the tag from Stampin’ Up! Real Red card, stamped my sentiment from Festive Sentiments in VersaMark and heat embossed in Gold EP. I added a Soft Stone satin ribbon tail, secured with some Stampin’ Up! bakers twine.

Next, I couldn’t resist a snowflake tag!

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I am loving having the Uniko Designer Die Snowflake Trio back in the inventory, I sure have missed using these beauties!

I fairly recently purchased some Stampin’ Up! Mini Pizza Boxes to use as gift packaging this Christmas and I thought it was the perfect size to dress up using a not so recent Stampin’ Up! purchase of the Cheerful Tags dies! I think these are now retired.

There are 2 tags in the set of Cheerful Tags dies and the one I have used has handy ribbon threading holes at the top and bottom of the tag. The tag does come with a back, but I didn’t need it and wanted my tag to be completely flat against the lid of the box.

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I didn’t want a design that would take too much focus off the sparkly medium snowflake, but I really wanted to pair it with the recently released Uniko Wonky Stripes Stencil! So, I opted for a soft Altenew grey ink (Silver Stone) to ink the stencil design onto the tag shape. I then simply adhered the tag over the top using foam adhesive. The ribbon is another favourite of mine, Hawaiian Shores from Papertrey Ink.

I had planned to make SO many different tags using Uniko’s festive clear stamps, but time was not on my side! Hopefully I will get to make and share these before the end of the event!

Anyway, the Uniko Design Team have some festive inspiration to share with you too, be sure to stop by their blogs (links below) and leave some love!

CLICK HERE to see more from Carol

CLICK HERE to see more from Deborah

CLICK HERE to see more from Izzy

CLICK HERE to see more from Jane

CLICK HERE to see more from Lindsey

CLICK HERE to see more from Rahmat

All the details about the event and link up can be found HERE. Today’s Uniko post on Tracey’s blog can be found HERE.

Enjoy!

Introducing… Background Blocks Falling Snowflakes

YAY!

I’m SO happy that you have stopped by today, as here at Uniko preparations for the October 2017 product release are well underway. We have had all the sneak peeks and we are now onto day 3 of the product introductions. You can catch up HERE and HERE with day 1 and 2.

Today the Design Team and I are introducing the next stamp in the Background Blocks series, called Falling  Snowflakes. If you’ve been a long time follower, you will know that I love, love LOVE snowflakes 🙂 so this stamp just had to be done!

Plus I am reintroducing the Designer Dies Snowflake Trio – YAY! This set of dies was originally launched back in October 2013 and due to various reasons that I won’t bore you with, I scaled back on restocking dies. Anyway, I am super duper pleased to have this set back in and available to purchase again with the October Release!!

So, how about some inspiration using these products…

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This card shows the design in it’s entirety, a lovely cascade of simple snowflakes! Here I have embossed them in white onto Stampin’ Up! Night Of Navy card along with an embossed sentiment from BIG & BOLD Snow. I added a few baby blue tiny rhinestone for a little sparkle too!

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I used my MISTI to position both the sentiment and the background block, as I knew I would want to do another card using this layout and this is how…

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I simply reversed the colours and this time added a medium snowflake from the Designer Die Snowflake Trio, which is smothered in Stampin’ Up! glitter!

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Hopefully you can see the sparkle in the photo above, it sure makes my heart happy to see sparkly Uniko snowflakes again!

That’s all from me here, but be sure to hop along all the Design Team blogs and leave a comment along the way, as you never know you might just win a random prize! I know for sure that you won’t be disappointed the Design Team have created a bountiful wealth of inspiration 🙂

CLICK HERE to see more from Deborah

CLICK HERE to see more from Izzy

CLICK HERE to see more from Jane

CLICK HERE to see more from Lindsey

CLICK HERE to see more from Rahmat

CLICK HERE to see more from Sarah P

I do hope you have enjoyed the hop and seeing the possibilities this clear stamp set has? This set along with the four others we are introducing this week will be available HERE for you to purchase on Monday 16th October at 9am GMT.

Release Schedule…
Sneak Peeks 7th – 10th October, these little teasers give you hints at what is in store!

Introducing 11th – 15th October, here you will see a closer look at the products being released with a daily blog hop with the Uniko DT.

Release Day! Monday 16th October 9am BST you will get to see the products in their entirety and purchase them HERE on the website! As usual there will be a Design Team Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!
Thank you for stopping by today and I’d LOVE to hear your initial thoughts on this new clear stamp 🙂

Hugs

To BEE or not to BEE Blog Hop

Hey!

Today I am super excited to have been invited and to take part in a wonderful blog hop organised by Milka from Crafty Milka.

The purpose of the blog hope is to support Bees and to raise public awareness of the importance of bees and apicultural products. It is also in support of the Slovenian Beekeepers’ Association that May 20th be declared as World Bee Day by the United Nations (UN).

There are 14 fantastic companies and artists supporting the blog hop with their incredible generosity, which includes myself Uniko 🙂

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All the prize information can be found HERE at the start of the hop and to be in with a chance of winning one of the 14 prizes, simply comment along each stop of the hop!

Now for some creative inspiration…

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With not owning any bee stamps 🙁 I knew I had to BEE creative with my card! The recently released Background Block Horizontal Stripe was perfect for the idea I had envisioned and the result is what you see above.

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I selectively inked alternate stripes first in black ink and then in yellow ink, using my MISTI tool to keep the stamp and card stock all lined up. The bee is a free hand drawing I did myself, which I fussy cut out and adhered to the card using foam adhesive. I also gave the bee a lovely coating of clear Wink Of Stella.

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The sentiment is from the recently released Happy Succulents clear stamp set and fussy cut out and adhered with foam adhesive too. I then drew in some little lines to give the bee some movement and as I couldn’t find a white gel pen to draw the lines in over the black stripes I improvised and added some mini sparkly rhinestones!

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I hope you have enjoyed my little creative offering for the hop?! If you have missed the start of the hop you can begin HERE at Milka’s blog. If you are on track your next stop is Amy Tsuruta HERE.

Thank you so much for stopping by and HAPPY HOPPING!

Hugs

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Uniko Sponsors AAA Cards!

Hey!

I’m super duper pleased you have popped back today as again we have LOTS more fun to share with you!

This post is simply awesome! As myself and Uniko are proud to be sponsoring the challenge  over at AAA Cards this fortnight. This fortnight the challenge HERE is Watercolour…

The Uniko Design Team and myself have joined in on the fun and created some watercolour inspiration for you. First up is the card I have created…

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I decided to give some more NBUS a whirl and you are getting a early peek at 3 new stamps that we will be introducing on Tuesday 😉 I’ve also FINALLY got my hands on the Stampin’ Up! Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies – woohoo! I’ve wanted these dies for AGES and I got them last week in time for the Uniko February & 5th Birthday Release celebrations.

I also decided to have a ‘play’ and joined in the new CAS(E) this Sketch! challenge seen HERE and below, a fun sketch with lots of possibilities.

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I also gave my Zigs a whirl, using 2 shades of pink and a blush colour to blend in from the top and bottom of the die cut circle. The ‘you’ die is also from Stampin’ Up! and I added a good smothering of clear Wink Of Stella.

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Ok, that’s all from me, but be sure to check out what the Uniko Design Team have created to inspire you. I know for a fact you won’t be disappointed…

CLICK HERE to see more from Deborah

CLICK HERE to see more from Jane

CLICK HERE to see more from Lindsey

CLICK HERE to see more from Sarah G

CLICK HERE to see more from Sarah P

That’s all from the Uniko DT and myself for now, but be sure to head on over HERE to see what the AAA Cards Design Team have created to inspire you and to join in on the fun too. I hope to see you in the gallery!

I’ll be back AGAIN soon with Day 2 of the February & 5th Birthday Sneak Peeks 😉

Hugs

A Look Back At 2016!

Hey!

Welcome back to another ‘Look Back At 2016! This year has been an amazing year for myself personally, but it has been a fantastic year for Uniko. We have had 5 fabulous releases, with 16 new clear stamps sets lining the Uniko HQ shelves. 

I don’t know about you, but to me this year has almost passed by in a blur! With that in mind I thought it would be nice now the main seasonal festivities are over and as 2016 draws to a close, to take a look back at Uniko’s 2016.

Apologies for the delay in posting and not posting yesterday, I had little sleep Wednesday night due to a Josh bean having nightmares, poor little fella. Then on Thursday I had to take Mr Cat to the vet and he had an operation to remove his eye as he had a large tumour in it. Another poor little fella that needed my attention and love post op last night.

Anyway, I am back today, I am taking a look back at the September/October 2016 Release and giving some fresh inky love to Originally OrganicMarvellous MehndiSimply Said IIWinter Foliage & Christmas Sparkle clear stamp sets.

First up a super CAS card using Originally Organic

I was inspired by the current challenge over at TIME OUT Challenges HERE, which is an inspired by words challenge.

‘With each sunrise we are given a chance for a new beginning’

I thought the sentiment I chose was appropriate and related to the ‘new beginning’ part of the challenge phrase. I then decided to accent the sentiment with the leaf cluster and a trio of sunny yellow buds to represent the ‘sunrise’.

Next I dusted off Marvellous Mehndi

For this card I got my distress inks out and enjoyed some relaxing ink blending! The sentiment is a mix of ‘Happy’ from Simply Said Birthday, which is partially stamped and the ‘New Year’ is from Simply Said II.

Lastly, I switched gears back to Christmas and combined both Christmas Sparkle & Winter Foliage. Plus I really gave my new MISTI a workout on this card.

I love this multi card layer stamping and lining up the bauble was SO much easier using the MISTI! I was also able to stamp the bauble in Altenew Cosmic Berry ink and then stamp over it again in VersaMark to be able to heat emboss it with Crystal EP.

I hope you will join me again tomorrow, when I will be taking a look back at the 2016 November Release and the last of 2016. Until then, thank you for stopping by.

Hugs

Introducing…Christmas Pop and Most Wonderful

YAY!

I’m SO happy that you have stopped by today, as here at Uniko preparations for the November product release are well underway. We have had all the sneak peeks at the 3 clear stamp sets being released and NOW it is time for the Design Team and I to introduce them to you.

Today we are introducing two clear stamp sets called Christmas Pop and Most Wonderful. Both these clear stamp sets can be used individually, but they work perfectly together too 😉

My first card uses just Christmas Pop and the sentiment is from Simply Said Christmas…

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The stamps contained in the set have a multitude of mix and match options. On my card I have used two of the main images from the set. The outline tree and the elongated triangle with horizontal lines. I used my Stampin’ Up! Bright Markers to selectively colour the horizontal lines in a rainbow before stamping and fussy cutting it out.

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The routine tree is stamped onto a white card layer and the fussy cut tree adhered on top using foam adhesive. I added a good smothering of clear Wink Of Stella to the tree and added a selection of Stampin’ Up! enamel dots to finish the card off.

Next I have combined Christmas Pop with one of the complete ready to stamp sentiments from Most Wonderful…

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I chose to use 3 of the main clear stamps from Christmas Pop and 2 of the accent stamps from the set along with a funky Christmas colour scheme I am seeing a lot at the moment. Shades of Teal/Aqua with Lime Green.

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The outline tree stamp I used on my first card is embellished with the 2 accent stamps. It’s hard to see in the photo, but I added a good smothering to the trees on this card too! This time I embellished with pearls from The Hobby House.

Ok, that’s all I have to share with you today, but be sure to hop along the Design Team Blogs (links below) for even more inspiration. I know for a fact you won’t be disappointed, the team have created amazing projects showcasing how this set can be used…

CLICK HERE to see more from Deborah

CLICK HERE to see more from Jane

CLICK HERE to see more from Lindsey

CLICK HERE to see more from Rahmat

CLICK HERE to see more from Sarah G

CLICK HERE to see more from Sarah P

I do hope you enjoyed the hop and you have enjoyed seeing some of the possibilities they have? Both the sets will be fully revealed and available to purchase HERE on Sunday 27th November at 9am GMT. 

The Design Team and I will be back tomorrow with the last product introduction and lots more inspiration! 

Here’s an outline of the release schedule:

Sneak Peeks 23rd & 24th November, these little teasers give you hints at what is in store!

Introducing 25th & 26th November, here you will see a closer look at the clear stamp sets being released with a daily blog hop with the Uniko DT.

Release Day! Sunday 27th November 9am BST you will get to see the products in their entirety and purchase them HERE on the website! As usual there will be a Design Team Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY!

As this is our last release of 2016, I will be giving away some random prizes throughout the release countdown. To be in the chance of winning a random prize, be sure to join in on commenting along the Introducing Hops and joining in on the fun via social media such Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. Winners of the random prizes will be announced Sunday 27th November at 8am GMT.

I hope you are intrigued by what you have seen so far and thank you for stopping by.

Hugs