Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Mono-printing with Stencils

Morning all, Julie here with some ideas to inspire you to get more from your stencils.

With so much time on my hands at the moment, I decided to have a play with my stencils to create some panels using a couple of mono-print techniques.

Here are two panels I made using a technique I saw Jennifer McGuire use on You Tube. 

I started by inking an A6 panel of white card with lots of Picked Raspberry and Salty Ocean DI. Then I made a hinge with some masking tape and added a plain white A6 panel. Without getting water on the plain panel, I spritzed the inked side then sandwiched the Stylised Floral stencil between and ran it through my die cut machine a few times using the normal die cut set up. Carefully separating the two panels revealed these colourful, fun, textured effects.

Here are a couple of cards I made using each of the panels, I still have a bit left over too for further makes! 

This first card uses a strip of the darker panel slipped behind textured lined panels, a simple stamped, uncoloured small peony bloom from Pure Florals - Peony. I kept it simple and uncoloured so as not to detract from the panel, the sentiment is from Simply Said Blocks.

For the second card I used a panel die cut from the paler print and the same bloom, again not coloured so as not to distract from the background. This time the sentiment from the peony set is stamped on matching linen cardstock.

My final card uses a slightly different technique to create the background. Instead of a piece of white card I added a cut down baby wipe over the stencil in the sandwich and ran it through a few times in the die cut machine as before. This time I rang the changes and used the Fun Flower stencil. The damp baby wipe lifts away the ink where it peeks through the stencil to leave this soft effect. The panel was inked with Tumbled Glass DI this time.

To make the card, I used more sentiments from Pure Floral Peony mounted on deep blue and the small butterfly from English Country Garden, embossed in white on vellum and then die cut. A few clear sparkly sequins complete. The embossed panel was mounted on the same blue card and added to an A6 card base.

That's it from me for this time. I hope I have encouraged you to look at your stencils again, you don't have to use these two, have a play and see what effects you can achieve with what you have.

So until next time, keep safe!

Uniko Brand Ambassador Inspiration: Inspired by Twofer Challenge Card #29~Butterflies...English Country Garden Note and Birthday

Hello,

Carol here, welcoming you to my Uniko Brand Ambassador post, where I'm defaulting to what I do in missing-mojo situations: drawing inspiration from other designers or, in this case, from challenges.  Today, my muse is none other than Twofer Card Challenge #29, where this month's theme is Butterflies!  A perfect opportunity to use the lovely English Country Garden stamps & dies to create two cards, with two different designs, for two different occasions.  

Here they are....

My first card features an alcohol inked background, with some gold alloy added for extra shimmer, as a canvas for a gold-embossed three-layer vellum butterfly. The sentiment, also gold embossed, is from Simply Said.

I am completely (as in totally, full-on) smitten with slimline cards, so I *had* to make one! Here, I prisma pencil coloured three butterflies, die cut and positioned them inside the circles, then added a birthday sentiment from Simply Said.

Here they are again...the shimmer of the alloy and pearlized inks is soooo pretty.

Hopefully, I've inspired you to use your Uniko butterflies in different ways, for different challenges/occasions! They really are wonderfully versatile!

Uniko Studio Design Team Inspiration...Creativity Re-Boot

Hello,

Carol here! Welcome to my Uniko Studio DT showcase, where I bring out a few Uniko favourites for a play date.  

I'm sure we've all had the 'lost mojo' experience and seek various ways to end the start-something/give up cycle. When this happens to me, I 'challenge myself a challenge' - a creativity re-boot -  which is precisely what I've done with the trio of cards I'm sharing here.

My challenge: 

• focus on one key die/stamp combination: English Country Garden Butterfly Collection
• use a limited palette: black/white + green (inspired by the image at TIME OUT Challenge #144, which you can see here)
• use one 6 x 6 sheet of designer paper (sometimes we need to use that stash *grin*). I selected a various shades of green sheet from Pinkfresh Studio
• one occasion: Thanks (sparked by our upcoming Canadian Thanksgiving, but shifting from fall colours/images)
• three cards, inspired by at least two/three challenges (TIME OUT Challenge #144, Freshly Made Sketches #403, CAS(E) this Sketch #340). I've missed entering in a couple, but that's okay...it's the 'doing' that counts! 
• go CAS! 

So...here are my results:

Card 1: 

Small butterfly from English Country Garden Butterfly Collection

Sentiment from All Occasion Sentiments

Inspired by CAS(E) this Sketch #340);

 Card 2: 

Large butterfly from English Country Garden Butterfly Collection

Sentiment from Simply Said

Inspired by Freshly Made Sketches #403

Card 3:

Large butterfly die only from English Country Garden Butterfly Collection

Sentiment from Simply Said

Background from Tropical Paradise

Inspired by: me *grin*

I'd love to know how you re-boot your creativity!

Thank you for dropping by!

~c

DT inspiration - Getting inspired with challenges

Bonjour !

Izzy here. I hope you are all well after this summer break. Here, a new school year has just started last Monday and so the weekly routine too !

Anyway, I had some time to play in my craft room and today I wanted to share with you the cards I made with the English Country Garden : Butterflies set and its matching dies.

Last month I showed you how I get inspired by the things that surrounded me. This time, for my choices of designs and/or colours, I've been inspired by several currently underway challenges. It's a game I love to play with : to combine several challenges together.

The idea of my first card comes from the Time Out challenge and the word "Rainbow" in their quote...

I stamped all the butterflies in different colours and I cut them with the matching die. Then I place them on my card. Once happy with their placement, I fixed them together with masking tape doing a grid that I placed in my Big Shot with an oval die on top. 

With the masking tape, all the little bits stay attached so I turned them upside down to put adhesive foam behind. Once all covered, I placed them back on the double white card, pressing a little bit to be sure they all adhered well. Then I took off the masking tape and I cut along the edges the parts that go beyond.

The sentiment comes from the Beautiful set.

This results in the second card with the remaining parts of the cutout of the first card...

For this card the sentiment comes from the Simply Said II set.

For my third card I get inspired by the AAA Cards sketch and the colours of the Addicted to CAS challenge...

Once again the butterflies were stamped and cut with the matching die, then I adhered them with glue dots. The sentiment comes from the Flower Power #8 set

My last card is a combo of the Freshly made Sketch and the Colour Throwdown challenges...

For this card, I used the Pure Florals : Peony set to make part of the sketch. I stamped the peony in dark blue over an an iridescent cream card. And this time I used the bigger butterfly of the set.

I stamped it with Versafine blue ink over the same iridescent cream cardstock. The only colours I had in my stash to match the ones of Colour Throwdown were Distress inks. So I tried to use them on this paper as watercolour. And I'm so happy they reacted perfectly with this kind of paper and it even gives a beautiful shimmer to the colours.

You may have a better look on this picture...

For this card, I used a sentiment from the Simply Said Blocks set. 

Et voilà ! That's another way to get inspired for making cards. You will find more details on the inks used on my blog. 

Thanks so much for popping by and have a fabulous day !

DT inspiration - Thank you card

Bonjour !

Izzy here.

Today I make echo to Sarah P's last DT post by sharing with you a thank you card that shows the versatility of the Uniko stamps.

To make this card I used three stamp sets : English Country Garden : Butterflies (released in June 2014), Pure Florals : Peony (released in December 2018) and All Occasion Sentiments #3 (Released in August 2013).

Uniko products are so easy to mix and match that I always find new inspiration to make new cards. Whatever is the sketch I choose, I always find a Uniko product (or products) to create my project.

Today I chose the sketch from CAS Colours and Sketches challenges to make this card...

When I saw the sketch and the inspiration cards, I immediately imagined this card, butterflies on the top, flowers on the bottom, everything separated with a sentiment banner. 

Once the stamp sets choosen and layed out, it was a game of stamping, masking, stencilling, blending inks and colouring. 

The English Country Garden : Butterflies and the Pure Florals : Peony are coloured with Faber-Castell Polychromos colour pencils and the background is made with Distress inks.

I've had never used the All Occasion Sentiments #3 before but I LOVE how it looks, the calligraphy is so beautiful, don't you think so ?

I hope you like my card and that you will be inspired to play with your different Uniko products, I'm sure that you will come up with a stunning project !

Thank you so much for stopping by and have a fabulous day !

Izzy xx

Introducing... English Country Garden - Butterflies

Hey!

I hope you all enjoyed yesterday's product introduction, didn't the DT and Guest Designer Lynn do a FABulous job? So I am back today with the next product introduction and this was the little sneak peek you got the other day...

I think this might just be my FAVE of this release, not that I don't love all the products being released on the 11th June! Anyway, how about some samples using this set...

This card is a complete view of the whole set really! Here is a close up of the detail and sparkle of those butterflies.

I used At You Spica pens to colour the butterflies in, keeping it really simple but colourful :)

That's all I have for you today, but how about some inspiration from the FABulous Design Team and our Guest Designers this month Lynn from the Mango Boys & Me & Kerry from Change of Mind Design:

Amber

Erika

Gillian

N@ Ali

Nicki

Ren-Yi

Taheerah

Lynn

Kerry

Sneak Peeks 5th & 6th June - These little teasers give you hints at what is in store!

Introducing... 7th - 10th June - Here you'll get to see the soon to be released products in action here on the blog.

Release Day! Wednesday 11th June you will get to see all the products in their entirety and purchase them HERE on the website! As tradition holds there will be  a Design Team Blog Hop with a chance for a lucky person to win the ENTIRE release!

Now, you won't want to miss out on any of the fun from the 5th - 11th April as I will be drawing totally random winners for mystery prizes! I'm not giving any hints as to the prizes or their value, you'll just have to comment along the way to be in the chance of winning!

Places to join in on the fun & possibly win a prize are, the Uniko Studio Facebook Page, Following on Twitter and Pinterest! 

Phew! That's all from me today, I sure hope you will pop back tomorrow for the next product introduction, it's a good one! Until then, thank you for stopping by today :)

Rainbows & Smiles

TGI Friday!

Though this week has flown by I sure am HAPPY that it's Friday! I might just get a little lay in tomorrow & it's much needed, there has been a serious lack of sleep this week! I'm full of Rainbows and Smiles today and thought I'd share this hybrid card with you...

Uniko Studio is sponsoring the current challenge over on Do You Stack Up this week HERE. The challenge theme is Rainbows, a few of the DYSU DT used some Uniko Studio digital products in their creations and so I thought I'd join in a day late with another sample! 

I used a rainbow striped digital paper from BRIGHT Butterflies Additions and one of the flowers from English Country Garden digital stamp collection. I coloured my flower using Copic markers which I matched as closely as possible to the colours in the paper. The 'Smile' sentiment is from FONTiments - Birthday.

Be sure to pop on over to the DYSU blog HERE and have a go at the challenge, there is a prize of a £15 gift certificate up for grabs to spend in the Uniko Studio store HERE! That's all from me today, I hope todays card has brightened up your Friday! 

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs