Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Christmas Tree Tuesday

Good morning, 

Steph here with my Uniko Brand Ambassador Inspiration post. We are focusing on Christmas in July this month and I have specifically chosen Uniko stamps which include Christmas trees. 

To start off I heat embossed the Uniko Background Blocks Arts Decoratifs Christmas stamp. I then used a craft knife to cut some apertures behind which I laid different colours of tissue paper. The idea being that the light could shine through the tissue paper like a stained glass window. 

For my next card I used Uniko Rustic Christmas stamp set and created a 'forest' using different colour inks before decorating my main tree with fussy cut small elements from the stamp set.

And finally a super quick card made using the outline tree from the Uniko Christmas Pop stamp set and coloured using alcohol markers. I then teamed this with a sentiment from the Uniko Christmas Wishes set.

It's never too early to start your Christmas cards! And hopefully there is a style here to suit most tastes. 

Much love

Steph x

Rustic Merry Christmas

Hello & Happy Thursday.

With the return of Rustic Christmas this week, after it flew off the shelves from its last restock. I thought I had better ink it up and get this idea onto a card before it sold out again! 

I used a little bit of masking for this card to 'trim' off the trunk of the tree at the bottom. It's quite a sizeable focal point tree and I wanted to make sure I had some space in the lower section of my card for the sentiment. Looking at the card now, it looks like the trees are buried in a few feet of snow! 

For this card I dusted off an old technique too. I used a water based marker from Stampin' Up! in Espresso to colour direct onto my stamp down the trunk of the tree and lightly across the middle of the branches. I then 'huffed' to moisten the ink before stamping. I repeated this a couple of times to get a good impression, so using my MISTI was a good idea.

I then alternated between inking the remainder of the stamp with Peacock and Artichoke to stamp the branches of the tree to complete the look. I wasn't too concerned about the colour getting on the branches and trunk as I knew the dark brown would be dominant. 

As you can see I altered the height of the trees for added interest. I finished off with a white heat embossed sentiment from the stamp set. I used Espresso card for the Merry Christmas and Artichoke for the From Our Home To Yours part. Adhering them with foam tape and embellishing with a few Peacock enamel dots.

I loved how this turned out, but it's definitely not one to mass produce! 

Did you see the newsletter and restocks that arrived in store yesterday? I highly recommend signing up HERE for it. 

So much loveliness has returned, I just need a little more creative time to play with them all as you know how restocks inspire me!

Rustic Christmas

Background Blocks Arts Decoratifs Christmas

Rustic Wreath

Happy Succulents

Kindness Blooms

Flower Power #1

Background Blocks Arts Decoratifs

Stencil - Layering Bauhaus Blocks

Stencil - Layering Bauhaus Blocks Stencil Recall
 
If you purchased Stencil - Layering Bauhaus Blocks at Crafterama Lincoln on Sunday 6^th October 2024, please email me at bev@uniko.co.uk  I have recently changed manufacturer for this product and have subsequently discovered a small defect in the first batch I received which were sold at this fair.  I pride myself on providing the best quality products, so this issue is a top priority for me.  As soon as you confirm your purchase I will rectify the issue immediately and send you a replacement.   
 
Anyone who bought a stencil via the website has already been contacted and replacements sent so this recall applies only to in-person sales at that show.   Rest assured that products sold at more recent shows, and stock in our online store are the rectified versions.  Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience if you received a stencil from the faulty batch.

That's all the news from me today.

Crafty Hugs

Festive Friday - Rustic Christmas

Happy Festive Friday 🎄

Let's make a quick (under 10 minute) Christmas card that is festive, sparkly & fun. I've used Uniko's Rustic Christmas Clear Stamp Set for this card.

Step By Step

1. Poppy Red Card Base 10.5 x 14cm

2. White Card Panel 7.5 x 10.5cm

3. Stamp Sentiment in VersaFine Clair Nocturne Ink

4. Stamp Rustic Christmas Tree A in C9 Evergreen Ink

5. Apply 3 Stripes Of Double Sided Tape To Your Card Base

6. Trim Edges & Peel Off Backing

7. Add glitter to Double Sided Tape

8. Adhere White Stamped Panel Using 1mm Thick Foam Tape

9. Embellish With Enamel Dots

Ta dah 🎉

A quick, sparkly & easily mass producible Christmas Card

Crafty Hugs

Merry Monday, some more Christmas in July BA Inspiration

Good morning, Julie here with a few 'krafty' ideas for some Christmas makes. Here are my ideas using various Uniko stencils and stamps and kraft card.

I was looking through my stash the other day and came across a couple of panels of kraft card that I'd made a while ago and not used, so decided as my Christmas card pile is not what it should be, I should turn them into cards.

This first card started off as a stencilled panel using Winter Foliage stencil. I made it and used a snippet for this card back in 2022, so it's about time I used it!

I first secured the stencil to a panel of kraft card then inked through with Hero Arts Unicorn White pigment ink. Carefully removing the stencil so as not to smudge the ink, I set it aside to fully dry and washed the stencil. Using the white ink allows the dye ink I used after to pop off the kraft, otherwise it would soak into the card and be rather dull in comparison.

Once completely dry, I replaced the stencil over the panel and inked through with a mix of Evergreen Bough DI for the holly leaves, Festive Berries DI for the berries and Mowed Lawn DI for the ivy leaves. The evergreen sprigs were a mix of both greens. My pine cones were inked with Ground Espresso DI.

To make this card, I cut the panel into two, and attached it to a kraft base card, for sparkle a strip of red glitter paper was added and finally a sentiment embossed with gold EP.

This second card uses the smaller of the two panel pieces, glued to a red base card, a thin strip of gold mirror card and a large heat embossed sentiment in gold.

Finally I had a sentiment panel that had gone wrong, the top half was smudged but I didn't throw it away, just cut the messy section away and trimmed it to form the central panel of my card.

Trying to think what to do with the piece I had left, I went looking through my ideas folder and found this.

No name so I can't link back but I also found this by our old BA Hannelie, here, so mine is a bit of a mashup!

I found some tape in my stash, Lidl I do believe, and cut a triangle from the sentiment panel. Here is one using blue that I made at the same time. It's so easy to make loads at the same time as arranging the small individual sentiments does take some time, even in a MISTI! The tape was wrapped around a panel of kraft then the center panel added over on pads, a simple punched white card star and gold embossed sentiment completes.

So that's all from me for today, hope I've given you some ideas to get your Christmas makes up and running.

Merry Monday with Rustic Christmas

 Happy Merry Monday!

Another late post from me, but I had to share this fun festive card I finished this morning. I managed to photograph it before the good light started to fade this afternoon. 

I've been wanting to use both these products since they came back in stock a while back. For the Kraft card background I used the Stencil - Christmas Folk Snowflake and inked through with Wheat ink. 

I then trimmed a bit off the top and bottom to adhere to a Cranberry card base before adhering my focal Christmas Tree from Rustic Christmas. 

I stamped the tree in Parsley ink and then added the baubles using black for the string & bow and Cranberry for the bauble. I decided to keep the front sentiment free and finished off with a simple star enamel from my stash. 

A simple, yet classic Christmas card. What do you think? 

Crafty Hugs

 

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Rustic Christmas

Good morning!

Anita here, so sorry it's been so long!  I'm sharing two cards today and I decided to dig out an "oldie but goodie" stamp set for these, Rustic Christmas.  I just love the perfect little tree in this set so have kept these cards clean and simple so it takes centre stage.

First up, I've tried to create a northern lights sky as my backdrop...

I used some low tack tape to mask off a vertical panel and then randomly ink blended the areas of light using Distress Inks in Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn and a touch of Picked Raspberry.  I then filled in the rest of the panel with both Black Soot and Chipped Sapphire, blending over some of the lighter colours.  I then stamped the tree in Versafine Clair Nocturne ink for a crisp dark image.  Once dry I used an anti-static powder tool at the top of the inked panel and stamped and heat embossed the sentiment, also from the same set, in white.  I finished by adding some falling snow using a white Sakura Gelly Roll pen.

My second project is another one layer card, again, super simple...

To enable the solid baubles to appear as if on the tree and in the foreground, I stamped them first in pigment ink and heat embossed in clear, this then created a barrier when stamping the tree over the top.  I used Versa Color inks here.  As you can see below, the pink ink didn't hold as much of the embossing powder so let some of the green ink through but I like the effect it gives of the baubles being amongst the needles.  To clean up the green ink I just used a slightly damp cotton bud to wipe away the ink from the baubles.  I simply stamped the sentiment below and added a gold, sparkly enamel star.

I hope this gives you some inspiration and encourages you to have a rummage through your stash to see what older stamp sets you have that could be inked up.  Thanks for taking the time to visit and I wish you a lovely Wednesday.

 

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Snowflake Serenade

Good morning

It's Anita here and today I'm sharing some cards using a great Christmas set, Snowflake Serenade Clear Stamp Set.  The main image has so much movement and you also get some extra snowflakes and some fab mixed-font sentiments.

Ok, here's my first card, and my favourite of three I'm sharing today...

I started with a piece of green cardstock, very unusual for me not to reach for white!  I then stamped and embossed the main large image in gold, before then filling in some gaps to create a full background.  I then ink blended in from the edges of the green panel and faded it out toward the centre.  I then grabbed a green marker and coloured in all the holly images, just to add some tone on tone detail.  I then finished with a gold embossed sentiment from the Rustic Christmas Clear Stamp set, on a black die cut.

My second card...

Directly on the card base I stamped the main focal image in blue dye ink.  I then ink blended in from the edges using a few shades of Distress Oxide ink.  Next I 'painted' the holly leaves with water and blotted with a paper towel to remove some colour, this works well with blended Distress and Distress Oxide inks as they react with water.  I also used a wet paint brush to add the 'snow' dots which were also blotted away.  The sentiment, also from the set, was stamped in black ink and I finished with some smooth gems in the centres of the snowflakes.

And my final make...

I kept this one fairly simple, just ink and glitter.  I used an angled panel die cut with a stitched border and stamped the main image in black ink.  I adhered this to my card base and then used a glue pen to add glue, first to the holly leaves, which I sprinkled with super fine green glitter, and then added some touches to the snowflakes and sprinkled with pale blue glitter.  I then finished the card by stamping the sentiment, from the Background Builders: Winter Wonderland set, along the edge of the panel.

So there you have it, three very different cards using the same focal image.  I'm still way behind with my Christmas cards this year so I hope this has provided you with some inspiration if you are too!

Thanks for taking a look, I hope you have a wonderful week! 

 

Festive Friday - BA Inspiration using Rustic Wreath

Good morning and happy Festive Friday!

Anita here, and it's certainly strange making and sharing Christmas cards in the middle of a heatwave (which we are currently experiencing here in the UK) but if it inspires us to make a start on our festive projects then why not.

Today I have three makes, all using the Rustic Wreath Clear Stamp Set, along with a few other Christmas products.

So first up is a project using the stamp set, purely stamped in a traditional design...

On a die cut panel I stamped the main wreath image, first in a dark green shade, before then filling in with the smaller images - the pine cones, twigs and berries.  The sentiment was stamped below and heat embossed in gold.

For this next card I've combined the Rustic Wreath Clear Stamp Set with a couple of other products from the Uniko Christmas range...

On a piece of white cardstock I inked through the Christmas Folk Snowflake Stencil using Distress Ink in Old Paper.  After leaving it to dry and applying some anti-static powder I then stamped the wreath centrally in VersaMark ink and embossed in gold.  I die cut the panel using a stitched rectangle die and adhered it flat to the card base.  To finish I heat embossed the sentiment, from the Pattern Building Christmas Tree Clear Stamp Set, in gold on some red cardstock, trimmed it down and popped it up on 3D foam.

My final card combines the Rustic Wreath set with stamps from two other festive sets...

On the card base I stamped the wreath randomly in red ink before adding the baubles and bows which are extra little stamps in the Rustic Christmas Clear Stamp Set.  I created the strings to join the bows and baubles using a black fineliner pen.  I used a curved border die to cut some red cardstock and stamped the sentiment from the Big & Bold: Merry Clear Stamp Set, which was heat embossed in gold, before this was then adhered in position and trimmed to fit the card base.

Well, that's all from me today.  I hope I've provided you with some inspiration for your festive projects.  Oh, and don't forget, for the entire month Bev is offering 10% off Christmas products over at the online store! 

I'm off to go and sit in front of a fan for a while!

Stay safe, everyone.

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Rustic Christmas

Hello friends, today I am up with 2 lookalike projects using the Rustic Christmas stamp set  from Uniko.

I have used the DI tumbled glass to stamp the snowflakes from the BIG & BOLD Snow stamp set
I stamped the tree using the DI pine needles. I have used the same ink to dab on the base card to create an edge. I added a few die cuts from my stash to put together the snow scene, the sentiment is from Peace on Earth stamp set.

Both these cards were made in bulk for an acquaintance of mine, and are winging to the US with her for her family and friends for Christmas.

I hope you like the inspiration.

         Thank you for stopping by, I really appreciate your kind  feedback :) Have a great day!

                                                                     

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.

How about a little festive scene to show off these falling snowflakes...

I love white embossing on kraft card and it seemed the perfect opportunity when I was putting this little scene together. I've combined a couple of previously released Uniko clear stamp sets on this card. Firstly the tree and little bird is from Rustic Christmas and the sentiment is from Most Wonderful. 

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 Beverley

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