Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Stenciled Shadow-techniques

Hello!

I always love to discover new ideas how to use my supplies!

When  I saw some cards with a stamped off-set technique I got the idea to try this also with stencils.
So there we go!

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For my first card I used the "Christmas Folk Snowflake Stencil" (was released one year ago).

I added the light grey pumic stone Distress Oxide Ink with my blending brush.
Then I moved the Stencil a bit, adhered it again with the tape and added the red fired brick with another brush.

To finish the cad I cut my stenciled paper fitting to my cardbase, adhered both ends of a piece of ribbbon on the backside, Then I added the stamped sentiment from the new released "Festive Sentiments Outlined" Set on a smaller piece of cardstock, I cut it in a size, fitting to the snowflake pattern. 

In this sentiment I coloured two of the letters with a marker and added an almost white (kind of creamy) enamel dot.
The layer is adhered on the cardbase with a 2 mm dimensional tape. 

Stenciled shadow with "Folk Snowflakes"

Stenciled shadow with "Folk Snowflakes"

Stenciled shadow with "Folk Snowflakes" - Detail

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For the other card I used the technique with a little switch.
I stenciled the snowflakes of the "Let it snow" Stencil in tumbled glass Oxide Ink - again I used my brushes. Then I added Distress micro Glaze on the same position with a small blending tool (I store this one in the glaze container).
Removed and cleaned the stencil, put it back with a little movement and fixed it on the paper again. Then I added the darker shade blueprint sketch Oxide Ink.
The shadow is now more "behind" the first layer of colour.
To finish the card I framed my snowflake layer with a light blue paper and added a strip of the same colour in front with the stamped sentiment of the "Stunning Snowflakes". I also added some white snowflake sequins.

Stenciled shadow with "Let it snow"

Stenciled shadow with "Let it snow" - Detail
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Hope you like this techniques and give them a try soon!

Hugs & greetings from Wiebke

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Stenciled Christmas Cards

Hello everybody!

Have you started creating Christmas cards weeks ago?
Or did you miss it until now and just recognized it's almost middle of Ocotber, time is running and you NEED some more quick ideas to make nice cards in no time to send out soon?

If you are one of the second ones, you should take a closer look here!

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As you know, I love stenciling!
Some people may say: "stencils are so time-consuming..." but here you'll see they aren't!
Maybe you need a bit of time for the first step - but one of the best parts of a finished stencil pattern is, you can cut it in smaller pieces and make several cards with not much extra time!
 
Time savers are: 

• Heat-Embossing all things in one step.
• Combine several DieCuts in one cutting-process.
  and/or: Use leftover DieCut pieces from previously made cards.
• Use the same materials like inks, embossing powders or embellishments on different cards (so you needn't search what fits and clean-up after using it every time again!).
  When you combine them in a new way, it's different everytime!

Let's get crafty with the first step:
I mixed some white matte embossing paste (the one I used is called "snow paste", it's from a German company) with a bit of green and blue Nuvo-Drops and also a bit of dark green Stickles. This self-made paste I put through the "In the Forrest" Stencil onto a thick multi-technique paper (140 lbs = 300g/m²), this helps to avoid warping and uneven paper after everything is dried. 

After the paste was dry I made these three cards of this single piece of paper:

1. Raised Christmas Tree

I cut a strip with a width of 6,5 cm of the tree-paper. Then I used a fir tree punch to cut out one tree, which I covered with a thin layer of the green Nuvo-Drop I used before and smeared it around with my finger. You can still see the stenciled trees there, but the punched tree was optically seperated from the background now.
I punched out several trees from a simple green cardstock, stacked and glued them together with the green stenciled tree on top.
Then I glued both, the strip and the stacked trees with a strong adhesive onto my cardbase

I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment from "Simply Said Christmas" in gold and the cones from "Background Builders - Vines Winter Additional" in liquid platinum.
To finish the card, I embellished the raised tree with some little golden stars and put also one on the top (on the flat layer). 

"Raised Christmas Tree"

Dimensional Tree

Sentiment and embellishments - heat embossed in two colours

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2. Golden Rings 

For the second card I die cut a circle of the tree-paper.

This special die I used always cuts a circle and an additional thin ring at once.
I cut out several of the dies in one step, nested them together, adhered them with my (low sticky!) painters tape and cut.
For the card I used three of the thin rings in different sizes and a small circle I cut out in a second step. I stamped my sentiment from the Set "Rustic Wreath" and put the powder on, then I covered all three rings with a VersaMark Marker and put the golden powder on top too. I heat-embossed them one after another, so it was only one time-saving working step with only one heating time of the tool.

After I adhered the three rings and the two circles on the card, I embellished each ring with some of the small stars I also used on the second card and with one big golden star.

"Golden Rings"

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3. Tree in the Forrest

For the last card I die cut again a circle of the third part of my tree-paper.
This time I stamped and heat embossed my sentiment of the Set "Most wonderful" first.

Then I stacked the circle up with some same-sized circles of white cardstock. The thin ring with the pattern I placed flat around the pile and covered it with some clear sparkling stickles.

Then it happened! A big and clumsy blob came out of the bottle! In the first moment I thought, ok, this card is demaged! But then I thought: NO! I don't want to put it away! I tried to save it.

I die cut another ring of paper - why I thought, green woud be a good idea... I don't know anymore... So the second misstake was sticking around the pile... and this glue is strong! No removal possible!  
To save the card once more, I covered the green ring with the same dark green stickles I used to colour the paste to calm it down a bit. 

You now have the chance to learn from my idiocy and avoid the faults I made!

• NEVER cover thin rings with wet or semi-wet stuff when they are already fixed on the cardbase!
• ALWAYS think twice, how you can save the situation if something bad has happened!

A better idea would have been to cut out the larger ring of white cardstock (instead of green!) and leave it blank or cover it with the subtle colour of the sentiment (liquid platinum again).

But hey, it's a handmade card, it may not be perfect, but I like it anyway!

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I hope I could inspire you to use your stencils and the DIY backgrounds you've created in a new way. 

0It's also a perfect way when you have a stenciled paper with smaller misstakes (run outs) - cut these parts of and use the smaller pieces!


Have a great and creative day!
Greetings from Wiebke

DT Inspiration - Use a Stencil with watercolour pencils

Hello and happy weekend to everybody!

It's time for another DT-Inspiration!

As always I made cards with a stencil for you.
This time I used the Uniko Stencil "Scattered Polka Dots".

Let's get started!
I traced the stencil edges with my watercolour pencils on a mix media paper (it's a great paper for different kind of techniques qith many different colours or mediums).
To activate the watercolours I added droplets of clear water on every little circle with a pipette, waited a while and then moved the water very carefully with a small brush to mix every droplet with the solved pigments.

Cause these added waterdrops were so beautiful, I took some photos before and after I mixed the colours.
See it here:

Different shades of blue with waterdrops on top.

The whole blue-dotted paper with waterdrops.

The unsolved and the solved colours with waterdrops on top.

My plan was, to wait until the droplets were dry and then use the paper.
It took a long while (was an over-night-process!) but then all the water was gone and I had little watercoloured dots... They were beautiful, but in my mind were still the pictures of the little "water-hills"... and these flat colour-dots wer not really spectacular!
So I decided to change my plan, added Glossy Accents on the one and clear Nuvo Drops on the other paper and let it dry again.
The result was almost as amazing as the water-version!

I combined both backgrounds with the "Big & Bold Happy Stamps and coordinating Dies" and the second one also with the "Wonderful Day Stamps".
The stamped parts of the sentiments were heat embossed both times.

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For the first card I coloured the front of the happy DieCut word with the same two blue watercolour pencils and added water like I did for the background. To speed the process a bit I used my heat tool to dry the water this time.
I cut and adhered my polka dot background on the cardbase.
Then I adhered the blue "happy" layer on the shadow DieCut of the word and glued it with little dimensional pads on the card front.
To finish the bold word I covered it with glossy accents (like the background dots).
While this layer was drying I stamped and heat embossed the Everything anf adhered it also with dimensional pads on the front of the card.
(The dimensional pads were necessary cause of the dimensional drops of the background.)

 

Finished blue "Happy Everything" card.

Finished blue "Happy Everything" card.

Detail of the blue "Happy Everything" card - DieCut with glossy coating.

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For the second card I coloured the stencil edges in rainbow colours, spread over the page.

I mixed the water and the pigments as I did on the other card, but during the drying process there developed darker rings on the outside. I like this optic, cause it reminds me more on the look of the waterdrops. So I just added the clear Nuvo Drops.

Rainbows always makes me happy, So I included this feeling in my sentiment and heat embossed "Oh happy day!" on a banner-strip of Vellum.

The watercolourd drops were mounted on a bit bigger piece of light green cardstock and then on the card base.

Colourful "Oh happy day!" card

Detail of the different elements.

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I think this technique works great with a stencil with small open areas, but maybe a bigger  pattern will give also great results?! Let's give it a try!
I hope I inspired you to stretch your creative muscles and try (or re-use) a not-so-popular-technique with your stencils! - Would love to read in the comments, what you tried out and which results you got!


Have a great and creative day!

Greetings from Wiebke

DT-Inspiration: Card with a rotating Stencil

Hello and Happy weekend to everybody!
It's time for another DT-Inspiration!

As always I made a card with a stencil for you. This time it's a quick one-layer card with a special "twist"!

 

 

For this design I thought a square card would be a perfect frame.
I marked the center of the card front, then placed my Nature Treasures II Leaf-Stencil.
The end of the stam I placed on the mark and fixed it with a fine needle - later I rotated the stencil around this needle, so I was sure to get the end of the stem always on the exact same spot!

I blended the three Oxide Inks with my blending brushes, beginning with the lightest one. When the first leaf was finished, I repeated the process on the opposite side. So it was easier to place the other 4 leaves without any exact measuring between these two leaves (eyeballing was enough).

Cause I liked the pattern in the center I used Vellum to create the circle with the heat embossed sentiment to keep it in sight. The two parts of the sentiment are from the set Simply Said Birthday. I cut the original sentiments with my scissors and combined them differently. Don't be afraid to stretch your stamps this way! If you cut them, you can always re-arrange them on an acrylic block with the help of the cutting line to the original form!)

To avoid any see-through glue I adhered the three sequins-flowers with a strong liquid glue on the edge of the Vellum and then I adhered the sequins with dimensional glue-dots on the card. The centers of these flower sequins I decorated with yellow Stickles (also to avoid any dust sticking to the glue dots behind later).
To finish the card I added some party pink Nuvo drops and some more yellow Stickles dots on the leaves as kind of buds.

I was surprised how quickly this card was finished! You needn't do many fancy things around your rotated stencil, cause this is the focal point!
This technique offers so many possibilities! I think I'll try some more of them soon - with different stencils and maybe also with a rotation-point outside of the coloured stencil-area (the center will be blank then).

I hope I could inspire you to stretch your creative muscles to try something new with your stencils!

You are invited to tell us in the comments which Uniko Stencils you used or want to use to give this technique a try!

Have a great and creative day!

Greetings from Wiebke

DT Inspiration - Stencils and patterned papers

Hello, Wiebke here with a brand new stencil-project for you!

 

Like most of us, I have kind of a "comfort zone" when I create my cards. I use similar materials - most of the time I'm crafting with stamps and stencils, inks and markers and some embellishments.
And sometimes I almost forget there are also other ways to craft...!

A while ago, I recieved a card, made with a mix of patterned papers combined with punched elements, embossing paste, stamping and sewing! Not my own usual style of crafting - but so beautiful! 

So this other card inspired me for my current card!
I tried this new-to-me technique mix and show you the result!

 

I grabbed some patterned papers, cut them in pieces, adhered them onto a thin paper and went to my sewing machine to sew them all together with two different stitching-lines.
The next step was to add three different embossing pastes on the paper. One is an opaque white glossy paste, one a less opaque matte white paste and one a mix of a golden colour and the matte paste. 

I moved both stencils - the Party Confetti Stencil and the Bright Butterflies Stencil - around to get exact the shapes I planned on the different areas. I wanted many of the small hearts! 💕
So it was important to let one paste dry before moving the stencil and start adding the next one to avoid smearing them around!

In the center I kept a free area to add the sentiment "You are Amazing" of the new You are, yes you Stamp Set with white embossing powder (fitting to the glossy white paste).

After everything was finished, I cut the layer down to my card size and adhered it with a strong adhesive tape.
Cause there are so many different materials which give enough interest, I think it's not necessary to add some extra embellishments to a card like this one.

The full list of all supplies you can see on my Blog.

Hope you can give some "new-to-you" techniques a try one day too.
Thanks for stopping by today, have a great day and lots of fun with all your art supplies!

Kind greetings from Wiebke

DT Inspiration - ink blending with a Stencil

Hello, Wiebke here with two moncromatic birthday card in a Clean and Simple style. Both created with a stencil and some ink blending.

 

 

Today I'll show you how to improve your blending skills with the help of a Stencil.
 
Do you like ink blending? - NO?
Why?- The smooth blending between different colours is always difficult!

When you agree with these answers, I may have a great solution for you: Take a stencil, Inks and a Blening Tool and give it a try!
I'm sure the result will show you, blending is something you can learn.

When you aren't familiar with blending, you can start with a pure mono cromatic card to get a feeling for this kind of "colouring" and add more colour(s) in the next projects.
The colours should be different shadings of the same colour family (like light blue + blue + darker blue) OR colours adjacent in the colour wheel (like yellow + orange + red / yellow + green + blue / a whole rainbow of 6 colours).

I love to blend with Ranger Distress Oxide Inks, cause they blend really easy and they forgive you a lot...!
This doubles the positive effects for this blending-project!
Mandala stencils are perfect for beginners, cause we'll work in circle motions, fitting to this form.

The first step you have to do is to avoid any movement of the stencil. I love to take a soft painters tape to fix stencil and paper together. When you finished the blending it's easily removable without any tearing of your finished Mandala.

Now we start the blending. It doesn't matter if you start with the lightest or the darkest of your colours and also, if you start on the inside of the Madala or the outer edge.
But it's important to move your hand in easy circle motions over the paper and add the colours - one after another. You can add colour several times to get a darker shading.
Avoid spressing  the Blening Tool with lots of power into the inkpad - the more ink is in the blending foam the worse the blending will be.
To get soft colour-gradients, layer the colours one over another on the edges of every area.

So, what's the miracle?
Stencils have little areas with crisp edges and you won't see smaller "uneven" blendet areas as clear as on plain paper. The white lines and areas are so helpful and seperate the areas for you!

After you have cut the finished paper down to the size of your cardbase, you can start to embellish the Mandala with little pearls, rhinestones, enamel dots,... or selfmade dots (Stickles, Nuvo, ...)
You also can conceal tiny little mistakes with your embellishments if necessary.

For both of my cards I used the same Stencil - Mehndi Mandala and a Sentiment stamp - out of the NEW set Birthday Wishes.
But ee how versatile these products and how different the cards are!

 

The yellow Mandala reminds me of flowers or sunrays. I think we all crafe for spring and warmer temperatures, right?

For the Mandala I used hese Oxide Inks: squeezed lemonade, mustard seed and wild honey.

 

I used little epoxy stickers - a round one for the center and little drops for the heart-shaped areas and some little pearls to embellish the Mandala.
The sentiment is stamped on an extra piece of paper and then cut and folded to a little banner. To get a bit dimension it's adhered with 3D pads.

The blue Mandala looks like a snowflake or icy crystal. Perfect for birthdays in the cold winter time!

 

 

As embellishment I used clear and blue mini rhinestone drops and insert them in the pattern of the Mandala.

I stamped my sentiment with the darkest of the Oxide Inks and added immediatelly clear embossing powder.

For the Mandala I used these Oxide Inks: mermaid lagoon, broken china, tumbled glass.

Hope you like this kind of project and you'll give it a try!

Happy greetings from Wiebke

DT Inspiration - stenciled resist technique

Hello, Wiebke here to share some inspiration with you!

For today I made a colourful "sound card" with a stenciled resist technique.

The Uniko products I've used are the Equaliser stencil and a combination of the stamp sets Life is a Song & Most Wonderful.

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Magic of Music

Magic of Music - Detail

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About this card & technique:

For the stenciled resist technique I first applied a clear embossing paste through the Equaliser stencil onto the paper. After it was complete dry I started adding the colours - this time I used Zig Clean Color Real Brushes and blended them with a moisturised cloth and a brush and some water.

(When you don't have clear embossing paste you can also use clear embossing powder - apply the embossing ink through the stencil and then add the powder - don't forget to use a antistatic powder tool before!)

The embossed areas will stay white / in the colour of your paper and pop out of any colourful background!

Some colours tint clear products - if you want it really clear you need to check the combination of your materials before!

In this case it was ok for me to get some staining, it reminds me more to the old "Winamp Music tool"! ;-)

I cut down my paper in the shape of the equaliser blocks (with a similar edge around) and adhered it to my cardbase. The sentiment is a combination of two different Uniko stamp sets - Life is a Song & Most Wonderful,

To repeat the clear part of the background I used clear embossing powder for the first part of my sentiment "believe in the magic of" and white powder for the "music" and the note.

To add some sparkle, I drew a slim line around the sentiment with the amazing Sakura Gelly Roll - clear star pencil.

The headphones are a die cut (sorry, I have no brand name). I combined a normal black and a pearlescent black paper to get some optical dimension. The shells are adhered on the card with some 3D pads, for the rest I used a strong fluid glue.

To get the full list of all used supplies please hop to my blog.

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Musical greetings from Wiebke.

Introducing... The Uniko Stencil Design Team!

Hey!

Welcome back to another exciting weekend here at Uniko HQ. Along with all the Uniko 6th Birthday Celebrations and preparation for the February 2018 6th Birthday Release, I finally get to spill the beans and introduce The Uniko Stencil Design Team!

I think it took me nearly 2 years to get this new product from dream to reality and with the help of Sarah G, I launched the first Uniko Stencils back HERE in October 2017. With so many ideas for stencils and wanting to add these to the Uniko inventory I felt I needed a team to help me. So Sarah and I got to planning and I am happy to introduce them all to you...

Leading the Stencil Design Team is Sarah G, I am super stoked to be welcoming Sarah back into the Uniko family.

Hello!  It is me again :)  I was a member of the Uniko DT until quite recently and just couldn't stay away....I love trying out lots of different techniques and effects with stencils so was really excited when Bev decided to add stencils to Uniko's fab range of designs.  I am also really excited to be designing alongside the rest of the super talented stencil design team and my old teamies on the stamp team.  I am looking forward to showing how well the stamps and stencils play together and getting inky in the process.  I have typically focused on CAS designs until more recently when I have enjoyed experimenting with mixed media and layered designs so I hope to bring a bit of both to the Uniko blog!  You can find more about me and my style at http://funkyfossildesigns.blogspot.co.uk/ - it would be great to see you there.

Next up is Julie, I am sure many of you are familiar with and know Julie from her inspirational creativity in blogland. I am super happy that another wonderful Uniko customer is joining the team and Uniko family.

Hi, I'm so pleased to be asked to join this fab group of ladies here at Uniko and to work with the new line of stencils. For those who don't know me, I'm a retired primary school teacher who in later years specialised in art. I loved this as I could play everyday at work with the kids, aged from 7 -11 years old, trying new techniques and fostering in them a love of art. When I was forced to retire due to ill health, I took up card making and scrapbooking and I haven't looked back! Through blogging, I've made friends with lots of like minded people from all over the world and even been lucky enough to meet some of them too, including some of the Uniko team.

As well as blogging and entering card challenges, I'm very competitive having played in tennis and badminton leagues before retiring, I love to read detective fiction, pottering in the garden and doing the occasional bit of dressmaking and patchwork. I have 2 grown up children and 2 gorgeous grandsons who keep me busy and the eldest one's hectic social whirl gives me an outlet for my cards!

Ask about my style and I would probably say CAS but I love watercolouring and incorporating die cuts in my projects, colouring with Copics and pencils and getting inky too! Basically anything that appeals to and inspires me. You'll get an idea of my style by checking out my blog https://handcraftedbyjules.blogspot.co.uk.

My next introduction to the Stencil Design Team is Wiebke. I was so happy to meet Wiebke back in December 2017 at the first Uniko Stamping Retreat :) Not only did Wiebke amaze me by travelling all the way from Germany to attend, but I fell in love with her creative style and the friendship we formed in such a short amount of time :) 

Hi, I'm Wiebke,
Spelling-help for all non-Germans: The "ie" is like "ee" in "bee", the "e" at the end is more like the "e" in the word "end". Syllabified in Wieb-ke. (It's also here in Germany a not-so-typical name.)

I was so thrilled when Beverley asked me to join in the new Stencil-DT and be part of the heartfelt friendly and super creative Uniko-Family! I was a Guest-Designer before, but this is my first spot in a Design Team.

I live in Germany, between Berlin and Potsdam together with my six-headed family. I'm a crafter for my whole life and I tried (and still do) many different kind of art and DIYs almost every day. 2011 I started card making with just a few supplies and this hobby became a big addiction with lots of stuff!

I'm not sure if I have a typical style - I think I havn't just one. CAS is great, action in every way is fun, special effects like LED are awesome! I love many different materials and techniques - be thrilled to experiment with both. But my favourites are definitely stencils, stamps and intense, bright colours. I'm inspired from all things around and I often enjoy to take part in different Challenges.

My other big hobby I share with my whole family - hubby Hartmut and my kids Paul (2003/01), Vincent (2008/11), Stella (2010/05) and hopefully soon also with little Milo (2016/08). We are a boardgamer-family! We play, collect, change and develop games. Hartmut is a game-author and we all support him with game testing, ideas for improvements and I often help to create the prototypes.

In the rest of my free time I write my blog, love to photograph, to read detective stories or funny books, work and craft in my garden and in the house, decorate and re-arrange in every room. Cooking, baking and eating with friends and family is a pleasure!

Let's get crafty - hope you'll be inspired by the cards on my KomMa-designed-blog 

Lastly, but by no means least I am super happy to be welcoming another Uniko customer and well known creative inspiration to the Stencil Design Team, Linda.

Hi everyone, 

My name’s Linda (aka LindyLou) and I’m so proud to be part of the UNIKO Stencil Design Team.  

For those who don’t already know me, I’m married to my best friend Stephen, have two fabulous grown up kids, and I’m Grandma to a delicious bundle of fun called Alex.  

Since 2011 we’ve lived on the Isle of Man.  A beautiful little island in the Irish Sea ….. nesting between the UK and Ireland, and is famous for the TT Races.

My passion is paper crafting and cardmaking.  It all started out as a hobby, over 15 years ago now, and has since taken over my life ….. and most of the house! I love playing with inks and paints,  stencils and rubber stamps, and I love anything from CAS (clean and simple) cards to grunge and shabby chic home decor …….. along with everything in between! 

I’m so lucky to have the time to spend doing what I love. You’ll find me in my craft room most days, and you can see the results on my blog ……… http://lindylou-lifeinthecraftlane.blogspot.com

I love a new challenge and I’m really looking forward to being part of this fab team.

I am sure you are excited and as happy as I am to see these new additions to the Uniko Team and I am already looking forward to seeing more inspiration from all these talented and creative ladies in the coming days as they join me and The Uniko Clear Stamp DT with the February 2018 6th Birthday Release! 

Until then, be sure to hop on over to their blogs via the links below to see more inspiration and to leave them some welcome love.

Sarah G

Julie

Wiebke

Linda

As it is Uniko's Birthday month, I will be randomly selecting SIX lucky comments from each of the blogs to receive a Uniko Stencil Prize! 

Don't forget there is still time to join in on the Uniko Treasure Hunt HERE and The Uniko 6th Birthday Linky Party HERE!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Hugs