Celebrating Uniko

I have been struggling to produce cards in recent weeks, but yesterday I decided that I had to enter the Uniko 9th Birthday  linky and so I spent all yesterday afternoon making a card that should only have taken half the time. I don't seem to be capable of making decisions at the moment so I agonised over ever element!

Anyway I did end up with a card that I am happy with and I used Uniko products.

I have had this stamp set for a little while and so I am glad I have now used it. I stamped the tulips on water colour paper and coloured them with Zig clean colour real brush pens,  then put it back in my Misti and stamped in black and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder to give it a shine.

For the background I inked the stencil with Distress Ink and then blended orange to light yellow inks across the panel. It was cut with a scalloped die and mounted on craft foam. The sentiment, also from Uniko, was stamped and clear heat embossed and the tulips were fussy cut and mounted on top. I used foam pads under the flowers to add a bit of dimension.

Also sharing at:

Seize the birthday #208 - no topping

Time Out #182 - 7th Birthday, congratulations to you

I am so glad that I have got this done before the deadline even if it is with just a few hours to go. I am also glad to see the end of February, I hope March brings better times. If nothing else I know it will bring spring which will definitely cheer me up, I hope it improves my productivity too.

Supplies:

cardstock: Adorable Scorable coated card for the base, Neena Classic Crest for the panel and cold pressed watercolour for the tulips

Ink: Distress Ink

Stamps: Uniko Spring Botanicals Tulip, Happy days

Dies: Create a smile Scalloped Rectangles

Stencil: Uniko Mid Century modern

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

CAS Mix Up Reminder

Hello

Time for a reminder over at Cas Mix Up, you still have until 24th Feb to join us in this months challenge, which is a stencil challenge hosted by Nancy. She wants us to use heat embossing with our stencils.  If you visit the blog you will see some links to some technique videos to help you along, plus all the inspiration from the design team.

I blended the 2 greens and 2 oranges through the stencil to make the flower and then used versamark and clear embossing powder to emboss the flower heads. You can see the shine on the close up picture below.

I found a panel with the blocks in my spare background folder and fussy cut the upper edge and put the strip of flowers in the middle. The sentiment is white heat embossed.

I hope to see you in the gallery, this is a great technique to try.

Supplies:

cardstock: Adorable scorable card base, smooth white stamping card

Ink: Catherine Pooler minis

Stamps: Uniko

Stencils: Flowers by Concord & 9th, Cubes by Altenew

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

Happy Valentine's Day

My valentine card today is the one I made for my husband. I have used some new products that i ordered from Craft Clearance a few weeks ago. They had such a good deal on creative expressions cover plate dies that I couldn't resist. I think I bought 4 of them! My order also included the die cut sentiment you see on this card.

The circles cover die was cut from white card and mounted onto black and the sentiment was also cut from white card but I coloured it with an alcohol marker and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. I think has about 3 layers on it. I did the same with the little hearts (which came with the sentiment die) and placed them in the circles.

The message inside reads 'on valentine's day'. He doesn't really go in for soppy stuff so I thought this would fit the bill.

I think we are finally going to lose the snow tomorrow and we both have appointments for our Covid jab so perhaps things are looking up.

I am sharing it at:

Cut it up #219 - All you need is love

Audsentiments #268 - Anything goes + a sentiment

NBUS #23 - This is the first use for both dies

Supplies:

cardstock: Smooth White 290gsm, black paper

Ink: Versamark

Dies: Creative Expressions solar circles & Just for you

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

January CCC Reveal

Today is 2nd January so it is reveal time over at the  Card Chain Challenge where you sign up each month to send a card to a fellow crafter. This month my card went to Jeanne in Minneapolis. Unfortunately I don't think it has arrived yet, even though I sent it in good time this month, sorry Jeanne.

From the list of options this month I used the colour palette, sketch, stencils and friendship. You can see the options here. I have put in the link rather than the pictures because blogger doesn't seem to like copying and pasting pictures anymore.

I used distress oxide inks to blend my background then used a punch to cut different sized circles in a piece of paper. Then I dabbed a damp sponge onto the ink through the holes to make the design. I cut the panel with a scalloped edged die, heat embossed the sentiment, tied some rather nice cold string round it and attached it to a piece of corrugated card. The panel was mounted on a kraft card base and finished off with a bow and a few sequins.

I decorated the card insert with the same coloured ink using the same paper stencil.

My card from Jutta in Canada arrived today, just in time for me to add it to my post. I love those balloons and the striped foiled background. She also included some die cut doilies that I hope to find a use for.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Kraft; corrugated kraft; bristol board

Ink: Distress Oxide

Stamps: My Favourite Things

Dies: Create a Smile

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

Cas Mix Up February

Hello

I saw some daffodils in flower on my walk this morning, so that has brought me some cheer on this grey day. I hope the launch of as new challenge over at CAS Mix Up Challenge  will also bring you some cheer. The months go by quick don't they? Our February challenge is a stencil one and it is hosted by Nancy. She would like us to use heat embossing with our stencils.

Our guest designer this month is Arlene from Sunday Stamper Papercrafts, do click on the link and pay her a visit.

My card today uses a stencil that was a gift from the wonderful Mia. I have been waiting to use it ever since I got it. I cut my panel first with a stitched rectangle die and then drew round the stencil with a fine liner pen. Keeping the stencil in place I squished my versamark ink pad through the stencil to ink up the small flowers. I used ultrafine wow red embossing powder doing each flower individually. Then I remembered that I had a wow embossing pen somewhere and was able to use that. This enabled me to do individual petals so I could use 2 colours. I also layered the embossing 3 times. 

I did find that this left the edges looking a bit ragged so I filled in the gaps between the petals with the fine liner. This tidied it up and gave a more bold look. as it was important to keep this card CAS and I didn't want to cut the panel I mounted it on a 7x5 inch white cardbase, stamped a sentiment in black and matted my panel on some black paper.

I was actually quite pleased with how this worked. I think it is the first time I have used this technique and it is really rather effective, so thanks for this challenge Nancy. don't forget there are some links to some technique videos on the blog.

You have until 24th to join us. I hope to see you there.

Supplies:

Ink: Uni Pin Fine liner pen 0.3

Stencil: LJ927 Dreamweaver

Stamps: Sentiment stamp by Woodware

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it.