Uniko - Photo Inspiration ...

..... Morning! It's time for our new challenge at Uniko - USC#33 and this month we have a super fun photo inspiration challenge. Check out the image and use it to inspire you - but tell us how!  Here's my take:

Stamps: Uniko - The Hands of Time, Extra Time
Inks: Distress - Squeezed Lemonade, Cracked Pistachio, Rusty Hinge; Versafine - Vintage Sepia; Versamark
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Stampin' Up! Card -Baked Brown Sugar; Clear and White Embossing Powder

The elements in the our inspiration photo range in size and are also quite graphic - so I did something similar using Uniko stamps. I started by masking a ½" border all round the card with masking tape. I stamped the white image using Versamark, heat embossed with clear powder and then added yellow ink which caused the white elements to pop. After ensuring that the Distress ink was dry, I stamped the spiky circle in Versamark and heat embossed with clear powder. After adding a layer of green ink the yellow circles appeared. I added some smaller circles to the panel, heat embossed and then added brown ink. At this point I decided to stamp a large doily in brown ink and realised that the ink wouldn't dry over the embossed elements. So I took off the embossing powder by pressing the card with a hot iron between several sheets of plain paper. This had the effect of removing the embossing powder as well as the stamped image, so making the large doily appear as it it was stamped behind! Result! After removing the masking tape, I edged the image with a brown marker and finished with a simple greeting. On the inside I cut a mat layer of brown card and on the white panel added some more circular elements and a greeting.

I got the idea for layering the stamps like this from the current Muse - MUSE#170 challenge, so I'm playing along with them this week. And the colours are from Colour Throwdown - CTD#397.

Do visit the Uniko blog to see more cards from the design team using our inspiration photo. Our guest designer this month is Anita of My Papercraft World, do visit her too. As always with our challenge, we have some prizes to encourage you play along. Here are the details:

THE PRIZES

• The DT will pick a winner who will get a £20 e-Gift Certificate to use in the shop.
• The DT will select a Top 3, who will each get 50 Loyalty Points added to their Uniko customer account.
• Finally, there's a random draw for all those using Uniko stamps - the winner will get 150 Loyalty Points added to their Uniko customer account.

There's plenty of time to play along with this month's challenge. Deadline for submission is midnight (BST) on Friday 8th July - that's 7.00pm EDT in the States.

It's been another quite week on my blog, but I've been busy in my craft room. I had some shelves put on the walls so that I can display some of my finished pieces and also to have some of crafting goodies close to my desk. I also covered my desk with craft sheet so that I can, more easily, do mixed media work. Here are a few photos:

I really like having the big border punches easily to hand. You can see the craft sheet on my desk top too. I've also got some Copic refill inks stored in the punch holder - it's the perfect size and place. You can just about see the two shelves to the left of my desk - I keep ink refills along with embossing powder, gems and a few other bits and pieces here.

Here's another view of the desk and you can see the shelves here.  The pictures above were made at my first workshop with Amy Flowers - I had so much fun making this triptych, and it's so nice to be able to display it properly.

The two photos above show the other shelves - each showing off more art projects that I've made since being in the States.

Edited to add: Thanks for all the comments about my "tidy" craft room. There's a reason I've taken photos of the walls - you should have seen the floor :)))

That's all for now. I've got to get back in my craft room and finish making my DT cards for some upcoming challenges.  See you soon.