Uniko - TMR - Flowers ....

.... Hello! I can't quite believe that it's been almost two weeks since I posted anything - I'll explain later. I'm here this morning with my card for our new challenge at Uniko - USC#34. This month our theme is

FLOWERS

I finally got to play with Bev's wonderful new stamp set - Paradise - which includes a beautiful hibiscus, as well as a fabulous toucan. Over at The Male Room - TMR#39 our challenge is to use flowers and make them masculine. I'm very late with my card, but I think this works for both challenges!

Stamps: Uniko - Paradise
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black; Memento - Grey Flannel; Stampin' Up! - Wisteria Wonder, Crushed Curry
Dies: Winnie & Walter - Cheers Cutaway; Reverse Confetti - Coffee Cup
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Crushed Curry, Basic Black; Copics; Staedtler - Aquarell Pencils; White Flock; Clear Embossing Powder; SU Marker - Basic Grey

The layout is based on this week's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches - FMS#245. I masked off a section at the top of the card and stamped the hibiscus flower over the bottom section in grey. I drew in three lines to define the area. As soon as I saw this set I thought of the toucan adverts for Guinness that ran in the UK, and that's the theme of my card. I stamped the toucan in Versafine onyx black and heat embossed it with clear powder. I coloured the bill and feet with watercolour pencils, and then fussy cut the bird. I made the glass of Guinness from a coffee die. I coloured it with Copic markers and added white flock for the white froth on top of the pint of Guinness. I die cut the word "cheers" from black card - works so well with the pint. I finished the front by added a coloured hibiscus flower. I think this works as a masculine card. What do you think? On the inside I cut a mat layer of yellow card and on the white panel added a birthday greeting and another toucan.

Do visit Bev's blog to see more inspiration cards from the rest of the team.  As an incentive to play along, we have prizes!

• The DT will choose a winner who will get a £15 gift voucher.
• The DT also choose a Top 3, who will each get 100 Loyalty Reward Points added to their Uniko customer account.
• We also do a random draw for all those who use a UNIKO stamp. This winner will get 200 Loyalty Reward Points added to their UNIKO customer account.

You've got plenty of time to play along with this month's challenge - the deadline for submission is midnight (BST) on Friday 12th August (that's 7.00pm EDT).

We got back to the States on Saturday 2nd July and I planned to get right back into crafting. However, I was a bit under the weather - nothing serious, but all my mojo got up and left! It's taken a while, but I think the mojo is back. We have been enjoying some wonderfully hot summer days which have been followed by some fairly serious thunderstorms. It's nice to be back home :)

Before I go below you'll see a couple of clips from U-Tube - they are toucan Guinness adverts; enjoy!