Uniko -Flowers ....

.... Good morning! I hope you're all well. It's time for our July/August challenge at Uniko. We have a fun theme for you this time. We want to see FLOWERS on your cards. I had so much fun with this challenge that I ended up making two cards. Here's the first:

Stamps: Uniko - Pure Florals Poinsettia
Inks: Versamark; Versafine - Onyx Black; Delicata - Golden Glitz
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Anita's DP - Classic Christmas Red; Zig Clean Color Brushes; Wink of Stella - Clear; Gold Embossing Powder; Tim Holtz Water Colour Card

I've gone with a Christmas flower, well it's almost a flower! I stamped the large poinsettia on water colour card, heat embossed with gold powder and coloured it with Zig Clean Color Brushes. I used my clear Wink of Stella to add sparkle. I then fussy cut it out. I stamped a clean, simple greeting on the front of the card in black. I added some embossed lines at the edges of the card (got the idea from a Jennifer McGuire video) and they really do look great in real-life, sadly you can't see them too well in the photo above! On the inside of the card I cut a mat layer of red and gold design paper and on the white panel I stamped the poinsettia in gold and added a greeting. I'm submitting this card to The Flower Challenge - TFC#10 to use dry/heat embossing, and also to Creative with Stamps - CWS#16 where the theme is CELEBRATE.

I was on a bit of a roll yesterday afternoon, so I made another flower card:

Stamps: Uniko - Beautiful Blooms III, All Occasion Sentiments #6, Happy Succulents
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black; Versamark; Distress Oxides - Broken China, Salty Ocean, Faded Jeans; Distress Inks - Blueprint Sketch, Salty Ocean
Dies: Little Inkers - Dual Dotted Rectangles #4
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Tim Holtz Water Colour Card; Papermania DP - Inspirations Cool Tones; Sheer Shimmer Spritz - Frost; White Embossing Powder

I got the idea for this card from the optional twist over at Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge - HLSWC07 - they want to see blue! I die cut a panel of water colour card and then played with my Distress Inks and Distress Oxides. I pressed them on my craft sheet, spritzed with water and then dabbed the paper randomly in the inks. I dried between applications to create layers and depth. Then I splashed on some water drops and finished off by spritzing the whole panel with Frost shimmer spray - it's got such a pretty shimmer in real-life! I stamped the word "smile" in Versamark and heat embossed with white powder and then added the words above in black. On some scrap white card I stamped the flowers. I wanted to keep the flowers mostly white, so only used the outline and shade stamps. I cut them out and edged them with a black marker. I adhered the watercolour panel to the card and then added the flowers. The darkest flower is attached flat and I used dimensional pads to attach the other two flowers. The two tone flowers were stamped with (bottom) Faded Jeans Oxide, (middle) Broken China Oxide and (top) Salty Ocean Oxide - the fine shading on all the flowers is Blueprint Sketch. On the inside I cut a mat layer of blue design paper and on the white panel added a simple greeting and another flower. I'm also submitting this one to Love to Craft Challenge Blog - LTCCB#12 where the theme is Anything Goes.

Do visit the Uniko blog to see more cards from the rest of the team. This is such a fun challenge - you don't have to use Uniko products, but we obviously like it if you do - and there are some gorgeous Uniko flowers to use! You've got plenty of time to play along with this challenge, deadline is midnight (BST) on Friday 25th August, that's 7.00pm EDT in the States. And we have prizes too:

• Main winner - chosen by the DT - £25 eGift Certificate
• Random Uniko Stamps winner - £4 in-stock clear stamp set of Winner's choosing
• Top 3 - chosen by DT - 150 Loyalty Reward Points

That's all for now! See you again soon.

CCT - Colours ....

..... Good afternoon! I'm a bit late with my post for our new colour challenge over at Christmas Card Throwdown - CCT14. We've gone just a bit mad with our colours this time - we want to see a

RAINBOW

You have to use at least 5 colours, but you can go crazy and use all seven if you want. I've kept mine very clean and simple and gone for five colours. I actually made two cards:

Stamps: Uniko - Stunning Snowflakes, Simply Said II, Most Wonderful
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black; Distress Oxide: Candied Apple, Spiced Marmalade, Lucky Clover, Salty Ocean, Wilted Violet, Fired Brick, Fossilized Amber, Peeled Paint, Faded Jeans, Seedless Preserves
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Stampin' Up Card - Basic Black; Gems

I decided to keep these cards ultra clean and simple and just allow the rainbow colours to be the star of the show. The top card is the brights and the bottom is the more muted colours. In order to make sure the snowflakes all lined up accurately I used my MISTI. I layered the finished panels on black card and then adhered them to the card base. I finished the front with a very simple Christmas sentiment. I decided to add some sparkle with tiny little gems in the centre of each snowflake. On the inside of each card I cut a mat layer of black card, and on the white panels I stamped a greeting in black and added some more colourful snowflakes around the words.

There are a couple of Christmas in July challenges around at the moment, so I'm submitting these cards to them. The first is Merry Monday where we can catch up with any previous challenge and I've based the cards on MM#233 where we had to use 5 of somethings. The second is CAS-ual Friday Challenge - CFC#178.

Do visit Christmas Card Throwdown to see more inspirational cards from the rest of the Design Team - we have all gone for totally different looks! You've got slightly longer than usual to join in with this challenge. You have until midnight (BST) Friday 4th August (that's 7.00pm EDT) to play along. That's all for now, see you soon.

TMR - Theme ....

..... Morning! I've finally managed to make some cards for this week's challenge at The Male Room - TMR#64 where we want to see TEXTURE on your projects. I was at a card class run by Tokiko Matsuo in Scrappy Chic (Livonia) yesterday. We made 8 tiny cards - all 3" x 3" and with different themes, but two of them were just right for our Texture theme at The Male Room. Here they are:

I know that the die Tokiko used is by Impression Obsession (Greetings Bottom Edgers). She precut many, many pieces in lots of colours. I simply picked colours that I think work perfectly for guy cards. These are so easy to make. I simply adhered each strip to the card base and that's it done! I all that texture by simply using repeated die cut sentiments.

That's all for today. I'm going back to the TV to finish watching the Murray v Querry match. See you soon.

Uniko - Revisit and Blog Hop ....

.... Hello! It's been a while since I posted anything, but I've a good excuse - I've been away on holiday. I'm now trying to get back into my routine and I'm here this morning with my card for the Uniko Revisit and DT Blog Hop. We are revisiting the Marvellous Mehndi which contains a wonderful mandala style image and a selection of super paisley stamps. While we were in Minnesota, Jonathan and I visited Paisley Park, Prince's home and studio. It was truly a fabulous experience. When I got married I walked down the aisle to Prince's song, The Most Beautiful Girl in the World (see video at the end of this post), so you can see where I got the inspiration for this card:

Stamps: Uniko - Marvellous Mehndi, All Occasion Sentiments #6, Originally Organic
Inks: Versamark; Stampin' Up! - Concord Crush
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Concord Crush; White Embossing Powder; Spectrum Noir Sparkle - Clear; Gems

I made the card base from some of my precious purple textured card (now discontinued). I dusted it with an anti-static buddy, put it in my MISTI and arranged the stamps until I got a layout that I liked. I inked up with Versamark and stamped the images a couple of times to make sure that it covered the textured card properly. I heated embossed the pattern with white powder. I wanted to keep the card really simple, but you have to have glitter, so I used my clear Spectrum Noir brush to add touches of glitter to the paisley patterns. I finished the front by added a few gems. On the inside I cut a panel of white card and stamped the large mandala image off to the side and added a greeting.

I'm submitting this card to Less is More - LIM#336 & 337 where the team want us to use a coloured card background and make a one layer card - done! LIM is teaming up with AAA Cards - AAA#94 this week, so I'm playing along with them too.

While I had these stamps on my MISTI I decided to make another card - this time I went for a monochromatic pink theme - taking my colours from the challenge at The Paper Players - PP#352. Apart from the addition of a mat layer of pink card on the inside, this one is much the same. Using the clear glitter pen on this one caused the ink to move on the paisley patterns - I rather like this soft, sparkly colour.

And here's the inside of the card:

Now, don't forget to visit the rest of the team and follow along the Blog Hop. We have a prize for one lucky winner. To be eligible to win, you must comment along the Blog Hop (we all love to get some comments) by midnight Tuesday 18th July. The prize is the stamp set Marvellous Mehndi or, if you've already got the set, an eGift Certificate to the same value. Winners will be announced on the Uniko blog on Wednesday 19th July. Now here's the Blog Hop list:

Bev

Deborah (that's me!)

Jane

Lindsey

Rahmat

Sarah G

Sarah P

Let me know which is your favourite card? Thanks so much for stopping by today. I'll be back again soon. Before I go here's that song - The Most Beautiful Girl in the World by Prince:

CCT - Sketch ....

.... Morning! Time is marching on and it's brings us to our new challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown - CCT13. We're have a sketch for you to use for the next couple of weeks. I've made an, almost, one layer card:

Stamps: Uniko - Stunning Snowflakes
Inks: Distress - Blueprint Sketch, Shaded Lilac; Kaleidacolor - Blue Breeze; Stampin' Up! - Soft Sky
Dies: Die-namics - Fishtail Flags Stax #2, Fishtail Flags Layers Stax #2
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Shimmer Spritz

I started by stamping the three large snowflakes in a bold blue diagonally across the page. Then I used the tiny snowflake and randomly stamped it all over the card background using a mixture of different shades of blue. I created the mat flag by rubbing the blueprint sketch ink over some white card; once it was dried I die cut the fishtail flag. I stamped the greeting on white card and die cut it with the layering die. Before adhering the greeting to the card, I spritzed it all over with some frost shimmer spritz - it's dazzling in the sunlight. On the inside I simply stamped a greeting and added a few more snowflakes.

I'm submitting this card to the current challenge at TIME OUT challenges - TOC#86 where the theme is Celebrations with the optional twist of a one-layer card. I almost managed the OLC!! Do visit our blog to see more inspiration challenges from the rest of the team. You have plenty of time to play along, deadline for submission is midnight (BST) Friday 14th July, that's 7.00pm EDT. Have fun!