Uniko Challenge - Colours ....

.... Hello! Can you believe that we're halfway through March already? No, neither can I! Only a few more days until it's officially spring and then it'll be Easter before you know it. That sort of leads into today post - I'm sharing my card for the new Uniko Challenge - USC#46 where we want you to use some or all of the colours in the graphic photo and we have the option of making an Easter card. Here's my card:

Stamps: Uniko - Some Bunny, Happy Succulents, Birthday Sentiments
Inks: Distress - Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean; Versafine - Onyx Black
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Stampin' Up! DP - Daffodil Delight; Uniko Stencil - Scattered Polka Dots; Copic Markers; Spectrum Noir - Sparkle Brush; Clear Embossing Powder

As you can see, I used all the colours and made an Easter card too. I stencilled the polka dot background on the card using distress inks. I stamped the bunny on white card and coloured it with Copic markers. I put it back in the MISTI and restamped in Versafine and heat embossed with clear powder - I really like that you get a super crisp line using this method. I carefully cut out the bunny and adhered him flat to the card. I added lots of sparkle to his feet, chest, inner ear and bow tie. I finished the front by stamping a bold and simple greeting. On the inside, I cut a mat layer of yellow design paper and on the white panel added more polka dots and finished with a bold greeting. I'm submitting this card to Creative with Stamps - CWS#24 where they want us to use a bunny, and also to City Crafter Challenge Blog - CCCB#403 - they want bunnies too!

Don't forget to visit the main Uniko blog to see more inspiration from the Design Team (well, some of us!!) and also from our Guest Designer Michele. You'll see more from the rest of the DT when we do our reminder post in a couple of weeks.

Do you feel inspired? Well have fun, you've got plenty of time to join in, the deadline for submission is midnight (BST) on Friday 20th April, that's 7.00pm EDT in the States. And we have prizes too:

PRIZES

• Main winner chosen by the Design Team - £25 eGift Certificate
• Random twist winner - £4 in stock clear stamp set of winner's choosing
• Randon Uniko stamps winner - £4 in stock clear stamp set of winner's choosing
• Top 3 chosen by the Design Team - 150 Loyalty Reward Points

That's all for now - see you again soon.

Making Spirits Bright ....

... Morning! I hope you've all had a good weekend. We've had a good one - stayed in for most of the time as it's been really cold, but at least no fresh snow!! I was in my craft room finishing off some much needed Christmas cards. I got this idea from the wonderfully talented Jennifer McGuire - thank you!! I made a card last week for another challenge using the Concord & 9th Christmas Cheer turnabout stamp and I had such fun with it, that I made some more:

Stamps: Concord & 9th - Christmas Cheer Turnabout; Altenew - Majestic Mistletoe
Inks: Gina K - Black Onyx; Distress Oxide - Salty Ocean, Candied Apple, Lucky Clover, Wilted Violet
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Crumb Cake; Shimer Spritz - Frost; Signo White Pen

I used distress oxide inks to stamp the image, using lovely bright colours and lightly spritzed with a shimmer spray. I added a touch of white pen to highlight some areas. I cut the panel into two and adhered on part to the top of a white card, and the other part to the bottom. I finished each card by adding a greeting in black. I have left the inside of these cards blank for my own messages. I'm submitting the cards to a few challenges - Happy Little Stamper Christmas challenge - HLSXMAS#12, City Crafter's Challenge Blog - CCCB#392, and to CAS on Friday - CASOF#123.

It's Kat's last week at school - she's so looking forward to her Christmas break. I've got a busy week to get us all ready for our trip back to the UK. It'll be so nice to see the family. That's all for now! Bye!

More Plaid ...

.... Morning! I had fun making yesterday's plaid card and plaids are very on trend at the moment, so I made a couple more cards. First up is a very simple card:

Stamps: Concord & 9th - Plaid Background; Uniko - Stunning Snowflakes, Festive Sentiments, Most Wonderful
Inks: Gina K - Kraft, Red Velvet
Dies: Die-namics - Peace
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Gina K Card - Kraft, Black Onyx; Saved Deer

This card came together so quickly. I adhered the plaid background to the card base. I die cut the word 'peace' and used it on one of my Uniko cards yesterday, I found the leftover negative space on my desk and decided to use it on this card. I finished the front with a sparkly stag - another saved element - I got this on one of last year's Christmas cards. On the inside, I stamped a Christmas greeting and some snowflakes on the white panel. I'm submitting this card to Merry Monday - MM#264, for their red and kraft challenge. I'm also playing along with City Crafter Challenge Blog - CCCB#287 where they want us to use the word 'love' or 'peace'.

This next card features another plaid, along with a very pretty poinsettia:

Stamps: Magenta - Poinsettia; Uniko - Festive Sentiments, Most Wonderful; Concord & 9th - Plaid Background
Inks: Gina K - Kraft, Cherry Red; Versafine - Onyx Black; Versmark
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Gina K Card - Red Velvet; Clear and Gold Embossing Powders; Zig Clean Colour Brushes; Wink of Stella - Clear, Gold; Tim Holtz Water Colour Card

I changed the plaid on this card by stamping the thin lines twice. I adhered it directly to the red card base. I stamped this fun poinsettia in Versamark on watercolour card, embossed it with gold powder and coloured it with Zig brushes. I added a touch of sparkle to the red petals. I carefully cut it out and attached it to the card with dimensional pads. I stamped the sentiment directly on the panel and heat embossed it with clear powder. On the inside, I stamped a Christmas greeting and the poinsettia.

I'm submitting this card to The Card Concept - CC#81, I think this is in the clean and graphic style. I'm also submitting it to Addicted to Stamps and More! - ATSM#267 where it's Make Your Mark week.

Finally, as I mentioned earlier, plaids are very on trend at the moment and the theme at Inkspirational - INK#147 is TREND. Another trend in this set of cards is that they are all for Christmas:

I've had so much fun making these plaid cards, that I think I'm going to make a whole lot more. They come together really quickly and if I change the colours and decorations I should be able to get a whole lot more made today! That's all for now. See you soon.

Halloween Pumpkins ....

... Hello again! Here's another card that I made with the fabulous colours from CAS Colours & Sketches - CASC&S#245:

Stamps: My Favourite Things - Primitive Pumpkins
Inks: SU - Lemon Lime Twist, Night of Navy, Flirty Flamingo; Versamark
Dies: Die-namics - Primitive Pumpkins
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Flirty Flamingo; Clear Embossing Powder

I got the inspiration for this card from the lovely photo over at City Crafter Challenge Blog - CCCB#384. I absolutely love the bright, zing lemon-lime green and made the card base from it. I stamped two pumpkins in Versamark on the pinky-peach card, embossed them with clear powder and cut them out the with matching dies. I stamped a dark blue pumpkin on white card, embossed it, cut it out and added just a touch of pinky-peach to the dots. I stamped the stars and sentiment in Lemon Lime Twist for a tone on tone look and added the pumpkins. On the inside, I cut a white panel and added a fun greeting and a few more tiny pumpkins.

That's all for now. I've got to run into school and drop off a 9 foot Christmas tree to the drama department for the play - A Christmas Carol! See you soon.

12 Days of Christmas .....

.... Hi! I've been having so much fun in my craft room, and that's good because I've hardly been in there for the past few months!! I'm working on building up my Christmas card stash. I need lots as I've many friends and family in the UK, along with friends here. So here's another Christmas card:

Stamps: Graphic 45 - 12 Days of Christmas; Concord & 9th - Joy
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black
Dies: Memory Box - Cross Stitched Frame Borders - #7
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Tim Holtz Water Colour Card; SU Card - Basic Black; Brusho - Sea Green, Leaf Green, Lime Green; Sheer Shimmer Spritz - Frost; Clear Embossing Powder

This is the start of a series of 12 Christmas cards. I die cut a panel of water colour card using a stitched die, applied some Brusho crystals and spritzed with a frost shimmer spray - I just love the effect you get. Once dry, I used my MISTI to stamp the image in black - I repeated this step a couple of times to make sure I got reasonably good coverage, and then heat embossed with clear powder. I added a simple sentiment and layered the panel on black card. I've not done the inside of the card as yet.

I'm submitting this card to Addicted to Stamps and More! - ATSM#258, to City Crafter Challenge Blog - CCCB#378, and to Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge - HLSCAS09.

That's all for now! See you soon.

21 today ....

....  Ben, is 21 years old today. I'm sure that time goes on a faster path once you have children - it really doesn't feel like 21 years since I had Ben. My blond baby boy is a man - with black hair and a beard! I was really lucky to spend a few days with him over the new year period helping him get settled into his new flat. This is the card that I made for him:

Stamps: Visible Image - Tomorrow Doesn't Exist, Rays of Light, Music Speaks; Uniko - Simply Said Birthday
Inks: Kaleidacolor - Blue Breeze; Versafine - Onyx Black
Dies: Stampin' Up/Sizzix - Large Number Framelits
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Black Gloss Card; SU Card - Basic Black; Doodlebug Sprinkles - Black; Clear Embossing Powder

I'm not sure whether or not Ben will have received the card yet! Some of the post I send to the UK gets there quickly, other times it takes ages. I've made a really clean and simple card for Ben - he tends to like them that way. I used my favourite ombre blue inks - Blue Breeze from Kaleidacolor - to ink up the sound waves and sun ray images. I die cut the numbers from some black gloss card and also from some plain black card, layering them together to give some thickness to the number. I adhered them flat to the card front. I finished the front by adding some simple black enamel dots. On the inside I cut a mat layer of black card. On the white panel I stamped another of the sound wave images and added a birthday greeting which was made up from stamps from Uniko and Visible Image. I heat embossed them with clear powder.

I really like the Visible Image sets - they work so well for masculine style cards!  I'm submitting this card to several challenges:

• Less is More - LIM#310 where they have a Colour challenge and they want an ombre look
• CAS on Sunday - CASOS#99 where they want Black, White & one other colour - I picked blue
• Cardz 4 Guyz - C4G#152 where they want to see Birthday cards
• City Crafter Challenge Blog - CCCB#344 where they want you to cheer up someone and use blue
• The Male Room - TMR#51 where we have an ANYTHING GOES theme

I actually made this card before any of these challenges were posted - it's amazing that it works for them all :)

Before I go, I'm going to share a several pictures of my young man Ben, after all, it's his 21st birthday:

Ben dressed up in a knitted suit. Get a load of those specs I'm wearing!!

One of my favourite photos of Ben - pure joy on his face - he was 11 months old here.

One of my pageboys at our wedding in April 2001.

 It's super Ben - Canterbury. 

Ben and Jonathan - family trip to Pontin's in August 2006. Ben was 10 years old here.

Taken on a very cold morning at the Detroit Thanksgiving Parade in November 2014.

And this is my most recent photo of Ben taken on 1st January 2017 in Hastings railway station. We'd been shopping and Ben walked me to the station to get my train back to London. It was pouring with rain and we both got soaked! I hope that Ben has the most wonderful birthday and send him all my love and best wishes.

That's all for today.