Season's Greetings ....

... Hello from a very, very snowy Northville. We're all home today. The school district called a snow day last night, so Kat has spent the day just chillin! Jonathan's office also called a snow day, but he's had to work from home. The main thing is we're all safe and warm in the house. I've spent a large part of today in my craft room, but you'll have to wait until Sunday to see most of the cards!! But I do have a simple Christmas card to share with you this afternoon:

Stamps: Uniko - Winter Foliage, Big & Bold Wish, Rustic Wreath, Essentially Christmas, Simply Said Christmas
Inks: Gina K - Christmas Pine, Red Velvet; Versafine - Onyx Black; Delicata - Golden Glitz; SU - Emerald Envy
Dies: Die-namics - Pierced Oval Frames #2
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Emerald Envy; Gold Canvas Finish Mirri Card; Copics; Shimmer Pen

I got the idea for this card from the inspiration photo over at Merry Monday - MM#276. The colours are from Your Next Stamp - YNS#82 and I'm also playing along with Addicted to Stamps and More! - ATSM#278 where they want to see Holiday cards.

I die cut an oval of white card and placed it into my MISTI. I stamped the holly leaves and berries, covered them with masks and then stamped the candles. I added some pine branches at the top of the image, added berries and lots of stars. I finished by colouring the candles in two shade of pink and added sparkle with my Wink of Stella brush. I adhered the finished panel behind the gold frame and attached the whole lot to the front of the card. I finished with a simple Christmas greeting. On the inside, I cut a mat layer of green card and on the white panel I stamped a greeting and added some branches and berries.

It's been snowing since about 3.00am this morning and we've got about 6 inches of snow on the ground. As it's not expected to stop until about 8.00pm this evening, we're likely to end up with about 8 inches on the ground. This is one of the times that I'm very, very grateful to have a company come round and clear the snow. However, I'm not expecting them until tomorrow!

I took a few photos of all the snow around the house:

This is a view from the back bedroom across the swimming pool - although you would never know it! The winter wonderland beyond the fence is Northville Commons, the park area behind our house. I have played a bit with this photo to bring out all the texture.

This is a view looking down onto our patio - I always leave the furniture out. I'll have to get new cushions in the spring - but you can see the piles of snow on the table, chairs, and sunbeds!!

This is the postbox over the road - I've played a bit so that you can see the snow falling and the texture of the tyre marks on the road. That's all for now. Do stop by on Sunday for a special celebration. See you soon.

Uniko - November Release, Blog Hop and Giveaway ....

.... I do hope that you've enjoyed seeing all the sneak peeks and the introductions to the new Uniko release. Today I'm here to showcase a few more cards using the new sets. Bev designs fabulous images and they all work so well with her previous releases. I'm going to start off with my card featuring Christmas Pop - a tree building set:

Stamps: Uniko - Christmas Pop, All Occasion Sentiments #4, Simply Said Christmas
Inks: Versamark; Versafine - Onyx Black; Delicata - Golden Glitz
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Tim Holtz Watercolour Card; Gold Vellum; Gold, Clear & White Embossing Powder; Twinkling H₂O - Honey Amber, Solar Gold, Egyptian Gold

I got the idea for this card from this week's City Crafter Challenge Blog - CCCB#339 where the team would like to see lots of golden glitz! I had so much fun. I started by giving a piece of water colour card a light gold wash with Twinkling H₂O and allowing it to dry. I stamped the outline tree in black and embossed with clear powder. On one I added lines to divide the tree into sections and heat embossed them. In the other outline I stamped the geometric blocks in Versamark and heat embossed with white powder. I used three different gold paint to colour the trees. Once dry I cut them out. I stamped another outline tree, some stars and a greeting on the watercolour card and heat embossed them with Gold powder. I then adhered the cut trees. On the inside I cut a mat layer of gold vellum and on the white panel added a simple greeting in gold and a tiny tree. I'm submitting this to Addicted to Stamps and More! - ATSM#221 where it's ANYTHING GOES.

My next card features the mini-sentiment set - Most Wonderful. This has fast become one of my very favourite sets!

Stamps: Uniko - Most Wonderful, Background Builders Round in Circles
Inks: SU - Peekaboo Peach, Crushed Curry, Cucumber Crush, Pacific Point, Perfect Plum; Versafine - Onyx Black
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Basic Black

This one is so clean and simple and also so colourful. I got the idea of the rainbow circles from the challenge graphic at AAA Cards - AAA#78 where the team would like us to use CIRCLES. I started by repeatedly stamping one of the full sentiments in black on white card. Then I added circles using rainbow colours. I layered the finished piece on some black card to make the colours pop. The layout of this card is based on the sketch over at CAS Colours & Sketches - CASC& S#201. On the inside I cut a mat layer of black card and on the white panel added a greeting and some more rainbow circles.

My final card uses Rustic Wreath and is another quick and easy card:

Stamps: Uniko - Rustic Wreath
Inks: SU - Certainly Celery, Hello Honey, Lost Lagoon; Versafine - Onyx Black
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SUDP - Moonlight

The colours are from Colour Throwdown - CTD#420 and the layout is from Freshly Made Sketches - FMS#264. Going through my stash of design papers I came across this fun piece which I cut to size and adhered to the card. I stamped the wreath in the corner of the card, adding some blue berries and pine cones in the centre. I finished the front with a simple greeting. On the inside is another mat of design paper and on the white panel a greeting and some more wreaths.

So that's my cards showcasing the new releases. We have a fun Blog Hop today - so do visit the rest of the team.

As is tradition with Uniko, we have a Design Team Blog Hop where the rest of the team can share more inspiration with you. We also have a Giveaway and it's really great. You must comment as you make your way along the Blog Hop and you will be in with the chance of winning the ENTIRE Release. You have until midnight (GMT) on Friday 2nd December.

Bev

Deborah - that's me!

Jane

Lindsey

Rahmat

Sarah G

Sarah P

Finally here's a complete look at the sets available today at Uniko:

First up is Christmas Pop - full of fun Christmas Trees - but the geometric design means they can be used throughout the year too!

Most Wonderful is a mini set with two complete sentiments and lots of other words to build your own greetings.

Finally we have Rustic Wreath which coordinates perfectly with Rustic Christmas and pretty well all the other stamp sets too!

That's all for now. It's the last day of our long holiday weekend. We've had a lovely time - all relaxing and enjoying time on our own and also together - perfect family time! See you soon.

Uniko - Rustic Wreath ...

... Hello again! I'm back to introduce the last of this mini release at Uniko. Today I'm sharing a card made with Rustic Wreath. This is a fun clean and simple card, with lots of Christmas sparkle:

Stamps: Uniko - Rustic Wreath
Inks: Kaleidacolor - Fresh Greens; Stampin' Up! - Real Red, Early Espresso
Dies: Winnie & Walter Cutaways - Joy
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Red Glitter Paper; SU Card - Emerald Envy

Once again the inspiration for this card comes from the Fusion Challenge - FUSION#62. I created the word by stamped the Rustic Wreath in shades of green in the middle of the card. I added some pine cones and berries to the wreath. I die cut the word JOY from red glitter paper and then separated the letters using only the J and Y on this card. I added the centre of the O in the middle of the wreath. On the inside I cut a mat layer of dark green card and on the white panel stamped another simple wreath and added a greeting in red.

I'm also submitting this to TIME OUT Challenges - TOC#71 as it's Christmas and there's sparkle too!

Now, don't forget to visit the Uniko blog to see more inspiration from the rest of the team. Here's a reminder of the release scheudle:

INTRODUCING: 25th and 26th November - the DT will give you a closer look at the new sets being released with a daily blog hop.

RELEASE DAY: Sunday 27th November 9.00am GMT - you get to see the products in their entirety and purchase them from the Uniko website. As usual there is a Design Team Blog Hop and a Giveaway.

As this is the last release of 2016 - Bev is giving away some random prizes throughout the release countdown. To be in with a chance of winning a random prize, be sure to join in commenting along the Introducing Hops and joining in via social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. Winners of the random prizes will be announced on Bev's blog on Sunday 27th November at 8.00am GMT.

That's all for now - have a great weekend and do come back tomorrow to see the entire release and lots more inspiration from the team!

52CCT - Colours ...

.... Hi! Time is marching on and I still need to make lots more Christmas cards. This week's challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown - 52CCT45-16 has helped a lot! Gill has picked super colours for us to play with - LIME GREEN AND REAL RED - I've had a ball!! I ended up with a set of six co-ordinating cards. There are a few sneak peeks in here too - Bev from Uniko has some new stamps coming out soon. Here are my cards:

Stamps: Uniko - Christmas Pop, Rustic Wreath, Most Wonderful, Simply Said Christmas, Background Builders Vines Winter Additions, Pure Floral Poinsettia
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Lucky Limeade, Real Red, Whisper White; Versafine - Onyx Black; Versamark; Delicata - Shimmery Silver
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card & DP - Lucky Limeade, Real Red; Silver & White Embossing Powders; Wink of Stella - Clear, Green, Gold

I love this colour combination as you can probably guess! I used the sketch from this week's CAS Colours & Sketches - CASC&S#199 for the layout on all the cards, although not all the cards are CAS. I made card bases in white, red and lime and then played with design papers and white card for all the toppers. I've used embossing on some, added sparkle with Wink of Stella to others and gone for fairly clean and simple on a couple more. I've added flowers on a couple of the cards and am submitting them to Jingle Belles - JB:16:23 where they want to see Christmas flowers. And I'm also submitting the Christmas tree cards to the current challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz - C4G#145. I kept the inside of the cards very simple. I simply stamped a sentiment and some silver snowflakes on the white panels. I co-ordinated the colour of the word joy to the main colour of the card.

This set of six cards gets my total to 66 cards. I still need another forty or so!!! I really will have to get down to it this week. Do visit our blog to see more cards from the rest of the team - as always they have wonderful inspiration projects to share! Have a great weekend!