Uniko Challenge #39

Hello friends, it's time to introduce you to our first challenge of 2017 over at
Uniko and it's an Anything Goes with the Optional Twist of LOVE
The Challenges are slightly different this year so please read on for the details but first here's my card using the beautiful Marvellous Mehndi set which I've  heat-embossed repeatedly in gold on red cardstock to create a background panel. 

Don't forget to pop across to the main Uniko blog HERE where you'll see 

snippets of my fellow teamies creations and links to their personal blogs too 

We're also joined by one of our previous winners this month;

Izzy of Izzy Scrap

is our Guest Designer for this challenge and I hope you'll pay her a visit

and leave some friendly feedback on her stunning cards.

Here's the all important prize information and you have until 

Friday, 24th February to play along and link up to the challenge.

Main Winner Chosen By the DT

 £25 eGift Certificate

Random Twist Winner

 £4 In Stock Clear Stamp Set of the Winners Choosing

Random Uniko Stamps Winner 

£4 In Stock Clear Stamp Set of the Winners Choosing

      Top 3 Chosen By DT - 150 Loyalty Reward Points

As always thanks for visiting my blog today and I'll catch up with you again soon. 
Have some crafty fun!

AAA CAS Cards Challenge #80

Hello there friends, it's time for another challenge over at AAA CAS Cards and yet again we are being incredibly kind by offering another winter challenge theme ... perfect for dashing off a few last minute Christmas cards! As it happens my cousin is getting married  this month so mine's a wedding theme!
So we are looking for cards featuring 'Silver' and you have until  Saturday, 7th January to play along!

This one uses:

Marianne Creatables: Lord & Lady silhouette dies

WPlus9: Heart Stax dies

Uniko: Essentially Christmas 'mistletoe'

STAMPlorations: 'On your wedding day' sentiment

MFT Die-Namics: Stitched Rectangle Dies

plus sequins by Pretty Pink Posh

As always there's plenty more super CAS creations by my fellow teamies, 

with links to their blogs on the AAA Cards blog HERE

We are also joined by Deborah of Debs Gems, please hop along

to her blog and leave her a friendly word and some love - I'm 

sure she'll appreciate it.

Our sponsor for this challenge is Stampendous and they are

offering a $20 Gift Certificate for our lucky winner.

As always thanks for calling by and I'd like to wish you all a 

Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year as we'll

be taking a little break over the Christmas period.

Catch up with you next year!

AAA Cards Challenge #69

Hi friends it's time for a new challenge over at  AAA Cards and we'd like you to use one Stash Favourite on your card and explain  what it is in your description. Tough I know to stick with one! I love dies and try to use them where I can. Here I've used 2 but my favourite stash item is the Neat & Tangled Heart of Gold die Other items are Distress inks to add a few splatters for interest, WPlus9 stacking hearts dies, Lawn Fawn: Happy Wedding stamp set; coloured with Promarkers and some Pretty Pink Posh sequins to finish. I hope you feel inspired to play along and our sponsor for this challenge  is Stampendous. There's plenty more inspiration by my fellow teamies  over on the main blog PLUS our guest designer for this challenge is the incredible  Ksenija from Sweet Kobylkin Please pop along to her blog and check out her fantastic designs. Thanks as always for calling by and I do hope you have some fun.

Uniko Introducing Simply Said

Hi Friends, I'm back with Day 3 of the introductions to Uniko's 4th Birthday release and today we are  showcasing Simply Said
As luck would have it Uniko is also this week's sponsor over at CASology challenge and as it coincides with the February release of  yummy stamps it would be rude not to play along with their Valentine  theme as it fits quite well with the set too!

I've added a few extras from my stash: Mama Elephant - Index Card dies

the big & plus WPlus9 Sunshine dies for the border on the white panel.

There's more fabulous designs from my fellow teamies plus all 

the details you need about the goodies and release schedule over on

the Uniko blog here so hope you'll head over there if you haven't already!

Thanks as always for stopping by and I'll be back the same time 

tomorrow with the final day of introductions before the BIG

reveal and release on Thursday - hope to see you then!

AAA Cards Challenge #57

Morning blog buddies, are you ready for a new challenge from  AAA Cards Challenge There's that little bit of LOVE in the air as we head into February and  that's the theme of our challenge 'Love me like you do'


Here's my card using a die-cut heart from WPlus9 which is inked with  various pink and red Distress Inks plus some splatters to the card base. The stamped image is from STAMPlorations, the sentiment is Clearly Besotted and I've added a strip of patterned paper from Doodlebug to 'ground' the image.

The challenge over at CASology this week is 'Adore' so I'd like

to pop this one in over there too.

plus it's Anything Goes over at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge

so I think I'll drop in there too!

AND before you hope skip and jump to join in the romance we've an A star

talented guest designer for this challenge who is also sponsoring the challenge

with a generous prize of a 20$ gift certificate to spend in the store!

Kylie of Happy Little Stampers!

If you've never visited her blog you seriously need to head on over there to see

her awesome designs, fabulous stamps and AMAZING videos. 

Plus there's more inspiration from my teamies over on the main blog HERE.

Thanks for calling in today and I can't wait to see you creations.

Addicted to CAS #80

Morning crafters it's time to announce the latest challenge details over at Addicted to CAS and our amazingly talented teamie Doni is hosting this one! WOW! Red - how does that inspire you? For me I've gone with 50 shades of red using a technique I saw over at Kristina Werner's blog as part of her Holiday Card Series HERE

Using my brand new Christmas gift of Gamsai Kuretake watercolours I've used

each shade of deep red to orange-red in layers onto card stock before embossing 

with one of the We R Memory Keepers Next Level embossing folders.

I've used the Lawn Fawn 'Love' word die negative space from my panel with 

a heat embossed sentiment from Clearly Besotted: In the Frame set. 

To finish a mini Red heart shaped nail head.

Our fantastic leader Kylie (Happy Little Stampers) is sponsoring the challenge

and our lucky winner will receive a $15 gift voucher to spend in store.

What's more we have an AMAZING Guest Designer for this week ...

Ardyth of Maskerade - I'm sure you have all come across her work but if

not you NEED to visit her blog as her designs are CAS, striking and totally awesome!

Don't forget to head over to the main blog HERE as my teamies have 

been busy in red this week and I'm sure they'd love it if you'd check out 

their cards and leave some love.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll be back soon

Uniko: Revisit Always & Forever

Morning friends and welcome back to my first DT post of 2016  for Uniko   It's revisit time this month and we've done Christmas and New Year  so the next BIG celebration is Valentine's Day!
Our featured revisit set in true 'loved-up' style is Always and Forever
Here's my take with the set which was new to me in December so this is my first proper play with it too.

I set out all the sentiments from the set plus a few heart images

from Flower Power #3 and placed them diagonally along the base of my card.

Next up some heat-embossing with WOW metallicBrass Sparkle EP.

 The same treatment was given to one of the main images but on 'valentine' red cardstock!

Here's the image of our revisit set

 As is the norm we have a DT Blop Hop where the winner will receive the featured

 set PLUS an eGift certificate for £10 to spend in the Uniko store HERE. 

If the winner already owns the set then the eGift certificate will be for £15!

 Can't say fairer than that eh!

Before I announce the traditional Blog Hop order we've a brand new 

Design Team member here at Uniko. A super talented CAS queen

Lindsey Doodlings - why not head over to Lindsey's blog and take a peek!

I'm sure you'll love what you see and I'm thrilled to be designing alongside her!

So here's the order for the hop and please make sure you leave a 

comment at each stop in order to be eligible for a prize.

Beverley

Deborah

Jane

Lindsey

Sarah P (that's me)

Thanks for stopping by and good luck with the hop!

A Little Sunday Trio

Happy Sunday all and hope you are enjoying a sunny crafty day. I've 3 cards to share and I'm not entirely sure about them ...  I'm struggling with toothache which hasn't helped my mojo today but as I've made the effort I'm going to drop them in for a few challenges.
So first up is for a new challenge to me; having seen a fair amount of red, white, black and umbrellas in blogland  I had to check out what was going on!!!  
Here's my first play over at The Challenge #31

Card Recipe:

Stamplorations: Vignette - Ever After

Clearly Besotted: Je T'aime, Baby Shower & Notebook die

(I didn't have an umbrella small enough so accented the card with red

hearts from the baby shower set & Doodlebug Twine)

My Favourite Things: On the diagonal stencil - tone on tone

to add little interest to the card base.

I've also linked this card up at the never-ending

Anything Goes Challenge at Stamplorations

Next up is to enter the Merry Monday Challenge

sorry ladies I missed last week as I couldn't find vintage

Then I found this little artpad from Lili of The Valley!

So I'm using one of their gorgeous images including a little dog.

He looks just like my own dog but mine has more black and white.

The sentiments are from Uniko Studio: Simply Said Christmas

and Peace on Each stamp sets

Design paper is American Crafts

Last one for today is a second entry to Inkspirational

where it's a space theme.

I couldn't resist inking up this 'Blast Off' set from Clearly Besotted

on a moon effect circle created with distress ink in faded jeans

then spritzed with water and perfect pearls to make a shimmer-effect.

   ]

I'd also like to link this up at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday challenge

where it's Clean and Simple this week.

Ok, thanks as always for stopping by my blog

and I'll catch up with you again soon

Less is More #216

Morning All Yippee it's the weekend!
Time for another challenge over at Less is More
This week is theme week AND ... scary stuff We'd like you to CASE one of the Design Team cards!
It's taken a while to come up with something for you as I've swapped and changed ideas so many times but I'm sticking with this one!

Ok so it's a shaker card which can still be CAS - yeah!

If you decide to CASE my card I'd like to see:

Lots of 'white space' obviously but then you might like to use

embossing, shakers, colours, dies or go with a wedding card. 

I can't wait to see how you interpret my card. 

The main thing ... have FUN!

Card Recipe:

Clearly besotted: Paired Up sentiment & dies set plus word die

WPlus9: Heart dies

Impression Obsession: Heart of Heart die

WOW: Metallic silver embossing powder

We are only offering one (CASE) card per DT member this week 

so I'm handing over to you now.

Chrissie, Anne and I are heading to the Hobbycraft event at

the NEC Birmingham today so if any of you are attending

we'd love to say hello and have a chat if you spot us.

Have a good weekend and see you soon

Sunday Challenge Combo

Hello friends I've a couple of cards to share with you today for challenges I've neglected recently :-(  sometimes there's just not enough hours in the day to enter them all.
The first card is to enter at this week's Muse Card Challenge and CAS on Sunday.  Although I love Michelle's work I honestly couldn't get my head around her Muse card this week and I've been racking my brain constanly!
Then ... a little lightbulb moment when I popped over to CAS on Sunday. It's a 'chevron' themed challenge so I zapped some inspiration from their AMAZING DT.

Here's Michelle's card

 

Card Recipe:

Uniko Studio: Balloon Bash

Clearly Besotted: Happy Birthday sentiment set

MFT: Chevron Stencil

Distress Inks in Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers & Evergreen Bough

Next up is to enter at ColourQ 

My cousin gets married next month but I'm not sure if these colours

are too garish for a wedding card. Basically I 'needed' this colour red

for the love word die on another card and die-cut the centre but then 

thought it was too nice a shape to discard and this is what happened!

Card Recipe:

Uniko Studio: Flower Power #3

Clearly Besotted: Bridal Bouquet sentiments

Lawn Fawn: Love word Die

Impression Obsession: Heart Die - using the spare hearts

I coloured them black, winked with stella then drizzled with glossy accents

The red die cut panel was a freebie from Dies to Die for

Ok that's my lot for today but hope to see you in the week.

It's half term in the UK so no work for the week but it always 

flies by and never enough crafting done! 

Thanks for stopping by and have lovely evening.

Less is More #211

Hi there ... whoosh! I think I've lost a week!
I cannot believe it's Saturday already and time for another challenge at Less is More
First of all a HUGE thanks for all your FABulous entries in the birthday challenge you certainly pulled everything out of the bag. It's much appreciated having so many followers of the LIM challenge and great to see your happy faces as you comment on each others cards. Well done - prize winners will be revealed soon.
So onto this week and it's the turn of the  ONE layer card - with a LOVE theme
Now I don't want to be a party pooper but I'm slightly fed up of all these hearts, hugs and love cards - seems to have been everywhere since I put the Christmas tree away! So at last today is Valentine's Day and yippee we can move onto something else from next week! So if you don't want to get all loved up and slushy you can skip the hearts as I have in this one (well almost)!
Edit: it seems I may have inadvertently stretched the boundaries / cheated on this one layer card as my inlaid die is supported with a 'layer' of tape at the back.  I couldn't wait to use this new die but perhaps using it as a stencil  and inking through would also create a similar effect without cheating!  Do hope you'll forgive me for leading you all astray.
Would love to know your thoughts on this.

If you follow my blog regularly you may notice I've  got a bit of an obsession for rainbows at the moment ... think it's  the lack of sunny spring-like weather in the UK!
I get lots of inspiration from Laura Bassen with her super  rainbow-effect / colourful creations eg. HERE plus another video I watched this week by Julie Ebersole which gave me the idea for this card.
Card Recipe: Lawn Fawn: LOVE word die (inlaid) Sentiments: Clearly Besotted - Say it in Style Uniko Studio: Simply Said - Birthday Uniko Studio: Heart Confetti from Balloon Bash Inks: Ranger Dye Inks (new purchase and I love them)
Thanks to Jennifer McGuire HERE for introducing them ...  that lady has lots to answer for - including my bank balance!!!
I'd also like to enter this card at CASology where it's all about LOVE over there too!

Oh no it's another slushy one ... My hubby has so many valentine's cards 

from me this year he doesn't know what's hit him or what's up with me!

I couldn't resist inking up this set from Clearly Besotted and can't believe I haven't already done so - I've been in a dreamy state  over it and daren't spoil it by inking it up! Anyone else have this issue?
Card Recipe: Clearly Besotted: In Print & Build a Bug MFT Die-namics: Coffee cup & Blueprints 15 (hearts) I made my own stencil from these sets and inked up  with Gold Delicata ink then heat embossed with Ranger Clear EP The bees wings are winked with stella; with 2 pearls from Hobby House for eyes.
I'd like to link this one up at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where the theme is: All Creatures Great and Small


Last one for today and this time it's to link up at  Merry Monday - Candy Canes CAS(E) This Sketch

  Card Recipe: Clearly Besotted: Naughty or Nice? Uniko Studio: Simply Said - Christmas Doodlebug: Sprinkles & Pearls from Hobby House

I've used the candy canes from the CBS set to make hearts and wish I hadn't ... it has taken ages with many duds in the rubbish despite trying it out on scrap first. This was my final attempt and I'm  not entirely happy with it but ran out of time to make anything else!
   
Ok over to you now and looking forward to more superb  creations from you over the week. Thanks as always for stopping by and catch up with you soon.

Hugs & Kisses & lots of Hearts

This morning I'm here with a card to share for a few challenges and  there's certainly plenty of excuses to keep the love and heart stash handy at the moment in blogland!
Here's my card and I must apologise for the photo there is just not enough daylight hours to catch a decent picture!

Card Recipe: Impression Obsession: Heart Die Distressed Inks: Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean and Barn Door Clearly Besotted: Sweet Little Sentiments Twine and gems from my stash
As soon as I saw the photo inspiration at AAA Card Challenge I couldn't wait to join in and IRL this card is much brighter and shinier than the photograph shows.
Using distress inks I created a border by inking around the cardbase  along with the section behind where the die-cut heart sits. The card base was spritzed with water and perfect pearls to add some extra interest. Extra hearts from the die cut were inked up then smothered with Glossy Accents After wrapping some twine around the die-cut panel I've adhered it to my card base using 3d foam and added the extra hearts and gems.
I'd like to enter this card at the following challenges:
AAA Card Challenge Addicted to CAS - Hugs & Kisses Freshly Made Sketches
     

Thanks for calling in at my blog today and hope you'll stop by a little later when I'll have the 2nd Sneaky Peek of the new Uniko Studio February Stamp Release