Uniko - Introducing BG Blocks Nautical Stripes & Fleur De Lis / Anchors Stencils

Hey! I'm back with Day 3 of our introductions to the new release goodies from Uniko, available from Friday, 26th July.

Today we're introducing another Background Block to add to the expanding range; this time Nautical Stripes. There's 2 fantastic coordinating stencils too; Fleur de Lis and Anchors - all of which team well with the previously released Nautical Treasures, which makes a 'come-back' this month too.

for this one I started out by inky blending distress inks in Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, Mermaid Lagoon and Chipped Sapphire to create a gradual blend. Next up I used the anchor stencil and blended in the 3 darker colours. A sprinkling of water with perfect pearls finished the background before adding a popped up sailing boat with the sails stamped using the new background! A couple of flag banner sentiments finishes this nautical themed card.

Who says sailing boats have to be masculine! Here's a different look with the new Background block this time with the sailing boat coloured with Promarkers and stencilled sails using the Fleur de lis stencil. This simple sentiment is by Clearly Besotted - Bev I think we need some travel themed sentiments!!! 

As ever, the release schedule, can be found over on the Uniko blog HERE as well as links and peeks at how my fellow teamies have worked their magic! As well as the regular Design Team we're also joined by the delightful and super talented Keren Baker so why not pop along and visit her blog - you won't be disappointed.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll be back for more introductions tomorrow.

Crazy for MORE Stencils

Hi Friends, I'm zipping in with another 'just for the fun of it post' featuring a bunch of stencil inspired cards. If you visited my blog a few days ago HERE you'll see I was showcasing stencils by fellow blogger and friend Sarah G of Funky Fossil Designs and I've still got more of those to share once they are made up into cards BUT I was loving the colour combo I used on the previous post and decided to root out some older stencils in my stash and bring them back to life ... here goes:

This one uses a 'handmade' stencil - I die-cut several circles in some acetate then randomly inked through the shapes in my favoured colour combo using Distress Oxides (Mermaid Lagoon, Peacock Feathers, Twisted Citron and Blueprint Sketch). The die-cut 'happy' is by CUT-plorations and it's mounted on a stitched circle die by Simon Says Stamp with a 'birthday' sentiment from Uniko.

Next up using a trio of Bokeh stencils by Simon Says Stamp and using the same colour combo, I rotated each stencil 4 times to achieve the clusters in each corner. The Sentiment is heat embossed with clear embossing powder and is by Mama Elephant, mounted on a stitched square by MFT Die-namics

I think this has to be my all-time favourite stencil and one I frequently go back to. It's the Concentric Circles by My Favorite Things, with a sentiment strip featuring 'Fabulous' by Uniko: Explosion Additions and 'Friend' die-cut by Paper Smooches

If you follow the Uniko blog HERE you'll have seen a balloon stencil released with the last bundle of new goodies. I didn't buy it because I new I had this similar one from Neat & Tangled but I was inspired by the stencilled balloon creations from the DT and decided to give it a whirl with this one. The 'Happy Birthday' sentiment is by Impression Obsessions.

Thanks for calling by today and I hope you're having some crafty fun!

Less is More #364

Hello my crafty friends, it's birthday time over at Less is More as we celebrate our 7th Birthday! 
We've a whole bunch of Guest Designers, 2 sponsors this month and a couple of extra prizes thrown in too - all the details are on the main challenge blog HERE
So onto the challenge it's self and here's our cue card followed my cards. 

First up sharing a teeny sneaky peek of some new sentiments from the 'yet-to-be released Uniko birthday sets' let's have some music. Life is so much better with it and a rainbow of course! 

Fellow Less is More teamie, Sharon has recently joined the Visible Image Design Team and I couldn't resist buying a couple of their music inspired sets with some Christmas pennies so first up using 'Music Speaks' on a panel of brusho coloured card. 

Next up, Sharon had this stunning 'Sing' set, when we met at the Happy Little Stampers retreat in Manchester back in November - so I had to have this one too. I've a couple of special birthdays coming up where this collection of cards will be so appropriate! I've stamped and masked the images then used the MFT Concentric Circle grid stencil with Distress inks in different colours.

I'd like to drop this little trio in at Simon Says Stamp: Wednesday Challenge where it's Anything Goes

As always there's loads of fabulous designs from my fellow teamies plus our returning ex Design Team Members over on the main blog HERE and our sponsor for this challenge is Uniko so do play along for a chance of a prize, which we'll announce at the start of next month. Bev (Uniko) is also guest designing for this challenge and hopefully she'll be sneaking a little peek of the new sets too.

I hope you'll play along in our birthday challenges this month and have some fun with us.
Thanks for calling by today!

Less is More #362

Happy New Year Crafty Pals, I hope you are all well and enjoying 2018 so far.
I can't believe this is my first post since 23rd December ... here's me thinking I'd have been crafting and blogging non-stop over the festive period but other fun stuff got in the way!!!
Anyway I'm here to announce our latest challenge at Less is More and we are moving to a 2-weekly format from today, in the hope that it'll free up some extra time for the LIMettes and DT alike. All the details can be found on the main blog so I'll get straight down to sharing the Cue Card for our first challenge of the year! 

Surprisingly I've managed cards for you today, despite the festive fun!!! Each one featuring purples, of course and using the delicious Altenew range of inks.

This one uses the Painted Butterfly set from Altenew with a sentiment from Clearly Besotted; Brushed Greetings.

Next up another Altenew set, this time it's Beautiful Day combined with an inlaid die-cut 'happy' sentiment from STAMPlorations and the 'New Year' sentiment from Happy Little Stampers.

I'd like to link this one up at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where's it's 'Something New' so I'm going with the new Year!

... and last but not least here's the card featured over at Less is More and it uses the Bold Blooms set by My Favorite Things and a sentiment also by MFT. 

As always there's loads of fabulous designs from my fellow teamies over on the main blog HERE and we've a brand new sponsor for 2018, it's Skull and Cross Buns for this month so do play along for a chance of a prize, which we announce at the start of next month.

I hope you'll play along and have some fun - you might even like to join us more than once this fortnight! Thanks for calling by and catch up with you soon. 

Less is More #356

Morning friends! It's time to announce our latest challenge at Less is More and it's our Recipe week with the requirement to 'Let it Shine'

Now you may have heard that Kylie of Happy Little Stampers & Kylie's Addicted to Stamps held a little Craft Retreat in Manchester earlier this month and I was delighted to attend and meet up with fellow LIM teamies, Anita and Sharon along with a bunch of other crafty buddies.
Kylie decided it was time to introduce 'light up' cards and basically I'm hooked! To begin with all that circuit building with batteries and positives/negatives was a little mind-blowing but now back at home I just can't get enough of them. 

This Eiffel Tower card is one of my Retreat cards, although I rehashed it a little when I got home as I could see a channel of light behind the tower. The image is from Happy Little Stampers and initially it was stamped with Versafine Onyx Black then heat embossed using Clear Sparkle embossing powder on a 'Distressed' Background. The mini picture shows the 'light-up' effect when the sentiment is pressed. 

 

This one was very simple to make and positively oozes CAS! Firstly I debossed a stitched circle die by Simon Says Stamp, then added the reindeer thumb print image from the Clearly Besotted 'In Print' set. The sentiment is from the MFT set 'Jingle All the Way' - I have to say the light-up effect on this one is the best (so far!) and my reindeer (Rudolph) has a shiny red nose from Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents too. 

While I had the MFT 'Jingle All The Way' set on my desk I couldn't resist inking up these mini Reindeer and adding another 'Rudolph' into the mix. The images are coloured using Promarkers andn you can see the 'light-up' effect in the mini picture at the top.

If you get the chance to have a go with light-up cards you'll have a whole load of fun and why not try it this week and link up to our challenge!

As always there's loads of fabulous designs from my fellow teamies over on the main blog HERE and our sponsor for this month is Dies to Die For so do play along for a chance of a prize, which we announce at the start of next month.



I hope you'll play along and thanks for calling by!

Uniko - Background Blocks: Scattered Polka Dots & Simply Said Blocks

Hi there, I'm so pleased you've joined me again today as it's Introduction time ... over at Uniko as we get ready for this month's release of new stamps!

Today we are introducing 2 sets: Background Blocks: Scattered Dots and Simply Said Blocks. I hope you like how I've played with these newbies!

First up; embossed in WOW gold embossing powder onto two pieces of card stock before die-cutting with a stitched circle die from Simon Says Stamp. A die-cut 'congrats' greeting from Lawn Fawn in glittered paper, mounted on acetate to create a floating sentiment then a little block sentiment from the new set! All mounted on 3d foam and a few sequins for added interest.

This time stamped in an Ombre style of lilacs and purples using the Altenew range of inks, framed by the aperture of a stitched rectangle die from MFT with some block sentiments mounted on 3d foam. 

I hope this has whet your appetite for more and why not head on over to the Uniko blog HERE to check out the full release schedule as well as find the links to peep at how may fellow teamies on the Design Team have used this set. 
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll be back tomorrow for the next introduction.

Honey I Shrunk The Kit #12 - Going Up

Hey there friends, it's time for another day out with my fellow Honey Babes for another HISTK post! I can't believe how quickly the weeks passed as it doesn't seem long since we were showcasing Shona's super cute set. This time our host is the lovely Hazel, who named this kit 'Going Up' - read on for more details ...

There was so much to work with that I ran out of time before using everything but it does mean I can play some more with what's left and here's the cards I've made so far ...

For this first one I die-cut a window in a panel of black cardstock using the MFT Rectangel Peek-a-boo die and popped that up on fun foam for dimension. A piece of design paper behind with my little koala scene. The sentiment is die-cut with a snow-drift die, also MFT Die-namics and the images and sentiment are all coloured with Promarkers.

It's an Anything Goes Challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge so I'd like to link my card up there. 

Here's I've coloured the die-cut butterflies with distress inks, before placing them in an embossing folder from WeR Memory Keepers Next Level folders. Another MFT die used here to separate the black and white card stock - basic stitched border dies. The sentiment is die-cut using a Sizzix oval stax and I've added some colour-coordinated enamel dots - just because I love them and it needed a little extra 'lift' I thought!

First of all I created a frame for these lovely die-cuts using the WPlus9 Sunshine Layers dies. The images were coloured with promarkers and fuzzy cut (where necessary) before mounting my little scene on foam or directly on the cardbase for differing dimension. I couldn't resist adding those gorgeous diamond gems for extra detail and the sentiment seemed perfect for the scene.

As luck would have it when I made this card I had been using the 'Time To Party' set by Clearly Besotted and I realised the balloon die-cuts (which I don't own) were the perfect fit! Hey what a stroke of luck. Using a little more of the design paper I picked 3 colours to tone with it and stamped the balloons in Altenew Inks, adding a little water to spread the pigment on the water-colour cardstock. I coloured the 'make a wish' die-cut sentiment with the same inks and adhered everything to the card also making use of the twine as the strings for my balloons. 

Over at Time Out their having a 'celebrations' themed challenge and I'd like to play along there although sadly I've certainly not twisted with the one layer option!

It was such a joy to work with this kit Hazel and thanks so much for sending it and inspiring us with such gorgeous bits and pieces from your stash ...

Kit contents include:

Stamps: Gerda Steiner Designs - You're Koalafied/ STAMPlorations - Noteworthy 2/ Bella Stamps - Tomorrow's Dream & A Beautiful Day/ 
Dies: MFT - Brushstroke Birthday Greeting/ Clearly Besotted - Let's Party Die Collection / Spellbinders - Day Dreams (sun and clouds) / Butterflies (not sure) 
Other: Patterned paper: Stampin' Up! - Birthday Basics (retired) / Yellow twine


As always thanks for calling by my blog today and I'm off to check out what the rest of my teamies, below, have made with this fantastic bundle. 
Hazel Hodgkins: Hazel's Paper Designs Sarah Gray: Funky Fossil Designs Shona Chambers: Twine Around Anita Bowden: Neet & Crafty Sarah Platt: Sazzle Dazzle Crafts ... that's ME!

Less is More #328

Morning friends, are you ready for this week's challenge at Less is More - it's the one you all LOVE and DREAD in equal measures. Yep it's ONE layer week and our theme is Spots and Stripes.



We did have a half-way house challenge like this a few weeks ago featuring stripes so it SHOULD be easy enough to add the spots??? Not for me as I've had a hectic week and no mojo - in fact I think I left it in Port Sunlight! I did make a few buys in between the busy spells. Amongst my little haul and quite out of character for me, I grabbed an animal cutie set by My Favorite Things - Giraffing Me Crazy. It wasn't until I got home that I thought it might work for today's challenge so here it is ...

Two super-cute giraffes, coloured with promarkers, masked, then sat upon a diagonal striped stamp from Clearly besotted with hand-drawn lines top and bottom. The sentiment is also from the set and as is the case with MFT there's plenty of fun and appropriate sentiments in the set.

It's a 'Going Dotty' challenge over at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge this week so I'd like to pop these 2 cute giraffes in over there as well as Addicted to Stamps and More where they're having an Anything Goes week. 

This is a little sneaky BUT I couldn't resist sharing another new set (to me). This time Clearly Besotted, which has thankfully re-opened the shop. This Butterfly set went out of stock just before their temporay shutters came down and I was so upset that I couldn't get hold of it. As luck would have it ... there it was in the shop when they re-opened a few weeks ago! What's more it features ever such a delicate spot and stripe design! I've used the same Diagonal Stripe stamp again here with Altenew inks and a sentiment also by CBS: Brushed Greetings II.

Last but not least and in honour of this month's sponsor Uniko I've used the brand new Horizontal Stripe Background block with some circle stamps from various sets: Uniko Style and Balloon Bash. All stamped with Altenew inks and a bold embossed sentiment on top from My Favorite Things.

It's over to you now folks but don't forget to check out the fabulous designs from my fellow teamies over on the main blog HERE 
Hope you'll play along and have some fun and thanks for calling by!
I'll be back soon!

Honey I Shrunk The Kit #11

Hi blog friends, I'm thrilled to be sharing another day out with my fellow Honey Babes for our latest HISTK post and it was Shona's turn to 'host' the kit, which she's called .........

Here's the line up of Honey Babes followed by the picture of Shona's goody bag!
Hazel Hodgkins: Hazel's Paper Designs Sarah Gray: Funky Fossil Designs Shona Chambers: Twine Around Anita Bowden: Neet & Crafty Sarah Platt: Sazzle Dazzle Crafts ... that's ME!

Here's a picture of Shona's kit and a list of contents:

Neat and Tangled: Sequins, Big Hugs die-cut, Awesome die-cuts, Awesome Stamp set

Winnie and Walter: Friend die-cut

My Favourite Things: Hugs die-cut, Cool Cat stamp set, Beast Friends stamp set, Otterly Love You stamp set

Studio Katia: Stitched Creative Nested Squares die-cut 

Pretty Pink Posh: Stitched Rectangle die-cut, Stitched 3-window die-cut

Although I wasn't entirely sure where to go with the kit or what colour scheme to use I thoroughly enjoy playing with these gorgeous images and die-cuts. In the end I went with the colours of the sequins in the kit and tried to colour, not so successfully (particularly the otters) along these lines too so here goes. 

I used a few additional items for this one: Stencils by My Favourite Things - Scallops and Concentric circles which were both inked through with distress inks and the frame die is by Paper Smooches. The images and sentiment strip are coloured with Promarkers.          

                     

For this one I dry embossed the card base with a We R Memory Keepers next level embossing folder with a basket weave texture, coloured the die-cut friend sentiment and the images with Promarkers and mounted them onto a die-cut panel from WPlus9: Sunshine Layers dies

There was no need to use any additional items on this one. I merely coloured the images and the inner squares from the filmstrip die with Promarkers as well as the BG to the Awesome die cut sentiment.

I have to admit that I messed up the colouring of the 'heart-style' yeti but his face and head survived!!! I created a little wintery scene with a purple sky (as if!!!) blended with Wilted Violet distress inks and some landscape dies from Mama Elephant. The heart frame is from WPlus9.

And just enough to make this one which I was determined to make into a Christmas card with the twinkly fairy lights around this little beastie's neck BUT I couldn't resist the Big Hugs die cut sentiment which is coloured with Promarkers and all mounted on a scalloped panel from the WPlus9 Sunshine layers dies.

Thanks for another perfect pack of goodies Shona, I've had a brilliant time playing with these cuties; it was like receiving 3 whole new stamp sets that I'd never imagined owning. I can't wait to see what you and the rest of the playmates have created with the kit!  

Thanks for your visit and catch up soon.

AAA CAS Cards Challenge #88

Hello there friends, it's time for another challenge over at AAA CAS Cards and the theme for this one is Stencil and here's my card followed by a little photo inspiration for you too. 
I've used the Morning Glory stamp set, by our wonderful sponsor for this one; STAMPlorations and it's teamed with a sentiment by Uniko: Simply Said Birthday and Simply Said II. The subtle stencil in the background is a paisley one by My Favourite Things and it's inked through with Distress Ink in Cracked Pistachio. The bloom is coloured with a base of Promarkers and pencils to highlight certain areas. 

We are also joined by Maria from White Mood, who is our Guest Designing for this challenge. Do pop along and visit her blog and leave a friendly word and some love - I'm sure she'll appreciate it.

As mentioned above our Sponsor is STAMPlorations and our lucky winner will receive a prize from Shery to the value of $15.

As always there's plenty more super CAS creations by my fellow teamies, with links to their blogs on the AAA Cards blog HERE

I'd like to add this to the Addicted to Stamps and More challenge wherethis week it's their 'Make Your Mark' challenge 

As always thanks for calling by my blog today and I hope you feel inspired and will play along with us!