Uniko - Bev's 40th Birthday Blog Hop

Hi friends, can you believe that Bev, super talented and simply awesome owner of Uniko is celebrating a BIG birthday today! 40 years young! 

The Uniko DT are sharing a sneaky surprise birthday blog hop in honour of Bev's birthday today so why not head on over to the blog HERE for more details. You can also join in by creating a birthday card for Bev and link it up to the post. We hope she'll love the fact that we've taken over the blog!!!
Here's my card and I just couldn't resist going with my 'go to' rainbow blended look using the Uniko Stylised Floral Stencil along with some birthday sentiments from the Simply Said Blocks range. I recently purchased the Bold Numeral dies by Altenew, die-cutting the stencilled panel with 40 before popping them up on 4 layers of black cardstock. A few enamel dots to finish the look!

Many congratulations on your special birthday Bev and hope it's FAB-u-lous,

 bursting with fun and surprises!

It's also my sister and brother-in-laws' wedding anniversary today so using slightly 'cooler' rainbow tones on this one with a die-cut heart from WPlus9, circular 'Happy' sentiment by Neat and Tangled plus die-cut 'popped-up' Anniversary sentiment from Clearly Besotted.

As always thanks for calling by my blog today

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!

In Love with Stencils

Hi Friends, I can't remember the last time I got round to posting on my blog just for the fun of it BUT today I have some cards to share featuring STENCILS! 

These little beauties seem to have slipped into the back of my stash for far too long but with the stunning inspiration from my super duper blog buddy Sarah of Funky Fossils Designs and her new stencil creation venture (sold HERE) I just can't get enough of them! I just wish there were more hours in the day to play! 

So teamed with a bundle of Distress Oxide inks here's my creations and if you follow my blog regularly you'll notice I get fixated with colour combos and just can't stop myself when I find a combo I love! 

This one uses the Totally Triangular Stencil and I've been fascinated with the 'turn-around' stamps and stencils by other companies so decided to give it a go with this stencil although it's not necessarily designed to work that way. The die-cut sentiment is from Neat and Tangled with a 'birthday' greeting from Clearly Besotted

 

Using the same colour combo and Triangular stencil but this time with a cropped section of the stencilled panel a 'Smile' die-cut by Lil'inker Designs with a 'You Passed' sentiment by Clearly Besotted. 

The die-cut sentiments and strips of coloured card on all of these cards are coloured using coordinating promarkers. 

 

Ok a tad early for Father's Day but there's nothing like getting organised and I just love geometric designs for the guys so this one worked a treat. Remarkably the stencil is called 'geometric' too! The die-cut Happy is from CUT-plorations with the 'Father's Day' from Happy Little Stampers.

Next up a male / female 2-Fer of sorts! I masked off part of the stencil (called Triangle Grid) and inked through it with blues and teal colours and the other half adding some purple tones too. Can you tell I just love the 'Hooray' die-cut by Neat and Tangled? Coloured again with Promarkers to coordinate with the stencilling and a Clearly Besotted mini 'so to speak' sentiment on the first one and 'It's your day' on the second card is by Neat and Tangled.

I'm heading over to Addicted to Stamps and More for their Make your Mark week. I hope stencils are accepted along with Promarker painted sentiments!

As always thanks for calling by and if you feel inspired by these stencil designs and fancy purchasing a few, very reasonably priced ones then pop across to Sarah's Folksy shop HERE. Super efficient service and beautifully packaged too.

Less is More #367

Hello my crafty friends, I think I've missed a fortnight somewhere as it certainly only seems a minute since announcing our previous challenge over at Less is More but my diary says it's right so here goes with that ONE layer one that we love to terrorise you with!!!
All the details are on the main challenge blog HERE but here's the cue card to get you started and I've 2 cards to share with you today.

First up using one of my all-time favourite stencils from our sponsor STAMPlorations called Bold Florals. I've only used part of the stencil to leave a reasonable area of 'white' space and using Distress Oxides in Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade and Twisted Citron I've inked through the stencil adding some pencil detail too for extra shading. The sentiment is by Clearly Besotted, Brushed Greetings.

My next card uses another stunning stencil from ex Less is More teamie and super buddy Sarah of Funky Fossils and if you fancy this stencil too you can purchase it from her Folksy store HERE 

For this one I used standard Distress Inks in rainbow colours with sentiments from Neat & Tangled; Everyday Circles

I'd like to link this one up over at Timeout Challenges where they are celebrating their 4th birthday - Congratulations ladies and here's to many more. I hope my cheery rainbow colours make for a sunshine fun birthday feeling!

As always there's loads of fabulous designs from my fellow teamies  over on the main blog HERE and as I mentioned earlier our sponsor for this challenge is STAMPlorations so do play along for a chance of a prize, which we'll announce at the start of next month. 


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

Honey I Shrunk The Kit #14

Hey there friends, I'm so excited to be sharing another day out with my fellow Honey Babes for another HISTK post! BUT I'm absolutely dreading it at the same time as it's my turn to host! What I thought might be a fun kit to work with turned into a bit of a nightmare as my mojo went AWOL in the last few weeks so I'm relying on the Babes to showcase it to the MAX!

The name of my kit is 'Sugar Fix' and here's a little piccy of the contents: 

... and here's the list of contents:

Stamps: Reverse Confetti: Donut You Know (plus donut die), Neat & Tangled: Say Yes to Donuts, Avery Elle: Pick N Mix (plus dies) and Mama Elephant: Carnival Cupcakes (plus dies)

Other Dies: L’il Inker: Smile, Mama Elephant: Columbus Circle and Neat & Tangled: Hooray word dies

Other Items: Hobbycraft Basics: patterned paper, Action Wobbler, Doodlebug: bakers twine & Anita’s: half cut pearls

Somehow I managed 5 cards, some I like a lot more than others and this first one has to be my favourite. I made it for my niece and nephew for Halloween using the action wobbler behind the bag of sweeties. I used a couple of extra images from a CBS dis-continued set called In the Spirit.

No additional items were used for this one other than the kit and the images are coloured with Promarkers.

My colouring medium for the next one was the Kuretake Zig Clear Brush Pens but my doughnut looks a little burnt, don't you think? I used a wonky stitched die-cut panel (thanks to fellow Honey / LIM teamie, Anita ... quite convenient that she came to stay at my house recently and brought some of her treasured stash with her)!!!

Ooooh! What's this ... another wonky stitched panel (thanks again Anita)! Images and die-cut sentiment once again coloured with Promarkers, with the 'it's a boy' sentiment by CBS.

I'm really not sure about this one but had a few bits and pieces to use up so a framed display of sugary, jelly sweeties, all coloured with Promarkers and coated with wink of stella and glossy accents.

I hope you like my cards but I'm sure you'll love my teamies cards even more! Don't delay, check out these lovelies as I'm off to do now! Thanks for calling by and I hope to be back with more Honey I Shrunk the Kit kits next year! 

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 #355

Morning friends!
After my little break at the Happy Little Stampers Retreat in Manchester, last weekend and several days entertaining fellow craft buddies, Anita and Kylie, I'm back, with this week's challenge for Less is More 
Hopefully you managed to check out some of the retreat photos on Facebook - we had a brilliant time and Kylie is the most fantastic teacher with loads of tips for card making and getting messy in particular. If you get the opportunity to attend one of these events in future then you certainly won't regret it!
This weekend it's fellow Less is More teamie, Susan's birthday and she kindly agreed to let us CASE one of her cards for the challenge so I'm sending HUGE birthday greetings and sharing my 'Susan Inspired Card' below

It's just the one from me this week as my mojo has run off and left the building!!! I've gone festive as Susan did with a stitched front panel and a main focal point of 2 little robins. I couldn't resist adding a delicate blended sky and touches of glittery snow to the background. 

Supplies: Clearly Besotted - Rockin' Robin stamps and dies - layered up for added dimension, Distress inks in Tumbled Glass with wonky stitched border dies from MFT Die-Namics (thanks Neets!), inks are Altenew and I die-cut some glitter paper with the Neat and Tangled Punchinello die for snow.

Here's Susan's stunning CASE card

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.


Hope you'll play along and have some fun and thanks for calling by 

Less is More #351

Hi there, where did that week go? I seriously need some time to jump off this treadmill ... so I've gone off piste and 'out of this world' today for this week's theme challenge from Less is More and here's the cue card 

It's almost Halloween so feel free to combine it with something of a spooky nature but here's my example and just the one this week but I'm sure my fellow teamies will have plenty more offerings of inspiration over on the main blog HERE

Supplies:

We R Memory Keepers: Next Level embossing folder

Neat & Tangled: Hooray word die and sentiment stamp

Clearly Besotted: Out of this World set

Stampendous: Hanging around (just for the party hats)

Promarkers

I hope you'll join in the fun with this one and don't forget if you want to be in with a chance of a prize from this month's sponsor Uniko you need to play and we'll announce our winner at the start of next month!

Thanks for calling by today and have a good weekend!

Less is More #348

Hello there friends, time for my regular Saturday morning post to announce our latest challenge over at Less is More and it's a 5-week month, which means it's a lucky dip one. We've also got Jane of Purplejetlovescrafts joining us as our Guest Designer for this one so I hope you'll head on over to her blog too and leave some lovely feedback for her.
Here's the cue card and I can't wait to see how you play this week 

I've 2 cards for you today and first up a watercoloured hummingbird from the Uniko set: Paradise Hummingbird. The image was stamped and heat embossed then coloured using my Zig Clear Brush pens with water. The background is a dis-continued Background Builders set from Uniko called Lattice and the sentiment is from Clearly Besotted.

It's an Anything Goes week over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and Addicted to Stamps and More so I'd like to drop this card in at both of those challenges.

Next up I've blended Distress inks over some watercolour cardstock before spritzing with water and perfect pearls to add some interest to the panel. Using a faceted heart die from Neat and Tangled I die-cut the panel and mounted it on 3d foam. I've also used a multi-faceted embossing folder to add some detail behind the top of the heart. The sentiments are from Clearly Besotted: Happy Anniversary set. 

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 Happy Little Stampers so do play along, it's the last week, for a chance of a prize, which we'll announce at the start of next month.

Hope you'll play along and have some fun and thanks for calling by 

Less is More #341

Hi there crafty friends another week has slipped by and here we go again with our weekly challenge for you at Less is More. AND ... it's that 'dreaded' ONE layer week! Don't you just love it but it's an easy enough theme ... I think, so here's the Cue Card and let's hope you have fun too.

Hopefully that won't cause too many issues and here's my cards. I've 2 for you this week and I was having a play about with some pencils on the first one but I've not really mastered the art of colouring with them! The images are from Create a Smile 'Underwater Love' and I thought they'd be rather cute - hoping that a submarine is classed as a vehicle though! I've also distressed the edges and added some splatters of Distress ink in Mermaid Lagoon.

My second one uses a brand new birthday goodie, sentiment set from Neat & Tangled, which is part of their 5 year birthday release. I just love that swirly 'Hooray' and I've teamed it with a little cute train, coloured with Promarkers, from Clearly Besotted 'Going Places' with the 'Birthday Boy' sentiment from that same set. The 'track / road' stamp is by Stampin' Up - Rev up the Fun. I did intend to make a card using either the car or motorbike in that set but it just didn't happen for me! 
I've spotted 3 challenges in blogland, where my card should fit in so I'll be dropping by at Addicted to Stamps and More where it's a Clean and Simple Challenge, Addicted to CAS is ONE layer week too and at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday it's 'For a Child' so I simply couldn't resist popping this one over there too.
I hope you'll feel inspired to play along and don't forget to check out the fabulous designs from my fellow teamies over on the main blog HERE 
Thanks for stopping by 

Less is More #331

Morning friends, are you ready for this week's challenge at Less is More and can you believe that's another month ticked off! Summer is almost here! So the first week of the month signals our COLOUR challenge, new sponsor and guest designer.
We're delighted to welcome Shery of STAMPlorations as our Sponsor and Guest Designer and to get you into that summer mood we've chosen some popular ice-cream colours; Strawberry, Chocolate and Vanilla (otherwise known as Neapolitan) as our challenge.
Here's the Cue Card


Hopefully that won't cause too many issues and here's my cards. Going with the ice-cream theme I've stamped an ice-cream cone from a discontinued Clearly Besotted set called, So Sweet. The blobs of ice-cream are stencilled using a STAMPlorations 'splatters' stencil, with a strip of washi tape to the right and a sentiment from Avery Elle: Pick and Mix running along the tape. 

This next one uses the Neat & Tangled Every Day Circles set and teamed with a border stamp from Uniko: Background Builders Triangulate. 

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 and I'll be back soon!