Uniko Challenge #59

Hi there friends, I hope you are all keeping safe and well during this very difficult time. 
Today we are starting our latest challenge over at Uniko and hopefully it'll put everyone in a cheery mood despite the restrictions and stresses. 
Here's the cue card to explain what's required

... and here's my card using the Mid Century Modern II Stencil with some Uniko sentiments and a die-cut 'sending' word from Simon Says Stamp. I've channelled some of Bev's beautiful colour blending combos here as they are definitely cheerful, bright and happy in my opinion.

You have until Friday, 19th June to link up to the challenge and all the details you need about prizes and how to play can be found over at Uniko HERE

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

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 #357

Morning friends!
It's time to announce our latest challenge from Less is More and being the first week of the month it's our COLOUR challenge. We're also welcoming back Kylie of Happy Little Stampers as our Guest Designer and sponsor for the month so do pop along to her blog and leave some love!

I'm needing to maximise my Christmas card stock, urgently, so this colour scheme seemed appropriate although I do also love non-traditional coloured Christmas cards too. I've 2 cards to share and they both use the Winter Flowers set by Simon Says Stamp, coloured with Promarkers and the sentiments are by Happy Little Stampers

I'd like to head across to Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes with this one. 

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 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 #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!

Less is More #347

Morning friends!
Saturday is back and time for another challenge over at Less is More! What's more it's SKETCH time and I can't wait to see how you play along with this one. 
Here's the cue card and sketch followed by my 2 examples on a Christmas theme for you ... looks like fellow teamie, Anita and I had the same idea! I, for one, need to up my game in Christmas card -making department!

and here's the sketch ...


First up using a wonderful ornament die by Simon Says Stamp from a destash sale by the lovely Laura Sterckx of Making Cards is Fun I die-cut the ornaments in 3 shades of foiled cardstock before adhering them to white cardstock. 2 of them are mounted directly onto the 'wonky-stitched' die-cut panel with the middle one mounted on 3d foam. the sentiment is by this month's sponsor ... Happy Little Stampers. The silver 'strings' are hand drawn with a gelly roll pen and I've added a couple of clear gems for some extra sparkle. 

This one uses another Christmas sentiment by Happy Little Stampers with a layered stamp set by Altenew: Bows and Bells. Again hand-drawn strings but with a black copic marker this time and little gems in the centre of the bows. 

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 for a chance of a prize, which we announce at the start of next month.

Hope you'll play along, have some fun 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.

Less is More #344

Hi There friends another week has flown by and I'm back with the details for his week's challenge at Less is More. It's the start of a new month which means we're back round to our COLOUR challenge and here's this week's Cue Card so nice and easy ...



We are delighted to welcome back Happy Little Stampers, our generous sponsor for challenges in September so do play along each week to be in with a shout of a prize! What's more Kylie, owner of HLS is our Guest Designer for this one and I'm sure she'd love a visit if you have the time. She's got a never-ending repertoire of stunning techniques to try so why not grab a brew and spend some time swooning!

I've two cards for you today and the first one uses one of my favourite stamp sets from HLS: Mix Mash with a large 'Happy' sentiment from the Everyday greetings set. The inks are Altenew and I masked the bottom section of my card base before stamping then added the 'birthday' greeting once the tape was removed. For a little added interest I stamped the happy on a stitched circle die cut and sliced the bottom off then popped it up on fun foam. 

I rarely make square cards but this greeting from Mama Elephant was just too big when die-cut from a circle to add on my normal rectangular card base. I used Zig Clear Brush pens to colour my sentiment and repeat stamped a few times. While the sentiment and card were still in place in my Misti I used Versamark ink then heat embossed the sentiment with clear embossing powder to add some extra shine. I couldn't resist matting my cardbase with lime green and royal blue papers and I think it sets off the circular greeting quite well. To finish a few coordinating enamel dots. 

That's all of my examples but do pop along to the main blog HERE where my teamies, as always, have worked their magic to provide even more inspiration. 

I hope you'll play along with us, have some fun and thanks for stopping by today.

Uniko Revisit - July 2017: Marvellous Mehndi

Hi friends, I'm here with a REVIST post for Uniko and this month Bev asked us to 'dig out', dust down and bring the previously released, Marvellous Mehndi set back into the spotlight.
I've a few examples to share with you and sometimes when I'm crafting I get fixated on a particular colour combo, which happened with this little lot. I start colouring some images but then I wasn't sure if I liked the result so I did some more. Eventually I decided they actually looked okay and they'd even be a great gift idea to give as a set with some everyday style sentiments as I've done here.

I hope you like my Marvellous Mehndi revisit. All images are coloured with Promarkers and I've added some little gems to most of the cards. The sentiments are all Uniko and from a mixture of the All Occasion Sentiments range and Simply Said.  

As is the tradition there's a blog hop giveaway; the prize being the featured set or a gift card to the same value if you already own the set.

You'll find all the details including the links to my teamies blogs and a sneaky peek at what they've created with this set over at Uniko HERE

Thanks for visiting my blog today and I wish you lots of luck on the hop!

Happy Little Stampers June 2017 - CAS Challenge

Hi there, it's time for this month's challenge over at Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge and here's our cue card with the theme. It's a slightly messy one but hope you'll enjoy it. 


Here's my card and if you follow my blog regularly you might notice I do like to get messy with inks and watercolours now and again. Distress inks are my go to favourite and whenever I've got some pigment left on my craft sheet I like to 'dab it up' by smooshing it onto some watercolour card. I've now a never-ending supply of smooshy backgrounds and here's one with a little bit of perfect pearls mixed with the water to add some shimmer.

Supplies used:

Dies: Simon Says Stamp: Sketched Heart & My Favourite Things: Pierced Rectangle Stax

Stamps: Happy Little Stampers - Wish You Were Here sentiment

Sparkly sprinkles from HLS and Distress inks to create my smooshed background.

Our challenge is sponsored by HLS and one lucky person will win a prize so why not join in - there's a whole month to do so!

You might even like to link up to some of the other Happy Little Stampers challenges and all the details are on the blog HERE

Ok I hope you feel inspired to play along with us and don't forget to pop along to the CAS Challenge blog HERE where you'll find all the links and designs by fellow teamies ... you're in for a treat!

Thanks as always for visiting my blog today and catch up soon!

Happy Little Stampers May 2017 - CAS Challenge

Hi there, it's time for this month's challenge over at Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge 

Here's my card using just the sentiments from Happy Little Stampers: Doodled Flowers and Everyday Sentiments sets along with images from Mama Elephant: Up, Up, and Away plus a Simon Says Stamp raindrops stencil.

Our challenge is sponsored by HLS and one lucky person will win a prize so why not join in - there's a whole month to do so!

You might even like to link up to some of the other Happy Little Stampers challenges and all the details are on the blog HERE

Ok I hope you feel inspired to play along with us and don't forget to pop along to the CAS Challenge blog found HERE where you'll find all the links and designs by fellow teamies ... you're in for a treat!

Thanks as always for visiting my blog today and catch up soon!

Uniko - Introducing Originally Organics Additions

Hello there friends, it's time for some more Introductions over at 
Uniko
and here's day 2 of the birthday release intros, called Originally Organics  Additions set. You may have seen something similar recently as a digital image  but there's lots of added extras in this set to create elegant and feminine cards. Here's how I've been playing and as luck would have it I needed a card for my  Mum's birthday yesterday ...

The flower heads are stamped using Altenew inks with the foliage coloured using  Promarkers. I've added a die-cut 'sending' sentiment by Simon Says Stamp;  the other sentiments are by Uniko from the Simply Said and Garlands Galore sets
This week's challenge over at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday is Fantastic Florals so I think these deserve a little trip over there!



Same colourway but a slightly different layout here with the main image stamped twice and just off the panel at the top and bottom. The set has some gorgeous friendship sentiments and this is one of them.

Ok I hope you'll pop back for Day 3 tomorrow and in the meantime 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!
Thanks for stopping

AAA CAS Cards Challenge #82

Hello there friends, it's time for another challenge over at 
AAA CAS Cards
The theme for this one is Winter Chill and here's my card followed by a little photo inspiration for you too ...

I adore these Arctic Penguins from Mama Elephant and haven't used them

in a while but they sprung to mind with our theme for this challenge.

I started out by stamping and masking the 2 penguins, followed by the

icy float before inking and blending distress inks in: Chipped Sapphire,

Mermaid Lagoon, Blueprint Sketch and Tumbled Glass. A little bit of colour

using Promarkers plus a flick and spritz of perfect pearls and water finishes

the little winter scene which is die-cut using Simon Says Stamp stitched circle 

dies and mounted on fun foam. The sentiment is from Uniko: Pure Florals: Poinsettia!

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 delighted to have 2 guest designers with us for this challenge...

First up is Shery of STAMPlorations who also happens to be our sponsor for this one;

our lucky winner will receive a stamp set and die as used by Shery in her card.

Also joining us is one of our previous challenge winners;

Katrina of Katrina's Craftworks

Do pop along and visit their blogs and leave a friendly word or two and some

 love - I'm sure they'll appreciate it.

As always thanks for calling by my blog today and I hope 

you feel inspired and will play along with us!