Uniko - Goodbye Sarah G

So pleased you dropped by today although it's a bit of a sad occasion for Uniko as long standing team member Sarah G is stepping down from the DT.

Sarah is an amazingly talented and original crafter and will be greatly missed. But life has this way of getting in the way at times and then the only sensible thing to do is take stock and react accordingly. I wish you every success and heartfelt goodwishes for your future Sarah.

So today Uniko is hosting a blog hop in Sarah's honour to say goodbye and show appreciation of her creativity. Here's my contribution:

I started by stamping the beautiful Uniko Gerbera and then used a stencil to add the circles in turqoise and mint. I then die cut it into a stitched rectangle and added foam to the back to lift it a little.

A greeting to let Sarah know this card was made just for her and a sprinkle of sequins and I was done.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko Pure Florals Gerbera
Inks: SU, tempting turquoise, mint macaron
Die: Lil'inker, stitched mats rectangles
Stencil: Hero Arts, Confetti Pair 

Want to see what the rest of the Uniko DT have created in Sarah's honour? Well go check it all out here or simply hop round the blog list:

Bev

Deborah

Jane - that's me

Lindsey

Rahmat 

Sarah P

Thanks for looking today. And keep crafting!

Friday Focus

Some time ago I treated myself to some prismacolor pencils, had a little play and then put them away. Do you ever do that? I was so keen to get them too so I donn't know why I've left them hidden away!

Well time to begin to make amends with the new 'Make Your Mark' challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More.

I've been so inspired by all the coloured card base cards at AAA Cards and LIM that I decided to use the new 'in colour' fresh fig card from Stampin Up.

I stamped and used clear embossing powder for the Uniko mandala. I then die cut the mandala to look as if it was stamped off the edge. I made my mark by adding white and silver prismacolor pencils in a repeating pattern.

I finished off by matting the rectangle onto white before adhering to a fresh fig card base. The greeting was stamped in fresh fig ink to match.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Marvellous Mehndi, sentiment from A Gift For You (retired)
Inks: SU, frsh fig; Versamark, clear
Embossing: Stampendous, clear
Crayons: Prismacolor premier

As I mentioned yesterday I've a house full of the Isle of Man part of my family, lots of noise, mess and cooking but not a lot of crafting going on at the moment. Still I plan to take loads of photos - at least of the village show if I can't persuade them to indulge me - and then have a bit of a scrapbooking fest to distract me from missing them once they've returned home.

 Thanks so much for your time today, I'm thrilled to have had your company for a while. And keep crafting!

Thursday Thoughts

WOW! CASology is celebrating its fifth birthday. Now that's going some for a challenge blog!

And they have the most massive blog hop going on with loads of wonderful inspiration and cards featuring one of my favourites - balloons. So of course I had to join in and wish them a Happy Birthday and many more to come.

Here's my balloons:

Supplies:
Stamp: Uniko, A Gift For You (retired)
Ink: Memento, tuxedo black
Dies: Lawn Fawn, large stitched square stackables; Clearly Besotted, Make a Wish
Paper: Lawn Fawn, Beachside

Just the one pic today as my room with the best light is all tidied up ready for the invasion of the Manx family crew who are over for the Heckington village show this weekend. 

Thanks for looking. And keep crafting! 
 

Wednesday Words

I've been playing with my scrapbooking supplies again and have created a page using the sketch from Stuck?! Sketches.

Here's my page:

I think I might have mentioned I went down to Portsmouth for a college re-union the other weekend, well here's the pic to prove it.

We sat there in this bar on the Saturday night trying to hear what we were saying over the deafening sounds of music and loud young things - and reminiscing about when that was us!

So good to get back together again. And a wonderful opportunity to use some of my hoard of pink papers!

Supplies:
Paper: AC, Rise & shine; Bo Bunny, A gift of love; scraps from my stash
Alphas: Simply Creative, chipboard; MAMBI, stickers; Simple Stories, I Heart Summer 
Die: Xcut, arrows
Embellishments: washi & buttons from my stash; Nuvo drops black

 Thanks for your time today, I do so appreciate your visit to my blog.  And keep crafting!

Tuesday Talk

Hi! I'm here today to share a card I made for July's Theme and Sketch Challenge at Stamplorations. Also I need to say a huge thanks to them for picking my card as one of their June winners - here - that was a big thrill!

    

So here's my card for their new challenge:

I love this sketch and really enjoyed putting my card together. There's something about three elements lined up that really appeals to me. And of course it had to be three flowers.  All the stamps I've used are from Uniko sets.

I started from the bottom of the sketch and stamped the strip and moved on up to the sentiment and finally the flowers. I used the colours from the sketch too and think they also pick up on the warm colours from the theme.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Flower Power #3 & #5, All Occasion Sentiments #2, Simply Said, Background Builders Round In Circles
Inks: Memento, tuxdo black, dandelion, tangelo, lady bug

Thanks you so much for dropping in today, super to have your company.  And keep crafting!

AAA Cards Challenge #95 - Rainbow

Has it been raining recently in your part of the world? Or has it been sunny? Well at AAA Cards this fortnight the new challenge is hoping for a bit of both. Yep it's a rainbow theme.

As the butterflies have been busy flitting around my garden I decided to use the gorgeous sketchy Stamplorations Winged Things on my card. Love their hand drawn look.

I created my rainbow of colours by masking off a central stripe and then inking through a stencil. the butterflies were stamped on top and I added a touch of grey pen to give them a slightly raised appearance.

A simple sentiment white embossed onto black card just finished off my card a treat.

Supplies:
Stamps: Stamplorations, Winged Things; Uniko, Simply Said Birthday
Inks:  Ranger distress, picked raspberry, spiced marmalade, mustard seed, cracked pistachio, bluepring sketch, wilted violet, milled lavender; Memento, tuxedo black; Veramark, clear
Embossing: Ranger Superfine, white
Pen: Promarker, cool grey 1
Stencil: Memory Box, Texture Wave

We have the wonderfully generous Shery from Stamplorations sponsoring this rainbow challenge with a prize of supplies she's used to create a card. Shery's card, along with all the other talented AAA Cards DT ladies and our brilliant Guest Designer Chrissie's cards can be found HERE. Make sure you check them all out!

I'm popping this card into the challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More where the them is Anything Goes.

Thanks for your time today, it's been great having you visit my blog.  And keep crafting!

Uniko Challenge #42

The new challenge at Uniko starts today and the theme is going to be so easy I know you'll all be linking up your fabulous cards.

I've used the Happy Succulents stamp set that was released in May - so so pretty and so so versatile.

I started by building up a frame round the top of my card using the small outline succulent and some of the frondy bits too. And this was such a joy to colour.

The sentiments are also from the same set - gorgeous font on the happy.

Supplies: Stamps: Uniko, Happy Succulents
 
Inks: Memento, tuxedo black
Flexmarkers: pebble blue, shocking pink

There's loads more inspiration to be had over at the Uniko blog where all the DT and our Guest Designer Cornelia have made stunning cards to share with you all. Go take a look - HERE - then off you go stamping and colouring and die cutting those flowers and link up your card.

And since this is a birthday card I'm linking it up at Happy Little Stampers CAS Card Challenge. And as it has flowers I'm also linking up at Stamping Sensations

             

I'm thrilled you had time to pop in today, thanks so much.  And keep crafting!

Thursday Thoughts

I had some inky time with the blues today to create my background for a card to enter into Happy Little Stampers July Watercolour Challenge.

And I have to say I'm a little bit in love with those blues, so pretty how they've smooshed themselves together.

Once the ink was dry I trimmed the card into a strip and stamped the sketchy outline butterflies on top. A little grey pen was added to create a bit of shadow depth and then I matted it onto black card before adhering to the card base.

A very simple sentiment and I called it done.

Supplies:
Stamps: Stamplorations, Winged Things; Uniko, sentiment from a retired set
Inks: Ranger distress, meramid lagoon, blueprint sketch; Verafine, onyx black
Pen: Promarker, cool grey 1

Well that's me done for today. Hope you enjoyed your visit to my blog, it sure was fun having you drop by.  And keep crafting! 

Wednesday Words

Summer - yes it's definitely been here in the UK and we've had some lovely sunshine as well as the usual humidity, rain and thunder storms.  So the codeword at Addicted to CAS seems very relevant.

And I got to thinking about what typifies a UK Summer apart from the weather. The answer I came up with was music festivals. So that's how my card came about.

Although UK music festivals are renowned for the rain I went with a positive happy vibe and chose the sunshine instead.

Supplies:
Stamps: Visible Image, Rock Out
Inks: Memento, tuxedo black, dandelion, tangelo, lady bug
Stencil: Memory Box, Texture Shine

Thanks for looking today, I'm so pleased you dropped by my blog.  And keep crafting!

Tuesday Talk

Well I'm back from my little sortie down to Hampshire - so good to revisit the places where I grew up. And I've a scrapbook page, prepared before I went away, but sharing today.

I'm entering it into two challenges - The Memory Nest Make It Monday and Challenge YOUrself.

  

Here's my page:

I used the sketch from The Memory Nest, but changed up the circles to the Uniko Explosion stamps. The photo is not the best, but the memory is! One of those special moments when we really connected in the fun of what we were doing.

This is the first time I've played at Challenge YOUrself and they require a photo of you in the layout. Their extra ask this month is for handwritten journalling and since this is something I love to do on my pages it seemed a bit of a bonus rather than a challenge.

I finished off my page with a frame of hand drawn lines and a trio of hearts. I used to do this a lot on layouts, but not so much recently, so it was good to give it another go.

Supplies:
Paper: Bazzil Basics cardstock 
Stamps: Uniko, Explorion & Explosion Additions
Inks: SU, wisteria wonder, elegant eggplant
Die: Lawn Fawn, Louie's ABCs
Embellishments: Freckled Fawn, Hello; Mei Flower & Blng Bling black gems

I'm so pleased you found my blog today, loved having your company for a short while. And keep crafting!

Friday Focus

Just quickly squeezing in a card before I head off down to Portsmouth for a college reunion. The card is for CASology and Uniko is the sponsor.

Here's my card:

I stamped the greeting and then the cosmos. I masked off the cosmos and used a stencil to blend in those oxide inks. A little colour was added to the flower centres - couldn't resist!

A quick splash of water and I called it done.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Pure Florals Cosmos
Inks: Ranger distress oxide, faded jeans, worn lipstick, wilted violet; Mememnto, tuxedo black

Huge thanks for looking today, really appreciate it.  And keep crafting!