Thursday Thoughts

Today I'm sharing a card I made using a couple of the gorgeous Visible Image stamps I've got in my stash.

I was feeling in the mood to get inky fingers so out came my brushos in some bright and bold colours.  I simply sprayed water onto the card and sprinkled the powders and let them create their own dramatic magic. Then I die cut the stitched rectangle form a section that particularly appealed.

The rectangle was popped back into its space and then I stamped the tree and sentiment spilling out over the die cut and onto the card base.

Supplies:
Stamps: Viible Image, Live Life Now, Four Every Season
Inks: Brusho, leaf green, yellow, brilliant red
Die: MFT Die-namics, double stitched rectangles 

I'm so pleased to have has you visit my blog today, huge thanks.  And keep crafting! 

The Male Room - #60 Stars

I'm here today to share my DT card made for The Male Room's new challenge. The theme is STARS.

And stars mean sparkle, right? So I started by stamping some stars and heat embossing with sparkly powder.

Then I added some outline stars to fill out the gaps and finally more sparkle with some scattered gems.

The sentiment was also heat embossed with sparkle powder. The pic below shows the sparkle a little better than the rest of the photos.

Supplies:
Stamps: Clearly Besotted, Superstar
Inks: Versafine, onyx black; Versamark, clear
Embossing: Crafty Impressions, black rainbow sparkle
Embellishments: Bling Bling gems

Bet you've got a few shining stars in your families too, so what are you waiting for get those star stamps, die cuts or stencils out and get crafting! More star inspiration can be found at The Male Room - here.

Enormous thanks for visiting today, you're all shining stars in my eyes.  And keep crafting!

Uniko May Release and Blog Hop

YAY! The day has arrived when you can see the entire new Uniko release and start shopping.

 

   

And it wouldn't be a proper release day without a few sample cards to share before you get down to the nitty gritty of trying to win the entire release.

So here goes:

Card one combines the glorious Pure Florals Lily with the wonderful Background Blocks Horizontal Stripe. A match made in heaven!

I chose some really subtle colours to add to the centre of the lily and then hand cut it before adhering it on pads to the card base.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, PureFlorals Lily, Background Blocks Horizontal Stripe
Promarkers: ivory, buttercup, burnt orange, soft peach, olive green 

I had weddings in mind when I created this next card and kept to a very simple black and white colour scheme. I used the  Happy Succulents set combined once again with Background Blocks Horizontal Stripe. And why not use the stripes vertically for a change? I used my misti tool to help line up the stripes for the repeat stamping I needed to stretch the full width of the card.

I hand cut the three succulents from the large spray and also one of the leaf clusters. I added a trio of silver nailheads to finish off in style.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Happy Succulents, Background Blocks Horizontal Stripes
Die: MFT Die-namics, Stitched Basic Edges
Gems: Mark Richards, nailheads

To finish off my showcase and in case you were thinking I'd forgotten about colour I've changed up a gear for my last card.

I stamped Background Blocks Doodled Flower and then cut out a couple of strips. I applied colour in stripes directly from the pad. One strip went onto a die cut tag and the other straight onto the base card to line up with the greeting on the tag.

The leaf is from Originally Organics Additions and was stamped directly onto the tag. The succulent flower head was stamped onto a piece of scrap card, coloured using the direct from the pad method again and then hand cut and popped up onto pads.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Background Blocks Doodled Flower, Happy Succulents, Originaly Organic Additions
Inks: Ranger distress, shaded lilac, spun sugar, scattered straw
Promarkers: ivory, marsh green
Die: MFT Die-namics, Stitched Traditional Tags

      

Now onto the bit you've been waiting for - the blog hop order and the chance to win the entire release by leaving a comment on each of the DT blog posts. Remember if any of the links don't work you can always access them at Bev's Uniko blog - here.

Bev

Deborah

Jane - that's me

Lindsey

Rahmat

Sarah G

Sarah P

Thank you so much for visiting today. I'm sending you all good luck wishes and hoping it might be you that wins the prize!  And remember - keep crafting!

Uniko May Release - Introducing Pure Florals: Lily

Just wait till you see the final introduction stamp set to Uniko's new release. It has the WOW factor for sure.

This image is such a tease! The lily totally rocks and is an exciting addition to Bev's Pure Floral series.

Here's a card that reveals a little more:

Are you swooning?  It's such an amazingly gorgeous stamp and it's huge! So all I did was stamp, colour and leave it to speak for itself.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Pure Florals Lily
Ink: Versafine, onyx black
Promarkers: ivory, leaf green, rose pink, burnt orange; Spectrum Noir Colorista, orchid

My second card is also very CAS and features another of the wonderful scripty font words included in this set. I stamped the lily using a purple ink as I knew I wanted to use this as one of the colours on the petals.

If you love colouring you're going to so want this stamp set!

 
Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Pure Florals Lily
Ink: Versafine, onyx black; SU, wisteria wonder
Promarkers: ivory, burnt orange, pear green, lilac

Are you getting excited? Only one more sleep until all the new Uniko release release is revealed in its entirety. And of course the Uniko DT will be having a blog hop and you'll get the chance to win the entire release. Woot! Woot! See you tomorrow then!

Thanks for your time today, so pleased to have you visit. And keep crafting! 

Happy Little Stampers - May Christmas Challenge

This year is disappearing so quickly, so now's a really good time to get your Christmas on and head over to the new Christmas Challenge at Happy Little Stampers.

Here's my card:

I started by masking the whole card apart from a central circle and then placing a smaller circle mask in the middle of it. I then stamped randomly using the splatter stamp from Mixed Media Fun.

I lifted the masks and stamped the poinsettia which I coloured using 'new to me' Chameleon pens. I'm thinking the green leaves worked out better than the red petals and I have to admit I'm not finding these pens as easy to use as I thought I would.

Supplies:
Stamps: HLS Christms Joy & Mixed Media Fun
Inks: Versafine, onyx black; SU, cherry cobbler
Pens: Chameleon, grass green, crimson red, black
Embellishments: Bling Bling gems

There are lots of ways to use masking on cards and I'm sure you'll be inspired by the techniques used by the rest of the HLS Christmas team - you can find them all here.

Thanks for looking today, I'm enormously grateful as I know your time is precious. And keep crafting!

Uniko May Release - Introducing Happy Succulents

Mmmm! Swoon! Today sees the introduction of Uniko's new release - Happy Succulents - you are so going to love it!

My first card pays homage to the colours of succulents and uses the largest stamp from the set.

As I love this set sooooo much I've kept things CAS and let the stamps do the WOW!

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Happy Succulents
Ink: Versafine, onyx black
Promarkers: fuchsia pink, tea green, grey green

My next share also uses the largest stamp from the set, but this time I've chopped it up and used the more floral colours of pinks and creams. 

Once I'd cut out all the elements I decided to allow bits to poke out above and to the sides, just loved how it looked! Gorgeous scripty 'happy' in this set, going to become a favourite - well actually it already is!

 
Supplies:
Stamps:Uniko, Happy Succulents
Ink: Versafine, onyx black; SU, melon mambo, cucumber crush
Promarkers: primrose, pale pink

Are you feeling your purse strings loosening? Well wait until you see what's coming up tomorrow in the final introduction from this release! But I'm getting ahead of myself - you'll be wanting to check out the rest of the Uniko DT introductions to Happy Succulents and see if they've revealed some different bits to me. Follow this link and start your voyage of discovery.

Mega thanks for sharing some of your time with me today, always gives me a lift to see you've visited.  And keep looking and crafting!

Uniko May Release - Introducing Background Blocks Doodled Flower & Horizontal Stripe

Here I am today with the first introductions to the new Uniko release. And a bit of a bonus there are two new stamps to show today.

    

Both of these stamps belong to the Background Blocks series and just as it says on the tin they're great for using as backgrounds.

First I'm sharing a couple of cards I made with Doodled Flower:

I stamped the image twice and then cut three strips and added the colours. I added a blue horizontal strip and a die cut greeting to finish off my card.

 

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Background Blocks Doodled Flower
Promarkers: arctic blue, azure, china blue, indigo blue
Die: Lawn Fawn, hello
  
For my next card I used nearly the whole block and added distress ink on top using a sponge applicator. I'm wondering if any of you have noticed the schoolboy error that I've only just spotted?  I'm only pointing it out so that you don't make the same mistake - mmm the hearts are upside down.

I added a vertical strip and an embossed sentiment from Explosion Additions to finish off my card.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Background Blocks Doodled Flower, Explosion Additions
Inks: Ranger distress, picked raspberry, mustard seed, spiced marmalade; Versamark, clear
Embossing: Ranger Superfine, white 

     

My next two cards use the other new stamp in the Background Block series - Horizontal Stripe. This is such a useful stamp and for my first card I paired it up with I Love Tea.

I stamped the stripes onto card and adhered it to black cardstock before die cutting a tag shape. I then over stamped the stripes with the sentiment. I stamped the tea cup onto a scrap of card matching the floral colours to the stripes, cut it out by hand and popped it onto foam pads to add dimension.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Background Blocks Horizontal Stripe, I Love Tea
Inks: SU, sweet sugarplum; Versafine, onyx black
Die: MFT Die-namics, Stitched Traditional Tags 

             

My last card uses both the stamps being introduced today. I chose a rainbow of colours for the stripes and used my stampin' write pens to ink up the stripes. I kinda like the way using pens doesn't quite give full coverage and adds the illusion of texture.

I added a snippet of doodled flowers with the centres filled in with nuvo drops and a sentiment from Simply Said to finish off my card.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Background Blocks Doodled Flower & Horizontal Stripe, Simply Said
Ink: SU, stampin's write pens, real red, pumpkin pie, daffodil yellow, mossy meadow, pacific point, blackberry bliss, rich razzleberry
Embellishments: Nuvo drops, English mustard
           

Well that's all the introductions finished for today. If you'd like to see more  - and I know you would - pop on over to the Uniko blog to find links to all the other DT blogs where you can feast your eyes! Have fun!

Thanks for looking today, I've loved having your company. Be sure to come back again tomorrow when I'll be sharing cards made with another new release set - you're going to love it!

And keep crafting!