Uniko Christmas *almost in July* release review - brand ambassador inspiration

Good morning friends.  Today I'm joining Bev of Uniko and my fellow brand ambassadors for a Christmas *almost* in July release review and revisiting the gorgeous products released in early August.  Bev is sharing some of our new creations over on the Uniko blog but we are also showing some extra cards on our personal blogs too.  I used almost all of the new release but didn't get around to using the Ink & Flip: Christmas Star, Star stencil as I ran out of time.  

My first card is the one that Bev is sharing on her blog and it's using 'Rustic Snowflake'.  

A closer look at the details:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I went fairly simple with this card and used only stamps, ink and paper (and a little bit of stickles for a bit of sparkle) and the ink colours are lovely lavender and sky blue.  The inside sentiment is from the 'rustic wreath' clear stamp.  I love how soft and dreamy it turned out.  

For my second card I used 'Layering Modern Poinsettias' layering stencil set

A closer look at the details:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I masked off a strip and did some partial stencilling using only the smallest of the poinsettias.  I added a large sentiment from the  'Christmas wishes' clear stamp in black and some gold highlights.  A really CAS card but I think it turned out so elegant.  

For my third card I used one of the stamps from the 'winter garlands' clear stamp

A closer look at the details:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I stamped the garland randomly over my background and coloured it with pencils and sansodor and added a red mat layer.  I stamped and fussy cut a bold sentiment from the 'mid century modern wreath builder' clear stamp and added it with foam squares.  The inside sentiment is from 'Christmas wishes'.  This card screams traditional Christmas to me.  

Do you have a favourite of the three cards I'm sharing today; I'd love to know?  I love how they all turned out but I think if I had to choose my favourite would be the CAS card using the poinsettia stencil.   

For more inspiration please check out what Bev and the rest of the team have created by clicking the links below:

Bev

Izzy

Julie

Natalie

Vinita

Bev is generously offering one lucky commenter a £15 eGift Certificate to spend in store, just make sure you comment on all the brand ambassador blogs/socials for a chance to win.  

Have a great weekend; hopefully Storm Boelo won't cause too much damage if you're in its path.  We had Storm Austen yesterday but luckily we just had lots of rain in the morning and some wild winds for most of the day.  Wherever you are take card and thanks for stopping by.     

Love and hugs, 

non Uniko supplies used:

Gina K Designs - ink pads - lovely lavender, blue sky, soft stone, light cranberry, medium cranberry, dark cranberry, light spruce, sea glass

Gina K Designs - master layouts 02 die set

Gina K Designs - black, gold & silver metallic pearl mix & mini pearl mix

Ranger - crystal stickles

Arteza Expert pencils (venetian red, emerald green, burnt ochre & sky blue)

Winsor & Newton - sansodor low odour solvent (for blending)

Limetree Craft - 280gsm silky smooth white card (not available but other options are here and here)

Limetree Craft - 300gsm smooth white card (for card base)

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

coloured card from my stash

I now have Affiliate Links for the Gina K Designs store. If you are considering making a purchase I would appreciate you using my links as it will earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you. 

Thank you x

Just Us Girls challenge #846 - ATG Stencil Week

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog. I am back to share my card for this week's Just Us Girls challenge and it's Stencil Week and Bobby has given us the simple theme of 'anything goes'. We all love our stencils don't we so I'm sure this is going to be a really popular week. I cannot wait to see all your gorgeous creations.

I used a stencil that I've had in my stash for quite a while and never used.  It's a lovely bold stencil with large snowflakes and I couldn't resist doing a red and white card today.  I even did some fussy cutting, but don't look too closely at that lol!.  I hope you like it. 

Here is my card:

A closer look at the details:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by cutting a white panel 4" x 5 1/4 and stencilled the beautiful snowflakes using a red ink pad.  I also stencilled just one of the snowflakes onto a scrap of white card and fussy cut it out.  I used a stitched rectangle die and cut down the background plus I also cut a black mat layer.  So that my fussy cut snowflake wouldn't look lost against my background I cut a strip of white card and used the stitched rectangle die to cut it so that the decorative edge would match the background panel; I also added a black mat layer.  I placed it across the centre of the background with liquid glue.  The snowflake was added to the left of the strip using foam squares and I stamped a sentiment next to it using black ink.  I finished off with a few black pearls.  The panel was adhered to my card base using double sided tape.  For the inside I die cut another stitched rectangle panel and black mat layer.  I stencilled the snowflakes along the bottom of the white panel and added a black strip of card along the top for a more finished look.  I adhered the panels together with liquid glue.  I stamped the sentiment in the centre with black ink and added the panel to my card base using double sided tape.  

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up challenge - ATG Christmas

ABC Christmas challenge - U for unused stash (my stencil)

Dream Valley challenge - ATG

Peace on Earth Christmas challenge - ATG Christmas optional inspiration photo

Stencil Fun challenge - use a stencil optional theme orange

I'm sure this will be a popular challenge as and I cannot wait to see what you create. Please pop over to the challenge blog and leave some love for our guest designer Carrie Sheridan and the rest of the design team.

I appreciate you stopping by.

Love and hugs,

card supplies:

Uniko - Christmas folk snowflake stencil

Uniko - pure florals: poinsettia clear stamp (for sentiments)

Gina K Designs - master layouts 14 die set (for stitched rectangle)

Gina K Designs - cherry red ink pad

Gina K Designs - black, gold & silver metallic pearl mix

Limetree Craft - 280gsm silky smooth white card (not available but other options are here and here)

Limetree Craft - 300gsm smooth white card (for card base)

Limetree Craft - 220gsm black card

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

I now have Affiliate Links for the Gina K Designs store. If you are considering making a purchase I would appreciate you using my links as it will earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you. 

Thank you x

Krafty Chicks challenge #843 - Masculine

Good morning lovely friends and welcome to my little corner of blogland. It's time for a new challenge over at Krafty Chicks challenge and this week we are on Week 4; and as always the theme is 'Masculine' and Lori is our hostess. Now we know that masculine cards are our least favourite to make but we do need them from time to time.  There are so many fun images for the men in our lives which makes creating for them so much easier. We hope you will take on the challenge and come over and join in the fun with us.

Quite some time ago I picked up this fun stamp in a friend's crafty destash and it's been sitting unloved and waiting to be used so today was its turn in the spotlight.  It's quite a busy card, with lots going on, but I think it turned out super cute.  I hope you like it too. 

Here is my card:

A closer look at the details:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by cutting a white panel 4" x 5 1/4" and used a small checkerboard stencil and some black ink to create my background.  I stamped and coloured the images and added some white gelly roll highlights.  I don't have the dies so I fussy cut them all out.  I die cut a white frame and also one from green card and placed the green inner inside the white frame to replicate grass.  I felt the frame looked a little lost on the background so cut a black stitched rectangle to make it stand out a little more.  Before adhering the layers together I roughly handcut a 'road' and used my white posca pen to mark the white lines.  I added the road onto the grass, and the frame and grass onto the black mat using liquid glue.  I stamped and white heat embossed my sentiment onto black card and used a fishtail banner die to cut it out.  The image and the sentiment were added with foam squares and the tyre and flag with liquid glue.  No embellishments this time as there was so much going on already!  The panel was adhered to the card base using double sided tape.  For the inside I cut another white panel and stamped the sentiment in the centre with black ink.  I stencilled a small border and added that to the bottom of the panel using liquid glue.  I stamped, coloured and fussy cut one more image and cut him a little grass mound to stand on to cheer his friend across the finish line, adding both with liqud glue.  The panel was then adhered to the card base using double sided tape.    

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Atlantic Hearts sketch challenge - sketch #704

Crafty Animals challenge - ATG must include an animal

I Love Promarkers challenge - your favourite colours or ATG

The Male Room challenge - geometric

I hope you will be able to join us for our 'Masculine' challenge and I cannot wait to see your creations in our linky. Please leave some love for my fellow chicks - Leanne, Diane and Lori. Thank you so much for stopping by; I appreciate your lovely comments. 

Love and hugs,

card supplies:

MFT - fast-track friends stamp set

Promarkers

MFT - you wow me clear stamp

MFT - rectangle frames die set

MFT - small checkerboard stencil

MFT - blueprints 27 die set (for fishtail banner die)

MFT - extreme black hybrid ink pad

Gina K Designs - master layouts 05 (for stitched rectangle die)

Wow! - opaque bright white super fine embossing powder

Sakura - white no. 10 gelly roll pen

Posca - white PC-5M medium bullet tip paint pen

Limetree Craft - 280gsm silky smooth white card (not available but other options are here and here)

Limetree Craft - 300gsm smooth white card

Limetree Craft - 220gsm black card

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

I have Affiliate Links for the Gina K Designs store. If you are considering making a purchase I would appreciate you using my links as it will earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you. 

Thank you x

Patterned Paper Party IG Hop - Oct 26

Hello friends, I'm back again to share my card for this month's Patterned Paper Party Instagram Hop. Do you love patterned paper? Do you have a huge stash that needs using? Well so do we and it's time to get it used! We will be hopping on the 20th of each month to share our ideas. We will definitely be creating cards, but maybe sometimes tags, ATCs, gift bags/boxes, mini albums and scrapbook pages too. We want our patterned paper to be used.

The theme is always 'anything goes' but each month we will have an optional twist that can be used if you like; this month the twist is 'purple & green' which I'm sure will be very popular, especially with Halloween coming up soon.  I used an old paper pack from Dovecraft with the perfect colour combo and fun patterns and was inspired for the layout by a card I saw recently on Instagram by my friend Julie.  I think it turned out so pretty and I hope you like it too.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the details:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by cutting a white panel 4" x 5 1/4" and then cut my papers into strips of varying thickness; I also cut some thin strips of dark purple card to coordinate with the papers.  I used liquid glue and added the strips to the top left corner of the panel, alternating paper and purple card.  I mulled over quite a few ideas for the bottom section but decided to add just a few small butterflies; the outlines cut from the purple card and the inner parts cut from the papers and adhered them together with liquid glue.  I added these onto the panel with a very thin foam square.  I stamped the sentiment using a lime green ink, which matched the paper, onto white card and used the coordinating die to cut it out (I also cut 2 more from plain white card so that I could layer them up).  The sentiment was adhered with liquid glue.  I didn't add any embellishments as I like the clean look as it was.  The panel was then adhered to my card base using double sided tape.  For the inside I cut another white panel and added some of the leftover strips to the bottom right corner using liquid glue.  I die cut and adhered one more butterfly and added that over the strips with liquid glue.  I stamped the sentiment in the centre using the lime green ink and then adhered the panel to my card base using double sided tape. 

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Cardz 4 Galz challenge - add an animal

Crafty Animals challenge - ATG must include an animal

Creative Moments challenge - things with wings

Double D challenge - wings optional inspiration photo 

Inkspirational challenge - clean and simple optional plaid

Triple B challenge - birds, blooms or butterflies optional inspiration photo

We hope you will be inspired by our Patterned Paper Party IG Hop and will pop over and check out all the gorgeous creations along the way. If you would like to join us please visit my Instagram page or use the hashtag #patternedpaperpartyhopOct2026 and we will find you.

Thanks for stopping by and take care.

Lots of love,

card supplies:

Dovecraft - back to basics II 6x6 paper pad - retired but some on eBay

Lawn Fawn - magic iris butterfly wreath add on die set (only used the butterflies)

Gina K Designs - courage to fly mini stamp & die set (for outside sentiment)

Gina K Designs - birthday cheer mini stamp (for inside sentiment)

Gina K Designs - key lime ink pad

Limetree Craft - 280gsm silky smooth white card (not available but other options are here and here)

Limetree Craft - 300gsm smooth white card (for my card base)

purple card from my scraps bin

I have Affiliate Links for the Gina K Designs store. If you are considering making a purchase I would appreciate you using my links as it will earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you. 

Thank you x

Uniko - Brand Ambassador Inspiration

Good morning friends.  Today I'm over on the Uniko store blog sharing a quick and easy Christmas card using Stunning Snowflakes clear stamp and I thought I would share it over here too.  

It's a really pretty stamp with lots of gorgeous snowflakes in a couple of different sizes, so perfect for whatever project needs a snowflake.  I went for a wintry blue and silver colours combo as it's starting to get really chilly here and this matched the vibe.  I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the snowflakes:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by die cutting a postage grid from white card and using blue ink stamped the snowflakes in each of the spaces, except for the smaller ones.  For the smaller spaces I stamped and heat embossed my sentiments using silver powder.  To bring in a bit more silver I cut my mat layer from gorgeous silver glitter card and adhered them together with liquid glue.  I also cut some dots from the glitter card and used them as my embellishments.  The panel was adhered to my card base using double sided tape.  For the inside I die cut a stitched rectangle from white card and stamped 3 of the snowflakes in the bottom right corner using the blue ink and again added some glitter dots to the centres.  I stamped the sentiment in the centre using a dark grey ink.  I cut another glitter card mat and adhered them together with liquid glue.  The panel was then added to my card base using double sided tape. 

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up challenge - ATG Christmas

ABC Christmas challenge - U for unused stash (my snowflake stamp)

Peace on Earth Christmas challenge - ATG Christmas optional inspiration photo

I hope I've inspired you to create a wintry snowflake card.  Thanks for stopping by. 

Love and hugs,

card supplies:

Uniko - stunning snowflakes clear stamp

Uniko - rustic snowflake clear stamp (for let it snow sentiment)

Uniko - rustic wreath clear stamp (for peace & joy sentiment)

Gina K Designs - master layouts 14 (for postage grid & stitched rectangle dies)

Gina K Designs - master layouts 01 & master layouts 02 for plain mat layer dies

Gina K Designs - lots of dots die set (to cut dots)

Gina K Designs - ink pads - blue sky and slate

Heat it up - silver embossing powder

Versamark - embossing and watermark ink pad

Tonic Studios - craft perfect silver screen glitter card

Limetree Craft - 280gsm silky smooth white card (not available but other options are here and here)

Limetree Craft - 300gsm smooth white card (for card base)

I have an Affiliate Link for the Gina K Designs store. If you are considering making a purchase I would appreciate you using my links as it will earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you. 

Thank you x

ATC Scraps Makes IG Hop - Oct 26

Hello friends, I hope you're doing great and you've had a great start to your week. I'm sharing my creations for this month's ATC Scrap Makes IG Hop. We challenge you to use leftover die cuts, sentiments and card stock to create Artist Trading Cards (ATC's). You can send them in happy mail, save them on a ring to highlight your favorite creations, swap them with friends or add sweet notes to a lunchbox. Join us if you like; the only rules are to use scraps and create cards that are 2.5” x 3.5” in size. We share our little snippets of happiness on the third Tuesday of the month.

This month I am continuing my alphabet series of ATC's with V, W & X. I think it will be fun each month finding images/dies for each letter. This month was a little more tricky trying to stick to animals and food but one out of three isn't bad lol!  One more month to go and the series will be complete. I'm excited to see them all at the end and I hope you are going to stick around to see them all too. I used mostly older, retired products but I still love them so why not use them. I hope you like them; do you have a favourite from this month's trio?

Here are my three ATC's:

A closer look at 'V':

A closer look at 'W':

and a closer look at 'X':

I decorated the backs the same as usual:

Once again I used my leftover ink blending scrap paper for my backgrounds (as they turn out really interesting and not something I would create myself) along with some stamped pieces and card strips left over from a previous project. I also added some ink blending to make the ATC's match the images a little more. I stamped the whale and vase of flower images and coloured them with Promarkers and used the matching dies to cut them out. The x-ray was a free image I found on the internet, printed out and covered with crystal glaze to give it a shiny look.  I decided to use the frames again this month and I die cut them from card to coordinate with my backgrounds and images and adhered them with liquid glue. The whale was added with foam squares and the vase and x-ray were adhered with liquid glue. I die cut the letters from coloured card, stacking them x 3 and added them to the ATC's with liquid glue; for this month I added some highlights to the letters with a white gelly roll pen. For the backs I simply ink blended the matching colours around the edges and stamped one of the ATC info stamps (that I won a few months ago) in black ink.

I would like to enter my ATC's in the following challenges:

613 Avenue Create challenge - ATG optional twist think pink

Cardz 4 Galz challenge - add an animal (whale)

Crafty Animals challenge - ATG must include an animal (whale)

Crafter's Cafe challenge - ATG optional no cards (I've made ATC's)

Cut It Up challenge - pretty in pink

Fab 'n' Funky challenge - 3 of something (I made 3 ATC's)

Snippets Playground challenge - use your leftovers (my ATC's are all made from scraps)

Sweet Stampin' challenge - cute creations

Tag-Along (& ATC's) challenge - all things autumn or ATG

The Little Things challenge - pumpkin and/or pink or ATG

I hope you will pop over to Instagram and check out the hop; please use the hashtag #ATCscrapmakes2026 or #ATCscrapmakesOctt26 to see all the gorgeous creations and also if you want to participate we will be able to find you. 

I really appreciate you stopping by today. 

Love and hugs,

ATC supplies:

Lawn Fawn - whale you be mine clear stamp & die set 

Clearly Besotted - a little something clear stamp - retired

x-ray image printed from internet

MFT - little letters die set

MFT - black & white stripes 6x6 paper pad

Tracey Hey - 'words' A4 paper pad

Hunkydory - scalloped edged picture frames die set

Promarkers

Limetree Craft - 300gsm smooth white card

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

Memento - tuxedo black ink pad

Sakura - white no. 10 gelly roll pen

Heffy Doodle - alcohol marker friendly card - store now closed 

ATC silicone stamp (won in a challenge)

coloured card all from my scraps bin