Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Monochrome Silhouettes

Good morning

Anita here and today I have three same but different cards, all using silhouette stamps and paired with the Pinstripe Background Blocks.

These were pretty quick to make and are one layer, apart from the sentiment strips and gems.  And for the first time I used Distress Oxide inks to stamp with.  They aren't the easiest to work with as they can be quite juicy but I chose them as I thought they would create better coverage of the silhouettes over the stripes, but what do I know...it didn't actually work!  The lighter colours ended up showing through but I do actually like that effect even though it wasn't what I was going for!  Hey, every day is a school day in the crafting world! 

So, here's the first one, using coral shades...

I began by stamping the Background Blocks Pinstripe II image in Saltwater Taffy Distress Oxide ink and, once dry, I stamped the foliage silhouette from the Just Because set in Abandoned Coral.  This took a few re-stamps using my Misti, lots of light layers is key with these inks.  I then added a sentiment from the Simply Said Blocks II set and some co-ordinating jewels finished the design.

You can see below how the lighter shade of ink showed through the darker shade, I think it gives a kind of 'looking through some blinds' effect!

My second card is in teal tones...

For this one I used the vertical stripes, the Background Blocks Pinstripe image, as my backdrop which was stamped in Salvaged Patina Distress Oxide.  The foliage silhouette this time is from the Season of Beauty stamp set, and I used Peacock Feathers.  The sentiment is from Simply Said Blocks and, once again, I finished with some co-ordinating jewels.

And finally, in shades of blue...

This time, the Background Blocks Pinstripe II image was stamped in Salty Ocean Distress Ink, and the foliage, from the Happy Days set was stamped in Prize Ribbon.  The sentiment is from Simply Said Blocks II and again, the blue jewels were added as a finishing touch.

So there you have it, three quick and easy, clean and simple cards with no complicated techniques.  Thanks for taking a look, have a lovely Tuesday.

 

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Techniques with Embossing Glaze

 Hi there,

 do you love Embossing Powders as I do?
Have you ever heard of the special one called Embossing Glaze?
If not - it's a translucent but colourful Embossing Powder with some more special effects.

In the first card I made for you I created amore or less translucent rainbow with the "Rainbows & Clouds" Stencil over a very soft pastell blue background.
But first I had stamped and heat embossed the "Large Background - French Script" in white.
After the melting process of the powder I used the Stencil again and added some fluffy clouds with white Embossing paste.
The sentiment "Time to celebrate the good times" is one of the "Birthday Sentiments", heat embossed in a fitting light blue.
For some more interest I added some clear little rhinestone drops as raindrops.

The second card has a very similar layout, but I stamped the script background in gray (without embossing), just added the rainbow with the same Embossing Glaze colours as before.
I planned to add embellishments in the same colours, so I took twelve white sequins, added sticky ink to them, dipped always two of them into one of the powders and heathed them up. Then I put a drop of clear glitter glue to them.
The sentiment of the "All Occasions Set #3" is stamped with the same Ink I used for the background on Vellum and then I added the same colour of Embossing Glaze to it (hickory smoke).
I glued the edges of the Vellum on the backside of my layer and embellished it with my "special gems".

For the next card I created a blended Sunset scene and added plants and shadows with different stampsets - "Just because", "Happy Days" and "Natures Treasures I".
The lighter shadows of the black embossed plants are made with the Glazes.

For this glazed "Pure Florals - Peony" I added several times Embossing Ink with a Dabber and then thin layers of Glaze.
I was able to mix and match the colours with every layer and then melted every one on top of the black stamped flower.
With every layer it went darker and more intense! So beautiful! Love this kind of "watercolour look".

 

 

The last card is a bit different to the peony. I used the "Pure Florals - Gerbera Stencil" and one of the Peony sentiment stamps.
This time I didn't add the embossing Ink with a dabber (I tried, but it was too much ink for a stencil and turned out in a mess!), instead I used a pen and "coloured" the areas very quick and in a distressed way. I added and mixed the red and orange Glaze powder for the petals and the yellow for the center.
Melted every layer and as a last step I added black Embossing Powder to get some wild and dramatic lines to the flower.
Love this big and bold flower!

Hope I brought you some ideas to use the Glazes in different ways... there are many more to try!
For those of us who love Embossing Powders they are a very "nice-to-have" and "test and try" medium to play with.

Greetings from Wiebke

BA Inspiration, Combining sentiments from more than one set

Good morning all, Julie here with some Brand Ambassador inspiration. 

Do you find masculine cards difficult? I love making cards for blokes just as much as for the girls, until recently the boys outnumbered the girls in our family! My go to style for masculine cards is CAS and the choice of colours also plays a part, bold bright colours work well for masculine cards. So here's a simple idea that you can use over again, just change the sentiment!

Over at Cardz4Guyz their new challenge theme is something beginning with D, so I chose Die Cuts and used some Uniko sentiments to create my card focal point. As I made quite a few extra die cut shapes, I decided to make a few more cards with them and share them with you here.

Here are the first two, the bright one on black I used for the challenge at Cardz4Guyz and the other I made with the more pastel tones on white for a feminine take. The layout of the die cuts is slightly different but the sentiment is the same.

To begin, I selected a few different sentiment stamp sets which I could combine to make my sentiment phrase. For these two cards I selected Everyday Sentiments, Doodle Flowers and Happy Days. Using a speech bubble die set, I cut a load of colourful shapes from card scraps, waste not want not.

On the long speech bubble, I arranged the sentiment then stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with white EP. I find it easiest to use a jig for stamping on small items, so for this I cut the shape from a piece of scrap card which I placed in my MISTI and arranged the sentiment stamps in the opening. Try test stamping on some scrap to ensure you don't waste the die cut!

Using this stamped bubble as the start, I arranged the die cuts over my A6 base cards, trimming off anything that was overhanging. You don't need to make up your own sentiment phrases, there are lots of ready made ones that Bev has released, but I thought it would allow me to fill the long thin speech bubble.

As I had a few leftover die cuts, I went with a different sentiment phrase and layout, this time using a mix of Doodle Flowers and Floral Vines.

It was the same process as for the other two cards, except that the sentiment was in a different place.

This card could be for a male or female recipient really. If you don't have speech bubble dies, you could use other die cut shapes to get the same effect, balloon dies would work well.

OK,  that's all from me for the moment, but I hope I've given you some ideas to create masculine cards and get more use from your sentiment stamps.

Stay safe 'til next time and keep crafting!

Stencil Sunday - Colourful Wonky Stripes & Striking Silhouettes

Happy Sunday & welcome to another Stencil Sunday!

I'm not gonna lie, this past week has been a tough one, lockdown life has been a struggle and I am trying to keep up the positivity and battle through. Finding some mojo to create has been hard, but this afternoon I forced myself to come in my studio and make something.

It actually felt good and I was happy when two of my favourite challenges could be combined to make one CAS card! First I used CAS Colours & Sketches HERE for my colour inspiration and then AAA Cards HERE for my one layer & product choice! 

These colours are so cheerful and I chose to ink up the Stencil - Wonky Stripes with them. I used a little bit of masking to ink up each of the individual lines and then used my MISTI to stamp the foliage silhouette from Happy Days. 

The sentiment is also from Happy Days and I think it is rather appropriate for these current times. I've decided to schedule in 30 minutes each day, dedicated purely to creating a card and having that 'me time' in my happy place.

That's all from me today, time for me to go and get my two not so little monkeys to go to sleep! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are all hanging in there too.

Crafty Hugs Bev x

Brand Ambassador Inspiration - happy & colourful

Hello

Wiebke here with a happy and colourful post to brighten your day!

It's also a happy bithday surprise for Beverley!
 
I'm so 

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY
to have you in my life! 😘

I made this bunch of clean and simple cards in a really short time! How I did it? By using all the "left overs" to create second cards!

The materials for all four cards are similar:

• a self made rainbow-colour paper
  made of multimedia paper (it doesn't warp as much as normal cardstock when it get's wet) & Ranger Distress Oxide Inks (and a blending brush or tool) & a clear iridescent embossing paste (just added a thin layer with a palette knife)
  To create this paper you'll need a bit of time, but below I have some alternative ideas!
• the Big & Bold Happy Dies
• fitting stamps - I used Big & Bold Happy, Happy Days and bee Happy (guess why! 😉)

 

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To avoid lots of glue-time for the thin areas I used adhesive sheets, but needed a bit of glue here and there anyway!

For the first two cards I cut out the bigger "shadow" word of my sparkling paper first, then placed the smaller die on this hello and cut again to create the thin edge of the word. - This was the difficult part - to line it up exactly for an even edge!
But with the help of some low-tack painters tape (I used the pink one from Tesa) it wasn't a real problem! 

The rest was easy!
To adhere the thin layer in the original shape and without wonky lines I used the other one as guide before I adhered it on a second cardbase.
All sentiments were stamped in black ink. I love to use my stamping tool for these jobs - You can position all the stamps perfectly with the gridlines on the lid and you can stamp twice for a perfect black impression without any problems of missplacing!

The black lines of the box are drawn with a thin black marker and and a T-ruler.
The small butterflies I punched out of the scraps of the sparkling paper and placed them as a fluttering crowd above the word die cut.

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Here on the next picture you can see in the reflection, how much this selfmade paper is sparkling! (It's always hard for me to catch this with a camera.)
 

For the second two cards I directly cut out the smaller die of the sparkling paper. 
On the cardbase I brushed the same colours I used before to create the sparkling paper, but with a lighter hand for a softer, less intense shadeing.
The more intense happy on a white shadow paper I placed there, added the two sentiment-parts and the card was finished!

The last card is made of the leftover again. I cut out the "frame" with a knife and a metallic ruler, rounded the corners by hand and adhered it on the cardbase.
This time I used the cute bee insted of a sentiment - just as a "be(e) happy".

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Hope you like this idea of making quick'n'easy cards!


Some more ideas to stretch this technique:  

You needn't use a selfmade sparkling rainbow-paper.  
You can also use 

• a patterned paper or 
• a monochromatic shading
• a paper with or without sparkling
• ...

When you havn't a iridescent embossing paste, use

• a sparkling embossing powder
• a sparkling spray (maybe selfmade with some mica powder)
• a thin layer of glitter glue or glossy accents (maybe with some glitter?)
• ...

When you hon't want to make "happy" cards, use one of the other Uniko Big & Bold die sets!
"wish" or "snow".

 
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Thanks for looking by today!   💓💛💚💙💜
Have a great and creative time and be happy!
 
Hugs Wiebke

Introducing... Happy Days and Background Blocks Pinstripe II

Hey!

Welcome to Day 5 and the last of the product introductions for the February 2020 & 8th Birthday Release. If you missed day 1, be sure to catch up HERE , for Day 2, HERE,  Day 3 HERE and Day 4 HERE.

Today we have two more clear stamp sets to introduce to you, Happy Days and Background Blocks Pinstripe II. Happy Days is a mini clear stamp set similar to the previously released Just Because clear stamp set. It features a beautiful foliage silhouette and some 'happy' mix & match sentiments in the same fonts I used in Just Because. Background Blocks Pinstripe II, is basically those lovely pinstripes again, I have simply changed the orientation of the lines. 

Let's have a look at these sets in action! 

Bev

Carol 

Hannelie

Izzy 

Jane

Julie

Linda

Rahmat

Sarah

Wiebke 

WOW! That was one inspirational hop and there is so much fun to be had with these stamp sets. My Brand Ambassadors certainly showed this with their creativity.

I hope you enjoyed the hop & left some comment love along the way. I will be randomly selecting some comments left on the Introducing hops to win prizes!

Thank you for stopping by today & I hope you will come back tomorrow for the full reveal, blog hop & GIVEAWAY! All the products you have seen over the past few days will be available to purchase at 9pm GMT.

Crafty Hugs