Mixed Media Monday - Alumni Brand Ambassador Lindsey Bowe

Hello & Happy Monday! 

Today I am delighted to be back with another Mixed Media Monday and I am honoured to have our Alumni Brand Ambassador Lindsey Bowe joining us again.

Lindsey Bowe

Blog / Instagram / Pinterest

Hello everyone, I am delighted to be back today to share a Journal front cover  with you.

To start I stamped and white embossed the mandala from Marvellous Mehndi on watercolour paper, followed by Dylusions spray inks.

I then added gold acrylic paint with an old bottle top & picked up the surplus ink & paint on a piece of white card - an easy way to make a coordinated piece of coloured card stock. 

I used the white “mop-up” card to cut out a background circle for my focal point and picked up the gold theme with some thread.

For my focal point I chose the sweet flower from You Are, Yes You clear stamp set & coloured it with pastels.

Here is the final piece, embellished with sequins, my usual stitching & an off cut of some gold ribbon. Bling bling!

Wow! Such a beautiful and inspiring piece. I do love the idea of decorating a journal cover in this way. I hope you have enjoyed todays feature and a big THANK YOU to Lindsey for inspiring us all Gin.

Crafty Hugs

 

Marvellous Mehndi Monday!

 Hello & Happy Monday!

I hope your week has started off marvellous. Today I was inspired to create a card using Marvellous Mehndi clear stamp set. I shared this graphic seen below which I created a while back using an image from a card I had made using the stamp set combined with the coordinating Stencil - Mehndi Mandala. It's been so long since I used this stamp set, that it sparked some creative mojo.

I'm getting better at stepping outside of my regular 10.5 x 14 cm size cards and opting for slimline. I think this large mandala in the set lends itself well to these larger card canvases. 

For my colour choice I was inspired by the colours over at CAS Colours & Sketches seen HERE and below. I've had these Stampin' Up! In Colours on my desk for ages, they were just waiting for the right project!

My sentiment is a mix from Doodle Flowers and Simply Said Blocks III. I think these combine really well and who doesn't want to receive a card saying this?

I'm a busy bee in the studio this week, so much fun in the pipeline and I can't wait to share it with you!. But for now you will just have to trust me on that  - haha! Okay, I best get on an get these Beans to bed, so I can have a bit of chill time too 😉 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Crafty Hugs

 

DT Inspiration - layered combinations with Stencil and Stamp

Time is running and and we almost reached the center of September!

Has Friday 13th in your cultural estimation a negative character? Do you believe in superstitions, bad omens or auguries?
I don't! - So today is a perfect day for me to present you my new DT-Inspiration Post!

I made two different cards for different occasions with the same combination of Stencil and Stamp Sets: the popular Mandalas of Uniko. Yes, there are two different products with Mandalas in the Uniko range of products available:

• the Mehndi Mandala Stencil and 
• the Marvellous Mehndi Stamp Set

They have almost the same outer shape, but the details are a bit different and even more important: they have different sizes! Great preconditions to give this idea a try, right?

The sentiments are both part of the Wonderful Day Stamp Set.

 *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

For the first card I added Oxide Inks with my blending brushes over the Mandala stencil.
I used a bright yellow and orange colour scheme - squeezed lemonade, mustard seed, dried marigold, carved pumpkin and ripe persimmon. The blending brushes make it so easy to get a nice and smooth colour gradient without hard edges!
I started with the light yellow and then got darker with every new layer of colour in the order of the listing above.

Detail of the yellow layered Mandala

After I had cleaned the stencil, I replaced it on my paper, added the stamp (the stencil helped me to get the stamp in the perfect place!) and put all together in my stamping tool, closed the lid and the stamp was on its place!
To fix the paper, you can add temporary adhesive before you put it into the tool or you can fix it carefully with the magnets while you remove the stencil. Try out what works best for you!

Then I simply stamped the smaller Mandala and then also the sentiment in black Ink.
To put some special accents on this simple one layer card I added half-pearls in two sizes (2 mm and 4 mm).

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

For the second card I used almost the same supplies - just changed the colours into another colour family: blue - tumbled glass and salty ocean.

Again I started to add the colours with the blending brushes, beginning with the lighter tone, tumbled glass, all over the stencil and then darkening the center with salty ocean.
I rotated the combination of stencil and stamp this time a bit. The 'petals' of the stamp are placed now in between the 'petals' of the stencil.

The rest was easy going! I layered the paper on top of two slightly bigger blue papers to get a nice two-coloured frame (yes, it's a heavy card now!). Then I added the heat embossed sentiment with thin 3D pads and embellished the Mandala with some nice rhinestones. There are some round 4 mm gems in an opalescent clear-blue colour and also some tiny little drop-shaped gems in clear and in blue.

Detail of the blue layered Mandala

* ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

To see the full list of all used supplies, please hop directly to my blog.

* ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Which combination of stencil and stamp do you prefer? The yellow on top-combination or the more masculine blue offset-combination?

I looked through my Uniko stash and found some more combinations of stamps and stencils to give this technique-mix another try.
Would be great to read in the comments which combinations you found and tried!


Have a great and creative day!
Greetings from Wiebke

DT Inspiration - ink blending with a Stencil

Hello, Wiebke here with two moncromatic birthday card in a Clean and Simple style. Both created with a stencil and some ink blending.

 

 

Today I'll show you how to improve your blending skills with the help of a Stencil.
 
Do you like ink blending? - NO?
Why?- The smooth blending between different colours is always difficult!

When you agree with these answers, I may have a great solution for you: Take a stencil, Inks and a Blening Tool and give it a try!
I'm sure the result will show you, blending is something you can learn.

When you aren't familiar with blending, you can start with a pure mono cromatic card to get a feeling for this kind of "colouring" and add more colour(s) in the next projects.
The colours should be different shadings of the same colour family (like light blue + blue + darker blue) OR colours adjacent in the colour wheel (like yellow + orange + red / yellow + green + blue / a whole rainbow of 6 colours).

I love to blend with Ranger Distress Oxide Inks, cause they blend really easy and they forgive you a lot...!
This doubles the positive effects for this blending-project!
Mandala stencils are perfect for beginners, cause we'll work in circle motions, fitting to this form.

The first step you have to do is to avoid any movement of the stencil. I love to take a soft painters tape to fix stencil and paper together. When you finished the blending it's easily removable without any tearing of your finished Mandala.

Now we start the blending. It doesn't matter if you start with the lightest or the darkest of your colours and also, if you start on the inside of the Madala or the outer edge.
But it's important to move your hand in easy circle motions over the paper and add the colours - one after another. You can add colour several times to get a darker shading.
Avoid spressing  the Blening Tool with lots of power into the inkpad - the more ink is in the blending foam the worse the blending will be.
To get soft colour-gradients, layer the colours one over another on the edges of every area.

So, what's the miracle?
Stencils have little areas with crisp edges and you won't see smaller "uneven" blendet areas as clear as on plain paper. The white lines and areas are so helpful and seperate the areas for you!

After you have cut the finished paper down to the size of your cardbase, you can start to embellish the Mandala with little pearls, rhinestones, enamel dots,... or selfmade dots (Stickles, Nuvo, ...)
You also can conceal tiny little mistakes with your embellishments if necessary.

For both of my cards I used the same Stencil - Mehndi Mandala and a Sentiment stamp - out of the NEW set Birthday Wishes.
But ee how versatile these products and how different the cards are!

 

The yellow Mandala reminds me of flowers or sunrays. I think we all crafe for spring and warmer temperatures, right?

For the Mandala I used hese Oxide Inks: squeezed lemonade, mustard seed and wild honey.

 

I used little epoxy stickers - a round one for the center and little drops for the heart-shaped areas and some little pearls to embellish the Mandala.
The sentiment is stamped on an extra piece of paper and then cut and folded to a little banner. To get a bit dimension it's adhered with 3D pads.

The blue Mandala looks like a snowflake or icy crystal. Perfect for birthdays in the cold winter time!

 

 

As embellishment I used clear and blue mini rhinestone drops and insert them in the pattern of the Mandala.

I stamped my sentiment with the darkest of the Oxide Inks and added immediatelly clear embossing powder.

For the Mandala I used these Oxide Inks: mermaid lagoon, broken china, tumbled glass.

Hope you like this kind of project and you'll give it a try!

Happy greetings from Wiebke

CAS Colours & Sketches #278 - Sketch

Hey!

How did we get to the last week of June?! This month at CAS Colours & Sketches and Wei is our hostess.  This week HERE Wei has a fun sketch to inspire your card making...

Here's how I used it...

I've been struggling with lack of creative mojo / energy and general 'get up & go' this past week, beyond the day to day stuff of being a mummy, housewife and keeping Uniko ticking over :( 

Anyway, I managed (albeit late) to pull this card together using a piece I had stencilled a few weeks ago, but not used on anything! I used the recently released Uniko Mehndi Mandala Stencil and Stampin' Up! embossing paste (white sparkle), through the stencil design onto black card stock.

As you can see I rotated the sketch to create a landscape card, as I wanted to use a horizontal sentiment for the rectangular piece of the sketch. The stencilled mandala piece was trimmed on the diagonal and adhered to my base card using double sided tape. The sentiment from Simply Said Blocks II is stamped and die cut out with a MFT die and adhered using 1mm thick foam adhesive. 

I just LOVE the sparkle of this embossing paste :)

That's all from me today, I hope thatI have inspired you to join in on the challenge?! If you need a little more inspiration, pop on over HERE to see what the CC&S Design Team have created.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs

Surprise Stencil Release!

Hello!

Today at Uniko we have a surprise stencil release!

Earlier this month Uniko was at Stamp Magic in Doncaster and I had 3 NEW stencil designs available to purchase at the show and I am super pleased they are NOW available HERE on the website.

Let's have a look at the 3 new designs...

Uniko Stencil Bright Butterflies £4.50

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2018

www.uniko.co.uk

Uniko Stencil Scattered Polka Hexagons £4.50

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2018

www.uniko.co.uk

Uniko Stencil Mehndi Mandala £4.50

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2018

www.uniko.co.uk

Like with any new release here at Uniko we have a blog hop to celebrate and show you beautiful inspiration using the new products. I am super duper pleased to have a wonderful, talented and all round lovely crafter joining me and the Uniko Stencil DT us as our Guest Designer.... Ruth from Crafting While The Baby Naps. 

Ruth

Bev

 
Julie

Linda

Sarah G

Wiebke 

And as with all the Uniko Blog Hops we have a GIVEAWAY too! Simply comment along the hop for your chance to win one of the three stencil designs being released and as there are 3 new designs, I will randomly pick 3 lucky winners!!

Enjoy!

Hugs

Uniko Sponsors "Less Is More"

Hey & Happy World Card Making Day!

I'm super duper pleased you have popped by this morning as today the countdown to the October Release starts, it's Happy Stampers Festival Day AND myself and Uniko are proud to be sponsoring the challenge over at "Less is More" this month  - YAY!

Being the first challenge of the month, it's a colour challenge and it's all about Hot & Spicy colours. When I thought of these colours I thought of the Middle East designs and Marvellous Mehndi...

I used my MISTI to stamp the large mandala on both the square layer and base card in Stampin' Up! Poppy Parade ink and then over stamped them in VersaMark ink, to heat emboss them with clear EP. I then went in and selectively coloured the mandala on the top square only.

The sentiment is a peek at one from a NEW clear stamp set being introduced this week and will be available to purchase on Monday 16th October! I've embellished it with some smaller stamps from Marvellous Mehndi and my favourite Stampin' Up! enamel dots!

I hope I have inspired you to join in on the fun?! 

That's all from myself for now, but be sure to head on over HERE to see what the "Less is More" Design Team have created to inspire you and to join in on the fun too. I hope to see you in the gallery!

I'll be back AGAIN soon with the first of the October Release Sneak Peeks! 

Hugs

CAS Colours & Sketches #228 Colour Challenge

Hey!

I'm here again with my next CAS Colours & Sketches design team inspiration for you. This week it is Patricia's turn to be hostess as we each take it in turns for May & June.

This week is colour week and these are the colours Patricia has chosen...

We've used Stampin' Up! colours, but feel free to use any make of product that closely matches them as possible and don't forget to keep it CAS and a card though, to be considered for the weekly winners!

Here's how I used them...

Metallics always throw me a little and I get stuck as how to incorporate them! They are something I only occasionally use. However, I instantly thought of using Marvellous Mehndi on my card this time. The other colours in the combo reminded me of the rich, earthy colours of ethnic textiles.

Again, I kept things really simple. Choosing the larger mandala from the set to heat emboss in Kettle Copper EP onto Dapper Denim card and adding a small strip of Peekaboo Peach down the edge. The sentiment is from Simply Said.

That's all from me today, if you need some more inspiration using the sketch be sure to pop by the CAS Colours & Sketches blog HERE and see how the DT and Guest Designer have used it.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Hugs