Under the Bonnet

 Good morning and happy St Patrick's Day to those who celebrate it.

We have a new challenge for you from Cardz4Guyz where our theme this month is :-

LIGHT BLUE and BROWN

Here's my take after a bit of head scratching!!

I've known about the challenge for quite sometime and had lots of ideas buzzing in my head but I couldn't quite settle on just one, so this card was made a bit last minute! It nearly didn't get made at all as when I started to colour my LOTV digi image, my E57 Copic marker decided not to play. Perhaps I had neglected it and it had dried but all it did was leave a blotchy mark. So I abandoned it and went to watch the new Scarpeta on Amazon Prime. It's base on the books by Patricia Cornwell that I've read, about an ME in the USA, a bit gory and the stream played up, but overall I quite enjoyed it. Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis were great as Kay and sister Dorothy but Lucy, not what I had pictured in my mind's eye. Benton wasn't quite as suarve as I imagined but Marino is OK. Anyway, back to my card!

Coming back to the image the next day, I thought I could rescue it, waste not want not, and I think I have, adding some white gel pen to create a tweed cap which I then coloured over with a blue marker.

After finishing the rest of the colouring, I fussy cut it out, printed off some matching DP from NitWits and got ready to assemble.

Textured shaped panel on foam pads over DP onto a card base and a stamped Uniko sentiment, the image was also added on pads. 

There are a couple of other challenges around that are featuring blue and brown, so I will join in there too.

If you need more inspiration please check out the rest of the Cardz4Guyz team here. Looking forward to seeing your makes in our gallery.

Color Hues #129

Good afternoon. 

As we whizz through the month of March its time to start a new colour challenge at Color Hues.

This time Marcia has chosen a fun and cheery colour combination, here's my take.

First of all I thought of crocus with purple petals and rich yellow anthers as they were dancing in the longer grass in the garden but I couldn't use green for the leaves, so abandoned that choice and went for this Gorjuss image that was another from my to stamped but not colouired box. It's an old one I stamp sometime ago when an old friend was visiting for some crafty time. 

The girl was coloured with Copics and fussy cut. I usually have the light coming from one side or the other when colouring but this image had shadows already quite prominent to suggest front on light and so I went with that, not as much option for shadows that way though, but the hair was quite a large part of the image!

My background DP is from an old magazine and the white panel was an equally ancient EF that matched. Another elderly item was the purple ribbon on which I perched my girl. A couple of sentiment banners were stamped and added under the edge of the embossed panel, the layout an other oldie from Sketch Saturday (on pause).

That's about all from me but please check out the rest of the team and our GD here for more colourful  inspiration.

The first signs of spring in our fields, who doesn't love a cute lamb?! The mum's started coming home from the lambing sheds last week with their little ones.

Joining in over at:-

Uniko VIP FB Challenge - Spring

Good morning.

As it's the 11th March, there's a new challenge over on Uniko's VIP Facebook page.

This time our theme is:-

SPRING

So anything associated with that season, just use Uniko products as your main focus. Here's my take using approprately, Spring Botanicals -Primrose.

 

 

Over at the Paper Players their theme is Rainbow Colours and at AAA Colourful the pic reminds me of a rainbow too, so I thought I would use that as my starting point. I know it's not quite April yet, so we can't have April showers but there's always a chance of one with hopefully a rainbow afterwards! 

Using the newly released Layering Rainbow stencil, I created a blended one for my vellum polyanths to sit over. They come in so many different colours, they really do look like a rainbow when spread out on the garden center benches. The ones in my garden have been in bloom for a few weeks now, mainly the bluey purple and white ones as the birds like to pinch the more colourful petals from the pinks and reds!

I stamped Spring Botanicals- Primrose in Versamark onto vellum and heat embossed with white EP before fussy cutting them out. On the reverse of the image I added some colour to the leaves and the flower centers with coloured pencils, arranging them over the rainbow, using the embossed lines to hide the glue. My sentiment is from Sping Botanicals - Tulip which I stamped in black.

That's all from me, but looking forward to seeing your makes in the gallery.

Joining in over at:-

 

Color Hues #128

Afternoon folks.

Where did February go? Well it's the first of the month so it's time for a new challenge from Color Hues. Here's my take on the new colour pairing.

 

I still had my Uniko layering rainbow stencil out on my desk when I sat down to make a card, so decided to use it in combination with this cheeky leprechaun that was lurking in the bottom of my finished colouring but 'what do I do with it now' box. I think, I had thought to use it for a card some time ago and then used something else. He's from a magazine, must be over 15 years ago now with a photocopiable page of 'magical' creatures. So I printed him off and coloured him with Copics and fussy cut him out. Getting the gold for his buttons and buckles was tricky, but there is a Copic called Lionet Gold, Y28, so used that and some paler ones from the sames group. 

The rainbow was inked using a selection of Altenew greens and the gold 'coins' are some very old Craftwork Cards card confetti, the sentiment is also from Uniko. Our Irish friend was then added on foam pads after I'd run a ball tool over him from the wrongside to give him some shape.

So that's it from me but please check out the rest of the team and our GDs Darnell and Donna here. Looking forward to seeing your makes in the gallery.

Joining in at:-

Birthday Release Day at Uniko

It's here, the February 2026 Birthday Release is finally available on the Uniko website HERE! 

Before you dash off to get your hands on the new stash, we're having a bit of reprise of all the release along with a Blog Hop and GIVEAWAY!

But first, here are the details of all the items in the Birthday release and some more inspiration!

First up is Background Blocks Birthday Scramble,  a fun, instant, sentiment block, a partner to the Christmas themed one from last year. 

Background Blocks Birthday Scramble £6.50

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

Here is a card using the new Layering Stencil, Retro Rainbow and Background Blocks My Favourite Colour is Rainbow.

Stencil - Layering Retro Rainbow £14.50

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

Background Blocks My Favourite Colour Is Rainbow £6.50

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

For this card I used the stencil to create the rainbow, moving it slightly between layers to get the overlapping colours. The overlap isn't perfect but you get the idea of a more blended rainbow. Another fussy cut Cloud 9 stencil cloud hides any misalignments. The sentiment from the stamp set was simply stamped in black and the rainbow coloured appropriately with Copic markers.

Bev is very proud of her innovative Ink & Flip Stencils and this one going to be a firm favourite I'm sure. Retro Flowers is a two layer stencil. One for the flowers and one for the flower centers. They can be used together or individually for even more creative options.

 For this card I used some leftover fussy cut blooms from yesterdays card and a few scraps of card and a Gelli plate print made at Art group that went wrong. 

 

I just love the way the lime green Gelli pull shimmers, the acrylic paint I used must have had been pearlescent! I also used an new to me die set from The Greetery which cuts the pattern, mount AND base card. I'd seen Aryth Percy-Robb use this technique in one of her You Tube videos and as I only had a few blooms decided to try. I used 4 blooms in total, 2 cut up into halves and 1 into quarters and arranged them onto my green panel along with a fussy cut thanks from Simply Said Blocks. This was mounted onto one of my die cut white panels and then onto a slightly larger one, edged with some matching Picked Raspberry DI, finally adding the whole onto my die cut base card.

Stencil - Ink & Flip Layering Retro Flowers £8.00

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

So that wraps up this little Birthday release. We hope you love the products as much as we do, just to prove it, there's even more inspiration from the Brand Ambassadors on their own blogs and Insta accounts, just follow the links below

Be sure to comment along the way for your chance to win a £20 eGift Certificate to spend in store. Winner will be announced Monday 9th of February 2026.

  Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie that's me

Natalie

Steph

Vinita

Happy Hopping!