Uniko August Release Day, Blog Hop and Giveaway!

Good morning and welcome to release day at Uniko!

As usual we are have a blog hop and giveaway to celebrate, but first here are a few more ideas using the new release.

This card almost didn't get made. I started it after seeing a pic of some 1950's fabric but was disappointed when the Squeezed Lemonade DOxide I used for the pale elements from Background Builders MCM wasn't as bold as I wanted compared to how it worked on this panel. Anyway I put it to one side and carried on with other ideas.

 

Background Builders: Mid Century Modern £11.50

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

Picking it up after a couple of days, I decided to continue the pattern using the elements from the set, adding more ovals in Faded Jeans DOx and Black Soot DOx for the smaller element. Trimmed down, I added it to an A6 white base card and stamped the sentiment, a mix of MCM Birthday and MCM Sentiments. A strip of black card was also added and that was it. In the end I rather like the bold masculine feel of this design.

Next I have a design that uses the Ink & Flip Mid Century Leaves stencil combined with BB Swiss Dots.

Background Blocks Swiss Dots £6.50

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

Ink & Flip Mid Century Leaves £4.50

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

Using a selection of Distressed Oxides, Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, Wilted Violet and Salty Ocean, I inked a panel of white card with both sides of the stencil to create the basic pattern. Once completely dry, I replaced the stencil over the inking and stamped the Swiss dots through it with Versamark, heat embossing with white EP. No flipping the stencil, as I thought I had enough texture with just alternate leaflets. Using a straight edge and a black fine liner, I drew a line down the middle of the paired leaflets. The panel was then trimmed down and added to a 5 x 7inch black base card on foam pads. Sentiment, MCM Sentiments, heat embossed white on black completes.

This stencil has an Orla Keily vibe so I used some of her colours to make this card and stamped the central line using an element from the Background Builders set. Sentiment from my stash of Doodle Flower ones on kraft.

There are 2 more Background Blocks in the release, Bauhaus and MOD Builder Circles, both with a retro vibe.

Background Blocks Bauhaus £6.50

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

Background Blocks MOD Builder Circles £6.50

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

Finally there's the layering Retro Stripes from yesterday.

Here I've played with the stencil to see how I could modify it.

Instead of using all of the stencil, I just used one section, inking each with a progressively darker ink, Altenew's Tea Party set. There are 4 inks, so the middle one is just the second lightest inked more heavily. I tried moving the stencil to make the pattern into an arch but it didn't work, then tried it again by reversing the arc. This was more successful but the join was obvious, so still having my new large number dies out, added a die cut red 16 to cover the glitch! Simple sentiment in black added and the trimmed panel added to another 5 x7 inch black base card.

Layering Retro Lines Stencil £14.50

Copyright Uniko Ltd 2012 - To Date

www.uniko.co.uk

That's all from me but as usual Bev and the other BAs have created some more inspiration using the new products. Be sure to hop along and comment for your chance to win a £25 eGift Certificate to spend in store. Comment before 24th August 2025. Winner will be announced week of the 25th August 2025, open worldwide. 

 Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie - me

Steph

Vinita

Happy hopping!!

Introducing Stencil - Layering Retro Stripes and Ink & Flip Mid Century Leaves

 Good morning and welcome to the last day of introductions for the August release at Uniko. 

Today we are all about stencils.

First we have the Layering Retro Stripes. It's a set of 5 stencils that overlay to create a fab retro stripe pattern. For those of you of a certain age it might remind you of the old Severn Trent logo or in a different colourway of the LWT indent logo for back in the 70's! Well it did me anyway!!

Here's my first card with a similar colourway to the water logo, it must have been in my head when I chose the colours. After creating the initial central knot of lines, I placed the stencils around the edge of my panel to fill in the open space. These colours were DIs in Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, Pine Needles, Peacock Feathers and Lucky Clover but the world is your oyster, just pick your faves or go with a rainbow!

The sentiment is Outlined sentiments, coloured with a black marker and matted onto a scrap of green card.

Next is a card made with the Ink n Flip Mid Century Leaves. Those of you who attended the Winwick class last Sunday may recognise this next and final intro. For this idea I didn't flip it though.

I looked at the stencil when I first got it and decided they did look like leaves so did them as such, inking with Twisted Citron and a hint of Mowed Lawn DI, it was only when I flipped the stencil that I realised that the pattern develops from the points touching. Anyway I left it as such to show it can be used without flipping, adding some magenta retro blooms, Flower Power #7 to the openings created by not flipping.  A fine black liner and a straight edge created the stems. A simple sentiment matted on the same green as my trimmed panel was added then the whole panel added to a white A6 base card.

That's all from but please check out the rest of the Uniko team to see how they've used these fab new stencils

Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie - me

Steph

Vinita

See you back tomorrow for the big release, blog hop and GIVEAWAY!!

Introducing Background Blocks Swiss Dots

Morning, day 4 of the intros for the latest Uniko release. Today it's another Background Block, Swiss Dots. Here's how I used it.

After stamping on a panel of white card, I die cut a square from it and put it to one side whilst I stamped a few flowers and foliage. I used the recently released Originally Organic Flower Garden stamp set for the blooms, stamping in a pale ink onto Copic friendly card. I also stamped some leaf clusters from the Originally Organic Stamp set. All were coloured with Copics and fussy cut before being arranged onto my square panel and glued down. The completed panel was then added to a white A6 base card with foam pads after a simple greeting from the Originally Organic Flower Garden stamp set was stamped in black.

So what have the rest of the team been up to? Why not clink the links to find out?

 Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie - me

Steph

Vinita 

See you back here same time tomorrow for another intro.

Joining in over at:-

Flowers

Guesting at JUGS

Afternoon all. 

Just popping by to share a card for the latest JUGS challenge. This time not as a participant but as their August GD!!

The theme for this week is die cut florals so here is my make.

This is a card I made for the wedding of my daughter's friend, not knowing the colour theme, I went classy and neutral with silver and white, even though the roses look gold they are silver. The mirror card picked up the reflection from the oak windowsill! The photo also makes it look as if the die cut heart is towards the bottom of the A5 card but I had to angle the camera so that the silver mirror card wasn't too reflective, it's a beast to get a good photo!

To start, I die cut a panel of white card and die cut a heart shape from the center before running it through my Big Shot with an EF to create some texture. A piece of holographic hearts wrapping paper was attached to my base card to show through before the embossed panel was popped up on foam pads. The blooms and leaves are from Altenew, Rose Flurries,  die cut from vellum, white and silver, layered up and arranged around the heart aperture together with a few Pretty Pink Posh sequins. A die cut sentiment in dark grey, from an ancient Cuttlebug plate die, was glued over the wrapping paper and a stamped HLS sentiment completes.

So that's it from me but please check out the rest of the fab JUGS team for their take on the theme.

Joining in over at:-

Introducing Background Blocks MOD Circle Builder

 Good morning and welcome to day 3 of the intros for Uniko's August release.

Today it's another Background Block and it may be familiar to some as it is based on a previously released stencil. Here are a couple of ideas I came up with to use the stamp.

Firstly is this simple design using a half of a panel from an A6 one I created by repeated stamping of the pattern.

There are a few extra stamps that come with the set and I used the smallest semi circle to stamp across the panel in Twisted Citron and Peacock Feathers DI. Once stamped, I matted it on a panel of matching green card and added to a plain white base card, stamping the sentiment in black.

My second design uses the other half of the panel but this time I coloured some of the quadrants with Copic marker in a mix of black and yellow.

The sentiment is from Sentiments Outlined, which I coloured using the same Copic markers. Using my guillotine I cut it into strips before cutting away around the end letters and then adding to the patterned panel. This was was then simply adhered to my base card.

So that's all from me but please check out what all the other BAs have been up to.

 Anita

Bev

Izzy

Julie - me

Steph

Vinita

See you same time tomorrow for more retro inspiration.