Here's my clean & simple card for this month's PTI Blog Hop. It's all about HIGH GLOSS, and I used Glossy Accents to highlight the black vases. I also covered every dot on the designer paper with the glossy accents too! See the second photo for a closer look. I think it looks pretty cool! How about you?!

Oh, and the three Hibiscus Burst flowers on the left vase are from the Circle Scribbles stamp set!

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Hopping :-D

Supplies: 
Stamps: PTI -Gracious Vases, Circle Scribbles
Cardstock: PTI - White
Ink: SU - Sage Shadow; PTI - True Black, Hibiscus Burst
Other: PTI - Aqua Mist Patterned Paper, Glossy Accents, Foam Tape

Uniko Studio Challenge #8 - Hello Spring

Welcome to the next challenge over at Uniko Studio! We are trying something new for our challenges from now on, so we would love feedback about it either here on my blog, or over at the Uniko Studio blog!

There is a color palette to use, as well as a theme. So for this month, you can see the color scheme below, and the theme is Spring.

When I think of spring I pretty much think of flowers and warmer weather! I took out the Flower Power #2 & Background Builders: Flower Power stamp sets and got to work. The angled panel is on white card stock and popped up with foam tape. The outlined flower image is stamped repeatedly using the same four ink colors on the angled panel. The sentiment is also stamped on the card base in Smokey Shadow ink. To finish it off, different colored Stickles were placed in the center of each flower.

So glad you stopped by and I hope I inspired you to play along in our SPRING challenge!!

You've got plenty of time to enter your project. April 14th, 09:00 UK time is the deadline.

The Prizes:

• A £10 Gift Certificate to the Winner and a Guest Design Team spot on the blog for the next challenge
• Top Three Spotlight

Supplies: Flower Power #2, Background Builders: Flower Power
Cardstock: PTI - White
Ink: PTI - Lemon Tart, Smokey Shadow; SU - Baja Breeze, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery
Other: assorted Stickles

Uniko Studio March Revisited Blog Hop

Hi and welcome to the Uniko Studio Revisited blog hop using Beautiful Blooms I. See the image below for the full stamp set.

One new product being released this month is Designer Dies to match this awesome stamp set!! See the image below. The dies are NOW available to purchase on the Uniko Studio website.

Ok, on to my card! I decided to use watercolor since it's such a hot trend right now, and I'm really loving the look!

The background is painted onto watercolor paper and mounted to the Rustic White card base. The flower and leaf are stamped onto a Rustic White card stock piece.

I did a lot of experimenting to get the flower to look right. Basically, I got the stamp a little wet with water, then applied some watercolor ink directly to the stamp with a brush, then stamped it on the card stock.

I'm very new to watercoloring, so I don't even know if I was going about it the right way. I know I'll never get a flower to look like that again! I think it turned out nice :)

I am entering this into the NEW Virginia's View Challenge #1 - Watercoloring! It's still open for awhile, so break out those watercolors and create something fun!

Some sad news to share....Stacey & Gayatri will be stepping down from the team after this hop. They have been wonderful inspiration, and I'm sure you will miss seeing their Uniko creations. I sure will!! That said, there is a NEW design team member joining us today for the first time....Gillian!!! I love seeing what Gillian does with the Uniko products, and I know you'll love visiting her blog too!

I hope I inspired you in some way today! Enjoy hopping along! Be sure to comment on each stop because one lucky winner will receive the Beautiful Blooms I stamp set AND matching dies!! You have until midnight Fri, March 14th to enter for a chance to win. The winner will be announced on the Uniko Studio blog on Sat, March 15th.

BLOG HOP LIST:

Beverley (Uniko Studio)
Amber

Erika

Gayatri
Gillian
Nicki - THAT'S ME!!
Ren-Yi

Stacey

Taheerah

Supplies: 
Stamps: Uniko Studio - Beautiful Blooms I, Flower Power #3 (sentiment)
Cardstock: PTI - Rustic White; SU - Watercolor paper
Ink: PTI - Smokey Shadow
Other: Watercolor paints, PTI - Ribbon

Papertrey Ink MIM #153

So this week's Make it Monday finally suckered me into trying water coloring for the first time. I watched Dawn McVey's video and figured it looked easy enough! I made a trip to Michael's and got me some watercolor paints and brushes.

I needed a little inspiration to get me started, so I browsed my Color Palette board on Pinterest, and came across this one....what a beauty, right?!?! I just LOVE LOVE LOVE those colors...

source

...and I just LOVE LOVE LOVE how this came out!!! Let me tell you, I never realized how relaxing water coloring is!! As a crafter and artist all my life, I've always gotten such an awesome feeling after transforming a plain, white piece of paper into something so colorful and beautiful! It was so fun watching the colors blend together as I painted each one. I will definitely be doing more of this in the near future!

After embossing the sentiment with clear powder, I started at the top with the lightest paint color and worked my way down, slightly overlapping each color onto the previous color. Once dried, one corner was punched with a corner rounder, as was the card base, and adhered securely to the base. That's it! Easy peasy!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Supplies: 
Stamps: PTI - Think Big Favorites #3
Cardstock: PTI - White
Ink: VersaMark clear embossing ink
Other: Clear embossing powder, Watercolor Paints (Michael's), SU - Corner Rounder punch

Avery Elle April Guest Designer Search...

Today I'm sharing a card with you that was made specifically for the Avery Elle April Guest Designer Search.

Avery Elle has awesome stamps. I'm a new fan of this company, and if you've never seen their line of stamps and dies, you MUST check them out on their website. Their blog has lots of inspiration too, so be sure to pop over there!

I used a few elements from the Suzani stamp set to create a pattern on the card base. The sentiment is stamped on white cardstock and mounted to a Smokey Shadow panel, then popped up with foam tape for dimension. I just LOVE this card! There are so many great stamps in this set that you could create hundreds of different patterns! Soooo fun :D

Thanks for checking me out today!!

Supplies: 
Stamps: Avery Elle - Suzani, Petals and Stems (sentiment)
Cardstock: PTI - White, Smokey Shadow
Ink: SU - Cool Caribbean, Taken with Teal; PTI - Smokey Shadow
Other: Foam Tape

Papertrey Ink February Blog Hop

HAPPY SPRING!!!!!!!! ooohhhh wait....it's really not spring yet. Bummer. Well, I guess we can all stop and pretend it's spring while we sit and hop along to see beautiful PTI spring-like stamped creations ;) I sure hope I can inspire you with my spring-y card...

The Fancy Folk Art die is cut three times and layered together to form a thicker, 3-D look.

I have also entered this into the Hexagons: Happy for Hexagons Challenge in the Moxie Fab World!

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Hopping :-D

Supplies: 
Stamps: PTI -Fancy Folk Art, Happy Hexagons, Doodlie-Do (sentiment)
Cardstock: PTI - White, Soft Stone
Ink: SU - Cool Caribbean, Pretty in Pink, Pale Plum,; PTI - True Black
Other: Happy Hexagon Cover Plate (PTI); Fancy Folk Art Die; Copic Markers

PTI MIM #152 - Layering Dye & Pigment Inks

Man, it's been quite a while since I joined in on Papertrey's Make it Monday. I thought this week's was pretty cool, so I made time to get crafty!

I stuck with my usual CAS style, and used the ink layering technique on the three large butterflies. When I tested it out on a scrap piece of cardstock, the craft color ink showed the white dots much better, and so did the pink ink. Unfortunately, on this piece, it didn't show up as well. I think this technique takes some practice and experimenting to master, because I had a hard time getting it to really show with certain ink colors. Anyone have any tips for me?

Anyway, the card base is stamped with mini butterflies along the edges. The next layer is embossed with a chevron embossing folder. For the focal point and ink layering technique, I repeatedly stamped the dot image from the Grunge Me stamp set, going from left to right across the panel. Once it was dry, I stamped each of the butterflies on top of the white pigment ink. Finally, the birthday sentiment was added in black ink. Oh, and the two corners of the focal panel have rounded corners.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: 
Stamps: PTI -Beautiful Butterflies, Grunge Me (polka dots), Quilled Elegance (sentiment)
Cardstock: PTI - White
Ink: SU - Purely Pomegranate, Basic Black; PTI - Classic Kraft, Royal Velvet
Other: Stampin' Up! Embossing folder - Chevron; Corner Rounder Punch, Foam tape

A boy/guy card...

Hey everyone!

I hope you're all doing great! I have another card to share with you featuring Uniko Studio's February Release sets---which are now available to purchase on the website!

I know I'm not alone in saying that it can be pretty difficult creating cards for the men or boys in our lives. Well, two of the sets this month are PERFECT for masculine cards!! I have combined Explosion and Background Builders: Squared for this super fun card.

The long checkerboard pattern was created by stamping the small square checkerboard stamp repeatedly (it was really easy!). Then, underneath that I stamped the empty squares stamp twice. The explosion image was stamped on a separate piece of card stock and fussy cut, then popped up with foam tape. Very simple card!

I would love to hear your feedback! Thanks for stopping by today ;)

Supplies: 
Stamps: Uniko Studio - Explosion!, Background Builders: Squared
Cardstock: PTI - White; SU - Basic Black
Ink: SU - Real Red; Staz-On: Black
Other: Foam Squares