Hello & Happy FriYAY! 

First Friday of the month and the last few days of the school holidays for The Beans. Hence why I have been a little quiet here on the blog. I have been working around them! But it's been mainly admin and packing lovely orders, thank you 😊

So, I am a little late with sharing this, but Uniko is the proud sponsor of Passion For Markers challenge, seen HERE. 

The theme is New Beginnings and I decided to make a New Year card, simply because it is a New Year and here's what I created...

Crafty Hugs

Happy Monday & Hello 2024.

Today I want to wish you ALL a very happy, healthy and creative New Year. I hope you all enjoyed the festive period and you are looking forward to what 2024 will bring. I'd say we had a quiet festive period & New Years Eve, but can you really with two 9 year olds 🥴😂

I'm learning to sneak away for a little quiet time and making a quick card like this one today...

Crafty Hugs

Happy New Year! 

I couldn't let the day pass without popping by to wish you all a happy, healthy & wonderful 2023. I hope it brings you all you desire. 

Did you have a good festive season?

I really enjoyed some downtime with the family and time away from the studio. So much so that I actually had to clear the decks before I could make anything. It actually felt good to give it a good tidy and put things back where they should be!

Crafty Hugs 

Happy Christmas Eve!

Welcome to day 12 of the 12 Days of Christmas, Giveaways. 

If you missed day 1 and you're wondering what this is all about, be sure to check out all the details HERE and you're welcome to catch up and comment on the previous days. You can find links in the right hand sidebar.

Firstly, I want to thank everyone for all the wonderful comments here and on social media. For supporting my small business and sharing your love of Uniko with others means the world to me and it keeps my little business going during these challenging times.

So with all this happiness in my heart I had to use BIG & BOLD Happy for my final cards for this event!

* As it is a giveaway the prize is open to participants worldwide. The item will be marked as a gift from me personally to avoid customs charges. An alternative prize will be offered if the winner already owns any of the prize offered on the day they win. You have until midnight Thursday 30th December 2021 to comment. Winners will be announced on the blog on Friday 31st December 2021.

Happy Saturday!

Welcome to day 6 of the 12 Days of Christmas, Giveaways. 

If you missed day 1 and you're wondering what this is all about, be sure to check out all the details HERE and you're welcome to catch up and comment on the previous days. You can find links in the right hand sidebar.

* As it is a giveaway the prize is open to participants worldwide. The item will be marked as a gift from me personally to avoid customs charges. An alternative prize will be offered if the winner already owns any of the prize offered on the day they win. You have until midnight Thursday 30th December 2021 to comment. Winners will be announced on the blog on Friday 31st December 2021.

Happy Sunday!

It's a slow, easy & chilled Sunday here at Uniko HQ as I mentally prepare for the chaos of early mornings and the back to school routine! Along with some chores around the house, I have made sure to find a little pocket of creative time in the studio for me.

I often neglect my stencils, so another of my goals in 2021 is to show them some more love. Stencil Sunday's will most likely become a regular feature (again) to achieve this goal ;)

I am continuing my love for the 2021 Pantone colours of the year, mainly because I still had them out on my desk! I remember a few years ago, though it is probably more if I really thought about it, when the yellow and grey colour combo was a big trend in the paper crafting and handmade card community. Do you remember?

As you can see, today I am giving the Stencil - Balloon Bash some inky love. And I am practicing with soft, light blending to the centre of the balloon, to darker edges on the outside. To achieve some depth and life like appearance. I often get heavy handed when blending, even though using blending brushes is a little easier to achieve a softer blend.

The sentiment is from Simply Said Blocks and I stamped the 2021 using Alphabet Outlined, it's one of my favourite 'go to' sets on my desk at the moment! 

As I have created a lovely CAS design I thought it would be nice to join in over at CAS on Friday and their Best Wishes challenge HERE. I don't think I have joined in on this challenge before, although I have had them bookmarked for sometime now. Be sure to check it out if you enjoy CAS challenges :)

That's all from me today, it's time for me to get another chore done before the online food shop arrives and then I've the dinner to cook.

Thank you for stopping by and for all the lovely New Year comments & wishes.

Crafty Hugs 

Bev x

Hello & Happy 2021!

I hope you all had fun welcoming in the New Year, although it may have been different from other years. 

For us it was a (fairly) quiet one. Hubby & I were done at 10:30 and could have easily gone to bed - haha! BUT, I promised The Beans they could stay up late and they set the time at midnight to see in the New Year.  

They were more awake than we were at midnight, but although I was ready for them AND me to go to bed shortly after the light show / fireworks on the TV from London, it felt special to welcome the New Year in as a family.

We managed a lay in till 9am, which wasn't too bad and we had a lovely slow and relaxed day. Mainly because everyone is tired! 

I am not setting New Years resolutions, I didn't last year. I do however set goals and although the events of 2020 through some of last years to the wind, one that I made last year was to use brighter colours in my creations and here are my colours of the year seen below. I think brighter colours are a little more prominent than last year. I think there is still room for improvement!

Again, I am setting myself personal and business goals. One of my goals is to make time for all the things I enjoy and love doing. And as you have probably guessed, it is to make time to enjoy making cards, stamping, playing with colour and all things paper crafts! 

Today I did just that, I spent time making two New Year cards. One I am sharing HERE on the website blog and this one here...

I was packing up some orders yesterday morning and one of the sets was Background Builders Arts Decoratifs. I loved designing this set, yet I have hardly inked it up since February 2020 :( So inking one of the stamp from the set was my first inspiration. The sentiment is a mix of Happy Succulents and Simply Said II.

Secondly I was inspired by Pantone's colours of 2021, yellow and grey. So I used these as my colour combo. The layout is similar to THIS New Year card from 2018!

The remainder of the afternoon was spent making cupcakes with The Beans. They have been requesting to make Goomba and Caterpillar cupcakes for the past few days and with a lot of the treats eaten, it was a good time to make some more!

It's an early night for everyone tonight. Be sure to hop on over to the website blog HERE to see the other New Year card I made. 

AND in case you missed it yesterday...

Wishing you all a wonderful, happy, healthy and creative 2021.

Crafty Hugs Bev x

 Happy New Years Eve!

My apologies for my disappearance just before & over Christmas. I simply took on too much and got totally overwhelmed before Christmas with how much I needed to get done and then Christmas Day came & went! I have since been enjoying some much needed downtime with The Beans & my husband.

This is a little snapshot of our Christmas Day!