Hello there! Happy New Year to all of you. 2015 was a really busy year with many great and not so great things. Pretty much just a normal summary of Life. 

For 2016 I have a few resolutions. 

• My One Little Word this year is "relax"; I would like to get this hand-lettered and framed so that I can remember to take a step back and enjoy what is actually going on around me; and also as a reminder to work smarter and not harder
• I am going to card and blog more in 2016; and it's really not hard to do seeing what a lack luster job I did last year. However, when I get together with my favorite girls and craft all weekend I realize how much I miss this.
• To make sure I get a balance of things done that I want to get done for *myself*, I'm going to try bullet journaling; if it works out, I might post it on here (you see what i did there? very non-committal...;) 

It is Fusion's Second Birthday and their design team member Betty invited me along. So make sure to stop by the Fusion Card Challenge blog and leave some hugs and love on their blog for continuing this inspiration challenge.

I finally broke and got my first supplies of Winnie & Walter stamps and am so smitten with their designs. And when I received my beautiful shipment of stamps, it was all wrapped up with a nice personalized tag and a little small surprise. Small businesses that really care about the details really impress me. And it's not like this is the first stint; they have been around since 2013, I believe? What a lovely company, and I hope to meet Julie & Shay one day (and their cute dogs).

For me, getting back into making that first cards is always difficult to make, especially when I haven't crafted in a long time. It's being a newbie all over again. But that's why sketch and inspirations prompts are great to get my creative juices flowing in a focused direction.

This card is also inspired and in memory of my dear friend Leslie (aka The Crooked Stamper) who I love with all my heart.

Supplies
will be updated

Share Handmade Kindness

Hello Blogland... It's high time to dust off the three foot of dust that has accumulating. I haven't touched this blog in months, it almost feels like learning how to ride a bike again. But thanks to Google's intuitive WYSIWYG interface, it's not too bad (minus the photo editing...coughcough).

Thanks to my brilliant, honest friend Leslie I found the courage to dig this old blog up and make a re-appearance. She pointed me to this great page called Blogging without Obligation. And I love how Leslie reminded me that if I feel like jumping in I should just jump back in, and not blog for the sakes of blogging. Or feel like I need to apologize. Or feel guilty. Or obligated to explain. Or feel overwhelmed or anxious to start again ... or whatever reason there may be...?

So here is my one reason to resurface...

Have you heard of this Jennifer McGuire? I'm sure you have. If not, go check out her blog and her Instagram feed. I'm so lucky to be able to say that I have met her a handful of times now, and she is truly one of the most kindest, generous and humblest person I know. Not to mention funny and wise and open to share any good advice. This #sharehandmadekindness campaign really embodies who she is as a person and I absolutely love how she is using the reach of her audience to create an impact - to spread more kindness, more caring, more love, and to bring awareness to the Kind Campaign - a campaign to end bullying. Yes!

Thank you for doing this, Jennifer. Thank you for infecting us to share kindness through our craft. 

She's also packed up some kits made with love and these two stamp sets from Hero Arts are quickly becoming my go-to sets. They are sitting out here and have been winking at me to get my craft back on. And for every purchase made of these stamp sets, 25% of the profits go to the Kind Campaign.

Pssst - Simon Says Stamps has them in stock.

Here is my card using this stamp set

I felt inspired to play along in Ka's Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge. Here is the board in case you haven't seen it and want to play along as well.

I chose OneLayer - Embossing - Kraft; right down the middle. One Layer cards are always a challenge for me, but I thought I would add interest by building lots of layers onto the card. I heat-embossed the white sentiment onto the card and then started adding layers: stamped Distress Ink Tea-Dye across the card, added layer of acrylic white paint, followed by stenciling small brown hearts by scattering them across the card. I also added some shadow into the sentiment with the Zig Wink of Stella Fine Glitter Dust Gold pen and liked how that turned out; to add more gold accents I added a few more gold hearts using the stencil again and then wiped a bit of Viva Decor Champagne as a small shimmery finish.

I find One-layer cards super challenging but I love how they carry in the mail :) I'm off to send this card to a friend...

Supplies
Stamps: (Acts of Kindness) Hero Arts
Paper: (Kraft) Papertrey Ink
Ink: (Hero Hues Pigment Ink - Unicorn) Hero Arts; (Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Tea-dye) Ranger 
Embellishments: (Artists' Acrylics Basic Color Set - Titanium White) Utrecht; (Zig Wink of Stella Fine Glitter Dust - Gold) Kuretake; (Precision Pen 01 - Brown) American Crafts; (6x6 Stencil - Tiny Spaced Hearts) Simon Says Stamps; (Inka Gold - Champagne) Viva Decor

[Fusion Challenge] One Year Celebration Challenge

Hello there! Happy New Year to all of you. I hope 2015 brings each of you good health, big and small successes, happiness, lots of laughter, much time with family, friends and other loved ones, and a healthy dose of creative mojo.

Last year 2014 was a really busy with many high highs and many low lows. Somewhere between normal work and life balance, I switched roles in my job, undergone some massive home renovations, planned a baby shower (not mine :P), planned a wedding and had a wedding in another country (let alone another continent). I've been exhausted and all the commitments seemed to hit at one. I needed to take a step back, take a breather, and re-calibrate my scale. 2014 seemed like a year in constant over-drive, and "normal" load of commitments wasn't that normal anymore.

During my breather, I took a bunch of lazy days. Took some weekends to stay in my jammies, binge watched some shows, neglected cleaning, gained 5 lbs, and didn't touch anything in crafting room (but it didn't prevent me from shopping for more crafting supplies ;)

Well, that being said, I am so happy to be back in blog-land, starting the first day of this year with a guest designer post for Fusion Card Challenge. I have heard so much of this group, so I am honored to be asked to play along.

It is Fusion's First Birthday and their design team member Betty invited me along. So make sure to stop by the Fusion Card Challenge blog and wish them a very merry Birthday.

I'm so happy that Betty asked me along and we decided, since we were both home during the holidays to have a FaceTime craft date. With a six hour difference, I scrapped in the late morning and Betty in the early evening. And this is what it looks like...

So after lots of catching up and brainstorming for the challenge, here is what I came up with...




A bit of pink, some gold glitter paper (which looks way too orange in this picture, and more lovely in person), chalkboard, and a bit of gray. Then I took the sketch and interpreted it, and made the oval my focal point, dropped the banner, because I couldn't find a good place for a sentiment, and then added the star part as paper clips.

And since this is a birthday, you need sequins, right?



Well make sure to hop over to the Fusion Card Challenge blog, and of course to my friend Betty's blog. Here is a sneaky peek of her card...

And here is us waving our cards to each other after we're done... :)



Thank you for having me as a guest designer! And hopefully I will be back with some cards soon.

Supplies
Stamps: (Birthday Blackboard) Hero Arts
Paper: (Smokey Shadow, Basic White Cardstock) Papertrey Ink
Pattern Paper: (True Love) Basic Grey; (Summer Stories) Teresa Collins
Ink: (Stamper's Select Vellum) Papertrey Ink; (Sequins - Cotton Candy, Raspberry Red) Neat and Tangled, (VÄLBEKANT - star clips, silver) IKEA

[Uniko Studio] Challenge No. 14 -

We have a lovely challenge today on the Uniko Studio blog. Yep, still trying to get back into the swing of things and still being slow at making a card.

Photo Credit: Design Seed

And our theme this challenge is Clean and Simple. I completely bombed this challenge, but at least I sort of tried to follow the color palette.



I decided to whip out one of the newer Uniko Studio sets Big & Bold Wish. When the sentiments cover up the entire card, it become a nice focal point and I love that it will stand out so well. All we need is a die for that *hint hint Bev* to cut it out nicely.

To create a background I decided to stamp the candles in Versamark and clear embossed them. I then took some Inka Gold Turquoise metallic color, diluted it with water and decided to color the candles in. It behaves similar to water color when it is diluted, only that the color is metallic and shiny. After it tried, I also rubbed it down with some paper towel to polish to a shine. It's one of the special properties of this medium. See the shimmer?



I think one happy accident is that the clear embossed candles came out metallic and almost gold after applying the Inka Gold Turquoise. I also like how rocking the huge sentiment onto the ink pad and applying more on the top gives it a bit of an ombre effect. My purple happens to be a pigment ink.

One last "upcycled" item on this card is the tissue paper. It was lying around and came with a gift that I unwrapped, but thought I would use the gold stars in something sooner or later. So when I read the sentiment "Upon a Star" it gave me right shove to use it up. I accordion folded the tissue paper and the messily adhered it with some liquid glue.



I was thinking of running my sewing machine over the tissue paper portion, but turns out that my sewing machine is still packed away. So I better just let it be ;) Not as clean and simple as it could be, but still a fun card.

Please also check out the rest of the girl's cards and leave them a sweet comment or two. Remember you don't have to use all the colors - any or all as an inspiration.

Lastly, a few helpful things to remember:

• Challenge ends Oct 14th, 2014, 11:59p BST; Check back for the winners after
• Prize is £10 Gift Certificate to the random Winner & a Guest Design spot on our following challenge
• Three people will win a spotlight
• We would like you to use a Uniko Studio product; If you don't have any, check out the freebies here

I hope to see you play along, so that I can pop in on your lovely blogs! See you soon.

Supplies
Stamps: (Big & Bold Wish) Uniko Studio
Paper: (Fresh Linen, Plum Pudding) Papertrey Ink
Ink: (Jenni Bowlin - No. 9 Spice Tin) Ranger; (Versamark) Tsukineko; (Eggplant) Mama Elephant
Embellishments: (Inka Gold - Turquoise) Viva Decor; (Creative Cuts - Femme Frames) Mama Elephant; (Stamp 'n Stuff Embossing Powder - Detailed Clear) Stampendous!; (Tissue Paper) recycle stash;

[Uniko Studio] September Revisited Blog Hop - Peace On Earth

Hello everyone! It has been forever since I have made a card. And it took me ever so long to come up with one. We won't ask how long, since it would be too embarrassing. With all this wedding-schmedding-palooza, I haven't really had a chance to get creative and I feel like the creative muse has left me high and dry - probably frustrated that when I did get hit with an idea, I never sat down to do it, or worst, not even write it down. Instead I just steamrollered on with my mass production craziness and kept telling her to leave me alone...Well serves me right. So just be gentle when looking at this card...:)

This month we are re-visiting a set, just in time to start thinking of the holiday (oh dear, another mass production in sight!) Peace on Earth. I love how this gem of a set is only $8 and has some great elements to make an arsenal of cards.

I decided to see if i could convince the branch to be a wreath. So I gathered up all the green inks that I have in my tiny ink collection and went to work.



I stamped a complete circle first, and then tried to find the right sizes in my Spellbinder Small Circle die to cut out a "wreath." Since I wanted this more for dimension, I knew I had to fill in the white space with a bit more green stamping. This is where all the shades of green came into. With a bit of offset here and there, some stamping off and then stamping, I was able to stamp onto the cut out circle as well as the base card stock.



I have a ton of sequins in my stash, so I thought it would be appropriate to pop them onto the wreath. The dove is embossed in gold, shaded with color pencil and Gamsol, and then popped onto the wreath. Any of the sentiments work quite well here, and I was debating about stamping it in the center or on the bottom edge of the card. Here the card again slightly angled so that you can see the dimension that the wreath gives this card.



Hope you feel inspired with some samples. Bev is going to draw a winner for this lovely stamp set or a gift card of equivalent value. You have until 11:59p BST September 25 to leave comments along the blogs. In the meantime, I'm sending you off to fabulous, amazing Taheerah. Here the whole list for easy navigation ...

• Uniko Studio Blog (Bev)
• Amber
• Erika
• Gillian
• N@ Ali
• Nicki
• Ren-Yi (you are here)
• Taheerah

I hope you like what you're seeing. Again, be gentle. I feel like a newbie, but hope to get back into the swing of things!

Stamps: (Peace on Earth) Uniko Studio
Paper: (Rustic White, Kraft, Basic White) Papertrey Ink
Ink: (Jenni Bowlin - No. 6 Stick Candy) Ranger; (Versamark; Mememto - Tuxedo Black) Tsukineko; (Shadow Ink - Forever Green) Hero Arts; (Creative Color - Mojito) Mama Elephant
Embellishments: (Creative Cuts - Femme Frames) Mama Elephant; (Embossing Powder - Gold) Ranger; (Sequins - Raspberry Red Satin) Neat & Tangled

Bev's Bouncing Baby Boys Blog Hop

Today we are celebrating huge huge huge milestone in dear Bev's, owner of Uniko Studio and sweet dear friend. She became a mum just a few days ago to two beautiful boy twins and we want to celebrate this momentous occasion with a small blog hop. So some of us design team girls have hijacked her blog ;)

So here is a card to wish the mum and dad all the best...

Josh and Ben are very, very lucky to have you both as parents. And I know you will be make an amazing mum. You are kind, sweet, loving, patient, and generous...and all of these qualities will the key ingredients to raising those boys!



Remember to get some sleep and enjoy every moment. I hear they grow up fast ;)



Here a list of the girls joining on the blog hop for easy hopping. 

• Uniko Studio Blog
• Amber
• Kerry
• N@ Ali
• Erika
• Nicki
• Gillian
• Ren-Yi

For all of those who love Bev as much as we do and want to join in on the fun, head back to the Uniko Studio Blog - because there is a link up for all of you join in and the link up will remain open for a month. We know everyone is getting back into the swing of things with school starting up and coming back from vacation, but you will have plenty of time to join in on the fun. Spread the word, too, while you're at it? :)

[Uniko Studio] Challenge No. 11 - A Little Something...

Hi everyone - I can't believe the amazing turn-out on the last challenge. I hope we see a bunch of entries like we had last time. Let' see what you think of this month's challenge and color combo...

Photo Credit: Design Seed

And our theme this challenge is Happy Birthday. I decided to pull out a fun, older Background Builders: Squared set.



I only inked up a portion of the squares on my bock and then masked off any parts to make sure I got a nice clean 8x8 grid - stamped it a total of 4 times and lined them up. A tip is to take your time when lining them up. I absolutely love clear stamps exactly for this reason. I also wanted to color the grid in both violet and blue hues (for some reason, I only remembered the violet geode rock from the picture - and that's what I went with ;)

I wanted to play around with some mosaic and tiling concept, picked 2 hues of blue and 2 hues of violet. Then I added some interest by shading in each square slightly different.



The card is finished by adding a little wood veneer piece that I inked up with some pigment ink and then placed as a visual and spatial break, followed by a simple sentiment. Voila and I call it done!



Please also check out the rest of the girl's cards and leave them a sweet comment or two. Remember you don't have to use all the colors - any or all as an inspiration.

Lastly, a few helpful things to remember:

• Challenge ends Jul 14th, 2014, 11:59p BST; Check back for the winners after
• Prize is £10 Gift Certificate to the random Winner & a Guest Design spot on our following challenge
• Three people will win a spotlight
• We would like you to use a Uniko Studio product; If you don't have any, check out the freebies here

I hope to see you play along, so that I can pop in on your lovely blogs! See you soon.

Background Builders: Squared -	A Gift For You	Papertrey Ink - Paper Basics - Stamper's Select White Cardstock (40 Sheets)	Perfect Match Enchanted Evening Cardstock (50 sheets)
*Tsukineko MEMENTO Full Size Ink Pad TUXEDO BLACK	Mama Elephant Creative Color EGGPLANT Ink Pad ME-EGG	*Prismacolor PREMIER COLORED PENCILS 72	*Studio Calico TRIANGLES & DIAMONDS Wood Veneer Shapes Darling Dear 331219

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