Grungy bloom by Brenda

Good morning everyone, Brenda here with a few more shares from last months Hochanda shows which featured a super selection of new stamps made from Lesley's personal collection of ephemera and I might add were a delight to work with.

The card at the top uses unusually for me blue, it's not a colour I use often, blue and yellow DI's blended together and Floral Grunge stamped focally, elements of Baroque Ephemera 2 stamped randomly around it and the crackle sections of the floral stamp added around the edge. Finally some very light colouring with pencils.

This one was great fun to make, an Oxide background, elements of stamps from both Baroque Ephemera 1 and Baroque Ephemera 2 stamped randomly onto the background, one of the label and numbers stamped onto scraps of card and fixed onto the background along with some rice paper pleated and added, buttons, twine an chipboard numbers. An easy one to do where you can't go wrong!

This is a little gist set of notelets and matching envelopes with a band to hold them together. After inking a focal section on each card I stamped images from Music Fanfare and Art of Chess multi buy, using Versafine Clair ink, masked and stamped the envelopes to match and the band.

I inked two panels with DI, added some stencilling and random stamping around the edges of one, then stamped Movie Strip Collage to the second and cut away the top, glue around the sides and bottom of this piece and placed over the first panel to create a pocket. I then made two tags and stamped with images from Baroque Ephemera 1 and Baroque Ephemera 2 and finally coloured the blooms with Koh-i-noor paints.

I sourced a chequered patter from the Internet and printed out to form the base 'chess board'  and then stamped one of the chess pieces from Music Fanfare and Art of Chess multi buy onto the top section and used a piece of ribbon across the centre. The chess pieces were stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with detail clear EP onto a piece a card which I coloured with glimmer acrylic paints, cut out and placed onto my chess board.

Thank you for your visit and I hope you like my take on the stamps.

Musical Chess

Hello
I'm sharing my second post with you this month featuring Music Fanfare and The Art of Chess

My first card is a Twist and Pop card. I stamped the images and coloured with watercolour pencils and Brushos.

The next two were kept very simple in black and white and would be great for an engagement, wedding or anniversary card.

 This easel card features the lovely floral violin image and treble clef. Coloured with Distress Inks.

My last card uses the sheet music stamp and some dies. I also used the ivy and a sentiment from Christmas Foliage (because it's never too early for Christmas cards!)

Thanks for looking
Sandra xx

Floral Collage (by Julie)

Hello, today I have two simple floral designs to show you.

My first card has been created with the Floral Grunge image. I started the design by stamping the flower stamp into the centre of my card and also onto a piece of copy paper. Colour the first design with Polychromus pencils and then cut out your copy paper image and place it directly over the image you have just coloured. You then need to choose some designs from Baroque Ephemera 1 and Ephemera 2 and stamp them around the card. The mask you have created will stop the main flower from being over stamped. Vary the ink you use for the background, between black and grey. The grey will make the image appear more distant and the black will highlight others and make them stand out. The Floral Grunge image already has ink splats in its design, but I have added a few more by dripping black liquid, spray ink around the card.

My second card has been created with the Movie Strip Collage and as you can see the overall design and masking is very similar to the first card. I have changed some of the background images, however they are still from Baroque Ephemera 1 and Ephemera 2 and I have stamped some of them with a sepia tone ink as well as using grey and black.

Thank you for stopping by. Please call back soon form more Design Team inspiration.

Julie xx

Paper Piecing Christmas Card (by Jodie)

Hello everyone, today we are joined by our Guest Design Team member Jodie, she will be here throughout November, creating three projects to inspire you. She has created a delightful Christmas card.

Jodie writes:

Hi there everyone, I was lucky enough to be asked back as a Guest Designer with Chocolate Baroque. I'm super excited and can't wait to share my projects.
My first project is Christmas themed.

I'm always trying to make my Christmas cards ahead of time, since my family and most of my friends live out of town. Here is an example of one that anyone can do, especially if you have paper scraps laying around.

Supplies:

Stamps- A Tomte Christmas
Ink- Versafine Vintage Sepia
Paper- A4 Luxury Smooth Ivory Paper
A4 Luxury Smooth White Paper
Cosmic Shimmer PVA Glue
Scrap print paper
Scissors
Embellishments



First, ink up the large gnome with Versafine and stamp onto ivory paper, this will act as your base.
What you will be doing for the gnome is paper piecing.
Next pick a few different patterns of print paper, stamping the gnome one time onto each piece. You will need to stamp him once onto the white paper for his beard.
I picked enough pattern paper to cut out the following pieces; one for his hat, one for the trim of his hat and coat, white for his beard, one for his shoes (or could do these in white and colour them in) and one for his sweater.
Next, I cut out the various pieces and layered them onto the ivory base that was first stamped and glued the pieces down using the PVA glue.
Now you will cut out the entire gnome and add to your card front.

For the front of the card, I cut out a base measuring 4" x 5 1/4" (10.16cm x 13.36cm). This is the gold piece. Then I used matching scraps of the gnome and added three curved strips at the top, middle and bottom. I then stamped a saying from the set, and matted it with more brown scraps, finally adding little snowflake embellishments.

Finally I cut the ivory cardstock for my card base, measuring 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" (13.97cm x 21.59cm). I folded it in half, then attached my card front.

I hope I've inspired you to try using your scrap stash with these amazing stamps!

Take care- Jodie

Beautiful backgrounds! By Rachel

Hello there!
Rachel here today with some inspiration for using your stamps from the October shows. I loved the background stamps - so very useful!

In this sample I teamed up the bingo stamp from Baroque ephemera 1 with alcohol inks and lift ink to create the background on yupo paper. I added this to a kraft card and used the art of chess stamps to add the chess pieces on the background. 

Baroque ephemera 1 with baroque ephemera 2  to create the background on the card. Then I stamped onto a gelli plate background in red with the ephemera and also the Movie Strip Collage. I coloured the flower in pencils.

In this sample I teamed up the the art of chess stamps with a gelli print background and harlequin fragments stamp.

In this sample I used Baroque ephemera 2  and inks to create the background then overstamped in black with a stamp from the  Music fanfare set then used another stamp from this set as a central feature.

In this final sample I made a chunky atc using the Music fanfare stamp and  Baroque ephemera 1. 

I hope I have given you some ideas. If you want to know any more details please just ask in the comments! 

Hugs

Rachel xx

Vintage Ephemera by Debbie

Gosh don't the weeks just whiz by, can't believe Christmas is almost upon us again. It's my turn on the blog today and a chance to share my samples from the October show with all the lovely vintage themed stamps.

My first thought when I saw the plethora of labels, tickets and old postcards was to make a mini scrapbook so I began by making a "masterboard" in 2 complimenting colours. I took most of the small stamps from Baroque Ephemera1 and Baroque Ephemera 2 and placed them randomly on a large acrylic block. I used Distress Inks Wild Honey, Tea Dye, Weathered Wood, Frayed Burlap and Hickory Smoke to sponge over 2 A4 sheets of card. I then over stamped with the stamps on my block using Versafine Vintage Sepia to form a great background.

I die cut the 2 sheets then and stuck the 2 colourways back to back to form my mini scrapbook. I used old family photos to compliment the general look and added lace, paper flowers, buttons, pearls, washi tape etc before putting all together with a book ring.

 Also featured in the October shows on Hochanda  was Movie Strip and I was really pleased how well this went with the Ephemera stamps.

For the next sample I simply white embossed the flower onto white card and added some black Brushos before spraying with water and letting the Brushos do their thing. I just love the fact that you never know what you're going to end up with! I stamped a few of the vintage stamps randomly using Versafine Onyx Black.

 I then took a 7 x 7  ivory card blank and stamped with  Versafine Vintage Sepia before layering the image onto orange card and attaching to the card blank.

 A closer look

For my final sample for this time I've used another lovely floral stamp Floral Grunge.

I took a white A4 card blank and masked the top and bottom with masking tape leaving a band in the centre approx. 3" wide. I then sponged Distress inks Wild honey, Peeled Paint and Rusty Hinge over this band and when the inks were dry I carefully removed the tape.

I used Floral Grunge to stamp  in 3 areas partly over the inked area using Versafine Onyx Black. I like the clean simplicity of this design.

That's all for this time but I'll be back later in the month with more samples. 

Bye for now Debbie

Remembrance Day (by Magda)

Hello everybody,

I am just on time to share with you my contribution of this year for the "Remembrance Day".

For this journaling page I used :
White gesso, Acrylic Paint, Distress Ink Pad, Stencils, Aquarelle Pencils,  Pretty Poppies stamp.
It is interesting to see the difference between the two backgrounds. On the left I used acrylic,
on the right Distress Ink Pad.

Do you know someone who likes to play guitar ?  

Here a quick idea for a birthday card using two stamps of the set "Music Fanfare" and  Distress Ink Pad for colouring the background, stamping the images and colouring  the decoupage of  half guitar and flowers, I glued on top of the main stamp.

I hope you liked the two projects for today.  Hugs

Magda