Poppy Heart by Debbie

I was delighted to see the Baroque Hearts as they are ideal for lots of occasions. I have made a feminine card using the Poppy Baroque heart.

The heart is stamped with Memento Black ink and coloured with Promarkers then triple embossed with clear embossing powder. The embossing definately intensifies the colours of the heart. For the background, I used the crackle stamp from Echoes of Italy and my all time favourite corner flourish from the Butterfly Daisy Collage. The flowers are hand cut and coloured with Tattered Rose distress ink the same as the background and stamped with the crackle. Thanks for visiting Debbie

Thistle Blue (by Clare)

Hello!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  Happy New Year to come!

Chocolate Baroque has released a brand new collection of stamps called Rose & Thistle.
This is an awesome new set just in time for Valentine's or Mother's Day!  Once again, the detail in each stamp is stupendous!  The quality of these stamps cannot be beat! 

Here is one sample of two of the thistle stamps used to make a card.  Thanks for dropping by!

Rose Heart (posted by Shirley)

Hello everyone !   I hope you are doing well and still enjoying the holiday season.   It's snowing here in Ontario, Canada and I'm enjoying looking at the winter wonderland from my craft room, very pretty !

I'm excited with all the new designs that have just been released !     I have a card today using January's Stamp of Month set -  Rose & Thistle.   Again the creative possibilities with these beautiful & elegant designs are endless.  This set will certainly will make lovely Valentine, Wedding or Anniversary cards & more.  

I created the background with watercolour paints spritzed with water to blend.     The Flower Fragment from the Textured Fragment set was stamped with Mowed Lawn Distress Ink.   You Inspire Me is from the Words of Inspiration set that is one of the wonderful word sets currently on special.     I stamped the Rose Heart from the Rose & Thistle set separately on white card stock, coloured with Prisma Pencils, cut out and adhered as shown.    I also added a little glitter that is hard to see in the photo.

Here is another look at the gorgeous Roses & Thistle set

Thanks for your visit & stayed tuned for beautiful artwork with the new designs from my talented team mates !

Wishing you a happy, healthy & creative 2013 !
Shirley

January Stamp of the Month

It's almost the start of a fresh and shiny new year and for us that means we have new stamps coming out!  Yep, we have two sets of stamps and some individual clear stamps too.

First up, our January Stamp of the Month is this lovely set, Rose & Thistle - yes I know it sounds like somewhere you'd pop in for a swift half pint, but no, it's this lovely set of rubber stamps:

Then we have a complete change of mood with a new clear set called Eastern Landscapes.

This set will combine so well with our existing oriental themed clear stamps such as Moonlit Waterfall, Lily Pad and Oriental Crane.

Then we have a collection of Baroque Hearts - available both as single stamps and as a collection.

My Christmas card to Adrian this year featured the Elegant Baroque Heart done in Christmas colours.

and here are the same hearts in a different colourway.

I've managed to get some time in my craft room this week, so I have a few cards coming up to share with you.  You'll find one over on my own blog later today.

There's more to come from the DT too, so stay tuned for more inspiration.

Steampunk diary (posted by Elaine)

This time of year our minds turn to the coming new year and diaries and calenders. I was inspired to make this project with the Steampunk Butterfly stamps and the lovely Prima Script papers.

Details of how I made this diary cover are over on my own blog today.

Elaine

A Purple Steampunk Butterfly (posted by Shirley)

Hello Everyone,  I hope your holiday season is going well !   

I'm back with another card using the beautiful  Steampunk Butterfly set which was fairly quick to create.  Once again I've used Dylusions Inks along with a Crafters Workshop Stencil.

I used Crushed Grape & London Blue Dylusions Inks on the background.  (I spritz a little water over the inks to let them blend and blot with a paper towel).   Next I blended Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink with Crafters Workshop Mini Gear Stencil.  I over stamped with the Gear Fragment stamp with navy chalk ink. 

I embossed the Steampunk Butterfly with black and used Dylusions to colour.  I used a fine tip water brush for some of the detail.   'Because I care' is from the beautiful Pretty Poppies set.

Thanks for your visit,
Seasons Greetings !
Shirley

Merry Christmas (posted by Elaine)

The house is quiet and I am taking a few sneeky moments for crafty indulgence before everyone gets up!

Just wanted to share this card design I made for some some very special crafty friends using one of the new clear Christmas sentiments and some gift ribbon from M & S!

Have a lovely Christmas, whatever you are doing!

Elaine

Tree baubles (posted by Elaine)

I love the little trees from Terrific Treescapes and when I bought this bauble die I realised they were just the right size for adding as a feature. I wanted to make my baubles glow with colour, so used a selection of yellow, orange and red inks to build up the depth of colour I wanted. I finished off with a dusting of mica powder, although it doesn'y show in this pic!

 



I added some die cut pine branches and finished off with one of the new clear sentiments embossed in a copper embossing powder. This is all mounted on an 8 x 8 cream card blank as I wanted to give some space to let the baubles speak for themselves!

Hope all your Christmas preparations are going well and you are not being washed away in all this rain.

Keep safe and dry and enjoy your festivities.

Elaine

Stamp of the Week - Tree Silhouette

This week we have another great favourite as our Stamp of the Week - the large Tree Silhouette.  Many of our former Guild members may recognise this as we offered a small version as a free stamp for new members at one time.  This large version is approximately 10cm wide by 14cm tall (just under 6x4 inches) which makes it a great feature stamp for a card.  I also think it's a brilliant stamp for showing off background techniques - sprays, PanPastels, Distress Stains, brayered backgrounds - whatever you experiment with, this stamp looks great simply overstamped in black, maybe embossed.

It's also an interesting one for paper piecing - stamp onto patterned paper and there are distinct areas of the hills and pond that you can cut out and re-assemble to make an interesting scenes.

Paper piecing with Prima (Songbird and Firefly) and Kaisercraft (These Days) papers

This stamp is on offer until December 28th and will ship out after the holidays.

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!

Flying 'thingamajigs' (posted by Claire)

Good morning folks, Claire here with another project featuring the fabulous new Steampunk Butterfly stamps. I loved these 'batty' wings, and thought they would make a great little canvas.

I created the backgorund using acrylic paints and glimmer mists. The clouds were made by applying white acrylic paint with a sponge and then once that was dry sponging pearl acrylic paint along the underside of the clouds. You can see them a bit better in this photo:

I stamped the wings on to silver paper with black archival ink, cut them out and applied them to the canvas with matt multi medium. The 'thingamajigss' are from a box of all sorts of bits and pieces I found in the shed and I'd been saving them for a steampunk project. Apparently it is a radio valve (thanks Elaine) . I added some more wings and then 'Let the Adventure Begin' from Artistic Affirmations which I stamped on tissue paper, embossed in silver and applied with multi medium. I then gave the words a coat of rock candy crackle paint:

I edged the canvas with a sparkly mixture of UTEE, silver embossing powder, microbeads and tiny stars which I adhered with more matte multi medium and heat embossed.

I hope you're enjoying all the projects with these gorgeous new stamps, 

thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

A Steampunk Valentine (posted by Shirley)

Hello Everyone,  I hope you are enjoying the festive season. 

I know a lot of us are thinking about Christmas but I have another card using the beautiful new Steampunk Butterfly set that could be for Valentines day.    I love this metal rose and my husband, who is quite intrigued by the Steampunk Butterfly designs, thinks they work well for 'manly' cards! 

I started with a piece of Basic Grey paper from my stash that has a faint pattern.     I over stamped it with the wheel/window fragment & Wheat Chalk and Vintage Photo Distress Inks.  Love is from the Artistic Expression set which I stamped with Fired Brick Distress In.

I embossed  the window fragment along with the metal roses with a metallic embossing powder. I painted the roses & fragment with Vintage Micacolor paints, cut them out and arranged as shown.  I decoupaged the large rose to add dimension. (I stamped it 3 times)   I added Gold keys from my stash for the finishing touch.

And here is a closer look:

Stay tuned for more creations from my talented team mates !
Seasons Greetings, 
Shirley

Trees of different seasons

I have made three very similar cards using Terrific Treescapes, the layouts are the same but the colours suggest different seasons of the year.

For the first I used yellows and greens. A large circle of paper was used for the outline if the sun/moon and Squeezed Lemonade edges it.

The sun/moon of this card was created using the waste form the circle of the first card. Dried Marigold is the colour of the sun and I used my favourite red, Vermillion Archival Ink for the trees and sentiment.

The soft blues of this one make me think of winter. On all three of the cards I masked the bottom of the card and inked a line so the sentiment words had something to sit on. Thankyou for visiting Debbie

Stamp of the Week - Christmas Flourish

Christmas Flourish is this week's Stamp of the Week and it has been one of our most popular sets ever. The classic flourish and detailed holly leaf background make it a real winner.

Our new DT member, Shirley, has this set and here's a couple of cards she's made with it.

This set is on special offer for just one week and we are also automatically including a free Holly Flourish download when you buy this set this week.

Free download this week when you buy Christmas Flourish stamp set.

Keep an eye on the DT's own blogs as they may have some artwork featuring this set coming up during the week.

Winners!

I have two lucky winners to announce today.

Firstly, the winner of the Steampunk Butterfly stamp set is Jaime who is getting an early Christmas pressie!

Jaime Smith 30 November 2012 18:53

Another brilliant steampunk set - that rose is lovely, I'm so glad it did get included! Steampunk, very definitely, but without the focus on cogs/watches that seems to overwhelm a lot of things. This is definitely going on my wish list for the new year (can't afford it before then or I'd be mugging the postman tomorrow!)

And secondly, the winner of our Christmas Sentiments set is Paula.

Paula (PEP)30 November 2012 18:12

Goodness - there are such different & useful images on this Stamp of the Month set. That rose is quite something & I'm not surprised the DT have had fun with these. That big butterfly is a real gem. super selection of sentiments for Christmas too. Amazing that you managed to get them done for this year.
Thanks for doing a giveaway too & looking forward to seeing who the new addition is.
Paula (PEP)

Well done ladies - we have both of your details on file already so watch your letterbox for your prizes.

Just a quick reminder that today is the last day that Harlequin Christmas is our Stamp of the Week so there's still time to take advantage of the special price and free download that we are offering with it.  I'll be back later today with a new Stamp of the Week.

Time Flies (posted by Judith)

I'd like to show you another dimensional project that I created using the great new Steampunk Butterfly stamp sheet. I have made a clock, adding two of the large butterflies and a metal flower as embellishments. The leaves are from the rose stamp image, stamped onto metal. I have embossed the cog fragment onto the background, before adding some real cogs for dimension.

For more details of the construction, you can check out My Blog Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Butterflies & Blooms (posted by Shirley)

Hello everyone !

I'm back with another creation using the beautiful new Steampunk Butterfly set.  I've had so much fun 'playing' with these designs and I'm a "Steampunk Newbie" !   This time I've used the Gear Fragment and the small Butterfly from the set together with Dylusions Inks.  It's exciting that Glenda now has these vibrant spray inks available for sale ! 

I created the background using Dylusions Inks (London Blue and Fresh Lime).  I sprayed with the inks, spritzed with water and blot with a paper towel roll.     I over stamped with the Gear Fragment using navy ink.

I embossed a small flower from the Bold Blooms set along with the small Butterfly from the Steampunk Butterfly set with brown.   I sprayed them with same Dylusions to colour.   I still had some cogs in my stash that I added to the flower centres and around the background.   I used micro beads for the bodies of the butterflies.

I'm very inspired by the gorgeous creations from my new team mates and there are more to come !

Have a great day,
Shirley

Steampunk Roses (posted by Claire)

Good morning Claire here with a romantic card made using   the beautiful riveted roses from 'Steampunk Butterfly' combined with a few different background techniques

Silver is such a difficult colour to photograph so apologies for the quality of the pictures. 

The roses have been stamped and embossed with black detail embossing powder and painted with twinkling H2o paints and cut out. I've used silicone glue to layer them up over the nestie shape which features one of my favourite techniques (at the minute lol). its the 'riveted patchwork' technique - a really fun and easy technique. Just take snippets of Inkssentials foil tape, peel the backing off and stick them on some cardstock to create a patchwork effect. Then use whatever 'tools' you have handy to create a riveted effect along the edges - I don't have any of the little tools for working with metal so I used a pokey tool and a ballpoint pen. Once you've done this you can add colour with alcohol inks if you want but I just die cut the shape and then brushed over with some black acrylic paint and wiped it with a baby wipe to give a slightly aged look. You can see the effect a little better in this photo.

The next layer is made using kraft glassine, which I marbled using distress stains (I used ~Brushed Pewter, Picket Fence and a little Black Soot) I then crumpled the sheet of glassine and dried it with my heat gun to seal the colour.  Next I swiped the sheet with my Black Soot distress inkpad to catch the texture and heat set it again.

The last background layer was created using the cogs fragment stamp from Steampunk Butterfly, stamped with versamark and embossed with silver embossing powder and then coloured with Brushed Pewter distress stain and a little black soot.

I've used black card for matting and layering and added some black late and silver ribbon. The gorgeous swirls are from the Die-namics Fancy Flourish die and I've made some rolled ribbon roses using red and silver ribbon.

I really enjoyed making this card, I hope you can have fun with some of the techniques too.

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Stained Glass Window (posted by Judith)

Here's a sample using several sets of stamps to create a picture. I have used muted colours with gold accents to create the feeling of stonework in an old church. If you would like to know more details of how I created the project, you can check out the information on My Blog

Keep checking back to see more creations from my Design Team mates over the coming days. You won't be disappointed, as they have made some stunning artwork. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Christmas is Near! (posted by Clare)

Merry Christmas, everyone!  As you've heard many times before, and have probably said it a few, it's Christmas again!  It seems like it was just hot and humid, buggy and summer!  Time flies faster and faster!  Is it the same for you?

I've got a couple of projects to share with you, and I hope you like them.  These are swing cards, made using the wreath stamp from the Chocolate Baroque Christmas set, called Hearth and Home Unmounted Rubber Stamp Sheet - A4.  (click on name to go to the page on the CB website) 

I stamped the wreath in Versafine Onyx ink, and colored it in with water-based markers.  The image was cut out with scissors, and popped-up with foam adhesives.  Pearls or rhinestones were added to the centers of the flowers and the holly berries for dimension and bling.  The papers were from my stash, and coordinated beautifully together.

 

This card is my favorite!  I never thought I'd like
 the lighter green for Christmas!

 

Pink is not my first choice for Christmas, but it was in this
Christmas paper, and coordinated with everything well!

Stamp of the Week - Harlequin Christmas

Each week we are picking a favourite stamp and putting it on special offer for just one week.  You will find the details here on the blog every Friday and if you are signed up to our email newsletter, you will get the details in that too.

This week it is the turn of the beautiful Harlequin Christmas A4 set and as an added bonus, if you buy it this week, you will also get a free Harlequin download (worth £2.99) with your order.

It is reduced to £17.99 this week (normally £22.50) and the same discount applies for trade/wholesale customers too.


There's still time to take advantage of last week's special too, Family Christmas - we're extending the discount on that one til Monday.

Here's a lovely card made by Craftymamma when the set was first released:

You can see more Family Christmas samples on the DT's own blogs - check out the side bar for links.