Fuchsia wall hanging (posted by Claire)

Good morning, I've got a little wall hanging to share with you today, featuring the beautiful new stamp Fuchsia Baroque Heart. 

I've made a little wall hanging. I stamped the image and embossed with WOW gold EP and painted the image with twinking H20s before die cutting with a circular die. I cut two larger circles and then inked all the edges with shades of purple ink. I found some lovely lace with a heart design in my stash so I attached that to the back of one of the large circles using my hot glue gun, ruffling the lace as I went along. I also attached a purple tassel and a loop of gold cord as a hanger. I popped on the focal image using pva glue and lastly used the other large circle to cover the back.

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Rococo Baroque Heart in Green & Blue (by Shirley)

Hello everyone, I hope you are keeping warm.     We are coming out a deep freeze here in Ontario, Canada, but it's still winter & cold !

I have another design today featuring the beautiful new Rococo Baroque Heart.   All four of the new Baroque Hearts are gorgeous, it's hard to pick a favourite!  Fortunately they are available on a multi-buy if you can't decide.   I've enjoyed seeing the gorgeous Baroque Heart designs my teammates have been posting.

The background for this card was created using water colours (wet on wet) (I've posted a tutorial at my blog here).    After it was dry I used Crafter's Workshop Mini Chicken Wire stencil with Evergreen Bough Distress Ink.  I over-stamped a flower from Chocolate Baroque's Fantasy Meadow set with Salty Ocean Distress Ink.  The Heart was embossed with gold and coloured with my Tombow Markers.   You are a true friend is from the beautiful Pretty Poppies set.   

Thanks for your visit and have a great day,
Shirley

Stamp of the Week - Damask Hearts

This week we are thinking ahead to Valentine's Day with our Stamp of the Week being Damask Hearts.

As well as the hearts, there's some little damask squares, some large words and some very useful flourishes.  These stamps coordinate beautifully with many of our other damask and brocade stamps and go particularly well with the Decadent Brocade CD.

The box below was made with papers from a CD, but which are now available as printable downloads for a limited period. From the Damask Delights series, this one is Paisley Fern Series 3.

The card below is a classic wedding colour combo - simple gold embossing on ivory card teamed with burgundy.

The first card you saw was my Valentine's card to Adrian the year that these stamps first came out.  Green is his favourite colour, so I will often try to include it in his cards.  I used a white gel pen to pick out details of the stamp.

 

As always, this set is on special offer for just one week, so click here to find out more.

Have a great weekend!

Dancing Poppies (posted by Judith)

Hi Folks, here's a samples using one of the new clear heart stamps, Poppy Baroque Heart, combined with one of the stamps from the Pretty Poppies unmounted rubber stamp plate.

I make no secret of the fact that I love poppies, so it has been a real pleasure working with these stamps for this sample! I stamped some of the poppies across the bottom of the card, masking the images where necessary. I then coloured the background with Pan Pastels to create a hazy sky effect. I coloured the poppies with Distress Markers, and stamped and decoupaged an extra butterfly. I added a sentiment from the Artistic Expressions stamp plate to complete the background.

I stamped and coloured the poppy heart before glazing it using ultra thick embossing powder.

These poppies certainly help to make me think of warmer days, and chase away those Winter blues! Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

A Valentine Gift (posted by Judith)

Hi Folks, I'd like to show you a project that I have made using the Rose Thistle stamp set, which is currently stamp set of the month.

I have created a book card, using some Kraft card as a base, and then printed the Love Letters download, stamping the large single rose a couple of times, and colouring this with pencils. I stamped and cut out the heart rose image which I also coloured with pencils as before.

I lined the inside of the book with the same download design, and created a niche in which to place a small gift or some chocolates.

I have used a sentiment from the Harlequin Rose stamp plate on the front of the book card to finish.

I hope that this has given you some inspiration, please pop back to see more samples from myself and my design team mates. Thanks for stopping by, Judith, xx

Purple Thistle (by Shirley)

Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well !

The new Rose & Thistle set includes a variety of designs to work with and for this card I used the pretty Thistle.   It reminds me of Scotland & how much I've enjoyed my trips over there with my husband visiting his wonderful family.    

I stamped the Thistle on smooth white cardstock with black Stazon ink and coloured with my Prisma Pencils.   I used a Spellbinder S5-015 die behind the Thistle.  I blended Shaded Lilac Distress Ink around the image.  The matting is deep purple, it appears darker in the photo. 

To create the background I started with a piece of  Basic Grey paper with a faint pattern  & over-stamped the Flower Sprig with Dusty Concord Distress Ink around the outside edges.  I used a white Prisma Pencil for a little highlighting.   I added two rows of rhinestone borders, but the light bouncing off them doesn't show how pretty they are (clear & mauve).

The beautiful scripted quote is from the Fresh Blooms set (another favorite) stamped with Black Versafine ink.

Thanks for your visit and have a great day !
Shirley

Oriental Twilight (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with another sample featuring the fab new Eastern Landscapes stamps. Anyone who know me will tell you that I love creating scenic cards to these stamps are right up my street. For this card I've combined the new stamps with the lovely hanging lanterns from Lily Pad

I began by creating a background using shades of green distress ink (Forest Moss, Peeled Paint and Shabby Shutters) and then overstamped with the large floral branches stamp from Lily Pad.

The create the focal image I masked a large sun and created the sky with shades of blue and purple distress ink, adding splashes of water to create a cloudy effect. I then inked in the ground using more forest moss and peeled paint distress ink. I then used the reverse of the sun mask to cover the sky and inked in the sun using Mustard Seed and a little Spiced Marigold distress ink. I then used black soot to ink all around the scene. Next came the stamping, I stamped in the beautiful pagoda and the trees using versamark ink and embossed them with a black holographic embossing powder. I then stamped the hanging lanterns along the top and embossed with the same embossing powder. I also stamped the lanterns on some scrap card, coloured with distress markers and cut them out, layering them up on the focal image with silicone glue.

I hope you're enjoying all the new samples from my teamies and you're inspired to have a play with the new stamps. If your weather is anything like it is here in my little corner of the UK its perfect crafting weather

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Floral Notecards (by Clare)

There are so many things I'd like to do with these flowers, and not enough time in the day.  I thought I'd get the three I've finished on here, and post the rest later.  My husband is correct, when he says that one day he will wake up, and he'll be 80!

These notecards were made using the Rose and Thistle set.  They are small, but effective, and were very easy and fun to make! 

        



Curly Birds sentiment card by Debbie

Going back into our precious stash that we save for special projects is refreshing as we try different ways of using them. With rubber stamps we can do so much with them, different colours and techniques. The sentiment from Curly birds is so powerful.

For the sentiment I stamped with black ink and embossed with clear powder onto paper from the Prima Songbird paper pad. The flower is from Prima that I bought a few years ago at an open day. I wrapped a length of rafia around the backing paper and added some flatback pearls. Sometimes we want a card where the sentiment is most important and I think this will be in the post to one of mine. Thanks for visiting. Debbie

Shabby heart (posted by Claire)

Hi there, Claire here with a card featuring the gorgeous Fuchsia Baroque Heart stamp. Fuchsias are such beautiful delicate flowers, they are one of my all time favourites so I couldn't resist this stamps.

The image is coloured with promarkers and decoupaged, you can see the detail a little better in this photo:

I've matted the image on a doily, coloured with black soot distress ink. The music background was made using Tim Holtz Tissue Wrap (available as a great Taster Size), I used a shaped card blank and applied a layer of Matte Multi Medium and then attached the tissue wrap, making sure it was crumpled and creased in places. I added some colour with distress stains (Antique Linen and Worn Lipstick). Once the background was dry I added faux pearls around the edge. The backing papers are by Prima (from the Almanac Collection), coloured with a little worn lipstick distress ink. I've added some black lace and a black organza bow to finish off.

Thanks for popping by

Claire xx

Stamp of the week - Curly Birds

This week's special offer stamp is Curly Birds, an unmounted rubber set with lots of possibilites. 

 

The bird feeder has an oriental look to it which would go well with some of our oriental clear stamps and the calligraphic birds make an elegant focal point.  When these were first launched, I found myself using the bird's tails a lot as flourishes around the edge of a card - very multi-purpose!

The sentiment on the card above is from Fly Away With Me - another great bird themed set.

Curly Birds is on offer until Jan 25th 2013.

A little gift box (posted by Elaine)

I love heart images, so the new CB clear heart images are right up my street! For this project I used the Elegant Baroque heart which is so beautiful and crying out to be embossed. I decided to make a little heart shaped gift box.

 

I used a sturdy purple card as my base and cut four heart die cuts, two scalloped in the same size and two smaller hearts of slightly different sizes to allow me to construct a box where the lid fitted over the base. I used WOW Metallic Brass EP for the image and the edging on the lid and base, using a Versamark pen to work around the edge of the scalloped top and base to add that embossing.

 

 

I wanted to add some pattern to the sides of the box and I used one of the lovely Lace Fragment stamps that also has a heart motif in the design.

 

Glenda suggested this style of box would make a nice wedding favour box filled with sugared almonds. I really like this idea, although I am not sure I would want to make too many of them! Maybe ideal for a wedding with a small, but select guest list!

 

Elaine



Beauty in a Single Rose (by Shirley)

Hello everyone ! 

Today I have a card created with the single rose from the gorgeous Rose & Thistle set.   I enjoy the challenge of one-layer, clean & simple cards and decided to create one with this beautiful rose.  If you follow my blog then you've already seen this design.  I apologize but it 'got away' on me during a 'fumble finger' moment.   

 

I drew lines with a fine pencil on the right hand area of folded heavy card stock.    I embossed the single Rose with black.    I created masks with scrap paper to cover the area that I wanted to keep white & blended Shabby Shutters Distress Ink in the open area.   Next I used Peeled Paint Distress ink with the Mini-Harlequin TCW Stencil.   

After removing the masks I stamped Love from the Artistic Expressions set (I use this set a lot!) with black versafine ink.   I coloured the rose with co-ordinating Distress Markers and blended a little with water.    Very easy & quick to create !

Thanks for your visit and have a great day !

Shirley

Oriental Reflection (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with my first sample using the beautiful new Eastern Landscape stamps

These stamps work beautifully with the other oriental stamp sets, for this card I've used some of the new stamps with stamps from Lily Pad. I began by stamping the reflection, using an ink blending mat to stamp the images using memento ink and then laying the card over the stamped mages and rolling over with my brayer to transfer the ink. Its so easy to position the clear stamps to make the landscape match the reflection perfectly. I used the scrunched paper technique to brayer the water and added some colour to the scene and the reflection with distress markers.

I matted the scene on some white card and then on hot pink card to pick out the pink from the waterlily and the blossoms around the top of the card.

Thanks for popping by today

Claire xx

A ring of roses (posted by Elaine)

When I saw the new Rose and Thistle stamps I felt another garland card coming on! I love making wreaths and garlands out of images and die cut elements.

I recently treated myself to a new set of Prisma colouring pencils and this project gave me a chance to put them through their paces for the first time. I stamped the rose panel image three times and the rose hip sprig 8 times in Olympia Green Versafine ink. I then shaded the flowers and leaves in shades of red, pink and greens. This is not one of those cards that is quick to make, but the three hours of colouring was very relaxing while watching the TV.

I then carefully cut out the images, selecting separate rose images from the panels to make as many separate elements as I could use. I mounted all the flowers and sprigs of rose hips around a sentiment from the Artistic Expressions plate stamped onto pale green card, matted onto dark green and an 8 x 8 cream card blank.

Hope you are enjoying all the inspiration from the DT with these lovely new stamps.

Elaine

Stamp of the week - Cylamen

This week we have a sweet little unmounted rubber stamp set on offer - it's A6 in size (rougly 6x4 inches) and as well as the two flowers, it has some rather nice words too.

For one week only you can get this set at a reduced price - click on the image above for more info.

This card was created with Memento inks (Sweet Plum) and Copic markers.  I also used Texture Fragments to create the pattern around the edges and added a sentiment from another old stamp set, A Better Place.  It's fun to dig out the old stamps and put them together with newer ones and I just happened to have the perfect shade of card and ribbon to match!

Dotted Rose Valentine (by Clare)

Well, Valentine's Day is right around the corner - can you believe it?!  I'm going to take the batteries out of my clocks! 

Chocolate Baroque has released a new stamp set called Rose and Thistle, and it is gorgeous!  Click on the name to go see it on the Chocolate Baroque site!  So beautiful! 

I decided to color the heart using the same technique as it was drawn, by using dots unstead of sweeps of color from a marker, or strokes of a colored pencil.  I used fine tipped markers and dotted the whole heart, using different shades to blend the colors.  I used a stencil for the fan-looking embossing, and just added a few die cut shapes, some ribbon, and a little red and silver bling to complete this valentine for my Valentine!  For the inside, I stamped the same rose heart onto burgundy cardstock, and colored it in using the same colors from the front.  It looks totally different from the front heart which was done on white cardstock.







Happy stamping, all you Sweethearts out there!  :)

Yellow Poppy Heart by Debbie

The Poppy heart stamp is quickly moving up my list of favourite stamps because of it's versatility. The poppies can be coloured with allsorts of colours and media.

The yellows work very well with the blues of the card and give a spring feel to the easel card. For the base of the easel I used the Rememberance Poppy and decoupaged one of the poppy flowers so the front stands up. The Remberance Poppy stamp is a single stamp and 50p from each one is donated to the Royal British Legion. For the background I used versamark ink and brushed with pale blue mica powder which gives a lovely sheen. Thank you for visiting Debbie

Fuschia Valentine (by Clare)

I can't believe that it will be Valentines's Day soon! But as you probably know, it's never too late too start on the next "holiday's" cards - I don't want to get behind like I did last year!

This card is made with the Fuschia Baroque Heart, a clear stamp from Chocolate Baroque's new line. There are four separate Baroque Heart stamps, but you can also buy the four as a set.  Click here for the set. 

It was an easy card to make, and I just used a hobby knife to cut around the top of the heart to "pop" it up a little.   The background was done with a swirly stencil in the same colors, and I added a little bit of die cutting to the top.  The word "Passion" is from the Butterfly Dreams stamp set. 





I've got to get to making the rest of my Valentine's, so I wish you well, and Happy New Year!

Hugs, Clare

Rococo Baroque Heart (by Shirley)

Hello everyone !    I have a card today featuring one of the new clear Baroque Hearts stamps.  They are such beautiful & romantic designs.

When I first saw the Rococo Baroque Heart my mind went immediately to a Romantic Victorian style but I wasn't sure what the name meant.   So I 'googled' to learn that Rococo was an 18th-century artistic movement and style which was ornate and made strong use of cream & pastel colours, asymmetrical designs, curves and gold.  The talented designer used lots of ornate detail for this heart, I love it.
 

The background behind the Rococo Heart was created with Salty Ocean & Picked Raspberry DI & water.   I added a pattern using the TCW mini Harlequin Stencil with Shaded Lilac Distress Ink.  I embossed the heart with black, coloured with my Tombows, & cut-out to attach.

Love is from CB's Artistic Expressions set (which I use a lot!).   The rolled rose dies are by Die-namics and the leaves are Crealies - #CLCS11.    To create the flowers I used white cardstock coloured with Picked Raspberry & Salty Ocean Distress Inks.    I also added texture with a flower fragment from Texture Fragments before I cut the flowers out (inspired by Miranda!).    I used a  lacy Rectangle Die cut (Spellbinders S5-090) behind the blue background.

 

Thanks for your visit and stay tuned for more creations from my talented team mates !
Have a great day,
Shirley

Blue Roses - Why Not ? (by Shirley)

Hello everyone & Happy New Year !

I have another card from the beautiful January stamp of the month set - Rose & Thistle.     I know the roses & leaves are an unusual colour, but Why Not?

I created this card with Dylusions Inks, Bleach and the Flower Sprig & Roses from the  Rose & Thistle set.      The quote is from the Words of Inspiration set that is currently on special !

For the details on how I created this card, please click here to visit my Blog.

Thanks for your visit & have a great day !
Shirley

Eastern Sunset by Debbie

At this time of year when the sun rises late in the morning and sets early afternoon we all think of the summer and warmer days. My card today makes me think of being in a far off land, relaxing and enjoying the views.

The Pagoda from the new Eastern Landscapes clear stamps was stamped with Versamark and embossed with black powder them coloured with Alcohol Pens. The circle of paper for the sun was large enough to mask the Pagoda. Around the sun mask Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink was used and for the sky Tumbled Glass. I used Stormy Sky Distress Ink as I wanted to give the look of the Pagoda being in a lake. When I attatched the main image to the card I felt it needed a few more trees so stamped them in the corner extending the view. I love the sentiments it rings very true to me. Thanks for visiting Debbie

Asian Light (by Clare)

Hello!  Welcome to the Chocolate Baroque Blog!

For this card, I used two of the clear acrylic block-mount stamp sets, called Lily Pad and Chinese Lanterns.  These two sets go along with Moonlit Waterfall and Oriental Crane.  The main focal lantern was stamped in Versamark ink on black cardstock, then heat embossed in black for dimension.  I painted the inside of the lantern with bleach and used a white gel pen on the flowers.  I used a light green marker for the leaves. 

NOTE:  When using bleach, pour a little into a bleach-proof cup (I used a small glass cup), and it needs to be used right away, because it loses its potency quickly.  If you are using synthetic brushes to paint with bleach, you may notice that the bleach will "eat" the bristles, and you'll soon be painting with a stub.

The lantern was mounted on white cardstock with dimensionals, and then with dimensionals over the lantern trio.  I took a larger tassel from my stash apart, and used just a few strands to make this small tassel to fit.  A friend gave me a whole "bolt" of chain, which I glued onto the card with Aleene's Tacky Glue.  I had a fall garland with the golden yellow balls and fabric flowers on it, and this one came off, and I found it on the floor.  You never know where you'll find something to use on a project!  I hope you're inspired in some small way!

Pagoda Landscape by Glenda

I'm really enjoying creating scenes with the Eastern Landscapes stamp set.  This was created with Inktense pencils and Dylusions sprays - you can read all the details over on my blog.