Daffodil Gift Box (by Julie)

Today I am hi-jacking the beginning of this post as I have a couple of announcements to make with regard to our Design Team. First, it is with sadness that we are saying goodbye to Doreen, who has been a terrific member of this team for the past year and whose designs have captivated all of us.  We wish her all the luck for the future, long may she continue creating her beautiful artwork.

So now I have the pleasure of welcoming our newest recruit, Julie Smith. You may remember Julie was a guest on this blog back in January and she is now going to be a regular member of the team. By way of an introduction here are a few snippets about Julie.

My first Chocolate Baroque stamp was probably something like the beautiful Harlequin Rose stamp plate and one of my favourites is Texture Fragments. Because of its versatility, if a design needs just that little bit extra you can probably find it in this set.

I think my favourite type of stamps are ones that are more versatile and that can lend themselves to many different styles and techniques. I am also becoming more drawn to the Steam-punk style and have my eye on the Funky Fish and Sea World stamp sets.

As well as looking at the fantastic designs of other crafters I get my inspiration from looking at everyday things such as the colour of something, a page in a magazine or the way a display has been put together in a shop and it will trigger an idea that I could use in my crafting.

If I were to describe myself in just a few words it would be something like this.  I am a forty-something Mum who loves family days out that include our border collie and of course time in my craft room so that I can just play.

I know you will all make Julie welcome as she settles into her new role. And with all that said I shall hand over to her so she can share her lovely project with you.

Good morning to you all. I am so excited to be posting my first blog post as an official Chocolate Baroque Design Team member! I really enjoyed my guest spot in January and was thrilled when I was asked to be a full time member and join this fabulous team of inspirational ladies. I really hope I can live up to expectation......

 

I have used the large daffodil stamp from the brand new Spring Bird Daffodil set and the small decorative stamp from the new Spring Bird Tulip set, but you could easily use the decorative stamp that comes with the Daffodil set to make this up-cycled chocolate box which measures approx 11cm x 11cm x 6cm.

I started by giving the outside of the box a good coat of white Gesso, followed by a coat of yellow acrylic paint. Whilst it was drying I stamped the images onto tissue paper and coloured the daffodil design with water colour pencils. The tissue was then glued into place using matte Mod Podge. 

When dry I then layered on some Soft Form Relief Paste in a pearl finish, through a 12x12 Crafters Workshop Template (Texturized) onto two opposite corners of the lid. In the remaining opposite corners I just spread the Relief Paste straight onto the lid and dragged through a Contour Tool to add texture. When the paste was dry the lid was sprayed with red, yellow and orange alcohol pens, followed by a very small amount of black acrylic paint on a dry brush to define the texture. As the Relief Paste has a pearl finish it gives the colour a soft pearl finish as well.

As you can see from the picture I have added a strip of burlap ribbon around the edge of the lid and finished off with a 10mm wide white ribbon which I have coloured with a yellow alcohol pen.

Many thanks for stopping by, please pop back tomorrow for some more design team inspiration.

Julie