Saturday, 31 December 2016
New Year Wishes (by Judith)
Here at Chocoloate Baroque, things have not always run smoothly throughout the year, but we are looking forward to a bright start in 2017; the new TV shows with Hochanda are airing on 4th January at 11.00 a.m. and 5.00 p.m., so do be sure to try and watch those. The Design Team girls have been busy creating some beautiful samples, and Lesley will no doubt weave her creative magic on the shows themselves.
We are looking forward to bringing you lots of new stamps and continuing on with some of our favourite features too; our Fifteen Minute Blog posts are proving to be very helpful we know, when you are looking for inspiration for a quick card to make. Our Challenge Blog is another source of invaluable inspiration, as there is a host of Design Team artwork offered on the blog each month, all revolving around colour-based swatches. We hope that you will continue to keep coming back to see us on the blogs, as we love to share our ideas with you all.
I have made a simple card to share with you for today's post, using some of my favourite bits and pieces. I stamped a flower image from the Floral Notes stamp set onto some pretty paper, using brown ink and clear embossing powder. I cut the flowers out, and edged them with a tiny bit of Distress Ink.
I created a Brusho background on a piece of smooth watercolour paper, using lemon, violet, rose red, white and sea green. Once the background was completely dry, I stamped a swirl from the Nature Swirls stamp set twice onto the background. I stuck the flowers to the background, added a sentiment, and then edged the background with some Distress Ink. I added a layer of pink card to mat the background, before adhering to a card blank.
I would just like to wish you all a very Happy New Year, and may you have health, happiness and lots of creativity in the year ahead.
Friday, 30 December 2016
Calendar 2017 (by Magda) - Floral Notes
Here is my step by step for making a personalized one.
1. Print with Versafine Onyx Black the stamp of Floral Notes set and mask it with Masking Tissue
2. Colour the background of a Manila Tag with Distress Inkpad using green, yellow and blue shades
3. Put Crackle Paste around the stamp and let dry
4. Scribble with the brush a light coat of a mixture prepared with Soft Form Relief Paste-Pearl, Distress Stain blue, Stickles-Diamond over the Crackle Paste and let dry
5. Colour the Floral Stamp with markers
6. Create your washi tape in the right size using your Excel program, as well as your Calendar if you
don't find them ready matching for your Tag.
7. Glue the washi tape with Inessentials Gue n Seal matte on the Tag and sew the calendar below.
8. Don't forget the red hook
See you in the Next Year and Happy 2017 to everybody!
Magda
Thursday, 29 December 2016
Fifteen Minute Cards
The Design Team girls have come up with some beautiful ideas to share with you for today's post, so we hope that you will enjoy their projects, and give some of them a go. You can click on the individual person's names to reach their own blogs, where you will be able to obtain further information on each project.
Julie has created two pretty cards incorporating butterflies and flourishes for us. Her simple blue and gold colour scheme is very elegant:
Dominike has been using up some of her gelli print papers to create her selection of cards. These lovely projects would be suitable for lots of different occasions and are so versatile:
Brenda has made two lovely cards for us this time. For her first card, she stamped the tree from the Spinney Design a Tree stamp set onto a a piece of card previously coloured using the shaving foam technique. She then repeat stamped the flowers from the same stamp set using Distress Inks.
For her second card, she used another snippet of card previously coloured using the shaving foam technique, and stamped a border from the Springtime Edges stamp set using Black Archival Ink. The flowers are coloured with sparkle pens, and the sentiment is die cut.
Magda has created two pretty tags for us using the new floral stamps. The first tag is a pretty blue creation with a little bit of shimmer added to the image itself:
The second, she has coloured the flowers and added repeat stamping to the background.
Magda also created a simple decorated envelope, which could be used to match her card from this month's earlier post. The design could be adapted to use lots of other stamps:
Zoe's card combines the use of stencilling and added stamping to accentuate one of our fabulous sentiments.
We have a collection of beautiful cards from Lesley, she has created a range of cards for us, all so different. The first, combining stamping and stencilling:
The second card uses old book pages as a design feature, always look through your stash for things to add to your cards, you can use lots of small pieces of leftovers to create beautiful backgrounds.
Finally, she has used a tree stamp to stamp onto a piece of paper from Crafty Individuals, adding some stamping to the background using a co-ordinating stamp to create a border.
Sadly, this will be last time that Lesley will be providing us with her beautiful cards, as she has decided to hang up her GDT wings. We have loved seeing her creations on the blog, and will miss her elegant designs. We wish her well in all of her crafty endeavours.
Anne's pretty set of cards has been created by stamping the images with Versamark adding sticky embossing powder. She then added mixed colours of gilding flakes to the surface of each image. Daisy Centre Flowerhead, Mesh Centre Flowerhead and Palm Fan Silhouette.
Finally, we have two cards from Penny for you. She created the first card by embossing a piece of kraft card, dry brushing it with gesso, and then edging it with Distress Ink. She stamped an image from the Fancy Florals stamp set and coloured it with watercolour pencils. She added some hessian, cord and a sentiment to finish.
For her second card, she used Distress Inks to blend a background and stamped the diamond hearts. The main heart was stamped and embossed, then coloured with Distress Inks. All stamps were from the Punky Hearts stamp set.
We hope that you have enjoyed what we have shared with you today. We will be back in the New Year with another selection of time-saving ideas. Until then, please do keep visiting the Design Team blog for a daily dose of inspiration from the regular Design Team posts.
Thanks for stopping by,
Wednesday, 28 December 2016
Winter Solstice (by Rachel)
- For my last project I have taken a paper mache frame which I painted with black acrylic paint. When dry I added a cover of crackle medium and then the cobalt blue paint as the final coat. TIP - when using crackle medium by varying the thickness as you apply it you will get a variety of small and large cracks.
- I stamped the image on white stamping card using blue archival ink and then coloured her in with pencils.
- Next I created the background with distress inks, sprinkling with water in some areas to create the droplet effect, and then attached the picture to the back of the frame.
Rachel
Tuesday, 27 December 2016
floral notes (by Veronica)
Both cards have brusho backgrounds, and use the same stamp from the floral notes set. For both cards I stamped the image first using versafine and clear EP, then masked it using masking fluid. I sprinkled the brusho powders over and spritzed with water, then rubbed off the masking once the card was thoroughly dry.

The second card I left the image white, and used silver mirri and black matts, and added the sentiment from Mackintosh sentiments clear stamp set.
I wish you all a very happy, healthy and crafty New Year.
Veronica
Monday, 26 December 2016
Snowy Cottage (posted by Claire)
Sunday, 25 December 2016
It's Christmas Day!
Saturday, 24 December 2016
Thistle by Zoe
Good morning Lovelies and a very Happy Christmas to you all, guess what? I've not made anything Christmassy for this post lol!
I'm actually in Canada spending Christmas with my beautiful daughter and her boyfriend, we are here until 1st january we got here 9th December so a wonderful 3 weeks.
So onto my post, I've used the wonderful new stamp set Floral Notes I started with a Grey board panel from the website and sprayed it using Yellow and Pink spray inks letting them merge and run together, once dry I flicked with white ink for some texture then stamped using Mini Script stamp with grey Versafine Inkpad, I stamped the image using Onyx Black Versafine Inkpad and heat embossed using a Black fine detail embossing powder to give an extra sharp image, it also caught some of the grey script but I liked it, I then highlighted areas using a gold glitter pen, gold gilding wax around the edge and Voila!
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas surrounded by those you love, I know I will :) all the best for 2017, is that going a bit too far? lol Zoe xx
Friday, 23 December 2016
Sketchy Doodle Canvas (by Julie)
Thursday, 22 December 2016
An armful of flowers for you (by Dominike)
I think you are preparing a wonderful Christmas. I would like to make a gift for all of you. But it is difficult. So here is my present : these beautiful flowers.
J'imagine que vous préparez tous un magnifique Noël. J'aurais aimé vous faire un cadeau mais ce ne sera pas facile alors je vous envoie cette brassée de fleurs.
- Stamp on a white paper with Versamark and use different colors of powders.
- Tear on the right side and cut around the flowers.
- Glue on a page of an old book
- Glue on piece of white paper
- Glue on the card.
Je vous souhaite à tous un Joyeux Noël et une Bonne Année. Je serai de retour le 6 janvier.
Bonnes Fêtes.
Wednesday, 21 December 2016
The Elephants went in two by two (by Rachel)
- I stamped the elephants first onto a piece of white stamping card and then masked them to created the background. The background was coloured with yellow distress ink and then overstamped in various archival inks using other stamps from the set to create the arc.
- Next the masks were removed and I coloured the elephants in co-ordinating colours to the background.
- The sentiment comes from the See Beauty clear stamp set which I stamped with Jet Black Archival ink.
- Finally the finished piece was mounted onto black card.
Rachel
Another great design, thank you Rachel and we look forward to seeing your next project.
Tuesday, 20 December 2016
Frame & Cut for Flower Notes (by Magda)
Frame
1. Blend a mat with Distress Inkpad Brushed Corduroy and Walnut Stain and cut it with a frame die
2. Glue the frame on the card with Ranger Triangular Collage Glue Stick on the white card
3. Stamp a flower of Floral Notes Rubber Stamp sheet in the frame with Versamark - Watermark
Stamp Pad and emboss with WOW Embossing Powder Metallic Gold Sparkle
4. Darken the edges of the white card with Distress Inkpad Brushed Corduroy and put a golden
ribbon as decoration
Cut
1. Use the cut of point 1 of the Card Frame
2. Stamp on it a flower of Floral Notes Rubber Stamp sheet with Versamark - Watermark
Stamp Pad and emboss with white Embossing Powder
3. Glue the cut with Ranger Triangular Collage Glue Stick on the white card
4. Darken the edges of the white card with Distress Inkpad Brushed Corduroy and put a golden
ribbon as decoration
As you can see the result is quite different, even though my idea was to do two similar cards to use as " Thank You" cards.
In the meantime I wish you all a Merry Christmas.
Magda
Monday, 19 December 2016
Christmas star hanging decoration (by Anne)
Good morning. Today I am sharing a fun and easy Christmas decoration created from toilet roll inner tubes. I embellished it with die cut snowflakes and stamped images from Chocolate Baroque; my favourite reindeer stamp from the Sparkling Trees set and sentiment from Christmas Candlelight.
Materials:
- Sparkling Trees and Christmas Candlelight stamp sets
- Toilet roll inner card tubes, white stamping card, pearlescent white and gold mirror card
- Hot melt glue gun
- Acrylic glitter glue and glitter (red mix and gold)
- Versafine Inkpad (Onyx Black)
- Fine tipped glitter pen (red)
- Dies: mixed snowflake and a decorative Xmas circle
Press the toilet roll inner tubes flat and cut into 1cm strips. Arrange into a 6 petal flower shape and glue with hot melt glue gun. Fold remaining strips in half and glue sections around the central ‘petals’ to make a star – building outward.
Apply wet glue to all the edges and coat with red glitter. I coated the front and back as I want to hang it in the window. Build up the centre further with folded strips and coat these with gold glitter.
Glue on the die cut snowflakes.
Stamp and cut out the reindeer and sentiment. Colour with glitter pen and glue in place.
Finally tie on a bit of string or cord for hanging.