Katya again

 two more samples using the lovely Katya - you can tell she was my favourite, can't you!
Katya stamped with black versafine, clear embossed and masked with masking fluid. The buildings from the babushka set were stamped using an old multi-coloured dye ink pad that was so old the colours had all merged into an apology for black - very different from the original! It worked for the buildings, as there were still traces of the original colours when the background was spritzed with water to activate the brusho powders, so I got a misty skyline effect.
Once everything was dry, I rubbed off the masking fluid and coloured her using watered down aztec metallic paints.







The second version is a bit more dramatic , and a tad more complicated.
It started out the same way, stamping and masking Katya before stamping the castle from the fantasy castle set, as I thought it looked sufficiently Russian. I coloured the castle with brusho powders and a waterbrush, mostly using sandstone, lemon and leaf green powders. Katya was coloured with mica powders and a waterbrush. I created a layered effect by trimming the castle to a square and cutting round Katya where she was outside the square. I added a square gold mat behind the castle.
The background was randomly stamped with the silhouette palaces stamp using the same ancient ink pad and grey, purple and black brusho powders which all sort of merged into a misty nighttime effect.
I hope you have enjoyed seeing the wonderful samples from the team over the last month, we certainly enjoyed making them!

Stampbord domino book (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with a little domino book made using stamps from Babushka and Silhouette Palaces.

I made the covers from Stampbord dominos, I love stampbord as it takes ink beautifully. I stamped the little skyline from Babushka and added colour with Sakura Stardust pens and a water brush. Once that was dry I added some gold embossing and some glossy accents. I also embossed around the edges with WOW Gold EP

To make the concertina pages I cut a strip of card to size and folded it to fit the stampbord covers.  I stamped  the Silhouette Palaces with versamark and embossed with black EP. I then used Twinkling H2Os to paint in the sky before adding a few stars, white highlights to the towers and a little moon with silver paint.

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Russian Wedding (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I am here to share my final Russian inspired project of the month with you today.  I hope that you have been enjoying the Design Team projects as much as we have loved creating them with the beautiful selection of stamps and stencils this month.

I have created a card for today's post using the Russian Spires stencil, and have chosen a wedding theme for my project. I have used bold colours, but you could easily opt for pastel colours and create something to match the colours of a specific wedding.

I cut a piece of watercolour card, and drew through the stencil with a pencil to start with, to get the shape of the buildings. I removed the stencil, and using a fine tipped permanent pen, I drew the outline again, joining up all of the broken lines. I added in a few extra details, like the edges of the rooftops, and the landscape.

I coloured the image and landscape with water based markers. I masked the building, and also added a mask for a sun.  I used some Distress Ink on a craft mat, and spritzed it with water, then picked it up with a waste piece of bubble wrap to create the sky. I just dabbed the scrunched up bubble wrap randomly over the background. I removed the masks, and added some yellow Distress Ink for the sun.

I added a sentijment from the Words to Dazzle and Sparkle stamp set, and a small image of two silhouette birds from the Landscape Edges stamp set.

I hope that my card has given you a bit of inspiration, thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Easel Drawer Card (by Brenda)

Hello everyone, today sees the final visit of the month from our Guest Design Team member Brenda. She has created a lovely dimensional project for your inspiration today.

Brenda writes:

My project this week is an easel drawer card. It's a very long while since I made one of these, but I had the idea to do something with Easter eggs, using the beautiful new Russian Floral Egg which Lesley launched on Hochanda TV a few weeks ago.

After making the box elements, (a link to the instructions are below if anyone would like them), I stamped the egg with Versafine Onyx Black ink, and heat embossed with detail clear powder. I did the same thing a second time, along with several more flowers, cutting out elements of the second egg and the flowers to decoupage and colouring in with pencils.

Next I used some designer paper to add decorative panels to the sides of the base, drawer and top base panel, and used a silk tassel on the drawer front, threading it through an eyelet. The top and base layers either side of the drawer are stamped with the Large Crackle Background, which is such a useful stamp, and heat embossed with detail clear embossing powder to give a resist, then inked with Distress Inks.

The sentiment is from the Words of Inspiration stamp set, which I cut out with an oval die, and inked the edges with the same colour Distress Ink. I fixed it to the card with foam pads and finally added the flowers.....and of course put the mini chocolate eggs into the drawer, but they may not last very long!

If anyone would like to make one of these, the instructions are posted on a tutorial on my blog here, it's a long while ago since I wrote it, but the principal remains the same as it did then.

Thank you Brenda for your beautiful project and detailed instructions. Brenda will be back with us later in the year.

From Russia with Love by Zoe

Good morning Lovelies, I'm back again with my final post for Chocolate Baroque DT, featuring the stunning Russian themed stamps that were featured on Hochanda.

My tag I used Distress Inkpads spritzed with water and heat dried for that fab marbled background, I stamped one of the Silhouette Palaces in Grey Versafine ink and again using Black and heat embossing, the Babushka dolls I coloured in, cut out and covered with Glossy accents, once dried I adhered them using hot glue to get dimension.

My first card I used a circle stencil/mask and torn paper to create a moon and hills, I used dye-based inkpads applied with brushes to get a more airbrushed effect, I used a filigree stencil which I spritzed with water and dabbed dry in places to create some interest, I finally stamped the Silhouette Palace using Versamark Inkpad and heat embossed in gold.

My final card I started with the Katya which was stamped with Versamark Inkpad and heat embossed with black embossing powder. I then used Drawing Gum to colour her in, then once dry I used Distress Inkpads with water again and stamped the Silhouette Palaces with grey ink. I then rubbed off the drawing gum with my finger, coloured her in using watercolour paints.

  

 

I hope you like my creations, I had such fun making them. Thank you so much for visiting and leaving a comment.

Have a wonderful day xx Zoe xx 

Babushka (by Marga)

Hello all, here I have a label to share with you this time, also fun to make sometimes.

The background I made with the Distress inks. I stamped the image Fountain Scene with a light brown ink, and coloured the trees. I stamped the Babushkas on a different paper coloured them with Distress Ink and cut them out. 

Stamps I used: Babushka, Fountain Scene.

Hugs Marga

Babushka and Katya (by Julie)

Hello again, Julie here to show you two more card ideas with the fabulous new designs Chocolate Baroque have for you this month.

For my first card I coloured the base with Distress inks and stamped the Silhouette Palaces along the top and bottom of the card. I placed the mask of Silhouette Palace 1 onto watercolour card and spritzed with spray inks. Remove the mask and leave to dry then colour the palace with Distress inks. Cut out, mount onto black card and attach to the base card. Using the dolls from the Babushka set, ink up with Onyx Black Versafine and stamp onto separate stamping card. Colour with brush markers, cut out and attach to the front with 3d glue gel.

For my second card I have stamped Katya onto black card and heat embossed with silver. I coloured her with Antique Bronze, Brushed Pewter and Tarnished Brass Distress Stain. I dabbed the Brushed Pewter around the edge of the card and mounted onto silver mirri card that I had stamped with the Large Crackle Background

For the background I stamped the Silhouette Palaces with Onyx Black Versafine and then with a sweeping motion I applied Antique Bronze, Brushed Pewter and Tarnished Brass Distress Stain. The Distress Stains seemed to blend really well on their own but I just helped them along with a dab of a baby wipe here and there. I mounted the card onto mirri card as before that I had stamped with the Large Crackle Background. As it is mirri card I used black Staz on for this job.

Thanks for popping by

Julie xx

Colourful Journal Pages (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I am here for an extra post today, and so I decided to have a bit of fun with my project, letting my imagination have a bit of a wander on a double page journal spread. I have chosen to use the really versatile A5 Pink Pig journal containing 270 gsm watercolour paper, as this size of journal allows for a lot of choice in the layout that you can create, without feeling that you have too much space to fill. The watercolour paper is lovely and smooth and will take lots of water.

I started my project by masking the headdress on the Katya stamp, and inking up just the bottom part of the image, before stamping it onto the journal page. I drew some hair freehand, using a pencil at first, until I was happy with the design, and then inking over it with a permanent pen.

I needed to mask the image, and as the masking tissue available on the website is not completely opaque, I was able to lay it over my image, and draw an outline to create my own custom mask.

I added several other images to the pages; the Swirl Centre Flowerhead, and some leaves and a butterfly from the Tangled Garden stamp set. I wanted a subtle floral image in the background and added a favourite texture stamp from the Texture Fragments stamp set, using Acrylic Wax to stamp the image. I added Distress Ink to colour the background, and the acrylic wax acted as a resist where I had stamped the floral texture image.

I drew a few swirls by hand, and added a sentiment from the Artistic Expressions stamp set. A little bit of stencilling completed the background.

I coloured the images using water based markers, keeping the colours bright and cheery to match the vibrant background. I decided to give Katya a modern twist with ombre hair, rather than a conventional colour.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading about my project, thanks for stopping by,

Judith xx

ATC Russian Collection (by Magda)

I thought that the best way to enhance these beautiful Russian Theme Stamps, is to run a collection of ATC.

Here the recipe :

1.  Cut in ATC size The Pink Pig A4 Ameleie 275 grm Matte Watercolour paper

2.  Prepare the backgrounds with Brusho Crystal Colours 

3.  Use Versafine in different colors for stamping your chosen images

4.  The Russian stamps I used for this projects are the following

      Large Crackle Background Single Rubber stamp A6

      Babushka Rubber Stamps sheet A5

      Russian Exquisite Egg Single  Rubber stamps A6

      Silhouette Palaces Rubber stamps A6

      Katya Single Rubber stamp A6

 5.  Colour your stamped images with Faber-Castell Art Grip Aquarelle Pencils

 6.  Highlight some details of the ATC with Stickles spots

I hope you will love the Russian Stamps too and thanks for passing by 

Magda

Katya Missing Home (by Anne)

Good morning. Here is the last of my TV show samples using the lovely Katya stamp (recently featured on Hochanda). The idea was to create a sort of dream scene depicting Katya missing her home.
 
Materials:

• Katya, Silhouette Palaces, Babushka and Words to Dazzle & Sparkle stamp sets
• 8 X 8 inch card blank (white stamping card), copy paper to make masks
• Distress Inkpad (Tumbled Glass), Multi coloured dye based inkpad (blues & purples)
• Glitter pens (blue, purple) and sparkle pens (teal, clear)
• Clouds stencil

 
How it was done:

1. I first stamped Katya 4 times onto the corners of the card, leaving ink off the bottom portion of the stamp. I chose Tumbled Glass Distress Ink to get a pale effect.
2. I cut a circle mask from copier paper. Covering the central section I then applied Distress Ink through the cloud stencil, lightly using a sponge. I coloured Katya’s headdress with glitter and sparkle pens using a water brush to get some shading.
3. I edged the card with Distress Ink and stamped the sentiment around the border.
4. Using the other part of my paper mask I covered the background leaving just the central opening to work though. I stamped and cut out the buildings from copier paper to make more masks. I first stamped the foreground image (using multi coloured ink), then covered it with the mask before stamping the next building behind. Finally I covered both foreground images and stamped the silhouette palace at the back.
5. I used the cloud stencil again to add detail to the sky area. I then coloured the images picking up ink from my mat with a water brush.
6. Finally I added a little spatter by picking up watered down ink and sparkle pen from my mat onto an old toothbrush.

Katya Frame (by Brenda)

Hello everyone, today sees the second of this month's posts from our Guest Design Team member Brenda Weatherill. She has created a beautiful project using the individual stamp Katya, from our latest release of Russian stamps.

Brenda writes:

My starting point was a primed 8" x 8" wooden frame with a removable canvas central panel. I painted the canvas with deep pink, purple and gold acrylic paints and once dry, stamped the Katya image with Versafine Onyx Black ink and heat embossed with detail clear embossing powder. I then used gold paint to highlight areas of the image.

Next the frame was given a base coat of the same pink and purple paints, then random areas were covered with crackle glaze, dried, and a coating of light lilac paint plus some of the darker colours were added here and there with an almost dry brush. I also stamped some added crackle with the Large Crackle Background stamp and a gold pigment ink.

Across the bottom of the frame, I stamped a church from the Silhouette Palaces stamp set, and another from the Babushka stamp set, and heat embossed both with detail gold embossing powder. Along the top of the frame, I stencilled some vines and butterflies, and brushed them with mica powder.

Thank you Brenda, for another inspirational project. You can see Brenda's final project for the month next week.

Russian Floral (by Asha)

Hello, everyone. Now that the Easter celebrations are over, I hope you are able to find some time for a spot of therapeutic crafting.  And to inspire you here's a project featuring the new Russian Floral Egg.

Here's what you do:

1. Stamp the Russian Floral Egg onto a piece of blue cardstock using Versamark.
2. Apply WOW Gold Rich EP and heat set.
3. Colour the egg with coloured pencils. Fill in the open spaces, add shading around the embossed areas for a sense of dimension.
4. Apply a dusting of Distress Inks around the card to achieve a "velvety" effect. I used Chipped Sapphire and Seedless Preserves. 
5. Finally, frame the egg by stamping the four corners of the cardstock with a stamp from Breath of Spring and VersaFine Imperial Purple. Embellish the egg with bling or pearls.

Five easy steps but, oh, quite impressive, don't you think? Go on, give it a go. There are 2 egg designs to choose from. You could start your very own collection of Faberge inspired eggs. 

As always, I have more pics and details on my blog. And please swing by often for more project ideas from the rest of the team. Have a lovely day, everyone!

Beijinhos,

Asha

babushka (by Veronica)

Apologies for the picture-heavy post, thought I ought to show some photos of how it was done!
Thought I would try something a little different with the babushka dolls, and make a pop-up box card. Normally I would cut out the box, but as I had some ready-made blanks I used those for speed - they were rather shorter than I would have preferred, but worked quite well in the end.
I used the babushka dolls plate and the silhouette palaces stamps with a mixture of markers, pencils, brushos and distress inks.
The folded flat box fits into an 8"x8" square envelope, and the top panels are 85x80mm, side panels 85x105mm , and the back 85x185mm - sorry for the mix of measurements.

 I stamped the buildings from babushka onto
80x75mm panels for the fold-down flaps, and also at the top of a 80x180 panel for the inside back of the card,using black versafine ink. They were coloured with watercolour pencils.
The pic shows how they were glued onto the base card.

 The side panels were 80x100mm, and here I stamped the smaller stamp from silhouette palaces using black archival ink, then sprinkled lemon, rose red and turquoise brusho powder before spritzing it for the sky.





The same stamp was used at the bottom of a 80x180mm panel for the back, this time using smoky grey distress ink and sponging round the edges with the grey as well.

I stamped 2 large and 1 medium dolls onto white card using versafine again and coloured them with marker pens so that they stood out a bit from the background.
The blank came with 2 bars for the inner box, so the smaller doll was glued to the front of the back bar and the other to the front and back of the front bar

two more photos of the completed box from different angles

Beautiful Katya and Castles in the Sky (posted by Claire)

Good morning crafty friends, I hope you're all having a lovely Easter weekend. Today I'm sharing a project featuring the beautiful Katya. She's such a stunner I thought she deserved a pretty frame.

To decorate the plastic frame I applied gilding glue and then adding gilding flakes here and there and dusted mica powders over the rest.

I created a background with distress inks (bundled sage, Wilted Violet and Shaded Lilac) and overstamped using the Large Crackle Background stamp using purple chalk ink. I stamped Katya onto white stamping card and coloured her with alcohol markers. I also stamped her onto acetate with versamark and embossed with Gold Embossing Powder. I then cut Katya out and glued her to the background. I then cut her headdress out from the acetate and layered that up with tiny blobs of silicone glue. I added a few little gems here and there.

I then stamped the sentiment (from Artistic Expressions) with purple chalk ink on some gold vellum. I tore the strip out and rolled the edges around a cocktail stick to make a little scroll.

Here's another project made using the new Russian goodies

I took a canvas board and applied navy blue acrylic paint, with some black blended around the edges. Once that was dry I spritzed with a black glimmer mist. I made the clouds using white gesso applied with a natural sponge. I added highlights with white pearlescent acrylic paint. I took the Silhouette Palace 1 Stencil and applied black gesso. Once that was dry I added a little more of the cloudy effect along the bottom edge and some white highlights here and there.

I hope you're all enjoying the new stamps and stencils as much as we are

Thanks for visiting today, hope to see you again soon

Claire xx

Fifteen Minute Cards

Hello everyone, it is time for our monthly collection of projects that have taken no longer than fifteen minutes to create. These projects from the Design Team offer a fabulous selection of techniques and tips for you in one place, and we hope that you will enjoy the bumper selection that we have created for you this month. You can click on the individual Design Team members' names and head over to their blogs where you can see more details about their projects, plus see more of their artwork.

I have created two cards for you this month, both using Distress Inks to create a background for the focal images. For my first card, I chose Fossilized Amber Distress ink, to create a wrinkle free distress background. I added some stencilling using the same ink, plus Tea Dye Distress Ink for more definition. I stamped the bees from the Honey Bee stamp set and coloured them with pencils, before adding the sentiment from the Words of Wisdom stamp set.

For my second card, I used a left over piece of background from another project, that had been created with green and blue inks. I added the Silhouette Palaces Masks, joining them together, as I wanted a longer line of the silhouette to fill the card. I used two different colours of green ink to ink through the srencil, and then stamped the Large Crackle Background through the stencil as well, using Versafine Onyx Black Ink, I added foliage from the Floral Edges stamp set along the bottom and a sentiment from the Words to Dazzle and Sparkle stamp set. You can see more details of these cards on my blog.

Anne has created a series of cards for us using the beautiful large butterfly from the Patchwork Butterfly stamp set. For her first card, she wet the card, and sprinkled Brushos onto the butterfly, spritzing again to encourage a burst of colour. You can leave the card to dry naturally for an intense effect, or use a heat gun to reduce the intensity of the colour slightly. She added some Glossy Accents onto some areas for added interest. She has used 8" x 8" cards to create a large frame for her projects.

The second and third cards were created by colouring the stamp with watercolour pens and overstamping onto the black image. TIP: Colour the stamp directly with the pens, then lightly mist with water to activate before stamping. You can stamp several times with one colouring of the stamp, misting again before each re-stamping. This is a great technique for batch making . To encourage more bleed, she also spritzed the card after stamping the coloured image to give a nice watercolour effect.

Anne has also created a pair of very pretty cards using mica inks to create the background. She stamped a tree image from the Design a Tree Orchard stamp set using Versamark, and extended the image using an embossing pen, to ground the image. She then used a sparkly black glitter embossing powder. She cut out the mat, edged it with a pen to frame the shape, and mounted each one onto an A6 card. She stamped a sentiment from the Words of Inspiration stamp set.

We have three fabulous cards from Brenda up next; her first was created using a pre-made shaving foam background. She stamped both of the images from the  Silhouette Palaces stamp set, butting them together for a continuous appearance, and added a sentiment from the Words of Inspiration stamp set.

Her second card was created by stamping both images from the Silhouette Palaces stamp set, and then using Distress Inks, a sun mask and some ripped paper, she created a background of misty hills. She added some hand drawn birds, a sentiment from the Words of Love stamp set, and some skyline stamping using an image from the Decorative Edges stamp set.

For her final card, she created a background using Brushos, and stamped Katya in black. She added some colouring and gold pen to her headdress. She stamped sections of the border from the Harlequin Rose stamp set across the corners.

Claire has created two delightful floral cards for us. The first uses a lovely image from the Flora and Fauna stamp set. She has used delicate colours to enhance the image:

 Her second card uses an image from the Wild Meadow stamp set. She has repeatedly stamped the image in the corner of the card, adding shading with green ink for added depth. The monochrome palette is simple, but so effective:

Her final card uses the fabulous Russian Spires stencil. She has created a vibrant background, and the brightly coloured palace is really evocative of Russian churches and palaces. The white embossing is really striking against her background.

 Gerrina has created some pretty notebooks for us this month, using stamps from the Floral Notes stamp set. These pretty notepads would make lovely gifts, or you could make a few and keep some for yourself. They would make fabulous projects to sell at craft fairs. To create her projects, she has stamped the images onto a piece of watercolour paper, coloured the images using Distress Ink and a waterbrush, and then added a piece of decorative ribbon around the spine of the notepad. She has attached the finished image to the front of the notepad.

Magda has created three very different projects for us this month. Firstly, an ATC, using a little peacock image. This is such a cheery offering, and would really brighten someone's day.

The second project, is a colourful Easter card, created with rainbow layers of colour, before she added her main stamping. 

Finally, a collage style card, with stencilling and stamping, plus a glittery butterfly to complete the card:

Marga has created a very elegant Easter card using the Russian Exquisite Egg, and the Large Crackle Background. The monochrome palette would be great for a masculine card.

Vronnie has created a Brusho background in soft colours for her card, and used texture paste through the Russian Spires stencil to create a very quick but beautiful card.

Last but not least, we have a collection of cards from Zoe to share with you. She has been really busy creating some beautiful cards with the new Russian inspired stamps, and these first cards show what beautiful results you can get in just a few minutes. The colours, whether vibrant, or muted, are fabulous behind the Silhouette Palaces. Zoe's moons with the white outlines are beautiful, she has used Pan Pastels on linen card to create that effect.:

 On this third card, she has used a wax crayon to highlight the Silhouette Palaces.

She has created a splattered background for her next design, stamping the image using a multicoloured ink pad.

Finally, monochrome stamping can be very effective when creating a card, and her final two cards showcase this technique perfectly. She has created two collaged cards, layering images from the same stamp sets together.

Well, that brings us to the end of the projects this month. We hope that you have enjoyed what we have shared with you. Keep visiting the Design Team Blog for a daily dose of inspiration from the Design Team each day. We will be back with another Fifteen Minute blog post next month. Thanks for stopping by,