Butterfly Joy ( by Magda)

I did an interesting investigation and found a large use of butterflies throughout the centuries in Art, no matter in which culture, religion, in drawing or painting.
These little creatures are symbols of an immortal soul, a new start, a change, happiness and colourful joy.
Therefore sending a card with a butterfly fits anyone, man or woman, fits any occasion and means much more than the sentiment you put on the bottom of it.
Here is my card today and the Step by Step :

1. Colour your white card lightly with Distress Ink Pad Antique Linen
2. Stencil randomly part of the 6x6 Cell Theory Template with Distress Ink Pad Old Paper
3. Stamp with Versafine Onyx Black in second generation, the stamp from Silhouette Grasses 
    Rubber Stamp Sheet A5
4. Mask with Masking Tissue part of Katya Single Rubber Stamp A6 stamp it with Versafine
     Deep Lagoon and stencil "Joy" on the background and around Katya's neck.
5.  Ink with Versafine Deep Lagoon and Versafine Toffee the butterfly of Patchwork Butterfly and
     stamp it on Katya's head
6.  Ink with Versafine Deep Lagoon and Versafine Toffee the small butterfly of Just Butterflies Rubber 
     Stamp Sheet DL
7.  Stamp it with Versafine Deep Lagoon the sentiment of Words of Inspiration

I am sure that the beautiful butterflies stamps from Chocolate Baroque will give a unique and precious touch to your cards.  

Magda

Mermaid Queen Birthday Card (by Rachel)

Hello everyone, today sees the final visit this month from our regular Guest Design Team member Rachel Fisher. She has created a beautiful Birthday card for her Mum, using stamps with an underwater theme.

To make her card, Rachel stamped the main image from the Mermaid Queen stamp set, and masked the image. She then added images from the same set and the Seadragon stamp set to complete the scene. The background is coloured with Distress Inks, and she has painted the images using Distress Inks and a water brush.

Thank you Rachel for sharing your lovely card with us. 

Rachel will be back to inspire us with more projects in a few months' time. You can visit her blog to see more of her work. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Butterfly Fold Back (by Anne)

Good morning. Here is one of my samples for the butterfly stamp set shows featured on Hochanda recently.

Materials:

• Patchwork Butterfly stamp set
• 6 X 6 inch square card blank (black), white watercolour card
• Inkpads: Versamark and Versafine (Onyx Black)
• Heat embossing powder (pearl blue)
• Sparkle brush pens (gold, teal)
• Watercolour pens (purple, teal)
• Stickles glitter glue (Icicle)
• Glossy Accents

How to make it:

1. Make a vertical score line half way across the card front and fold back.
2. Open the card out flat and stamp the swirls around the edges with Versamark ink to frame. Use a gridded acrylic block to help align the stamp with the card edges. Also stamp the verse and small butterfly. Heat emboss with the pearl blue powder. Colour the butterfly with sparkle pen and add glitter glue dots for added sparkle.
3. Stamp the large butterfly onto white card with Versafine. Using watercolour pens directly onto the stamp, colour the lightly spritz with water and overstamp onto the black image. This will give a watercolour effect. Add more colour with the sparkle pens. Cut out and glue to the edge of the card fold back. To make it neater you could paint the back of the white card with black acrylic.
4. Finish with more stickles and add some Glossy Accents to some areas of the butterfly detail.

Mackintosh by Zoe

Good morning one and all, I hope you've enjoying the beautiful summer weather.

Did you manage to catch our fab Lesley on Hochanda? Well here are some of my samples from the Mackintosh inspired stamp show.

A Greyboard Tag I Gesso'd first and used Distress Oxides which were put onto craft mat, spritzed with water and picked up, tip; Oxides don't like Gesso, it took loads of layers and loads of drying, but I liked the effect eventually! I stamped the image twice turning the tag upside down to get this interesting circular shape and coloured using Distress inkpads, I added some Frantage and a Gilding wax to finish off.

 

Heat embossed onto watercolour card and masked the bride then washed over with watercolour inks, once dry I removed the Drawing Gum and coloured using the same inks, I stamped and embossed the image twice and fussy cut the flowers to decoupage. To make the "Wedding Card" 

 

Spray inks for background, heat embossed in black 3 times and coloured with Watercolour Markers, cut out and mounted onto black card.

 

I hope you like my cards? I had so much fun creating them, have a wonderful day xx Zoe xx 

Mackintosh pt 2 by Zoe

Good morning Lovelies and welcome to my second post this month featuring the wonderful Mackintosh inspired stamps that were on Hochanda recently.

My first was wrinkle free Distress technique on background and I used the rosebuds to tone on tone stamp for texture, the image was coloured using Inktense pencils.

 

This card I inked using the Ombré effect with 3 shades of pink, I used text and rosebuds to create texture, the image was coloured using Watercolour markers.

 

A Papermache box which I painted with Chalk paints, heat embossed the images and painted with chalk paints, to finish I used UTEE on the lid the get a tile effect.

 

 

I hope you like my creations, please pop back and check out all the fab projects. Have a great day xx Zoe xx 

Beautiful Butterfly (by Asha)

Hello, friends. Here's one last butterfly project from me. This time I've made a notecard featuring a gorgeous butterfly from the Patchwork Butterfly A4 sheet. It's a simple card, not time-consuming and perfect to accompany a gift for a special person. The finished project measures 2 1/2" x 4 1/2".

I stamped the butterfly on the edge of the card, coloured him with Polychromos and cut around his wing. And every butterfly deserves a garden, so I stencilled one for him. The sentiment is from the Words to Dazzle and Sparkle A5 sheet.

As always, I have details of the tools and products used on my blog. Thank you for stopping by and drop in soon for more designs by the team.

Beijinhos,
Asha

butterfly trees (by Veronica)

 Both these cards have brusho backgrounds, and the tree stamp is from the woodland design a tree plate, stamped in grey versafine ink.


I used a mix of stanps from butterfly blush and various green inkpads to create the foliage of the tree for the first card,and stamps from just butterflies coloured with pencils.



The second card used just two of the stamps from butterfly blush, inked using a couple of old multicolour pigment ink pads. the sentiment is from words of inspiration.

Mica Butterflies (posted by Claire)

Good morning folks, Claire here with a card made using the beautiful Patchwork Butterfly stamp set and mica powders. I hadn't used mica powders for ages so I had a rummage in my craft room and got them out to have a play.

To make the background I've used black cardstock and stamped the beautiful swirls with versamark before dusting with mica powders. I stamped the pretty scene and the large butterflies on to black glossy card with versamark and again dusted over with mica powders to give a rainbow effect.

Have a lovely weekend and don't forget to keep popping back as my teamies have got lots of inspiration for you

Claire xx

Blue Butterflies (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have a canvas to share with you today, using some of the products from last month's Kaleidoscope of Butterflies TV Shows on Hochanda.

I took a small canvas, and added a couple of die cut corners. Using the Kaleidoscope of Butterflies Mask, I scraped some texture paste through one of the butterfly shapes several times, creating a flurry of butterflies up the canvas. Once the paste was dry, I painted the canvas with acrylic paint, and added some highlights to the textured butterflies and die cut corners with gilding wax.

I stamped and embossed two butterflies from the Just Butterflies stamp set onto a piece of patterned paper, and cut them out, before adhering them to the canvas. I added a sentiment from the Words to Dazzle and Sparkle stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Butterflies by Zoe

Good morning Lovelies and welcome to my final post this month featuring the most unique Butterfly stamps around, they were recently on Hochanda too.

My first card I masked the edges and just stamped with various shades of orange and over stamped just one as a "spotlight"

 

I used a Bookmark die to create a panel, I used torn paper and a circle stencil with Pan Pastels to create my scene.

 

Large grey board tag which I painted and inked through a stencil, I blobbed on some texture Paste which I'd coloured with paint and allowed it to form a skin then inked up my stamp and stamped into the paste, I used Gilding wax to highlight the textures, I coloured the ribbon with spray inks to match.

Grey Board again which I painted with chalk paints, the Fairy houses are from the website which I painted and stamped with elements from the set.

I masked the edges and used a low tack tape to adhere the masks and sprayed using a mica inks, a diecut banner, I stamped and fussy cut the tiny butterflies.

  

I hope you like you like my creations, I certainly loved creating them. Thanks for visiting, have a wonderful day xx Zoe xx 

Pretty Sunflowers (by Rachel)

Hello everyone, here is another project from our Giest Design Team member Rachel Fisher. She has created a sunny card for your inspiration today.

Rachel writes:

To make the card,  I first created an A4 background using Distress Inks in the following colours: Peeled Paint, Worm Lipstick, and Broken China. I smooshed them on a craft sheet, added water, and dipped the paper in. I created lots of layers in this way and repeated until happy. I cut a piece of the background to size and then stamped in the same inks using the Rustic Fragments stamp set. On another piece of the background, I stamped some flowers and leaves from the Sunny Sunflowers stamp set. I fussy cut them and aranged them on the background card. Finally I added the sentiment.

Rachel will be back with another project next week.

Amazing day (by Brenda)

Good morning Peeps, today I would like to share some more Butterflies with you and judging by how quickly they sold out on Hochanda you love them as much as I do.

For the above card I stamped one of the Butterflies from the Just Butterflies stamp set six times using Black Versafine onto some yellow DP and cut them all out. Using an A5 white card blank I added a piece of the same paper which I matted onto black before fixing onto the base card.

Next I used a mannequin die and cut from black cardstock and mounted onto the card base at an angle and then fixed five of the Butterflies to create a skirt and added a yellow tripe bow at the waist. The sentiment from the Words to Dazzle and Sparkle is stamped with the same black ink onto white card, matted onto black and fixed to the card with foam pads. I added the sixth Butterfly to the card and used small black pearls down the thorax of all the Butterflies and wire antenna to the single one.

For my second card I stamped the large Butterfly from the Patchwork Butterfly set slightly off the page using Versamark and heat embossing with Detail Gold and Ruby Embossing Powders. I sprinkled some aged Spice Frantage around the image and heated and finally stamped the sentiment from the Pretty Poppies set again using Versamark and Detail Gold Embossing Powder.

For my final card I used Distress Inks Broken China, Vintage Photo and Peeled Paint to colour a piece of card, cut a panel and then randomly stamped the flourishes from the Patchwork Butterfly set using Versamark and Detail Gold Embossing Powder. Using the remainder of the inked piece of card I stamped three Butterflies from the Just Butterflies set and cut them out. The sentiment is from the Words of Love set stamped in Coffee Archival Ink, the Butterflies placed into position with wire antenna added and Liquid Pearls down the thorax and trail.

I hope you all have a lovely sunny day and my thanks for your visit today.

Pumpkin (by Marga)

Today it's my turn to show you a card.

I used for the background Distress Ink and also stamped the Large Crackle Background and leaves with the Distress Ink. I embossed the image and coloured it also with the Distress ink and cut it out. 

Stamps I used are the Autumn Poppy set and the Large Crackle Background.

Hugs Marga

Molding Paste Butterflies (by Julie)

Hello, lovely to see you. If you would like ideas for molding paste then I have two projects that use molding paste in different ways. My first is this pretty card stamped with the lovely Patchwork Butterfly

I started this card by spreading molding paste over the butterfly stamp and leaving to dry for 24 hours. Next I inked up the large decorative panel with green Versafine ink and stamped onto the square card blank followed by the lovely swirl design. I coloured the flower panel with brush markers and the card background is a mixture of Antique Linen and Old Paper Distress inks which I dabbed with a damp cloth to remove some of the colour. For interest I added highlights with paint pens in red, orange and white.

Once the molding paste has dried, carefully peel away from the stamp, colour with brush markers and mount onto the card with 3D glue gel.

As you can see my second project is a decorative box. The box I used had previously been used to hold tealights so was quite sturdy and perfect to up-cycle.

I started by painting the box and lid with blue and green acrylic paint. Once dry I mixed up some molding paste with the acrylic paint used to paint the box and applied it through the new butterfly stencils that Chocolate Baroque have just added to their range. Whilst the paste was still wet I sprinkled a fine crystal glitter and set aside to dry. 

To finish off I glued some green mesh ribbon around the edge of the box lid.

Thanks for stopping by and please be sure to call back again soon to see more Design Team inspiration.

Julie xx

Dance with butterflies (by Dominike)

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen

I am back this month with another page of my new art journal.
The page is smaller that the cover you can see on background. I made it you a gelli plate, then I stamped the flowers and the butterflies with black ink.

Bonjour Mesdames et Messieurs
Je suis de retour ce mois-ci avec une autre page de mon nouvel art journal.
La page est volontairement plus petite que la couverture que vous voyez en arrière-plan. Je l'ai faite avec la gelli plate, puis j'ai tamponné simplement les fleurs et les papillons à l'encre noire.

I am working for some exhibitions, when I'll introduce Chocolate Baroque projects I made for th DT.

I hope you'll enjoy this.
Kind regards.

Je travaille sur plusieurs expositions où j'aurai l'occasion de montrer des projets réalisés pour la DT CB.

J'espère que vous aimez.
A bientôt.

Desk Decoration (by Magda)

Here you will find today a creative way to hold your papers for your desk.

Step by Step
1.  Stamp the large butterfly of Patchwork Butterfly Rubber Sheet A4 with Versamark and heat emboss
     with WOW Embossing Powder Metallic Gold Sparkle
2.  Colour the butterfly with a brush using Distress Ink Pad Broken China, Cracked Pistachio and
     Squeezed Lemonade
3. Glaze the butterfly putting Versamark directly all over the surface with the pad and heat emboss with
    WOW Embossing Powder Clear Gloss
4.  Paint with a piece of Cut'nDry Foam a large peg with Dylusions Acrylic Paint - Post Box and let
     dry
5.  Using the same paint, fill some of the white spaces of the butterfly wings
6.  Cut around the shape of the butterfly
7.  Choose a swirl of Patchwork Butterfly Rubber Sheet A4 as a tail of the butterfly to stamp directly
     on the large peg with Versamark and heat emboss with WOW Embossing Powder Metallic Gold 
     Sparkle
8.  Put the butterfly on the large peg and glue it with Inessentials Glue n Seal 
   

Now the large peg looks perfect and brings a spring atmosphere to your working desk.
Magda 

Fifteen Minute Cards

Hello everyone, and welcome to our monthly offering of  quick makes, brought to you by the Design Team and the Guest Design Team members. We aim to bring you speedy ideas that take no more than fifteen minutes to put together, using tips and techniques to produce cards that can be made as batch cards, or simply cards in a hurry for many different occasions. You can make your cards to sell at fairs and charity sales, as long as you hand stamp each item, there is no limit on how many cards you can make.

This month, we are bringing you a kaleidoscope of butterflies, as each of our cards are based on a butterfly theme.

I have made a clean and simple card, using a circular gelli plate. I inked the gelli plate using green and purple ink, applying the ink with a brayer. I then stamped onto the gelli plate with the flourish stamp several times. I pressed the gelli plate onto the card blank to obtain a print. The two butterflies were stamped and embossed onto coloured vellum, using white embossing powder. Finally, I added a sentiment onto the card using Versafine Onyx Black Ink.

Magda has created two pretty cards on a black and white theme for us this month. The first uses the pretty floral panel from the Patchwork Butterfly stamp set, with just a pop of orange:

The second card has a border of fluttering butterflies, again with just a hint of colour:

Rachel has created two cards, stamping with Archival Ink, and adding Brushos for a dramatic burst of colour:

Anne has used a gelli plate for the background of her card, stamping onto the plate using a Big Bold Background stamp to create a pattern. This has lifted some of the colour away in a faux resist effect. She has added the large flourish and minimal colouring to the beautiful butterfly. She has edged the panel with pen to save the need of a matting layer.

We have some fabulous cards from Brenda again this month. The first card was created by using a stencil and white paste on an offcut coloured with Distress Inks. She sprinkled mica powder onto the wet paste and heated it with a heat gun until it bubbled, then squished the bubbles.

For her next card, she stamped the butterfly and coloured it with Distress Inks. She fixed it onto a piece of hessian, stamped a sentiment, and covered the butterfly with Glossy Accents.

For her third card, she created a quick Pan Pastel background, then stamped the flowers, leaves, dragonfly and butterflies with Distress Inks.

For her final card, she placed the mask onto the card and sprayed the background with Dylusion sprays. She randomly stamped some butterflies, and then stamped the larger butterfly, painting it with the same Dylusion colour.

Penny created her beautiful card by stamping the large butterfly in black and then masking it. She stamped the Big Bold Background in grey, removed the mask, and painted the whole panel with inks.

Last but certainly not least, we have a beautiful selection of cards from Zoe. Her first card was coloured using Inktense pencils.

For her second card, she masked the edges of the card, stamped with Versamark, and added Pan Pastels over the top. The little butterfly was heat embossed, and she used a decorative bookmark die for the verse.

For her third card, she stamped and embossed the butterfly, before masking the image. She stamped the flourish twice, and added a stencil in the background. The butterfly was coloured with Inktense pencils.

For her fourth card, she used the butterfly mask and Distress Inks. She overstamped and kiss stamped the two smaller butterflies, using grey Versafine Ink for a more subtle effect.

For her fifth card, she taped across the centre, and kiss stamped at the bottom of the card with 'no ink', then used what was on the outline stamp to stamp at the top of the card.

Finally, she used bubble wrap to pick up left over Distress Ink from her craft mat to create the background for this card.

We hope that you have enjoyed this month's selection of cards, and that the ideas that we have shared will inspire you to make some of these cards, or to use some of the other stamps that you have to create some quick cards of your own. We will be back next month with another bumper post for you. In the meantime, do keep visiting the blog for a daily dose of inspiration from our regular Design Team posts.