Turquoise Summer (by Carole)

Hello everyone, it is with great pleasure that we are introducing a new member of our Guest Design team today. Carole Cann has agreed to join the Team, and we hope that you will make her very welcome. You may have seen some of Carole's previous artwork on the Challenge Blog, where she entered regularly, and wowed us with her beautiful designs.

As always with new members to our Team, we wanted to get to know Carole a little bit, and we asked her a few questions.

What was the first set of stamps that you bought from Chocolate Baroque?

My first set of Chocolate Baroque stamps was definitely Patchwork Butterfly. I liked everything about it and there is not one stamp that I haven't used.

What would you say is your crafting style?

My crafting style is quite varied and it depends what mood I'm in at the time of making. I am quite meticulous and spend far too long deciding on a layout or where embellishments are going to be placed. I will often stamp things several times if there is a slight flaw, usually due to my cat's fur as he likes to help!

What is your favourite crafting technique?

My favourite crafting technique is definitely stamping, as I can use it on a variety of surfaces with a range of products. I particulaly like working on metal, which seems to have gone out of fashion unfortunately. A lot of Chocolate Baroque stamps are ideal for this technique as they are lovely open designs. I also enjoy doing spritzed Distress Ink backgrounds and then looking at them to see which stamps would go best on them.

I have always been into crafting of some sort as I had very creative parents, and have tried many things over the years including lino and screen printing. I discovered stamping way back in the late 90's and was hooked. I found it very engaging as it gave me the flexibility to use different techniques and products, with other peoples' lovely images.

Carole's first project this month is a pretty card, evocative of Summer days. 

Carole writes:

Hello everyone, here is one of my samples that I would like to share with you all.

I stamped the Garden Lace Scene first, onto white card.  The border from the Harlequin Rose stamp set was stamped alongside with an embossing pad, and clear embossed. It has been coloured with Distress Inks.

The saying, from the Summer Poppies stamp set, was stamped and embossed onto parchment, to give a softer look. I made the roses from circles and attached them, with die cut swirls, for added embellishments.

Changes to the colour scheme could make this suitable for many occasions.

Thank you for looking. I look forward to showing you another idea next time.

Carole 😊

Carole will be back next week with another project to share. You can catch up with her on her blog here. In the meantime, do keep visiting the Design Team blog for a daily dose of inspiration from the regular Design Team girls.