Turquoise and Green (by Carole)

Hello everyone, it is time for the last post of the month by our Guest Team Design member Carole Cann. Carole has created a stunning card for us using Brushos and white embossing. Here is Carole's post:

Good morning everyone, today I am showing my final project for this month. A card for a special friend.
I really like the look of white embossing with vivid colours, so decided to get my Brushos out which I shockingly, don't use very much.

Stamps used: Fleurs Nouveau- background, Flora Musica, Amazing Mackintosh Words

Stamp and white emboss the the beautiful flower border horizontally down the card on the left. This is repeated on the right side so that the base of the stamp is just touching the previous stamping.
Stamp and emboss the Flora Musica image and then cut away the background. Stamp the message with blue ink.
Now for the Brusho fun. I did a small section at a time.
With a wet brush, paint around the inside of several flowers and then sprinkle on some blue Brusho. Let it spread, helping it into any holes with the brush.
Repeat with the other flowers and leave to 'do its own thing' for a while. Dab dry with a cloth.
Swipe over the background with a wide, wet brush and repeat the process with a green colour. Help this along by brushing across, trying to avoid the flowers, then leave to spread. Dab if necessary.
Repeat with Flora Musica, then leave to dry.
Once Flora Musica is dry, cover the flower heads with Glossy Accents.
Trim the side edges off the background, making it 16.5cms x 18cms, (6 1/2 x 7 1/8 inches).
These strips are used to make the corner bands at the top of the card, picking up one of the individual flowers as the centre.
Matt and layer onto coordinating card.
The final size of my card was 19cms x 19.5cms (7 5/8 x 7 6/8 inches).

I hope you have enjoyed my three posts as much as I enjoyed making them, and thank you for the lovely comments you have sent. They are much appreciated.

Happy crafting,

Carole 😊

Carole will be back later in the year with more projects to share with us. You can see more of her work on her blog, and she regularly creates projects for our TV shows on Hochanda.

Medici Flower (by Anne)

Good morning. This one was created with the lovely Medici Flower stamp.

 

1. The collage flower was stamped with Versafine and the image masked with Pebeo Drawing Gum to protect.
2. The background was painted with inks and texture added by dropping on water and blotting off with tissue. Highlights were enhanced with white pen.
3. The masking was removed and the flower coloured with watercolour pens.
4. The panel was mat and layered onto blue card to frame. Alcohol marker was added to the edges to further define the layers.

Materials:

• Medici Flower stamp 
• 6 X 6 inch white card blank, blue card (for layering) and watercolour card
• Versafine Inkpad (Onyx Black)
• Pebeo Drawing Gum (masking fluid)
• Water based inks (Spectrum Noir Aquatints - red and purple)
• Watercolour pens (Spectrum Aqua – blue, yellow, green)
• Fine tipped pen (opaque white)
• Alcohol marker (black)

mosaic flower (by Veronica)

Good morning everyone, I hope that your morning is as bright and sunny as mine - am trying to ignore the weather forecast for snow, and the fact that there is a very cold wind outside!
I loved this stamp, which reminds me of honesty - I had wanted to stamp onto vellum to try to copy the translucent effect of honesty, but couldn't find any. Instead I stamped with versamark onto kraft card and embossed in white then painted with pearlescent paints.
I tore around the image, inked the edges with versamark and dipped into gold embossing powder. A mat of dark brown card got the same treatment.
The white base card was randomly stamped with vintage photo distress ink, just holding the stamp in my hand so there was only a partial image stamped. Edges sponged with more distress ink, then the pieces glued together.
It is a very quick card, I think it took longer for the heat gun to warm up and do the embossing than for anything else!

Beautiful Bird and Fanciful Flowers by Penny

Hi there - Penny here again with three projects to inspire and hopefully encourage you to have a go at creating them yourselves.  The first is a little mixed media canvas featuring the gorgeous Bird of Joy stamp, a couple of stencils including the Useful Leaves, and some metallic paints and texture paste from my stash.
I took a small canvas and painted it with black gesso.  When dry I stamped and embossed the image using clear ink and powder in the centre of the canvas.  I then painted it with acrylic paints,  adding gold paint around the words to make them pop.  I added some more paint using a sponge to give the piece more texture, then stencilled some glitter texture paste over the sponged areas.
I used the Useful Leaves stencil across the top of the canvas and attached some die cut foliage as well to frame the focal image.  To complete the piece I punched a couple of holes in the top and threaded some cord through to be able to hang the canvas up.

My second project for you today is a pretty, romantic card featuring the lovely French Heart stamp, a small heart from the Harlequin Rose set and a sentiment from the Loving Sentiments set, colouring pens, Distress inks, the Useful Leaves stencil, a tag die, a script stencil and and some ribbon from my stash.
I began by stamping the heart in grey ink onto colouring card and coloured it with pens in muted colours.  I die cut the image into a tag, embossed it and added ink around the edges.  I stamped a sentiment onto the tag, then punched a hole at the top and threaded some ribbon through.  I added some glitter to the flowers and set the tag aside to dry.
On a white base card I created a background of leaves and script with inks through the stencils, and stamped some small hearts randomly over the card.  I blended some ink around the edges of the card and attached the tag.

 

My final project for you today is a mixed media card featuring the beautiful Medici Flower stamp, plus images from the Gothic Fragments and Butterfly Poppy Collage sets, Distress inks, white charcoal, grey Versafine ink, colouring pens, texture paste, a die cut, gold Liquid Pearls and a gold pen from my stash.
I stamped the Medici Flower in grey ink onto colouring card and coloured it with the pens.  I die cut and embossed the image with a circle die, added ink through the die like a stencil and edged it with a gold pen.  I put dots of gold pearl drops into the middle of the flowers as stamens then set it aside to dry.  Next I created a background on a piece of white card, blending a few Distress inks together.  I then stamped some Gothic windows and Latin script randomly over the panel, faux bleached parts of the windows and added highlights with white charcoal.  I used gold pen around the edges of the panel then matted it onto black card.
On a white base card I applied black texture paste through a brickwork stencil to compliment the Gothic windows, and let it dry.  I then stamped a sentiment onto a spare piece of background card, cut it into a panel, edged it with gold pen and added some gold pearl drops.  When everything was dry I attached the background panel to the base card then added the focal and sentiment panels in 3D onto the card.

I hope you have all enjoyed these projects today, they are all great fun to create and can all be adapted with different colours to suit any requirements.  Thank you for dropping in, I'll see you again soon,

                                                         

Penny

Words and Pictures (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have a couple of projects to share featuring the beautiful individual flower stamps that we brought to you on the TV shows last month on Hochanda.

Both projects were demos from the show, but the first project was designed to be finished in two ways, depending on how the sales of the items on the shows were going. Little did Lesley and I know that everything would sell out like crazy on that first show!

I decided to separate the word clouds from the flower images on my stamps, making it easier for me to create a lot of my projects, and I just cut them apart very carefully with some sharp scissors. I then slot them back together whenever I want to, jigsaw fashion, to create something with the design as a whole.

I stamped the words over a piece of tissue paper, and glued this to a small canvas with matte medium. Once the canvas was dry, I added some watered down acrylic paint. I stamped the Floral Delight image onto a whiteboard heart, masking it and adding some paint in the same colours as I had used on the canvas. I coloured the flower image with pencils, and added a single word to the heart to finish. This was the version that was seen on the show.

For the alternate version, I stamped the flower image onto a spare piece of card and coloured it with pencils as before. I stamped the word onto a die cut rectangle and added these to a canvas.

My second project was all about colour matching. I chose a pretty piece of patterned paper by Crafty Individuals, and stuck it to a postcard sized whiteboard piece. I stamped the Wish Flower, and coloured it with woodless pencils, toning the colours to match the background paper.

I painted a larger piece of greyboard with lilac and blue acrylic paint to match the paper, adding hints of green and orange around the edges, again picking up the colours from the paper, before stamping the words from the main image across the background using first and second generation stamping.

I hope that you have enjoyed the projects that I have shared with you today, and will give them a try for yourselves. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Colourful flowers by Zoe

Good morning Lovelies and welcome to my second post for February.

 I’m sharing with you the samples I made for Hochanda featuring the beautiful colouring pages and flower stamps.

My colouring page I used water soluble crayons.

My card is coloured using Distress inks, I used the Distress inks and a waterbrush to colour my flowers and decoupaged, I used the wonderful Mackintosh sentiment to finish off.

Thank you so much for visiting today, have a wonderful day xx Zoe xx 

Beautiful Ladies (by Carole)

Hello everyone, we are joined today by Guest Design Team member Carole Cann for the second of her posts this month. Carole is sharing two delightful projects featuring two very feminine designs to inspire you. Here is what Carole has to say:

Good morning everyone.
This is my second project for the Guest Design Team slot and I have used one of my favourite stamp sets, Mackintosh Beauty. I really like the Mackintosh style and also Art Nouveau.

Products used: Mackintosh Beauty stamp set
Baroque Orchid- background
Versafine inkpads- Onyx Black, Satin Red
Versamark inkpad
Grey/blue, pink chalk inkpads
Embossing powder- clear, white
Brushos
Die cut
Light silver grey and red card
Clear mica pen

The background is repeat stamped onto an 18cms x 13 cms (7 1/2 x 5 1/2 inch) piece of white card, with the Baroque Orchid image and red ink.
I swiped over the background with a grey/blue inkpad.
When dry, I went over the whole background with a Versamark inkpad and clear embossed the whole piece. I then die cut the centre.
The die could be positioned further to the left to hide the join too, and then there would be more room on the right hand side for a message.
The large flowers were embossed with white embossing powder, and the small corners stamped with red Versafine.
Both of these elements were coloured with Brushos to give the lovely vibrant colours.
The lady is stamped with Onyx Black Versafine and coloured with the pink inkpad.
The message was stamped with red ink onto grey card.
The elements were layered onto red and grey card.

Judith also asked if I would post my next project too, showing a different lady who is equally lovely.

Stamps used: Summer Fayre, Exquisite Edges, Patchwork Butterfly
Wooden 15cm heart
Versafine Onyx Black ink
Watercolour pencils
Clear mica pen
Blue/grey chalk inkpad
Archival black inkpad
Black card or felt
Small silver bead trim
Permanent inkpad suitable for drying on metal
Silver metal
Border punch
Square wooden base 25.5cms x 25.5 cms (10 1/4 x 10 1/4 inch), painted black
Alcohol ink or markers

Background:
I stamped the border frame first with Versafine and cut it down to a square 24cms x 24cms, (9 1/2 x 9 1/2 inch).
The flowers were then coloured and a damp brush used to pull the colour out.
The corners were cut from a strip which was punched with a border punch.
This was then mounted onto the base board.

Heart:
I stamped the main image onto the heart with an archival type black inkpad, you can use any black inkpad that will not bleed into the wood.
Make sure this is dry before colouring with watercolour pencils. Pull the colour out with the mica pen, but do not put too much moisture on the heart or it will bleed.
Ink around the edge of the heart with the blue/grey chalk inkpad and stamp tiny butterflies with the same colour ink onto the background.
Mount the heart onto a piece of black card or felt and cut around the edge, leaving a thin border.
The bead string was stuck onto the border and around the edge of the heart with a good quality, clear drying glue.

Butterfly Embellishment:
My butterfly was made with silver metal sheet, but it could be made with a piece of card.
I stamped the metal with a permanent inkpad and when it was dry it was embossed and cut out.
A little colour was added with alcohol ink.
Everything was then assembled.

I hope that you have enjoyed my projects. I will be back next week with my final contribution for this month.
Thanks for your visit, and happy crafting.

Carole.

Wish by Brenda

Morning Peeps, my turn to share some more inspiration from Lesley's Chocolate Baroque Birthday shows on Hochanda using the gorgeous new floral stamps and colouring pages.

My starting place for the above card was to use Distress Inks to colour a piece of Bristol Vellum card stock and then add some stenciling. I stamped Wish Flower with Versafine Black, colour in with glitter pens, cut out and fix onto my background. Using sticky notes as masks I stamped the words individually onto cardstock coloured with the same Distress Inks, cut out and added to my card, then mat and later onto the base card.

This once did take a little time but I really liked the finish result. Using Wish Flower again, but using just the smaller of the two blooms masking the stamp with sticky notes and inking and stamping each flower one by one........make sure you don't forget to remove the mask for each stamping. I then coloured the flowers with pencils, stamped a sentiment from Birthday Words onto a piece of ripped velum and fixed across the stamped panel before matting and layering onto the base card.

This is one of the Colouring Pages which has the lovely Macintosh Beauty image on it, I simply coloured with pencils and framed.

My final piece of artwork today used the focal flower from Mosaic Flower. I started by using Distress inks to add watery colour to a piece of watercolour card the added some random stamping using the harlequins from Decorative Edges and Versafine Black. I cut two die cut circles coluring them with the same DI's as the background, then stamped the flower onto the smaller circle and added some colour again using the same inks. Next I placed some twine onto the base and fixed the circles and also added a few back sequins.

Medici Flower (By Marga)

Hello everyone, today it's my turn again to show you something.

And this time two cards with the same stamp.

This card I stamped with Versafine Onyx Black on kraft cardstock and coloured it with my pencils.

This one I made the background with Distress Ink and stamped the stamp with a purple ink and colored the flowers with my pencils.

Stamp I used is Medici Flower.

Hugs Marga

Delightfully French (by Julie)

Hello, for my first project I have a little decorative plaque, created from the French Heart single cling stamp.

I started by rolling out some plain white polymer clay to about 3 mm thick and large enough to take the area of the stamp. Next I inked up the stamp with a black Archival ink and pressed firmly into the clay. Carefully peel the stamp away from the clay and then cut around the outside edge. I use ordinary scissors and tidy up the detailed areas with a craft knife. Once cut out bake in the oven to packet instructions and then once cool, paint with water-colour paints. I have taken some cream chord and hot-glued it into place around the outside edge of the clay heart and then stitched some red beads around the chord.

I have plenty of old CD's lying around so I punched a hole (using a crop-o-dile) about 1 cm in from the edge and then covered most of the surface with thick, black Gesso. I then applied some tiny black stone chippings that I found in the flower section of a craft shop to the wet Gesso. Once dry, hot glue the clay heart into place and thread wire through the punched hole to hang where you wish.

My second project is a card stamped with the lovely Floral Delight single cling stamp.

First you need to ink up your stamp with Onyx Black Versafine ink and stamp onto spare stamping card, before colouring the image with coloured pencils. Next you need to take some copier paper and create a mask shape to place over the stamped image. Once the mask is cut, take the negative bit (the bit with the hole) and place around your flower and apply yellow and grey Distress inks. Once your happy with the centre of the design, swap over to use the positive bit of the mask (the bit you cut out) and place it over the coloured design and then stipple grey Distress ink and dot with a white paint pen around the edge.

Cut to size, before matting onto black card stock and attaching it to the front of you card.

Thanks for looking and please call back for daily Design Team inspiration

Julie xx

Wish flower (by Dominike)

Hello

A while ago, slate fell of a roof near me. First I threw it. Then I decided otherwise. May be it would be a good support to decorate a door.

Bonjour
Il y a quelques temps, une ardoise est tombée d'un toit près de moi. Je l'ai tout d'abord jetée. Puis je me suis ravisée. Peut-être que cela ferait une belle décoration pour une porte.

Versamark +  Wish flower rubberstamp + embossing powders Baby Blue, Red and White. 

Versamark + CB Wish flower + poudres à embosser Baby Blue, rouge et blanche.

I put it outside in the rain and after 3 months it is always so beautiful.

Je l'ai laissé sous la pluie et 3 mois après c'est toujours aussi beau.

I only have to drill the hole to put the thread.

Il ne me reste plus qu'à percer un trou pour mettre la ficelle.

Have a good day. Kind regards.

Bonne journée et à bientôt.

Create Art (by Magda)

I am happy to share with you some projects made with the new stamps from Chocolate Baroque:

Wish Flower
Mosaic Flower
Bird of Joy

I used various products for these projects:

Watercolor Pencils
Distress Ink Pad
Brusho
Stencils
Archival Ink
Stickles Crystal
Mesh wire
Wire
The sentiments  Words to Dazzle and Sparkle and Loving Sentiments

As you see the result of each card is different, which one do you prefer ?
Have a nice day and happy colouring
Magda

Fifteen Minute Cards

Hello everyone, we are here today sharing another bumper batch of quick and simple cards with you created by the Design Team. If you are looking for clean and simple designs, or cards that can be made in a hurry, then these monthly blog posts that we bring to you are jam packed with inspirational ideas and top tips. If you are new to stamping, or looking for batch card ideas for a wedding or craft sale, then we have the ideas for you. Grab a cuppa and take a look at what we have to share with you this month.

I have made three quick cards for you, showcasing the lovely new stamps and colouring pages that were featured on the January Hochanda TV shows. You might have caught a quick demo with a couple of these cards on those very busy shows. For my first card, I created a gelli print background using a round gelli plate, and then stamped the Bird of Joy, minus the word cloud onto the background. I added one of the words from the Floral Delight image, by masking everything else off before I inked the word, using low tack masking tape. I removed the tape, and then stamped the word. I coloured the image and added some coordinating pearls to finish.

To create my second card,  I stamped the Medici Flower onto some pretty Crafty Individuals patterned paper, and coloured the image with the woodless pencils. I then matted the background onto black card:

For my last card, I created an acrylic block background, simply adding colour to an acrylic block with Distress inkpads, spritzing the block with water, and swiping it over the background. I added a piece of colouring page, trimmed from a completed page. I have lots of the page left over to create plenty more cards like this. I then simply added a sentiment to finish the card.

We have a couple of lovely Valentine's cards from Magda up next, very appropriate for this time of year. She has used a lovely colour scheme of grey and red for her cards. The red really pops against the grey stamping.

Magda has also created two fabulous Birthday cards, using Distress Oxides to create the backgrounds, one as an 80th Birthday card, using one of our Musical stamp sets. She has used a white pen to add highlights:

The other uses a contemporary floral image, and she has painted parts of the flower using the same inks as she used to create the background.

She has also created a pretty pink birth announcement card also using Distress Oxides for the background.

Her final card is an Anniversary card using the French Heart stamp and watercolour pencils to colour the image:

Two vibrant cards from Anne next, stamping the Bird of Joy stamp using Memento ink, and colouring with alcohol markers. She then added some sparkle pen over the top for a bit of shimmer, and some clear glaze pen to some of the details. She tore a piece of paper to loosely cover the images, and spritzed the background with light blue mica ink. As an alternative, the images could have been stamped with black ink and embossed with clear embossing powder before being coloured with watercolours. The embossing would have acted as a barrier for the watercolouring.

Veronica has made a lovely card using the Wish Flower. This card in its elegeant colour scheme could be used for many occasions, and has a imeless feel about it.

The following three cards from Brenda have all been stamped onto patterned paper with Versamark and copper embossing powder. They have been coloured with sparkle pens. Using patterned papers is a very quick way of creating a card and changing the overall  final look of the card very easily:

For the following two cards, she has used the same Mosaic Flower image, but created two very different looks. On her first card, she sprayed the background with coloured inks, and simply stamped the image and added some coloured sequins.

On the second card, she stamped the image, colouring one of the seed heads and added some coordinating ribbon. The simple colour scheme is very effective.

Her next card utilises the great combination of kraft card and white embossing:

She has used Distress Ink to colour the background for her next card, and simply stamped the Floral Delight image using black ink. The black card and flat-backed pearls pull the look together:

Finally, she has created three little panels, stamping the images with Distress Ink, matting them onto coordinating card and adding them to a tall DL sized card.

We hope that you have enjoyed our selection of cards this month, and that you will try some of our ideas out for yourselves. We will be back next month with more ideas for time saving projects. In the meantime, do keep visiting the blog for a daily dose of inspiration from our regular Design Team posts. Thanks for stopping by,