Sending Hugs (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I am sharing my last post for this month, and once again, hoping that you are all safe and well. 

 

My first card was created using a stamp from last month's TV shows on Hochanda, Floral Grunge, and I have mixed it with a few other images to create a card that could be used for lots of different occasions. The sentiment I felt was particularly apt for now when lots of people could do with a hug, but we cannot give them one.

 

I started my card by stamping the main image onto Drawing Cartridge using Versafine Clair ink. I masked the flower head and then stamped and embossed the film strip from Butterfly Mind. I used the same colour ink, but added clear embossing powder over the top. I added a few extra splodges with a stamp from the same stamp set around the flower head and then removed the mask. I coloured the image using Polycolour pencils, before replacing the mask, and adding more splodges of colour with Distress Oxides to tone in with the colours that I chose to colour the flower head. The sentiment is from Amazing Mackintosh Words.

I am also sharing some older cards that I made using some of Kim Moody's stamps, that were also featured on last month's shows. Sadly I did not have a chance to make any fresh samples with these fabulous stamps, but I thought you might like to see some of these again...

A street made from all of the houses, using a bit of masking, and I added some treees from Trees a Crowd in the background. This was such fun to make!

A moving day, who would not like to get away from it all and live in such a picturesque spot? We live near the forest and love taking long walks in the woods.

White embossing on kraft always looks so effective, especially painted with Koh-I-Noor paints.

This almost spooky version of the Posh House was another favourite sample that I enjoyed putting together with the trees.

I will be back next month with some projects from our One Day Special shows. Thanks so much for stopping by. Take care and stay safe,

Judith xx

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside - by Zoe

Good morning Lovelies and welcome to my final post this month.

Today I’m featuring the samples I made for last months show on Hochanda using the fabulous seaside inspired designs drawn by the very talented Kim Moody.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my creations, I’ll be back next month, so until then, please stay safe and keep well.

Have a wonderful day xx Zoe xx

A mish mash of makes by Rachel

 Hello there. Rachel here today with the last of my makes from the December shows. This time I am showing those I made using the floral grunge, ephemera, movie strip collage and trees a crowd sets.

For this first one I used the ephemera stamps to stamp on a distress oxide background and fussy cut the images out themn mounted them onto a piece of paper from a show earlier in the year. Finally I added the flower from the movie strip collage that I cut out and added in black and white. 

In this next sample I created the background using distress oxides and overstamped with ephemera stamps. Next I stamped and coloured the floral grunge stamp a few times before fussy cutting and decoupaging up the image.

In this one I used the trees a crowd stamps to create a scene using inks and a piece of card plus a large sun mask. I used the stamps to fill in the scene.

Finally it was back to the ephemra stamps which I stamped in a similar colour to the background on this card (made using oxide inks). I then stamped (in black) the movie strip collage stamp and finally added decoupaged the flower on in a colour similar to the background.

I hope you have a great day!

Thanks for joining me today.

Rachel.

Black Tag (by Christine)

It's my final turn on the blog for January - I really hope you have enjoyed perusing what I have shared.

I did go ahead with the black tag and embossing as I promised in my last blog. I decided on white embossing powder so that the images would stand out against the black. I stamped part of an image on white board using Versafine Clair Nocturne and then used watercolours as my colouring medium. I triple embossed the white board for added sheen.

I stamped out a sentiment and added it to the tag, using a little owl from my stash to hold it in place. I used a white gel pen and silver Liquid Pearls to add some decoration to the tag itself. Some butterflies from my stash finished off the piece. I think this will go in to my journal with some notes so that I can replicate it another time.

As I am writing this the sun has come out and the snow is disapperaring rapidly - let's hope that Spring is well and truly on its way. Please take care of yourself and be safe.

Silhouette Grasses

Canary Bird Rose

Happy Crafting!

Christine

xx 

Misty treescape by Brenda

Hello all, my last post for this month and another share using Trees a Crowd which has a whole host of different trees to match all nature of creations.

I started by stamping the tree into place, some with second generation inking, using Versafine Clair and then masking the edges of a landscape piece of CB Drawing Cartridge. The taking a piece of torn paper I built up the hills using a variety of colours of Distress Ink. A mask for the sun and Pan Pastels to colour the sky with a slightly mist feel and finito, a fairly quick and easy card to achieve.

For this one I used a whole collection of stamps from Floral Grunge, Ephemera 1, Ephemera 2 and the word Botanical stamped onto scraps of card which I tore and distressed, some flowers, lace and a clip to hold one of the vintage tags. You could call this one just some inky fun!

My thanks for your visit today and continued support.

ATC collection - by Magda

 Good morning,

sometimes it is really pleasant for me to do ATCs and Chocolate Baroque has a lot of small stamps that match perfectly for this purpose.

I used for theses 6 ATCs :

White Cardstock cut in ATC size, Distress Ink Pads,   Archival black, stencils, white and silver embossing paste, white pen, stickles,  and of course the beautiful stamps

Fantasy Castle,  May Fairy,  Wild Meadow and Words to Dazzle & Sparkle

Thank you for passing by, hugs

Magda

at the seaside

I have two cards to share today using the harbourmasters house stamp by Kim Moody. 

My first card is a stepper card, with the       beach huts on  the 'steps'.

The house and huts were coloured with watercolour pencils, and the huts were fussy cut out.

The second version is a 6" square card with the house stamped in black onto a medium grey card. Coloured with watercolour pencils again, and the harbour in the distance extended with a fine line pen.
 

Looking for fabulous creatives to join our teams

Hello everyone, we are currently recruiting for Design and Guest Design Team members and are putting a call out for applications to join us. Our team is very friendly and we pride ourselves on being a great Company to represent. As you know, the quality of our stamps is excellent, and you will get the chance to work with these on a regular basis as part of your Design Team experience.

The post would require you to make samples, on a monthly basis, for our TV shows, generally at least 6-8 samples, more if you have time, but we would definitely prefer quality over quantity. We would also require you to write blog posts for the Design Team blog, and actively promote the TV shows and designs on Chocolate Baroque’s social media, as well as on your own blog/social media page(s) – you will need to have a blog to be part of the Design Team but not essential for the Guest Team.

If you are interested in applying for the position, please submit good quality photographs of at least four recent pieces of work, they do not have to be made using Chocolate Baroque stamps. Please tell us about yourself, your craft likes, why you would like to be considered as a member of the Team and what you think you could bring to it. Please also include your blog address. You will need to send your application to sales@chocolatebaroque.com by 12^th March 2021 and the successful applicants will be notified by 31^st March 2021.

If you have any questions, you can contact sales@chocolatebaroque.com, david@chocolatebaroque.com or judithbsmith13@gmail.com

We look forward to hearing from you and wish you the best of luck with your applications.

Lesley, David and Judith.

At the Movies

Hello, a couple of more cards to share with you today.

For my first card I cut a piece of card to 6" square. I sprinkled on some Brushos in Turquoise and Blue shades. It was very bright so I blended Distress Ink Antique Lace over the top and spritzed with some water. Once it was dry I stamped with  Movie Strip Collage and coloured with the same Brushos which had been made into inks with a little water. I then roughed up the edges of the card and tore it in a couple of places  and added some pieces of lace.  I added mats and layers to make an 8" card

My next card again uses Brushos. This time I wanted the vibrant colours of the reds and purples. The stamp I used is Floral Grunge. Again, I coloured with same Brushos that I added water too. I stamped in the background with parts of the Ephemera stamp sets just here and there.

 Thanks for looking

Sandra x

Floral Collage (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope that you are all keeping well. I have a project to share with you today using some of the stamps that were featured on last month's TV shows on Hochanda. 

I created a background using a stencil and a piece of drawing cartridge. I brushed three colours of Distress Ink through the stencil, a blue, lilac and green, to give a soft backdrop for the rest of the design. I added a stamp from the Baroque Ephemera 1 stamp set in each of the four corners, and then stamped the Movie Strip Collage image onto the background. I stamped and embossed the flower portion of the image three times onto a spare piece of drawing cartridge, and coloured the images with watercolour paints.

 I cut the images out, and worked out the positioning of the flowers on the background. Before I stuck them onto the background, I added some extra splats using an image from Butterfly Mind, and a fern leaf from Wild Meadow.

I will be back later in the month with more projects to share with you. Thanks for stopping by, take care,

Judith xx

Concertina Journal (by Christine)

It's my turn again on the blog and this time I am sharing the first three pages in a watercolour paper concertina journal. The Chocolate Baroque items used are listed at the end.

On the opening page, I stamped a number of images and then coloured them with watercolour paints. I then used gold metallic paint to fill the negative space, a technique I really like.

Mackintosh Windows stamp set

Rose and Thistle stamp set

Rose Set stamp set

On the second page, I chose a few Distress Oxide inks and blended them together. I then stamped the images using toning metallic paints (I seem to be in to metallic paints at the moment!?!)

Woodland, Orchard, Glade & Spinney Design A Tree Multibuy

On the final page, I used Distress Oxide Sprays through a stencil and then stamped the images using Versafine Clair in black. I coloured the images using glitter paints and then added some of my own doodles with a black fine liner pen.

Steampunk Birds

 

I am planning my final blog for January as I write this and it will involve a black tag and possibly some embossing powder- still to be decided.

Happy crafting!

Christine

Branching out - by Zoe

Good morning Lovelies and welcome to my second post of the month.

I hope you managed to catch the shows last month on Hochanda featuring a fabulous variety of stamps.

Here are some samples I made for the show.

I really enjoyed creating with these stamps.

The film script grunge flower I coloured acetate with Alcohol inks and some gold foil and just created an overlay strip, then decoupaged the flower.

It was a technique that I’d seen the lovely Leonie from Hochanda TV demo and just loved the look of it, that “pop” of colour really lifts it I think.

Thank you so much for spending your time visiting today.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

Xx Zoe xx 

All in a row by Rachel

 Hello there!

Rachel here today with some more makes from the Kim Moody stamps featured in one of December's shows. This time I am sharing the house stamps - this first one features Gran's house that I stamped multiple times and then highlighted a small area by colouring it.

In this second sample I stamped the shop, the posh house and our house and coloured them all using watercolour pencils. Then I fussy cut them and mounted them onto a backing card that I had coloured already to try and make the scene complete.

I think they make a great trio but you could equally well do a full row of shops or a row of just our house. Lots of possibilities here.

Emjoy your day!

Rachel x

Take Flight - by Magda

 Hello,

shall we take a good flight into the new year ? Well, I start wishing to everybody a Happy New Year with this journaling page.

The step by step will help you if you like to create a similar page 

1. On a gessoed page, spinkle  Distress Acrylic Paint  Stormy Sky with a cotton buds for the sky 

2. For the ground blend more green shades  of Distress Acrylic Paint

3. Stamp with Archival jet black different hot air balloons of Steampunkery into the sky

4. Scribble with a wooden stick white Acrylic to emphasize the air and the moving clouds

5. Stamp in black the sentiment Take Flight of Steampunkery

6. Stencil the numbers 2021 and fill them with Distress Paint Abandoned Coral using a wooden stick

7. Blend dark green and brown  of Distress Acrylic Paint on the foreground and stamp in black partially and randomly the lace of  Steampunkery

I hope you will now have a go and post your creations, hugs

Magda

Floral Grunge by Brenda

Good morning, it's my turn to share some more work using the stamps featured on last months shows on Hochanda TV and today I have a YouTube video making the above card using are Floral Grunge, Ephemera 1 and Ephemera 2. 

The card is not unlike one I shared at We Love Chocolate Baroque challenge and my own blog last month but this one has an acrylic paint background using a palette knife to scrape and spread the paint, a really quick and easy way to get a background that looks a bit different. I won't go into all the making process as it's explained in detail along with the stamps used on my video.

There are more videos using Chocolate Baroque products and stamps here and I'm trying hard to add more as time permits.

My second share is a simple make, a masked piece which again is CB Drawing Cartridge, Oxide sprays through a stencil, remove the making take and the large tree from Trees a Crowd stamped in Versafine black, an inspirational quote of my favourite set Words of Inspiration and the bunny from Glorious Spring.

As always my thanks for your visit today, stay safe and well.

grand mansions.....

More of Kim Moody's houses to share today, from the once posh to the normalish.

I started with the posh house, which definitely looked like it could do with a make-over rather than a house-warming! 

I stamped the tag shape twice on white card using brown ink, and inked round the edges with the same inkpad.I stamped the house on one tag and the words and keys on the other. in the same brown ink. I added shading to the house using a waterbrush.

I stmaped the house twice again on spare card colouring just the doorway and the urns, and fussy cut out the urns, doorway and just the door frame. The cut out bits were then decoupaged using foam pads 

The background square of card was randomly sponged with the lighter brown ink and stamped using stamps from make your mark and edged with the darker brown . Tags added at angles to finish.

The normal house was used to make this stepper card,  from a pack bought may years ago and rediscovered..... I stamped the house on the upright and coloured using watercolour pencils. The house was stamped out three times onto spare card twice using marker pens to colour the stamp and a stamnping pklatform to repeat stamp until i had enough depth of colour, and once using grey ink. these were cut out and glued onto the the steps to create a city scene

My final sample shows the same house coloured with marker pens again but in brighter colours and stamped onto a cream DL card blank
 

Bright and Cheerful Flower (by Christine)

Hello everyone, today sees the first of three posts this month by our Guest Design Team member Christine Patch. She has created a colourful card to inspire you.

Christine writes:

May I start off by wishing you a very Happy New Year - let's keep our fingers crossed that it will be a considerable improvement on the year just finished, even if it might take a bit of time!

I decided to kick off my turn on the Blog with a very bright and cheerful design to be added to my journal.

I chose one of the designer papers and added some additional stamping to give it more detail. I used a Versafine Clair in a toning purple to add some butterflies and hatching.

Having picked one of the lovely postcards for a mat, the lovely large flower stamp allowed me to choose strong bright colours as decoration. I decided on Memento Tuxedo Black ink as I wanted to use Alcohol Pens for the colouring. I stamped two of the butterflies on white card and one on the same postcard for a point of difference. Glossy Accents added dimension to the bodies.

I found a wooden button in my stash that was the perfect colour and added that as an embellishment to the flower centre. I used the same flower stamp to edge the postcard and then the designer paper to bring it all together. Finally, I added a sentiment that I think is so pertinent to us all: Live life to your own design. 

Chocolate Baroque products used:

Designer Papers 8" x 8" - Chic Script                

Seriously Gorgeous A6 Postcards

Flower stamp taken from Tangled Garden stamp set

Open Weave cling mounted stamp

Just Butterflies stamp set

Sentiment taken from Freesia Blueprint stamp set 

Happy Crafting!

Christine

xx

Tall Stories

Hello, I am sharing some of my cards today using Ephemera 1 and  Ephemera 2. 

I love ephemera, all the stories and memories that they hold.....

My first card was made during the first lockdown when Lesley started some Challenges over on the Facebook page. I do recommend you take a look as there have been some fabulous entries over the months. Certainly kept us motivated!

This card uses some pattern papers, die cuts and flowers to make a pretty 21st birthday card. I have highlighted the 21 with an inked bottle top.

For this card I used parts of ephemera and over stamped with the Tall Trees stamp set. I added the focal point from Gerbera and Friends.

This is known as a "W" shaped card and is a great way to use smaller stamps and quotes from Tall Trees, each becoming a little work of art in their own right.

My last card uses the main stamp from Tall Trees, a large bare tree. I have stamped it over a Distress Ink background which I added droplets of water for a snowy effect. I stamped and embossed the trees in white and cut into 3 equal parts and then glued onto a piece of dark card.

 Thanks for looking

Sandra x