Floral Fun

Floral Fun

Hello all, I hope you have now recovered from your Christmas meals and are all suitably satisfied having had a very enjoyable time.

Today I would like to share some of my floral makes from the November Shows. The first shows a simple card using The Snakes Head Fritilary taken from the Happy Flowers Day stamp set. I find it amazing how such a delicate flower can have such beautiful detailed markings, isn't nature just wonderful ?

I stamped this image twice firstly onto a piece of white card and then onto an oval piece of mountboard which I found in my stash.

I coloured just the leaves and some of the stem on the card and just the head of the fritilary on the Mountboard, with a few strokes of the pencil at the bottom of the stem to ground it with some blades of grass. Very easily lined up to mount with double sided foam tape to make a quick, simple but effective card. 

One of my favourite florals so beautiful and needing so little time to make for an effective and easily made card suitable for any number of occasions depending on how you decide to colour it.

Another of the Magnolias how could I resist this is quite simply stamped onto Chocolate Baroque designed card and coloured using Koh-I-Noor Brilliant Water Colour Palette these paints are such a delight to use and the card accepts the watercolour without a problem.

Finally for something a little different from the set, this beautiful Butterfly deserved to be showcased by itself, don't Chocolate Baroque do beautiful butterflies ? 

This is mounted in a small shadow box I have had hanging around for a while now but this stamp was the perfect size to fit it so I stamped, coloured and fussy cut the image and then mounted it into the box having stamped the dictionary explanation of the Butterfly onto a complimentary coloured piece of card. 

 

Many thanks for popping in today, may I also take this opportunity to wish you all a Very Happy New Year.

Love Doreen

Magnolia you sweet thing by Rachel

 Hello there! Rachel here today with the last of my makes from November. This first one I really like - a little masking, stamping, watercolour painting and text ...what's not to like. I used the artist trading heart and the happy flowers day stamps.

In this last sample I used the Harmony tree stamp and created a scene around it using inks. 

Hope you have a fabulous New Years eve tomorrow - and all the very best for 2022!

Hugs

Rachel x

Snowflakes and mandala's (by Miranda)

 

Hello crafty people,

Today another  blogpost from me........I have been playing with Distress Inks, embossing,  big background stamps and the lovely 'Waterlily Mandala set'.  I have changed that into a 'special snowflake pendant  mandala LOL......why not.....it is a lovely versatile stamp which I have decoupaged and added some 'dangles'....using elements of the same stamp.

'Imagination is limitless'

I have made a background using Distress Oxydes and the 'Big bold background Dotty snowflake' which I have stamped in one corner and embossed in another corner with a resist technique.

For me this is an unusual color scheme but in the end I liked it......

I have embossed the two script stamps from the 'Gothic Angels set' ( like in my previous post) and also embossed the snowflake edge from the 'Winter edges set' 

I have embossed the waterlily stamp three times and colored it using Distress inks, applied some Wow sparkles using a glue pen and decoupaged it all. I also embossed and decoupaged the 'crown' stamp from the gothic angels set. You can see it on top of the mandala. 

And I have added some organza ribbon as a nice touch....

Hope you did like my take on this one......and hope to see you again in the new year!

Thanks for watching and always like to read your comments.

Have a good ending of the old year and stay safe,

Kraft Magnolia and A Harmony Notelet Set (By Tracy Thompson)

 

This is my final post for this month and this year here on the Chocolate Baroque blog.  So the last of my creations from the Novembers shows, I love using Kraft card especially to colour on.  I stamped the Magnolia's from the Happy flower's day stamp set,   I coloured with Aqua Pencils, directly on to the Kraft card, but I didn't apply the water to the pencils as I liked leaving the strokes in there.  It was just that simple, but I love it!

Unlike the card above this notelet set isn't quite so simple.  I always start by creating the folder first, with a pocket on the inside to house the notelets and the envelopes..  I created the front using the Harmony Tree stamp set, distress oxide inks and the splatters from the  Numerology stamp set.  I coloured the tree with pencils, and added a ribbon.  I like to decorate the inside flap too, and I did that using the Remembrance Tree stamp set,  then as you can see using a selection of the stamps I have already mentioned I inked, stamped and created notelets and matching envelopes, all using the same method.

I hope you have enjoyed looking at my creations

Happy Crafting

Tracy x

I'm Grateful (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I'm popping in with a Christmas wish for you all today. Normally Lesley would be here today wishing you all the best for the festive season. As you probably know, our lovely Lesley has very recently been ill, and is currently at home recovering, being looked after by David. Lesley will need to take things slowly for a while. I am sure like myself, you wish her a speedy recovery.

I spoke to Lesley yesterday morning, and a thought for this post had already formed in my mind, two words, 'I'm grateful', grateful that Lesley made it through her heart attacks, and that she is still here with us. We have a lot to be grateful for, don't we? We might moan about the state of the world right now, with Coronavirus, lockdowns, rising food prices, etc., but we still have friends, family, crafting, a smile, our pets, there is always something that we can be grateful for. 

I have not made anything new to share with you for this blog post, but I looked through my old blog posts, and found these projects to share with you:

I have used a sentiment from the Words of Gratitude stamp set to create a background, (very apt on this occasion), for the Tangled Birch tree. I used soft pinks and greens on the whiteboard panel and the larger background behind. The little butterflies are from the Baroque Meadow stamp set.

Here is a very quick set of thank you cards using the same Words of Gratitude stamp set of sentiments, plus a variety of fairies across the whole range of fairy stamp sets from Chocolate Baroque. These are perfect for any time of year but great for sending out after Christmas.

Thank you to all of you, our customers, for supporting us this year, for visiting the blog and Facebook Group, buying our stamps and other products, watching the TV shows, and leaving so many friendly supportive comments. We appreciate every single one of them.

Thank you to the rest of the Design Team for your hard work over the past year, your beautiful samples and support, you help make Chocolate Baroque shine. 

Finally because I can, I want to commend David and Lesley on their hard work this year, ensuring that the stamps have been top quality and the service to you the customer has been first class. They work so hard to make Chocolate Baroque an outstanding business, but they make us feel part of the family too.

Wishing all of you health and happiness over the coming season and for the year ahead. Sending lots of love to Lesley as she rests and starts to recover.

 

Sign of spring by Veronica

Wishing everybody a very happy Christmas and all the best for a happy and healthy New Year!

Today I'm sharing the last of my samples from the November shows "Happy Flower's Day". The backgrounds were distress inks and images coloured with either distress inks or watercolour pencils. 

Apologies, I have just discovered I cannot input this from my tablet so have had to remotely control my daughter. I will update the details when I am mobile enough to get to the actual computer.

 

Happy Christmas Eve (by Sandra)

Hello and Happy Christmas Eve!

I'm sharing the last of my cards from the November show on the Craft Store.

These cards all use stamps from Frosty Trees set.

For my first card I made a background using Distress Inks and a stencil. I blended the inks off the stencil onto the card each time using a darker colour and not quite covering the previous colour ink. I also blended some ink for the sky which I spritzed with water and blotted to make it look snowy. I stamped the swirly tree in Versamark and embossed in silver. I stamped some background trees from Trees a Crowd using my background colours. I stamped a sentiment onto a die cut. I mat and layered my piece onto a 8x8 card base.

For my next card I used Brushos on a piece of  water colour card. When it was dry I stamped the trees with Versamark and embossed in white. I trimmed the image and layered onto a 7x5 card base. I added a sentiment from the stamp set.

For my last card I made an aperture easel card. I stamped "snow" using the splatter stamp from Numerology. I stamped the Swirly tree onto a piece of vellum and embossed in white. I added a sentiment as a stopper. The second picture shows it lit up.

I hope you all have a happy and healthy Christmas and I'll be back next year.

Sandra x

A Trio of Trees (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope you are all keeping well and not feeling too frantic as we approach Christmas Day itself. I would like to wish you all a happy, peaceful festive season, and hope that you enjoy the days ahead, whatever you are doing.

I have a few final projects to share with you this month, showcasing stamps from last month's TV shows. My first project was created by inking a large square acrylic block with Distress Oxide ink, spritzing it with water, and pressing it onto a piece of textured card. I had placed a circle mask onto the card first, to block out an area for a sun or moon. I left the card to dry naturally, and once it was dry, I stamped the tree from the Harmony Tree set. I added the words around the tree in first and second generation. I added some colour to the tree with Distress Ink and water, also grounding the tree by adding some shading underneath.

 My second project was also created on textured card using Distress Ink this time. I added a circle mask once again, choosing two colours for the background, and stamped the tree from the Remembrance Tree stamp set. I added the sentiment, and then drew in two birds with a fineliner pen using a stencil.

I added colour under the tree with Distress Ink and a water brush to ground the tree, then added pops of colour to represent a field of poppies or other flowers.

My final card was created with the Harmony Tree stamp set once again. I created a background using Drawing Cartridge, and Distress Ink. I then stamped the wording randomly over the background. I made a strap from Drawing Cartridge which I attached to the card. I stamped a whiteboard heart with the Harmony Tree and coloured this with Distress Ink and a waterbrush, then accentuated the details with pencils. The heart can be slotted into the heart but removed and kept as a memento.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope that you have enjoyed my projects this month, and will try out some of my ideas. Take care,

Judith xx

Have a Heart

 Have a Heart

Hello everyone, I hope today finds you all fit and well. Today I would like to share with you all some of the samples I made for the November shows using A Heart Full Of Love stamp set.

This first card is simply stamped and framed with the broken heart which is in the set which really gives a random look to the frame. For the stamen I have used a black fine liner pen. I chose not to colour the flowers as I didn't want to spoil the classic feel that I felt the frame had given to the card.  

All the cards I have made using this set are easily achievable and would look lovely in a variety of colour ways.  This card simply uses embossing powders to achieve a simple but attractive card. Both have been stamped using a Versamark inkpad plus gold and white embossing powders. 

This next card is more about the sentiment of the verse than anything else, gentle blending with inks and using a white gel pen, a red marker and some floral embellishments to finish the look.

Thank you for popping in today many good wishes for a Very Happy Christmas,

Love Doreen

Its all about the trees by Rachel

 Hello there! Rachel here today with some more makes from the November shows. This first one uses the Frosty Trees stamp set. I used flitterglu and flake on black card to create the images and added them to the card blank that I had stamped in versamark and added and heat set gold embossing powder. 

This one uses both the trees a crowd and the remembrance tree stamps. I stamped the trees then built a scene around them using inks. Finally I added some leaves using pens of autumnal colours.

This last one is a mixed media card using the main image from the trees a crowd stamp set. 

I hope this gives you a few ideas! 

Merry Christmas to you. Wishing you a happy healthy 2022 too!

Rachel x

Travel again (by Magda) - Mail Art, Curiosities

Hello, 

as second post of December and last one for this year I share with you this Journaling Page with Chocolate Baroque stamps.  I hope that everyone could travel again without a lots of restrictions and send at home nice postcards. The step by step pictures explain how  this page came to life:                                                                                                                                                     

1. I colored  a blank page  with Distress Ink Pad

2. I glued on it a tissue paper 

3. again carefully more  Distress Ink Pad

4. I hand-drawn with Rembrand Charcoal Pencil the travel bag and put some shadow 

5. I stamped with Archival Jet Black the images of "Curiosities" and "Mail Art" plates 

Did you liked my page ?  I send big hugs to you all and wish you  a Merry Christmas

Magda

Gel Print Backgrounds by Natalie

 

The sample above uses two types of gel print - both the positive and the negative. The positive image is pulled through your chosen stencil (or many stencils) and can be seen on the white area above. The negative is what is left behind after the positive pull and the removal of the stencil itself. The second pull was done directly onto my card blank. As I used Distress Oxide inks I didn't have to worry about warping either my card blank nor the paper of the positive pull. I'll often create multiple prints in a session so i don't always print with a particular layout in mind.

As the white section is cut from a separate piece, we can tuck in our floral images, and even play with which elements are in front on the piece and which tuck behind. Some of the floral images are stamped onto other gel prints (or offcuts of them, I never throw anything away). Others were stamped onto stamping card and blending brushes were used to softly apply ink using the same shades as the print. The florals at the back come from A Heart Full of Love and they are perfect for this kind of decorative element. The feature images are from the lovely Happy Flower's Day.

A card as lovely as this can do for many different occasions; when I make cards I tend to leave them without a sentiment until that moment they are needed. Sentiments are for the receiver rather than to reinforce the design in most cases, and, of course, there are those moments for which there are no words.

Autumn Time & A Subtle Butterfly (by Tracy Thompson)

 

Today I am sharing some more creations made for the November's shows.  For my first card I used Distress Oxides to make my background, simply by applying the ink to my glass mat, spraying with water and smooching my card into it.  I left the top right hand corner white to break it up a bit, and for a place to add my sentiment which is from the Harmony Tree set.  I stamped the large tree from the stamp set Trees A crowd, using some oxide I coloured in some grass around the base of the tree.

For this creation I did something a little different to my normal style, I really enjoyed playing with this technique which I was inspired to do after watching Lesley's workshop on shading with pencil.  So I started by stamping the Butterfly from the stamp set Happy Flower's Day  I shaded the butterfly using just normal HB pencils, then using a stencil and Distress Oxide inks in several colours created a background.  It's a very clean and simple card, but effective.

Thank you for allowing me to show you my cards, I will be back towards the end of the month with some more.

Thank you

Happy crafting

Tracy x

Royal Christmas (by Miranda)

 

Hi peeps, Miranda here with a festive blogpost. 

I have browsed through my CB collection and came up with these sets.........Harlequin Christmas A4 set

and this one too 'Gothic Angels A4 set'. Two of my favorite Christmas themed stamp sets.

I have used Distress inks and some Oxydes. Lots of gold embossing powder for a rich shine. A bit of decoupaging and coloring. 

Hope to have inspired you a bit...however....I think you all will have finished your Christmas cards.......but maybe for the next year?

Thanks for your visit and like to read your comments as always,

stay safe and have a lovely peaceful Christmas time,