A Trio of Lilies
Hello everyone well here we are almost at the end of February such a short month I always find but that's probably because I usually find myself very busy what with one thing and another.
Today I will be sharing another DL set with you namely Lily not at all like any Lily I have ever seen but I really do think it is beautiful.
I used my stamping platform to stamp it four times onto a 7" square piece of white card using black versafine ink, and once onto a spare piece of white card. All the images were coloured with watercolour pencils in autumnal shades, with the brighter colours used on the single image.
The single image was fussycut out and backed witha heartshaped piece of the same brown card used for the mat, then glued into the centre of the four images. I covered it with glossy accents to make it stand out a little more from the 'petals'
This tree is from the Trees a Crowd set, and it really lends itself to being a stand-alone focal point. It can cover all seasons, with the addition of leaves and blossoms in appropriate colours, but I decided to make it a Winter tree.
I found some grey paper in my stash which whilst having a faint grey stripe, I felt didn't distract too much from the image. Using Versafine Clair in Nocturne, and my trusty stamp press, I centred the image on a tall rectangular panel. It was then clear embossed using a detail powder. Having decided from which direction the snow should drift, I highlighted the branches with a white Signo pen. I'm never too confident about my shading, so I took my time, and was pretty pleased with the results!
This panel was then mounted onto a piece of white card, leaving a minimal border. The sentiment "I shall sit here peacefully and dream slowly" seemed to fit the bill. Again, this was stamped, embossed and mounted in a similar fashion. Lesley does such lovely sentiments and words in her stamp sets, so there is always something to suit the occasion.
To finish off, I adhered a band of the same grey just slightly down from the centre and positioned the tree and sentiment accordingly. Then, for a small pop of colour, a heart shaped gem found its way onto the corner, and because I love the completed card!
Hello everyone.
Today, instead of showing a card I'm sharing how to add a stamped image onto a candle.
First, choose your stamps. I have used the two larger poppy seed heads from Sow the Seeds stamp set.
Thanks for looking
Sandra x
Hello everyone, I hope that you are all keeping well. I have a couple of projects to share with you today on an 'Anything Goes' theme. There are so many stamps to choose from in the Chocolate Baroque stamp collection that I had a hard time narrowing down my choices for my final blog post this month!
For my first card, I decided to make a useful Birthday card to add to my stash box, handy for when I need a card in a hurry. I took a piece of fabric and frayed the edges. I painted the fabric using watered down acrylic paint. Using Archival ink, I stamped an image from the Brocade Backgrounds stamp set. I stamped a sentiment from Loving Sentiments onto an inked die cut rectangle. To complete the card, I added some pretty pleated ribbon and some metallic card as a mount.
Once I had built up the background sufficiently, I removed the Masking Tissue, and coloured the image with pencils. I added a couple of grey pencils around the edges of the butterfly to give a shadow and to create the feeling of depth.
I have really had fun dipping into my library of stamps this month, and hope that you have enjoyed my posts. Thanks for stopping by, take care,
Judith xx
The Lovely Breath of Spring
Hello to everyone here is the second of my posts this month a truly beautiful stamp it is the Breath of Spring DL set of stamps and obviously contains more than those featured in the photo below.
Firstly I stamped the main image using Versafine Warm Breeze and Verdant, let dry. Once dry using a anti static pad over card before stamping the corners using a juicy Versafine Clair Nocturne, then stamp the sentiment quickly before covering all the images with Clear Embossing Powder, use a heat gun to set.
I used Koi Colouring Brush Pens to colour the image putting the colour down on a mat and picking it up with the blender pen to colour.
Thank you for popping in today
Love Doreen
Hello,
I had to get free myself as if I were caged in a frame and looked out of a window. Suddenly my thoughts turn into imagination and materialize in this project.
I stamped "Mosaic Flower" with Archival Ink Jet Black, and colour it with watercolors. A thick coat of white gesso borders the image on which I put some self-adhesive mesh pieces and a label I created stamping the sentiment of "Mushroom House" on white cardstock. The little spots on the flowers are done by flicking with the brush white diluted gesso
Thanks for passing by, hugs
Magda
This project uses no formal base but instead the structure becomes part of the layout. You could use lollipop sticks, wooden pieces or cut your own shapes using greyboard. The ones shown here are the latter. Start by building the "raft", place two vertical lollipop sticks slightly nearer than the width of your lollipop sticks. Using hot glue or gel medium, adhere your horizontal pieces fairly neatly but not perfect. With another lollipop stick, place an angled stick starting from ⅔ of the width at the bottom up towards the top right corner. Adhere this with more glue and allow the piece to set.
Gesso gives us a key for any paint we wish to apply; it's particularly important on greyboard to prevent your paint soaking in. White gesso is going to keep any colours you apply light and bright; black gesso is good for metallic colours and deeper/desaturated tones.
Dry brush on some acrylic paints; this will dry quickly but set it aside for now.
Onto some good quality stamping card, stamp your seagull and shell images using a beige or sand coloured ink pad. This adds to the aged weathered effect, but grey could also work too. Colour your image using shades of black, grey, brown and yellow ochre. Fussy cut out these elements rounding the bottom of the seagull image, this section can be hidden so don't worry too much about the path you take. Adhere the shell as a 3D wing using silicon glue or other 3D adhesive. Set this aside to set.
Moving back to our raft, apply a mix of gel medium and blue pigment. Gel medium dries clear, so your colours will darken as they dry, bear this in mind when mixing your pigments.In the sample above, the gel medium was sky blue coloured when applied. While the gel medium is still wet, apply a thick texture paste with chunky pieces. This mimics the froth of the water so it should be applied where your waves break. While this is still wet, embed in the seagull piece into the gel and texture paste. You can always add a little foam pad to the top of the seagull once dry.
Stamp your sentiment onto stamping card and blended over with Antique Linen Distress Ink. Cut into strips and edge with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. Finger curl the strips and apply using gel medium to your raft.
Once fully dry, grab a silver pen to dot on nails wherever the lollipops intersect. You can also add a little patina to add even more of a weathered finish.
This is a beautiful stamp, which really lends itself to large format cards. There are so many possibilities - stamped in its entirety and coloured, decoupaged over various elements, or simply using elements from within the design.
For this example, I took a piece of cotton rag paper and coloured the background using a variety of Distress Oxide colours. I kept applying ink, then adding a spritz of water until I was happy with the result. I made sure that it was completely dry before stamping the image using my stamp press. As the surface is quite textured, this allowed me to stamp several times to get a good depth of image. I then embossed with fine detail clear powder - I find this enhances the image and provides a better outline for colouring.
I decided to pick out just a couple of details to use as focal points - the toadstools and the flowers seemed the obvious choice to me, but there is plenty of smaller detail which would also work well. I used my pencils to add colour and shading. I also applied some glitter, although this doesn't show too well on the picture.
I mounted the cotton rag onto black paper, with the edge deckled to mimic the rough edge, as I though it didn't suit a more formal square or rectangular mount. Finally, I used a strong adhesive to adhere it to a large card. The cotton rag tends to be quite absorbent, so a belt and braces approach works best to ensure that your masterpiece doesn't fall apart before it reaches your lucky recipient!
Hi crafty people,
Miranda here.....with another blogpost for you. I was so inspired(as many of you) by the talented Jo Ward that I had to give this a try.......I re-watched the demo on the Craft store channel and I loved it!
I tried to change it a bit so I also added a bit of myself too.....I love organic structures and it made me think of 'mother Earth' with colors of earth, water, greens and a bit of gold too......
I used my Daniel Smith watercolors and this time I played with the Primatek colors, based on minerals....all a bit muted tones ....I did not have the handy rulers Jo used but I just cut the paper with wavy edges so I had a positive and a negative.
I used the same square bubble stamp but instead of a drawn circle I took the circle stamp from the 'Celestial set'.
I created more open areas between each 'bubble stamped area' so I could create a kind of 'rivers' in between. I used a waterproof fineliner to draw some lines in the blue and purple areas after I painted a thin line of gold paint.
Thanks to Jo for inspiring me with this fun technique and hope you like my take on it! I sure will try this technique in other ways.......
Thanks for visiting and till next time,
The main image was stamped in black versafine ink and coloured with watercolour pencils, then torn out and edged with versafine ink. The background was sponged wiith distress inks in worn lipstick and peeled paint and parts of the stamp were randomly stamped in worn lipstick.. Sentiment stamped in versamark and gold embossed.
Thanks for looking
Sandra x
Hello everyone, I hope that you are all keeping well. I have a project to share with you today, mixing and matching several favourite stamp sets. That's the beauty of Chocolate Baroque stamp sets, once you have them, they can be used with other sets from your collection.
I started this project by stamping a couple of bees from Honey Bee and masked them using Masking Tissue. I worked out where I needed them to be by placing a couple of the foliage stamps on my background, so that I knew how tall they would stand. I then covered my gelli plate with green and blue Distress Oxide Ink and placed my background smooth stamping paper over the top.
I stamped a phrase from Words of Gratitude using third generation stamping in a couple of the corners. I wanted the words to be visible, but not overpowering.
I used a couple of silhoutte grasses from Walk Tall, and various shades of Versafine Clair to create a grassy meadow, using first, second and third generation stamping. I chose shades of green and purple.
Finally, I removed the masks and coloured the bees with watercolour pencils. I added a touch of water using a waterbrush to blend the colour. A touch of grey pencil around the bees makes them look three dimensional, but they are flat on the page.
Hello everyone, today sees the first of three posts by our Guest Design Team member Lorraine. She has created a card using the spotlight technique for your inspiration.
Lorraine writes:
I decided to pull out one of my original Chocolate Baroque purchases from the Woodland Dreams set. There is so much detail in this one stamp that it ws possible to actually spotlight two areas, although it could carry one quite happily. Unfortunately, I can't recall the dimensions of the card, and it's been gifted now, so I can't check, but the design really dictates the base layer- the size of the mounts is at your discretion!
Smooth black and white card are essential to get the best results, as this technique called for lots of embossing. Liberal use of an anti-static bag also helps. Starting off with the black card, stamp the image using Versamark. I used a stamping platform to help get a good impression - it also provides you with the opportunity to reapply the ink if you miss a bit. Fortunately, the embossing ink shows up well on the black card. Once you're happy with your image, add your white embossing powder and heat set. I like the fine detail powders as they give a crisp result. Repeat the proces using black powder on white card.
When you have decided on the area you want to spotlight - in this case I chose the birds - cut the two corresponding circles from your white card. I actully used my Scan n Cut for this as I didn't have any circle dies of the right size. The circle on the left overlapped the card, so I layered up the the black and white mounts before actually affixing the spotlight circles. There are so many 'contact points' within the design that it does take a little patience to get it properly lined up, but I think the finished effect is worth it. I hope you agree!
A French Heart For February
Hello everyone and welcome to February, not sure I like what is happening with the weather at the moment but it's not something we can control so I won't dwell on it.
Today I would like to share a simple card with you using the beautiful French Heart which lends itself to some really easy decoupage.
Firstly I stamped the full image using the Versafine Clair Fantasia, and then just a couple of extra images of the floral part of the stamp for colouring and fussy cutting to use for the decoupaging elements in this card.
For colouring I have used Chromaflow Pencils by Derwent bought for me by my Grandchildren for Christmas and I have to say I am really impressed with them. They are very easy to blend just using a paper stump.
Once coloured I used the Old Paper Distress Oxide just to take away the starkness of the white background.
To mould and shape the leaves and the front floral image use a large ball tool and soft shaping mat, or any fairly firm foam to allow you to give your leaves and floral pieces their rounded shape. Apply to the card using a 3d glue medium of choice or foam pads if you prefer.
As a finishing touch I added some clear glass gems.
Thank you for looking in today
Love Doreen
Good Morning,
Valentine Day is coming and here below I have for you a quick Step by Step, as idea for your make.
1. Stamp "French Heart" directly on your page with Carnation Red Archival Ink
2. Stamp it again on a White Cardstock, cut it exactly as a mask and put it on you red heart
3. Stamp all around "On the Tiles" background stamp with Archival Jet Black
4. Cut the leaves and stems of your mask (point2) as a decoupage and color them with a green watercolor and glue them on the first stamp
5. Stamp the sentiment of "Word of Love", cut it in pieces and color the edges with the same green colour you used at point 4
6. Glue the sentiments as shown
7. Highlight the red flower with some crystal glitter.
There is nothing more annoying than making a lovely top folding card... and then it slides off the shelf and lands on the floor. No matter how thick the card and how perfect the fold, they all seem to do it eventually. This is a solution to the problem with a difference: half stepper card, half tent card.
To make this card, you will need two long thin strips of card. Cut a piece of A4 card in half lengthways or use two top folding A6 portrait card blanks.
With the first piece, score the card in half; fold and crease, burnishing the fold on the back of the card. This forms the right hand section of the card base. The left hand section starts with the same halfway score; but now we flip over the card to score either side of the centre scoreline by ½". We then fold each scoreline mountain in; creating an accordion style "w" fold. Burnish each fold on the reverse taking care to not emboss the other folds into either front or back panels.
With the second piece of card (with the W fold), we are going to trim the front section to give a stepped appearance. From the back fold, draw a 45 degree angle downwards to the front fold. Then, draw a straight line from the front fold across the front panel. Trim using scissors or even a decorative edge blade if you wish.
The first one is 7" square, the background is distress oxide inks squeezed lemonade, peeled paint and salvaged patina sponged randomly and part images from the Rose Stem Script set and words from Tall Trees set also used to overstamp.The sentiment is from Words of Love, stamped in black versafine and candy apple distress oxide inks. The main images were stamped onto spare card with verxafine ink, coloured with watercolour pencils and fussy cut out. If you snip the leaves carefully you can weave two images together. I glued just the bottom halves onto the card, so the the centre pieces will stand up slightly
The second card is a very simplified version of the first, with red and black lines drawn with marker pens round the image and no sentiment - this is a 6"square card
this was a single image, fussy cut round the edges of the design only and glued onto a distress oxide background. Background was stamped with the rose from Rose Stem Script coloured with marker pens and randomly stamped over the card, thne spritzed with water to blend the images. Distress oxide inks were then sponged over the dried card , sentiment added in black versafine and the wobbly lines drawn with a fineliner.
I stamped the bodice part of the dress forms onto some pattern papers and cut these out. (Sorry about the reflections - the joys of Velux windows!)
I die cut a lacy border and aged with Distress Inks and removed the washi tape.
