Freedom (by Sandra)

Hello, I am sharing a couple more of my cards from the July shows on Create and Craft.

My first card uses the O is for.... stamp set.

I stamped the main image onto some smooth cardstock in Memento ink and coloured with alcohol markers. I then used the mini tree stamp from the set and stamped around the edge of a slightly larger piece of card, changing the direction of the stamp each time. I then mat and layered these onto some black card and onto an 8x8 card base.

I used Freedom Flower for my next card.

I started with a piece of drawing cartridge  about 6.5" square. I stamped the flower image in the top right corner in archival ink and then covered with a mask. I repeated this 2 more times, varying the placement of the flower across the top of the card. Whilst the flowers were masked I used the splatter stamp from the set and stamped along the lower edge of the flowers. I removed the masks and coloured the flowers with watercolour pencils. I added the word "Gratitude" from Artistic Expressions.

 Thanks for looking

Sandra x

Elemental (by Sandra)

Hello, I am sharing my third post of the month with you to show my cards made for the Create and Craft shows in March.

I have used Floral Paraphernalia Elements and Out of the Trees Elements stamp sets. These really  compliment the main sets, but can also be used as stand alone sets.

For my first card I sprinkled some Turquoise Brusho down the edge of a card blank, lightly spritzed it  and left it to dry overnight. Once it was dry I stamped the Port Hole shapes and solid circles. I then stamped the floral and leaf stamps, masking where needed. I used pencils to colour in. I added some of the number stamps from the sets and a quote from Artistic Expressions.

Next I used the Element stamps to create a small scene. 

Starting from the "front" I stamped the stone wall. I then masked a small area so that I could stamp the deer behind the wall. I then masked the deer and stamped the treeline. I used a stencil to create some hills in the background and coloured with Distress Inks. I finished by adding the script stamp to the lower edge.

For my last card today I used my stamping platform to repeat stamp the flower and leaf stamps. I have then coloured using watercolour pencils and a little bit of Stickles. I die cut a couple of circles and added the word Joy from Artistic Expressions. 

Thanks for looking

Sandra x

 

Beautiful Florals

Hello, I am here today to share some of my cards made for the February show on Hochanda.

These cards feature the main image from Harebell Butterfly, Thistle Butterfly, Honeysuckle Butterfly and Briar Rose Butterfly

My first card I've kept quite simple. I've stamped with Black Archival ink and used watercolour pencils in shades of blue. I've added a sentiment from Patchwork Butterfly and some black and white layers

My next cards use watercolour pencils and markers. I've used stencils in the background and blended around the edges with Distress Inks. I have finished with a sentiments from Artistic Expressions and Artistic Affirmations

Thanks for looking, I'll be back with some more soon.

Sandra x

Feathers and Flowers (by Miranda)

Hi there,

Today my last post for July....but I will be doing more posts in August, yeah!

I have used the next stamp sets:

I shall be your wings rubber stamp sheet A5

Artist Baubles rubber stamp sheet A4

Floral Notes rubber stamp sheet A5

Make your mark rubber stamp sheet DL

Artistic Expressions rubber stamp sheet A4

Tangled Garden rubber stamp sheet A4 (only for the small circle between the feathers)

And here the full card......lots of layers......I used many stamp sets but that was not my intention when I started......The idea was only to use the center bauble and the feathers......but along the way I could not stop LOL. Do you recognize that?

It can also turn out to be too much and overdone......but okay it became an abundant party of colour and shapes....

The background was done using distress inks on an acrylic bloc. Then I stamped the bauble using black Versafine. On the left side I stamped the similar flowers from the Floral Notes using Memento Tangelo. On the edges I used a fragment of the 'make your mark' sheet. I embossed all the feathers using Wow gold embossing. Colored them and decoupaged them. Yes, that is a lot of work but worth the effort I think.

I masked the bauble and stamped some feathers onto the background too.

And of course I did some pencil coloring too on the bauble.....

To 'hold' the feathers together I have used the flower center of the tangled flower from the Tangled Garden sheet. But of course you can use other small stamps for that too.

And finally I embossed the dots and circles from the ' make your mark' set.

The word 'Love' is from the Artistic Expressions sheet.

Hope you like my abundant mood today,

have a crafty and lovely day,

Marvellous Magnolias

Hello
I'm sharing some of the cards I made for the August show on Hochanda which featured the Happy Flower's Day stamp set. This set contains a lovely selection of flowers, butterfly, sentiments and dictionary definitions.

I did a few cards featuring the Magnolia stamp and did different techniques for each of them.

My first card, I stamped and embossed onto Kraft card and used thin bleach to lighten the card, added a sentiment and a pretty punch down the side.

 For my second card I stamped and used water colours and a sentiment from Birthday Words

For my third card I stamped the Magnolia and then masked it off and stamped again.

For the last card I stamped the image onto some card 3 times and used two of the images to decoupage the Magnolia.

Also on the stamp set are the Snake's Head Fritillary and a butterfly. I have used them here with words from Artistic Expressions in the background.

Thank you for looking
Sandra x

Checkered flowers (by Miranda)

Hi there lovely people,

It's been a while.......but I am happy to write a guest design post and get the chance to play with my beautiful CB stamps!

 This time I've used the stylish Chequered flowers. I stamped on the beautiful patterned paper from Crafty Individuals. So no need to create a background this time.......

I stamped using a stamping tool. I used several soft ink colors from Memento. Than the fun starts.......colouring with coloured pencils. One of my favorite techniques.

I've added some extra dots on the upper flower and embossed the lovely leaves from the Take it or Leaf it set. Really love that one!

Than I stamped the word ' Love' from the Artistic Expressions sheet.

Here is the full version of the card........

Maybe you are inspired to take out your patterned paper and have a play? 

Thanks for watching and till next time,

Colourful Journal Pages (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I am here for an extra post today, and so I decided to have a bit of fun with my project, letting my imagination have a bit of a wander on a double page journal spread. I have chosen to use the really versatile A5 Pink Pig journal containing 270 gsm watercolour paper, as this size of journal allows for a lot of choice in the layout that you can create, without feeling that you have too much space to fill. The watercolour paper is lovely and smooth and will take lots of water.

I started my project by masking the headdress on the Katya stamp, and inking up just the bottom part of the image, before stamping it onto the journal page. I drew some hair freehand, using a pencil at first, until I was happy with the design, and then inking over it with a permanent pen.

I needed to mask the image, and as the masking tissue available on the website is not completely opaque, I was able to lay it over my image, and draw an outline to create my own custom mask.

I added several other images to the pages; the Swirl Centre Flowerhead, and some leaves and a butterfly from the Tangled Garden stamp set. I wanted a subtle floral image in the background and added a favourite texture stamp from the Texture Fragments stamp set, using Acrylic Wax to stamp the image. I added Distress Ink to colour the background, and the acrylic wax acted as a resist where I had stamped the floral texture image.

I drew a few swirls by hand, and added a sentiment from the Artistic Expressions stamp set. A little bit of stencilling completed the background.

I coloured the images using water based markers, keeping the colours bright and cheery to match the vibrant background. I decided to give Katya a modern twist with ombre hair, rather than a conventional colour.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading about my project, thanks for stopping by,

Judith xx

Beautiful Katya and Castles in the Sky (posted by Claire)

Good morning crafty friends, I hope you're all having a lovely Easter weekend. Today I'm sharing a project featuring the beautiful Katya. She's such a stunner I thought she deserved a pretty frame.

To decorate the plastic frame I applied gilding glue and then adding gilding flakes here and there and dusted mica powders over the rest.

I created a background with distress inks (bundled sage, Wilted Violet and Shaded Lilac) and overstamped using the Large Crackle Background stamp using purple chalk ink. I stamped Katya onto white stamping card and coloured her with alcohol markers. I also stamped her onto acetate with versamark and embossed with Gold Embossing Powder. I then cut Katya out and glued her to the background. I then cut her headdress out from the acetate and layered that up with tiny blobs of silicone glue. I added a few little gems here and there.

I then stamped the sentiment (from Artistic Expressions) with purple chalk ink on some gold vellum. I tore the strip out and rolled the edges around a cocktail stick to make a little scroll.

Here's another project made using the new Russian goodies

I took a canvas board and applied navy blue acrylic paint, with some black blended around the edges. Once that was dry I spritzed with a black glimmer mist. I made the clouds using white gesso applied with a natural sponge. I added highlights with white pearlescent acrylic paint. I took the Silhouette Palace 1 Stencil and applied black gesso. Once that was dry I added a little more of the cloudy effect along the bottom edge and some white highlights here and there.

I hope you're all enjoying the new stamps and stencils as much as we are

Thanks for visiting today, hope to see you again soon

Claire xx

Autumn Edges (by Julie)

Hello lovely people, Julie here. I have a cute little tag and card idea to show you today and they are both made with the very versatile Autumn Edges set.

I created the background of the tag by scribbling Distress crayons onto my stamp block, spritzing with water and then picking the colour up with a sponge, before splodging all over the tag. Heat dry to set and then stamp the row of leaves all over the background with a dye based ink. I stamped the trees so the centre one was captured onto a heart die cut and coloured with Distress inks. The tag was finished off with some die cut leaves that I spritzed with some shimmer mists and added string, suede cord and beads for decoration.

I decided to stamp the rows of leaves downwards this time and as before used a dye based inkpad. The background is a selection of Distress inks and the Mushrooms have been water-coloured with brush-markers with added glitter and white pen highlights. To make them stand out from the background I went around the edges with a white Distress Crayon. Pale grey brush marker was also added around the leaves to create a shadow so they to didn't disappear into the background.

The finished design was mounted onto a plum coloured card and a sentiment from the rather lovely Artistic Expressions was added.

Thank you for stopping by. Please be sure to call back very soon to see some more Design Team inspiration.

Julie xx

Palm Fan Dream (by Julie)

Hello and welcome. I hope you are loving the new Ornament stamps this month. I have had so much fun playing with them and today I have two creations to show you, made with the pretty Palm Fan Baroque Ornament

My first card is on a base of Kraft card, which I have then matted with a piece of wood effect, embossed card. I decided to keep it pale so just sponged over some Old Paper Distress ink.

The Palm Fan was stamped and embossed with white embossing powder, onto Kraft card, coloured with Polychromas pencils and then cut out with a circle die. I inked up the stamp with Potting Soil Archival ink and stamped twice onto shrink plastic. Before shrinking I punched a small hole in each of the images so that I could attach a jump ring to each piece, making it easier to attach the cord. Once the beads and shrink plastic Ornaments were threaded I attached the cords to a hat pin with 3 more jump rings. Both ends of the hat pin have been secured with foam pads and the main image placed over the top.

My second design is a bit of a play on the Dream Catcher theme. As before I have stamped and embossed with white powder onto Kraft card and coloured with Polychromos pencils followed by die cutting with a circle. I then punched three holes along the bottom of the circle for the jump rings, so the acetate feathers could be attached. 

The feathers are from Dawn Chorus which I stamped with purple Staz-on and then cut out. I punched a hole in each and attached the jump rings so that the cord could be attached.

The Dream sentiment is from Artistic Expressions and the background is Dusty Concord and Abandoned Coral sponged over the card using a piece of kitchen towel.

Thank you for popping in and please call back tomorrow for some more Design Team Inspiration.

Julie xx

Steampunk Babushka (posted by Claire)

Good morning folks, Claire here with a  fun card using one of the gorgeous new Babushka stamps from Chocolate Baroque, these stamps are so cute but I thought it would be fun to give this little lady a bit of a steampunk twist.

I began by creating a 'marbled stains' background using Burnished Pewter, Walnut Stain, Tarnished Brass, Picket Fence and Tea Dye. Next I cut a square for my background and stamped Babushka on another scrap of the background with Archival black ink and coloured her with coloured pencils. I stamped the cogs from Punky Romance on the background with versamark ink and embossed with Gold embossing powder. It looks almost black in the pic but that's my bad photography lol. I stamped 'Imgine' (from Artistic Expressions) with Versamark and again embossed with gold embossing powder.

 I took a scrap of vellum and stamped the 'bat' wings from Steampunk Butterfly and embossed with black embossing powder. I cut them out and stuck them to the back of Babushka and layered her up on the background with 3d foam pads.

 Don't forget to keep popping back to see what my talented teamies have been creating. Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

At The Haberdashery (by Julie)

Hello and welcome. Today I am sharing a card that I made for one of the first Chocolate Baroque television shows, over  on The Craft Channel. Talking of television shows, there are some brand new shows coming your way in the next few days so keep your eyes peeled for further details.

The stamp sets used for this card are Haberdashery, Lace Fragments and Artistic Expressions.

It is easier to make this card if you start by creating the two mounted panels first. Just ink up the stamps with Onyx Black Versafine, stamp the designs, add some watercolour with Distress ink and then cut the panels to suit the size of your card. I have then mounted onto red card and used a corner rounder but that is completely optional.

Decide where you want to place your panels then ink up your Lace Fragments and stamp them so it looks like the lace is disappearing under the main images. After the stamping is complete take a wet wipe, dab it in some Distress ink and sponge the background. When you are happy with the result stick the two main panels to the base card.

Many thanks for stopping by,

Julie x

Exquisite Cards (by Julie)

Hello Crafters, hope your weekend is going well. Today is my turn to show you what I have been making with the fantastic new Exquisite stamps that have just been released by Chocolate Baroque.

My first card has been created using the new Owl Edges, along with Artistic Expressions for the sentiment.

I cut a mask for the moon using a circle die and created the background with Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed and Hickory Smoke Distress inks. I blended them together with Cut n Dry foam and a few touches from a water brush. The sentiment and the bulrushes were stamped with Onyx Black Versafine and the card was finished off by adding white highlights to all of the stamped images.

My second card comes courtesy of the lovely Exquisite Edges set. This set is so versatile and doesn't have to be used just for edges.

I started by stamping the decorative edges with Grey Versafine and then covered the entire background with Squeezed Lemonade Distress ink.

I inked up the Art Deco style, flower edge with Watering Can Archival ink and stamped it a few times onto plain white stamping card. Next take three different sized circle dies and select which parts of the flowers you want to cut and then put them through your die cut machine.

I have coloured the flowers with Polychromos pencils, glittered them with a Hologram Viva glitter pen and finished the card off by edging everything with Weathered Wood Distress ink.

Thanks so much for stopping by and hope to see you here again soon.

Julie x

From the TV (by Lesley)

I hope you have managed to catch up with one of our TV shows on The Craft Channel. It has all be very exciting if not a little hectic and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your encouraging and supportive comments. This means a lot to all of us at CB towers, we are a team and so on behalf of Sue, Val, Judith, Debbie, Julie, Claire, Zoe, Ann, Florence, Asha, Miranda, Dominike and myself

YOU ARE ALL BRILLIANT!

I also appreciate that many of you may not yet be able to watch this channel and so I am posting one of the cards I demonstrated on the first show.

• To achieve this card take a piece of patterned paper, I used one from the Crafty Individuals paper pad Travels in Italy and stamp the large tree from Patchwork Landscape in Versafine Onxy Black. 
• Use a black fineliner pen to extend the outline at the bottom of the tree so that it is grounded.
• Use coloured pencils similiar to the colours in the paper to colour the foliage of the trees and use shades of green and yellow to create the slope under the tree.
• Stamp the word Imagine, from Artistic Expressions and then mat and layer on to first black card, then a toning background paper (the one I used was kindly donated by Judith and was made with her Gelli Plate) and finally on to a large 8" square black card.

I hope this will encourage you to look at your background papers in a different way and that you will give this technique a try.

Thank you for stopping by and please visit us again to see some fabulous designs from our ever talented Design Team.

Dream Landscape (by Lesley)

Hello everyone I hope you have been enjoying all the wonderful artwork from our Design Team this month. I have to say I think they have excelled themselves once again with their interpretations of our   new Christmas stamps

Well today I thought you may have had a surfeit of the festive season and so although I have used an image from the Sparkling Trees set, it bears no resemblance to Christmas!

• The trees were stamped with a selection of Distress inks in autumnal shades on to 160gsm cardstock,  then a waterbrush was used to pull out some of the colour. 
• A piece of 15cm square greyboard was covered with pink scrapbook paper and the 'hills' were curved shapes cut from plain and green patterned scrapbook paper. 
• After fussy cutting out the trees they were glued into place and and a die cut circle added in the sky. Finally the word 'Dream', from Artistic Expressions, was stamped with Versafine Olympia Green ink.

So there you are, not a Jingle Bell in sight! Thank you as always for dropping by and leaving such wonderful and encouraging comments. Please pop back again tomorrow when normal Christmas service will be resumed!

Rustic Canvas (posted by Claire)

Good morning folks, Claire here with a project featuring Rustic Fragments, one of this month's new releases, they are really useful stamps like all the others in the range. For this project I've combined them with stamps from the Sewing Multibuy.

I began with a canvas board, primed with gesso before applying texture paste roughly with a palette knife. I let the texture paste set for a few minutes so it wasn't too 'squidgy' before stamping into it with the open weave fragment. Then I left it to dry thoroughly before applying acrylic paint in pinks and creams. Once the paint was dry I added some stamping using the other fabric fragment using potting soil archival ink. Next I highlighted the texture with gold gilding wax.

I stamped some of the sewing themed stamps onto cream card using Potting Soil Archival ink and cut them out. I added a little colour to the lacy border with my Graph'It Markers and then set to with glue and foam pads layering them all up.

I added lace, a flower made from scraps of fabric and tulle and then popped in a tag stamped again with the fabric fragments and overstamped with 'Imagine' from Artistic Expressions. I also stamped 'Enjoy the little things ....' onto some tissue and applied that to the corner of my canvas using matte medium.

To finish off I've added some faux pearls and a little button topped with a twine bow.

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Making a Frame of it (by Lesley)

I love the versatility of our stamps and today I want to show you how you can turn the Dressmaker's Window into a picture frame.

• Stamp the Dressmaker's Window onto white cardstock using Versafine Black Onyx. Cut out and then cut out the 'window panes', leaving just the frame.
• Paint the frame using Vintage Photo Distress ink and when dry use a coloured pencil to add shade and dimension.
• Adhere frame to a background paper taken from a dictionary, old book etc and trim off the excess paper around the edge of the frame.
• Stamp the mannequin from the Floral Mannequin set onto white cardstock and colour using a combination of Barn Door, Spice Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn and Tea Dye Distress inks. Cut out.
• Cover a 5" square card with patterned paper, run a charcoal pencil around the edges and rub over with your finger to give a smudged effect.
• Attach the frame to the card and then the mannequin using 3d foam pads and finish by stamping the word 'Delight' from Artistic Expressions.

I hope this inspires you to explore the possibilities in your stamps, you may be surprised by the results.

Please drop in again to see more wonderful creations from the Design Team.

Love is in the air (by Debbie)

 

 

Good morning. We take inspiration from many different places and my card today

was inspired by our Design Team member Doreen. She has made a couple of cards using her Gelli Plate and it prompted me to find mine and have a play.

 

 

 

I like to use Adirondack dye ink pads as the ink doesn't puddle on the Gelli Plate.

I inked the plate with a brayer using Stream coloured ink pad then place the heart stamp from Fluttering Hearts onto it. Each time I cleaned the stamp with kitchen paper to remove the ink.

 When I had filled the plate I laid the card onto it, taking a print. The advantage of using the ink is that the plate is much easier to clean.

The topper is stamped with Black Memento ink and coloured with alcohol pens. I love the blue and red together so matted onto red card.

 

At the end of last year I attended a journal class. I decided I would use it for techniques that I love

 and would be able to catalogue my favourite bits and bobs.

The background for these pages was a sheet of card that I had sprayed inks and shimmer sprays.

I glued it into my journal ready to add to at a later date.

I stamped the hearts with red ink and stencilled onto the pages.

The words are from Artistic Expressions and I think they fit well with the Rose and Punky Heart which were stamped onto card, coloured then cut out and glued onto the pages

 

 

Thanks for visiting

Debbie

Fluttering Hearts in Pink (by Shirley)

Happy New Year !  I hope you are having a fabulous and creative 2015 so far. 

I have a design to show today featuring the heart & butterfly from the new gorgeous Fluttering Hearts stamp set.   I also used stamps from other sets that compliment the new one very well.

 

The background was created by blending Persimmon and Picked Raspberry Distress Inks.  I over stamped with flowers from Sunny Sunflowers using the same inks.

The flowers, leaves, butterfly and heart were embossed with gold, painted with water colour markers, fancy cut (decoupaged) and layered as shown.   I used leaves from Sunny Sunflowers and Fresh Blooms.   'Beauty' is from the fabulous Artistic Expressions set, which I use a lot.  I added gold embossing power around the edge of the background with a glue pen (& heated). 

Thanks for your visit, I hope you can come back often to see the beautiful designs created by my talented teammates.

Have a great day,
Shirleyx