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.

Baroque Bracelet With Matching Gift Box (by Julie)

Hello, hope your weekend is going well. Today I have a gift idea, so if you are running out of ideas, fear not, run off and get some lolly sticks and then meet me back here...ha ha!

I had seen this bracelet idea in various forms around the Internet so thought I would give it a go. I started by inking up my Baroque Orchid cling stamp with green Staz-on ink and stamped directly onto the lolly sticks (or tongue depressor). I did a few to take into account of mistakes in the next couple of stages.

Once you have your stamped sticks, place them into boiling water and boil for 5 to 10 minutes, then turn off the heat and let them soak for about 30 minutes.

Remove the sticks from the hot water and bend them into the shape you want. Place them inside a glass jar or something similar to hold the shape whilst they are drying and leave for 24 hours.

When dry, punch a hole in each end of the stick with a Crop-o-dile, add gold gilding wax to the edges and paint a coat of Acrylic Wax over the entire bracelet.

When dry, thread some cord with beads of your choice and attach to the bracelet by threading through the previously punched holes.

The matching gift box was coloured with Distress inks and stamped with the Baroque Orchid stamp using the same green Staz-on ink as before. Once the ink is dry assemble the box, add gold gilding wax along the edges and finish with some ribbon.

The box I have used was cut on my Scan n Cut, however you can easily use a traditional two piece box, created on your scoring board.

Thanks for popping in

Julie xx

Lattice Orchids (by Julie)

Hello, I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and as this is my last post for this year I would like to wish you a very Happy New Year! I have two projects that I hope you will like, made with two of the fantastic background stamps. My first is this plaque, made with the Baroque Orchids cling mounted stamp.

 

The base of this plaque is a large square of chipboard and I have stuck a piece of spare chipboard on the back to make a stand, much the same way as a standard picture frame works.

The centre is made up of letters cut with an electronic cutting machine and then over stamped with the Baroque Orchid using Onyx Black Versafine. The "O" is a piece of white polymer clay, cut with a heart cookie cutter and over stamped using the Versafine. Once baked I added a piece of cord around the edge of the heart with a hot glue gun and then stitched some seed beads around the cord edge, before adhering to the plaque with more hot glue. I have added layers of silver mirri card, black card and a stamped background using the Baroque Orchid.

This card has been made with the Studded Lattice cling mounted stamp along with Wild Meadow and Mackintosh Sentiments sets.

The base card was created with Pan Pastels. I then inked up the Studded Lattice with Versamark and randomly stamped around the background before brushing black and metallic Pan Pastel over the top. I then applied a fixative spray over the top.

For the decorative panel I stamped the Studded Lattice onto white card and coloured with Polycrhomos pencils. The wild grass is from the Wild Meadow set and was over-stamped with Onyx Black Versafine.

To finish off I inked up the With Love sentiment with Onyx Black Versafine and stamped over the Pan Pastel Background.

Many thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again very soon,

Julie x

Art Bag using the new background stamps (by Anne)

I created this sample for the recent TV shows from Chocolate Baroque on The Craft Channel. Lesley Wharton was fantastic and gave some wonderful demos using the new background stamps – Floral Weave, Open Weave, Studded Lattice and Baroque Orchids. They are so versatile for so many projects and styles.  

 I have used recycled curtains to create myself a large Art Carry bag. I used all four of the lovely new background stamps to decorate my fabrics. Now I have a lovely new bag to carry my unframed paintings to exhibition. You could easily adapt the design idea to make a shopping or handbag, or to decorate a ready-made bag.  Materials:

• Floral Weave, Open Weave, Studded Lattice and Baroque Orchids stamps
• Recycled blue cotton curtains with cream cotton lining
• Iron on paper backed fabric adhesive (Bondaweb)
• Sewing and machine embroidery threads
• Black iron fix textile paint
• Cut-N-Dry foam and palette knife
• Dies to cut flowers and leaves

How it was made:

1. I first made a simple strong bag to fit my board mounted artwork pieces. Simply 2 rectangles sewn together with handles to fit over my shoulder. This is a very large bag so it is easy to decorate and sew on the applique pieces while made up. For smaller bags and shoppers it would be easier to decorate the panels before completing the construction.
2. Ironed Bondaweb onto the back of the cream lining. Leaving the paper backing in place cut out flowers and leaves with the dies. Printed the text to create a template for cutting the lettering.
3. Stamped all the cut shapes with textile paint using a random mix of all four stamps (see tip). Left overnight to dry and cure.
4. Stamped the front of the bag with the Floral Weave stamp. Left overnight to dry then fixed the paints with an iron (this makes the paint permanent and washable).
5. Peeled the backing paper off all the cut out shapes and ironed onto the bag. This secures the shapes and heat fixes paints.
6. Finally I stitched around all the shapes using a straight stitch and free machine embroidery. This is where you drop the fabric feed dogs and freely move the fabric beneath the needle (like drawing with a sewing machine and thread).

Tip for stamping with paints: I used to use a standard sponge for applying acrylics or textile paint to my stamp. I would apply paint to a palette then pick up with a sponge, dabbing to remove excess paint before applying to my stamp. After a short while the paint would start to dry on the palette. The detail of the stamping was also gradually lost as clumps of paint built up in the stamp crevices after repeat application of paint. When this occurs you need to stop and clean up the stamp before continuing. I now use Cut-N-Dry foam and the results are so much better. I apply plenty of paint directly to the pad and work it well into the foam with a palette knife. The foam can now be used to apply paint to the stamp repeatedly without reloading. Placing the foam paint side down on a craft mat while not using also keeps the paint moist for ages. I find this method gives much sharper printing, uses a lot less paint and is easier to clean up when finished.  Clean up well and do not leave paint to dry onto your stamp. I use a little soapy water and a soft tooth brush if needed.

His and Hers Steampunk (by Asha)

Happy Boxing Day, fellow chocoholics! Hope everybody had a lovely Christmas.  I've got a couple of card projects to show you.

The first card features the Open Weave cling stamp. I heat embossed it in white on a piece of vellum.  To create the underwater scene I stamped, coloured, fussy cut and adhered elements form the Funky Fish A5 sheet.

The second card is a girly glitzy number featuring the Baroque Orchid cling stamp.  This time I've heat embossed it with Verdegris embossing powder and inked the bckground with Seedless Preserves, Worn Lipstick and Picked Raspberry Distress Inks. The rose is from Steampunk Butterfly, coloured with alcohol markers. And to glam up the card I mounted the design panel on purple glitter foam.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to come back for more creative inspiration form the rest of the design team. Happy Holidays!

Beijinhos,
Asha

Baroque Orchids (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with a quick and easy card made using the beautiful stamp 'Baroque Orchids'. This is such a beautifully detailed stamp that I really wanted to give it centre stage on my card.

I began with some glossy white card and stamped Baroque Orchids with versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder. I took a deep breath, lined up my stamp again and was very pleased to see that the stamp joins up beautifully to create a larger panel. I embossed the second image with clear embossing powder and then applied distress inks in Shabby Shutters, Bundled Sage and a little Evergreen Bough randomly with some Cut'n'Dry foam.

I stamped the sentiment with Memento Tuxedo Black on some vellum and tore a strip to layer over the background as shown. I added some black lace, green ribbon and a black button to finish off.

Thanks so much for visiting today

Claire xx

Behind the Scenes (posted by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope that you have been able to catch the TV shows featuring the Beautiful Backgrounds cling mounted stamps on the Craft Channel recently. The samples created by my Team Mates, and demos by Lesley were just amazing. I have a couple of projects to show you myself that were featured on the shows, and I hope that they will give you a little bit of inspiration in using these fabulous stamps.

My first project features the Floral Weave cling mounted stamp, and I have created an underwater scene, using stamps from the Seashore and Seadragon stamp sets.

I created a watery background on a piece of watercolour paper, by painting some water based ink onto the background, and dropping sea salt onto the paper while it was still wet. I left the background to dry before removing the salt. I stamped and embossed the background image using a lovely teal embossing powder, it works really well as a seaweed image on this card. I stamped and coloured the seahorse on a separate piece of card, before cutting it out and adhering it to the background. I stamped the sentiment, and matted the background onto teal card.

I added some little pearls to the flower centres to complete the card.

My second project is a canvas, combining a couple of the background stamps, Baroque Orchids, and Studded Lattice. I have added some flowers created using stamps from the Elegant Iris stamp set, and some die cut leaves. For full instructions on how I made this piece, hop over to my blog.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Baroque Orchids (by Miranda)

Hi there lovely people,

I felt lucky being able to play with the new background stamp, Baroque Orchids. It's so versatile to use, this time I have partially stamped it on pattern paper and repeated that once. Than the fun part did start.......the coloring with coloured pencils.

I also used one of the great flower heads with it, 'the Daisy Ring centre flowerhead'. I've embossed it twice with gold embossing powder and coloured it with water based markers. Than decoupaged one of the flowers.

I embossed some leaves of the Sunny flowers sheet and coloured them the same way. The text is from the  'Amazing' Birthday'  clear stamp sheet.

I've added some pearl pen accents on the flower head and it was done!

Thanks for your visit, always appreciates your comments and hope to see you next time!

New stamp releases and another TV show (by Lesley)

Hi there, I don't know if you managed to see the two Chocolate Baroque TV shows last weekend,  We launched some stunning new background stamps which were an exclusive to the Craft Channel but today we now have these on general release for you. 

The four stamps are:

Floral Weave, Open Weave, Studded Lattice and Baroque Orchids, all designed by Sue, of course, and all of them are large stamps that will suit every level of stamper.

Each stamp is indvidually mounted on cling and cut out ready to play with and represent fabulous value for money. That said, we do have our usual multi-buy option available and I know that with the versatility of these excellent designs, they will soon become firm favourites with you all.

Here are one or two or the samples from my TV demonstrations.

And if you would like to see more Chocolate Baroque on the TV then please tune in to the Craft Channel tomorrow (11th December) at 10am to watch 'More Stamps by Chocolate Baroque', which includes the launch of yet more new stamps. The show will also be repeated tomorrow evening at 9pm.

Please keep popping in to see all the beautiful projects that the Design Team girls made for the shows.

The gift of a Candle (by Veronica)

Loving the new background stamps, this one is called Baroque Orchids and reminds me of brocade, and it seems  a shame to cover any of it up!

Recently I finally managed to get a candle that looked ok when finished – previously they have looked decidedly the worse for wear and rather mis-shapen. Using baking parchment wrapped tightly round when heating the tissue paper onto the candle makes all the difference! Pushing my luck, I thought that I would have a go with this stamp and my last remaining candle.......

I stamped with black memento ink on to what I thought was white tissue paper (reminder, don’t choose your tissue paper by artificial light next time!) then cut out around the image to make a strip to fit the candle, which was too short for the whole image.  I tightly wrapped the candle with the baking parchment, and held it by this while heating gently – I still have a very old hairdryer type heat gun, which has a more gentle heat than the newer guns.

The box was painted with black acrylic paint, and I smudged the corners with versamark and copper EP to make it a bit more interesting. The image for the lid was stamped in versamark onto black card, embossed with copper EP, cut to size and glued down.

Finishing touch was the tissue paper, black paper  randomly stamped using a copper pigment ink pad.

Thanks for calling in today, please come back soon to see more wonderful project from me fellow team mates using these gorgeous background stamps.

Veronica