A New Year Wish (by Judith)

Hello everyone, it is hard to believe that another year has passed. I hope that you have all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas, and are looking forward to 2019 with optimism and hopes for a year full of promise. Some of you will not have had people to share Christmas with, or may have missed loved ones. You may not be feeling that the New Year brings much joy, or anything to look forward to. We hope that you can feel part of our community, and know that we are always here to share your crafting experiences, and offer friendship through the blog and our Facebook Group. We also have a Ning Group where you can make friends with other Chocolate Baroque fans, and chat and exchange tips and ask questions. If you sign up for the weekly newsletter from Chocolate Baroque, the links for all of these places are included within the newsletter.

Personally, I have had a mixed year, but I always feel that a new year offers the possibility to try new crafting challenges, and to learn new skills. I always want to be able to do something else! My craft room is bulging as it is, but there is room for more, and I love to experiment with colour and texture. My two projects that I am sharing with you today are both very cheery, and will hopefully chase away the Winter blues. The first one is a scrapbook page that I made as a TV demo for the Hochanda shows last month, featuring Lesley's Designer Papers 8" x 8" - My Floral Soul, and the Movie Strip Collage stamp.

I started the project by stamping a fern from the Wild Meadow stamp set onto the background. I added a sepia photograph of my parents, celebrating their golden Wedding Anniversary. I changed the photo to a sepia effect, because I wanted to use it for a different occasion. I stamped the flower image onto a spare piece of card a couple of times, and coloured it using Koh-I-Noor paints. I decoupaged the image, and added it to the page. I made my own ticket, and stamped a sentiment from the Shared Beauty stamp set onto the centre. I added brown ink onto a couple of scrabble tiles, which are my Mum and Dad's initials and a bingo piece, to represent the number of years they have now been married, and also added those to the background.

These papers are lovely for scrapbook pages, they are the perfect size, and are great to add a bit of stamped detail if you wish. I added a piece of kraft card behind mine for extra stiffness.

My second project uses the same background paper , but in the plain version, to make a pretty card. I stamped the Be Kind image onto some book paper a couple of times, using Versamark and gold embossing powder. I added three different colours of Distress Ink for shading. I also stamped and embossed the image onto a piece of kraft card, and added the book page flower layers onto the kraft card script layer. I then adhered this panel to the decorative paper. I stamped the sentiment onto the background with a deep orange ink, which I then used to edge the paper. A kraft card mat finishes the card.

Thank you for your support in 2018, your visits to the blog, and your kind comments. Have a wonderful New Year, and we look forward to your visits in 2019.

Take care and best wishes,

xxx

Two Ways To Be Kind (by Julie)

Hello, I hope you are all preparing to get your new year underway in style and surely there is no better way than to Be  Kind. This is the name of the lovely floral stamp I have used in both of my cards today.

For my first card I have teamed the stamped image with My Floral Soul designer papers.

I stamped and embossed the Be Kind image onto one of the designer papers and then cut around the edge of the petals with a craft knife. You just need to cut enough of the petal so that it stands out from the main image and not cut out completely. I used a blob of 3d glue gel behind each petal to maintain the raised effect.

Once you are happy with the petal cutting, cut out around the whole image and mount onto black card-stock, then mount your cut out onto another page of the Floral Soul designer papers.

My second card is a similar design to my first, however the background is Distress ink and then the Floral Grunge flower was stamped over the top with grey dye ink. I cut the sentiment from the bottom of the Be Kind stamp so that it was easier to use separately and stamped it randomly across the background with black dye ink.

The main image was stamped and then coloured with polychromus pencils, before cutting out and mounting onto black card-stock.

Thank you for stopping by and please call back for daily Design Team inspiration.

Julie xx 

Floral abundance! (by Rachel)

Hello there! I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas and are now gearing up to the New year! I have some final makes from November's shows to share with you today....

This first one used the stamp shared beauty and tagtastic plus one of the designer papers. I stamped the image all over the card then coloured in using distress inks. Finally I have added a piece of the designer paper cut out in the shape of the tagtastic stamp.

In this next one I used the movie strip collage stap and stamped onto a ready made background that I had done using brushos. I then used inks to colour the image.This image was then added to another layer of the designer paper and finally onto a card.

My third card was made using a piece of designer paper that I stamped onto. I then added some lolly sticks which I had already sparingly covered in gesso and once dry hadcovered in oxide inks. I then did a bit more stamping and finally added the flower from the movie strip collage stamped image.

In this finally card I stamped directly onto designer papers using first the Be Kind stamp and then some of the grasses from the show. I also added the word stamps to the right hand side of the card.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing what I have done with these stamps and those fabulous papers.

Wishing you a peaceful last few days of 2018 and all the very best for 2019.

Rachel x

Butterfly frame by Brenda

Good morning to you all, Brenda here and I hope you are almost prepared for Christmas, only 6 sleeps now!!

My first share this time is a little frame which I stamped with Distress Ink and the lovely Fern from the Wild Meadow set, I used two colours to ink the stamp to give a variegated look and then distress the edges with the same colours. Inside the frame I used one of the Designer papers and stamped a sentiment from Shared beauty and stamped, coloured and cut out three Butterflies from April Fairy and Just Butterflies.

Here I have a tent card using Movie strip collage which I stamped once, masked and stamped a second time, coloured with with pencils and added some Distress Ink around the blooms.

I loved the colour of this particular sheet from the Designer papers and followed the colourway stamping images from Wild Meadow and Floral grunge with Versafine Clair inks. I made the base shape with the Tagtastic stamp stamping three times with Versamark and embossing with detail white, then cutting out the three tag shapes slightly larger to create a black frame. I fixed the thee together with card hinges in the back, fixed the stamped papers, some cord and embellies. I also stamped sentiments from Be Kind and Shared beauty.

This is my last post before Christmas so I would like to wish everyone a peaceful Christmas season.

Tagtastic book by Brenda

Good morning, Brenda here with some samples made using the gorgeous new stamps and papers Lesley showcased on Hochanda.

                                                

My first share is a little book which I made using my Zutter, something that's not see the light of day for far too long.

I used Distress Oxides to created the pages and pockets to hold the tags which were all made using the new Tagtastic stamp.

I cut each down slightly to enable them to fit into the pockets.

I managed to incorporate all the new stamps into this one: 

Shared beauty,  Movie strip collage, Floral grunge and Be Kind 

I used a variety of inks and stencils along with sentiments from Floral Delight.

Also used are some of the stamps from Wild  Meadow which is a really beautiful stamp set and so useful.

The pages also had a liberal helping of structure paste and stencilling to add interest and texture.

This one uses one of the new Designer papers along with a little wooden frame I bought at Stamp Magic from Lesley and David stand there. I felt it lent itself to rustic colours so inked the edges and fixed over the DP, the bloom is from Movie strip collage which I stamped several times onto vellum and heat embossed with detail gold, cut out and layered up, adding a little gold glitter as well. The corn is a die cut also glittered with gold and copper ultrafine glitters. The sentiment is from Birthday words.

I hope I have offered a little inspiration to get out your stamps and get inky.