Floral Grid (by Christine)

Hello everyone, today sees the first of three posts this month by our Guest Design Team member Christine Patch. She has created a delightful card for your inspiration, and kindly provided a step by step tutorial for you. 

Christine writes: 

Hello everyone

It's my turn again on the blog to share some crafting ideas using lovely Chocolate Baroque stamps. So much has happened in the world since I was first on this blog but crafting with beautiful products remains a joy.

I thought I would share a 'how to' on this occasion. It started very simply with a die cut circle in white card. 

My idea was to create an image using several flower and leaf stamps, with a bit of added extra (in this case butterflies). I decided against adding any background to the white card since I wanted the images to stand proud.

Next step - add a grid. Out comes a black fine liner pen and ruler. I added temporary adhesive on the back of the card so that I can use the lines on my black glass mat to ensure the lines were straight. My ruler has a one centimetre line so I used that as a spacer.

On to colouring using Polychromos pencils and some shading to give additional depth. I also added some small circles with the fine liner pen where all the lines intersected.

Finally, I added two of the butterflies from my original stamping, colouring again with the pencils, but adding some clear sparkle gel for a little impact. A sentiment stamped in black and mounted on white then red card finished the card.

It's not a quick card to make but I think it's worth the effort.

I hope you like this design and might consider trying it yourself but adding your own spin. The stamp sets I used were:

Celebration Bouquet

Rose and Thistle

Rose Duo

Autumn Hedgerow

Butterfly Mind

Happy crafting!

Christine

xx

Creating Layers (by Christine)

Hello everyone, today sees the return of Christine with her second blog post this month. She has created something for everyone this time with a range of cards and techniques.

Christine writes:

Hello everyone, I'm back with my second blog post for March.

I used Drawing Cartridge for this first project since I intended to use a fair amount of water through the process. I started off by tearing some paper and, using different shades of Distress Oxides, created the hills and the sky. I masked off an area on the sky for the sun.
The next stage was to stamp trees from the Trees a Crowd set. I used Smokey Grey from the Versafine Clair range as I did not want them to be too prominent; to that end, I also used second and third generation stamping to build up depth.
I then chose Fired Brick Distress Ink and used a tree and texture brush to add colour to the two large trees and then the same ink using a couple of the very small flower stamps from the Orchard Design a Tree sheet to add detail.
The main feature is the lovely Tree House which I stamped directly onto the card with black ink and then separately on white card which I then fussy cut minus the top branches. I added colours that I thought would blend well on the fussy cut and then adhered it to the main images. I added grey watercolour pencil aroumd the house to give it some shadow and depth.
I had kept the mask on the sun area so added some yellow Disress Ink and carefully swept it around the edges. When the mask was removed, I added a little yellow to blend the colour. The sentiment is from the Tree House stamp set.
I added some birds via stencil in my stash and the little MDF owl just finished off the piece.

I went for a clean and simple look for this piece. I cut three pieces of square card, each about an inch bgger than the next and temporarily centred them together. I chose two stamps from the Autumn Hedgerow set and stamped them evenly across the cards. I then cut black mats for each of the three white cards, allowing a narrow border on each one. I then adhered the white cards onto the mats ensuring the stamped images were as exact as possible.
The focal stamp is called Shared Beauty. I used Versafine Satin Red for all of the stamping. I used a circle die to cut it out and the next larger die to cut out a black mat. The mat is adhered to the smallest square and the circle image raised for dimension.
This could be a card or it could be framed. I am not yet sure!

My last card today used alcohol inks and a lifting ink. First order of the day was to cover Yupo Paper with alcohol inks- I used three in the pink/plum spectrum. Once the inks were totally dry, I used the beautiful large flower stamp from the Celebration Bouquet set, covered it with lifting ink, and then stamped it straight on to the Yupo paper. A soft cloth rubbed fairly firmly over the stamped area revealed the image below. The ink was still on the stamp of course and I added it to some cartridge paper. The resulting image gives a lovely watercolour effect.
I created the background paper using Seedless Preserves Distress Oxide Ink and the same stamp with Dusty Concord Distress Oxide Ink. The sentiments are from the same stamp set.

I hope you enjoy looking through these.
Happy Crafting!

Christine.

Hearts and flowers by Rachel

Good Morning! Its the final post of the samples from the September show and I hope there's nothing scary in this post! Just lots of my samples from the show!

This one was made on a gelli print background using the geometric trading hearts stamp. I coloured sone of the squares in using water colour pencils. 

For this one I used the artists trading heart outline on another gelli background and then masked off the heart and stamped the celebration bouquet all around the outside. My trusty water colour pencils then came out to colour the blooms!

More using the geometric trading hearts and maskingthe first heart before stamping the second one.

A bit more of a scene this time creating the background using a sun mask and blue/green ink before then filling in the sun. I overstamped and masked the snakeshead fritallaria and coloured with water colour pencils.

Finally I used the butterfly from the happy flowers day stamp set to create this card! Simple repeat stamping on an inked background and colouring in using water colour  pencils.

Hope you have a great day - big hugs Rachel xx

Happy Flower Day Part 2 by Debbie

Hello everyone it's my turn on the blog again and here are the rest of my samples from the September Hochanda shows. I'll start with one of my favourites and a favourite technique too- Intaglio enamelling. 

For this design I've used  Artist Trading Heart & Happy Flower Day. I stamped the heart onto thick card and cut out. I then covered the entire surface with Versamark and then applied chunky bronze embossing powder before heating to melt. I repeated this process twice more and while the enamelling was still molten after the third application I stamped the butterfly from Happy Flower Day into it having inked the stamp first with a black inkpad. You will need to allow the enamelling to cool before removing the stamp.

I mounted the heart onto a piece of Kraft card  which had been passed through an embossing folder and given a light coating of gilding wax. To finish I added some narrow organza ribbon and attached to a 6 x 6 white card blank.  

Next we have the pretty butterfly from Happy Flower Day which I've embossed onto navy card using pink, green, lilac and blue embossing powders. I sprinkled a little embossing powder randomly and heated from below. I also stamped the butterfly onto the 7 x 7 white card blank using a grey inkpad. 

Above and below we have 2 different looks to the gorgeous Celebration Bouquet. Above I've used Brushos to make a vibrant background and then stamped over the top using a black inkpad. I then coloured using water based pens. I stamped the A5 card blank using Open Weave and a brown inkpad. To finish I mounted onto some Kraft card and added some string for a natural look.

It's amazing how many different looks you can achieve using the same stamp. For the above design I stamped onto self adhesive stationery labels using a black inkpad. I coloured softly with pencils and then peeled the labels off the backing sheet and repositioned them onto pink card layered onto white card and finally grey. I then attached to a white A5 card blank.

Here are the rest of my samples and some which didn't appear on the show. 

An MDF tag using Geometric Heart 

An MDF door hanger using Happy Flower Day

Embossed in gold using Geometric Hearts.

Onto a background made from inks and rock salt the pretty

 butterfly from Happy Flower Day

Geometric Hearts again simply chopped up and reformed onto a randomly stamped background embossed in gold.

This background was made with Distress inks onto a Gel plate. 

Celebration Bouquet has been stamped with a black inkpad and coloured with pencils.

Here I've inked inside a masked oval and stamped the lovely magnolia

 from Happy Flower Day. I coloured with pencils for this one before layering onto 

white card. 

Finally we have a simple bookmark from Happy Flower Day.

Thanks for visiting the blog today. Don't forget to watch out for 

the Chocolate Baroque show on Hochanda in November.

Bye for now. Debbie  

Heart of the Garden and Butterfly Bouquet by Penny

Good morning peeps, I hope you are all keeping well and dry!  What's with all this rain?  My garden has gone from parched to swamp in such a short time!  

It's my last post of the month today and I've got a piece of home decor and a card to share with you.

Heart of the Garden.

For this Home Decor piece I have used stamps from the Filigree Trading hearts and Celebration Bouquet sets; Distress Inks, texture paint, chalk paint, black Versafine ink, clear EP, CB stencils  Seasonal Elements and Useful Leaves, a gold pen and Koh-I-Noor paints.  

I stamped and embossed the filigree heart image in black Versafine and clear EP three times onto white card then cut them out.  I painted them and added dots with a gold pen.  I did the same with the bouquet.

I took a canvas board and painted a background with chalk paint, then used stencils with DIs and texture paint to add some foliage and flowers.   I attached the hearts to the board then attached the bouquet on top.

Butterfly Bouquet.

This is a quick and pretty piece of artwork that would suit many occasions.  I have used stamps from the Celebration Bouquet and Happy Flowers Day sets; grey Versafine ink, alcohol pens and DIs.  

I took a piece of CB Luxury Smooth White Paper and stamped the bouquet in grey ink.  I coloured the image with pens and added a shadow line.  I then took a spare piece of the paper and stamped a butterfly in grey ink.  I coloured it with the pens then cut it out.  I matted and layered the focal panel onto a white base card, then I stamped a sentiment along the bottom of the card and added a couple of foliage stamps.

I really like this quick card, it is ideal for when you need a hand made card in a hurry!  

Thank you for dropping by today, I hope to see you next month when I'll be back with some more crafty fun.  

In the meantime take care everyone,

                            xx  Penny  xx 

Kraft Bouquet (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have a project to share with you today using the lovely stamp set Celebration Bouquet, featured on last month's TV shows on Hochanda. The main image is so useful and can be used for a variety of occasions. You can use the image as a whole, or pick out parts of the image and stamp it onto a variety of surfaces to create embellishments for your projects, the possibilities are really exciting.

To create my card, I stamped and embossed the image and one of the sentiments using Versamark and white embossing powder onto kraft card. I painted the image using Koh-I-Noor paints and a water brush. I added a few sequins to the background, and mounted the kraft card onto a piece of patterned paper. This was one of Lesley's lovely designs from a previous paper pack that she created.

Thanks for stopping by,

Judith xx

Butterfly tag by Brenda

Morning everyone, Brenda here with some more shares using last months new stamps.

The first is a tag inked with Distress Oxides, some stencilling and some second generation stamping using the edges of Celebration Bouquet, sentiment from Happy Flowers Day and two Butterflies from the same set coloured with the same inks. I mounted the tag onto some corrugates and, arranged some string onto the tag and fixed the Butterflies in place.

A Brusho background and a die cut lattice panel fixed over it and the beautiful Magnolia from Happy Flowers Day coloured with the same Brusho's, cut out and arranged over the lattice. The sentiment is from Filigree Trading Hearts.

Here I have used some of the Designer Papers town into strips and fixed across the base and a heart from Geometric Trading Hearts stamped onto a piece of the matching colourway DP and little dots of Liquid Pearls added in the coordinating blue.

This one was really simple to make stamping the heart from Geometric Trading Hearts with Versamark and embossing with detail gold EP, cutting out each heart, scoring down the centre and fixing the hears back to back to create a hanging decoration. Note.........don't forget to fix the hanging cord into the centre before gluing the final hearts together. I also added some curling ribbons at the same time as the hanging cord.

Finally the lovely Celebration Bouquet stamped into an Oxide background, coloured in with Koh-i-Noor paints, some background stamping, a bot and tag sentiment from Happy Flowers Day. 

Have a lovely weekend.

Hearts, Butterflies and Flowers (by Sandra)

Hello

I'm sharing with you my second post from the August Hochanda show.

For my first card I made a background using Brushos choosing blues and greens. I then stamped the flowers from Celebration Bouquet and embossed in white.

For my second card, I used water colours to make a soft background on cartridge paper. I then stamped the bouquet and embossed in gold and coloured with water colour pens.

Next I used the Butterflies and Dictionary definition from Happy Flower's Day stamp set. I bleached the colour from the butterflies and used a soft blue/green water colour.

For this card I used the Butterflies again with the Triple Layer Stamping method and kept it very simple in the black and white colours.

Next are the fabulous Artist Trading Hearts. For this card I used  the Filigree Trading Hearts set. I  used some glossy card and alcohol inks to make a background, I then stamped and embossed the crackle heart and the butterfly from Happy Flower's Day and cut them out and mounted onto a blank card with a sentiment.

For my last piece, I used a piece of grey board which I added some modelling paste through a stencil and some acrylic paints. I stamped the heart onto a background paper I had made on the Gelli Plate. I stamped the leaves onto some card and cut them out and hung them from the heart to make it look a bit like a dream-catcher.

Thanks for looking
Sandra

Happy Hearts and Flowers Day by Debbie

Hi everyone, it's my turn to show you the samples I designed for the September Chocolate Baroque Hochanda show. We had some lovely florals & hearts to choose from and a wealth of options for your imagination. 

Here's my first design using Celebration Bouquet

For this one I simply embossed the image with white powder onto Kraft Card and sponged with Distress inks Blueprint Sketch, Peeled Paint, Barn Door and Fossilized Amber.

I then layered onto white & Kraft card before attaching to an A5 Kraft card blank. Very simple but clean and delicate. I just love all the fine detail in this stamp. 



Next, we have Happy Flowers Day

This is one of my favourites and for this one I began by flicking some brown ink onto an 

8 x 8 ivory card blank. Next I die cut some hexagons and then stamped parts of the magnolia, butterfly and script using a black inkpad. I coloured with pencils and attached 2 strips of burlap onto the card blank before attaching the hexagons.



I just loved September's stamps and once I got going, I just couldn't stop! My next sample incorporates the great Artist Trading Heart and Geometric Trading Hearts.

This again is a simple design. I stamped both hearts onto card which I had smooched (wipe the card through watered ink on your craft mat) Distress inks onto using a black inkpad. I then cut them both out and stamped the sentiment and image onto the plain one.

I stamped Square Bubbles onto a 6 x 6 white card blank using a grey inkpad and sponged Distress ink Wilted Violet  around the edges.  

 Finally, we have the Snakehead Fritillary from Happy Flowers Day  

For this card I stamped onto a white die cut oval (a smaller one for the sentiment) using a purple inkpad and then stamped again without re inking the stamp (secondary stamping) which gives you an interesting shadowy effect. I coloured the flowers in the foreground using pencils and mounted onto a grey A5 card blank.



That's all for this time but I'll have lots more to show you layer in the month including the samples which didn't make it onto the show. 

Thanks for visiting Debbie

Bouquet of Sunshine and Smiles and Pink Magnolia by Penny

Bouquet of Sunshine and Smiles.

Morning Peeps!  I hope you are all well and enjoying the lovely Autumnal colours that are starting to come through!  I'm back to share my first post with you this month featuring stamps from the Celebration Bouquet, Happy Flowers Day and Filigree Trading Hearts sets, CB Mask/ Stencil   Useful Leaves and Kaleidoscope of Butterflies, Distress inks, black Versafine ink and alcohol markers.  

I began by stamping the bouquet image onto a piece of CB Luxury SmoothWhite Paper using Versafine ink and coloured it with pens.  I did the same with a butterfly then fussy cut both images.    

On a plain piece of CB's Designer Papers I added DIs through a couple of stencils to create a background, then added gold pen around the edges.    I took a white base card and stamped one of the worker images around two edges.  I attached the background panel to the base card, off setting it to the side.  I then attached the bouquet and butterfly with 3D glue, stamped and die cut a sentement then attached it to the card with 3D glue.

Pink Magnolia.

This project uses stamps from the Happy Flowers Day, alcohol pens, Distress Inks, CB Stencil Kaleidoscope of Butterflies, black Versafine ink, clear embossing powder and an embossing folder from my stash.

I stamped and embossed the Magnolia image onto smooth white paper, then coloured it with pens.  I added a few stencilled butterflies using DIs then blended ink around the edges of the panel.  I took a piece of Kraft card and embossed it through a folder, then attached it to a white base card.

To complete the card I stamped a sentement along the bottom edge of the base card.


Thank you for popping in today, I hope that you have enjoyed this post and that I've encouraged and inspired you to have a go!  I'll be back later in the month with some more crafty fun!

In the meantime take care,



                        xx  Penny  xx