Using worker stamps in card designs by Natalie Ballard

 

Today's sample features The Christmas Garden Rubber Stamps by Chocolate Baroque; this project is perfect for beginners. While Christmas may seem oh so far away, I like to do a few backup projects before putting away my Christmas stash.

This time, rather than using the main image, we are going to focus on the smaller worker images to create our design.

Start with a card panel a little smaller than your chosen card base. Use a large circle or semi-circle die/stencil/template to mark a guide line that features a half circle curve just shorter than the height of your panel. Mark this in an erasable pen or lightly in pencil as you will need to remove this guide later in the process.

Starting with the garland stamp, use a pigment or hybrid ink pad to get a good solid stamped image. You are going to stamp in black ink if you want to replicate the sample, but you could use green as an alternative. Rotate each impression so the design flows around the guide line.

Next, you want to stamp your sentiment onto your card panel. By stamping this next focal element first, you can clearly see the space that needs to be "filled". 

Use the snowflake and poinsettia stamps to infill the wreath design, positioning your images to emphasise the flow of the wreath.

Then, I added colour to the garland and poinsettia images using alcohol markers. Trim the panel slightly and adhere it to a red card layer to add a fine border around the panel. Adhere this to the card and then add sequins, gems or even dots of gel pen to add a touch of Christmas shimmer.

Three Gardens of splendour by Rachel

 Hello there!

Rachel here today with the first of my posts from the December shows - these samples are all from the show early in December - and involve garden themed stamps.

This first one just uses a section of the Toadstool garden and I have put it into a frame from a show many moons ago - the whole this is black and white apart from the main fungi which I coloured using mica powders.

This second sample was simply stamped and coloured using watercolour pencils. Its such a lovely image.

And finally the FolkArt garden - I again coloured this using water colour pencils but I also added some touches of mica powders here and there.

I hope these samples have given you some inspiration in different ways you can used your stamps.

Have a great day!

Hugs

Rachel xx

Hello and Happy Christmas Eve. 

I hope you are all keeping well in these strange times. 

I am sharing a couple more of my cards. 

First I took a piece of card and blended Distress Ink over a Holly stencil. I then stamped the plain bauble from the Shaded Baubles stamp set and embossed in gold. I added a sentiment from Christmas Cheer. I then added some die cut leaves and a silk foam flower, and mat and layered in gold and green.

My second card uses the shaded baubles too. This time I stamped the Snowflake Bauble onto some pattern paper and embossed  it. I then masked it and stamped it again, just below the first. With both baubles stamped, embossed and masked I did the third Bauble, this time the plain one as a contrast. I added a sentiment from Christmas Garden stamp set. 

Thank you for looking.

I hope you have a lovely Christmas 

Sandra xx

Monochromatic Christmas by Brenda

Hello all, Brenda here again with some more Christmas inspiration. And for my top card I have used the lovely new Christmas Garden, there is so much detail and interest in it I wanted to keep this one simple. After stamping with Versafine I heat embossed with a black glitter EP mixture which I made up from several different colours to achieve a sparkly finish. All I then did was pick out some elements from the image and add crystal glitter and mat and layer onto the base card.

The Tomte stamp set proved to be very popular and sold out of the initial and backdated stock. I stamped this little fellow with Versafine Clair, coloured him in with sparkle pens and added some white puffy embossing powder to his hat and coat and matted onto a die cut frame and some Christmas DP.

Using one of the images from Shaded Baubles I stamped with Versafine and heat embossed with a deep blue sparkle EP, cut out a section of the card and cut out with a scalloped die. I then created a shaker card.............absolutely ages since I made one of those, added a sentiment and some sequins and mounted onto the base card.

As always, many thanks for popping by our blog today.

In The Garden At Christmas (by Julie)

Hello, thanks for stopping by. I have two more Christmas themed cards to show you.

My first features a very cute robin from Christmas Circles. I inked up the robin image and stamped onto spare stamping card and then coloured with a mixture of pencils and Distress inks. White paint pen was added for a bit of a snowy effect. I then cut the image out with a circle die cut and layered it onto some toning green card stock cut using a slightly larger circle die.I inked up the foliage stamp from Christmas Garden and stamped directly onto the card blank, making sure that the design would be visible once the circle panels were in place. 

To finish off attach the circle panels to the front of the card with 3d foam pads.

My second card comes courtesy of Christmas Garden. I stamped the main image onto spare card-stock and coloured with a mixture of coloured pencils and Distress inks. I then stamped the snowflake and foliage stamp around the edges of the card blank. The Christmas Garden image was cut to size and then mounted onto the front of the card blank with 3d foam pads.

Please call back for more Design Team inspiration.

Julie xx

More Christmas makes by Rachel

Hello there! Rachel here with you today and I have some more makes from the July Christmas show to share with you today. This time I used the other stamp sets from the show - Christmas Garden, Christmas Curcles and shaded baubles.

In this one I used the candles from the christmas circle set and coloured the image in using water colour pencils. I used one of the sentiments too and added the corner from the Christmas garden sheet. I also overlayed a shaded baubles stamped onto acetate.

In this one I used versa mark and the Christmas Garden stamp and heat set the image using white detail embossing pwder. I then used metallic pencils to colour the image.

The Christmas garden image here was coloured with water colour pencils.

In this sample I used packing paper from a well known company and made some environmentally friendly gift wrap...

In this one I used the robin stamp from the Christmas Circles stamp and colouredin water colour pencils. Finally I added the shaded bauble on acetate again. Finally I used part of the Christmas Garden Stamp to surround the central portion.

Lastly a tag made using part of the Christmas Garden stamp again - its such a fabulous large stamp but its ok to just use a section of it!

I do hope this has given you a little inspiration!

Hugs

Rachel xx

Candle glow by Brenda

Good morning Peeps, Brenda here with some Christmas shares from Lesley's July Hochanda shows.

For my first card I used the candle image from the new Christmas Circles stamp set, stamped onto linen cardstock and coloured in with Koh-i-Noor paints and some watered down Distress Ink washed around the edges and a little glitter added to the glow of the flames. A die cut frame placed over the image using foam pads to raise it before matting and layering onto red and white cardstock.

As I had some inchies on my desk from another project I thought I would use them for this card. I started by using two of the worker stamps from Christmas Garden and stamping with Versafine Clair. I inked the inchies with the same inks and then stamped the image from the new Tomte stamp set using Nocturne Versafine Clair and when dry added three layers of UTEE heat embossing each layer to build up a glazes finish. The sentiment is from Christmas Circles.

And this is the beautiful Christmas Garden, a new stamp with so much detail. The background is Brushos and the image stamped with Versafine Black and heat embossed with detail clear EP and the colour bleached out of some elements and a little white gel pen added to bring out detail.

Thanks as always for your visit and I hope I have inspired you to pop over the the website and take a closer look at the new stamps.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Gnome (by Julie)

Hello, today I have a selection of  fun, Winter/Christmas themed cards for you all. Chocolate Baroque recently released some brand new Christmas stamps which include Tomte Christmas, which has lots of fun Scandinavian style gnomes.

My first project is a DL card where I have teamed the large gnome from Tomte Christmas with the Mushroom House. I started by stamping the gnome in the bottom left corner of the card and coloured with polychromus pencils. I also stamped the image onto some copy paper and cut it out to make a mask.

Place the mask over the gnome and then stamp the Mushroom House so that it just overlaps the masked gnome. Remove the mask and draw in some free hand lines to join up the path and to create texture in the snow. Colour with polychromus pencils and add white paint pen to the tops of the mushrooms for a snow effect along with touches of Chrystal Stickles to finish off the snow effect.

My second card sees the the little Tomte Gnome pulling a reindeer placed inside a bauble. I inked up the blank bauble from Shaded Baubles with a blue dye ink and stamped onto some white stamping card. I then inked up the little gnome and deer image with the same ink and stamped it within the bauble. I coloured the image with polychromus pencils and then cut to size to fit the centre of my card blank. I finished off the panel with a sentiment from Tomte Christmas and a stamped snowflake from Christmas Garden.

For my third card I inked up the blank bauble from Shaded Baubles with a light blue dye ink and stamped it directly onto my card blank. I also made a mask from some copy paper. Next I placed the mask over the blank bauble and stamped the snowflake bauble to the right so that it overlaps the first one. Remove the mask and stamp the little trio of Tomte gnomes using the same ink as before. Colour with Polychromus pencils and then add the little snowflake from Christmas Garden for the background before finishing off with a sentiment from Tomte Chrismas and dabs of Crystal Stickles.

My last card uses the same light blue, dye ink as before, which I used to ink up the snowflake bauble from Shaded Baubles and stamped onto spare stamping card. I also made a mask from copy paper. Once you have stamped the sentiment into the bauble, cover with the mask then spritz with a royal blue, spray ink. Cut to size and then stamp the snowflake from Christmas Garden using the dye ink as before, around the edge.

On a separate piece of card, stamp the snowflake and spritz with the spray ink as before. When dry, cut to size and attach both panels to the front of your card blank with 3d foam pads.

Thanks for stopping by and please call back soon for more Design Team inspiration.

Julie xx

Christmas garden quartet (by Veronica)

 It didn't feel a bit like Christmas making these in blazing sunshine...but this BIG stamp made it so easy!
I did three versions in the end, it was so easy to keep playing.
First one was simply stamped in black versafine ink and clear embossed. I coloured the robin, lanterns, tree and poinsettias using koh-i-noor watercolour paints. The sentiment from Christmas circles was stamped at the top before addin a mat of black card. The white base card was randomly stamped in grey ink using the baubles bit  and holding the stamp in my hand.





As a brusho addict, i just had to try with brushos and this was the result. Background was a mix of yellow and turquoise powders well spritzed with water. Once it was dry, the image stamped in black versafine and clear embossed. I used bleach and a paintbrush to lighten the lanterns, candles stars and baubles. The robin, holly, poisettias and the candles were painted with watercolours again - the background was fairly light behind the poinsettias and the robin, and the watercolours easily covered it up. The card was edged with black marker pen, and added to narrow gold and black mats before adding to a white base card.

 This one was simply stamped on black card with versamark and embossed in white before painting the candles and poisettias with watercolour paints. Gold and red mats before adding to a white base card.


Number four took  a lot longer, but most of that involved fussy cutting the poinsettias out.
I used the small mistletoe sprig and used my stamping platform to create a wreath, stamping in two different green inks. The poinsettias were stamped in black versafine onto white card and clear embossed before colouring with marker pens - I think I stamped them six times altogether, but it could have been more. The sentiment comes from the Christmas circles set

a little bit different, and while there are probably not too many people with Christmas birthdays, they do deserve a birthday card!