Icy Colours (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have a project to share today using another of this month's individual lady stamps, Winter Dawn.

I am not a Winter person, I do not like the cold, preferring to stay indoors wrapped up warm, but I love this Wintery image, and had a lot of fun creating a card to go with Sue's super design.

I stamped the image onto smooth watercolour card, and masked it before colouring the background using the acrylic block technique. I then stamped over the top of the background using a stamp from the Abstract Fragment stamp set. I added some partial stamping using a stamp from the Decorative Edges stamp set by stamping with Versamark and white embossing powder.

I removed the mask and coloured the image using Polychromos pencils. I added some flat-backed gems and some ribbon, before attaching the background to a white card blank.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Guest Post - Masking Technique by Corine van Kuilenburg

Today it is my pleasure to introduce the last, but by no means least, new member of the Guest Design Team, Corine van Kuilenburgh. Many of you may know this lovely lady from blogland and other social media and we are delighted to have her on board.  Today is her very first post in her new role, so it's over to you Corine.

Hello there! My name is Corine van Kuilenburg and I am delighted to be joining you for the first time as a member of the Chocolate Baroque Guest Design Team! I do hope you will enjoy what I have made for your inspiration.

My first piece shows a card made with the masking technique. I used Stazon Jet Black, Distress Ink and three stamps. The stamps I used are from the Tangled Fragments, Mackintosh Sentiments and DecorativeEdges. I will explain you how I made this card. 

1.  Stamp the rubberstamp on white cardstock with Stazon Jet Black.
2.  Stamp again on masking tape. Cut the biggest piece and place the masking tape exactly on the  stamped image.
3.  Use 2 or 3 colours Distress ink and sponge the image.
4.  Stamp the bubbles from Decorative Edges with Distress ink.
5.  Remove the masking tape.
6.  Use a water brush and Distress ink to the white part coloring.
7.  For a finishing touch you can place a text on your card.
8.  Paste your image, when its finished, on brown cardstock and on a topaz card.
9.  Finally the card measures 13.5 x 13.5 cm.

I hope you have enjoyed what I have done with these beautiful stamp!

Big Hugs

Corine

We love the rich golden shades of this card, thank you Corine, we look forward to what you have designed for us next week. In the meantime, please keep calling in regularly to see what other delights have been created by our talented Design girls.

 

Rolled PaperTrees (by Debbie)

I'm finishing my 2015 of blogging with a couple of gifts I made. I have taken inspiration from a few different pinners on Pinterest. The style has popped up in the form of tags, cards and canvas's and I'm not sure where it started but I thoroughly enjoyed making them.

 

 

They are 20cm by 30cm and for the first I used my precious papers from Graphicus, I still have a few in my stash and stroke them from time to time.

The backgrounds for each of them is old book pages and mixtures of paints applied with baby wipes rather than the uniformity of a paint brush. When the paint had dried I stamped with the circles from Decorative Edges and blue ink.

 

 

The second is made in the same way using different colours and paint. The stamp I used is the

 Open Weave with brown ink. The paint background was a little bright so I also used sequin waste with more ink.

 

 

I changed the shape of the tree and added words to it, I have called them Wishing Trees. The rolls of paper were cut to different lengths and as on each tree, added the white pen faux stitching. The stamped background uses the Floral Weave stamp. This photo shows the computer generated words I have used.

 

 

 

Wishing you all 'Best Wishes' for 2016

Debbie

True Love, Be Mine and a Quick Make (by Shirley)

Hello everyone I hope you are doing well.

I have several designs to show today featuring the new gorgeous Punky Hearts and Fluttering Hearts.

The background above was created with Salty Ocean, Shaded Lilac Distress Inks using an acrylic block and water.   I also used a heart stencil with Distress Ink.     I stamped the bubbles from Decorative Edges with Seedless Preserves Distress ink and the large heart from Fluttering Hearts with Shaded Lilac Distress Ink.

The images were stamped with black Archival ink and bleached with a little bleach & water and then coloured with Dylusions inks mixed with water on my craft mat.

I dry embossed the heart on the balloon and centres of the flower hearts on the back with a stylus and foam mat.  I also highlighted with a white pen and added stickles.    'With Love' is from Mackintosh Sentiments.

I used the lovely balloon again for this design below but stamped a different sentiment in the centre:

I blended Distress Inks using ripped card stock as a mask to create the background above.  I also stamped two fragments from Texture Fragments and flowers from Patchwork Landscape.  The balloon from Punky Hearts was painted with water colour markers.

And below is a quick make:

The above card with the pretty heart from Fluttering Hearts can be made in 10 minutes or less.  I drew a pencil line where I wanted to stamp which was easy to erase.  Thank you is from the Amazing Birthday set.    I hand drew a squiggly line around the edge.  Easy!

Thanks for your visit and have a great day,
Shirleyx

Colourful Steampunk under the Sea (by Shirley)

Hello everyone,  I hope you are doing well.

I'm back with another Steampunk under water design using the fabulous Steampunk Sea World and Steampunk Funky Fish stamp sets.

I used Dylusions inks in the background including white.   I blended Distress ink over the Cog stencil by TCW and stamped the bubbles from the Decorative Edges set with Salty Ocean Distress Ink.

The rest of the images were stamped with Cobalt Archival ink, bleached out and painted with Dylusions inks.  I highlighted with several metallic and white Gellyroll pens.  The curly top designs at the bottom are from a stamp in the Punky Flower set.

Thanks for your visit and have a wonderful festive season.
Shirleyx

Yummy Home cooking (by Maria)

Hey stamping lovers!

Today I have some samples that I made with the Mellow Fruitfulness stamp set and I hope you like them!

Here I made my background with dylusion ink and a stencil.  I took a wet baby wipe and some bleach,  which I applied to my stamp and stamped it two times on my background, this gives the beautiful white print on my background. Please don't forget to clean your stamp immediately, because bleach is not so healthy for the rubber! Then I stamped my images with black archival ink in the middle of my card, and with some alcohol markers I painted the artichoke in natural colours.

 

On my second card, the background is made with one of the stamps of the Decorative edges Unmounted Rubber stamp sheet.

I have made these two cards with some dies, and Distress Ink.  I have just used Autumn coloured  Distress Ink. I stamped my fruit stamp with black archival ink onto smooth  paper, coloured  the image with Distress Ink and then cut it out. If you leave the die in place and colour the whole background in the colours of your choice, once you have finished you will have a tiny white border all around your coloured image. On the third card I've used those different sizes of dies, in the middle you can see some transparent paper. I hope I have inspired you a little bit! Have a lot of fun with these gorgeous stamps and enjoy.

Greetings
Maria

Snowy Christmas in July (by Shirley)

Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well and ready to see some Christmas designs during the hot months of summer :)   At least it's hot where I live in Ontario, Canada which feels great after our long cold and snowy winter. 

I like to get started on Christmas cards early and as soon as I saw the Harlequin Fragments I thought they were a great match with Harlequin Christmas.

The background was created by blending Festive Berries and Aged Mahogany Distress Inks. I stamped the fragment from Harlequin Fragments with Festive Berries DI.  I stamped the bubble edge from Decorative Edges with Seedless Preserves DI and I coloured them with a white gel pen.

The Harlequin ornament and sentiment from Warm Christmas Greetings were stamped with Cobalt Archival ink.  I coloured the ornament with Dylusions inks and cut it out to attach over the background. 

I was very happy to see the two new Christmas sets, Snowy Scenes and Turtle Doves.  Both sets are full of beautiful smaller designs which have been great fun to use while getting a good start on Christmas cards. 

The background above was created a while ago and sitting in my stash.  It looks like I used Turquoise Dylusions inks (possibly a 'mop up' sheet) which I stamped with Big Bold Background Snowflake Shadow and coloured the snowflakes a little with a Tombow marker.   I stamped the Snowy Scene with Colbalt Archival ink, coloured with Prisma pencils and die cut with an ornament.   I was inspired by a design former DT member Elaine created a year & half ago using the same die.  As soon as I saw the little scenes in the set, it came to my mind to use my die for the first time.   Let it Snow is a clear stamp available on it's own or part of the Big Bold Christmas Words clear set.


I have one more card using the same little Snowy Scene image:

The background above was created with Lime and Green Dylusions inks.   I over stamped a little snowflake from the Snowy Scenes set and used TCW Starfall stencil with Distress Ink and TCW Circle Explosion stencil with Viva  Mother of Pearl light blue molding cream which has a silver hue.  I coloured the main image with Prisma pencils and added lots of glitter to the snow.   

Thanks for your visit and have a great day!
Shirley

Guest Post: Under the Sea by Sam

When we put out our call for new Design Team members at the start of the year, we had so many fantastic entries that we really were disappointed we couldn't just take everyone. So we came up with a plan to contact some of the shortlisted people and see if they would do a guest post and today I'm delighted to introduce the first of our guest blog posts.

Our first post is Sam of A Bit of Crafty Genius so without further ado, here is Sam's wonderful sea inspired project.

Hi all, Sam here

I can't begin to tell you all how excited I was to be asked to do a guest post for Chocolate Baroque. I have been drooling over their designs for a long time, since I was introduced to them by a fellow fan. I'm sure you all are with me there, am I right?

When I first received my stamps I couldn't wait to get started. I have only recently come home from holiday to Cancun and Playa del Carmen so I was in tropical mode all the way. I chose the Underwater stamp set and let me tell you, it was full of gorgeous sea elements. When I saw it, I immediately got an idea in my head and went ahead and ordered the Decorative Edges set too, for its bubbles stamp. I am so in love with the faded Harlequin stamp in that set as well, but that's another story!

 

I gathered my supplies which include Tim Holtz distress inks, markers and a waterbrush, various embossing powders, some heat-proof acetate, watercolour paper and a pre-scored pearlescent square card. I also had at hand my water spritzer with pearlescent water, my craft mat, scissors, a heat gun and embossing ink, some gems and an idea-ology glass bottle with cork.

 

I started with my card base. I knew I wanted to have an acetate front so I decided to cut an entire panel from the front of the card. I cut my acetate to size and heat embossed in white my bubbles stamp from the Decorative Edges set. I glued my acetate to the small edge I had left on the front of the card and glued a strip to the bottom of the acetate to give it a bit more stability.

 

Once my base was on its way, I chose to decorate the inside of the card rather than leave it white. I cut a piece of watercolour paper slightly smaller than my card so that I could mount it on the inside. I pressed several colours of blue distress ink on my craft mat and sprayed with my pearlescent water. This created the marbled effect that I pressed my watercolour paper into. I quickly dried my paper and then pressed it in again to give more of a splotchy look. I set this aside to dry.

 

While my background was drying I stamped and heat embossed several images from the Underwater stamp set in different coloured embossing powders. I used metallic ones, and some with sparkle, to give my underwater scene a magical quality to it. Once these were ready I fussy cut them and watercoloured with my distress inks and pens.

 

Having finished my loose elements, I went back to my marbled background and started stamping a scene to be placed behind the acetate. Unfortunately while I was doing this, I was concentrating on what would be visible on the front while the card was closed and failed to remember that the card could be opened and the inside visible on its own. This made it a little bit challenging as I now had to make sure the inside would be just as appealing without the front of the card blocking it. I had also only stamped at the middle/top of the card and the bottom of the card was rather messy. To fix this I heat embossed a mix of embossing powers to create a sandy sea bed. This completed my background which I then adhered to the inside of my card.

 

With the inside of the card finished and the acetate ready to go, I started adhering my sea elements. I found with just the 3 coloured pieces it was looking very sparse so I gathered some gems and stuck those down around the bottom, to give the illusion of treasure on the sea floor. As a final addition to my card I 'aged' a strip of paper which I rolled up and inserted into my glass bottle. I added a bit of the same 'sand' mixture into the bottle and replaced the cork. This I stuck down with glossy accents.

 

Unfortunately all of the glitter and shine of the card is hard to capture on camera (at least for us amateur photographers) so a bit of the magic was lost on film, but I assure you, it's beautiful!

Thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings and thanks to Glenda from Chocolate Baroque, I hope to see you around here again some day. And if you feel so inclined, please feel free to come visit me at my blog over at http://abitofcraftygenius.blogspot.co.uk/ 

Sam

Thanks so much Sam for a great project, we love it!  Please join me in saying a big thanks to Sam by leaving her a comment, I'm sure she would appreciate it!

Joy is Not in Things (by Shirley)

Hello everyone !  I hope you are having a great January. 

I have another Buddha Lady from the gorgeous new Serenity A5 set.  

The background is Turquoise Dylusions Ink over stamped with various images from Tranqulity, Serenity, Wisteria Lane, and the bubble edge from Decorative Edges with Peacock Feathers and Picked Raspberry Distress Inks and highlighted with Prisma Pencils.   The background landscape behind the Buddha is sponged Distress Inks using ripped paper and a circle cut-out.   The fantastic sentiment is from Words of Inspiration.

I cut the Buddha out (removed the structure she was in), coloured with Prisma Pencils and popped up her up.   I added some glitter to her lotus seat.

Thanks for visiting and have a great day,
Shirley

Autumn Fairies (by Shirley)

Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well.

The new Autumn Fairy Collection designs are so beautiful and a joy to work with.   I have two cards today to show you using all three DL sets.    It looks like I'm on a 'blue theme' with these Fairies.

My background (above) started with texture using light molding paste with TCW - Cell Theory stencil and when dry, spraying Dylusions (purple & turquoise) inks.    I used images from all three Autumn sets, stamped with black Stazon Ink.   I masked the mushrooms, used bleach to remove the ink and added purple Dylusions.    I also added glitter around the texture.   The Fairy is from the September Fairy set which I stamped and embossed with black on separate card stock, decoupaged and adhered over the background.   I added pink stickles to her wings.   Wish upon a Star is from Words of Inspiration.

The background (above) is again using Dylusions spray inks (Midnight, Teal & Linen).   Using TCW - Circle Explosion stencil I sprayed more Linen ink.  I added a little pattern as well from TCW-Solace stencil using Shaded Lilac Distress Ink.    I stamped the bubbles from Decorative Edges with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink.

I used Black Stazon Ink for the rest of the stamping and also highlighted with a white Gelly Roll Pen.  The mushrooms were bleached a little again.    The mushrooms, branches at the top & butterfly are from November Fairy and the Fairy is from September Fairy.   The interesting flower along the edges is from Poppy Meadow.  I painted the mushrooms and wings with Purple Dylusions & water.


I hope you have enjoyed these Fairy designs.  Please come back often as my talented teammates have lots more to show you this month.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day,
Shirley

More Peacocks (by Shirley)

Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well.

I have two more Peacock designs to show you today using the fabulous new stamps.

The background for the above card was created with Smooch Inks.   I stamped the feather over the background with Moss Green Pigment ink by Colorbox.   The Peacock Feather 'plant' from Peacock Parade and the bubbles at the top from the clear set -Decorative Edges were embossed with gold.    I added the gold border with a gold pen.  The Peacock above from Tangled Peacock was also embossed with Gold on watercolour paper and coloured with Tombow markers.  

The backgrounds on the card above are designer papers from my stash.  I distressed the edges of the blue paper and added a little Tea Dye Distress Ink to both.    The Peacock & decorative edge are both from Peacock Parade which I stamped with Coffee Archival Ink.

I coloured over the Peacock with Prisma Pencils and added glitter and little rhinestones on his tail. 

Spellbinder Dies:  Labels Eight & Decorative Labels Eight.  

Well that's all the Peacock designs I have for this month, I look forward to 'playing' with these gorgeous stamps again.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day,
Shirley

Crafting on the Edge (posted by Judith)

Hi Folks, I have a couple of samples to show you today showcasing the new Clear Edge stamp sets. In my first sample, I have created a sunny background with an ink wash. I then used a harlequin mask and Pan Pastels to start building up my background. I also stamped a script stamp from the Poppy Butterfly Collage stamp sheet using Versafine Ink, and then swiped Pan Pastels over the top. I added a decoupaged poppy and some butterflies from the same stamp sheet to my card, which I coloured with pencils. I created the border by using the harlequin edge stamp from the new Decorative Edges stamp sheet 
 

 




For my second sample, I created a watery background by painting inks onto watercolour paper, and dropping sea salt onto the background while it was still wet. Once it was dry, I brushed the sea salt away. I stamped a seaweed image from the Underwater stamp sheet onto the background. I then stamped a seahorse from the same stamp sheet onto a large Nestie shape, which I coloured and masked off. I coloured the background with Distress Inks, and added some more seaweed images. I then stamped the circle edge along the bottom, and embossed it with white embossing powder, to represent bubbles.

These edge stamps are so versatile, and can be used in so many different ways. Keep popping back to see what my Design Team mates have been creating. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Yummy New "Chocolatey" Stamp Sets! (by Clare)

Hello!  As you probably already know, Fantasy Woodland is the new stamp set of the month!  What an amazing set of stamps - so many different types of trees!  Beautiful images to work with!  Click on the name of the set above, and you will be taken directly to the stamp set on the website, where you can see all of the stamps in this set.  

Below are a couple of projects I made using this set, and I hope they'll inspire you a little!  There are so many great projects that the design team has made, so please check the other posts on this blog for more ideas!  The little house is from the set, Home Sweet Home, as well as the wheat grass.  The bottom border is from a brand new clear set, called Floral Edges, released February 14!  There are two other clear edge sets that have also been released - Decorative Edges and Landscape Edges - please check them out!  They are awesome!

 

My next sample has the orange tree image from the Fantasy Woodland set, and several "Thank you's" from the Words of Gratitude set.  Those oranges look good enough to eat!

 



My next card is framed with one of the trees from the clear Fantasy Woodland set.  I used several dies to cut out the shapes, and hand made the roses.  

 

 

This card was made with last month's new set, called The Rose Tree.  I used the new clear Floral Edges on the background.



I've enjoyed your visit, and hope you did too!  Thanks for stopping in!