Guest Post - An Indian Summer by Brenda Weatherill

I just love seeing how everyone interprets our stamps in such different and interesting ways and this week our Guest Designer Brenda has created a zingy garden by combining a stamp from the East with one of the stamps from our Fairy Collection. Over to you Brenda.

Hello to you all, Brenda here again, this time with a card using the gorgeous Chocolate Baroque Indian Textiles and June Fairy stamp sets.

• I started by dabbing Distress Inkpads Mustard Seed and Broken China on to a craft sheet and spritzing liberally with water then dragging the reverse side of a piece of single sided cardstock through the wet inks.
• When dry, I use a heat gun to speed the process. I took the lids from two different sized pots of embossing powder and ‘inked’ the edges with the same two distress inks and randomly ‘stamped’ circles onto the inked cardstock. It’s a good idea to give another quick blast of the heat gun before moving on as distress ink can tae a little time to dry.
• Using a Versafine Black Inkpad I stamped the large flower from the stamp set, added Detail Clear Embossing Powder and heat set. Next I bleached out the colour from the flowers using household bleach and a fine paint brush.
• I coloured the bleached out flowers with Dylusions Lemon Zest, Pure Sunshine and Vibrant Turquoise. I then stamped the trailing Ivy from the June Fairy stamp set an also added a hint of Dylusions Vibrant Turquoise to the berries.
• After matting and layering on to co-ordinating cardstock I added a matching organza bow.

Many thanks for visiting us today and you can find more of my work on my blog Floral Fantasies.

B x

Such a beautiful and bright card to put a smile on all our faces, thank you Brenda.  Can't wait to see your third and final post next week.

It's a bright, new day (by Lesley)

Well good morning everyone, here we are on day one of my new journey.  And for those of you who don't yet know I now own and run Chocolate Baroque (quick pause for a happy dance!). So please excuse the indulgence of using this blog to say a few important things.

I have bought the business from Glenda and Adrian who are now starting a new journey of their own.  There was a public announcement yesterday on the Shop Blog and a special email sent to all our followers and supporters. And I have to say the response was overwhelming, so I hope you don't mind if a give a big shout out to all of you for your messages of congratulations and good luck wishes. To know that I have your support is a great start to this new adventure. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I also want you to know that there there will be more exciting stamp designs from our wonderful designer Sue, that the quality of our stamps will remain in the expert hands of Val and that we intend to give you the same customer service you have come to expect from Chocolate Baroque.

I am also blessed with a brilliant Design Team who continue to blow my mind away with their talent. Thank you Sue, Val and all the DT girls for your care and support during this transition.  

Most of all I want to give the biggest cheer to Glenda and Adrian! It is not without sadness that we are now going our separate ways, career wise, but I know that we're all destined for different things and I wish them all the success in the world with their new venture at Portpatrick Studios; you deserve the best guys. We are still the bestest of buddies and there are all sorts of things the four of us are going to share together in the future. Can't wait!

So back to now, and the reason you looked in on this Design Team Blog. I have a rather simple piece today. It is just a die cut heart, coloured and stencilled with Dylusions paints, stamped with white gesso using one of the new Seasonal Fragments and finished with words from the Positive Beauty clear set.

It may be just a heart but it is my way of letting you all to know that I shall put my heart and soul into running Chocolate Baroque and into bringing you fabulous stamps, exciting products and a whole heap of inspiration. Thanks to your generous comments I think we can all hold hands and travel this new journey together - full of heart.