In the Pink by Brenda

Morning Peeps, some more cards today from last months Hochanda shows. And first up is one using Life is Wonderful, well part of it that is as I masked the image so I was left with just the flowers.

The background is oxides applied with acetate as I wanted a softer finish, random stamping using worker stamps from Gerbera and Friends and sentiment from Dream Petals. I coloured the flowers with Distress Markers, stamped the seed head from the Gerbra set three times, cut out and placed down the side with paper clips. A torn strip from an old book, some doodling around the edges and the little Dragonfly from the same set as the focal element.

Inks, texture paste, stencilling, gilding wax and anything else I could lay my hands on to build up around the arch door from Echoes of Italy which I heat embossed with details copper EP. Finally some Little Birdie flowers. The sentiment is from Artistic Affirmations.

A focal circle created with the Gelli Plate, acrylic paints and Brushos, the seed heads from Gerbera and Friends stamped with Versafine Clair and sentiment from Canary Bird Rose.

Happy weekend everyone.

Echoes of Italy

 Hello

I am sharing some more samples from the Hochanda show in October

These feature the wonderful Echoes of Italy, Wisteria Lane and Silhouette Grasses stamp sets. 

These lovely stamps bring back memories of holidays spent in Italy, hoping it won't be too long before we can go on our travels again....

All my cards have been coloured with watercolour pencils and Distress Inks. I have stamped the images with Versafine Onyx Black.

My first card uses the Doorway and Crackle stamps. I think it looks like the entrance to an old house, full of treasures inside! I've added some of the Silhouette Grasses to the entrance. 

My next card depicts a beautiful villa with cypress trees and a crumbling archway. I cut a piece of black card and die cut an aperture to frame the lovely stamped image.

My next card shows a closer view of a villa with a sun (or a moon!) The detail in these stamps is amazing and can be coloured in many ways. 

For my last two cards I have used Silhouette Grasses and Wisteria Lane stamp sets. 

I have made backgrounds with Distress Inks and blender brushes. I created the mountains with torn copier paper.

 

Thanks for looking

Sandra x

Italian dream (By Rachel)

 Hello there - Rachel here today with some of my italian samples from the afternoon shows in October. I adore these stamps - I have a bit of a thing about Italy and have been fortunate to spend a little time there - mostly in the North. Fabulous country. I was obviously overjoyed when Lesley said she was bringing these stamps to the October shows!

In all samples I used the Echoes of Italy stamp set - its a stunner! In this first one I used one border stamp to make a frame using gilding flakes and did a bit of watercolouring with one of the main images - not quite an italian masterpiece but I was pleased with it!

In this next one I used the other main scene and coloured it using inks and combined it with the crackle stamp and some corrugated card. I thought this added a bit of texture.

Finally I made a scenic folded card - and combined it with another border stamp. All the colouring was done with watercolour pencils and distress inks.

I do hope this has given you a little inspiration of ways to use those beautiful stamps!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

Santa Maria by Brenda

 

Morning Peeps, hope you are all keeping safe and well as these strange times continue.

I have some shares using he stamps Lesley featured in last months Hochanda shows, some were old favourites and some lovely new ones from two very talented artists. Also a reminder that she is also on Hochanda tomorrow at 10am and 2pm so there is sure to be loads on inspiration to be had.

My top card used Echoes of Italy a stamp set I have had for many, many years and is my take on a road called CDA Santa Maria in Compabasso in the Molise region of Italy where my childhood friend Luciana lives. Sadly because of COVID we have not been able to visit  Italy this year, it's the first time we have missed in many years.

I stamped the images with versafine black, masking out the sun on the house on the left as I wanted to add a larger one in the sky which I did with a mask and Pan Pastels. All other colouring was dene with Koh-i-noor paints.

For this one I used Gerbera and Friends, a simple CAS card to allow the beautiful Dandylions to take centre stage. I used Distress Markers to ink direct to stamp and used the sentiment from Be at Peace.

Using a Brusho background I stamped Be at Peace with Versafine Clair and added some colour with sparkle pens. The sentiment is from the same stamp set.

As always many thanks for your kind visits and words, myself and the team always appreciate them.

paint your dreams

Today I have two cards to share using my favourite brusho powders and stamps from echoes of Italy. I created a few background sheets using the brusho powders, and chose two that looked atmospheric to stamp the villas onto using black versafine ink and clear embossing powder

 I thought the first one looked like a sunset, so coloured the trees using watercolour pencils and then bleached out the moon and highlights on the building using bleach. A black mat and the sentiment from the dream petals set to finish.

The second background reminded me of fields of lavender, so i stamped the villa on what passes for a horizon - I didn't quite manage to line the stamp up with the white area for a path to the villa though....more bleach to whiten the buildings and edges rubbed on a black inkpad to finish

Mica Powder and Rice Paper (by Sandra)

Hello

I'm sharing a couple of projects with you today.

My first uses the Cala Lily Blueprint set. I stamped the image onto some black, glossy card with VersaMark and then gently brushed on different coloured mica powders with a small, soft brush. Once all the ink was covered I was able to buff with a soft tissue.

My second piece, I stamped one of the images from the Freesia Blueprint set onto rice paper.  I coloured the flowers and added some crackle from Echoes of Italy. I then used gel medium to adhere the rice paper to a wooden block. Once it was dry I added some Distress Ink to the edges.

Thanks for looking and stay safe,
Sandra x

Ephemera and Flowers

Hello,
I am sharing my projects from the Hochanda October show with you. This show featured the wonderful Baroque Ephemera stamp sets 1 and 2

With my first card I used a slotted die in which I could keep all my "memories".  I used the tickets, train sticker and receipts stamps. I aged them with Distress Inks.

For my second piece , I stamped the postcard and receipts. Again I aged them with Distress Inks and tied with some lace and added a die cut flower. I added the "Love Post" stamp from the Mail Art stamp set.

For this wall hanging I think I stamped everything! 

I started with an A5 size piece of greyboard and covered with gesso. I then stamped a background with one of the large stamps from Dusky Damask and the crackle stamp from Echoes from Italy .  I then ripped the stamped images of the receipts and edged with Distress Ink, added some tickets and a tag. I stamped the Butterfly from Happy Flower's Day  Added some splashes and drips of ink to finish.

My last two cards are from Floral Grunge and Movie Strip Collage.
Both cards were made by spritzing Distress Inks on a craft mat and then stamping with Archival. I then colourd the images with the same colours I had used for the backgrounds.

Thanks so much for looking
Sandra xx

Stylised Houses

Hello
I am sharing some of the cards I made for the August show on Hochanda with the Bookmark Stylised House Collection.

My first card features the Turret House stamps.
I stamped and embossed with white embossing powder.  I coloured on kraft card with soft pastels in rainbow colours to match the sentiment. I also added some gold to the turrets. The backgroud is sprinkled with Brushos.

 

My second card is using the Italian House set. 

This time I stamped the house with Archival to the right of the card, masked it and stamped again to the left. I coloured with water-colour pens. I made a background using trees from the Teeny Weeny Meadow set

 

The next card is the Dutch House.

I stamped with Archival and coloured with water-colour pencils.  I mat and layered onto a U-Fold card which folds flat for posting. Crackle stamp is from Echos of Italy set.

The last card I am sharing today I used all the house stamps from the collection and did a lot of masking! I think these stamps really lend themselves to scene building.

Thanks for looking, I'll be back soon with some more cards to share.
Sandra x

Two Floral Projects (by Sandra)

Hello everyone, I am sharing two pieces for my second blog post with you today.

My first is a card made with the Pretty Poppies stamp set.
I started with a 6" x 6" piece of cream card and stamped the gorgeous poppies twice with Archival Ink, varying the height a little. I then coloured them with pencils and added a blending solution to soften the edges. I blended Tea Dye Distress Ink around the edges of the card and used the same colour with the crackle stamp from Echoes of Italy stamp set to give an aged feel to the card. I added the sentiment and mat and layered with blue and black card onto an 8" x 8" cream card.

My second is a mixed media piece.
I started with an 8" x 8" canvas board and brayered blue, green and beige acrylic paints randomly onto it. I then stamped the tall cog flowers from Punky Flowers onto the canvas and embossed with copper embossing powder. I stamped the flower heads from the same set with Memento Ink onto some smooth card and coloured with alcohol pens. I fussy cut these out and then added more embossing powders to give a verdigris look. I added two little birds, the birdhouse and sentiment from Steampunk Birds stamp set. I finished with a few metal cogs. I think this one will be decorating my craft room!

Thanks for looking,

Sandra.

In the secret garden by Brenda

Hello everyone, Brenda here with some more floral inspiration using the lovely new stamps which featured on Hochanda recently, all of which are now available on the Chocolate Baroque website as well.

The top card was inspired by our own Secret Garden within our grounds, we created it many years ago and although it has seen changes over the years still hosts an abundance of Cottage Garden flowers and shrubs and recently moved into the twenty first century with the addition of a hot tub. The beautiful flowers on the new Blossom and Grow stamp set are to my mind Hollyhocks which I stamped onto a soft Distress Ink background after first stamping a window from Echoes of Italy Using a stencil I added some brickwork with texture paste which I coloured with acylic paint to soften the whiteness and added a sentiment from the same stamp set.

For this one I used black gloss cardstock for the base panels and stamped the images from Captivating Cacti and Scrumptious Succulents using Versamark and brushing over with gold mic powders, leaving to settle for a few moments before brushing off, the assembling the panels along with a bow.

And one from a few months ago that I found lurking unused in my folder. The stamped sets used are Medici Flower in the centre and to the sides Floral Delight and Wish Flower, all were stamped onto Distress Oxide backgrounds, the images bleached out and the glittered.......unfortunately this doesn't show up very well at all in the photo.

I always appreciate you visits and comment and thank you for taking the time to pop in.

Imagine by Brenda

A very good morning, Brenda here with today's share of more samples from Lesley's recent Hochanda shows which featured he most beautiful floral and Butterfly stamps that were a joy to work with.

My starting place for the above card was a background of Oxide Distress Inks which like so many of us I am totally addicted to. Onto the background I stenciled an arch window using Distress Ink, stamped what is probably my favourite Chocolate Baroque sentiment from the Words of Inspiration stamp sheet using Versafine Toffe and using the same ink stamped a selection of leaves around the edge from the Tangled Garden stamp sheet. The beautiful Butterfly is from the same set stamped onto Bristol cardstock and coloured with distress inks, the same colours as the background but not Oxides as I find the chalky finish can detract from the detail of the image.

For this card I used the blooms from Bold Blooms and leaves from the same set and Tangled Garden, stamping all onto a piece of card coloured with Distress Inks and Pearl Mica Spray, I like to add that to inky backgrounds sometimes as it helps to bleed the colours and also leaves a nice sheen. I used a piece of torn paper to create a sunray effect when I wanted to place the flower which I layered up after cutting our three different sized blooms . I cut he leaves out and arranged onto a hand drawn stem with a little bit of doodling to ass interest. The lovely Wordsworth quote is also from Bold Blooms.

I had an idea to create a shadow box surrounded by Butterfly, so started out with the base made using a die set. I coloured a large sheet of card with Distress Oxides concentrating on keeping within a tonal colour palette of oranges and yellows. Onto that I stamped several Butterflies from Tangled Garden and cut out ready to assemble around the frame. The fairy within the aperture is from June Fairy set and grasses from Silhouette Grasses stamped with Versafine Toffee and a masked and inked background plus a few small stamped Butterflies. Finally I layered the Butterflies around and within the layers of the shadow box.

This one to coin Charlie of Hochanda's words is "heavy on the grunge", I started with acrylic paints and brushed them randomly over a piece of 600gsm Fabriano cardstock, it's so sturdy that it takes water and wet mediums without warping. Next added some texture paste through a stencil to the top corner and applied some gilding polish to lift the pattern. I also added some gold gilding flakes here and there. The Lily is from the Lily Fuchsia and Hyacinth multibuy stamped with versamark and heat embossed with copper detail powder and then colour added using the same acrylic paint as the background, the sentiment is from Birthday Words and finally some lace tied across the bottom.

On the rare occasion I find myself with time on my hands I make up a batch of inky backgrounds as I find it really handy to have some in reserve when I am up against the clock to get sample made. This is one of those using acrylic paints and crackle glaze onto which I randomly stamped a sentiment from Birthday Words and then the focal bloom from Breath of Spring  using Versafine Black and then colourd in with sparkle pens and stickles. The base has been stamped with several of the foliage stamps from the Lily Fuchsia and Hyacinth multibuy.

As always my thanks for taking the time to visit today.

Italian Summer (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope that you are enjoying the Summer projects that my team mates are creating this month. Summer always makes me think of holidays to favourite places, and one of my favourite haunts is Italy. We have recently returned from a week's holiday in Lake Garda, and so it was easy to choose which stamps I should use for my Summer related project....

I started my design by covering my gelli plate with Fossilized Amber Distress Ink, using a brayer, and then laying a piece of smooth card over the top. This is a really quick way of creating a coloured background. I added a crackle finish, using the large crackle stamp from the Echoes of Italy stamp plate, using second generation stamping. I used the large decorative design along the bottom to create a border, and then edged the background with Wild Honey Distress Ink to add some shading.

I stamped the main image onto a rectangular panel, and coloured it with water based markers and a water brush. I drew a few birds by hand with a permanent fine tipped marker. I stamped the sentiment onto a smaller panel, and added a bit of colour to the background using a blending foam. All of the panels were matted onto dark brown card before I assembled the card.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

An old rose (by Miranda)

Hello there,

Happy to be here again and show you my play with one of the older CB stamps called Rose Set.

 It's a very detailed rose but it is gorgeous I think...it took me some while but as I love to color it was not a punishment.......

I made the background again with a favorite technique I am using quit a lot these day, fluid inks.....like Ecoline and used also white to get that soft coloured finish. Some parts are coloured using Distress inks and some are coloured using pencils. It's tricky to use water based mediums over the top because the background stays reactive........

Randomly I stamped partial the small text fragment from Eccentric Edwardian sheet using Memento Toffee Crunch.

The next step was stamping several ornament stamps from the Fancy Flourishes clear stamp sheet. I have embossed them using clear mat embossing powder and blended afterwards with Distress inks to let them pop......

Than just some plain stamping with these ornaments and adding some crackle effects using the crackle fragment from the Echoes of Italy.

Well, enough text for now, onto the card......

Hope you did enjoyed it and hope to see you next time!

Thanks for your visit and I always like to read your comments, any questions....feel free to ask!

Valentine Rose (posted by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have a project to show you today using the Punky Hearts stamp sheet, currently on offer on the website.

I began my project by stamping and masking the punky rose on a piece of smooth watercolour paper. I then covered the background with a stencil, and using a light brown inkpad, I coloured through the stencil. With the stencil still in place, I stamped the crackle stamp from the Echoes of Italy stamp set all over the background, using a darker brown ink. I stamped the image onto scrap paper each time first, so that I got a lighter image. This is called 'second generation stamping', as I did not want the ink to be too dark. Once the ink was dry, and with the stencil still in place, I brushed a layer of acrylic wax over the top, and allowed this to dry.

I removed the stencil, and covered the rest of the background with a soft lilac, and then added a darker colour around the edges. The wax acts as a resist, protecting the area that was covered earlier. I buffed the wax areas, to remove any of the lilac ink, and the contrast between the two areas became much sharper.

I removed the mask from the rose, and coloured the image using co-ordinating dye ink stamped onto an acrylic block, which I picked up with a waterbrush. I picked out the 'metal' areas of the rose using a gold pen. I added a die cut sentiment, and matted the project onto green card.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

A good heart (by Lesley)

When time is short and you need a card in a hurry then a clean and simple look is all you need. So today I want to show you a quick card using the Punky Hearts stamp set.

• Trim approximately 2" off the short edge of an A4 piece of white card and fold in half. 
• Mask off a strip down the front of the card, setting it slightly off centre.
• Ink up the crackle stamp from the Echoes of Italy stamp set using Peacock Feathers Distress ink and stamp randomly over the masked strip.
• On a piece of 160gsm card colour an area large enough for the image you wish to use with a bright red alcohol marker. 
• When dry stamp the heart from Punky Hearts with Versamark. Emboss with a turquoise embossing powder. Cut out and set aside.
• Using the offcut from the card stamp the sentiment from Amazing Birthday with Peacock Feathers. Trim to suit and run the inkpad around the edges.
• Add 3d foam to both the heart and the sentiment strip and assemble as illustrated.

We don't always have the right coloured card or paper for our projects and I find that using alcohol markers on a decent weight stamping card is a quick and easy substitute. Whilst creating a patterned strip behind your focal image keeps the weight down for postage and is a neat alternative to using ribbon.

As usual there are more stunning samples to come from our talented Design Team, so please keep popping back to keep up with all their fab ideas.