Vintage Ephemera With an Added Cup of Tea (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have a couple of vintage themed projects to share with you today using the stamps that we launched last month on our TV shows on Hochanda. These fabulous new stamps are so useful, and can be used with lots of your existing stamps, as you will see from the first project that I have created.

I coloured some drawing cartridge with some cold tea, and then sprinkled the background with sea salt, leaving it to dry. I brushed the grains of salt away, and then stamped one of the images from Baroque Ephemera 1 randomly over the background. I dry brushed some pale blue chalky paint over the top, to push the images into the background. I really like the blue and beige combination.

I stamped Floral Grunge over the top, using Archival Ink, and also stamped the flower head a couple of times onto  spare piece of background paper, also coloured with tea. I cut these out, and stamped the same ephemera image over the top, so that they look as if they had been stamped onto a piece of text. I decoupaged the images onto the background. I added some ricrac, also painted with the blue paint. I created a little tag by dry brushing a section of lolly stick with the paint, and stamping a word from Baroque Ephemera 2 over the top. A black brad and black card to mat the background complete the card.

 

I used some of the same background to complete my second card. I used the alphabet strip to create a frame around the edge. I added a postcard created by stamping onto another piece of the background, and adding a section of Movie Strip Collage in the corner. I added the lovely butterfly from Happy Flower's Day, and coloured both of these images simply with watercolour pencils and a water brush. I added tickets stamped from the ephemera stamp sets and some little stamps complete the card.

Both cards were a lot of fun to create, the stamps are great for building up backgrounds, and adding a little something extra to your projects. They can be mixed with your other stamps or create something special in their own right. I hope that you will enjoy playing with them as much as I have!

Thanks for stopping by,

Judith xx

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

Pearly Grunge (by Doreen)

Hello everyone, Guest Design Team member Doreen is back for her final post this month. She has created a lovely pastel card for your inspiration. Doreen writes:

This is my first play with Pearlescent Alcohol Inks and I have to say I am really impressed with them.

Products used in this project:

A selection of Pearlescent Alcohol Inks
Black Stazon
Silk Card pieces cut at 6" x 4"
Black Cartridge paper
Floral Grunge stamp
Amazing Mackintosh Words for sentiment
Blending Solution

To make this card it really could not be any simpler, add your inks randomly over one piece of your silk card, and then using the blending solution to help the inks to blend, drip this over your inks in the centre of your spots of ink. Whilst the ink is still wet, using your second piece of card silk side face down, place this on top of the wet ink pressing down firmly and without taking too long over the process, peel the two apart. You then have two pieces of inked card, choose which one you prefer for your stamped image and keep the other one to cut a small piece for your sentiment.

Stamp your main image onto your pearlised silk card. Then stamp your sentiment and mat both of these onto black card and mount onto a card of choice.

I love the way the texture is added to the image simply in the way you pull your card apart after sandwiching the two together....so very effective and perfect for a quick last minute make.

Thank you for looking

Love Doreen

Two Ways To Be Kind (by Julie)

Hello, I hope you are all preparing to get your new year underway in style and surely there is no better way than to Be  Kind. This is the name of the lovely floral stamp I have used in both of my cards today.

For my first card I have teamed the stamped image with My Floral Soul designer papers.

I stamped and embossed the Be Kind image onto one of the designer papers and then cut around the edge of the petals with a craft knife. You just need to cut enough of the petal so that it stands out from the main image and not cut out completely. I used a blob of 3d glue gel behind each petal to maintain the raised effect.

Once you are happy with the petal cutting, cut out around the whole image and mount onto black card-stock, then mount your cut out onto another page of the Floral Soul designer papers.

My second card is a similar design to my first, however the background is Distress ink and then the Floral Grunge flower was stamped over the top with grey dye ink. I cut the sentiment from the bottom of the Be Kind stamp so that it was easier to use separately and stamped it randomly across the background with black dye ink.

The main image was stamped and then coloured with polychromus pencils, before cutting out and mounting onto black card-stock.

Thank you for stopping by and please call back for daily Design Team inspiration.

Julie xx 

Butterfly frame by Brenda

Good morning to you all, Brenda here and I hope you are almost prepared for Christmas, only 6 sleeps now!!

My first share this time is a little frame which I stamped with Distress Ink and the lovely Fern from the Wild Meadow set, I used two colours to ink the stamp to give a variegated look and then distress the edges with the same colours. Inside the frame I used one of the Designer papers and stamped a sentiment from Shared beauty and stamped, coloured and cut out three Butterflies from April Fairy and Just Butterflies.

Here I have a tent card using Movie strip collage which I stamped once, masked and stamped a second time, coloured with with pencils and added some Distress Ink around the blooms.

I loved the colour of this particular sheet from the Designer papers and followed the colourway stamping images from Wild Meadow and Floral grunge with Versafine Clair inks. I made the base shape with the Tagtastic stamp stamping three times with Versamark and embossing with detail white, then cutting out the three tag shapes slightly larger to create a black frame. I fixed the thee together with card hinges in the back, fixed the stamped papers, some cord and embellies. I also stamped sentiments from Be Kind and Shared beauty.

This is my last post before Christmas so I would like to wish everyone a peaceful Christmas season.

Floral-tastic (by Julie)

Hello, today I have two cards using the fantastic Floral Grunge stamp

For my first card I stamped the Floral Grunge stamp straight onto the card blank and coloured with Polychromus pencils. The background was created by blending Distress inks with Cut n Dry foam and then over stamping with the little circle eyelet stamp from Tagtastic.

 White paint pen highlights were added as a finishing touch.

My second project is a DL card. I started by stamping the tag design from Tagtastic onto spare card and then over-stamping with Floral Grunge. The flower will over hang the tag, but that doesn't matter as you are going to cut the tag out. Colour the flower with Polychromus pencils and blend Distress ink for the tag background. Finish the tag off by stamping a little square eyelet, cut out the eyelet centre and thread through a piece of card to act as a piece of ribbon. I then stamped the little circle eyelet from Tagtastic onto the DL card blank and then dipped a baby wipe into Distress ink and dabbed onto the background.

The card was finished off by attaching the tag to the card with 3d foam pads.

Thanks for stopping by. Please call back for daily Design Team inspiration.

Julie x

Floral grunge two ways (by Rachel)

Good morning! I hope you are well! Rachel here today with two more makes using the Floral Grunge stamp - ths time the first one is a ceramic heart plate.

I stamped the image in ink and then overpainted in glaze using reds and browns for the floral grunge stamp and also greens for the fern stamp I added around the edge.

For this second one I stamped in versamark and added white embossing powder to my kraft card. I thin added more embossing powder around the edges and heated from below - my idea was to continue the grunge effect. Finally I used pencils to colour in the image.

I hope this has given you a little more inspiration of ways to use your stamps.

Have a great day!

Hugs

Rachel x

Colourful Tags (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have a project to share today using some of the stamps and papers that we brought to you on last month's TV shows on Hochanda. I wanted to use a little bit of everything in this project, and incorporate lots of colour to cheer up these gloomier days that we are having at the moment.

I started by stamping three of the Tagtastic tag shapes with Versamark, and covering them with white embossing powder. I also added three of the little tag 'hole' shapes onto the background of each tag, and then heat set everything. I stamped and embossed three of the flower designs, Shared Beauty, Floral Grunge, and Movie Strip Collage, and a little butterfly from the Wild Meadow stamp set onto some of the lovely papers designed by Lesley, and used the papers to help me decide on the colours that I used to colour each tag. I settled on three colours of Distress Ink for each tag.

Once the tags were coloured, I stamped the sentiments from the Shared Beauty stamp set over each tag in the same colours of Distress Ink. I cut the flowers and butterflies out of the papers, and adhered them to the tags, and then attached the tags to a tryptich made from corrugated card. Finally, I added some rainbow coloured ribbon to each tag.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Tagtastic book by Brenda

Good morning, Brenda here with some samples made using the gorgeous new stamps and papers Lesley showcased on Hochanda.

                                                

My first share is a little book which I made using my Zutter, something that's not see the light of day for far too long.

I used Distress Oxides to created the pages and pockets to hold the tags which were all made using the new Tagtastic stamp.

I cut each down slightly to enable them to fit into the pockets.

I managed to incorporate all the new stamps into this one: 

Shared beauty,  Movie strip collage, Floral grunge and Be Kind 

I used a variety of inks and stencils along with sentiments from Floral Delight.

Also used are some of the stamps from Wild  Meadow which is a really beautiful stamp set and so useful.

The pages also had a liberal helping of structure paste and stencilling to add interest and texture.

This one uses one of the new Designer papers along with a little wooden frame I bought at Stamp Magic from Lesley and David stand there. I felt it lent itself to rustic colours so inked the edges and fixed over the DP, the bloom is from Movie strip collage which I stamped several times onto vellum and heat embossed with detail gold, cut out and layered up, adding a little gold glitter as well. The corn is a die cut also glittered with gold and copper ultrafine glitters. The sentiment is from Birthday words.

I hope I have offered a little inspiration to get out your stamps and get inky.                                                                     

Where imagination meets reality (by Rachel)

Hello there! Rachel here today with the first of my posts from the November shows. I did so love working with those papers - and I thought the new stamps were just gorgeous.

I started off by using one of the papers to fill the back of this box and then stamped on it using some stamps from the wild meadow stamp set. Next I stamped the Shared Beauty image onto a piece of the paper and fussy cut it and hung it from the washing line in the box. Finally I repeated this process with the Floral Grunge stamp and then decoupaged that image up.

I do hope you feel inspired by this piece - I was so pleased to see it displayed so prominently in the shows!

Big hugs

Rachel xx

grunge and brusho

 Good morning everyone, if you have seen Nikki's guest designer posts then you will have had your appetite whetted for this month's DT offerings!
So as not to disappoint anyone here are my brusho offerings - and yes, I can do a card without brusho......I just love the random effects of the stuff!
I used the lovely floral grunge stamp, perfect for brushos, though I am sure Sue didn't  design it deliberately.....
The first one was stamped with versamark and white embossed before sprinkling black brusho all over and spritzing with water. Once dry, torn edges, mat onto black card, then onto a white sqaure blank card - done. A very quick card, takes longer for the brusho to dry than for anything else!

 My second version took a bit longer, started out the same with white embossed image. Then I carefully sprinkled grey brusho round the image, and activated it using a wet paintbrush - you still get the random colour effect, but only where you want it. Once dry,I tapped off any excess grey powder before sprinkling the flower with orange brusho and activating it the same way.
Torn round the edges again, double mats of black and orange and mounted onto a white square card blank.
I almost always do my cards without any sentiments, then they can be used for almost any occasion, that and brusho are my main crafting perversions!
There were some fantastic samples on the TV show, so keep checking, my teamies will be keeping you inspired this monthm, that's for sure!

Grungy Flower (by Nikki K)

Hello everyone, today sees the final post by our Guest Team member Nikki K. Nikki has created another sneak peek card using the fabulous new stamps that we shared on this month's TV shows on Hochanda. The rest of the Design Team will be sharing their projects next month.

Nikki writes:

Morning everyone,

this is my third Guest post this month, and I've loved using the brand new stamps from Chocolate Baroque. Today I'm sharing a card I made after the TV shows, with some leftovers!

Start by stamping Floral Grunge around a card blank in black ink. You just need to cover enough of the card to show behind a panel.

Stamp end emboss one flower in black ink with clear embossing, cut out just the flower, no stem.

I had a leftover piece of card with Brushos on from another make, and liked part of it, which I cut into a panel and distressed around the edges. I stamped the Floral Grunge flower and embossed in clear onto the panel.

I used acrylic paint in Yellow Oxide to colour the flowers on the card and the single flower, and coloured the centres in Pyrole Red. I watered the paint down to a wash, to imitate watercolour.

Before assembling the card, I spattered Pyrole Red paint over the centre panel, to tie in the centres of the flowers to the rest of the card.

Attach the panel to the centre of the card base, and layer the single flower up on top with 3D foam pads, and it's done.

Best Wishes,

Nikki K
xxx