A French Heart For February by Doreen

A French Heart For February

Hello everyone and welcome to February, not sure I like what is happening with the weather at the moment but it's not something we can control so I won't dwell on it.

Today I would like to share a simple card with you using the beautiful French Heart which lends itself to some really easy decoupage.

 Firstly I stamped the full image using the Versafine Clair Fantasia, and then just a couple of extra images of the floral part of the stamp for colouring and fussy cutting to use for the decoupaging elements in this card.

For colouring I have used Chromaflow Pencils by Derwent bought for me by my Grandchildren for Christmas and I have to say I am really impressed with them. They are very easy to blend just using a paper stump.

Once coloured I used the Old Paper Distress Oxide just to take away the starkness of the white background. 

To mould and shape the leaves and the front floral image use a large ball tool and soft shaping mat, or any fairly firm foam to allow you to give your leaves and floral pieces their rounded shape. Apply to the card using a 3d glue medium of choice or foam pads if you prefer. 

As a finishing touch I added some clear glass gems.

Thank you for looking in today 

Love Doreen

 

Introducing Debbie Frost a New Design team Member

Hello everyone, we are pleased to introduce the first of two new Design Team members to our Design Team today, Debbie Frost. We asked Debbie to tell us a little bit about herself, and this is what she had to say:

Hi I'm Debbie Frost and I live in sunny Exmouth, Devon. I've been a card maker and paper crafter for many years. I regularly run my own workshops in Exmouth which are very popular. I would describe myself as a paper crafter as I love all aspects of card making especially. My favourite thing is stamping but love mixed media too, canvases especially. My first Chocolate Baroque stamp was Mosaic Flower.... followed by many, many more. I just love the detail and vintage look of Chocolate Baroque designs and am thrilled and honoured to have been asked to join their Design Team.

Debbie has created some beutiful projects for her first blog post with us, and here is what she wrote:

Hi everyone, I'm Debbie and this is my first blog post as a Chocolate Baroque team member, so I'm just a bit excited!
I was recently asked what was the first Chocolate Baroque stamp that I bought? What better way to introduce myself to you all!

So let's start off with Medici Flower stamped onto a Brusho background with a black inkpad and simply coloured with water based pens. The image was then mounted onto black card and I've added thin strips of black card to the background to add interest. The background has been created with Studded Lattice which I have embossed with white powder and sponged with Distress Inks Worn Lipstick and Spun Sugar. The sentiment comes from Amazing Mackintosh Words. I've mounted the design onto an A5 white card blank.

 
For my second design I've used French Heart which has also been stamped onto a Brusho background and water coloured using Brusho powders. I have used Chocolate Baroque White Silk Board which is a great quality card especially for this technique.
I have used a 7" x 7" ivory card blank and this has been stamped with Open Weave using a brown inkpad and I've also sponged lightly around the edges of the card blank.
The sentiment also comes from Amazing Mackintosh Words and both stamped pieces have been mounted onto orange and then brown card before attaching to the card blank.

For my third and last design I've used one of my favourites Lords and Ladies. I've embossed in white onto a circle of Kraft card a coloured with watercolour pencils which have not been activated with water. I find that you get a stronger colour when using kraft card than with ordinary pencils.
I've used a 7" x 7" white card blank which I've stamped with Square Bubbles using Distress Ink Seedless Preserves. I've also softly sponged around the edges using the same inkpad. As before the sentiments which I've randomly stamped around the edges of the card blank come from the very versatile Amazing Mackintosh Words. To finish I've addeed some faux stitching around the edge of the circle using a white gel pen before attaching to the card blank.

I hope you've enjoyed my designs. See you again next time, Debbie.

Beautiful Bird and Fanciful Flowers by Penny

Hi there - Penny here again with three projects to inspire and hopefully encourage you to have a go at creating them yourselves.  The first is a little mixed media canvas featuring the gorgeous Bird of Joy stamp, a couple of stencils including the Useful Leaves, and some metallic paints and texture paste from my stash.
I took a small canvas and painted it with black gesso.  When dry I stamped and embossed the image using clear ink and powder in the centre of the canvas.  I then painted it with acrylic paints,  adding gold paint around the words to make them pop.  I added some more paint using a sponge to give the piece more texture, then stencilled some glitter texture paste over the sponged areas.
I used the Useful Leaves stencil across the top of the canvas and attached some die cut foliage as well to frame the focal image.  To complete the piece I punched a couple of holes in the top and threaded some cord through to be able to hang the canvas up.

My second project for you today is a pretty, romantic card featuring the lovely French Heart stamp, a small heart from the Harlequin Rose set and a sentiment from the Loving Sentiments set, colouring pens, Distress inks, the Useful Leaves stencil, a tag die, a script stencil and and some ribbon from my stash.
I began by stamping the heart in grey ink onto colouring card and coloured it with pens in muted colours.  I die cut the image into a tag, embossed it and added ink around the edges.  I stamped a sentiment onto the tag, then punched a hole at the top and threaded some ribbon through.  I added some glitter to the flowers and set the tag aside to dry.
On a white base card I created a background of leaves and script with inks through the stencils, and stamped some small hearts randomly over the card.  I blended some ink around the edges of the card and attached the tag.

 

My final project for you today is a mixed media card featuring the beautiful Medici Flower stamp, plus images from the Gothic Fragments and Butterfly Poppy Collage sets, Distress inks, white charcoal, grey Versafine ink, colouring pens, texture paste, a die cut, gold Liquid Pearls and a gold pen from my stash.
I stamped the Medici Flower in grey ink onto colouring card and coloured it with the pens.  I die cut and embossed the image with a circle die, added ink through the die like a stencil and edged it with a gold pen.  I put dots of gold pearl drops into the middle of the flowers as stamens then set it aside to dry.  Next I created a background on a piece of white card, blending a few Distress inks together.  I then stamped some Gothic windows and Latin script randomly over the panel, faux bleached parts of the windows and added highlights with white charcoal.  I used gold pen around the edges of the panel then matted it onto black card.
On a white base card I applied black texture paste through a brickwork stencil to compliment the Gothic windows, and let it dry.  I then stamped a sentiment onto a spare piece of background card, cut it into a panel, edged it with gold pen and added some gold pearl drops.  When everything was dry I attached the background panel to the base card then added the focal and sentiment panels in 3D onto the card.

I hope you have all enjoyed these projects today, they are all great fun to create and can all be adapted with different colours to suit any requirements.  Thank you for dropping in, I'll see you again soon,

                                                         

Penny

Book of Flowers (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have a project to share with you today showcasing all of the beautiful stamps featured in the Anniversary shows in January on Hochanda. I hope you managed to catch the shows, they seemed to go in a flash, and Lesley and I were overwhelmed by your enthusiasm for all of the products that we brought to share with you!

My project is a concertina book, made with two pieces of whiteboard for the covers, which I have covered with some lovely patterned paper by Crafty Individuals. I stamped one of the images, minus the words onto the cover, and coloured it with the woodless pencils that we also featured on the show.

I created some pages for the book using smooth watercolour paper, but the cartridge paper that is available on the website would work equally as well. Each page measures 10.5 cms x 14 cms, and I allowed an extra panel to join the sections together each time. I decorated the back of the pages using Distress Ink, and stamped the words from several of the images on top, creating a tone on tone effect.

On each page front, I stamped a different flower image, and coloured these with Distress Inks, keeping to a common colour theme throughout.

As I assembled the book, I added some ribbon, which allowed the book to be tied shut with a bow. This was such a fun project to make, and would be a lovely keepsake for someone special.

Thanks for stopping by,

Judith xx

Valentine (By Magda)

In a few days Cupid will shoot an arrow from his bow and I have already prepared this card for my Valentine.

Step by Step:

1. Cut a piece of white Cardstock  23cms x11.5cms and score it at 13.5 cms
2. Fold the card on the scored line
3. Stamp the French Heart with Archival Ink Jet Black and colour the flower with watercolor   
    pencils
4. Repeat point 3. colouring the flower with another colour and cut it out.
5. Stencil the inside of the card blending small hearts using Distress Ink Pad blue and pink
6. Stamp on the hearts in second generation the sentiments from the Loving Sentiments stamp plate
7. Glue the decoupage flower on the left side of the card
8. Use Stickles crystal on the stems  to give a nice light to both flowers

Thank you for passing by

Magda