Village life by Brenda

Good morning Peeps, Brenda here with some creations using the houses that featured on Lesley's Hochanda shows last month.

My inspiration for this folded book card came from a small village just a few miles away called Abbots Ripton where the majority of houses and even the pub have thatched roofs, even the limited number of new properties which have been built in recent years have been kept to the same style.

I started by cutting from a good quality A3 card, two strips 6" deep x 18" long, scoring each to give three 6"x6" sections and then joining the two together in the middle.  To create the shy I gave a wash of blue Distress Ink and then bleached out some clouds, making sure I extended some of the clouds across the score lines.

Next I stamped the houses and church from Village Life, Town Houses and English Cottages sets and masked the buildings before stamping various trees from both sets and then building up colour using Distress Markers. I added some 'paving' using Large Crackle Background, hand drew some birds and finally drew a skyline linking each section and a few random stamped flowers.

This was a fun creation to make, not a quick make but really enjoyable and I hope I have offered a little inspiration for you to try something similar.

In the pink by Brenda

Good morning Peeps.

I am back with some more shares from Lesley's recent shows using the some of the beautiful Tree stamps which as with all Chocolate Baroque stamps were a delight to work with.

Above I have used Dylusions to create a background over which I stamped (second generation) one of the images from Indian Textiles  as I wanted to create some subtle background interest, then stamping one of the trees from Fantasy Woodland with Versafine Black and colouring in with sparkle pens and adding white highlighter. The sentiment is again from Birthday Words.

I will be the first to admit I am not a particularly frugal crafter but I do save all the smaller pieces of Fabriano which I always seem left with after cutting square pieces from the A3 sheets as they are the perfect size for creating a triptych card. I inked all three pieces with Oxide inks and using Black Versafine stamped three trees from Fantasy Woodland and Tall Trees stamp sets and a sentiment from Birthday Words.

My starting point for this card with a Dylusions background and my usual spritz of pearl mica spray to blend the colours followed by stamping around the edges with Large Crackle Background.............such a useful stamp that we all need in our stash......... using Versamark and embossing with detail gold powder. I then stamped Poppy Meadow Words of Inspiration with Versafine black and bleached out the colour, but as I added the bleach I mopped each flower with a piece of kitchen towel so it left some of the colour to give a pinkish finish. I stamped the sentiment onto an offuct sprayed with the same Dylusions and added some ribbon to finish.

I am really still not sure about this one, it's all rather dark although did look better in the flesh. I stamped the main panel onto a piece of card coloured with Oxide inks using a stamp from Butterfly Daisy Collage and Butterfly Poppy Collage multi buy. I then used Versamark and detail clear embossinng powder to glaze the panel, giving it three coats of both. I stamped the flowers from the same multi buy onto card coloured with the same inks, cut out and covered them as well with embossing powder before layering up. I placed the panel inside a die cut frame and arranged the flowers and some ribbon.

I hope you have a lovely day.

Roses (byJulie)

Hello, today I have a couple of cards on a Rose theme.

My first card uses the rather lovely Crackling Rose stamp. To start with I stamped the design onto the centre of the card and then onto spare stamping card. I coloured the design on the spare card with Magic Pencils and then cut it out with a die cutting machine and an oval die. Next I added the extra crackles by partially inking up the Large Crackle Background and then just pressing it onto the card with my finger. (no need to use a stamping block). I then used 3d pads to adhere the oval panel to the front of the card. I then cut a frame from lilac paper and ran it through a die cutting machine with an embossing folder. I finished off with a sentiment from Loving Sentiments

My second card is stamped with Floribunda Net. I cut a couple of tags and stamped the Floribunda Net onto the white card stock tag before colouring with Magic Pencils. I created the Brusho background with just yellow and grey, but also added dabs of gold gilding wax as well. Before mounting the tags onto the card I threaded them with a feathery ribbon that I found in my stash and finished off by stamping the sentiment from Loving Sentiments 

Many thanks for popping in and please call back soon for more Design Team inspiration.

Julie xx

a floral bouquet (by Veronica)

 Today I have several floral cards to share, made for the show on Hochanda last month -  and one card doesn't have brusho on it!
The first uses the lovely flora musica stamp, stamped with versamark on white card and white embossed before adding brusho powders. The dark brown card background was randomly stamped with the rose part of the image and gold embossed,. and the mats are dark brown and gold.

 The second uses the crackling rose stamp, stamped in black versafine ink and clear embossed, rose covered with masking fluid and then sprinkled with black brusho powder. Once dry, die cut using an oval die and mounted onto a white card blank stamped with the gold embossed sentiment from loving sentiments.
I think this would be a suitable card for a lot of times, when you just need a general cheer-up card....

Crackling rose again for this one with masking fluid and brusho, this time torn round the edges befor sticking onto a dark blue background embossed with the crackle stamp and white embossed.
the greeting from loving sentiments was stamped and embossed with gold, die cut and edhes with more gold EP.

 The final brusho one is again crackling rose, stmaped in black and clear embossed before colouring with brusho powders. It was fussy cut out and mounted onto a background using distress oxide inks, with the sentiment in black.

My final card features the floribunda net stamp, and as promised has no brusho!
I stamped with versamark onto craft card, and white embossed it, tore round the edges  and coloured the roses with marker pen, mounted onto black and gold card at an angle onto a base card randomly stamped in wild honey distress ink, with a gold embossed sentiment.
The roses were made from a Tim Holtz die using the same dull gold card used for the mat, with a darker gold for the leaves.

A Quartet of Flowers (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have some floral projects to share with you today, that were featured on last month's TV shows on Hochanda. These cards were made using the individual floral stamps from the shows, and I used a range of techniques to create the cards.

For my first card, I coloured the background with Distress Ink, and then stamped over the top using a stamp from the Harlequin Fragments stamp set, again using Distress Ink. I stamped the Harlequin Bouquet individual stamp onto a die cut oval, using purple ink, and coloured the image using Distress Inks and a water brush. I added a sentiment to the background from the Loving Sentiments stamp set.

For my second card, I created a background using Brushos and kraft card. I stamped the Floribunda Net individual image onto another piece of kraft card, and embossed it using white embossing powder. I coloured the image using Brushos and a water brush. I stamped the setiment from the Loving Sentiments stamp set onto a smaller piece of kraft card, again using white embossing powder. I have inked the edges of each piece of card using red ink.

For my third card, I coloured the background again using Distress Inks, and used the Large Crackle Background for added texture. I cut a postcard sized piece of card, and stamped the Crackling Rose individual stamp, adding images from the Mail Art stamp set, to create a postcard effect. I created a small sentiment strip using words from the Loving Sentiments stamp set once again.

Long term viewers of the blog will have seen a rendition of this final project, which I remade for the TV show. I hope that you will not mind seeing it again, using the Flora Musica stamp set:

My Team mates have made some beautiful projects using these lovely stamps. Do keep checking back this month to see their designs. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

seasonal ladies

 I have three of my sample cards for last month's tv shows to show you today. It was hard to have favourite ladies, but I think these two stamps are well in the running!
For both cards the summer fayre stamp was stmaped using black versafine ink and coloured with watercolour pencils, masked with masking fluid, and brusho backgrounds added.
For the first card I partially diecut the lady out, leaving the butterfly and poppies outside the die. The base card was coloured with distress oxide inks, leaves added using the useful leaves stencil and overstamped with the large crackle stamp. The poppies in the foreground are from the floral notes plate, stamped onto leftover paper coloured with brushos and fussy cut out.



The base card was done in the same way for the second version, but the lady was cut down to a rectangle and matted onto gold card. I  sprinkled red brusho over the green background to try to create a poppy field effect, but it didn't quite work....




For the autumn medley stamp I tried to create a wood effect with the brushos, using my version of a  technique found on Youtube. I started with a piece of white card, sprinkled brown and red powder at the top, and used a damp sponge to drag the colour down the page. The colours are more blended together than the original, which used acrylic paints to blend the powders, but i was quite pleased with the result. back ground mounted onto black and gold, then onto white base card blank.
The lady was stamped with black versafine ink,  coloured with pencils and fussy cut out. I stamped the hair part again several times onto a spare piece of card coloured with orange, yellow and brown brushos, and fussy cut out the best leaves and decoupaged them onto the original.

Poppies in her hair (by Brenda)

Good morning Peeps, I am back with some more shares using the Mackintosh and Seasonal Lady stamps that featured on Lesley's June shows on Hochanda.

Kraft card is something I am always buying but rarely use so I though I would try and remedy that and quite like how well it works with white and red, a combo that I will be trying again. Using the new masks which match the Seasonal Ladies I used the leaves from one of them and white Dylusions, masking section of the cardstock as I went along so the spray could be directed through the mask. Then using red Distress Ink I sponged the word repeatedly at different angles.

The lovely Summer Fayre image was stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with detail white powder and coloured in the flowers and Butterfly with the same red Distress Ink. I stamped the Butterfly again and cut out and also one of the flowers, coloured both with the same ink, cut out and decoupaged.

Taking the stem Rose from Machintosh Beauty stamp set I repeat stamped with Black Archival to create a circle and coloured in with sparkle pens. The sentiment is from Amazing Mackintosh Words, stamped with the same black ink and cut out using dies and matted into the centre of the Roses.

The background of this card is Distress Inks and repeat stamped with flowers from Mackintosh Windows and Mackintosh Beauty. A strip of vellum placed across the middle and an image from Mackintosh Windows stamped with Versafine Black and heat embossed with detail clear powder, cut out, coloured with Distress Inks and placed over the vellum.

My final card has the lovely Winter Dawn which I stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with detail silver, cut out with an oval die and went round the edges with a thick silver pen before mounting onto a base stamped with the same ink and powder and Large Crackle Background stamp. A silver bow to finish.

Stained glass window (by Brenda)

Good morning, I hope you are all enjoying the Summer weather and as it's 4th July a Happy Independence Day to all our American friends.

This month myself and the Design Team are sharing some of our creations made for the June shows on Hochanda when Lesley shared the most beautiful Machintosh inspired stamp sets during the first batch of shows and on the second the lovely Seasonal Ladies, all of which were a joy to work with.

My card at the top uses two of the images from Mackintosh Window stamp set, stamped with Versafine Black and heat embossed with Detail Clear powder, coloured in using Distress Inks, added some Liquid Pearls to the flower centres and matted and layered onto a landscape card.

For this card I stamped three of the words from Amazing Mackintosh Words onto a square of white card and then flicked some watered down Distress Ink and then stamped the large swirl from Patchwork Butterfly set using Blue Versafine ink.

Next I stamped Large Crackle Background around the edges of a small chipboard frame using the same blue ink and lightly inked the edges. I made a template of the inside of the frame and drew around the shape on a craft mat, heated some clear and blue UTEE and poured onto the shape on my craft mat and quickly stamped the image from Mackintosh Windows using white ink. I cut away the excess from the edges whist still warm, fixed inside the frame and then onto my card and added some twine and flowers.

Here I used Brushos, stamped abound the edges using Distress Ink and two of the individual roses from Mackintosh Windows, a sentiment from Amazing Mackintosh Words and then the beautiful Spring Awakening image. I coloured the flowers in her hair with pencils and added some pearls to the centres.

The background for this card was made with watered down blue Distress Ink and mopped with a piece of kitchen towel to keep it as pastel as possible. Next Winter Dawn was stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with white detail clear powder and the colour bleached out before colouring with Distress Inks........a good tip when bleaching away colour is to allow the bleach to dry properly and leave for half an hour or so, otherwise added colour can fade.

Using the new stencils that match the Seasonal Ladies I added some snowflakes and the words using Distress inks.

Many thanks for popping in to have a peek today.

Pumpkin (by Marga)

Today it's my turn to show you a card.

I used for the background Distress Ink and also stamped the Large Crackle Background and leaves with the Distress Ink. I embossed the image and coloured it also with the Distress ink and cut it out. 

Stamps I used are the Autumn Poppy set and the Large Crackle Background.

Hugs Marga

Flight of the Butterfly (by Brenda)

Hello everyone, today we are very happy to announce that Brenda Weatherill, a member of our Guest Design Team, is joining our permanent Design Team. Brenda has been a regular contributor on the blog and for our recent batch of TV shows, and her work will be familiar to you all. Please join us in saying welcome to the Team! As always, we like you to get to know us a little bit at the start of our time with Chocolate Baroque, and Brenda has written a short introduction about herself:

I was 'born and bred' as they say, in the Cambridgeshire Fens, and I couldn't imagine living anywhere else, as I love the flat and scenic landscape which stretches as far as the eye can see.

I am married with a large family of children and grandchildren, and a good few animals in tow as well, including horses and dogs. I was forced to give up full time work soon after I was diagnosed with MS about twenty years ago, but still work part time in my hubby's office, which keeps me out of mischief.

When I look back, I realise that I have been crafting all my life in one form or another, and as a child, spent many hours sticking bits of card and paper together with flour and water, no fancy glues in those days! Like so many crafters, I did cross stitch and when my children were small, had fun creating 'Blue Peter' inspired makes with them.

My cardmaking addiction started many, many years ago, and from the start, I was drawn to rubber stamping. The obsession grew as I discovered new techniques such as brayering, inking and masking, and I have a particular love of silhouette stamps and Distress Inks. I also have a fascination with skies and creating scenes, and many of my pieces feature a moon or sun. I'm not naturally artistic and can't draw for toffee, but I do love colour and experimenting with colour palettes, which to some might be a bit 'off the wall'.

My Dad, who farmed all his life and grew sufficient garden vegetables to supply a village, taught me to appreciate Nature, animals, and all things botanical, and this continues to provide me with constant inspiration in my daily crafting, along with the rural landscape which surrounds me.

I consider myself to be very fortunate to be able to share my passion for crafting with others through classes, demo's and working on the Design Teams I have been privileged to be part of and have met some wonderful friends along the way.

If asked what my style was, I guess the nickname given to me many moons ago sums it up, 'Botanical Brenda'. I rarely do cute, but if I do, then it will usually be accompanied by the addition of a tree or some flowers.

It is lovely to know a bit more about you Brenda, we look forward to seeing lots more of your beautiful creations.

Thank you for the the warm welcome and introduction Judith, I am so thrilled to be part of this super talented team and have even more opportunities to play with beautiful Chocolate Baroque stamps.

Today I have a card to share with you which is one of the samples made for the recent Hochanda One Day Special which was all about Butterflies.

My starting point was a square of 600gsm Fabriano painted with a thin layer of Gesso, then coloured with Distress Oxide Inks Wilted Violet and Vintage Photo followed by a mask and texture paste to create the 'flight' of the Butterfly. When dry I replaced the mask to colour using the same inks.

Next I randomly stamped around the edges with CB Large Crackle Background using the same DI and added a few Butterflies using one of the new CB Butterfly masks. I stamped the large Butterfly from CB Patchwork Butterfly set, coloured with the same Oxide Inks, cut out and fixed to the base card. The sentiment is from CB Pretty Poppies set and finally I added some pearls to the Butterflies thorax and wire antenna.

Thank you so much for visiting and hope your day is a good and sunny one.

Spring Fairy Concertina Frame (posted by Claire)

Good morning everyone, Claire here with another project made using the beautiful Spring Fairy Collection stamps. These stamps are so lovely I wanted to show them off so I made a little concertina frame card (I'm not really sure what they are called but I do love making them lol)

I won't go into detail describing each panel or you'd fall asleep but the backgrounds are all made using distress inks and overstamped with some of the worker stamps from the Spring Fairy Collection, I've also added the Large Crackle Background and the hilly treescape from Magical Landscapes into the mix for my background stamping. 

The focal images are all coloured with Lyra pencils and all the edges have been given a bit of distressing with my craft knife and a shimmer of gilding wax. 

I've added a couple of butterflies to the inside, these were stamped on acetate with Versamark and embossed with Gold embossing powder before being glittered on the back. I used gold vellum to create the concertina frame effect but you can't see it on the photos so you'll have to use your imagination lol. I didn't give it a thought when I was taking the photos so apologies for missing that. I've also added a little tag stamped with the pretty little primula stamp

I really enjoyed making this, what could be more fun than playing with inks and colouring?

Thanks so much for visiting today

Claire xx

Easel Drawer Card (by Brenda)

Hello everyone, today sees the final visit of the month from our Guest Design Team member Brenda. She has created a lovely dimensional project for your inspiration today.

Brenda writes:

My project this week is an easel drawer card. It's a very long while since I made one of these, but I had the idea to do something with Easter eggs, using the beautiful new Russian Floral Egg which Lesley launched on Hochanda TV a few weeks ago.

After making the box elements, (a link to the instructions are below if anyone would like them), I stamped the egg with Versafine Onyx Black ink, and heat embossed with detail clear powder. I did the same thing a second time, along with several more flowers, cutting out elements of the second egg and the flowers to decoupage and colouring in with pencils.

Next I used some designer paper to add decorative panels to the sides of the base, drawer and top base panel, and used a silk tassel on the drawer front, threading it through an eyelet. The top and base layers either side of the drawer are stamped with the Large Crackle Background, which is such a useful stamp, and heat embossed with detail clear embossing powder to give a resist, then inked with Distress Inks.

The sentiment is from the Words of Inspiration stamp set, which I cut out with an oval die, and inked the edges with the same colour Distress Ink. I fixed it to the card with foam pads and finally added the flowers.....and of course put the mini chocolate eggs into the drawer, but they may not last very long!

If anyone would like to make one of these, the instructions are posted on a tutorial on my blog here, it's a long while ago since I wrote it, but the principal remains the same as it did then.

Thank you Brenda for your beautiful project and detailed instructions. Brenda will be back with us later in the year.

ATC Russian Collection (by Magda)

I thought that the best way to enhance these beautiful Russian Theme Stamps, is to run a collection of ATC.

Here the recipe :

1.  Cut in ATC size The Pink Pig A4 Ameleie 275 grm Matte Watercolour paper

2.  Prepare the backgrounds with Brusho Crystal Colours 

3.  Use Versafine in different colors for stamping your chosen images

4.  The Russian stamps I used for this projects are the following

      Large Crackle Background Single Rubber stamp A6

      Babushka Rubber Stamps sheet A5

      Russian Exquisite Egg Single  Rubber stamps A6

      Silhouette Palaces Rubber stamps A6

      Katya Single Rubber stamp A6

 5.  Colour your stamped images with Faber-Castell Art Grip Aquarelle Pencils

 6.  Highlight some details of the ATC with Stickles spots

I hope you will love the Russian Stamps too and thanks for passing by 

Magda

Katya Frame (by Brenda)

Hello everyone, today sees the second of this month's posts from our Guest Design Team member Brenda Weatherill. She has created a beautiful project using the individual stamp Katya, from our latest release of Russian stamps.

Brenda writes:

My starting point was a primed 8" x 8" wooden frame with a removable canvas central panel. I painted the canvas with deep pink, purple and gold acrylic paints and once dry, stamped the Katya image with Versafine Onyx Black ink and heat embossed with detail clear embossing powder. I then used gold paint to highlight areas of the image.

Next the frame was given a base coat of the same pink and purple paints, then random areas were covered with crackle glaze, dried, and a coating of light lilac paint plus some of the darker colours were added here and there with an almost dry brush. I also stamped some added crackle with the Large Crackle Background stamp and a gold pigment ink.

Across the bottom of the frame, I stamped a church from the Silhouette Palaces stamp set, and another from the Babushka stamp set, and heat embossed both with detail gold embossing powder. Along the top of the frame, I stencilled some vines and butterflies, and brushed them with mica powder.

Thank you Brenda, for another inspirational project. You can see Brenda's final project for the month next week.

Beautiful Katya and Castles in the Sky (posted by Claire)

Good morning crafty friends, I hope you're all having a lovely Easter weekend. Today I'm sharing a project featuring the beautiful Katya. She's such a stunner I thought she deserved a pretty frame.

To decorate the plastic frame I applied gilding glue and then adding gilding flakes here and there and dusted mica powders over the rest.

I created a background with distress inks (bundled sage, Wilted Violet and Shaded Lilac) and overstamped using the Large Crackle Background stamp using purple chalk ink. I stamped Katya onto white stamping card and coloured her with alcohol markers. I also stamped her onto acetate with versamark and embossed with Gold Embossing Powder. I then cut Katya out and glued her to the background. I then cut her headdress out from the acetate and layered that up with tiny blobs of silicone glue. I added a few little gems here and there.

I then stamped the sentiment (from Artistic Expressions) with purple chalk ink on some gold vellum. I tore the strip out and rolled the edges around a cocktail stick to make a little scroll.

Here's another project made using the new Russian goodies

I took a canvas board and applied navy blue acrylic paint, with some black blended around the edges. Once that was dry I spritzed with a black glimmer mist. I made the clouds using white gesso applied with a natural sponge. I added highlights with white pearlescent acrylic paint. I took the Silhouette Palace 1 Stencil and applied black gesso. Once that was dry I added a little more of the cloudy effect along the bottom edge and some white highlights here and there.

I hope you're all enjoying the new stamps and stencils as much as we are

Thanks for visiting today, hope to see you again soon

Claire xx