Hocus Pocus Card by Florence

Morning everyone


Today I am using the new Hocus Pocus stamp set. 

Although these are Halloween stamps they can easily be used for other occasions.

I would like to share with you an idea for a little persons birthday card.

This would also work as child's party invitation just by changing the sentiment.

 

 Please click on the image enlarge.

To make this card

Stamp the creature onto a piece of white card, color the image and cut it out.
Stamp just the tail onto a piece of white card and cut it out but include an extra piece at the one end of the tail for attaching purposes.
Die cut or cut out by hand the number.
Stamp a pattern onto the number and add a little Distress Ink to the edges
Glue the tail onto the back of the number so that just the front of tail shows.
Stamp and emboss the sentiment onto a piece of pretty paper or card.
Mat and layer the card.
Attach the number (with the tail attached) using foam pads.
Attach the creature also using foam pads.

Do check out all of the amazing creations from the team.

Thank you for looking

Happy Stamping
Florence x

Tag Fragments (By Judith & Lesley)

Hi there, today is a joint contribution between Judith and myself.  A couple of weeks ago we were lucky enough to have a play day together and in between the catching up chat you have with a friend you haven't seen for a little while we managed to get a little inky! Strangely enough we both started to use the same colours on a tag and so decided that we would do a tag swap. And here are the results.

So first we have Judith's tag. I coloured the background with Distress inks in Shabby Shutters, Squeezed Lemonade and Dried Marigold, splashed water over the top and patted dry with kitchen towel to give a partially faded look. Then Judith took over.

• To make the tag stamp the raindrops from Seasonal Fragments with Potting Shed Archival ink. 
• Next stamp the Snake's Head Fritillary and Honey Bees on to a self adhesive label with Versafine Black Onyx. Colour with pencils of your choice (Judith used Polychromos) and fussy cut. 
• To finish add die cut corners, tinted with the same Distress inks as the background or stencil a similar image with the inks. Remove the backing from the images and stick into place. 
• Finally stamp the phrase from the See Beauty clear stamp set with Black Onyx. 

For my tag Judith dabbed some Acrylic Wax randomly over the tag and then sponged the same Distress inks over the top. She then used kitchen roll to polish the tag, thereby removing the ink from the wax to leave her faded background. Here is what I did next.

• To make the tag stamp one of the floral style images from Seasonal Fragments three times on to 160gsm cardstock with Dried Marigold.  
• Use a water brush to paint over the images with Squeezed Lemonade.and when dry cut around all three images, cutting one of them slightly smaller than the others. 
• For the flower centres die cut three circles, two x 30mm and one x 15mm, stamp them with the image from Rustic Fragments using Versafine Olympia Green and colour with watercolour pencils in several shades of yellow and orange (I used Aquarelles). 
• To give the effect of meadow grass stamp the image from Rustic Fragments along the bottom edge of the tag using Olympic Green. 
• Stamp the images again on smooth white paper and choose three parts of the image to make stems for the flowers. Colour with Shabby Shutters and when dry cut out and stick to the tag with wet glue. 
• To complete, attach the centres to the flowers with glue gel and then the flowers to the stems with wet glue. Stamp the phrase from Amazing Birthday with Olympia Green.

It is so interesting to see that, although Judith and I completed our tags over 200 miles apart, we have both focused on a flower theme. I hope you like our joint designs, it is really good fun to start a project and then had it over to a crafty friend to finish.

Thank you for joining us today and I hope you come back soon to see some gorgeous projects created by the Design Team using the new Birds of Paradise stamps.

Christmas Masterboard (posted by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope that you have been enjoying the fabulous artwork from the Design Team this month using the Rustic Fragments/Seasonal Fragments Multibuy stamp set. As we near the end of the month, I wanted to show you another great use for these very versatile stamps; creating masterboards. I have chosen one of the leafy designs and contemporary colours to make a masterboard, which I have then turned into a couple of Christmas cards, showing you that you can use the images all year round for lots of different purposes.

To create the masterboard, I covered a piece of smooth white card with Aqua Adirondack ink, and then stamped the leafy image using a deep red and dark green. I filled in the gaps using the aqua ink to create a softer backdrop for the stronger leafy images.

I covered a 5" x 7" card front with part of the masterboard. I chose a greeting from the Bold Christmas Words stamp set, and stamped this onto a die cut, using red ink. I hand cut a dark red layer to mat the sentiment onto. I made a couple of flowers using die cuts to complete the card.

I had plenty of the masterboard left over, and decided to make another card in a clean and simple style this time. I used a large white card blank, and cut a strip of dark red card, to which I added a strip of the masterboard, after I had inked the edges with Barn Door Distress Ink. I stamped a sentiment from the Warm Christmas Greetings stamp set on to the card. I stamped and embossed a large poinsettia from the Steampunk Christmas stamp set onto scrapbook papers a couple of times, and cut these out. I then stuck them to the card with some foliage die cuts as before.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Fragments and patchwork.....by Miranda

Hi there,

Today my last makes with the Fragments for this batch........ I know I will be using them often.....

I've made two cards using the Rustic fragments and the Seasonal Fragments. You can also buy them both in a multi-by and save some money.....

I combined it with a patchwork pattern using die cuts. As I said before I am in the mood for geometric shapes, I have already used the squares and circles before and now on to the hexagons.

Here is the first one......I've sponged the hexagons with Distress inks, splattered some water and embossed at first with Wow pearl white and some have been given accents with the matching Distress markers. And finally I gave them some transparent pearl pen accents.

I've combined them with the toadstools of the 'Autumn Poppy' sheet. These fragments are from the Seasonal Fragments.

And the 2nd one......more a sea theme style combined with the 'Seaside dreams' sheet.

Made similar to the other one but with a smaller hexagon die cut. These bubble fragments come from the Rustic Fragments.  

Also some transparent pearl pen droplets.......they match very well with these bubble fragments

Thanks for your visit and nice comments and hope to see you next time,

Enjoy your day,

Rustic Love (posted by Claire)

Good morning folks, Claire here with a sample made using Rustic Fragments, this time i've teamed them up with some of my favourite stamps from Punky Romance.

I made my background using Barn Door and Pumice Stone distress ink, blending them lightly on some white card with my blending tool. Then I stamped the fragment with Pumice Stone distress ink to create some texture.

I stamped the cogs with Versamark and embossed with silver embossing powder. I stamped 'Love' with versamark, and embossed with red sparkly embossing powder. Before I heated the powder, I used a fine brush to dust the red powder off the cogs and then sprinkled on some silver. I wasn't sure if this would work but the silver powder stayed in place perfectly.

Next I stamped the heart, again embossing in red. I stamped the image again, this time on vellum and embossed with silver embossing powder and cut them out before layering them up with some silver cogs.

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Textured Art Block (by Julie)

Hello, thanks for popping in. My project for today is using the  Rustic Fragment stamps along with the new wooden Art Blocks that have recently been introduced to the website.

I started by spreading Pearl, Soft Form Relief Paste over the top of the large basket weave and large mesh stamps. These need to be left to dry for about a day. You can speed up the time by putting them in an airing cupboard but that will still take about 12 hours. Once dry, peel the relief paste from the stamps and colour with alcohol ink and gilding wax. 

After painting the Art Block with cream acrylic and adding a stamped Fragment background, I rolled out some white polymer clay to a thickness of about 4 mm and then placed some Gold Leaf over the top. Next take your chosen texture stamp and stamp directly onto the Gold Leaf and polymer clay. You do not need to spritz with water as the Gold Leaf acts as the release agent from the stamp.

Use a cookie cutter to cut your shapes and then oven bake. Once baked you can colour the edges with alcohol ink.

To finish off I edged the block with Tarnished Brass Distress Paint.

Thank you for taking the time to look at my Art Block xx

Rustic Fragments - Simple cards by Florence

Hi everyone

I hope you are enjoying the weekend.

Today I would like to share with you two simple cards made using the new Rustic Fragments Set.  

For my first card I have made a masculine card and I would like to dedicate this to all crafting Fathers and Grandfathers out there.  I hope you have a wonderful Fathers Day.

For the background stamping I stamped the image using brown Archival Ink but then added a little bit of embossing to give it a little bit more depth and to give it an abstract feel.  

I used an embossing pen for this and just applied the ink to the card in a brush stroke fashion.
I stamped the Eccentric Edwardian onto a separate piece of card stock, cut him out and attached him using foam pads.  I used a 350 gm board for this because I wanted him to be a chunky embellishment.

For my second card I have used the same stamp as above to make a basket of flowers. 

I embossed the image on card stock and cut out the basket shape.
For the flowers in the basket, I have used the Sunny Sunflower set of stamps. The flowers are stamped and then fussy cut out. To color them, I used a sponge and some Distress Ink.

Little baskets would look beautiful stamped in pastel colors for Easter projects.  Maybe with some chicks from the Steampunk Birds or maybe a basket of Daffodils from the Spring Bird Daffodil Set.  Or, what about a basket of Poinsettias for Christmas cards!   This is a really versatile stamp set to have in your stash. 

These are only a few suggestions for the basket idea.  Maybe you have some of your own that you would like to share with us using the comments box below?? 

Don't forget that if you do leave a comment, on any of the posts, during the current month, your name goes into the monthly comments draw.

Thank you for looking.

Happy Stamping
Florence x

Making an Impression (posted by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have a cheery card to show you today, using the current stamps of the month, Rustic Fragments/Seasonal Fragments multi-buy.

I created the background by painting a piece of smooth watercolour paper with acrylic paint. I used the paint in a very diluted fashion to give a washed effect to the background. I added a large textured linen stamp across the background using a saffron coloured ink, and then filled in the rest of the background with the flower head design, using a plum coloured ink. I stamped a greeting from the Mackintosh Sentiments clear stamp set across a piece of hand dyed ribbon that I had left over from another project. I attached this to the background.

To create some added texture for the card, I rolled out three pieces of polymer clay, and cut them into circles. I stamped the flower head stamp into the clay, and following the manufacturer's instructions, I baked them in the oven. Once they had cooled down, I painted these with the same acrylic paint as I had used on my background. I added a bit of metallic wax to pick out some of the details of the flowers.

I hope that you feel inspired to try something like this out for yourselves, as these stamps are great for adding texture to all sorts of surfaces. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Rustic Canvas (posted by Claire)

Good morning folks, Claire here with a project featuring Rustic Fragments, one of this month's new releases, they are really useful stamps like all the others in the range. For this project I've combined them with stamps from the Sewing Multibuy.

I began with a canvas board, primed with gesso before applying texture paste roughly with a palette knife. I let the texture paste set for a few minutes so it wasn't too 'squidgy' before stamping into it with the open weave fragment. Then I left it to dry thoroughly before applying acrylic paint in pinks and creams. Once the paint was dry I added some stamping using the other fabric fragment using potting soil archival ink. Next I highlighted the texture with gold gilding wax.

I stamped some of the sewing themed stamps onto cream card using Potting Soil Archival ink and cut them out. I added a little colour to the lacy border with my Graph'It Markers and then set to with glue and foam pads layering them all up.

I added lace, a flower made from scraps of fabric and tulle and then popped in a tag stamped again with the fabric fragments and overstamped with 'Imagine' from Artistic Expressions. I also stamped 'Enjoy the little things ....' onto some tissue and applied that to the corner of my canvas using matte medium.

To finish off I've added some faux pearls and a little button topped with a twine bow.

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Rustic Fragments - Simple Card by Florence

Morning everyone

I would like to share with you a really simple card made using the Rustic Fragments rubber stamp set.

I have used just two of the stamps from the set on this card but any combinations of the stamps will work just as well.

I thought this card design may work as a modern style Valentines card.

I chose this card to share with you because I wanted you to see just how beautifully the fine lines of the images stamp and emboss.

To make this card

I have used white coated card and stamped with Staz-On.

Stamp and emboss the weave patterned stamp onto a piece of coated card.

Place a circle mask over the top right hand quarter of the stamped weave pattern and color using a dye based ink and leave to dry naturally.  A brayer is useful for adding the color but you may need to apply a little extra ink, using a sponge, between the embossed pattern.

Cut a circle out of a piece of white coated card stock and stamp and emboss the dotty pattern.

Stamp the word Love.

Make up the card as seen using a foam pad behind the small stamped circle embellishment.

The weave pattern stamp is such a great pattern image.  Stamped in pastel or neutral colors it looks like hessian.  Stamped in green and blues it looks like netting.

That's all from me today.

Thank you for looking.

Florence x

Mixed Media Frames (by Julie)

Today I want to show you two frames that I have made using the new Rustic Fragments stamp set. 

 

I started by spreading molding paste through a Prima Stencil (Bamboo) and when dry, painted the whole frame with a pale blue acrylic paint, followed by some gold gilding wax to highlight the stencil.

The background was created by stamping two of the Rustic Fragment stamps on top of each other, using Cracked Pistachio and Weathered Wood Distress ink.

I used the lovely Butterfly Blush  set and kiss stamped with the Rustic Fragments to get the texture on the butterflies. I found that inking up the solid stamp and then stamping onto scrap card, before kissing with the fragment stamp provided a much crisper design.

As you can see I have finished the frame with some cream cord and pale blue buttons that I had in my stash.

For my second frame I decided to just spread the molding paste straight onto the frame and then pulled a Contour Tool through the paste to create the squiggles. Once dry I painted with a light brown acrylic paint, followed by gold gilding wax and a touch of a pale-blue pearl paint to highlight the contours.

The flower is from the Fresh Blooms stamp set. I stamped three of the images from the set and then over stamped them with some of the Rustic Fragments  using blue, red and orange dye ink. I then cut them out and layered them up to create the 3D flower.

The background was stamped with the large woven Fragment stamp and then water-coloured with brown and blue pencils, however I felt the patterns clashed too much so over-painted a square panel with the pale-blue pearl paint for the flower to sit on, just leaving a border of the fragment stamp instead.

As before I finished the frame off with some brown cord and buttons from my stash.

Thanks for stopping by xx

A Positive start to your day (by Lesley)

I haven't made any ATCs for quite a long time and I really love these miniature works of art. Being a small canvas you can make them fairly quickly and you feel a fabulous sense of achievement when you have a pile of colourful pieces in front of you.

All the backgrounds on these ATCs were made with a Gelli plate then over stamped with images from both of the sets in the latest in our fragments series; Rustic Fragments and Seasonal Fragments.

I then decided to add words from the Positive Beauty and Awesome Diva to start a set of Affirmation Cards.  I love the idea of picking one of these cards at random first thing in the morning and then carrying it around with me as my 'theme' for the day.

How about you? Why not create your own affirmation cards or design a 'pack' of them to give to someone special, maybe someone who needs a little positivity in their life right now.

Thanks for dropping in today and keep watching for more imaginative creations from the rest of the Design Team.

Rustic Bubbles (posted by Claire)

Good morning folks, I hope you're having a good weekend so far. The new Rustic Fragments stamps are fab, they will work beautifully with so many of the other stamps and I needed no excuse at all to ink up one of my old favourites,from Seadragon and Seaside Dreams with the lovely bubbly stamp from Rustic Fragments.

I began by using my distress markers to colour directly to the sea bed stamp from Seaside Dreams, I spritzed the stamp with a mist of water and stamped the image. I used a water brush to pull the colour out and add some shading. I inked in the background using distress inks in shades of blue and green and then stamped the mermaid with black archival ink. I stamped the 'bubbles with Brilliance White ink and once that was dry I used my water brush to life some of the ink from some of the bubbles and also from around the mermaid.

I've distressed all the edges and layerd the little scene up on some kraft card adding some pearls, a paper flower and a pretty brad from my stash.

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Rustic Fragments By Florence

Hi everyone

Today I would like to share with you a card made using the new Rustic Fragments rubber stamp set.

Like many of you, I am a huge fan of the Chocolate Baroque's fragment stamps.  If, this is your first visit to this blog and if you would like to see other fragment stamp sets in the range please click on the link.

These stamps are so versatile and have many uses.

They are ideal for card making, ATCs, Mixed Media projects.

They also compliment other Chocolate Baroque stamps beautifully.

 I have used a very simple version of the serendipity technique in making this card.

To make this card

You will need a piece of thin card or thick paper 15 cm x 15 cm as a backing piece.

Cover the backing piece randomly with small scraps of paper using wet glue to attach the pieces.

Overlap the pieces and build up the collage until you are happy with the design.

Give the whole piece a thin coat of Gesso and leave to dry.

Stamp the images randomly over the collage. 

Cut the collage into 5 cm squares.

Optional:  Highlight any overlapping seems with gold relief wax.

Move and turn the pieces around until you are happy with the layout.

Attach the square tiles to your base card with foam tabs.

Attach the embellishments using glue or silicon.

An Alternative to the above would be to work on a larger piece of paper say, A4 in size.

Add fibers and ephemera to the collage as well as paper.

Stamp and emboss the images to give them more definition.

Using a larger canvas, gives you more choice when cutting out the squares.

Thank you for looking

Happy Stamping

Florence x

Masked Men's Fragment Cards (by Julie)

Hello and thank you for stopping by. Today I have two cards that would suit a masculine theme, such as Fathers Day that is fast approaching. The stamp set used is the wonderful new Rustic Fragment set and as the title suggests, both cards have been made using masking techniques.

I started off by gently applying masking tape at various intervals across the card and colouring the gaps with Distress Inks, followed by stamping my chosen fragment stamps over the top before carefully removing the masking tape.

I then inked up the large, woven design, fragment stamp with Versamark and then stamped and gold embossed with a heat gun, before die cutting, three times with a circle.

 I covered the base with green textured card and die-cut circle mats for the stamped circles from the green card as well.

The Mackintosh Sentiment, With Love was added to finish the card off but of course you can add anything you like.

The masking tape came out again for my second card when I created a border around the edge of the base card, leaving a square in the middle. More strips of masking tape were arranged in the square to section parts off before I started stamping my chosen fragment stamps. You may find that you need a sheet of copier paper to add extra coverage so that you do not end up stamping in an area you didn't intend to. 

Tea Dye, Antique Linen, Old Paper and Dried Marigold Distress Ink were sponged into the masked off areas and a darker shade added along the edges to create the depth and shade.

Once the masking tape was removed I went around the edge of the large square design with a grey pencil, before applying Weathered Wood and dabs of Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

The little hearts were punched from spare card that I had stamped with the mesh fragment and glued with silicone to a strip of brown card.

As before the With Love sentiment was added from the Mackintosh Sentiment Clear stamp set.

Many thanks for looking and hope to see you here again tomorrow xx

New Fragment Stamps launched today

Well here we are almost the end of another month and it's time to launch some fabulous new stamps.  We are continually being told by you that you love our range of Fragment related stamps so this month we're adding to the series with two more stunning examples.

First there is Rustic Fragments

closely followed by Seasonal Fragments.

Both these A4 sets are available individually or as one of our ever popular multi-buys.

There are loads of brilliant images on these stamps ranging from fabric to basket weave and snowflakes to leaves. All of these stamps can be used with many other crafty products; I stamped through a stencil for the card featured here today but you can use them with paints, inks, clay, UTEE, there are so many possibilities.

Also available today are a selection of clear word stamps. These are being released in two sizes, first we have

Awesome Diva

and Positive Beauty

Each of these sets will arrive packed in one of our A5 storage wallets and are excellent for card making etc 

However, for those of you who love journalling and mixed media projects we have decided to also offer these in a larger format, which will really make a statement on your artwork. Once again they are packaged in an A5 wallet for easy storage.

So we have the same words, only much larger, and they are released in the following four sets:

Awesome Today

Rockstar Diva

Positive Pants

and finally See Beauty

Now you can have your own sets of journalling words to complement your creativity. Just please bear in mind that we only have a limited stock of all the clear word set so you may have to wait a little while for more stocks to arrive, but they are definitely worth the wait. If you are concerned on which size may be suitable for your projects the description on the website of each stamp set contains the measurements of both the smallest and largest stamps.

I am really excited about all our new releases as I can see so many ways in which they can be used and I know you are going to just love them.

As usual the Design Team girls have been creating magic with the new Fragment sets so there will be lots of inspirational artwork for you to see over the next month. Hope you can join us and have a thoroughy wonderful stamping time.