Above and Below by Penny

Hello everyone, I hope you're all warm, well and safe today.  With all the horrible weather we're having, the strong winds,the terrible flooding and all the damage to peoples homes I thought I'd share some bright and sunny projects with you.  These are some pages from a couple of calenders I made in 2018 as Christmas presents, having bought them from Chocolate Baroque.

Under The Sea.

The stamps I have used are Mermaid Queen and Underwater Kingdom sets, Distress Ink, Versafine ink, clear EP, pearlescent acrylics, alcohol pens and a stencil from my stash.

I stamped and embossed three images to create an underwater scene then coloured them all in using the paints and pens.  I masked the images then took a stencil from my stash and used blue DI to recreate the currents in the sea.

Sea Palace.

I have used stamps from the Seadragon and Underwater Kingdom sets, and the same products and tools as above.

I stamped and embossed some focal images then coloured them as before.  I then used the same stencil to create the background.  

Sunny Cove.


For this page I used stamps from the Seashore Scenes and Seaside Dreams sets, Versafine sepia ink, Clear EP, and Colouring pencils.

I stamped and embossed a scene  then added a border of shells either side.  I coloured everything with pencils.

Beachside Holiday.


This time I have just used stamps from the Seaside Dreams set,colouring pencils

I stamped and embossed the Beach Huts, and the borders, as before.  I then coloured the images with pencils.

Thank you for stopping by today, I hope my post has cheered up your day .  I shall be back next month with some more crafty fun, in the meantime stay safe.

Take care,


                             x x  Penny  xx

Spring into Summer by Penny

Goodly morning peeps, I hope you are all well.  I'm back again with my second post this month and I've chosen four mini projects to share with you today.  Last year Chocolate Baroque added blank calendars (Blank 2019 Calendar/Planner) to their range and I decorated several for Christmas presents and one for myself.  

For the first project I have used stamps from the ButterflyDaisy Collage set, Distress Ink, purple Versafine ink, alcohol pens and a stencil from my stash.  I stamped a large collage image in the center of the picture area, then stamped a couple of daisies and butterflies.  I used alcohol pens to colour all the images.  I then used a stencil and DI to create the background.

For this one I used stamps from the Steampunk Travel  and Steampunkery sets, metalic paints, Distress Inks, alcohol pens and a couple of masks from my stash.  I stamped several images using black Versafine and embossed them with clear powder.  I used paints, inks and pens to colour them, using metalic paints for the metal parts.  I then used the stencils with a DI to create a back ground.

This project uses stamps from the Underwater Kingdom and Seadragon sets, Distress Ink, Koh-I-Noor paints, black Versafine ink, clear EP and a stencil from my stash.    I began by stamping and embossing all the images and then painting them.  I took a stencil from my stash and applied DI through it to give the picture a watery background.

For this month I decided to go sunny and hot!  (Well I can dream can't I?)  I used stamps from the Indian Elephant and Paisley Elephant sets, Distress inks, black Versafine ink, clear EP and a gold pen.  I stamped and embossed the elephants first then masked them.  I then stamped and embossed the Palace silhouette image between the elephants, and stamped it again in second generation ink.  I then stamped a script image repeatedly across the page and used one of the worker stamps to fill any spaces in the background.  I used a black fine liner pen to ground the Palaces and the elephants then removed the masks and coloured in the elephants.
 

Thank you for dropping by today, I hope you have found my little collection enjoyable!  I'll be back again next month with more craftiness to share with you  :) 


                                 xx  Penny  xx

Mermaid Queen Birthday Card (by Rachel)

Hello everyone, today sees the final visit this month from our regular Guest Design Team member Rachel Fisher. She has created a beautiful Birthday card for her Mum, using stamps with an underwater theme.

To make her card, Rachel stamped the main image from the Mermaid Queen stamp set, and masked the image. She then added images from the same set and the Seadragon stamp set to complete the scene. The background is coloured with Distress Inks, and she has painted the images using Distress Inks and a water brush.

Thank you Rachel for sharing your lovely card with us. 

Rachel will be back to inspire us with more projects in a few months' time. You can visit her blog to see more of her work. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Underwater Wall Hanging (by Penny)

Hello everyone, it is with great pleasure that I am introducing a new member of our Guest Design Team on the Design Team Blog today.  Our newest member is Penny Butler, who has long been a staunch supporter of the blog, our Facebook group, and also our Challenge Blog. You can find beautiful examples of Penny's work on her own blog, Lady Penelope's FAB Crafty Blogspot. Before we take a look at Penny's first project, we are going to allow her to introduce herself to you:

Hi I'm Penny and I am very delighted and honoured to be asked to share some projects with you all. I've been crafting and drawing since childhood, art was always my favourite subject at school! I live in Somerset with my Husband and our cats, (mad cat lady alert!). We have four children and two lovely grandsons. I have been crafting as a hobby for over twenty years, dabbling in textiles, dress making, glass painting, beading, silk painting and more. About sixteen years ago I was introduced to card making and stamping - and that was it! Nowadays my main crafty passions are stamping, scrapbooking, mixed media and home decor - especially up-cycling! I don't really have a particularly crafty style, as I like all sorts, but I DO love colour! One of my projects involves using the first stamps I ever bought from Chocolate Baroque - Christmas Flourish. I hope that you enjoy the projects :)

It was lovely to get to know you a little better Penny, and without any further ado, here is Penny's first project for us, a piece of home decor made using stamps from the Underwater Kingdom and Seadragon stamp sets.

Penny writes:

I used a panel of greyboard as the base and painted it with white gesso. I used some acrylic paints in blue, green and silver, painting and blending them in stripes across the panel. The silver makes the other paints appear pearlescent. I then stamped and embossed some seaweed and the palace.

I masked the palace and brayered some texture over the whole panel using some crumpled paper. I used Brushos to paint the seaweed, rubbed off the mask and painted the palace. I mixed some silver paint with the Brushos to make them pearlescent. I stamped a sentiment randomly several times, stamped a couple of mermaids in second generation ink, then gave the panel a coat of varnish.

On a piece of white card I stamped and embossed the Sea Dragon and a few other images. I painted them in the same way and cut them out. I gave each image a coat of varnish, then adhered them to the panel. I punched a couple of holes and added some ribbon for hanging the panel.

I hope you enjoyed this project, thank you for visiting :)

Penny Butler.

Thanks so much for your inspirational project and detailed explanation Penny. We look forward to seeing another project from you next week.

Behind the Scenes (posted by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope that you have been able to catch the TV shows featuring the Beautiful Backgrounds cling mounted stamps on the Craft Channel recently. The samples created by my Team Mates, and demos by Lesley were just amazing. I have a couple of projects to show you myself that were featured on the shows, and I hope that they will give you a little bit of inspiration in using these fabulous stamps.

My first project features the Floral Weave cling mounted stamp, and I have created an underwater scene, using stamps from the Seashore and Seadragon stamp sets.

I created a watery background on a piece of watercolour paper, by painting some water based ink onto the background, and dropping sea salt onto the paper while it was still wet. I left the background to dry before removing the salt. I stamped and embossed the background image using a lovely teal embossing powder, it works really well as a seaweed image on this card. I stamped and coloured the seahorse on a separate piece of card, before cutting it out and adhering it to the background. I stamped the sentiment, and matted the background onto teal card.

I added some little pearls to the flower centres to complete the card.

My second project is a canvas, combining a couple of the background stamps, Baroque Orchids, and Studded Lattice. I have added some flowers created using stamps from the Elegant Iris stamp set, and some die cut leaves. For full instructions on how I made this piece, hop over to my blog.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Guest Post - A vista under the sea by Rachel Fisher

Hi everyone, I would like to introduce you to a brand new member of the Guest Design Team - Rachel Fisher.  As you know Veronica Pell recently became a permanent member of the Design Team, so I was very happy when Rachel agreed to join us.  This is her very first post in her new Guest role and I just know you are going to love what she has to share with you.

Hello there! My name is Rachel Fisher and  I am delighted to be joining you for the first time as a member of the Chocolate Baroque Guest Design Team! I do hope you will enjoy what I have made for your inspiration.

My first piece shows a scene I developed on a canvas. I used paints, stencils, stamps and paste to build up the background then stamped the images from two sets of stamps – Mermaid Queen and Seadragon.  After colouring in with distress markers I fussy cut each image and then glued them to the canvas background.

Full step by step details can be found on my blog – FishersCards and Crafts.

 

I hope you have enjoyed what I have done with these beautiful stamps!

Big Hugs

Rachel.

We certainly have enjoyed your beautiful design Rachel and can't wait to see what else you have lined up for us this month.

Don't forget to keep dropping by to see what fabulous artwork our DT ladies have created using our new individual background stamps.

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

Rusty Steampunk Funky Fish (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with a quick card made using Steampunk Funky Fish. I'm really enjoying playing with this months new releases, they are such fun and quirky designs and a refreshing  change from Christmas crafting too. For this card I've tried to create a rusty effect using foil tape and alcohol inks.

I've used two of the stamps from Steampunk Funky Fish for this card. I began with a distress ink background (using Broken China, Tumbled Glass and Weathered Wood distress inks). I stencilled over the top with Mowed Lawn distress ink though a Crafters Workshop Cell Stencil. Next I used the same stencil and blotted with damp kitchen roll to remove some of the colour. I stamped some foliage (from Seadragon) with Mowed Lawn distress ink. I distressed the edges and matted the background on some copper mirri card.

I took some foil tape (from the plumbing supplies department of my local DIY store) that I'd attached to a scrap of white card and added some colour with alcohol inks in shades of blue and green. I stamped the fish and the seadragon with Versmark and embossed with copper embossing powder before cutting them out and popping them on my background with 3d foam pads.

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Steampunk Sea World and Steampunk Funky Fish Tags By Florence

Hi everyone

I hope you are all enjoying the weekend.

I can't tell you how excited I am about the new Steampunk Stamps!  They are amazing!

Like many of you, I am a huge fan of the Chocolate Baroque's Steampunk Stamp Range so when I saw the new stamps I couldn't wait to get my hands on them and have a play.  You are going to love the new stamp sets.

Apart from how great the images are, one of the things that struck me straight away when I looked at the stamp sets is that there are TEN stamps on each A5 sheets.  How wonderful is that!

These are some tags I made using the new Steampunk Funky Fish and Steampunk Sea World Stamp Sets.

I hope you like them.

Tag 1

Tag 2

Tag 3

Tag 4

I made all of the tags in the same way by stamping the images (using Black Archival Ink onto white card stock) and masking them to build up the scenes.

I left the masks on my stamped images and colored the background with Distress Inks and stencils.

I then removed the masks from my stamped images and colored them with water color crayons.
I then gave my tags two to three coats of Mod Podge.

 Tip: Stamping and Masking.  Start by stamping the image that you wish to appear at the forefront of your scene first and then mask it. Then stamp the next image that you wish to appear directly behind the first image and then mask that one and continue stamping and masking until you have built up your scene.

Thank you for looking.

Happy Stamping
Florence x