Christmas Card (by Corine)

Hello everyone, Corine is here today with her final post of the month as a Guest Team Designer. She has created a beautiful Christmas card to inspire you.

Corine writes:

Hello!

Today it is my third and last time to post a card as guest designer. I hope you enjoyed my samples.

I used stamps from the sheets:
Pears and Baubles
Seasonal Fragments


Apply Distress Oxide Faded Jeans, Peacock Feathers, Cracked Pistachio on a craft sheet. Place watercolour paper on it. Repeat this and dry with a heat tool.
Stamp background with Peacock Feathers. Stamp mistletoe with Memento dewdrop Olive Grove.
Colour the mistletoe with green markers.
Stamp Christmas ball with Memento Luxe Teal Zeal on watercolour paper, emboss with clear embossing powder. Colour in with markers.
Stamp text 'Happy Christmas' with Memento Luxe Teal Zeal and emboss with clear powder.

Kind regards,
Corine van Kuilenburg

Corine will be back in the New Year with more projects to share with us all. 

Thanks for stopping by,

New Year's Eve Butterfly (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope that you all had a lovely Christmas and are enjoying a bit of quiet time over the festive break. This year seems to have gone so fast, and has brought many changes, I even made my first tentative steps onto live TV! Whatever you have done and are looking forward to in the months ahead, I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year, and a healthy, creative 2018, from all of us on the Design Team. We are looking forward to sharing lots more inspiration with you next year.

I have some cards to share today using stamps featured in last month's TV shows on Hochanda. To create my first card, I made a background using Brushos, spritzed with water. I wanted to create the effect of a Wintery sky, and so I chose shades of blue, purple and grey for the background. I stamped a large butterfly from the Tangled Garden stamp set onto a piece of sparkly acetate, and stuck this to a piece of coloured background that I had in my scrap box. By chance, this was a very similar colour to my Brusho background. I fussy cut the butterfly out, omitting the antennae.

I stamped the sentiment from the Words of Inspiration stamp set, and an image from the Seasonal Fragments stamp set onto the background using Versamark and silver embossing powder. I added a few sparkly gems randomly throughout the fragment images. Just before I stuck the butterfly to the background, I stamped the antennae onto the background, using black ink.

Here are a couple more of my show projects, a pretty gelli plate card using another image from the Tangled garden stamp set:

A necklace and tag using images from the Bold Blooms and Words of Inspiration stamp sets. I have used shrink plastic to create the necklace:

Finally, a card made using Soft Form Relief Paste to create the focal point, adding gilding wax over the top, to pick out the fabulous detail of the stamp:

Thanks for stopping by,

Autumn Breeze (by Asha)

Good morning, friends! Today I'm taking a break from the featured stamps for the month by showing you an earlier project of mine. I made this page about a year ago. The inspiration came from everywhere and Chocolate Baroque's Autumn Poppy seemed like the perfect focal point.

I decided on a vibrant blue for the crisp and cool air of autumn. the perfect background for the golden leaves swirling down in the breeze. And to further illustrate the cool autumn breeze, I added texture to the background with a stamp from Chocolate Baroque's Seasonal Fragments sheet and stamped it with Dandelion Ranger Archival Ink. I applied acrylic paints with a baby wipe to create the background.

Here's a closer look at the mushrooms. I think they are just magical! I coloured them with alcohol markers, fussy cut and adhered down with Ranger multi medium matte. I used a white gel pen to add some highlights to the mushrooms.

I hope you like this page. Personally, I love the blue - orange combo, especially for autumn. For more details on tools and products, check out my blog post. Have a lovely autumn season everyone... and wrap up warm!

Beijinhos,
Asha

Fair Lady of Summer (by Asha)

Good morning, everyone. I'm back with a project featuring one of the new seasonal single cling stamps. This one is called Summer Fair. The little flowers around her is a stamp from an older set called Seasonal Fragments.

I stamped the image onto heavyweight cold press watercolour paper with VersaFine Onyx Black. Next I wet the paper and applied red and green water colour around the image and let dry completely before colouring the lady.  To add interest to the background, I stamped the little flowers from Seasonal Fragments with VersaFine Satin Red ink.  Finally I mounted the finished piece on a 6 "x 4½" top folding card.

Over the next couple of weeks you'll see more amazing projects from my team-mates; so please swing by often. Meanwhile, you can find details of tools and products used above over at my blog.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Beijinhos,
Asha  

Autumn's Smile (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I am sharing a project or two today, using our current stamps of the month. Along with the rest of the Design team, I have been enjoying working with these stunning stamps from Sue, and hopefully, I can add my piece of inspiration to the daily treats that the team have been giving you.

My first card uses the Autumn Medley rubber stamp to create a seasonal card. I stamped the image, and masked it before creating a leafy background, using leaves from my garden and Fossilized Amber and Rusty Hinge Distress Ink.  I coloured the image with water based markers, and added extra detail with pencils afterwards. I added one of my all time favourite sentiments, taken from the Nature's Peace stamp set. I matted the background onto green card, before adding it to a black card blank.

For my second card, I have created a wrinkle free Distress background, and combined the Tangled Birch individual stamp with stamps from Patchwork Landscape and Seasonal Fragments, to create a scene. I coloured the images with water based pencils.

My last card uses the lovely Autum Medley stamp once again, and I have created a border around the image, using stamps from the Autumn Poppy stamp set. I stamped the foliage using various colours of Archival Ink, and then coloured everything with Polychromos pencils. I decoupaged some of the leaves on the main image.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Church Domes (by Asha)

Hello there, fellow Chocoholics. Hope you had a fabulous Easter break.  I've got a simple project to share with you - a Confirmation card featuring the Russian Church from the Babushka A5 stamp sheet.

I heat embossed the image with silver embossing powder on watercolour paper and coloured it with Distress Inks. I cut the image out with Spellbinders die and inked the edges, before mounting it (with foam tape) on a black card base. It's not obvious in the photo, but I stamped tiny flowers from the Seasonal Fragments sheet on the card base with Versamark for some subtle background interest.

I finished the card with some Liquid Pearls, few bling, and "congratulations" from Loving Sentiments. That image is perfect for all kinds of occasions with a religious theme - Baptisms, First Communion, Sympathy etc. This little image is pretty versatile!

As always, more details on tools and products used are available on my blog. And be sure to stop by often for more fabulous projects by the rest of the team. Have a brilliant day!

Beijinhos,
Asha

Floral Delight (by Julie)

Hello, hope it's not too wet where you are, but hopefully these brand new Chocolate Baroque flower stamps can bring in some cheery sunshine to chase the rain away.......

From the set of six stamps I have chosen to use the Daisy Ring Centre and Swirl Centre. My favourite has to be the Daisy Ring as you are getting two flowers in one. You can leave the double layer of petals as it is or as I have done for this door hangar, cut away the outer petals and be left with a smaller flower. 

I covered the wooden hangar with Marigold Distress Stain and a few dabs of Picket Fence Distress Paint, before stamping the Swirl Centre flower directly onto the hangar. I used Picket Fence and Evergreen Bough Distress Paint.

The flowers have been painted with water colour and glazed with a clear, glitter spray varnish and to add interest I applied some seed beads with glossy accents to the centres of the two smaller flowers.

My second project is a simple birthday card using the Daisy Centre Flower Head, a floral stamp from Seasonal Fragments and the sentiment from Mackintosh Sentiments

I inked up the Seasonal Fragment with red Versafine and stamped over the base card which I masked with torn paper strips. (Much like Lesley's demo on the Craft Channel with the Seasonal Edges) Then I applied Mermaid Lagoon over the top and took a baby wipe to sponge over red Versafine to the masked areas. I then applied Antique Linen all over the base card before stamping the sentiment with Onyx Black Versafine. I stamped the flower with red Versafine and coloured with watercolour before cutting out and finishing off with a white highlighter pen and Crystal Stickles.

Many thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again soon.

Julie x

Give A Hoot Hoot Hoot! (by Asha)

Good morning, fellow Chocoholics. It's my turn to show you the October release stamps in action. My projects today feature stamps from the Owl Hedges A5 sheet.

In this card, I've used the individual owls and the grassy border from  Owl Hedges  to create a scene where the owls are looking out from a crack in the side of a barn.  To create the barn wall I embossed a piece of card stock with the wood grain folder and dirtied it up with distress inks. Then cut it into ½" strips, inked the sides and rearranged them. Next I tore a hole and adhered the strips down. Then came the grassy border and the sentiment from Words of Comfort stamp set on a piece of vellum. Finally the owls: coloured with Faber-Castell Polychromos, fussy cut and adhered in the opening.

More owls on my second card. This time I'm showcasing the row of owls on a branch from the Owl Hedges sheet. I created the background by blending Distress Inks and stamping the the row of owls and added a little movement with a stamp from the Seasonal Fragments sheet.  Then I stamped the owls again on a separate piece of card, coloured with Faber-Castell Polychromos, fussy cut just the owls and adhered them to the card. Finally, a greeting from the Birthday Words sheet.

That's all from me today. The Design Team has loads more projects lined up for you. Don't forget to drop by again ... soon. As usual, more pictures and details of supplies used to make these projects are available over at my blog.

Have a beautiful day!

Beijinhos,

Asha

Birds of Paradise (by Julie)

Hello, hope you are loving the bird theme for this month. I think they make fabulous designs for any occasion which makes them so versatile. For my first card I have taken the bird cage from A Little Bird Told Me and the bird stamp is from As Free As A Bird. The leaves stamped around the bird panel are from Seasonal Fragments

The bird and leaves have been coloured with coloured pencils and I have added white highlights with a marker pen and Crystal Stickles. To create the cage, I inked up the stamp with Onyx Black Versafine and then spread over Molding Paste and set a side for at least 12 hours to dry. Once dry I very carefully peeled the paste from the stamp and coloured with a yellow alcohol pen. For the background I spritzed water onto water-colour card and then dropped on some pale blue, liquid water-colour and dried with a heat tool. I then applied Fossilized Amber and Fired Brick Distress ink with a wet wipe and when it was dry I added some Crystal Stickles.

As you can see my second card is in a similar style to my first and they were both created in a similar way. The only differences are that on the background, instead of dabbing the Distress ink, I took a wet wipe and swirled the Pickled Raspberry Distress ink.

For the birdcage I cut and stamped the image 5 times, then using one of the cages as the base I folded the remaining 4 cages in half and glued them together. Before gluing them to the base cage I ran a length of thread, from the top of the cage to the bottom and attached jump rings to each end so that the chain and beaded head pins could be attached.

I attached the cage chain to an eyelet that I had set in a die cut border and used silicone glue to glue everything to the base card.

Thanks for stopping by and please come again soon xx

Two Little Birds (by Julie)

Good morning! Today I have some more fantastic bird designs which are this month's brand new stamps. The set I have chosen for you today is A little Bird Told Me

I started by creating a wash of pinks and purples on some water-colour card, followed by some stencilling with some pink and green dye ink.
The birds were then stamped using Onyx Black Versafine, coloured with pencils and a few high-lights were added with a white marker. I covered parts of the birds with masking fluid and once dry I stippled on green acrylic paint with a dry brush. When it was dry I over stamped with some of the leaves from the Seasonal Fragment set using a green Versafine ink.
The birdcage was stamped onto acetate with black Staz-On and then on the reverse I coloured with a copper, alcohol pen. It was then cut out and glued to the card with Glossy Accents.
I added extra chain links to the cage with a Micron Pen, rounded all of the corners with a Crop-O-Dile tool and then matted the main card onto a black base.

Many thanks for stopping by and any comments you add a very much appreciated.

Please pop back and visit another Design Team member tomorrow xx

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,

It's a bright, new day (by Lesley)

Well good morning everyone, here we are on day one of my new journey.  And for those of you who don't yet know I now own and run Chocolate Baroque (quick pause for a happy dance!). So please excuse the indulgence of using this blog to say a few important things.

I have bought the business from Glenda and Adrian who are now starting a new journey of their own.  There was a public announcement yesterday on the Shop Blog and a special email sent to all our followers and supporters. And I have to say the response was overwhelming, so I hope you don't mind if a give a big shout out to all of you for your messages of congratulations and good luck wishes. To know that I have your support is a great start to this new adventure. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I also want you to know that there there will be more exciting stamp designs from our wonderful designer Sue, that the quality of our stamps will remain in the expert hands of Val and that we intend to give you the same customer service you have come to expect from Chocolate Baroque.

I am also blessed with a brilliant Design Team who continue to blow my mind away with their talent. Thank you Sue, Val and all the DT girls for your care and support during this transition.  

Most of all I want to give the biggest cheer to Glenda and Adrian! It is not without sadness that we are now going our separate ways, career wise, but I know that we're all destined for different things and I wish them all the success in the world with their new venture at Portpatrick Studios; you deserve the best guys. We are still the bestest of buddies and there are all sorts of things the four of us are going to share together in the future. Can't wait!

So back to now, and the reason you looked in on this Design Team Blog. I have a rather simple piece today. It is just a die cut heart, coloured and stencilled with Dylusions paints, stamped with white gesso using one of the new Seasonal Fragments and finished with words from the Positive Beauty clear set.

It may be just a heart but it is my way of letting you all to know that I shall put my heart and soul into running Chocolate Baroque and into bringing you fabulous stamps, exciting products and a whole heap of inspiration. Thanks to your generous comments I think we can all hold hands and travel this new journey together - full of heart.

Seasonal Snowflake (by Debbie)

I have found with the Seasonal Fragments stamps that they are such a great inspiration to making cards all year round.

This is the first card I've made that will go into the box of festive cards for this year.

 

 

I used the snowflakes with a three blue inkpad and stamped all over the card. The stamp was rotated and the snowflakes fits together well. The tree is from Turtle Doves and again I used the same inkpad. A die cut snowflake and sentiment was added.

I'm sure that I will use the snowflakes stamps, there are two in many other cards.

 

Thanks for visiting

Debbie

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

Fragments for Autumn (by Asha)

Hello there! It's my turn to share a project and I'm playing with 2 stamps with an autumnal look from the Seasonal Fragments sheet. To be honest, I'm not sure if these are meant to be autumnal but just roll with me here! :)

First I created a rich, spicy background by blending various shades of orange, yellow and brown Distress Inks. Then I stamped the fragments. The mushrooms are from the Autumn Poppy A4 sheet, coloured with alcohol markers, fussy cut and adhered to the card.  Then I applied flicks of silver like its catching the moonlight.

These fragments stamps are so versatile and you'll be reaching for them all the time. The rest of the Design Team have more ideas for these stamps so make sure to swing by often.

As always, details of tools and products used in making this card is available on my blog. Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous day!

Beijinhos,
Asha

Circles and Seasonal fragments by Miranda

Hi there,

Today my 2nd take with the Seasonal Fragments, I like these stamps so much! And again a clean and fresh card, easy to create.

This time I was inspired by the circle shape. I have cut out several sizes of circles and stamped two of the flower fragments using Memento Black. I have coloured them with alcohol based markers. Than I draw circles with pencil around it and made a pattern with a fineliner. I have used the sentiment from the Amazing Birthday sheet.

I have added lots of pearl pen accents but it doesn't show on the photo's.......

So, get out your circle die cuts, punches or circle cutter and have some fun with these shapes!

Hope to have inspired you and till next time for more shapes and CAS cards.

A Little Summer Rain (by Asha)

Good morning, fellow Chocoholics! It's my turn to show you a project using one of the new stamp sets released in June called Seasonal Fragments. There are 12 adorable stamps in this set, each with a seasonal connection. And that mean you'll get plenty of use from it all year 'round.

Today's card is a simple make. I've used the water droplets as falling rain and paired it with little blooms form the same set. First I heat embossed the rain in white followed by some background blending with Distress Inks. Next I stamped the sentiment from the Loving Sentiments sheet, followed by the little blooms from Seasonal Fragments. I added a little colour to the flowers with pencils and finished the card with a fabric flower, held in place by a brad.

So there you have it - a little summer rain can be a good thing! Thanks for dropping in today. Do swing by tomorrow for more wonderful ideas from the rest of the Team. As always, products and tools are listed on my blog.

Beijinhos,
Asha

Fairy Wishes (posted by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have a card to share with you today, using some of the new Seasonal Fragments stamps.I wanted to create a little scene using one of the older dandelion clock images from the Fragrant Honeysuckle stamp set and add the clock seeds as if a fairy was blowing them off the flower head.

I stamped the main flower image onto a piece of card, and then added the flower fragment across the bottom of the card. I added some colour to the background using Distress Inks. I stamped the seed fragment, and added a fairy from the Spring Fairy stamp set. I coloured the images with watercolour pencils, and added a little bit of Stickles glue here and there as an accent. I stamped a sentiment from the Card Sentiments clear stamp set to finish.

I created a larger mount for my image using Distress Ink once again to colour the background card, and stamped the seed stamp around the edges using the same colour for a tone on tone effect. I attached both pieces of card to a large white card blank.

 Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx