Happy New Year (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope that you are all keeping well and that you have had a good break over the festive period. I want to wish you all a very Happy New Year and all the very best for 2022. 

I am sharing a couple of projects with you today showcasing stamps that were featured on last month's shows on The Craft Store. The first is a little book made from a huge tag and I have used the Damask Panel stamped three times onto a Brusho background, using a metallic embossing powder.

I adhered the pieces onto the tag, and then cut away the excess from the third piece to get the tag shaped end. I added some pretty scrapbook paper on the inside of the tag, and punched the hole again at the top of the tag.

I scored inbetween the pieces, to create the book. I cut a few pages, and sewed them into the book using bookbinding thread. 

 

I added a piece of teal ribbon through the hole at the top of the tag to allow the book to be closed. This simply wraps around the book, and ties in a bow. These little books make great gifts, and are really quick to make. You could add any kind of pages; old book pages, kraft paper, watercolour paper, whatever you like, to create a mixed media book, but I used drawing cartridge for my sample.

My second project is an old project, which I thought I would share again. I stamped Ophelia onto a piece of Drawing Cartridge and masked the image with Masking Tissue. I coloured the background with Distress Inks and splattered the background with water, which I blotted with tissue. I added some stamping over the top using a stamp from the Texture Fragments stamp set. I stamped and embossed the fronds from the Underwater stamp set before removing the mask. I coloured Ophelia with pencils. I added some foliage from the Song Thrush Silhouette stamp, which coloured this way tie in with the flowers in her hair quite well. I added a bit of Glossy Accents to the centres of the flowers.

I will be back later in the month with more projects to share with you, take care and thanks for stopping by,

Judith xx

Three final samples by Rachel

 Hello there - Rachel here today with the last of my makes from March's shows.

In this first one I used the circular Gel press to create the background using inks and the crackling rose stamp to remove some of that ink creating a ghost image of the stamp in the background. I then overstamped and coloured the image (in watercolour brush pens) and decoupaged the rose up 

For my ceramic piece I used the Klimt panel and stamped it onto the bowl before going over the lines in glaze - I also added more glaze inside the bowl. The bowl was then fired. 

My final card was made using the songthrush silhouette - this time I repeat stamped the image over the card then made the topper using veramark on black card and brushing over it in mica powders.

I hope you have a great day! Can't believe its May tomorrow - where is this year going?

Big hugs

Rachel xx

A Bird for all Seasons and Ophelia the Mermaid? (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope that you are enjoying the range of projects from the Design Team this month. I have chosen to use some of the new individual cling mounted stamps Song Thrush and Ophelia for my projects for you today.

For my first project, I wanted to show the diversity of this lovely stamp, and how it could be used to create cards all year round, so I have made a Christmas card. I started by embossing the image three times, using white embossing powder on some green scrapbook paper, and colouring the image with pencils. I decoupaged the flowers and bird. I layered the image onto kraft card, using some dark red card as a mat for contrast. I also added some holly die cuts, and some more stamping, using a berry stamp from the Woodland Dreams stamp set which I also coloured with pencils. I tucked some flowers from a spare image under the main frame, along with the holly die cuts. I added some shading around the edge of the kraft background, using Festive Berries Distress Ink. Finally, I added a sentiment taken from the Warm Christmas Greetings clear stamp set.

For my second sample, I stamped Ophelia onto a piece of heavy weight cartridge paper, and then masked the image. I coloured the background by blending three different colours of Distress Inks randomly all over the page. I stamped an image from the Texture Fragments stamp set onto opposite corners, using one of the same colours of Distress Ink. I then flicked water onto the other areas of the page and dried it with a heat gun, to emphasise the watermarks.

I stamped and embossed a seaweed image along the bottom of the page, from the Underwater stamp set,  using a blue/green metallic powder. I then added some flowers which I had cut out and coloured with pencils from the Song Thrush Silhouette image. It just goes to show that you can add flowers to just about anything! Finally, I coloured Ophelia using pencils, and matted the project using toning coloured card.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Song Thrush and Arched Landscape (by Asha)

Happy New Year, friends and welcome to a brand new year of more crafty goodness from Chocolate Baroque. You've seen the new January release stamps and must agree that they are just LOVELY.

Today I want to share with you a couple of cards featuring the new Cling Mounted Individual Stamps which were released when the new Chocolate Baroque website was launched on December 18th. You can see Glenda's original post here.

My first creation is a fresh and vibrant card showcasing the beautiful Song Thrush Silhouette stamp which I coloured it with watercolours. For the background, I stamped the small leaf from Butterfly Dreams A5 sheet on to a piece of yellow card stock. The sentiment is also from Butterfly Dreams.

The spotlight on my second card falls on the Arched Landscape stamp. This time I coloured the image with alcohol markers. I also did some background stamping using a little stamp from the Fleurs Nouveau A5 sheet. The sentiment is from the Patchwork Landscape A4 sheet.

There are a total of 10 new Cling Mounted Individual Stamps, each one a thing of beauty. I hope you've been inspired to play with yours. As always, swing by regularly for more crafty ideas from the rest of the DT. Details of inks and colours are available on my blog.

Beijinhos,
Asha

Introducing our new Cling Mounted stamps (by Glenda)

Hello everyone, it's been ages since I was last here!

As you may well know, I've been extremely busy lately putting all my energy into building a new website for Chocolate Baroque.  We finally finished and launched it just this week and as well as a fresh new layout and better navigation, we launched a brand new collection of individual cling mounted stamps.  Our wonderful designer, Sue, has done it again - aren't these gorgeous!

I managed to squeeze in a little stamping time recently, but with most of my creative energy going into decisions about fonts sizes and heading colours, my crafting had to be super simple.  To me, that's the beauty of this collection of stamps - you don't really need to do much with them to get a good looking card.

The green panel on this card is a piece of watercolour paper, coloured with Distress Stains over which I have embossed the image in black.  I cut carefully around the swirls and layered it onto white then black and onto a 7 inch square card, with the corner flourishes from the gorgeous Butterfly Dreams stamp set.

I also had a little play with Stampbord.  These pieces are all coloured with dye inks or distress stains or a mixture of both.  I stamped with black Archival ink on all of them.

It's been a long time since we did a giveaway on the blog, so I'm going to ask you to pop over to the new website and check it out - read the new website guide if you have time (there's a link on the home page) and let me know what you think.

I will pick three lucky winners on Monday (22nd Dec) to receive a mystery Chocolate Baroque stamp bundle.  Who knows, it could be your lucky day!

Have a great weekend everyone,