Colourful Butterflies (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have some projects to share with you today featured on the One Day Special shows on Hochanda last month. Butterflies just happen to be one of my favourite subjects to work with and so I was really happy to work with this group of stamps, and the huge Patchwork Butterfly is such a super stamp, don't you think? You may have heard Lesley say on the show that I had suggested that we have a stencil to match the stamps, and it has been great fun using the stencil with the stamps, creating some of these projects, and the ones that I will share with you later in the month.

For my first project, I stamped the large butterfly from the Patchwork Butterfly stamp set onto a piece of smooth watercolour paper, and masked the image with Masking Tissue, before moving onto creating the background. I drew one of the butterflies onto the Masking Tissue, using the stencil, six or seven times, and cut these out. I then inked through the stencil, using a pale orange Distress Ink randomly over the background, keeping to the same butterfly shape each time. Ensuring that the ink was dry, I then used the sentiment from the stamp plate, and stamped through the same shape over the previously inked areas. Once the ink was dry, I covered each image with a mask.

I added background colour, choosing warm reds and yellows, blending the colours where they met, and spritzing the background with water once I had finished. I blotted the background with some kitchen tissue to take away some of the ink. I added some swirls using brown ink. Finally, I removed the masks and coloured the large butterfly with Distress Inks and a water brush.

For my second project, I created a wrinkle free distress background using Distress Inks. I stamped a swirl around the edge of the background to create a frame, and added the sentiment. I stamped the butterfly antennae onto the card directly, and stamped the entire image again onto a separate piece of card. I coloured the image with water based markers, before adhering it to the background.

Finally, a remake of an old card that I made several years ago. It has had a bit of an update, so I hope you will forgive me for showing it in my post.

I created a background using paper masks and inked the sky and hills. I added a sentiment from the Words to Dazzle and Sparkle stamp set. The foliage is from the Spring Foliage and Spring is in the Air stamp sets. I stamped the antennae from the large butterfly directly onto the card, and then stamped the butterfly and a fairy from the Spring Fairy Collection onto a spare piece of card. I coloured them using water based markers.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Not a fairy in sight (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with a couple of projects made using the Spring Fairy Collection but there isn't a fairy in sight lol. 

My first project is a little MDF heart. I gave it  a coat of white gesso and once that was dry I applied distress ink in Shabby Shutters and Tumbled Glass to create the background. I stamped the flowers along the left side of the heart and coloured with pencils. I stamped the clouds from Fantasy Castles in the sky with Black Stazon and added a little white gesso. This is where I should have stopped as it looked lovely but no, I had to carry on and added some grey paint which to be honest doesn't look as nice. I stamped the little scroll around the edges with Versamark and embossed with Gold. I added a little acetate butterfly, again embossed with Gold embossing powder and glittered on the back.

My second project today is a little shaker card.

I die cut a frame from cream linen card and backed with acetate. I stamped the silhouette butterflies with various colours of Brilliance Ink and overstamped with the sentiment. I layered the frame up on 3d foam making sure there were no gaps and popped it over the butterflies, enclosing a sprinkling of little flowery sequins from my stash. 

Thanks so much for visiting, keep popping back as my teamies have lots of inspiration for you

Claire xx

Magical Birthday (by Asha)

Good morning friends! Here's one more Fairy focused card for you using the Spring Fairy Collection Multi-Buy DL sheets. I've created a simple meadow scene with lots of sparkle and pearl dots to make it extra magical.

The fairy and flower are from the March Fairy DL sheet, which I coloured with water colour pencils. For the hills, I did some masking wth torn paper and applied Distress Ink.

The sentiment is from Words to Sparkle and Dazzle A6 sheet, stamped with VersaFine Black Onyx.

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope you will have an amazing day too! Be sure to swing by often for more magical makes by the rest of the team.

Beijinhos, 
Asha

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

Little Flowers (by Judith)

Hello everyone, the weather is so changeable at the moment, but hopefully like us, you have been getting some much needed water for your gardens. Our flowers have certainly needed a good watering, which brings me onto the subject of my blog post today. I have created floral projects for your inspiration, using stamps from the Spring Fairy Collection stamp set. I like to use the often disregarded smaller stamps from a stamp plate to create all occasion cards, and these cards are no exception.

For my first card, I used the same stamp to create both the background, and main image for the card. You might have seen this card on the April TV shows on Hochanda. I stamped the image using Versamark and white embossing powder randomly over a kraft background, and then heat set the images with a heat gun. I coloured the images with water based markers and a water brush.

I stamped the main image onto a piece of die cut smooth watercolour paper, inking the egdes of the background with Distress Ink whilst the die was still in place, so that there would be a white border around the oval. I coloured the image with water based markers. I punched two holes through the oval, and threaded the ribbn through the holes from the back, so that I could tie a bow at the front. I left two longer pieces behind the card, which I adhered to the kraft background, as I stuck the main image down. I coloured the ribbon with Distress Ink and water, so that I had a good match to the colours that I had used in my project.

For my second card, I cut a strip of smooth watercolour card, and coloured it using three different colours of Distress Inks, blending them where they met. I stamped the flower image, graduating the height of the flower across the background. I added a couple of butterflies from the same stamp set, and a sentiment from the Words to Dazzle and Sparkle stamp set. Finally, I mounted the background onto a black card blank.

I will be back later in the month with some more projects for you, but do keep visiting the blog for more fabulous projects from my Team Mates.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Fairy Door (by Penny)

Hello everyone, today sees the first of three visits this month from Penny Butler, one of our regular Guest Design Team members. Penny created this fabulous project for our recent TV shows on Hochanda, and she is sharing her creative process with us on the blog today.

Penny writes:

Hello, I'm Penny and it's my pleasure to be Guest Designer this month. I have three projects for you, this is the first.

I used stamps from the Spring Fairy Collection and Fantasy Castles, Aztec paints, glitter and an embossing folder from my stash. I stamped and embossed the fairies and some floral images onto the card, coloured them and cut them out. I stamped a castle onto another piece of card, masked it, created a background, and then painted the castle. The background panel was trimmed and attached to the back of the doorway, then I added an embossed panel to that. The fairies were decoupaged onto the front of the piece.

For more details, head over to Penny's blog.

Thank you so much Penny, for sharing your project with us today. We look forward to seeing another creation from Penny next week.

Distress Ink Cards (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have two cards to share with you today, showcasing the Spring Fairy Collection stamp plates, which were featured on the recent TV Shows on Hochanda. My cards both started off in the same way, with a Distress Ink background, and I then chose which stamps I wanted to use to complete the cards.

For the first card, I decided to create a very clean and simple style card, choosing fresh blues and greens for the background. I stamped the little bird image onto the card, and then I masked the bird itself, before adding extra stamping using the foliage part of the same stamp repeatedly across the bottom of the card.

I added some colour to the images with water based markers. I added a sentiment from the Words to Dazzle and Sparkle stamp set, using dark brown ink, and edged the background using the same ink, before adhering the background to a large card blank.

For my second card, I chose a selection of images from the Spring Foliage, and Silhouette Grasses stamp plates, and using a selection of ink colours, I built up a scene on my Distress Ink background. I stuck to a palette of greens and purples, creating a balanced effect. I added a silhoueete fairy and butterfly from the Spring Fairy Collection, plus the large 'Spring' from the stamp plate. Finally, I added some sparkle to the wings using a clear glitter pen.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Welcome to Fairyland (by Anne)

Good morning. Today I am sharing one of my samples for the recent shows on Hochanda. I had so much fun with these stamps. I hope that you like my fantasy scene.

 
Materials:

• Spring Fairy Collection (May), Fantasy Castles, Magical Landscapes and Welcome to Fairyland stamps
• 7 inch square card blank, black card, white stamping card
• Versafine Inkpad (Onyx Black)
• Watercolour masking fluid
• Water based inks (yellow, red, purple, greens)
• Watercolour pencils (greens, blues, browns, pinks)
• Clear sparkle pen
• Fine tipped marker pen and alcohol marker (black)
• Glossy Accents
• Glitter glue (aqua)
• Decorative corner dies

How to make it:

1. Stamp the scene with Versafine and extend the scene by drawing with the fine tipped pen.
2. Cover the moon, rocks, castle and fairy wing with masking fluid.
3. Colour the scene using inks, remove a little colour from the clouds with a wet brush and blotting with paper towel. Note: you can only do this with certain inks (some set into the paper and cannot be lifted after dry, so you may need to work quickly to lift colour while still wet). Dry and remove the masking.
4. Colour the images with watercolour pencils and blend the colours with a damp brush.
5. Apply sparkle pen over the moon, fairy wings and sections of the sky.
6. Edge the card with black alcohol pen and mount onto black card. Glue to card front adding decorative die cuts to corners.
7. Add Glossy Accents to the fairy and finish with glitter glue for added sparkle.

May Day Magic (by Asha)

Hello and welcome to the start of a brand new month of creative inspiration here at Chocolate Baroque. Let's get this party going with a little May Day Magic! Here's an Art Journal Page depicting just what that looks like in my head. :)

This project features the fairy from the May Fairy DL sheet, which is part of the Spring Fairy Collection. You would have seen our Lesley showcase these stamps on Hochanda.

The extra foliage and flowers are from the June Fairy and July Fairy DL sheets, respectively. These stamps are also available as the 3-stamp set called Summer Fairy Collection.

As always, on my blog, you'll find more pics as well as details of paints and inks I've used to create this page.

Please swing by often for more project ideas from the rest of the team.

Have a Magical May, everyone!

Beijinhos,
Asha