Steampunk Flowers (by Doreen O'Brien)

Hello, I am back with my last blog post for this month.

I first made a background with Oxide sprays.

Stamped the cogs from the Steampunk Butterfly set.

I then stamped the flowers using Black Versafine ink.

Colouring them in with Distress ink and highlighting with a white pen.

Next, I stamped the keys onto the background.

Finally, I stamped on the sentiment.

 

I will say bye for now,

Doreen

Take Time to Breathe (by Andrew)

Hello Peeps thank you for dropping by.

Today I'm going to explain a card I did for the recent Chocolate Baroque TV show.

Begin with an A5 piece of card stock and trim 2cm from the long side and short side, (this will allow for matting and layering later).

Apply Distress Oxide in Salvaged Patina and Speckled Egg all over the card. From the Steampunk Butterfly stamp set use the quarter circle stamp using archival watering can ink pad and stamp either side of the long edge all the way down creating a type of border. 

Trim a piece of card to 19cm x 6cm, as before apply Salvaged Patina and Speckled Egg Distress ink.

With the Watering Can, ink up the butterfly stamp, first stamp on to scrap paper then randomly on to the card, so using second generation ink. Stamp over the whole panel.

Apply more Salvaged Patina and Speckled Egg to piece of card big enough to accomodate the butterfly stamp. Dry with a heat gun, now this is important, you need to make sure this is absolutely dry as when we apply the embossing powder, we only want it to stick where we stamp. Go over it with an anti-static bag as well.

Ink up the butterfly with Versamark clear ink, stamp image and apply detail silver embossing powder and heat set. Fussy cut out the butterfly.

Matt and layer big panel onto brown card and attach to A5 card blank, with the thin panel matt and layer long sides only onto same brown card, attach to main panel.

Using foam pads attach butterfly to centre on card.

On some scrap card (possibly the 2cm scraps you have just cut off (you did save them didn't you))!!! stamp the words "Take time to Breathe" on to two pieces of card from the Punky Expressions stamp set using Versafine Majestic Blue. Rough up the edges or tear them, apply Walnut Stain to the edges.

Cover the pices in Versafine and apply clear embossing powder and heat set, do this twice more and repeat with the other piece. Attach "Take time to" in top left using foam pads and "Breathe" in the bottom right.

Job done.

                      

 

Be adventerous by Brenda

The background was a mop up of Oxides with some stencilling over which I stamped the cogs from Steampunk Butterfly. The large butterfly from the same set coloured in with Distress Markers and an index clip to hold the piece in place. Sentiments from Punky Expressions .

A storm night at sea here, an oval inked with Oxides, lightening using one of the worker stamps from Make your Mark heat embossed with a mixture of details white and sparkle EP. The bird image and shells are from Seashell Collage stamped in Versafine Clair Twilight.

Thanks as always for your visits and kind words.

steampunk butterfly (by Veronica)

My final post this month uses the gorgeous steampunk butterfly stamp - perfect for masculine cards!

My first simple sample uses the cogs stamped in versafine clair in one corner, and gold and silver embossing powder sprinkled over quickly.  The butterfly was stamped once over the cogs in black in - too lazy to cut the antenna out!-  and once in versamark onto black card. White, silver and blue embossing powder sprinkled over, fussy cut out and glued over first image. Black mat onto white card blank to finish

this one is more grungy, black soot distress ink sponged round the edges, then the small butterfly stamped along the four edges in black ink, and again twice onto spare card. The spare images wwere sponged with black ink, and the single wings cut out and glued down to fill in the gaps in the rather wonky wreath shape. The flower from punky romance was stamped in the centre, then the large butterfly stamped in versamark onto black card and white embossed was cut out and glued at an angle on top- and this time I did cut out the antenna.....

 The prettier version has the large image from punky romance stamped in grey and coloured with watercolour pencils. Antique linen and old paper distress ink brushed round the edges, and the small cogs randomly stamped in the same inks. 
The large butterfly stamp was put on an acrylic block and inked in black versafine ink, then sprinkled with mica powders. The whole image was then covered with pva glue and left to dry. Depending on the depth of the glue it will take at least 24 hours to completely dry. Once dry, peel off the glue and trim the image with scissors, then glue in place. Cheap pva works just as well as the dearer stuff, so if you're planning to do several buy the kid's version!

 I owe Lynnda Worsnop for this idea, and Doreen Sympson on whose blog I originally saw this - thanks ladies!

Where Imagination Meets Reality.......by Sandra

 Hello, I am sharing some more of my cards made for the June show on The Craft Store.

The stamps I have used are Steampunk Butterfly and Punky Romance.

For my first card I made a background using watered down blue and brown distress inks onto watercolour cardstock. When it was dry I used the same inks and stamped the cogs from Steampunk Butterfly randomly.  I stamped the corners and the bat wings in black archival ink and coloured with a darker blue. I finished the card by adding the sentiment, some pen nibs that I cut on my silhouette and a few small bats* from the Nevermore stamp set.

*The small bats were also included in last years Comfy Pyjama Online Retreat which was absolutely fabulous and it's happening again this year!

My next card uses the wonderful machinery stamp, pretty and grungy at the same time.

I stamped with archival ink, then used pencils to colour.  Once it was all coloured I used a blending solution to soften the edges of the pencils. I added the sentiment from Punky Expressions.

For my last card I used distress oxides for the background. I then used the large corner stamp to make a "dreamcatcher". I stamped in archival and used glitter gel pens to colour. I then stamped the keys and used a black pen to join the keys to the "dreamcatcher". I added a sentiment from Punky Expressions.

Thanks for looking

Sandra x

Punky Posy

Punky Posy

Hello all Chocolate Baroquers, I'm back for my second visit this month. I would like to share this Steampunk floral tag with you today.

Using a sparkle paint to cover the MDF Tag used in one coat, leave to dry and stamp the Roses onto Drawing Cartridge, I coloured the roses using Inktense Pencils and after shaping slightly I used a crackle glaze to add a sheen to the roses.

Returning to the tag I stamped and heat embossed the cogs randomly directly onto the tag using a black inkpad and clear embossing powder.

Apply the roses to the tag using a gel of to aid the depth required, I also added a metal cog from my embellishment stash. To finish I used a little glitter and some variegated coloured organza ribbon for a bow and to hang the tag from.

A4 Drawing Cartridge 220gsm - pk 10

Steampunk Butterfly Rubber stamp sheet - A5

I also used the Steampunk Butterfly stamps to create this card, which actually contains the beautiful Steampunk Butterfly.

Thank you so much for looking in today 

Love Doreen

 

Yellow Roses by Brenda

Hello Peeps, I have some more shares from the Steampunk and Ocean TV shows.

Above the Roses from Steampunk Butterfly and wings just seemed to be a perfect match to me so I stamped them onto card coloured with Mustard Seed Oxide, cut out and arranged onto an acrylic ink background. I added random stamping with Make your Mark and Just Useful and some washi tape.

Another Oxide background and stamping using Mermaid Queen which I coloured in with sparkle pens. The quote from Seashell Collage was stamped lightly over the background along with Make your Mark and a monocle placed over the Mermaids serene face.

Here I used the fishes from Something Fishy  stamping them into the circles of a stencil colured with Distress Inks. The sentiment is from Seashell Collage.

Have a lovely Sunday everyone.

Painted Butterflies (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have a couple of projects to share with you using stamps that were featured on last month's TV shows.

My first project was created using a stencilled background and three different colours of Distress Ink.  I used a piece of Smooth White Stamping Paper and moved the stencil across the page to cover the entire area. If you look closely, you can see where I have joined the two sections together, but it doesn't really matter, as it is just a background, and the butterflies from the Steampunk Butterfly stamp set mostly cover it up. 

I chose three words from the Punky Expressions stamp set, and stamped them onto the background using Versafine Black ink. I stamped the butterflies onto some Drawing Cartridge using the same ink, and coloured them with Inktense pencils, blending the colours with a waterbrush. Any watercolour pencils would do. I cut the wings out and adhered them either side of the words. Finally, I added the sentiment, also from Punky Expressions.

For my second card, I created a background using a piece of Drawing Cartridge and Distress Inks in shades of brown and green. I added stamps from Make Your Mark, Timeless and Steampunk Butterfly. I stamped and embossed two butterflies from the last set using copper embossing powder, and coloured them with Inktense pencils and a waterbrush, again, you could use any watercolour pencils. I cut the butterflies out and added words from Punky Expressions. I edged the background using a dark brown ink.

I had a lot of fun creating these cards, the stamp sets are so versatile, and as you can see, they all mix and match so well. I hope that I have inspired you to try out some ideas. Thanks for stopping by, take care,

Judith xx

Romantic Steampunk Butterfly (By Rachel)

 Hello there,

Rachel here today with the first of my makes from the June shows.  In this first card I used the very beautiful punky romance stamp set to create a very simple card. I started by stamping then masking the main image. I also masked off the sides of the card then stamped some of the smaller images from the set into the bar I had left exposed. Finally I added the sentiment.

In this second card I mostly used the steampunk butterfly stamp set. I started by creating a mop up backgound using distress oxides (mermaid lagoon and scattered straw). Next I added some stamping in the same colours mostly using stamps from the make your mark stamp set, then added some torn bookprint. I stamped the quarter circle 4 times to form a circle - I confess it wasn't perfect but since I was always intending to apply my butterfly over the top it didn't matter. The butterfly was stamped onto white card and coloured using watercolour brush pens. After this was added, I also added a sentiment and a black line around the edge of the topper and sentiment before mounting onto the card blank.

I do hope you have a great day!

Big hugs

Rachel x

Punky Love by Brenda

Morning everyone, my first post of the month sharing a few creations from the Craft Store shows featuring a bit of Steampunk and Ocean inspired stamps.

Above I used Punky Butterfly onto an oxide background, some texture paste through a stencil, washi tape and ripped papers from the Black and White Papers and the large Love sentiment hat embossed with detail white EP.

For this one a wash of Distress Ink and shells from Seashell Collage stamped, cut our, coloured and covered with Glossy Accent and arranged over a piece of netting dipped into coffee to age it. The sentiment is from the same set.

Have a lovely day and my thanks as always for your kind visits and words of encouragement.

waterlily (by Veronica)

 

 Today I have a couple of projects to show you using the waterlilies from the serenity set of stamps   and sentiments from artistic affirmations.

The first is a very simple card - I stamped the waterlily three times across a spare piece of white card using black versafine ink, and coloured the centre image with pencils. Added a mat of dark pink card, mounted onto a square white card blank, stamped the sentiment in black at the bottom corner - very quick!

 The cheap wooden box from a local discount store was covered with white gesso and then a rough coat of distress paint, leaving a mottled effect which I hoped would look watery. I stamped the waterlily images direct onto the box using memento ink.- if I could have crossed my fingers while stamping, I would have done!The leaves were coloured with alcohol pens, and the petals with white acrylic paint

My final sample is a cheap mirror, from a well-known flat-pack store, thanks to a friend who was going to pick up some furniture and was happy to add to her list.
I used leftover peces of card coloured with brushos, cut into squares to fit round the central mirror. Two squares were embossed and rubbed with gilding wax, and two stamped. The butterflies from Steampunk butterfly were stamped in black versafine onto more spare pieces, cut out and glued in the corners.
Definitely something that would wake you up in the morning!

Steampunk Arch (by Nikki)

Hello everyone, it's time for the last post this month from our Guest Design Team member Nikki. She has made a fabulous steampunk themed mixed media piece for us this week.

Morning everyone, I've got my third make for you today, and wanted to use the brilliant Steampunkery stamp set.

I took a little MDF arch, and painted it with chalk paint in dark grey, crackle medium, and a cream top coat. Next I gave it a wash, (watered down acrylic), of pthalo turquoise and quinacridone gold. The background was stamped with the cogs from the Steampunk Butterfly stamp set. (This is my new favourite stamp).

I painted some greyboard cogs, and part of a clock I had left over from another project, in raw umber and pyrrole orange to make them look rusty. It's a very easy rust colour with just two paints!

I stamped the beetle from Steampunkery twice onto Velvet card, and coloured the images with prussian blue hue and quinacridone gold acrylic paint in washes, to simulate watercolour. On top was a coat of watered down copper acrylic, to give a shimmer. I cut out the clock, beetle shell and wings from one of the images, and layered up, putting the wings behind the main image, and the shell and clock on top. The shell and clock were covered with a triple thick glaze to give shine and depth.

I stamped the Time Flies sentiment, and aged this with acrylic paint. It was edged in Copper and glued to the cogs. I hadn't used the Velvet Card for stamping and painting before, and I am seriously impressed at the way that it took paint, even watered down, without pilling and rubbing off. I will definitely be using this card in the future.!

I hope you like my little arch, I'm a bit in love with this stamp set. (Well, most of them really!)

Thank you for stopping by and joining me here, hope to 'see' you again soon.

Best Wishes,

Nikki K. xxx

Nikki will be back with us later in the year, but you can check out her blog here.

A Big Welcome to Nikki!

Hello everyone, I have great pleasure today in welcoming the first of our new Guest Team Designers, following the recent call out that took place. Please say hello to Nikki Killinger, who has very kindly written a little bit about herself so that you can get to know her before she starts her time with us this month.

Hi, I'm Nikki Killinger, otherwise known as Nikki K.
I'm originally from the Dorset Heritage coast, where I grew up crafting from an early age, making cards and jewellery containing real fossils and polymer clay, and selling them to the local fossil shop. This lead on to painting and making jewellery. I then somehow made my way to Middle Earth, (Coventry), and it's here that I am now lucky enough to have my own workroom, and be an Independent Demonstrator and Mixed Media Artist nearly full time.
I have been published in several print magazines, am a member of Design Teams including an online Mixed Media magazine, and currently demonstrate on Hochanda TV. I love Chocolate Baroque stamps and am excited to be asked to guest here!

http://nikkikart.blogspot.co.uk/
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/NikkiKCuriosities
https://www.facebook.com/NikkikArtist
https://www.instagram.com/nikkikartist/

Nikki has created a fabulos Mixed Media project for us as her first project this month.

Hi all, I'm really excited to have been chosen to Guest DT for Chocolate Baroque! I hope you will enjoy my first post.

I have made a tag today, using a large greyboard tag as a base. First, Modelling Paste was scraped through a stencil in a few areas. It was given a coat of tinting base, (you can use Gesso), before washes of acrylic paint in Cobalt Teal Hue and Green Gold were applied, and left to pool and dry naturally.

Over this I stamped the cogs from the Steampunk Butterfly stamp set in Archival Black Ink. I did some of these in second generation stamping to blend in. The steampunk butterflies were stamped out onto card, cut out, and then 'smooshed' into a wash of blue and green paint left on my mat.

A sentiment was added from the Punky Expressions stamp set, and also given the paint wash treatment. I edged it with the Archival Ink.

The tag was assembled, and I added an embellishment and some little glass cabochons I had in my stash.

Hope you like it.

Best Wishes,

Nikki K.

Thank you so much Nikki for a beautiful first project for Chocolate Baroque. Love the texture and your colour choices. Nikki will be back next week with another project to share with us.

steampunk butterfly

 For my last DT post this month I did another canvas as we are still playing with textures.
I used a brick wall stencil and texture paste on two corners, then acrylic paint over all the canvas. I wanted a sort of peeling paint effect, so added some Decoart antiquing cream in patina green and rubbed it off over the bricks. It wasn't quite right, so I scrubbed it with a baby wipe and then added distress rock candy crackle paint , which was a bit better.
I stamped the steampunk roses onto tissue paper with archival ink, then coloured on the reverse with alcohol marker pens. I tore them out, then added to the base with a matt multimedia medium.
They didn't quite blend in with the background, but I didn't dare trying to get them off and trim them some more!





For the butterfly I brushed some metallic mica powders over the stamp before I added the black soft form relief paste over the whole stamp and left it to dry.
Once it was dry - about 30 hours this time - I peeled the paste off the stamp, trimmed the edges and glued onto the canvas.
I was very pleased with the butterfly, though I had forgotten just how little powder you needed......and how it gets everywhere!

Clouterie by Spring Art competition winner Romana Isova

Back in April we ran our very first Spring Art Competition, which was a fabulous success, and we received many wonderful entries.  One of the prizes for the overall winner was to become a Guest Designer for a day and to have a spot on this blog.

Our talented winner was Romana Isova and today she takes her place for the very first time. I am absolutely delighted to introduce her to you, first with a little about her and then with a fantastic project.  This is a long post but very well worth the read, so pull up your chair and enjoy.

I asked Romana how she started stamping and to tell us how she felt about winning the competition.

'I think it started in 2013. That year I wanted to make some birthday and Christmas cards for my relatives. At the same time I discovered creative videos on YouTube, about paper crafting and art journals and together with it I also found the whole creative world out there. I wanted to try to see if I could also create something like that, so on March 2014 I made my first art journal page. Great thing about art journaling is that the pages could be much bigger than cards, so there is more space to express the creative ideas. And with mixed media techniques, the possibilities really are endless'.

How did I feel about being a Spring art competition winner?

'I need to say, that it was a great surprise. I did not expect it, so I could not believe it for the first time. And then I was so happy and bowled over by it at the same time. And when I read that I should make another piece of my art for a Guest Design Team spot, my head was completely out of any ideas in that moment and I was afraid that I will not be able to create anything like my competition piece. But fortunately, after few hours only it was a pure pleasure...and I really enjoyed this new GDT project'.

And here it is.

Materials:

Stamp sets from Chocolate Baroque: Floral Mannequins and Haberdashery, Texture Fragments for "textile" patterns, Damask Panel for background pattern and corner stamp from SteampunkButterfly. 

Colors: 

for the shop window: mix of Brusho watercolor powders - Scarlet, Crimson, Prussian Blue and Emerald green and Color Burst watercolor powder - Merlot, 

for background: mix of Prussian Blue Brusho powder and Merlot Color Burst powder, 

for drapery and carpet: Tim Holtz Distress ink pads Milled lavender, Seedless preserves, Dusty concord, 

for fabrics: Distress ink sprays Spun sugar, Mustard seed, Spiced marmalade, Twisted citron and Tumbled glass and Distress ink pads Milled lavender, Wild honey, Carved pumpkin, Peeled paint and Broken china and for the haberdashery pieces: Distress ink pads in all these colors, 

for brown pieces: Distress ink pad Vintage photo and 

for shading of all pieces: Distress ink pad Hickory smoke. 

Papers: 

Slightly textured 90 lbs watercolor paper - 24x32 cm for background and shop window, 

Canson Mix Media 138 lb for all stamped pieces

Silk (flower wrapping) paper for "fabrics".

Method:

1. First I made a colored paper for a shop window. I sprayed watercolor paper with water, added red Brusho powders and a pinch of blue. Then I used a brush to make a first layer of color. Until I had the final color I wanted, I kept adding the water and red powders and also just a little bit of Brusho Emerald green, because it is an opposite color of the red on the color wheel and make the red more dull. I always moved the brush in the same direction (from right to left and back), so at the end I had a texture  resembling the wood grain. After everything was completely dry, I used a matt acrylic medium as a sealer. I cut the paper into strips, scored them a little bit for the texture, finished the edges with Jet black Archival ink and used the double sided tape adhesive tape to connect them into the shop window.

2. Next I sprayed my background watercolor paper with water, I added Merlot powder and with the brush made my base flat color layer (quite pink). I let it air dry, so the final color was more vibrant. After that I stamped background stamp repeatedly with clear Versamark ink on the dry page and than sprinkled the page gently with the Merlot and also Prussian Blue powders. With the dry brush I worked the powder into the pattern stamped with Versamark. Than I sprayed the page with water again and spread both colors on the page with brush . The stamped pattern remained darker, but it's necessary to be careful with the water (with too much water the dry pattern will be too blurred and also with too much powders, they are very intense, the whole page will be darker and the pattern less visible at the end. I trimmed the paper a little bit, so it is slightly narrower than the shop window and can be completely hidden under it.

3. I stamped drapery, carpet, mannequins, corners, shop sign and haberdashery pieces on the mixed media paper with Jet black archival ink and heat set it with my heat tool, so I could color them with Distress ink pads without smudging. I cut them out and finished all the edges with black waterproof Faber-Castell India ink marker. For the haberdashery I cut out separate masks (from sticky masking tape I stamped the pictures on) for brown and colourful parts, so I could color them safely without mixing the colors. I used  foam applicators and also daubers for smaller pieces.

4. I cut out rectangles from white silk wrapping paper I had from my birthday flowers and I sprayed them with Distress sprays in rainbow colors. I dried it with my heat gun. After that, for every piece I used a darker Distress ink pad color, stamped a pattern on it and dried it again.  I crumpled the papers several times so it was easier to work with it and arranged them around the mannequins. I used the colored paper ribbons from my stash and stamped buttons to finished the look of the textiles.

5. Finally I completed the page. For more dimensional look I used also a black adhesive fun foam. I used two layers under the shop window and also the drapery and one layer on the back of the mannequins and lower step of the carpet. So the final layers of the page are - black card stock in the same shape as the shop window as a base for the whole page, violet background patterned paper, one layer of the fun foam frame around the page, upper carpet step directly on the background violet paper and lower carpet step with one layer of the fun foam on the back . Then the mannequins with one layer of the fun foam on the back and the haberdashery on the upper and lower steps of the carpet. After that the second layer of the fun foam around the page and under the top drapery and on the top of it the corners with shop window and shop sign.  

For bigger parts I used the double sided adhesive tape, but the mannequins stands are glued with Distress collage medium and the haberdashery with Rangers Glossy accents which I also used (in small spots) under the "fabrics".

I hope you have enjoyed my project and that you might want to try it too.

Romana

Thank you Romana for entering our competition and for designing this colourful and inspiring project. I am sure you will all share in our thanks to Romana and hope that we see her again on this blog some time in the future. In the meantime you can always catch up with her on her blog.