Steampunk Scene (by Kim)

Hello everyone, today sees the last post this month from our Guest Design Team member Kim. She has created a fabulous Steampunk themed project to inspire you.

Kim writes:

Hi there everyone, one of my loves is Steam Punk and what better to use than Chocolate Baroque's Steam Punk stamps.

Punky Flowers & Steampunk Funky Fish

I first brushed Vintage Photo through a stencil then stamped my images onto separate pieces of card. With the Seahorse I also masked him and extended his wing with adding a leaf from one of the punky flowers. The main punky image was stamped onto the flat image. I then stamped the image again onto the card - coloured them in - carefully cut them out - edged with more Vintage Photo. I did the same for the flower heads.

I then put the card together - foam mounting the seahorse, the flower heads and the focal image of the main punky flower.

Lastly, I die cut some cogs.

Then the last finishing touches mounted on to gold mirror card and on to my base card. Voila!

Hope you are all keeping well

Kim x

                            

Breath, Dream, Explore by Penny

Good morning peeps,  I hope you are all managing to keep warm and dry in this horrible weather!  I'm here with my last post this month with a sample from the December shows featuring my favourite CB Steampunk stamps.  For this card I have used stamps from the Funky Fish and Punky Expressions sets, Distress Inks, black Versafine ink, clear EP, clear texture gel, die cuts, metalic paints and some air dry clay embellishments from my stash.

I began by creating the background panel.  I took a piece of  white card and blended three colours of DI's then dried it with a heat tool.  I used a couple of small worker stamps and randomly stamped them over the panel.   I then took a stencil from my stash, applied texture gel through it and left it to dry.  I blended DI around the edges of the background.

  

 

On another piece of white card I stamped a seahorse in black ink and embossed it with clear EP.  I painted the image with metalic acrylics then cut it out.  I used a die from my stash to cut out some 'seaweed', and painted a few air dry clay shell embellishments with the metalic paints.

  I took a white base card and stamped the same worker stamps around the edges.  I attached the background panel to it, then attached the sea horse and the embellishments.  I stamped a sentiment and cut some of the words off to attach them seperately.

Thank you for popping in today I hope you've enjoyed this little project.  I'll be back next month with some more crafty projects, in the meantime stay safe and warm,

                                xx  Penny  xx

Quick Gelli Print Cards (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have a couple of cards to share using the stamps featured on last month's TV shows on Hochanda. Both cards follow the same basic recipe, but with a few tweaks here and there, I have created two very different cards, one for a male and one for a female recipient.

If you have a spare afternoon, create a few gelli print backgrounds, or rummage through some of the backgrounds that you have already made to see if you have something suitable for this project. I simply used a brayer to apply two colours of Distress Ink to the gelli plate, then stamped a dotty tool over the top to get the background effect before pulling the prints. You could press bubble wrap onto the gelli plate for a similar effect.

For my first card, I stamped and embossed a couple of cog images from the Punky Flowers stamp plate along the bottom of the background, using gold embossing powder. I stamped an image from Steampunk Funky Fish and added a sentiment from Punky Expressions, using Archival Ink. I coloured the images using Koh-I-Noor watercolour pencils. Finally, I edged the background with blue Distress Ink.

For my second card, I created the background in exactly the same way, and then stamped an image from Punky Flowers using Archival Ink. I masked the flowers and stamped the image again a few times using Versafine Clair in a toning orange colour. I added a sentiment from Punky Expressions, and coloured the images with pencils as before. Before I attached my background to the card, I edged it with pink Distress Ink.

Punky Expressions is a very versatile stamp set, with words for lots of different occasions. These cards will be great for lots of different purposes, and can be sent to cheer someone up, just because, or for a particular reason. I hope that you will be inspired by my projects and try the ideas out for yourselves.

Thanks for stopping by,

Judith xx

Imagination meets reality by Brenda

I'm here with some more Steampunk inspiration starting above with a triptych style creation using the birds from Steampunk Birds, all stamped onto an Distress Oxide background with some stencilling added. The birds have been coloured with pencils and some cogs added around the edges using stamps from Punky Romance.

A small shoal of fish here along with a pink Octopus - well it is fantasy! An Oxide background, stenciling and repeat stamping across the bottom using stamps from Steampunk Sea World and the fishes are all from Steampunk Funky Fish along with a sentiment from Punky Expressions.

My favourite Cockerel again from Steampunk Birds, this time stamped onto a piece of inked artboard and then covered with three coats of UTEE. The base layer has been stamped with several images from Steampunk Sea World and Timeless and a focal element mounted onto a piece of corrugated.

Have a lovely day everyone.

Punky flowers, fish and birds by Rachel

Hello there. Rachel here again with a few more samples from the December shows.

In this first one I used an image from the Punky flowers sheet and teamed it with a sentiment from the punky expressions sheet. The flowers were coloured with water colour pencils.

In this one the background was created by brayering ink on a round gelli plate and printing it. Then I added a punky flowers image and coloured it with pencils before adding a sentiment from the punky expressions sheet.

This one has a brushos background tht I stamped the bird over - I then coloured it in using inks then painted the water before finally adding punky expression sentiment.

My canvas was a bit of a labour of love - the background was done mainly using foam and my fingers with acrylic paints from various sources! Once dry I added the funky fish and steam punk sea world stamps that I had stamped, coloured and fussy cut. I added them and overpainted using a gloss medium. 

Finally my free standing piece - for this I used the funky fish and some punky flowers on a monolith - both images were coloured using acrylic paint.

I hope this has given you more ideas as to how to use your stamps!

Hugs

Rachel xx

Curios Adventures and Imagine What Lies Beneath by Penny

Goodly morning peeps, I hope you have all settled into the New Year by now.  I'm here today with my first DT post of 2020, and I'm delighted that it features some of my all time favourite CB Steampunk stamps!

Curiosity and Adventure.

For this mixed media piece I have used the beautiful stamps from the Steampunk Funky Fish, Steampunk Sea World and and Punky Expressions, metalic acrylic paints, Distress Inks and a variety of stencils from my stash.

I painted an MDF panel with a coat of white gesso then a coat of blue chalk acrylic.  I then used several stencils and different colours of Distress Inks to create a layered background.  When everything was dry I took some gold Soft Form Paste and added it through a stencil along the bottom for texture and the sea bed.    

I stamped and embossed the fish, sea creatures and two machines onto black card, painted them and cut them out.  I coloured them with metalic paints because they suit the Steampunk, industrial aspect of the images.  Three of the images have 'sand' or 'sea bed' attached to them, so they went along the bottom of the panel attached with 3D glue gel.  After shaping the other images I attached those to the panel with 3D gel too.  I stamped and embossed some sentiments and attached them as before.  To complete this mixed media piece I punched a couple of holes on the top edge and added cord to hang it up with.

Imagine What Lies Beneath.


A card this time featuring stamps from the Steampunk Funky Fish, and Steampunk Sea World sets,

pearlescent spritzers, Distress Ink and an embossing folder from my stash.

  

I began by creating the background, I spritzed a piece of white card with pearlescent inks.  When it was dry I embossed the panel in a folder that I think expresses underwater currents.  I then matted the panel onto black card.  I took a white base card and stamped one of the larger images around the edges with DI, then attached the background panel.  

I stamped and embossed several fish and a sea creature onto black card, painted them with metalic paints and cut them out.  I shaped them and attached them to the card with 3D gel.  I then stamped and embossed a sentiment onto white card and attached it with 3D gel as before.

Thank you for popping by today, I hope these samples have tickled your crafty mojo a little!  I shall be back later in the month with some more crafty fun.

Until next time,

                             xx  Penny  xx

Thingummybob (by Sandra)

Hello

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and wish you a happy new year.
The house looks very bare now that all the decorations are down, but time to get back to crafting!

My cards are from the December show on Hochanda.
All my cards are made with stamps from Steampunk Funky Fish and Steampunk Sea World.
I think these two sets work so well together.

For this card I made a background using Distress Inks and stamped the Jellyfish and the Thingummybob .
I cut out 2 sets of the bubbles and added some gloss to them.

On my next card I made a background with Distress Oxides and stencils. I stamped the images and coloured with watercolour pencils.

My next card, I made a" porthole" on my cutting machine, added some "bolts" and painted  it to look like rust. I made a background with Distress Oxides  and coloured the fish with pens. This was then put onto a background paper of weathered wood, like an old ship.

My final card for today is the Airship. A lovely, fun stamp. Here I have put it onto an embossed background which compliments the Steampunk, Industrial  feel.

Thanks for looking and I'll be back in a couple of weeks with a few more cards to share
Sandra x

Under The Sea (by Julie)

Hello, I am kicking my New Year blog posts off with an under the sea theme.

My first card has been stamped with the wonderfully versatile Steampunk Sea World set.

I started my card by stamping all of the images using Onyx Black Versafine, before colouring with Polychromus pencils. I then added in the watery background by sponging Distress inks along a piece of scrap paper to create the rays of light.

My second card has been stamped with Steampunk Funky Fish  with the sentiments coming from Punky Expressions

I simply stamped the three under-water creatures with Onyx Black Versafine before colouring with polychromos pencils. I then stamped my sentiment before colouring the background with various shades of blue Distress inks. I then went over the background with the Distress inks applied through a dotty stencil along with some dabs of white acrylic paint.

Thank you for stopping by

Please call again soon for more Design Team inspiration.

Julie xx

Under the Sea (by Pat)

Today sees the final post this month by our Guest Design Team member Pat. She has created a watery themed card to inspire you.

Pat writes:

Hi there everybody, this week I decided to go underwater, not literally though, the sea down here is still far too cold for that. I love the fun images found on the Steampunk fish sets- Steampunk Funky Fish and Steampunk Sea World, and I also used bubbles from the Floral Heart, Distress Inks and a white Posca Pen.

I started with the background using a piece of acrylic sheet to transfer the spritzed inks to the white card, building up the colour and drying in between the layers until I got the coverage I wanted. I then stamped the images, the bottom ones in green, and the seahorses and nautiluses in blue. In order to keep it uniform I extended the outlines of the seabed by using some green ink on the end of a pokey tool which worked quite well, as a black pen would have been too dark. I know strictly speaking you should heat emboss over Distress Inks if you are going to watercolour, but I didn't want hard lines, and in the few places where the lines were blurred a little I used a bit of coloured pencil to fill them in. I did on the other hand make sure that the waterbrush was just damp and not overly wet.

I finished by stamping the bubbles and darkened the edges with a bit more blue ink, and used the Posca Pen to add some white to some of the bubbles and the eyes of the seahorses and nautiluses.

Thank you for taking a look today, and as this is my last Guest Designer post for now I'll say cheerio, but will be back later in the year.

Best Wishes,

Pat x

Steampunk Fish (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with a mixed media project made using Steampunk Funky Fish. I'm a huge fan of steampunk and had the idea of creating a porthole effect looking out onto the fish swimming in the ocean.

To create my sea for the centre of the port hole I inked my brayer up with turquoise dye in and rolled it over crumpled paper before brayering some white glossy cardstock to give the dappled effect of light shining through water. I stamped the images on white glossy card with versamark and embossed with a sparkly gold embossing powder and coloured with distress markers. I cut the fish out and glued them to the sea and set them aside to dry while I made the background and the porthole.

The background was made using some silver self adhesive tape from a local DIY shop, I've no idea what it's used for but apparently plumbers use it. I had a better use in mind though and set to snipping random shapes to create the 'faux riveted metal' technique. I haven't used this technique for ages as it does take a while but it's great fun! 

Next I peeled off the backing from the silver tape and stuck the shapes at random on some white card until it was covered (except for the area where the porthole was going to be positioned). To create the texture of the rivets you can use various different tools to create different effects, I used a ballpoint pen, an embossing tool, an old credit card and and a prpelling pencil. I created dots and lines along the borders of the pieces of tape. Once I was happy with the texture I coloured the silver tape with alcohol inks using shades of brown, yellow and orange. Next I applied some verdigris embossing powder. I gave some die cut cogs the same treatment and attached them to the background, adding some metal embellishments from my stash.

I made the porthole by die cutting some greyboard and painting with a mixture of gold and copper acylic paints. I added some 'screws' with tiny circles of card and a fastener from my stash.

To finish off I've added some more embellishments coloured with paint and some copper ribbon to hang the project up.

Thanks for visiting today,

Claire xx

Octopus hugs (posted by Claire)

Good morning, I hope you're all enjoying the Christmas break (and grabbing lots of bargains in the Chocolate Baroque sale!!). It's Claire here with a card made using the fun new stamps Steampunk Funky Fish and  Steampunk Sea World. I've made a theatre style card by taking two rectangular pieces of card, scoring at 2cm and 4cm in from either end. When you join the two end sections it gives a really fun card that still folds flat to post.

To decorate the card I cur a circular aperture in the front section and used a stencil and texture paste to create the brick effect. Once the paste was dry I added some colour with distress inks in Tea Dye and Vintage Photo.

On the back section of the card I stamped the steampunk bubble machine three times and embossed with gold embossing powder and added some colour with markers before inking around the images with Tumbled Glass distress ink.

The octopus was stamped with memento tuxedo black ink and coloured with Graph'It markers. I cut the octopus out and mounted it on some acetate. I folded a flap over at the top of the acetate and stuck it to the back of the card. I love this technique, I first saw Glenda demonstrate it years ago and it's great for giving your image some movement. Here's pic to (hopefully) show the acetate strip.

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Steampunk Funky Fish/Steampunk Sea World By Florence

Hi everyone

I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas.

Today I would like to share some cards made using some of the fabulous little creatures from the Steampunk Funky Fish and Steampunk and Sea World Stamp sets

These stamp sets are so addictive and such great images to craft with.  The more I use them the more I love them.

The stamps really work in lots of styles whether you want a more simple style of project or whether you want to get inky and create an imaginary underwater scene.

The images also work so well with other Chocolate Baroque Rubber Stamps so you can mix and match the stamps to create your own unique little master pieces.

I made all of these cards in the same way.
If you are new to stamping these cards may look complicated but they are not when you know the order of layers of the colors and stamping.

First stamp your main images that you wish to appear at the forefront of your project ie., the sea monster or the jelly fish.
Mask the images with either a paper or a liquid mask.
  Leave the mask on until the near the end.
Using some Cut-n-Dry foam, colour the whole piece of card (over the masked image) with Distress Inks of the colors of your choice.  Start with a lighter color and then build your colors up.
Take a stencil or mask and place it over the piece.
 Take a darker or a complimentary colored Distress Ink and sponge (over the mask) in areas of your choosing and leave to dry.
Now you can start stamping other images ie., the cogs or background patterns.
If you wish to multi-stamp ie., stamp the same images over the top of each other then it is best to start stamping with a lighter coloured ink first and then use a darker ink to stamp over the top. This helps to create a little bit of depth.  Please see the top of the first card above as an example.
When you have added all of the color and all of the additional stamping you can then take the masks off and color your images and add the highlights.

Tip: Optional -  I fix my ink with a spray fixative and then I add a coat of Mod Podge before I add the high lights. The Mod Podge makes the colors more vibrant.  It also stops the colored ink from contaminating your high lights.

Please feel free to case any of the projects on this post if you wish to.

Thank you for looking.

Wishing you all Health and Happiness for 2015
Florence x

Colourful Steampunk under the Sea (by Shirley)

Hello everyone,  I hope you are doing well.

I'm back with another Steampunk under water design using the fabulous Steampunk Sea World and Steampunk Funky Fish stamp sets.

I used Dylusions inks in the background including white.   I blended Distress ink over the Cog stencil by TCW and stamped the bubbles from the Decorative Edges set with Salty Ocean Distress Ink.

The rest of the images were stamped with Cobalt Archival ink, bleached out and painted with Dylusions inks.  I highlighted with several metallic and white Gellyroll pens.  The curly top designs at the bottom are from a stamp in the Punky Flower set.

Thanks for your visit and have a wonderful festive season.
Shirleyx

Steampunk fish and lots of fragments..........by Miranda

Hi there,

It's my turn today to show some creations made with those cool steampunk fishy stamps! I like them and they are great to match with all of the fragments too.......I've been playing with the Steampunk Funk fish and the Steampunk Sea world and combined them with the Tangled and Harlequin fragments on the first card. The backgrounds were made using Derwent art bars with the acrylic bloc technique, water and aquarel paper. I also used a lot Wink of Stella brush markers (silver and clear ) to add that lovely sparkle. The words are from the Words of Wisdom and I've cut it in 3 pieces.

On the second card I've been using the Nature elements sheet too. As you know by now I love all the fragment sheets, they are so versatile and can be used very often with many occasions. I've created a sea world with beautiful malachite rocks.......one must have a bit of imagination mmm?

I've coloured the fish with twinkling H2O's and Maya Gold silver paint(Viva decor) which has a very rich sparkle! Just gave these two shrimps some other color to get a bit of contrast. The words are from the Words of Inspiration sheet. Both cards are coloured with my old Karisma pencils. They have  a similar quality as Prisma color pencils and Derwent soft color.

Hope to have inspired you with the combination of all these stamps,
thanks for your visit and comments and till next time!

The Beautiful Briny Sea (posted by Lesley)

For my first post using the gorgeous new Steampunk marine themed stamps I wanted to create the illusion of sea foam and bubbles and a great way of doing this is to use Acrylic Wax. This product is manufactured by the company that created Brusho. It is a white fluid that dries clear and is water and heat resistent and was actually developed to use with fabrics, but I have been putting it through it's paces with paper and cardstock.

This is a slightly longer post than normal as I want to explain how you can achieve this technique.

• Squeeze out a small amount of Acrylic Wax onto a piece of scrunched up kitchen roll and randomly dab across a blank cardstock tag. To try and achieve the sea foam effect I dabbed across the tag in four places, applying more or less wax as I went. TIP: Make sure you don't cover the entire tag or you will not be able to apply any colour. Set aside to dry thoroughly. Depending on how thickly you have applied the wax this can take up to an hour. You know when it is ready because you should be able to rub your finger over the surface without it feeling tacky.
• Next apply the colour using either brushes, sponges or Cut 'n' Dry Foam. I used Distress inks in Mustard Seed, for the sand, Peacock Feather in the middle and finished at the top with Broken China. Allow the ink to dry and then buff the whole tag with kitchen roll. 

• Because the wax acts as a resist it sealed in the plain colour of the tag underneath and only taken on the distress inks where there was no wax. For a more subtle, distressed, worn looking background apply a much thinner layer of wax, using a stroking rather than dabbing action.
• The seahorses are from Steampunk Funky Fish and they were stamped onto self adhesive labels using a Memento inkpad, coloured with alcohol markers and then finished off with coloured pencils. 
• To add interest to the bottom of the sea I stamped the coral edge stamp from Seaside Dreams using Archival ink in Orange Blossom. To get the faded appearance of the image I did second generation stamping i.e. stamped it first onto copier paper and then onto the tag.
• Finally the seahorses were cut out, stuck into place and a jumbo brad was attached at the top of the tag to finish.

I hope you get the feeling of bobbing along on the bottom of the beautiful briny sea (a line from the song in the film Bedknobs and Broomsticks) and that you may be inspired to play with the Acrylic Wax.

Thanks for stopping by and watch out for more delicious creations from the girls.