Sunny Sunflower (by Corine)

Hello ! 

I am very pleased to show you three cards in July. I will start with a mixed media card with a stamp from one of my favourite sheets Sunny Sunflowers.

 

I used stamps from the sheets:

Sunny Sunflowers

Harlequin Fragments

Briar Rose Butterfly

Apply Gesso with a spatula through a stencil onto white watercolour paper. Let it dry well or use a heat tool. Spray the paper lightly with water and then spray with Distress Spray Stains. I used the colours Rustic Wilderness, Broken China, Mustard Seed and Carved Pumpkin. Dry the paper completely.  

Emboss the Harlequin stamp with Embossing Glaze Salvaged Patina on the left side of the paper. Stamp the butterflies with waterproof black ink and the twigs along the edges with Archival Vintage Photo. Sponge the paper here and there with Distres Ink Rustic Wilderness, Broken China and Brushed Corduroy.

Emboss the Sunflower with silver embossing powder on a separate piece of watercolour paper and colour with watercolour markers. Cut out the flower and stick it on the card.

I hope I have inspired you. If you want to try this technique, I wish you lots of fun.

Until next week!

Kind regards,

Corine van Kuilenburg

Floral CAS Cards (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope that you are keeping well. I have some clean and simple cards to share with you today for my final post this month. I demonstrated these designs on Create and Craft last month, and I hope that you managed to catch the TV shows.

My first two cards are similar in design; I used a round gelli plate to create a background, inking up the plate, and for the first design, I stamped the Open Weave stamp onto the gelli plate before I stamped the gelli plate straight onto my card blank. I then stamped one of the large flowers and a leaf three times from the Sunny Sunflowers stamp set onto the card using Veesafine ink. I used a fineliner pen to draw some little stems for the leaves. I could have used Masking Tissue to mask the flower, then stamp the leaves, but these cards are all about making life simple. I coloured the image with pencils and added a sentiment from the Amazing Mackintosh Words stamp set.

For the second card, I again inked up the gelli plate and then stamped the Floral Weave stamp onto the gelli plate before stamping the gelli plate straight onto the card blank. I stamped a couple of sunflowers onto the background and coloured them with pencils. I added some black dots with a fineliner pen and some glitter glue in the centre of each flower for a bit of sparkle.

For my final card, I stamped Studded Lattice onto an 8" x 8" card blank using Distress Oxide ink. I added a couple of sunflowers and some leaves in opposite corners. Using a fineliner pen, I drew some lines and curls to link the flowers and leaves together. Do not be aftraid to draw things freehand yourself to add to the stamps. I could see elements within the stamps that I could use to embellish the images and extend the design, you can try this youself. Practise on a piece of paper until you feel confident, and then just go for it! Be brave and do not hesitate, that would be my best advice.

I hope that you will try some of my suggestions, thanks for stopping by,

Judith xx

Two Projects, Two Ways (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope that you are keeping well. I have some projects to share with you today featuring stamps that we brought to you on last month's TV shows on Create and Craft. Both sets of projects feature the ideas in two different ways, showing how you can vary the project depending on what sort of look you would like to create.

My first project is a little plaque using the Canary Bird Rose stamp and some of the Black and White papers available on the website. I chose to use a blank piece of the papers to create my own patterned piece of paper and stamped the main image using black Archival ink. I added a sentiment from the stamp set, plus elements from Gerbera and Friends using grey Archival ink. I coloured the flower with pencils before adhering the paper to a painted panel using matte medium. 

Once the glue was dry, I sanded the edges, and added a bit of ink with a blending brush around the edges.

 

An alternative version was created by stamping the same flower image onto a patterned piece of the papers, and simply colouring it with pencils. I added the sentiment with black ink this time. I attached the paper to a panel as before and once the glue was dry I sanded the edges. I dry brushed some paint around the edges and added some stencilling for added interest.

I wanted to create a couple of masculine cards using the Sunny Sunflowers stamp set, and picked a selection of the leaves. They are really lovely designs and make a beautiful card by themselves, without the addition of the flowers. For my first card, I picked a selection of green inks, some VersafineClair, some Archival, and some Distress Oxide, whatever colours seemed to go together well. I stamped the images in first, second and third generation, and finally added a sentiment from the Words to Dazzle and Sparkle stamp set, using black ink. I stamped everything straight onto the card blank for a really quick card, and you could easily make a whole batch of these in an afternoon.

My variation was stamped onto a piece of kraft paper using Autumnal coloured inks, and I chose to stamp and emboss the sentiment to make it stand out a bit more.

I hope that you have enjoyed my projects as much as I enjoyed creating them. Thanks for stopping by,

Judith xx

A Bit of Sunshine (by Sandra)

Hello, I'm sharing some of my samples that I made for the April shows on Create and Craft.
The stamps that I have used are Sunny Sunflowers and Studded Lattice.

My first project shows how well these beautiful stamps transfer all the detail into Paper Clay. I started by rolling the clay out slightly larger than I needed and pressing the inked up stamp evenly into the clay. I found that using an acrylic block helped. I gently pulled the stamp off the clay and used a glass tumbler to cut out the circle. I used a skewer to make the hole and left it to dry. Once it was dry, I left it overnight, I coloured with inks and used Distress Ink around the edge.

For my next card I've been playing around with frames on my cutting machine..... I kept all the pieces in place and stamped the sunflowers and leaves, using Masking Tissue when needed. When it was all stamped I removed the Tissue and coloured with Distress Inks. I stamped the word Peace from Gold, Frankincense, Myrrh set and then layered over a piece of black card.

Next I used Masking Tissue again to stamp an edge of sunflowers on a 6x6 card. With all stamped images covered I then stamped the Studded Lattice over the top. I removed the tissue and coloured with Distress Inks.  I mat and layered and attached to the front of 8x8 card.

For my last card today I started by stamping a background using Dusky Damask and Distress Inks. I then cut two layers from and oval die. I coloured both layers with Distress and used the Studded Lattice on the smaller oval. I then stamped one of the sunflowers out twice and layered it in the centre. I used some mica in the the centre of the flower for texture.

 Thanks for looking

Sandra x

Black and White with Added Colour (by Christine)

Hello everyone, today sees the first of three posts from our Guest Design Team member Christine Patch. Christine has created a couple of pretty floral projects for your inspiration. 

 

Christine writes:

 

Hello everyone,

I am very pleased to be back from a bout of ill health to contribute to the Blog and am sharing two projects. 

The first is a set of note cards which I have been planning for a while. I used a die to give me a decorative background for all six, three using black and three white card. For the white version I used a lovely stamp from the Rose and Thistle set, fussy cut it out three times and then used shimmer watercolour paints as my colouring medium.

For the next three, I chose one of the stamps from the Sunny Sunflowers set and then used coloured pencils as my colouring option. I chose a light and dark orange, a light and dark blue, and a light and dark red.

My second project is for my art journal. It is watercolour card, A4 in size, and started life out as a clean-up from a piece started last year! (They do say crafters never throw anything out?)

It was a mix of shades of blue so I added some Worn Lipstick and Spiced Marmalade Distress Inks through two of the Chocolate Baroque Strip Stencils to add a little more colour. The stamps I chose for this project are some of the latest that were shown on Create and Craft recently, the Floral Paraphernalia Slim Strip and the Phenomenal Butterfly Slim Strip.

I stamped them directly on to the page, then twice on to plain card, cut out each stamp in its entirety and placed it over the relevant image, then fussy cut out selected areas from the second card. These I coloured using the shimmer watercolour paints again as a contrast to the rest of the stamped image. Finally, I edged the entire page in Black Soot Distress Ink and then used a black watercolour pencil around the edge of both stamps, followed by a water brush to bring out the black. This acts as a shadow that makes the images stand out a little more from the background. I thought the main areas of the stamps needed a little more colour so added some coloured pencil here and there.

I hope you like the projects and that they inspire you to do some of your own.

Happy Crafting!

Birthday Sunflowers (by Corine)

Hello everyone, today sees the first of three posts from our regular Guest Design Team member Corine. She has created a beautiful floral card for your inspiration.

Corine writes:

Hello!

Here I am again. In November I will post three times a card as guest designer. I am very pleased to do this. Today is my birthday, so I'm starting with a birthday card.

I used stamps from the sheets:

Sunny Sunflowers

Texture Fragments

Two of my favourite stamp sheets

Apply one colour of Distress Oxide to a stencil. Mist the ink with water. Apply the stencil on watercolour paper, press lightly with a tissue. Remove the stencil carefully. Apply a different colour Distress Oxide through a different stencil. Don't use the whole stencil, just a bit is nice.

Stamp the flower with waterproof ink over the background, do this again on a separate piece of paper.

Stamp a background stamp with Brilliance in the background (bottom left and top right). Set the paper aside to dry.

Colour the flower on the separate piece of paper with markers. Cut out the flower. Touch the edges with a black marker if necessary.

Then colour the parts of the flower that you continue to see in the background, this can be very light or with a contrasting colour. Use colours that match the background.

Stamp the text on a separate piece of paper. Sponge this piece of paper with the colours of the background. Sponge the card here and there and around the edges with Distress Oxide.

Stamp the leaves and colour them in a bit, cut them out and use them on the card.

Used Ink:

Distress Oxide Salvaged Patina, Picked Raspberry and Peacock Feathers.

Brilliance Pearlescent Coral

I hope I have inspired you. If you want to try this technique, I wish you a lot of fun.

Until next week!

 

Kind regards,

Corine van Kuilenburg

If You Can Dream It...(by Corine)

Hello!

Here I am again and would like to show you my third card as a Guest Designer. This time I made a card with different Distress Inks.

I used the stamps from these sheets:

Sunny Sunflowers

Harlequin Fragments

Words of Inspiration 

Start sponging some acrylic paint through a stencil. I used pink and turquoise colours. Dry the paint with a heat tool. I work on sturdy watercolour paper.

Spray Distress Spray Stain Kitsch Flamingo and Speckled Egg on the paper. Use water to make the ink flow. Let it dry for a while and then dry well with the heat tool. Drop water on the paper, let it soak for a while and dry with a tissue.

Stamp the harlequin three times with Distress Oxide Speckled Egg. If necessary, use a stamping platform to stamp it straight.

Splash with silver acrylic paint on your background paper. Let it dry completely. Using a stamping platform, stamp the text with Stazon Jet Black. Sponge the edges of the paper with Distress Oxide Speckled Egg.

Stamp the flower with Distress Oxide Speckled Egg on watercolour paper and emboss with Distress Glaze Speckled Egg. Colour the flower with watercolour markers. Add some accents here and there with a Gelly Roll Stardust Glitter pen.

I hope to have inspired you again now. If you want to try out the technique for this card, I wish you good luck and have fun.

 

Kind Regards,

Corine van Kuilenburg

Birdcage Triptych (by Rachel)

Hello everyone, our regular Guest Design Team member Rachel is back with her final blog post this month. She has created a beautiful mixed media project for us this week.

Rachel writes:

Hello all! My third and final piece of inspiration for this month is a small triptych. I have used the following stamp sets in creating this piece: Birdcage Collage, A Little Bird Told Me, Rustic Fragments and Sunny Sunflowers.

I started by gessoing the triptych, then once dry, I stamped the Birdcage Collage and coloured it using a combination of acrylic paints and Distress Inks. Then I painted the gessoed surface with Distress Ink before stamping over it with a Rustic Fragment stamp. Next I prepared some card with Distress Inks and stamped and fussy cut some of the flowers, leaves and also a bird. I added these to the sides of the triptych and finally added the words 'a little bird told me'.

I hope you like this piece. Big hugs, Rachel x

A big thank you to Rachel, who will be back with us soon.

Sunny Sunflowers (by Corine)

Here we are at week two of our Guest Designer posts and this week Corine has chosen to combine three sets of stamps to give her project a real tropical feel.  Enjoy!

Hello!

Here I am again. This is my second post in March. I will show you today a sunny card with a sunflower.

I used stamps from the sheets:

Sunny Sunflowers

Gothic Fragments

Texture Fragments

• Create a background with Distress Oxide inks, a stencil and Distress Resist spray. 
• Stamp images from Gothic Fragments with Memento luxe ink. 
• Emboss the flower and leaves on watercolorpaper and colour with watercolour markers. 
• Stamp images from Texture Fragments on a piece of paper and sponge with Distress Oxide.
  Mat and layer the pieces of paper on green cardstock. 
• Cut out the flower and leaves and attached as shown.

Thank you for looking, next week will be my last project for this time.

Kind regards,

Corine van Kuilenburg

Another lovely combination of CB stamps, I really like the depth the Corine has achieved using the fragment stamps. Thank you once again for an inspiring project.

Thank you for popping in, I hope you will come back again soon to catch up with the fabulous samples our wonderful ladies made as part of our tv shows last month.

Christmas Old and New (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I am sharing some Christmas projects with you today that were featured on last month's TV shows on Hochanda. Some of these were old projects that I made a few years ago, but I hope that you do not mind seeing them again.

I will start with a new project, where I created a background, using soft blues and pinks to represent a Winter sky. I added some deeper blue hills using torn paper masks, and stamped the tree from the Frosty Trees stamp set and the sentiment from the Let's Get Festive stamp set, using dark blue ink. Ensuring that the background was completely dry, I added some snowflakes using white embossing powder, and then used some flat-backed gems for added sparkle.

Using another tree from the same stamp set, I created an icy background using metallic paints, and on a smaller scrap of card, I stamped and embossed the tree panel using Versafine Onyx Black Ink and clear embossing powder, for a crisp image. I matted the layers onto black card, and added some small black gems. The sentiment comes from the Let's Get Festive stamp set once again.

 I wanted to create a piece of home decor especially for Christmas using my favourite sentiment from the new stamp set. I painted a chipboard heart in soft blue, adding some crackle medium here and there, and then added a vintage white paint over the top. I then stamped the sentiment in a bold red before adding the fabulous pine cones from the New England Winter stamp set around the edges. I used water based markers to colour the stamps, allowing me to add colour exactly where I wanted. A red ribbon completes the project.

This next card is an adaptation of an old card that I first made several years ago, using the Winter Birds stamp set, but I have made it in a different size. These days, I like to make 8" x 8" cards, and so the card does look slightly different from the original. I have added one of the new sentiments this time around as well.

Finally two golden oldies for you, I remade the first one, which was originally given as a Birthday card to someone. It just goes to show that these beautiful stamps can be used at other times of the year, not just at Christmas, with a change of colour. I have used the large image from the Reindeer Landscape stamp set, embossed with copper embossing powder, and coloured with Distress Inks and a water brush. The background was also created with Distress Inks, and I have then stamped leaves from the Sunny Sunflowers stamp set, and coloured them with pencils. The sentiment comes from the Nature's Peace stamp set.

Finally a luminary, also using the large image from the Reindeer Landscape stamp set. I die cut an aperture from four large printed tags. The images were stamped and embossed onto parchment using white embossing powder, and coloured from behind. I used metal tape to join the tags, which I embossed, and aged with a little bit of black paint.

I hope that my projects have given you some ideas using these fabulous stamps. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Pretty Sunflowers (by Rachel)

Hello everyone, here is another project from our Giest Design Team member Rachel Fisher. She has created a sunny card for your inspiration today.

Rachel writes:

To make the card,  I first created an A4 background using Distress Inks in the following colours: Peeled Paint, Worm Lipstick, and Broken China. I smooshed them on a craft sheet, added water, and dipped the paper in. I created lots of layers in this way and repeated until happy. I cut a piece of the background to size and then stamped in the same inks using the Rustic Fragments stamp set. On another piece of the background, I stamped some flowers and leaves from the Sunny Sunflowers stamp set. I fussy cut them and aranged them on the background card. Finally I added the sentiment.

Rachel will be back with another project next week.

Sunflower Trio (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I am back for my second post of the month, sharing some of my texture themed projects with you again.

I have created a card, using stamps from the Sunny Sunflowers stamp set, stamping the flowers and leaves, masking them as I went along, to create a cluster of flowers in the corner of the card. Once I had masked all of the images, I created a Brusho background, using reds, yellows and browns.
I embossed an image from the Texture Fragments stamp set around the edge of the background, using gold embossing powder. I then coloured the images in using water based markers, and added some shading with pencils.

Finally, I added a sentiment from the Mackintosh Sentiments stamp set, and matted the background onto a black card blank.

Once I had created my card, I had quite a bit of left over colour on my craft mat. I used a large watercolour tag to mop up some of the colour, and dried it completely. I repeated the process a couple of times, until I was happy with the overall colour on the tag. I stuck the tag to a thick piece of burgundy card, and added some shading, using Seedless Preserves Distress Ink.

I stamped some more sunflowers and leaves onto some spare watercolour paper, and coloured them in using water based markers. I arranged the flowers and leaves onto the tag, adhering them with a dries clear glue. I added some micro beads to the centre of the main flower for some added texture. Some toning ribbon completes the tag.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Summer Fairy Magic (by Asha)

Good morning! It's my turn to bring you a Summer inspired project ... and my fifth Art Journal Page. It is getting to be quite an obsession - one that I feel compelled to share with all of you!

For this page, I've pulled out 3 stamp sets by Chocolate Baroque: Sunny Sunflowers, Summer Fairy Collection and Texture Fragments.

Recipe:
1. Apply gesso to the page and when completely dry, lay down the background with acrylic paints.
2. While that is drying, stamp out the sunflowers and leaves from the Sunny Sunflowers sheet and colour with Distress Inks.
3. Using a stamp from the Texture Fragments sheet, stamp all over the background with Dandelion Archival Ink.
4 Cut out flowers, leaves and hand-drawn stems. Adhere to the page using gel medium.
5. Stamp the fairy from the August Fairy sheet with Archival Black Ink.
6. Add interest to the page with the swirly stencil and Texture Paste.
7. Stamp the title with Archival Black Ink. The word "summer" is from the June Fairy sheet.
8. To finish the project: sprinkle watered down gesso and add a little glitter.

I really had fun making this page and I hope you'll it a go too. I'll have more details of tools and products over at my blog.

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon for more fabulous makes by the rest of the team.

Beijinhos,
Asha

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Glorious Sunshine (by Corine)

I can't believe we have reached the third and final post for Corine, has time got wings? She has delighted us over that last couple of weeks with her beautiful projects and todays is no exception with her bright and sunny sunflowers.

Hello!

Today it is my 3th and last time to post a card a guest designer. I hope you enjoyed my samples. On this card I used a sunflower of the sheet Sunny Sunflowers, one of my favorite sheets.

I used stamps from the sheets:
Sunny Sunflowers
Abstract Fragments

I started with a template, modeling paste and embossing powder. After drying and heating I used brusho and water te create a coloured background. At least I stamped with Distress ink and used a template to create circles.

The flower is embossed with Silver Pearl embossing powder and the leaves with Metallic Platinum. I used ZIG-markers for colouring the flower and leaves.

Kind regards and till next time,

Corine van Kuilenburg

Thank you for three terrific weeks of inspiration Corine, we look forward to seeing you next time. 

The regular Design Team girls are still beavering away creating gorgeous samples to inspire you so please keep dropping in for more helpings of crafty goodness.

Flowers For You (by Asha)

Good morning, fellow Chocoholics.  I have a quick an easy project to show you. It's bright, bold and  easy to mass produce.

I'm using the brand new Swirl Centre Flowerhead and leaves from an older Sunny Sunflowers A4 stamp sheet to create an elegant friendship card.

Here's how you make this card:

1. Start by stamping 2 flowersheads with Versamark on water colour paper.
2. Apply WOW Gold Rich Embossing Powder and heat set.
3. Repeat above steps on 3 leaves (2 large and 1 small) from the Sunny Sunflowers sheet.
4. Colour with Distress Inks: Abandoned Coral and Work Lipstick for the flowers and Peeled Paint for the leaves. 
5. Allow to dry completely and fussy cut. Split one of the flowerheads in half and save for another project.
6. Trim a piece of cream card stock ¼" smaller than the card base.
7. Stamp sentiment on the cream card front and adhere the flowers and leaves around it as shown above. Pop-up the half-bloom on foam tape for added dimension.
8. Cut a ½" strip of green glitter foam and adhere behind the cream card, with ¼" edge showing.
9. Apply foam tape behind the rest of the cream card and adhere to the card base.

(All inks linked above are available from the Chocolate Baroque store).

You can easily switch the colours and sentiment and turn it into an any occasion card.

The Design Team has more lovely ideas in store for you. (Trust me. I've had a sneak peak!)  So make sure you swing by often for more inspirational projects. As always, you find  more details of tools and products on my blog.

Thank you for stopping by today and have a beautiful day!

Beijinhos,
Asha