Spooky Nights (by Asha)

Good morning, everyone. Halloween is just a week away and what better time to share with you a couple of spooky makes featuring stamps from the new Things That Go Bump A5 sheet. Both cards are quick and easy projects with heat embossing and Distress Inks.


I heat embossed the spooky tree from Things That Go Bump with black EP and created the background by blending Distress Inks. Next I stamped a greeting from the Spookylicious A5 sheet and added a few purple rhinestones. The mushrooms in the foreground are from Things That Go Bump. To finish, I added a little colour to the caps to make them pop.  That's it!

My second project is an easel card showcasing the haunted castle from Things That Go Bump and the pumpkin from Halloween Edges. Both have been heat embossed with black EP. As before, I inked up the background with Distress Inks. To finish, I stitched the sentiment which was stamped onto a strip of vellum. Another super simple card done.

I hope these cards ideas will help you with your last minute Halloween cards. I'll post details of the products used on my blog. In the meantime, make sure you drop by the Design Team blog regularly for more wonderful creations by my team-mates... and yes, they are spine-chillingly good!

Beijinhos,
Asha

Simply Bewitching (by Lesley)

 Today's card is really quick to make and the slim, tall 'A' shape is useful for a variety of styles of card.

1. To make the card take a piece of A4 thick white cardstock and cut two strips lengthways measuring approximately 6cm in width. Cut one of the strips to 24.5cm in length and score the other at 24.5cm. Attach the two strips togther using strong double side tape to create the top folding card.
2. Attach a strip of doubled sided tape down the centre of the front of the card and adhere the black spider's web ribbon from the Twilight Limited Edition pack. Add another strip of tape on top of the black ribbon and adhere the orange ribbon.
3. Die cut a circle measuring approx 9cm and another measuring 4.5cm. Colour both with Adirondack Purple Twlight ink. Stamp the tree image from Things that go Bump onto the larger circle with Versafine Onyx Black and the sentiment from Halloween Edges onto the smaller circle. Stamp the tree image again on a white self adhesive label and then cut out just the moon. 
4. Remove the backing from the label and stick in place as illustrated. Attach both circles to the front of the card using foam pads.

I hope you will try making this style of card, and if this is too tall you can always adjust the height to suit. This slim card acts like an easel to showcase your art on the front. And remember, there are still plenty of inspiring creations to come from the rest of the Design Team. Have fun

Spooky fun (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with some Halloween inspired projects created using this months new stamps (you can find them here). I adore the colours of Halloween so I really enjoyed making these cards.

This project was made using Halloween Edges

I stamped the pumpkin edge and coloured with PanPastels adding some green in the foreground. I added Violet PanPastel and the shade to create the sky and then used a scalloped piece of card as a mask and applied black PanPastel to create the clouds. I stamped in the cobwebs and the spider from Book of Spells and used a pencil eraser to create a misty effect around the smoke.

I adore house stamps and this one is fabulous, there are so many gorgeous little details from the hanging basket pumpkin to the ghosts at the window. I stamped the images from Book of Spells and Things that Go Bump  and then coloured with Distress inks and distress markers. I stamped the cobwebs with versamark and then applied silver mica powder.

My next card was a very quick project made using pearlescent PanPastels for the background, its really shimmery in real life but very difficult to photograph.

I applied the Pan Pastels, masking of the moon and simply blending green, purple and orange pearl PanPastels. I stamped the ruined castle from Things that go Bump with versamark and embossed with Black embossing powder. I then stamped the cobwebs from Book of Spells with versamark and the bats (which are from Nevermore). I was intending to emboss them too but found that the versamark removed the ink and left a great shadow effect so I left them and just dusted orange Mica powder over the sentiment. I left the bloom around the sentiment for a spooky misty effect.

My last Halloween project was a quick make with Stampbord and PanPastels

I stamped the image from Things that go Bump over a background created by applying shades of blue PanPastel to a Stampbord ATC. I love stampbord and have used it with lots of different inks and it gives a beautiful effect with PanPastels too. I used a battery operated pencil eraser to remove the blue from the clouds and the ship. The beauty of stampbord is that you can use a variety of tools to scratch the surface and remove colour, this is great for creating highlights but its also very convenient for removing colour on detailed parts of the image. You can find Stampbord in lots of different sizes here.

Thanks for visiting today,

Claire xx

Autumn Peppers and Halloween Treats (by Asha)

Hello fellow Chocoholics. It's wet, cold and windy... perfect weather to play with your new Chocolate Baroque toys. I'm here to help you get delightfully inky, so let's get right to it, shall we?

Here's a step centre step card featuring a stalk of peppers from the Autumn Poppy A4 stamp sheet.  I created the background by blending distress inks in blue and yellow. On the side panels I stamped some leaves from the Autumn Poppy set and on the central panel I used a stamp from the Texture Fragments A4 stamp sheet. I coloured the peppers with alcohol markers, fussy cut and adhered it to the card. The sentiment is from the Loving Sentiments A5 stamp sheet.

I confess... I have a thing for Halloween. Playing dress up is fun but the real joy of Halloween for me is the treats. With that in mind I made a couple of Trick or Treat bags for our Halloween party. And to keep our guests guessing, these bags are tied ... so there will be no peeking!

The shorter bag features a pumpkin from the Things That Go Bump A5 stamp sheet, coloured with alcohol markers and fussy cut. For the background I used a stamp from the Harlequin Fragments A4 sheet, then finished with a greeting from the Spookylicious A5 stamp sheet and some black ribbon to secure the contents of the box.

The taller bag showcases the bubbling cauldron from the Book Of Spells A5 stamp sheet. I inked up the background with distress inks, heat embossed the image in black and tied the box with some black & white twine.

These are just a few projects that will keep you busy in the run up to Halloween. I'll post details of the products used on my blog. In the meantime, make sure you drop by the Design Team blog regularly for more wonderful creations by my team-mates. You are in for a treat, friends... no tricks!

Beijinhos, 

Asha 

Halloween Hall (posted by Judith)

Hello everyone, the colder weather and darker nights are bringing thoughts of the Autumn now. The crispy leaves and blustery winds are a sure sign that we are into October. I have a Halloween make for you today, using a combination of old and new stamps.

I started off by making a crackled background, and then stamped and embossed a tree from the Design a Tree multi-buy stamp set and the ruined building from the Things that go Bump stamp set. I added a couple of birds and some bats from the Nevermore stamp set and some cobweb edging from the Book of Spells stamp set, all using black block printing ink. I painted the windows in the ruin using yellow ink and a water brush.

I added a little bit of Distress Ink underneath the tree and the ruin to ground the images. Finally, I matted the background onto a black card blank.

Keep checking back for more project ideas from my Design Team mates, Judith xx

Halloween (by Maria)

Hey halloween lovers!

 I have made some samples with the gorgeous new halloween stamps sets Book of Spells/Things that go Bump from Chocolate Baroque, I just love them. So I hope my samples will  give you some inspiration to make some cards as well!

All three cards are made in the same way. Spray the Dylusions inks (using the colours that you like), over your white smooth paper. Dry it with your heat tool, then you can take your spider web mask, place it on your coloured paper, take a baby wipe with a tiny bit of bleach on it,  and wipe over the top. You take the colours away, so when you take away your mask the spiderweb appears on your paper as a scary background.

On the first card my colours totally vanished, so after it was dry,  I replaced my spiderweb in its original place and with some Distress Ink, I coloured it again with soft yellow.  I was not satisfied, I wanted some more glitter on it. Again I put my mask in its place and with a baby wipe and some golden perfect pearls I went in every corner of the mask to have some shiny accents!

On the second card I took away the colours on some parts of the card with a lot of bleach at other parts with less bleach,  to have the special effect as you can see.

On the third one, I didn't use bleach, I just went with a wet baby wipe on the mask to lightly undo the colours. Please watch your paper, never rub but just dab your colours away.

The pumpkins I cut out and placed higher on the cards with 3D foam (once again)!
Have fun creating your Halloween cards, and don't forget to enjoy!

Greetings
Maria

Pumpkin Stack (by Lesley)

Brusho Crystal powders are very popular at the moment and we are now stocking them too. Most people have said they find the colours very intense and I wanted to show that you can use them just like watercolours. So today's sample started life as a colouring exercise!

Knowing that I was going to be using a wet colouring medium I stamped the pumpkin from the Things that go Bump set 3 times on thick white card using Versafne Onyx Black. I then made a colour wash with each of the Brusho powders in Orange, Grey and Leaf Green and painted each image. When dry I added shading with coloured pencils and cut them out, leaving one still attached to the 'stone' base. 

The background was created on a piece of Kraft card with the cobweb stamp from the Book of Spells set and then sponged Pitch Black Adirondack ink round the edges. After punching a hole at the top and adding a hole re-inforcer that had been coloured with Pitch Black I stamped the spider in postion. The phrase was stamped on Kraft card with a faint inking of the cowebs over the top and sponged black ink around the edges as before.

The pumpkins and one of the spare 'stone bases' were attached as shown and the sentiment added at the bottom. I finished off with some black and orange ribbon.

There you have it, a slim bookmark that you can give as a gift, or use yourself. I hope you will experiment with Brusho powders and see how versatile they can be. If you want full step by step instructions on how to make this bookmark, please visit my blog The Paper Engineer

During this month there will be lots of fascinating ideas to come from the Design Team girls, so please keep watching and reading, 'Oh' and playing of course.

Once Upon a Midnight by Doreen

Hello to you all, I am  sharing a sample made from the new stamps that have just been released for October .

 My card uses a couple of stamps from "Things that go Bump" stamp sheet. I first stamped my main image onto some white card,masked off the moon and coloured my background with Faded Jeans and Squeezed Lemonade Distress inks..Then used faded Jeans again through a leaf stencil... Then using Black Archival stamped the toadstools and sentiment.xxx

Take a walk with Nature as we launch our latest stamps

It's definitely getting chillier in the mornings and the nights are drawing in, as my Nanna would say, so I guess it looks like Autumn is upon us. I love the colours that Autumn brings although I can do without the other stuff. I also like the fact that I can share our new stamp releases with you to help celebrate this glorious season.

First is our Stamp of the Month, which is a scrumptious A4 set called Autumn Poppy.

 

  This next set is one of two new additions to our A5 Edges series and is called Poppy Edges,

whilst the following three stamp sets are all A5 and are this year's Halloween releases. Halloween Edges is our second new Edges addition

then we have Book of Spells and Things that Go Bump

both of which are also available as our usual money saving multi-buy

All these gorgeous images are just crying out to be coloured with your favourite medium, and have sent the Design Team into a frenzy of Autumn and Halloween splendour.  Here are just a couple of samples to whet your appetite.

Here Maria has given the Poppy Edges a wonderful hedgerow feel, whilst Florence evokes all things spooky with her delicious Halloween card.

There are lots more inspirational designs to come over the next few weeks, so please keep tuning in to catch up with the latest creations from our talented girls. 

Finally, thank you for all the lovely comments that you continue to send to us, it does us all good to know that you are so appreciative of everyone's contributions to this blog.