Hope ( by Doreen )

 Hope

This is the first of my posts for April and carries a message everyone needs or at least I believe that we do.

This tag uses The Tagtastic stamp, easy to use and to cut out. The tree is from the Trees a crowd stamp set and the cute owl is to be found in the Country Reflections Elements stamp set. I find all these sets to be really useful. 

The tree is stamped using Versafine Clair Acorn and again to stamp the broken circles and the Owl.

The solid circles are stamped using a mix of Distress Oxide Inkpads .... colours Abandoned Coral and Fossilised Amber. To colour the own I used Koh-I-Noor Pencils. 

To finish this tag I Mounted it onto Black Card and some random coloured ribbon from my stash of ribbons.

Thank you for looking in today

Love Doreen

Trees a Crowd (by Lorraine)

This tree is from the Trees a Crowd set, and it really lends itself to being a stand-alone focal point. It can cover all seasons, with the addition of leaves and blossoms in appropriate colours, but I decided to make it a Winter tree.

I found some grey paper in my stash which whilst having a faint grey stripe, I felt didn't distract too much from the image. Using Versafine Clair in Nocturne, and my trusty stamp press, I centred the image on a tall rectangular panel. It was then clear embossed using a detail powder. Having decided from which direction the snow should drift, I highlighted the branches with a white Signo pen. I'm never too confident about my shading, so I took my time, and was pretty pleased with the results!

This panel was then mounted onto a piece of white card, leaving a minimal border. The sentiment "I shall sit here peacefully and dream slowly" seemed to fit the bill. Again, this was stamped, embossed and mounted in a similar fashion. Lesley does such lovely sentiments and words in her stamp sets, so there is always something to suit the occasion.

To finish off, I adhered a band of the same grey just slightly down from the centre and positioned the tree and sentiment accordingly. Then, for a small pop of colour, a heart shaped gem found its way onto the corner, and because I love the completed card!

Kraft Magnolia and A Harmony Notelet Set (By Tracy Thompson)

 

This is my final post for this month and this year here on the Chocolate Baroque blog.  So the last of my creations from the Novembers shows, I love using Kraft card especially to colour on.  I stamped the Magnolia's from the Happy flower's day stamp set,   I coloured with Aqua Pencils, directly on to the Kraft card, but I didn't apply the water to the pencils as I liked leaving the strokes in there.  It was just that simple, but I love it!

Unlike the card above this notelet set isn't quite so simple.  I always start by creating the folder first, with a pocket on the inside to house the notelets and the envelopes..  I created the front using the Harmony Tree stamp set, distress oxide inks and the splatters from the  Numerology stamp set.  I coloured the tree with pencils, and added a ribbon.  I like to decorate the inside flap too, and I did that using the Remembrance Tree stamp set,  then as you can see using a selection of the stamps I have already mentioned I inked, stamped and created notelets and matching envelopes, all using the same method.

I hope you have enjoyed looking at my creations

Happy Crafting

Tracy x

Happy Christmas Eve (by Sandra)

Hello and Happy Christmas Eve!

I'm sharing the last of my cards from the November show on the Craft Store.

These cards all use stamps from Frosty Trees set.

For my first card I made a background using Distress Inks and a stencil. I blended the inks off the stencil onto the card each time using a darker colour and not quite covering the previous colour ink. I also blended some ink for the sky which I spritzed with water and blotted to make it look snowy. I stamped the swirly tree in Versamark and embossed in silver. I stamped some background trees from Trees a Crowd using my background colours. I stamped a sentiment onto a die cut. I mat and layered my piece onto a 8x8 card base.

For my next card I used Brushos on a piece of  water colour card. When it was dry I stamped the trees with Versamark and embossed in white. I trimmed the image and layered onto a 7x5 card base. I added a sentiment from the stamp set.

For my last card I made an aperture easel card. I stamped "snow" using the splatter stamp from Numerology. I stamped the Swirly tree onto a piece of vellum and embossed in white. I added a sentiment as a stopper. The second picture shows it lit up.

I hope you all have a happy and healthy Christmas and I'll be back next year.

Sandra x

Its all about the trees by Rachel

 Hello there! Rachel here today with some more makes from the November shows. This first one uses the Frosty Trees stamp set. I used flitterglu and flake on black card to create the images and added them to the card blank that I had stamped in versamark and added and heat set gold embossing powder. 

This one uses both the trees a crowd and the remembrance tree stamps. I stamped the trees then built a scene around them using inks. Finally I added some leaves using pens of autumnal colours.

This last one is a mixed media card using the main image from the trees a crowd stamp set. 

I hope this gives you a few ideas! 

Merry Christmas to you. Wishing you a happy healthy 2022 too!

Rachel x

Autumn Time & A Subtle Butterfly (by Tracy Thompson)

 

Today I am sharing some more creations made for the November's shows.  For my first card I used Distress Oxides to make my background, simply by applying the ink to my glass mat, spraying with water and smooching my card into it.  I left the top right hand corner white to break it up a bit, and for a place to add my sentiment which is from the Harmony Tree set.  I stamped the large tree from the stamp set Trees A crowd, using some oxide I coloured in some grass around the base of the tree.

For this creation I did something a little different to my normal style, I really enjoyed playing with this technique which I was inspired to do after watching Lesley's workshop on shading with pencil.  So I started by stamping the Butterfly from the stamp set Happy Flower's Day  I shaded the butterfly using just normal HB pencils, then using a stencil and Distress Oxide inks in several colours created a background.  It's a very clean and simple card, but effective.

Thank you for allowing me to show you my cards, I will be back towards the end of the month with some more.

Thank you

Happy crafting

Tracy x

woodlland memories

Today I am sharing samples using the remembrance tree and the trees a crowd stamp sets.

The first one is the remembrance tree , simply stamped in black versafine onto an inky background, although i did cut down the remembrance to remember!

The background was sponged in wild honey distress oxide ink, and images from the polygon poppies stamp set were randomly stamped using the same ink pad. I used a circular mask behind the tree and sponged over it to create a moon, then added a narrow black mat to finish

Using the harmony tree and trees a crowd set as well I created a concertina book from a sheet of A4 card. The background was sponged with distress oxide inks using peeled paint and broken china, with some fairly random stencilling and stamping. 
 

The first spread used the remembrance tree , with two of the words stamped onto spare card, cut out and glued in a slghtly different place and edged with black charcoal pencil.

The harmony tree this time, but only the words on the right of the stam

Two  tree stamps from trees a crowd this time, with the lines of the stamp in the background extended behind the larger tree - sentiment from same set.

Two more stamps from trees a crowd to finish the last page

A bit back to front, this was the outer pages of the concertina, with the leaf spray from  from nature 1 stamped in blue and random words from harmony tree cut out and edged with charcoal pencil

Beautiful Trees (by Sandra)

 Hello, I'm sharing some more of my cards from the November show on the Craft Store.

My first card uses Trees a Crowd. I started with a 18cm piece of card and using a stencil I blended Distress Oxides to create my background scene and moon. I spritzed the background with some water and blotted it to give me a snowy effect. I added some sparkle to the moon, but unfortunately it doesn't show on the photo. I then stamped the main bare tree stamp 3 times at different heights. I stamped out a sentiment and mat and layered my pieces onto a 20cm card base,

For my next card I used a roller to apply Versafine Clair ink to my Inky Plate. I cut a strip of card that was as wide as my card base, but narrower and pulled the print. I then used a scrap of copy paper to make a hill and applied ink with a blending brush. I stamped the trees in Archival ink and adhered to my card base. I added the sentiment which was stamped onto a piece of card with a torn edge.

My next card uses the Harmony Tree, Small Graph Paper and Artist Trading Heart stamp sets.

I started by stamping the heart onto a piece of card and masking off the outside. I blended Distress Inks to make my background and then stamped the tree. I used colouring pencils for the tree. I removed the mask and added the chain  as a hanger and added a shadow on the edge of the heart. I finished by adding the sentiment and layering onto a 15cm card base.

My last card today uses the Remembrance Tree stamp set. I used a small piece of watercolour card stock and sprinkled with Brushos which I then sprayed with water. Amazes me every time! Once it was dry I stamped the tree in the lower part and added the words from Remembrance Tree and Harmony Tree.  

Thanks for looking

Sandra x

For The Love Of Trees

 For The Love Of Trees

Hello everyone well December already and the days to Christmas are flying by. I am nowhere near ready and not quite sure I will be, but I dare say by hook or by crook I will get there somehow.

Today I would like to share some of my samples using the fabulous variety of Tree stamps featured in the November shows. I have to admit tree stamps are a huge weakness of mine, so versatile and useful in all sorts of different ways.

The first card shown below uses 

Frosty Trees

Versafine Clair Acorn and Pine Cone.

 A White Gel pen.

Masking Tissue.

Country Views

After stamping the Cottage and the Trees using Masking Tissue to give added depth the colour added was applies using soft brushes. The White Gel Pen was used to give the illusion of snow on the roof and in the air. The sentiment was stamped and applied to the card using double sided tape.

This is so simple, it uses stamps from the 

                                    Trees a Crowd Rubber Stamp sheet

MDF plaque and stand, Masking Tissue, White Gesso, Grey Inkpad, apart from the stamping all inks were applied with a soft brush gradually building up the colour.

This sample is rescued from the bin, simply stamped using Versafine Inkpads and a gold gel pen to add a little sparkle and mounted onto Kraft Card.

 

The next sample is fairly easy to achieve it just takes a little thought before stamping. I have used just an Archival Colbalt Blue plus a Promarker and Ruler.

This next sample uses a Plywood Postcard Stamped and enhanced with Pyrography and inks to colour.

This sample is not difficult and again uses the stamps from the Trees a Crowd stamps. I used a light pencil to help with the designing of this. Two different shades of green to stamp and a fine liner to draw the circles around the images. A green pencil has been used to ground the image in the centre of the card.

Thanks for looking in today 

Love Doreen 

Rainbows & Reflections (By Tracy Thompson)

 I would like to share a couple of creations I did for the November Craft Store shows

My first creation is all about reflection. I took the Trees A Crowd stamp set and selected some of the trees, I did a waterline so I could line my trees up, I used a gel plate to make the reflections, then I just built up the colouring creating the scene.  I die cut some frames to put around my images in contrasting colours.

I loved creating this card, now I know it's not for everyone but I have to say I find fussy cutting relaxing.  So to start I chose five colours of Distress inks and then applied them with stencil brushes in  rainbow stripes.  I stamped five butterflies from the stamp set Happy flower's day, and cut them out.  Always cut your image before colouring it as the ink weakens the card and you don't get as crisper cut.  For each butterfly I took the colour from the background so for instance for the pink one I used Kitsch Flamingo, I then picked two other co-ordinating colours, Spun Sugar and Picked Raspberry to shade and colour the butterfly.  I then proceeded to do the other butterflies in the same way.

I stamped the butterfly image on the background where I wanted the butterflies positioned, then glued the cut out butterflies over the top with the wings free and shaped.  All I did then was added a sentiment from the set.

I hope to see you later in the month for some more of my samples from the shows.

Happy crafting

Tracy x

Bottle, Jug and a Cup of Tea! (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope that you are keeping well. I have a project to share with you from last month's TV shows on The Craft Store. 

I found a background in my stash that I thought would be perfect to use with Kim Moody's Bottle and Jug stamp, and so my card was dictated by these colours. I had coloured the original background with tea and added an image from Baroque Ephemera 1. I then dry brushed the background with pale blue acrylic paint.

I stamped the main image onto a smaller piece of tea dyed drawing cartridge to match the main background. I masked the image and stamped a tree from Trees a Crowd, and added blossoms from Orchard Design a Tree stamp set. I added a few splats using a stamp from the Timeless stamp set. I removed the mask and coloured the image with pencils.

These images have been an absolute delight to work with and are so versatile. I hope that you have enjoyed seeing our projects and have lots of ideas to try using the stamps yourselves.

Thanks for stopping by, stay safe and take care.

Judith xx

Sending Hugs (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I am sharing my last post for this month, and once again, hoping that you are all safe and well. 

 

My first card was created using a stamp from last month's TV shows on Hochanda, Floral Grunge, and I have mixed it with a few other images to create a card that could be used for lots of different occasions. The sentiment I felt was particularly apt for now when lots of people could do with a hug, but we cannot give them one.

 

I started my card by stamping the main image onto Drawing Cartridge using Versafine Clair ink. I masked the flower head and then stamped and embossed the film strip from Butterfly Mind. I used the same colour ink, but added clear embossing powder over the top. I added a few extra splodges with a stamp from the same stamp set around the flower head and then removed the mask. I coloured the image using Polycolour pencils, before replacing the mask, and adding more splodges of colour with Distress Oxides to tone in with the colours that I chose to colour the flower head. The sentiment is from Amazing Mackintosh Words.

I am also sharing some older cards that I made using some of Kim Moody's stamps, that were also featured on last month's shows. Sadly I did not have a chance to make any fresh samples with these fabulous stamps, but I thought you might like to see some of these again...

A street made from all of the houses, using a bit of masking, and I added some treees from Trees a Crowd in the background. This was such fun to make!

A moving day, who would not like to get away from it all and live in such a picturesque spot? We live near the forest and love taking long walks in the woods.

White embossing on kraft always looks so effective, especially painted with Koh-I-Noor paints.

This almost spooky version of the Posh House was another favourite sample that I enjoyed putting together with the trees.

I will be back next month with some projects from our One Day Special shows. Thanks so much for stopping by. Take care and stay safe,

Judith xx

A mish mash of makes by Rachel

 Hello there. Rachel here today with the last of my makes from the December shows. This time I am showing those I made using the floral grunge, ephemera, movie strip collage and trees a crowd sets.

For this first one I used the ephemera stamps to stamp on a distress oxide background and fussy cut the images out themn mounted them onto a piece of paper from a show earlier in the year. Finally I added the flower from the movie strip collage that I cut out and added in black and white. 

In this next sample I created the background using distress oxides and overstamped with ephemera stamps. Next I stamped and coloured the floral grunge stamp a few times before fussy cutting and decoupaging up the image.

In this one I used the trees a crowd stamps to create a scene using inks and a piece of card plus a large sun mask. I used the stamps to fill in the scene.

Finally it was back to the ephemra stamps which I stamped in a similar colour to the background on this card (made using oxide inks). I then stamped (in black) the movie strip collage stamp and finally added decoupaged the flower on in a colour similar to the background.

I hope you have a great day!

Thanks for joining me today.

Rachel.

Misty treescape by Brenda

Hello all, my last post for this month and another share using Trees a Crowd which has a whole host of different trees to match all nature of creations.

I started by stamping the tree into place, some with second generation inking, using Versafine Clair and then masking the edges of a landscape piece of CB Drawing Cartridge. The taking a piece of torn paper I built up the hills using a variety of colours of Distress Ink. A mask for the sun and Pan Pastels to colour the sky with a slightly mist feel and finito, a fairly quick and easy card to achieve.

For this one I used a whole collection of stamps from Floral Grunge, Ephemera 1, Ephemera 2 and the word Botanical stamped onto scraps of card which I tore and distressed, some flowers, lace and a clip to hold one of the vintage tags. You could call this one just some inky fun!

My thanks for your visit today and continued support.

Floral Grunge by Brenda

Good morning, it's my turn to share some more work using the stamps featured on last months shows on Hochanda TV and today I have a YouTube video making the above card using are Floral Grunge, Ephemera 1 and Ephemera 2. 

The card is not unlike one I shared at We Love Chocolate Baroque challenge and my own blog last month but this one has an acrylic paint background using a palette knife to scrape and spread the paint, a really quick and easy way to get a background that looks a bit different. I won't go into all the making process as it's explained in detail along with the stamps used on my video.

There are more videos using Chocolate Baroque products and stamps here and I'm trying hard to add more as time permits.

My second share is a simple make, a masked piece which again is CB Drawing Cartridge, Oxide sprays through a stencil, remove the making take and the large tree from Trees a Crowd stamped in Versafine black, an inspirational quote of my favourite set Words of Inspiration and the bunny from Glorious Spring.

As always my thanks for your visit today, stay safe and well.

A New Year's Eve Wish (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope that you have had a good Christmas, and enjoyed some time celebrating the festive season, even if it has been very different to your usual celebrations. Many of you will not have been able to have spent the time together with your loved ones, or to have seen as many of your family as you would have done under normal circumstances. 

This year has been such a strange and turbulent year for many reasons, we have been thrown into a life that is so different from what we are used to, and many people have lost their jobs, their businesses, faced floods, illness, or the loss of loved ones. Lockdown has been very hard for everyone, the isolation and separation from friends and family has been really difficult. Social media, and contact through technology has really been a big help. Zoom, Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, video calling, have all come into their own as a means to interact with other people to be able to 'see' each other and chat face to face. 

Chocolate Baroque has tried to do its part with the Butterfly Tree get togethers, allowing members of the Choolate Baroque Facebook Group to join in with the meetings and feel part of the community. The sense of belonging that is part of Chocolate Baroque, the community of crafters, learning together, and having fun getting messy and inky, has always helped to make us feel less isolated. Many friendships have been forged through the Chocolate Baroque community, I have several amazing friends that I have made personally, so I can vouch for magic of this wonderful group.

As we turn to thoughts of the approaching New Year, one thing that has continually come to my mind is that we can be grateful for what we have. We have lost so much this year, but we still have friendship, we still have family, we still have a shared love of crafting. My New Year's Eve wish for you all is that 2021 will be a better year. It may not turn out exactly as we would all like, but may you all find peaceful, contented, healthy times ahead. I hope that you will enjoy what we at Chocolate Baroque continue to share with you over the coming year, and that you will keep crafting along with us. Most of all, look after yourselves and be happy. 

I am sharing a project with you today, part of a play session that I had using a few favourite stamps.

Stay safe, and thanks for stopping by,

Judith xx