Phenomenal Butterflies (By Tracy Thompson)

 Today I would like to share with you a couple of creations that were made for March's shows on Create & Craft.  The first one above is using the fabulous stamp The Phenomenal Butterfly, which is a very large long stamp and beautiful to work with.  I started by creating a background with Distress oxides and layering on to my base card.  I then cut three squares and stamped a different part of the stamp on each square.  I then stamped the butterflies and dragonflies again, cut them out coloured them in the same colour inks as the background and covered them in clear embossing powder for a glossy finish.  I placed them over the original image on the squares, I stamped a sentiment from the set called Birthday Words on a strip of card and added to my card.

For my second creation I started by stamping the wall from the Out Of The Tees Elements, I stamped another on some masking paper and covered the original, with the masking paper over the wall I stamped the train in place then stamped that onto masking paper too.  Now that both my main elements were in place I started to create my scene.  Using Distress oxides I created a hill, I then used the trees along the hill line, then behind the wall.  for the foreground I stamped foliage from the Walk tall stamp set.  I removed my masking paper and coloured my main elements.

I will look forward to later in the month when I will share with you a couple more makes from these shows

Thank you for looking

Happy crafting

Tracy x

Tall Grasses (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope that you are all keeping well. I have a project to share with you today, mixing and matching several favourite stamp sets. That's the beauty of Chocolate Baroque stamp sets, once you have them, they can be used with other sets from your collection.

I started this project by stamping a couple of bees from Honey Bee and masked them using Masking Tissue. I worked out where I needed them to be by placing a couple of the foliage stamps on my background, so that I knew how tall they would stand. I then covered my gelli plate with green and blue Distress Oxide Ink and placed my background smooth stamping paper over the top.

I stamped a phrase from Words of Gratitude using third generation stamping in a couple of the corners. I wanted the words to be visible, but not overpowering.

I used a couple of silhoutte grasses from Walk Tall, and various shades of Versafine Clair to create a grassy meadow, using first, second and third generation stamping. I chose shades of green and purple.

Finally, I removed the masks and coloured the bees with watercolour pencils. I added a touch of water using a waterbrush to blend the colour. A touch of grey pencil around the bees makes them look three dimensional, but they are flat on the page.

Thanks for stopping by, I will be back later in the month, with something else to share. Take care, Judith xx

Teeny Mail Art by Sandra

Hello, I am sharing some more of my cards from the December show on The Craft Store.

The stamps I have used are

Curiosities

Mail Art and

Teeny Weeny Meadow 

For my first card I cut a piece of smooth white card to look like stamps using my electric cutting machine. I then cut an aperture in a piece of acetate the size of the individual "stamp". I placed the aperture over the card and used Distress Inks to colour each stamp in. Once the ink was dry I used Archival ink and stamps from Curiosities and Mail Art to decorate. I finished by layering onto some black card and then onto a card base.

For my next card I used a stencil to create a background with Distress Inks. I then used stamps from Teeny Weeny Meadow to make a country scene  with trees and ferns in the foreground and leaves hanging down. Sentiment is from the Walk Tall stamp set.

For my last card today I placed a piece of washi tape across my card at horizon level. I then stamped the landmark buildings from Curiosities along the top edge. I also stamped these onto some Masking Tissue, cut them out and covered the stamped images on my card. I blended some inks to create a sunset behind the buildings. Next, I moved the washi tape so that the bottom edge was now on the horizon and used inks to create a watery look. I removed the washi tape and Masking Tissue and stamped the word Postcard from the Mail Art set.  I trimmed my card and adhered to a DL base.

Thanks for looking

Sandra x

dragonflies (by Veronica)

Today I am sharing more cards using the sacred stamp set designed by Fiona Randall.

The first card began life as an 8" square card blank, with the front cut in half and both the front and inside sponged with grey and lemon distress oxide inks. The geometric design was randomly stamped in grey, as well as one of the leaf  stamps from the  walk tall stamp set along with the words from sacred.  The dragonflies were stamped in black on the front flap and coloured with marker pens. The one on the back was stamped in grey onto spare card, coloured and cut out

For the second card the dragonfly was stamped four times in grey ink using a stamping platform. I again used the pva/mica method to make four more dragonflies using black ink and blue and silver mica powders. These were glued in place in the gaps between the stamped ones. The word was stamped onto scrap card and die cut then glued into the centre - I'd like to say this was to give a focaL point, but if I'm honest it was more to hide the overlapping wings!
 

pick a poppy or two

I adore poppies, so this month's stamps were definitely up my street! 

The first sample is fairly simple, with the main stamp from polygon poppies  stamped in versafine and coloured with koh-i-noor pencils. The background was sponged with distress oxide inks and randomly stamped in the same ink with some of the smaller stamps and one of the leafy stamps from walk tall

This one is a bit more fiddly, I made a similar  A4 background using distress oxides then trimmed it into 2 panels to fit an 8" square card blank with the front folded back. The main image stmaped in black versafine onto spare card , coloured with pencils and die cut into a hexagon, mounted onto a black hexagon and glued over the centre front fold. The smaller poppy hexagon stamp was stamped twice onto spare card, coloured with pencils and die cut, then matted onto black, and glued on the back panel to line up with the larger hexagon.

 My final sample used the larger poppy from flora and fauna stamped into the centre of a square of card. I then sponged distress oxide inks in blue and grey through a diecut mask to create a patchwork effect and randomly stamped images from polygon poppies in the grey ink.

The blue ink was blended round the main image which was coloured with pencils

 

Walk Tall (by Lorraine)

Walk Tall

This is another stamp set that Lesley included in her July Craft Store show. It's a really versatile set, both in its own right and as a companion. 

It's funny how an image quite often suggests something - this large grass immediately made me think of feathers. I suppose they have similar properties. I decided to incorporate one of my favourite stamps into the design, the Just Useful Stripe. I started by stamping the stripe in three different blues from the Versafine Clair range. On reflection, I should have used a lighter blue for the first one, to show off more of the detail from the grasses stamp. When the stripes were dry, I stamped the grass over the top, using Versafine Clair Nocturne, no embossing powder this time! I had already notched the dark blue base mat, but felt that the main image needed something more. I opted to use just the tip of the smaller grass in the corners, in Morning Mist so as to avoid over powering the design. I had cut this mat using a die, so the dashes around the edge, which are just visible, framed the image.

Pappavero by Brenda

Hello everyone, sharing a few more samples from the July TV shows and another card above using the fabulous Polygon Poppies, I just might have mentioned once or twice before that I absolutely love these stamps. I die cut a hexagonal card base to reflect the shape of the worker stamps in the set, stamped the focal image in black and simply added some colour to the Poppies and stamped the hexagons in red .

This is a re-cycled empty tissue box covered in CB Black and White DP's which I first sprayed with Distress Oxides. After stamping images from Walk Tall, Butterfly Dreams and Majestic Crane I added some colour with Distress Markers and fixed around the box.

My final share again uses some of the Black and White DP's, this time sprayed with pink Kitsch Flamingo Oxides, some of the leaves coloured with Distress Makers. The large flourish from Butterfly Dreams and grasses from Walk Tall stamped in black and a Butterfly also from Butterfly Dream stamped, coloured and cut out.

I hope I have offered a little inspiration today.

Moonlight

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

 My first cards use the Majestic Crane stamp set.

First I stamped and embossed the Crane image in silver onto black card.  I then mixed some blue mica powders with a little water to make a "paint" and used this to colour the crane, moon, reeds and water. I finished with one of the sentiments from the set and layered onto some silver mirror card.

For my second card I used watercolour pencils to colour. I also used the tops of the grasses from the next set of stamps to frame the crane.

My next card uses the Walk Tall stamp set. A lovely mix of grasses, berry stems and sentiments.

For this card I stamped the Berry stems in VersaMark and embossed in white over a Distress Oxide on photo paper background.

I have a quick tutorial on how to do the background over on my blog Is That the Time?

Thanks for looking

Sandra x

Focus on Florals (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope that you are all keeping well. I am back to share more projects from last month's TV shows.

My first project was created with a piece of scrap corrugated packaging, the sort that comes as a parcel containing books or anything flat, really. I opened it out, took off any extra pieces, and peeled away the top surface to reveal the ridges underneath. 

I created a large piece of A4 background paper by using one of the little worker stamps from the Flora and Fauna stamp set, stamping and embossing it randomly over the background using white embossing powder. I then coloured the whole background using Fossilized Amber Distress Ink and a blending brush. I chopped the background into three pieces to fit my corrugated panel, and added a bit of torm script paper to the lower portion. I die cut three tags from Drawing Cartridge which had been stained with tea. I stamped the main images from Walk Tall onto the tags, and edged them with Black Soot Distress Ink. On one tag, I added a sentiment directly, and on the other two, I added a piece of black ribbon and a little piece of card with a sentiment. I stuck the tags to the background and added lace and black buttons. I matted the yellow background to black card for definition before adhering it to the corrugated card. I chose to score the corrugated card to make a tryptich that would stand up, and for stability, I added washi tape to the back.

I created a similar background for my second project, using another little worker stamp from Flora and Fauna, embossing the stamp using white embossing powder over the background. This time, I chose Blueprint Sketch Distress Ink as the background colour. I stamped the image from the same stamp set onto a piece of Drawing Cartridge, and coloured it initially with Distress Inks and a waterbrush. I added shading with pencils. I stamped a sentiment from Punky Expressions onto a small die cut rectangle. I edged all of the card pieces with Distress Ink before adhering them to the card blank.

I chose to use the very pretty foxglove from the Honey Bee stamp set as the main focus for my final card. I stamped the image three times, along with two of the bees, and masked the images, before adding colour to the background with Distress Ink. I spritzed the background with water. I stamped the silhouette image using first and second generation stamping using green and purple ink. I removed the masks and coloured the images with pencils. Finally I added the sentiment from the same stamp set.

I will be back later in the month with more projects to share with you. Take care, and thanks so much for stopping by,

Judith xx

Summers Day

Summers Day

Hi everyone, here are my picks for today. Can't you just imagine looking a view just like this out of a window ? 

This was a fairly quick make to be fair. I used a cloud mask and some of my Distress Inkpads applying them with soft brushes onto some glossy card.

Next with some Versafine Clair Green inkpads and the 

Walk Tall Rubber Stamp sheet - DL

 For the grasses in the foreground I just used the tops of the stamps, applying them randomly. When completely dry buff with a soft cloth to give a sheen to your finished card and although I chose not to you can easily add a sentiment of your own choice to the card.

Here is another card which uses the grasses from the Walk Tall Rubber Stamp sheet - DL

in the background to compliment the beautiful Majestic Crane Rubber Stamp sheet - DL 

Again this is a simple card to make using the Majestic Crane stamped directly onto a Pixie Powder background which work exactly the same as brushes but with added mica powder.

The card used for this make is the trusty  A4 Drawing Cartridge 220gsm - pk 10 Which is definitely my go to card in the majority of my makes. 

Well that is all from me today, I will be back again later in the month but there is a daily blogpost from the Design Team where you can see some fantastic makes from the rest of the team to inspire you.

Thank You for looking in 

Love Doreen xx

 

Floral Delights by Rachel

 Hello there!

Rachel here today with some makes from the July shows. In this first one I used the Walk Tall stamp set onto a stencilled background created using inks. I stamped the grasses on in red abd black and added some highlights in a white pen.

Fpr this next card I used the polygon poppies set - I adore this set - it is so beautiful. For this sample I die cut a large hexagon then created then background using inks and a stencil. Then I added the stamping. The colouring was done using watercolour pens.

In this final make I used a stamp from the Flora and Fauna stamp set - I decided to colour the poppies blue and create a tiled effect. I love blue poppies!

I hope that has given you a little inspiration for things you can make with your stamps.

Have a great day!

Hugs

Rachel x