Sea Horse (by Julie)

Hello, today I have two cards using similar stamps but looking completely different.

For my first card I stamped and embossed the large sea horse from Underwater onto some water-colour card. I then went over the background with a light blue wash of water-colour before stamping the smaller seahorses using a dye based ink and stamping the images on the seabed. The little sea weed stamp to the left is from Mermaid Queen and I coloured the seabed images with water-colours.

For my second card I stamped and embossed the large seahorse onto water-colour card and then went over the entire card with a water-colour wash of blues and greens. Once dry I sponged blue and silver acrylic paint through a stencil and finished off with a sentiment from Birthday Words

Thank you for stopping by. Please call back for daily Design Team inspiration.

Julie xx

Mermaid Queen and Underwater (by Marga)

Hello everyone, have you seen the shows Lesley showed you yesterday? Wauww again.

Today I want to show you two cards that I made for the show.

Both cards I stamped with Versafine onyx black. I stamped and cut out some parts and put them on the card. I love the black and white look.

Stamps I used are:

Underwater

Mermaid Queen

Loving Sentiments

Birthday Words

Hugs Marga

Flight of the Butterfly by Brenda

Hello Peeps, are you all ready for Christmas, I do hope so as suddenly it is almost upon us ? 

It's my turn to share some more inspiration from Lesley's November shows on Hochada which was all about beautiful Blooms and Butterflies. For my card at the top I used Distress Inks to create a really intense background as a backdrop to the Butteflies from Tangled Garden. Onto the background I stenciled some leaves from Useful Leaves and a corner flourish using texture paste. After stamping with Versafine Black I cut out the three Butterflies and coloured them with sparkle pens, added wire antenna, fixed onto the base and stamped a sentiment from Words of Inspiration.

This is another of my backgrounds that I referred to earlier this month, again using acrylic paints and crackle glaze. The focal bloom is from Lily Fuchsia and Hyacinth multibuy stamped with Versafine Black and also leaves from he same set.  I added a little colour to the flower with pencils and matted and layered onto coordinating cardstock. If you have time to make up some backgrounds as I do, then it makes it really quick and easy to assemble a card.

More oxide inks this time using offcuts which I always keep as I am quite keen on triptych style cards. Using Versafine Black I stamped three different flowers from Lily Fuchsia and Hyacinth multibuy, coloured with pencils and added some cord and a sentiment from Birthday Words .

I used regular Distress Inks to create the shaded background onto with I stenciled some flourishes and then stamped the bloom from Breath of Spring, coloured in with pencils, added a sentiment from Birthday Words, some stickles and ribbon.

Using the Versafine Black and the corner stamps from Lily Fuchsia and Hyacinth multibuy I created a frame onto a piece of Design Paper. Into that I stamped the Lily from the same set, coloured in with pencils, added a sentiment from Birthday Words and some ribbon to finish.

As we are only days away from 'the' day I would like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a crafty 2018.

Hyacinths and More (by Julie)

Hi there, thanks for stopping by. Here are three more floral ideas that I made for Lesley's Hochanda TV shows.

My first card is stamped with Breath of Spring. The focal flower was stamped onto water-colour card  with Onyx Black Versafine and coloured with pencils before adding Crystal Stickles. The background is a mixture of Brusho powders and once dried acrylic paint was sponged through a circle stencil. White Gesso was painted around the flower to make it stand out from the background and the card was finished off with a sentiment from Birthday Words.

My second card is made from one of the smallest stamps from the Lily set. I inked up the little foliage stamp with dark green Versafine and repeatedly stamped it in a circle design. No special measuring or positioner was used. The trick is to move the stamp around so the little hook on the end of the design forms a circle which you can see in the centre of the design. The background has been coloured with Distress inks and the sentiment is from Birthday Words.

For my last card I have used the very versatile Hydrangea Tag.

The centre panel was stamped with the script stamp which I inked up with a plum coloured dye ink. I stamped it several times to cover the panel before colouring the background with Distress inks. The little tag design was stamped with the same ink, coloured with Distress inks and then cut out. I threaded silver elastic cord through the tag and around the centre panel before mounting onto the card with foam pads. 

The base card was stamped with the Hyacinth from the Hyacinth set which I inked up using the plum ink as before.

Many thanks for looking.

Best wishes

Julie xx

flower power (by Veronica)

 Today I am sharing some of the flower samples for the recent shows on Hochanda - something cheerful to brighten a very cold (but not yet snowy) day.


My first one uses the lovely hanging fuchsia stamp, simply stamped in grey versafine in the top corner of a 7" square card blank, and coloured with watercolour pencils. The greeting using black versafine was stamped in the bottom corner - I used a stamp press to make sure I got it straight.










I also used the stamp press to create the wreath on the next card, using a 7" square of white card as the base. I used two of the small foliage stamps from the lily set inked in iced spruce and peeled paint distress inks, then added the small solid fuchsia stamp using picked raspberry distress inks. The greeting stamped in grey ink in the centre.
The 8" square card blank was sponged with hickory smoke distress ink and randomly stamped using the small foliage stamp used in peeled paint foer the wreath.

 My final card used the big hyacinth stamp, stmaped in black versafine onto white card, and coloured with watercolour pencils. I edged the card with purple ink - think it was dusty concord distress ink - before mounting it onot a 7"x5" white card blank that i had coloured with distress oxide inks and spritzed with water then blotted to give a marbled effect.
Greeting stamped onto a spare piece of white card and edged with the purple ink before mounting in the corner.

We all really enjoyed using these versatile sets of flower stamps, there are some beautiful samples from my teamies still to be shown..........

Birthday Flowers (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I am sharing two cards today that were featured on one of last month's floral TV shows on Hochanda. Although both cards are similar in style, I have used very different methods to create them.

For my first card, I chose to concentrate on the Fuchsia stamp plate, and masked an oval area in the centre of a piece of smooth watercolour paper first of all. I stamped and embossed the small fuchsia silhouette stamp, and then covered the background with Distress Ink. I added a touch of shading around the oval using a grey pencil to add the impression that the oval was layered on top of the background.

I removed the mask, and stamped the large fuchsia and sentiment from the Birthday Words stamp set inside. I coloured the image with Distress Inks and a water brush. Finally, I attached the background to a large black card blank.

For my second card, I coloured a piece of drawing cartridge with Distress Ink, and then spritzed it with water, to achieve a mottled effect. Using the same colour ink, I stamped a tiny flower sprig from the Hyacinth stamp set randomly over the background. I attached a scrap of book page, some cream lace and brown ribbon across the centre, before moving on to the focal point of the card.

I coloured the edge of a die cut oval with the same colour ink as I had used on the background. Using dark brown ink, I then stamped the daisy head from the Lily stamp set three times, masking them with masking tissue. I stamped the grass image from the Hyacinth stamp set, filling in the gaps between the daisies, and using second generation stamping at the back, for depth.

I removed the masks, and using a brown fineliner pen, I extended the stalks of the daisies, to complete the image. I coloured the images with Distress Inks and a water brush, before attaching the oval to my card. Finally, I added a sentiment from the Birthday Words stamp set onto the background.

I will be back later in the month with some more floral projects for you. Do keep checking out the blog for a daily dose of inspiration from my team mates. Thanks for stopping by,

Judith xxx

Imagine by Brenda

A very good morning, Brenda here with today's share of more samples from Lesley's recent Hochanda shows which featured he most beautiful floral and Butterfly stamps that were a joy to work with.

My starting place for the above card was a background of Oxide Distress Inks which like so many of us I am totally addicted to. Onto the background I stenciled an arch window using Distress Ink, stamped what is probably my favourite Chocolate Baroque sentiment from the Words of Inspiration stamp sheet using Versafine Toffe and using the same ink stamped a selection of leaves around the edge from the Tangled Garden stamp sheet. The beautiful Butterfly is from the same set stamped onto Bristol cardstock and coloured with distress inks, the same colours as the background but not Oxides as I find the chalky finish can detract from the detail of the image.

For this card I used the blooms from Bold Blooms and leaves from the same set and Tangled Garden, stamping all onto a piece of card coloured with Distress Inks and Pearl Mica Spray, I like to add that to inky backgrounds sometimes as it helps to bleed the colours and also leaves a nice sheen. I used a piece of torn paper to create a sunray effect when I wanted to place the flower which I layered up after cutting our three different sized blooms . I cut he leaves out and arranged onto a hand drawn stem with a little bit of doodling to ass interest. The lovely Wordsworth quote is also from Bold Blooms.

I had an idea to create a shadow box surrounded by Butterfly, so started out with the base made using a die set. I coloured a large sheet of card with Distress Oxides concentrating on keeping within a tonal colour palette of oranges and yellows. Onto that I stamped several Butterflies from Tangled Garden and cut out ready to assemble around the frame. The fairy within the aperture is from June Fairy set and grasses from Silhouette Grasses stamped with Versafine Toffee and a masked and inked background plus a few small stamped Butterflies. Finally I layered the Butterflies around and within the layers of the shadow box.

This one to coin Charlie of Hochanda's words is "heavy on the grunge", I started with acrylic paints and brushed them randomly over a piece of 600gsm Fabriano cardstock, it's so sturdy that it takes water and wet mediums without warping. Next added some texture paste through a stencil to the top corner and applied some gilding polish to lift the pattern. I also added some gold gilding flakes here and there. The Lily is from the Lily Fuchsia and Hyacinth multibuy stamped with versamark and heat embossed with copper detail powder and then colour added using the same acrylic paint as the background, the sentiment is from Birthday Words and finally some lace tied across the bottom.

On the rare occasion I find myself with time on my hands I make up a batch of inky backgrounds as I find it really handy to have some in reserve when I am up against the clock to get sample made. This is one of those using acrylic paints and crackle glaze onto which I randomly stamped a sentiment from Birthday Words and then the focal bloom from Breath of Spring  using Versafine Black and then colourd in with sparkle pens and stickles. The base has been stamped with several of the foliage stamps from the Lily Fuchsia and Hyacinth multibuy.

As always my thanks for taking the time to visit today.

Wishing you...(by Marga)

Hello everyone, today it's my turn to show you something

I first made the background with Distress Ink. Then I made the background stamp from the Dusky Damask stamp set wet and stamped over the background. It takes some of the ink from your paper.

Then I stamped the Lily image and coloured it also with the Distress Ink.

Stamps I used are:

Lily

Dusky Damask

Birthday Words

Hugs Marga

Floral Delights (by Julie)

Hello, today I have three cards that I made especially for Lesley's recent Hochanda shows.

My first card is made with the absolute gem of a set titled very simply as lily .

To start with I stamped the Gerbera style flower onto copy paper and cut out to make masks. (I only stamped the Gerbera once but folded the paper so that when I cut the flower out I had 3 copies) This is so that I can cover the stamped flowers on the main design and then go in and stamp the foliage stamp over the top. The foliage then appears in the background when you remove the masked Gerberas from the card front.

I coloured with a blue Distress ink and splattered with acrylic paint.

The design was finished off with a sentiment from Birthday Words, which I cut out using a circle die.

The focal panel on my second card is again made using the Lily set as before. I have simply coloured the background with Distress inks and then stamped the designs with Onyx Black Versafine before colouring with pencils and adding white paint pen highlights.

The base card was stamped with the Hyacinth from the set of the same name and then coloured with Squeezed Lemonade Distress ink. 

My last card is stamped using the Hyacinth set. The background is coloured with Distress ink and the  main image was stamped in a grey ink before colouring with pencils. Using a pale ink loses some of the detail once the design is coloured so I filled some of it back in with a fine tipped black pen. The base card was stamped with one of the little foliage stamps from the same set and the card was finished off with a sentiment from Birthday Words as before.

Many thanks for take a look. Please call back soon for daily Design Team inspiration.

Julie xx

Time Flies by Brenda

Hello again, I am back with some more of my Steampunk shares from last months Hochanda shows.

The starting point for the card at the top was an embossed background with lots of gilding waxes added. The Scarab Beetle (and as we have horses there are a good few of these, also known as Dung Beetles, if one cares to search !!)from the Steampunkery set has been stamped several times using Vesamark Toffee, lightly coloured, gilding waxes added then placed over the base piece. Several of the sentiments from the new Punky Words have seen stamped and cut out to intersperse between the Beetles.

Like so many of us crafters I reach for my Oxide inks time and again, it's hard to remember life before them although they are relatively new, on this one I used Spiced Marmalade, Fossilised Amber and Twisted Citron. Using Versafine Toffee and masking off parts of the images I stamped clocks from Steampunkery and Steampunk Travel around the edges of the piece and using the same ink the three large images from the same stamp sets. The sentiment is from Birthday Words and a piece of ribbon and buckle tied across the top.

The background of this piece has been painted with Actylic paints and the DI Tea Dye and a stencil used to add some circles. Various elements from Key to my Dreams and Punky Words have been stamped with Versafine Blue on both the background and focal panel and some seam binding and a tassel to embellish.

As always my thanks for your visit today.

In the pink by Brenda

Good morning Peeps.

I am back with some more shares from Lesley's recent shows using the some of the beautiful Tree stamps which as with all Chocolate Baroque stamps were a delight to work with.

Above I have used Dylusions to create a background over which I stamped (second generation) one of the images from Indian Textiles  as I wanted to create some subtle background interest, then stamping one of the trees from Fantasy Woodland with Versafine Black and colouring in with sparkle pens and adding white highlighter. The sentiment is again from Birthday Words.

I will be the first to admit I am not a particularly frugal crafter but I do save all the smaller pieces of Fabriano which I always seem left with after cutting square pieces from the A3 sheets as they are the perfect size for creating a triptych card. I inked all three pieces with Oxide inks and using Black Versafine stamped three trees from Fantasy Woodland and Tall Trees stamp sets and a sentiment from Birthday Words.

My starting point for this card with a Dylusions background and my usual spritz of pearl mica spray to blend the colours followed by stamping around the edges with Large Crackle Background.............such a useful stamp that we all need in our stash......... using Versamark and embossing with detail gold powder. I then stamped Poppy Meadow Words of Inspiration with Versafine black and bleached out the colour, but as I added the bleach I mopped each flower with a piece of kitchen towel so it left some of the colour to give a pinkish finish. I stamped the sentiment onto an offuct sprayed with the same Dylusions and added some ribbon to finish.

I am really still not sure about this one, it's all rather dark although did look better in the flesh. I stamped the main panel onto a piece of card coloured with Oxide inks using a stamp from Butterfly Daisy Collage and Butterfly Poppy Collage multi buy. I then used Versamark and detail clear embossinng powder to glaze the panel, giving it three coats of both. I stamped the flowers from the same multi buy onto card coloured with the same inks, cut out and covered them as well with embossing powder before layering up. I placed the panel inside a die cut frame and arranged the flowers and some ribbon.

I hope you have a lovely day.

More Autumn by Brenda

Hello Peeps, I am back again with some more of my samples from Lesley's recent Autumn shows on Hochanda.

So more indulgence in inky Autumn colours and Poppies and my starting point for the top card was a background of  Mica powders spritzed with pearl mica spray to bleed the colours and add some sparkle. I then stamped the Poppy heads from the Poppy Meadow set along with some smaller ones from Natures Table and some grasses from the same set. Next I used a stencil and Distress Inks to add some sun rays, then stamped some more poppy heads across the top. The sentiment is from Natures Peace which is one one of the sets in the multi buy. I added colour to the Poppy heads using the same mica powders and highlighted with a white pen.

Scenes are something I really enjoy creating and for the card above I started with a cloudy sky using distress inks and bleaching out some clouds. I then stamped trees from the Autumn Edges and Tall Trees using Gathered Twigs DI and added leaves with DI's using just the top of one of the larger stamps in the same set. Using watered down DI I painted in some hills and stamped leaves along the top using another stamp from the same set. The fauna in the foreground is stamped with an image from Silhouette Grasses and sentiment from Birthday Words.

On this one I tried to create warmth using DI's for the background and then added some stenciling. The focal images is from Fantasy Woodland. After cleaning the larger stamp I masked off a section so I could ink and stamp just the tiny trees alongside the small tree to the right. Inking just the tip of the flower stamp in the set I added a border around the piece and finally stamped a sentiment from Birthday Words.

Another Oxide background here with some stenciling, followed by some background stamping using the scrip stamps from Butterfly Poppy Collage and then the lovely harlequin and Poppy head stamp using Versafine Black. After stamping I cleaned the stamp, masked the Poppy heads and inked just the harlequins to extend the pattern. The two Butterflies are from the same set and coloured in with the same inks used for the background.

I hope you all have a lovely day with some crafty time as well.

Birthday Greeting (by Asha)

Good morning, friends! Brand new day and a brand new project. I've used the skinny trees from the Fantasy Woodland A4 sheet to create a birthday card. The greeting is from the Birthday Words A5 sheet.

I heat embossed the trees with WOW Ebony Embossing Powder and then created the background by blending various Distress Inks.

As always, I have details of the tools and products used on my blog. Thank you for stopping by and drop in soon for more designs by the team.

Beijinhos,
Asha

Autumn Woodland (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with some projects made for Lesley's shows on Hochanda. I was really happy to have a play with these gorgeous stamps.

This first card features stamps from Tall Trees. I created a little scene on linen card using a torn paper mask and distress inks before stamping the trees with brown ink. I then cleaned the stamp and inked up the top part of the trees with gilding glue and stamped again before applying glitter in shades of green, orange and brown. The sentiment is from Birthday Words.

My second project is a canvas board. I began with a brusho background and then stamped the trees (from  Fantasy Woodland) and embossed with gold embossing powder. I added some little dots of clear glue and created some foliage with beadazzles.

Next I took some brown acrylic paint and grounded the trees. Once that was dry I stencilled in some leaves using green acrylic paint and the Useful Leaves stencil. Next I added some falling leaves using the Seasonal Elements stencil and the word Autumn using the Seasonal Journey stencil and iridescent paste. Once the paste was dry I coloured the leaves and word with alcohol markers.

Last but not least I've made a little kraft card using the beautiful toadstool border from Autumn Edges. I coloured the image with pencils, added white spots with a white Posca pen and sketched in some foliage. I added a sentiment embossed in white (from Birthday Words) and added some red pompom trim.

Thanks so much for visiting today, keep checking back as my teamies have some gorgeous projects to inspire you.

Claire xx

Floral Birthday (by Asha)

Good morning, friends! My turn to show you what you can do with Chocolate Baroque's lovely floral singles. Today's card features the gorgeous Crackling Rose. If you enjoy taking time out to indulge in a little therapeutic colouring, then this is the stamp for you.

I started by colouring the rose with Polychromos. The cracking background - now that reminds me of a stained glass window or broken mosaic. But before I could decide, I started colouring. It'll work either way!

The sentiment is from the Birthday Words A5 sheet, which is full of fabulous birthday greeting.

As always, I have details of the tools and products used on my blog. Thank you for stopping by and drop in soon for more designs by the team.

Beijinhos,
Asha

Sparkle and Texture (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with my first project for September and this month we're focussing on texture so my teamies will have lots of idea for you over the next few weeks. I've used glitter to add texture to my project.

The focal image is from 'Essence of Nature' which I stamped with versamark onto a background I'd created with shades of pink twinkling H2Os. I embossed with black embossing powder and trimmed the image down before matting on black card. I created a band of by applying a strip of red line tape, removing the backing and sprinkling on lots of pink glitter. I created some more glittery texture by stamping the sentiment (from Birthday Words) with some adhesive embossing powder, heating and then applying the glitter.

I'll be finding pink glitter everywhere for weeks now lol.

Thanks for visiting today,

Claire xx

Textured Ornaments (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have two cards to share with you today, using the current stamps of the month.

I have used the Palm Fan Baroque Ornament stamp to create my first card, creating a wrinkle free distress background using a palette of blues and greens. I added a stencil over the top of the background. The sentiment is from the Birthday Words stamp set.

For my second card, I created a wrinkle free distress background as before, using a colour combination of blues and purples, and used the Tangled Baroque Ornament stamp as my focal point. The sentiment is from the Words of Gratitude stamp set.

Further details of how I created my cards can be found on my blog. I hope that you have been enjoying the inspiration provided by the Design Team using the Baroque Ornaments, do keep checking back for daily posts from my team mates. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx