Wax Paper Technique (by Carole)

Hello again.

Hope you are enjoying your crafting with the beautiful new stamps which were featured on The Craft Store recently.

My sample this time uses a pretty stamp from the Butterfly Poppy Collage set and an older technique which seems to have gone out of favour or been forgotten! 😊

I stamped the butterfly panel from Butterfly Poppy Collage and then stamped it again and embossed with clear embossing powder. This was torn and cut out to add a bit of depth.

The white panel behind was embossed with a diamond folder to mirror the stamp diamonds. Unfortunately this not showing in the photo.

The background is done with the wax paper technique which is simple to do and can give interesting results.

My card has the wax paper scrunched up, but you can put it through in an embossing folder to get different patterns.

I scrunched the wax paper, smoothed it out and ironed it onto my piece of card. Use a piece of copy paper on top to iron. Please don't use your main iron in case the wax seeps through the paper onto the iron!

The pattern from the wax will act as a resist so that when you ink over, the pattern 'pops'.

I like this technique as it is quick and simple and the wax paper can be manipulated to get different patterns.

I hope you have liked this.

See you next week

Carole.

 

More Stamping Delights (by Anne)

 

Good morning. This is the last of my guest posts for Chocolate Baroque this month. I had planned a completely different set of projects but just had designer block! Horrible when that happens, especially when working to a deadline. This happens to us all at times, particularly this year with all the added stresses.

After several days of wasted effort I just stopped working on my original plan, went away from my desk and tried to clear my head. I then went back and decided to just ‘go for it’ – no plan, no nothing. I just picked up stamps and got started. Finally ideas started to flow – phew. I find that this usually works for me, although it is not always easy to do – ha ha.

I hope that you enjoy my offerings. Everyone take care and enjoy Christmas as best you can. Spring will soon be here and I am hopeful for far better times to come soon. Big hugs Anne xxx.

Blue and White Mandala

This one is a quick and easy make using the lovely mandala style stamp.

Materials Used:

• 15cm square white card blank, decorative die cut circle in blue card and scrap white stamping card
• Palm Fan Silhouette stamp (Chocolate Baroque)
• Versamark Inkpad
• Dark blue embossing powder (WOW Earthtone Blueberry)
• White pen

How it was done

1. Faux stitching was added around the die cut circle to frame it. It was glued to the card front with 3D foam for added depth.
2. The Mandala was stamped and embossed with blue powder, cut out and glued to the card front with 3D foam.

Dazzling Butterfly

Chocolate Baroque have so many wonderful butterfly stamps – love this one.

Materials used

• 15cm square scalloped card blank, decorative die cut circle (light blue), scrap of white stamping card
• Stamp sets: Gerbera and Friends, Words to Dazzle and Sparkle, Butterfly Poppy Collage (Chocolate Baroque)
• Inkpads: Versamark, Distress Inks (Tumbled Glass and Stormy Sky) and Memento Dye Ink (Grape Jelly)
• Detail white embossing powder (WOW), and clear sparkle with extra fine glitter
• Alcohol ink pens (greens, turquoise, pink)
• Pink PVA pearls and Stickles glitter glue (Diamond)

How it was done

1. A mix of the Distress Inks were used to blend the outer edges of the card blank (this mix closely matched my blue die cut circle).
2. The blue card topper was stamped with Versamark and embossed with white powder.
3. The butterfly was stamped with Memento, coloured with alcohol pens. It was then heat embossed with a layer of clear sparkly powder and cut out.
4. Everything was stuck down and the card was finally finished with glitter glue and PVA pearls.

Hydrangea Card

When pushed for time I will often use some ready printed papers in the background. They can also help with inspiration at times too.

Materials used

• 15cm square white card blank, Crafty Individuals 6 X 6 inch background paper (Book 3 Springtime), white stamping card
• Stamp sets: Hydrangea Tag, Gerbera and Friends
• Inkpads: Versafine (Majestic Blue and Onyx Black)
• Brusho powders (Leaf Green and Purple)
• Alcohol marker and fine drawing pen (black)

How it was done

1. The background paper was trimmed and edged with black marker. The base texture was stamped with black Versafine.
2. The main image was stamped with blue Versafine, the card trimmed to approx. 9 X 13cm and edged with black marker. The floral section was stamped again with black Versafine. The stem was extended by drawing with black pen and the image cut out.
3. The topper was then spritzed with water and Brusho powder dropped onto the wet card. When dry the monochrome Hydrangea was glued on top, curling the edges up slightly for dimension.

Floral Thank You Card

This one was a super quick make. Ideal if you have a last minute card to do.

Materials used

• 10.5cm square watercolour card blank
• Stamps from Chocolate Baroque: Gerbera and Friends, Spring Bird Daffodil (sentiment)
• Inkpads: Versafine (Vintage Sepia), Distress Inks (Carved Pumpkin, Mustard Seed)
• Note: I used a stamping platform for this project. Not essential but it helps to realign when over stamping.

How it was done

1. The watercolour card was spritzed with water and stamped using a mix of the Distress Inks. These bled out giving a lovely watercolour effect.
2. When dry the image was overstamped with Versafine. Versafine was also used to stamp the border and sentiment.

Dreamy Elephant Card

I love the Indian themed stamps from Chocolate Baroque – definitely amongst my faves. To save a bit of time I again used a pre-printed background paper.

Materials used

• 15cm square white card blank, Crafty Individuals 6 X 6 inch background paper (Book 8 A Weekend in Seville), and scrap white stamping card
• Stamps: Artistic Affirmations, Indian Textiles, Indian Elephant, Gerbera and Friends
• Inkpads: Versamark and Versafine (Vintage Sepia)
• Versamark embossing pen
• Embossing powders: Metallic copper and detail gold
• Watercolour pencil (greys), sparkle pens (green, pink, purple, turquoise)

How it was done

1. The sentiment and base texture was stamped and embossed with copper powder.
2. The flowers were stamped with Versafine. The background was then edged and embossed using the embossing pen and copper powder.
3. The elephant was stamped onto white card with Versamark and embossed with gold powder. The image was then coloured with pencils and pens and cut out. The elephant was lightly shaped and glued down with 3D glue gel for dimension.

Spring part 2 - (by Magda)

Here I am again with butterflies which are dancing in the warm air and in my projects of today.

Sadness flies away card

I used  a Brush wash on a white cardstock for the background

Stamped with Jet Black Archival the sentiment from Butterfly Perfumery rubber sheet, and 

Gothic Fragments  while  the butterfly from Butterfly Poppy Collage is stamped with Carnation Archival  

Happy Dance page
                                   

step by step

1.  Colour a pice of white cardstock with Distress Ink Pad green, blue and yellow
2.  Stamp on in the Butterfly from Just Butterflies in black and randomly a swirl from Butterfly Florals in
     red with Distress Ink Pad
3.  Cover all with white Gesso
4.   Squeeze a tissue towel and glue it on top of the cardstock with  Inkssential Glue n Seal

5.  Blend again with the colors of point 1.

6.  Stamp with Archival Jet Black the flower from Wisteria Lane

7.  Stamp with Archival violet  the butterflies from Just Butterflies, on a white cardstock, colored

     with a light coat of Distress Ink Pad Seedless Preserves and cut them out

8.  Stamp with Archival Jet Black the sentiment from the plate Butterfly Perfumery  on a white     

     cardstock coloured with yellow Aquarelle Pencil

9.  Glue the butterflies, the sentiment on the mat  as shown

10. For the big background of the page :  blend Distress Ink Pad Seedless Preserves  ( same color of 

      point 7. used for the butterflies)

11. Stamp randomly with water all around butterflies of  Just Butterflies plate.

12. Glue  the mat on the page.

I hope you enjoyed my March "Spring" month.  Thanks for passing by

Magda

welcome home (by veronica)

 Three cards using the lovely Poppy Cottage stamp  - sadly a limited edition stamp from a Kim Moody drawing of Judith's lovely home.
You know I had to use brusho powders at least once, so that is the first one to show, get it out of the way! Simply stamped with black versafine , clear embossed and sprinkled lightly with brusho over the roof and walls then spritzed generously with water. Stamped the sentiment in black then trimmed down to a square. Letters were then die cut from the image - I have a magnetic platform for my big shot, which helps keep the letters in place. A piece of red card was added behind the image, which was then matted onto a light brown card  and then onto a white base card blank. The cut out letters were then mounted slightly offset using foam pads.

Version two I coloured the stamp with  distress markers, spritzed lightly with water and stamped onto white card.It was a rather vague result, so I inked up the stamp with black versafine and stamped again once everything was dry - I use a stamping platform, so no problem matching the image up.

The third version also used the distress pens to colour the image - this time i just huffed onto the stamp to wake up the inks. I used a stamp from the butterfly  poppy plate to create the background, inking with markers again and just stamping part of the stamp

We all loved this stamp, and I suspect you will be seeing it a lot more this month!

Butterfly Frame (by Carole)

Hello everyone, we are joined today by our regular Guest Design Team member Carole Cann. Carole will be creating three projects for us this month to inspire you, and her first project is a fabulous piece of home decor; a pretty picture to give to a friend, but that you may want to keep for yourself!

Carole writes:

Good morning  everyone. I am delighted to be showing you my first project as Guest Designer for September.

I have used the small butterfly from Butterfly Poppy Collage, a stamp from Poppy Meadow and the words from Pretty Poppies. The ivy at the top is from the Tall Trees set.
Permanent inkpad
Watercolour pencils
Glossy Accents
Chalk finish inkpads
15cm wooden frame
25cm square frame I had in my stash

I have started with a 15cm wooden frame which has an 8.5 cm heart aperture in the centre.
When I make a project like this, I always try it out on paper first. This enables me to make mistakes in the positioning and layout, which I can correct before stamping onto the real frame.
I did work out beforehand that the butterflies would stamp evenly around this size aperture.
Of course, it does not need to be an aperture, you could make a 15cm card with a heart die cut in the centre, and the butterflies surrounding it.
When I stamped the butterflies, I started with the top three and then stamped one side, trying to space them as evenly as possible. I then 'mirrored' the butterflies on the other side.
Make sure they are completely dry before colouring them in.
I covered each butterfly with Glossy Accents and left them to dry thoroughly.
Then I wiped over the background with the chalk green inkpad.
The background in the larger frame is stamped with another of the Poppy Meadow stamps and the ivy.
For the centre, I used the frame as the template and drew lightly around the aperture with a pencil onto a square of green card.This helped me to position the words and flowers correctly. Rub out the pencil line, stick to the back of the frame and attach to the background.
Further details can be found on my blog.

Thank you for visiting and I look forward to showing you my second project next week.

Happy crafting,

Carole.

Thank you for a delightful project Carole, and for the advice about practising on paper first. We often recommend that you try your ideas out on a cheap piece of paper first, as it takes away the pressure of wasting your more expensive card and other materials. Top Tip Carole!

Beautiful Bird and Fanciful Flowers by Penny

Hi there - Penny here again with three projects to inspire and hopefully encourage you to have a go at creating them yourselves.  The first is a little mixed media canvas featuring the gorgeous Bird of Joy stamp, a couple of stencils including the Useful Leaves, and some metallic paints and texture paste from my stash.
I took a small canvas and painted it with black gesso.  When dry I stamped and embossed the image using clear ink and powder in the centre of the canvas.  I then painted it with acrylic paints,  adding gold paint around the words to make them pop.  I added some more paint using a sponge to give the piece more texture, then stencilled some glitter texture paste over the sponged areas.
I used the Useful Leaves stencil across the top of the canvas and attached some die cut foliage as well to frame the focal image.  To complete the piece I punched a couple of holes in the top and threaded some cord through to be able to hang the canvas up.

My second project for you today is a pretty, romantic card featuring the lovely French Heart stamp, a small heart from the Harlequin Rose set and a sentiment from the Loving Sentiments set, colouring pens, Distress inks, the Useful Leaves stencil, a tag die, a script stencil and and some ribbon from my stash.
I began by stamping the heart in grey ink onto colouring card and coloured it with pens in muted colours.  I die cut the image into a tag, embossed it and added ink around the edges.  I stamped a sentiment onto the tag, then punched a hole at the top and threaded some ribbon through.  I added some glitter to the flowers and set the tag aside to dry.
On a white base card I created a background of leaves and script with inks through the stencils, and stamped some small hearts randomly over the card.  I blended some ink around the edges of the card and attached the tag.

 

My final project for you today is a mixed media card featuring the beautiful Medici Flower stamp, plus images from the Gothic Fragments and Butterfly Poppy Collage sets, Distress inks, white charcoal, grey Versafine ink, colouring pens, texture paste, a die cut, gold Liquid Pearls and a gold pen from my stash.
I stamped the Medici Flower in grey ink onto colouring card and coloured it with the pens.  I die cut and embossed the image with a circle die, added ink through the die like a stencil and edged it with a gold pen.  I put dots of gold pearl drops into the middle of the flowers as stamens then set it aside to dry.  Next I created a background on a piece of white card, blending a few Distress inks together.  I then stamped some Gothic windows and Latin script randomly over the panel, faux bleached parts of the windows and added highlights with white charcoal.  I used gold pen around the edges of the panel then matted it onto black card.
On a white base card I applied black texture paste through a brickwork stencil to compliment the Gothic windows, and let it dry.  I then stamped a sentiment onto a spare piece of background card, cut it into a panel, edged it with gold pen and added some gold pearl drops.  When everything was dry I attached the background panel to the base card then added the focal and sentiment panels in 3D onto the card.

I hope you have all enjoyed these projects today, they are all great fun to create and can all be adapted with different colours to suit any requirements.  Thank you for dropping in, I'll see you again soon,

                                                         

Penny

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.

Transparent Poppies (by Anne)

Good morning. Today I am sharing one of my samples for the recent shows on Hochanda featuring the Pretty Poppies and Poppy Meadow stamps.

I coloured my scene using the fabulous alcohol markers from Chameleon. I simply love the new Color Tops that allow you to blend 2 completely different colours seamlessly – very tricky to do with standard alcohol pens.

Materials:

• Pretty Poppies, Poppy Meadow, Nature Table, Butterfly Poppy Collage stamp sets
• 8 X 8 inch card blank, 6.5 inch square card suitable for alcohol ink (I used Velvet Card) and scrap copy paper (to make masks)
• Inkpads: Versafine (Onyx Black), Distress Ink (Tumbled Glass), Memento Dye Ink (London Fog)
• WOW embossing powder (Clear Gloss)
• Zig 2 way glue (temporary adhesive for masks)
• Alcohol pens (yellow, green, blue, beige and pink): Chameleon Pens (YG3, YL2, BL3) and Color Tops (NU0, PK3)
• Permanent marker (black)
• Coloured pencils (black, green and pink/purple)
• Water based fine tipped pen (light grey)
• Gel pen (Hybrid Ink - black with metallic red)
• Stickles glitter glue (Crystal)

How it was done:

1. The card background was stamped with the honesty stamp and Distress Ink. The corners were stamped with Versafine and the edges blended lightly with Distress Ink.
2. The foreground poppies were stamped onto copy paper and cut out to create masks. Small dots of zig glue were added to the back and left to dry (turns from blue to clear) to create a temporary stick to hold them in place.
3. The foreground poppies were stamped with Memento (water based ink that will not bleed when colouring with alcohol ink pens) and then covered with the masks before stamping the background poppies.
4. The stems were extended where needed by drawing with the fine tipped pen (NB. Make sure it is suitable for colouring with alcohol pens without bleeding – test if unsure).
5. The image was then coloured with alcohol pens. I love the delicate transparent finish – perfect for delicate poppies. I used the new Chameleon pens with Color Tops. These enable really easy one step blending of one colour into the next. Leaves were coloured with YG3 and NU0 Color Top, Flowers with BL3 and PK3 Color Top, Buds with BL3 and NU0 Color Top, Butterfly with YL2 and and PK3 Color Top.
6. A little texture and extra shading was added where needed with coloured pencils. The sentiment was stamped with Versafine and heat embossed with clear powder to emphasise. The card was edged with black marker to frame and glued to the card front with 3D foam for added dimension.
7. The butterfly was stamped with Memento onto a spare scarp of card, coloured with alcohol pens and cut out. To enhance the butterfly details (the grey ink was a bit pale) I overstamped it with Versafine Ink.
8. A little metallic ink was used on the butterfly and stamens. Further sparkle was added with Stickles glue.

poppies (by Veronica)

  I am an absolute sucker for poppy stamps, so it was lovely to have these stamps back in the spotlight.
The butterfly poppy set is A4, so there are lots of images to play with. I used the large scripty image to make the background, stamped in hickory smoke distress ink and sponged witht he same ink.
I inked up the main image using distress markers, using one colour at a time and my stamping press to make sure the images matched! Doing it this way meant that the ink stayed damp, and any in the wrong place could be removed easily. This was on white card, sponged with wild honey distress ink after stamping and tearing round the image. I curled up some of the corners as well before gluing down

 The background here is grey again, leafy spray from take it or leaf it. Image from poppy meadow stamped in black versafine ink and coloured with watercolour pencils. Die cut in an oval shape, which was edged with black versafine by running the diecut along the pad.
three small gems to finish





Third card uses the script and poppy head stamps from butterfly poppy to create the background, stamped using wild honey distress ink and sponged edges with the same ink.

The main image was stamped with brown ink onto white card, sponged with the same ink on the harlequin bit and very lightly across the script to try to suggest antiquity. Pured with marker pens, then cut out and glued over the original image - I didn't try to cut the antenna out!

A very quick card using an image from pretty poppiespoppies , stamped using versamark and white embossing powder, then red and green distress inks sponged across the image















                                                                                               Lastly a card using another stamp from pretty poppies, stamped directly onto a 7"x5" card blank using black versafine ink, and coloured with watercolour pencils. Sentiment also on the same plate.
Another very quick card.

A few more cards ... (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with some of the projects made for Lesley's shows on Hochanda.

This first card was made using stamps from Nature's Peace. I began with a PanPastel background and stamped the tree using brown ink, the foliage in the top corner with green ink and then stamped the foliage in the foreground with a dark green ink, over stamping with the berried inked in red ink. The sentiment was stamped and embossed with a vintage gold ink.

This card features Butterfly Poppy Collage, I love this large image it's so pretty.

I made the background by swooshing some white card through Picked Raspberry and Peeled Paint distress inks misted with water on my craft mat. Once the ink was dry I used a harlequin stencil and glossy black stencil paste over the top. While that was drying I stamped the image and embossed with black embossing powder. I painted the image with watercolour painted and splattered a little paint here and there. I distressed the edges and layered it on black card. Lastly I assembled the card adding some pink organza ribbon and a big bow.

My last card today  uses the seed heads collage from Butterfly Poppy Collage. I stamped the image to the side of a linen card blank and then doodles the wiggly edges with a black micron pen. I painted the image with watercolour paints and added some paint splatters here and there before adding the sentiment which is from Pretty Poppies.

Thanks so much for visiting today

Claire xx

Harlequin Poppies (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have a project to share with you today that featured on last month's TV shows on Hochanda.

This project was created using the fabulous Drawing Cartridge paper, which is such a great product. I love to use smooth watercolour paper in a lot of my projects, which can be a bit pricy. Cartridge paper is a cheaper alternative, and this paper from the website is perfect for adding water, and lightweight enough for fussy cutting. It is smooth enough for stamping as well, so a good all rounder for your projects.

I started my project by blending bands of Distress Ink across the background, and then spritzed them with water for a mottled effect. Once the background had dried naturally, I added a circle mask, and stamped a harlequin image from the Harlequin Fragments stamp set around the masked area, using a deep red Distress Ink, mixed in with a little brown. I added some extra shading around the edge of the mask, before removing the mask.

On another piece of the cartridge paper, I added some colour using green, red, yellow and orange Distress Inks, and then stamped some of the flowers and a butterfly from the Butterfly Poppy Collage stamp set, using Versafine Onyx Black Ink. I heat set the images and cut them out. I stamped a sentiment from the Loving Sentiments stamp set into the circle aperture created underneath the mask, using the black ink as before.

I added large black brads to the flowers to give the illusion of the flowers being poppies, before attaching them to the card, and added some leafy die cuts. Finally, I adhered the background to a large black card blank.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

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.

Rainbow colours (by Magda)

Hello
Today I am sharing with you two projects I created with Butterfly Poppy Collage. This A4 plate has a lot of stamps, perfect for a mix and match.

Rainbow Flower :
1. Stamp the background in second generation with Distress Ink 
    Pad Black Soot
2. Colour several pieces of white cardstock with Brusho-watercolour using rainbow colours
3. Stamp with Versafine Onyx Black all the flowers on the rainbow coloured pieces, cut them out
    and create a layered flower using Ranger Triangular Collage Glue
4. Put a drop of Stickles Gold in the centre of the flower and Stickles Crystal on the petals
5. Prepare a mat blending Distress Ink Pad Old Paper and Antique Linen
6. Stamp with Distress Ink Pad in second generation the sentiment from the plate Words to Dazzle & 
    Sparkle with  Distress Ink Pad Black Soot and assemble the card.

Rainbow Butterfly  : materials for this card

1. Brusho-watercolour for the rainbow background
2. Versafine Onyx Black  for stamping the second big stamp from  Butterfly Poppy Collage and for the sentiment from  Loving Sentiments

Thank you for passing by and remember that you can find lots of fabulous projects from the Design Team of Chocolate Baroque, visiting https://chocolatebaroque.blogspot.co.uk/.   

Magda

Looking at the Little Stamps (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have a few projects to share with you today which were featured on Lesley's recent TV shows on Hochanda. I am focusing on the three DL sets that were on the show, using some of the little worker stamps, and showing how they can be used in a variety of ways.

For my first card, I created a very pale wrinkle free distress background, using a blue and lilac Distress Ink, before adding an oval mask over the top. I added a bit more Distress Ink, and some shading around the edge of the mask and the edge of the card with a deeper blue ink, to give the feeling of some shading and depth to the background. I also added a bit of grey pencil around the edge of the oval mask.

Using one of the silhouette images from the Autumn Hedgerow stamp set, I stamped over the background, using a variety of ink colours, using first and second generation stamping, to give a bit of depth to the background. I removed the mask, and stamped an image from the Pretty Poppies stamp set and added a sentiment from the same stamp set inside the oval. I coloured the image with Distress Inks and a waterbrush.

For my second project, I created a gelli plate background, by brayering some green Distress Ink onto my gelli plate, and then scrunched up a piece of cling film and dabbed some red Distress Ink onto the gelli plate with the cling film randomly. I took a print from the gelli plate and trimmed a piece of background to size. From the spare offcut, I stamped and embossed the two butterflies from the Butterfly Poppy Collage stamp set, using copper embossing powder, and added some extra colour, using Distress Ink.

I created another panel using green and orange Distress Ink, and then using a mixture of the small stamps from the Autumn Hegdrow stamp plate, I stamped and embossed the focal image using copper embossing powder. I added background stamping afterwards, using a mixture of Autumnal colours and first and second generation stamping, building up the design until I was happy with the result.

To create the card, I added some hessian ribbon and some olive green ribbon to tone in with the overall colours that I had used. I added my all time favourite sentiment, taken from the Nature's Peace stamp set.  I adore this sentiment, and love the opportunity to use it whenever I can.

For my final card, once I again, I created a gelli plate background, in much the same way as the previous card, using the same colours. From the offcut, I die cut a small rectancle, and stamped the small berry image from the Nature's Peace stamp set over the background, using second generation stamping, as I wanted a very pale effect. I stamped and embossed the verse from the stamp set, using dark brown ink and clear embossing powder.

For the main background, I stamped another small image, the leaves and nuts this time, again using brown ink. I coloured the images using pencils, for a vintage feel. I matted my layers using dark brown card, and created a very masculine card, great for lots of different occasions.

I hope that my projects have given you lots of ideas using these great little stamps, either by themselves, or mixing and matching with stamps from other stamp sets. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Autumn Day by Brenda

Good morning Peeps, today it's my turn to share some inspiration using stamps which Lesley showcased on Hochanda recently. The shows were all about Autumn, Trees and Poppies so ticked all the right boxes for me as I love working with Autumnal colours and as those who know me can confirm Poppies are my favourite flower plus I am a self confessed 'Treeaholic'.

For the card at the top I used three panels of cardstock and stamped two with images from the Autumn Edges set colouring with DI's and on the the third panel used the same inks to add the words using the Seasonal Journey stencil.

The lovely Poppy from Pretty Poppies is the focal image on this card, stamped with Versafine Black onto a watery Burosho background, I mopped quite a lot of the colour away as I wanted a subtle finish and then coloured the flowers with sparkly pens, stamping the Butterfly a second time to decoupage. The corners are from Baroque Corners stamped in the same black and then I added a few leaves using Useful Leaves stencil and ties some red ribbon and added a Poppy button.

The same stencil as the top card has been used along with DI's to create the background for this card and the for the focal panel I created a Brusho background and stamped one of the tree from Fantasy Woodland adding a few stenciled leaves using the Seasonal Elements stencil.......I can't begin to tell you how useful these stencils are for building up interest and colour on your artwork.

This is another sample from last weeks shows on Hochanda, this time using one of the images from Butterfly Poppy Collage stamp set, it's an A4 stamp sheet and you get absolutely loads of beautiful images. The background is Distress Oxides, stamped with Versafine black and the colour added to the Poppy heads using the same Wilted Violet ink and Glossy Accents added, plus a little stamping down the left edge, again using the same ink and stamps from Nature's Peace and the same set as the main image.

I am tentatively adding this one as Lesley asked if she could use it as the basis of one of her demos, however I will be away on holiday when the shows are aired and this post goes live so it may or may not have featured. Using a circle as a mask I stamped a selection of flora and fauna from Nature's Table, Nature's Peace and Poppy Meadow, inking with Distress Markers direct to stamp and a spritz of water before each stamping. The horse chestnuts in the corners were stamped with DI and are also from Natures Table. After stamping I removed the mask and used the negative to stamp the focal sentiment, again from Poppy Meadow and added some shading around the circle.

And as I seem to have quite a number of pieces in my gallery which have not been blogged as yet I thought I would share a few of them in this and my following few posts.

A triptych design which was for the August shows featuring the beautiful Harlequin Bouquet stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with detail copper powder on to a Oxide ink background and some stenciling to carry the harlequin design.

This one features the lovely Summer Fayre stamped onto black cardstock using Versamark and detail white embossing powder, then coloured into metallic pencils, the colour is quite subtle but I rather like the soft finish.

Have a lovely day, I am hoping mine will be warm and sunny as today we sail into Rhodes in the Greek Isles.