My Love is Yours card (by Anne)

Good morning. I am excited to share one of my samples for Lesley’s first TV shows on Hochanda at the start of the month. Lesley demonstrated several sets of stamps from Chocolate Baroque featuring a romantic theme with gorgeous roses and heartfelt sentiments. Great for creating projects for loved ones, Valentines Day, Weddings and Anniversaries too.

Materials:

• Harlequin Rose and Words of Love stamp sets
• 13.5 X 18 cm white card blank, white stamping card
• Inkpads: Versamark, Distress Ink (Victorian Velvet and Pumice Stone)
• WOW embossing powder (Metallic Gold Rich Super Fine)
• Alcohol pen (dark pink)
• Watercolour pen (dark pink)
• Organza ribbon (pink)

How to make:

Stamp the rose panel twice in Pumice Stone Distress Ink. Trim and edge with alcohol marker.

Lightly colour the roses with Victorian Velvet Distress Ink and blot with kitchen towel (to stop the stamped image from bleeding too much). Stamp the sentiment with Distress Ink. Attach the ribbon and glue to the card front.

Stamp the hearts with Versamark and emboss with gold powder. Colour with watercolour pen and a water brush. Cut out and apply to the card front. The large leafy heart was attached with 3D foam for added depth.

Infinite Love (by Asha)

Good morning, friends.  I'm back with another romantic creation using the lovely Harlequin Rose A4 stamp sheet.

I started by inking the background with Distress Inks: Chipped Sapphire, Dusty Concord, Seedless Preserves and Fossilised Amber and used a chicken wire stencil to add some interest.

Then I stamped the image on the with VersaFine Onyx Black, applying VersaFine Crimson Red on the bold letter. I added colour to the rose with Faber Castell Polychromos and lashings of clear glitter on the word "love". To finish the project - a few burgundy pearls.

This is a simple project but the colours add a touch of drama. I've got more details of tools and products over at my blog.

And make sure you swing by the DT blog often because at the rest of my talented teamies are creating projects that will amaze you. Trust me... I've had a sneak peak!

Have a LOVEly day!

Beijinhos,

Asha

blue roses (by Veronica)

For one of the samples for Lesley's first show on Hochanda I made this small  notebook.

The cover was covered using  tissue paper coloured with brusho powders and crumpled up, glued on to the cover with modge podge. I used purple and turquoise powders.
The plaque used soft form relief paste and mica powders. I brushed the powders over the rose and leaves of the rose script stamp before adding the relief paste and leaving it to dry overnight. Once it was dry and peeled off the stamp, it was glued on using pva glue.
The mica powders are absorbed by the paste, and will not brush off - you will get a stained stamp though, but it will clean off.



close-up of the plaque, and the open notebook














The large 8" square card used the large stamp from the harlequin rose set, coloured with blue and green brusho powders, with grey powder for the background, and gold mica powders for the swirl. The large lacy border was stamped onto the base card using broken china distress ink, whicgh was also sponged round the edges.
Card mats were gold, green and blue.


The last one is red, not blue and shows the lid of a snall hexagonal box also covered with crumpled tissue paper.
I stamped the large image from harlequin rose three times, coloured it with promarkers, cut out the rose and decoupaged it. The 'raindrops' are glossy accents.





Lesley will be back on Hochanda at the end of the month  with a one-day special, featuring some really lovely stamps that are a little bit different, so check the programme listings for times, you won't want to miss this one!

Meanwhile, my team-mates have some lovely samples to show you using the roses.............

Hearts and Flowers (by Julie)

Hello, I hope you are enjoying the romance theme that we have for you this month. The stamps are some of my favourite, especially the lovely new Belle Flower background stamp that the centre piece of this decorative frame has been created with.

For this piece I first added a good coat of white Gesso to the picture frame and once dry, sponged on some gold and silver Aztec paint. To protect the finish I gave the painted frame a good coat of Acrylic Wax.

The background was all stamped with Sepia Versafine and I used the really lovely rose stamp from Harlequin Rose and over stamped it with the Love sentiment from Words of Love.

For the hearts I melted some clear and silver ultra thick embossing enamel in a melt pot and poured through a metal, heart shaped cookie cutter that I had placed on the Belle Flower background stamp. Once the enamel cools enough to remove the cookie cutter and stamp, dust the stamped image with copper mica powder and spritz with water to set.

Assemble the frame and adhere the hearts with 3d glue gel.

Many thanks for taking a peek.

Julie x 

Rose on blue (by Magda)

For my second "Romance" project you can see how with a few items you can create a unique romantic card.

Step by Step
1.  Apply Distress Inkpad Salty ocean and Picked Raspberry directly onto a craft sheet and spritz the
     colours with water
2.  Pick up the colours with a white cardstock mat till you are happy with the result and dry the mat completely with the heat tool
3.  Stamp with Versafine Onyx Black the lace decoration of Harlequin Rose Rubber Stamp Sheet A4 
     as second or third generation stamping on the mat, in order to have a very pale black colour
4.  Stamp with Versafine Onyx Black the rose image with the written text behind
5.  Apply Soft Form Relief Paste - Pearl through the Tando Creative Mask - Harlequin randomly and let it dry.
6.  Put some Stickles - Crystal on the rose
7.  Glue the mat on your card



   

Have fun this month with "Romance" Chocolate Baroque products.

Magda

Leafy Trails card and gift box (by Anne)

Good morning. I am excited to share one of my samples for Lesley’s first TV shows on Hochanda at the start of the month. Lesley demonstrated several sets of stamps from Chocolate Baroque featuring a romantic theme with gorgeous roses and heartfelt sentiments. Great for creating projects for loved ones, Valentines Day, Weddings and Anniversaries too.

I have used the Big Bold Backgrounds Leafy Trails stamp to create this card and to decorate a small gift box to match. I embellished using the Rose Stem Script stamp and a sentiment from the Words of Love set.

Materials:

• Big Bold Backgrounds Leafy Trails, Rose Stem Script, Harlequin Rose (small border) and Words of Love stamp sets
• 6 X 6 inch scalloped white card blank, white stamping card and small gift box (white card)
• Inkpads: Versamark and dye based (teal)
• WOW embossing powder (Metallic Gold Rich Super Fine)
• Alcohol pen (teal)
• Water based sparkle pens (teal, pink and clear), watercolour pen (dark pink)
• Fine ribbon (teal)
• Spray varnish with mica

How to make:

Stamp the leafy background with Versamark and heat emboss with gold powder. Trim stamping card to fit the card blank leaving a small border. Round the corners with a punch or scissors. Edge with the alcohol marker.

Open out the box and lay flat. Mine was cut on the Silhouette Cameo, but you could use a die cut or a ready-made plain box. My box measured approx. 30 X 21 cm when opened out. Stamp and emboss the box sides with the leafy stamp.

Colour the card front and box with sparkle pens. Spray with a coat of sparkle varnish. Glue the background mat to the card front.

Cut a strip of card, stamp the sentiment and small border with teal ink. Trim and edge with alcohol pen. Attach to card front with 3D foam.

Stamp the rose panel in Versamark Ink and emboss with gold powder. Colour with watercolour and sparkle pens (both are water based so can be used together). Cut out the rose and lightly shape. Tie on a ribbon and glue to the card with 3D glue gel.

Leafy Hearts Of Gold (by Asha)

Hello, there! It may be Friday the 13th.... but it's a good day for crafting! Make sure you catch our lovely Lesley Wharton on Hocahnda TV. She'll be showcasing the stamps I used for my project today and many more gorgeous Chocolate Baroque stamps you'll recognise.

Today's card is a big one at 5½" square. I started by inking the card with Aged Mahogany Distress Ink and stamping Big Bold Background Belle Flowers with the same ink.

Next I heat embossed the leafy heart from Harlequin Rose with WOW Gold Rich Embossing Powder onto burgundy card stock and used coloured pencils to lift the gorgeous design. Then I fussy cut the hearts and adhered them to the card base.

I've got more details of tools and products over at my blog. And don't forget to swing by the DT blog often because at the rest of my talented teamies have some amazing projects up their sleeves.

And remember ... Lesley is on Hocahnda TV with these stamps and more!

Beijinhos,
Asha

Harlequin rose (by Veronica)

Today I am sharing some of the samples from last week's great tv show, I thought the set looked fabulous, hope you did too!

For all of of these I used the lovely large stamp from
Harlequin rose, stamped onto white card with black versafine and clear embossed, and then brusho powders.


For this one I stamped the image twice, and added lemon and red brusho to the rose on one image, spritzed with water and cut it out when dry. Glued over the matching part of the second image, swirl painted with mica powder using a waterbrush.







This one I used lemon, red and lime green over the rose and leaves and spread the colour using a damp paintbrush. Grey powder over the background, again using the paintbush to spread it, and more gold mica on the swirl.


Card blank this time was 8" square, with the sentiment and heart from words of love stamped at the bottom left.






More 'traditonal '  use of brsuho on this one, with lemon, leaf green and red sprinkled over, trying to keep the red and green over the rose and leaves, then spritzing with water.


There are some really stunning samples still to show you from the rest of the team, so keep checking to see them, you won't regret it!

Glittering Heart (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with a project made using stamps from Harlequin Rose. 

I made a shadow box using a distress ink background stamped with the gorgeous large lace stamp from Harlequin Rose. I added some gold glitter paste around the edges and painted the aperture with gold acrylic paint. 

I made the heart by inking up the ornate heart stamp (again from Harlequin Rose) with red ink and the applying a thick layer of gold glitter paste with a spatula. I left it for a couple of days to dry and then peeled the heart away and glued it in the aperture.

I added ribbon around the edge of the box, some paper flowers (dabbed with gold glitter paste) and a little bottle of love potion (well really it's diluted distress reinker lol).

I hope you're enjoying all the fabulous inspiration from my teamies, we're definitely in the mood for love this month lol

Claire xx

Variations on a Theme (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope that you are enjoying our romantic projects this month, and that we are giving you lots of ideas for those special occasions for which you might need to make cards and gifts.

I have two cards to share with you today using the same stamps, but varying the ideas to give two completely different looks.

For my first card, I stamped and embossed the large lacy border and the small heart image from the Harlequin Rose stamp set, using Versamark and clear embossing powder onto a piece of smooth card, which I had cut slightly smaller than my card blank. I coloured the background using a range of Distress Inks, blending them where they met, to create a graduated background.

I ironed the embossing powder off the card using some cheap copy paper underneath the iron to absorb the embossing powder, (remembering to turn off the steam!). I spritzed the background lightly with some water, to create a slightly mottled effect. I stamped the large 'love' from the Words of Love stamp set and added some cream seam binding before attaching the background to the card blank.

To create my second card, I used the same small heart image, and stamped it randomly onto a scrap piece of black card. This time, I used some sparkly red embossing powder, for maximun impact. I added some red card as a matting layer behind the background before I attached it to a white card blank. I stamped the large 'love' using red ink.

The second card was a very quick card to make, and would make a super Valentine's card for the man in your life, whereas the first card is much more feminine, with the vibrant colours. I hope that I have shown you how versatile these stamps can be. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Harlequin Heart (by Julie)

Hello and welcome. Today I have a piece of home decor to show you, made with the beautiful Harlequin Rose set that  Lesley featured on her recent Hochanda debut shows. Did you get to see them? I hope you did as both shows were fantastic and packed full of demos and Design Team inspiration.

The picture frame I used is a 4" x 6" size that I picked up at my local supermarket for around a £1.00 in one of their sales but anything you have in a similar size would work. I covered the frame with a green and yellow acrylic paint and after it was dry applied gold gilding wax over the top. To add to the aged look I dabbed specks of black acrylic paint around the frame and then smudged them with a cloth.

I then rolled out some white polymer clay, inked up the heart stamp with black Versafine and stamped into the clay. Carefully remove the stamp and cut around the design with a craft knife. 

Before baking the clay in accordance with the packet instructions, place small sausage like shapes of rolled up tin foil underneath the parts of the clay heart that you want to be raised.

Once baked and cooled, colour with alcohol ink and add gold gilding wax to finish.

The background was stamped with the tassel border and coloured with Distress inks.

Assemble the frame and adhere the clay heart in place with 3d glue gel. 

Thanks for popping in and please call back soon to see more Design Team inspiration.

Julie x

Harlequin Rose card and gift box (by Anne)

Good morning. I am excited to share one of my samples for Lesley’s first TV shows on Hochanda today. I am looking forward to being able to see more fabulous demos from this talented lady. Lesley will be bringing some gorgeous sets of stamps from Chocolate Baroque featuring a romantic theme with gorgeous roses and heartfelt sentiments. Great for creating projects ready for Valentines Day, but also suitable for Weddings and Anniversaries too.

I have used stamps from the Harlequin Rose set to create this card and to decorate a small gift box to match.

Materials:

• Stamp Sets: Harlequin Rose and Words of Love (small heart stamp)
• 19 X 15cm white card blank, white stamping card and small gift box and tags (white card)
• Inkpads: Distress Ink (Victorian Velvet), Versamark and Versafine (Vintage Sepia)
• WOW embossing powder (Metallic Gold Rich Super Fine)
• Water based sparkle pens (teal and clear)
• Fine ribbons (teal) and fabric rose (pink)

How to make:

Trim stamping card to fit the card blank leaving a small border. Stamp the decorative border with Versamark and heat emboss with gold powder.

Open out the box and lay flat. Mine was cut on the Silhouette Cameo, but you could use a die cut or a ready-made plain box. My box measured approx. 20cm square when opened out. Stamp and emboss the box sides with the border stamp.

Colour the card front and box with Distress Ink using a sponge. Colour the border flowers with teal sparkle ink.

Stamp the sentiment onto the card front with Distress Ink. Stamp the mini border with teal ink. Distress the card edges and glue to the card front. I used the edge of my scissors to do this.

Stamp 2 mini tags with the small heart and emboss with gold, emboss along the edges too. Colour with Distress Ink and then with teal pen. Add ribbon and fabric rose and glue in place on the box and card.

Stamp the rose panel in Versafine ink and trim fit on the card front. Ink the card edges with Distress Ink and roughen.

Colour the leaves with teal and clear sparkle pens. Colour the rose with Distress Ink; applying to a palette and picking up colour with a water brush. Brush over the highlights with clear sparkle pen. Attach to the card front with 3D foam.

new dawn (by Veronica)

2017 sees a new start for Chocolate Baroque, when Lesley has her first show on Hochanda on Wednesday - I shall be firmly glued to the tv at 1100 and 1700 to see what new techniques she comes up with!
When sorting out my craft space post-Christmas, I found loads of stash, including some little (if at all, to be honest) used stamps, that were must-haves at the time that got sidelined....I am sure we all have them somewhere! I decided to use a couple of them and have a quick play among the chaos, and this is one of the results.
The main stamp is from owl edges, and the sentiment from see beauty - I usually give sentiment stamps a miss as I can almost guarantee I won't stamp them straight, but clear stamps are a help, and I manage to get them a lot straighter than otherwise, so risked adding this one to the card blank......

Background using distress inks, narrow black mat on a 5"x7" white card blank.

The main focus of the DT this month is romance, and here is my first 'official' sample, using the lovely harlequin rose stamps.It has been around for a while, but is such a useful set for general cards, not only for Valentine cards.
I stamped the main stamp with black versafine, clear embossed it before adding colour with brusho powders, and mica powder for the swirl in the corner. Background stamp from the same set, stamped with wild honey distress ink, which was also brushed round the edges.

I hope you all have a very happy, healthy and crafty new year.
Veronica

Happy New Year!!

Good morning and Happy New Year to you! 2017 is going to be a very exciting year at Chocolate Baroque as Lesley has some fabulous crafty treats lined up for us and of course it's not long to wait until the first Chocolate Baroque show on Hochanda!

Our theme this month is Romance and my teamies have created some stunning projects to inspire you as it won't be long until Valentine's Day!

I really enjoyed making this card and began by stamping one of the large stamps from Harlequin Rose A4 stamp sheet to create my background. I used black archival ink and both first and second generation stamping to create a random effect. I stamped the sentiment (from the same set) with a hot pink ink. 

To make the focal image I took my non stick craft mat and applied versamark ink with my inkpad directly to the mat. I applied clear Ultra Thick Embossing powder and heated to create a clear 'puddle' on my mat. I repeated this three times and then used hot pink embossing powder for my final layer. While the embossing powder was still hot I stamped into it with the rose script stamp that I'd inked with Black Archival ink. I gave it a few minutes to cool and removed the stamp, adding a little silver gilding wax to highlight the texture. Once it was completely cool I carefully lifted it from my craft mat and stuck it to my card with mat gel medium.

To finish the card off I added some ribbon and a paper flower.

We'd all like to wish you and your families a happy, healthy and creative New Year

Claire xx

Roses in Bloom (by Lesley Ebdon)

Wow, where is this year going???  I can't believe it's 6 months since it was last my turn as a 'part-timer' on the blog and here we are over half way to (dare I say it) Christmas!

Anyway, today I have a very feminine card to share with you using a colour combination I love but rarely use.  I've used some of the fabulous DecoArt Antiquing Cream, acrylic chalk paints and Archival Ink for stamping.

The background is created with a selection of chalk acrylic paints scraped on randomly with a credit card, followed by stencilling and a little stamping.  The roses are coloured with the same paints plus a few highlights of Inktense Pencils.

As always there are more details of how I created my card over on my own blog and I'd love to see you over there but the stamps I used are Crackling Rose, another rose from the Harlequin Rose A4 set, small swirl stamp from Artistic Affirmations and sentiment from Words of Inspiration.

See you again next Wednesday with something very different to this card ;-).

Hugs
Lesley  Xx


I added some delicate dried flower sprays and pearl trim from my stash.

favourite flowers (by Veronica)

This rose image from the harlequin rose set of stamps has to be one of my favourites, it is a lovely big image, and doesn't really need anything else to make a card - very useful when you need a card in a hurry!
I used a fairly heavy white card to stamp and emboss the image, then added another favourite, brusho powders. I used the dinky spoons that were on the website last year, and sprinkled yellow, orange and green powders onto roughly appropriate areas of the stamp, then heavily spritzed it with  water, using enough water to let the colours spread out around the image.
Once it was dry, it was trimmed down, matted onto black card, then onto a white 5"x7" card blank.

Another very simple card using another of my favourites from pretty poppies this time.
Again stamped and embossed in black, then sponged with distress inks. Sentiment is from mackintosh sentiments set of clear stamps- so much easier to get the sentiment in the right place with clear stamps!

Everyone has been busy looking out old favourites, maybe one of yours will be next!

Veronica

Love, Clean & Simple! (by Maria)

Hello everyone, I hope you are fine and I wish you a lot of love!
I have some more samples to show you, this time I made some clean and simple cards with the new stampset. We don't have always so much time, but still it's so nice to give a card that we made ourselves.

 

I used some silver embossing powder and Versamark to stamp the images on black cardstock. I stamped the heart on white paper with blue Memento Ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder, cut it out and with 3D tape I placed it on my card. Then the words and the borders of my black card I also embossed with the same silver embossing powder, nice isn't it?

For this card I used some different colours but I worked the same way , as before.
I hope you like my samples and I hope you find some inspiration to show your love!

Greetings
Maria

Patchwork Landscape - By Florence

Hi everyone

It's a beautiful day on the mountain today.  Spring has arrived.  The daffs are out and the mountain side is covered with almond blossom.  It just looks like there are giant clusters of candy floss dotted about.  I love this time of year.

Here are two  project I have made using the Patchwork Landscape stamps.

For these have gone for bold colors.

 I stamped my main image onto coated card stock using black Staz-On.  Whilst that was drying I stamped the same image onto some masking tape and cut it out.

I masked my image and started to color the card using Scattered Straw and Wild Honey distressing inks and a piece of Cut n Dry Foam.  

I removed the mask and started coloring the image.  I used felt pens to color the image.  I created high lights by taking off some of the ink with a damp paint brush and I also added shade by adding just a little bit of dark ink to certain areas using again using a damp paint brush.

When the ink was dry,  I placed the mask back on the colored image and  I stamped the script using  black Staz-On.  

I edged the main stamped piece of card with gold pen and then mat and layered my card.

I stamped a sentiment, using a stamp from The Harlequin Rose Stamp sheet, onto white card stock, trimmed it and edged it with gold pen.  I then mat and layered this onto my card.

For the second card.  I made the topper for this card in exactly the same way as the card above.

I cut out my shape.  I cut the lid out from mirror board and rubbed over it with sand paper to make it look more realistic.

The tag is from some pretty papers from my stash and I have just attached it with some string.  

For the background on this, I masked my trees and flowers and used Pumice distressing ink and one of the background stamps from the Abstract Fragments stamp sheet.

Well I think that is all from me today.

I am off to do some work in the garden.

Take care all and happy crafting.

Florence x

A Valentine Gift (posted by Judith)

Hi Folks, I'd like to show you a project that I have made using the Rose Thistle stamp set, which is currently stamp set of the month.

I have created a book card, using some Kraft card as a base, and then printed the Love Letters download, stamping the large single rose a couple of times, and colouring this with pencils. I stamped and cut out the heart rose image which I also coloured with pencils as before.

I lined the inside of the book with the same download design, and created a niche in which to place a small gift or some chocolates.

I have used a sentiment from the Harlequin Rose stamp plate on the front of the book card to finish.

I hope that this has given you some inspiration, please pop back to see more samples from myself and my design team mates. Thanks for stopping by, Judith, xx