Pretty Poppies Card (by Carole)

Hello everyone, this month, we have three inspirational posts from our Guest Design Team member Carole Cann. Carole has created a beautiful card for her first post using a mixture of poppy stamps, (my favourite flower), and here is what she has to say:

Hello everyone,

I am delighted to be doing another series of projects for the Guest Design Team post this month.
My Pretty Poppies card was inspired by one I received many years ago with this colour combination.
Red and gold with brown are not colours I would normally use. Not the brown, anyway! But it works.
When I used these lovely poppy stamps I realized they would be perfect for a design I had in mind. So here it is.

I stamped the corners with Versamark and embossed them onto a piece of card 12.5 cms x 14.5 cms, (5 inches x 5 3/4 inches), leaving a gap between, to put the central poppy panel over.
This has been given an edging with a gold gel pen and mounted onto red card.
The poppy is embossed with the same gold, then coloured with red and green pearlescent paint, which gives it a lovely shimmer.
I used tiny sequin waste and a gold inkpad to make a slight pattern around the poppies. I trimmed the panel to size and mounted it onto gold card.
I then added glazing with Glossy Accents.
The photo does not do the embossing powder justice, as it has a lovely delicate glint to it.
The Best Wishes has been stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink and clear embossed.
I am going to try and make more cards with similar colours as I think they would be great for Golden or Ruby Wedding Anniversary cards.

Stamps used: Pretty Poppies
Poppy Meadow- corners
Loving Sentiments- words
Versamark inkpad
Versafine Onyx Black inkpad
Jeweled gold embossing powder
Clear embossing powder
Brown, red and gold card
Pearlescent paints
Glossy Accents
Tiny sequin waste strip
Gold inkpad

Thank you for looking and see you next week with another project.

Happy crafting, Carole.

Wish Flower (by Anne)

Good morning. I created this one with the Wish Flower stamp.

I used Memento dye based ink for stamping which is compatible with alcohol inks that I used for colouring. I used Chameleon pens which make blending of different colours really easy.

After colouring I added some highlights with a silver pen and added a layer of clear sparkle pen overlay for shimmer.

The background was created with Distress Ink (a little water was flicked over the background and blotted off with tissue to create a little texture). I added alcohol ink to the edge to frame before gluing to the card front.

Materials:

• Wish Flower stamp 
• 6 X 6 inch white card blank and white stamping card
• Inkpads: Memento (Tuxedo Black), Distress Ink (Peacock Feathers)
• Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen (Clear Overlay)
• Metallic Glitter Pen (Silver)
• Chameleon Alcohol Ink Pens (PK3 with BG3 top)
• Marker pen (black)

medici flower by Veronica

More samples using the lovely flower stmaps from last month's Hochanda shows

 I loved this stamp with the script background, and it really does not need anything other than a bit of colouring in.
For the first one I thought I would go for opulent, so stamped it with versamark onto black card and gold embossed it before painting with pealescent paints.
Cut it down, added a gold and black matt and mounted onto a 7"square white card blank - job done!







The second card I stamped onto a piece of kraft card again with versamark and embossed in white. Painted the flowers again, but this time tore round the image and sponged the torn edges with vintage photo distress ink.
The white card blank was randomly stamped with the flowers using vintage photo again, using the stamp without the block so only part of the image stamped. edges sponged with more vintage photo

Book of Flowers (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have a project to share with you today showcasing all of the beautiful stamps featured in the Anniversary shows in January on Hochanda. I hope you managed to catch the shows, they seemed to go in a flash, and Lesley and I were overwhelmed by your enthusiasm for all of the products that we brought to share with you!

My project is a concertina book, made with two pieces of whiteboard for the covers, which I have covered with some lovely patterned paper by Crafty Individuals. I stamped one of the images, minus the words onto the cover, and coloured it with the woodless pencils that we also featured on the show.

I created some pages for the book using smooth watercolour paper, but the cartridge paper that is available on the website would work equally as well. Each page measures 10.5 cms x 14 cms, and I allowed an extra panel to join the sections together each time. I decorated the back of the pages using Distress Ink, and stamped the words from several of the images on top, creating a tone on tone effect.

On each page front, I stamped a different flower image, and coloured these with Distress Inks, keeping to a common colour theme throughout.

As I assembled the book, I added some ribbon, which allowed the book to be tied shut with a bow. This was such a fun project to make, and would be a lovely keepsake for someone special.

Thanks for stopping by,

Judith xx

Floral delights by Zoe

Good morning Lovelies, I hope everyone is fine and dandy. So today I’m sharing some of my samples from the last Hochanda shows that featured the beautiful colouring pages and flower stamps, totally Devine designs, so versatile.

I made a card out of my smaller Colouring page which I’d coloured using water soluble crayons.

I used a Greyboard heart from the website to create this little decoration, I used Distress Oxides blended to colour the background, simple heat embossing in gold and decoupaged, some gold Gilding wax to edge the heart and voila!

I hope you like my creations? Thank you so much for your kind comments, have a wonderful day xx Zoe xx 

Friendship by Brenda

Good morning, today I would like to share a few of my samples from Lesley's Hochanda shows which celebrated Chocolate Baroque's first Birthday with the channel when viewers were treated to some wonderful new floral stamps and colouring pages.

This release was right up my street and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed making these samples and it was only time that prevented me making more.

So to my first card at the top uses the beautiful Medici Flower. On this occasion I only wanted to use the focal flower so I used sticky notes to cover the areas around the flower, inked it with Versafine Black, removed the masks and followed the same process three times. I then masked the  individual stamped flowers and stamped the Poppy heads from Poppy Meadow along with a inspirational quote from Pretty Poppies. Next I flicked some watery distress ink onto the white space and finally coloured the blooms with sparkle pens.

I really love this image, it's called Mosaic Flower but to me it yells out Chinese Lanterns. I stamped the image with Versamark and heat embossed with detail gold powder, coloured the flower hears with pencils and rubbed some gilding wax around the edges. Some twine and a button tied around before matting onto a pieced of corrugated and then the base card.

I painted this little box with acrylic and shimmer paints, then used a stencil and texture paste to add some flourishes. When dry I used a slightly darker pain to highlight the stenciled patterns and added gilding flakes here are there and along the opening edges. The flowers on the top were cut from one of the colouring pages, coloured in with pencils and fixed to the top along with some die cut leaves.

My final share today used the new Floral Delight stamp which I stamped once, masked and then stamped part of the stamp a second time and coloured in with pencils.  Using a mask I added some sun rays and stamped three of the words from Wish Flower, cut out and added individually to the finished piece.  

Thank you so much for popping in today.

Bird of Joy / Wish Flower ( by Marga)

Hello lovely people today it's my turn to show you something that I made.

Today I want to show you two cards that I made for the January Hochanda TV shows.

Both of the cards I stamped with Versafine Onyx Black Ink and I coloured both of the cards with my pencils.

Stamps I used are: Bird of Joy and Wish Flower.

Hugs Marga

January's Blog Comment Winner

Hello everyone, apologises for the late posting of the blog comment winner, however it does mean that I get the chance to add a little reminder that Lesley and Judith are on Hochanda TV today. Their shows are 8 am followed by another show at 11 am. Don't worry if you miss the shows as you can see them on catch up, over on Hochanda's website.

We truly appreciate the time you take to let us know your thoughts about our designs, so each and every comment is very important to us.

Each comment in January was assigned a number and we used Random Org to draw a winner.

Congratulations to CraftyJo, you have won this months £15.00 voucher to spend on Chocolate Baroque stamps. To claim your prize, CraftyJo please email here to confirm your email address and Lesley will send your gift certificate to you.

Lesley will be giving another £15 gift voucher to another lucky winner drawn from February's comments. The more comments you leave the better your chances of being the winner.

Thank you so much for all the kind comments you leave.

Good luck from the Design Team.

Floral Joy (by Julie)

Hello, hope you are well. Today I have a couple of cards created with the new and rather fabulous individual stamps that come from a collection of six individual A6 size designs.

My first card is stamped with Bird of Joy. I simply stamped the design onto water-colour card, using Onyx Black Versafine ink, before colouring with water-colour paints. Once the main image was dry I then went around the design with a light brown water-colour and then splatted with blue and red water-colour paint. I  cut the water-colour card to fit my card blank, before edging with blue Distress ink and mounting onto my card that had been dabbed with matching blue Distress ink.

My second card has been created with Floral Delights. 

I started by applying masking tape around the edge of my card blank, before stamping the main image. The background has been coloured with Distress ink and the smaller flowers were coloured with pencils. 

I then inked up the stamp again, but making sure permanent ink such as Staz-on was used and stamped onto acetate. Cut out the three large flower heads and colour the reverse side with blue and purple glitter glue.

Remove the masking tape and when the glittered flowers are dry, mount onto the front of the card with 3d foam pads.

Thanks for stopping by. Please call back for daily Design Team inspiration.

Julie xx

A bag for a book (by Dominike)

Hello

Today I invite you in my art studio transformed into embroidery workshop. This little fabric bag is the real size for a book.

Bonjour, aujourd'hui, je vous invite dans mon atelier transformé en atelier de broderie. Ce petit sac en tissu est parfait pour transporter un livre.

1- Stamp the flowers without the words.
2- Embroider it with stem stitch.
3- Saw the bag.

1- Tamponner les fleurs sans les mots
2- Broder au point de tige
3- Coudre le sac.

Have a good day. Kind regards.

Que cette journée vous soit profitable.

Valentine (By Magda)

In a few days Cupid will shoot an arrow from his bow and I have already prepared this card for my Valentine.

Step by Step:

1. Cut a piece of white Cardstock  23cms x11.5cms and score it at 13.5 cms
2. Fold the card on the scored line
3. Stamp the French Heart with Archival Ink Jet Black and colour the flower with watercolor   
    pencils
4. Repeat point 3. colouring the flower with another colour and cut it out.
5. Stencil the inside of the card blending small hearts using Distress Ink Pad blue and pink
6. Stamp on the hearts in second generation the sentiments from the Loving Sentiments stamp plate
7. Glue the decoupage flower on the left side of the card
8. Use Stickles crystal on the stems  to give a nice light to both flowers

Thank you for passing by

Magda

Mosaic Flower Wish (by Anne)

Ooops – I mixed up my dates and just realised that it’s today and not Monday for my turn to blog! Sorry to be a few hours late today folks x.

Here is one of my samples using the lovely Mosaic Flower stamp. A fabulous stamp for creating easy projects as the background has already been done for you. I also used a pretty background paper from Crafty Individuals (Travels in Italy).

I stamped the Mosaic Flower onto the background paper and onto a scrap of stamping card with Versamark Ink and heat embossed using WOW Embossing Powder (White). The flower buds were cut out ready to decoupage. I also stamped and embossed the sentiment from the Wish Flower stamp.
I brushed a little Peacock Feathers Distress Ink over the sentiment to make it stand out more from the background (the embossing resists water based inks). The panel was edged with alcohol ink pen to frame.

Flowers and stems were coloured with watercolour pens and overlaid with a bit of yellow alcohol pen (note: this tints the white embossing). The cut out buds were lightly shaped and glued onto the card front using 3D glue gel for added depth.

wish flower (by Veronica)

I have two of the samples from the last tv show to show you today, using the beautiful wish flower stamp. This stamp is now my new
go-to stamp, as it is suitable for lots of different occasions - I have used it for both new year and get well cards for example.

This was a very simple and fairly quick card.
I started with a 6" square black blank card, and stamped the image with versamark before adding gold embossing powder.
The flowers were painted using some very ancient pearlescent paints







Thge second card looks even simpler, but was actually a rescue! Stamped onto white card and silver embossed, but I messed up the lettering (if I had used my stamping platform I would have been able to reink the words and restamp them) - so I fussy cut the image out after colouring with waterclour pencils , and mounted it onto black card. The word that did stamp clearly I cut out and mounted in the corner.

A Box Full of Wishes and Hope.

                             

Hi and a very good morning to you all.  It's my turn to share a project with you today, one of my samples from Chocolate Baroque's recent shows featuring the beautiful new floral stamps.   

I began this project by painting a plain wooden box with a coat of black gesso.  I then used black Versafine ink to stamp the Wish Flower image, including the words, onto the top of the box.  I used clear powder to emboss the images and repeated this on the sides, using single flower heads.  I was able to do this by not using any blocks to stamp with, just the rubber stamp in my hand.  

When all the images were stamped and embossed I painted them with acrylic paints and added gold dots with a pen.  I like the way this gives a 'folk art' look to the flowers.  I then painted gold acrylic around the words to make them pop, and painted the inside of the box gold as well.  I added a die cut sprig of foliage, which I had painted gold, as a finishing touch.

This is a lovely little project that is quick and relatively easy to do, I hope some of you will be inspired to have a go too! 

There are more details and photos on my blog.
So until next time my lovelies,

Penny

All Worries Wash Away (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I am closing out the month with a couple more watery creations for you, using the sea themed stamp sets that we have been showcasing all month.

My first card was created by making a background using Distress Inks in shades of blue, yellow, pink and green. I stamped the shells from the Seaside Dreams stamp set, and masked the image before adding the second image behind. I painted both images and then added some pencil detail and white highlights. Finally, I stamped the sentiment onto three pieces of scrap card, and attached these to the background.

For my second card, I used a background from my stash that had been made by painting Brushos over the background with lots of water to make a colour wash. Sea salt had been sprinkled over the top and left to dry, which had created small bubbles randomly over the background.

I added some stencilling using coordinating Distress Ink, and stamped the small seahorse using first and second generation stamping. I added some stamping along the bottom using stamps from the Mermaid Queen and Underwater stamp sets. The bubbles were created by dipping a pen lid into white acrylic paint, and pressing it onto the background.

I stamped the large seahorse onto a scrap of card, another background left over from a previous project, and cut the image out, leaving a small border around the edge. I attached the image to the background, and added a sentiment from the Seaside Dreams stamp set. Finally, I edged the background with teal ink, before adhering it to a white card blank.

We hope that you have enjoyed our nautical creations this month, and hope that they have inspired you to try some of our ideas yourselves. Look out for some floral inspiration next month, based on the sell out shows at the beginning of January on Hochanda.

Don't forget that there is a callout for new members for our Guest Design Team. Do check out the post on the Shop Blog for details of how to apply. The deadline is 23rd February, so there is plenty of time to apply. We are a really friendly Team to work with, and you could get to see some of your designs on the TV!

Thanks for stopping by,

Judith xx

Underwater delights by Zoe

Good morning and welcome to my final post this month, gosh hasn’t that gone fast? Looking forward to spring now!

My first card I used Distress Oxides on my craft mat and spritzed with water, this is called “wrinkle free Distress technique” I did it one colour at a time, drying between each layer so I didn’t get mud, and simply stamped the fab seahorse in Black Onyx Versafine Inkpad and coloured parts of it using a Liquid Chrome marker pen, some faux stitching using a white gel pen to add some finishing off.

My second card I used a gel transfer to stamp my image and hot foil using my laminator and simply blended Distress inks over, the foil creating a resist, I added some water droplets and dried, another very simple card. 

Thank you for visiting and leaving your lovely comments, I really appreciate it.

Have a wonderful day xx Zoe xx

Live in the Sunshine by Brenda

Hello everyone, I hope you are ready for a little more inspiration from the seaside and I hope the thought will warm you all a little during these cold dark January days.

The card above was created my using distress inks and a stencil to make the rope frame, then with the frame still in place I stamped the scene from Seashore Scenes using Versafine black  and coloured the scene with pencils and a little shading using Pan pastels. The quote is from the same stamp set.

Here I have used  a mixture of stamps from Seaside Dreams and Seashore Scenes, stamping all with Versafine black, extending the sky line with a fine marker pen and adding colour with pencils and Pan Pastels. The top sentiment comes from the same sets and the Birthday greeting from Birthday Words.

My final card uses another of the images from Seaside Dreams stamp set, again stamped with Versafine black and coloured in with sparkle pens and matted and layered with coordinating card. The sentiment is from Seashore Scenes.

I hope you all have a good week and find time for some stamping and crafting.

Happy Birthday (by Marga)

Here I am again to show you something that I made for the shows Lesley presented in December.

I made this card by stamping the shells on white paper and colouring them with my pencils. I cut them out and placed them on a piece of kraft paper.

All you need now is a sentiment and the card is ready.

Stamps I used are: Birthday Words, Mermaid Queen, Underwater

Big hugs

Marga

Seaside Delights (by Julie)

Hello, thanks for popping in. 

I have three seaside themed cards to show you so I will get straight on and show my first card:

The background is Distress inks and then over-stamped with the shell and star fish from Underwater

The main image is a selection of shells stamped and masked from Underwater as before and then whilst all the masks are still in place, stamp the large single cling Ammonite shell over the top. When the masks are removed the large shell will appear to have been stamped behind the other smaller shells. The little star fish was stamped onto separate card, coloured with water-colour and then cut out and mounted onto the main image with 3d pads.

The sentiment is from Birthday Words.

My second card is a very simple stamp and colour card. 

The Ammonite shell was repeatedly stamped over the background and shaded with pencil. The lighthouse and seagull are from Seashore Scenes and were stamped onto separate stamping card with Onyx Black Versafine, before being coloured with pencils, cut out and mounted onto black card-stock.

The card was finished off with a sentiment from Seashore Scenes.

My third and final card is stamped using Seashore Scenes as before along with Mermaid Queen.

I started by creating the underwater background with shades of blue and green Distress inks. I applied the ink with cut n dry foam and used the straight edge of some scrap paper as a guide. Apply Picket Fence Distress Stain to add the highlights.

Next I stamped the mermaid silhouette with Onyx Black Versafine. I also reverse stamped this image by stamping the mermaid onto some plain rubber and then pressing the image down onto the design.

The little seahorse is from Mermaid Queen which was stamped with Versafine and then coloured with coloured pencils. The lighthouse scene is from Seashore Scenes , which I stamped onto spare stamping card, before colouring with pencils and then cutting out with a circle die. Before mounting onto the card with 3d pads I edged the circle with Hickory Smoke Distress ink.

Thanks for looking and please call back for daily Design Team inspiration

Julie xx

Floral Notes (by Dominike)

Hello

I am so happy : I got my web connection few days ago. Yes I can post all over the world !
But keep cool. Today I make a little card. Simply. To say, take care all of you. The weather is not fine for a lot of you. These flowers are for you. I am found of these Floral Notes Rubberstamps.

Bonjour,
je suis tellement contente d'avoir récupéré ma connexion Internet.  Je vais pouvoir poster dans le monde entier.
Bon mais restons calme. Aujourd'hui, je vous présente une petite carte. Tout simplement. Pour vous dire de prendre soin de vous. Pour beaucoup d'entre vous le temps n'est pas très clément. Ces fleurs sont pour vous. J'aime particulièrement cette planche.

I used Versafine black ink and clear embossing powder. Some words stamped on a background made with my Gelli plate.

I hope you like it.

J'ai utilisé de l'encre Versafine noire et de la poudre à embosser transparente. Quelques mords tamponnés sur un fond réalisé à la Gelli plate.

J'espère que vous aimez.

Kind regard

A bientôt.