Guest Post - The Fairy Glen by Shelagh Metselaar

Our guest blogger this week is Shelagh Metselaar who has combined the delicate October Fairy set with the ever popular Steampunk Butterfly. A great 'in depth' step by step here, so have fun.

Materials needed

• Chocolate Baroque – October Fairy, Steampunk Butterfly
• Inkpads – Staz-On Black, Versamark,  Versafine - Onyx Black; Distress Inks – Mowed Lawn,    Mustard Seed, Iced Spruce, Festive Bough, Picked Raspberry, Festive Berries
• Clear Detail Embossing Powder, Fine Detail Gold Embossing Powder
• Gilding Flakes
• Gilding Adhesive
• Watercolour Paint (in tubes):- Light Yellow, Light Green, Brilliant Red, Phthalo Blue.
• Artists’/Canvas Board
• Acetate; Double sided sticky sheet.
• Gold glitter
• Button
• Cardstock:  black, kraft card

Instructions

1. Ink ‘October Fairy’ stamp with Staz-on black and stamp to the bottom left of the Artists’ Board. Stamp fairy twice more, again using Staz-On onto acetate. Allow to dry.
2. Take the piece of double sided sticky sheet and peel off one protective sheet. Sprinkle with clear, holographic fine glitter. Set aside.
3. Cut out a complete acetate image. Now from the other stamped acetate image; roughly cut out the wings. By partially uncovering the sticky side of the glittered sheet gently place under the stamped acetate wings and cut out. Set aside.
4. Now for the fun!
5. Using Light Yellow and sparingly, Brilliant Red and Phthalo Blue, repeat on and around image from top of wings an
6. Squeeze pea-size spots each of Light Yellow and Green on and around the stamped image, starting from the foot of the board.
7. d around head upwards towards the sky.
8. Continue with Phthalo Blue, repeat to the top of canvas.

N.B. At this point, I left a couple of areas of canvas blank to form clouds.

1. With a medium flat paint brush, gently spread the paint over the entire board. Dab gently without ‘muddying’ the colours too much.
2. Allow to dry for a few hours.
3. Pool a spot of water over the top image. With kitchen roll, blot the watercolour paint to reveal the stamped image. Repeat over the other images. This can be continued over the whole board if you wish. (This is the magical part for me. There is no indication of the colour mixes until this point!) Warning – this is messy and lots of absorbent kitchen roll is required. Try not to rub or dab as this will lead to a muddy blend.
4. Allow to dry again. You will now be able to see where you can further adorn your canvas.
5. Lightly distress around the canvas with Festive Berries.
6. Attach the cut-out acetate image of the fairy using a small glue dot. Attach the glittered wings over the image using another small glue dot.
7. Apply ‘Duo Embellishment Adhesive’ to the leafy image from the October Fairy set with a piece of foam and stamp at the right hand side of the canvas to suit. Gently gild with gilding flakes.
8. On a piece of super smooth paper and with Versafine Black Onyx, stamp the large leafy swirl and emboss with clear detail, enough times to fill the page. Stamp the calligraphy butterfly from the Steampunk set in the same manner; cut out and set aside.
9. To a blending mat, add Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn, Iced Spruce and Evergreen Bough. Using foam or a blending tool, colour the leaves to suit. Cut out and glue onto image to suit, bending and shaping each frond as you go. Clean mat.
10. Using the same technique as at 8), stamp the flower three times and gild. Colour one image with Festive Berries and two with Picked Raspberry as in 9). Cut each out, cut into petals and curl to suit. Layer up to form a flower. Glue a button to centre. Colour the butterfly with the remaining ink on mat and add to suit.
11. Mount onto matted and layered black and kraft card.

Love the getting messy part Shelagh!  A big thank you from us for designing this wonderful card and for mixing the two themes so well. Shelagh doesn't have a blog right now so please leave your comments here and hopefully this may encourage her to start one - I'm know we'd all like to see more of her work.

Punky Tangles

What I like about the stamps in the fragment series is that they work really well alone or with many other Chocolate Baroque designs. So my contribution to this month's DT blog uses both of our new stamp sets, Harlequin Fragment and Tangled Fragments, combined with Punky Flowers.

1. The background is created on a piece of smooth white cardstock measuring approx 8.5" x 3.75" (21cm x 9.2cm), using the acrylic block technique* with Distress Inks  in Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade, Peeled Paint and Peacock Feathers. Set aside to dry thoroughly.
2. Using the solid circles image from Harlequin Fragments 'ink' up the stamp with either white acrylic paint, or gesso, and then stamp repeatedly (and randomly) over the inked background. You don't necessarily need to add more paint between stamping, that way you get more of a faded look, but this is down to personal taste. Again allow to dry thoroughly.
3. Using the same combination of Distress inks create another acrylic block background, this time on white paper;160gsm is good for this as it has a bit of body and dries well. Make sure you create a decent sized green/blue area ( this will be used to make the flower stalk).
4. Once dry use Memento Tuxedo Black to stamp the largest flower image and one of the smaller ones from Punky flowers onto the coloured paper background and cut out. Cut between the petals of the small flower and shape to give the effect of movement and depth.
5. Again, using Tuxedo Black, stamp the stalk-like image from Tangled Fragments onto the green/blue area of your coloured paper. Decide which part you want to use for a stalk and cut out.
6. Attach the stalk loosely to the card only applying adhesive here and there. Randomly turn up a few of the 'leaves'. Attach the flowers using 3D foam pads.
7. Finally stamp the word 'Beauty', from Artistic Expressions, as illustrated.

* The acrylic block technique was used by Glenda in her Monday Mojo Magic series which is currently being re-run with new artwork for 2014. If you want to sign up for the remainder of the series please click here

I hope this has given you the inspiration to try this technique and don't forget to keep coming back to the blog to see lots more creative designs from my fellow teamies.

Underwater Tangled Mermaid (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with my first sample made using the gorgeous new stamps Tangled Fragments. I've combined them with an old favourite, the beautiful mermaid from Underwater Kingdom

I began by stamping the mermaid with Memento Tuxedo Black and colouring her with Graph'It markers before masking her with some masking tissue. I stamped the lovely fragment in the background using a Waterfall Big & Juicy inkpad and then inked around the edges very lightly with distress inks (Tumbled Glass and Shabby Shutters). I  removed the masking tissue and added a shadow around the mermaid with my markers

The background was made with the Waterfall Big & Juicy inkpad, I swiped it over my craft mat and misted the ink with water before mopping up with a square of white card. I over stamped with the same inkpad, again using the beautiful fragment stamp. I used the excess ink on my craft mat to colour some seam binding ribbon.

I used some little pearls in the corners and added a sentiment from Loving Sentiments and popped on a little turtle charm to finish off.

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Tangled Fragments - By Florence

Hi everyone

I hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Today I would like to share some cards made with the new Tangled Fragment Stamps.  Ooooo! I was so excited when I saw these.  There are endless possibilities with these stamps.

The quality of the stamps is second to none.  Chocolate Baroque stamps are deeply etched so when you stamp with them they give a perfect image every time.  This also allows you stamp onto paper, fabric, or wood and also to stamp into and with different mediums not just ink.

 I got out the (water based) craft paints for these and had so much fun.

Tip:  When stamping with craft paint have a bowl of warm soapy water to hand to pop your stamps into after stamping.  If, the paint has gone a little dry, no problem you can clean them in soapy water and either a small tooth brush or nail brush.

This is a great way to use all of that card you have, that you don't really want to throw away but it is such a dubious color it just gets left in the draw.

I started off by coating small pieces of very violent fuscia pink card with Mod Podge.  This isn't necessary but all will become clear in a moment.

I then painted over the Mod Podge with different colored paint...yellow, white, light pink.

I then started to take some of the paint off with a damp tissue and added scratches for texture using a piece off sand paper.  The Mod Podge protects the base card.  So, if you are not keen on what you have painted...take it off.

When the card was dry and I was happy with the background, I covered the stamp with paint using a piece of bathroom sponge and stamped onto the prepared card stock.  This is where CB's deeply etched stamps come into their own.

For the last card, I prepared my piece of card in the same as mentioned above but this time I used a a piece of yellow card as my base and a mask for extra dimension.  I removed some of the paint to reveal the yellow and then stamped over the top.

Just to share, before I leave you, I have just made cards for today projects but these stamps would be ideal for journaling, altered art or any craft projects.  Do also check out the other stamps in Chocolate Baroque's huge range.

Tat tar for now and happy stamping.

Florence x

Tangled Peacock card (by Debbie)

 

When I saw this stamp on the Harlequin Fragments sheet I immediately could see Peacock feathers although I'm sure it will bring different patterns to mind for others.

 

 

 

 

With Seedless Preserve Distress Ink, I rubbed it onto an acrylic block and lightly sprayed with water then placed the stamp onto it to pick up the ink. When on the card it slightly spreads.

I repeated with Mown Lawn and Peacock Feathers Distress Inks stamping randomly on the card.

The Peacock stamp is from Tangled Peacocks

When I had stamped and heat embossed the Peacock I placed tape around the image so that the water colouring with Distress inks didn't run and I had a white frame around it. I picked out the blue for mounting onto.

 

Many thanks for visiting

Debbie.



Green Harlequin by Doreen

Hello to you all, Doreen here sharing one of my samples made using the gorgeous new

Harlequin Fragments 

I have started by inking some white card with Antique Linen Distress Ink then using Evergreen Bough stamped my background. I inked the edges with some more Evergreen Bough and then edged with Black Soot.

I die-cut a small piece of green card and stamped the flower silhouette from the July Fairy stamp sheet twice without re-inking the stamp. Finally I stamped the sentiment  and mounted it onto foam pads.

Beauty with new Fragment Stamps (by Shirley)

Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well.  

I was very excited to see the fabulous new Harlequin and Tangled Fragments stamps for July as I love all the other fragment sets, the possibilities using them are endless.   For my first couple of designs I decided to pair fragments with the beautiful Sunny Sunflowers.

I used the following stamp sets for the card above - Harlequin Fragments, Sunny Sunflowers and Artistic Expressions.

The background was created by using an Acrylic block and Mustard Seed Distress Ink.  I stamped one of the fragments from Harlequin Fragments with the same ink and the more solid design with Peacock Feathers DI.  I embossed the flower and leaves with gold, coloured with Tom Bow markers, decoupaged and popped up to attach.  I added liquid pearls to the centre. 

And below is another design using the same stamps sets but with a green background:

I used the following stamp sets for the card above - Harlequin Fragments, Sunny Sunflowers and Birthday Words.

The background was created by using an Acrylic block and Mowed Lawn Distress Ink.  I stamped one fragment with Olive Archival Ink and embossed the other one with gold.   Again I embossed the sunflower and leaves with gold.  I stamped the flower twice, coloured with Tom bow markers, decoupaged and popped it  up over the background.

I hope you can come back often as my talented teammates have lots of beautiful designs to show you using the new stamps.

We announced the winner for June's comments in the first post today if you would like to check to see who won!

Thanks for your visits and comments.  
Have a great day,
Shirley

June's Comments Winner !

Hello everyone we hope you are doing well.    We would like to thank you again for all your visits and appreciate the time you take to let us know your thoughts about our designs. 

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

Congratulations to Erika you have won a £20.00 voucher to spend on Chocolate Baroque stamps!    Please send a quick email here to confirm your email address and Glenda will send you your gift certificate.

Glenda is giving away another £20.00 voucher this month.  A lucky commenter will be drawn again from all of July's comments.    The more comments you leave the better your chances to win !

Thank you and Good luck from the Design Team!

Guest Post - Steampunkery Fun by Debs Smith

Our guest blogger this week is Debs Smith and she is probably our most far flung contributor! Debs has been playing with  some of our steampunk themed stamps and designed this wonderful card.

Hello everyone, 

My name is Debs Smith and at the moment I live in Shanghai!! First let me thank Glenda for inviting me to do this post I feel so honoured. And secondly thanks to all of you for reading this post. I knew as soon as Glenda asked me to do this post which sets of stamps I was going to use. So here we are -  it's taken a while!

The stamps sets I have used are Punky Flowers and Steampunkery.  These sets are great for both male and femail cards, the designs are really edgy and a little bit different from other steampunk set!, I must admit I had a couple of cards made before I got to this design, they just seemed a bit ordinary!!

This one in the end was really simple just using two stamps, one of the flowers from Punky Flowers and the Beetle from Steampunkery. Firstly I stamped the beetle into roughly the centre of the card as I wanted it to look like it had found the clock in the flowers and was flying away with it. Then I stamped the biggest flower image on the left side of the card with Jet Black Archival, and then created a mask of that flower by stamping it onto a post it note (making sure that the sticky bit had the heads of the flowers once it was cut out). 

I placed the mask over the top of the first flower and stamped the second flower and then placed the mask over the second flower and stamped the third flower until the card was filled.  It doesn't matter where you stamp your first image as long as once you have stamped it you cover it whilst you do the second. If, for example, you wanted to stamp the first flower in the middle leave the mask on the first image until you have stamped both the second and third image otherwise you will have stamped over one of the images. 

Then I painted the flowers with Distress Paint using Shaded Lilac, Spun Sugar, Broken China and Dusty Concord. After shaking the bottles I just dabbed a bit of paint onto my non-stick craft mat and then with a damp brush (I used a water brush but an ordinary brush will work just as well) I picked up the paint from the mat and painted the flowers.   

With the Beetle I wanted a bit of a metallic sheen to him so I mixed a little Shaded Lilac with Dusty Concord and some Brushed Pewter (again on the craft mat), painted the beetle and then once he was dry just added a little more Brushed Pewter to give him some highlights to make him sparkle.  Then I painted the clock with Brushed Pewter.

To create the background first I punched a 1” circle out of post it notes and stuck it in the top right hand corner of the card.  Then I took a piece of scrap paper and tore a strip off  to give it a nice rough edge.  Next I placed the piece of paper on the card and with Broken China distress ink I started to shade the background.  TIP: The piece of paper just gets moved  down each time you have finished the section above it, which gives you a nice sky effect (or it can create nice mountains and hills.) 

Once I had filled the background with the cloudy sky I removed the post-it note circle and voila there was my sun (or moon). The Time Flies stamp from the Steampunkery set was stamped onto a piece of card painted with Brushed Pewter and matted onto piece of card coloured with Shaded Lilac.

If you like would like to see more of my work it can be found on my blog (along with other cards using Chocolate Baroque stamps) Notations of a Crafter or I am on Pinterest as ShanghaiDebs.

Please join us in sending our thanks to Debs (all the way back to Shanghai) for this fun design by leaving a comment below.

Sunflowers And A Raven (by Asha)

Good morning everybody! Today I have 2 projects to share with you - both made using the new Harlequin Fragments A4 stamp sheet.

For the first project, I lightly inked the background and stamped the large harlequin design with Distress inks. Next I coloured a couple of sunflowers and leaves from the Sunny Sunflowers A4 stamp sheet with alcohol markers. I fussy cut and adhered them with some foam tape. To finish: a couple of flat-back pearls and a greeting from the BirthdayWords A5 stamp sheet. A very quick and easy make.

For my second, project let's fast forward a few months to Halloween. This time I made a misty background with one of the stamps from the Harlequin Fragments A4 sheet. The spooky extras are from the Spookylicious A5 stamp sheet. I heat embossed the raven and moon using black embossing powder and fussy cut them. The sentiment is stamped on vellum and adhered to the card with clear drying glue.

Thank you for stopping by today. Make sure you drop by regularly to see more inspirational work from the rest of the Design Team. In the meantime, start inking your new stamp sets!

Beijinhos, 
Asha