Fifteen Minute Cards

Hello everyone, and welcome to our first Fifteen Minute blog post of 2019! We hope that you all had a good break over the festive season and that you are ready to be inspired by what the DT have created for you this month. Our speedy projects and top tips aim to help you create cards in next to no time at all. We hope that you will feel inspired to try out some of our ideas and that they will be helpful whether you are looking for something quick and easy to make, if you need a card in a hurry, or you want to make batch cards for a craft fair or some other occasion like a Wedding, for example. Maybe you are really keen and want to get cracking with your Christmas cards nice early!

So grab a cuppa, and scroll through our blog post, enjoy what we have created, then why not get some crafty stash out and have a go at making something yourselves....?

We have a fabulous selection of cards from Brenda to start us off this month. Her first card was created with Distrss Oxides and white embossing.

She has used acrylic paint and stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink to create her second card.

She has used Pan Pastels and Versafine black ink for her third card:

To create her next card, she used water based pens to ink the stamp and spritzed the stamp with water before stamping. She used the small flourish stamp to stamp directly onto the card base.

For her final card, she used a window stencil and Distress Inks, then stamped the image and sentiment with Versafine black ink.

I have used a Brusho background from my stash, and then added a mixture of images simply using Versafine Onyx Black ink. I added a sentiment to create a quick and easy Anniversary card.

Pat has created two pretty cards using Lesley's fabulous new My Floral Soul papers. For her first card, she stamped the image from Let Your Heart Sing using a purple Distress Ink. She then applied yellow and orange inks using a stencil and applied the ink with a blending tool. She added the sun with the round shape of the blending tool. She layered the background onto a piece of dark blue card, and then onto a white card base.

For her second card, she heat embossed the image from the Live Out Loud stamp set using white embossing powder. She coloured the image using blue and purple Distress Inks and a waterbrush. She cut the image out and mounted it onto some coordinating blue card, before attaching it to the patterned paper.  She finished by adding the sentiment using some dark blue permanent ink.

Rachel has used some gelli print backgrounds from her stash to create two vibrant cards. The first card has feathers stamped on the background, and she has added a circle with the stamped bird on it.

The second gelli print has simple black stamping to complete the card.

Three cards from Penny next, for her first card, she stamped the bird trio from the Fly Away With Me stamp set in Versafine Onyx Black ink, and embossed with clear powder. She painted each one with a different colour, cut them out, and edged the panels with a gold pen. She used a Brusho background from her stash and stamped the tree and bird image, embossing it with clear powder as before. She stamped the curly bird's tail around the edges of the base card.The sentiment comes from the Birthday Words set.

She stamped the negative bird collage imagefrom the Sing Your Song stamp set using Versamark, and used three two-tone embossing powders to colour the image. She stamped some scrolls from the Wise Owl stamp set at the top and bottom of a white base card, embossing them with silver powder. The focal panel was edged with silver pen and matted onto black card. A sentiment was added at the bottom of the card.

For her final card she stamped the bird in tree image from the Sing Your Song stamp set in Versamark, and embossed with red powder. She did the same with the sentiment. She added glitter to the branches and dots with a gold pen. She edged the panel with the gold pen and attached it to a white base card.

Some envelope art from Zoe is up next. These fabulous pieces of artwork would really brighten up your doormat, wouldn't they? Simple masking, inking and black stamping completes these projects.

A very clever idea from Julie here on her card, she has repeat stamped the background image from the Live Out Loud stamp set to fill the area. The bird on the flower from Let Your Heart Sing has been added to a die cut circle. The monochrome colour scheme is very effective, and you could use this idea for feminine or masculine cards.

Magda has created three fabulous ATCs for us next, she has added stencilling with Distress Ink, stamped the images with Versafine Ink, and added some washi tape. Great colour combinations, Magda.

Her second project was super quick; she stamped the bird and then spritzed the background with blue and orange, another great colour combination.

Our final project is from Carole, she has used Pumice Stone Distress Ink and dabbed it along a masked area of her card and then over stamped it with the same colour. The mask was removed and the main image and sentiment were stamped in black ink. The flower heads were coloured with pencils, in muted pink and green shades.

That concludes our projects for this month. We hope that you have enjoyed what we have created. Please do keep visiting the blog for a daily dose of inspiration from the regular Design Team posts, and we will be back with more fifteen minute makes next month.

Thanks for stopping by,

Still one of my favorites (by Miranda)

Hello everyone, today sees the turn of our Guest Design Team member Miranda Degenaars to inspire you with her beautiful project. Miranda has used some of her favourite stamps sets to create her card, and the stunning colour combination will definitely brighten up your day.

Hello there,

I am happy to be here again and do some guest posts. CB will always have a place in my heart.

I have played with two of my favorite Cb sheets, 'Dusky Damask' and 'Pretty Poppies'. I have worked a lot with these sheets and I never get bored using them. They are simply beautiful and so versatile to use.

I have made a background using Distress inks, resist embossing using clear embossing powder and plain stamping using Distress inks.

The focal image has been colored with Distress inks and colored pencils. Also some stronger accents with a white acrylic marker. One of the must-haves!

 The edge is embossed using snowflake embossing powder.

And ooh I forgot to mention my 3rd favorite sheet ' Artistic Expressions'.......can't do without that one together with the Artistic Affirmations!

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! 

Thanks for your visit and hope to see you again next week with my 2nd guest post,

Look at the Birdies (by Zoe)

Good morning Lovelies and welcome to my second post for January featuring these stunning bird themed stamp sets.


My tag is greyboard which I used Distress Oxide inkpads to colour using a blending tool and a little water sprinkled on and dried to give a little texture. I heat embossed in gold the fab verse before adhering the little squares which I'd stamped onto some Gel Press prints I'd made a while back.

I made the Christmas card using watercolour paper and sparkle brush pens and water to get that "wash" effect, and added a few little splatters of water dabbed to create some texture before drying and stamping.

Another watercolour background which I created using re-inkers onto my waterproof craft mat and lots of water, then popped the watercolour card onto it and dried. I heat embossed the image using Versafine black inkpad and clear embossing powder, and a little bit of white and gold gel pen here and there to highlight.

I started my Wise Owl card by stamping him using Versamark inkpad and heat embossing in silver embossing powder. I placed a large circle as a mask over him, then blended Distress Oxide inkpads around him and the mask with a blending tool. With the mask still in place I used a patterned stencil/mask over the whole thing and spritzed with water, carefully blotting with a dry cloth, then removing the stencil and blotting again to reveal the subtle and interesting water marks. Once completely dry I second generation stamped using a grey inkpad the verse randomly in the background.

Thank you for taking the time to visit and leave a comment, I love to read what you think.
Have a wonderful day xx Zoe xx

Moonlight song by Brenda

Morning, Brenda here with more from Lesley's December shows featuring all things Birds, I've had Let your heart sing for years, it's such a lovely stamps set and lends itself to so many occasions and for this one I went with shades of yellow with a hint of black, my thinking was moonlight but it could equally be early morning just before sunset, I will let you decide. After masking the moon I brushed on on sky, removed the mask and added some more colour across the moon and then stamped the bird image. I used my stamp platform for this along with black versafine so that I could repeat stamp to achieve a deep image.........I resisted buying one for so long and now I really wonder why, especially since my recent illness when my hands and arms have become quite weak and it has become invaluable. Finally I matted ad layered onto coordinating cardstock.

Here I took the three birdies from Fly away with me and stamped each individually onto a piece of art board using versafine toffee, then using the small egg from the same set I repeat stamped around the edges of each piece, a flourish in the corner using the tail of the Dove and under one bird added a branch from Dawn Chorus. Next I added some brick wall stencilling to the background and glazed all using repeat inking and embossing using versamark and detail clear powder, finally mounting all onto a piece of corrugated to which I added some aqua Frantage.

My final share using purple and yellow, a colour palette I always enjoy using has a central masked circle coloured with Pan Pastels and stencilled with Really Useful Leaves and Distress Inks, the mask removed and one of the birds from Dawn Chorus and sentiment from Sing your song stamped in Versafine black, both repeat stamped using my stamp platform.

My thanks as always for popping by today.

Spring is in the Air (by Doreen)

Hello everyone, it is the turn of our Guest Design Team member Doreen Sympson to share some projects to inspire you throughout the month. Her first blog post features a lovely decorated cheese board. There are lots of different MDF shapes available on the market, and perhaps Doreen's project will give you lots of ideas for creating projects for your own home.

Doreen writes:

With buds appearing somewhat prematurely on my Honeysuckle I thought to myself poor thing must think 'Spring is in the Air', how confusing the mild weather we have been experiencing is to our poor gardens. So this cheese board is the product of those thoughts.

Products used were as follows;

Chocolate Baroque Spring is in the Air stamp set
Chocolate Baroque Tissue Paper
Black Stazon inkpad
Chalk/ acrylic paints
Deco Art one step crackle
Brush on gloss glaze
White gesso
MDF cheese board

1. Paint board with gesso and put to one side to dry.
2. Take tissue, stamps and Stazon inkpad and stamp images desired.
3. Using water and a fine paintbrush dampen around the images and tear them away to separate the images.
4. Using the chalk or acrylic paints randomly paint the board.
5. To adhere the images to the board once the paint has dried I used a thin coat of one step crackle.
6. Wait for this to dry then colour images use a fine brush with chalk paints.
7. I used a cream colour for the snowdrops and to add a little highlight to some of the other images.

Finally I used a scrap of linen textured card from my odd bits of cut offs and used a fine liner permanent pen to write the words, cut these up, and went round the edges with either a chisel tipped permanent marker or black inkpad. Dry brush using the bronze to tie in with the earthy grounding of the images.

A few photos at various stages of the project.

Randomly add paint.

A close up image of the texture, the thin layer of crackle glaze, which I think adds to the earthy look at the base of the images.

 Thank you for looking

Love Doreen

Sing Your Song ( By Marga)

Hello everyone, here I'm again with another card I made.

For the background of this card I used Distres Ink and I stamped the image and the sentiment with Versafine Onyx Black. I used a white gel pen to give it some accents.

For this card I used the stamps: Wise Owl, Sing Your Song

Hugs Marga

Spring Birds (by Julie)

Hello, the two cards I have to share with you today are following on with the bird theme for this month.

My first card is stamped with Fly Away With Me. The background has been coloured with Old Paper and Weathered Wood Distress Stains, before being over-stamped with the swirly tailed, stylised bird and egg designs.

The decorative bird tiles were inked up with grey versafine and stamped onto spare stamping card, before being cut out and coloured with Distress inks. I then stamped the two birds from Fly Away With Me using Crimson Versafine onto the panel as shown. You then need to take a craft knife and snip a little insert under each bird for one of the tiles to be placed so it looks like the birds are actually perched onto the tile. The remaining third tile can be attached with 3D foam pads towards the top right of the design.

Cut the decorative panel to size, mount onto black card-stock before attaching to your card blank.

My second card is stamped with Dawn Chorus. The base card was coloured with Mustard Seed and Carved Pumpkin Distress inks and then the little bird and decorative swirl were over-stamped in the bottom left and top right corners of the card, using Onyx Black and grey Versafine.

The little Dawn Chorus scene was inked up with Onyx Black Versafine and stamped onto spare stamping card, coloured with Distress inks and then cut out and mounted onto black card-stock.

The card was finished off with a sentiment from Paisley Elephant.

Thanks for stopping by and please call back soon for daily Design Team inspiration.

Julie xx

A salt pig! (by Rachel)

Hello there! How are you? Rachel here today with the salt pig I made for the December show. Here's some pics....

I used stamps from Dawn Chorus, and stamped onto the salt pig in ink then painted over in blue glaze and outlined in black glaze before sending the pot for a final overall glaze plus firing. As you can see in the last shot I put some sweets in for Lesley and David to enjoy! 

Have a great day!

Hugs

Rachel xxx

Birds at any season (by Magda)

Hello,
during this month I am posting projects with the beautiful stamps Lesley showcased on Hochanda at the beginning of December.
Birds can be used at any season to send warm messages to friends.

For my projects I used Versafine  Onyx Black for stamping the following stamps:
Let your heart sing
Fly away with me
Live out loud
Fat Robin

Distress Ink Pad through stencils or used as a wash allowed to change the white cardstock  and a tag into a colorful background

These following 3 cards explain my interpretation of research done on the relationship between the  bird, primary colours and songs. 

 Blue Bird : a song by Paul McCartney

Red Bird : a Children's song 1966 renewed in 1994

Yellow Bird :  an old Haitian Folk Song

I hope you enjoyed my post and thank you for passing by 

Magda

brusho dawn (by Veronica)

 Let your heart sing has been one of my favourite stamp sets for ages, I just love the bird silhouette , and as a plus it is perfect for using with my favourite brusho powders!
Here are three versions in different colourways, but they all look more like dawn skies to me - could be wrong there.....

The first one used a whole sheet of card colouted with brusho, stamping the image on the best bit using black versafine ink and clear embossing powder. trimming close to the image. Two panels cut from the rest of the sheet, all on thin bklack mats and mounted onto a square white 8" card blank.




The other two, image stamped first and embossed, then coloured with brusho powders.

The base card blank was randomly stamped with the music image from the music fanfare set using a light grey ink and holding the stamp in my hand, and more of the ink sponged round the edges.
Sentiment from sing your song stamped in black

The final version I used a red mat, and eged the card bl;ank with red ink to match. I repeat stamped the bird image in light grey across the bottom of the card blank

Imagine That! by Penny

Morning peeps, this is my first post of 2019 so Happy New Year to you all!  I hope you all had a great Festive Season and that you're looking forward to lots of crafty fun this year.  I'm kicking off with a lovely tag  today that features stamps from the Sing Your Song  and Words of Inspiration sets;   blue Versafine ink, clear and copper EP, Distress Inks, gold glitter texture paste, CB Useful Leaves Mask/Stencil, Versamark ink, gold pen.

I painted a greyboard tag with white gesso and when it was dry I blended Distress inks over it.  I stamped a swirly bird image from the Fly Away With Me set all over the tag using one of the DIs.  I applied Versamark ink around the edges of the tag and embossed it with a gold sparkle EP.

On some white card I stamped and embossed a bird and a bird house, coloured them with DIs and cut them both out.  I took the stencil and applied the texture paste to the top of the tag to add foliage.  I then attached a die cut branch from my stash and attached the bird to the branch.  I attached the birdhouse in the same way, as though it's hanging from the branch.

I stamped and embossed the word 'Imagine' in copper onto another piece of white card.  I cut it into a label shape and coloured it with DI.  I edged the label with a copper pen, then added some lines and dots with a gold pen before attaching the label to the tag.  I added some fibres and ribbons to complete the design.  

Golden Song  by Penny

For my second project today I have another sample from December's shows, with stamps from the Sing Your Song and the Live Out Loud sets, red Soft Form Relief Paste, red Versafine ink, clear EP, gold gilding wax, and a gold pen.

I spread the red paste over the large negative image from the Live Out Loud set.  I left it to set overnight.  When it was ready I peeled it off the stamp and added some gilding wax as a highlight.

On a white base card I stamped and embossed a bird in a tree image and the sentiment from the Sing Your Song set using red ink and clear powder.  I added some gold dots around the words and coloured the flowers on the bird.

I coloured a piece of paper with a gold pen, then attached the paste panel to it and matted that onto black card.  I attached the panel to the card to complete this stylish design.

Thank you for dropping by today.  I hope these projects have given you some crafty ideas, I'll be back again later in the month with more crafty fun!

Take care,

                   

                               xx  Penny  xx 

December's Blog Comment Winner

Hello everyone, 

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 December was assigned a number and we used Random Org to draw a winner.

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

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

Did you manage to catch Lesley on Hochanda TV yesterday, showcasing brand new stamps from Kim Moody?  She is back again today at 10:00 am and again this afternoon at 3:00 pm, as Lesley has more brand new Chocolate Baroque stamps, all in celebration of our 2nd birthday at Hochanda.

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

Good luck from the Design Team

A Bird Song (by Judith)

Hello everyone, and Happy New Year to you all. I hope that you had a good break over the festive period, and are looking forward to the year ahead. As you read this post, I will be at the studios with Lesley for our Birthday TV shows, featuring some beautiful products, and I really hope that you can watch the shows, either live, or on catch up over the next week.


My project today features stamps from last month's TV shows, when I was unfortunately too ill to help Lesley out. Nonetheless, I love these wonderful stamps, and wanted to make something to share with you. I have chosen a fabulous sentiment from the Live Out Loud stamp set, which I feel is a really affirmative and positive message to give someone, especially if they need cheering up.


I created my background by using a piece of Textured Art card, blending Brushos with Tinting Base, and dry brushing the colours over the background. I coloured a whiteboard heart with the same colours. I stamped an image from the same stamp set onto the heart, and then used the leaves as a border. I used Jet Black Archival Ink for the stamping.

I will be back later in the month with more projects to share with you. Thanks for stopping by,


Judith xx

Birds of a Feather (by Zoe)

Good morning and Happy New Year, I hope you all had a lovely Christmas.


Today I'm sharing 3 samples I made for the fab Hochanda show last month featuring the wonderful bird themed stamp sets.


My first card I created the background on a pearlescent card by sprinkling Brushos onto some wrinkled up cling film and spritzing with Gold mica and water mixture, laying onto the card and leaving to almost dry before peeling off the cling film to reveal a stunning shimmery marble effect. Once completely dry I stamped using a Versamark inkpad and heat embossing with white embossing powder. To finish off I coloured parts of the feathers with a silver pen.

My next 2 cards as you can see are Christmas cards which I used a circle as a mask and Distress Inks to create a Wintery scene, on linen textured card. I used simple stamping, a bit of red pencil for the breast, and some chunky embossing powder randomly sprinkled and heated from behind to create a snowfall. I love using linen texture card for simple cards as I think it just adds that little bit of elegance.

I hope you like my creations?
Back later in the month with some more samples.
Have a wonderful day xx Zoe xx

Live out Loud by Brenda

Good morning, Brenda here with my first post of January sharing some of my Bird creations from Lesley's recent Hochanda shows. 

As I have been rather poorly for the last couple of months I am being ably assisted by hubby in writing up my posts, I can push inks and paints about and my stamping platform is a wonderful asset but not too good stringing the words together so we will blame his lack of crafty knowledge if there are a few faux pas!

The top card started with an oxide ink background panel with repeat stamping using the flourish from Dawn Chorus and the focal panels with images from Live out loud, again using versafine black and heat embossed with detail clear embossing powder. The edges of each panel inked with versamark, dusted with detail gold powder and heat embossed, then layered up with foam pads to give some dimension.

I am rather obsessed with MDF monolith's, they make a nice change from cards and are fun to work with. This one was given a quick coat of gesso, followed by Little Birdie chalk acrylic paint which I am equally obsessed with along with the Little Birdie crackle medium which I also used on this piece. It really is one of the best I've used and perfect for both the experienced and new crafter. Next some texture paste added through a stencil and the Owl from Wise owl stamped with Versafine black and gold accents added to both the Owl and stencilled elements. Some feathers from Dawn Chorus stamped here and there, sentiment from Sing your song, ribbon and finally liquid pearls to highlight.

Finally a bright and cheerful card using lots of masking and the bird images from Fly away with me, I created masks for the three images, using three lovely bright colours of Versafine Clair inks and just repeat stamped using the masks to move across the squares of card. It takes a little time but is fun to do and providing you remember to place the mask where you have stamped you can't really go wrong.

Many thanks for popping in today and wishing you a Happy and Crafty 2019.

Wildest dreams ( By Marga)

Hello everyone, first of all I want you to wish you all a Happy New Year with losts of creative fun.

This time I show you a card that I have made with glossy paper, Distress Ink and Archival Ink.

Stamps I used are: Wise Owl, Fly Away With me, Sing Your Song, Dusky Damask.

Hugs Marga