Guest Post - Clockwork Poppies by Angela Drummond

Hello everyone, this week I would like to introduce you to Angela. She is our guest blogger for the next three weeks and has some wonderful projects lined up for you, all based around our Stamp of the Month - Autumn Poppy. The first one makes great use of chipboard and is a much more gentle way of looking at the clock. 

Using a chipboard clock I created a crackle effect as follows;

Paint the base coat in one colour of  matt chalk paint and allow to dry. Paint over this with a coat of crackle medium and again allow to dry. Add another coat of chalk paint in a contrasting colour; the crackle will appear during this final drying stage. Tip: Do not apply the crackle medium too thinly otherwise the depth of 'cracking' will be quite shallow or even non-existent.. Leave all stages to dry naturally, this is one of those times you need patience to get the best effect.

Next stamp the image from the Autumn Poppy using a pigment ink and emboss with clear powder. To colour the image I used a selection of mica powders, mixed with a little water to create a paint.

To finish I attached a a variety of paper flowers and the butterfly as illustrated. A hot glue gun is helpful here, but if you don't own one then use silcone or other strong clear drying adhesive.

Thank you so much for this gorgeous clock Angela, something I would definitely like to see standing on a table in my house and we look forward to seeing what you have in store for us next week.  Please welcome Angela by leaving a comment and if you wish to see more of her fab ideas please visit her blog A Crafty Blether. 

 

Toadstool Fairy (by Debbie)

 

 

My card is made using the Toadstools from Autumn Poppy

 and a Fairy from August Fairy.

 

 

I started with stamping the toadstools onto the card and also onto paper to use as  masks.

The toadstools were coloured with alcohol pens. I cut a mask for the moon and placed it high so that the sentiment could be stamped over it later and the masks were laid over the toadstools

I haven't used my soft brushes for a while so I applied the ink with them as I wanted a soft blue

although it's a darker blue ink.

A little more colour was added to the base of the toadstools to ground them.

The masks were removed and the fairy and wording was stamped with Onyx Black Versafine.

I like the Versafine as it gives a good coverage with solid stamps.

 

Thanks for visiting

Debbie

 

Witches Brew by Doreen

Hello to you all, I am back again sharing another sample made from the new stamps that have just been released for October . 

 My card uses a couple of stamps from "Book of Spells"stamp sheet.I first die-cut an oval to use as a stencil for my moon and sky I used Shaded Lilac distress ink and Egg Plant Adirondack inks for the background .I then stamped my main image with Black Archival and coloured the flames with Promarkers.Last of all to be stamped  was the cobwebs and sentiment.xxx

Autumn Peppers and Halloween Treats (by Asha)

Hello fellow Chocoholics. It's wet, cold and windy... perfect weather to play with your new Chocolate Baroque toys. I'm here to help you get delightfully inky, so let's get right to it, shall we?

Here's a step centre step card featuring a stalk of peppers from the Autumn Poppy A4 stamp sheet.  I created the background by blending distress inks in blue and yellow. On the side panels I stamped some leaves from the Autumn Poppy set and on the central panel I used a stamp from the Texture Fragments A4 stamp sheet. I coloured the peppers with alcohol markers, fussy cut and adhered it to the card. The sentiment is from the Loving Sentiments A5 stamp sheet.

I confess... I have a thing for Halloween. Playing dress up is fun but the real joy of Halloween for me is the treats. With that in mind I made a couple of Trick or Treat bags for our Halloween party. And to keep our guests guessing, these bags are tied ... so there will be no peeking!

The shorter bag features a pumpkin from the Things That Go Bump A5 stamp sheet, coloured with alcohol markers and fussy cut. For the background I used a stamp from the Harlequin Fragments A4 sheet, then finished with a greeting from the Spookylicious A5 stamp sheet and some black ribbon to secure the contents of the box.

The taller bag showcases the bubbling cauldron from the Book Of Spells A5 stamp sheet. I inked up the background with distress inks, heat embossed the image in black and tied the box with some black & white twine.

These are just a few projects that will keep you busy in the run up to Halloween. I'll post details of the products used on my blog. In the meantime, make sure you drop by the Design Team blog regularly for more wonderful creations by my team-mates. You are in for a treat, friends... no tricks!

Beijinhos, 

Asha 

Halloween Hall (posted by Judith)

Hello everyone, the colder weather and darker nights are bringing thoughts of the Autumn now. The crispy leaves and blustery winds are a sure sign that we are into October. I have a Halloween make for you today, using a combination of old and new stamps.

I started off by making a crackled background, and then stamped and embossed a tree from the Design a Tree multi-buy stamp set and the ruined building from the Things that go Bump stamp set. I added a couple of birds and some bats from the Nevermore stamp set and some cobweb edging from the Book of Spells stamp set, all using black block printing ink. I painted the windows in the ruin using yellow ink and a water brush.

I added a little bit of Distress Ink underneath the tree and the ruin to ground the images. Finally, I matted the background onto a black card blank.

Keep checking back for more project ideas from my Design Team mates, Judith xx

Halloween by Miranda

Hi there,

I am back again and I have two Halloween creations for you. I have made backgrounds using vibrant inks( like Ecoline), water misting and some salt. I've used this great stamp sheet:

Halloween edges and a Dutch Doobadoo spiderweb stencil. I've used also a Memorybox die, the spiderweb edge. I've embossed the bat with WOW Halloween embossing powder, a lovely mix of black and orange glitter.

And the 2nd one.........here I've used some salt in the background, always like the effect of that. I've used also the Tangled fragments. They match perfect with these tangled toadstools. I've stamped with plain black and coloured with pencils and gave accents with a white (Sharpie) marker.

Thanks for visiting and hope to have inspired you for your Halloween cards,

till next time,

Halloween (by Maria)

Hey halloween lovers!

 I have made some samples with the gorgeous new halloween stamps sets Book of Spells/Things that go Bump from Chocolate Baroque, I just love them. So I hope my samples will  give you some inspiration to make some cards as well!

All three cards are made in the same way. Spray the Dylusions inks (using the colours that you like), over your white smooth paper. Dry it with your heat tool, then you can take your spider web mask, place it on your coloured paper, take a baby wipe with a tiny bit of bleach on it,  and wipe over the top. You take the colours away, so when you take away your mask the spiderweb appears on your paper as a scary background.

On the first card my colours totally vanished, so after it was dry,  I replaced my spiderweb in its original place and with some Distress Ink, I coloured it again with soft yellow.  I was not satisfied, I wanted some more glitter on it. Again I put my mask in its place and with a baby wipe and some golden perfect pearls I went in every corner of the mask to have some shiny accents!

On the second card I took away the colours on some parts of the card with a lot of bleach at other parts with less bleach,  to have the special effect as you can see.

On the third one, I didn't use bleach, I just went with a wet baby wipe on the mask to lightly undo the colours. Please watch your paper, never rub but just dab your colours away.

The pumpkins I cut out and placed higher on the cards with 3D foam (once again)!
Have fun creating your Halloween cards, and don't forget to enjoy!

Greetings
Maria

Guest Post - A patchwork bag by Stempelientje

Our guest post this week is by Stempelientje Stempy who lives in the Netherlands. Her project is this fabulous craft patchwork bag featuring the Fantasy Castles stamp set, please enjoy.

For this bag I used:

Fantasy Castles stamp set

Printed cotton fabric

Cream colored fabric (washed and ironed)

Fabric stamping ink

Sewing thread

PanPastels

Derwent Pencils

Fixative

Ric rac ribbon

I also used a Iron and a sewing machine.

• I stamped the castle image on a square of the cream cotton and waited for it to dry.
• After drying I ironed it to fix the image.
• The image was then coloured with Panpastels.
• I then sprayed it with fixative and ironed it again.
• I finished colouring it with my Derwent pencils and ironed it again.

• I cut 8 matching square pieces of fabric, all the same size as the cream square I just stamped.
• When sewing all of them together I've put the stamped square in the middle. Make sure the corners fit together for a neat finish.
• Sew a piece of fabric on top, and a large matching piece on the back. Sew them together so you have a bag.
• Make a  shoulder band out of fabric and decorate top of the bag and the shoulderband with ric rac ribbon.

Crafty greetings, Stempelientje

Thank you for this beautiful idea, we loved it and I know that those of you who love working with fabrics will be inspired by this.  If you wish to see more creative work please check out the Stempelientje blog for lots more colour and interesting projects.

Pumpkin Stack (by Lesley)

Brusho Crystal powders are very popular at the moment and we are now stocking them too. Most people have said they find the colours very intense and I wanted to show that you can use them just like watercolours. So today's sample started life as a colouring exercise!

Knowing that I was going to be using a wet colouring medium I stamped the pumpkin from the Things that go Bump set 3 times on thick white card using Versafne Onyx Black. I then made a colour wash with each of the Brusho powders in Orange, Grey and Leaf Green and painted each image. When dry I added shading with coloured pencils and cut them out, leaving one still attached to the 'stone' base. 

The background was created on a piece of Kraft card with the cobweb stamp from the Book of Spells set and then sponged Pitch Black Adirondack ink round the edges. After punching a hole at the top and adding a hole re-inforcer that had been coloured with Pitch Black I stamped the spider in postion. The phrase was stamped on Kraft card with a faint inking of the cowebs over the top and sponged black ink around the edges as before.

The pumpkins and one of the spare 'stone bases' were attached as shown and the sentiment added at the bottom. I finished off with some black and orange ribbon.

There you have it, a slim bookmark that you can give as a gift, or use yourself. I hope you will experiment with Brusho powders and see how versatile they can be. If you want full step by step instructions on how to make this bookmark, please visit my blog The Paper Engineer

During this month there will be lots of fascinating ideas to come from the Design Team girls, so please keep watching and reading, 'Oh' and playing of course.

Autumn Poppy (posted by Claire )

Good morning, Claire here with my first sample using this months beautiful new stamps. This one features images from Autumn Poppy

I stamped the images on white card using Memento Tuxedo Black ink, masking with masking tissue as I went along. I coloured the scene with Graph'It markers and stamped the sentiment in brown Archival ink.

 I've used dark brown card for matting and created a background with shades of green distress inks, overstamped with one of the foliage stamps from the same set. To finish off i've added some pretty ribbon, twine and a wooden button.

Thanks for visiting today, keep popping back as my teamies have created some stunning projects again this month

Claire xx

Book Of Spells and Halloween Edges - By Florence

Hi everyone

I hope you are all enjoying the weekend.

Today I would like to share two cards made using the new fabulous Book of Spells and the Halloween Edges sets of stamps.  These are just two of the newly released sets by Chocolate Baroque.  To see all of the new sets please click HERE.   

 

I was really excited when I first saw these sets.  Although they are for Halloween, Fall, or Autumn, there are many stamps in the sets that can be used all year round.  They are really versatile and also mix and match with the other stamps in Chocolate Baroque's huge range of rubber art stamps HERE.

For my first card I used the Book of Spells set.

I took a piece of dull pink card and sprayed it with a pink Dylusions Spray Ink to add more life to it.  When it was dry I trimmed it to size and stamped the Cob Webs.

 

For the main focal piece I used a pre-made background card which I made using water color paints on an acrylic block.  I then just stamped the Spooky House onto this and added a couple of flying bats from Spookylicious and Witching Time. 

 

I made up the card as seen picking out the blue on my inky background card and using this color as one of the mats.

 

What did strike me immediately with this Spooky House stamp is the amount of detail on the image.  The ghosts in the windows, the owl in the tree, the weather vane, the bird on the roof and the little pumpkin hanging from the house.  A really brilliant design yet again by Sue.

For my second card I have used the Halloween Edges and a piece of the same background card as above.  I made this into a card but the beauty of the Edge Stamps is that they are great for tags as well because of the size and length of the image.

 

 

 I stamped my Happy Halloween sentiment onto my base card and added a couple of splash patterns using a tiny stamp from Wisteria Lane Set.  

I trimmed my pre-made inky card (as mentioned above) to size and stamped the Pumpkin and Cob Web images.  I added just a little more orange color to the Pumpkins to make them stand out.

I made up the card as seen with the addition of one of my own background (Straw Bales) papers.

Do check out all of the wonderful projects made by the DT.  

There is a new project, offering lots of inspiration and ideas, posted every day here on the blog.

Don't forget that if you leave a comment your name will go into the monthly comments draw.  One winner is randomly picked each month.

Thank you for looking.

 

Happy Stamping.

Florence x

A pair of Pumpkins (by Debbie)

 

 

Hi, I hope the weekend is good for everyone.

The girls have been making some fabulous Halloween Samples

and her are two of my creations.

The first was made with a hand cut pumpkin shape and Rusty Hinge, Spiced Marmalade

 and Vintage Photo for shading.

 

 

 

I inked all of the inside of the template with the Spiced Marmalade then added a little Rusty Hinge.

The paper that I cut from the centre of the aperture I trimmed smaller and shaded with the Vintage Photo. I repeated a few more times and then stamped the Flying Ship with Black Versafine Ink.

 

 

A little gift bag filled with treats made with a Printable Download called Polka Dotty.

 The download comes in a variety of colours and is a really handy paper.

The Pumpkin was stamped onto a sticky label that had been coloured before I stamped on to it.

The girls have many more fabulous samples to come so please stop by again.

 

Debbie

 

 

 

 

Once Upon a Midnight by Doreen

Hello to you all, I am  sharing a sample made from the new stamps that have just been released for October .

 My card uses a couple of stamps from "Things that go Bump" stamp sheet. I first stamped my main image onto some white card,masked off the moon and coloured my background with Faded Jeans and Squeezed Lemonade Distress inks..Then used faded Jeans again through a leaf stencil... Then using Black Archival stamped the toadstools and sentiment.xxx

Merci (by Asha)

Hello friends! We're cruising into October with a bumper issue of wonderful new stamps. I love everything about autumn: the colours, the smells, the cooler temperature. There is an unspoken excitement in the air - Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas ... so much to look forward to. I'm playing with the new Autumn Poppy A4 stamp sheet which is crammed full of the most delightful autumn plants and foliage.

My first sample is a side step card featuring mushrooms and falling leaves. Maybe I don't like everything about autumn. Sweeping up falling leaves... well, I could very easily give that a miss!

The background is a blend of various Distress Inks in browns and orange. Then I coloured the mushrooms and leaves with alcohol markers, fussy cut them and adhered to the card. Voila! Falling leaves without having to sweep them up!

My second card is a brighter number. I gave the poppies an extra vibrant shot of red - a stark contrast to the autumnal orangy-yellow background. As before, I used Distress Inks for the background and alcohol markers for the image, with a few yellow liquid pearls for texture. The red ribbon is tied around the stalks. I made a couple of slits on either side, just wide enough to pass the ribbon through. This gives a more natural look of a tied bouquet. The greeting "Merci" is from the Pretty Poppies A4 stamp sheet.

So there you have it - 2 contrasting cards from the same stamp sheet. Over the next few days I'll post details of products used in creating these cards on my blog. In the meantime, make sure you drop by the Design Team blog for more wonderful creations by my team-mates. You are in for a treat, friends!

Beijinhos!  

September Blog Comment Winner!

Hello everyone, we would like to thank you all for your visits here at the Design Team blog.  We appreciate the time you take to let us know your thoughts about our designs.  

Each comment in September was assigned a number and we used Random Org to draw a winner.  Congratulations to Craftyjo you have won a £15.00 voucher to spend on Chocolate Baroque stamps! Please send a quick email here to confirm your email address and Lesley will send you your gift certificate.

Lesley will be giving a £15 gift voucher to another lucky winner drawn from October's comments. The more comments you leave the better your chances to win!   

Thank you for your kind words and comments,
Good luck from the Design Team!