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

A New Year Wish (by Judith)

Hello everyone, it is hard to believe that another year has passed. I hope that you have all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas, and are looking forward to 2019 with optimism and hopes for a year full of promise. Some of you will not have had people to share Christmas with, or may have missed loved ones. You may not be feeling that the New Year brings much joy, or anything to look forward to. We hope that you can feel part of our community, and know that we are always here to share your crafting experiences, and offer friendship through the blog and our Facebook Group. We also have a Ning Group where you can make friends with other Chocolate Baroque fans, and chat and exchange tips and ask questions. If you sign up for the weekly newsletter from Chocolate Baroque, the links for all of these places are included within the newsletter.

Personally, I have had a mixed year, but I always feel that a new year offers the possibility to try new crafting challenges, and to learn new skills. I always want to be able to do something else! My craft room is bulging as it is, but there is room for more, and I love to experiment with colour and texture. My two projects that I am sharing with you today are both very cheery, and will hopefully chase away the Winter blues. The first one is a scrapbook page that I made as a TV demo for the Hochanda shows last month, featuring Lesley's Designer Papers 8" x 8" - My Floral Soul, and the Movie Strip Collage stamp.

I started the project by stamping a fern from the Wild Meadow stamp set onto the background. I added a sepia photograph of my parents, celebrating their golden Wedding Anniversary. I changed the photo to a sepia effect, because I wanted to use it for a different occasion. I stamped the flower image onto a spare piece of card a couple of times, and coloured it using Koh-I-Noor paints. I decoupaged the image, and added it to the page. I made my own ticket, and stamped a sentiment from the Shared Beauty stamp set onto the centre. I added brown ink onto a couple of scrabble tiles, which are my Mum and Dad's initials and a bingo piece, to represent the number of years they have now been married, and also added those to the background.

These papers are lovely for scrapbook pages, they are the perfect size, and are great to add a bit of stamped detail if you wish. I added a piece of kraft card behind mine for extra stiffness.

My second project uses the same background paper , but in the plain version, to make a pretty card. I stamped the Be Kind image onto some book paper a couple of times, using Versamark and gold embossing powder. I added three different colours of Distress Ink for shading. I also stamped and embossed the image onto a piece of kraft card, and added the book page flower layers onto the kraft card script layer. I then adhered this panel to the decorative paper. I stamped the sentiment onto the background with a deep orange ink, which I then used to edge the paper. A kraft card mat finishes the card.

Thank you for your support in 2018, your visits to the blog, and your kind comments. Have a wonderful New Year, and we look forward to your visits in 2019.

Take care and best wishes,

xxx

Two Ways To Be Kind (by Julie)

Hello, I hope you are all preparing to get your new year underway in style and surely there is no better way than to Be  Kind. This is the name of the lovely floral stamp I have used in both of my cards today.

For my first card I have teamed the stamped image with My Floral Soul designer papers.

I stamped and embossed the Be Kind image onto one of the designer papers and then cut around the edge of the petals with a craft knife. You just need to cut enough of the petal so that it stands out from the main image and not cut out completely. I used a blob of 3d glue gel behind each petal to maintain the raised effect.

Once you are happy with the petal cutting, cut out around the whole image and mount onto black card-stock, then mount your cut out onto another page of the Floral Soul designer papers.

My second card is a similar design to my first, however the background is Distress ink and then the Floral Grunge flower was stamped over the top with grey dye ink. I cut the sentiment from the bottom of the Be Kind stamp so that it was easier to use separately and stamped it randomly across the background with black dye ink.

The main image was stamped and then coloured with polychromus pencils, before cutting out and mounting onto black card-stock.

Thank you for stopping by and please call back for daily Design Team inspiration.

Julie xx 

Floral abundance! (by Rachel)

Hello there! I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas and are now gearing up to the New year! I have some final makes from November's shows to share with you today....

This first one used the stamp shared beauty and tagtastic plus one of the designer papers. I stamped the image all over the card then coloured in using distress inks. Finally I have added a piece of the designer paper cut out in the shape of the tagtastic stamp.

In this next one I used the movie strip collage stap and stamped onto a ready made background that I had done using brushos. I then used inks to colour the image.This image was then added to another layer of the designer paper and finally onto a card.

My third card was made using a piece of designer paper that I stamped onto. I then added some lolly sticks which I had already sparingly covered in gesso and once dry hadcovered in oxide inks. I then did a bit more stamping and finally added the flower from the movie strip collage stamped image.

In this finally card I stamped directly onto designer papers using first the Be Kind stamp and then some of the grasses from the show. I also added the word stamps to the right hand side of the card.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing what I have done with these stamps and those fabulous papers.

Wishing you a peaceful last few days of 2018 and all the very best for 2019.

Rachel x

One idea for two cards (by Magda)

For my last post of December I send you  my best wishes for a Happy New Year 2019 with this floral project.
As you will see, I changed only the colours of the background and the result  is completely different.  I hope you will like both cards.

I used Versafine Onyx Black for stamping all the stamps :
Large Crackle Background    Sketchy Doodle Landscape    Words to Dazzle & Sparkle

I coloured the backgrounds with several layers of Brusho washes.
The pieces of the flowers and the leaves coloured with the same colours of the background are
glued on the mat.

Thank you for passing by today, hugs and happy crafting.

Magda

'Tis the Season to be Steampunk (by Deborah)

Hello everyone, a final post this month from our Guest Design Team member Deborah. She has chosen some steampunk inspiration for you today, and this would make a great masculine card.

Deborah writes:

Hello everyone and welcome to my last piece of 2018, which is something less Christmassy. Well I thought you'd probably appreciate a bit of a break from all the Christmas cards, even though it's presented in a Christmas style. Well it is still the season after all.

So for this card I went steampunk, which believe it or not is one of my favourite styles even if I haven't used it much lately. The stamps I used are from Steampunkery which is a fabulous set. I used a mix of inks for the card on top of which I added a burlap topper. I stamped the hat image onto white card which is then mounted onto burlap. For the cogs, I used the beetle stamp from which I cut the cogs, layered the up and stuck them on. All the images were painted with watercolours, and there you have it!

So for this card I went steam punk, which believe it or not is one of my favourite styles even if I haven’t used it much lately. The stamps I used are from Steampunky  which is a fabulous set. I used a mix of inks for the card on top of which I added a burlap topper. I stamped the hat image onto white card which is then mounted onto the burlap. For the cogs, I used the beetle stamp from which  I cut the cogs,  layered them up and stuck them on. All the images were painted with watercolours. And there you have it!

 

Wishing each and everyone one of you a fabulous New Year hugs Debs xxx