Red, Gold, Cream and Brown (posted by Judith)

Hi Folks, well here is another submission from me, using the lovely 'Music Fanfare' set of stamps just launched this week. The title of my post sounds a bit like a colour challenge, doesn't it? I set out to use this colour combination when making my project and the title just stuck.

  I embossed a path of treble clefs streaming across the card in gold, and then sprayed a mixture of red mists across them. I then stamped some of the flowers from the 'Filigree Fusion' stamp set onto cream card and cut them out, adding brown buttons to their centres. I cut brown Crealie leaves to put behind the flowers. The music fragment and floral instrument were stamped onto cream card and 'aged' with Distress Inks.

The mixture of stamps on this music plate is really lovely, and so versatile. It is such a useful set for male and female cards. Keep checking back for more samples from the Design Team this week. Thanks for stopping by today, Judith xx

Mini Tag Pocket Folder (ala Tim Holtz and posted by Lesley E)

Hello Everyone,

I have another project for you today using the Art of Chess stamps together with a few more from the Chocolate Baroque catalogue.  I made the little pocket folder using a method demonstrated by Tim Holtz on his DVD An Altered Journey.

I used watch stamps and a mesh background stamp to build up a background on the lightweight card I used for my little folder and I tore relevant definitions from an old dictionary to stick in strategic places once the folding was complete.

 I blended inks onto my tags and used some sequin waste as a mask.  I also did some background stamping.  I stamped and embossed the chess pieces onto white card, cut them out and shaped them slightly and adhered with silicone glue to the tags.

On the inside of the folder I stamped some of the smaller chess pieces into melted UTEE (clear UTEE with some ordinary Burgundy Embossing Powder added) using a Brilliance inkpad and again used silicone glue to attach them.

For these two tags I pressed my Distress Inkpads onto my craft mat and spritzed lightly with water.  I scrunched up my tags and opened them out again before pressing them into the ink and then ironed them dry between copy paper.  I followed this with background stamping on the tags and then this time I stamped the chess pieces onto Glassine using Versamark ink and Sticky Stuff before adding the metal leaf, cutting out and adhering to the tags.
I'm sure there's more to come from the rest of the team so keep watching.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

A bit of paper weaving (posted by Judith)

I was very pleased to be able to work with the new set of stamps 'The Art of Chess' when Glenda sent these to us, as I thought that they would be perfect for men's cards. (I also have a fabulous idea for a girly card too, using these stamps!) I decided to keep my colour scheme very simple, and just use black and white.
I marked 11/2 cms sections at one side of my card, and wove white card strips through my top black piece of card, to create the illusion of the chessboard fragment. For balance, I used a fabulous large swirl from the 'Butterfly Dreams' stamp set, which I embossed in white in the opposite corner. I stamped the sentiment, and mounted it onto a Nestability frame, fixing it to my card with two white brads. Finally, I stamped two large chess pieces onto glossy card, one black, and one white.

These are great stamps, look out for more Design Team samples coming your way this week. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Colour my life with music by ikki

When I first saw this new stamp from the Music theme set, I knew I wanted colour and a dramatic look to set of the beautiful image!   Black, White and Orange gave me this look.......

I really enjoyed creating this card with my distress inks and a masking technique using post-it notes.  I stamped the image on the slant to correspond with the PC generated sentiment, then placed 3 post-its round the image and applied ink.  With the completed section covered with another mask you can continue to colour the other sections with different but toning inks by just moving the masks about.   This is a simple way to give drama and highlight an image if you don't mind getting inky fingers!

Materials used:
White textured 6 x 6 card
Cardstock: black, white
Nestabilies: Large square #7/ Grand square #1
Stamps: Music
Ink: Black Memento
DI's: rusty hinge, dried marigold, spiced marmelade, mustard seed
Scoreboard
PC generated sentiment

Thanks for dropping by,

If Music be the Food of Love! (posted by Elaine)

When I saw the music and hearts on this lovely stamp plate this quote popped into my head!

I strated off with a cream background and added treble clefs and the curvy music staves part of the violin stamp to make up a background using Hazel Adirondack dye ink and colouring with Peach Bellini Addirondack and Frayed Burlap and Vintage Photo DI.I then heat embossed various elements from the stamps onto gold and copper pearl card using contrasting gold and copper EP and cut them out using tiny scissors. Using the curled leaf from the Brocade Background plate, I stamped in Russet Archival ink and coloured in Wild Honey, Frayed Burlap and Vintage Photo Distress Inks. I mixed these with some brown paper leaves to make a trail across the card. I finished the card with a computer generated sentiment coloured with the same inks and cut out with a nestie, added gold ribbon and ric rac and some amber gems.

Keep popping over this week to see what the other girls have been up to with these new stamps. We hope you feel inspired by our ideas.

Elaine

Ebony and Ivory? (posted by Lesley E)

Hello Everyone,

When Glenda first sent us these lovely chess stamps I immediately thought of cards for men but once I got to work with them I thought they would also make lovely feminine cards too especially with the scenic image which is rather romantic.  I don't play chess myself but when I see chess sets I always think of Steve McQueen and Faye Dunnaway in The Thomas Crowne Affair, lol!

Anyway, here is my first project using this lovely set of stamps.

I started with an ivory 8" x 8" base card and punched a border across the top and bottom front edges.  I punched the same border along the edges of a piece of black perlescent card and trimmed them off the main piece adhering them behind the borders on the front of the card.  The piece of black card which was left I embossed down the right half using the Tim Holtz Texture Fades Checkerboard embossing folder  and then sanded off the black surface before adhering to my card front.

I stamped the main image onto ivory card using black Versafine ink, trimmed to the size I wanted and then added touches of colour with Coloursoft pencils.  I masked the image and dusted Stormy Sky Distress Ink round the top half of  the border and Bundled Sage round the bottom border and I then matted it first onto black perlescent card and then ivory card before mounting onto the card front.  Finally, I stamped the King onto white card with black ink and the Queen in white onto black card before cutting them out and positioning them together with the stamped sentiment onto the right side of the card.

I think the chess pieces on this stamp set are excellent for making tags or ATCs too and they also combine well with several other sets.  Keep an eye on my own blog for a card I made recently combining them with the lovely music set and I know there are more projects coming up from my Design Team buddies so lots of inspiration to come.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

Beeswax and Butterflies (posted by Judith)

Hi Folks, when I received these lovely stamps from Glenda, I had also just bought some lovely chalk inkpads too. I decided that I would like to combine the two elements in a projects, and this card came about. I created a lovely soft background using three different coloured chalk inkpads, blending them together, and then stamping some swirls from the 'Nature Swirls' set around the edges.

I then stamped the music fragment and several hearts onto some cream card and cut them out. I covered all of these with melted beeswax, and then placed the hearts into a flower shape with a brass flower embellishment. I stamped the gramophone from the 'Music Fanfare' stamp set and two butterflies from the 'Butterfly Flourish' stamp set which I cut out and coloured with pencils. I added Glossy accents to the bubbles on the gramophone image, and used a Tim Holtz swirl behind my flower to complete the card.

Keep checking back for more lovely samples from the Design Team this week, using the new stamp sets. Thanks for stopping by today, Judith xx

Music and Chess

We have a couple of new stamp sets just released this week - Music Fanfare and The Art of Chess.

People sometimes ask me about the sizes, so these are both A5 (half sheets) which makes them approximately 14cm x 20cm (8.5 inches x 6 inches). 

I created a center step card with the chess stamps and liked the format so much I created a template with instructions.  Click here for the template.  I know people learn in different ways and templates work for some people, but others prefer to measure everything, so I put all the measurements on my template, then filmed a short video showing how easy it is to make.  You can find the video on YouTube - click here to visit my YouTube channel.

The DT have once again created some beautiful artwork with these stamps and we have quite a line up of blog posts waiting to be published, so please check back often over the next few days as there will be lots to inspire you.

The two sets are available as a multi-buy deal too and you never know when I might just take it into my head to do a random giveaway!

Happy stamping!

Home Sweet Home Winner

Well it took me quite a while to 'harvest' all the comments from all the blogs, but once I had done that, the random number pixie gave me the magic number and I'm delighted to tell you that the winner of the Home Sweet Home stamp set is

Julie W from Julie's Crafty Space.

Congratulations Julie, could you get in touch so we know where to send your prize - click here for our Contact Us page.

Seems like a lot of you really like the Home Sweet Home stamps, so it will be interesting to see if you like what's coming next .... Steampunk Christmas!

Watch out for that next week.

Sunset grasses

The grasses stamp from the Home Sweet Home stamp plate is such a versatile stamp. It was a real coincidence that my Design Team buddy Lesley and I had come up with a similar idea.

I cut four squares of white card and rounded one corner of each.

The grasses were stamped with Versamark ink and embossed with white powder. Cut a circle of paper to use as a mask and placed over the grasses. I used mustard seed, spiced marmalade, fired brick and vintage photo distress ink to colour each image. Each piece is mounted onto gold and the placed onto the cream base card. The base card is two pieces of cream A4 card cut to 21 x 21cm and joined with a length of ribbon. A little more distressing around the edge of the card to soften. Finally a sentiment and a few punched leaves dotted around.

Glenda will be picking a winner from one of the DT blogs very soon, so check back to see if you have won a set of these delightful stamps.

Debbie

one more 'krafty' Home Sweet Home creation.......

Hello dear crafters,

Just showing you one more 'krafty'( don't know if that's proper English) card made with the sweet HSH sheet from Chocolate Baroque. I had much fun with these stamps. This time I stamped with brown and coloured the image with my Derwent coloursoft's. On the background I used the swirl from Butterfly Flourishes.

Well hope you enjoy those stamps as much as I did! greetz,

New shop opening this weekend in Yeovil

I'm delighted to tell you about a brand new Chocolate Baroque stockist who is opening her shop with a fantastic open day this Saturday 6th August, with the fun starting at 10.00am.

The shop is called Stamp 'N' Craft, run by Beth Pearse and you can find it at Unit 2, Merlin Road, Lynx Trading Estate, Yeovil, Somerset, BA21 3HZ.  Regular opening hours are 10am to 5:30pm Mon - Sat.

Beth has ordered a mountain of Chocolate Baroque stamps for the launch day and I threw in some freebies for her too, so you never know what she'll be getting up to with those.

Beth has started her shop because she felt there was a lack of classes and retailers in the area and she aims to provide a place where people can book time with her or her staff to get taster sessions and mini tutorials as well as full workshops. Crafters can pop in for a chat, and share ideas along with a beverage.

So if you are free this Saturday and in the area, why not go along and support Beth - I wish her every success in her new business venture and if you do pop in, say hello from me!

Krafty cottage (posted by Elaine)

Here is another card from me using the gorgeous Home Sweet Home stamps.

I stamped the main cottage image on kraft card in black archival ink and coloured the image using Coloursoft pencils, blended with Sansador. I inked the edges with my favourite Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I cut the image into an oval with nesties and mounted on a brown complementing scalloped oval and mounted it onto a kraft card panel. I added die cut flowers from a book page (Tim Holtz Tattered Florals) inked with Fired Brick DI and brown Crealies leaves.  Finally I added the sentiment on a nestie ribbon tag and mounted it on cream and black ribbon, before matting and layering a couple of times. I made this as a New Home card, but it could be mounted in a frame as well.

I hope you are enjoying the different ideas from the team this week.

Elaine

Sunray by ikki

Hi, I have another card to show you featuring the lovely Home Sweet Home stamps

Materials used:

Black 6 x 6 Card

Cardstock: Bronze Mirri, Bronze Pearl

Acetate

Nestabilities: Grand Squares (sizes 1 and 3)

Stamps – Home Sweet Home

Inkpads: Black Stazon

Eazi-Scoreboard and Stylus

To make this card:

Cut 3 squares with the Nesties Grand Square #3  :  bronze mirri, bronze pearl, acetate -emboss the edge of the bronze mirri with a stylus pen or in your die cutting machine. 

Place the Grand Square #1 in the centre of the bronze mirri, tape in place and cut to make a frame.

On the pearl square, starting in the bottom left corner, make your first line to the opposite corner to start the sunray effect.   Using the double lines to keep the pattern equal - make further lines, always starting from the same bottom corner.

Stamp the acetate with the grass stamp - You need to take care where you stamp  so that the sun is in the centre of your ray. Cut a circle from the bronze mirri and place behind the sun.

Assemble all your layers and add to the base card. 

This set of stamps were a delight to work with and so useful for any occasion.

Until next time, enjoy your crafting and don't forget to leave a comment here and on my blog and on all the other DT's blogs for a chance to win these stamps.  Glenda will be doing a random draw so the more visits you make - the more chances you have of winning.  Some lucky crafter will be a very happy crafter!

ikki

Home Sweet Home.......

Hello there,

Today a card using the new sheet 'Home Sweet Home'. I have used the smallest image on the sheet and added some lines for this tiny landscape. I have used the sponging technique and put this circle on a Cheery Lynn doily. Also embossed the grasses and sentiment with white EP on the card.

Hope to have inspired you, greetz

Home Sweet Home - Winter on Acetate by Lesley (Craftymamma)

Hi Everyone,

This is one of the projects I made recently using the fab Home Sweet Home set of stamps.  It's such a versatile set and I love the grasses with the sun/moon.  For this particular card I decided to make it wintery little scene and added to the effect using a spikey branch punch to create a snowflake effect.

Don't forget to keep an eye out on my DT friends' blogs and leave a little comment.  You never know the winner of the stamp set could be Yoooohooooooo!

Have a lovely weekend all.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

New Home Sweet Home stamps

We have just launched a brand new set of stamps over on the Chocolate Baroque website called Home Sweet Home.

This is a lovely little set (it's A5 size) which would work beautifully with many other landscape themed stamps.  I can see it working well with other sets such as Eastern Grasses, Tall Trees and Wild Meadow to name just a few.

I made this card for my father-in-law who is in hospital at the moment.  He loves the fact that all the hospital staff have been admiring it and he proudly tells them that I made it especially for him.  Hand made cards really do spread a little happiness.  The card was stamped with Versafine and coloured with Coloursoft pencils.


I also made a couple of videos showing how to make the card below using masking and coloured pencils.  If the embedded videos below don't work for you, you can find the videos (Sunburst 1 and Sunburst 2) on my YouTube channel.

I have a set of these new stamps to give away to a lucky winner and I will be picking one of our DT blogs at random, then picking one lucky winner from their comments at random.  That includes my own blog and this blog, so get your commenting hat on and who knows, it could be you.

Watch out for more artwork from the rest of the Design Team coming soon.

Another Christmas Decoration(s)....with the Herringbone technique

Today a 2nd card I have created with the Christmas Decorations sheet. This time I have used the 'Herringbone' technique. Again a technique with different strips of the papers I have used in my previous post. I embossed the ornament with white EP and cut it out. The 'ivy' image is stamped with two colours brilliance on a nestie. A nice detail is the ribbon which was white......I coloured it with my copics.

Hope to have inspired you with these techniques, creative greetz

Christmas decorations with the Bargello technique

Hello there,

This is one of my creations with the Christmas decorations sheet. In a way I was fascinated this week with patterns and designs of Zentangle, Bargello and Herringbone. I must say it was very nice to play with.

I still had some large paint strips from the DIY shop and some leftovers of distressed paper. I stamped the ornament with two colours of Brilliance and added some glitters and pearls. A lovely two toned ribbon add the finishing touch.

If you like this Bargello technique, here is the link.

Have a creative day, greetz

Christmas diamonds by ikki

I called this card Christmas diamonds - well it would be nice wouldn't it! 

The diamond stamps are from the Christmas Decorations theme plate and the embossing powder was preordained to be silver, as was the embossed edging, wire and beads.   You can created this irregular edging with a glue stick and embossing powder.  The decorative paper is from the Spirit of Christmas range and makes a great foil for the diamonds.  

Card materials list:

Card : White 8” X 4” + extra white card for embellishments

Purple card 7.¾” x 3.¾”

Stamps – Christmas Decorations UDLSP0304

Decorative Paper: Spirit of Christmas

Inkpads: Versamark Clear

Embossing Powder: Silver

Glue Stick

Wire, Beads

On my Chrissie list:  why diamonds of course!  

ikki

Diamonds for Christmas Anyone? (posted by Craftymamma)

Hello everyone, I made this card as a Design Team submission a few weeks ago after revisiting a few of the lovely Chocolate Baroque 'back issue' Christmas stamp sets. As usual, I have mixed my stamps from 3 different sets - Christmas Reflections, Christmas Decorations and Frosty Trees for the sentiment, which is one of my favourites.

My card started with a lovely piece of acetate I had coloured with alcohol inks an absolute age ago, found when I was looking for something else and I wondered how I could use it. I decided to use it as a layer for backing the diamond images and then chose the colours of my card to co-ordinate with the lovely golds and coppers of the alcohol inks. I stamped the diamond images and heat embossed using copper embossing powder and I then coloured the baubles with Twinkling H2os in shades which are not quite the norm for Christmas. I then stamped the pretty holly border usuing Coffee Archival Ink directly onto my base card, positioned the diamonds and attached them with 3D foam and finally stamped the sentiment. The only measuring I did for positioning was to mark the centre of each edge of the base card, everything else was done by eye.

Hope you like my Christmas in July offering and that it whets your appetite for looking back at previous years' Chocolate Baroque Christmas stamps where there are so many beautiful images. Hugs Lesley (E) Xx

Inner Reflections Card (posted by Judith)

I have made a card using the Mistletoe Joy and Christmas Reflections stamp plates. I created an A5 card, and covered the front with dark green card, followed by a layer of lime green card. I then used a printed paper from the Spirit of Christmas paper pack. I stamped the Mistletoe ball onto white card, and coloured this with pencils, and blended them before cutting the image out, and matting it onto a white oval. I then matted the oval onto a larger dark green oval, and placed this onto my card.

I lined the inside of my card with the same red printed paper that I had used on the outside of my card. I then took a piece of A4 white card, and scored and  folded it in half. I drew an oval shape in the middle, and cut it out. I then folded each outer edge inwards towards the middle, and created another fold line.

I stamped the holly down each outer edge with Forest Green StazOn, then using Crimson Red Versafine, I stamped the two Peace images at the bottom. I stamped and coloured the Christingle ball, before cutting this out, and used some cotton to hang this from the central crease of the inner card, fixing a small amount of tape behind the card.

I then taped the two outer panels only, where the holly is stamped to the inside of the main card, taping all around the panel for stability. The final touch was to add some red Stickles glue to the berries on the Holly stamp, and leave them to dry.

Keep checking back to see what the other Design Team members have created with the Christmas stamps, thanks for popping by today, Judith xx

A Green Christmas! (posted by Elaine)

This card uses the gorgeous Christmas Reflections A4 stamp sheet.

I randomly stamped and heat embossed the background panel with the small holly stamp in Ranger Queens Gold embossing powder on hammered dark green card. This embossing powder, recommended to me a while back by Glenda and her staff, is my favourite gold, a bright shiny finish, that gives a pleasing effect every time.

The pomander and sentiment are embossed in the same way and then I used dark green H2O paint to highlight the ribbon on the pomander. I used a favourite nestie die from the labels 4 set. I matted all the panels onto gold card and added a dark green velvet trim before matting onto the final medium green 8 x 8 panel using foam tape to give depth.

The finishing touch for this card is poinsettias die cut and embossed from green pearl vellum using a Marianne die, with leaves cut from gold paper with a Crealie die, all held together with large green pearl brads.

I hope this inspires you to get going on your Christmas cards with these lovely stamps.

Elaine

Forest of Christmas trees by Debbie

I usually start my Christmas cards in August so that I'm not last minute churning them out. I've been working (playing) since the beginning of June. I like to have an idea of which I can make in multiples.

The base card is an A4 cut in half, scored along one edge so that it can be opened. Two holes were punched and ribbon tied in a bow to join the two pieces. I coloured the tree stamp from the Christmas Decorations set with different shades of purple. Stamp onto the background three times then stamp another three that are cut out and fixed using foam pads. By varying where you put the inks on the stamps helps make them look different and Waterfall Stickles adds a little bling.

The forest of trees was mounted on purple card and stuck onto paper from Spirit of Christmas papers which will be available in the Printable Downloads section of the website soon.

The Design Team will be posting some more lovely cards this week so keep popping in for ideas.

Debbie

Christmas in July

Well I know some of you will run screaming from the 'C' word, but we are launching new Christmas stamps next month, so have been thinking about Christmas for a few weeks now.

In fact, I set the Design Team a bit of a challenge to create some artwork using some of our older Christmas sets and all this week we will be sharing the results of that challenge.

First up is a card I made using a set called Christmas Reflections.

I made use of torn paper masks to create my little winter scene, flipping them over to make the reflected version.  The starry tree comes from the Frosty Trees set and because it is virtually symmetrical, you can turn it upside down to make the reflections. 

One of the other things I love doing with these big words is stamping them onto acetate.  Because you can use the mirror image version of the text, you can put the foil or glitter onto the stamped side of the acetate, which means that when you flip it over, your text appears the right way round, but can't rub off or get smudged.

Christmas Reflections is currently on offer when purchased as a bundle with Mistletoe Joy - we have a small quantity in old packaging - click on the image below for details or visit the Christmas Specials department to see all our Christmas offers (wholesale offers available too).

Stay tuned for more Christmas cards this week - the girls have done us proud.

 

some creations with the doodle butterflies........

Hello there,

Just want to show you some creations with the doodle butterflies sheet. I like those stamps very much because they are so great to stamp with white ink and colour over with pencils. One of my favourite techniques. Most of the time I stamp with white colorbox ink but recently I heard that the Adirondack white is great to use. So I will certainly try that.... Well off to the cards now...

Maybe I have inspired you to get your pencils out........ and have some fun!, creative greetz, Miranda