Steampunk just got wings - announcing STEAMPUNK BIRDS!

We have something for the steampunk fans this month, but if that's not your thing, don't worry, we also have some beautiful individual floral stamps too.

Say hello to Steampunk Birds!

I made this jumbo tag using a distress stain background (covered in Monday Mojo issue 16) and lots of layered stamping.  The birds are coloured with a mixture of Derwent ColourSoft pencils and Derwent Graphitint pencils.  The Graphitint are a mixture of graphite and colour and I thought they would give me that worn, rusty look that I was after.  When I first saw the stamps, I had this vision of mechanical metal birds roaming wild in a steamy rainforest, their bright colours dulling down as they acquired a patina of rust.

Here's a couple of close ups showing the colouring and layered stamping.  I've mixed in stamps from Punky Flowers and Texture Fragments.

I think of these as quirky rather than full on steampunk and they really could be very  useful for masculine cards (Adrian loves the paddle steamer duck).  But for a complete contrast, here's our other new release this month - four delicate and very beautiful floral stamps in our clear range.

Available as single stamps or as a money saving multi-buy, these clear stamps can be positioned accurately exactly where you need them.

More details on this card coming up on my own blog soon.

So there you have our December releases - I hope you are enjoying the girls artwork and don't forget we'll be giving away a Chocolate Baroque gift voucher from comments chosen by the DT this month.

PS - we have lots of offers that will expire at the end of November - don't miss out on introductory prices and our special £10.00 off promotion - click here for details.

Winter Fairy and Snow (by Shirley)

Hello everyone

I have a design today featuring a fairy from the new Winter Fairy Collection and it's starting to snow on her.   I guess fairies don't need warm clothing :)  

The beautiful fairy is from January Fairy and the tree is from February Fairy.   I also used the snowflake edge from Winter Edges.  I love how Chocolate Baroque's beautiful stamp sets work so well together.   The designer is very talented. 

I used blue design paper from my stash that actually has a wood grain pattern, but I liked the colour for the sky.   I did all the stamping with Rich Cocoa Memento Dye Ink and colouring with Prisma Pencils.  I masked the fairy before stamping the trees and 'ground'.    I stamped the bottom part of the snowflake edge on the ground and coloured it in.   I used puff paint for the snow.

Thanks for visiting and have a great day
Shirley

Fairy Dust (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with another sample created using the beautiful Winter Fairy Collection. As soon as I saw these stamps I pictured the fairies flying around in a circle scattering fairy dust as they went.

I began by blending distress inks on some white card (I used Peeled Paint, Tumbled Glass, Broken Chine, Shaded Lilac) and then stamped  the swirls from the January stamp set around the edges. Once the background was dry I stamped the fairies (also from the January set) and the fairy dust (from February) with versamark and then embossed with a sparkly white embossing powder.

The sentiment is from Damask Reindeer, again embossed with the same embossing powder and die cut with Spellbinders, dusting a little more embossing powder around the edges. To finish off I added a bow and some little pearls in the corners.

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

A Festive Fairy (by Debbie)

Hello from a chaotic craft room DT member. I have been without a PC and craft room for five days. I'll tell the short version. My hubby and I discussed that in the New Year we would revamp my craft space. He told me last weekend that he needed to drill a hole in the wall from the garage into my room but one of the units was in the way. I got in from work on Tuesday and everything had been stripped out and stored in the garage. Wednesday and Thursday were spent painting and shopping for new storage units, a chair and new flooring. Friday he laid the new floor and we built the new furniture. Saturday I spent carefully retrieving my precious Chocolate Baroque stamps from under the piles of magazines and papers. BUT I'm not going to moan as I now have an amazing space to create in, just a little earlier than planned. I'll post a few photo's on my blog this week when I've sorted a little more.

My Festive fairy is from the February set of stamps and she is a joy to work with. I stamped her onto white smooth card and coloured her with alcohol pens. I added Wink of Stella clear to her wings but unfortunately the photograph hasn't picked it up. Using Peacock Feathers Distress Ink I blended around the edges to add more colour. With the same colour inkpad I stamped the holly flourish to create a background and with black ink stamped the greeting at the bottom. I mounted onto black card and trimmed with a fine bored as I didn't want it to domineer the card. Thank you for visiting. Debbie

Winter Fairies & Abstract Fragments CAS Style (by Shirley)

Hello everyone,  I hope your weekend is going well.   It's been colder than normal this week in Ontario, Canada and we've had a little snow!  I'm not ready for Winter! 

I have several 'quick make' cards today using the new stamps.

For the above card, I used TCW Starfall Stencil and Distress Inks to create the background.  I stamped the sentiment, "Magic Happens" and the fairy from December Fairy with black ink.  I used Stardust Stickles on her wings.

I used the same Fairy and stencil for the card below but added holly from the Winter Fairy Collection.

The next two cards I used fragments from Abstract Fragments.

For the above card I used TCW Mod Spirals stencil in the background using Shaded Lilac Distress Ink.  Next I inked over top with TCW Butterflies stencil and while the stencil was in place I stamped with a fragment from Abstract Fragments using Seedless Preserves.  Glenda called it 'stampencilling':)    'Best Wishes' is from Loving Sentiments.

. 
For the above card I used the same stencil and another fragment from Abstract Fragments and the same Distress Inks.   The sentiment is from Birthday Words.

Thanks for visiting and enjoy your day!
Shirley

Masculine Birthday Greetings (by Shirley)

Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well.  I have a card design today that I think works well for a man.

The background was created with Melted Chocolate (how appropriate) Dylusions Ink.   I stamped using two tree trunk grain fragments from the new Nature Fragments set with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.     I embossed two trees from Fantasy Woodland and sentiment from Birthday Words with brown powder.   I blended Broken China Distress Ink over the trees and label.   

Die:  Spellbinder - Elegant Labels 4 S6-005

Thanks for your visit and have a great day,
Shirley

Frosty Fairy (posted by Judith)

Hi Folks, here is a Wintery sample for you using the Winter Fairy stamp collection. I stamped the main fairy onto a piece of white card, and then created a mask which I placed over the image. I stamped some mushrooms from the Autumn Fairy collection and then created masks for those as well. I made some paper masks for the hills, by tearing some scrap paper, and sponged various shades of green across the background. Fnally, I used some blue ink to create a sky, adding a circle mask to create a sun.

I added some yellow in the circle area for the sun, and embossed some trees using white embossing powder. I then removed the masks and coloured the stamped images using Graph it markers. To finish, I added some glitter glue along the edges of the hills and to highlight the mushrooms.

To create the background, I embossed some snowflakes from the Reindeer Landscape stamp set using white embossing powder, and then covered the background with blue ink. I used a sentiment from the Winter Fairies stamp set, and added some blue organza ribbon and some gems to finish.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Believe in the magic ..... (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with my first sample using the beautiful Winter Fairies . I've used this pretty fairy from the February set, isn't she a beauty???

I've coloured her with Graph'It markers and added some glamour dust to her wings.

 The background was made with PanPastels and a snowflake stamp from Damask Reindeer which I embossed with white embossing powder. The sentiment is also from Damask Reindeer. I've used red card to mat and layer and added a little red bow and a snowflake charm to finish off.

Thanks so much for visiting, 

Claire xx

Warm colours Winter Fairy (by Debbie)

Hello. I can't believe how this year has flown by. My card today was started in August, on a fabulous day playing with lots of crafty goodies at Waterworth Towers. Judith, Lesley and I were invited to spend a day getting painty, inky and generally having fun. It was a day I'll remember for a long time as I love the company of good friends who have a common interest in crafting and learned such a lot from the discussions we had.

The background for my card was made from red, pink and yellow Acrylic paint and the Gelli Plate. I brayered the paint across the plate and laid the Climbing Vine stencil on top then placed paper over it to take a first print. I then lifted the stencil off and laid down black card for the second print which is the one I used for my card. While waiting for the paint to dry I sprayed a strip of white card with yellow, pink and orange Dylusions. When the strip dried I stamped the standing Fairy and sentiment with Onyx Black Versafine. Before assembling the card, I trimmed the edges then mounted the Fairy and background onto black card. I added a few strips of ribbon and finished by attaching to orange card that had been embossed and a white base card. Thank you for stopping by today. Debbie.

Winter Fairies for Christmas (by Shirley)

Hello everyone, I hope you are having a great weekend.

I have a couple of designs today featuring stamps from the new beautiful Winter Fairy Collection.  I used images from December Fairy for the card below.

The background was created with Calypso Teal, After Midnight and White Linen Dylusions spray inks and I sprinkled a little salt while wet.   I stencilled a little over the background using Circle Explosion by TCW.   I stamped the angel with Seedless Preserves Distress Ink, embossed with clear, cut it out, matted and coloured with Dylusions inks. 

Next is a beautiful fairy from February Fairy.

I created the background with Festive Berries Distress Ink using an Acrylic Block.   I stamped the trees from Reindeer Landscape with Festive Berries Distress Ink.    I embossed the holly edge from Christmas Edges and Believe from Reindeer Landscape with gold.  The fairy is also embossed with gold, coloured with Tombow markers, cut out and attached.  I added Diamond Stickles to her wings and dress.

I hope you can come back often to see what my talented teammates are creating.

Thanks for visiting and have a great day!
Shirley

Thank you Fairies (posted by Judith)

Hi Folks, I have a project to show you using the gorgeous new Winter Fairy Collection stamp set. Around this time of year, we have lots of thank yous to send, and so I decided to make a gift wallet containing some thank you cards, using lots of the fairy images from both this stamp set and the Autumn Fairy stamp set.

I started my project by cutting some paper masks from scrap paper and inking through the masks with a variety of inks onto plain white card cut to size.

I blended the colours as I graduated down the area that I was shading to get a soft blend. I removed the mask and stamped one of the fairies from the stamp plate over the shaded area. On each card, I added a sentiment taken from Words of Gratitude or Pretty Poppies stamp sheets. I added black matting to the cards to tie in with the stamping.

I cut two pieces of black card 21cms x 19.5cms.  I then scored 1.5cms at one end of each piece, and overlapped them, sticking them together at this point. I scored 2.5cms at each outer edge, and 2.5cms along the bottom, cutting out a gap where the overlap occurred along the bottom. I trimmed the bottom edges slightly at each of the four ends. I folded the sides and the bottoms inwards, and secured the outer corners with glue or double sided tape.

 I placed a piece of ribbon across the middle of the front of the folder before sticking on the front design. I actually used two pieces of ribbon, a shorter piece on the right, and a longer piece on the left to wrap right around the back.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Welcoming our Winter Fairies (by Glenda)

I'm delighted to announce the latest in our collection of Fairy stamps - meet the Winter Fairies. 

This time we are releasing December, January and February Fairy sets with a multi-buy available on all three.  There's also a new Winter Fairy Inspirations leaflet with some beautiful artwork from our talented DT girls.

The leaflet is free for a limited time when you purchase the three set multi-buy.

I made this little set of four ATCs with a mixture of stamps from all three sets and I will be jazzing them up a touch and offering them for trade on Facebook over the weekend, so why not 'like' our page so you can see what we're up to over there.  (Click here to visit the Chocolate Baroque facebook page.)

We also have a super clear set called Amazing Birthday featuring a collection of sentiments which I have been finding incredibly useful lately.  

They really have motivated me to get many of my stamped bits and pieces turned into finished cards as you can see over on my own blog here.  I'm not a natural finisher, I have a huge box of unfinished 'bits', so it was very satisfying to get that sense of accomplishment from finishing a batch of cards.  (It's also very motivational - I haven't stopped crafting all week!)

As always, the girls have some great cards and projects lined up for you and you really don't want to miss the lovely inspiration leaflet - it will definitely get your crafting juices flowing!

PS - we really appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment on all of our DT blog posts, so at the end of this month each DT member (me included) will choose one commenter whose name will go into a hat and one of those names will be drawn randomly to win a Chocolate Baroque gift voucher. 

A Sweet Robin for Christmas (by Shirley)

Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well.

I have a couple of designs today using stamps from the new Nature Fragments set and an another favourite, Christmas Song.   The fragment stamps are wonderful for creating backgrounds, I know I'll use them a lot!

The background was created with Peacock Feathers & Picked Raspberry Distress Inks using the Acrylic Block technique.   I over stamped with the Ice Fragment from Nature Fragments with the same Inks.     The Robin from Christmas Song was stamped with Cocoa Memento Ink and coloured with Inktense Pencils.   I added glitter, rhinestones and died sheer ribbon with Raspberry Ink to match.

 

And below is a second design also featuring the sweet little Robin:

I used Peacock Feathers Distress Ink and Acrylic block for the background.  I over stamped with the Ice Fragment with both Shaded Lilac and Peacock Feathers Distress Ink.   The poem (also from Christmas Song) and Robin were again stamped with Cocoa Memento Ink.   I coloured the Robin with Prisma Pencils.   

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Shirley

Festive Robin with Abstract Fragments (by Debbie)

The crackle background from Abstract Fragments is quickly climbing to the top of my favourite stamps list. I had the colours for this card in my head before I chose the stamp for the main image.

For the background I inked the stamp with Archival Ink Potting Shed and randomly stamped onto white card. The stamp fits together beautifully as it has no straight edges. Around the edges of the card I used Festive Berries Distress Ink. The Robin sitting on the Bird house is form the Christmas Tweetings set was stamped with Versamark and embossed with gold powder. I water coloured the image with Distress Inks, added the sentiment and a little red ribbon. This card will be added to my Christmas card box which will be opened soon. I can't believe how quickly the festive season is coming around this year. Many thanks for visiting. Debbie

Icy Fragment (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with a card made using one of the gorgeous images from Gothic Angels on a background made using one of the fab new stamps, Nature Fragments

I've used glossy card for the background and randomly applied tumbled glass, broken chine and a little shaded lilac distress inks and then overstamped with the icy fragment using the same colours. I've edged the background with tea dye distress ink and matted it on some kraft card. The main image was stamped on kraft card and embossed with sparkly white embossing powder. I stamped the image again on smooth white card and coloured with Graph'It Markers.

 Next I cut the image out and layered it up on the kraft card. I layered the image up over some cheesecloth, coloured with distress inks and added a little bow and some die cut snowflakes topped with little pearls.

Thanks for visiting today, keep popping back as my teamies have got some gorgeous samples to share using these lovely new stamps

Claire xx

Nature Fragment with a Butterfly (by Shirley)

Hello everyone, I hope you are enjoying the weekend.

I have a card design today using the fantastic new Nature Fragment set along with a pretty butterfly from Butterfly Daisy Collage and sentiment from Birthday Words.

The background is watercolour paper that I used to 'mop up' inks from a previous card.    It's actually the watered down version of the Blue cards you saw last month :)   I spritzed a little water and added a little sea salt that created the spots.   When dry I stamped with the flourish fragment from Nature Fragments using Peacock Feathers Distress Ink.

I embossed the Butterfly from Butterfly Daisy Collage with Silver, cut it out and attached.   When the card was finished I added stickles.   The matting and die cuts are in dark brown (hard to tell in the photo) and I stamped the greeting with brown Dye Ink.

Dies used:    Cheery Lynn- Cuties 1 B149 (border which can be made into a flower) and Mini Flourish One B170.

Thanks for your visit !
Shirley

Stepping Stones (posted by Judith)

Hi Folks, here is another sample using the versatile Nature Fragments/Abstract Fragments multibuy stamp set. I have created a background by covering some watercolour paper with a wash of watercolour ink, and adding some salt while it was still wet. Once the background was dry, I brushed away the salt, and randomly stamped the squiggly texture stamp in Salty Ocean Distress Ink across the paper. I added highlights with a white pencil.

I coloured a piece of glossy card with alcohol inks and then stamped the large and small tree trunk circles several times in black ink. I cut these out, and arranged them across the page. I used another texture stamp and some blue green embossing powder to create a pattern across the wings of a die cut dragonfly.The sentiment was taken from the Words of Multibuy stamp set.

 

Something along these lines might make a great masculine themed card, which is always hard to design. Keep checking back for more inspiration from my team mates over the coming days. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Fragment background with Couture Lady (by Debbie)

Sometimes you just need to play with the goodies that you have in your stash. I was off work last week and gathered a hand full of inkpads, card, paper, new stamp from the texture fragments and my favourite Julie Nutting Couture Lady stamp.

For the background I blended Squeezed Lemonade, Mown Lawn and Peacock Feathers then over stamped with the stamp from Abstract Fragments with Peacock Feathers. I added a few foliage stamps along the bottom to ground the doll. The lady was stamped onto white card and coloured with copic pens and dressed by paper piecing paper. Colouring white flowers is ideal to be able to match the colours used for the background, I sprayed with Dylusion Inks. Thanks for stopping by Debbie

Autumn Fragments (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with a card made using the lovely new stamps 'Nature Fragments' 

I made a background using distress inks in Peeled Paint, Dried Marigold and Gathered Twigs and splashed it with a little water, blotting it to create a patchy effect, Next I stamped the 'wood' fragments with more Gathered Twigs Distress ink. The sentiment is from  Nature's Peace and is one of my all time favourites. I added some die cut shapes and a flower made by die cutting some tissue wrap that I'd coloured with distress ink. 

I added a little copper brad in the centre and some raffia to finish off.

Thanks for visiting to day

Claire xx

Fall Colours with Texture (by Shirley)

Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well.

It's hard to believe but here we are into November already.    I made this card when the Fall colours were in their prime,  which inspired this design.     I used the new fabulous Abstract Fragments together with several other stamp sets.

Stamps sets used:    Abstract Fragments, Gothic Fragments, Fancy Flourishes, Butterfly Daisy Collage and Artistic Expressions.

I also used Crealie- CL CS 24 die cuts and TCW Stencil - Cubist.

The background is Marmalade, Mustard and Wild Honey Distress Inks using the Acrylic Block technique.   I added the cube design with the TCW Cubist Stencil and Wild Honey Distress Ink.   I stamped 'Art' and the Flourish from Fancy Flourishes at the bottom with Walnut Distress Ink.    I stamped the bricks from Abstract Fragments and Window from Gothic Fragments with Rusty Hinge Distress Ink.

Next I embossed the flowers from Butterfly Daisy Collage with Copper on purple designer paper, cut them out, attached them to the background with the Crealie die cuts and added metal medallions that were hanging out in my stash.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you can visit often to see what my talented teammates have created.

Have a great day!
Shirley

Nature Fragments meets the Gelli Plate (by Debbie)

Hello. The card I have today is made with Adirondack inks, Distress inks, black embossing powder and my Gelli Plate. I'm not good at tidying up painty mess so when I saw the Gelli Plate being demonstrated at Harrogate show using inks rather than paint I just had to give it a go. I have only used the plate with Adirondack and Distress and must say the Adirondack gives a better effect than the Distress. The distress inks bead even when brayered many times. After a play day on Thursday with Glenda and Lesley other dye ink pads can be used, I think it will be a trial and error technique.

I started by applying Peach Bellini to the Gelli Plate with the brayer as a base coat, it looked as if there was hardly any ink on there but it definitely is. Next, I inked the wood grain stamp from the new Nature Fragments stamp plate with Cranberry and stamped on the Gelli Plate. I repeated with my new favourite colour Stream then placed a square of white card over the plate and rubbed with my hand. I love the reveal when lifting the card away to see what's happened underneath.

The beauty of using the ink rather than paint is that you can over stamp with fine detailed stamps. For the stamping I used the Gothic Angels stamps, the Angel has been coloured with pens using similar colours to the background. I have a few more cards using this technique to post and hope that you'll give it a try. Thanks for visiting, Debbie

Fancy Flourish Winner

Just a quick note to announce the winner of the Fancy Flourish clear stamp set.

Well done to Cdteach - you don't need that lottery win today!

Cdteach18 October 2013 15:49

I just love flourish stamps and these are really fine and detailed. So it looks like another set to add to my ever increasing list... well there's always the lottery LOL

I will be doing a giveaway this month, but I'm going to do it differently.  At the end of the month I'm going to ask each DT member to nominate one comment from November and I will then pick randomly from their selection.  The winner will receive a £20 gift certificate to spend on stamps of their choice from the Chocolate Baroque stamp range (clear or rubber).

I know it means a lot to the girls to receive your kind words, so I hope this will encourage you to take that little moment to let them know you appreciate their creativity.

We don't allow anonymous commenting on the blog (sorry, but we get invaded by spammers if we do), so you will need a google account (if you're on Blogger you already have one) or an open ID (again, if you're on Wordpress or another blogging platform, you'll probably already have this).

Cdteach - I have your details already, but could you just drop me a quick email so I can confirm we have the right address to send your stamps to.

More artwork coming up soon!

Caring Wishes (posted by Judith)

Hi Folks, I have a card to show you today using the Nature Fragments stamp set. I have created a wrinkle free distress background and then stamped the positive ornate flourish in various colours across the card. I coloured a piece of glossy card with alcohol inks, and then embossed the negative version of the flourish with silver embossing powder over the top. I have used a sentiment from the Pretty Poppies stamp set to create a greeting. Finally, I die cut a butterfly from plum coloured metal which I embossed using an embossing folder with a die cutting machine. I then used some alcohol ink to lift the colour from the raised areas.

 

Some plum ribbon and teal coloured card finish off my project. Please keep checking back for more inspiration from my design Team mates over the coming days. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx