More Patchwork ideas...... (by Miranda)

Hello there,

Have you seen the new gorgeous stamps at Chocolate Baroque? The 'Patchwork Landscapes' are so much fun to colour and also to add your own 'patchwork' in every way you can imagine.......

I have made this one using the pillow top background.......I thought it would be a good match with these stamps.......I've stamped with black and coloured with the Distress markers. Scored the squares and sponged the areas in between by masking........You can find the technique here.
You can find the large butterfly on the 'Tangled Garden sheet' and the smaller version is a clear stamp.The wings are partially accentuated with the clear Wink of Stella pen but you can't see the lovely shine here. 

Maybe I did inspire you to give it a try?

Thanks for visiting and have a lovely day!

Patchwork Landscapes Bendy Card (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with a card featuring the new Patchwork Landscapes stamps, I adore creating scenic cards to these stamps are going to be a big favourite with me, they are such fun and quirky designs. For my first sample this month I decided to try and create a 'Bendy Card' as I'd seen some on my travels and loved the effect. I'm not great at creating fancy folds but this is a really nice easy one.

I used two 6" card blanks to create this and began by stamping the hills in the background on the inside right panel of one of the cards. I closed the card and stamped the little house. Next I took the other card blank, opened it and trimmed the front section off leaving a strip about 2cm to the left of the fold. On the reverse of the right hand panel I stamped the trees and fencing and then used pva glue to stick the scenes together.

I coloured the images with Graph'It markers and then trimmed around the two front images. I worked out roughly where I wanted the 'bends' to go and used my craft knife to cut slits to pop the ends through and create the card shape.

As a finishing touch I added a punched fence and some little paper flowers.

I hope you're enjoying all the beautiful cards from my talented team mates, our new members have certainly created some gorgeous debut projects!

Claire xx

Patchwork Landscape - By Florence

Hi everyone

It's a beautiful day on the mountain today.  Spring has arrived.  The daffs are out and the mountain side is covered with almond blossom.  It just looks like there are giant clusters of candy floss dotted about.  I love this time of year.

Here are two  project I have made using the Patchwork Landscape stamps.

For these have gone for bold colors.

 I stamped my main image onto coated card stock using black Staz-On.  Whilst that was drying I stamped the same image onto some masking tape and cut it out.

I masked my image and started to color the card using Scattered Straw and Wild Honey distressing inks and a piece of Cut n Dry Foam.  

I removed the mask and started coloring the image.  I used felt pens to color the image.  I created high lights by taking off some of the ink with a damp paint brush and I also added shade by adding just a little bit of dark ink to certain areas using again using a damp paint brush.

When the ink was dry,  I placed the mask back on the colored image and  I stamped the script using  black Staz-On.  

I edged the main stamped piece of card with gold pen and then mat and layered my card.

I stamped a sentiment, using a stamp from The Harlequin Rose Stamp sheet, onto white card stock, trimmed it and edged it with gold pen.  I then mat and layered this onto my card.

For the second card.  I made the topper for this card in exactly the same way as the card above.

I cut out my shape.  I cut the lid out from mirror board and rubbed over it with sand paper to make it look more realistic.

The tag is from some pretty papers from my stash and I have just attached it with some string.  

For the background on this, I masked my trees and flowers and used Pumice distressing ink and one of the background stamps from the Abstract Fragments stamp sheet.

Well I think that is all from me today.

I am off to do some work in the garden.

Take care all and happy crafting.

Florence x

Elegant Leaves (by Debbie)

I chose to make a couple of cards using a variety of colours with one stamp and a sentiment.

 

 

The first is Potting Soil Archival for stamping and Peeled Paint ink for water colouring. I heat set the Potting soil to make sure it was set and wouldn't run.

 

 

For the second I stamped the leaf with Vermillion Archival Ink and water coloured with a variety of Fired Brick and Mustard Seed Distress Inks.

 

 

This card was made using the Potting Soil and Mustard Seed inks.

I love the shape of these leaves and they make great backgrounds. I've had great fun using them and there's five more fantastic stamps in this set.

Thanks for visiting

Debbie

 

A Spring Garden by Doreen

Hello to you all, I am sharing a card I have made using the fabulous Patchwork Landscape and Springtime Edges stamp sheets

I created this card by stamping the main image and colouring with water colour pencils.
I then stamped the image onto some copy paper and cut it out to make a mask and using Faded jeans distress ink coloured the sky.
The Snowdrops from the Springtime Edges were stamped  across the bottom of the page and coloured in with  acrylic paints. The entire image was then matted onto some white and black card and finished off with a sentiment and a couple of butterflies.xxx

Sprintime Edges (posted by Shirley)

Hello everyone,  I hope you are doing well.  Spring is taking a long time to arrive in our part of the world.     

I have two designs using the beautiful new Springtime Edges,  I've enjoyed pairing them up with other Spring collections.

The background on the card above was created with Ripe Persimmon and Mustard Distress Inks using the Acrylic Block technique.   I stamped the Springtime Edge with Ripe Persimmon DI at the top and bottom.  I had some wide canvas style material in my stash that complimented the colours but it's difficult to see the greens in the photo.   The Tulip from Spring is in the Air is coloured with Prisma Pencils.  I also did a little highlighting with a Gelly Roll pen. 

The background of the above card is a piece of designer paper from my stash (pale yellow with tiny green dots).    I used Olive Archival ink for all the stamping and coloured with Prisma pencils.     The bottom design is from Springtime Edges and the top is from Spring Foliage.     The sentiment is from Mackintosh Sentiments, another great set.   The decoupaged butterflies are from the Spring Fairy Collection.    I added glitter to the top foliage.

Thanks for your visit and have a great day,
Shirley

Springtime Moon (by Asha)

Good morning, folks! I'm back with another look at the lovely April release stamps. I have 2 cards to show you.

The first is an exotic birthday card featuring a floral stamp the Springtime Edges set.  I used Memento Inks to colour this card. First, I did a colour wash on heavy weight watercolour paper, building layers of colours on the night sky and dessert. Next I fussy cut the Moghul Palace from the Indian Textiles set, and adhered it on the horizon. Finally, a row of exotic flowers from the Springtime Edges set, also coloured with Memento Inks, then fussy cut and adhered to the foreground.

Here's a close-up of the Springtime Edges. These stamps are so versatile, you don't have to limit yourself to just spring projects.

*********

For my second card, we're moving from night to dawn. I'm featuring a tree from the Patchwork Landscape set. My colouring mediums of choice for this project are Tim Holtz Distress Inks and watercolour pencils.

First, I stamped the tree from Patchwork Landscape, with VersaFine Black Onyx. Then I worked on the background by blending various coordinating Tim Holtz Distress Inks for the sky and grass. The greeting is from the Patchwork Landscape set, stamped with VersaFine Majestic Blue.

Here's a closer look. I masked out the moon before blending, of course! And then applied some watercolour pencils on the patchwork treetops. Whimsical and so much fun to colour!

I hope you've been inspired to ink up your new April release stamps! Watch out for more great ideas from the rest of the Design Team.

Beijinhos,
Asha

Patchwork Sunrise (posted by Judith)

Hi Folks, I had a lot of fun creating this 'patchwork' sample with the new Patchwork Landscape stamp set. The stamps are such great designs, and just encourage lots of colour.

I stamped the main image, and then masked this off, by stamping the image again onto masking paper, and covering the main areas. I then covered sections of the background with sheets of paper, just leaving a segment uncovered, which I coloured with Pan Pastels. I stamped the section with a stamp from various texture stamp plates, Abstract Fragments Nature Fragments Texture Fragments using Versamark, and then I covered the Versamark with Pan Pastel again. I moved around the page, completing a segment at a time, covering over any finished area to keep it protected. Once I was finished, I added hand drawn pen lines to resemble stitching. I coloured the central image with Inktense pencils, blending the colours with a waterbrush. I added a sentiment from the stamp sheet. Finally, I made some small flowers from handmade paper to resemble the Hollyhocks on the stamp plate, and added some black buttons to the centre. A die cut flourish completes the card.

 

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

March Blog Comments Winner !

We appreciate the time you take to leave us kind comments here at the Design Team Blog.  We hope you are enjoying the designs as much as we do creating them.  

Each comment in March was assigned a number and we used Random Org to draw a winner :) 

Congratulations to Susan C  you have won a £20.00 voucher to spend on Chocolate Baroque stamps!    Please send a quick email here to confirm your email address and Glenda will send you your gift certificate.

Glenda is giving away another £20.00 voucher this month.  Another lucky commenter will be drawn again from all of April's comments.    The more comments you leave the better your chances to win !

Thank you for all your visits and Good luck from the Design Team!

The new Patchwork stamps and Tyvek (posted by Maria)

Hey everyone,

Aren't they magnificent??  I really love these stamps!!!!  They really bring these trees alive with all this Patchwork!!  Here you can see some other creations of mine, the first one is again made with dylusion inks. The house and the tree are stamped with archival jet black ink.  The tree canopy was stamped on an other piece of paper (coloured with red dylusion ink) cut out and I than I've glued it over the tree canopy on the card.

I bleached out the house and coloured the roof with copics, the  border is from the new Elegant Edges stamp set,  isn't it pretty?? Then to have some more structure, I took a piece of Tyvek envelope and coloured it with the same colours I already used on my card, heated it with my iron and put it on the border of this card!! Don't you feel Spring already!!??

On the second card, I took the big Patchwork Tree, isn't it wonderfull?? The big tree can really be used on is own for a lot of occasions, I love it!!! Here I first made the background with distress ink and I used the background stamp from the set Texture Fragments to give some structure to the background!! Then in the front I used some Tyvek again, combined with a flower and leaves from the stamp set Sunny Sunflowers.

I hope you enjoy my creations and that I have inspired you all!!

Greetings and have a great creative time!!

Maria

Note from Glenda: If you haven't heard of Tyvek before, it's an interesting paper like material that is used in house construction and to make non tearable envelopes.  You can also find decorator's overalls made from it in many DIY stores which can be a cheap way to get hold of some.  It takes inks well and reacts to heat to give interesting shapes.

Rainbow colours in Patchwork landscapes (by Miranda)

Hello there,

Did you seen them? The beautiful new stamps at Chocolate Baroque? Aren't they gorgeous?

I've been playing with the Patchwork landscapes and I wanted to play with some bright colours.......a touch of Spring..... I had this background with some gesso on it already waiting in my stash and I've use the acrylic bloc technique and Distress inks. The flower is an image from the Tangled garden sheet which matches perfect with these stamps.The trees and flower are coloured with the matching Distress markers. And of course for the finishing touch I've used a white acrylic marker and some fine holographic glitter.

another angle......

And with the 2nd one I've used all the rainbow colours. This time I've played with (my neglected) Distress stains. I've misted my paper with some water and let the inks just flow......I've added here the tangled leaves from the Tangled garden sheet and masked them. On the left panel I've used a stencil and added some Memorybox die cuts.

Well, I hope that I have inspired you and gave your day a colour boost! Sometimes we can use that......

Thanks for visiting , always appreciate your comment and hope to see you next time,

Feeling Blue? (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with a quick and easy card made using the beautiful new stamps 'Patchwork Landscape' 

I began by masking the edges of the card and then stamped the images with blue Versafine ink. I masked the moon and inked in the sky using a shaving brush and distress inks (Faded Jeans, Stormy Skies and a little Chipped Sapphire). I coloured the images with Derwent Colorsoft Pencils and added the sentiment and a couple of punched butterflies.

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Elegant Edges - By Florence

Hi everyone

Thank you for calling in.  It is great to have your company.

This week I have been playing with the Elegant Edges rubber stamps.  

Love, love, love this set.  This is a set that I would like to have with me on a desert island.  You guys will know what I mean.  When you start using a stamp for the first time and know it is going to be a favorite, one that will cover every eventuality and every occasion......Mother's Day, Father's Day, Birthdays, Weddings, Christenings, creating backgrounds.......the list is endless.   This set is one of those.

The other thing that struck me with this set is that it would be great for scrap booking and for making mini albums

If you are new to stamping this would be an ideal set to have in your stash. 

I have gone back to basics with my first two cards.  

Please click on images to see the detail

I have just changed the colors and the format for the second one.

I used the small honeysuckle stamp for both of these cards.

I stamped randomly over a piece of white card stock.  Some times I re-inked my stamp and some times I didn't. 

When the ink was dry I used a punch to cut out the squares.  I added the dragonflies here and there.

I then just mat and layered my stamped squares onto some pretty papers and card.

50th Birthday Card

For my next card I used the little leaf stamp to create a background.  

I started by stamping all over a piece of white card stock using the small leaf stamp and Orange Blossom Archival Ink.  I then stamped randomly over the top of my first stamped images using Red Geranium Ink.  These are both fabulous colors. 

When the ink was dry.  I used a piece of Cut n Dry Foam and Old Paper and Pumice Distressing ink.  I then removed some of the ink with a damp paint brush to high light some of the leaves.

I cut out the numbers and stamped over them again using the leaf stamp and Walnut Stain distressing ink.  I applied just a hint of the same ink to the edges of the numbers.

I then just mat and layered my card up using pretty papers and adding some ribbon.

That's all from me today.

Happy Stamping

Florence x

Patchwork Trees in Blues (by Debbie)

I usually start by stamping my new stamps with black ink but felt I needed a change and used Cornflower Blue Archival ink which is a firm favourite colour.

 

 

 

I had a piece of card that I'd stamped the flower pattern from Texture Fragments with Versamark ink and left to dry. I then rubbed an acrylic block with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink, spritzed with water and laid the card on to it. When the card had dried I stamped the Patchwork trees and flowers with the Cornflower Blue ink. I used a little of the blue to water colour under the flowers to give them a grounding. For the base of the card I used masked a border and stamped the fragment. I added a sentiment and mounted onto blue card.
                                                              
                                                                  Thanks for visiting
                                                                           Debbie

Patchwork Landscape Door Hanger (By Doreen)

Hello to you all, I am so excited as this is my first post as a DT member. I am  sharing  a wooden Door Hanger that I have decorated  using the fabulous Patchwork Landscape and Springtime Edges stamp sheets .

 I first made my background by painting with a coat of Gesso and then blending various colours of  acrylic paints over the top. I stamped my images using  black Versafine onto some white tissue paper and  then coloured the flowers on the reverse before applying PVA glue and attaching this to the hanger. After letting this dry I went on and stamped a script stamp in various places using white acrylic paint followed by one of the stamps from the Eastern Grasses stamp sheet this was stamped with Black Versafine.... The edges were then inked with Black soot Distress ink. Last of all was the sentiment stamp inked up with black Versafine.

Country Home (posted by Shirley)

Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well.

The new whimsical stamp set, Patchwork Landscape is so much fun to create designs with.  My card below features the lovely cottage from the set.

The background was created with Mowed Lawn and Peacock Feathers Distress Inks using the Acrylic Block technique.     I stamped part of the flourish tree from Fantasy Woodland at the top and the flowers from Patchwork Landscape at the bottom.  The cottage was stamped with Olive Archival Ink and coloured with Prisma pencils.    I blended a little Distress Inks around the image.  Best Wishes is from Loving Sentiments.    I coloured the Crealie die cut flowers with Mustard Seed and Mowed Lawn Distress Inks.

Dies:  Crealies Flowers CL CF 25 and Marianne Design Flourish LR0150

Thanks for your visit and please come back often as I'm sure you will enjoy seeing what my talented teammates have been creating.

Have a great day!
Shirley

Serengeti Inspired Patchwork Landscape (by Asha)

Hello everyone and welcome to my very first post for the Design Team. I have 2 cards to show you:

Inspired by the stunning Serengeti sky at sunrise, I'm using one of the brand new April release stamp sets called Patchwork Landscape to create the focal image on my first card. The sentiment on the side is from the Loving Sentiments set, stamped with Memento Potters Clay. For an extra special touch, a little bow in sheer peach ribbon.

About this image: First, I did a colour wash on a piece of heavyweight watercolour paper using several coordinating Tim Holtz Distress Inks. When completely dry, I stamped the scene using VersaFine Black Onyx and coloured the tree trunk and other bits with some Vintage Photo. To finish, I did some paper piecing with scraps of patterned papers and added some bling in the middle of the flowers.

My second project  features a quaint little cottage, also from the Patchwork Landscape set. I stamped my own background paper using one of the stamps from this set. The sentiment is from Birthday Words.

Unlike my first project, there are no crazy colour combos here. I'm using a very light hand with Tim Holtz Distress Inks to blend the colours for the sky and the grassy foreground, while the cottage and bushes got a touch of alcohol markers.

I know you are going to love the stamps from the April release. In the meantime, there'll be more inspiration from the rest of the team coming your way. Spring has never looked so good!

Beijinhos,
Asha

Just for Mum (posted by Judith)

Hi Folks, I have two cards for you today, using the lovely stamp of the month sets and the For Mum clear stamp set.

My first card was created using a wrinkle free distress background on watercolour paper. I added some detail by using a mask and sponging some colour with Distress Ink. I stamped the small honesuckle stamp from the Elegant Edges stamp set over the background in toning colours. I used the large honeysuckle stamp from Fragrant Honeysuckle which I stamped onto a piece of oval watercolour paper and coloured with Distress Markers.

I added some ribbon, and embossed Crealie butterflies to finish.

 

My second card was created by stamping the two Hollyhock stamps across a pencil line onto some green paper. I coloured the images using Polychromos pencils. I stamped the central image onto a piece of white card, and again coloured this with pencils. I wanted to hint at the patchwork nature of the stamps, so added stitching, using my sewing machine, lace, and buttons, to the centre of my flowers. The flowers are made from handmade paper, simply brushed lightly with Distress inkpads. The stamps, other than the sentiment were taken from the Patchwork Landscape stamp set.

These beautiful stamps have made creating my Mother's Day cards very easy this year, and I hope that they will make two Mums very happy. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Spring (posted by Maria)

Hello everyone, welcome to my first creation as  a  member of the CB design team, I hope I can inspire some of you with my always colourful cards!!!

It's really Spring in CB stampland, aren't they wonderfull!!?? This card is created with the new CB stamps "Patchwork Landscape" and Dylusion ink!!!

Greetings
Maria

Introducing Patchwork Landscape and new edges

We have some beautiful new stamps for you this month - classic Chocolate Baroque designs from the pen of our very talented artist, Sue.

Our stamp of the month is Patchwork Landscape, a large A4 set full of intricate doodles and landscape elements.

Then we have two new A5 sets of edges - Springtime Edges with primulas, snowdrops and daffodils

 and Elegant Edges with a lovely mix of more exotic leaves and flowers.

The edges are also available as a multibuy.

I have a couple of cards to show you with these stamps - the first uses PanPastels.

I created a background landscape using masking tissue to mask off the sun and make some hill shapes, but kept all the colours very soft so there are no very hard edges.  I stamped the little house and coloured it with Coloursoft pencils, then stamped the snowdrop edge along the bottom and coloured with pencils and a white sharpie.

This next card is a very simple, one layer resist card with the honeysuckle edge stamped in Versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder.  I sponged Lilac Posies and Rose Bud Memento inks at the bottom and Canteloupe at the top, then stamped the sentiment from Amazing Birthday. 

If you've never tried resist before, it's wonderful to watch your stamped image emerge as you add colour over it.  When you've finished, wipe over the embossing lightly with a baby wipe to clean the ink off the embossed areas and make the design really stand out.

As always, our new stamps have special prices for their first month, so do take advantage while they're on offer.  You'll always find details of our latest stamps in our New Stamps department over at the Chocolate Baroque shop.

You're in for a real treat this month with artwork from all of our superstar Design Team so watch this space for lots of inspiration. And at some point early in April, Shirley will be announcing which of our lovely commenter's from March has won our monthly gift voucher - it's our way of saying thank you for leaving comments, we all appreciate you taking the time.

Happy crafting!