Fleurs Nouveau - By Florence

 Hi everyone

Apologies for being missing in action for the last few weeks.  I have been partying, crafting, shopping and holidaying with my two blogging friends Marie and Kylie.  They flew over to see me.   It has been my first holiday (well taking time out) for nearly 20 years!!  Wonderful time.  Mind you, I know you wont tell anyone, they didn't half hog the remote for the tv and the computers!! he he.

I have been popping in now and again, when I have had chance to have a quick peek at the fabulous projects made by the DT and the Guest Designers.  Amazing work ladies.

 Right down to crafting and less of my chat.

For my projects today I have made some cards which are quick and simple in style and not much fru fru.  I hope you like them.

 

please click on the image to see the detail

I have made all of the cards the same way but used different card stock and colors.

For my first card I used a piece of A5 coated card stock.

I masked off a thin strip using post it notes and then applied some Distressing Inks using a piece of cut n dry foam.

I then used some masks, some builders plastering tape and ink to make some pretty patterns.

*I have used some masks from my own stash but I know that there are so many great masks on the Chocolate Baroque website HERE.

When the ink was dry and leaving the masks on, I used the leaf stamp from the Fleurs Nouveau stamp set and stamped the leaf pattern using black archival ink.

To finish the card, I removed the post-it notes,  stamped the Happy Birthday (from Birthday words A5 Stamp set) sentiment and added some bling.

 

please click on the image to see the detail

For my second card I used some mat white card from my stash.

I masked and added color in the same way as above and stamped my leaf pattern.

To be honest, when I first added the color to the card stock, it absorbed quite a lot of ink and it looked dark and I wasn't to keen on it but then.....I thought maybe I can take some color out, just where the leaf patterns are.  

All I did to removed the color was to brush on the tiniest (just damp really) amount of water with a small paint brush, just here and there, and then press down onto the damp area with a piece of kitchen paper.  To cut a long story short, this was the result.  A bit of a happy accident really.  I quite like the tie die effect it created.

Please click on image to see the detail

For this card, again I have made it in exactly the same way as the two above, just changing the colors and I used the small little leaf pattern from the Fabulous Flappers.

So for my sentiment, I just stamped Birthday Greetings onto a small square piece of card and attached it to my card using foam pads.

Well I think that is all from me today.

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

Thank you also to everyone for leaving such lovely comments.  We always love to here from you and they are very much appreciated.

Happy Crafting

Florence x

A spotlight on the Twenties

It's been some time since I contributed one of my designs to the DT blog, however I intend to blog on here every month from now on; so let's start with May's offering.

When I first saw these Fabulous Flapper stamps I knew exactly how I wanted to use this particular image. During the art deco period it was all about shapes and angles and I liked the idea of using a circle to spotlight this lovely lady.

To create the spotlight illusion I stamped the upper part of the image with Tuxedo Black Memento ink onto a self adhesive circular label. I happened to have some in my stash but you could die cut a circle from an A4 single label sheet. I then coloured the image with my alochol markers and set aside to dry.

The card itself is a piece of A4 dark grey pearlised cardstock folded in half from which I trimmed off 1.5" down the side edge. I found a twenties advert amongst my ephemera stash which I glued to a piece of plain card to give it some strength. This was then attached to the front, overhanging the trimmed edge.

The image of the flapper was stamped onto another item from my stash (a Whist scorecard). Once dry I stuck the self adhesive circle over the top, ensuring the images were matched up. This was then matted onto a piece of Old Gold pearlised card and attached as illustrated with 3d foam.

Finally I stamped the words 'Just a Note' from the Mackintosh Sentiments clear stamp set and finished it off with the ribbon.

I have been using self adhesive labels for many years now and find them useful for all sorts of crafty projects. However when it comes to stamping they are an easy way to add an image to a background without having to create a mask. 

I hope you are inspired by all my fellow DT members' beautiful artwork, there are more gorgeous things to follow so please keep watching.

Guest Post: Serenity Prayer Card Shaz Brooks

Our guest designer this week is Shaz Brooks who has designed this beautiful card using a variety of our stamps. This is a long and detailed post, but well worth the read. So pull up a chair and take time to enjoy.

(Measurements are in inches, as firstly, I still think that way, and second, my Tim Holtz ruler is in inches!)

One of the wonderful things about Glenda's stamps is how beautifully they mix and match, you are never limited to working just with the stamps in a particular set. For this project, I’ve used stamps from four different Chocolate Baroque sets: Serenity, GothicFragments, Floral Edges and Words of Wisdom. 

I began by taking a piece of white card roughly 6” x 6”.  I sprayed it with a mix of blue and purple; I mixed Distress Re-inkers (Salty Ocean and Seedless Preserves) with water in mini misters, but any spray inks will do the job. After spraying, I blotted the paper with kitchen towel, which left a lovely muted background.

Now I overstamped this piece with a couple of stamps from the Gothic Fragments, one of the Floral Edges and the Wisteria branch from Serenity. So the overstamping stayed soft to match the background, they were all stamped in Salty Ocean, and each time I stamped the image onto scrap before stamping on my background, giving me a paler second generation image.  I sprayed a second piece, roughly 3” x 6”, in the same way, then overstamped with another of the Gothic Fragments, finally inking up the Old English Prayer from the Words of Wisdom set in Versafine Majestic Blue and stamping that over the top.

Next I took another piece of white card, and stamped the Buddha image from Serenity in Memento Tuxedo Black, as I was going to colour it with Promarkers.  Using the ink left on the stamp, I also stamped a post-it note mask for the image. I trimmed the mask on the lines, so I would not get a ‘halo’ effect around my image. The post it mask was placed over the top, so that I could add colour to the ‘sky’ around the image, using Adirondack inks in Aqua, Stonewashed, Sailboat Blue, and just a touch of Denim at the edges, with a Colorbox Stylus tool. You can do this with sponges, an ink applicator or brushes, whatever your preferred method is. The sky took up roughly 2/3 of the image, so the bottom third was coloured for grass, again with Adirondacks in Willow, Citrus and a little Lettuce.

After this was totally dry, I added colour to the image using markers. The final touch was to add gilding flakes to the shrine the Buddha is sitting inside, and to the adornment on the Buddha's head. The background sheet, Buddha and the Prayer were each matted onto dark blue card.

For my base card, I cut two sheets of dark Grey Metallic card to 9”x 7 1/2”. Measuring in 1 1/2” from one short edge on each sheet, I scored a line down the card. At this point I also cut two sheets of white copy paper to make an insert for the greeting later, always wise when using a dark card base. Sandwiching the two white sheets between the two pieces of card, I punched two holes in the narrow section that had been scored. Now I threaded fibres through these holes, and tied together.  You could use twine/ribbon/string,  whatever you like. My ‘fibres’ are actually ‘eyelash wool’. I added a pale purple and pale blue brad top and bottom of the spine to secure it firmly.

Now the background sheet was stuck to the card front using double sided tape, and the Buddha image mounted on top of that, again with tape.  I added little foam pads to the back of the Prayer, to give a little dimension, and mounted it at an angle partly over the Buddha image.The final little embellishment I spotted lying on my desk- a little punched dragonfly. I had some scraps from a project a few weeks ago, using gilding flakes on black card, and had punched a few dragonflies and butterflies from the last bits. I added him with a little blob of silicone glue.

I hope you enjoy this project, and it encourages you to mix up your CB stamps a little. All the inks and tools I have used can be swapped for what you have with no ill effects, you can use Distress Inks instead of Adirondacks, for instance. You can even mix Distress Inks and Adirondacks if you wish.

I’ve really enjoyed doing this, although I have to admit my nerves were a bit frayed at the edges whilst I was doing it, I was sure something was going to go horribly wrong, especially as I got closer to being finished; I had visions of a dropped inkpad ruining everything!

Thank you so much for this Shaz, we have enjoyed having you as a guest designer. And if this post has inspired you why not leave a comment. To see more of Shaz's designs check her blog out here

Repeat Stamping (by Debbie)

 

Good morning.

I've really had fun playing working with the Fleurs Nouveau stamps.

For my first card I had great fun colouring the flower with pencils and wanted to keep the colours soft as I used Memento London Fog for stamping as a change to using black ink.

I cut out the flowers with an oval die and blended with Victorian Velvet Distress Ink.

I stamped around the oval with words from the Amazing Birthday words. These are clear stamps and they will bend beautifully and you can see where you're stamping. The flower oval was attached with foam pads and I mounted onto a pale pink.

 

 

 

The mathematical side of my brain was very happy doing the repeat stamping for the background of this card. The stamp is from the Nouveau Lovebirds set. I love symmetrical things like fabrics and wall paper.

I stamped with a pale green and because there is a lot of detail in the background decided a sentiment on a label shape would be sufficient as a topper.

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by

Debbie

 

 

Green Elegance by Doreen

Hello.I am back sharing another Fabulous Flapper  from the May releases

I have stamped the image onto white card with Black Versafine and coloured her with distress inks.For the backing I have cut a square of green card and cut an oval aperture then using a stencil run it through the Big shot,placed the image behind and framed her.

The urn is also on the stamp sheet and I have stamped and clear embossed this before fussy cutting and distressing it. It is finished off with with feathers and gems.

Evening Stroll (by Shirley)

Hello everyone I hope you are doing well.

I have another design today using the beautiful new Fabulous Flappers set.

I started with a piece of mixed media paper and adhered a die cut clock with a Gel medium and then brushed Gesso over everything.   When dry I painted a few colours of Acrylic glaze over top and spritzed with water to blend and added the painted die cut hands to the clock.    I used the top of a tree from Patchwork Landscape around the outside edge.

The pretty lady was stamped with Cobalt Archival ink, coloured with Intense pencils, cut out and popped up on the background.  I added lots of glitter around her shawl's trim, a little difficult to see in the photos.
 

Thanks for your visit and have a great day,
Shirley    

Nouveau Lovebirds (by Asha)

Good morning, friends! Are you having fun with your new stamps? Today I want to show you a couple of cards made with stamps from the Nouveau Lovebirds set. They are so versatile and that they can be funky or elegant ... the choice is yours!

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My first card is a bright and bubbly good luck card featuring the stylised flowers from the Nouveau Lovebirds stamp set. Added bonus: quick and easy to make.

I started by heat embossing the images using white embossing powder. For the background I blended Distress Inks in yellows and greens with some reds for the floral buds. The greeting is from Words of Comfort and Cheer.

Here's a closer look at the card. Just to fill some of the space, I also heat embossed an image from the Texture Fragments set.

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My second card is not so loud and boisterous. This elegant card features the lovebirds after which the stamp set is named (that's my guess!). The front of the card has a layer of vellum that allows you to barely see through to the top half of the inside.  I used one of the smaller stamps from the Nouveau Lovebirds to make the background. This card would make a lovely engagement, wedding or anniversary card. 

Here's a closer look at the image of the lovebirds. I coloured it with alcohol markers, fussy cut it and adhered it directly onto the vellum layer. You can just about see the background stamping on the bottom half of the card front.

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You've seen two contracting styles using stamps from the Nouveau Lovebirds set .... and you have to agree they are anything but arty! These images are so versatile and lend themselves to any design style. The rest of the design team will be posting more inspirational work. Come back soon!

Beijinhos, 
Asha

Birds of a Feather (posted by Judith)

Hi Folks, I have a couple of bird related samples for you today using the stamp of the month stamps from Chocolate Baroque.

For my first sample, I created a couple of backgrounds using Distress paints and water. I used some smooth watercolour paper, as I wanted to add lots of water to the paints to create a watery feel to the backgrounds. I have used Seedless Preserves, Crushed Olive and Antique Linen as my colour palette. On the larger background, I stamped a border using a tree stamp from the Woodland Dreams stamp set using gold embossing powder. On the smaller background I have used one of the lovely Lalique style birds, which I have coloured using Distress Markers. I simply matted the backgrounds with plum card, and added some ruffled ribbon.

My second project is a little altered notelet box, using Weathered Wood Crackling Medium and acrylic paint from my stash. I painted the little box using navy and and pale blue paint, applying the crackling medium in between the two layers. I used very cheap acrylic paint, so it works very effectively. I stamped the bird onto tissue paper using silver embossing powder, and coloured it with Distress Markers.

I used a sentiment from the Mackintosh Sentiments clear stamp set to stamp along a piece of ribbon to embellish the sides of the box. I added a couple of Crealie flowers to complete my project.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Other tags with the gorgeous new CB stamps!! (posted by Maria)

Hey everyone,

And here are some other tags samples with the new Fleurs Nouveau and Nouveau Lovebirds stamps. I 've made them the same way as I made the ladies tags, with distress ink, but here I just used some stencils for the backgrounds. I stamped the images than I masked them and put a stencil over them to make the special backgrounds, I also finished them with a golden frame round the edge and again I used some panpastels and fragment stamps for the finishing touch. I hope you like them and I give you some inspiration.

Have a great day !!
Maria

Guest Post: Gilded Fairy by Karen

I am pleased to welcome you to our second guest blog post, which this week is from Karen Liddle. Her card features the October Fairy from our Autumn Fairy Collection and she has kindly written a set of easy to follow step by step instructions. Karen has her own blog called Cakes, Cards and Crafty Bits and I would recommend you pay her a visit for more inspiring designs.

Materials used:
October Fairy Stamp
Acetate
Double sided adhesive sheet
Gilding Flakes
Black ink pad
6x6 square card blank
Card for matt and layering

1.  Cut a piece of double sided adhesive sheet a little bigger than the stamp you'll be using and peel away one side of the protective backing and stamp your image onto the sticky side. You can stamp onto the acetate if you prefer, but I prefer to stamp onto the sticky side of the sheet as there's less chance of slipping with the stamp.

2.  Place your acetate over the adhesive sheet and over the stamped image,  press it down firmly and trim to required size.

3.  Peel away the other side of the protective backing on the double sided adhesive sheet and cover with gilding flakes. Gently rub off the excess flakes. Your topper is now ready to add to your card.

4.  Take the card blank and cut your mat and layering card to the required sizes.

5.  Stamp and heat emboss the left hand side using another of the stamps from the set.  Add the acetate topper and you're done.

I'm sure you'll agree this is a great design from Karen. So a big thank you from us and why not show your appreciation by leaving Karen a comment.

More lovely Deco flowers.....by Miranda

Hello there,

Today another creation made with the new lovely stamps......I've enjoyed very much playing with these stamps, I always do with those great designs made by our talented CB designer!

I've made two cards in a pink/black colour combination. This is the first one......This one is made with the Fleurs Nouveau. I've stamped and coloured on Basic Grey scrap paper and decoupaged some flowers. The wavy edges are a die(Borderabilitie) from Spellbinders( also available at CB) and the swirl and flowers are dies from Memorybox. I like these wavy borders to play with.......

from another angle......

This is the 2nd one, also made with a borderabilitie from Spellbinders. And this card is made with the Nouveau Lovebirds sheet. If I had to pick a favorite of these two sheets.....I would not know......so I would probaply buy them both!

And again I've used one of my Basic Grey scrap papers as background, I am glad I've bought a lot of them some time ago, so I have always something to grab.....

I have stamped with a pink ink and coloured with pencils and some of the flowers are embossed with Wow silver and black twinkle, coloured with markers and decoupaged. The text is from the Mackintosh sentiments. I like these stylish flowers, they have something organic.......

Well, this is my take on these flowers for today, hope I have inspired you !

Thanks for your visit and always like to read your comments! If you have questions, please ask.....

Fabulous Flappers (posted by Claire)

Good morning folks, just a quick post to share another card made with this months new release stamps, Fabulous Flappers 

The first background is made with distress inks in shades of green and my ink blending mat, spritzed with water and then mopped up with white card. The next layer was made using Fancy Flourish stamps with shades of Green Memento ink.

The flapper, vase and flowers (all from the sampe set) have been stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with Graph'It Markers. I stamped some of the flowers around the edge and distressed with some green ink. I added some stickles to the centre of the flowers and layered up over a spellbinders border die cut. I've used Tea Dye distress ink to tone the card I used for matting with the image. To finish off  I've made some little roses and added some punched leaves

Thanks for popping by

Claire xx

Fabulous Flappers - By Florence

Hi everyone

Thank you to everyone for calling in and for your lovely comments on the previous posts.  They are truly appreciated.   It is always great to hear from our CB family.

I am so excited!!!!  The Fabulous Flappers are amazing.  All credit to Sue who designed these stamps.  They are a stampers dream and absolute delight to use.

You don't need to take my word for it, you can tell how wonderful and versatile they are by looking at the incredible projects from the DT. 

I have always loved Art Deco styles and the artwork by people such as Erte and George Barbier so I didn't think twice about taking my inspiration from those artists to make my cards.

I have mixed and matched some other Chocolate Baroque stamps with the Fabulous Flappers.

I hope you like them.

I started off by making masks of all my ladies using some masking tape.

I used white coated card stock and Black Staz-On ink.

I stamped my (yellow) lady and covered her with a mask.

I then stamped the (blue and red) lady so that she appears behind the (yellow) lady.

Leaving the masks on both of the ladies, I stamped the pillar bases (The pillar bases are from the retired Antiquities set) at the top and bottom.

I then drew two lines using a micron pen to create a column connecting the bases.

I masked off the edges of the column and added some distress marks using one of the Abstract Fragments background stamps.

I stamped the decorative corner (from the New England Winter set) and then just added some straight lines, again using the micron pen, to tie everything in and to ground the ladies.

Whilst everything was masked off I added some blue distressing ink to the background.

I removed my masks and colored my images in.

To finish off I just added some bling and a flower flourish which I made using a die.

For my second card I used exactly the same technique as above using lots of masks.

I started by stamping and masking the lady.

I then stamped the pillar and masked it.

With all of the masks in place, I colored my card with Wild Honey distressing ink and stenciled on some patterns using Rusty Hinge distressing ink.

I then stamped my peacock.  Do check out the Peacock Stamps available from Chocolate Baroque. They are one of my hot picks to go with the Flapper Ladies.

I removed all of the masks and colored my images with my jumbo felt pens.

I used some of the little flowers from the flower vase to create a climbing flower around the pillar.

Again I added some bling and a florish.

My third card was the result of some incorrect stamping on my part.

I stamped and masked my ladies as above but then went and smudged the Chinese Lanterns.

So, being a great believer in waste not want not, I cut around my images and used them separately.

I attached a piece of pretty paper to my base card and then added all of the little stamped pieces to create a scene.

It was a case of adding a bit here and there to see what evolved.

The lanterns are from The Chinese Lantern set.

The bush in the Urn is the small tree from the Patchwork Landscape set.

The pattern on the pillar is a stamp from the Abstract Fragments.

That is all from me today. 

Take care and happy stamping.

Florence x

Beautiful Birds (by Debbie)

 

 

When I received the Nouveau Lovebirds stamps, I was curious to see if I could go

with a wedding theme.

I stamped with Versamark and embossed with gold powder. I recently had a play with some Coloursoft Pencils and with a little left over birthday money I invested in  a small set.

 

For the birds and trees I quickly learned that it was best to keep the pencils sharp. Glenda is an expert when colouring with pencils and I certainly enjoyed taking time colouring the image.

I chose to mount the birds on colours from the pencil work. 

The Ivy Corners from the Wedding Belle and the sentiment were stamped with green ink.

I have a friend getting married in the summer so this card is going in the box of cards ready for their big day.

 

Many thanks for visiting

Debbie xx



Flapper Girl by Doreen

Hello to you all, today I am sharing a card made with one of the gorgeous new releases.

I have stamped this Fabulous Flapper Girl with Onyx Black Versafine onto white card and then coloured in with distress inks and matted onto red card. 

For my background I have used Versamark through an embossing folder and sprinkled with gold embossing powder and heat embossed. I matted this onto red and gold card.

 The sentiment from the Birthday Words stamp sheet has been Gold embossed too.

Make a Wish (by Shirley)

Hello everyone, I hope your week is going well.   Please visit previous post here to learn who won a shopping spree at Chocolate Baroque ! 

I have two designs today in similar colours featuring beautiful ladies from the new Fabulous Flappers set.

The background is Cut Grass Dylusions and Gold Glimmermist (hard to see the glimmer in the photo).    I used TCW Echoes stencil with Mowed Lawn Distress Ink and stamped a rose from Mackintosh Windows with Olive Archival ink.  The beautiful sentiment is from Loving Sentiments.

I stamped the pretty lady from Fabulous Flappers on separate mixed media cardstock, coloured with Intense pencils and decoupaged over the background.  I tucked in a feather and added glitter.

The card above background was created with Mustard Seed Distress Ink using an acrylic block.  I added the feather design using TCW Peacock Feathers stencil with Mustard Seed and Peacock Feathers Distress Ink.   I used Black Archival ink for the stamping over the background.  The deco corner is from Steampunk Butterfly and the pretty lady from Fabulous Flappers was coloured with Prismas.

Thanks for your visit and have a great day,
Shirley

April Blog Comments Winner

Hello everyone, Welcome to the month of May.    Thank you for 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 April was assigned a number and we used Random Org to draw a winner :) 

Congratulations to Karen Petitt 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 May'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!