Sparkling snowflakes and a penguin party (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with some more Christmas projects made using this month's new releases. I love the snowflakes on 'A child is born', they are such beautiful stamps I wanted to put them centre stage rather than use them for a background so I've made a little bag charm and matching gift box.

To make the gift box I took a paper mache book box and applied texture paste around the side, while it was wet I ran a comb along the edge to create 'pages' and left it to dry. Once it was dry I gave the box a couple of coats of off white emulsion paint and again left it to dry.

While the paint was drying I stamped the snowflakes on to tissue with versamark and embossed with Wow Gold embossing powder, I cut them out and then peeled off the top layer of the tissue. I applied the tissue snowflakes to the box with matte medium and again left it to dry thoroughly. To finish off I've embossed all the edges with gold embossing powder.

Here's a view of the inside of the box

To make the bag charm I took a copper blank and painted with white acrylic paint. Once the paint was dry I stamped and embossed the snowflakes and then carefully applied a clear two part resin. I was planing on adding some beaded snowflakes but I'm so slow at beadwork these days they may not be ready until next Christmas.

My second project today is a fun card made with Snowy Penguins

I stamped the images with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, and added some colour with Graph'It markers before cutting them out and popping them on to a side step card. I've added a computer generated sentiment, some die cut snowflakes and icicles and then added lots of glitter for some snowy sparkle.

Thanks for visiting today,

Claire xx

A Child Is Born - By Florence

Hi everyone

I hope you had a great weekend

Today I would like to share a card I made using the Child Is Born stamp set.  This is an exquisite A4 set of stamps.  

I have used the Madonna and Child stamp from the set as the main focal point of my card.  The stamp image is 12.8 cm x 8.8 cm approx in size.  A really good size especially if you want to make some quick cards. The image is beautiful used just on it's own and would also suit all occasions not just for Christmas.  The potential for mixed media projects, using this stamp, is phenomenal.

I stamped the main image onto some music paper and colored it in with water color crayons.  I then gave it a quick spray of fixative.

I made up the card as seen adding a strip of bling.

I made the backing paper (please note this is a copy of the original) using a large Acrylic Block and some watered down craft paint.  The beauty of using an acrylic block to make backgrounds is that the watery paint separates and puddles giving really interesting effects.

Thank you for looking.

Florence x

The odd one out (by Debbie)

This card was a fun card to make, I love these penguins they are so cute.

 I stamped the Penguins and the Snowman

onto paper to use as masks.

I used Stormy Sky Distress Ink and torn paper to make the water as a ledge

 for the Penguins and Snowman to stand on.

Next I stamped the Snowman with Memento Black Ink and covered him with a mask.

Then stamped the penguins large and small covering each one after stamped.

A little Broken China was applied with a soft brush to colour the sky.

The noses and scarf were coloured with Alcohol pens and Clear Wink of Stella

 for a little bit of sparkle.

The girls have lots of amazing cards to show

so please pop back to see them.

Debbie



A Christmas Plaque by (Doreen)

Hello to you all, I am sharing another couple of samples made from the new stamps that have just been released for September  I have made a plaque using one of the stamps from the "Santa Baby"stamp sheet

I first gave this a coat of gesso, when dry gave a thin coat of red and white acrylics leaving it white where I wanted to place my stamp... The image has then been coloured with Distress inks. I then stamped the sentiment from the Christmas Sentiments set and bauble and coloured this,Last of all I edged the plaque with white acrylic to frame it.xxx

I have also made a card using the Christmas tree from the Santa Baby stamp sheet 

I first of all stamped both the tree and sentiment with Versamark onto blue coredinations card and gold embossed them both. 

They were then matted onto gold card and mounted onto my backing card which was made using a Gelly Plate,I finished off with a bow made of twine.

Baby It's Cold Outside! (by Asha)

Good morning, fellow Chocaholics. I hope you're having fun with your new Christmas stamps. Aren't they fabulous? Today I want to show you a card I made using the Snowy Penguins clear stamp set. It's quite an easy card to make. You can prepare the various components in advance and put them all together. Perfect for mass production. It's not bulky which makes it great for mailing. Leave out the bling and it's flat as a pancake - ready to fly across oceans.

Start by heat embossing the snowflakes in white.
Ink the background in shades of blue and stamp the sentiment in the sky.
Next, stamp the penguins and Mr Snowman on white card stock, colour and fussy cut the images.
Take another piece of white card, run it through a polkadot embossing folder and cut humped pieces that look like snow mounds. Lightly ink the edges in pale blue.
To assemble the card: adhere the snow mounds on the inked background, followed by the penguins and snowman. I used foam tape for dimension. You can kick it up a notch by adding some sparkle and glitter.
Voila - you're done!
A full description of tools and inks used for these projects are available on my blog.


Speaking of snow, here's an icy number I made recently with images from the Santa Baby A5 sheet. The trees in the background are from the Turtle Doves A5 sheet. Details for this card can be found here.

Thank you for stopping by today. Please drop in regularly to see more inspirational work from the rest of the Design Team.

Beijinhos,
Asha

Going around in Circles (posted by Judith)

Hello Folks, I have some samples on circular theme for you today, using the stamps of the month.

For my first sample, I created a watercolour background in shades of green and purple, and then added a circle mask in the centre. I stamped an image from the Harlequin Fragments stamp set around the edge of the mask, using green ink. I sponged a little bit of green ink around of the mask to add some shading, before removing the mask. I stamped and embossed the holly and bell images from the Holly Bells stamp plate using gold embossing powder. I also stamped another set of  images onto a spare piece of card. I coloured the spare images with water based markers and a water brush  and decoupaged them onto the background. I added some hand drawn 'string'. The sentiment is from the Christmas Magic stamp plate.

For a more detailed  explanation of how I made this card, you can hop over to My Blog

I have a couple of CAS cards that I would also like to show you. In these days of rising postage costs, flat cards are always useful to make, and these two cards would make good batch cards, that you could make in lots of different colour options as well. The first card was made using blue and lilac tones, and I simply created a reverse mask, sponging coloured ink through a circle aperture onto my card. I coloured the top and bottom circles first, and overlapped the middle one last. I then selected three baubles, taken from the Santa Baby/Holly Bells Multi-Buy stamp set, and stamped them in the same inks that I used to create the circles, giving a tone on tone effect. The sentiment was taken from the Christmas Sentiments Multibuy

The last card was made in much the same way, except that I created a single circle, blending yellow and green inks, and chose a stronger ink to stamp the bells. The sentiment comes from the Bold Christmas Words stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Guest Post - The Mantlepiece by Veronica Pell

This week I would like to issue a warm welcome to Veronica who will be 'guesting'  for the next three weeks. For her first week she has chosen to create a wonderful vintage style card with the Santa Baby stamp set. So, it's over to you Veronica.

I thrilled to be asked to do a blog post by Glenda, as I have always loved her stamps since discovering them on C&C many years ago, back in the days when they only came on wooden blocks.

When I received my stamps to play with – Santa Baby and Holly Bells – the one image I really couldn’t see how to use was the mantelpiece – to me, it was unfinished, I wanted the rest of the fireplace! Funnily enough, it is the one I have used the most..............

My moment of inspiration came when I was using a friend’s holly wreath stencil and suddenly thought that the mantelpiece stamp would fit in the centre. I quickly stencilled it in Vintage Photo distress ink onto some spare card and took it home to play.

To me, this was a very Victorian image, which was why everything is vintage photo. I stamped the image in the centre and coloured it by dragging the colour out with a waterbrush. I sponged Scattered Straw distress ink very lightly round the image, then Vintage Photo working from the edges in towards the holly, finally adding a touch of Black Soot in the corners. Finally I matted it onto dull gold and dark brown card before adding to a white 7"x 7" card base.

This actually resembles a vintage photograph Veronica, very clever and thank you for designing is for us. I know you will want to add your comments to show your appreciation and if you want to see more inspiring creations then why not visit Vernoica's blog -Vrons Cards

 

CAS with Christmas stamps (by Maria)

Hello stamping lovers, this is not my usual style, but when I don't have too much time and a lot of other stuff to do, now and then I have to make a CAS (clean and simple) card. They are ideal for Christmas. I need something like 100 Christmas cards so high time to make it CAS! So here are my simple cards:

Some of the new Christmas stamps from Chocolate Baroque are just the way I like to use them "simple" in design. What do you think about them? I took red cardstock and Versamark, stamped the images, then gave them a bit of silver (first one) and white (second one) embossing powder, and embossed it with my heat-tool.  I put it on white and green cardstock paper.  From the same cardstock, I made some ice cristals with a paper punch, placed them on my card and added some gems in the centres. For the snow on the second card I used a white jelly pen. Very quick makes for very busy people. Have fun!

Greetings
Maria

A Seaside Postcard (by Lesley)

I love beach huts, so I was truly excited with the new Seaside Dreams set.  Here is my interpretation of a seaside postcard, using a brayer and one of my favourite supplies, self adhesive labels.

The background was brayered onto a piece of A6 silk cardstock, using Adirondack Pool and Scattered Straw Distress inkpads and then shading was added to give the effect of clouds and sand dunes. The beach huts were stamped onto a self adhesive label and coloured with watercolour pencils then cut out, along with the flag pole and flag, Next the huts were stamped directly onto the background with Adirondack Jet Black ink and the cut out pieces stuck into place. The sentiment was added as shown..

I am a great advocate of using self adhesive labels, especially if you find masking difficult  It is what I call cheat's masking, why not give it a try. I hope this may have inspired you to create your own postcard and if you would like to read the full tutorial on how it was made you will find this on my blog.

Please keep coming back on a daily basis to see loads of other uber inspirational ideas from the fabulous design team girls.

Christmas Shepherds (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with a sample made using stamps from A Child is Born and Holly Bells.  We're spoiled for choice with so many beautiful stamps this month!

I've used a dictionary page as my background and stamped the Shepherds with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. The holly was stamped and embossed with Gold embossing powder. I coloured the shepherds with Graph'It markers and added some white to the sheep with a gel pen. Its quite time consuming colouring on the text but I love the effect.

I've edged the page with a gold krylon pen, layered the page up one a brown card blank and tied a twine bow along the edge. I was lucky enough to find a dictionary page with 'Christmas' on so I took a red pen and circled the word as a fun sentiment

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Santa Baby and Snowy Penguins - By Florence

Hi everyone

I hope you are enjoying the weekend.

Today I would like to share two cards I made using the new Santa Baby and Snowy Penguins stamp sets.  I hope you like them.

 These are amazing sets off stamps.  The beauty of all of the new stamp sets is the choice.  There are so many stamps on one sheet.  The images are fabulous used on their own or, as with all of Chocolate Baroque stamps, they are perfect for mixing and matching.

I mixed the little sleigh image from the Santa Baby Set with one of Chocolate Baroque's Carousel Horses. 

I stamped the Sleigh and the Horse and colored the images.  I added a some Distress Ink around the edge of the stamped card and stamped some snowflakes.  I then made up the card as seen and added some bling to connect the two images.

These penguins are adorable.  Seriously, once you start stamping with them you will not be able to stop.  They are so addictive.

I stamped the penguins multiple times with the aid of masking tissue.  I added some Distress Ink around the edge of the card and stamped the snowflakes.  I used a felt pen and added some red dots between the flakes.  I then made up the card as seen adding a little ribbon.

Full details of how I made these cards can be found on my Card Making Blog Here

Take care and happy stamping

Florence x

 

 

 

Baubles and Branches (by Debbie)

 

I love the baubles from the Holly Bells and Santa Baby set as they are a great size for smaller cards for batch making for Christmas. 

 

I had stamped the baubles many times and cut them out ready to fix to the cards.

For the first one I stamped the leaf stamp from Thistle Butterfly with green ink

making a circle for the wreath. The baubles are attached with pads so they are raised.

 

 

 

For the second card I added a sentiment to the middle.

 

 

The holly branches are ideal for hanging the baubles, I distressed the edges with Vintage photos.

 

A similar card with a variation of the baubles.

 

 

Many thanks for visiting

Debbie

A Craft Christmas By (Doreen)

Hello to you all, I am sharing a sample made from the new stamps that have just been released for September over at Chocolate Baroque. My card uses a couple of the stamps from the Holly Bells stamp sheet...I started by stamping my tree, snowflake and sentiment onto craft card with Versamark and white embosed them. They were then matted onto white card  The sentiment is from the Christmas Magic Set

Guest Post - Welcome to Fairyland by Lorraine Harrison-Rogers

This week's guest post, designed by Lorraine, is a wonderfully bright and cheerful card featuring Magical Landscapes.  Lorraine has provided a very detailed step by step to sit back and enjoy.

This was such a delightful project to make!  As soon as the stamps arrived I couldn’t wait to use them and kind of knew where I was going with it. So how did I make it?              

1. I chose which of the beautiful castles I wanted to use - I chose this one for the crenellated top and the onion shaped roofs of the towers - I felt this one was really exotic for the colours I wanted to use.
2. Cut a piece of white card stock - 6 1/2’ x 6 1/2’ and drew a pencil line approximately 2/3rds towards the bottom of the square. This is to help place the castle on a water line - if you look closely at the stamp the land and rocks go out into the water. I wanted the castle/land to sit on the line I had drawn, or very close to it at least.
3. Then ink up the stamp with versa mark and stamp the image quickly heat embossing with black embossing powder. On mine I sprinkled a little silver embossing powder around those onion towers too for extra WOW!
4. Next stamp on to masking paper or post it note and cut out placing it over your stamped image where you want to protect the image from your background colouring.
5. Now I used brushes, but I might just have easily chosen a brayer, which would give me a similar finish. I find using brushes in a slow, soft circular motion means that I can get an even finish to my colour blending - it takes practice but it is worth the effort and time. For this I brush over the ink pad, I only use water based ink pads for this technique - never the oil based or permanent colour ones. I start in a corner and using soft, gentle circles, I brush across my paper until I have built up my colour in the area that I want it. I then change brushes and move on to my next colour, starting at the edge of my last colour and blending into it and then over the area I am going next. I continue like this until I have built up my colours. I will go back over areas if I think the colour isn't quite right. The key is not to be afraid of colour!!!
6. When I am starting a project like this I usually test several colours together on scrap card until I am happy with my colour combination.  For this project I chose the strong, bold colours of sunrise for my sky. Starting with an apricot colour, I moved onto a melon colour, soft raisin colour and finished with a strong light plum/purple type colour. I wanted to create light on the horizon without losing the night time colour too much.
7. Using the same method with my brushes I used a deep midnight blue and the same plum/purple for the water, but I avoided around the rocks and land putting those in separately with a colouring pen.
8. Colour your castle, trees, land rocks etc, for this I used Copic markers and a white highlighting pen. I went around my land and rocks darkening the area that would be away from the light. I also drew in a small skyline of mountains with a black pen; in a real sunrise those mountains would not have any light before the sun rose above them so would appear very dark.
9. For the edges I cut strips approx 1 1/4” wide and used the tree line stamp, alternating it upside down and heat embossing with both black and silver embossing powder. To colour them I used the same techniques with the brushes and built up just two colours - the melon and the soft raisin.
10. Finally I stamped the ‘Welcome to Fairyland’ text, again heat embossing this, building up my colour with the brushes and finishing with a couple of rhinestones.

Thank you so much for this gorgeous card Lorranie and for the time and effort taken in writing up the mini tutorial and the insight into your colouring techniques.  I am sure you'll all find this very informative and will want to leave a comment to let Lorraine know how fab this post has been. And if you want to catch up with more of her beautiful work then visit her blog at travellingcolours.wordpress.com