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Saturday, 17 September 2016

Home Decor (by Magda) Soft Form Relief Paste

I thought about a sentiment of home decor for my second post of September and as with the previous project I am again using Soft Form Relief Paste.

1. Spread a thick layer of Soft Form Relief Paste Pearl on the whole Words of Gratitude Rubber
    stamp and let it dry completely for about 24 hours.
2. Remove the shape and blend only on the sentiments you will use with Distress Inkpad Salty Ocean.
3. Cut the sentiments you have chosen and keep the rest for future projects.
4. Make a panel using corrugated cardboard, altering the surface.
5. Darken some areas with Distress Inkpad Walnut Stain.
6. Use Soft Form Relief Paste Pearl and Transparent on Ronda Palazzari Texturised Stencil in some
    areas of the panel to give texture.
7. Add extra colour to the panel and the sentiments with  Tim Holtz Distress Crayons set 2 red.
8. Stamp the little heart of Word of Love set on Kraft Cardstock and cut all around the shape.
9. Glue the sentiment pieces and the heart with Inkssentials Glue n Seal matte
10. Don't forget the red ribbon as hook.

Did my home decor inspire you?
Magda




Friday, 16 September 2016

Butterfly scene cards (by Anne)

Good morning. For my texture project today I have made 2 variations of a butterfly scene card.



I have used ink spritzing and stamping with texture stamps to create interesting backgrounds. I have used the large gem slice stamp and heat embossing with sparkling pink powder to add a colourful textured foreground for my scene. The butterflies were also stamped and embossed, then coloured and cut out.

Both scenes were created in the same way but I took one of them a step further by mounting on a larger card with a textured embossing powder border (using heat resistant tape to adhere the powder before heating), die cut foliage and floral gems, finishing with another of the lovely stamped butterflies. Of course I just had to add PVA pearls and glitter in there too.

We have all had so much fun creating with this month’s theme of texture.


Materials:
  • Just Butterflies, Nature Fragments, Abstract Fragments and Tall Trees stamp sets
  • 12 X 15cm and 15 X 17cm white card blanks
  • 11 X 14cm watercolour card
  • Ink spritzers (lime green with mica and bright pink)
  • Watercolour pens for colouring and background stamping (green, teal, blue, pink and purple)
  • Glitter pens (blue and green)
  • Heat embossing powders (cerise with glitter, and textured mix of fine and chunky pink, black and white)
  • Inkpad for stamping trees (dark green)
  • Glitter glue (aqua holographic)
  • Alcohol markers for edging card and colouring die cuts (green and pink)
  • Floral shaped faux gems (pink and blue)
  • PVA pearls (purple)
  • Heat resistant double sided tape (Wonder Tape - for heat embossed border)
  • Foliage Dies

Thursday, 15 September 2016

Fifteen Minute Cards - Time-Saving Projects for You to Make

Hello everyone, it is time for the first of our bi-monthly blog posts from the Design Team, and Guest Design Team, sharimg a few quick cards and projects with you, that have taken no more than fifteen minutes to make. Our aim is to show you some techniques and ideas that will help you to use some of the wonderful stamps from Chocolate Baroque in simple and easy ways. So, whether you are a beginner, or a stamper in a hurry, looking for an idea to create a card in next to no time at all, this is the place to stock up on some creative inspiration.

We hope that you will enjoy reading about how the Design Team girls have created their cards, and if you click on their names, alongside their projects, you can pop to their blogs for further information.

Asha has created a vibrant card using black embossing and then used Distress Inks to blend over the background. She has embossed the sentiment using white embossing powder onto a strip of vellum.
Magda has created some pretty bookmarks for us, using co-ordinating ink to match each background. These would make lovely gifts:
She has used a green Brusho background for her next two projects. The first is a pretty floral card, using a modern flower:
For the second card, she added blue and red toned Distress Inks over the top, and created a Christmas card, adding white embossing:

Brenda has created some beautiful cards for us this month. For her first card, she stamped and embossed the Cornflower image, and used a decorative die to cut out an oval, which she then placed over some pretty background paper. She coloured the image with sparkly pens, and finally flicked some watered down Distress Inks around the image.


For her second card, she stamped three images from the Oriental Crane stamp set onto squares of white card, using Versamark and copper embossing powder. She matted each square onto red card. She scored lines down the length of the card, added red gems and the stamped squares.

Using a stencil and Distress Ink, she sponged the background and flicked some watered down black Distress Ink. Using Archival Black Ink, she stamped the butterflies from Butterfly Flourish Swirls, cut them out, and coloured them with Distress Inks. The sentiment is from the Pretty Poppies stamp set.
 

For her final card, she used a white inkpad, and stamped the leaves from the Autumn Poppy stamp set and sentiment from the Pretty Poppy stamp set onto Kraft card. She matted the kraft card onto white card, and a Kraft card base- a very quick card to make.

Claire has chosen to make a very cute set of Christmas cards, using an image from one of our Christmas sets. She has simply stamped the image onto white card, adding a red highlight, and made a little box for the cards.


Rachel has made a couple of lovely cards for us this month, both on a floral theme. She has painted one of our large flowerheads using Distress Inks for her first card:

For her second card, she has created a Distress Crayon background, and used Black Archival Ink to stamp the foliage:

Finally, Zoe has provided some beautiful inspiration in the form of these speedy makes for you. For her first card, she has used aqua wax splattered onto the card, stamped her image, and partially coloured in with wax sticks. She has then used brushes to apply ink over the whole piece.

 For her second card, she has masked the outside border first, then stamped the image, and partially coloured using wax sticks again. She has then used Brushos and bubble wrap to create the background.

We hope that you have enjoyed the variety of projects and techniques from the Design Team today. Look out for another Fifteen Minute blog post towards the end of the month, when we will be back with more express designs for you. Thanks for stopping by,



Wednesday, 14 September 2016

Birthday Calendar (by Gerrina)

Hello everyone, this month we are welcoming back Gerrina, one of our regular Guest Designers to the Design Team Blog. She will be featuring throughout September for the next three weeks. Today, she has brought a delightful project to share with you, a calendar created using a canvas. This is such a clever idea that you will want to try for yourselves.





Materials:

Stamps: Texture Fragments, Nature Table, Fantasy Meadows
Distress Inks: Salty Ocean, Fired Brick, Mowed Lawn, Wild Honey, Gathered Twigs, Hickory Smoke
Canvas
Gesso
12 x postcards, 12 x white cardstock, 12 x stamping paper
Watercolour paper postcards
Blending tool
Water based markers
Water mister ans water brush

Instructions:

I used the back of the canvas so that it could hold my twelve calendar months.
To start, I painted the canvas with gesso and let it dry before I stamped and sponged it. A sturdy band holds the paper calendar months in place when hanging, which I stamped as well before I put it in place.
The calendar months are printed on postcards and the edges are sponged carefully in the colours of the seasons.
Winter = blue, Spring = green, Summer = yellow, Autumn = red.
The background papers are white cardstock, and on some I stamped the same stamp as I used on the main image in a lighter colour.
The cards of the month images are all the same size as a postcard and made from different designs, depending on what the month requires.

I will be back next time with more of the calendar months!

Creatieve groetjes,


Gerrina

Thank you so much Gerrina for your beautiful project, we will look forward to the second instalment next week.












Tuesday, 13 September 2016

He Rides The Tide (by Asha)

Good morning, everyone! I'm back on the DT Blog with an Art Journal page for our month-long Texture fest. This project features 2 stamp sets by Chocolate Baroque. The sea elements are from the Underwater A5 sheet. I stamped and coloured these with alcohol markers before fussy cutting and adhering to the page.

The deep sea background is a mix of acrylic paints in shades of blues and greens with a little black to add depth. The seabed is a mix of pale yellow and terracotta paints. To create movement, I used a stamp from the Texture Fragments A4 sheet.

And not forgetting our theme - Texture - I added bubbles with Texture Paste and  and splashed some gesso to finish the project.


I have more pictures and details of tools and products over at my blog. Thank you for stopping by today and come back soon for more amazing creations by the rest of the Design Team.

Beijinhos,
Asha

Monday, 12 September 2016

seaside (by Veronica)

For my second post this month I decided to use a bargain canvas from a supermarket - think the heat must have been affecting my brain, as not my usual thing at all!
I found an old pot of grunge paste, added a little hot water as it had gone very stiff and stirred it in well, then spread the paste round the edges of the canvas. Stamped into the corners using stamps from the harlequin fragments set, then sponged with distress inks when the grunge was dry.
Fish and seaweed from something fishy and gulls and lighthouse from seashore scenes were all stmaped onto white tissue paper using black versafine and coloured with alcohol markers, torn out and added with matt multimedium.- another old pot, seemed a bit discoloured, but then I had no idea what it looked like new, and it worked anyway.
Main image from seashore scenes stamped onto white card, coloured with watercolour pencils then embossed with clear EP, then glued into the centre of the canvas, Small pearls for the bubbles from the shell, then two seashells added to finish it off.

Sunday, 11 September 2016

Key to my Dreams (posted by Claire)

Good morning everyone, Claire here with my second DT project for our theme of Texture. I've altered a little gift box and used Key to my Dreams A5 Stamp Sheet.


I began with a coat of black gesso and once that dried I added lots of different die cuts from my stash. I wasn't fussy about the colours as once they were stuck down I gave them a coat of black gesso too. I created the lock and key for the front of the box by rolling out some paper clay and pressing the stamps into the clay. When you remove the stamp, the image is pressed into the clay creating lots of texture. I left this overnight to dry and then cut them out, painting them with black gesso..  Paperclay is great for this kind of project as it's very lightweight. The little frame is from the pound shop, again painted with black gesso



To create a kind of old metal effect with a little rust and patina I dabbed on various shades of paint. I used brown, orange, gold and copper, blending a little with a baby wipe. While the paint was wet I sprinkled in various embossing powders (copper, turquoise, gold and brown) and left it all to dry. Once it was dry I heated the embossing powder, I wasn't sure if this would work with the paint and it did bubble quite a bit but that just added to the effect. 
I stamped the sentiment onto a scrap of card that I'd used to mop up some of the paint and then assembled the box, adding a few highlights with gilding wax and using a little black gesso to define the keyhole.

Thanks for visiting today, 
Claire xx

Saturday, 10 September 2016

Textured Poppies (by Judith)

Hello everyone, this month on the Design Team, we are exploring texture. It can be in a variety of ways, using stencils, stamps, patterns, layers, but as long as it represents texture in some way. I knew that I wanted to create this piece as my first project, as it incorporated lots of my favourite things.

With a free rein this month, I decided to create a project using one of my all time favourite Chocolate Baroque stamps. I have used this stamp so many times over the years, and I decided to make it the focal part of my design. I covered a Tando plaque with a very thin layer of texture paste, I spritzed my poppy stamp with water, and pressed the stamp into the texture paste. I also used a small texture stamp from the Tangled Fragments stamp set around the edges.

I covered a square canvas with gesso, and dried this completely. Using texture paste, I added some poppy heads to the canvas with a stencil. I let the canvas dry completely. I then took One of the Gold Aztec Paints,  and poured out two large blobs onto my non-stick craft mat. I added Vermillion Brusho to one blob, and Sea Green to the other blob. I painted the canvas using the paints, half red, half green, blending wherever they met. I also painted the Tando plaque, using mostly green, but added a small amount of red around the edges.

Once both of the pieces were dry, I added some stamping to the canvas, using a corresponding stamp from the Harlequin Fragments stamp set, using red and green ink. I added some gilding wax to the textured areas on both pieces, and edged both pieces with Gold Soft Form Relief Paste. This makes a super edging, as it is very easy to apply.

I added some pretty green/grey lace to the canvas before attaching the Tando plaque. Finally I added a quote from the Words of Wisdom stamp set, using Black Archival Ink. My first photo shows the texture of the panel quite well.
I took my second photograph outside to show the shimmer a bit better.

I will be back later in the month with another texture piece to share. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Friday, 9 September 2016

Texture by Zoe

Good morning Lovelies, I'm sharing with you today my first post for the September theme - Texture! Today my post you could say is quite diverse, I've gone from Gothic shabby to CAS.

My tag I started by mixing some texture paste with mica powder to get this lovely bronze colour, I inked up my stamp from the Gothic Fragments set using Versamark inkpad and spread my texture paste over using a spatula and left it to dry for 24 hours, once dry I carefully peeled it off and cut off any ragged edges, my background is Distress inks blended and spritzed with water and dried, I used another stamp from the set using the same colour distress ink to partially stamp and a couple of stencils inked through to create visual texture, I sprayed over with a copper mica spray lightly and edged the tag using a brown Distress inkpad, I then adhered my texture paste element, cut the edge to fit and rubbed over with a copper gilding wax, the sentiment is from Journal Today

I made a set of CAS Christmas cards using a linen texture card for the base, I simply stamped the beautiful design from the Snowflake Flourish set using a Versamark inkpad and heat embossing using pastel pearlised embossing powders, each card is slightly different by using different positioning of the design and different colours of EP. The sentiment is from Holly Script, I've included some close up shots as the designs being so pale don't show up so well with my photography.

 

 

I hope you like my creations and I've given you some inspiration, I certainly enjoyed making them, see you again later this month with my second post, have a wonderful day xx Zoe xx

 

Thursday, 8 September 2016

Gothic Heart Frame (by Julie)

Hello, Julie here and today I have an up-cycled photo frame to share with you all.
I love the Gothic Fragment stamp set and decided to combine it with the Mini Script set to create a piece of home decor that could easily be given as a gift.

The frame has been covered in a selection of Twinchie and Inchie white lined board tiles from Tando. The smaller 1 inch tiles have been used with the Script designs and stamped with sepia and grey Versafine ink and then coloured with various Distress inks such as Weathered Wood, Tea Dye and Antique Linen. The larger 2 inch tiles have been stamped with Versafine ink as before, using designs from the Gothic Fragments and coloured with brush markers and Distress inks before adding white, paint pen highlights. After gluing the tiles to the frame I added gold gilding wax around the edges.
The centre piece has been created by placing a metal heart, cookie cutter over one of the Gothic Fragment stamps and then pouring in melted Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel. Once the UTEE has cooled and set, remove the cookie cutter, peel away from the stamp and apply gold gilding wax to the raised areas of the heart. Stamp a piece of spare card with the Fragment stamps and colour with Distress inks. Cut to size and then glue the heart into place.

Many thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again very soon.

Julie xx



Wednesday, 7 September 2016

Chocolate Baroque Reader's Gallery

Hello everyone, it is time for the Design Team to take a break and to share our monthly roundup of your artwork. We have been visiting the Chocolate Baroque Facebook Group, Pinterest and Blogland in search of your creations using Chocolate Baroque stamps.

Found on the Chocolate Baroque Facebook Group:

Akkina:

Shirley:

Robin:

Kate:

Linda:

We have had some delightful examples of parchment cropping up this month, used in conjunction with our stamps. These two are from Helenmarie:


This one is from Jan:

Found on Pat's blog:

It's been a quieter this month, mostly because it is the holiday season. Hopefully, once we head into September, you will all be digging out your crafting supplies again, and creating some more projects for us to find! We hope that you have enjoyed this month's display of fabulous cards, and will be inspired by your fellow crafters.

If you would like us to add one of your creations to our monthly blog post, and do not have access to the Facebook Group, please send us a good quality photograph of your project, along with your name to sales@chocolatebaroque.com marked Reader's Gallery in the subject line. Please do not be shy, as we would love to share more of your artwork with everyone.

We will be back next month with another post, but in the meantime, please stop by for a daily dose of creative inspiration from the Design Team members.







Tuesday, 6 September 2016

A new star

Hello
Would you want to be a star ?
Imagine. You have a lot of papers in your stuff. Little pieces. Result of your tries with your gelli plate. Very little but so beautiful that you cannot throw them.


1- cut your paper.
2- stamp a sentiment with versamark (Chocolate Baroque words)
3- sprinkle with gold embossing powder
4- dry with your heat gun
5- stick on a little white paper
6- stick it on your card.

Repeat with another card


Voulez-vous être une étoile parmi d'autres étoiles ?
Imaginez. Vous avez plein de chutes de papier dans vos affaires. Résultat de vos essais avec votre gelli plate. Des petits morceaux certes, mais trop beaux pour les jeter. Alors voici en 6 étapes :

1- couper les morceaux bien droits.
2- tamponner un mot avec la Versamark
3- saupoudrer de poudre à embosser or
4- chauffer au pistolet chauffant
5- coller sur un petit carton blanc
6- coller celui-ci sur la carte.

I hope you will like them.
J'espère que vous aimerai ces deux cartes.

A très bientôt.

Monday, 5 September 2016

Need to Contact ( By Magda) Soft Form Relief Paste

"Soft Form Relief Paste",  I love this product, that is so versatile, easy to use, and gives fantastic results. Here is how I used it today for this project :

1. Spread a layer of Soft Form Relief Paste Copper  on Punky Flowers Rubber Stamp and let it dry completely for about 24 hours.
2. Prepare your mat, blending with Cut'n'Dry Foam several green and blue shades of Distress Inkpad.
3. Place Julie Fei Fan Balzer Petals Stencil on the mat and use a baby wipe for lightening the mat
    background.
4. Use randomly Soft Relief Paste Pearl on Well Rounded Stencil as a second layer and let it dry.
5. Colour the stenciled relief-shapes on the mat, with Distress Crayon and blend with your finger.
6. Reposition Well Rounded Stencil, colour a mix of Soft Form Relief Paste Pearl and Distress Paint Fired Brick inbetween the rays with the brush.
7. Remove the dried copper shape  from the Punky Flower Rubber stamp and trim the excess from
    the border.
8. Using Distress Inkpad Black Soot, blend the ink over the shape to add darker colour, and give some light  spots here and there using Stickless Star Dust
9. Use Distress Stain Twisted Citron, Cracked Pistachio and Mowed Lawn for coloring the
    background cardstock.
10. Stamp the sentiment of the Journal Today rubber stamp set, using Onyx Black Versafine
11. Assemble all the pieces to finish your card using Inkssentials Glue n Seal matte.

I hope you will have fun in using Soft Form Relief Paste, as I do.

Magda






Sunday, 4 September 2016

Textured Book Covers using the Tangled Birch (by Anne)

I hope that you like my texture project for the blog today. I got the idea from one of Lesley Wharton’s demos on The Craft Channel where she used Brushos to make lovely background papers and book covers.


Materials:
  • Tangled Birch stamp
  • A6 (approx. 10.5 X 15cm) hard backed note books, scrap acetate, kitchen towel and cartridge paper
  • Brusho’s and Ink Sprays (pinks and blues, some with mica)
  • Starlight paints (with crushed gilding flakes) or metallic acrylic (gold and pink)
  • White Gesso
  • Mod Podge (Matte finish)
  • Tacky acrylic glue
  • Glitter glue (pink and gold)
  • Alcohol marker (black or dark grey)
  • StazOn Inkpad (Black)
  • Microbeads (pink and turquoise mixes)
Summary of techniques:
  1. The blue textured paper was created from waste kitchen towel initially used to mop up waste diluted Brushos from my craft mat. I spritzed on a bit more colour. When dry the towel was scrunched up and the layers separated.
  2. The pink textured paper was created with thin cartridge sketching paper and ink spritzers, some with mica.
  3. The papers were applied to the book covers using Matte Mod Podge. The wrinkles created a lovely texture. I sealed the blue tissue with Mod Podge on the outside too, and used both layers as it was quite translucent with just one layer. I left the pink textured paper unsealed.
  4. When dry I rubbed over the surface with metallic acrylics to pick up and highlight the textures (using a little on my finger).
  5. The Tangled Birch was stamped onto acetate with StazOn Ink. The back was then coloured with metallic acrylics.
  6. When dry I added a layer of white Gesso. This made the translucent acrylic more solid and opaque. The image was cut out and glued to the book front with tacky glue.
  7. Glitter glue was added to the image front. I used Pinflair glitter wands which work well on acetate. You may want to test this as some glitter glues may not stick well to acetate.
  8. Microbeads were dropped into a thick layer of tacky glue for added texture.