Fifteen Minute Cards- Some Quick Inspiration for You

Hello everyone, it is time for the first of our bi-monthly Fifteen Minute card posts for October. We hope to show you some quick and inspirational projects, sharing some of our tips and ideas, to help you make cards and projects that take no longer than fifteen minutes to complete. So, whether you are a beginner stamper, looking for an easy card to make, or someone in need of a speedy batch card, hopefully we will have an idea here for you. We have used lots of different lovely Chocolate Baroque stamps, showing how diverse they can be. So, enjoy what we have to share with you today, and give some of our ideas a go. You can visit each of our blogs for more information, by clicking on our names, as you scroll through the blog post.

Magda's pretty floral card has been created using a stencil for the background. She has used Distress Inks to colour her card:

I have created an overall background using one of the Baroque Ornament stamps, and white embossing powder. I added Distress Inks over the background, and splattered some water over the top. I blotted some of the water away, leaving a mottled background. I embossed a greeting onto some vellum, and added a few gems. You can see more details on my blog:

Rachel has used a stencil to create her background, and then used water based markers to colour her images. She has created a fabulous Halloween card, but you could use this layout using lots of other images:

Anne's beautiful cards have been created by stamping onto pretty papers from the Crafty Individuals Travels In Italy paper pack.  She stamped and heat embossed the butterflies with pink sparkly embossing powder, then coloured them with watercolour and glitter pens. She added a drop shadow around them using a pencil. To finish, she added a few highlights with white gel pen and glitter glue for added sparkle.

Lesley has provided us with two fabulous quick cards this month, and a brief description of how she has made them. Her first card was made by applying a selection of water soluble oil pastels to a piece of card and blending with her fingers. She stamped the image from the Butterfly Dreams stamp set over the coloured panel. She used Black Archival Ink then used a heat tool to ensure that it was completely dry. (This also fuses the ink into the pastels). She trimmed the panel and mounted onto co-ordinating card followed by a piece of black card. She stamped the sentiment centre left on the base card clear embossed it, and masked it off with a rectangle cut from a Post-it Note. She stamped the leaf again from the Butterfly Dreams stamp set, randomly and twice from each inking, over the left half of the base card. She removed the mask and hand drew a squiggly line around the sentiment. Finally, she affixed the stamped panel to the right-hand side.

For her second card, she inked the fern image from the Wild Meadow stamp set with two colours of Distress Ink and stamped twice without re-inking. She changed colours and repeated. She dusted a little colour over the whole piece using brushes, (she used the green and rust she had stamped with) and this also edges the piece. She put a couple of drops of Distress Ink onto a craft mat and spritzed them with water. Picking the ink up with a toothbrush, she scraped the bristles lightly to spray over the card, (mainly the top half). She stamped the sentiment, adhered the ribbon, and then adhered the background to the base card. She added a little gilding paste to the metal leaf and adhered it to the card.

Dominike has created a series of cards using the Tangled Birch stamp. She has used gelli plate backgrounds for the first four, and stamped onto tissue paper in a journal for her final project. The addition of postage stamps is a lovely idea, and adds great texture to these cards:

Zoe has created a range of lovely Christmas cards for us, and we hope that these will give you some timely ideas for some of your seasonal cards. She has used sparkly embossing powders for the first two cards, and Versamark and mica powders for her snowflake card.

Finally, we have a wonderful selection from Brenda, featuring a range of techniques again this month.  For her first card, Brenda placed a pice of ripped paper onto the base card, and fixed it in place with masking tape. She dragged three colours of  green Distress Ink across the length of the card. Using the same Distress Ink, she stamped one of the leaves from the Autumn Poppy stamp set and added a die cut sentiment.

For her second card, using Black Archival Ink, she stamped the chinese lanterns from the Autumn Poppy stamp set onto the right-hand side of the card. She then drew a pencil line down the card, and followed it to cut out elements of the image so that it overlapped the edge of the pencil line. She coloured the image with pencils and placed a piece of co-ordinating card inside the card.

To create her third card, Breanda stamped the Flora Musica image with Black Archival Ink, and then stamped the central element a second time. She coloured this in with sparkly pens and cut it out with a circle die. She lined it up with the base image, and used foam pads to raise the spotlight image up. She added a sentiment from the Pretty Poppies stamp set.

Her final card was created by using several different colours of Distress Crayons, she smeared strips down the card using her fingers. She then stamped one of the borders from the Decorative Edges stamp set across the coloured strip.

We hope that you have enjoyed our speedy projects and will be inspired by something that you have seen. We will be back later in the month with another batch of projects from the Design Team, but do keep visiting the blog for a daily dose of our regular creativity. Thanks for stopping by,

Autumn Edges (by Julie)

Hello lovely people, Julie here. I have a cute little tag and card idea to show you today and they are both made with the very versatile Autumn Edges set.

I created the background of the tag by scribbling Distress crayons onto my stamp block, spritzing with water and then picking the colour up with a sponge, before splodging all over the tag. Heat dry to set and then stamp the row of leaves all over the background with a dye based ink. I stamped the trees so the centre one was captured onto a heart die cut and coloured with Distress inks. The tag was finished off with some die cut leaves that I spritzed with some shimmer mists and added string, suede cord and beads for decoration.

I decided to stamp the rows of leaves downwards this time and as before used a dye based inkpad. The background is a selection of Distress inks and the Mushrooms have been water-coloured with brush-markers with added glitter and white pen highlights. To make them stand out from the background I went around the edges with a white Distress Crayon. Pale grey brush marker was also added around the leaves to create a shadow so they to didn't disappear into the background.

The finished design was mounted onto a plum coloured card and a sentiment from the rather lovely Artistic Expressions was added.

Thank you for stopping by. Please be sure to call back very soon to see some more Design Team inspiration.

Julie xx

The forest in October (by Dominike)

Hello
In October, French tradition is to choose literary prizes. For the occasion I think about a beautiful event, named La Forêt des Livres. It is writers' big meeting in a small village of Chanceaux Lès Loches.

I made this card with Hocus Pocus stamps.

1. stamp the book on a piece of paper and emboss it with clear powder.
2. same for  the bird but on another piece of white paper and cut around the bird embossed. 
3. stamp the trees.
4. glue the bird on the book.
5. dry with a heat gun.
6. with a sponge colour the background with dried marigold Distress Ink
7. with another sponge, with broken china Distress Ink
8. and with a last one sponge, with chipped sapphire Distress Ink
9. glue the card onto the cardstock.

The tag is inspired by Halloween.

1. stamp the lady on a piece of sheet
2. stamp the bottom of the stamp on a piece of paper you don't want to throw out
3. link the pattern and sew the two parts
4. take on old piece of sheet you don't used and sew the three pieces in the top.
5. Stamp "let it be" on the bottom.

Framed Poppies (by Brenda)

Hello everyone, today sees the first of three posts in October by Brenda, one of our regular Guest Design Team contributors. I am sure that you will enjoy what Brenda has to share with us this month, her first project is a delightful home decor piece, that would make a beautiful gift.

Brenda writes:

I started with a 8" x 10" frame, and cut a piece of 300gsm watercolour card to fit inside the mount.

Next I stamped Poppies from the Pretty Poppies and Autumn Poppy stamp sets onto the watercolour card, taking care to space them for the stencilling.

Once I had the placement of the Poppies, I used texture paste and a palette knife to stencil the wheat onto the glass front of the frame, taking the stencilling right to the edges, so that it overlapped the mount when placed back into the frame, and sprinkled gold and copper fine glitter over the wet paste.

While the paste was drying, I coloured in the Poppies with sparkly pens and lightly inked the edges with Distress Inks before re-assembling the frame.

Thank you Brenda for a wonderful idea. We look forward to seeing another project from Brenda next week. You can visit Brenda's Blog to see more of her fabulous designs.

Table Decoration (by Magda)

My second post for a Halloween party will give you some ideas for decorating the table.

I started with the napkin rings

1. Stamp the large border stamp of Dusky Damask with Versafine Onyx Black first on a sheet of paper, in order to have less colour on the rubber stamp
2. Put a coat of Soft Relief Paste Copper on the stamp and let it dry completely for about 24 hours or more
3. Remove the shape from the rubber stamp and trim the excess
4. Glue the ends of the shape to form a ring
5. Repeat points 1 to 4 for the second napkin ring
6. Stamp the cat from the Twilight Zone stamp set with Versafine Onyx Black twice, and cut the images out
7. Glue one cat on each ring as decoration

Place card

1. Cut a piece of cardstock 21cm x 6.3cm, score at 7.5cm (front) - 4.5cm - 7.5cm - 1.5cm
2. Colour the front portion with Distress Stain Brass and Carved Pumpkin
3. Stamp the cat from the Twilight Zone set stamp with Versafine Onyx Black
4. Fold the cardstock at the score lines
5. Blend Distress Inkpad Black Soot on the small 1.5cm fold (front side) with the sponge
6. Write the name of your guest on it

Pot

1. Use a white small pot
2. Colour the inside and the border of the pot with acrylic black paint
3. Repeat points 1 to 3 of the napkin ring
4. Glue the shape on the pot
5. Stamp with Versafine Onyx Black twice the cat from theTwilight Zone stamp set and cut the images out
6. Stamp with Distress Inkpad Picket Fence three times a flower from the Punky Flowers stamp set and cut the images out
7. Use the decoupage flower as a mask and cut again 3 flowers from black cardstock, as the back of the flower to cover the stick
8. Assemble and glue the flowers on the sticks
9. Fill the pot with raffia, put the flowers inside and the black cat on the raffia as decoration

I had fun in preparing these projects for you.

Magda

Autumn Medley Stepper Card (by Anne)

Good morning. Today I have an Autumnal project to share with you. I simply love this Autumn Medley stamp. I have used an acorn die from my stash but elements could be cut out and decoupaged from the stamped image too.

Materials:

• Autumn Medley and Mackintosh Sentiments stamps
• A5 ready made stepper card, white stamping card, A4 thick cartridge paper and waste shredded paper
• WOW embossing powders (extra fine White and Metallic Gold Sparkle)
• Inkpads: Versamark, Versafine (Vintage Sepia), dye based (dark brown)
• Ink Spritzers: Reds, oranges, yellows and greens – some with gold mica 
• Dye based liquid inks: Orange and yellow (or watercolours)
• Watercolours with mica: Reds, oranges, yellows, browns and greens (can make your own by adding mica powder to paint))
• Alcohol ink marker and pencil (dark brown)
• Paper raffia (yellow)
• Dies: Acorns, square, and mini tags 
• 3D glue gel

How to make it:

1. Spritz the cartridge paper and waste paper strips with autumnal coloured inks and leave to dry. Trim the background panel, edge with brown marker and glue to the card front. Die cut tags and acorns from the remainder.
2. Edge the mini tag and sentiment panel with brown marker. Stamp the sentiments with Versamark and heat emboss with white powder.
3. Add some shading to the acorn and leaf die cuts using the brown dye based ink, and shape using a ball tool and embossing mat.
4. Stamp the Autumn Medley onto stamping card using Versafine. Quickly add gold sparkle embossing powder to the hair (avoiding the face) and heat emboss. Colour with watercolours (with mica) and inks. Use the brown pencil to add extra shading.
5. Lay the square die onto the image and mark the position of the overhang and trim around with a craft knife (i.e. the foliage and hair that extends beyond the die edge). Lay the overhang behind the die cutting edge (so it won’t cut through) and cut out the square. Edge with brown marker and blend brown ink in from around the edges.
6. Scrunch up a bundle of the waste paper strips and raffia and lay the die cut topper over the top. Put everything together using 3D glue gel.

Merci - Canadian Thanksgiving (by Asha)

Good morning, friends! It's October and that means, autumn, falling leaves, harvest, thanksgiving, fruits, pies and halloween. And that is the theme at Chocolate Baroque this month.

Here's my autumn offering for the Canadian Thanksgiving which falls on October 10 this year. The fruity border is from the Mellow Fruitfulness A5 sheet. I decided on a simple greeting in French from the Pretty Poppies A5 sheet as this card is going to friends from Quebec.

I inked the edges with Distress Inks, coloured the image wth alcohol markers and finished the card with a gingham ribbon.

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.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our Canadian friends and fans!

Beijinhos,
Asha

autumn medley

I used the autumn medley stamp, partly because I like it and also because I could find it! (am trying to declutter my craft space, which only seems to create an even worse mess - hopefully only temporary).

My first was an experiment that didn't quite work, stamping and masking the lady then using a gelli plate to create the background - I was trying to get a leafy image using actual leaves, works fine with sponges and inks , but not with a gelli plate and paints. Still, it was an interesting mottled effect, so I used it! The lady was coloured with watercolour pencils, timmed down, matted onto a piece of kraft card that had been embossed with a woodgrain folder and sponged with brown and green inks, Final narrow mat of gold card, base card is A5 kraft card.

Second card I went for a very muted colour scheme, using shades of brown and green pencils. It ended up a little too muted, so Ioverpainted with red and yellow inks using a waterbrush, then highlighted some of the leaves with glossy accents.
Base card is A5 kraft again, with a single gold mat. The 'ribbon' strip down the edge was yellow card randomly stamped with the leaves from the autumn edges set in orange, green and brown, then sponged over with brown ink to tone the yellow down.Cut a thin strip off and added gold card mat.

The tag used up some of the stamping errors, where I managed to smear some of the ink - no way could I hide them, so cut the lady down to tag size.
I coloured leaves with pencils, then fussycut them out. Two sets were glued over the stamped images, the rest just dotted round.
To be honest, this one is my favourite so far.

Sunny Autumn Morning (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with my first project for October. I love this time of year with the beautiful colours and chilly mornings, perfect for dog walking and of course a little crafting too. I've made a little wall hanging using stamps from Autumn Poppy A4 stamp sheet

I began by creating a distress ink background on a strip of white card. I used Wild Honey, Peeled Paint, Spiced Marmalade and a little Barn Door. Once that was dry I stencilled in the sun using acrylic paints in shades of yellow and orange. Next I stamped in the images which are all from Autumn Poppy A4 stamp sheet using Potting Soil Archival Ink.

I coloured the images using  pencils, I was really pleased with the way the sun rays just show through the leaves and berries a little bit. I used my pencils to add some shading and grass around the toadstools and added some white spots with white gesso.

I distressed the edges with Forest Moss and Gathered Twigs distress ink and layered it up on brown card. Next I used corrugated card to create a base layer. I misted the card with water and peeled off the top layer and then just randomly applied shades of brown, red, orange and green acrylic paint. Once the paint was dry I added some highlights with gilding wax.

To finish off I added some string, a bow topped with a button and brass leaf.

Thanks for visiting today, 

Claire xx

Autumn Trees (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I love this time of year, when the countryside is filled with warm colours, and the leaves are turning shades of orange, brown, gold and plum. It is still warm enough to go for brisk walks and enjoy the sunshine and appreciate the vibrant colours that Mother Nature still has to offer us before we hunker down for the Winter months.

I have created a card using some left over pieces of watercolour card from a previous project. I simply added some stencilling and stamping to the top layer, and then added some shading around the edges of the layers, using Seedless Preserves Distress Ink, to add a warm plummy tone to the background.

I have used a lovely tree from the Nature's Peace stamp set, which I inked with water based markers, enabling me to incorporate the various colours that I had used in my background. I also stamped around the edge of the background using a favourite tree from the Fantasy Woodland stamp set.

This really was a quck and easy card to make, and by varying the colours, could become a very masculine card.

Do keep checking back for more Autumnal inspiration from my team mates this month. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Chocolate Baroque Reader's Gallery

Hello everyone, it is time for the Design Team to take a day off, and we are spending a little while looking at some of your artwork that you have been creating this month. It is always a pleasure to see what you have been making with the wonderful array of stamps from Chocolate Baroque, and we love to share your projects here on the blog.

We have been scouring Facebook, Pinterest and Blogland, for photos of your creativity. This what we found this month:

On the Chocolate Baroque Facebook Group:

Helenmarie:

Hazel Davey:

Shirley Deatcher:

Regina:

Akkina:

Found on Kate's Blog:

Pat created this funky underwater card:

Here's one from Marga's blog:

Finally, a pretty creation from Brenda's blog:

We hope that you have enjoyed this month's round up of beautiful card creations. There is so much talented creativity going on out there, and we would love to share more of it with you. If you would like us to add one of your creations to the blog post, please email a good quality photograph along with your name to sales@chocolatebaroque.com and we will be happy to share you project in one of our monthly posts.Please do not be shy! We will be back with another selection of your artwork early in November.

Thanks for stopping by,

Autumn tag by Zoe

Good morning Lovelies, I hope you're all well?

Today I'm sharing with you my first project for this month, the theme is Autumn or Halloween, I've made an Autumn tag, I hope you like it?

I started by second generation stamping in brown ink the Mini Script, I then stamped one of the stamps from Autumn Poppy using Versamark inkpad and heat embossing with black EP, I inked all around using a couple of brown shades and Mustard Seed Distress inks, splashing water and blotting to create some texture, I painted my image using water colour paints, once dry I gave it a light spray with a copper mica spray, it doesn't show so well in the photo but it shimmers very subtly but pretty.

Thank you so much for visiting, please leave a comment, I love to read them, have a wonderful day xx Zoe xx

 

Posted with Blogsy

Halloween Magic (by Julie)

Hello, thanks for popping in. I can't believe that we are now in October and of course with October comes Halloween, so I have two Halloween themed cards to get you in the mood.

This spooky lady has been stamped with the fantastic Put A Spell On You. The base card was covered with cream PanPastel and over stamped with Put A Spell On You sentiment. Weathered Wood Distress ink has been added along with black liquid 3d dots. The spooky lady stamp was inked up with black Memento ink and stamped onto glossy card and coloured with Alcohol markers. The cute little ghost was stamped onto distressed green cardstock before the topper was assembled and glued into place with double sided tape.

My second spooky card was created with the very fun Hocus Pocus set. To start with the base card was stamped with the naked tree. I stamped the tree three or four times before re-inking so that the trees look like they are fading into the background. 

The crow on the fence was used in front of the trees. I just inked up the fence part of the stamp to continue across the card and then the bats were stamped across the top of the card. Dark blue Pan pastel was sponged over the trees for the nights sky and a mixture of greys and browns for the foreground.

The main image is the curious bat creature that I stamped and then coloured with Polychromos pencils and Distress inks. The image was cut out with a circle die and mounted onto the front of the card with 3d foam.

Thank you for your visit and hope to see you again soon.

Julie xx

Blog Comment Winner for September

Hello everyone, we hope you are doing well.

Once again we would like to thank you all for your visits here at the Design Team blog.  We truly appreciate the time you take to let us know your thoughts about our designs.  
Each comment in September was assigned a number and we used Random Org to draw a winner.  Congratulations to Pat Moore (What a wonderful background effect Asha and the sihouette figures are perfect over the top, also lovely twinkly stars to finish. x )  you have won a £15.00 voucher to spend on Chocolate Baroque stamps!  Please send a quick email  here to confirm your email address and Lesley will send you your gift certificate.

Lesley will be giving a £15 gift voucher to another lucky winner drawn from October's comments. The more comments you leave the better your chances to win!  
Thank you for your kind words and comments,
Good luck from the Design Team!

Necklace for Halloween (by Magda) - Put a Spell on You

I am thinking of a Halloween Party, so my posts for October will be dedicated to this event.
Here a self-made necklace and earrings, that could be a good idea to wear.

For this project I used Put a Spell on You rubber stamp, Soft Relief Paste Copper, black string and
parts for jewellery.

1.  Stamp the pumpkin first on a sheet of paper with Versafine onyx black, in order to have less       colour on the rubber stamp
2.  Put a coat of Soft Relief Paste Copper on the stamp and let it dry completely for about 24 hours
3. Remove the shape from the rubber stamp and trim the excess
4. Repeat points 2 and 3 four times using the Ghosts rubber stamp
5. Colour randomly the black string with some spots of Soft Relief Paste copper 
6. Assemble the shapes of the pumpkin and two ghosts for a necklace and two ghosts for the earrings 

I hope you liked my project and see you soon again

Magda