Fifteen Minute Cards

Hello everyone, today we are sharing more of our fifteen minute makes with you. Twice a month, the Design Team put together a compilation of cards and projects that have taken no more than fiteen minutes to complete. These cards, tags, ATCs, etc., may be simple CAS designs, or just quick and easy to complete, but they all use wonderful Chocolate Baroque stamps and show that you can create fabulous projects in a very short space of time.

If you are a beginner stamper, just starting on your creative journey, or a more experienced crafter, looking for a card that could be made in batches for a speedy Christmas card, for example, then we have lots of ideas in these blog posts. You can reach the Design Team members' blogs for further explanations of their projects by simply clicking on their names as you scroll through this blog post. So, enjoy what we have to share with you, and try out some of the ideas for yourselves.

Corine's beautiful Cristmas card incorporates crisp stamping in monochrome blues:

I have created two cards using a gelli plate and Distress Inks for the backgrounds. On the first card, I simply stamped the image and sentiment directly onto the background, adding some colour with pencils for detail.

For the second card, I stamped the image and sentiment onto die cut ovals, used the same colour Distress Ink to add some shading, and again added some colouring with pencils.

Anne has created two lovely Christmas cards for us using one of our newest individual Christmas stamps. She has used glittery embossing powder on black card for a dramatic effect. She dissolved some pastel pigment in water and painted over the scene, and added a little colour onto the trees with glitter pens. She spritzed the scene with white opaque spray to create a snow effect and added mica spray for extra shimmer. She added a peel off greeting and drew a border with a metallic pen. Once she had added the background to her card, she drew a border using a black pen.

Annes's beautiful Nature inspired card uses the reed border from the Owl Edges stamp set and the sentiment from the Words of Inspiration stamp set. She used ink sprays to colour the background and sparkling embossing powder for the reeds.

Brenda has created a wonderful array of cards for us again this time, showcasing the stamps in a range of styles and techniques. For her first card, she used a background from her stash, which she had created using a marbling technique with shaving foam. These backgrounds always produce such beautiful results, and they are fun to try at the same time!
She stamped the butterfly image from the Tangled Garden stamp set onto a spare piece of card, cut it out and coloured it with the same colour inks that she had used for the background. She then matted the butterfly onto a piece of embossed white card, and then black card before adding it to her marbled background.

For her second card, she stamped the bunny image from the Glorious Spring stamp set using Archival Ink, and then used a natural sea sponge and Distress Inks to create a mottled background.

Using a selection of water based markers, Brenda inked and spritzed with water before stamping one of the images from the Indian Textiles stamp set across the bottom of her card. Using the same markers, she stamped across the top using and image from the Decorative Edges stamp set, and finally added a sentiment from the Pretty Poppies stamp set.

For her final card, she started by repeat stamping the bluebells from the Spring Foliage stamp set using water based markers to ink up the stamp. She stamped a sentiment from the Words of Inspiration stamp set, used a circle mask, and a torn piece of paper with Pan Pastels to create the sky. Finally, she drew some birds.

We have two lovely clean and simple Christmas cards from Lesley. For her first card, she stamped the image onto a die cut shape using Versamark and heat embossed using sparkly embossing powder. She coloured selected areas using watercolour metallic paints. She dusted around the edges using Pine Needles Distress Ink, and attached the die cut to the card base. She stamped a sentiment and die cut using a smaller die cut shape. She added a ribbon and attached the sentiment using 3D foam pads.

To create her second card, she stamped the image onto a die cut using Vintage Photo Distress Ink, and lightly dragged out some of the ink with a waterbrush. She added a little pale grey shading around the image with watercolour. She inked the edges of the shape with Vintage Photo Distress Ink using Cut 'n' Dry foam. She stamped the sentiment using Black Archival Ink and then adhered the main image to the card base with 3D foam.

Dominike has created a pretty pink floral card for us, using a bold flower image, repeat stamped across the card.

Magda's floral card uses the lovely Flora Musica stamp, set against a water splattered Distress Ink background.

Finally we have a lovely set of Christmas tags from Zoe, using some of our Christmas script images. These are really lovely tags, and would mke your gifts stand out as something special. Minimal colouring of the images is all that is required to complete these tags.

We hope that you have enjoyed our selection of projects and we will be back later in the month with more projects to share with you. In the meantime, do keep visiting the blog for a daily dose of inspiration from the Design Team girls.

Thanks for stopping by,

Metallic Floral Notes card (by Anne)

Materials:

• Floral Notes stamp set
• 6 X 6 white card blank and stamping card
• Inkpads: Versamark and Distress Ink (Peacock Feathers)
• Heat embossing powder (chunky metallic gold)
• Colourcraft Soft Form Relief Paste (Gold)
• Metallic pen (gold)
• PVA pearls (gold)
• Metallic braid (gold)
• Pricking tool

How to make it:

1. Spread the paste thinly over the stamp with a palette knife and leave to dry for 24-48 hours. Carefully peel away and trim off rough edges. This doesn’t harm the stamp and leaves the stamp clean.
2. Stamp the image with Versamark and heat emboss with the chunky powder. Note: using chunky powder gives a lovely distressed metallic effect but the image detail is lost. If you prefer a cleaner and more detailed stamped image then use a fine detail powder.
3. Trim the card and blend Distress Ink in around the edges. Colour the image with Distress Ink and a damp brush. Note: The embossed areas will resist the ink making colouring easy. When dry dab off any ink remaining on the embossed areas. The ink won’t dry when sat on top of the embossing, so this will avoid accidental smudging of the ink onto the background (as I had!).
4. Pierce the border and draw faux stitching and edging with metallic pen. Finish with a bow and PVA pearls.

Lest We Forget (by Asha)

Good morning, friends. Today is Remembrance Sunday - a day to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts. It's a day to lay a wreath and honour all heroes who lost their lives in battle.

I created a wreath of poppies using the single poppy stamp from the brand new Floral Notes A5 sheet. I created a mask and stamped the leaves from Autumn Poppy A4 sheet so that the leaves appear to the back of the poppies.

The sentiment is from the Pretty Poppies A5 set, heat embossed in white. I fussy cut the lower half of the top and bottom cluster of leaves, taking care not to detach them, and flipped it over the diecut piece. The "cross" is now more obvious. I finished the card with a light dusting of Tumbled Glass DI around the edges.

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

brusho postbox by Veronica

 Good morning, even if it is cold and rainy here!

I have the threatened card using brusho powders and the new Christmas Post stamp.
A very simple card,stamped with black Versafine onto white card, and painted with brushos. The tree was stamped a second time onto a scrap of card, coloured and cut out, then decoupaged onto the original image. The baubles were dotted with glossy accents, and glitter added along the top of the wall and to the bare branches of the tree.
Matts are black and gold mirri, and the base card is 5"x7" white.








For the second card I went for a night-time effect, and a non-Christmas feel. The stamp  may be called Christmas tree tangle, but it is not an obviously Christmas image and could be used all year.
Stamped in black versafine again, and painted with brushos, using just grey and leaf green, with the moon masked off. Matts are black and silver mirri card, and the base card is A5 green.

Thanks for looking, there are some gorgeous samples coming up from the rest of the team

Veronica

Snow Vintage Postbox Shaker card (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with a Christmas card featuring  the beautiful Vintage Postbox stamp. This is a lovely stamp and not just for Christmas lol. It's a beautiful image to colour and by varying the colours you could use it all year round.

I coloured the image with Graph'It markers and added some glitter for a frosty sparkle. I decided to make a shaker card so I cut a square aperture in a piece of cardstock and used border punch to add some interest. I lined this with acetate and used 3d foam tape to create my shaker card adding some sparkly faux snow.

I dusted off some old border peel offs to frame the image and added  a sentiment with a little bow and a button to finish off.. 

I love to sit and colour on these cold evenings so I think I'll be making a few more of these. How are you doing with your Christmas cards? Keep checking back as my lovely teamies have got lots of inspiration lined up for you.

Claire xx

Pick of the Bunch (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope that you are enjoying the projects that my Team Mates are sharing with you this month. I have some projects to show you using the new Floral Notes stamp set, and hope that these will brighten your November day.

For my first project, I have creatd a quick gelli plate background, using a brayer and Distress Inks, to cover the gelli plate, then pressed a piece of bubble wrap onto the plate to create an overall pattern. I removed the bubble wrap and then laid the card onto the gelli plate, smoothing it evenly, to ensure that I had a good coverage of ink across the card.

I stamped the flower image and sentiment onto the card, using Versafine Onyx Black Ink, and then coloured the image using pencils. I added a strip of toning ribbon to the background, and adhered the background to a white card blank.

For my second project, I used some left over fabric from some journal pages that I had made. The fabric had been coloured with water-based ink. I stamped the image and sentiment onto the fabric using Jet Black Archival Ink. I frayed the edges of the fabric and used some iron on interfacing to attach the fabric to a cheap little notebook. I added some lace, toning ribbon and a little wooden button.

This was a very cheap project to make, but will make a great little stocking filler present for someone. I know that I love notebooks, and have a large collection of them, and I'm sure that you know of plenty of people who might like something like this as a Christmas present.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Underwater Wall Hanging (by Penny)

Hello everyone, it is with great pleasure that I am introducing a new member of our Guest Design Team on the Design Team Blog today.  Our newest member is Penny Butler, who has long been a staunch supporter of the blog, our Facebook group, and also our Challenge Blog. You can find beautiful examples of Penny's work on her own blog, Lady Penelope's FAB Crafty Blogspot. Before we take a look at Penny's first project, we are going to allow her to introduce herself to you:

Hi I'm Penny and I am very delighted and honoured to be asked to share some projects with you all. I've been crafting and drawing since childhood, art was always my favourite subject at school! I live in Somerset with my Husband and our cats, (mad cat lady alert!). We have four children and two lovely grandsons. I have been crafting as a hobby for over twenty years, dabbling in textiles, dress making, glass painting, beading, silk painting and more. About sixteen years ago I was introduced to card making and stamping - and that was it! Nowadays my main crafty passions are stamping, scrapbooking, mixed media and home decor - especially up-cycling! I don't really have a particularly crafty style, as I like all sorts, but I DO love colour! One of my projects involves using the first stamps I ever bought from Chocolate Baroque - Christmas Flourish. I hope that you enjoy the projects :)

It was lovely to get to know you a little better Penny, and without any further ado, here is Penny's first project for us, a piece of home decor made using stamps from the Underwater Kingdom and Seadragon stamp sets.

Penny writes:

I used a panel of greyboard as the base and painted it with white gesso. I used some acrylic paints in blue, green and silver, painting and blending them in stripes across the panel. The silver makes the other paints appear pearlescent. I then stamped and embossed some seaweed and the palace.

I masked the palace and brayered some texture over the whole panel using some crumpled paper. I used Brushos to paint the seaweed, rubbed off the mask and painted the palace. I mixed some silver paint with the Brushos to make them pearlescent. I stamped a sentiment randomly several times, stamped a couple of mermaids in second generation ink, then gave the panel a coat of varnish.

On a piece of white card I stamped and embossed the Sea Dragon and a few other images. I painted them in the same way and cut them out. I gave each image a coat of varnish, then adhered them to the panel. I punched a couple of holes and added some ribbon for hanging the panel.

I hope you enjoyed this project, thank you for visiting :)

Penny Butler.

Thanks so much for your inspirational project and detailed explanation Penny. We look forward to seeing another project from you next week.

Ornaments in blue by Zoe

Good morning Lovelies, I'm sharing with you today my interpretation of this months theme "Winter/Christmas"

I thought if you hadn't started thinking about your Christmas preparations yet then perhaps this may kick start them, I love Christmas.

We are flying out to Canada on the 9th December to spend Christmas with my lovely daughter and I can't wait.

It's been a tough couple of months. I'm a foster carer and our gorgeous boy has just moved to his adopters after being with us a year, he's 21 months old and full of mischief and mayhem but we love him dearly. I'm happy for him and his new family, they are lovely and he will have a fantastic life which makes it a little easier saying goodbye, but it breaks our hearts every time, it never gets easier, this is our 5th adoption, hand on heart, "I've wanted to keep them all" but we didn't go into this job to keep them and realise that it wouldn't be fair on them as we are too old now, thinking about being 65 by the time he's 10 just wouldn't be right for him or us. So a nice holiday with my darling daughter is just what we need, ready for the new year and hopefully new baby, fingers crossed the wait isn't too long.

I decided to make some decorations for my first sample, I used MDF shapes which I inked up with Versamark ink and covered with Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel, I heated until molten and inked up my stamps from the Snowflake Flourish set with a gold pigment inkpad and stamped into the moulten enamel, once cooled I added some gold gilding wax to highlight the design more.

My card is using one of the gorgeous new Christmas stamps - Christmas post, which I've heat embossed onto a hemp textured card and lightly coloured in with pencils and a touch of glitter glue for snow and the tree baubles.

Thank you for visiting, I so enjoy reading your comments, I'll be back later in the month, I hope in the mean time you enjoy seeing what my fabulous teamies have created for you.

Have a wonderful day xx Zoe xx

 

Posted with Blogsy

Christmas Time! (by Julie)

Hello and welcome. Have you started your Christmas cards or are you a bit last minute like me? Well today, I have two Christmas card ideas to get you in the mood, made with the fantastic new stamps that Chocolate Baroque have just released.

My first card is made with Vintage Postbox. It is a versatile stamp as after it has been coloured (I used polychromos pencils) you can choose to add snow or leave it plain. As Christmas is in mind I chose to add the snow with a white paint marker and added sprinkles of glitter...

I used an oval die, to cut the image out before applying double-sided tape on the reverse edges so that the red ribbon could be securely attached.   

The base card has been stamped with the snow flakes from Seasonal Fragments and lightly coloured with Broken China Distress ink.

My second card is a very cute Robin, sat on a tasty mince pie. I decided that this lovely Mr Robin would look good on a piece of parchment. I really am no expert (as you can probably see...lol) when it comes to parchment but the lovely clear drawing of this Robin makes it very easy to stamp and emboss onto parchment.

I inked the Robin up with Picket Fence Distress ink and then went over the stamped image with a 

3 mm ball tool. I added colour on the reverse with Distress Crayons and blended them with a cotton bud that I moistened with a baby wipe. Once dry I attached the parchment to the base card with double sided tape around the edges. I decided to hide the tape with a handy die cut frame that I embossed with a snowflake embossing folder.
The base card was stamped with the snow flake from Last Minute Christmas and the card was finished off with a piece of gold elastic, threaded with a few decorative beads.

Thanks for dropping by and hope to see you again very soon

Julie xx

A card for a gift by Dominike

Hello
You know, in France, it is not usual to send cards for Christmas. But I like to give a card with the gifts.
This Christmas tree tangle stamp is so beautiful that I decided to use it for a serie. The 1st background is made with chalk-pastel coloring pencils  and the 2d one with the Gelli plate on glossy paper.
The stamp is embossed with black embossing powder.

Bonjour
En France ce n'est pas habituel d'envoyer des cartes pour Noël. Mais j'aime offrir une carte avec mes cadeaux.
Les nouveaux arbres sont tellement beaux que j'ai décidé de les utiliser pour faire toute une série avec des fonds différents réalisés avec la Gelli plate.
Les tampons ont été embossés à la poudre noire.

I wish you a very good day.
A très bientôt.

Kind regards.

Owl Ornaments - Fat Robin (by Magda)

It is time to think about preparing Ornaments for Christmas and I thought to renew some of my tree decorations.

Red heart :

1. Cover the MDF heart with Dina Wakley media white gesso and let it dry
2. Paint on the heart Tim Holtz Distress Paint fired brick and let it dry completely
3. Stamp with Versamark  the 3 owls stamp of Fat Robin set and emboss with white embossing
    powder
4. Apply Versamark with the pad on all the surface of the heart and emboss with  Wow Embossing  
    Powder clear gloss
5. Alter gently the red acrylic with DecoArt Antiquing Cream, titanium white 
6. Using your finger add some Stickles Icicle to the heart

7. Repeat the same process on the other side of the heart, changing the stamp of point 3,
    using 1 owl stamp and 1 snowflake.
8. Insert the ribbon in the little hole of the heart to hang the decoration on the Christmas tree.


Here below only the changes for preparing the White heart :

2.  Paint on the heart white acrylic and let it dry completely
3. Stamp with Versamark  the 3 owls stamp of Fat Robin set and emboss with Wow Embossing 
    Powder metallic gold sparkle
5. skip
6. Using your finger add some Stickles gold to the heart

My decorations are ready, and now I have to wait for the tree !

Have fun in Christmas crafting and thanks for stopping by.

Magda

Christmas Post (by Anne)

Here is my contribution for the Chocolate Baroque DT Blog this week – a Christmas card using the lovely new Christmas Post stamp.

I stamped the image and cut out elements to decoupage and add dimension. Distress Inks were used to colour the image and winter themed die cuts were used to frame and embellish. I added some sparkling chunky ‘glass’ glitter to give added sparkle and dimension.

Materials:

• Christmas Post single stamp
• A5 white card blank, white stamping card, blue glitter card and gold satin card
• Inkpads: Versamark and Distress Inks (Peacock Feathers, Tumbled Glass and Tea Dye)
• Pearlescent blue heat embossing powder
• Fine tipped pen (metallic gold)
• Wax crayons (blue)
• Glossy Accents
• Chunky ‘glass’ glitter
• Winter themed frame and edger dies
• Snowflake dies
• Foam pads or 3D glue

How to make it:

1. Edge the base card by blending with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink.
2. Cut the background mat from gold card with edger dies. Cut the frame from glitter card. If you don’t have a suitable decorative die set a plain frame would look nice and you could decorate it with winter foliage or snowflakes (die cut or readymade).
3. Stamp the image with Versamark and heat emboss. Cut out to fit behind the frame.
4. Draw onto the bricks with wax crayon to give some areas of texture. The wax resists the Distress Ink. Colour the image with Distress Inks and use a damp brush to pull out and blend the colour. Add touches of gold pen.
5. Stamp and emboss the image again and cut out elements for decoupage. Colour with Distress Inks. Use 3D glue gel to overlay onto main topper. I used the tree top branches to create overhanging branches in the foreground.
6. Mount the background, topper and frame with foam pads or 3D glue.
7. Add die cut snowflakes (cut from gold and glitter card) to decorate.
8. Finish with chunky glitter and Glossy Accents on the tree baubles.

Remember the Poppy (by Asha)

Hello and welcome to November. Let's start the month by remembering our fallen heroes - the brave men and women to fought and died to secure our freedom. Remembrance Day / Poppy Day / Armistice Day is observed to honour members of the armed forces who died in the First World War and to mark when hostilities formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

Here is a card I made using stamps from the Pretty Poppies A5 sheet. I stamped the poppies with VersaFine Onyx Black ink onto water colour paper and coloured it with Winsor & Newton water colours. And for an extra special touch, I adhered a few tiny red bling.

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

Blog Comment Winner October

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 October was assigned a number and we used Random Org to draw a winner.  Congratulations to Gerrina ( Its so beautiful! Love those autumn colours!) 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 November'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!

Chocolate Baroque Reader's Gallery

Hello everyone, it is time for our monthly look at your artwork, and what you have been creating with Chocolate Baroque stamps throughout the month of October. We have been scouring the Internet, looking for examples of your creativity to share with the rest of our readers. We love to see what you make with the stamps once you get them home, and let your imaginations run riot.

Found on the Chocolate Baroque Facebook Group:

Corine:

Regina:

Hazel:

Doreen has made a slider card:

Found around Blogland:

Sue has made a couple of beautiful cards this month. The first incorporates Flora Musica, one of our large floral stamps:

Her second card is a lovely Autumnal card:

Debbie has been busy making lots of cards, and we found this one amongst a large batch, a fabulous steampunk creation:

Here's another one from Corine, on her blog this time, using one of our bold flower stamps:

Shirley has created a beautiful Christmas tag card, with the addition of some layered die cuts for embellishment:

We hope that you have enjoyed this month's selection of cards. If you would like to share a project of your own, then please email a good quality photograph along with your name, to sales@chocolatebaroque.com and we will add your project to the next blog post.

We will be back next month with another selection of designs from you, but in the meantime, do keep checking out the blog for a daily dose of inspiration provided by the Design Team girls.

Thanks for stopping by,

Christmas post

Today I have two versions  of a very minimal card using the new Christmas Post single stamp to show you - the brusho version will follow!

 The first one is coloured with water-based marker pens. The mount is gold mirri card, which is showing very dark on the scan, but it was too dull to take photos by the time I finished this.
This one is on a 5"x7" white card blank.

For the second I tried using small ink pads to colour the stamp - it's not as successful as they were square, and teardrop shaped ones would have been easier to use.
This was cut down to a square, and glitter added. Chunky flakes for the snow on the wall, brown glitter on the tree branches and a finer clear gl;itter on the baubles and ground.
Matts on this one were black, gold mirri and more black, and the base card is white 7" square.

I used the same method to create a tag, just inking up the christmas tree and the using a water brush to draw some of the colour out. . The baubles were coloured with marker pens and glossy accents.


Do keep looking , as the rest of the team have some fabulous samples to show you over the next few weeks.

Veronica