Sending a bouquet (by Corine)

Well here we are in 2017 and we are welcoming back Corine in her guest position for January, I knw she has some wonderful projects lined up for you so here we go with her very first of this New Year.

Hello!

Here I am again. In January I will post three times a card as guest designer. I am very pleased to do this. My first project is a card with one of the Ornament stamps on a Gelli Plate Background. 

I used stamps from the sheets:

Palm Fan Baroque Ornament

Gothic Fragments

Mackintosh Sentiments

• Create a background with acrylic paint on a Gelli Plate. 
• Stamp the ornament from the Texture Fragment sheet with Brilliance ink. I used Lightning Black. Use a template with leaves and sponge Memento Luxe Olive Grove. 
• Sponge Distress ink Seedless Preserves around your background paper and stamp the text with black ink.
• Emboss the Palm Fan Baroque Ornament with gold embossing powder and colour it with Zig markers.

I hope you enjoy my first creation and I will see you soon

Corine

Thank you so much for this beautiful card Corine, I love the idea of creating all that interest in the background. We look forward to seeing what you have in store for us next week.

In the meantime please keep popping in so that you can catch up with all the beautiful designs that our fabulous team made for our debut shows on Hochanda.

Glittering Heart (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with a project made using stamps from Harlequin Rose. 

I made a shadow box using a distress ink background stamped with the gorgeous large lace stamp from Harlequin Rose. I added some gold glitter paste around the edges and painted the aperture with gold acrylic paint. 

I made the heart by inking up the ornate heart stamp (again from Harlequin Rose) with red ink and the applying a thick layer of gold glitter paste with a spatula. I left it for a couple of days to dry and then peeled the heart away and glued it in the aperture.

I added ribbon around the edge of the box, some paper flowers (dabbed with gold glitter paste) and a little bottle of love potion (well really it's diluted distress reinker lol).

I hope you're enjoying all the fabulous inspiration from my teamies, we're definitely in the mood for love this month lol

Claire xx

Variations on a Theme (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope that you are enjoying our romantic projects this month, and that we are giving you lots of ideas for those special occasions for which you might need to make cards and gifts.

I have two cards to share with you today using the same stamps, but varying the ideas to give two completely different looks.

For my first card, I stamped and embossed the large lacy border and the small heart image from the Harlequin Rose stamp set, using Versamark and clear embossing powder onto a piece of smooth card, which I had cut slightly smaller than my card blank. I coloured the background using a range of Distress Inks, blending them where they met, to create a graduated background.

I ironed the embossing powder off the card using some cheap copy paper underneath the iron to absorb the embossing powder, (remembering to turn off the steam!). I spritzed the background lightly with some water, to create a slightly mottled effect. I stamped the large 'love' from the Words of Love stamp set and added some cream seam binding before attaching the background to the card blank.

To create my second card, I used the same small heart image, and stamped it randomly onto a scrap piece of black card. This time, I used some sparkly red embossing powder, for maximun impact. I added some red card as a matting layer behind the background before I attached it to a white card blank. I stamped the large 'love' using red ink.

The second card was a very quick card to make, and would make a super Valentine's card for the man in your life, whereas the first card is much more feminine, with the vibrant colours. I hope that I have shown you how versatile these stamps can be. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Love hearts by Zoe

Good Morning Lovelies and Happy New Year, I hope you all had a lovely Christmas?

Today I'm sharing with you my first project for this months theme "Romance" Ive made a CAS style card using a Hemp textured card.

Stamps used;

Sentiment - Journal Today 

Harlequin Fragments

Dusky Damask

I used a die to cut out my hearts, stamped using a Versamark Inkpad and heat embossed using white Embossing Powder, I then just rubbed over with Archival Inkpads in various colours, I inked the edges just to make them "pop" with Black soot distress ink and just assembled my hearts randomly using sticky pads to raise them up, a few tiny pearls and the sentiment and voila! 

 

I hope you like my card, thank you for you kind comments, have a wonderful day xx Zoe xx 

Harlequin Heart (by Julie)

Hello and welcome. Today I have a piece of home decor to show you, made with the beautiful Harlequin Rose set that  Lesley featured on her recent Hochanda debut shows. Did you get to see them? I hope you did as both shows were fantastic and packed full of demos and Design Team inspiration.

The picture frame I used is a 4" x 6" size that I picked up at my local supermarket for around a £1.00 in one of their sales but anything you have in a similar size would work. I covered the frame with a green and yellow acrylic paint and after it was dry applied gold gilding wax over the top. To add to the aged look I dabbed specks of black acrylic paint around the frame and then smudged them with a cloth.

I then rolled out some white polymer clay, inked up the heart stamp with black Versafine and stamped into the clay. Carefully remove the stamp and cut around the design with a craft knife. 

Before baking the clay in accordance with the packet instructions, place small sausage like shapes of rolled up tin foil underneath the parts of the clay heart that you want to be raised.

Once baked and cooled, colour with alcohol ink and add gold gilding wax to finish.

The background was stamped with the tassel border and coloured with Distress inks.

Assemble the frame and adhere the clay heart in place with 3d glue gel. 

Thanks for popping in and please call back soon to see more Design Team inspiration.

Julie x

Romance... (by Dominike)

Hello
Romance is the word for this month. What a wonderful word and a beautiful set of Harlequin Rose Chocolate Baroque stamps.
My first project for this new year, I hope very sweet for everyone, is a dark and gold card.

Very classical work, but great effect with this stunning stamp.

I embossed with black and gold powder on an old sheet of paper.

The difficulty is to put powder on parts of the stamp only where you want.

Bonjour

En ce début d'année que je vous souhaite très douce, je vous présente une carte très classique toute d'or et de noir.

J'ai embossé ce magnifique tampon avec des poudres or et noir.

La difficulté est de déposer la poudre aux seuls endroits que vous souhaitez.

J'espère que vous aimez.

I hope you like it.

Kind regards.

Love Heart (by Magda) Bold Backboard Leafy and Harlequin Rose Rubber Stamp

The theme for this month is "Romance "and I like to start with an unusual colour of  a "Love Heart",  Here for you my Step by Step :

1. Colour the mat with Distress Inkpad Ink Old Paper and stamp on it Big Bold Background Leafy 
    Background stamp with Distress Inkpad Hickory  Smoke
2. Trace some leaves with Versamark Pen and heat emboss with Embossing powder green
3. Coloured a portion of cardstock with Distress Inkpad Moved Lawn and stamp on it with Versamark  
    the Heart of  Harlequin Rose Rubber Stamp Sheet A4  and heat emboss it with Green Embossing
    Powder
4. Cut the contour of the heart for and put if necessary some Stickles Icicle on it.
5. Stamp with Distress Inkpad Moved Lawn the Love sentiment of Heart of  Harlequin
     Rose Rubber Stamp Sheet A4 
6. Assemble the heart and the sentiment on the mat and finish your card by putting some Glossy 
    Accent spots on the berries of the Bold Background Leafy Background stamp 

Thanks by passing by and Happy New Year

Magda

Harlequin Rose card and gift box (by Anne)

Good morning. I am excited to share one of my samples for Lesley’s first TV shows on Hochanda today. I am looking forward to being able to see more fabulous demos from this talented lady. Lesley will be bringing some gorgeous sets of stamps from Chocolate Baroque featuring a romantic theme with gorgeous roses and heartfelt sentiments. Great for creating projects ready for Valentines Day, but also suitable for Weddings and Anniversaries too.

I have used stamps from the Harlequin Rose set to create this card and to decorate a small gift box to match.

Materials:

• Stamp Sets: Harlequin Rose and Words of Love (small heart stamp)
• 19 X 15cm white card blank, white stamping card and small gift box and tags (white card)
• Inkpads: Distress Ink (Victorian Velvet), Versamark and Versafine (Vintage Sepia)
• WOW embossing powder (Metallic Gold Rich Super Fine)
• Water based sparkle pens (teal and clear)
• Fine ribbons (teal) and fabric rose (pink)

How to make:

Trim stamping card to fit the card blank leaving a small border. Stamp the decorative border with Versamark and heat emboss with gold powder.

Open out the box and lay flat. Mine was cut on the Silhouette Cameo, but you could use a die cut or a ready-made plain box. My box measured approx. 20cm square when opened out. Stamp and emboss the box sides with the border stamp.

Colour the card front and box with Distress Ink using a sponge. Colour the border flowers with teal sparkle ink.

Stamp the sentiment onto the card front with Distress Ink. Stamp the mini border with teal ink. Distress the card edges and glue to the card front. I used the edge of my scissors to do this.

Stamp 2 mini tags with the small heart and emboss with gold, emboss along the edges too. Colour with Distress Ink and then with teal pen. Add ribbon and fabric rose and glue in place on the box and card.

Stamp the rose panel in Versafine ink and trim fit on the card front. Ink the card edges with Distress Ink and roughen.

Colour the leaves with teal and clear sparkle pens. Colour the rose with Distress Ink; applying to a palette and picking up colour with a water brush. Brush over the highlights with clear sparkle pen. Attach to the card front with 3D foam.

Garden of Love (by Asha)

Happy New Year, everyone!

For my first DT post of 2017 I'm going floral with this card using the gorgeous Big Bold Background Belle Flowers stamp. The inspiration for my card came from the various colouring books so widely available today.

I stamped the image with VersaFine Onyx Black and coloured it with watercolours. The sentiment is from Words of Love, heat embossed in red onto a strip of vellum. I finished the card with a few sequins.

This is a super easy card, perfect for Valentine's Day, engagements... even weddings.

I've got more details of tools and products over at my blog. And don't forget to swing by the DT blog often because at the rest of my talented teamies have some amazing projects up their sleeves.

Beijinhos,
Asha

Decembers Blog Comment Winner

Hello everyone and Happy New Year, 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. The comments during 2016 have been so lovely to read.
Each comment in December was assigned a number and we used Random Org to draw a winner.  Congratulations to Christine 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 January'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!

new dawn (by Veronica)

2017 sees a new start for Chocolate Baroque, when Lesley has her first show on Hochanda on Wednesday - I shall be firmly glued to the tv at 1100 and 1700 to see what new techniques she comes up with!
When sorting out my craft space post-Christmas, I found loads of stash, including some little (if at all, to be honest) used stamps, that were must-haves at the time that got sidelined....I am sure we all have them somewhere! I decided to use a couple of them and have a quick play among the chaos, and this is one of the results.
The main stamp is from owl edges, and the sentiment from see beauty - I usually give sentiment stamps a miss as I can almost guarantee I won't stamp them straight, but clear stamps are a help, and I manage to get them a lot straighter than otherwise, so risked adding this one to the card blank......

Background using distress inks, narrow black mat on a 5"x7" white card blank.

The main focus of the DT this month is romance, and here is my first 'official' sample, using the lovely harlequin rose stamps.It has been around for a while, but is such a useful set for general cards, not only for Valentine cards.
I stamped the main stamp with black versafine, clear embossed it before adding colour with brusho powders, and mica powder for the swirl in the corner. Background stamp from the same set, stamped with wild honey distress ink, which was also brushed round the edges.

I hope you all have a very happy, healthy and crafty new year.
Veronica

Happy New Year!!

Good morning and Happy New Year to you! 2017 is going to be a very exciting year at Chocolate Baroque as Lesley has some fabulous crafty treats lined up for us and of course it's not long to wait until the first Chocolate Baroque show on Hochanda!

Our theme this month is Romance and my teamies have created some stunning projects to inspire you as it won't be long until Valentine's Day!

I really enjoyed making this card and began by stamping one of the large stamps from Harlequin Rose A4 stamp sheet to create my background. I used black archival ink and both first and second generation stamping to create a random effect. I stamped the sentiment (from the same set) with a hot pink ink. 

To make the focal image I took my non stick craft mat and applied versamark ink with my inkpad directly to the mat. I applied clear Ultra Thick Embossing powder and heated to create a clear 'puddle' on my mat. I repeated this three times and then used hot pink embossing powder for my final layer. While the embossing powder was still hot I stamped into it with the rose script stamp that I'd inked with Black Archival ink. I gave it a few minutes to cool and removed the stamp, adding a little silver gilding wax to highlight the texture. Once it was completely cool I carefully lifted it from my craft mat and stuck it to my card with mat gel medium.

To finish the card off I added some ribbon and a paper flower.

We'd all like to wish you and your families a happy, healthy and creative New Year

Claire xx