Strut your punky stuff by Zoe

Good morning Lovelies and Happy New Year, I hope you all managed to keep well over the Christmas holidays.

So today I’m showcasing my samples that featured on Hochanda last month. Now I’m not a huge fan of Steampunk, but I have to say “I’ve loved these, they are so different and funky rather than punky lol”

So I felt the Stamps spoke for themselves and kept my samples mostly clean and simple. I went through a bit of a Greyscale fad I think?

Thank you so much for spending your time to leave a comment. 

Have a great day.

Zoe xxx

Strut your Punky Stuff by Brenda

Morning Peeps, today I have a few more shares using the Steampunk stamps Lesley showcased recently on Hochnda TV.

I adore the Punky Cockerel featured on Steampunk Birds as he rather reminds me of one of our own! An Oxide background with stenciling and a die cut corner, the Cockerel stamped with Versafine Clair and coloured and a few 'coffee stains' stamped using an image from Timeless.

More Oxides and stencilling to create an underwater scene and various images stamped from both Steampunk Sea World and Steampunk Funky Fish and a little watercolour added here and there.

This one has a background created using the Gelli Plate and acrylic paint, some rays added with Distress Ink and one of the images from Steampunk Sea World repeat stamped across the bottom and a sentiment from Punky Expressions added.

My thanks as always for popping in today and I hope I have offered a little inspiration.

Thingummybob (by Sandra)

Hello

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and wish you a happy new year.
The house looks very bare now that all the decorations are down, but time to get back to crafting!

My cards are from the December show on Hochanda.
All my cards are made with stamps from Steampunk Funky Fish and Steampunk Sea World.
I think these two sets work so well together.

For this card I made a background using Distress Inks and stamped the Jellyfish and the Thingummybob .
I cut out 2 sets of the bubbles and added some gloss to them.

On my next card I made a background with Distress Oxides and stencils. I stamped the images and coloured with watercolour pencils.

My next card, I made a" porthole" on my cutting machine, added some "bolts" and painted  it to look like rust. I made a background with Distress Oxides  and coloured the fish with pens. This was then put onto a background paper of weathered wood, like an old ship.

My final card for today is the Airship. A lovely, fun stamp. Here I have put it onto an embossed background which compliments the Steampunk, Industrial  feel.

Thanks for looking and I'll be back in a couple of weeks with a few more cards to share
Sandra x

Under The Sea (by Julie)

Hello, I am kicking my New Year blog posts off with an under the sea theme.

My first card has been stamped with the wonderfully versatile Steampunk Sea World set.

I started my card by stamping all of the images using Onyx Black Versafine, before colouring with Polychromus pencils. I then added in the watery background by sponging Distress inks along a piece of scrap paper to create the rays of light.

My second card has been stamped with Steampunk Funky Fish  with the sentiments coming from Punky Expressions

I simply stamped the three under-water creatures with Onyx Black Versafine before colouring with polychromos pencils. I then stamped my sentiment before colouring the background with various shades of blue Distress inks. I then went over the background with the Distress inks applied through a dotty stencil along with some dabs of white acrylic paint.

Thank you for stopping by

Please call again soon for more Design Team inspiration.

Julie xx

Steampunk birds by Rachel

Good Morning! Its time for my first post of a new year. Here's hoping its going to be a good year - and a post with some inspiration involved! Today I am sharing some makes from the December shows - I love these stamps and have been waiting for them to come to Hochanda - I'll step you through how I made each card.

In this first one I started by creating the landscape using masks and ink then overstamped with punky flowers plus one of the steampunk birds. I coloured them in using water colour pencils. The sentiment came from the Punky Experssions sheet.

In this one I first used a mask and some inks to create the arch then I added the cockerel from the steam punk birds set and coloured him using water colour pencils. The sentiment came from the Punky Expressions sheet.

To make this card I used lots of images from the steampunk birds sheet and stamped them on kraft in versamark and set using white embossing powder before fussy cutting. For the background I used versamark on black card with the punky flowers then brushed over luscious powders. Finally I added the fussy cut images and a sentiment from the punky expressions set.

For this final card I created the background using a stencil and brushos. The bird was stamped separately and fussy cut and added. Finally I added the sentiment from the punky expressions sheet.

I hope this has given you some inspiration as to how to use your stamps.

Hugs

Rachel x

December's Blog Comment Winner

Happy New Year, 

We truly appreciate the time you take to let us know your thoughts about our designs, so each and every comment is very important to us.

Each comment in December was assigned a number and we used Random Org to draw a winner.

Congratulations to Pat, you have won this months £15.00 voucher to spend on Chocolate Baroque stamps. To claim your prize, please email here to confirm your email address and Lesley will send your gift certificate.

Lesley will be giving another £15 gift voucher to another lucky winner drawn from January's comments. The more comments you leave, the better your chances of being the winner.

Thank you so much for all the kind comments you leave.

Good luck from the Design Team

Happy New year - by Magda (Punky Flowers)

Hello
I hope you had a lovely Christmas Time, and now what could be better than offering you flowers for the New Year ?
The A4 plate "Punky Flowers" has a lot of lovely stamps and I used them for my first Chocolate Baroque post of January.
The different technique in using Distress Ink Pad gave each background a different unique look.

Orange Card and ATC :   colour wash technique, stamped with Archival Ink, Jet Black and Sepia

Gold card :  perfect pearl resist technique and gold embossing powder,  hot embossed

Single flower : dry blended colour, spritzed with water,stamped with Archival Ink, Jet Black and Sepia

I wish you all a very healthy, happy and crafting 2020.
Magda

A New Year's Eve Message (by Judith)

Hello everyone, as we come to the end of 2019, I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year and all the very best for the coming year ahead. The past year has been a very busy year for all of us at Chocolate Baroque, and we cannot believe how quickly the time has flown by. As Lesley mentioned in her Christmas Day message, we sadly lost Sue, our designer this year, we will miss her amazing creativity, but as you continue to use her designs in your artwork, her memory lives on. Sadly, I lost my own Mum this year as well, we shared a love of crafting, and I will miss talking about my latest projects with her.

One of the highlights of our year was a trip to Doncaster to Stamp Magic, where we had a stand, and I helped out with a Make and Take area. We were incredibly busy all day, and I thought that I would share a few of the samples from the classes. The format was the same throughout, but the colours and stamps varied. We used Distress Oxide Inks to create a background on Drawing Cartridge, and then stamped over the top using Versafine Clair Inks. We coloured a whiteboard heart with the left over Distress Ink, and stamped an image over the top, adding some extra colour with a water brush. White highlights could be added for an extra pop.

The hearts make great gifts in themselves, as Artist Trading Hearts, so I also designed one card with a strap across, so that the heart was detachable:

Pop over to my blog where you can also see some of the Crafty Individuals samples that I made as well. I have not finished colouring some of these, because they were made on the day as quick examples. However, I now have a nice collection of cards almost ready to give when required, and only need to add a touch of colour to the hearts and a sentiment or two.

Enjoy a very happy, creative 2020.

Thanks for stopping by,

Judith xx

Trees, trees and trees by Zoe

Good morning Lovelies and welcome back to my last post this year.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

I’m back showcasing my samples from the shows last month featuring brand new stamps on Hochanda.

My first two card and matching envelopes were simple inking through a stencil using brushes and ink pads and simple stamping.

This card I used ripped paper to mask off the card which is a linen texture cardstock, I used Pan Pastels to colour and sealed using a cheapo hairspray, again, simple stamping, I used the dots from the sets to add a little interest in one corner.

This card I had some Shaving foam technique scrap in my craft stash, I stamped the background with the mesh and numbers stamps using oxide inkpad, simple stamping and coloured using Inktense pencils.

My final sample was a waste piece of card which I’d used as cleanup with brayered and neon paints.


Thanks again for taking the time to visit. 

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year xx Zoe

Reflections by Brenda

Good morning, Brenda here with some more samples from last month's Hochanda shows.

My top card features Remembrance Tree with a Pan Pastel background, stencils and Distress Inks used to build up the scene and then the Tree stamped with Versafine Black and a reflection in the water and sentiment from the Harmony Tree set.

Here we have a Brusho background over-stamped with Small Graph Paper and then using Verafine black I stamped 'O' is for just as laid out on the set before cutting into separate stamps. I used my stamp platform to allow several inking to achieve a sold finish.

This is one of the Whiteboard Trading Hearts and inked with Distress Oxides, then stamped first with the grids from Small Graph Paper using a blue Versafine Clair ink, then Freedom Flower using with Versafine Clair, added some splatters around the edge using one of the worker stamps from the same set and highlighted with a white gel pen. The word is from 'F' is For, stamped onto vellum using the same ink and heat embossed with detail clear EP.

Yet more Distress Oxides and then the large image from Butterfly Mind stamped in Versafine Clair and texture paste and a stencil used to add sections of script. I also used the splatter stamp from Freedom Flower to add more interest and sentiment from the Butterfly set. I then stamped the Butterflies again onto vellum using Versamark, heat embossed with white EP, cut out, decoupaged and added wire antenna.

The background for this one was a leftover piece using Alcohol Inks and I simple stamped Harmony Tree and the sentiment with Versafine black and heat embossed with detail clear EP to prevent smudging as the base piece is a gloss coated card.

As always I appreciate your visits and words of encouragement.

Butterflies.....

Hello
I am sharing some more of my cards from the November Hochanda show.

For my first card I created a watercolour panel by pressing three of my Distress Inks onto an acrylic block and spritzing with water. This was then placed onto my card stock and lifted, leaving the lovely pattern behind. I then stamped the individual butterflies  and sentiment from the Butterfly Mind stamp set.

My next card features the butterflies and filmstrip from the same set. I used Brushos to create a soft back ground.

This card uses the large butterfly, the separate film strip, a sentiment and the large splatters.

As you can see these are three quite different cards from the same stamp set.

My last piece is an art journal page using the Freedom Flower  and Small Graph Paper Chocolate Blocks

Thanks for looking
Sandra xx

Faux Stitching and Tree Landscapes (by Julie)

Hello, hope you all enjoyed your Christmas celebrations. I have a selection of cards to show today that I made for Chocolate Baroque's November, Hochanda TV shows.

My first is a DL card stamped with the Small Graph Paper design. There is a chain link design that comes with the stamp set and I used it to make the stitched design on top of the graph paper image. The back ground has been coloured with Distress ink and the distress stamp is from Freedom Flower.

The sentiments are from Journal Today

Following on the theme of stitching, I decided to make the small graph paper stamp look like a cross stitch design by stamping the flower from Freedom Flower over the top. I then mounted it onto some frayed burlap fabric. The background has been coloured with Distress inks and over stamped with the distress stamp from Freedom Flower. The sewing images are from Haberdashery

I finished the design off by colouring in the squares on the thin strip of graph paper from Freedom Flower to form Happy Birthday, much like you would on a cross stitch design.

This tree design is on the reverse of a recycled hanging ornament that I bought from my local supermarket. I stamped the tree from Remembrance Tree and the small tree from O is for... using an oil based dye ink that dries permanent. I then applied texture paste with a pallet knife to form the hills and when it was dry I coloured with Distress inks and gilding waxes. I made a mask for the sun/moon before colouring the background with Distress inks. I sealed the picture with a glitter spray varnish.

My last card is stamped with O is for.... The main central image was stamped with a blue, dye based ink and coloured with polychromos pencils. The background has then been stamped with the small tree that comes in the set and the edge was stamped with the distress stamp from Freedom Flower.

Thanks for stopping by and please call back soon for more Design Team inspiration.

Julie xx

Key to my Dreams (by Corine)

Hello everyone, Corine is back with her final post of the month:

Hello! Today it is my third and last time to post a card as a guest designer.

I used stamps from the sheets:
Dusky Damask
Texture Fragments
Key to My Dreams
Gothic Fragments

Choose three colours of Distress Oxide Inks. Apply this on an acrylic block. Spray water on this. Also spray water on your watercolour paper. Print the block on the paper. Let the inks blend nicely, dry it with the heat tool.
Stamp with various colours of Distress Oxide inks, various prints on the paper.
Stamp the text with waterproof black ink.
Emboss the keys with copper embossing powder on watercolour paper. Colour these with watercolour markers and cut them out. Stick them on the background. Create a shadow with a charcoal pencil and draw a line along the keys with a black fineliner (0.2mm).

I hope I have inspired you with my cards.

Kind regards,
Corine van Kuilenburg

A special day (by Lesley)

 Artwork courtesy of Jean Hardy

Well here we are again, it's the 25th December 2019 and it's almost the end of another year, and a decade.  It's been a difficult year at CB towers for several reasons. The most significant was that we lost our wonderful designer Sue and it has left a hole in our hearts, for she was a very talented and special person. We are truly fortunate that her legacy will live on all over this world in the shape of her beloved drawing and images, and she will always shine a little light on all of us.

Like all families we at CB suffer the usual ups and downs of life, but we are strong for eachother when necessary and we try to be truly kind to all.  In this world of unrest and uncertainty we like to think we are a little oasis of inspiration and creativity for all our wonderful customers. You are the people who make us what we are and for whom we try our hardest throughout the year.

So not just for today, but for all the days in a year may we wish you happiness, kindness and love where ever you are.

Merry Christmas!

Freedom and Harmony by Rachel

Good morning! Rachel here - its Christmas Eve and here are some more samples from the November shows!

Firstly some AT coins using stamps from the Butterfly mind set...

Next the freedom flower on an AT heart - I coloured this with watercolour pencils...

In this sample I used both the small graph paper and the Harmony tree stamp sets in conjunction with flake - I was pleased to see how the detail was still retained.

Lastly an oxide background teamed up with the  main image from the F is for stamp set as a topper.

Have a truely magical Christmas!

Love and hugs

Rachel xx