Paper cobbling

A while ago, the Design Team at Chocolate Baroque were asked to complete an unusual challenge. Glenda asked us to make some paper shoes, which was a little bit out of our normal comfort zone. However, we gave it some thought, and had a go. We are starting to post our exploits over on the blog now, mine are first, and if you care to take a look, I have explained how I made my paper creations over there.

A pink and black Brocade creation with matching tag:

 

A pale blue and lace creation with glazed Butterfly:

 

A French style creation, remeniscent of Marie Antoinette:

 

There is also a free downloadable shoe template available at www.chocolatebaroque.com in the printables section of the website if you fancy having a go at making a paper shoe yourself. Keep popping back to the Design Team blog, as there are more beautiful creations on their way. Thanks for popping by, Judith xx

Forgotten Friday 18- Photorealistic stamp

Hi Folks, it's Friday again, where did that week go? It's time to look through your crafty bits and pieces and make something with your forgotten or neglected stash. Leave a comment on this post, and I'll pop along to your blog to take a look. You can take all week, no worries.

This week, I've chosen to use a photorealistic stamp called 'Serena' by Stampsmith I believe. I have never used this stamp, and bought it ages ago. I thought that it wouldn't stamp very well, but this was its first printing, and it came out really well. I used Versafine ink, and brayered the ink onto the stamp. I have used lots of neglected items this week as well as my stamp. Some lovely paper by Prima 'Firefly' from the Flights of Fancy collection. Some gorgeous peach ribbon roses that I bought last year from the Clothes Show where I go every year with my Daughter Megan. I also used some butterflies from an old necklace, bought especially to break up for my crafting. I've used some beautiful sari ribbon, given to me by my lovely friend Lesley. Finally, a sentiment that I hadn't used yet from a Chocolate Baroque set 'Loving Sentiments'. I use lots of others from this set, but I thought that this card could be set aside for when I need to send it someone who needs cheering up.

I love how this image stamped out, isn't it a lovely stamp? I may have to get more of these photorealistic images now I know that I can stamp them okay. I am definitely going to use this one again.

Thanks for popping by today, have a great weekend, whatever you are up to, Judith xx

Less is More- Butterflies

I've admired the Less is More Challenge Blog since it first started, and been a follower since day one. However, due to other commitments, I've never been able to join in their weekly challenges. This week, the theme is Butterflies, so I just had to have a go. I love using butterflies in my crafting, in all shapes and sizes. I bought a new butterfly stamp last week at the Happy Stampers Show at Port Sunlight, from the Stamp Camp stand, along with a lovely flourish, and decided to use those on my card. I used them alongside a lovely butterfly saying from Chocolate Baroque.
First of all, I stamped the Butterfly, and masked it using the image stamped again onto Eclipse masking tape. I stamped the flourish, so that it appears to be behind the butterfly. I then coloured the butterfly with Inktense pencils.

The picture isn't brilliant, as I've taken it in artificial light, rather than wait until the morning, as I'm working then.
Pop over to the Less is More blog to see what everyone else has been making for the challenge.
Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Forgotten Friday 17- Paper Artsy

Hi Folks, it's Friday again, time to look through your forgotten or neglected stash, and make something with what you find.
This week, I found some very old stamps from Paper Artsy, that I've had since I took out a subscription to Craft Stamper magazine the first time around. I let my subscription lapse, and then several years later renewed it again. These stamps form part of six mini plates from Paper Artsy, and I've dipped into several of them, to create a collage style card. I have a recipient in mind for this card, and she will know who she is, I am sure!

If you feel like joining in my Forgotten Friday challenge, please leave a comment, and I'll pop along to your blog to take a look at what you've made. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Forgotten Friday 16- Hummingbird

Hi folks, it's Friday again, which means that it's time to rummage through your craft rooms again, and make something with your neglected stash. Sorry my post is a bit late, but Blogger has been down, so I couldn't create my post.
This week, I have chosen to use lots of neglected items on my card. Firstly, Papersoft Colour, which I bought ages ago, tried, and consigned to a box. This blends beautifully, and I have chosen cream, lilac and violet to colour my card.
The stamps that I have used, are a flowerhead from Little Claire, a Humming Bird from the 'Mindscapes' set by Inkadinkadoo, a sentiment by Tim Holtz, and a script background stamp by Viva for My Paper World, designed to go with the Coloursoft range.
I stamped the flowerhead onto a cotten linen fabric, and stuck beads onto the top with silicone glue, to represent the stamens.

I'm off to the Happy Stampers Show at Port Sunlight tomorrow. It's the first time that I've been to this particular show, and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm staying with my Daughter to break the journey up, we followed each other up the motorway today, so it didn't feel like we were driving on our own. We are having a night in front of the TV, which will make a nice change.
If you make something with your Forgotten Stash, leave a comment, and I'll pop along to your Blog, and take a look.
Thanks for stopping by today, Judith xx

The first cut is the deepest

Hi folks, it's a very sunny Monday here in Norfolk, I hope it's the same wherever you are.
I have another Birthday card to show you today, that I made for a very special friend of mine recently. I've not had much time for crafting lately, and wanted to make something extra special for her. Time unfortunately was against me, but I found a lovely blog recently and the blogger, Paulien had made a beautiful tag which I thought was so pretty. I decided to use the same technique to create a background for my friend's card. You can see a how to on this lady's blog, it's really straightforward.
I decided against making some of the lovely organza flowers, as she has had some of those from me before. I got out my Paper Artsy Thordon Hall paper pack, and decided to use some papers from there to make some flowers.
Now I am a paper hoarder, I buy pretty papers, and I don't use them, it pained me greatly to use these lovely papers, to make that first cut into the new pack. Does anyone else suffer with this problem? I am terrible! Once I got started, I was okay, I used several sheets, and I was fine!
I used three of the Paper Artsy dies to cut out the flower shapes, scrunched them, and fixed them together with brads, before colouring the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Inks. I used a Paper Artsy sentiment stamped onto a background coloured with Fresco Finish paints. I distressed the edges of this, and again coloured it with Vintage Photo DI. The leaves have been stamped onto the same green card as the sentiment, and these are Paper Artsy stamps too.

Don't forget to pop over to Paulien's blog to look at the lovely things that she makes, she is a very talented lady. I'll be back tomorrow hopefully, with some more projects, thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Stamping Contrasts

Hi folks, well it's not such a sunny Sunday here today, but it's a welcome change, as the garden really needs a bit of rain. Yesterday was very humid, but it's a bit more pleasant today.

I have two cards to show you today, both using Tim Holtz's 'Papillon' Stamp set, which I loved as soon as I saw it. I love butterflies anyway, but the background stamp is just fabulous. At my card class last week, I wanted to get the girls to use white embossing in their cards, so we based our cards on this technique. We chose three colours, and blended our backgrounds, after embossing the background stamp. We also coloured the butterflies with the same colours, and decoupaged the butterflies. We used some Kraft card, and chose a stamp from the set as our background stamp, this time using a Versafine ink in a matching colour, (I used Majestic Purple), and then I matted everything onto red Bazzil card.

I haven't added added a sentiment, as this card could then be used for any purpose, a great store cupboard card!

My second card has a lovely shabby, vintage feel, which is exactly what I wanted. I firstly created my background, using a Linda Brown technique  using Paper Artsy paint, which you apply to white card sparingly, and dry with your heat gun. I then used Antique Linen and Spun Sugar Distress Stains, and blended them with a baby wipe over the top. When these were dry, I stamped the big Papillon background stamp down my card, using archival ink.
I then embossed and refined my metal shapes in Pearl metal, and painted them using Vintage Lace Fresco Finish paint. I rubbed over a little bit of black paint dabber, and wiped off the excess to age them slightly. I cut the wings from sticky back canvas, coloured them with Antique Linen Distress Ink, and stamped a Crafty Individuals script stamp over the top. I coloured the Ideology ribbon and flower trims with Spun Sugar and Antique Linen Distress Stains, before spritzing them with water.
I then assembled my card, adding a computer generated sentiment, and a heart charm. I had seen this sentiment on another blogger's card ages ago, I've looked so that I could give credit to her, but can't find the link. So my apologies for that.

This card is going to a very special person, and I hope she has a lovely Birthday!
Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you have a lovely weekend, whatever you are doing, Judith xx

Forgotten Friday 15- Butterflies and Blossom

Hi folks, it's Friday again, boy these weeks are flying past! It's time to look through your forgotten and neglected stash again, to see what is lurking unused in your craft areas. Try and make something with what you find, and leave a comment attached to this post, and I'll pop along to your blog and take a look at what you've made.

At this time of year, our garden is full of beautiful blossom. The lilac is particularly lovely, we have white and purple varieties.

Aren't they pretty? I think that this is my favourite time of year in the garden, and it's not too hot for me either, as I suffer from sunstroke when it gets too hot.
Anyway, I wanted to make something that refelected this lovely period, and looked through my stamps. I couldn't find anything in my wood mounted stamps, and had just about given up hope, when by chance I spied a cheap little set from Papermania 'Butterfly Medley' which were perfect. I had never used them, so they qualified for today's spot.
I started with a backing paper from K & Co, from the same pad that I used a couple of weeks ago, and used another unused item, my 'sew easy' to mark out the stitch holes, and then hand stitched my backing papers together. I had to use a pricking tool to go through both layers, but I knew about this in advance, as I had read the write ups about the tool. It was still quite a doddle to use. I then took a piece of music paper, with the perfect wording on it, and coloured this with Distress Inks, and added this to my card. I stamped out my images, and coloured them with Polychromos pencils, I love these for the colour choices I have.
The finishing touch was to add some Scrabble pieces, and the card was done.

Now, I have based my card on a card made by a very talented lady called Peet. I will give you her blog link in a second. I found her through another blog that I follow called 'Inspired by'. This lady chooses an artist each week and a different card each day, shows the card, and then makes a card, putting her own slant on the card. She is very talented in her own right, and makes some lovely cards. Her blog is here Peet's card that I based mine on can be found here and her link is in that post.
Both blogs are fab.
I hope you get a chance to join in with my Forgotten Friday challenge this week, thanks for stopping by, Judith xx
 

A little update

Hi folks, life is a little less hectic around here, thank goodness! My OH is slowly improving, but it will be a long haul. I've been getting back to crafting, but most of the things that I've been making, I can't show you yet, as they are on their way to other people, or I've been working on Design Team projects.

My little chicks are growing fast, running about here, there and everywhere. We had put mesh around their compound to stop them getting out, so that the cat couldn't get to them. They keep finding escape routes, so we have given it up as a bad job, and given them the freedom of the garden. The cat sleeps most of the day anyway, so they are fairly safe!

The chicks are starting to grow their feathers now, and are even getting little wispy tails! I took a few photos out in the garden yesterday, and thought that I would share a picture or two with you. Even the non bird lovers amongst you might think these are cute!

Anyway, enough cuteness! Onto matters crafty! I can show you two items that I made recently for swaps on the Chocolate Baroque Guild. Each month, we set challenges, and swap tags or ATCs to a certain theme. This month, we pushed the boat out, and also did an altered matchbox swap too. this is my take on the matchbox swap:

I have coloured my elements with Distress Inks, and then stamped over the top with Versafine Ink, embossing some key areas with clear EP. I covered the box with French poetry, and added a couple of little charms.

For the tag swap, the theme was 'Baroque' and the colour choice was 'hues of blues'. I still had my Venetian lady stamp sitting on my desk from my Forgotten Friday project last week, so I decided to use that stamp again, as it doesn't get to see the light of day very often! I coloured some white card with some Distress Stains in two shades, ran it through an embossing folder, and coloured the raised areas with Inka Gold, in Old Silver. I used a piece of  printed paper from an old Guild pack to finish backing my tag. I made some jointed pieces of beading for the bottom of the tag, using gold and turquoise beads. 

Hopefully, as my recipients receive more of their items, I can reveal more of what I've been up to!
Thanks for stopping by today, and I'll see you tomorrow for my Forgotten Friday post. Judith xx