Clearly Different, new stamps from Chocolate Baroque

Hi Folks, well those of you who haven't been living on a different planet may well be aware that Chocolate Baroque have recently launched a range of clear stamps to compliment their range of rubber stamps. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to work with these stamps and produce some samples. The launch took place while I was away on holiday in Italy, and I followed the fun and games of launch day via my iPad.

The stamp designs are lovely, with the same flair and style that the rubber stamps have, but with the versatility and flexibility that clear stamps can offer as well. There are some beautiful Oriental designs in the first batch of these clear stamps, and it has been a real pleasure to work with them. There is a little bit of everything to be fair, and my Design Team mates have come up with some stunning samples. You can pop over to the Design Team Blog to see what they have been creating.

I'd like to show you a few of the samples that I have made, although a couple of these have already appeared on the DT Blog, so apologies to those of you who have already seen these. The first one is an Oriental sample incorporating a handmade flower. I got the instructions for the flower from a tutorial on Pinterest, there are so many great ideas on there!

I went for a colour palette of soft pinks and browns, maybe not what what you would expect, but it seemed right for this card.

My next card shows off one of the frame stamps, and how easy they are to place onto Nestability shapes. The words are just as easy to position where you want them, and line up so easily. I used some embossing paste through a mask to create my background, and then coloured this with Pan Pastels. I added some embellishments, and the little frame, finishing the corners with some co-ordinating rubber stamp flourishes.

My next sample is again all about positioning. I started by making a frame with some of the twiddly bits on a couple of the stamp sets. These are some of the designs that might otherwise be ignored, because they aren't cute or of a specific image, etc.

I stamped the line elements outside the sentiment first, then added the flowers afterwards. I then stamped the flowers again, and coloured them with Copics, and decoupaged them onto the original piece. I added some coloured layers, and some gems in the middle of the flowers. It might be a plain and simple card, but I like a bit of Christmas bling!

My last sample for now shows a little Oriental scene. I wanted to create a pond with a ripple effect. Now I hold my hand up and admit that the perspective is all wrong on this card. However, it is merely the suggestion of a pond, so please allow me artistic licence on this one! I've used oval Nesties, and three different colour Distress Inks to sponge the colour around to create the appearance of the ripples. I stamped the Lily images first and masked them off before creating the ripples. I decoupaged the flowers, and cut the little frog out seperately as well. I have added Glossy Accents to him, to create some depth to his body. I have added Stickles to the dragonfly wings.

The background was created by using a couple of Crafty Individuals masks and Distress Inks. I then embossed the dragonfly stamp with gold embossing powder randomly over the top. The sentiment was taken from the 'Warm Christmas Wishes' clear stamp set, proving that the set doesn't always have to be used just for Christmas. I love the font on this sentiment.

So, hop over to Chocolate Baroque to see the full range of the new clear stamps, they are fun to work with, and I hope to show you some more samples soon. Thanks for stopping by, xx