So much to show you!

Hello everyone, apologies for such a long post today, but I am multi-tasking, posting both on behalf of the Chocolate Baroque Design Team and the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. I have several projects to share with you, and I hope that you will enjoy what I have to show you.

I have really been enjoying working with the current stamps of the month, Sketchy Doodle Landscape/Flowers Multibuy, and my samples today are no exception. I wanted to show you the versatility of these stamps, how they can be used in a variety of different ways. I chose to make a set of pastel cards for my first project, and began by masking the top and bottom of the cards, leaving a large strip of the card exposed across the centre. I poured a bit of Acrylic Wax onto a craft mat, and using a piece of cut 'n' dry, I applied the wax onto my stamp. I stamped the image randomly across the card, reapplying the wax to the stamp each time. I cleaned the stamp immediately I had finished stamping the images. Once the wax was dry, I covered the area with Memento ink, choosing soft pastel shades on each card, (New Sprout, Summer Sky and Lulu Lavender). The wax acted as resist, so that the images were visible through the ink. I removed the masks, and stamped a sentiment onto each card from the Amazing Birthday stamp set using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I stamped some of the butterfly and dragonfly images using Versamark and white embossing powder onto vellum and cut these out, before attaching them to the cards.

My next project was created using a piece of MDF as a base, which I painted with gesso. I added a honeycomb diecut and some lace, which I also painted with gesso.

I embossed several of the sketchy flowers using Versamark and white embossing powder onto a textured card, and cut them out. I added some dark brown die cut pieces, the flowers, and some gessoed metal flowers and butterflies to the board. I layered several of the sketchy flowers up, and added jewellery findings to them, which had been gessoed as well. I sprayed the whole piece with a mixture of blue and lime Dylusion sprays, which I had decanted into mini misters. I wanted a finer spray, without the big droplets that you sometimes get from the normal spray bottles. Finally, I added a bit of gilding wax here and there for a bit of metallic sheen.

I had lots of spray left on my craft mat after this project, so I decided to create a 'mop up' project using some of the left over flowers that I had. So, I dipped a tag through the inks, and also some of the white flowers. I stamped a sentiment from the Rose stem script stamp set over the background using Memento ink. I die cut some leaves from the scrap white card, and added some sari material to the top of the tag. The white embossing powder really pops against the vibrant ink:

 I hope that I have given you lots of ideas with these stamps, and that you will have as much fun as I have had.

This week on the Challenge Blog there is a free digital download from Lesley. It is so useful and I'm sure that you will find a use for it time and time again. I have so many ideas for cards using this download! If you pop over to the blog, you can collect the download following the instructions on the blog post, it's really easy.
I have made two cards this week using the download, as I had two special men celebrating Birthdays that needed a card. The first card incorporates a lovely tree stamp from the Essence of Nature stamp set, which I embossed using Memento Espresso Truffle ink and clear embossing powder onto a Brusho background. I used a spare piece of the background to stamp a sentiment taken from the Birthday Words stamp set.

 

My second card uses a mixture of stamps including a lovely swirly leaf from the Essence of Nature set to create a branch, which I embossed with Memento Espresso Truffle and clear embossing powder as before. I stamped and embossed an owl image from the Wise Owl stamp set, using copper embossing powder onto a Brusho background. I used another piece of this background to stamp a leafy image from  the SketchyDoodle Flowers stamp set, and a sentiment from the Amazing Birthday stamp set. I cut the leaves out and arranged them around and behind the owl. Both cards were finished using dark brown card as a matting layer.

Some of the other girls on the Design Team have made some beautiful designs with the download, so be sure to take a look on the challenge blog. If you make anything yourself using the download, please upload it to the Facebook page, as we would love to see it.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx