Butterfly Dress

Hello everyone, I have been working with one of the new individual cling mounted stamps currently available on the Chocolate Baroque website, Butterfly Dress. The image is full of my favourite things, flowers and butterflies, and I had great fun creating this card.

I stamped the flower edge from the Floral Edges clear stamp set across the bottom of the piece of smooth white card. I needed to stamp the image twice to fill the space. I stamped the image again onto a piece of spare card a couple of times, so that I could colour some extra flowers to decoupage onto the original image. I stamped the Butterfly Dress image above the flower border, and cut a mask of the image and covered it over. I used a cloud stencil and Memento Summer Sky to create clouds across the background, however you could use a frilly edged die cut to achieve a similar effect. I stamped the Butterfly Dress image twice more onto a piece of spare card so that I could decoupage the butterflies.

I coloured all of the images with Inktense pencils, and cut out the extra flowers and butterflies before adding them to the card. Finally, I added a layer of green card to correspond with the grassy green of the lady's skirt and the grass of the border.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

Eggs are not just for Easter!

Hello everyone, I have been working with the incredibly useful Natural Eggs stamp set to make a clean and simple masculine card to show you today. Cards for men are so difficult to make, and these eggs lend themselves to a Nature themed card suitable for any time of year.

I took the solid stamp, inked it with Versamark, and stamped it across the bottom of a piece of beige linen card four times, overlapping the edges. I coloured the eggs with Pan Pastels, using a lighter colour at the top of each egg, graduating to a darker colour at the bottom. I then used the speckled stamp over the top of each egg, using a Potting Shed Archival Ink.

I added a sentiment from the Thinking of You Sentiments stamp set, and matted the background onto dark brown card before placing it onto a kraft card blank.

I have made a bonus tag project, using a Prima tag, but a piece of scrapbook paper cut to size would be just as good. I started by inking the solid egg stamp with Aqua Adirondack Ink, and stamping the image at the bottom of the tag. I used a whole image, and two partial images. I dried these with a heat gun. I then added the crackle image using the same colour ink. I took a swirl stamp from the Dawn Chorus stamp set and added this to the top of the eggs using Espresso Truffle Memento Ink. I stamped two birds from the same stamp set onto the tag, one perched above the eggs, and another higher up the tag. I filled in some of the background with feathers to create the feeling of a nest, and then added some more swirls, using the aqua ink, because my background contained elements of the same colour.

I added a bit of grey shading around the eggs using pencil, to add a bit of definition, and coloured in the swirls on the birds, also using pencils.

This was a quick project to make, and I hope that I have shown you just a couple of ways that you can use these stamps to use them throughout the year. Thanks for stopping by, xx

A very colourful workshop

I recently attended a workshop run by the very talented Lin Brown whose classes I enjoy enormously.This class was a bit different to the usual classes that she runs, because she decided to look at composotion with us, rather than presenting us with a specific finished project to make. We looked at how to use pieces of scrapbook paper that we might have lurking around in our stash to form the basis for our backgrounds, and then how to build up a series of layers on that paper to produce a backdrop for the stamped images. I was not very keen on the piece of paper that I had to start with, and almost asked to swap it for something different. However, I figured that I was going to be covering it up fairly well, so I would just run with it and see what happened. I really like the finished piece, so I am glad that I stuck with the original piece of paper, and it just goes to show that you can use up those pieces of paper left over from paper pads that you do not want to use for anything else.

Lin showed us how she creates her layered backgrounds step by step, using opaque and transluscent Fresco Finish paints from Paper Artsy. I have seen her demo many times, but it is always fascinating to watch her create a piece of artwork. Her background was much busier than I had realised, and it gave me the chance to experiment with trying this new look out. We had a lot of fun with her vibrant paint colours and the latest stamp images. She also showed us how to make some cute little padded birds to add to our project if we wanted to.

This is my finished project, which I actually completed at home. I had one or two things that needed to be put together after the class. I added some extra stamping to the background to ground the flowers and yet another layer over the white detail, with the little black dotty stamp.

 

I had such fun making this project, and it sits in my craft room where I can see the vibrant cheery colours to brighten up my day.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

Big Bold Butterfly

Hello everyone, it's the start of the final week of the current challenge over on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. There are some fab projects from some of the contestants which we are taking a look at this week, plus a free digital download from Lesley which you can use to create some beautiful cards and projects. The Design Team have made some cards using the download for your inspiration.

I decided to use some of my favourite stamps to create a card using the download. I chose a large flower from the Tangled Garden stamp set which I stamped twice using Archival Jet Black ink, and embossed with clear embossing powder. I also stamped several leaves from the same stamp set. I then stamped the body and one wing from the large butterfly belonging to the Patchwork Butterfly stamp set. I coloured all of the images with watercolour pencils and a waterbrush.

I layered the flower and the butterfly using 3D foam pads. I assembled the card, adding a deep plum matting and some die cut sprays in the same colour behind the leaves. I used some flower stamens for the butterfly antennae.

I hope that you will pop along to the challenge blog to take a look at the rest of the inspiration over there. Grab the freebie and make a project with it, it would be great to see what you come up with. If you use Chocolate Baroque stamps currently available on the website, and enter into the challenge, you could win a £15 prize to spend online at Chocolate Baroque.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

Springtime Krafting

Hello everyone, I have a couple of cards to show you today using the Spring Birds multi-buy rubber stamp set. There are some fabulous little stamps on these stamp plates, that often get ignored in favour of the larger stamps. I wanted to create some cards using these smaller stamps to show their versatility.

I started my first card by cutting a circle in an 8" x 8" kraft card blank. I then stamped and embossed a small motif around the edge of the circle opening, using Versamark and vanilla white embossing powder. I stamped a small flower seven times, masking it each time, so that I did not stamp over it with the next image. I chose two sprig stamps from the Briar Rose Butterfly/Harebell Butterfly multi-buy stamp set to create the background foliage for the flowers. I coloured them with Shaded Lilac and Seedless Preserves Distress Markers. I used first and second generation stamping to create depth in the foliage.

I coloured the flowers, using the same two shades of Distress Markers and a water brush. I stamped two butterflies onto the background and then stamped them again onto a spare piece of card. I coloured the spare butterflies with Distress Markers and then decoupaged them onto the background.

When I was making my coloured seam binding for a previous card recently, I used a scrap piece of card to mop up the excess liquid from the seam binding. The design was really attractive, and I decided to use it as a background for my second card. I stamped the two sets of tulips onto the card, masking one set before I stamped the second. I then stamped both sets of flowers onto a spare piece of card. I coloured the images with pencils before cutting them out and adding them to the background.

I stamped the small motif  across the top and bottom of the background using Archival Ink, to create a border. I added some of the orange seam binding, and then matted the background onto black card. Using another small motif, I created two lacy strips by stamping onto a piece of orange vellum with Versamark and vanilla white embossing powder. I cut the strips out, and stuck them to the top and bottom edges of the black card before placing this onto an 8" x 8" Kraft card blank. Finally, I stamped a sentiment using Archival Ink onto the background.

I hope that I have given you some ideas on how to use some of the smaller stamps. Thanks for stopping by, xx

Spring Birds

Hello everyone, I would like to show you some cards made using the Spring Birds multibuy stamp set, currently on offer at Chocolate Baroque. These stamps are perfect for this time of year, as we start to look forward to warmer weather and the changing season.

I started my first card by making a wrinkle free distress background; placing some Spun Sugar and Old Paper Distress Stains onto a craft mat, and spritzing them with water. I also spritzed a piece of watercolour paper with water and then placed it onto the craft mat, ensuring that the paper was covered with colour. I dried the paper with a heat gun, and then patted it randomly onto the droplets of colour left on my craft mat, creating a second layer of colour on the background. I also dried this with the heat gun.

I stamped some dog roses and a bird from the Pretty Birdcage stamp set along with a bird taken from the Spring birds stamp set onto the background. I masked the main dog roses before adding the birds and extra roses. I coloured the images with pencils. I added a sentiment from the Mackintosh Sentiments stamp set to finish.

I decided to create an easel card for my second project, by cutting a piece of dark brown card measuring 12" x 6" and another piece 6" x 6". I scored the large piece at 6" and 9", folding and creasing the folds firmly. I folded the card in half, and then with the fold facing away from me, I stuck the bottom half of the 6" x6" square piece of card to the folded card. I stamped the Leafy Trails Big Bold Background stamp twice onto plain card, and coloured this with waterbased markers. I edged the card with Distress Ink.

I die cut two circles, and whilst the dies were still in place, I added some colour with Distress Ink. Once I had removed the dies, I then stamped the bird image onto the larger circle, and a sentiment from the Amazing Birthday stamp set onto the smaller circle. I hand cut the mounts for the circles, by drawing around the dies onto some card left over from the easel card. I coloured some seam binding ribbon with Distress Stains to match my colour scheme, I used Spiced Marmalade.

   

 Thanks for stopping by, xx