Out of the smoke

Hello everyone, I have a spooky card to share with you today, showcasing some of the fabulous new Halloween stamps from Chocolate Baroque. As always, I have been mixing and matching new stamps with old, to hopefully give you some inspiration on how to stretch your stamps a bit.

I started my card by using a background from my stash. It is a leafy background using a technique taught to me by my very dear friend Elaine during a crafty get together several years ago. I love this technique, because it uses leaves from my garden, and because it reminds me of my friend at the same time. Essentially, you add spots of colur to your base card, and then stipple around the outside of a leaf using a brush. Move the leaf slightly, twisting the angle just a little bit, and keep repeating this manoeuvre until you have filled the original empty leaf shape. Keep making these leaf patterns all over the background until you have covered the card. You may need to use more than one leaf, as the leaves deteriorate with use!

I wanted the 'witch' to seem as if she was appearing out of the smoke, so I did not decoupage the image onto the background, I stamped the face straight onto the card. I used the Lady in Hat cling mounted stamp, but masked off the top of her hat before I inked up the image. I then stamped the brim and the pumpkins onto some spare card. Once I had the main image placed on my background, I added the book and the bats underneath the face. I stamped a border of cobwebs using a stamp from the Halloween Edges stamp set, and added a few spiders.

I coloured the images with Aquarelle pencils, adding the pumpkins and extra brim to the image, before drawing the rest of the witch's hat and colouring that the same way. Finally, I coloured a small tag with Distress Ink, and added a sentiment. I matted the background onto a black card base.

I had a lot of fun creating this card, you can really let your imagination run riot with these super stamps. I hope that you will pop over to the Design Team blog throughout September to see what the Design Team have created with them. I will be back with more spooky designs to show you soon. Thanks for stopping by, xx

A Light in the Window

Hello everyone, I love mixing and matching stamp sets, and my card today is no exception. I have made a CAS design which I hope will give you a little bit of inspiration for your Christmas cards.

I have stamped one of the candle stamps from this month's Christmas Candlelight stamp set and then masked the image, before stamping the Dressmaker's Window clear stamp. I used Versafine Onyx Black ink for a lovely crisp impression. I coloured the images with Polychromos pencils to give a soft effect. Finally, I added a sentiment to complete my card using Versafine Crimson ink.

Thanks for stopping by, I'll be back in a couple of days with some angelic inspiration for you! xx

Learning a new skill

Hello everyone, I have something new to share with you today. I have always loved felt, I love the texture, the feel, and the look of felt. I am fascinated by the way that it can be created, and have aways wanted to be able to work with it myself in various ways. I drive my Daughter nuts when we go shopping, wanting to buy various bags, and items of clothing made of felt, and my love of felt is a bit of a long running joke between us.

I go to a crochet class once a week, and the lady running the class mentioned last week that there was a needle felting class this week, and did anyone want to go? I jumped at the opportunity, it was too great a chance for me to miss! The class was two hours long, and there were only three of us attending, so we had lots of attention from the tutor. We each had lots of time to practise various techniques on a piece of felt backing; applying various different items, and I even made a flower and a leaf- not bad for a beginner!

Our tutor then let us have a go at making a picture, leaving the composition entirely up to us, a rather daunting prospect! I decided to go for a scene, incorporating fields, sky, and some more of those flowers. I added some complimentary wool to break up the fields, and some fluffy clouds. The tutor showed us how to make great two tone tree trunks, and I set about designing a twisted tree. I am fairly happy with my little scene for a first attempt, and may add a bit of stitching later for added texture. Even my OH was fairly impressed with what I had achieved, which can't be bad.

I have lots of felting supplies which have been gathering dust in my craft room for a few years now, so I am definitely going to get them out and have a play. I had a lot of fun learning my new skill, and found it was very relaxing creating my textured artwork. The tutor has promised to come back and teach another class, possibly some kind of shawl next time, so watch this space for more felted creations. You can find her on Facebook under the name of Dizzydollylou.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

Bright Butterfly

Hello everyone, it's time for a brand new challenge over on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog this week. I am providing part of the Design Team inspiration for the lovely new colours that you can play around with for the next four weeks as part of the challenge.

I chose to use a technique demonstrated by our lovely leader Lesley recently on the Design Team blog, using greyboard, masking tape and gesso to create a background.  I covered the greyboard with strips of masking tape randomly, using horizontal and vertical strips until the surface was covered completely. I burnished the surface with an old credit card. I then painted the surface with gesso, and left it to dry.

I coloured the surface using Dylusions paints and a baby wipe, blending them where they met, and dried this layer with a heat gun. I then added some purple paint around the edges, just using my finger. I stencilled three flowers onto the surface using white paint, and dried this thoroughly. I then coloured the flowers using pencils. I added some buttons to the cenntres of the flowers.

Using some Olive Wow embossing powder, I stamped and embossed a sentiment onto the background. I used the same embossing powder to emboss the moth onto some scrap card. I then coloured this image with Distress Inks, before cutting it out and gluing it to the background.

Why not pop over to the challenge blog and see the other Design Team inspiration, and read all about the new challenge? If you enter, you stand a chance of winning a £15 prize.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

CAS Christmas Card

Hello everyone, I have a CAS Christmas card to show you today, using the lovely new Christmas stamps from Chocolate Baroque. I love to mix and match old stamps with new, and this project is no exception. I have created a clean and simple card that will be great for making up in batches when you need to make lots of cards in a hurry, always handy when you have so many cards to make.

I started my card by stamping the pine cone sprig three times across the top of a 7" x 7" white card blank. I coloured the stamp with Distress Markers so that I could get the variety of colours on the stamp. I used two tones of brown on the pine cones for extra shading. I added a greeting from the Bold Christmas Words stamp set at the bottom of the card, also using Distress Markers. Finally, I stamped and embossed a bauble from the Christmas Decorations stamp set onto scrapbook paper three times using a Rudolph's Red Nose sparkly red Wow embossing powder. I cut these out and used 3D foam pads to attach them to the card. You always need a bit of sparkle at Christmas!

I will be back in a few days with some more Christmas makes for you, thanks for stopping by, xx

Hearts and Flowers

Hello everyone, it's time for another week on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog, and this week there is a free digital download for you to collect. It's a beautiful download, just great for those floral cards that you might like to make, but if you pop over to the challenge blog, you will see that Florence has made something very different!

I have chosen to make a romantic card that could be used as an Anniversary or Wedding card. I have combined the download with kraft card and cream lace for an alternative colour scheme. I stamped the Poppy Baroque Heart onto a spare piece of kraft card using Versamark and vanilla white embossing powder. I stamped the image again onto a piece of pale scrapbook paper. I coloured the second image using watercolour pencils, toning in with the digital download, before blending the colours with a waterbrush. I cut both images out and layered them up.

I stamped and embossed the sentiment from the Sweet Nothings stamp set onto the download background, and then stuck this to a kraft card blank. I added a piece of cream lace, and then adhered the heart using 3D foam pads.

Hop over to the blog to see Florence's inspiration, join in the current challenge yourself, and find out how to win a £15 voucher to spend at Chocolate Baroque. Thanks for stopping by, xx