A Christmas Flower

Hello everyone, I have another project using one of the large Flowerhead collection stamps from Chocolate Baroque to show you today. I have really enjoyed creating projects with these lovely large stamps, great for creating a focal point on a card. I have chosen to use the Circle Centre Flowerhead for this project.

I created my background by covering a gelli plate with turquoise ink, using a brayer. I used a piece of white card to take a print from the gelli plate, taking care to smooth the back of the card thoroughly. This is a really quick way of colouring a piece of card if you want a single colour. Once the card was dry, I stamped and embossed a harlequin design from the Harlequin Fragments stamp set onto the background, using Versamark and gold embossing powder.

I used Fired Brick Distress Ink and water to flick onto my background with an old toothbrush as I wanted splashes of red over the rest of the background, and a little bit of gold shimmer, using a Wink of Stella gold pen.

I stamped and embossed the flower onto red vellum twice, using Versamark and gold embossing powder, and cut it out. I added a leafy die cut, and matching dark green matting to complete my card.

Well, that's another Christmas card completed thankfully, not long to go now! Thanks for stopping by, xx

Cheery Sunflowers

Hello everyone, I have another floral project to share with you today, using one of the Flowerhead Collection cling mounted stamps. I have chosen to use the Daisy Ring Centre image to create my card, as I liked the versatility of this design, with the open centre. I wanted to create a cluster of sunflowers, and the open centre of the design works perfectly for adding beads, which I love to do in lots of my flower projects.

I started my card by stamping the first image onto my smooth watercolour background, and masking the image, before adding some leaves from the Sunny Sunflowers stamp set. I masked the leaves, and stamped two more of the large flower images, plus a spare image onto an extra piece of watercolour paper, so that I could decoupage the central image.

I coloured the images with Distress Markers and a water brush, and then added shading with pencils. On this occasion, I used Faber Castell Aquarelle pencils, but I did not wet them once I had coloured the images. I coloured the background by tapping some Salty Ocean Distress Ink onto a craft mat, and picking it up with a crumpled baby wipe. I then patted the ink onto the background, turning the baby wipe this way and that way, to get a varied pattern.

I stamped the butterflies from  the Thistle Butterfly and Briar Rose Butterfly stamp sets, onto the background, and again onto spare watercolour card so that I could decoupage them. I simply coloured them with the Aquarell pencils, and blended the colours with a water brush. The sentiment is from the Mackintosh Sentiments clear stamp set. I matted the background onto a black card blank, and then added Glossy Accents to the centre of the main flower before adding dark brown seed beads.

Sunflowers are my Mother in Law's favourite flower. They are so cheery, and would brighten up anyone's day. This card would make a lovely Get Well card, or a Thinking of You card, as well as a pretty Birthday card. I hope it has given you some inspiration anyway. Thanks for stopping by, xx

Floral Tag

Hello everyone, it's time for another weekly post on the Chocolate Baroque challenge blog, and this week, I am providing a little bit of the colour inspiration to try to get your crafty mojo working. I have chosen to make a tag which I created by mopping up some of the left over ink from my card that I created in Monday's post. As you will be able to see, the colours are very similar!

I stamped a flowerhead twice onto some Crafty Individuals paper twice, using Memento Sweet Plum Ink, and cut these out. I added some coloured detail with pencils. Using Memento Bamboo Leaves ink, I stamped some leaves from the Sketchy Doodle Landscape stamp set onto green scrapbook paper, and also directly onto the tag itself. I then cut the leaves from the scrapbook paper, leaving the stems behind, and decoupaged the leaves onto the tag.

I edged the tag with Seedles Preserves Distress Ink, and the stamped the sketchy flower onto the background using Wild Honey Distress Ink, and Sweet Plum Memento Ink, for a layered look. I added the flowerhead, which I had stiffened with some card. Finally, I added two circles of tiny seed beads into the centre of the flower using a 'dries clear' glue.

Please pop over to the challenge blog to see the inspiration provided by my Design Team mates, and why not get your stash out and create something for the challenge?

There is something new over on the Design Team Blog today, so head over there as well if you have the time. Thanks for stopping by, xx

Zentangle Flower

Hello everyone, I have a project to share using one of the new individual cling mounted flowers currently on offer on the Chocolate Baroque website. There are six different designs and they are approximately 3.5 inches across, all mounted on cling mount, ready for you to start using straight away. These beautiful large flowers are perfect as centrepieces for your cards, and are sure to brighten anyone's day. I have chosen to use the Swirl Centre Flowerhead to create my card, as I love the overall design of this particular flower.

I created a wrinkle free distress background on a piece of watercolour card, using Salty Ocean Distress Ink, and then edged the background with Seedless Preserves Distress Ink. I stamped the flowerhead twice onto a spare piece of watercolour card, using Memento Tuxedo Black Ink. I also stamped a large leaf from the Tangled Garden stamp set twice onto the watercolour card. I coloured the images with Copic markers and added shading with pencils.

I cut the images out, and stuck them to the card, creating two layers on the flower. Once the flower was in place, I added some Glossy Accents to the centre of the flower and left it to dry. I drew some zentangle details on the background using a fine black permanent pen. I added a sentiment from the Amazing Birthday clear stamp set, and matted the background onto some black card to finish.

 This particular flowerhead lends itself to Zentangle so well with the centre swirls, and the petal designs. Fescu is the tall design that I have used with a scroll added for variation, and you could also try incorporating Printemps as a beautiful background idea. Please click on my links to take you to the Tanglepatterns.com website for instructions on how to draw the two Zentangle designs, and a whole host of other ideas.

Thanks for stopping by, xx