Teal and Purple

Hello everyone, I have lots to share with you today, and am wearing both my Design Team hat and my Challenge Blog hat. Wednesdays can sometimes be a busy day at Chocolate Baroque!

Firstly, I have a collaberative project to share with you, created by myself and Lesley. We live a long way apart from each other, and rarely get the chance to craft together. We thought that we would make a joint project with the aid of Royal Mail on this occasion. So, Lesley sent me a selection of scrumptious backgrounds that she had created, and I made a card with a couple of them. It has been a pleasure working with the jewel tones that Lesley chooses, they are brighter than my go to colours, but a lot of fun.

I chose a pretty purple/teal background from Lesley's selection as my inspiration; these are my favourite colours. I chose a floral stencil, and added some gesso to the background through the stencil first of all, before lightly dabbing some blue and teal Dylusions paint over the top. It is no secret that Lesley loves blue flowers, so I had to add some into my design!

I stamped the Swirl Centre Flowerhead stamp onto another piece of Lesley's background, and also a leafy stamp from the Sketchy Doodle Flower stamp set. I added some watered down teal paint to these images, to tone them in with the background. I cut the images out and stuck them to the background. I added a sentiment from the Birthday Words stamp set. Finally, I matted the background onto some teal card.

I had a lot of fun making this project 'with' Lesley, and hope that it is not too long before we get a chance to craft together face to face.

Now onto the Challenge Blog! It is time for another weekly post over on the blog today, and I have written a tutorial for my card over on the blog. It is a simple CAS card in this month's challenge colours. I have used a stencil to create the background, and then stamped some butterflies across the card, before lightly colouring them with the same inks.

Please hop over to the blog to see the rest of this week's Design Team inspiration. Why not enter the challenge yourself, you could win a £15 prize.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

Babushka Gifts

Hello everyone, it's my final post of this month using the Babushka stamp set, and I have so much fun using these cute stamps. I have a couple of gift ideas to share with you today.

My first project is based on a tag card that I made a while back, but I wanted to create a card and gift in one. I cut a couple of tag shapes from kraft card, making one of them a bit longer, and created a gusset to join to the other tag. I scored  along the middle of the area, and also allowed a small area at the end to join to the back tag.

I coloured a smaller piece of watercolour paper, using Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink, and stamped a small flower from the Spring Bird Daffodil stamp set randomly over the background. I coloured the flowers with Polychromos pencils. I cut the watercolour paper into a tag shape, slightly smaller than the tag card, and cut a circular hole out of the background. I then cut a slightly smaller hole from the kraft tag, to create a border inside the circle on the watercolour paper.

I stamped two of the Babushka dolls onto a spare piece of watercolour paper, and coloured these with pencils, before cutting them out and attaching them to the flowery background. I added a sentiment, and then stuck the back and front tags together at the top with strong double-sided tape. As I did so, I sandwiched the top of the bag of chocolate eggs between the tape.

Here is a side view:

My second gift is a bit of fun; I make these little bracelets all of the time, using coloured shell and jump rings. I stamped some of the medium sized Babushka dolls onto shrink plastic using Stazon Jet Black Ink, and then coloured the reverse of the images using Copic markers. I cut them out and punched holes in the top of each one, before shrinking them with a heat gun. I flattened them while they were still hot with an acrylic stamp block, and then I simply attached them to the bracelet with a jump ring.

I hope that you have enjoyed my projects this month using these lovely little stamps, and that they have provided you with a bit of inspiration. Thanks for stopping by,  xx

From Russia with Love

Hello everyone, I have more projects to share using the lovely Babushka stamp set. I love to mix and match new stamps with older stamp sets, and I have tried to do that with these projects.

I wanted to create the feel of brightly painted wooden dolls on these cards, so on my first card, I used kraft card throughout, and used a simple colour palette of bright colours. I used a Big Bold background Belle Flowers, to create the background, stamping the image using gold embossing powder. The big stamps are great for creating a background quickly. I coloured the images using Graph'it markers.

I cut an oval shape, and stamped a sentiment from the Loving Sentiments stamp set, using black ink. Finally, I used some black card to mat the layers.

My second project shows that these stamps can be used all year round, as I have chosen to make a Christmas card using the stamps, and combined them with some trees and snowflakes from the Sparkling Trees stamp set.

I started the card by stamping the three dolls, masking them as I went along, and then stamped the two building fragments. I masked these before masking the trees. I cut a single mask of the trees, but you could mask them all if you wanted too, I just moved the mask along as I needed to.

I stamped and embossed some small snowflakes using white embossing powder, and then coloured the sky area using Distress ink and a blending tool. I added a small amount of lilac to the foreground to add a bit of shading to the snow. I removed the masks, and coloured in the images using Copic markers. I added a bit of grass poking up through the snow. I added a sentiment using red ink, and chose a co-ordinating red layer of card to mat the background onto.

I have added lots of glitter to the trees, snow and rooftops for a bit of Christmas sparkle.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

Colourful Babushkas

Hello everyone, I have a couple more cards to share using this month's Babushka stamp set. I absoloutely love the versatility of this quirky stamp set, and the many possibilities that the stamps offer.

For my first card, I created a wrinkle free Distress background, using Salty Ocean Distress Ink on smooth watercolour paper.  I stamped the three dolls onto some white card using white embossing powder and I also stamped the face areas again onto some spare card using black ink. I coloured the images using Distress Markers and a water brush. I cut the dolls out, and decoupaged the faces onto the white embossed dolls.

I die cut some hexagons, and stamped the flower head from the Breath of Spring stamp set on to the hexagons, again using white embossing powder. I coloured the hexagons using various tones of blue Distress Ink, to match the Babushka dolls.  I ironed off the white embossing from the hexagons using copy paper. I drew faux stitching to the edges of the shapes using a fine-tipped marker. I also added faux stitching around the edge of the background. Finally, I added a sentiment from the Amazing Birthday clear stamp set.

My second card became a Mother's Day card for my Mum. She loves Russian dolls, and always wanted to collect them. When we were growing up, I always remember her hankering after them, but never being able to afford them. So, I thought that it would be lovely to incorporate some of the images into a card for her.

I stamped a window fragment from the Texture Fragments stamp set onto my background, and added gold embossing powder. Before using the heat gun, I stamped the large fragment from the Dusky Damask stamp set using Elderberry Memento Ink into two of the corners of the background, and added clear embossing powder. I then heat set the images.

I covered the background with a blend of pink and purple Distress Inks, before adding a stencil, and repeated the process, to deepen the colours. I stamped the Babushka images onto a spare piece of card, using gold embossing powder, and coloured them using the corresponding colours in Distress Markers, picking the colours up using a water brush. Finally, I added a sentiment from the For Mum clear stamp set.

I will be back later in the month with some more ideas using these lovely stamps,  Thanks for stopping by, xx

Fabulous New Stamps to Show You!

Hello everyone, there are new stamps launching today over at Chocolate Baroque. Babushka is a super A5 plate of Russian dolls in three sizes, with a couple of little rooftop fragments to help you build a scene. These stamps are really lovely, and evoke lots of childhood memories for me. My Mum loves Russian dolls, and always wanted to collect them, but could never really afford them. I always remember being fascinated by opening the dolls, only to find yet more dolls inside. It was like magic.

I have created a card with one of the doll sets, and combined it with some apples from the Mellow Fruitfulness stamp set. I coloured a small panel of card with Shabby Shutters Distress Ink, and stamped the image randomly across the panel, before colouring it with watercolour pencils. I added some lovely navy gingham ribbon above and below the panel.

I stamped the three dolls onto a separate piece of card, and coloured them with pencils as before, and then cut them out ant attached them to the card. I added a sentiment from the Card Sentiments clear stamp set to finish.

The Design Team have been making some beautiful samples using these stamps, so be sure to visit the Design Team blog across the month to see lots of inspiration. Thanks for stopping by, xx

WOYWW it's been a looooong time!

Hello everyone, I thought that I would give you an update on my newest crocheting project, and as it is Wednesday, I would link to Julia Dunnit's 'What's on your workdesk Wednesday' blog post. I used to visit and blog for this post fairly regularly, but as we all know, life gets in the way, and I have not had a chance to pop in for ages.

My craft desk is messy, as per usual, and don't even mention the rest of the room! I am recovering from an op at the moment, it is a long haul, and I just cannot lift some of the heavier boxes to have a proper tidy up. It is my intention this year to declutter the room, and get rid of things that have not been used for more than a year or two. I have this feeling that it would be unfair to leave a mess for the family to sort out after I have gone, lol! I have no intention of shuffling off just yet, but I would like to be able to get to the four corners of the room, so a good tidy up would be a sensible thing to do.

I generally work on our large dining table in our very light and airy extension. This room is perfect for crafting, as the space is much less cluttered than my craft room, and I have lovely views of the garden to inspire me as I work. At the moment, I cannot show you much of what is lurking on that table, as there are DT projects as yet to be revealed.

My current 'desk' is the sofa, where I have been crocheting most evenings, accompanied by one or the other of my two cats.

Having finished my Lily Pond blanket recently, I have moved onto a larger sunny log cabin blanket, designed by Lucy from attic24. The rainbow colours are really beautiful, and very cheery on these colder, often gloomy days. I am looking forward to putting the blanket together, as it has a very clever design of hot and cold colour sections, that create larger diamonds once the squares are all attached together. So far, I have only completed three larger squares around the smaller granny squares, but you may start to see the larger pattern starting to form:

I have crocheted all sixteen of the smaller granny squares in readiness to finish the big squares, and am sewing my ends in as I complete each square. There is an element of darning required due to the nature of the pattern design, otherwise the ends could be crocheted in as you go along.

I hope that you have enjoyed your visit to my makeshift desk today, and I will try to pop along to see as many of you as possible. Thanks for stopping by, xx