Flowers Galore

Hello everyone, over on the Chocolate Baroque Design Team, we are sharing a bumper monthly post of our Fifteen Minute projects; cards and tags made in fifteen minutes or less. We aim to show how lots of the fabulous stamps from Chocolate Baroque can be used quickly to create brilliant projects, but without spending all day to achieve great results. Sometimes, our Design Team samples can look too complicated or someone may think 'I can't make that, I'm not experienced enough', so by creating clean and simple cards, or cards that are less complicated, we are showing that you can make cards that are achievable. These cards are great for batch cards, like Christmas cards, or Wedding invitations, or maybe to use at craft fairs, or for fundraising events. There is not a limit on the number of cards that you can make with the stamps, as long as you hand stamp each item.

I rummaged through my box of backgrounds, I always save left over pieces of card that I have from previous projects, and found a piece of watercolour card, that I had coloured with orange and pink Distress Ink, plus lots of water. I trimmed the card to size, and stamped the main image from the Baroque Meadow stamp set, adding the three little butterflies, using Versafine Onyx Black Ink. I then stamped a sentiment from the Words to Dazzle and Sparkle stamp set. I matted the background onto a piece of black card. This was such a quick and easy card, and by changing the background colours, you have endless possibilities.

Over on Hochanda today, Lesley is showcasing lots of our Spring stamp sets. The Design Team have made some absolutely stunning designs to support the TV shows, and I do hope that you get a chance to watch the shows. If you keep a keen eye out, you will see some of my designs on the show, and I will be sharing some of them in later blog posts. A couple of my cards are remakes of older designs that I made when some of the stamps came out originally, as I loved making these designs so much. I have used the Spring Birds Multibuy stamp set for both cards.

The first card has been revamped slightly, because I used a background stamp from the Silhouette Grasses stamp set, not available when I first made the card, of course. I stamped the little flower several times, onto a smooth piece of watercolour card, masking it as I went along. I then stamped the foliage from Silhouette Grasses using Seedless Preserves and Shaded Lilac Distress Markers in first and second generation stamping. I added a couple of butterflies to the little scene. I removed the masks and coloured the flowers with the same colour markers and a water brush. I also coloured the butterflies with Distress Markers.

I cut an aperture from an 8" x 8" kraft card blank, and added a border od stamping around the edge using one of the little images that often get ignored on the stamp plates. I used Versamark and white embossing powder.

Originally, I had used an orange background for this card, and Distress Markers to colour the flowers. I decided to opt for a more yellowy background, as it felt more Spring-like. I coloured the seam binding as before, using the wet ribbon to dab onto the watercolour paper, creating the background.  It creates a lovely random pattern. (I used Fossilized Amber Distress Ink this time as my chosen colour). I dried both the ribbon and the background with a heat gun. I stamped a border across the top and bottom of the background, using one of the small elements and Versafine Onyx Black Ink. I used a faint pencil line as a guide, which I rubbed out afterwards.

I stamped and embossed two strips of border onto some yellow vellum using one of the small images on the stamp plate, using Versamark and white embossing powder. I trimmed around the outer edge of both strips. I stamped both tulip images onto a spare piece of card, and coloured them with Polychromos pencils, before cutting them out and adhering them to the background. I matted the background to a piece of black card, and then added the seam binding. I attached the two strips of vellum at the top and bottom of the panel and then adhered the panel to a large kraft card blank. Finally, I added a sentiment from the stamp set.

I had a lot of fun making these cards again, like visiting old friends, but with a bt of an update. I hope you don't mind the revisit, and will enjoy the new projects to come.

Thanks for stopping by, xx