Distress Inks and Flowers

Hello everyone, I have a couple of bonus projects to share with you this month, not featuring on the Design Team blog. I have created a large tag using some favourite stamps from the Pretty Poppies and Poppy Meadow stamp sets.

I started to make my tag by stamping the main image, and then adding a mask. I coloured the background using Fossilized Amber and Peeled Paint Distress Ink, spritzing the background with water, and allowing it to dry completely. I stamped around the edges using the Large Crackle Background stamp, and Peeled Paint Distress Ink. While the mask was still in place, I stamped the small silhouette flower around the poppy image, using first and second generation stamping. I used red and green ink on the image for a more realistic effect.

I removed the mask, and coloured the image with Distress Ink and a waterbrush. I used Ripe Persimmon and Festive Berries for the flowers, and Peeled Paint for the foliage, adding a touch of red to the leaves and stems for depth. I used the same colours on the butterfly.

I coloured the seam binding ribbon with the same inks, blotting off the excess ink onto a piece of cartridge paper, then scrunching the ribbon, and drying it with a heat gun.

I spritzed the piece of cartridge paper that I had mopped my ribbons onto with some water, and stamped some images from the Silhouette Grasses stamp set over the top using various different colours of Versafine Clair Ink. I used first and second generation stamping. The butterflies are from the Baroque Meadow stamp set, and the sentiment comes from the Words to Dazzle and Sparkle stamp set.

This was a really quick card to make, and was just using a scrap piece of card. Thanks for stopping by, xx

Harlequin Poppies

Hello everyone, I have a project to share with you today that featured on last month's TV shows on Hochanda.

This project was created using the fabulous Drawing Cartridge paper, which is such a great product. I love to use smooth watercolour paper in a lot of my projects, which can be a bit pricy. Cartridge paper is a cheaper alternative, and this paper from the website is perfect for adding water, and lightweight enough for fussy cutting. It is smooth enough for stamping as well, so a good all rounder for your projects.

I started my project by blending bands of Peeled Paint and Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide Ink across the background, and then spritzed them with water for a mottled effect. Once the background had dried naturally, I added a circle mask, and stamped a harlequin image from the Harlequin Fragments stamp set around the masked area, using a deep Fired Brick Distress Ink, mixed in with a little Gathered Twigs Distress Ink. I added some extra shading around the edge of the mask, before removing the mask.

On another piece of the cartridge paper, I added some colour using green, red, yellow and orange Distress Oxide Inks, and then stamped some of the flowers and a butterfly from the Butterfly Poppy Collage stamp set, using Versafine Onyx Black Ink. I heat set the images and cut them out. I stamped a sentiment from the Loving Sentiments stamp set into the circle aperture created underneath the mask, using the black ink as before.

I added large black brads to the flowers to loosely give the illusion of the flowers being poppies, before attaching them to the card, and added some leafy die cuts. Finally, I adhered the background to a large black card blank.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

Autumn Tree

Hello everyone, over on the Design Team blog today, you will be able to see a fabulous jam-packed blog post containing lots of inspirational projects from the Design Team that have been made in fifteen minutes or less. We contribute to this post every month, written by yours truly, to show how the stamps from Chocolate Baroque can be used in lots of different ways to create cards quickly and easily, but still end up with amazing creations in a very short amount of time.  I know myself that I spend far more time thinking about a design than actually putting it together, and once I have a design in mind, I can often just change a colour, or create a production line of cards, turning the process into a set of batch cards quite quickly. Lots of our ideas in these monthly blog posts could easily become great batch cards for Christmas cards, Wedding invitations, thank you cards, etc. or you could make multiple cards for craft fairs if you wanted to.  Do take a look at everyone else's samples over on the blog, as there are some gorgeous designs.

To create my card, I cut a piece of smooth cartridge paper, and coloured the tree image from the Fantasy Woodland stamp set with Distress Markers, choosing a range of Autumn colours for the leaves, and dark brown for the trunk and branches. Once I had stamped the image, I added a mask, and sponged Peeled Paint Distress Ink along the base of the tree to ground the image, creating a landscape.

I stamped some leaves from the Nature Table stamp set, using Distress Markers as before, across the top corner of the background, as if they were blowing away in the wind. Using a waterbrush, I pulled some of the colour from the edges of the leaves. I added my favourite sentiment from the Nature's Peace stamp set using Potting Shed Archival Ink. Finally, I added a border of shading around the background using Fossilized Amber Distress Ink.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

It's about the Little Things

Hello everyone, I have a few projects to share with you today which were featured on Lesley's recent TV shows on Hochanda. I had the opportunity to viit the TV studios and see Lesley in action close up. It was very interesting to see the processes involved.

I am focusing on the DL sets that were on the show, using some of the little worker stamps, and showing how they can be used in a variety of ways.

For my first card, I created a very pale wrinkle free distress background, using a Salty Ocean and Wilted Violet Distress Ink, before adding an oval mask over the top. I added a bit more Distress Ink, and some shading around the edge of the mask and the edge of the card with Paris Dusk Memento Ink, to give the feeling of some shading and depth to the background. I also added a bit of grey pencil around the edge of the oval mask. Adding the grey pencil really helps to create the impression that the oval is a separate layer on top of the background.

Using one of the silhouette images from the Autumn Hedgerow stamp set, I stamped over the background, using a variety of ink colours in tones of blue and plum ( Memento Teal Zeal, Nautical Blue and Archival Plum), using first and second generation stamping, to give a bit of depth to the background. I removed the mask, and stamped an image from the Pretty Poppies stamp set, using Archival Cobalt Ink, and added a sentiment from the same stamp set inside the oval. I coloured the image with Distress Inks and a waterbrush.

For my second project, I created a gelli plate background, by brayering some Peeled Paint Distress Ink onto my gelli plate, and then scrunched up a piece of cling film and dabbed some Fired Brick Distress Ink onto the gelli plate with the cling film randomly. I took a print from the gelli plate and trimmed a piece of background to size. From the spare offcut, I stamped and embossed the two butterflies from the Butterfly Poppy Collage stamp set, using copper embossing powder, and added some extra colour, using Distress Ink.

I created another panel using Shabby Shutters and Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink, and then using a mixture of the small stamps from the Autumn Hegdrow stamp plate, I stamped and embossed the focal image using copper embossing powder. I added background stamping afterwards, using a mixture of Autumnal colours and first and second generation stamping, building up the design until I was happy with the result.

To create the card, I added some hessian ribbon and some olive green ribbon to tone in with the overall colours that I had used. I added my all time favourite sentiment, taken from the Nature's Peace stamp set.  I adore this sentiment, and love the opportunity to use it whenever I can.

For my final card, once I again, I created a gelli plate background, in much the same way as the previous card, using the same colours. From the offcut, I die cut a small rectancle, and stamped the small berry image from the Nature's Peace stamp set over the background, using second generation stamping, as I wanted a very pale effect. I stamped and embossed the verse from the stamp set, using Potting Shed Archival Ink and clear embossing powder.

For the main background, I stamped another small image, the leaves and nuts this time, again using brown ink. I coloured the images using Polychromos pencils, for a vintage feel. I matted my layers using dark brown card, and created a very masculine card, great for lots of different occasions.

I hope that my projects have given you lots of ideas using these great little stamps, either by themselves, or mixing and matching with stamps from other stamp sets. Thanks for stopping by, xx