Stamping on Fabric

Hello everyone, I am sharing two projects today using the stamps that we showcased on last month's TV shows on Hochanda. This time, I have created my projects using fabric, showing how you can create a quick card, and a decorative panel.

For my first project, I painted a piece of spotty fabric with yellow and green Hybrid paint, blending the two where they met. I used coloured Archival inks in green and brown tones to stamp all of the images, creating a meadow scene in first and second generation stamping, just as I would when creating a card. I added a couple of Butterflies, and then painted the images with Koh-I-Noor paints and a waterbrush. The Koh-I-Noor paints worked really well on the fabric, and because I am not planning to wash the piece, it does not matter that they are not waterproof.

For the larger panel, I used the large corner stamp from the Butterfly Daisy Collage stamp set, and stamped around the edge of a piece of patterned fabric, overlapping the image as I went along. Again, I used coloured Archival Ink. I used iron on interfacing on the back of both pieces of fabric, fraying the edges of the top panel, and adding rust coloured Archival Ink to the bottom panel. I used a thick piece of greyboard as a base.

I had a piece of the spotty material left over from my first project, and stamped two of the large butterflies from the Butterfly Daisy Collage stamp set onto the fabric, adding shading with the Koh-I-Noor paints. I also stamped some words from the Amazing Mackintosh Words stamp set, and frayed the edges of the little panels.

I created a wrinkle free distress panel using tones of green and yellow Distress Ink on a piece of watercolour card for a background. I stamped a leafy sprig in second generation stamping randomly over the background. To complete the card, I used a small piece of eco printed fabric, with a lovely leaf printed in the centre. 

Thanks for stopping by, xx

Penpal Journal swap

Hello everyone, I have a slightly different project to share with you today. I have recently been taking part in a penpal journal swap, organised by the lovely Di Oliver from Tando. The aim of the swap is to create a journal, and send five letters to a partner, making journal pages along the way. At the end of the time, each of you will have a completed journal, and know a bit about each other as well.

I have had a very busy time lately, and some personal things going on as well in the family. These have taken up a lot of my time, and it has not been easy to find the time to make the journal on top of everything else that I needed to do. However, I really enjoyed the experience, and took the opportunity to use some of my neglected craft supplies to create the project.

To start my journal, I used some greyboard journal covers, available from Tando, and covered these with book pages. I coloured the pages with Cadence paints in shades of blue, green and lilac, I diluted them with water, using them as a wash. These pretty metallic shades blended beautifully together, and created a soft background for everything else, and still allowed the book pages to show through.

I added some gesso through a stencil, and then started my stamping. I used stamps from Rock and Rust to add texture to the background, using Archival Ink, and added highlights with a white gel pen. I also added an image from the Perfect Words stamp set in amongst the other texture on the background.

On a spare piece of card, I stamped some of the dragonflies and bees from the Creepers and Crawlers stamp set, colouring them with Koh-I-Noor paints, and cutting them out. I attached them to the journal covers. I added a couple of the words to the front cover.

Next up, were my pages, I wanted to represent myself as much as possible, showing my love of colour, and what makes me tick, so to speak. The first page was very similar to something that I had made in a recent course that I had completed, and had really enjoyed. I covered the page with vibrant acrylic paint, adding a leafy stencil using white paint over the top. I wrote some words that had meaning to me, using a white gel pen. Using black paint, I painted my buddha, and added shading using the same colours of paint that I had used for the background.

These faces feel very peaceful to me, I am not a Buddhist, but I do go to yoga regularly, and these images conjure up the same feeling of tranquility that I get when I get when I am attending my yoga classes.

For my second page, I used similar colours, starting with a book page, as I has done for the journal covers. I added some shading with Distress Inks, creating an ombre effect, then places a stencil over the top, and applied more of the same colours. I used some stamps by Kay Carley to complete the page. The large flowers and leaves were stamped onto patterned paper and decoupaged. I added a bit of extra colouring with Koh-I-Noor paints.

These two pages formed the outer covering for the first letter to my penpal.

To create my letter, I added a napkin to the bottom portion of the reverse of the page, and painted the top half with a wash of colour. I added some additional stamping, in particular, two black cats from Lavinia, to represent my cats, Poppy and Bella. This next photo is a bit fuzzy on purpose, it is not my bad photography!

I hope to share the rest of my journal with you as I go along. It has been enormous fun so far, and hopefully you have enjoyed seeing something a bit different from me for a change.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

Quick Masked Cards

Hello everyone, today on the Chocolate Baroque Design Team blog, we are sharing our bumper Fifteen Minute blog post; a post full of quick and inspirational projects designed to show how a card can be made in fifteen minutes or less. I have two cards featured in the blog post and am sharing them here as well.

I have used the same layout for both cards, but varied the colours and stamps. I masked the top and bottom of a white card blank, using strips of masking tissue, before adding Distress Ink. I stamped the foliage, and then stamped the butterflies onto sparkly acetate. I added coloured vellum behind the acetate, and adhered the butterflies to the card. A sentiment completes each card.

The first card is a remake of an old favourite, simply changing the sentiment. I chose warm colours, red, orange and yellow, adding water splatters for added interest:

The second card is in cool tones, greens, lilac and blues. The water splatters look fab on this one, they are always random. The vellum works really well behind the sparkly acetate and is a very quick way of creating these butterflies.

Do hop over to the Design Team blog to see what my Team Mates have made today.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

Painting with Bleach

Hello everyone, I am back with another project to share with you showcasing the stamps that we brought to you on last month's TV shows on Hochanda. I wanted to revisit a technique that I love to use in conjunction with Distress Inks, painting with bleach, it works so well, and these stamps are a great way to show off the technique. I made a larger project a while back using the very same technique, and I will share a couple of photos of that project with you at the end of my post.

I started my project by creating two panels, one large and one smaller, shading them with Distress Inks in a rainbow panel. I started in the middle with yellow, and worked out using orange and red on one side, green, blue and purple on the other side. I made sure to blend the colours smoothly, going back over the joins where necessary with the previous colour. I matted both layers with black card, and turned them so that they were facing the opposite way to each other when I put them together.

I coloured some spare card with Distress Inks, and stamped a couple of flowers and a butterfly from the Butterfly Daisy Collage stamp set onto the card using Archival Jet Black ink. I painted parts of the image with neat household bleach and a fine brush. IMPORTANT: do make sure that you are working in a well ventilated area when you do this. I cut the images out, and stamped a foliage image onto the smaller background a couple of times using black ink. I curled the petals of the flowers and butterfly slightly before adhering them to the background. I added a sentiment from the Loving Sentiments stamp set.

As you will see, I was very much inspired by my previous project! This flag book uses lots of our other stamps, but incorporates stamps from other companies too. Lesley is a huge advocate of mixing and matching our stamp sets together, but encourages you to use your Chocolate Baroque stamps with your other stamps as well.

I used the same techniques throughout this book, Distress Ink backgrounds, stamping with Archival Ink, and painting with bleach. I have added a bit of stencilling here and there for added texture, and a few small embellishments. I hope that you will give this technique a try, it's a lot of fun, and depending on the colour of ink that you use, the results vary.

I will be back later in the month with more inspiration, thanks for stopping by, xx

Masking Butterflies

Hello everyone, I am sharing two cards with you today created for last month TV shows on Hochanda. If you caught the shows, you will have seen me demoing the first card, and showing the second card as an alternative option for the technique that I used.

To create my card, I drew a circle with a pencil onto a piece of smooth white card using a circle die, but anything the right size will do. I then stamped three butterflies into the card using Versafine Onyx Black Ink, and masked the images using masking tissue. I stamped six daisies from the Butterfly Daisy Collage stamp set around the circle, three close to the butterflies, and masked those as well. I used a foliage stamp from the Thistle Butterfly stamp set to create the background leaves for the wreath, using Shady Lane Versafine Clair ink. Once I had finished, I removed the masks, and coloured the images with pencils. I added a sentiment from the Words to Dazzle and Sparkle stamp set.

My second card was created in much the same way, but I based the colours on my background, which I had found in my stash box. This was simply a wrinkle free Distress Ink background, using Seedless Preserves and Salty Ocean Distress Ink. I stamped the butterflies first, masking them as before, then adding the daisies behind. Finally, I added the same foliage stamp to fill in the background, using Purple Delight Versafine Clair ink. I coloured the images with pencils as before. I added a bit of shading around the edges of both pieces of card with Seedless Preserves Distress Ink, and used a purple card to mat both layers. The sentiment comes from Amazing Mackintosh Words.

To help me plan both cards, I placed my masking tissue images onto my pieces of card first, moving them around to see how they would fit, this helps to visualise what the card will look like. I also stamped my wreath onto a piece of copy paper first, trying out the design, and various colour options for the flowers. I would always advise you to do this if you are unsure about a design, copy paper is very cheap, and you can have several attempts at something, without worrying about your mistakes, before moving onto card.

Another top tip regards colouring in your images. I have used quite a limited colour palette, and have used orange and red in both the flowers and the butterflies in my first example as you can see in the photograph below, to keep some continuity to the images. In the photograph above, although it is not obvious, I have added blue to both the flowers and the butterflies, (along the outer edges of the wings), to again pull everything together. I always choose a toning card to mat the layers in my project, or use ink to edge the panels of card that will coordinate the colours I have used. I hope that this helps you in your own creative process.

I will be back later in the month with more designs to share with you. Thanks for stopping by, xx