A Touch of Pink

Hello everyone, I hope that you are keeping well. I have a project to share with you today showcasing some of the products featured on last month's TV shows on Create and Craft. 

To create my project, I started with one of the fabulous black and white papers designed by Lesley. I attached this to a MDF panel using matte medium. I stamped the large flourish from Butterfly Daisy Collage in two of the corners, and added the Small Graph Paper randomly stamped using a pink Versafine Clair ink. I just used parts of the stamp to give a patchy effect, and used the stamp held in my hand, rather than on a block. I added Distress Ink around the edges with a blending brush.

I stamped and embossed the Freedom Flower twice onto a spare piece of the black and white paper and cut it out. I coloured the image with shimmer paints, before decoupaging the flower and attaching it to the background. I used a grey pencil around some of the petals to give the impression of extra layers, adding shading for more depth.

Thanks for stopping by, Take care, xx

Launching Fifteen Minute Cards Again!

Hello everyone, I hope that you are keeping well. I am sharing a few projects to launch an old favourite on the Chocolate Baroque Facebook Group and also on Instagram today. I used to run the Chocolate Baroque Colour Challenge Blog, and a regular monthly feature was the Fifteen Minute Card feature. Myself and the Design Team used to create cards in fifteen minutes or less using stamps from Chocolate Baroque. We used up scraps from our stash, or made clean and simple cards, any style of card was achievable really, but this style of card was great for batch cards, craft fairs, Christmas cards, Wedding Invitations, etc. If you needed a card in a hurry, or wanted to make a quick card or two for your collection, being able to make a card in fifteen minutes is such a good idea. It's great for beginners too, as you do not need to make anything complicated, and can try out lots of ideas quickly.

I am sharing lots of familiar ideas in this post, and I will be creating a post once a month, roughly around the middle of the month. I won't post on exactly the same day, life gets in the way; holidays, and other commitments, but I will always share what I have made, and let you know where you can post your projects if you would like to create along with me and the Chocolate Baroque family. I hope that you will enjoy yourselves, just playing with your stamps and materials for fun. After all, hopefully we can all spare fifteen mintes every now and then!

For my first two cards, I created backgrounds using an acrylic block. I added Distress Ink to the block for my card, and spritzed it with water. I placed the block onto a square piece of Drawing Cartridge, pressing down all over the block. I peeled the block away and left the background to dry. (I created several backgrounds all at the same time while I was doing this background, and so I timed myself for four cards in an hour). I could have dried the background of with a heat gun, but it would have faded the background colours a bit.

Once the background was dry, I stamped the tree from Fantasy Woodland onto the background. I added foliage from Silhouette Grasses along the bottom, and a sentiment from the From Nature 2 stamp set randomly over the background. I coloured the tree with Koh-I-Noor pencils, just using two colours for the fruit, and two colours for the leaves. It was really quick, and took me just a couple of minutes. I trimmed the panel and edged it with green ink before attaching to to a piece of linen card.

For the second card, I used Distress Oxides on the acrylic block, creating a background as before. I chose a selection of stamps from the Silhouette Grasses stamp set, and using Versafine Clair Ink, I created a meadow scene. I added a sentiment from Words to Dazzle and Sparkle.

My third card was stamped directly onto a card blank, and was so quick to make. I used a circular gelli plate, and added Distress Ink to the plate before 'stamping' this onto the card blank. I stamped two dragonflies from The Phenomenal Butterfly Elements stamp set onto the card, and masked them, before adding a couple of script rings from the same stamp set. I masked these as well, and then added a couple more stamps to complete the collage effect. I removed the masks and coloured in the dragonflies and script rings with pencils. The coloured circles are from the Floral Paraphernalia Elements stamp set.

My final card was created by using a piece of patterned paper. Lots of the work is already done for you when using patterned papers, but you can add so much detail over the top. We all have bits and pieces lurking in our stash, don't we? I stamped the beautiful dandelion clock from Not More Flowers! and added elements from Making More Marks, all using Archival Ink.

I hope you have enjoyed my selection of cards this month, and that you will join in making a few quick cards yourself. Head over to the Chocolate Baroque Facebook Group, where I have created an album, look for Media at the top of the page and search for the August 2022 Fifteen Minute Cards Album. Alternatively, head over to Instagram, and upload your cards with the hashtag #chocolatebaroquefifteenminutecards

Take care, and thanks so much for stopping by,

 

xx

Scaling Up Those Little Projects

Hello everyone, I hope that you are keeping well. I have a few projects to share with you from last month's TV show on Create and Craft, showcasing some of the beautiful floral butterfly stamps that we had on the show. 

I like to make a few quick cards when I can, they are so handy to have in my stash when I need a card in a hurry. I also like to make a batch of them, several at a time, so that I can give them as a gift, or just to build up a store of cards to use later. I love to make little 4" x 4" cards, they are a lovely size to create and to give as gifts. I created two different types as demos on the show last month, and here is how I created them:

The first card was created using a piece of Drawing Cartridge just slightly smaller than 4" x 4". I swiped some Distress Oxide Ink onto an acrylic block, (green and blue), and spritzed it with water. I placed the Drawing Cartridge onto the block, and then peeled it away, to get a watercoloured background. I left the background to dry naturally. I stamped the daisy image from Honeysuckle Butterfly twice onto the background, using black ink, and added a butterfly. I also added some foliage from the same stamp set using green ink in first and second generation stamping, to give the impression of a field of flowers. I varied the height of the foliage. I coloured the flowers and butterfly with Koh-I-Noor pencils, using a simple palette of pink, yellow and green. I edged the background with turquoise ink.

To create my second quick card, I selected a piece of black and white paper created by Lesley, which I cut down to size. I added sponging with green and purple inks to create hills, and pink or orange ink around a circle mask to create the impression of a sun, (a technique that was inspired by the lovely Jean Hardy). I used Versafine Clair ink in various colours to stamp foliage from the stamp sets, and added a butterfly which I coloured in co-ordinating colours.

These little cards are lovely in their own right, but I wanted to show you that they could also be used as larger cards too. I created backgrounds for both of these cards very quickly using the butterfly on the card to pull everything together. For the first card, I used the blue and green ink as before to create a Distress Oxide Ink background, as you have seen me create so many times before, and then I simply stamped the butterfly randomly over the top in turquoise and green ink. I edged the background in the turquoise ink as I had done with the smaller card. It makes a really pretty large card suitable for any occasion, just add a suitable sentiment, or leave it blank and add a sentiment inside.

 For the second card, I used a piece of grey card, and added the butterfly stamped with pink and orange Versafine Clair, it's an unusual colour combination, but really pretty, just the same.

 I hope that I have given you lots of ideas for these lovely stamps, thanks so much for stopping by,

Take care, xx

A Pop of Colour

Hello everyone, I hope that you are keeping well. I have a project to share with you showcasing stamps from last month's TV shows on Create and Craft. This was one of the demos that I created on the show, and I really enjoyed putting this project together.

I started my card by colouring a piece of Drawing Cartridge with Distress Oxide Ink, I chose a blue and green ink. I placed it onto a craft mat, and spritzed some water onto the ink, before placing the Drawing Cartridge over the top. I dried the Drawing Cartridge, and then patted it onto the mat again, to pick up some of the left over ink. I dried the Drawing Cartridge once more and continued with the background.

I added some stencilling using orange Distress Oxide Ink. I also stamped the Small Graph Paper stamp using green Versafine Clair ink, simply holding the stamp in my hand, not on a block. This gave me the opportunity to use random parts of the stamp by curving the stamp, so that only a portion of the stamp touched the background. I used a definition from the F is for... stamp set to complete the background.

I stamped and embossed some flowers and a butterfly from the Butterfly Daisy Collage stamp set onto some patterned paper. I coloured the images with Koh-I-Noor pencils and cut them out. I used the large flourish, and stamped the ends on the background, working out roughly where they needed to go by placing my flowers down first without adhering them. I stamped the butterfly antennae where I wanted to place the butterly on the background before I stuck the butterfly to the background. I curved the flower petals with my hands, but you could use a pencil or scissors to do this. I attached them to the card in between the flourish ends, and added some black buttons in the centres. I matted the background onto black card for extra drama to finish.

I will be back later in the month with more projects to share with you, thanks so much for stopping by.

Take care, xx