Bright Butterfly

Hello everyone, it's time for a brand new challenge over on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog this week. I am providing part of the Design Team inspiration for the lovely new colours that you can play around with for the next four weeks as part of the challenge.

I chose to use a technique demonstrated by our lovely leader Lesley recently on the Design Team blog, using greyboard, masking tape and gesso to create a background.  I covered the greyboard with strips of masking tape randomly, using horizontal and vertical strips until the surface was covered completely. I burnished the surface with an old credit card. I then painted the surface with gesso, and left it to dry.

I coloured the surface using Dylusions paints and a baby wipe, blending them where they met, and dried this layer with a heat gun. I then added some purple paint around the edges, just using my finger. I stencilled three flowers onto the surface using white paint, and dried this thoroughly. I then coloured the flowers using pencils. I added some buttons to the cenntres of the flowers.

Using some Olive Wow embossing powder, I stamped and embossed a sentiment onto the background. I used the same embossing powder to emboss the moth onto some scrap card. I then coloured this image with Distress Inks, before cutting it out and gluing it to the background.

Why not pop over to the challenge blog and see the other Design Team inspiration, and read all about the new challenge? If you enter, you stand a chance of winning a £15 prize.

Thanks for stopping by, xx

Tropical Bird

Hello everyone, I have a project to share using the Birds of Paradise Multibuy stamps that are currently on offer this month from Chocolate Baroque. I have chosen to use a colour palette that is outside my usual comfort zone, but I really wanted to create a tropical feel to this card.

To make my background, I spritzed a piece of smooth watercolour paper with some Dylusion sprays, and then used a Crafter's Workshop stencil to add some depth. I used Distress Inks to add the shading; Salty Ocean, Chipped Sapphire, Mowed Lawn and Pine Needles.

I used a little flower spray from the Wisteria Lane stamp set to create some branches to hang the bird cage from. I stamped the image randomly around the top edges of the background, using Library Green Archival Ink. I stamped and embossed the birdcage using gold embossing powder, ensuring that the background was completely dry, so that the embossing powder did not stick to the rest of the background.

I stamped the bird onto the background, and then again onto a spare piece of card. I coloured the second image with Polychromos pencils and cut it out before adhering it to the background. I added a sentiment from the Card Sentiments clear stamp set. I matted the background onto a piece of dark green card to complete my project.

I hope that you will experiment with your colours as I have done when creating your projects, you never know where the journey will take you! Thanks for stopping by, xx

Steampunk Guys

Hi Folks, just to let you know that there are new stamps available over at Chocolate Baroque right now. The stamps are based on a Steampunk theme:

Called Steampunkery and Steampunk Travel, the stamp plates are full of all sorts of quirky images and great phrases to go with them. Glenda also has a giveaway on the Design Team Blog until 16th June, so if you leave a comment over there, you are in with a chance of winning both sets of stamps.

I have made a card using a Crafter's Workshop template to create my background. I stippled Black Soot through the template onto a piece of card that I had already coloured with Distress inks. I distressed the edges of the card, and then coloured them with Pine Needles and Black Soot Distress inks. I used a piece of a printable paper available from the website, called Edwardian Gentleman, which I tore and distressed to complete the background.

I made a frame from aluminium adhesive tape stuck to grungepaper, which I embossed, then ran through a cog embossing folder. I coloured this with alcohol inks, then rubbed some black acrylic paint over the top, wiping off the excess. I placed some of the Edwardian Gentleman paper in the recess of the frame.

I stamped the large hat from the Steampunkery stamp plate onto kraft card, and then masked this, before stamping one of the men from the Eccentric Edwardian stamp plate over the top. I am not the only Design Team member to hit upon this idea, great minds think alike, as they say!

I created some cogs using the shattered stains method; coating some grungepaper cogs with Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint and adding Distress Stains on top. The stains seep through the Rock Candy, and create a great effect. A few bits of hardware complete the project.

I had a few bits and bobs left over at the end of this project, and it struck me that one of the men on the printable page was just the right size to wear the Steampunk hat as well. So, I made a tag with some of the pieces that were on my craft desk. I used a piece of paper from the Prima Almanac paper stack as a background, stamping over the top with a stamp from the Eccentric Edwardian stamp plate. I stamped the phone on a parachute onto a piece of tissue paper and added it to the background, then I placed my man and his hat onto the tag. I tried to keep the hat very muted to tone in with what the man in the photograph was wearing. I added another one of those colourful cogs to complete the tag.

This was just a bit of fun, but I might just have saved myself a job in the Alphatag swap in a few months' time, lol!