The Gift

Hello everyone, Chocolate Baroque are releasing a new stamp today, a very cute Christmas image drawn by the lovely Sue Page, called The Gift. This is great stand alone image which will be so useful for your cards this year, and can be used in so many ways, I have lots of ideas.

I have not had very long to play with the stamp yet, and so for my first project, I have simply stamped onto kraft card using dark brown Versafine Ink, and coloured the image with Polychromos pencils, adding a sentiment from The Gift of Christmas stamp set. To create the background, I stamped an ivy leaf from the New England Winter stamp set randomly over a larger piece of kraft card, using green Versafine Ink. I edged both pieces of card with Festive Berries Distress Ink, before matting onto a piece of olive green card.

I hope to bring you another project very soon using this lovely stamp image, because there is another idea buzzing around in my head. Time permitting, I will make it up and share it with you! Thanks for stopping by, xx

Christmas Old and New

Hello everyone, I am sharing some Christmas projects with you today that were featured on last month's TV shows on Hochanda.

For my first project,  I created a background, using soft blues and pinks to represent a Winter sky. I added some deeper blue hills using torn paper masks, and stamped the tree from the Frosty Trees stamp set and the sentiment from the Let's Get Festive stamp set, using Cobalt Archival Ink. Ensuring that the background was completely dry, I added some snowflakes using white embossing powder, and then used some flat-backed gems for added sparkle.

Using another tree from the same stamp set, I created an icy background using metallic paints, and on a smaller scrap of the same card, I stamped and embossed the tree panel using Versafine Onyx Black Ink and clear embossing powder, for a crisp image. I matted the layers onto black card, and added some small black gems. The sentiment comes from the Let's Get Festive stamp set once again.

 I wanted to create a piece of home decor especially for Christmas using my favourite sentiment from the new stamp set. I painted a chipboard heart in soft blue chalk paint, adding some crackle medium here and there, and then added a vintage white paint over the top. I then stamped the sentiment in Red Geranium Archival Ink before adding the fabulous pine cones from the New England Winter stamp set around the edges. I used Distress Markers to colour the stamps, allowing me to add colour exactly where I wanted. A red ribbon completes the project.

This next card is an adaptation of an old card that I first made several years ago, using the Winter Birds stamp set, but I have made it in a different size. These days, I like to make 8" x 8" cards, and so the card does look slightly different from the original. I have added one of the new sentiments this time around as well.

Finally two golden oldies for you, which I hope you will forgive seeing again. I remade the first one, which was originally given as a Birthday card to someone. It just goes to show that these beautiful stamps can be used at other times of the year, not just at Christmas, with a change of colour. I have used the large image from the Reindeer Landscape stamp set, embossed with copper embossing powder, and coloured with Distress Inks and a water brush. The background was also created with Wild Honey and Seedless Preserves Distress Inks, and I have then stamped leaves from the Sunny Sunflowers stamp set, and coloured them with Polychromos pencils. The sentiment, which is my all time favourite Chocolate Baroque sentiment,  comes from the Nature's Peace stamp set.

Finally a luminary, also using the large image from the Reindeer Landscape stamp set. I die cut an aperture from four large printed tags. The images were stamped and embossed onto parchment using white embossing powder, and coloured from behind. I used metal tape to join the tags, which I embossed, and aged with a little bit of black paint.

I hope that my projects have given you some ideas using these fabulous stamps. Thanks for stopping by, xx

There are new stamps recently released over at Chocolate Baroque on a Christmas theme, and I've used one of the new sets to make a sample that I've also posted on the Design Team Blog today.

My project uses a large gate stamp from the Christmas Creatures stamp plate, which I have stamped onto a 5" x 7" card. I masked the image, using Eclipse masking tape, and created a background using Pan Pastels. I used a second card the same size, and stamped a house from the New England Winter stamp plate onto the opposite side of this card, so that it would face the first image. I also masked this image, as before, and created a background with Pan Pastels. I then watercoloured both images with Distress markers and a waterbrush, adding more colour to the images directly with the pens for shading, and drawing it out with the waterbrush, until I was happy with the finish.

I cut the aperture out of the centre of the gate, added some gems to the large tree and some glitter to represent some snow.

I added some smaller gems to the tree on the second picture and more glitter.

I had quite a limited colour selection of blue Pan Pastels, so I put white Pan Pastel over my card first, so that the blue did not appear too dark. It gives quite a Wintery feel to the sky as well, I think.

I then trimmed a little piece from the inner edges of each card, and stuck the two cards together.

So now you can see the house through the arch of the gateway. I haven't added a sentiment to the card yet, but I will add one later once I have decided who I will send the card to at Christmas time. These new stamps are very versatile, because they mix in with a lot of the older sets that I already have, as you can see from this sample. I have several more projects planned using some of the new stamps and blending them with my older sets, I really like to do this. I'll be back in a few days with another sample for you, thanks for stopping by, xx