Christmas Circles

Hello Folks, I have some cards on circular theme for you today, using the stamps of the month from Chocolate Baroque

For my first sample, I created a background using gelatos in shades of green and purple, which I added to a wet background and blended with my fingers. I dried the background then added a circle mask in the centre. I stamped an image from the Harlequin Fragments stamp set around the edge of the mask, using Pear Tart Memento Ink. I sponged a little bit of ink around of the mask to add some shading, before removing the mask. I stamped and embossed the holly and bell images from the Holly Bells stamp plate using gold embossing powder. I also stamped another set of  images onto a spare piece of card. I coloured the spare images with Distress markers and a water brush  and decoupaged them onto the background. I added some hand drawn 'string'. The sentiment is from the Christmas Magic stamp plate.

I have a couple of CAS cards that I would also like to show you. In these days of rising postage costs, flat cards are always useful to make, and these two cards would make good batch cards, that you could make in lots of different colour options as well. The first card was made using blue, lilac and grey Distress Inks, and I simply created a reverse mask, sponging coloured ink through a circle aperture onto my card. I coloured the top and bottom circles first, and overlapped the middle one last. I then selected three baubles, taken from the Santa Baby/Holly Bells Multi-Buy stamp set, and stamped them in the same inks that I used to create the circles, giving a tone on tone effect. The sentiment was taken from the Christmas Sentiments Multibuy

The last card was made in much the same way, except that I created a single circle, blending Dandelion and Pear Tart Memento Inks, and chose Orange Blossom Archival Ink to stamp the bells, giving a stronger contrast. The sentiment comes from the Bold Christmas Words stamp set.

I hope that I have given you a few more ideas with these stamps, and I will be back soon. Thanks for stopping by, xx

Blue Christmas

Hello Folks, I'd like to show you a coupe of cards using the newly released stamp sets fron Chocolate Baroque

My first card uses the Santa Baby stamp set. I wanted to use the sleigh flying through the air pulled by a reindeer, and so I looked through my older christmas stamp sets and found the perfect match on the Damask Reindeer stamp set. I stamped both of the images onto a piece of smooth watercolour paper, and then covered them with a mask. I also added a circle mask at this point. I coloured the background with a variety of blue Distress Inks, graduating to a deep purple at the bottom of the page. Around the circle, I added some yellow, to create a glowing effect. I spritzed the background with water to create a starry feel to the background, and added a little bit of Perfect Pearl spray for some extra shimmer.

I removed the masks, and coloured the images with Distress markers and a water brush. I stamped a tree from the Stained Glass Christmas stamp set along the bottom of the background, using Cottage Ivy Memento Ink and clear embossing powder. I added some grey shading to the moon, and stamped a sentiment taken from the Christmas Magic clear stamp set using black ink.

I have also created a card using the A Child is Born stamp set. I stamped the corner snowflake stamp around the edges of some watercolour paper using white embossing powder, and filled in the gaps with one of the smaller snowflakes to create a frame. I created a watercolour background using lots of blue toned gelatos. I blended them with my fingers and lots of water to get a soft effect. I added a touch of Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink around the edge. Once I was finished, I buffed the snowflakes with a piece of kitchen towel, so that they were nice and bright.

 I stamped the angel onto a separate piece of card, and coloured the image with pencils. Finally, I added the word 'Joy' to the background.

 My Team mates have some beautiful inspiration for you over the coming month on the Design Team Blog so please keep checking back. Thanks for stopping by, xx

A Pear of Christmas Trees!

Hi Folks, I have some Christmas cards for you today, using the lovely selection of seasonal stamps currently on offer at Chocolate Baroque.

My first card uses stamps from the Snowy Scenes/Turtle Doves multibuy stamped onto green paper using white embossing powder. I added tiny red gems to the tree and snowflakes for a little bit of Christmas bling. To complete the background, I added a stamp from the Nature Fragments stamp set, stamped in Cottage Ivy Memento ink. I also stamped a sentiment from the Christmas Magic clear stamp set in the same colour onto a piece of scrap paper. I edged all of the pieces of paper with green ink and then matted them onto dark green card before assembling my project.

My second card was created by stamping a large ornate pear from the Pears and Baubles stamp set onto my background using Rich Cocoa Memento ink. I coloured the pears using a mixture of green and yellow Distress markers and a waterbrush. I filled in the background between using my Stormy Sky Distress marker pen and a waterbrush, I made the background very watery using a wide waterbrush where possible. The main image was stamped onto a die cut piece of card using gold embossing powder, and coloured in with the marker pens in the same way. I edged the background with Stormy Sky Distress Ink. I added a large flourish from the Butterfly Dreams stamp set, using gold embossing powder.

I matted the layers onto dark brown card and added a piece of dark brown organza ribbon to finish. I hope that these two cards have given you a little bit of inspiration. I always enjoy mixing the new stamps with some of the other stamp sets already available. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Are you ready for Christmas yet?

Hi Folks, there are new Christmas stamps launching over at Chocolate Baroque today. It's currently extremely hot, and Christmas is probably the last thing on your mind, however, in the crafting world, we all know that we need to be organised and start making our cards nice and early. I for one, never seem to achieve that, but I am trying to make a start this year.

I have made a simple CAS style card using a corner stamp taken from one of the new stamp plates, Turtle Doves which I have stamped repeatedly to make a wreath on a white card. I practised this on a piece of scrap paper first to get my placement right, and to work out the number of times that I needed to stamp the image. I coloured the berries using a Distress Marker and a waterbrush.

I stamped the turtle doves using Versamark and gold embossing powder, and coloured them using Distress Markers as before. The sentiment comes from a new set of clear Christmas sentiments called Christmas Magic and is a great little set to go alongside your Christmas cards.

I'll be back soon with some more Christmas ideas using these stamps, but for now, thanks for stopping by, xx