A Bumper Blueprint Post!

Hello everyone, I hope that you are keeping well. This post could be a long one, so I hope that you have a cuppa handy! I have lots of projects to share with you today, featuring stamps from our TV shows on Create and Craft. 

My first project was a journal page spread that I created using the beautiful blueprint stamp bundle that we had on the TV show. The stamps featured were Cala Lily Blueprint, Freesia Blueprint, Wild Cornflower Blueprint and Sweetpeas Blueprint. I cut some panels of smooth stamping paper, two were 8cms by 14cms, and one was 8cms by 15cms. I used a small rectangle gelli plate and covered it with Evergreen Bough Distress Ink. I stamped the On The Tiles stamp onto the gelli plate using Broken China Distress Ink. I then stamped the gelli plate onto each of the panels. Once the panels were dry, I stamped one of the large images from the stamp plates using Versafine Clair Nocturne onto each of them. I missed out the Cala Lily Blueprint, as I only needed three. 

I coloured the images with pencils, sticking to a limited colour palette of mostly purple, magenta and green. I added Seedless Preserves Distress Oxide through a square stencil onto the panels, avoiding the images themselves.

Using a small round gelli plate, I inked it up and stamped over the top with the On the Tiles stamp in the same way repeatedly over a two page spread in my A4 journal. I worked out where I wanted to place the panels, and added ruler frames around those areas using black ink. I added smaller technical images from the stamp sets using Purple Delight, Warm Breeaze and Nocturne Versafine Clair Ink. I then added sentiments using Twilight Ink. Finally, I attached the panels over the top.

I always knew that I intended to make a card with an extra panel, so I made one as I went along. I created a background using Drawing Cartridge and Evergreen Bough Distress Ink. I added one of the sentiments and black ink. I often find that working in my journal is a springboard for a good card idea, and this was no exception.

I decided to make a set of cards using some of the technical images. They are so useful, these smaller designs. I very quickly inked up a square gelli plate with a variety of colours, then stamped over the background with a toning ink. I cut a piece of smooth stamping card and stamped one of the medium floral images and coloured it with pencils. I inked around the edge of the panel with the background ink colour. These were fairly quick cards, but really pretty and very effective. 

You could choose more masculine colours - grey, brown, ochre, etc. and make a range of masculine cards by adding the technical images instead of the flowers. These would make fabulous storecupboard cards for when you need a card in a hurry. I can think of lots of other stamps in the Chocolate Baroque range that I am going to give this treatment to for Birthday cards now, and I hope that it has helped to give you some inspiration too.

So now I am going to share a bunch of older cards with you, which if you have followed me or Chocolate Baroque for a while you will recognise, if not, then I hope that you will enjoy them.

The first card is a typical blueprint style, white embossing on glossy card, with Blueprint Sketch Distress Ink over the top, and the lovely Wild Cornflower Blueprint image to complete the card.

More white embossing and colouring on kraft card for the Cala Lily Blueprint this time.

A few cards showcasing the Freesia Blueprint stamp set. The first card, I have stamped the image onto a linen panel.

The second uses textured embossing on the background through one of our stencils.

Onto the Sweetpeas Blueprint stamp set now, and a little canvas where the image was stamped onto tissue paper and added over acrylic paint.

A horizontal panel matted over patterned paper. the little flower heads were placed into the flagpole centers as if they were in glass domes.

Finally, I used the postage stamp stencil and added lots of the small images from the stamp sets to create postage stamps.

I hope that I have given you lots of inspiration using these fabulous stamps. Thanks so much for stopping by, take care xx

Pastel Blueprints

Hello everyone, I have some more projects to share with you showcasing the fabulous new stamps that we aired on last month's TV shows on Hochanda. I have really enjoyed working with these beautiful stamps and have so many ideas that I still want to try out.

For my first project, I took a piece of kraft card, and embossed an image and sentiment from the Calla Lily Blueprint stamp set, using white embossing powder. I coloured the image using Koh-I-Noor paints. The white paint in the set is particularly effective on kraft for creating delicate effects on flowers.

For my second project, I coloured a piece of drawing cartridge with tea, and then stamped a small worker image from the Freesia Blueprint stamp set randomly over the background. I coloured the image with Koh-I-Noor watercolour pencils. I stamped the main image from the same stamp set onto a piece of fabric, (these detailed stamps still work perfectly even on a surface such as fabric), using Archival Ink. I then coloured the image with Inktense pencils.

For my next project, I coloured a canvas with acrylic paints. I blended the paints using a baby wipe to get a smooth effect. Once the paint was dry, I stamped an image from the Sweetpeas Blueprint stamp set onto a piece of tissue paper and coloured it with Polychromos pencils. I tore around the edge of the tissue paper, using a waterbrush to make tearing the tissue paper easier. I then stuck the paper to the canvas background using matte medium. I stamped a sentiment onto a piece of scrap card which I edged with black ink, and stuck that to the background to finish.

As we become ever more conscious of the effect of our actions on the environment, I did not simply want to throw the baby wipes away. I dried them off, and look how cool they are!

They would make fabulous backgrounds in their own right, you could tear them into strips and layer them with other papers, lace and ephemera to make layered backgrounds, or simply stamp onto strips to make a decorative type of washi tape. I chose to use some for a mini card as follows....

I stamped a sentiment from one of the stamp sets and a flower from the Wild Cornflower Blueprint stamp set onto one of my baby wipes and cut them out. I adhered them to a coordinating piece of drawing cartridge using matte medium and added a layer of black card to mat the background.

  Thanks for stopping by, xx

Blueprint Florals

Hello everyone, I have some projects to share with you today using the fabulous stamps and stencils that we brought to you during last month's TV shows on Hochanda.

My first card was created using the beautiful Freesia Blueprint stamp set. I used the Dotty stencil from the Strip Stencil - Collection 1 set and added some texture paste to a piece of drawing cartridge. I coloured the background using Distress Oxide Ink once the texture paste was completely dry. I added some background stamping using one of the smaller images from the stamp plate.

I stamped the main freesia image onto another piece of drawing cartridge, and coloured the image with Koh-I-Noor watercolour pencils. I stamped a sentiment onto a small piece of card, coloured in the same colours as the main background, and edged all of the pieces with brown ink.

To create my second card, I took a piece of glossy card, and embossed a couple of images from the Wild Cornflower Blueprint stamp set using white embossing powder. I then covered the background with blue Distress Ink and polished the card. I stamped the main image from the stamp set onto a piece of smooth stamping paper using blue ink, and coloured the image using pencils as before. I added a sentiment, and some shading with blue ink, before edging the paper with dark blue ink.

Using a piece of drawing cartridge, I added some yellow Distress Ink to create a wrinkle free distress background, and then drew lots of postage stamp shapes using one of the inserts from Triple Postage, another one of the Strip Stencil - Collection 1 set. I stamped the smaller images from all of the stamp sets into the postage stamp shapes, and coloured them with pencils, adding a sentiment into one of the shapes. For extra definition, you could add shading around the shapes to give a 3D effect, making the postage stamps look as if they had been stuck onto the background.

My final card was created by adding one of the beautiful Designer Papers A5- Background Splash, designed by Lesley, onto a card blank. I stamped one of the engineer's drawings from the Sweetpeas Blueprint stamp set three times across a piece of drawing cartridge. I varied the height of each image. I added some foliage in between the images and coloured everything in with pencils. I stamped the small sweetpea flower head onto a scrap piece of the patterned paper three times, and cut them out. I stuck each flower head into the top of a 'bulb'. This piece of apparatus is actually a flagpole, but I thought that it resembled a quirky specimen jar and made a perfect home for the flower heads.

I edged the card with black ink before attaching it to the coloured bakground.

I hope that you have enjoyed my first batch of cards this month. I will be back later on with more inspiration to share with you. Thanks for stopping by, xx