mixup

 

Good morning everyone, I hope that you had as good a Christmas as possible this year, and that you haven't suffered from the heavy rains and strong winds - the weather definitely doesn't know this is supposed to be the season of goodwill!

I am sharing something different first today, a small wooden bowl I decorated using the special set of stamps for the craftalong on Hochanda that eventually ws broadcast in August. I loved the seedheads, and stamped them using black versafine ink and clear embossing powder. The heads were coloured with alcohol marker pens.

My next all feature brusho powders, so my apologies if you can't stand them.... this uses a different seedhead, from glorious rubber and a gelli plate background. Green dye ink brayered onto the gelli plate, and diluted brusho in red, blue and yellow splashed on randomly using a fan brush before pulling the image.  Tjhe seedheads were stamped in black versafine and clear embossed, then coloured with marker pens - the background was pale enough that the marker pens covered up any creeping colour. It's a fascinating technique for backgrounds, but totally uncontrollable and great messy fun!

This one is vey simple, just grey powder and a fair amount of water to give a misty effect, and the dreamcatcher stmaped in black and clear embossed.

Another simple one, this time with black powder, then stamped in black and clear embossed - the lily was coloured with watercolour paints, and the leaf painted with green brusho 

My last is of a hanging using the lovely magnolia stamp from happy flowers day and whiteboard heart shapes. I used both black and grey brushos here and the spray starch and cling fim technique -black brusho on the hearts and grey on a piece of white card. The magnolia was stamped on the grey piece in black and clear embossed, then fussy cut out and glued onto the hearts. The two smaller hearts came out looking rather more blue than the large one

Tomte bauble 2

 

 A very quick version of the baubles to share today, still using the tomte gnomes.

I needed to make quick cards to send to all the members of my WI, (we have not been able to meet since February), and the gnomes added a cheerful note.

I used small kraft card blanks, and a bauble stencil from my stash that would fit the card.

I sponged white pigment ink round the stencil working from the edges inwards to create the bauble, and stamped the gnomes in versafine black once the white was dry -  as I needed 20 of these, by the time I had finished inking the shapes the first ones were dry enough to stamp on. 

I coloured the gnomes with distress marker pens and added some glitter to the stocking one.

tomte bauble

 Good morning everyone, today I have a quick card to share using the tomte and bauble stamps from last months Chocolate Baroque Hochanda shows

The plain shaded bauble was stamped using versarmark ink and silver embossing powder, then sponged round the edges with tumbled glass distress ink. The tomte gnome was stamped in versafine grey ink, and coloured with tumbled glass using a waterbrush. trimmed to a square,  silver and pale blue mats  mounted onto a 6"square card blank and done.

The second is just a variation of the first, but this time coloured using marker pens with red and gold mats - I could have sworn the mats were straight.....fortunately I collect my new glasses today!

 

canary bird rose

 Today I am sharing samples using  three new designs by Dawn for Chocolate Baroque 

The first is the lovely canary bird rose, a wonderful image to colour in, I used watercolour pencils. the background was using distress inks and brushes with the leaves of the flower randomly stamped 

My second sample uses the big dream petals flower stamped in blue ink onto a distress ink background and coloured by dragging the ink out with a damp brush. The sentiment stamped round the flower is from the third set

The main image from the third set is a lovely twisted tree, which i stamped with versamrk ink onto black card and gold embossed it before painting with metallic mica paints,

 

Annabel'sflowers

 The October shows on Hochanda introduced two new young designers to Chocolate Baroque, and my samples today feature stamps by the youngest, Annabel - very bold images that are so easy to use

The first card uses the lovely echinacea , stamped twice with the first image  masked using masking tissue. The flowers were coloured with brusho powders, and the same colours used to create the basis of the background, which was randomly overstamped  with the same image using a toning multicolour ink pad.

Sorry, but yet more brusho as a background , with the dandelion heads stamnped using white pigment ink and first and second generation stamping (one of these days I shall find a white inkpad that lives up to the description.....) then with the foreground images using versamark and white embossing powder. The sentoment in black is from the dream petals set by Dawn

The last card uses the huge gerbera stamped onto more brushoed card using versamark and copper embossing powder. Trimmed down, then cut into quarters and mounted onto copper card

 

paint your dreams

 Today I have two cards to share using my favourite brusho powders and stamps from echoes of Italy. by Chocolate Baroque. I created a few background sheets using the brusho powders, and chose two that looked atmospheric to stamp the villas onto using black versafine ink and clear embossing powder

 I thought the first one looked like a sunset, so coloured the trees using watercolour pencils and then bleached out the moon and highlights on the building using bleach. A black mat and the sentiment from the dream petals set to finish.

The second background reminded me of fields of lavender, so i stamped the villa on what passes for a horizon - I didn't quite manage to line the stamp up with the white area for a path to the villa though....more bleach to whiten the buildings and edges rubbed on a black inkpad to finish

alliums

 Today's share features the allium blueprint  stamps from Chocolate Barqoue

The first card has a brushed distress ink rainbow background, with some light stamping in one corner . the main allium image was stamped on the right using black versafine ink, and then coloured with watercolour pencils. sentiment comes from the same set

the second card uses the main image stamped onto a piece of drawing cartridge coloured using distress inks and coloured with watercolour pencils. The single flower was stam,ped three times onto spare card, coloured with brusho powders, fussy cut out and glued at the base of the main image.The background card square was also coloured with distress inks and randomly stamped with smaller stamps  using the same inks

 As a coffe drinker I soon acquire  a stash of empty cans, whcih i hate to throw in the bin - I recycled two into pencil/brush holders. I measured pieces of drawing cartidge to fit with a slight overlap, then coloured them using distress inks. Various images from all the new blueprint sets were stamped using versafine ink and the completed strips fastened onto the cans using redline tape.

by eck, it's echinacea

 

 Good morning everyone, hopefully the weather is better where you are!

Today I am sharing some samples using the echinacea blueprint stamps from Chocolate Baroque

- or the eckythump stamps according to David....

My first idea was to decorate a small greyboard binder from Tando Creative  - by the time I had done it, I had worked out how to decorate it around the ready-fixed ring mechanism....... hopefully the next time I do this the result will be neater at least as I still have a binder to use.....

I had trouble using a brayer to add paint, so resorted to splodging paint on with a flat brush instead which doesn't give the same softer result. Next time I wil prop the binder up between two hardback books to give a level surface to work on ( and will also make sure I have enough desk space to lay the books out on as well!) I used three browny shades of paint, and then a darker brown over the edges and the the spine. I used black archival ink to stamp the large stamp and the smaller sentiment stamps, then stamped the image again onto white card and coloured the flowers with marker pens. The coloured image was fussy cut out and glued onto the binder

These are some of the inner pages of the binder using some the other blueprint stamps with pockets and tags or foldout pages as a change from ordinary pages.

lupin lights

Today I am sharing two cards made using the new lupin blueprint stamps from Chocolate Baroque

The first card uses a brusho back ground, with the main image stamped in black and clear embossed. This was also stamped and embossed onto spare white card. The flowers on both images were painted with watercolours, and those on the second image cut out and glued at an angle over the first image.

This was matted onto brown card and added to a card blank coloured with distress oxide inks and randomly stamped with smaller images form the set to create a background.

Brusho powders were also used on the second card, but this time sprinkled over after the image was stamped in versamark and white embossed onto white card. Once dry, the flowers were painted using brusho powders an the sentiment added in black ink. The crad blank was coloured with distress oxide inks and randomly stamped with  smaller stamps from the set

flower power

 In my final post for this month featuring the lovely clock sets from Chocolate Baroque I have a selection from all the stamp sets.
My first card uses the floral clock set - the background was created using the make your mark set of stamps, a very useful set for adding interest to backgrounds. I used grey ink pad for an olde world feel, and coloured with watercolour pencils. The extra butterfly was stamped onto spare card, cololured, fussy cut out and added to a strip of acetate fastened between the image and the card blank.

 The single flower from the same set was stamped onto tissue paper in black, coloured with marker pens, torn out and stuck with modge podge onto the lid of  a box painted with acrylic paints.

The last two use the parsley clock set again, first onto a candle and then for a card  simply stamped onto one of Lesley's lovely postcards with the flowers highlighted with white pen. 

parsley clock

 I have to admit that I think my favourite of the new stamps from Chocolate Baroque is this one, featuring the cow parsley - such a different flower, and so delicate.
My first card was very simple, stamped and white embossed onto black card - the parsley was actually coloured with pearlescent paints, but they only show up on the butterfly in the scan image.
The sentiment was just stamped using a white pigment ink

 The background to the second card is a distress ink one, with peeled paint , broken china and squeezed lemonade pads stamped onto a paint mat, spritzed with water and the drawing cartridge used to mop up the colours.
Butterfly coloured with watercolour pencils, and a white posca pen for the parsley flowers.

The last sample had distress oxide inks sponged onto a whiteboard heart and the top fo the parsley flowers stamped in white ink along the bottom, and repeated once in black ink.  The part of the image with the butterfly was then stamped in black - butterfly coloured with alcohol markers and white 

New challenge blog

 There is a new challenge blog now live , we love Chocolate Baroque  - do visit, there are some great prizes to be won 

shroom magic

Today I have some of my samples from the August tv shows by Chocolate Baroque which featured vintage clock faces. Here they are combined with rather psychedelic mushrooms.
My first card has a brusho background, with the image simply stamped on top , clear embossed and the mushrooms coloured with alcohol markers.
The sentiment was stamped onto a spare piece of card inked with distress inks and edged with the same inks.

 The second sample was simply stamped onto one of the lovely postcards also in the show, using archival black ink - a very quick card that almost felt like cheating!










The last sample was a fabric bag, stamped using versafine clair ink, with the small mushrooms stamped along the top and bottom. Again the large mushrooms were coloured with alcohol markers.
For those who wondered, I washed the first bag I tried (with a very wonky image) and the image didn't fade at all.

screen and stepper cards

  For my last post this month for Chocolate Baroque I have a concertina screen card to share, uising a blank from a kit I bought many years ago which folds down to DL size.

I tried to use stamps from all three sets stamped in versafine black and coloured with watercolour pencils.

The first panels use images from do right always .

and the final two use the pipe of peace from catching dreams and the hide from hold on.

The same card kit also included some stepper card blanks (shows how long I've had this, think stepper cards went out of fashion long ago!) and one of them inspired this card.

I stamped the tepees onto a piece of drawing carridge using black versafine ink, colouring with watercolour paints before fastening to the back step.

The totem was stamped and painted as were the cacti and then fussy cut out and glued onto the the step.

The pipe of peace was also fussy cut after stamping and painting, and glued at an angle across the front. The sentiment was stamped in black ink, edged with marker pen and added to the front.

midnight camp

Sharing a card I made for the Chocolate Baroque show last month on Hochanda featuring some lovely native Indian designs by Kim Moody.
Very much a last-minute make, when i suddenly realised that there was a fire in the midst of the camp (don't know what else I thought it could be earlier!) which led to the idea of a night scene.
i used a grey card as the base, stamped the images in black versafine and used watercolours to colour the scene., with white pen to highlight.
The large cactus and the camp stamp are both from Chocolate Baroque

I am entering this into the following  challenges, in no particular order
Stinkin Inkers  - monochrome
the house that stamps built - DCC in the dark
stamping sensations - make it masculine
corrosive challenges - anything goes
artistic stampers - anything goes
daisy chain challenge - #144 for the boys/men
a perfect time to craft -#8

Pipe of peace

 

 Good morning , I hope that today you will like the cards I have to share using the lovely new stamps drawn by Kim Moody for Chocolate Baroque - something very different, and all the DT have really enjoyed working with them.

The main image is the dreamcatcher from the catching dreams set, the pipe of peace and the words are also in this set, and the totem is from do right always.

I started with a piece of kraft card, about 5.5x7.5 inches, and stamped the totem,  and the pipe twice using a brown dyebased inkpad. The dreamcatcher was stamped in black versafine clair and clear embossed, and then the sentiments in the black versafine .The dreamcatcher was coloured with watercolour paints.  

Once everything was dry, I die cut the word from the image. The base black mat was cut to fit an A5 white card, then the kraft card layered on. I added foam pads to the cutout letters, then glued them in place slightly offset to give more of a 3D effect.

My second card used the same technique, using the tomahawk and the pipe behind the dreamcatcher this time and the sentiment from the hold on set, and this time I die cut the word dream and added a small white layer between the black mat and the image.

katya

Today i am sharing a sample using the lovely big Katya stamp from Chocolate Baroque. this is a big stamp, and much easier to colour in than it may look.

 

I stamped her in black versafine ink and clear embossed her before painting using a set of ancient mica paints - they're so old the clear cover has disintegrated, but the paints are fine!

Probably back to front, but I then masked Katya off and stamped the Eastern  looking castle image from magical landscapes twice in the background, using a light grey ink. I just wanted a hint of colour so i added distress inks fairly randomly using a sponge as i wanted a misty effect.