winter trees

 

I love tree stamps, so these  - Orchard design-a -tree -on last month's shows were right up my street! They do come with leaves and flowers stamps so you can change the effects according to the seasons, but I loved them as the bare trees.

I stamped the larger tree in versafine black and clear embossed it, then used sponges and distress inks to create the wintery sky background, then trimmed close to the image. 

The sentiment from Life is so much better  was alos stmaped and embossed onto spare card and cut out.

The card background was made by splitting  a piece of corrugated card and then spraying it with an ancient green glimmer mist before rubbing a bit of gold wax over parts of it.

 The second card I used a spare bit of white card and stamped the trees, then used sponges, black soot and hickory smoke  distress inks  and torn paper to create the landscape. The sky was also sponged using the hickory smoke again and broken china.Trimmed down again to fit across a card blank, then the sentiment from Life is so much better stamped below.

notelets

I created two sheets of background using my craft mat, peeled paint and broken china distress inks and a waterspray. 

I cut pieces to ft the small 4x4" notelet cards and also a larger piece to fit the 6x6" card blank I used as the base for the wallet.

I stamped different flower images from the retro sets  onto the notelets, and also one onto the larger piece along with the sentiment from say it vertically

 

script scroll

The April shows on the Craft Store for Chocolate Baroque also featured the 

Scripts and Timepieces and the Timeless stamp sets. - anything with script images is right up my street, so i loved these.

My first sample  used the Scripts and Timepieces along with a window stamp from Gothic Fragments in the background. The background panel was inked with distress inks and stamped the large script and the window using the same inks.

I stamped the script panel on a separate piece of white card using a stamping platform. I inked the stamp up using the Koh-i-Noor marker pens , using the red pen for the initial flourish and odd words in the the script and black for the rest. Once it was dry I cleaned the stamp then inked the initial flourish using a versamark pen and stamped again - the stamping  platform meant that it lined up beautifully - then embossed in gold.  I tore the image out then inked round the edges before curling it up and  over to look like a scroll and gluing onto the   background.

 The Timeless set for the second card, stamped twice onto white card in black and once in versamark and gold embossed. One black image was overstamped  and gold embossed using a versamark pen and coloured with distress inks. Watch faces were cut out of the other images and decoupaged onto the main image, which was ddded to a distress ink background. The sentiment is from Say it Vertically

my world is full of colour

Good morning, I hope that you all enjoyed the Bank Holiday   weekend - the weather was the usual iffy sort here, so I thought some bright colours might be in order today!

Last month's TV shows on the Craft Store channel for Chocolate Baroque featured some very different stamps, retro florals and retro vases, and these were some of my samples.

The first one used circles in different sizes and three very old multicolour ink pads. I started with the larger circle stamped once in the red part of the pad then surrounded by more circles in the orange. Trying to get a rainbow, I used smaller circles in the greens and finally in blues. 

The second card used randomly stamped floral images from the two sets using the same dye inkpads. The sentiment on both cards is from the artistic affirmations stamp sheet

 I used some of the solid shapes from the sets arranged on a stamping platform to make the other samples. The first card is a DL, with the stamps inked up using the blue multicolour inkpad and stamped straight onto the card blank.the the sentiment from Life is so much better stamped above.

 I used the same panel this time coloured in rainbow colours using Koh-i-Noor marker pens onto a square of card, then added a sentiment again from Life is so much better stamped below. The background was inked with distress inks and a flower spray from retro florals  randomly stamped using the same inks.

These stamps were exclusive to the Craft Store, and are available on the Chocolate Baroque page on the Craft Store website. 

brusho flowers

 This was experimental, but I liked the result and decided to repeat it using all the floral stamps from this month's show

.

The first was a card using the crackling rose stamp, just stamped onto white card using black versafine and clear embossed before sprinkling with grey brusho powder and spritzing with water. A black mat, and a base card sponged with grey distress ink and randomly stamped with part of the rose stamp in the same grey.

The base of the concertina was an A3 sheet of gold card cut to give 3 panels 5x7". The four main images were stamped in black and clear embossed before adding the grey brusho powder. On the last two panels the crackling rose was stamped in grey in the corners , and sentiments stamped using black versafine.

 

flower power

 One of my favourite stamps from Chocolate Baroque was in the shows last month, the lovely flora musica and i have two versions to share today. The first is a very CAS card, simply stamped onto a  square of white card. The stamp was inked with distress marker pens and stamped using a stamping platform. I used a damp brush to draw the cololur out into the flowers and leaves and stamped the sentiment from birthday words in the bottom corner. The card was edged with ablack marker pen before mounting onto a white card blank.

The second version was again stamped using marker pens, this time edged with distress ink and mounted onto a dark red car. The background panel was sponged with matching distress inks, and randomly overstamped using just the flowers and a swirly music stamp from the music fanfare set. The same sentiment was stamped onto spare card and cut out using a punch,

the next cards use the harlequin bouquet  stamp, the first stamped in grey versafine onto white card and then again using black versafine onto spare white card, The first piece of card was coloured using wild honey distress ink and water on a craft mat, and the harlequin part of the stamp stamped randomly using the same distress inkpad to create the background. The flowers and leaves on the second image were coloured with marker pens, cut out and glued over the first images.

The base card was sponged with hickory smoke distress ink, then the image stamped randomly using the wild honey distress ink

The second version is more muted, inked first with distress markers then overstamped qwith black versafine. Background card sponged with hickory smoke and a pink distress oxide 

( probably worn lipstick, but not sure!) then randomly stamped with the harlequin part of the stamp using the grey.

Sentiment from say it vertically
 

My final card uses the floribunda stamp, stamped in versamark onto kraft card and white embossed. I sprinkled truquoise brusho powders over the flowers and spritzed with water. Mounts were white and turquoise card onto a square card blank , and the sentiment stamped in turquoise ink onto a scrap of white card edged with the same inkpad and matted onto a scrap of kraft card

inky backgrounds

 l have inky backgrounds as a main part, though using different stamps from last month's Chocolate Baroque TV show 

The first ones feature the klimt panel stamp, which is quite large. I stamped the image onto white card using black versafine ink and clear embossed it before addin tiny amounts of brusho powders in blue, red and yellow over parts of the design and spritzing with water.

I cut a square of card to fit a &" card blank and coloured it using distress inks dabbed onto a craft mat and spritzed with water. I stamped parts of the panel randomly using grey versafine ink to create my background. The main panel was trimmed down to the edge of the stamp and mounted onto black card, then onto the background which was edged with a                                                                             black marker pen.

My second card used the same shades of brusho powder, but this time I used watercolour card and a lot of water and a second sheet of white card pressed onto the wet first sheet to give a second paler image.

I stamped the panel using versamark ink and a white embossing powder onto the card trying to match the image up with areas of colour. This time I left a border round the panel when i trimmed it, mounted it onto black card, then onto the background piece  and more black card.

for the second group I used the songthrush stamped in black onto card coloured with brusho powders and then clear embossed.

Both these card are DL sized, and the panel was trimmed down and mounted onto balck card and then onto a panel cut from the same card stamped with a sentiment from life is so much better.  On the second card i used bleach to highlight the flowers and black card behind the coloured strip