Wednesday 27 October 2021

Winter Dawn - GDT Project 2021


 Hello everyone 

My last project for this GDT  slot is a winter theme using the beautiful Winter Dawn Stamp (UA6SP0525). I have used the other three quite a lot as they are very pretty images, but Winter Dawn has been neglected for some reason.πŸ˜ƒ


So here she is.



The frame is 25cm. one I had in my stash. Just right for the 15cm. heart to fit in the centre.
The heart is a good quality birch wood which has been sanded to a lovely smooth finish. This is suitable for stamping directly onto the wood without prepping it first, using a suitable inkpad.
Some inkpads will bleed, which you don't want. I have used VersaFine Blue on mine and it is useful to use a drier pad rather than a new squidgy oneπŸ˜€. StazOn works well too.
The image has been coloured with water colour pencils and white gel pen, for the flakes.
It is edged with tiny beads to finish it.
The background sheet has the wax resist technique again , (see last weeks post) and then over stamped with snowflakes which have been white embossed.
The edging is finished  with little pearls.  
I hope you have enjoyed this project and revisit this lovely series of stamps.

Happy crafting to you all and thankyou for visiting Chocolate Baroque's blog. 
Carole😊




 



Wednesday 20 October 2021

Chocolate Baroque sample 2 - October 2021

 



Hello again

My sample this time uses a pretty stamp from the Butterfly Poppy Collage set and an older technique which seems to have gone out of favour or forgotten! 😊




I stamped the butterfly panel from Butterfly Poppy collage  and then stamped it again and embossed with clear embossing powder.  This was torn and cut out to add a bit of depth. 
The white panel behind was embossed with a diamond folder to mirror the stamp diamonds. Unfortunately this is not showing in the photo.
The background is done with the wax paper technique which is simple to do and can give interesting results.
My card has the wax paper scrunched up, but you can put it through in an embossing folder to get different patterns.
I scrunched the wax paper , smoothed it out and ironed it onto my piece of card. Use a piece of copy paper on top  to iron. Please don't use your main iron in case the wax seeps through the paper onto the iron!
The pattern from the wax will act as a resist so that when you ink over the pattern 'pops'.
I like this technique as it is quick and simple and the wax paper can be manipulated to get different patterns.
I hope you have liked this .

See you next week
Carole


 



Wednesday 13 October 2021

Chocolate Baroque GDT sample 1 - October 2021

 Hello everyone.

I am pleased to be back for this GDT  spot again for Chocolate Baroque, hope you like what I have to show you.

For my first project I decided to cover my sample book, something I have wanted to do for ages! I keep a visual record of the stamps I receive for Chocolate Baroque samples in an A4 book and then cross reference this to my storage boxes. it has been looking tatty for ages as it is well used. Most of the initial time was taken up deciding on a plan and colours and what stamps to use. Always a tough one.  But got there eventually and tried to keep out of my comfort zone for colour.



 



So here it is. Once I had cut the paper to size I clear embossed some leaves then coloured over them with Wild Honey Distress ink,  to emphasise the embossed areas

This was over stamped with a selection of stamps from various sets. 

The flowers were stamped with Versafine Sepia and cut out, as were some of the butterflies. These were coloured with Aged Mahogany Distress ink , Marigold and water colour pencils, then stuck down.







Haven't decided on the back yet, but it will probably be a simpler design.

Once everything was stuck down securely I sprayed it with a matt sealant. Hopefully this will protect it as it is well used.

Thankyou for looking. I was pleased with the result in the end. At least its easy to find being bright yellow!😊

Hope you like it and enjoy covering a book yourselves.


Stamps used: Essence of nature, Floral perfume, Honeysuckle Butterfly and various other  grasses and sentiments  from different sets.

Colours used: Wild honey, Marigold, Aged mahogany, weathered wood to add to the edges.

Back next week for a different sample. 

Happy crafting

Carole. 

Friday 1 October 2021

 


Hello to you.

Quick post to show the lovely new stamps from Chocolate Baroque which were shown on The Craft Channel.


A beautiful leaf set that  Lesley made up from real leaf prints.










Another stamp featured was Floral Grunge which is a great stamp for all occasions.





 


Hope you like.
Sorry this is short and sweet but I don't have much concentration at the moment.
Bye for now and happy crafting.
Carole


Thursday 1 July 2021

 



Hello  to anyone  looking at my blog.

I did not realize how long it's been since I've been near the computer and the blog!

I have more Chocolate Baroque samples to share with you. Hope you like them.😊






I think this stamp is very useful and delicate, so pretty.


More to follow when I get myself organized. πŸ˜€

Happy crafting.
Carole

Wednesday 28 April 2021

More Inspirational hearts



More inspirational hearts





 




Happy Crafting
Carole

😍

Chocolate Baroque GDT sample 3 - 2021


 Inspirational Heart

My third and final project for this session as a guest designer for Chocolate Baroque , is my Inspirational Heart.

I like making these and tend to use them as decorations as well as coasters. They are larger than normal coasters  and I am in less danger of missing it when I put my cup down, if I'm not concentrating.πŸ˜€




Products used:-  15cm. heart   Mine is wood but you could use other mediums.
                            Black acrylic paint
                            VersaMark inkpad
                            Anti static bag 
                             Pearl powder - silver
                             Pearl paints
                             Silver embossing powder

Stamps :-              Artistic Affirmations - lots of inspirational sayings in this set, lovely and bold.
                              Pretty Poppies - flowers
                              Autumn Poppy - leaves

The heart was painted and left to dry thoroughly.
I then wiped it over with the anti static bag. This is important , I think, with the metallic embossing powders in particular.
Stamp the saying first  with VersaMark and silver emboss.
so you can position it where you would like it on the heart. Position the flowers and heat emboss with the silver.

The leaves were done differently , to give a softer look, although they could be silver embossed like the rest.
I stamped with the VersaMark and then used Pigment , silver powder, to brush lightly over.
The inkpad was wiped around the edge and embossed to finish it off.
The flowers were coloured with pearl paints.

If I have used the pearl powder I would normally give it a light spray with a matt sealer as the powders  will lift or smudge if touched.

When making it into a coaster I would normally seal with a matt varnish.

Well that's my contribution to the GDT slot for a while.
Hope you have enjoyed my projects and I look forward to seeing other lovely samples from the DT team.

 I have posted a few other hearts I have made. Some as coasters and others as gifts.
They become a bit of an obsession with me especially as there  are some lovely , inspirational sayings in the Chocolate Baroque collection.😍




Hope you have a good day.
Happy crafting.
Carole












Wednesday 21 April 2021

Chocolate Baroque GDT post 2 - 2021

 

Gentle Butterflies


Hello again.

For my second GDT post I have used The Floral clock stamp, with my favourite colours. Very difficult sometimes to get out of my comfort zone with colours, although it does happen occasionally.




Stamps used:- Floral clock

                      Harebell Butterfly

                      Words from  Parsley Clock    

25cm. Frame which I had in my stash, just the right size!

The background is done with Distress inks and spritzed. I love the unpredictability of the backgrounds you get with this technique.

Floral clock was then over stamped in black and several spare butterflies stamped onto card scraps and cut out.

When this was dry it was mounted onto a piece of black card with a thin border, 

The other harebells from Harebell Butterfly were then over stamped across the bottom and lightly coloured. 

The saying is very poignant to me recently and I feel it goes well with the soft blues.


 



Hope you have enjoyed my project and I shall be back with my final sample next week.

Stay safe everyone and happy crafting.
Carole 


Wednesday 14 April 2021

Chocolate Baroque GDT. sample 1 - 2021

 


Hello everyone .

 I'm delighted to be doing a GDT. session again 

I have revisited some older stamps as these are often neglected  and its not until I start using them again that I realise how much I enjoyed them the last time I used them.

So many ideas buzz around and no time to do  them!!! 

As the weather has been gorgeous here for a little while , and the garden is bursting with life, My first sample is using Spring Awakening. This is a lovely stamp for spring birthdays and Mothers Day cards.




The colours look a little washed out in my photo unfortunately.

Stamps used:- Spring Awakening, Mackintosh words, Essence of nature words. 

I stamped the face onto a piece of backing card that had been coloured with different yellows and sage Distress inks. This was then spritzed to wash the colour out a little.
The primroses were stamped a few more times cut out and coloured .
The main image was coloured with water colour pencils, still one of my favourite ways to add colour.
The loose primroses were then added to the areas required.

Hope you are enjoying some lovely springtime weather where you are too.
See you next time for another of my samples.
Happy crafting 
Carole😊







Saturday 6 March 2021

 


Hello, to any bloggers reading this.


Hope you are getting lots of crafting done during these frustrating times.😊

Hochanda have highlighted more of Chocolate Baroque's beautiful stamps and I have been lucky enough to have a 'play'. There are loads of samples from the DT. on the face book page, but here are a couple from my contribution.









These   are two of my all time favourites,  along with the border stamp set. They are so versatile and useful for all occasions, depending on the colours you use. I was so glad to get them out again and use them as it's easy to forget stamps you may not have used for a while.

I'll post some more next week, but remember to look on the website face book page for more lovely ideas.

Must stop.
Bye for now and Happy Crafting.
Carole 😍

Thursday 11 February 2021


 Hello to anyone reading this. 

At last we have the internet back having had trouble for two months.

Chocolate Baroque have two programmes on Hochanda, tomorrow 12th Feb. at 9am and 1pm, with some lovely stamps being shown .


My card today shows one of the samples that were sent up for the show. Other lovely designs can be seen on Chocolate Baroque's  website, on the Facebook page.



More to follow next time. Hope you will see the show.

Happy crafting

Carole