Quick and Easy cards created for Chocolate Baroque

Good morning. Today I am sharing some quick and easy makes using Wisteria Lane, Tranquility and Artistic Affirmations stamps from Chocolate Baroque.

My first card is a small 7 X 13cm card. The background was from my inky stash of papers created by spritzing inks onto cartridge paper and dropping on dishwasher salt crystals. These were then brushed off when dry. I tend to create batches of these papers so that I always have something in my stash for a quick make. Alternatively a printed background paper could be used.

The images from Wisteria Lane and Artistic Affirmations were stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with detail white powder. Versamark was rubbed down the edges of the paper and sparkly silver embossing powder applied before sticking to the card front.

My next quick make is a 15cm square card. An 11cm square of white stamping card was quickly painted with watercolour inks (orange and yellow). Images from Tranquility and Artistic Affirmations were stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with gold powder. Sparkly gold powder was used around the edges. Water was applied to the blossoms and onto the background to create sky texture and the moon, blotting off dissolved ink with tissue. The flowers were then over coloured with alcohol ink pens and sparkle pen brushed over for shimmer. A 12cm square black card mat was cut for framing and mounting onto the card front.

My last quick and easy makes are a 15cm square card and small gift bag to co-ordinate. I cut my mini gift bag from smooth white card using my Silhouette electronic cutter. You could use a die cut or ready made plain bag, or a make simple gift tag to match. Images from Tranquility and Artistic Affirmations were stamped with Majestic Blue Versafine Ink and quickly coloured with water based blue sparkle pens, blending colour using a clear sparkle pen. The topper was edged with blue alcohol ink marker to frame. Small sticky pearls and a bow were added to finish.

Country Cottage Scene Building Tutorial

Good morning. This was one of my recent show samples with the scene building stamps from Chocolate Baroque. I have created a step by step for you, ‘warts & all’ as I made a bit of a mistake with masking! I think that I disguised it reasonably well – tee hee.

The theme on Simon Says Blog Challenge (Mon) is ‘whatever the weather’. The bright colouring and moody sky gives a slightly eerie feel and maybe the threat of a storm.

Yay – my project has been picked for the Designer Spotlight on the Simon Says Blog Challenge – FAB xxx

Materials:

• Stamps: Landscape edges (wall and background skyline), Village Life (trees), Townhouses (trees & bushes), English Cottages (cottage, trees & bushes, post box)
• 8 X 8 inch card blank and stamping card (smooth white)
• Scrap copy paper (needs to be thin) and temporary glue adhesive (such as zig 2 way glue) or masking tissue
• Watercolour pens and inks (yellow, orange, brown, turquoise, bright green, olive green, red, pink, grey and black)
• Fine tipped water resistant pen (black and opaque white)
• Alcohol marker (black)
• Versafine (Onyx Black)
• Pebeo Drawing Gum (masking fluid)

Step by Step:

Planning a rough layout.

The first thing that I do with a set of scene building stamps is to stamp all the elements onto scrap copy paper and roughly cut them out. I then use these to plan a scene, laying them out onto my project to decide on placement. Individual elements that may be needed to create masks (e.g. buildings, trees, bushes etc.) I cut around carefully. Any elements that are silhouette stamps (e.g. solid black trees, branches and foliage) don’t need to be masked so I just cut around roughly. I keep all these cut out elements to use again for future projects.

Stamp the post box and cover with the mask before stamping the wall. Using masking you work progressively from foreground to background. Masking ensures that element sits in front of the one behind. Don’t worry too much if you get a few gaps in the image around the masked elements, these are easily corrected with a fine tipped pen.

I put a couple of dots of zig glue onto the back of my masking pieces. It goes on blue and dries clear, and is then a tacky temporary adhesive for holding elements in place while stamping. If you are using masking tissue this already has a tacky backing.

Next stamp foreground trees and bushes. The foreground bush on the left was masked before stamping the ones behind. Cover the trees with masks.

Continue stamping and masking trees and bushes as you work backwards through the scene.

Continue stamping and masking as you work backwards through the scene.

Continue building the scene using masks as needed. Now can you see where I went wrong? I forgot to mask the bushes on the right hand side of the cottage! You can see the base of the house through the bushes. Eeek! I decided to leave it and try and cover up the mistake with the colouring.

Stamp the clouds along the top and the birds into the sky. Mask the foreground tree and stamp the silhouette tree on the right.

Use the fine tipped pen to draw in elements and extend the background. Try to ‘go with the flow’ and just quickly draw. Rather than solid lines try and be a bit sketchy with light touches, dots & dashes. To give the illusion of perspective draw the path wider as it gets nearer the front of the scene. Draw a letterbox and scribble text onto the post box.

Next cover the cottage and trees using the Drawing Gum. This masking fluid is brilliant. I had always been used to the older stinky rubbery style masking fluid that ruins your brushes. This fluid is fabulous, it paints on easily and washes out instantly with water (treat it as you would an acrylic paint and wash brushes immediately – it will ruin your brush if you let it dry on).

It is not essential to mask before colouring but this makes it much easier to slap colour across the background and leave the elements protected.

Apply ink colours (or watercolour washes) across the background. Work freely working ‘wet in wet’. I used intense coloured inks to create a vibrant scene.

When the background is fully dry rub away the masking fluid.

Now colour the rest of the scene. I used watercolour pens and a damp brush, picking up colour scribbled onto my palette.

Use the fine tipped pen to draw in a few extra details, adding grasses and texture to the path. To keep perspective draw them slightly larger towards the front and reducing in size as you go back. Use the opaque white pen to add a few highlights.

Finally edge the scene with black marker to frame and mount onto the card front.

Medici Flower Card

Good morning. This one was created with the lovely Medici Flower stamp from Chocolate Baroque.

The challenge this week on the Simon Says Stamp Blog (Wed Challenge) is ‘Make your own background’ so I have entered this one.

 

1. The collage flower was stamped with Versafine and the image masked with Pebeo Drawing Gum to protect.
2. The background was painted with inks and texture added by dropping on water and blotting off with tissue. Highlights were enhanced with white pen.
3. The masking was removed and the flower coloured with watercolour pens.
4. The panel was mat and layered onto blue card to frame. Alcohol marker was added to the edges to further define the layers.

Materials:

• Medici Flower stamp (Chocolate Baroque)
• 6 X 6 inch white card blank, blue card (for layering) and watercolour card
• Versafine Inkpad (Onyx Black)
• Pebeo Drawing Gum (masking fluid)
• Water based inks (Spectrum Noir Aquatints – red and purple)
• Watercolour pens (Spectrum Aqua – blue, yellow, green)
• Fine tipped pen (opaque white)
• Alcohol marker (black)

Spooky Dream Journey created for Chocolate Baroque

This was one of my samples for the recent shows on Hochanda featuring the lovely Fantasy Woodland stamps from Chocolate Baroque. I couldn’t help seeing the pattern for half an eye in one of the tree tops, and so couldn’t resist making something a little dark and spooky. I had a bit of fun with this one.

 

Materials:

• Fantasy Woodland and Birthday Words stamp sets
• Seasonal Elements and Seasonal Journey stencils, plus a texture stencil for ‘scales’
• 14cm card blank, black card, white stamping card
• Ink sprays with mica (teal, copper)
• Texture pastes: Viva Décor Kristall Gel (Hologram glitter and clear gel) and opaque acrylic texture paste (Pebeo Concrete)
• Gilding wax (copper gold)
• Acrylic paint (metallic gold and light metallic teal)
• Alcohol marker (black)
• Water based inks (red, yellow, teal green)
• Inkpads: Versafine (Onyx Black), Distress Ink (Scattered Straw), Versamark
• WOW heat embossing powder (Clear Gloss)

How it was made:

1. I spritzed the black card with mica sprays.
2. Background texture was created by applying clear and glitter gel, plus acrylic paint, through the stencil. When dry I applied gilding wax over the scaly texture.
3. Lettering was created by applying opaque paste through the stencil. I made a bit of a mess as I got some paste seeping under the stencil. When dry I tidied and sharpened up the letter edging by using a black alcohol marker (mess saved).
4. The edges were stamped and rubbed over with gold acrylic paint.
5. The text was stamped with Versafine and trimmed away from the full stamp sentiment. Edged with Distress Ink and applied with 3D glue gel.
6. The eye was created by stamping the tree top twice (turning the stamp 180 degrees) with Versafine. Note the centre needs to be overlapped slightly to create a circle shape. I then cut out using a circle die and used a black marker to colour around the edge and to draw the pointed pupil shape.
7. The eye was coloured with water based inks and then heat embossed with clear gloss powder. I added several repeat layers of embossing until I got a smooth shiny glass eye effect. Glue to the card with 3D gel.

Happy Birthday card created for Chocolate Baroque

 

Good afternoon. This was another of my recent show samples created for Chocolate Baroque using the Fantasy Woodland and Tall Trees stamp sets.

Materials:

• DL card blank and white stamping card
• Fantasy Woodland, Tall Trees and Birthday Words stamp sets
• Inkpads: Versamark, Marvy Matchables (Purple dye based)
• Embossing Powder (Crafters Companion Holo Twinkle)
• Water based inks (Spectrum Noir Aquatints, Lyndy’s Stamp Gang Spritzers) and Brusho Powders
• Alcohol marker (purple)
• Fine tipped marker (opaque white)

How it was done:

1. The main tree and sentiment were stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with the white sparkle powder.
2. The background was coloured with water based inks and some Brusho crystal dropped into the wet inks.
3. The background trees and foliage were stamped with dye based ink.
4. Touches of white pen were added to extend the scene and highlight. The topper was edged with the purple marker to frame and glued to the card front.

Harlequin Bouquet With Love card created for Chocolate Baroque

 

Good evening. Just catching up with blogging a few more of my recent show samples created for Chocolate Baroque on Hochanda. This one was created with the Harlequin Bouquet stamp.

Materials:

• Harlequin Bouquet and Loving Sentiments stamps
• A5 hammered card blank, Kraft card, white stamping card
• Inkpads: Archival Ink (Jet Black), Distress Ink (Antique Linen), pigment ink (gold)
• WOW embossing Powder (Clear Gloss)
• Spectrum Aqua Watercolour Pens, Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens and coloured pencils (turquoise, purple, red, yellow, green, tan)
• Pebeo Gilding Wax (Empire Gold)
• Decorative oval frame die

How to make it:

1. Ink up the harlequin part of the stamp with Distress Ink and stamp over the card blank to create background texture.
2. Repeat stamp the sentiment with gold pigment ink and heat emboss with the clear powder.
3. Stamp the image with Archival Ink and colour with watercolour and sparkle pens. Add some pencil shading for added texture.
4. Cut the oval frame from Kraft card and rub over with a little gilding wax.
5. Trim the topper and glue behind the frame. Attach to the card front with 3D foam for added depth.

Flora Musica Swing Back Card created for Chocolate Baroque

 

 

Good evening. Here is another of my floral makes for the recent shows on Hochanda using the Flora Musica stamp from Chocolate Baroque.

Materials:

• Flora Musica and Loving Sentiments stamps
• 8 X 8 swing back card base (with 6 X 6 inch central panel), patterned paper (Crafty Individuals Springtime)
• Inkpads: Distress Ink (Tattered Rose), Versafine (Onyx Black)
• WOW Embossing Powder (Clear Gloss)
• Spectrum Aqua Watercolour pens (pinks)
• Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens (clear, pinks, teal greens, gold)
• Gouache watercolour paint (opaque white)
• Alcohol marker (black)
• Rose corner embossing folder (Rose Garden – Tattered Lace)

How to make it:

1. I used a ready made fold back card base (Crafters Companion) but it would be easy to make your own. Take an 8 X 8 inch card blank and draw a 6 X 6 panel into the centre to leave a 1 inch border all around. Cut the right hand edge of the inner panel and half way into the centre (i.e. 3 inches in). Score the outer border section only, vertically to meet the cut line from top and bottom, then fold the outer frame back to the left. Sorry it’s a bit tricky to describe but it really is easy. Try it with a piece of copy paper first.
2. Open the card out flat and emboss each of the four outer corners with the embossing folder. Gently rub over with Distress Ink using a sponge. Add some highlights onto the roses using the clear sparkle pen.
3. Stamp the image and sentiment onto the patterned paper using Versafine and heat emboss with the clear powder. Colour with the watercolour and sparkle pens, blending out with a damp brush. Add a little gouache to the colours if you need a little more coverage over the background pattern (gouache is more opaque). Edge with a little Distress Ink and the black marker to frame. Glue to the card front.
4. Stamp the sentiment onto the inside of the card.

Cards for my little friend Daisy

Good afternoon. Today I am sharing a couple of cards made for my lovely little friend who was 7 this week.

The remit was something with dancing and something with a horse.

The first card was from Daddy. It is an extra large A4 size. I found the lovely silhouette of dad and daughter dancing in the Silhouette America store and cut out using my Silhouette Cameo. I added some clear embossing over the top for shine. The background was created with an 8 X 8 inch Embossalicious embossing folder and Spectrum Noir water based inks.

I inked some more panels for the sides. Scored the edges so that they folded inward slightly. I then cut border strips using some edger dies from Crafters Companion.

On the back I attached an 8 X 8 card blank – so it opened like a standard card and gave somewhere for Daddy to write a message etc.

The large lettering was cut with TODO dies. The bunting banner, stamp plate, curly foliage and birthday girl were cut using Tattered Lace dies. The butterfly was cut using a Create and Craft Couture die. I then embellished with a variety of flowers and foliage created in silicone moulds using air dry paper clay or moulding paste. The Lets Dance stamp was from Creative Expressions.

I just had to add masses of glitter glue for sparkle.

 

I used a variety of stamps to create the background scene for this one. I think that the horse is from Stampman. I used watercolour pens and Distress Inks to colour.

The sentiment was computer printed and cut out using a Tattered Lace die.

The tree frame and background tree were cut using dies from Sheena Douglass. Some of the foreground branches were cut using TODO dies.

The flowers, pretty branches and bird were stamped, coloured and cut out using coordinating stamps and dies from Heartfelt Creations (Flowering Dogwood).

Autumn Medley Stepper Card created for Chocolate Baroque

 

Good afternoon. This is another of my show samples using the Autumn Medley stamp from Chocolate Baroque. This is a variation of a previous project but this time I used some of the new stencils too.

I have used acorn and foliage dies from my stash but elements could be cut out and decoupaged from the stamped image too.

Materials:

• Autumn Medley and Mackintosh Sentiments stamps
• Useful Leaves and Seasonal Journey stencils
• A5 ready made stepper card (Hunkydory), white stamping card, A4 thick cartridge paper and waste shredded paper
• Ink Spritzers: Reds, oranges, yellows and greens – some with gold mica (Mr Huey’s and Lindy’s Stamp Gang)
• WOW embossing powders (extra fine Gold Rich, White and Metallic Gold Sparkle)
• Inkpads: Versamark, Distress Ink (Vintage Photo)
• Dye based inks: Orange and yellow (Spectrum Noir Aquatints)
• Watercolour and sparkle pens (reds, oranges, yellows, browns and greens)
• Fine tipped marker (brown)
• Paper raffia (yellow)
• Dies: Acorns (Spellbinders), foliage with berries (Sizzix Tim Holtz), leaves (Sheena Douglass), square and mini tag (Tattered Lace)
• 3D glue gel

How to make it:

1. Spritz the cartridge paper with autumnal coloured inks and leave to dry. Trim the background panel. Die cut the tag, foliage and acorns from the remainder.
2. Add further colouring detail to the foliage and leave to dry. Shape using a ball tool and embossing mat.
3. To finish the background panel apply Versamark through the leaf and sentiment stencils and heat emboss with sparkly gold powder. Use the fine tipped pen to enhance the lettering (adding a bit of a drop shadow). Blend a little Distress Ink in from the edges to frame, and glue to the card front.
4. Stamp the sentiment onto the tag with Versamark and heat emboss with white powder (‘with love’ – tricky to see in the photo). Add raffia ribbon and glue to the back step of the card (right hand side).
5. Stamp the Autumn Medley onto stamping card using Versamark and emboss with detail gold powder. Colour with watercolour and sparkle pens.
6. Lay the square die onto the image and mark the position of the overhang with pencil and trim around with a craft knife or scissors (i.e. the foliage and hair that extends beyond the die edge). Lay the overhang behind the die cutting edge (so it won’t cut through) and cut out the square. Edge with Distress Ink, blending in from around the edges of the square mat.
7. Scrunch up a bundle of the waste paper strips and raffia and lay the die cut topper over the top. Put everything together using 3D glue gel.
8. Finish by adding Glossy Accents to the stamped berries, acorns and some hair strands to give added shine.

Fun cards for the guys

Thought that I would give you a short break from all the butterflies posted up earlier.

 

I had 2 male friends with special birthdays this weekend so I came up with a couple of fun cards that would appeal to their sense of humour. Thankfully they loved them and I haven’t damaged my friendships – tee hee.

 

The first is for my friend who was 70 this weekend. We had a great party and he had his guitar out for a sing along too. He has fond memories of the 60’s so I thought that the Day of The Dead Collection from Sheena Douglass would be perfect, done in ‘Flower Power’ style.

 

• The image stamps and dies are from Sheena Douglass (Day of The Dead) coloured with Spectrum Noir Aquatints and Distress Inks.
• I added some foiling bling using a Zig 2 way glue pen and transfer foil. The foiled sentiment was done on the computer with toner sublimation foil and my Minc machine.
• The curved ‘happy birthday’ , shaped card blank and bunting created with dies are from Tattered Lace. The letters cut using Create and Craft Couture dies.

 

The second card is very tongue in cheek. Shall I just say that my friend is renowned for being a bit ‘windy’!

 

 

• I used an Embossalicious folder and coredinations card to create the background – sanding it back to reveal the ‘vintage’ sentiment panel.
• The pipework and beer bottles were cut with dies from Robert Addams, the jug from Heartfelt Creations. The lettering dies are from Create and Craft Couture. The cogs dies are from a variety of sources including Robert Addams, Trimcraft, Sheena Douglass and Tattered Lace.