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Sunday 31 May 2015

A supporting role (posted by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have a couple of cards to show you today using the sewing stamps in a supporting role, stretching their uses and hopefully letting you see how versatile they can be.

My first card uses one of the lacy borders on a wrinkle free distress background. I added some background stamping using a stamp from the Harlequin Fragments stamp set. I stamped a heart image from the Punky Hearts stamp set onto a piece of scrapbook paper, colouring in some of the details with watercolour pencils, and finally added a sentiment from the Sweet Nothings stamp set onto a die cut.




My second card uses another one of the borders to create a masculine romantic card using the Key to my Dreams stamp set. I stamped one of the locks onto the background before adding the border on either side. I coloured the background with an acrylic wash, and added some shading with Distress Ink around the edges. I coloured the images with pencils and added some background detail with a stamp from the Lace Fragments stamp set.





Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Saturday 30 May 2015

Making a Frame of it (by Lesley)

I love the versatility of our stamps and today I want to show you how you can turn the Dressmaker's Window into a picture frame.


  • Stamp the Dressmaker's Window onto white cardstock using Versafine Black Onyx. Cut out and then cut out the 'window panes', leaving just the frame.
  • Paint the frame using Vintage Photo Distress ink and when dry use a coloured pencil to add shade and dimension.
  • Adhere frame to a background paper taken from a dictionary, old book etc and trim off the excess paper around the edge of the frame.
  • Stamp the mannequin from the Floral Mannequin set onto white cardstock and colour using a combination of Barn Door, Spice Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn and Tea Dye Distress inks. Cut out.
  • Cover a 5" square card with patterned paper, run a charcoal pencil around the edges and rub over with your finger to give a smudged effect.
  • Attach the frame to the card and then the mannequin using 3d foam pads and finish by stamping the word 'Delight' from Artistic Expressions.
I hope this inspires you to explore the possibilities in your stamps, you may be surprised by the results.

Please drop in again to see more wonderful creations from the Design Team.




Friday 29 May 2015

Painted Floral Mannequins


Hi there,

Today another idea  stamping the Floral Mannequins
Chocolate Baroque has lovely elegant designs but they are also suitable to use them in mixed media projects. I was visiting a friend and we had a play with some Chalk paints. I like the chalky finish of these paints, but you have to work fast because they dry almost instantly. Of course there are painting mediums which can help but I did not have that.

I worked on canvas paper and that creates a real painted effect. This time I really did paint.......not with a brush but a sponge.

I've made two cards, here they are....





I stamped the dress form using the same paint and stamped some fragments of the lace and the lace flower. The lace flower is also embossed on vellum and I've used 3 matching colors of the WOW embossing powders. The word is from the Artistic Expressions, a sheet that matches this style very much.


And the 2nd one........I decided after I stamped the dress form several times to use the craquele stamp from the Echoes of Italy and a small stamp from the Mini Scripts. I've stamped the lace border at the right edge and pressed it also onto a technique tile which I've triple embossed with WOW embossing powder.(Glacier Mint) I've added also some perfect pearl powder onto it to create some lovely shine. I think it looks a bit like old Turkoois ........wouldn't it be a lovely to create a necklace or earrings with that?







The words are from another favorite sheet of mine called Artistic Affirmations and is even more suitable for Mixed media projects. I distressed the edges of the canvas paper and sanded the card stock beneath for a worn look.

Well, this time another style using these stamps, hope you liked it.........
Thanks for visiting and till next time!



Thursday 28 May 2015

New Fragment Stamps launched today

Well here we are almost the end of another month and it's time to launch some fabulous new stamps.  We are continually being told by you that you love our range of Fragment related stamps so this month we're adding to the series with two more stunning examples.


First there is Rustic Fragments


closely followed by Seasonal Fragments.

Both these A4 sets are available individually or as one of our ever popular multi-buys.

There are loads of brilliant images on these stamps ranging from fabric to basket weave and snowflakes to leaves. All of these stamps can be used with many other crafty products; I stamped through a stencil for the card featured here today but you can use them with paints, inks, clay, UTEE, there are so many possibilities.

Also available today are a selection of clear word stamps. These are being released in two sizes, first we have

Awesome Diva
and Positive Beauty
Each of these sets will arrive packed in one of our A5 storage wallets and are excellent for card making etc 

However, for those of you who love journalling and mixed media projects we have decided to also offer these in a larger format, which will really make a statement on your artwork. Once again they are packaged in an A5 wallet for easy storage.

So we have the same words, only much larger, and they are released in the following four sets:

Awesome Today
Rockstar Diva
Positive Pants
and finally See Beauty
Now you can have your own sets of journalling words to complement your creativity. Just please bear in mind that we only have a limited stock of all the clear word set so you may have to wait a little while for more stocks to arrive, but they are definitely worth the wait. If you are concerned on which size may be suitable for your projects the description on the website of each stamp set contains the measurements of both the smallest and largest stamps.

I am really excited about all our new releases as I can see so many ways in which they can be used and I know you are going to just love them.

As usual the Design Team girls have been creating magic with the new Fragment sets so there will be lots of inspirational artwork for you to see over the next month. Hope you can join us and have a thoroughy wonderful stamping time.









Wednesday 27 May 2015

Christmas Window (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with another card made using  'Dressmaker's Window'. Its such a useful stamp and one I'll be using again and again. For this card I've teamed it with an old 
favourite stamp from Family Christmas.


I began by stamping the tree and rocking horse stamp with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, I masked the image using masking tissue before stamping the window. I coloured the images and a snowy scene behind the window with Derwent Pencils and added some snow to the sky with a white pen. For a little Christmas sparkle I used stickles to create the lights on the tree.

I used a Sofft Sponge and Ultramarine Blue PanPastel to create the striped 'wallpaper' in the background. Its really easy to do this if you use the square edged Sofft Bar (here) and run it down the edge of a ruler. Use the ruler to 'mask' the white stripes and in a couple of minutes your background is done. I used grey PanPastel to ground the tree and rocking horse.



I used silver mirri card distressed with a craft knife to mat and layer and to finish off I've added little pearls, ribbon, pompom trim and a tiny snowflake button topped with a twine bow. 

Thanks so much for visiting today
Claire xx

Tuesday 26 May 2015

The Sewing Room and Floral Mannequins - By Florence

Morning everyone

Today I would like to share with you a card made using The Sewing Room and Floral Mannequins rubber stamps sets.

These stamps have been a joy to work with this month.  
The possibilities for cards and craft projects, using these stamps, is endless.  You don't have to take my word for it.  Grab yourself a cup of coffee and see all of the wonderful projects made by the team.  There has been a new post every day this month with inspiring projects and lots of ideas on how to use the stamps.



To make this card

 Color a piece of white card with Distress Inks using the spritzing with water technique.
Stamp the images onto the backing card.
Stamp the ruffled ribbon twice onto white card, color and cut out.
Stamp the sentiment onto a piece of card, trim to size and color with Distress Inks.
Stamp the mannequin twice.  Once onto white card and once onto pretty papers and cut out.
Color the mannequin that has been stamped onto white card.
Glue the two cut out mannequins together.
Make up the card as seen and add the embellishments.
The fabric tape used on this card can be seen here.

Thank you for looking

Take care,
Florence x

Monday 25 May 2015

Sewing Mini Book (by Debbie)

Good morning. I have recently been making wedding invitations for a friends daughter and had many strips of A3 kraft card left over from them. I hate to throw anything away so kept them for future use. Here is a little project I have made using a couple of them.


The covers are 8.5 cm by 11cm and I embossed them with a folder then coloured with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink. For the inside of the book I folded the strips of card mountain and valley folds so it would concertina when closed. I added Cotton Ribbon which I coloured with inks to the back before I glued the cover on.
 
 
 
To decorate I cut white card pieces smaller and than the kraft card. I had seen the North Star stencil used by a DT member and had to have it in my stash. I used it with different colour inks on each piece of card for a background. The stamps for the decoration I used the Dressmaking Collage Clear stamps and stamped, coloured and cut out.
 
 
 
 
 
The card below was made with inspiration from a workshop I did with Lesley W. I started with a thin strip of card and stamped the crackle stamp from Natural Eggs. The bodice was stamped with Memento black ink and coloured with alcohol pens then trimmed. A couple of die cut leaves were tucked underneath the bodice and fixed onto a die cut circle.
 
 
I hope this post may have inspired to use the little pieces of card that just cannot be thrown away.
 
Thanks for visiting
Debbie

Sunday 24 May 2015

Decorative Wall Hanging (by Julie)

Good morning everyone. Here is my latest creation using elements from both of the fabulous Floral Mannequins and The Sewing Room stamp sets.


I decided to have a go at decorating the new Paper Mache Icons  that were recently introduced to the website.
I started off by giving the surface a coat of Gesso before adding colour with some red and yellow Gelatos. The images straight onto the Icon were stamped with gold Distress Paint and the embossed dots around the edge is molding paste, coloured with gold and copper mica powders, through a stencil.
The ribbon was attached with a hot glue gun as it instantly held the ruffles in place, with no need to wait for the glue to dry.
The beads were glued with Glossy Accents, onto head pins and arranged behind the decoupaged lace stamped flower and the rest of the images were stamped onto separate card, cut out and glued on as shown.

Thank you for stopping by 

Saturday 23 May 2015

CASual Style (by Asha)

Good morning fellow Chocoholics. Here's a super simple card card project featuring stamps from the Floral Mannequins and Dressmaking Collage stamp sets.

I heat embossed the mannequin in black, dabbed on some colour with Distress Inks, fussy cut and adhered it to a piece of cream card. Next I stamped the various elements on bleed-proof card, coloured with alcohol markers, fussy cut and piled them on to the card. Finally, a greeting from the Birthday Words A5 sheet and it's done!



Thank you for stopping by today. As always, details of tools and products used for this card will be available on my blog. Have a lovely and crafty weekend. Come back tomorrow for more crafty inspiration from the team.

Beijinhos, 
Asha

Friday 22 May 2015

A Trio of Tags (posted by Judith)

Hello everyone, I hope that you are enjoying the wealth of Haberdashery inspiration this month. I have created three tags for you combining the Sewing Stamps multi-buy and the Peacock Parade/Tangled Peacock multi-buy. I wanted to create some designer haute couture style dresses, and decided to use the peacock tails as skirts combined with the bodices of two of the mannequins from the sewing sets. I stuck to a peacock themed colour palette throughout the three tags.

I started the three tags by stamping and embossing the lace strip along the bottom of the three tags, using black ink and clear embossing powder. I then stamped the foot of one of the mannequins on each tag. I stamped each peacock tail onto a tag, using teal ink, and coloured them in using watercolour paints. I used the same paint to colour the bodices, which I stamped and embossed onto a spare piece of card.

I inked each background using Tumbled Glass Distress Ink, and then chose a corresponding ink colour to blend around the edges. I used the same ink colour to stamp an assortment of sewing notions as a border. Finally, I added a sentiment to each tag.


Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Wednesday 20 May 2015

Vintage pastels (by Miranda)




Hi there,

Today it's my turn to show you my 2nd take on the new stamps. I've used both sheets Floral Mannequin and the Sewing room.
Not quit my style but I went for soft pastel colors. Sometimes you have to do something completely different........I went through my crafting stash to use some of the old paperpads. They are very neglected because most of the time I want to create my own backgrounds. But sometimes it can be easy to use some of them when you don't have so much time.


I have stamped the dress form onto the patterned paper and decoupaged it. On the peach pastel background I stamped all the haberdashery using Memento Desert sand. I stamped the other dress form on the background and cut out some flowers and swirl leaves from the same paper.
It is a simple card and can be created in a short time. 

Thanks for your visit, always enjoy to read your comments!

Till next time,



Tuesday 19 May 2015

Tussie Mussie (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with a project made using some of this month's new stamps. I've used stamps from Floral Mannequin and The Sewing Room to create a Tussie Mussie.


I've made a tussie mussie by stamping lots of the smaller stamps on cream card. I cut a circle from the cream card and then cut a wedge from the circle (about a third) and used this to create cone shape. I added lots of lace, some ribbon and a pretty tassel. I've filled the tussie mussie with stuffing for soft toys and coved it with some tulle (no sewing involved lol, I just used a little glue).

I stamped the dress form, flower and lacey border on cream card using tea dye and victorian  velvet distress ink before cutting them out and popping them in my tussie mussie.

Thanks for visiting today
Claire xx

Monday 18 May 2015

Floral Mannequins and The Sewing Room by Florence

Morning everyone

I hope you have had a great weekend.


Today I would like to share with you a card made using the fabulous Floral Mannequins and The Sewing Room rubber stamp sets.  Please click on the links to see full details of the stamps.




To make this card

Dab some Distress Ink onto a piece of plastic or an acrylic block and spritz with water.
Take a piece of A6 size white card and "swish" it around in the diluted ink and leave to dry.
Stamp all of the images onto the background piece and leave to dry.
Stamp the ruffled ribbon onto a piece of white card, color and cut out.
Stamp the floral lace two times onto white card, color and cut out.
Stamp the sentiment onto a piece of white card, trim to size and color with Distress Ink.
Stamp the two mannequins onto white card stock, color and cut them out.
Make up the card as seen using foam pads behind the stamped embellishments to give a 3D effect.
The joining of the two pieces of floral lace is hidden behind the mannequin.


Thank you for looking
Happy Stamping

Florence x


Sunday 17 May 2015

Lace and Waste Cards (by Debbie)

Good morning. Two cards from me today.
 
The first is a clean and simple using the newest release stamps and a lovely verse from
 Loving Sentiments. The ribbon/lace was stamped onto the cream card and the flower on another piece and cut out. I cut close to the centre which allowed me to curl the petals for dimension. I matted onto a similar blue card to the ink and fixed to the A5 base card.
 
 
 
 
The second card was made during an inky play session. I cut a piece of A4 white card into two and out came the Brusho Colours. For one piece of the card I sprinkled the Brusho lightly and spritzed with water. When dry, I distressed through sequin waste with black soot DI ink and cut to DL size. The other piece of card had a lot more Brusho on and I stamped the Sewing Room mannequin with black ink and cut out.
I stamped the mannequin from the Floral Mannequins set onto the card and placed the cut out on top.
 
 
 
Thanks for visiting
Debbie

Saturday 16 May 2015

Bodice And Bouquets (by Julie)

Good morning, I hope you have been enjoying this months sewing theme. Today I have two cards created from the two new sets that Chocolate Baroque have to offer which are The Floral Mannequins and The Sewing Room. I have used elements of both sets on both of my cards.


 I tried to keep this floral card as clean and simple as possible which I generally find quite hard to do. The floral ribbon has been stamped with Sepia Versafine and coloured with pencils. The three lace flowers have been decoupaged and stamped with blue Versafine onto light-blue card and the leaves were die cut from green card which I had previously stamped with the ruffled ribbon from the Floral Mannequins and one of the vintage mannequins from the Sewing room. I think the sentiment is very fitting for the card and comes from the Mackintosh Clear Sentiments set.


My second is a DL card and is created using basic masking techniques and again I have taken stamps from both sets. I started by stamping the button, thimble and cotton reel onto multiple layers of sticky notes so that when I cut them out I had more than one of each mask. I then applied a length of masking tape from top to bottom and approx. 3 cm in from the edge of the card before stamping the button, thimble and cotton reel, remembering to cover with  masks as I went along. After stamping I coloured the panel with Marigold and Mustard Seed Distress ink, then moved the masking tape so that it covered the coloured panel. You can then start stamping the Peacock Feather Distress ink panel. This panel is very much easier and doesn't require any masking. I stamped a selection of the haberdashery items along with the lacy ribbon using grey Versafine before sponging on the Peacock Feather Distress Ink.
On a separate piece of card I stamped some of the haberdashery items using the grey Versafine before over stamping the vintage mannequins with black Versafine. I then coloured them with pencils before cutting out and adding them to the card with silicone glue.
The finished panel was mounted onto the base card that I had edged with Black Soot Distress Ink.

Thank you for stopping by and we hope to see you tomorrow with some more Design Team inspiration.

Friday 15 May 2015

Vintage Dressmaker (by Asha)

Hello again, friends. I'm back with 2 vintage inspired card projects featuring stamps from The Sewing Room, Floral Mannequins and Dressmaking Collage. The patterned papers used on both my cards are from an old magazine - a great way to recycle!

My first card features a dress form from The Sewing Room sheet which I heat embossed in black and fussy cut. I coloured the body with Polychromos. Same treatment for the pin cushion from the Floral Mannequins sheet.  There's also some second generation stamping of safety pins at the bottom ... if you look hard! :) The sentiment is form the Birthday Words A5 sheet. To finish, I added Liquid Pearls and cream cotton lace.



My second card is also a vintage affair. This time I did some stamping directly onto the design paper and distressed the edges. The lace is from The Sewing Room sheet and for the background stamping I used the Dressmaking Collage clear sheet. The dress form is from the Floral Mannequins sheet, heat embossed in black, fussy cut and adhered to the card. And to finish I stuck on a few buttons.




That's all from me today. I trust you'll be busy with these fabulous stamps this weekend!  I'll be posting  more photos and details of products used for these projects on my blog tomorrow.  The Design Team has lots of amazing ideas coming up to inspire you, so make sure you swing by often. :)

Beijinhos,
Asha

Thursday 14 May 2015

Design Team Call

Today I have hijacked the Blog to announce that Chocolate Baroque is currently looking for new people to add to our Design Team!  If you love Chocolate Baroque stamps and have a desire to share your creativity then we would absolutely love to hear from you. 

There are some basic guidelines to help answer any questions you may have and you can find these on a separate page - click here to read the information and get details of how to apply.

Please feel free to pass on this DT call to your friends or any bloggers out there who you think would be interested, we'd love to hear from you.

If you are attracted by the idea, but are worried about the commitment or the timing, why not apply anyway because we can always talk about those things.  Maybe you'd like to just do the odd guest post rather than have the commitment of regular monthly submissions - that's a possibility, but the application process is still the same.

If you have any questions which have not been addressed on the information page, please email me at sales@chocolatebaroque.com and include a daytime telephone number in case we need to have a chat.

And if you are tempted, but maybe not very confident then please be brave and have a go.  All communication is completely private and confidential and who knows, it could be the start of a whole new creative adventure!  

So what are you waiting for, I know we can't wait to hear from you.

Wednesday 13 May 2015

All Wrapped Up (by Lesley)

For today's card I wanted to show you how to create embellishments using stamps from The Sewing Room and Floral Mannequins. There is a full step by step for this, so please pull up a chair and take a break for a few minutes.

  • Stamp the ruffled ribbon from Floral Mannequins three times on to some 160gsm smooth white cardstock using Vintage Photo distress ink.
  • Use a water brush to 'pull' the colour from the ink over each image. Leave to dry thoroughly.
  • Stamp the ribbon again with the same ink, turn the cardstock over and stamp on the reverse in the same position. You want to achieve a 'double sided' ribbon for the faux bow. Easiest way it to measure up from the bottom of the cardstock on both sides, mark a line and then position the stamp on this line.  Repeat the water brush technique and set aside to dry.
  • Stamp the button from The Sewing Room three times using Vintage Photo and then water brush as detailed above.
  • Add shade to the ruffled edge on the ribbons and around the buttons with a watercolour pencil and water brush this shading.
  • When everything is dry cut out and then use a darker colouring pencil along the edges of the ruffles and round the buttons.
  • To make the faux bow use the double sided ribbon you have stamped and bring both edges into the middle to form a bow shape. Glue together with wet adhesive. When dry cut a curved 'V' shape across the top and bottom edge to create a bow shape. Use a pencil, or similar, in the ends of the bow to help form the 'ears'.
  • Glue two of the ribbon pieces together with wet adhesive. When dry attach the full strip horizontally on a folded 5" white square card, placing the join slight left of centre, with wet adhesive. Trim off the excess.
  • To create the vertical ribbon cut the remaining ribbon in two so that when attached it looks like a full strip. Fix with wet adhesive, slipping the edges under the ruffled edge of the horizontal one and trim off any excess.
  • Attach the faux bow over the join and the three buttons as shown.
  • Finally add a wooden button, paper flower or similar in the centre of the bow and stamp the sentiment from the Amazing Birthday clear stamp set using a Versafine inkpad in Vintage Sepia.

I really enjoyed using these stamps to turn paper images into realistic looking embellishments. Hope that you will give this one a try and thank you for visiting. Don't forget there is still more fabulous artwork to come from the Design Team girls.


Tuesday 12 May 2015

Vintage Floral Mannequin (by Miranda)




Hi there,

Today it's my turn to show you what I've created with the new beautiful stamp sheets from Chocolate Baroque.
I have been working with Floral Mannequin and the Sewing room. There is also another one in this serie called Dressmaking collage. Difficult to  choose, isn't it? 

The background is done with Distress inks, Victorian Velvet,Walnut stain and Vintage photo.  The borders are stamped with Memento Espresso Truffle and the one with the loops have been decoupaged. I have stamped the lace flower in the background several times and masked it.
I have embossed the torso's with Wow primary Burgundy and Wow Fool's gold. Also coloured them with water based markers in matching colors.
I've added some lovely rose embellishments from ScrapBerry's.





Hope I have inspired you with my card!
Thanks for your visit and hope to see you next time,

Have a nice day,