Christmas Trees

Well Hi there after not posting anything here for a month I am now back with a second blog in three days, Inconsistent or what?!!!  Some of you may remember that back at the start of the year I declared my intention to take part in the Christmas card group at Chocolate Baroque where one of our members had suggested some themes for us to use each month if we wanted to. The idea being that if we made a few cards each month it would save us from having a rush to get them all done in December. This is a new concept  for me as mine are usually made in a mad couple of weeks. Anyway after blogging my January cards I haven't got around to putting any more on here although I have made at least two cards each month and earlier this month I made three, the theme for this month being Trees. Finding myself with a little spare time this week (spare time?!!) I decided to make a couple more, and as today is still just about the 25th  I am going to show them for Rudolph's day on Sarn's blog Stamping For Pleasure.

 For this one I used Chocolate Baroque Stamps from the Frosty Trees and Christmas Cheer plates.First I stamped the tree with Versamark and embossed with WOW silver EP onto purple card and then used a gold gel pen to highlight the little stars adding a dot of yellow Stickles in the centre of each one.I the edged the piece with a silver Krylon pen. The holly flourishes were stamped onto the base card with Memento elderberry ink and the dots highlighted with silver Stickles. I wrapped the silver ribbon round the card and fixed the purple panel over it and then added the silver bow.


For the second card I used more traditional colours,staring by stamping the holly background from the CB Holly Flourish plate onto green card with Versamark and embossed with WOW Brass Sparkle EP. The tree is from the CB Stained Glass Christmas plate and I stamped it in Versafine olympia green ink. The star is stamped and embossed with the sparkle EP. I coloured around the star and the pot with  distress markers, and  trimmed the edges using shaped scissors to cut the corners, and then used Distress Inks scattered straw and fired brick to add some shading. I mounted this onto red card and cut a label for the greeting with a Memory Box die to match. I stuck the two panels together using double sided tape and fixed the greeting with gold brads and some thin foam pads, and then fixed the complete panel to the folded card and used coloured Stickles to decorate the tree.

Thank you for looking and for you kind comments I really appreciate them.

Jean

April Fool

I apologise for the long gap since my last blog. I have been doing some crafting but since a bout of flu at Easter I have been lacking in energy and enthusiasm. Anyway I needed to get these Quintiles done for the  Chocolate Baroque swap so have decided to show them to you today in an effort to get back to blogging.
The theme this month is April Fool which had me
thinking for a while, not really knowing where to start. However after checking in the dictionary to see if there was some definition I was anaware of,(there wasn't)  I turned to Google and searched for some quotes and came up with these two that I thought I could work with.

 The first quote made me think of this stamp from Crafty Individuals with the rabbits wearing crowns. I decided I would try and make a painty background for these tiles and used Lin Browns step by step tutorial on her blog here, for inspiration. I have a few of the Fresco Finish paints from Paper Artsy that she uses but they are mostly the opaque colours which are good for the base layers, but I found one that was more translucent and managed to mix some Old Gold to the Haystack to make it a bit less opaque. The other colours I used are Rusty Rose, Pansy and Guacamole. When I was happy with the painted background I stamped the diamond pattern across the top with a chocolate Baroque stamp from the decorative Edges set, with Versamark and embossed with WOW gold EP. I added some further interest by brushing Brilliance crimson copper ink through a Crafters Workshop stencil and adding some Frantage antique gold EP and fragments to the lower left hand corner. I also randomly stamped a few Crowns from a CB set with the Brilliance ink and some fragments of script with black Archival ink and a Paper Artsy stamp.The rabbits are stamped with the Crimson Copper ink and coloured lightly with pencils and cut out before sticking to the background.I stamped the crowns again onto gold miri card with Versa mark and embossed with WOW Gold glitter EP,cut them out and glued them in place. I printed the quote on the computer and cut it into strips and coloured the edges with the Brilliance ink pad.
The second one was made in a similar way but before painting I spread some Dreamweaver stencil paste in the top right hand corner and stamped into it with the diamond pattern stamp, spritzing it with water first. This was left to dry completely before adding the paint. I stamped the diamond pattern again with Crimson Copper ink across the bottom and added Brilliance Moonlight White ink through the stencil. I used a corner stamp from a Chocolate Baroque set  in opposite corners, stamped with Versamark and embossed with WOW gold EP, and I used some Gleam gold rubbing wax to highlight the texture paste. Again the quote was printed on the computer and cut out with a spellbinder die. I shaded the edge with Crimson Copper ink and mounted it onto some kraft card.

Thank you to everyone for looking and for the comments you leave, all really appreciated.
Hope to be back again soon. Jean

Springtime

Springtime is the theme for our "Quintile" swap on the Chocolate Baroque group this month. It's a lovely idea but I would like to be experiencing it with a bit more reality than the freezing cold weather we are still having. Having said that, on the day I made these the sun was actually shining and it did look like spring even though it was very cold outside.
To make the background for these I used a newly acquired stencil from Imaginations. I put it through the cuttle bug which gave a slightly embossed appearance and before removing the stencil I used a stencil brush and bundled sage distress ink to colour the leaves. I love the Chocolate Baroque stamps with flowers on a script background. The crocus is from one of their newer springtime plates and the daffodil is an older one that I have had for a while. They were both stamped with black Memento ink and coloured with colour soft pencils. I then shaded the background with bundled sage and edged the card with forest moss DI. When I started to make these I thought the theme was Spring Flowers which is actually the theme for the ATC swap and this one is Springtime and as I said the sun was shining outside and the little birds were singing away in the garden as if thought it really was spring, so I decided to add the little birds to my project. I am not sure I like how they look but I couldn't take them off again so I hope the recipients do like them. The word Spring is from an Easter set of stamps from Our Daily Bread.

I am going to enter these at Crafty Boots - Flowers
                                         Make It Monday - Anything goes
                                         Vintage Stamping Challenges - Spring Is In The Air

Thank you for taking a look and for your lovely comments, they are all appreciated
Jean .

Oriental Birthday

I have made this card using the Oriental Crane clear stamp set from Chocolate Baroque. I stamped the crane onto white card with Memento black ink and coloured it with Coloursoft pencils. The blue shading in the background was done using a duster brush and broken china Distress ink. After trimming I mounted it onto black card leaving a narrow border. Next  I stamped and coloured the little oriental scene and the Birthday greeting on the left hand side of a larger piece of  white card. I edged this piece with narrow black peel off strips. The back layer is a piece of oriental style paper from my stash cut to fit the base card, and then the other pieces positioned on top  with the crane panel mounted with foam tape.
This card is for yet another man in the family with a birthday this month.
I am  entering  it in the following challenges,
Stamping Sensations - The Great Outdoors
Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
Make It Monday - Anything Goes
CCEE Stampers - Pencils Please

Steampunk Birthday

This is the card that I have made for my son's birthday, I think it might appeal to his quirky sense of humour. The mechanical hat is from a Chocolate Baroque set called Steampunk travel. I stamped it with black Memento ink onto ivory card and coloured it with distress markers and Sakura  metallic pens. I trimmed it and edged it with a black marker and mounted it onto red Kraft core card from a Tim Holtz pad. The two green panels are cut from the same pad and embossed with a Tim Holtz  ATC embossing folder, and then the edges and embossing sanded back slightly to reveal the craft core. I fixed them to an ivory folded card  overlapping them at the centre and then stamped the birthday greeting in red ink in the top right hand corner. I glued a small clock face over the clock on the hat and then a gear over that. I stamped the wing again on a spare piece of card and coloured it with the gold pen and cut it out, and then glued it with silicon glue to raise it up slightly. I fixed the metal tassel to the lower corner before sticking the image panel to the center of the card with dimensional tape, and then added a couple more metal pieces to the bottom corner of the card.
I am entering this at. Crafty Cardmakers-Masculine Birthday featuring Technology or Gadget
                                Whimsy Stamps Inspirations Challenges-Add Some Metal
                                Anything Goes Challenge Blog-Make It Manly

Thank you all for visiting my blog and for your kind comments, all are much appreciated. Jean

Two Special Birthdays

 I have two grandsons with birthdays this weekend, one is 18 and the other 21. I never find it very easy to come up with appropriate cards for the men in general, and specially not the young ones.
These greetings and tiny bird stamps are from a Chocolate Baroque set of clear stamps called Happy Words and Birds. They are quite different from their usual style and at first I thought that I didn't like them very much, but then I saw the very CAS cards that Glenda had made with them in the February issue of Craft Stamper magazine and decided that would be useful for making quirky cards for my young men.
The birds were stamped with black ink and coloured with distress markers.The frame on the 18 card was made by drawing round a Go-kreate die three times with a fine black pen moving the die slightly each time.(another tip I got from the Craft Stamper)

 I used Brilliance rocket red to stamp the Happy Birthday, and on the second card I cut the main image out and mounted it on red card to cover up my botched first attempt. The stars are a magazine free stamp which I cut out and stuck onto red card and cut out again. the numbers are from a 7gypsies set.

I am entering this at Addicted To CAS-It's Raining Men

That Craft Place- Anything Goes.

Thank you for visiting and for the kind comments you leave, all are really appreciated  Jean.

Alphatags Return

Hi every one, back at the start of the year I said I would try to get  a picture on here of all the tags that I received in the Chocolate Baroque Alphatag swap that I took part in last year,and here it is.It has taken me a while because I couldn't find a way to take a photo of them altogether and realised that the only way was with a computer generated collage.I didn't have any idea how to do this, but after a helpful Skype chat with my sister last week and a few hours playing about I came up with this. So now I am trying to think of a good way to display this lovely collection. I would love to have them on open display but as my craft area is in our conservatory I find the bright sunlight in the summer months makes things fade too easily, so I will have to make some form of
                                                                                                       album for them. At present they are in a                        

rather classy  chocolate box, and do really quite like having to open something up to take a look at them.

On the left here is a collage of all the tags I made including the ones I didn't get round to blogging at the end of the year. Neither of the collages are in alphabetical order because I just let the computer shuffle the photos about till I was happy with the result.

It was fun taking part and made for some great camaraderie  amongst the participants. I include a special mention to Margaret who organised the swapping, and did a great job keeping us all on track and encouraging us with great photos of all the tags every month.
Thank you for taking time to have a look.
Jean