Holly for Rudolph

This will hopefully be a quick post today to show you the only Christmas card I've made this month. The theme for our Christmas card group at Chocolate Baroque this month is script and/or text and there are several CB stamps that are ideal for this including this lovely holly one.I stamped the image with black Memento ink and coloured it with Spectrum Noir pens.I used distress inks to shade the background in I think scattered straw and forest moss.I then mounted it onto red card and attached it to a green folded card. I stamped, shaded and mounted the verse to match and fixed it to the card slightly overlapping the main image.To finish off  I stamped the holly flourish with Versamark ink in the top right hand corner and added a little Stickles glitter glue to the leaves, and then smudged a spot of white ink with a pigment pen to the berries to make them look a bit shiny. I am showing you this today as it the 25th and I can enter it for Rudolph's day at Stamping For Pleasure

Thank you for looking and for your kind comments which are all appreciated.

Flower Show Quintiles

The theme for the Quintile swap at Chocolate Baroque this month is The Chelsea Flower Show. My first thought was, Oh good a nice easy one but in fact  I really struggled to get them made in time, my first two attempts finished in the bin. I have never been to the flower show but I have seen bits of it on TV and love flowers of all kinds but the picture I had in my head just wouldn't transfer to the card. In the end I changed my idea altogether and went for a simpler design and used the fact that the show is celebrating it's 100th anniversary this year. I decided to use the same design for both but using different colour schemes. I started by covering the card with paper from Crafty Individuals Spring book and then brushed Brilliance Pearlescent Beige ink through a Crafters Workshop stencil.This is a round doily type design and I thought the little motifs were flowers until I noticed the title on the package is Mini flying Birds, which on taking a closer look I suppose they are but I still think they look quite flowery too.Then I used distress inks to shade the edges in colours to match the flowers I was going to use.The little trellis panel is a Memory Box die, and the mini roses are made with a Britania die, cut out from white paper and coloured with Promarkers as per the video tutorial on the Johanna Sheen website, The leaves are part of a CB stamp coloured with pencils and fussy cut out.The daisy flowers are coloured with distress markers adding a bit more colour with a pencil on the pink ones, then cut out, and the leaves are cut from patterned paper with a Marianne die.I fixed these with a large glue dot in the centre of each flower and when I went back to them in the morning the edges had curled up a little so I tucked some silicone glue under them as they looked better with a little more dimension.
I printed the title on the computer and cut out with a Spellbinder labels die set, I can't remember which number it is.I mounted it onto dark green shiny card cut with next size up die and fixed to to the card.

Thank you for looking and for your comments which are all appreciated.

Punky Birthday.

Today I have this card to show you, I have made it for my niece and though her birthday is not until next week she doesn't read my blog so I think I am safe to show it now. Some may think it an odd colour scheme but it just the sort of thing she will love.
The stamp is from Chocolate Baroque set Punky Romance and I stamped it directly onto a folded white square card with Memento Black Tuxedo  ink.I used several shades of grey Coloursoft pencils for the shading and a black pencil and black fine line pen to emphasise the leaves and swirls.The flowers were coloured with a red distress marker and I used a red glitter gel pen on the butterflies. It doesn't really show in the photo but the main butterfly is decoupaged with the wings slightly raised with silicon glue.To finish the card I added the red and black ribbon to the folded edge and stuck some black gems in the flower centres and stamped the birthday greeting in the top corner. I am quite pleased with this and enjoyed making it especially as I have been lacking in motivation lately.

I am going to enter this at Fashionable Stampers Challenges - Anything Goes
                                                   Crafty Bloggers Network - Os+ Xs  ( Vertical- Gems Stamp Ribbon )

Thankyou for visiting and for your comments which are much appreciated.

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