Mica Butterflies from Chocolate Baroque

Good morning folks, well the weekend is here at last and before I head off to play in my craft room I just wanted to share a card made for Lesley's show on Hochanda recently. I've used the beautiful Patchwork Butterfly stamp set to make this card.

To make the background I've used black cardstock and stamped the beautiful swirls with versamark before dusting with mica powders. I stamped the pretty scene and the large butterflies on to black glossy card with versamark and again dusted over with mica powders to give a rainbow effect.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafty Girls Creations: Anything goes

Incy Wincy: Sparkle or Shine

Simply Papercraft: Anything goes

Sisterhood of Crafters: Anything goes

Thanks so much for visiting today, hope to see you again soon

Claire xx

Beautiful Katya

Good morning my lovelies, long time no see! I've been without internet for a wee while but eventually Virgin media have sorted the problem and so I'm playing catch up now. My project today features the lovely Katya from Chocolate Baroque.

To decorate the plastic frame I applied gilding glue and then adding gilding flakes here and there and dusted mica powders over the rest.

I created a background with distress inks (bundled sage, Wilted Violet and Shaded Lilac) and overstamped using the Large Crackle Background stamp using purple chalk ink. I stamped Katya onto white stamping card and coloured her with alcohol markers. I also stamped her onto acetate with versamark and embossed with Gold Embossing Powder. I then cut Katya out and glued her to the background. I then cut her headdress out from the acetate and layered that up with tiny blobs of silicone glue. I added a few little gems here and there.

I then stamped the sentiment (from Artistic Expressions) with purple chalk ink on some gold vellum. I tore the strip out and rolled the edges around a cocktail stick to make a little scroll.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and more: make your mark

Creative Artiste : Anything Mixed Media

Sisterhood of Crafters: Stamp it

Tuesday Throwdown: Something clear

WOW Embossing powder: Anything goes with embossing powder

Thanks so much for visiting, hope to see you again soon

Claire xx

Mica tags from Chocolate Baroque

Good morninf folks, today's project features the beautiful new stamps Floral Notes from Chocolate Baroque. I love Christmas crafting but these new stamps are perfect if, like me you fancy a change from making all those Christmas cards.

I took some black tags and used a sticky embossing powder that I've had forever, I wasn't sure if it had gone off so I put it to the test, stamping with versamark and applying the powder before heating. Once I'd heated the powder I applied mica powders with a small brush. I heat embossed the sentiments and applied some gilding wax around the edges of the tags and added some rainbow ribbon to finish off.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Crafting Musketeers: anything goes

Crafts Galore Encore: Anything goes

Crafty Enjoyments: anything goes

HeARTful Stamping Challenge: anything stamped

Stamping Sensations: floral fancies

Well I'd better get back to those Christmas cards now lol. If you a minute do pop over to the Chocolate Baroque DT blog as my teamies have got lots of beautiful inspiration for you

Claire xx

Happy Birthday Chocolate Baroque

Good morning crafty friends. This post is a little photo heavy as I've been a busy bee making this project to celebrate Chocolate Baroque's 5th Birthday. Pop on over to the challenge blog as there is a competition with a Spring theme and prizes to be won! I can't believe we're celebrating 5 years of Chocolate Baroque lovelinessjj. I've been lucky enough to be on the DT for 5 years in June. As the saying goes time flies when you're having fun and I always have fun with Chocolate Baroque stamps. This concertina book  is my DT project for this week and it uses lots of my favourite stamps.

I began by cutting 4 squares of white card (12.5cm) and lining them up to stamp the main flower images (from Poppy Meadow) and masked them with Pebeo masking fluid. Next  creating a distress ink background using shades of blue and green inks, misting with water and swooshing my card through the inky puddle. Once this was dry I stamped lots of foliage from Wild Meadow using different shades of green ink. 

I removed the masking fluid and coloured the flowers with coloured pencils. I decided my meadow scene needed some butterflies and a touch of magic too. The butterflies were stamped onto the project and also onto some of the lovely sparkly self adhesive acetate which is perfect for wings using Black Stazon ink. I cut out the butterfly wings and removed the backing before dusting over with mica powders. I layered the butterfly wings up with silicone glue.

I stamped the fairies with black archival ink and gave them some sparkly wings too. You can find the full fairy collection here

Lastly I made a cover for my concertina book using distress inks and mica powder applied to copier paper. While still wet I crumpled the paper up and left it to dry. Once this was dry I used it to cover two greyboard squares, one for the front and one for the back. On the front cover I stamped another fairy using black archival ink. It can be a bit tricky to stamp on such an uneven surface but if you do get any little areas that don't stamp properly you can just use a black fineliner pen to fill in the gaps.

To assemble my little book I glued my 4 squares onto a long strip of paper that I'd folded into four panel concertina. I attached the ribbon to the inside of the back cover and then glued the inner section to both front and back covers.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps: pastel colours and a stamp

Deep Ocean: spring is in the air

Dragonfly Dreams: spring is in the air

Fresh Brewed Designs: Flowers

Imagine That Creative Playground: Spring

Paper Shelter: Flowers everywhere

Really Reasonable Ribbon: spring with ribbon/trim

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: April showers bring May Flowers

There is so much inspiration over on the Chocolate Baroque Blog it's well worth a visit if you have time. Talking of time, I'd better go as it's time to go to work

Happy Crafting and a big thank you for visiting today

Claire xx