Challenge 18, Week Three

Hello everyone, and welcome to another week on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. We hope that you all had a lovely Christmas, and would like to wish you a very Happy New Year, from everyone on the Design Team.

We hope that you are enjoying our current challenge, and the inspiration provided by the Design Team. For those of you visiting the blog for the first time, here is the inspirational photo and colour swatch that we are using for the current challenge:

You can find a link to the current challenge here:

Our challenges are monthly, based on an inspirational photo and a colour swatch. A new challenge is launched on the third Wednesday of every month. You can use any medium that you like to create your project; inks, paints, pens, pencils, etc., as long as you stick to the colours from the colour swatch in your project. We offer a monthly prize of £15 and the winner is drawn by Random.org from those entries that have used Chocolate Baroque stamps currently for sale on the website. We welcome entries from anyone however, and all entries will be considered by the DT members for a slot in the Top Three each month. You can find the rules on the 'How it Works' tab at the top of the page.


This week, we have more inspiration from the Design Team. Anne has made a beautiful Valentine's card:

Julie has made a stunning floral card, with a fabulous doodled background:

Julie has very kindly written a tutorial for her card, so that you can recreate her card yourself.




Materials Used:

14.5cms x 14.5cms Card blank
14cms x 14cms Black card
White stamping card
Super size, self adhesive, address labels 12cms x 9 cms
Dotty Centre Flowerhead stamp
Mackintosh Sentiments stamp set
Fine tipped micron pen
Zig paint pen: white
Distress Ink: Festive Berries
Versafine Ink: Onyx Black 
Black buttons or large brads
Stickles glue: Crystal
Foam pads

Method:

Ink up the Flower Head stamp with Versafine and stamp onto an address label. Repeat this process so that you have two stamped labels.

Take a piece of sponge and apply the Festive Berries ink to both of the stamped flowers and the add highlights with the Zig pen.

Fussy cut the flowers, peel off the backing and adhere to the black card. Cut the edges off the top right flower and place it so that the petals seem to disappear off the edge of the card.

Take the Zig paint pen and doodle a background around the flowers and highlight the outside edges on the black card.
Doodle a border on the base card with the fine tipped Micron pen, and then glue the decorated panel in place.
Stamp the Thank You sentiment with Versafine onto white card and cut to size. Edge with Festive Berries and place on the card with foam pads.
Place the black buttons or brads in each corner of the card, and glue into place.
Finish off with dabs of Crystal Stickles on the white doodle background.

Thank you so much Julie for your fabulous tutorial, we hope that we have given you some inspiration, and that you will join in the challenge yourselves. You could be in with a chance of winning the £15 voucher to spend at Chocolate Baroque. We will be back next week with another post, and some more inspiration for you. If you have any questions, and cannot find the answers on the blog pages, please send us a private message using the contact form located at the very end of this post; you will see it after the comments section.

Challenge 18, Week Two- Winner's Week

Hello everyone, and welcome to another week on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. This week, we are announcing the winner of Challenge Seventeen. The winner of our £15 prize to spend at Chocolate Baroque is Janny, whose card was drawn by Random.org as the overall winner. Congratulations Janny, we hope that you enjoy your prize.

You can also display our Winner's badge on your blog, details of how to obtain the badge can be found on the FAQ tab at the top of the page. Please email Lesley on lesley@chocolatebaroque.com so that she can organise your voucher.

Our Top Three this month have been chosen by the Design Team, who have struggled once again to pick just three entries from such a great selection. The Top Three in no particular order are:

Val:

Lesley:

Carole:

Congratulations ladies, you can display the Top Three badge on your blog. Details of how to obtain the badge can be found on the FAQ tab at the top of the page. Well done to everyone who entered, and we hope that you will enter the current challenge. You can find the details here.

We have some more Design Team inspiration for you this week.  Zoe has made a striking floral card:

Claire has made a beautiful Christmas card, incorporating one of our Fat Robins:

Finally, Miranda has created two stunning cards using one of our newest background stamps and some lovely tree images:

Thank you so much for your projects girls, we hope that they will inspire you to create something yourselves for the current challenge.

We will be back next week with more projects from the Design Team, but until then, we look forward to seeing your entries. If you have any questions, and cannot find the answers on the blog pages,  please send us a private message using the contact form located at the very end of this post; you will see it after the comments section.

Challenge Eighteen

Hello everyone and welcome to a brand new challenge on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. Thank you so much for your support and comments throughout the month, we really appreciate your visits to the blog, and love reading what you have to say.

We will be announcing the winner of Challenge Seventeen next week, so if you entered a project last month, please be sure to check the announcement to see if you are the winner of our prize.

As a reminder to those of you who have visited our blog before, and for anyone who is new to the blog, our challenges are monthly, based on an inspirational photo and a colour swatch. A new challenge is launched on the third Wednesday of every month. You can use any medium to create your project; inks, paints, pens, pencils, etc., as long as you stick to the colours from the colour swatch in your project.

We are offering a monthly prize of £15 to spend on Chocolate Baroque stamps to one lucky winner, who will be selected by Random.org from all of the entrants who have used Chocolate Baroque stamps that are currently for sale on the website. We welcome entries incorporating other stamps, but they will not be eligible for the prize. All entrants will have the chance to be selected as one of our Top Three and can then display our 'I made the Top Three at Chocolate Baroque' badge on their blog.

As this is our last challenge of the year, we have chosen a beautiful photo incorporating Glenda's cat Purdy for your inspiration. The colours are very striking, and the Design Team girls have come up with some stunning projects which we will be sharing with you over the next few weeks. We hope that you will be able to find a little bit of time over this busy festive period to join in with the challenge and get creative with us. Here is the colour swatch for the new challenge:

The challenge will close at 12.00 p.m. on Tuesday 19th January 2016, and the winner will be announced on Wednesday 27th January 2016. Here are some inspirational projects from the Design Team for you:

Miranda has created a stunning Christmas card and an intricate Art Nouveau themed card:

Asha has created a fun Christmas tag, love the jolly Santa!:

Vronnie has created a beautiful box:

Dominike has created a little fabric book 7cms x 7cms square:

plus two Christmas cards:

Thank you so much girls for your inspiration, what a diverse range of projects we had using the colours for this challenge! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our challenge blog team. You can get in touch by sending us a private message. Details are at the end of this blog post, below the comments section.


We hope that you enjoy this new challenge, and look forward to seeing your projects,

An InLinkz Link-up

Challenge 17, Week Four

Hello everyone and welcome to our final week of Challenge Seventeen on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. Thank you for your support and lovely comments throughout the month, we really appreciate reading what you have to say. We hope that you have been enjoying the challenge, and the fabulous colour scheme this time around. There is still time to enter, and you can add your project to the link in this post.

This week, we are taking a look at some of the entries that we have received for the current challenge, and showcasing just a few of them on the blog:

Carole:

Val:

Janny:

We have a free download from Lesley for you this week, a fabulous tapestry background in rich colours, great for all sorts of projects. The Design Team have created some really inspirational projects with it, as you will see. Please do not pass the image to others, but send them back here to collect the freebie for themselves.

To obtain your free download, please click on the image below. Once you have enlarged the image on your computer screen, right click the image, choose the option 'Save As', and save the image to your computer. You can now print the image onto a variety of surfaces for your crafting projects.

The Design Team have been making some beautiful projects for your inspiration using the free download. Claire has made a stunning heart-shaped hanging:

I have made a Christmas card using stamps from the Gothic Angels stamp set:

Anne has made a really pretty layered card using the Hydrangea Tag stamp set:

Thank you so much girls for your lovely projects. We hope that they will inspire you to use Lesley's download paper to make something yourself. If you do make something using one of Lesley's downloads, why not upload a picture to our Facebook page? We would love to see what you have made.

We will be back next week with a brand new challenge, but hope to see lots more entries for the current challenge from you in the meantime. Don't forget if you have any questions, and you cannot find the answers on the blog pages, please send us a private message using the contact form located at the very end of this post; you will see it after the comments section.

Challenge 17, Week Three

Hello everyone, and welcome to another week on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. We hope that you are enjoying the current challenge, and the inspiration provided by the Design Team.

For those of you visiting the blog for the first time, here is the inspirational photo and colour swatch that we are using for our current challenge:

You can find a link to the current challenge here:

Our challenges are monthly, based on an inspirational photo and a colour swatch. A new challenge is launched on the third Wednesday of every month. You can use any medium that you like to create your project; inks, paints, pens, pencils, etc., as long as you stick to the colours from the colour swatch in your project. We offer a monthly prize of £15 and the winner is drawn by Random.org from those entries that have used Chocolate Baroque stamps currently for sale on the website. We welcome entries from anyone however, and all entries will be considered by the DT members for a slot in the Top Three each month. You can find the rules on the 'How it Works' tab at the top of the page.

This week, we have more inspiration from the Design Team.

Anne has made a beautiful scenic card, and has very kindly written a tutorial, so that you can have a go at making her card yourself if you wish:

Materials:

Owl Edges, Exquisite Edges, and Words of Inspiration stamp sets
Crealies Mask
A5 scalloped card blank
White stamping card
Distress Inks: Peacock Feathers, Stormy Sky
Dye based inkpad: dark red/burgundy
Versamark inkpad
Embossing powders: Gold, Blueberry
Glitter Glues: blue-grey, dark red
Gold PVA pearls
Gilding wax
Alcohol marker: dark blue-grey
Fine tipped black pen
White gel pen
Die cuts: bullrushes and to create sentiment mat
Adhesive and 3D gel


Instructions:

Trim stamping card to fit the card front. Brush through stencil with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink to create a random swirled background. Using a sponge, emphasise the edges with Stormy Sky Distress Ink and edge the card with a dark blue alcohol marker.
Using Stormy Sky Distress Ink, stamp the little branch along the top third of the card, (leaving enough room for the owls). Next, stamp the bullrushes across the centre, first with Stormy Sky, and then, positioning slightly lower down, in the dark red ink.
Using Versamark, stamp the little owls and the bottom border. Heat emboss with the gold. Tip: ensure that the card is fully dry and brush with antistatic powder before embossing. This will prevent stray powder sticking where you don't want it.
Colour the owls using Peacock Feathers and dark red inks, and fill in the bottom of the card with Stormy Sky, using a water brush to pick up the colours. The embossing will resist the ink. Use the fine tipped black and white markers to colour the owl eyes. Colour the die cut rushes with Stormy Sky Distress Ink. Tip: apply inks to your craft mat or a piece of acetate before picking up with a wet brush. Do not put a wet brush directly onto your inkpad, or you will dilute them.
Stamp the sentiment with Versamark and emboss with Blueberry powder. Ink the edges of the die cut with Stormy Sky and the blue alcohol pen. Mount onto the scalloped background mat and edge with a little gold gilding wax.
Glue the sentiment onto the card with 3D glue gel. Glue on the die cut bullrushes. Add tiny dots of PVA pearls along the border, and finish by decorating with blue and red glitter glues.

Anne writes, "I hope that you like my offering for this month's Challenge. I am looking forward to seeing your creations, Good Luck with the prize draw. Anne x"

Thank you so much Anne for your brilliant tutorial, we hope that we have given you some inspiration, and that you will join in the challenge yourselves. You could be in with the chance of winning that £15 voucher to spend at Chocolate Baroque. We will be back next week with another post, and some more inspiration for you. If you have any questions, and cannot find the answers on the blog pages, please send us a private message using the contact form located at the very end of this post; you will see it after the comments section.