Challenge 23, Week Three

Hello everyone, and welcome to another week on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. We hope that you are enjoying the current challenge colours, and the fabulous 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.

This week, we have more inspiration from the Design Team. Magda has made a pretty peacock themed card, creating her own embellishments to match:

Anne has created a beautiful woodland scene using some of the Design a Tree stamp sets.

She has very kindly written a tutorial so that you can have a go at making her stunning card yourself:

Anne writes " I am loving the Colour Challenge this month - just my colours. I created this as one of my TV samples for the recent show on the Craft Channel with the Design-a-Tree sets. Wasn't Lesley brilliant!"

Materials:

Stamp sets: Design a Tree Arboretum Glade, Orchard, Landscape Edges, Words of Inspiration,
6" x 6" card blank, white stamping card, and holographic mirror card for mounting
Inkpads: Versafine- (Vintage Sepia, Onyx Black), Distress Ink (Dusty Concord)
Pebeo Drawing Gum masking fluid
Brushos: Leaf Green, Turquoise, Ultamarine, Purple
Clear mica spray
Alcohol marker (black), fine-tipped pen (black)
Stickles glitter glue (Diamond)


Step by Step:

Trim the stamping card to approx 14cms square (slightly smaller than the card blank).
Stamp the trees in Vintage Sepia and the sentiment and birds in Onyx Black Ink.
Draw a circle in the sky and apply masking fluid.
Prepare Brushos for painting by addng crystals to a little water in a palette. Paint the picture with the inks.
Remove the masking fluid and drag some of the colour across the moon.
Spray the moon and central area of the painting sparingly with a little mica spray.
Add a little shading to the trees with the fine-tipped marker, extending at the roots to anchor the trees.
Edge the card with black marker and blend Distress Ink in from the Edges.
Mount onto the mirror card and glue to the card blank. Finish with a little glitter glue for moonlight sparkle on the branches.


Zoe has made a lovely card using Pan Pastels.

She has also written a tutorial, enabling you to try out her amazing card for yourself:

Materials:

Linen card
Nesting Stitched Rectangle Dies
Pan Pastels- Turquoise Shade, Violet Tint, Violet, Permanent Green, Dairylide Yellow
Cheap hairspray
Pencil eraser
Nesting circles stencil set
Stamp sets: Sketchy Doodle Landscape, See Beauty
Silver glitter pen
Tuxedo Black Archival inkpad

Step by Step:

I started by cutting three sizes of linen textured card using my nesting dies, my base card is also made from the same card. I love linen card for CAS cards and especially when using Pan Pastels, I love the sharpness of the overall finish, and I think that it adds a touch of class!
Using my nesting circle stencils, TIP: you could use die cuts for the same effect, I just laid my colours down using Pan Pastel sponges. TIP: it is important to use the proper tools and sponges, as the cheaper make-up sponges are far more absorbent, they soak up the pigment and do not lay down the colour as vibrantly as the denser, proper sponges and tools. This means that you waste more of the product.
As you can see, I have gone outside the circles too, to add a bit more depth. TIP: I mixed the Permanent Green and Dairylide Yellow inside the stencil to obtain a more citrus green, as I did not have the exact colour.
When using multiple colours and stencils, it is important to use a soft brush to remove any loose powder from the card, and to wipe the stencil between using different colours. I also find that Pan Pastels pick up any grease from the card, and so I lean on a piece of scrap paper so that my fingers do not leave greasy marks.
Once I was happy with my coloured circles, I stamped my image and sentiment using the Archival inkpad. Once the ink was dry, I carefully used an eraser and removed colour from the petals of the flower. TIP: remove colour before sealing the card with hairspray. I then added a few little dots in some of the petals using a silver glitter pen.
I stamped the butterfly on a separate piece of linen card and lightly coloured it with the Pan Pastels and decoupaged it onto the card, after I had assembled my card. I used a foam double-sided tape between the layers of my card to add some dimension.

Thank you so much girls for your cards and tutorials this week. We hope that you will be inspred by these projects, and will join in the challenge yourselves. We will be back next week with another post, and some more projects 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.