Wednesday 29 April 2015

Challenge 10, Week Three

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

For those of you visiting our 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, and you can use any medium to create your projects; inks, paints, pencils, pens, etc,. as long as you keep 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 available 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.

This week, we have more inspiration from the DT. The first card is from Shirley:





Asha has very kindly provided a tutorial for her card.

Materials:

A2 fuschia card base
5 1/4" x 4" dark red card
5 1/8" x 3 7/8" white card
Pretty Poppies rubber stamp sheet
Memento Ink Tuxedo Black
Alcohol markers
Embossing folder
Distress Ink Worn Lipsitick
Ink blending tool/sponge
Ranger Glossy Accents
2mm flat-backed gems- pink
Wink of Stella clear brush tip glitter marker
Scallop edge die/scissors
Vellum
Sheer ribbon- pale pink
Adhesive

Instructions:

1. Emboss the white card using the embossing folder. Lightly colour the raised patterns with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink.

2. Stamp the fancy floral image from Pretty Poppies A5 rubber stamp sheet onto bleed proof card. Colour with alcohol markers and fussy cut.

3. Cut three scallop edge borders out of vellum; each measuring 1/2" wide and 3 7/8" long. Adhere to the lower section of the embossed card and wrap with some sheer pink ribbon.

4. Layer the embossed piece onto the dark red card stock and adhere to the fuschia card base.

5. Stick down the fussy cut image onto the embossed background, and apply some Wink of Stella. Finish with a little Glossy Accents over the embossed hearts and random pink gems.

Thank you so much Asha for your pretty project and great tutorial.

We will be back next week with another post and more inspiration for you. We look forward to seeing more of your entries and hope that you will join in the challenge yourselves. 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 blog post; you will see it after the comments section.




Wednesday 22 April 2015

Challenge 10, Week Two- It's Winners Week!

Hello everyone, and welcome to another week on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. This week we are announcing the winner of Challenge Nine. The winner of our £15 prize to spend at Chocolate Baroque is Sylvia-Anne, whose card was drawn by Random.org as the overall winner. Congratulations Sylvia-Anne, 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 as always, had a tough job choosing three projects from such an array of stunning entries. The Top Three in no particular order are:









Congratulations girls, 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. First of all, Claire:








Thank you so much girls for your inspirational projects. We hope that they will inspire you to get creative and enter the challenge yourselves.


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


Wednesday 15 April 2015

Challenge Ten

Hello everyone and welcome to a brand new challenge on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. Unbelievably, we are starting challenge ten this week, the weeks are just flying by. Welcome to our new followers this month, and thank you to our regular supporters for your lovely comments and continued visits to the blog.

We will be announcing the winner for Challenge Nine next week, both here and on our Facebook page, so 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 posted on the third Wednesday of every month and you can use any medium to create your projects; paints, inks, pencils, pens, etc., as long as you keep 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 available on the website. We welcome entries incorporating other stamps, but they will not be eligible to win 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.

Now onto this month's challenge, which has been inspired by an original piece of artwork made by Miranda:




The challenge will close at 12.00 p.m. on Tuesday 19th May 2015, and the winner will be announced on Wednesday 27th May 2015. Here are some inspirational projects from the Design Team for you:

 







If you have any questions at all, 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 the blog post.


We look forward to seeing what you create with the colours provided, and hope that you enjoy the challenge. Judith xx


Wednesday 8 April 2015

Challenge 9, Week Four


Hello everyone, and welcome to another week on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. We hope that you have been enjoying the current challenge, and if you have not entered yet, you still have a few days left. You can add your projects to the link in this post.

We have not received as many entries this month for the challenge, perhaps the colours have been a bit more challenging for you to work with. We try to pick a variety of colour palettes to give everyone the opportunity to work with colours that they like, but sometimes, some colours are not as easy. We hope that you will still give these colours a go, and have some fun with them, as you could win the £15 voucher by entering the challenge! As always, we are showcasing a few of your entries in this final week of the challenge:

Firstly, Sue's beautiful Birthday card using the Butterfly Dress stamp:


Kate has created a super tag using some of our recently released hearts and birds stamps:

 Finally Val has created a beautiful concertina card using the Patchwork Landscape stamp set:

Thank you to everyone who has entered this month so far, and we hope to see lots more entries from you before the challenge deadline next week.

We have a free download from Lesley this week, a lovely feminine design, great for those female cards that you might need to make. Please do not pass the image onto 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 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 projects for your inspiration:






Thank you so much girls for your beautiful projects.

If you feel inspired to make something yourself with 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 another post and a brand new challenge. Don't forget, if you have any questions, and you can't find the answers on the blog, please send us a private message using the contact form located at the very end of this blog post, you will see it after the comments section.

Wednesday 1 April 2015

Challenge 9, Week Three

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

For those of you visiting our 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, and you can use any medium to create your projects; inks, paints, pencils, pens, etc., as long as you keep 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 available 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.


This week, we have more inspiration from the DT, Julie has created a floral treat for us using one of the latest clear egg stamps available on the website:


Judith has created a tutorial for her card:



Materials:

20cms x 20cms black card blank
Green card
Pale pearlescent card
Spray starch
Brushos: Prussian Blue, Turquoise, Purple
White acrylic paint or Gesso
White embossing powder
Versamark
Alcohol Markers
Pencils
Leafy stencil
Cling film
Steampunk Funky Fish/Steampunk Seaworld multi-buy rubber stamp set

Instructions:

Cut a piece of pearlescent card to19cms x 19cms.
Spray with spray starch and drop small amounts of the three colours of Brushos over the card.
Spray with spray starch again. Cover with cling film, crinkling the cling film to create creases.
Leave for 30 minutes and carefully remove the cling film, then allow the card to dry completely.
Paint the leaves using the stencil and gesso or white paint, and again leave to dry.
Emboss the sea creatures using white embossing powder onto some spare pearlescent card. Colour with alcohol markers.
Accentuate with pencil if desired.
Cut out the sea creatures and attach to the background.
Mat the background onto a layer of green card before adding to a black card blank.

If you choose to use glossy card, and slightly paler colours, the cling film effect is much more pronounced:





However, in this instance I wanted a very irridescent, underwater look. I hope you will experiment and try this technique for yourselves.

We will be back next week with another post and more inspiration for you. We look forward to seeing more of your entries and hope that you will join in the challenge yourselves. 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 blog post; you will see it after the comments section.