Challenge 31, Week Four

Hello everyone, and welcome to the final week of Challenge Thirty-One on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. Thank you so much for your visits and lovely comments throughout the month, we really appreciate your support, and love reading what you have to say. We hope that you have been enjoying the current challenge. There is still plenty of time to enter, and to be in with a chance of winning a £15 voucher to spend at Chocolate Baroque. You can add your entries to the link in this post.

This week, we are taking a look at some of the entries we have received so far.

Kate's pretty floral card incorporates background stamping from another one of our stamp sets. The tulips look so fresh, and are coloured beautifully:

Carole has used the same stamp to create both the soft background and vibrant main element. creating a lovely card design:

Shelagh's card is all one layer, but with clever pencil shading looks very three dimensional:

Joan has created a lovely floral meadow scene on her clean and simple style card, using multi-coloured inks:

Annie's card incorporates the caught in crystal technique for her stunning background, and this showcases the lovely fairy and butterfly so well:

Jan has created a beautiful scene on her tag, with the pretty flower and butterfly as a centrepiece. The graduated colours work really well:

This month, it is Asha's turn to tell you a little bit about herself, and you can learn more about our lovely  Design Team member from Portugal.

I joined the Chocolate Baroque Design Team in March 2014....and to this day I am amazed by the talent, support and friendship I find here. If there is a dream team- this is it. For me, being here is a dream come true.

My love affair with Chocolate Baroque began when I bought my first stamp sheet in September 2012. It is called The Gift of Christmas. There is an image on this set which made my heart skip a beat; the silhouette of a cat and dog looking at a Christmas tree.

My cat Xiara passed away on 1st September that year and the scene depicted by that stamp is my most treasured memory of Christmas at home with my dogs and cats around the tree. Chocolate Baroque has immortalised it in a stamp! It comes as no surprise that of all the lovely stamps by Chocolate Baroque, The Gift of Christmas is still my favourite.

Now bear in mind I am not an artistic person, I struggled to get a C- in art at school.... and that only happened twice, by accident! So when you ask me how do I do it- trust me when I say "I don't know, it just happened!"

What I lack in artistic flair, I compensate with a wild and vivid imagination, often imagining myself to be more creative than I really am! My inspiration comes from all over the place- the colour of a flower, the smell of rain, my dog snoring, falling leaves...it always starts with something. Best of all, there's a Chocolate Baroque stamp that fits the bill.

My day job requires mr to be focused, meticulous and methodical. I work in the judicial system, which often (and inconveniently), gets in the way of my crafting endeavours. In stark contrast, my craft room is a place of chaos and madness. However some of my favourite pieces were born here under pressure; photographed and blogged while the ink was still wet. That pretty much sums up how I craft.

I draw strength and peace from my ever supportive husband, my beautiful furbabes and food...lots of it. Chocolate cures all ills!

Thank you so much Asha, for your words, it was so interesting to read about you, and to get to know you a little better.

We will be back next week with a brand new challenge, but we hope to see lots more entries from you in the meantime. If you have any questions, but 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 31, Week Two- It's Winner's Week

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

Please email Lesley on lesley@chocolatebaroque.com so that she can organise your voucher. 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.

The Top Three this month have been chosen by the Design Team, who have had a tough time choosing from such a fabulous selection of entries. The Top Three in no particular order are:

Shelagh:

Carole:

Kate:

Congratulations ladies, you can display the Top Three badge on your blogs. 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 join in with the current challenge. You can find the details here.

We have some more inspiration from the Design Team for you this week:

Julie's pretty washed background creates a lovely setting for the image taken from the Exquisite Edges stamp set. She has used a DL card horizontally to create an elegant slimline project:

Magda has created two inspirational projects that she is sharing this week. The first, a lovely haberdashery-themed card, incorporating a very pretty floral mannequin:

Her second project is a fabulous textured tag, incorporating gesso and tissue paper on the background:

Finally, Zoe is sharing her floral card created by using a mini hexagonal gelli plate on the background:

We hope that these projects will inspire you to create something yourselves for the challenge using the current colour swatch. We will be back next week with another post, and more inspiration from the Design Team, but until then, we look forward to seeing some of your entries. If you have any questions, and cannot find the answers on the blog pages, please send a private message using the contact form located at the very end of this blog post; you will see it after the comments section.

Challenge Thirty-One

Hello everyone, and welcome to a brand new challenge on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. Thank you for your lovely comments and visits to the blog over the past month, we really appreciate your support, and love reading what you have to say. We will be announcing the winners of Challenge Thirty next week, so if you entered the challenge, be sure to check out the blog post, to see if you are the winner of our prize.

As a reminder to those of you who have visited the 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 currently available from the website. We welcome entries incorporating other stamps and images, but they will not be eligible for the prize. All entries 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 blogs.

We have a fabulous new colour swatch for you this month, including a piece of original artwork from Miranda. We will be sharing some beautiful inspiration from the Design Team over the coming weeks. Here is the colour swatch for the new challenge:

The challenge will close at 12.00 p.m. on Tuesday 14th February 2017, and the winner will be announced on Wednesday 22nd February 2017. Here are some projects from the Design Team:

Claire's pretty tag, incorporating a foliage border, and the duo of butterflies is finished off with bold black accents:

Anne has used a Big Bold floral background to make her stunning card, adding a lacy border, and a lovely sentiment. The challenge colours are perfect for her floral theme:

Magda's gorgeous card returns to the butterfly theme, her dreamy background provides the ideal setting for her glittery butterflies:

Thank you girls for your inspiration using the new challenge colours. We hope that they will inspire you to create something yourselves for the challenge. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our challenge blog team. You can get in touch by sending a private message, details are at the end of this post; below the comments section.

We hope that you enjoy the new challenge and look forward to seeing your projects.

Judith xx
 

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