Challenge Twelve

Hello everyone, and welcome to a brand new challenge on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. We would like to welcome our new followers this month, and thank all of our regular followers for your continued support. We really appreciate your visits and lovely comments.

We will be announcing the winner of Challenge Eleven next week, both here and on our Facebook page, so be sure to check out 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. 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 a piece of original artwork made by DT member Claire:

 The challenge will close at 12.00 p.m. on Tuesday 14th July 2015, and the winner will be announced on Wednesday 22nd July 2015. Here are some inspirational projects from the Design Team for you:

 Florence:

Asha:

Julie:

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, below the comments section.

We look forward to seeing your creations using these new challenge colours, and hope that you enjoy taking part in the challenge. Judith xx

An InLinkz Link-up

Challenge 11, Week Four

Hello everyone, and welcome to the final week of Challenge Eleven on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. Thank you so much for all of your entries, we really appreciate your support.

This week, we are taking a look at some of the entries we have received for the challenge, and showcasing them on the blog. We have had some fabulous entries as always, which makes it difficult to choose, but here are some projects that we would like to mention:

Sylvia-Anne has created a very elegant card using Ophelia and a gothic window fragment. The softer colours create quite a dreamy effect:

Jen has created such dimension with quilling on her card, and the top dragonflies really look as though they are skimming over the water:

Gerrina has created a lovely romantic floral scene, with a great balance of colours. The flowers really pop against the paler turquoise background.:

Pauline has used polymer clay and the Sunny Sunflower stamp to create her stunning pendant:

Four very different entries as you can see using this month's challenge colours.

We have two free downloads for you from Lesley this week, she has designed a plainer base layer suitable for lots of different card options and also a second design with an added embellishment. Please do not pass the images onto others, but send them back here to collect the freebies for themselves.

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

The Design Team have been making some projects for your inspiration using the free download. First of all Florence has made a beautiful collaged card:

Judith has made a haberdashery themed card:

We hope that we have inspired you to use these fabulous downloads 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 another post and a brand new challenge. We look forward to seeing lots more entries for our current challenge in the meantime. There is still plenty of time to enter, and you can find the link in this post. 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 post; you will see it after the comments section.

Challenge 11, 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 the 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 our 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 Claire:

Judith:

I have a tutorial for you for my card, which has a batik style background:

Materials:

White card blank
Smooth watercolour paper
Watercolour pencils
Distress Inks: Salty Ocean, Picked Raspberry, Cracked Pistachio
Memento Ink: Grape Jelly
Versafine Onyx Black Ink
Versamark Ink
Clear embossing powder
Texture Fragments stamp set
Breath of Spring stamp set
Autumn Fairy Collection stamp set
Spring Fairy Collection stamp set
Thinking of You clear stamp set
Purple organza ribbon

Instructions:

Cut a piece of watercolour paper 19cms x 19cms and emboss the floral fragment all over the background, using Versamark and clear embossing powder.

Blend Salty Ocean, Picked Raspberry and Cracked Pistachio Distress Inks over the top of the embossing, and the add some Grape Jelly Memento Ink around the edges.

Cover the background with some scrap paper and using an iron on a medium heat, iron over the background until all of the embossing has been removed. The surface should now be completely smooth.

Cut a smaller rectangle of watercolour paper and stamp the fantasy flower. Colour the image with watercolour pencils, blending the colours with a water brush if desired. Use the paler colours first, and add darker colours afterwards to add depth and shading. I have used two shades of blue and two tones of pink on the flowers.

Blend some Cracked Pistachio and Salty Ocean Distress Ink around the edges of the rectangle.

Stamp the butterflies and sentiment using Versafine Ink.

Attach the ribbon to your background tying a bow if desired, and then adding the floral image, before adhering your background to the card blank.

We hope that our projects will give you some inspiration and that you will join in with the challenge yourselves. We will be back next week with another post and some more inspiration for you. We look forward to seeing more of your entries. 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.

Challenge 11, 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 Ten. The winner of our £15 prize to spend at Chocolate Baroque is Val Early, whose card was drawn by Random.org as the overall winner. Congratulations Val, 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 a variety of fabulous entries. The Top Three in no particular order are:

 Jen

 

 

Annemie

Debbie

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 page 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. Firstly, an oriental scene from Florence:

followed by a folded fragment project from Miranda:

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

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.

Challenge Eleven

Hello everyone and welcome to a brand new challenge on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. Welcome to our new followers this month, and thank you to our regular followers for your continued support, we really appreciate your visits and lovely comments.

We will be announcing the winner for Challenge Ten 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 avaailable 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 a piece of original piece of artwork made by former DT member Shirley:

The challenge will close at 12.00 p.m. on Tuesday 16th June 2015, and the winner will be announced on Wednesday 24th June 2015. Here are some inspirational projects from the Design Team for you:

Asha:

Julie:

Debbie:

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, below the comments section.

We look forward to seeing what you create using these new challenge colours, and hope that you enjoy taking part. Judith xx

An InLinkz Link-up

Challenge 10, Week Five

Hello everyone, and welcome back to our final week of challenge Ten on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. Thank you so much for all of your entries, we appreciate your time and support.

This week, we are taking a look at some of the entries we have received for the challenge, and showcasing just a few of them on the blog. As always, we have had a range of styles and stamps cropping up in your entries, and it makes choosing projects really difficult. However, here are a few that we would like to mention:

Jen has created this very unusual card, giving a really modern twist to an older set of stamps. It is such a clever idea, and the dimension she has created is fabulous, along with the great use of the challenge colours:

Rachel's CAS flapper card is great, using one of the smaller images to create the streamlined background, another very clever idea, and she has added a very apt sentiment.

Kristiina's very colourful ATC is so cute with the steampunk birds. The vibrant background creates the perfect backdrop for her paper pieced creations:

We receive several email entries each month, and this one from Maria, is a very pretty Steampunk creation. She has created a super background to tie in with her focal image:

Finally, Regina's pretty floral trifold card with its harlequin background is a great design. The fabulous funky flowers and insects are so bright and cheery:

Thank you to everyone who has entered this month, and we hope to see lots more entries from you before the challenge deadline next week. There is still plenty of time to enter, and you can find the link in this post. Remember, you stand a chance of winning a £15 voucher, details of which can be found on the How it Works tab at the top of this page. We will be back next week with a new challenge, 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 post; you will see it after the comments section.

Challenge 10, Week Four

Hello everyone and welcome to another week on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. We hope that you are enjoying our current challenge, and using it an excuse to get crafting. If you would like to enter our challenge, you can add your project to the link in this post.

We have a free download from Lesley for you this week, she has come up with a beautiful design, suitable for masculine or feminine cards. 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 using the free download. First of all Judith has made an Oriental themed card:

Florence has made a spooky card for Hallowe'en:

We hope that we have inspired you to use this versatile download 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 another post, and look forward to seeing lots more entries for the current challenge from you in the meantime. 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 post; you will see it after the comments section.