Challenge 4, week Four

Hello everyone, welcome back to the Chocolate Baroque Challenge blog. Thank you so much for your entries this week, it never ceases to surprise us at the variety of entries that we receive. There is still plenty of time to enter the challenge and if you would like to add your project, you can find the link in this post.

We have two free downloads from Lesley for you this week, and as always, they are absolutely amazing. Please do not pass them on to 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 busy making some projects for you with the downloads for your inspiration.

Here are a couple of projects from Florence, a fabulous journal book using Stampbord for the focal image:

and a classy masculine card with a great mix of images:

Next up is Miranda with some Indian inspired pieces, the jewel colours are just beautiful:

and a leafy card that is perfect for this time of year:

Shirley has made a pretty card using one of the Chocolate Baroque bird stamps, these colours are lovely against the background paper:

Doreen's tag is a nod to the coming Season, and the white highlights are really striking:

If you feel inspired to make anything with the downloads yourself, why not upload them 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 blog post; you will see it after the comments section.

Challenge 4 Week Three More DT Inspiration for You

Hello everyone, welcome back to another week on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. Thank you to those of you who have entered the challenge so far, your entries are all fabulous.

For those of you who are 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 the 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; paints, inks, 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 some more inspiration from the DT. Our first project is an Autumnal card from Maria:

Our second project is from Doreen, who has kindly written step by step instructions for her pretty card:

Materials:

Red Card Blank 10.5cm x 15cm

White Card 10cm x 14.5cm

Pan Pastels: Permanent Red, Diarylide Yellow, Violet Tint, Red Iron Oxide, Permanent Red Tint, Chromium Oxide Green

Sakura Pigma Micron Black Pen

Black Archival Ink

Briar Rose Butterfly Stamp Set

Mackintosh Sentiments Stamp set

Cheap Hairspray

Eraser

Thin Paintbrush

Instructions:

1. Using the red, yellow and violet Pan Pastels, cover the white card. Start with yellow at the bottom then red and blend in the violet.
2. Spray the background with hairspray, this will seal the Pan Pastels allowing you to stamp more clearly.
3. Stamp the image and sentiment using Black Archival Ink and dry with a heat gun or leave to dry for ten minutes.
4. Using the eraser, rub off some of the Pan Pastels from inside your images. This does not have to be perfect.
5. Using the Pan Pastels and a slightly damp paintbrush, colour the image. Do not over wet the brush, dab it onto some kitchen roll to take off the excess water.
6. Doodle around the image using the Micron pen.
7. Adhere the image to the red card blank.

Thank you so much Maria and Doreen for your inspiration this week. We will be back next week with another post and more projects for you. We look forward to seeing more of your entries, so dig out your crafting stash and have some fun!

You can add you entries to the Inlinkz link here. 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 blog post; you will see it after the comments section.

Challenge 4 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 winners of Challenge Three.

The winner of our £15 prize to spend at Chocolate Baroque is Rachel whose fabulous accordian card was drawn by Random.org as the overall winner. Congratulations Rachel, we hope that you will enjoy your prize.

You can also display our Winner's badge, 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 has been chosen by the Design Team. We had a really hard time choosing a Top Three, as we had so many brilliant entries to choose from. Our Top Three winners in no particular order are:

Debbie:

Sally:

Felicie:

Congratulations, you can display the Top Three badge on your blog. Details of how to obtain the badge may 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 our current challenge. You can find the details here.

We have some more inspiration from our Design Team for you this week. Our first project is from Florence she has decorated a lovely little box for your inspiration:

Our second project is from Debbie, who has created a lovely CAS style card:

Finally, Miranda has created her beautiful layered card to inspire you:

Three very different projects from the Team to hopefully give you some ideas. Thank you Girls for your inspiration.

We will be back next week with more projects from the Design Team, but until then we look forward to seeing more of your crafty creations. 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 Four

Hello everyone, and welcome to a brand new challenge on the Chocolate Baroque challenge blog. Thank you for all of your entries into last month's challenge, we will be announcing the winner next week, both here and on our Facebook page. Keep a look out, it could be you!

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 any other stamps, but they will not be eligible to win the prize. All entrants will have a 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 on to this month's challenge, which has been inspired by a piece of original artwork created by Lesley:

The challenge will close at 12.00 p.m. on Tuesday 18th November 2014, and the winner will be announced on Wednesday 26th November 2014. Here are some inspirational projects from our Design Team for you:

Shirley:

Asha:

Claire:

Judith:

If you have any questions at all, please don't 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.

We look forward to seeing what you create using the colours provided and hope that you enjoy the challenge! So get out your stash and start playing.

An InLinkz Link-up

Challenge Three, week Four

Hello everyone, welcome back to the last week of Challenge Three on the Chocolate Baroque challenge blog. Thank you so much for the fabulous entries that you have been posting so far, we are really enjoying seeing what you come up with each week. There is still plenty of time to enter this challenge, and if you would like to add your project, you can find the link in this post.

This week, we are taking a look at some of the entries that we have received so far for the current challenge. First up is a lovely card from Sally, who has used masks to add interest to her background, and created a lovely Autumn scene:

Next is a super Easter card from Katerina, sent in via email:

Draper's Creations has created a lovely bookmark for the challenge for her entry:

Finally,  here is a card from Felicie who has made a beautiful scene using decoupage and lots of different stamps for her project:

This week, we have two free downloads for you from Lesley, and they are absolutely beautiful. Please do not pass them on to 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 on 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 busy making some projects with the downloads to give you some inspiration.

Here are a couple of projects from Florence, an Eastern inspired project:

and a really clever blend of the feisty angel and some bee stamps:

A fairy scene from Shirley:

Two leafy projects from Miranda:

This second project mixes old and new stamps beautifully:

We will be back next week with a new challenge, and hope to see lots more entries for the current challenge 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 blog post; you will see it after the comments section.

Challenge 3 Week Three

Hello everyone, and welcome to another week on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog! Thank you for all of your fabulous entries for our current challenge, the variety of designs is amazing.

For those of you who are 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 the 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; paints, inks, 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 that are 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 some more great DT inspiration for you from Asha

Our second card is from Claire, who has very kindly given you a step by step tutorial for her card:

Materials:

Ivory Linen card blank 6" x 6"
Distress Inks- Gathered Twigs, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Pumice Stone
Masking Tape
Masking Tissue
Terrific Treescapes clear stamp set
Birthday Words stamp set
Cut 'n' Dry Foam
Copier Paper

Instructions:

1. Mask a border around the front of your card blank using masking tape. Make sure your masking tape is not too tacky as this will tear the card when you remove it. If it seems too tacky, dust it with a little talc, or use an anti-static bag on it to de-tack the tape a little.

2. Tear a sheet of copier paper to create a mask for the hills.

3. Mask the ground and ink the sky area with Mustard Seed Distress Ink using cut 'n' dry foam.

4. Cut a mask for the sun using masking tissue and a circle punch or die, mask off the sun, and then apply some Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink to the sky. Apply the ink randomly and intensify the colour around the sun mask.

5. Remove the mask, and apply a little Spiced Marmalade in streaks acdross the sun, add a little Pumice Stone for some depth.

6. Remove the copier paper mask from the land area and use the other piece of mask to cover the sky, so that you can ink in the hills.

7. Use your copier paper mask and Pumice Stone Distress Ink to ink in the hills, making the colour deeper as you work your way down the page.

8. Stamp the tree stamps using Gathered Twigs Distress Ink and create a shadow under each tree by using a water brush and a little more ink.

9. Lastly stamp the sentiment using Gathered Twigs Distress Ink and remove the masking tape.

Thank you so much Claire and Asha for your inspiration this week. We will be back next week with another post, but look forward to seeing some more entries using these lovely Autumnal colours from you!

You can add your entries to the Inlinkz link here. 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 blog post; you will see it after the comments section.

Challenge 3 Week Two: Announcing our Winners

Hello everyone, welcome back to the Chocolate Baroque challenge blog. This week we are announcing the winners of the last challenge, which is one of our favourite parts of the month!

The Winner of our £15 prize to spend at Chocolate Baroque is Barbara, her fabulously elegant card was drawn randomly by Random.Org as the overall winner. Congratulations Barbara, we hope that you will enjoy your prize.

You can also display our Winners badge, 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 with your details so that she can organise your voucher.

Our Top Three has been chosen by the Design Team and we had a really hard time making our selections from all your fabulous entries. So in no particular order here they are:

Sandra:

Rachel:

Crafty:

Congratulations to you all, you can display the Top Three badge on your blog. Details of how to obtain the badge made be found on the FAQ tab at the top of the page. Well done to everyone who entered, I have to say we are bowled over by the standard of entries. I hope you are enjoying our challenges as much as we are in seeing all your wonderful designs and that you will enter our current challenge, details of which you can find here

We have some more inspiration from our Design Team for you this week. Our first project is from Maria:

The second project is from Judith:

We will back next week with more projects from the Design Team so, until then, we look forward to seeing more of your crafty creations. 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.