Challenge 26, Week Five

Hello everyone, and welcome to the final week of the current challenge on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. Thank you for your lovely comments throughout the month, we really appreciate your support.

This week, we are taking a look at some of the entries that we have received for the current challenge, and showcasing a few of them on the blog. We hope that you enjoy the selection that we have chosen to share with you.

 Alice has created a colourful step card, incorporating some of our large flowers and a clever use of the Ophelia stamp to create foliage.

Leanne has used wax paper to create a fabulous background for one of our mushroom stamps:

Anna's pretty easel card uses a butterfly as the stopper. The pretty background also incorporates butterflies:

Papsy's card uses a lovely floral image, coloured beautifully, and has been simply layered onto coloured card.

Regina has created a fabulous background with the addition of extra foliage and leaves to create a super Autumnal card:

Finally, Carole has combined two images to create her card, mixing and matching to come up with her lovely design.

We have had some fabulous entries from you this month, and hope that you have enjoyed using the colours in the current colour swatch. Next month, we are going for a completely different set of colours, and if any of these selections take you outside your comfort zone, then give yourselves a pat on the back for stretching yourselves creatively. Thank you to everyone else who entered the challenge this month, and we hope to see lots more entries from you before the deadline next week. There is still plenty of time to enter, and you can find a link in this post. If you have any questions regarding the challenges, 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.

Challenge 26, Week Four

Hello everyone, and welcome to another week on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. Thank you for the wonderful entries that have been coming in for the challenge so far. We hope that you are enjoying the current colour scheme and the inspiration provided by the Design Team each week for you. We hope that if you have not entered already, you will have a go at creating a project, and join in with the challenge. We encourage all levels of crafter, from beginner to advanced, and the winner is always chosen at random, so everyone has an equal chance of winning the prize. You can add your entry to the link in this post.

We have more inspiration from the Design Team this week. I have made a card using Brushos for the background and main scene.All details can be found on my blog.

Magda has created a very pretty floral card, using a beautiful image, and delicate repeat stamping in the background.

We hope that our projects will encourage you to rummage through your own crafty supplies, and create something to join in with the challenge.

We are taking the opportunity this week to meet another member of the Design Team, it is Anne's turn to talk about herself, and to introduce herself to you, so that you can get to know her a little bit better.

Anne writes:

Initially I worked as a Clinical Scientist for over twenty years. Unfortunate circumstances then required me to work from home whist caring for a family member. Following this, I spent several years working as a Pharmacy Dispenser and running an Ebay shop selling beads and craft supplies. I now work for myself, as a Textile Artist and jewellery maker. it's never too late to change career direction.
I have been crafting ever since I can remember, everything from paper crafting, painting, sewing, beading, wirework, embroidery, weaving, knitting and crochet. Recently I have taught myself to spin my own yarns too. I am never bored!

It is so difficult to pick a favourite craft. I have always loved experimenting and trying out new things. Stamping and die cutting are relatively new techniques for me. Until around four years ago, I had never even heard of die cutting. Now I have a stamp and die obsession- tee hee.

There is so much that inspires me, from nature, flowers, landscapes, the sea, textures, and architecture. I love vintage and shabby chic styles, but also Indian, ethnic, oriental, Medieval and fantasy.

The past year has been an amazing journey for me. A year ago I was privileged to join the Design Team for Chocolate Baroque. I get so much pleasure designing samples with their fabulous stamp range. Later in 2015, I was also lucky enough to join the Design Team for Beads Direct. Amazingly, I have just been given a position with the Tattered Lace Design Team, helping them to create TV show samples. I can hardly believe it. I feel so blessed to be given the opportunity to work with such talented people, and to be given the chance to share and inspire others with their own creativity.

Thanks Anne for your interesting bio, it was lovely to get to know you better. Your craft room looks very interesting in your photo too!

We will be back next week with another post, and more projects to share with you. If you have any questions, and cannot see 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 26, Week Three

Hello everyone, and 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 the blog for the first time, take a look around, and check out the tabs at the top of the page, where you should be able to find the answers to all of your questions. Here is the colour swatch for this month's challenge:

You can find a link to the current challenge here, where you can add your entries at the end of the post. This week, we have some more fabulous inspiration from the Design Team. Magda has created a beautiful Home card, using a combination of stamps.

Anne has created a Christmas canvas, which would be a wonderful piece to bring out every year.

She has very kindly written a tutorial so that you can have a go at making this yourselves.

Materials:
Stamp sets: Christmas Decorations, Words of Inspiration, Sparkling Trees, Christmas Candlelight
25 x 20 primed canvas board, white stamping card, black card, and scrap acetate
Embossing folder with Baroque style design
Snowflake stencil
Inkpads: Distress Ink (Mustard Seed), Versamark, StazOn (Jet Black)
Embossing powder black sparkle glitter
Black gesso
Acrylic paints: black, green
Viva Decor Croco Crackling colour Teal green Kristall Gel clear holographic glitter gel
Glitter pens: red, green, yellow, gold
Glitter glue: red, green, gold
Glossy Aceents, Chunky gold glitter, PVA pearls: gold
Gilding wax: gold
Embellishments: berries, twigs, gold chain, red organza ribbon

Instructions:
Emboss black card with embossing folder and rub over with gilding wax. Trim to make background panel.
Brush the canvas with black acrylic, leaving some background canvas texture showing through, dry completely.
Sponge Distress Ink into spaces.
Apply crackle paste in corners and around the edges and leave to dry overnight. Brush over the top with green acrylic, (the paste was not the correct colour green). Drop some chunky glitter onto the wet paint.
Glue down the embossed background panel. Stamp the sentiment with gold acylic and outline with green glitter pen. Apply Glossy Accents.

Stamp the bauble diamond nine times onto white card with Versamark and heat emboss with black sparkle powder. Colour the card with Distress Ink. Colour the baubles with glitter pens. Cut out and glue to canvas with 3D glue gel. Add Glossy Accents to enhance the baubles.

Apply Kristall Gel to the canvas through the stencil. Also apply to scrap acetate, dry overnight and cut out.

Stamp the lantern and reindeer onto white card. Colour with Distress Ink and Glitter pens. Cut out and glue to canvas. Add Glossy Accents.

Stamp the gem decorations onto acetate with StazOn. Colour the back with glitter glues. Leave to dry overnight. Paint the back with black gesso, cut out and glue to canvas. Add gold hanging chains and gold glitter flue to finials.
Glue down the berries and twigs, which were already decorated with fake snow. Add a bit more sparkle with gold glitter glue. Finally glue down the acetate snowflakes. Add PVA pearls and drop on gold glitter.


Thanks so much Anne, for your detailed explanation.

We hope that the projects that we have shown you this week will inspire you to join in with 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 comment section.

Challenge 26, Week Two- Time to Announce Our Winners!

Hello everyone, welcome to another week on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. This week, we are announcing the winners of our Anniversary Challenge, number Twenty-Five. The winner of the £25 prize to spend at Chocolate Baroque is Pat, whose project was drawn by Random.org as the overall winner. Congratulations Pat, 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 great fun looking at all of your chocolate themed projects. They had a tough choice picking just three entries from such a fabulous selection, a bit like choosing a favourite chocolate from the chocolate box! The Top Three in no particular order are:

Janny:

Shelagh:

 

Gerrina:

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 enter our current challenge. You can find the details here.

We have more Design Team inspiration for you this week.

Asha has created a colourful Christmas Art Journal page. The spicy colours work perfectly for her chosen theme.

Magda has created two projects for us this week; the first, a colourful book cover, using a gelli plate background, and some modern flowers for decoration:

The second, a friendship card, using an Art Nouveau image, and the sentiment matches perfectly:

Zoe has created a pretty floral tag, with stunning dark accents:

We hope that these projects will inspire you to create something for the challenge yourself, and join in with our colourful creativity. We will be back next week with another post, and more projects from the Design Team, but until then, we look forward to seeing more of your entries. 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.

Challenge Twenty-Six

Hello everyone, and welcome to a brand new challenge on the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. Thank you for your support over the past month, during our Anniversary celebrations, we hope that you enjoyed the chocolate theme, and playing along with us as we inspired you with our chocolate creations. We really appreciate your visits to our blog, and enjoy reading your lovely comments. We will be announcing the winners of Challenge Twenty-Five next week, so if you entered the challenge last month, please 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 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 og £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 blog.

We have a fabulous new colour swatch for you to use this month, and some beautiful inspiration from the Design Team, which we will be bringing to you over the coming weeks. Here is the colour swatch for the new challenge:

The challenge will close at 12.00 p.m. on Tuesday 20th September 2016, and the winner will be announced on Wednesday 28th September 2016. Here are some projects from the Design Team:

Claire's wooden plaque incorporates one of our new individual lady stamps and some additional poppies. Lovely embellishments complete the project:

Julie's pretty card uses a punky heart and butterfly, beautifully coloured against her fabulous dotty backgrouund:

Magda's tag is richly coloured, and she has used glossy accents on the foliage for extra dimension:

Her second project is a lovely CAS card incorporating a dimensional flower alonside one of our pretty fairy images:

Thank you so much girls for your inspiration using the new challenge colours. We hope that they will encourage you to have a rummage through your own crafty supplies and create something yourselves, and enter 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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