Chocolate Baroque Guest DT Post

A few weeks ago I was offered the opportunity of doing a Guest DT post for the Chocolate Baroque DT blog, which blew me away. Also made me panic somewhat I must admit. What to do? So many talented crafters  on their site quite makes you feel the pressure,lol.
This was my project, I decided to stick with what you know, a card, but I did add extra pressure on myself with colouring the image. All my regular visitors know how I feel about my colouring, but even I was quite pleased with the finished result.

This was actually the second image I coloured, as I tried first stamping onto a piece of mountboard, as I had an idea to add some magnetic photo paper to the back to turn it into a removable fridge magnet, but the Promarkers tended to bleed badly on the mountboard, so I reverted to normal card for the image.

One of the wonderful things about Glenda's stamps is how beautifully they mix and match, you are never limited to working just with the stamps in a particular set. For this project, I’ve used stamps from four different Chocolate Baroque sets: Serenity, Gothic Fragments, Floral Edges and Words of Wisdom. 

I began by taking a piece of white card roughly 6” x 6”.  I sprayed it with a mix of blue and purple; I mixed Distress Re-inkers (Salty Ocean and Seedless Preserves) with water in mini misters, but any spray inks will do the job. After spraying, I blotted the paper with kitchen towel, which left a lovely muted background.

Now I overstamped this piece with a couple of stamps from the Gothic Fragments, one of the Floral Edges and the Wisteria branch from Serenity. So the overstamping stayed soft to match the background, they were all stamped in Salty Ocean, and each time I stamped the image onto scrap before stamping on my background, giving me a paler second generation image.  I sprayed a second piece, roughly 3” x 6”, in the same way, then overstamped with another of the Gothic Fragments, finally inking up the Old English Prayer from the Words of Wisdom set in Versafine Majestic Blue and stamping that over the top.

Next I took another piece of white card, and stamped the Buddha image from Serenity in Memento Tuxedo Black, as I was going to colour it with Promarkers.  Using the ink left on the stamp, I also stamped a post-it note mask for the image. I trimmed the mask on the lines, so I would not get a ‘halo’ effect around my image. The post it mask was placed over the top, so that I could add colour to the ‘sky’ around the image, using Adirondack inks in Aqua, Stonewashed, Sailboat Blue, and just a touch of Denim at the edges, with a Colorbox Stylus tool. You can do this with sponges, an ink applicator or brushes, whatever your preferred method is. The sky took up roughly 2/3 of the image, so the bottom third was coloured for grass, again with Adirondacks in Willow, Citrus and a little Lettuce. Any of these inks can be swapped for whatever dye based inkpads you may have.

After this was totally dry, I added colour to the image using markers. The final touch was to add gilding flakes to the shrine the Buddha is sitting inside, and to the adornment on the Buddha's head. This I did by using a Versamark pen, Judikins Sticky Stuff embossing powder and gilding flakes.The background sheet, Buddha and the Prayer were each matted onto dark blue card.

For my base card, I cut two sheets of dark Grey Metallic card to 9”x 7 1/2”. Measuring in 1 1/2” from one short edge on each sheet, I scored a line down the card. At this point I also cut two sheets of white copy paper to make an insert for the greeting later, always wise when using a dark card base. Sandwiching the two white sheets between the two pieces of card, I punched two holes in the narrow section that had been scored. Now I threaded fibres through these holes, and tied together.  You could use twine/ribbon/string,  whatever you like. My ‘fibres’ are actually ‘eyelash wool’. I added a pale purple and pale blue brad top and bottom of the spine to secure it firmly.

Now the background sheet was stuck to the card front using double sided tape, and the Buddha image mounted on top of that, again with tape.  I added little foam pads to the back of the Prayer, to give a little dimension, and mounted it at an angle partly over the Buddha image.The final little embellishment I spotted lying on my desk- a little punched dragonfly. I had some scraps from a project a few weeks ago, using gilding flakes on black card, and had punched a few dragonflies and butterflies from the last bits. I added him with a little blob of

silicone glue.

 

 Supplies:

 Chocolate Baroque stamps:Serenity, Gothic Fragments, Words of Wisdom and Floral Edges.

 DI ink refills Seedless Preserves and Salty Ocean

DI Inkpads Salty Ocean and Seedless Preserves

Adirondacks Aqua, Stonewashed, Sailboat Blue and Denim, Willow, Citrus and Lettuce.

Memento Tuxedo Black 

Versafine Majestic Blue 

 Sticky Stuff embossing powder

 Versamark or embosssing pen

Gilding Flakes

 Markers of choice.

WOYWW #246

Good Morning everyone- this is what currently resides on my desk, for this weeks Show & Tell, hosted as always by our Head Desker, Julia, at The Stamping Ground. Click the link and join in the fun.
Looking a whole lot tidier than it has for the last week, what with glitter for the Valentines card, and then gilding flakes, in my last two posts.Although I have to say, gilding flakes make glitter look positively well behaved.
 This card came from the scraps in my last post- the pieces that didn't come out as well as I wanted. I'd punched out some squares from them, and luckily got 9. It sort of shouted 'Oriental' at me, so that was how I went. Matted the squares onto black, then embossed gold card, then black again. Mounted that onto a square of Origami paper, then onto a square black card base. I also managed to punch a few dragonflies from the last remaining scrap bits,with an X-Cut punch that surprisingly goes through quite thick card easily, so added a couple of those, and a Chinese coin to finish the theme. Got a few dragonflies left over, and three more images to turn into cards. A few bits at the back, from a UFO a few weeks ago. Sat staring at me, waiting for inspiration to strike. So that's me, short and sweet this week- there's a novelty! After this has posted, I shall also be entering it into Pixies Snippets Challenge, as it came from scraps.

playing with gilding flakes and sticky stuff.

Two products I've had forever, and never actually tried out. A tub of Judikins Sticky Stuff embossing powder, and some metal leaf. I also have some tubs of gilding flakes in various colours- rose gold, variegated green etc.
I thought I'd try it first with this stamp, Wishing Tree from Lavinia stamps.
Basically, you stamp your image in a pigment ink, I used plain old Versamark for mine, but as you can use this product with glitter as well, you could also use a coloured ink. I also worked on black card, as I thought the image would 'pop' more.

Sprinkle the Sticky Stuff embossing powder on as you would normally. Its quite coarse grained, so this is never going to work well with a highly detailed stamp, so choose accordingly.







Tip off the excess and heat with your heat gun.What you will discover is that it melts VERY quickly, much faster than normal embossing powder, and apparently it is important NOT to overheat, as it will loose its sticky. So as soon as you see it start to melt, move your heat gun.

However, once it is melted, it stays tacky for a long time, so you have plenty of time to work with it.  I lay a sheet of the leaf over the image, and now you need to burnish it well with your fingers, to make sure its attached to all the image. This will also start to flake off all the sheet not stuck to anything, so a sheet of scrap paper underneath your project, to catch the bits, is advisable. As is  not sneezing, coughing or breathing hard! Be very gentle with moving any sheets of paper/card, and DO NOT tap the back to get stray bits off- the slightest air movement sends this stuff everywhere- it makes glitter look positively restrained! After you've got most of the excess off, you need to go over it again to tidy it up, and I found a stiff paintbrush was ideal. The fine brush I used to remove any stray specks of the embossing powder.
Next I thought I'd try a more solid image, so stamped a row of mushroom groups, and a word stamp, again by Lavinia stamps.

This worked quite well, it definitely looks better on a more solid image.

Here I tried a row of Dandelion heads, Lavinia stamps. There are three in the set, but after I'd put the flake on, it didn't work so well.Two of the heads just ended up as a solid block, so I put this to one side and tried again, just using the head that came out well.

The lines of the image are far enough apart on this one for it to work, and I tried flakes on this one, a variegated copper.




 
 

The process is the same though, I found dabbing a clump onto the Sticky Stuff worked well, then burnish with your fingers, finishing with the brush.

Next up I wanted to see if I could create a scene, so I tried the Two Fairy Houses stamp, and although its quite detailed,the image remained clear enough to use.I used the sheet leaf for them, which is called Abalone. Above I stamped Trailing Vine, and used the Variegated green flake for those.

The Sticky Stuff stays tacky for a very long time, so you have plenty of time to get your leaf/flake on, there's no need to rush. With the flake,it was easier to pick a clump up in my fingers and dab it on, rather than tipping a whole pile over the image.

I added a couple more trails, some small and large mushrooms,cherry blossom branches and finally some dragonflies. The dragonflies were done in silver, the 'shrooms in Variegated Copper.When you add more images, you need to check previously flaked parts for powder, as it will stick to it, and when you heat it you will get leaf sticking where you don't want it. A few of my leaves have silvery bits on them.
With the Wishing Tree earlier, I also tried adding a Footpath stamp, and didn't like how it came out. So from this one, along with the Dandelions heads row that I didn't like,and a few off cuts from trimming down the Fairy Houses image I punched out squares. Sheer fluke, I got 9 squares.

So I matted them as a mosaic onto black card, then some gold card run through the 'bug with an embossing folder, then onto black again. Don't know why, but it screams 'Oriental' at me. Maybe the colours, maybe the cherry blossom. I don't know, lol.

I gave the Mushrooms row the same treatment.















I added a couple of Dragonflies to the Dandelion Heads row too,  in a silver/gold mix.
 So these will get turned into cards over the coming week,and I will be trying the Sticky Stuff out with glitter, as I was very impressed with how well it worked.

Supplies:
 Metal Leaf, Eberhard & Faber , or there is a Fimo Brand too.
 Metal Gilding Flake, mine came from Crafty Notions , bought at the NEC
Judikins Sticky Stuff embossing powder
Versamark Ink
 Stamps
 A lot of Patience!!!!!