Chocolate Baroque Design Team: Challenge Blog

Showing posts with label Challenge Blog. Show all posts

Wednesday, 29 July 2015

A Spot of Colour (by Lesley)

We all struggle with our mojo being stolen or wandering off at inopportune moments, mine often goes walkabout when it is the most inconvenient! So what do you do to try and find the muse, to motivate your creative side?

Well I try and sit down for a little while and look at magazines, at my previous designs or on the Internet at Pinterest or even fashion and art sites. What I am really trying to do are find things that stimulate the imagination. It could be a style or shape that catches my eye but I do admit that more than likely it will a colour, or combination of colours, that sets the creative cogs whirring.

And this was one of the reasons we started the Challenge Blog. Colour is a fabulous stimulus for many people and we hope that we have managed to inspire your mojo over the last year by giving you colour combinations that you may not have ever dreamt of trying.

So as we are still in our Birthday month over on the Challenge Blog I want to let you know that we have added a new page. This has all the colour swatches that have been used for each Challenge during the last year and would be a fabulous starting point to visit, or even re-visit, when you find your mojo has gone awandering. You can click on each swatch and you will be able to look around at both the Design Team samples as well as all the entries related to that particular challenge.

We will continue to add to this page and I hope that when your muse takes a day off you take a delve into our colour archives and find something that will entice her back. Why not pop over there today and be inspired by a beautiful project from Asha using the current colour combination.

Wednesday, 22 July 2015

Thank you!

Hello everyone, firstly, I would like to say a big thank you to you all for the well wishes and support for the challenge blog as we reached our milestone first Birthday last week. It was lovely to read your messages both here and on the challenge blog, and to know that you have been enjoying the experience as much as we have. We could not keep going without you all, and it has been such a pleasure to see your creativity with each new colour challenge. We are looking forward to the next year and seeing what you create with the next batch of swatches that we have for you. There are some lovely combinations in store, and hopefully they will help you step outside your comfort zone and try new colours, perhaps for the first time.

We still have several weeks of our Anniversary month left on the Challenge Blog, so do please keep popping over to see what is going on; take a look at the Design Team inspiration, see who has won the challenge, and pick up a free digital download to use in your crafting projects. Leave us a comment if you have the time, as we love to hear from you.

This week we are going back in time to look at Challenge Six from December of last year. We had an awful lot of variety in styles and themes in this particular month. This selection is an example of how varied the projects can be for our challenge entries.

Felicie has created a beautiful floral card, full of vibrant colour:

Debbie has created a watery backdrop for her dragon:

Sheila's card is very elegant, and the lilac ribbon and gems are lovely finishing touches:

Penny's fish tank is a very clever idea, the funky fish look right at home:

Kate's Pretty Bird card makes great use of one of the digital downloads and is coloured beautifully:

Thank you ladies for supporting our challenge with your fabulous projects. It has been great to see these once more.

We hope that you will be inspired to join in one of our challenges after seeing this visit to one of our older challenges. There is a monthly prize of £15.00 to be won and all details of the challenge can be found on the 'How it Works' page of the challenge blog. If you click on this link, it will take you to our current challenge where you can enter straight away.

Lesley will be back next week with another look at the Challenge Blog so do pop back to see what she has to share with you.

Wednesday, 15 July 2015

Our Challenge Blog is one today!

Well what can I say, our wonderful Challenge Blog has reached the grand old age of one! I cannot believe that it has been running for a year, and what a stunning and colourful year it has been.

Week after week you have stunned us with glorious artwork and amazing creations. Your incorporation of the colours for each month have been outstanding and it has been a joy for us to see all your wonderful entries. The Challenge Blog works because of you and we have been delighted with your contributions over the last twelve months.

As a special thank you we are celebrating our birthday with a few surprises. For more information on the first of these, and to take a look at the brand new Challenge, please visit the blog by clicking here.

So after a quick chorus of 'Happy Birthday' may I just conclude by saying three cheers to you our blog readers, followers and contributors. You help make this a success and we hope you will follow us into our second year with your hands covered in ink and paint and your head full of brilliant new ways to use our stamps. We look forward to seeing you there.

Wednesday, 1 July 2015

A Challenging Look Back (by Judith)

Hello everyone, it's time to hijack the Design Team blog again and pay another visit to the back catalogue of the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog challenges. This week, we are visiting Challenge Five from November of last year. The colours from that challenge were a blend of teal, turquoise and purple, something that is personally right up my street, but does not always appeal to everyone. The aim of the challenge blog has always been to give the opportunity to everyone to step outside their comfort zone and to use colours that they would not normally consider using. So across the year, we have had a real variety of colour mixes, ranging from cool and contemporary to hot and spicy, hopefully providing something that everyone likes, and a bit of something to stretch you all as well!

We would like to showcase some of the entries from Challenge Five, as a reminder of how fabulous the entries were back then. Firstly, here is an entry from Penny, her spritzed background, thistle foliage and pretty butterflies, all go together to make a very pretty card:

Next a card from Barbara, her hexagonal card stands out as being a very unusual shape, the elegant matting and CAS style, are really fabulous:

Felicie has created a super underwater scene, full of detail and vibrant colour for this challenge:

Kristiina's watercolour stamping creates a lovel floral meadow for her dragonfly:

Thank you ladies for your supporting our challenge with your beautiful projects, it has been great to see these again.

We hope that you will be inspired to join one of our challenges after seeing this trip back in time. There is a monthly prize of £15.00 to be won and all details of the challenge can be found on the 'How it Works' page of the challenge blog. If you click on this link, it will take you to the current challenge where you can enter straight away.

This week on the challenge blog, there is some fabulous Design Team inspiration, and a great step by step tutorial from Miranda for her card. Please pop over and leave a comment if you have time. Lesley will be back next week with another trip down memory lane, showcasing more of your entries.

Wednesday, 24 June 2015

Colourful Christmas (posted by Judith)

Hello everyone, it is my turn to hijack the Design Team blog again this week, with another look at the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. We are preparing for our upcoming Anniversary celebrations on the challenge blog, and during the course of the next challenge there will be some exciting things happening. We hope that you will find some time to keep popping over to take a look and maybe leave a comment or two while you are there.

We are taking a look back at Challenge Four this week, and showcasing some artwork from your entries in October of last year. The projects have a common theme of Christmas running through them.

Firstly here is a lovely card from Lesley, the white highlights really make those baubles look stunning against the soft inked background:

Our second card is from Rachel, using one of the really useful Big Bold Background stamps, perfect for Christmas cards in a hurry. Her vibrantly coloured and paper pieced baubles make her card look so dimensional.

Finally, Debbie has created a fabulous steampunk Christmas card with Distress Inks.

Thank you so much ladies for supporting our challenge with your stunning artwork. They are all so different, yet follow a common theme and the challenge colours. It has been great to see these again.

We hope that this trip down memory lane has inspired you to enter one of our challenges. There is a monthly prize of £15.00 to be won and all details of the challenge can be found on the 'How it Works' page of the blog. If you click on this link, it will take you to the current challenge where you can enter straight away.

Lesley will be back next week with look at a previous challenge and showcasing more of your entries. I hope that you can join us for another inspirational visit.

Wednesday, 17 June 2015

A Magical, Mystery Tour (by Lesley)

Hello everyone and a warm Wednesday to you all. As you may have realised by now Judith and I are taking over the Wednesday post on the Design Team to have a wander down memory lane of our Challenge Blog, which is coming up to it's first birthday.

It is really wonderful to look back at all the contributions we have been sent by you, our very creative readers, as it is good for each one of us to review our own past artwork. Only by looking back can we actually move forward, that is how we grow as artists and crafters. So I would urge everyone, and I include myself in this, to open the doors to your art archive and have a quiet time looking at what you have created. I think you will be surprised at how far you have travelled and you may even be inspired to recreate a favourite piece in perhaps a different set of colours or with new stamps. Great way to give your a mojo a kick start too.

This week as I had a lovely meander through Challenge 3 from September of last year I found we had a few designs that shared a similar theme.

First we have Milva who created a fabulous mystical flavour with her entry featuring a stunning magical castle, you can definitely imagine Rapunzel living in one of those towers can't you!

Next we have Sally's oriental tag, subtle and delicate. I find this so realistic you can almost hear the wind gently blowing the lanterns in a mountain breeze. Very tranquil.

Finally, Penny gave us a colourful card she called Autumn Eastern Promise and it is easy to see why.

Her clever use of the peacock feathers to create leaves gives her composition that eastern, almost spicy appearance.

Well done ladies for supporting our challenge with your glorious artwork and for giving everyone so much pleasure and inspiration with your entries.

So has this look back inspired you to enter one of our challenges? Apart from the fun of working with colours you may not have thought of putting together yourself there is the chance to win a £15.00 voucher to spend on Chocolate Baroque stamps. Why not hop over to our Challenge Blog by clicking on this link to see the current colour selection and to find out how you can enter.

I hope you can join us again next week when Judith will be taking you on another Challenge revisit and showcasing more past entries.

Wednesday, 10 June 2015

A Colourful Challenge (by Judith)

Hello everyone, it's my turn to hijack the Design Team blog this week to talk to you about the Chocolate Baroque Challenge Blog. As we are nearing the first Anniversary of the challenge blog, we are making lots of preparations for the occasion. We hope that you will all share the occasion with us, and stop by to see what is going on, there is bound to be some excitement along the way!

Each week during the month, the Challenge Blog offers something different for the our visitors, some Design Team inspiration, a step by step tutorial, or a look at some of your entries into the competition. This week, there are two free digital downloads designed by Lesley. The downloads are all available on the blog for you to collect and use in your own projects, and full instructions on how to save them are included within the blog posts. Take a look on the blog at the downloads and the Design Team inspiration that has been made using the downloads for you.

This week we are showcasing some entries from the second challenge set in August of last year. These cards are all based on a floral theme, but have very different end results. Enjoy this blast from the past from Janice, Crafty, Kate and Sally:

Janice

Crafty

Sally

Kate

It has been great fun revisiting one of our older challenges, and looking at all of the amazing artwork again.

If you have not entered one of our challenges yet, then do think about having a go. It's a great opportunity to stretch yourself working with different colour options that you might not have considered. Sometimes we need to kickstart our imaginations, and the colour swatches are a great way to do just that. There is the chance to win a £15.00 voucher to spend on Chocolate Baroque stamps. Why not hop over to the blog by clicking on this link, you can see the current colour selection and find out how you can enter. We look forward to seeing your entry.

We will be back next week with another look at past challenges and some of your artwork.

Wednesday, 3 June 2015

Have you joined in with our Challenge Blog? (by Lesley)

Hello there and welcome to Wednesday. It occurred to me the other day that our Challenge Blog is almost a year old, I can't believe how the time has flown. We have had some fabulous entries over the last eleven months and all the Design Team have thoroughly enjoyed seeing your wonderful and diverse artwork. The use of the selected colours, together with Chocolate Baroque stamps, has been an inspiration to us; we hope you have been equally inspired.

So each Wednesday in the run up to the Challenge Blog's first birthday Judith and I are going to hijack the DT blog by showcasing some of the stunning artwork we have seen over the last year.

This week we are featuring three entries from the very first challenge which was set way back in July of last year. Elizabeth, Janny and Robyn were amongst it's contributors and here are their glorious designs.

Elizabeth

Janny

Robyn

It's great to see their work again isn't it? Thank you for your support ladies.

So have you entered one of our challenges yet? Apart from the fun of working with colours you may not have thought of putting together yourself there is the chance to win a £15.00 voucher to spend on Chocolate Baroque stamps. Why not hop over to our Challenge Blog by clicking on this link to see the current colour selection and to find out how you can enter.

More reminiscing next week when we could be featuring one of your entries.

Tuesday, 5 May 2015

Stamps and paper (by Lesley)

I have always loved patterned papers and I still border on wanting to keep them to stroke because they are too nice to use! However today I want to show you how to get colour into your stamping with very little effort using some of those precious papers.

Stamp the ruffled ribbon border from Floral Mannequins, twice, onto a piece of pale patterned paper with Versafine Onyx Black. When dry colour the ruffled edges with pencils that tone in with the paper.
After fussy cutting the borders, use a darker co-ordinating pencil and run it along the edges of the ruffles. This gives the appearance of dimension to the ribbons.
Stamp the larger of the wire dress forms from The Sewing Room, twice, onto patterned paper (I used the free download from week 4 of our Challenge Blog 8). Cut out the entire image and then cut the tops from the wire frames. Swop these over so that you have a different coloured top to the bottom and glue together. You will have a spare for another project.
Stamp out two of the small dress form onto another piece of patterned paper, preferably one with a lighter background. Cut out.
Fold a piece of A4 white cardstock at 12.5 cm to create an oversize DL card, trim as required, and attach the ribbon border across the card as shown. Use a wet adhesive and overlap the borders (you will cover the join with the dress forms). When dry trim off the excess from each edge of your card.
Stamp the sentiment from the Card Sentiments clear set with Onyx Black then attach the two smaller dress forms flat to the card with double sided tape, positioning as shown.
Finally curve the larger dress form with your fingers for added dimension and attach with gel adhesive.

I hope this will encourage you to start using some of your paper stash and if that's asking a bit too much why not check out our Challenge Blog where you will find a free printable download every month.

As always there are some fabulous ideas bursting out from the Design Team so why not pop back tomorrow for another dose of inspiration.

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