Saturday 24 October 2015

Stamps and Pretty Papers!

Hi Everyone,

Well, it's a lovely day here weather wise (not, lol) so a perfect excuse for spending most of it on craft related fun starting with this blog post.

I bet there are a lot of people just like me out there who have bought oodles and oodles of pretty paper pads and scrapping sets just because the papers are so gorgeous (love the smell too ;D) and then left them languishing in the cupboard totally neglected.......  Well, when I had my lovely day at Port Sunlight, Happy Stampers show a few weeks ago I spent some time chatting to and watching Lesley Wharton, owner of Chocolate Baroque, demoing her beautiful stamps.  She was using them in conjunction with some lovely Crafty Individuals papers and it reminded me how effective paper piecing can be.  I don't have the lovely Patchwork Landscape set of stamps that Lesley was using that day (on my Wish List, lol) but I searched through my CB collection for an alternative and decided to use Woodland Dreams instead. 

I also wanted to join in CB Challenge 16 which has just started and these two cards are the result.


My apologies if the colours are a bit dull but even in my conservatory/craft room it's very dull today.

Card #1

I chose two co-ordinating papers from the CI paper pad and stamped the tree tops then cut them out.  On a third design I stamped the images again and then extended the 'ground' to create little hills.  I cut myself a mask following the lines I had drawn and then used a brush to apply Distress Ink shading and then stuck the cut out treetops over the images.
 

I layered up onto black card and then used a Tim Holtz crackle stencil and Distress Inks to create the border on the basecard before layering on the 'topper'.

Card #2
 

This was made in exactly the same way as the first card except I used a different background design which was a bit bright for the treetops and they didn't show up enough so I gave it a wash of watered down white acrylic paint to knock it back a little before creating the little scene.
 
 
I decided to layer this one up twice onto black leaving a plain white border between and I love the way this 'pops' the scene.  I think this is nice enough to frame!
The words Imagine and Dream come from a discontinued CB set I think (sorry).
 
There's lots of wonderful inspiration over on the Chocolate Baroque DT Blog as well as their Challenge Blog which I'm off to link up to shortly.
 
A Tag for Fun
 
Here's a tag I made just for fun the other day.  I found it in my 'bit box' having just blended the Distress Inks and then left it, so I decided to play and finish it off. Really liked how it turned out!
 
   
Have a fun weekend all!

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

12 comments:

Kirsten said...

They are lovely!

Flo Langley said...

Gorgeous projects. The stamps and Weekend in Seville bps work fabulous together. Thank you for playing along with the Chocolate Baroque Color Challenge.
Hugs Flo x

snazzyoriginal said...

Beautiful cards Lesley, really fab use of the Woodland Dreams trees, they are so versatile x

Claire said...

Lovely cards! So pretty and elegant. Loving your bits box tag too - love that PA stamp Xx

Aquarius said...

Great way to use stamps with patterned papers - love them all. I may!! have a few papers lurking in my stash

Words and Pictures said...

Lovely paper-piecing - you're so right about the stacks of paper sitting neglected in a corner and this is a gorgeous way to put them to use. I adore the tulip tag too (what a great stamp that is) - so soft and lovely.
Alison xx

cuilliesocks said...

Beautiful, beautiful cards and such lovely colours, I love your design too, Kate x

Sally H said...

wow! These are gorgeous Lesley! I love those trees!

Paula Whittaker said...

oh those cards are wonderful - lovely workmanship as always x

judith@poppy cottage said...

Hi Lesley, beautiful cards, great combination with the papers. Thanks so much for your entry into the Chocolate Baroque challenge, Judith xx

Julie Smith said...

Fabulous projects Lesley. Stamping onto patterned paper is a great technique for the stamps you have chosen. Thanks for entering the Chocolate Baroque challenge and good luck x

annewaller said...

WOW - I love your projects. Fabulous use of stamps along with patterned papers. Thank you for entering the Chocolate Baroque Challenge x.