Artful blogging from Glenda Waterworth

Thank you bird

Jan 282012

Every week I think I’ll blog more this week, but it just isn’t happening and I think I’ve figured out one reason why – lighting. I had brilliant lighting in my last craft room – Lynn put her kitchen design skills to good use designing it for me just before she left MFI and there was loads of really bright task lighting. I think it may be time for me to invest in some new lighting, so if any of you have any good recommendations, please leave me a comment. I have a couple of cheap Ikea uplighters which help, but I think I need something a bit brighter and a good work light that I can have over the table. It’s not just about lighting the work space though, I need the whole room to be light and bright to combat the SAD that I’m sure we all feel at this time of year.

Maybe that’s why most of my cards at the moment feature bright white backgrounds or why I find myself drawn more and more to pale colours and off whites? Today’s card features a fair bit of white too. The stamps used in this card are from The Rose Tree. I have stamped the die cut bird with a floral spray using Versamark and clear embossing powder to create a resist. I’ve coloured over the top using a mixture of dye inks to make the stamped pattern emerge.

I then stamped a solid flower repeatedly onto vellum and embossed with white embossing powder. The die cut ‘thanks’ was coloured with Distress inks, then given a coat of clear embossing powder. A printed ribbon hides the adhesive used to attach the vellum.

I’m working on something at the moment which is anything but white – we have a bright sunny day today, so maybe I’ll get it finished in daylight.

Don’t forget to check out the Design Team blog, the girls are still showing off their creations with the latest stamps.

Honeysuckle Watercolour

Cards, Rubber Stamps

Jan 202012

We have just launched some new stamps! You can see them all over on the Design Team blog and of course they are showing up in the What’s New department on the Chocolate Baroque website too.

There is so much you can do with these images, from complex colouring to very simple stamping. This little concertina is made from heavy watercolour paper and stamped with Adirondack dye inks. They are not waterproof, so I used a waterbrush to pull colour in from the stamped image. I then patted the inkpad onto a non-stick sheet and mixed with water to paint the backgrounds. The colours used are Oregano, Wild Plum, Denim and Terracotta (or possibly Ginger, I can’t quite remember).

I have some other cards I’ve made with these and some work in progress too, so watch out for more artwork coming soon.

A Spring Card

Cards, Rubber Stamps

Jan 132012

I am longing for Spring. I’m literally counting how many minutes earlier sunset is each day and savouring the extra little bit of light. We haven’t had the really wintry weather we had last year, but what is it this year with gales? I don’t remember it being very windy last year, but we seem to be living in a permanent storm force ten at the moment. The garden shed has blown off its base and is perched at a very drunken angle in the corner of the garden. It was in a pretty derelict state when we moved here, so earlier this week I got permission from the landlord to let Adrian loose on it with a crowbar and lump hammer. I am hoping there may be some planks I can salvage for artwork.

So with thoughts of mild, warm, sunny Spring days ahead, I made this little card with the Breath of Spring stamp set. It’s stamped in black Versafine on watercolour paper and coloured with Inktense pencils. I’ve layered it onto some card coloured with Distress stains (Crushed Olive and Pine Needles I think). It’s mounted onto a lilac pearl card and stuck onto a deep purple scalloped card.

The layered panel stands a little taller than the card itself so it’s almost like a mock stepper card. I put decorative paper on the back so that if you look at the card from the back, the sticky up bit isn’t just plain. Well that’s what I’d like you to think, but I actually made the classic mistake of putting my double sided tape all over the back and just as I was about to stick it on, realised there would be exposed adhesive on that back piece so if I ever stuck it in an envelope, it might never come out!

According to the weather forecast, it looks like there’s a lot more Winter to come before I’ll get my warm Spring sunshine. Ah well, I’ll go hibernate a bit longer in my craft room with those new stamps …

January Sale

Chocolate Baroque

Jan 072012

I don’t know what it is about the start of a new year, but I do tend to find I have a burst of energy for clearing, tidying and re-organising at this time of year.

We have been in our new warehouse for a year and it has always been a little cramped in there. Next week we are having a re-arrange of some of the furniture as there are boxes we sill haven’t unpacked and I know there is good quality stock in some of them. I can see tantalising words hastily scrawled on the boxes – Stampsmith, TSS (that’s Ten Seconds Studio), Zutter, etc. Let me at ‘em, I need to go digging!

Our production department is much smaller than it used to be and the filing cabinets that we keep all our stamp making boards in are full to bursting. Many of the boards for our older stamps are almost worn out now and we have to make a decision on whether it is worth the cost of a new board or whether it is time to call it a day and retire the set.

So we have been working through the older stuff and we have come up with a list of stamps that we are going to retire. We have set March 1st as the official retirement date, so you still have a couple of months to add them to your collection if there is something you have wanted to get, but haven’t got round to. Even better, all ‘LAST CHANCE’ stamps are on sale throughout January and we have free UK delivery all this month too.

I’ve tidied up our department structure a bit on the website, so you will now find that the Special Offers department has three sub-departments and Rubber Stamps is now a top level department with Chocolate Baroque and other companies as sub-departments.

The tidying isn’t just happening at the warehouse, I have already started on a clear out of my craft room at home. In Special Offers you will find a department called Used and Second Hand which is currently empty, but is where I plan to put some of my own stash that I no longer need or use.

And talking of tidying, I think we better finish clearing up Christmas – we have boxes of baubles lying around which are proving to be a little too interesting for a certain calico cat. She’s not interested in the shiny bauble itself, but the string that comes out of the top, now that’s worth a wiggle and a pounce any day!

While working on a birthday card …

General Stuff

Dec 302011

Well firstly I have to say a huge thank you for all your very flattering compliments on the last post. I almost didn’t publish it, but I’m glad that some of you feel inspired to get healthier in 2012.

Today I have a little treat for you which has been a long time coming. At the last Paradise Weekend Retreat we held in September last year, Adrian took to the stage on the Saturday night and performed a little song that he wrote specially for the event.

We didn’t have a video camera to hand at the time, so there is no footage of the original, but I’ve put a little slide show together and I’m proud to present … Add a Brad!