Snow Globe Christmas Card

Hello again!

Here's a card I made with the new Snow Globe stamp from Darkroom Door:

The window gave me an opportunity to create a shaker card and use some of my sequin collection.  Here's a close up:

The reindeer and most of the stamps in the background inside the snow globe come from the Christmas Reindeer stamp set.

It was so easy to cut a window from this stamp, I can see myself creating a few more shaker cards in the near future. I'm not limited to Christmas themed cards - I'm thinking a terrarium or fishtank might be cute......

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Hello Wild Things!

Has it really been over a year since I last gave this blog some love???

For those who don't know, I returned to work full time a couple of years ago, so crafting has definitely fallen by the wayside. 

And then I ran into Rachel from Darkoom Door at a craft show (because crafting and shopping for craft supplies are two separate hobbies), who told me about her upcoming release, and well......it got me crafting again!

This is a card I made using the new Cheetah Texture Stamp:

I stamped it in black to create a background, then again in pink over the image of the vintage car to add some wild detail to the white space.

The car and words are from the Classic Cars Vol 1 set, and the hearts were made with the Arty Hearts Collage stamp and coordinating stencil. I also added some ink splats in pink to the background from the Paint Splats stamp set, and some marks using the Crossed Off Abstract stamp.

I will have some more samples using other awesome products from this release. In the meantime, check it out for yourself on the Darkroom Door website.

MIchelle Lupton's Case me a Christmas Card Challenge

 It was lovely to get a message from Michelle Lupton asking me to once again be part of her annual challenge.

Michelle creates a card inspired by one of mine and vice versa. I love seeing all of her invited guests in the build up to Christmas.

This is the beautiful card of Michelle's I chose this year:

I loved these elements especially:

- ink blending (Michelle's is seamless!)

- stars/sparkle

- the strip of intense colour across the card with all of that gorgeous white space to emphasise it.

Here's my spin on it:

Instead of stamping and embossing the stars, I chose to stamp using Darkroom Door's Starry Night Background stamp and use a mist of water instead of ink. Because I used Distress Oxide for the ink blending, when I stamped with water it dissolved the ink and I was able to lift it off with an absorbent paper towel.

I found a scrap of holographic cardstock and cut the words (Simon Says Stamp die) and the strips, then added some adhesive gems for extra sparkle.

And because I can never stop at just one when I'm inspired, here are another couple of cards:

Here they are all together:

Thanks for looking, and don't forget to pop over to Michelle's blog to see which card of mine she cased and to follow all of her wonderful crafty happenings.

Smile Stencil by Darkroom Door

 Another handy stencil from Darkroom Door's new release - the Medium Smile Stencil has all sorts of words to lift the spirits and put a smile on your face.

Here are a couple of cards I created with the stencil:

After creating a couple of watercolour backgrounds using Distress Oxide inks and a couple of Abstract stamps (02 and 06), I spread some Decofoil Transfer Gel through the stencil, then adhered some holographic foil to it with a laminating machine. The effect is spectacular!

I added a couple of embellishments to the card fronts using a butterfly from the Spread Your Wings Stamp Set, the Stars Stamp Set and the Simply Circles Stamp Set.

Thanks for stopping by today!

TALL Flowers Stencil by Darkroom Door

 The new release from Darkroom Door contains a number of gorgeous stencils. Here is the Tall Flowers stencil on an art journal page I created:

Using a gel plate, I created a background using a number of blue acrylic colours. I then cleaned the gel plate, placed the stencil down, and added pink, yellow and burgundy paints through the flower outlines, then printed the flowers onto the blue background. When the paint dried, I replaced the stencil and added some paint to the tips of the flowers, then sprinkled embossing powder to these areas. The embossing powders give a nice opaque coat of colour over the acrylics.

I sponged some paint through the small Wildflowers Stencil, then sprinkled some purple embossing powder onto the tops of the flowers to highlight them, and then grabbed some gel pens and outlined the different elements of the page in different colours.

I stamped the sentiment from the Botanical Script Stamp Set onto cream paper, mounted this onto some boxboard, then trimmed it out into strips. I inked these with brown ink to help them look aged, then adhered them to the page. I added some bright orange stitching around the border with my sewing machine.

One of the things I love about Darkroom Door stencils is that the mask is included in the pack, and that opens up so many more exciting possibilities!

Thanks for looking!

Enchanted Doors Postcard by Darkroom Door

 Another set in the new Postcards range by Darkroom Door is Enchanted Doors. There are 6 captivating images of doors from far away places.

I decided to create a journal page with one of these images:

I created the background using the large Brick Wall stencil and some texture paste, then painted over this with grey acrylic paint. I then dry brushed some white paint over the top, and stamped images from the Gothic Arches Stamp Set.

I backed the door image with pages from an old book and some cotton gauze, then added some subtle text (French Script Texture stamp) and the coffee cup stain (Coffee Stain Eclectic stamp).

I finished the page off with a wax seal stamped with a postmark from the Montmartre Stamp Set. I simply created a puddle of hot wax, then pressed the stamp into it after inking it with Versamark ink. I then rubbed some gilding wax over it to bring out the detail.

Thanks for looking!

Darkroom Door's Journal Lines stencil

 Among Darkroom Door's latest release are a couple of stencils dedicated to journaling. I used the Journal Lines stencil to add some journaling to the front of a couple of cards. 

The backgrounds for both of these cards were created with Darkroom Door stencils and a gel plate; the small Wildflower Stencil for the card above, and the large Circles Stencil for the card below:

I stamped the birds on the orange circle card, then placed the Journal Lines stencil over the piece. I used a pencil to trace lines onto the background:

then wrote the words (happy birthday to you, over and over) using a permanent marker. I then erased the pencil lines:

I look forward to using this stencil in my art journal, in my planner, and even on envelopes!

Thanks for looking!

Large Honeycomb Stencil from Darkroom Door

 I had a play with Darkroom Door's new Honeycomb stencil and created a set of bee-themed cards:

You can see the stencil at the bottom right of the photo. Not only does it have the hexagon grid, it also has some solid hexagons, which helps create some interesting blank spaces within the pattern.

I mixed some Fossilized Amber Distress Ink reinker with some texture paste to make it yellow, and spread it in patches over the stencil onto a sheet of white card. When the texture paste dried, I cut the sheet up into pieces that would fit the front of a C6 card.

I stamped the Postcards Texture stamp with Distress Oxide ink, then used the sentiment and bees from the Buzzing Bees Stamp Set with some black ink. I then stitched a partial border with black thread before adhering to some coordinating patterned paper then onto a card:

This was a fun afternoon project - a set of cards to gift to someone I know who loves bees and the colour yellow.

Thanks for dropping in!

Viva la Flora Postcards from Darkroom Door

I was very excited to see a new product by Darkroom Door that features Rachel Greig's beautiful floral  photographic images. The new Darkroom Door Postcards contain 6 images per pack, and are printed on a nice thick card that will withstand some pretty punishing mixed media techniques.

I have used a postcard from the Viva la Flora pack as a card front, adding some machine stitching and some embossing:

The postcards made excellent sturdy bases, and the images are just wonderful. I went really bright with my colours which stand out brilliantly on the black and white:

The sentiments are from the Warm Wishes stamp set, and the backgrounds are Abstract 06 and the Daisy Delight Background stamp.

I'm even tempted to decorate the front of one of the postcards and send it through the mail! 

Thanks for looking - have an arty day!

CASE me a Christmas Card Challenge

 The lovely Michelle Lupton has her annual challenge running again. 

This year she's hosting a bunch of cardmakers from around the globe, and our challenge is to case one of her creations from her blog.

Michelle's take on one of my cards can be found here. 

This is the beautiful card I chose. You'll find it here on Michelle's blog:

What I loved about it that made me want to case it:

• the colour scheme is awesome
• love the repetition of stripes of colour
• love the subtle glitter effect on the word JOY

Here's what I came up with:

I used Waffle Flower's Nesting Circles dies (there are heaps of circles in this set!), and the words are from an old Simon Says Stamp die set.

While I had everything I needed out, why make just one card when you can make five? Here we go:

The Merry Christmas stamp is MFT, the ink is Catherine Pooler's Skylight and I used Altenew's Transluscent Pearl embossing powder over the top of it for just a touch of sparkle.

The card above uses a Paper Rose Studio stamp set together with a Pinkfresh Studio die.

^The leaf dies and the stamp are from Paper Rose Studio.

...and last but not least, the deer head and the word 'merry' are Paper Rose Studio, and the Christmas die is an old Simon Says Stamp.

Michelle - thank you for once again including me in your annual challenge! A showcase of cardmaking talent from around the world is just what the soul needs after the year we've all had. Check out all of the amazing artists on Michelle's blog:

https://handmade-by-michelle.blogspot.com/

I love Michelle's blog - it is one of the most inspiring places on the internet.

Thanks for dropping in everyone!