Darkroom Door

Sending Love Card - Correspondence Stamp Set

I'm so pleased to share this card with you today... it's created by our friend Melissa Phillips...

Melissa has used the Correspondence Stamp Set, Art De Fleur Montage and Love Letters Wordstrip.

Isn't it beautiful? I always love the layering and textures in Melissa's cards :) So yummy! Melissa wrote more about it on her blog here.

Thanks so much for sharing this with us Melissa!

Thanks also to everyone who has posted feedback about our new releases! The warehouse is buzzing right now manufacturing all the stamps so they're ready for shipping... not long now peeps! I'm busy creating some samples to share with you next week too :) Can't wait!!

New Collections: Dear Santa, London and Essentials 8!

We'd like to introduce our new collections:

The Dear Santa Collection includes 2 new rubber stamp sets along with Photochips™, Montage™, Filmstrips™ and Wordstrips™.

The London Collection includes 2 new rubber stamp sets along with Photochips™, Montage™, Filmstrips™ and Wordstrips™.

The Essentials 8 Collection includes 8 new rubber stamp sets:

DDRS077 Sail Away
DDRS078 Tick Tock
DDRS079 Hearts
DDRS080 Just My Style
DDRS081 Bold Blossoms
DDRS082 Tags
DDRS083 Garden Inchies
DDRS084 Christmas Sentiments

All products will ship from September 5th, 2011.

Please contact your favourite Darkroom Door stockist to order!

We're looking forward to sharing projects using these new products, so please keep an eye on the blog! Hope you like all the new releases as much as we do :)

Darkroom Door: Small Established Business Export Award Winner 2011!

We are so proud to announce that Darkroom Door was awarded with the Small Established Business Export Award for 2011 at the Hunter Central Coast Export Awards!

 

Now in its elevenith consecutive year, the Hunter Central Coast Export Awards recognise and celebrate the outstanding success of exporters across a wide range of industries from the Hunter and Central Coast regions. The Awards are a platform to showcase innovative businesses and promote them as role models and mentors to potential exporters, encouraging them to also strive for success in world markets. The program rewards and profiles the ‘best of the best’ businesses from the Hunter and Central Coast, recognising the effort, expertise and resources that they have consistently contributed to export.

We are so pleased to have won such a prestigious award! The awards were presented at a Gala Dinner at Newcastle's historic Fort Scratchley site. Stewart accepted the award and is pictured here with representatives from the award sponsor, NSW Trade and Investment. (Rachel was unable to attend the award ceremony as she was in Canberra as Guest Artist at the Craft & Quilt Fair.)

Some photos from the award ceremony:

Stewart proudly accepts the award:

Darkroom Door currently exports to over 17 different countries including: United Kingdom, South Africa, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Ireland, USA and Canada just to name a few!

We would like to thank all of our stockists in these countries who have supported us and to all of those crafters who enjoy using our stamps - We share this award with you! 

We are so thankful to be able to share our products and ideas throughout the globe, and to be recognised for this really does mean the world to us! 

Simply Circles stamps as balloons...

Godelieve's ideas never cease to amaze me. She manages to come up with ideas for our stamps that we never even think of... like using the Simply Circles stamps as balloons:

How cute is that!!! So simple, but WOW, it looks so great!

She's also used the Robot Vol 1 word bubble and words stamps for the card on the right.

And one more cool thing - the little people are actually foam shapes that she's used as stamps. I know, too fun. There's lots more photos on her blog here.

Thanks for the fun ideas Godelieve!!

Scrap It TV - Collage Stamping with Darkroom Door stamps

Hi everyone!

Here is my final segment for Series 4 of Scrap It TV which is on the Aurora Channel on Foxtel. You can watch it Thursdays at 7pm. Here's one of my segments showing a technique called Collage Stamping which is perfect for creating your own patterned paper or backgrounds for art journals etc!

  

Here's a direct link to view this on You Tube if you can't see the video here.

Thanks to Tony the Executive Producer for allowing us to share it with you here!

Hope you enjoy it - thanks for watching!

Word Block Stamp Winner!

Congrats to Lee for being our winner from the previous blog post about Word Block Stamps!

Lee said...

Great cards and great techniques. The resist technique is a favourite of mine. It gives you a use for that patterned paper that is sitting in your stash that may be too busy to use as a block. So many ideas and different ways to use these stamps and I love that you bravely cut them up to use separately while still retaining the use of them as a block when needed.
thanks for the inspiration
Lee:)

Congrats Lee! Please email us with your mailing address and your choice of Word Block Stamp and we'll get it sent out to you!

Thanks to everyone who left comments, we always love hearing from you!

Word Block Stamp ideas + Giveaway!

Creative Team member Sarah Schwerin has created a few cards using the Word Block Stamps to share with us, let's take a look...

The first one is using the Congratulations Word Block Stamp:

Products used:
* Congratulations Wordblock Stamp
* Steampunk Stamp Set

Details from Sarah:

To create the background I stamped the Congratulations wordblock stamp onto some bright orange and pink patterned paper with versamark ink and heat embossed using clear embossing powder. I then inked over the image using black ink, and removed the excess off the embossed areas with a cloth, allowing the colours of the patterned paper to show through in the letters.

I added a steampunk moustache man to the background for a bit of whimsy!

Next up we have a card using the Baby Word Block Stamp:

Products used:

* Baby Wordblock stamp.
* Little Dreams stamp set.
* Steampunk stamp set (the top hat and the cogs).
* Scratches Background stamp.
* Alphabet Medley stamp set.
* Small & Large Buff Tag.
* Distress Ink -Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet.

Details from Sarah:

I created the background by sanding gloss cardstock, sponging with Tattered Rose DIstress ink, and then stamping the scratches background stamp with Victorian VelvetDistress ink. I then stamped the baby wordblock stamp onto the background with Old Rose Versacolor ink, and added some vintage look lace.

I stamped "Girl" onto a small manila tag with the Alphabet stamps, and the "Little" and "Baby" comes from the wordblock stamp. To avoid getting the placement wrong, I actually cut those words out of the wordblock stamp and stamped them individually. Don't worry - I cut them with one line so that I can slot them back in when I need to use it as a full stamp again! The tag was then sponged with Tattered Rose distress ink and threaded with a dusty pink ribbon and mounted to the card with foam tape.

I stamped the lay and the hat onto a large manilla tag and sponged them with the tattered rose distress ink. They were cut out, and edged with Vintage Photo DIstress ink. I then stamped the cogs from the Steampunk stamp set onto the lady's body with Timber Brown Stazon. To finish, I added some raw chipboard cogs (Twiddleybitz).

And last but definitely not least, here's a card using the Christmas Word Block Stamp:

Products used:
* Christmas Wordblock stamp.
* Christmas Reindeer stamp set.
* Weathered Wood Distress Ink.

Details from Sarah:

I wanted to do something different to the usual red and green colour combo for Christmas so I decided to go with a shabby chic colour scheme for my Christmas card.

I stamped the Wordblock stamp onto some cream coloured patterned paper with Versamark ink, and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. The patterned paper had some subtle text on it, and embossing in clear allowed for the colour and pattern of the paper to show through. Using my ink blending tool, I inked over the embossed image with Weathered Wood Distress ink. The embossed words resist the ink, which makes them really stand out. I then tore around the wordblock leaving a white edge around the image. It was then layered on top of some "My Mind's Eye" patterned papers which were also inked with Weathered Wood.

I stamped the Reindeer onto some cream paper and heat embossed it with Silver embossing powder. I cut around the reindeer and then mounted him onto the card with foam mounting tape for added dimension. A few shabby chic bits and bobs complete the card.

Aren't these cards fabulous!!! I love them :) Thanks so much for sharing these with us Sarah!

And for our readers... please leave a comment and tell us what you love about the Word Block Stamps, we'll pick a comment to win a Word Block Stamp of your choice!

Cards for the guys using Background Stamps!

Sarah Schwerin has created two fantastic cards for the guys in our lives using a few of the latest Background Stamps along with some other stamp sets... check these out:

Darkroom Door products used:

* Checkered Background Stamp
* Scratches Background Stamp
* All Occasions stamp set.
* Archival Ink - Sepia
* Distress Inks - Rusty Hinge, Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain.

Notes from Sarah:

The background layer was created by stamping the Checkered background stamp onto white cardstock with Sepia ink and then sponging on different brown distress inks until I achieved the look I was after. I did the same with a piece of news print patterned paper.

The next 2 layers were created with the scratched background stamp. I stamped in a different colour and direction on each piece and sponged them with different coloured distress inks to create the look of 2 different types of wood.

I stamped "Happy Father's Day" from the All Occasions stamp set onto a piece of paper which had also been inked with distress inks, then attached it to a die-cut label frame which had been painted SIlver and then inked with Timber Brown Stazon to create a rusty metallic look.

Metallic brads, chipboard cogs from Twiddleybitz, and some hessian ribbon completed the card.

Here's another great card:

Darkroom Door Products used:

* Damask Background Stamp
* Steampunk Stamp Set.
* Butterflies Stamp Set
* Artist Stamp Set
* Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink.

Notes from Sarah:

To create the background I stamped the Damask background stamp onto teal coloured patterned paper and heat embossed with clear embossing ink. I then sponged over the image with Chipped Sapphire Distress ink, and wiped the excess off the embossed areas with a cloth.

I was in a bit of a whimsical mood, so I combined images from the Steampunk, Artist, and Butterflies stamp sets as embellishments on the card. They were stamp in black ink on white paper and cut out. The butterfly wings and the quote have been raised with foam mounting tape.

... Great cards Sarah!!! Perfect ideas for Father's Day too!

Darkroom Door named as a finalist in Hunter Central Coast Export Awards 2011!

We are so proud to announce that Darkroom Door are one of the finalists in the Hunter Central Coast Export Awards for 2011!

The annual Hunter Central Coast Export Awards program recognises and celebrates the outstanding achievements of exporters across a wide range of industries from the Hunter and Central Coast, NSW. Now in its eleventh consecutive year, the Awards reward and profile the ‘best of the best’ businesses from the regions, recognising the effort, expertise and resources that they have consistently contributed to export.

We are so honoured to be named alongside so many other fabulous businesses in our area. Exporting has been a challenge over the past year with the current economic circumstances and rising Australian dollar. However we are commited to offering a unique Australian designed and Australian manufactured product to the worldwide stamping and crafting community. We thank each and every one of our customers and stampers, both here in Australia and throughout the world for your constant support of our products and business!

Winners of the Export Awards will be announced Friday 12th August.

Love Letters with Postcard Background Stamp

Godelieve has created a beautiful card using the Love Letters Photochips and Postcards Background Stamp:

Here's some notes from Godelieve:

I stamped the Postcard Background stamp with Memories #Artprint Brown and applied Distress Ink #Victorian Velvet with an ink blending tool.

I chose an image from the Love Letters Photochips, distressed and inked the edges.

Composed the card and finished off with ribbon and a metal tag from Tim Holtz.

Here's a picture showing all of the images in the Love Letters Photochip pack:

Beautiful rubber - beautiful card!! Thanks for sharing Godelieve!!