Darkroom Door

Explore Collage Stamp ideas

Today we have a couple of cards to share with you using the new Explore Collage Stamp. This stamp is all about adventure...finding your way... exploring the world...finding your own paradise.

Details from Rachel:

I stamped the Explore Collage stamp onto matt white cardstock with Jet Black Archival ink. Then using a wax crayon, I coloured in areas where I wanted the background to remain white. I then sponged a combination of Peeled Paint, Frayed Burlap and Stormy Sky Distress Inks over the top. Since the Distress Ink is a waterbased ink, it will resist the crayon, so the ink will only colour areas where there is no crayon. It gives a nice highlight effect!

Here's a card from Teresa:

Details from Teresa:

This collage stamp has lots of wonderful elements that lend themselves toward a masculine card. I stamped the image in Coffee Archival ink directly onto a size 8 buff tag, covered it with Frayed Burlap Distress Stain, and then sponged over it with various brown shades of Distress Ink. After spattering some water onto it to create the droplet effect, I sprayed it with Goosebumps texture spray. The tag is layered onto some scrunched glassine paper. The overall effect is of a leathery, aged piece of ephemera, and given the images on the stamp, I thought would make a brilliant farewell card for a male colleague who is leaving work to explore the world. The bon voyage is from the All Occasions set, and the arrow is from a pack of Grungeboard shapes.

Here's another cool thing about this stamp... the compass is sized the same as the compass in the Sail Away stamp set, so if you'd like to use the Explore stamp with the full compass, you can do so by combining both of those stamps. You can see an example here on the cover of my Stamping Cruise 2102 album:

Hope you liked these few ideas using the Explore Collage stamp... wishing you all a fabulous weekend!

- Rachel

Regal Frame Stamp ideas

Hello and happy Tuesday everyone! It's been a while between blog posts - we had a trip up to Brisbane to exhibit at the Scrapbook Expo and since then things have been very busy here at Darkroom Door headquarters! We still have lots of new cards to share with you using the new Collage and Frame stamps... so let's get back into it...

Today we want to share some cards using the new Regal Frame Stamp. This stamp is a larger version of the frame you see in the Ornate Elements stamp set. I love it in the small size to use with smaller quotes and photos, but I wanted a larger size that would look great as a photo frame, mail art address label, journal block for scrapbooking etc - it has lots of room to add plenty of stamping inside the frame too.

 Here's what Michelle has created:

Details from Michelle:

I stamped the Regal Frame on white cardstock using Archival (Sienna) and then heat embossed using clear embossing powder. I fussy cut out the frame and added a Full Bloom Montage image inside the frame. I attached to a card using foam tape and added a sentiment from the Sweet Treats Wordstrips!

Here's a card showing how it can be used as a frame for stamping:

Details from Rachel:
The Regal Frame was stamped onto the card with Jet Black Archival ink. I used large post it notes to mask around the edges so only the inside of the frame was visible. Then sponged Wild Honey and Crushed Olive Distress Ink on the inside. Stamped a quote from the Enjoy Life stamp set, and a flower from Wildflowers Vol 2 stamp set. Finished off by spraying some Perfect Pearl Mists over the top to give an overall shimmer!

Both of these cards are using the Regal Frame as a vertical frame, but you could also use it horizontally.

Hope you enjoyed these cards! We'd love to hear how you'd like to use the Regal Frame stamp... use it for cards? Jar labels? Scrapbooking? Mail art? Please let us know in the comments!

Thanks for dropping by!

 - Rachel

Window Frame Stamp ideas

We have some great cards to share with you today using the Window Frame Stamp!

Details from Rachel:
I stamped the Window with Sepia ink then created a mask around the outside of the frame with post it notes. Then stamped the tree image from Wilderness Vol 2 stamp set with Olive ink. The wood panels of the window frame have been coloured with Distress Markers (Frayed Burlap & Vintage Photo). I added a little metal latch and an Art De Fleur Wordstrip to finish it off!

Here's a card created by Teresa:

Details from Teresa:

I stamped it on brown cardstock with brown ink, then cut the centre out of it. I then stamped it onto some acetate, and stuck that onto the brown cardstock frame. Voila - a real window!

The image of Saint Nick is from a Dear Santa Photochip and the words are from the Dear Santa wordstrip. There was a little gap at the bottom of the image, which I covered up with some gold Flowersoft to resemble show. The papers are from a Simple Stories 6x6 pad.

Godelieve has come up with a great idea for this stamp too:

Details from Godelieve:
I turned the stamp, cut out the squares, made a few cuts so it would be a open window.



I stamped a garden using the Wilderness Vol 1 set, Distress Inks and Archival Ink #Coffee.



Used a Wordstrip from the Wilderness Collection.

Great ideas on how you can use the Window Frame Stamp!!

Hope you've enjoyed looking at these cards! Have a great day!

Archway Frame Stamp ideas

We have some great cards to share with you today using the Archway Frame Stamp! Here's one created by Teresa:

Details from Teresa:

Firstly, I stamped the archway onto white cardstock with Stone Gray StazOn ink, and gave it a wash with Old Paper Distress Stain. I sponged a little Pumice Stone Distress Ink onto it too - it really brought out some amazing detail in the image.

I cut the centre out of it and placed a Love Letters Photochip behind it. I added a little butterfly (from a Kaiser 6x6 pad), some moss and some flowers.  I mounted all this onto some grey cardstock that was embossed with the Tim Holtz bricked embossing folder.

Next up, a card by Rachel:

Details:
I stamped the Archway with Jet Black ink and sponged over the top with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink. Cut out the centre frame and layered the Archway over a Wilderness Photochip. Mounted a word from the Art De Fleur Wordstrips on top. The texture you can see on the actual brown card is the Scratches Background Stamp, stamped in Sepia ink.

Hope you've enjoyed looking at these cards! There's lots of other ways this stamp can be used too - stamped quotes in the arch, or your own journaling in art journals etc!

Have a great day!

Anything Goes ATC Swap Details!

The ATC swap theme for June is 'Anything Goes' which means you can use any image or rubber stamp from the entire Darkroom Door Collection to create your ATC's.

The deadline is 30th June 2012.

Click here for all the info on how to participate.

Here's the address to send your ATC's:
Darkroom Door Anything Goes Swap
PO Box 8039
Tumbi Umbi NSW 2261
Australia

Looking forward to seeing your creations!

Please email me if you have any questions: info (at) darkroomdoor.com

Unlock the artist within!

Music Collage Stamp Ideas

Today we have a couple of cards to share with you using the new Music Collage Stamp. Here's a stunning black and white card from Godelieve:

 Godelieve has combined the Music Collage with some stamps from the Harmony stamp set. Godelieve has a Black and White card series on her blog, you can check out some of her other Black and White cards here.

For my card, I stamped the image twice and used one for the background, then trimmed out several of the panels to layer on top.

Of course this means you could use any of the panels individually for ATC's and other projects too!

Hope you liked these few ideas... wishing you all a fabulous weekend! Don't forget, if you're going to the Scrapbook Expo this weekend - please drop by the Darkroom Door stand! I'll be demonstrating all weekend and would love to see you!

Postal 6up Frame Stamp ideas

As a part of our new Frame Stamp series, we have released 3 different Postal Frames - which are essentially a grid to resemble postage stamp perforations. This type of stamp is not a new concept... faux postage has been popular in the history of rubber stamping, but with my own personal obssession love of all things postal, I decided to design our own series of postal frames in 3up, 6up and 12up.

Today I want to share some ideas using the Postal 6up Frame Stamp. This stamp has 6 squares, which can fit an 1 1/4" square punch snugly... perfect for punching out random pieces of patterned paper to layer inside the squares:

Such a great way to use up little scraps of patterned paper. And a perfect idea for kids to get involved in craft too as it's so easy for them to punch out squares and fill them with all sorts of embellishments!

I've added flowers, brads and 'Happy Birthday' from the All Occasions stamp set.

Godelieve has a great idea for us too...

Godelieve has created a mask using a small Spellbinders Nestabilities die:

The small die fits perfectly inside the frame!

Godelieve used a piece of vellum to make a mask, then sponged and stamped several stamps inside the squares using the new Distress Ink Spring set.

For the sentiment Godelieve chose a word from the Full Bloom Wordstrips:

Wordstrips are so handy - just trim the word you need and add it to your card! There's currently 21 different types of Wordstrips, so there's plenty of words and themes to choose from!

Stamps used inside the squares:  Friends Collage stamp, Butterflies, Art De Fleur Vol 2, Hearts, Doilies.

Hope this has given you a few ideas on how to use the new Postal 6up Frame!

Thanks for stopping by our blog :)

Friends Collage Stamp ideas

It's time to start sharing some cards and projects using our new Collage Stamps! Godelieve and Michelle have created some beautiful cards using the Friends Collage stamp:

Details from Godelieve:
I stamped the collage image with Ranger Archival Ink #Jet Black, colored it with a bunch of Distress Markers.
Distress inkpads were used to distress the background and edges.
I added words from the Sweet Treats Word Strips, a punched heart and a button with ribbon to finish off the card.

So gorgeous!! Here's another great card by Michelle:

Michelle used the following supplies:
Friends Collage Stamp
Ranger Archival Plum
Prague Vol 1 Wordstrips
Kaiser Paper

Beautiful projects!!

Thanks for visiting our blog today!

One layered card - Wings stamp set

Godelieve has created a beautiful card using just our Wings stamp set and Distress Inks.

You can see more about this on her blog here.

Meanwhile... things have been busy at Darkroom Door HQ! Next week we will have lots of cards and projects to share with you using our new Collage Stamps and Frame stamps! In the meantime, I hope you all have a wonderful inky weekend!