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Fellow Aussie and friend Kass Hall has just released her new book 'Zentangle Untangled' with North Light Books. Zentangle has always fascinated me with it's 'doodling' and forming of patterns. I've seen Kass demonstrate it at craft shows and her talent in forming new ideas, shapes and patterns is always so inspiring!
What I love about "Zentangle Untangled' is how Kass has taken Zentangle one step further - to include it with rubber stamps, art journals and adding colour. Being a rubber stamp artist I was keen to see how it could be used with rubber stamps! Kass used the Darkroom Door 'Trees' stamps in one of her examples, creating a Zentangle frame around her stamped artwork.
I've never tried Zentangle before, but I wanted to give it a go with some of our other stamp designs. Here's an example of what I came up with using Darkroom Door Frame Stamps as a base to start with. Here's the stamp I used:
First up, I stamped the Postal 6up Frame Stamp onto white cardstock using an Archival Jet Black ink. (I also think it would look great stamped in a colour to really pop out from the Zentangle!)
Then using some of the techniques that Kass outlines in the book, I filled each square of the stamp with a different Zentangle. I quickly realised how addictive this can be! Here's my finished Zentangle:
Once I finished, I thought it would look great as a card... so I mounted it onto some cardstock and used a word from the Paris Vol 2 Wordstrip to finish it off. Nice!
A huge congrats to Kass for writing such a beautiful book - the instructions were clear and easy to follow and had me Zentangling for the first time ever in no time at all! Love it!!
Giveaway - Giveaway - Giveaway!!
Now that I know how cool our Frame Stamps are for Zentangling, how about a giveaway!!! Leave a comment here and tell me about your experience with Zentangle. Have you seen it before? Have you tried it? What would you make? I'll pick 3 winners who will each receive one of our Postal 6up Frame Stamps! Comments will close 4th August at the end of the blog hop. I'll announce the winners shortly after!
Here's a complete list of the blog hop that is happening over the next 2 weeks:
Monday July 23 – START – Kass Hall
Tuesday July 24 – Jill Berry
Wednesday July 25 – Rachel Greig - you are here!
Thursday July 26 – Sandra Strait
Friday July 27 – Melanie Testa
Saturday July 28 – Ingrid Dijkers
Monday July 30 – Pam Garrison
Tuesday July 31 – Genevieve Crabe
Wednesday August 1 - Traci Bautista
Thursday August 2 – Fran Meneley
Friday August 3 – Jane Davenport
Saturday August 4 – FINISH – Kass Hall (major prize giveaway)
Some of these blogs will be hosting giveaways and sharing artwork, so be sure to have a look around! To continue the blog hop, please head on over to Sandra Strait's blog!
Kass is also hosting a big giveaway on her blog, including a Darkroom Door Trees stamp set, click here to visit Kass' blog and see more of her amazing work!
Have fun checking out all the links and untangling Zentangle!
Bazzill Basics have created a colour chart that shows which colours of their cardstock co-ordinate with some Viva Decor product lines. This is a great reference tool - it makes it so easy if you are wanting to match your Viva Decor products with the same coloured cardstock for your projects!
Here are the charts:
(Click on each image to view larger)
Darkroom Door are the proud distributors of Viva Decor products in Australia.
We have been so honoured to have Ellie Knol as our Guest Artist this week! Her projects have been A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!! She's one talented lady that's for sure! So here we have the last few projects to keep you inspired over the weekend and beyond! Take it away Ellie...
Stamps used:
DDRS040 Art de Fleur Vol 2
DDRS047 Correspondence
Details:
Stamp the flowercollage on a piece of CS which has been colored with distress inks. Cut it out, following the squiggly line of it. Paperdistress the edges. Color it with some watercolorpencils to accentuate the flower. Tear masking paper to cover the outer part of the card. Stamp the images and text on the cardstock. Sponge the background. Paint watered-down gesso over the images and text when it’s too dark at this stage (you want your image to stand out). Remove the mask, make some doodles. Adhere it to the card and embellish as shown.
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Stamps used:
DDRS003 Full Bloom Vol 1
DDBS005 French Script Background
Details:
Stamp the rose, mask it and stamp the text over it with a solvent ink. Splat some watered down distress ink over the CS. Color the rose. Find some nice scrapbookpaper which accentuates the colors (I colored the scrapbookpaper to match with the colors from the main part). Adhere to card as shown.
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Stamps used:
DDRS005 Wildflowers vol 1
Details:
Put some distress inks on your craftsheet and swipe your cardstock through it.
Stamp the images with a solvent ink. Stamp the text around the edges with a lighter ink. Make a doodle around the edges, and also paperdistress it.
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Stamps used:
DDRS040 Art de Fleur Vol 2
DDRS047 Correspondence
Details:
Stamp the collaged-flower image on a piece of cardstock which has been colored with pearl-spray on the craft-sheet and swiping the cardstock through it (I had this in my stash). Cut it out. Paper distress the edges.
Stamp the text and postage stamps on some coordinating scrapbookpaper. Sponge the edges with coordinating colors of distress inks. Stamp the postage stamp and only the text (from the main image) on the background. Find some nice lace, cover it partly with white acrylic paint. Adhere it to the card as shown.
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Stamps used:
DDRS040 Art de Fleur Vol 2
DDRS025 Butterflies
DDRS091 Wings
Details:
Put a stencil over some white cardstock and spray with different colors of pearl-spray.
Stamp the images on a seperate piece of cardstock with StazOn Timber Brown, and cut it out. Stamp the text with the same ink on one side of the CS. Adhere the images to the background. Paperdistress the edges, tear it on one side, and accentuate it to also color the edges of it (as shown).
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Stamps used:
DDRS005 Wildflowers vol 1
DDRS091 Wings
Details:
Heat emboss the flowers with clear embossing on some bookpaper. Sponge over it with distress inks. Paint gesso all over the cardstock and leave to dry. Cover it with a piece of paper and iron the embossing off. Stamp the flowers and the dragonfly with a solvent ink. Color it with watercolor pencils, the flowers just at the bottom of it to give a shadow, and the top part of the embossed flowers also. Sponge the background with the same distress inks, and wipe it off with a wet cloth in some parts of the background. PLAY!
What an inspiring week this has been! We'd like to say a HUGE thank you to Ellie for sharing her projects and talents with us! The ideas and techniques are so much fun so I hope all of you will try them out.
Thanks again Ellie!
And to all our blog readers... hope you have a wonderful weekend! Don't forget you can see more of Ellie's work on her blog here.
Thanks to everyone who has left such nice comments for Ellie on her Guest Artist post! We are all so happy to have her here with us this week! She's been busy creating lots of cards and ATC's to share... let's take a look at some more...
Stamps used:
DDRS040 Art de Fleur Vol 2
Details:
Stamp the background with an acrylic block and red distress ink. Make a mask to fit this so that the outer part of the ATC gets covered. Stamp the flower with a solvent ink. Use a lighter ink to stamp the text, more than once, just to one side of the ATC. Remove the mask. Stamp the flower on a seperate piece of cardstock, cut it out, and adhere it to the ATC over the original stamped image. Make a doodle to accentuate the background. Color the flower with some watercolor pencils and also bring some of this color in the background.
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Stamps used:
DDRS025 Butterflies
DDRS005 Wildflowers Vol 1
Details:
Tear some paper from a bookpage with some drawings from plants and some text on it (that second butterfly is from the bookpage!). Adhere it to some cardstock. Put some gesso over it with a credit card. While wet spray it with different colors of pearl-spray. Leave it to dry. Sponge over it, I used yellow here. Wipe over it with a wet cloth, to get some white back in some places. Stamp the images with a solvent ink. Stamp the butterfly on a seperate piece of cardstock, color it, cut it out, and adhere to background. Paperdistress the edges.
Really, you have to try this, JUST PLAY!
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Stamps used:
DDRS040 Art de Fleur Vol 2
DDRS047 Correspondence
Details:
This one was fun to make!
Stamp the collaged-flower image on a piece of cardstock which has been colored with pearl-spray on the craft-sheet and swiping the cardstock through it (I had this in my stash). Cut it out. Adhere it to white cardstock, and trim this to leave a white edge to it.
Cover some cardstock just randomly with gesso, using an old credit card. While still wet, spray over it with the same colors of pearl spray. Leave to dry. If it is too dark at this stage, paint over it with watered-down gesso (you want your main-image to stand out!). Stamp the postage stamp and only the text (from the main image) on the background.
Tear the cardstock on one side, and accentuate this with a pencil. Paper distress the edges. Adhere to card as shown.
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Stamps used:
DDRS025 Butterflies
DDBS005 French script Background
Details:
You will need petroleum jelly for this one. Cover part of some scrapbookpaper with some jelly. Paint over it with white acrylic paint. Leave it to dry. Stamp the text with a solvent ink. Now wipe off the cardstock with a dry papertowel, and it will remove the paint where it covered the jelly. Stamp the butterflies on a seperate piece of cardstock, cut them out and color them. Adhere to background.
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Stamps used: DDRS008 Doors
Details:
Sponge a piece of cardstock with distress inks. Stamp the text on it. Stamp your images on a seperate piece of cardstock, and cut it out. Adhere it to the ATC, color it with watercolorpencils. Make a doodle around the edges, and paperdistress the edges.
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Stamps used:
DDRS072 Leaves
Details:
Put some distress inks on you craftsheet, mist it with water, and wipe the cardstock through it. Leave to dry.
Stamp the leaves with a brown solvent ink. Color the leaves with some green. Sponge the edges with green distress ink and paper-distress it. Adhere to card as shown.
I'm sure you'll all agree with me that these are beautiful projects! Ellie has more to share with us on Friday, so please check back to see what else she has in store for us :)
Name: Ellie Knol-Groenveld
Lives: In Hoogeveen, in the Netherlands.
Known For:
… difficult question; I think you’d have to ask the followers of my blog. LOL
I think they will mention my use of color, the very ‘own’ style, my preference of nature stamps; I get comments on these issues.
Blog, website or gallery:
http://elliecreahoekje.blogspot.com/
http://ellieatcs.blogspot.com/
Loves to:
…play with paper stamps and color! It’s the most enjoyable craft in the world, for sure!
Loves to create:
… something nice from nothing,
…. collages!
…. with the use of all sorts of media, from gesso to watercolor pencils, from inks to acrylic paints…
Favourite Darkroom Door product:
That’s not a difficult one! The stamps of course!! My number one must be the sets with the butterflies, but I also use the correspondence set a lot… and I just discovered how I LOVE the leaves stamp set as well…they are gorgeous!
Let’s say you’re invited to come into our darkroom for a day. What would you bring with you?
A chain, so you can’t throw me out the next day!
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We are so excited to have Ellie as a guest artist! She creates amazing cards and ATC's and has lots to share with us this week! Let's take a look...
Stamps used:
DDRS040 Art de Fleur Vol 2
DDBS019 Flower Garden Background
Details:
Put different colors of distress inks on your craftsheet, and put the background stamp in it, turn it in the ink about 90 degrees. Mist the stamp just a little bit, and stamp it on your cardstock. Stamp the image of the flower on a seperate piece of cardstock and color it with the same shades of color as used in the background. Cut it out and paperdistress the edges. Stamp the postage stamp and only the text (from the main image) on the background.
Embellish as shown.
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Stamps used:
DDBS019 Flower Garden Background
DDBS005 French Script Background
Details:
Put different colors of distress inks on your craftsheet, and put the background stamp in it, turn it in the ink about 90 degrees. Mist the stamp just a little bit, and stamp it on your cardstock. Use this background to create this card as shown.
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Stamps used:
DDBS005 French Script Background
DDRS091 Wings
Details:
Put some distress inks on your craftsheet, mist it with some water. Put your cardstock in it, and mist it with some water. Make the color run to all sides.
Stamp the butterflies on a seperate piece of cardstock, and cut them out.
Make a ‘quick’ copy of the background, cut it out to create a mask (I sprayed the back of it with some glue-spray, and left it to dry thoroughly first). I used the piece that was left over after cutting it out!
Put the mask onto the background, and stamp the text over it. Remove the mask. Accentuate the edges of the “splash” with some watercolorpencils.
Adhere to card as shown.
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Stamps used:
DDRS040 Art de Fleur Vol 2
DDRS047 Correspondence
Details:
Stamp the flower collage part on a piece of cardstock which has been colored with distress inks. Cut it out, following the squiggly line of it. Paper distress the edges. Color it with some watercolorpencils to accentuate the flowers. Tear masking paper to cover the outer part of the card. Stamp the images and text on the cardstock. Sponge the background. Paint watered-down gesso over the images and text. Remove the mask, make some doodles. Adhere to the card and embellish as shown.
Fabulous techniques!! We have many many more projects to share with you - so make sure you check the blog this week to see more of Ellie's fabulous work!
Thanks so much to everyone who took part in the Essentials 9 Collection ATC Swap! For this swap - artists used stamps from the Essentials 9 Collection to create their ATC's. Here's a look at the ATC's that were sent in for this swap:
Thanks again to all the artists who took part in the swap!
If you're keen to join in our monthly ATC swaps, please click here for all of the info! The more the merrier! We'd love for you to join in!
Today we have some great ideas using the Postal 12 up Frame Stamp! Here's what this stamp looks like:
This stamp is so much fun to use... as it can be used as a frame for faux postage, little punched out shapes, buttons, embellishments like flowers, metal gears etc! So many uses!! A great way to use up all those little bits and pieces you have in your stash.
Here's what Teresa has created with this stamp:
Details from Teresa:
The faux postage craze had almost fizzed out by the time I got hooked into the wonderful world of stamping, so I never really had a chance to try it out. I was delighted to see this new release includes some grids that resemble postage stamp perforations. It was time to pull out some masking tape, some Distress Inks and a bunch of the smaller Darkroom Door stamp images.
I started by stamping the grid onto white cardstock, and then cutting strips of a product called Mask It (it's essentially a sheet of not-too-sticky adhesive). I covered the grid lines with the strips and then sponged a few different colours of ink onto the little squares. After stamping a variety of tiny images from the All Occasions set and the little fern frond from the Leaves set, I stamped a number from the Alphabet Medley set (no postage stamp would be complete without a number on it!). I carefully removed the Mask It, and then ran along the gridlines with my sewing machine with no thread in it to perforate.
My next project is going to be to make postage stamp stickers with my initials on them to label some of my craft tools - can't wait to get started on that!
Here's some of the faux postage stamps used on a card:
I used the Criss Cross Background to add a bit more pattern onto the card along with the 'fun' word from Whimsical Words stamp set.
Here's a card by Rachel:
Details:
This card was super quick and easy to make! I used a small heart punch and punched out lots of hearts using some scraps of patterned paper (Basic Grey) and adhered them into each frame. The sentiment was from the Bold Blossoms stamp set!
Hope these cards have inspired you to try out the new Postal Frame Stamps! They sure are a lot of fun to use! :)
Happy Monday everyone! Let's get this week off to a great start with some fab cards using the Postal 3up Frame Stamp! Here's what it looks like in the packaging:
And look what happens when it comes to life:
Godelieve created this beautiful card. Here's the details:
I love the new Darkroom Door Postal stamps, and I really like Darkroom Door's city stamps, so I created my own postage city stamps :) I stamped the Postal 3Up stamp and masked the dotted lines with tape. I used Scotch Magic invisible tape. I cut the tape into narrow strips on my cutting mat.
After sponging the backgrounds with Distress Inks, and stamping with several city sets I removed the tape.The Journey Word Block was stamped with Memories White ink onto a gray card.
I also used Tim Holtz tape and cut out a stamped car from the Vintage Automobile set.
Here's a card by Rachel:
Details:
I created a mask for this stamp using a piece of acetate - which means I can use it over and over again and just wipe any ink or paint off the acetate so it's good to use for next time. To create the mask, I simply stamped onto the acetate with Archival ink and used a craft knife to cut out the inside of one frame, then wiped the ink off the acetate.
To create the card, I stamped onto kraft cardstock, then I placed the mask over the stamp, sponged with Peeled Paint and Brushed Corduroy Distress Inks. Then stamped into each frame using Correspondence and Mail Art stamps with Archival Sepia and Olive inkpads.
I love how a new Frame stamp gives new life to older stamp sets - such a great way to combine them all!
Hope you enjoyed these ideas for the Postal 3up Frame Stamp!
