Rachel Greig

Mr DS has been stuck in quarantine!

I've been receiving quite a few emails about Mr DS! (here's the original post about him).

Mr DS was in Ireland with Evonne, and she sent him to Sarah, but for some reason he was returned back to Ireland. So Evonne sent him back to me. He took a little detour through Australian Quarantine! I bet there were a few puzzled looks when they opened the package to find a Mr DS rubber stamp nicely wrapped in pink ribbon! He is not pictured here, as I packed him up right away and sent him off to Sarah. So keep an eye out on Sarah's blog for some Mr DS art!!! I'll be sure to let you all know when she has put something up on her blog about Mr DS.

Evonne also sent me the most wonderful Celtic art. The piece she has sent me is called 'Eternity'. The three interlocking heads of this piece are based upon the triskelle symbol, commonly used by the Celts. The meaning was to show the three most treasured thing to the Celts: trinity, life, and eternity.

Thank you Evonne for such a wonderful gift and for the effort in keeping Mr DS on his journey!

Wild Wild West!

What a great weekend we've just had out in the Central West of NSW! Our trip to Dubbo started with a visit to the zoo, and then on to see hi-5 in concert. Zoë is absolutely in love with Hi-5, and we even had a little boy who danced the entire concert (after having told us that he doesn't even like Hi-5). Imagine their excitement when we got to meet all the members of Hi-5 after the show!

Then it was onto Tottenham and Nymagee to visit relatives. And then onto Nyngan for a day with the Nyngan Scrapbooking group. My day started just on sunrise...

The road to Nyngan:

I had a fabulous day teaching at Nyngan!! Some of the ladies had never stamped before, so it's always fun converting them over and teaching them a few new tricks :)

Thank you to everyone who was in my classes for that day... and for the wonderful food. Oh my, one of the things I love about teaching at retreats is the food. It's always delicious!

I was totally spoilt too as the ladies had put together a little hamper of goodies and had all signed a card for me. It was very sweet and appreciated! Thank you!!

As you can see, there was lots of  spritzing and flicking with the Distress Inks...

And last but not least, here's the wonderful group of ladies from Nyngan! Thanks again for a fun day!

If you ever happen to be passing through Nyngan, check out Outback Country Crafts. It's a cute house that is converted into a store full of the most amazing handmade crafts. You'll find so many goodies in there from stamping, scrapbooking, quilting, beading, knitted crafts, soaps, gourmet foods etc etc. Go say hi to Narelle and Wendy in the store! You'll love it!! Tell them I sent ya!

Digital Reproductions Article

A few posts ago I mentioned the article that was written about me in the latest issue of Digital Reproductions magazine. Here is the cover with my photo of Brooklyn Bridge, New York City.

I was so honoured when they asked if I could be featured in the magazine. Colleen Bate, the editor, did the interview and I love how she has written the article. Thanks Colleen :)

You can read the article here:
Download DR12_Rachel.pdf

Right now I'm busy packing up for the trip out to the wild west tomorrow. Class kits are packed, stamps and other tools are packed, and my camera is packed! I feel like doing a slide show from this trip just to show you all a bit of rural Australia for all you overseas folk! I'll see how I go.

Hope you all have a creative weekend!

More on Nyngan

I thought you might like to know a little more about Nyngan... Here's a map of where I am off to:

The Red X is where I currently live. The underlined town Nymagee is where my Mum lives. The underlined town Tottenham is where I lived until I was 15. The light red line is the route we will take on Wednesday to drive to my Mum's farm. And there is Nyngan in the big red circle with the arrow pointing towards it! It's an 8 hour drive from my home to my Mum's farm at Nymagee. Even longer now with kids, and rest stops etc! This time we are staying in Dubbo for a night to go to the Western Plains Zoo and to see Hi-5 on Thursday. Then we'll continue on to Nymagee. I'll drive over to Nyngan on Saturday to teach the workshops.

and here's the page 2 article from the Nyngan Observer...

And even though it says I grew up in the local area (Tottenham, shown in the map) it has been 19 years since I have lived in the area, and has been several years at least since I have been to Nyngan itself. (so that's why I am still surprised they only used my first name on the front page. I must have made my visits memorable!! LOL) So I'm very much looking forward to being there on Saturday! I do hope to make this visit the most memorable one yet. Look out Nyngan... we're going to paint the town red! (or a nice shade of Distress Ink at least ;)

Look out Nyngan, here I come!

Apparently my trip to Nyngan next week is pretty exciting news! Don't believe me? Check this out...

Now, not only did it make the front page of the Nyngan Observer newspaper, but the most exciting thing is the fact they only used my first name! Gosh, who knew that I didn't need my last name after all! Go Nyngan! Can't wait to see you all next weekend!

SIA Trade Show and more....

We're back from the SIA Trade Show, exhausted but happy! Darkroom Door had a fantastic response, and we loved catching up with friends, shop owners, other booth holders, meeting new people and generally just having an all round good time!! Here's a shot of the booth:

And to see more photos, check out the gallery here.

I have to say, it has been an amazing road so far. I know I have been designing product for a while now, but this Darkroom Door gig is finally what it's all about for me. We have such a great plan for the future, for more products, for more everything, but I'm just so happy to be finally on this road. Thank you to all of you who have encouraged me along the way. I really am thankful.

So! I still have to photograph that photography article and show you. The mag was pristine the other day, now it's dog-eared from being read and moved around. Will have to get myself another copy.

A few other things I have been meaning to tell you about.... Inkurable Stampers is a new stamping challenge blog, and Darkroom Door have sponsored a prize, so go check it out if you're looking for a cool challenge. (and some cool prizes!) 

Scrapping Clearly had a fabulous booth at SIA. I loved checking out all the samples of the clear albums - so much creativity!!! Check out their booth... (and the funky chicks!) It was so great to catch up with Lee, Kylie, Jen & Alison.

Ok, that's it for now... have a great weekend!

Preparations and Publications!

Preparations: This past week we have been busy, busy, busy, BUSY (did I say busy?) preparing the Darkroom Door booth for the SIA Trade Show in Sydney that starts tomorrow. Late nights, early mornings, and lots of arting in between! The booth will be loaded with samples, (and products of course!) so if you're coming to the show, please drop by booth #7 to see all the Darkroom Door goodies! There's also be make and takes and giveaways... hope to see you there!

Publications: This week I've had some great mail arrive on my doorstep. One magazine is oversized and won't fit on my scanner, so I'll have to wait until I can photograph it to show you (right now I'm just about racing out the door and haven't got time to scan & stitch it). It's a photography mag called Digital Reproductions. They interviewed me and have a 4 page spread with my photos & article, and one of my photos is on the cover! :) yahoo. Will show you in a few days when I return from the trade show.

Another mag that arrived last week was Stamping & Papercraft. I have these cards in there:

They feature some of Tim Holtz's techniques (used with permission - thanks Tim!) along with his stamps with Stampers Anonymous. Full details and instructions are all in the mag.

The editors at Stamping & Papercraft recently asked me to be their featured stamper for the '20 Questions' section, so that's also in this issue!

Ok, have to run. Have a great week!

New Zealand

I had a wonderful few days in New Zealand. The weather was just perfect, not too hot, not too cold. I first taught a class in Christchurch for Cheryl at Stamping Fun Unlimited, then traveled down to Staveley to teach at a stamp camp for Doreen from 2bStamping. The ladies in all of the classes were so much fun, and so welcoming and friendly. In between classes we had some time to check out some of the local scenery and take a few shots:

A HUGE thank you to all of the ladies who took my classes in NZ and who sat through my (long) demo's! And a huge thanks goes out to Cheryl and Doreen for inviting me over and being such great hosts, and to Kirsten for driving me to and from the camp. The ladies at the camp were given a challenge on the Friday night to use some Darkroom Door Photochips.... read all about it here on the DD blog.   

So..... now that I'm home form my relaxing week in NZ, I'm now in full swing preparing for the SIA Trade Show next week. Darkroom Door have a booth, and i am super busy finishing off the samples, class kits, and make & take kits. I hear that my workshop is booked out too! Keep an eye on the Darkroom Door blog, I'll be updating it with all the news, photos and samples over the next few days.