Flutter Your Feathers & Fly Free (The Stampers’ Sampler)

Hello Everyone
One of the card collections I was fortunate enough to have published in the Spring issue of The Stampers’ Sampler features one of my all time favourite Darkroom Door stamp sets, Feathers.  I’ve been lucky enough to have previous submissions featuring those stamps published in various Stampington titles but that didn’t lessen the thrill that this card collection made it to print.
The main idea behind this collection was to showcase stamping onto wood.  Some subtle stamped script with a simple embellishment of a bark butterfly.A single word stamped onto wood, layered onto a piece of painted burlap and a touch of crochet lace.
All of the cards, they are actually cards and not panels, have a base layer of tree bark with the stamped wood panels layered onto the bark.I so love those feather stamps!Once again, the script stamp makes an appearance,with a hand-cut wooden tag declaring be free.I tried to vary the stamped panels, at times paints were applied along with the walnut ink wash and I decided to stamp this feather three times.A hint of blue is in the painted and stained panel. I selected the crochet lace to enhance the rustic nature of the panels.  A simple twine bow adds another detail.A stamped wooden label, layered to frayed muslin.
Fly
There is something quite elegant about this particular feather.
The markings on the wood came about from the way I applied the stain.
Another hand-cut tag.If my memory serves me well, that is the final collection to share from the Spring issue of The Stampers’ Sampler. I still have a few posts to catch-up with, including the most recent issue of The Stampers’ Sampler, where amongst other artwork, I had Halloween art published. Don’t worry, I’m not trying to rush us through the summer months, I will delay for the moment sharing Halloween art with you!
Many thanks for your visit.
Wishes
Lynne

Journal for Creativity

Hello Everyone
Recently, I shared a post featuring a recently released Eclectic stamp from Darkroom Door.  At the time of receiving that particular stamp, I also received another, Pencils.
Knowing that this stamp was winging its way to me,  I set about preparation of the resin paper as I knew I wanted resin paper to form the covers for a journal.  I tend to make the paper in batches but have been dipping into my stash, incorporating pieces here and there on various projects so it was time to prepare some more.
If you are interested in reading more about this journal then you can read instructions HERE and also see more Pencils samples from the others.
Well, that was a very short post!
Many thanks for your visit.
Wishes
Lynne

Eclectic

Hello Everyone
Not so long ago, Darkroom Door released new Eclectic stamps and I was lucky enough to receive two of the new designs, Pencils and Fleur de Lis to create samples with.
Over at the Darkroom Door, there is a post focusing on the Fleur de Lis stamp.  My sample, a wooden box, can be viewed HERE along with other ideas from other team members.  With the steps and supplies used being shared on the Darkroom Door, I am sure you appreciate that I will not be sharing the steps here but I will share two photos of the box.What struck me is the generous size of this stamp. I have a few Fleur de Lis stamps but none compare to the Darkroom Door stamp.A short post to start the week but I hope to be sharing a few more posts which I’ve managed to draft.
Wishes
Lynne

Listen To The Trees

Hello Everyone
Nature was never really a theme I indulged in but it’s one I am becoming more comfortable with especially as I now have so many beautiful nature stamps including a lovely set of stamps I received from Darkroom Door to play with, Darkroom Door Gum Trees.  It’s certainly long overdue that I share a Darkroom Door sample with you.
On this card, although I did not stamp any snowflakes or winter related imagery, I wanted to convey a wintry day, with the sense of snowflakes blowing through the wind and a low winter sun casting a golden glow.You might just be able to make out the white splatters which brought to mind a snowstorm.Initially I planned on tearing up this panel, to re-ink the stamp and stamp onto a different surface as the ink has almost pooled, even though I did work with Staz-on.  After a few days I happened to return to the panel and decided that I would go with the flow.  I remember feeling the same way about a post I shared in December which also featured stamping onto mop-up paper.I am always happiest when I can putter around with little pieces of this and that, finding a home for them on whatever it is that I am working on.  There is something therapeutic in this.
A gathering of crochet lace and button, with threads happily trailing.If you are a fan of Darkroom Door stamps then you might like to know that they have a Facebook page and also a Group
Many thanks for your visit today.
Wishes
Lynne

Learning To Fly (Take Ten)

Hello Everyone
In the Autumn issue of Stampington & co’s Take Ten I was so pleased (note that as really, really, really pleased!) to see they had featured a collection of cards featuring Darkroom Door feather stamps, which I’d submitted.
There are four cards in the collection, in this scheduled post I am sharing three (I will confess, it is because I managed to somehow delete the photos for the fourth card!)

The idea behind this collection, beyond wanting to create cards with the beautiful Darkroom Door feather stamps, was to try to bring a sense of nature with an emphasis on textures
and to also feature words or sentiments relating to nature but are also affirmations for our own daily lives.
Maybe we should remind ourselves to give permission to allow us to fly and see where we land, to not be held back by our own fears or by words from another.Knowing from the outset that I wanted a tactile quality to each card, also not forgetting that each card needs to meet the 10 minute criteria for Take Ten, I simply stamped each feather onto muslin, fraying the edges.Rummaging around I gathered twine, burlap, beautiful textured paper, handmade paper and even fragments of bark,adding a hint of colour with paint splatters to mimic the colours of a bird’s egg.I hope you have found your wings.
Wishes and thanks for taking the time to visit this scheduled post.  Normal service will resume very soon when I return with more Christmas/winter related artwork.
Wishes
Lynne x

Smile of Friendship Part II

Hello Everyone
In this post HERE I shared two cards published in the Spring issue of The Stampers’ Sampler with a note to say that I had split the collection in two and would be sharing the other two cards another time, well here they are.
As with the previous cards I used Darkroom Door photobooth images as the focals with various Darkroom Door stamps to create the backgrounds and the word tiles.Torn pieces of fabric feature on all the backgrounds, floral fabrics and muslin with layers of paint.  You can see also the Gesso which I scraped onto the panel for added texture and highlights.Stamping with paint also features.The final card.I really do like those Photobooth images so much and as they are on quality cardstock it means they will happily take some heavy distressing!  I abrade the edges and also use an old emery board to distress further.  In the background, the random areas of flourish, that is a Texture Stamp stamped with paint.  The Texture stamps are amazing for not only a complete background but so easy to add small areas of stamping and the range is being added to all the time.
Quite a few colours were used on the background to tie in with the colours from the fabrics.
So there we have it, the final cards in this collection. I still have some other card collections which I have been fortunate enough to have published over the past weeks and will share with you every now and then.
As always, thank you for your visits which really do mean so much.
Wishes
Lynne

Another Day of Forever

Hello Everyone
It has been the longest time since I last posted for Darkroom Door and I have to say a huge Thank You to Rachel for mailing some fabulous stamps my way.
I did a complete U-turn on this project as when the wonderful Brushed Daisies set arrived I toyed with the idea of joyful colours but with the summer being a wash-out and the rain getting under my skin for a different DT commitment, I decided to keep the rainy day theme for one more project.The stamp element is the daisy head onlybut I wanted the flower to have a stem.  No trouble, I simple painted a stem with leaves.A piece of textured wallpaper, painted to co-ordinate with grey velvet ribbon, a scrap of seam binding and a pearlised button.Dinky Stencil Abstract Stone creates the base layer of texture.
Remember that you can sign up for the Darkroom Door newsletter and the Darkroom Door blog is always kept active, lots of inspirational art to be viewed HERE.
Thank You for taking the time to visit this post.
Wishes
Lynne

Cape Cod Escape (The Stampers’ Sampler)

Hello Everyone
When I became a DT member for Darkroom Door I received various Montage sheets.  I had an idea mulling around my head to create a collection of cards to submit to Take Ten but the idea was always on the back-burner until I received some wonderful sentiment stamps from Redlead Paperworks with a theme relating to the ocean.  The idea of pairing up the Redlead stamps with Seaside Montage images came together and I set about gathering little scraps of this and that to bring texture to the cards.  The Redlead stamps were a trio of sentiments but I really wanted a collection of four cards so for the final card I dipped into Oxford Impressions’ The Deep for the final sea related sentiment.
I was overjoyed to discover that not only was this collection published in The Stampers’ Sampler but one of the cards was selected to make me Cover Girl!  With an issue jam packed full of incredible artwork by so many artists who I admire, this was such an honour.
For each card I selected a Darkroom Door Seaside Montage image in two sizes which I distressed and clipped together with a mini wooden clothes peg which I had painted. I knew from the outset I would use Kraft cardbase but I also knew this would me a stark background so I went to town splattering paint and Gesso to bring texture and a hint of colour but I also wanted a sense of energy as though it was water spray from the waves crashing against the rocks.Heavily distressed edges to the images with touches of paint swiped on with my fingertips.All of the sentiments, this happens to be the Oxford Impressions’ one, were stamped onto painted balsa wood.  I like this as a surface, so light which is perfect for cards and a breeze to paint and stain and perfect for stamping onto.  More fragments with a length of painted muslin tucked behind the sentiment and images.It is so clever of Darkroom Door to provide varying sizes of the same image.This is one of the Redlead sentiments taken from this stamp HERE.  As written in the introduction to the Cape Cod Escape feature in The Stampers’ Sampler, they noted that by stamping the sentiments onto bits of wood, it compliments the beachy theme, creating an effect comparable to driftwood found as the tide comes in from the ocean.  This was exactly the effect I wanted to achieve so I was more than happy that they picked up on this.
The final card.The blue paint splatters pick up the blue in the Darkroom Door image.  I kept to a minimum of colours:- pastel shades of blue, green, pink with white.Thank You to Stampington & co for publishing this collection and a thank you to Redlead and Darkroom Door (and not forgetting Oxford Impressions) because it is always fun to create with their products.
Now I know that Rachel Greig’s images will not be from Cape Cod but it was lovely that The Stampers’ Sampler selected this location for the feature’s title as it is a place my Mum has always said she would have liked to visit, Cape Cod/Martha’s Vineyard.  However, I am unlike my Mum when it comes to her desire to view the sea and walk along a sandy shore as I do not like the feel of sand between my toes and I have a definite sense of unease at the thought of what lies beneath the ocean! Although I do share the same desire to visit Martha’s Vineyard as it looks so beautifully picture perfect.
I wonder, are you yearning to spend time at the seaside, dipping your toes into the ocean or submerging yourself to be carried along by the waves, floating in happiness!
Wishes
Lynne

Embrace Me (Somerset Studio Gallery)

Hello Everyone
A very quick scheduled post to share today featuring one card.
This card is published in the Summer issue of Somerset Studio Gallery (I am sure it was submitted to Take Ten). It was made as a Valentine’s Day card but it could also be an anniversary card. The stamps and image are from Darkroom Door, the image is from Love Letters Montage sheet.
This card actually came about when I received the Floral Texture Stamp.  With a pink chalk ink I stamped the Texture Stamp onto the top and bottom edges of a white scallop edged cardbase to create a decorative border, the Texture Stamps are fabulous. Layering one of the Love Letters images onto shabbily painted corrugated cardboard along with scraps of floral fabric and raspberry velvet ribbon, topped with the stamped word, embrace which is one of the many, many words/sentiments to be found on the Love Word Block stamp – incredibly useful stamps.So there we have it, a quick card and a quick post. Another time I will share with you art journal style panels which were also published in this issue of Somerset Studio Gallery.
Many thanks for your visit.
Wishes
Lynne

Adventures In Paris (The Stampers’ Sampler)

Hello Everyone
Back in April last year I made a card sample for Darkroom Door featuring what was at that time a new release, French Script Texture stamp, (HERE).  I had in my mind to make a wee collection, to the same theme, so a few months later that’s what I did. It was a yipee from me to discover them featured within the pages of The Stampers’ Sampler, although I had submitted to their sister publication, Take Ten, as to my mind they were ten minute cards.Sometimes it can be easy to overlook Darkroom Door’s amazing and varied collection of images and word strips, focusing instead on the stamps available.
For each card a collage was made around a Parisian image, on this card from Film Strips, Paris Vol 3
The images were layered upon various found paperswith touches of black lace and polka dot ribbon and various stamped fragments or postal marks, again all from Darkroom Door.There was a lovely introduction which they wrote about the cards and how you could just imagine a message scribed from your sweetie to meet at Lover’s Bridge.  Someone’s imagination is as fertile as mine!Torn lace and painted corrugated scraps are some of the layers, scrunched wax paper with a swipe of paint and a scrap of ricrac which had previously been stained with tea.So there we have it, a simple set of Parisian themed cards.
For the moment, this is another scheduled post.  Many, many thanks for your visit today and for your continued loyalty and friendships.
Wishes
Lynne