Captured

Here's my take on Darkroom Door's theme for their ATC exchange for June, 'Landscape'.

Would you believe that I began by layering this ATC base with Squeezed Lemonade Distress Paint and gesso!  There's also a number of stamping mishaps hidden in the depths of the layers of this piece.  I just kept adding gesso and playing with colour until I found a pleasing solution.  Along the way, this also created a lot of texture in the paint, which I'm happy to say left a more 'painterly' effect when I stamped the tree images from Darkroom Door's Tree Line photo stamp.  I added a light layer of Torn Text background stamp and embellished the photo stamp with a section of the Film frame stamp, as well as some images from the Photography stamp set.

If you'd like to join in the ATC exchange fun then pop over here for more details!

Darkroom Door supplies:

Tree Line Photo Stamp

Torn Text Background Stamp

Film Frame Stamp

Photography Stamp Set

Sweet!

'Pink and Orange' is the theme for this month's ATC exchange over at Darkroom Door.  It's always a thrill to receive the exchanged ATC's and see how others have explored the theme! If you'd like to play along with us, then pop over here for the details.

I've combined two of my favourite images from Darkroom Door's Tropical Fruit stamp set, as well as their Torn Text background stamp which is hiding away there in the background!

Darkroom Door supplies:

Tropical Fruit Stamp Set

Torn Text Background Stamp

Distress Paint - Picked Raspberry, Ripe Persimmon and Cracked Pistachio

Strings of Hope

February's ATC swap theme over at Darkroom Door in February was 'Tied Up With Strings'.

I had a wonderful time playing with DRD's 'Carved Pods' and their 'Coffee Stain' eclectic stamp, along with ink, paint and textiles to create this ATC.  The canvas was given to me by my dear friend Jhodi, who had buried it in her backyard for a while to 'age' it.  It was just perfect for this project and I feel pretty inspired to buy some canvas and bury it too!

Summer Breeze...

Happy New Year and welcome to 2016!

Those of us living in the southern hemisphere may well be thankful for a cool summer sea breeze on those steamy hot days!  We haven't had too many yet, but I'm always thankful for the blessing of a cool breeze.

Darkroom Door is once again hosting an ATC exchange throughout the year - yay!  I know I've said it plenty of times before, but it is always a thrill to receive an ATC exchange in the mail.  If you'd like to participate this year, visit here for all the details or contact me and I'd be happy to explain more about ATC's with you.

Summer Lovin' is the theme for January and the above is my ATC inspired by the lyrics from Seals & Crofts, 'Summer Breeze'.

May the new year bring you much love, joy, peace and a cool summer breeze whenever you may need it!

Blessings xx

Fragile Life

In Your Heart - Jigsaw Exchange

In September, I revisited the friendship theme for Shaz.  She has a lot of love in her heart and really loves and cares for those around her.  She's a faithful prayer warrior and a faithful friend!  She's also a pretty fantastic education assistant!

This first piece was inspired by her love she had for her darling dog, who sadly passed away this year.      

What a faithful friends can be found in the furry world!

The special bond and friendship of mother and daughter, when good, is like no other. 

And the friendship of girlfriends are to be treasured!

Little Songbird - Jigsaw Exchange

August's jigsaw challenge was for Jenny again.  The sweet stack of birds and foliage stamps are by Prima.  I bought them on our honeymoon in Jakarta 3 years ago and have only just got to putting ink on them now!

The gemstones are really tiny in actual size and originally created to add long to mobile phones.  I'm often using them to add a lovely final touch.

Smile - Jigsaw Exchange

In July, I was once more focused on Trish's theme, 'Life is an Adventure'.  This time I imagined Trish and her husband Rod travelling around Japanese and soaking up the culture!

I have a small but lovely collection of Japanese paper, so I dipped into that as the starting point.  The Gorgeous Darkroom Door image from the Kimono montage paper collection, along with the Kimono wordstrip and Japanese script from the Kimono Vol 2. stamp set were the perfect things to complete my little Japanese adventure!

I would love to visit Japan one day, but I think I would be too tempted to take an empty suitcase and a large pocket full of cash.  All the beautiful paper and washi tape and fabric and, and, and many other delights would be calling me to take them home!

Click! Click! - Jigsaw Exchange

Something beginning with C is the great thematic challenge that my friend Ellie presented to us!

Ellie's a great memory keeper and is often taking photographs in her daily life.  

C is for... Children, clear (film strip), chum, companion, comrade, calendar, light control and celebration...

C is for... Camera, click and capturing special moments!

Delight In Truth - Jigsaw Exchange

'Typography' was the theme chosen by my friend Susan.  She's a wonderful high school English teacher and has a great love for words, especially the Word of God.  Susan uses her words to encourage and inspire not only her students, but her friends.  

On the second puzzle piece I've used part of a stamp designed by Kristen Robinson and have simply adapted with a snippet of vintage text.

Words are powerful and can be used to share the truth of God, as well as support, teach, encourage and inspire those around us.  May we continue to learn to use our words wisely to love, encourage and spur one another on!

Fun In The Sun - Jigsaw Exchange

'The Beach' was the chosen theme for Amanda in our jigsaw exchange.  

I think I feel most carefree when strolling along a beautiful beach soaking in the suns rays, feeling the fresh breeze against my face and listening to the soothing, rhythmic crashing of the waves.  Mind you, quite often it's quite chilly in my part of the world and the sky's are overcast, the wind is howling  and the sand is flying into your face - but there's still something wonderful about the beach.

I must admit that I love to stroll hand in hand with the one I love along our beautiful coastline!

It's looking good outside my window this morning!!!  Think it's time for me to have some fun in the sun before my holiday comes to an end!

Happiness is... - Jigsaw Exchange

Shaz chose the theme 'Friendship' for her jigsaw puzzle.  I found this lovely sentiment in my stash of puzzle pieces and was thrilled that it could just fit!!!

The gorgeous scrapbooking papers made the collage work easy.  All I needed to add was the lovely image of two little friends with very big bows and simple cross stitching!

Love makes the world go round, so they say, and the love of a friend makes it all the sweeter I reckon!  xx

Nest - Jigsaw Exchange

February's jigsaw theme was 'Birds and Nests' for Jenny!  She loves little birdies, especially vintage imagery of them.  I've discovered if you put a little gel medium over gem stones thy have a soft and rounded finish, it almost looks like drop of rain.

Made In France - Jigsaw Exchange

I'm involved in a jigsaw art exchange this year.  It is a little challenging working with such a small and oddly shaped surface, but I've been finding that I've loved being out of my comfort zone!  Finding items that are small enough in scale forces you to be creative in little ways.

These pieces were completed for January.  My friend Trish's theme is 'Life is an Adventure'.  She is a cyclist and loves to travel the world, so I was picturing her cycling through Paris on a Penny Farthing - wouldn't that be an adventure!

The Eiffel Tower image comes from a collage sheet by ArtChix Studio and the 'Made in France' ribbon was a part of a gorgeous gift from my dear friend Debbi.  She purchased all sorts of delightful things at the flea markets in France and shared some with me.  How spoilt am I?

All A Flutter

'Wooden' is October's theme for Darkroom Door's ATC swap.  

The wooden butterflies were my starting point for this project.  The lovely brushless watercolour technique has been used when stamping the butterflies from Darkroom Door's 'Butterflies' stamp set.  I find this technique works best on smooth watercolour paper.

Because I was replicating this work a number of times, I positioned all the butterflies stamps in place on a blank ATC in a composition I liked and then used an extra large acrylic block to keep them all in place at once.  This made the stamping of 12 ATC's so much quicker!  

Once the stamping was completed I affixed the wooden butterfly in place, adding hand stitching and velvet ribbon.  To complete this work I flicked Distress 'antiqued bronze' spray stain over the work (covering the wooden butterfly with a scrap of card) and added the word 'flutter' found in Darkroom Door's Wildflowers Vol. 1 stamp set. 

NB:  If you're flicking spray stain around, be sure to screw the spray mechanism back in place when you've finished, so unlike me, you don't flood your work space with gorgeous antiqued bronze liquid - what a waste!!!!

Stitched Up!

September's ATC swap theme over at Darkroom Door is, 'Stitched Up!'

As you may well know I do love to add stitching to my work, so it was terrific fun making this set of ATC's!  The floral fabric and carved leaves were my starting point which lead me to decide upon this colour palette.  I'm still very much an experimenter when it comes to stamping on fabric and I was quite pleased with the end result.  

There's still plenty of time to participate in this month's swap so head over here to find out all the details.  It's always a delight to receive an amazing collection of ATC's from other artists, so I highly recommend having a go!

Darkroom Door products used:

Stamp set - Carved Leaves Vol 2

Texture stamp - French Script

Recycle It!

The Darkroom Door ATC swap for June was Recycle It!

There's a whole lot of recycling going on in this ATC.  The kraft card base is courtesy of Book Depository packaging, all stamped images are on old book pages, a manila folder and a lotto game piece, as well as a scrap of vintage fabric.

Darkroom Door products used:

Stamp sets - Home Sweet Home, Carved Leaves Vol 1,  Wings and Tags

Other supplies:

Vintage fabrics and paper flowers

Yellow & Grey

'Yellow & Grey' was the theme for Darkroom Door's ATC swap in May.

My Granny and Poppa had a caravan and I loved it whenever we were able to spend time in it.  I'd love to have a caravan for an art studio.  Imagine being able to hitch it up to the back of the car and take off to any given destination with all the essential supplies in tow!

Darkroom Door products used:

Stamp Set - Carved Caravans

Background Stamp - Mesh

Montage - Love Letters

Other supplies:

Flower pot punch, paper flower, gold staples and rhinestone

Let's Dance

Photo credit - Rachel Greig

It was all about 'Quote Stamps' during the April ATC swap at Darkroom Door.

I love the way this quote reminds me to dance through the tough times!

I decided to make this ATC a little interactive in that you had to open it up to see the quote and my quirky little dancer.  I had fun creating the umbrella's from the Carved Flower stamp set too!

Photo credit - Rachel Greig

I've stenciled and stamped the background of this set of ATC's.

Darkroom Door products used:

Quote Stamp:  Dance

Stamp Sets:  Brush Strokes, Carved Flowers, Simply Circles, Melody

Photobooth:  Ladies

Wildflower

March's theme for Darkroom Door's ATC swap was 'Watercolour'.

I used one of my favourite techniques to create this ATC - brushless watercolour.  One of the best tips I can give when using this technique is to use good quality watercolour paper.  It makes such a difference to the result.  I used a smooth watercolour paper for this project.

There's a number of layers of thin brown paper in the background.  The images were stamped on torn watercolour paper with Adirondack inks/water and then embellished with lace, machine stitching, rhinestones and a punched heart.

Darkroom Door products used:

Stamp Sets:  Friendship Flowers and Montmartre

Texture Stamp:  French Script