Coming Up Roses

Darkroom Door's Rose eclectic stamp is exquisite!

I played around with the brushless watercolour technique and my favourite colour palette to create these roses.  I also worked on different ways to extend the length of the stem.

These are very pretty gift tags!

I think the eclectic rose stamp would be perfect for creating a Mother's Day card or tag too!

Darkroom Door supplies:

Rose Eclectic Stamp

Sheet Music Texture Stamp

Art De Fleur Vol. 1 Stamp Set

Chorus Stamp Set

Distress Mini Ink Pads 

We Will Remember Them

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."

I am thankful for those who sacrificed their lives to give us freedom.  What a price was paid, so that we may enjoy life, in an abundance of ways, in our amazing country Australia!

And for those service men and women, who are even now protecting our country,  our freedom and way of life,

thank you!

I have a dear friend, who has longed served our country and it's time I thanked her for it!  Here's a card I've created to thank her for all she has sacrificed for our country.  A small token, but something I haven't actually every said to her.  Thank you my friend.

Here's the details, if you would like to create a card, similar to this.

1.  Tear the edges of a panel of white textured card.  Stamp 'Large Poppy Stems' using black ink.

2.  Stamp 'Small Poppy' twice onto white tissue paper using red and black ink.  Fussy cut around the images.

3.  Scrunch the poppies up to create texture and affix to 'Poppy Stems' with double sided tape.

4.  Stamp 'Remember' onto torn vintage text with black ink and place above poppy flowers.

5.  Cross stitch 3 x's along bottom right corner.  Affix to folded card to complete.

Shelley Beach

Shelley Beach is a favoured place.  

My beloved and I should frequent it more often, but when we do, we reveal in walking gently in search of treasure - he with a camera lens and I with a pocket to collect.

Joel captured this lovely shot of shells immersed in water and when I received Darkroom Door's 'Shells' background stamp a while back,  I wondered if they might combine together.  

Yesterday I had time to play...

needless to say, we've made a date!

We're off to Shelley beach!

Hooray!

Darkroom Door supplies:

Shells Background Stamp

Seaside Vol. 1 Stamp Set

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!

Gum Trees - Darkroom Door

Out in the front yard we have this huge gum tree, it's one of my favourite things in the garden, bringing welcome shade, providing a haven for local birds and an abundance of leaves, twigs and gumnuts!  Nearby are other favourites, a paperback and bottlebrush, which also bestows gifts I love to use when creating.  Spending time in nature and working with leaves, twigs and seed pods brings inspiration, joy and connectedness with God, the ultimate Creator!

Before creating these pieces, I set off for an early morning hunt, gathering a wide variety of leaves of different shapes, sizes and colours AND also was thrilled to find a few acorns along the way too!

I also painted watercolour paper with coffee.

To create the first piece, I painted a page of text with gesso and when dry stamped a Darkroom Door 'Gum Tree' image using black ink.  I then stamped Darkroom Door's 'Coffee Stain' eclectic stamp three times using dark brown ink onto torn coffee stained watercolour paper.  I then stitched the gum tree and coffee stained paper together.  

I then stamped the sentiment onto a gum leaf with black ink and heat set.  I layered a number of leaves and bottlebrush nuts together, tied up with raw silk and affixed to work.  Finally this was mounted onto a huge leaf.

This ATC was created in a similar way, but this time I added a acorn cap with a sweet little Darkroom Door 'Photo Booth' image.

Poppa and Poppy

Recently, I've been working on my family tree, searching for long lost ancestors.  It's been a thrilling experience, every time I link another member to it, I feel a sense of connectedness to the past and I can't help wondering who this person was, what life was like for them - their joys, sorrows and challenges and whether or not I've inherited a thing or two from them!

I've also been reminiscing about my Poppa and his beloved youngest sister, Poppy!  We once took a family trip with Poppa to visit her and I can still recall the joy it was for them to reunite face to face.

So I thought I'd dedicate this little ATC to Aunty Poppy and my precious Poppa!

I've created it using Darkroom Door's 'French Script' texture stamp and 'Poppies' rubber stamp set 

1.  The main images were created using the 'brushless watercolour technique'.  Colour 'poppy stems' using Distress Markers (Squeezed Lemonade, Twisted Citron and Mowed Lawn), lightly spay water mist over the image and stamp onto ATC (watercolour paper)

2.  Colour 'Small Poppy' using Distress Markers (Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet and Seedless Preserves), once again, spray with water mist and stamp onto ATC.  Using an Aquash brush, colour the poppy using the ink from stamped image and by scribbling the same colour pens onto an acrylic block, pick-up the colour with the Aquash brush to add depth of colour to the poppy.  Add a touch of purple to the poppy stems too and heat set.

3.  Colour just the flower section of 'Small Poppy' with the Wilted Violet Distress marker and stamp directly over the image to add finer details to the flower.

4.  Scribble 'Old Paper' Distress ink onto acrylic block, pick colour up with Aquash brush and colour around the images to give an aged appearance. 

5.  Once dry, stamp 'French Script' using dark brown ink and the word 'Hugs' with black ink.  Swipe edges of ATC with dark brown ink.

6.  Embellish with cross stitches and lace.

Darkroom Door products used:

Stamps:  Poppies rubber stamp set and French Script texture stamp

Distress Pens:  Old Paper, Squeezed Lemonade, Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet and Seedless Preserves

Aquash Brush - fine