Darkroom Door Eyes

Are you surprised to see a face on one of my projects? This journal page spread was definitely outside my comfort zone but I am very happy I persevered and brought it to completion. The page began with the new ‘Eyes’ stamp set from Darkroom Door and a pile of gel prints. There are eight pairs of eyes in the set in a couple of different sizes. I chose to stamp the eyes on a pale gel print done with oxide inks and the DD background stamp ‘flower garden’. To help me draw the rest of the face around the eyes I found a magazine face with similar size eyes and that gave me the right scale and placement as I completed the head and features.

Although I like the idea of adding hair I decided to do that on a future project and used some textured wrapping from a bunch of flowers instead. The bright pink helped me choose other gel prints to complete the background collage. You might not see them all but DD background stamps and stencils are featured on most of the torn collage pieces.

I embossed the Spanish tiles background stamp on a bright pink gel print, tore it up for collage and attached a strip to cardstock so I could cut earrings. I also used gold embossing when adding the words. I alternated phrases from the DD ‘you are everything’ set with the new DD ‘made for you’ set.

I worked in my new handmade journal which is 7″x7″. Once I had the facial features pencilled in I went over them with marker then added shading with coloured pencils. I also stenciled some stars over the collage and embossed in gold to give the whole spread more unity. The pink turban was a bit of a challenge which ended up looking a bit more like a swim cap than a turban but you get the general idea don’t you?

I will be using the eyes again both to practice drawing faces and as elements in future journal pages. I hope you are enjoying seeing the new stamps from Darkroom Door; they are always full of the artistic magic and clever ideas of Rachel Greig.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox & Scrap n Stamp)


Classic garden

A few weeks back I created two fairly glamorous cards with this fancy stamp, glamorous because of the platinum and gold embossing I paired with the very detailed stamp. Today’s card is simply stamped in one colour and embellished with another colour creating this classic navy, red and white combo.

I stamped on neenah solar white cardstock in chipped sapphire distress ink; it is a very detailed stamp so using a stamping platform helped me get good coverage.

Quite a versatile stamp I think…

Supplies

Stamps: flower garden, botanical script

Ink: chipped sapphire distress ink

Paper: neenah solar white, textured red

Also: stamping platform, red & white gingham ribbon


Another flower garden

The ‘flower garden’ stamp from Darkroom Door performed so well with the random application of colorburst paint I tried it with a more controlled colouring method. I embossed this panel in gold then used Koi colouring brush pens. I decided to colour only the leaves and flowers and leave the  tiny circle pattern filler uncoloured. Adding colour to gold embossing like this reminds me very much of Cloisonné which I saw on little trinkets as well as substantial, beautiful vases in China. I used two greens, a pink and a red to colour the design and kept blending with water to create soft gradation of colour.

I matted the panel in pink and embossed a sentiment from the Darkroom Door ‘happy birthday’ set which includes sixteen ‘happy birthdays’ in different fonts and sizes! You might have noticed with both the flower garden cards I managed to add a stamped envelope too. I’m trying to get into the habit of creating a matching envelope while I have all the supplies out rather than thinking about it later but being too lazy to do it…

Supplies

stamps: flower garden, happy birthday

Ink: versamark

Paper: hot pressed watercolour, neenah natural white, pink cardstock

Markers: Koi coloring brush pens yellowgreen, green, red, pink

Also: WOW metallic rich gold embossing powder


Flower garden

I was excited to see this stamp at Darkroom Door when I visited last year; I don’t remember ever noticing it before. It appealed at once and I’m happy to say this panel made me very happy. I embossed the large background stamp, ‘flower garden’ on hot pressed watercolour paper with platinum embossing powder (my current fave) then sprinkled two colours of colorburst paint powders lightly over the panel. A little goes a long way with colorburst and considering how much embossing there is I didn’t need much powder.

I spritzed the panel with water and watched it be magical. The two colours were indigo and alizarin crimson; the indigo gave me all the blues along with a tiny spot of green. The alizarin crimson gave me all the pinks and reds and the purples were a mix. I did do some blending with a paint brush just to make sure colour filled all the spaces. I diluted a few areas with water and pulled out some colour with a ‘thirsty brush’ to create some pale areas.

I tried a few different mat colours before picking blue then decided the white card base was a bit stark. To create a platinum border on the card base I ran my tape runner around the edges of the card front then embossed with the same platinum powder. I decided to write my own sentiment but the silver gel pen did not match the platinum embossing powder. I discovered that I could emboss the gel pen writing if I was really quick with the powder and didn’t let the ink dry for even a second.  It might not surprise you to know today’s colours happen to be my favourites.

Supplies

stamps: flower garden

Ink: versamark

WOW metallic platinum superfine

Paint: Colorburst alizarin crimson & indigo

Paper: hot pressed watercolour, neenah solar white, blue cardstock