Darkroom Door Stamp Set

Thanks to Gillian and Lesley for such wonderful and inspirational projects using the Darkroom Door stamps etc. The only problem is how do you follow such fab creations...eeekkk
Well, I cant put this post off any longer....so, here goes

The products used are:
Darkroom Door 'Chorus' stamp set
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Tissue Tape (Music)
Distress Ink Pads; Weathered Wood, Tea Dye, Brushed Corduroy
Distress Reinker - Brushed Corduroy

1.Cut a piece of white card to fit onto a black card blank, leaving a small border.
2.Ive taken one of the labels/poster looking stamps and stamped it in weathered wood all over the white card, then just wiped over with a piece of cut n'dry to soften the stamped image.
3.Then I took the stamp saying 'Those who wish to sing always find a song', again stamped it in weathered wood and then wiped over with the cut n'dry to soften the look and wiped the colour over the card so you cant see any white left. Colour the edges with Tea Dye. Cut some V shapes into the card and colour with Brushed Corduroy.
4. Next, I placed a small strip of the tissue tape onto the card and wiped some charcoal round it to give it some depth.
5.I coloured some scraps of white card with weathered wood, then stamped the woman, the label/poster and the wording 'Music is an outburst of the soul' then cut them all out and edge them in Tea Dye.
6. With the label/poster cut out image, cut some V shapes and colour with Brushed Corduroy.Bend the edges and give it a rough distressed look, add to the card with the woman cut out too.
7. Make up a solution of a bit of water and some Brushed Corduroy Reinker in a mister bottle and spritz over the cut words before adding to them card, as shown. Also spritz over the card.
8. Finally, add the stamped/inked panel onto the black card base.

I shall be adding a couple more cards to the blog over the next week but they are very simple and a tad experimental (they dont look as good as that might sound lol)

Stampbord ATCs

Good Morning Everyone,

Today I'm back again with the ATCs I promised which I made to put in the book box.  First of all I must apologise for the quality of my photos.  Although I am no expert I don't usually have a problem getting decent pics to blog but for some reason my camera just wouldn't give me a really sharp image and the only way I could get anything halfway decent was to double click macro which has of course distorted the shape a bit.

The first one is blended Distress Inks over the Tando music mask and overstamped in the top right corner with part of one of the stamps from the Darkroom Door Music Collection.  The quote is from the same set and so is the harpist which I stamped onto card using Distress Ink again and then dragged the colour out a little with a waterbrush.  I then cut out the image and covered with two layers of clear detail embossing powder.  I curved it very gently with my fingers and attached it to the ATC with silicone glue.  I finished off with some scratched highlights to the corner stamping and the quote.

Here is the second one.

I covered the Stampbord with Distress Ink before stamping the image in Aged Mahogany and after making sure it was dry I sanded and scratched the top left corner.  I pleated some of the Tissue Tape along the bottom and then layered some of the lace I used to make the flower on the cover before knotting some twine around.  I inked two of the Tando music shapes with black ink before covering with 3 layers of clear embossing powder.  Before I heated the last layer I inked one of the Music Collection stamps with a gold metalic inkpad, heated the embossing powder and stamped into it whilst it was still molten and adhered them to my ATC.

And here are the ATCs together with the little Book Box.

I hope you enjoyed my project and seeing these lovely products in action.  Enjoy the rest of your week and see you again next month.

Don't forget to check out the blog again over the next two weeks as there is still some fab inspiration to come from the rest of the team.

 Hugs
Lesley  Xx

Book Box using Darkroom Door and Tando products

Hello Everyone,

This is my project for this month using some really gorgeous Darkroom Door stamps, Tando products and Tissue Tape. I decided to decorate a little book box I've had in my stash for a while. It was great fun to do so here come the pics.

I covered the box inside and out with a liberal layer of Aged Mahogany Distress Ink and then dry brushed some gold paint on the spine and over the edges of the pretend pages. Now for some reason my Aged Mahogany reinker has gone really thick and yucky (I bought it ages ago and I'm wondering if it had been badly stored or something) but for my purposes it worked really well because it made the box look as though it had an old leather cover which you might be able to see better if you click on the photo to enlarge it. I then created the front and back covers. I blended several Distress Ink colours over a lovely Tando music mask (one of my favourite things to do) followed by some overstamping and blended inks onto some Tissue Tape before adding to the piece. I stamped, inked and cut out the lovely frame/bookplate and added it using 3D foam pads. I attached the little piano charm and made my flower from a piece of fab lace and a bit from a necklace I had taken to pieces.

I created the two pieces for the inside using similar methods. The quotes come from another Darkroom Door set.

The back cover was created in the same way too.

I hope you like my little box as much as I like the products I used. I will be back later in the week with two Stampbord ATCs I made to put in the box.

Hugs
Lesley Xx

DT Project Featuring Darkroom Door & Tando ....

Good morning everyone ... Gillian here back with my DT project for this month featuring Darkroom Door and Tando goodies. I started out by covering a 7x5 canvas board with cardstock from Tim's Vintage Shabby paper stack adhereing with Claudine Hellmuths Matte Medium. I then used Distress Ink (Walnut Stain) around the edges of the canvas. Using the Tando Mask (Music), I spritzed with Adirondack Colour Wash Spray in Expresso and dried with a heat gun. I then adhered Tissue Tape (Symphony) to a piece of manilla cardstock and used Tim Holtz Paper Distresser to distress the edges, again using Distress Ink (Walnut Stain) for highlighting. I then stamped quotes from Darkroom Door Music Collection in Archival Ink (Coffee) onto the cardstock. I then stamped more images from the collection onto vintage shabby paper, trimming to size and mounting with 3d foam pads. Using various musical chipboard shapes from the Tando Music Note Set which have been inked with Distress Stain (Tumbled Glass) and stamped with Archival Ink (Coffee). The small tag has been distressed with Walnut Stain around the edges.

Don't forget to check out the other DT members projects throughout the month for further inspiration. I would also like to say hello and welcome to our new followers, thanks for stopping by ... TTFN! x

Product review for Black Shrink plastic

Black Shrink Plastic is a somewhat unusual product but very versatile and I love it for making charms and embellishments that go very well together with many of the popular Tim Holtz and 7 Gypsies ranges, they also fit perfectly with the new Bo Bunny Etc range (available from Snazzys soon!). It comes in packs of 6 sheets.
Those of you who have used shrink plastic before will know it is important to sand it down on one side. Well Snazzys’ shrink plastic sheets are pre-sanded on one side already, which makes it very easy to work with.

For those of you who are new to using shrink plastic, it can be a bit scary at first as the stuff crinkles and curls up on itself when heated and you may well think that it will just turn into a big mess. The great thing is, if you take care not to over heat it, it all sorts itself out like magic.There are clear instructions of how to work with it included in the packs. Hope you will give this a try. The sheets are available for the very reasonable price of £4.35 from Snazzys

Here are some projects that show the kind of thing you can do. All you will need is the shrink plastic, some stamps, metallic or light coloured inks and pens.


Here are some more examples of charms used to decorate a project and a set of buttons that could be a gift for a friend who's into sewing.






Tip: When using your heat gun to shrink the plastic, put your item in an empty shoebox or similar, to stop it flying away, also don’t hold the heat gun too close, to stop it from over heating. This one is very important, always cut any holes you may need for your charms or whatever before you shrink it. This bit of info is in the instructions, but I thought it would be good to mention it as it is easy to overlook.

Product Review .... Distress Stains

Good morning everyone ... This week two of the DT will be giving a product review on items they have been sent in their DT kits. I chose to kick off the product review with Distress Stains. How do Distress Stains work ... Well the Distress Stains are a fluid water based dye ideal for paper or other porous surfaces. The Distress Stains have a unique release system making them the perfect dye medium for larger surface areas. They come with a brushed nylon dabber top, when you first open them just press the dabber top down, this will release the spring valve ready for use. Distress Stains are now available in 37 colours!



You can achieve different effects with the stains .... layering the colour gives a more saturated look like the tag on the left. Spritzing with water gives you a more mottled effect like the tag in the centre and also lightens your colour. The newest releases of Distress Stains have a new colour addition called Picket Fence .... this in my opinion is something totally unique ... Picket Fence is a fluid based stain, but the difference with this stain is that it is opaque, you also need to shake the bottle well before each use as there is a mixing ball within. Picket Fence can be used as a basecoat for other stain colours or can be used ontop to change the look of existing colours as you can see on the tag on the right. Picket Fence gives your projects an antique white washed effect.

This tag has been inked with Distress Ink and Distress Stain ..... as you can see the Distress Ink gives a more softer/blended look to the tag when used inconjuction with the blending tool, the Distress Stain is a fluid version of the Distress Ink, when layered the stains give your project a more saturated look.

For me the Distress Stains are an excellent medium to work with, they are easy to apply and give you ultimate control in how much fluid you wish to apply to your projects. The possibilities are endless. Ranger's Creative Director Tim Holtz has created a video that explains pretty much everything you need to know about Distress Stains click HERE to see the master at work. Thanks for stopping by, watch out for Astrid's product review later in the week.

DT Project #4 ....Note-card holder

Hello everyone, this is Astrid here and I am very excited to bring you my first project as DT member for Snazzys.

I am going to show you how you can create a little note-card holder that would make a wonderful gift for any friend that is not a card maker, although even someone who is a card maker might enjoy receiving something like this. The holder will hold up to four 9cm x 9cm (3.75 x 3.75 “) double note-cards. Obviously you can make both the holder and the note-cards in whatever style you wish, I am going to show you two, one more masculine and one more feminine. All materials I used are available from Snazzys

Here are two examples of both the holder and some note-cards to go inside.

First the little folders:





And now for some note card examples:







This is what you will need:
For the note-card holder:
1 piece of strong A4 card any colour
2 sheets of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper (I used 7 Gypsies Lille papers for my masculine cards and holder and Prima Botanicals for my feminine cards and holder)

For the note-cards:
For each card you will need:
One piece of card 18 cm x 9 cm ( 7” x 3.5”) scored and folded in half (for my masculine ones I used black, for my feminine ones, cream)
One piece of strong coloured paper 8.5 cm x 8.5 cm (3.25 “ x 3.25 “) (I used dark red and pale green)
One piece of scrapbook paper 8 cm x 8 cm (just over 3” x 3”). I used the Lille and Botanical papers again, - great to use up scraps.
A selection of stamps ( I used Darkroom Door Steampunk DDRS068, Chorus DDRS012 and also some Tim Holtz and 7 Gypsies, all available from Snazzys) I also used some freebies from craft magazines.

In addition you will need
Ruler
Craft knife
Your favourite glue (I used a basic glue stick, some PVA adhesive and a Stix2 permanent glue roller and my ATG)
A selection of embellishments of your choice

Here is the template for the holder:


Method:
1. Print out the template full size onto A4 paper and cut out
2. Glue your chosen paper onto your strong A4 card, let dry
3. Trace the template onto your card and cut out
4. Score and fold along the fold lines, fold all the flaps towards the centre of the holder and open out again
5. If you want to enhance the cover with stamps, now is the time to do so, this is also the time to cover the inside of the top flap with more paper if you want
6. Fold the two sides towards the centre, then fold up the bottom flap and carefully glue it all in place
7. To close your folder you can use a large brad, Velcro dots or whatever closure you can come up with
8. Create you note-cards, put them in the holder and your little gift is finished

Well, I hope you will give this a try, above all have loads of fun, use your creativity and imagination!