Rachel Greig

New Darkroom Door products

We've released a whole new range of products with Darkroom Door recently... it has certainly been keeping me busy! Here's what's new:

Check out these big honkin' backgrounds! Our new Background Stamps are 155mm x 110mm which completely covers an A6 card front with ease! That means you can create amazing backgrounds in just one step! Woo hoo!!!

The new Photo Stamps are created exclusively from my photographs. Finely detailed, they can be used with inked backgrounds, coloured with markers, stamped onto textiles and so much more! Each stamp measures: 118mm x 80mm.

The new Pearlescent papers include pretty pink and purple butterflies that little girls (and big girls) will love. Our new Gerbera 12up's are so versatile! Each image can be used individually, or use several images together to create a variety of cards and projects. Suitable for party invitations, greeting cards, scrapbook layouts and more! I'm really enjoying these new papers!

We also have some new Notepads! Suitable for journal blocks for scrapbook layouts, inserts for greeting cards, notes for your teachers, friends and family. Great stocking fillers for Christmas too!

Check out the Darkroom Door website and blog for all the details and samples with these new goodies!!!

Christmas Card Set - Handmade Magazine Vol 27 No 3

 I've had a set of Christmas Cards published in Handmade magazine Vol 27 No 3. The cards feature some of the stamp designs I created for Stamp-It which are still available for purchase. I've used Ranger Alcohol Inks for the backgrounds - which are fun and easy, especially for mass production of Christmas cards!!!

Here's a sneak at the cards in the mag:

Not long now until Christmas! We're starting to think about our usual family Christmas photo that we do each year... we have some ideas, but just have to get out and do the shot! Who knows which idea we'll end up doing... depends on the kids!

New venture: Placemats & Coasters

Growing up, dinner was usually served on cork-based placemats with varying designs... mainly country style since we lived in the bush. I ate at different houses regularly (Mum's, Dad's, Grandparent's, and friends houses) each with their own set of placemats. Grandma & Grandpop Greig's house always had a good assortment to choose from! I remember watching Grandpop trace around the edge of the placemats with his fingers as he told stories. I remember Grandma setting out the table with the different designs. Even now when I visit Mum's house I like seeing what she has in placemats to choose from!

But I never bought a set for myself. Even with messy kids who can sometimes cause chaos at the dinner table, I only had material or thatched style placemats. I guess I wanted my first set of real placemats to be special!

Truth is, I always thought it would be fun to have my own photographs featured on a set of placemats & coasters. So a couple of years ago I contacted Jason Products to see what their requirements were for licensing of images. After working together to find the right design to compliment their current range, they contacted me in May this year to ask if they could use one of my frangipani images. I was sitting in an airport in Malaysia when I received the news and I was so excited! To me it's not just about photographs on placemats... It's about dinner time, it's about getting together with family, hearing stories, choosing your own placemat, talking about the pictures, the artwork, and of course how easily they can be cleaned after a messy dinner!

So after much anticipation, Jason Products have released my first set of placemats and coasters:

Bright and cheery! Anyone own a beach house? These would be great in a sunny kitchen or dining area! Currently the placemats are available in New Zealand and Australia. I also love some of their other new designs. Especially the Animal Collection and Seaside Memories. Think I might need to invest in a few extra sets!! If you're interested, contact Jason Products for information on stockists. 

On a personal note, I wish Grandma & Grandpop Greig were still around. I think they would have gotten a real kick out of using placemats that featured my artwork! I'll enjoy it for them :)

Yuletide Alcohol Ink Class

It's going to be a merry Christmas this year!!! I'm teaching a Yuletide Alcohol Inks class at Erina Scrapbook Store on Wednesday 4th November from 7pm-9pm. We'll use the new Darkroom Door Yuletide rubber stamps and Adirondack Alcohol inks - which will make one very merry Santa!

If you'd like to book in, please call the store to secure your place: 02 4365 0770.

Hope to see you there!

Lazy Days Skirt

I was reading a post on Mel's blog last week that shared a sewing instruction sheet for the Lazy Days skirt. Mel decided to have a challenge for her readers to create our own versions of the Lazy Days skirt. Since the skirt essentially doesn't need a pattern (because it's that easy) I decided to give it a go!

Zoë picked out the fabric at Spotlight (for $1.50! Bargain!) and I already had some white pom pom trim in my stash. So we were ready to go. It hardly took any time at all, and here's the result:

I wasn't sure whether the white ribbing above the pom poms should be on the outside or the underside, I'm sure both would be fine. We picked the outside to give it an extra edge.

 

If you'd like to see some of the other skirts, check out Mel's blog or look through the Oliver + S patterns Flickr group!

Now for something fun... Piano Stairs

If I came across these stairs, it would make my day!

Notecard packs added to my Etsy store!

I've been busy this week and have created a bunch of black & white photo notecard packs and have added them my Etsy store. Here's a peek at them:

Floral Notecard Pack:

Landscape Notecard Pack:

 

All Sorts Notecard Pack:

 
All cards are blank for your own message and are perfect to have on hand for yourself, or as gifts for friends, family, teachers, co-workers... anyone! 

We're in the last week of our school holidays, and so far we have been to a wedding, a trip out to the country, visited Jenolan Caves, seen 'UP' at the movies, made a skirt for Zoe, installed another stamp press and have had a BBQ with friends. :)

Hope you're having a great week!

Garden Art

My Mum is always creating amazing things out of the strangest of objects... and here she gets the award for 'most creative use of Palm Tree frond droppings'... check this out:

 

She's created them to put near her almond trees to try and scare the birds away so they won't eat her almonds!! How hilarious are these!!! What garden wouldn't love a fancy frond or two like this :) Pretty creative I say!

World Card Making Day

This Saturday 3rd October it is World Cardmaking Day! Woo hoo! I never need an excuse to make cards, but it's sure nice to be able to say 'oh you  know what, today I'm going to do nothing but make cards!'.... however this Saturday I'll be traveling to attend my cousin's wedding, so I won't be making cards that day. I've decided to make this World Cardmaking Week instead!! Here's one...

Supplies: Darkroom Door Prague Photochips, Darkroom Door Prague Vol 1 Rubber Stamps

To celebrate World Cardmaking Day, the MoxieFabWorld Blog is hosting a 'World Tour' showcasing cardmakers blogs from all over the globe. Be sure to check it out! There's heaps of prizes to be won too!

Here's some more cards...

Supplies: Darkroom Door 'Enjoy Life' Rubber Stamps DDRS036

 

Supplies: Darkroom Door Yuletide Montage, Darkroom Door Yuletide Vol 2 Wordstrips  (and the supplies for the card in the background: Darkroom Door Yuletide Vol 2 Rubber Stamps DDRS032)

Happy World Cardmaking Day!

Dust Storm Photos

We woke this morning to the biggest dust storm that Sydney and the Central Coast has ever seen. I was awake before 6am and could see the orange illuminating from the windows and behind the blinds. Ethan was also awake and had opened his blinds to see what was happening. The sky outside our house looked like this:

The car (which was outside) and the back deck were completely covered in a thick layer of red dust. It was like Mum's paddock at Nymagee had just dumped dirt everywhere on us! I called Mum later and said 'we have your paddock here!" and she laughed and said she has Broken Hill all over their place too!!! (Broken Hill is hundreds of km's further west from Mum's farm)

We live near the beach and near Tuggerah Lakes. Usually they are brilliant blue with bright blue skies. This is what the lake looked like this morning:

You can usually see over the lake to the other side which shows The Entrance. But we couldn't see very far at all:

And here's the trees in our backyard looking right up to the sky:

As the day wears on, the sky is getting lighter as the sun becomes stronger. The wind has been pretty fierce, but seems to calm down, then rare up again. The news reports say it should all blow over by the end of the day. But it'll take a while to clean up that's for sure!