Darkroom Door

Christmas Wind Down

I meant to come back here on Boxing Day, but in between seeing family, filling orders, and organising my trip to Europe, my plans for blogging were put aside for a few days! That means I have LOTS to share with you, and I better hurry because from the 1st Jan you are going to be totally blown away by projects from our Creative Team!

So... firstly, some cards that arrived here before Christmas that are just gorgeous:

This card was created by Robyn Wood. (Using Christmas Reindeer, Yuletide Vol 2 and Star Background stamps)

x

How cute is this card by Cheryl Townley from Stamping Fun Unlimited! (Using Yuletide Montage). The card is sent flat, then when you open it into a box, the little image from the Montage sheet hangs freely. Here's what it looks like on the other side:

Very clever!!!

Thanks to everyone who sent us cards this year! We still have them up in the studio and I'd say they'll stay up for a while to come! They decorate the place nicely!

Godelieve has been busy again, first of all, she completed the Advent Calendar that she has been sharing each day on her blog:

The links to the entire 24 days are on Godelieve's blog here.

She's also shared a great tutorial on how to create index sheets for Darkroom Door stamps:

Index sheet tutorial can be found here. It's such a great idea!

Then there's this card:

Created using Vintage Automobiles, Full Bloom Vol 1 (Happy Birthday) and Plaid Background stamps.

If you're looking for more inspiration... Jill has been creating fabulous things like this:

Using the Photobooth Ladies! Isn't this amazing! Jill has plenty of close up photos on her blog here. You must check them out! 

As 2009 draws to a close, I just want to thank everyone for reading this blog during the year, for supporting us and our products, for using our stamps, for sharing your artwork and creativity, for participating in the ATC swaps, for coming to see us at trade shows and retreats and in workshops, for watching and having a laugh at my segments on Scrap It TV, for your friendships, and for sharing this crazy journey with us! It's certainly been one wild ride so far and we have LOADS in store for next year!

Wishing you all a wonderful, happy, joyful, fun filled and creative 2010!

Cheers,

Rachel & Stewart

Happy Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!!! We hope you have a wonderful day today!

Here are some more cards that we received this month:

Created by Sarah Schwerin. (Using Yuletide Vol 2 stamp set & Floral Background stamp)

x

Received by Marian from The Needle Artist. (Using Yuletide Montage)

x

Received by Tracey Strong at All Season Cards. (Using Yuletide Vol 2 & Christmas Reindeer stamp sets)

x

We hope you all have a wonderful day! Thank you for dropping by each day to see our Christmas projects! We'll still have more to share, so please keep checking back :)

Unlock the artist within!

Countdown to Christmas - 1 days to go!

Woo hoo!!! Only one more sleep! The Christmas music has been playing all day here as we prepare for tomorrow... all the gifts are now wrapped, the food is ready, the carrots and freshly baked choc chip cookies are out for Santa and his reindeer. We have also been receiving some wonderful cards from our friends and stockists. Here's a couple of them:

Received from the girls at Erina Scrapbook Store. (Using: Yuletide Montage and Vol 2 Wordstrips)

x

Received from Karen at Kazmos Kreationz. (Using Yuletide Vol 2 stamp set)

x

Received from Vicky Fernando. (Using Yuletide Montage and Vol 1 Wordstrips)

x

Thank you to everyone who has sent us cards or emails wishing us a happy Christmas. We really appreciate it!!! This year has been amazing for us here at Darkroom Door. We've grown so much as a company and we really enjoy bringing new products to life for us all to enjoy. We truly appreciate all of our stockists and the crafters who use and love our products!!! Working with you, creating with you in workshops, seeing all of your own projects with our products really is the best!!!

We'd like to wish each and every one of you a wonderful Christmas, and I'll still be back tomorrow with some more cards to share!

Unlock the artist within!

Countdown to Christmas - 2 days to go!

Today we announce the final winner from our Christmas Creations Flickr Challenge!!! But first, I have two cards to share:

Supplies:
Darkroom Door Yuletide Vol 2 Filmstrip
Darkroom Door Yuletide Vol 1 Wordstrip
White slide mounts
White ribbon
Red cardstock

Did you know all of our Filmstrips are the same size as real 35mm film? So that means they fit perfectly behind a real photographic slide mount! Easy! I've created a quick card using two images from the Yuletide Vol 2 Filmstrip and placed them behind two white slide mounts and attached them to the card. Then added a couple of words from the Yuletide Vol 1 Wordstrip with foam adhesive. Add some ribbon around the top and it's done!

Here's another card:

 

Supplies:
Darkroom Door Yuletide Montage
Darkroom Door Yuletide Vol 1 Wordstrip
Red ribbon
Red, Green, White cardstock
Fiskars border punch

This is a great card for using those little images on the Montage sheets. Simply cut them individually, mount them onto some red cardstock, then tile them up on green cardstock. Allow some extra room at the bottom to wrap the red ribbon and decorate the bottom edge with the Fiskars border punch (mine's a little crooked! Nevermind... at this time of year it's amazing I'm getting anything finished!! ;)
Then I've added a small word from the Yuletide Vol 1 Wordstrip to the top left image of the card.

But I bet you're all keen to know who was the winner from the Flickr challenge! We had almost 60 Christmas projects uploaded to the Flickr group! Thanks to each of you for sharing your creativity with us! We loved seeing...(you want me to cut to the chase, don't you!) anyway.... we loved seeing all of the different ways to use Darkroom Door products to create festive projects. Different colours were used, all sorts of combinations of products. It was great!!! For the final winner, we had everyone's name in the draw, and the winner is: Anneke de Clerck! Congratulations Anneke! Please email me with your mailing address and we'll send out a prize! Our email is: info @ darkroomdoor.com

Thanks to everyone for participating! Don't go away though... still two more sleeps until Christmas so that means I have two more days of Christmas projects to share!

See you tomorrow!

Unlock the artist within!

Countdown to Christmas - 3 days to go!

I think it's about time we shared a layout!

Supplies:
Darkroom Door Christmas Reindeer & Alphabet Medley Stamp sets
Basic Grey papers
Archival Crimson inkpad

I used the Alphabet Medley stamps to create the title along with the Christmas Reindeers. Added a circle to the centre of the flower and stamped a little cluster of the small stars to finish it off!

Not long to go now until Christmas Day!!! I have been wrapping gifts each night... the stockings are almost full!

Unlock the artist within!

Countdown to Christmas - 4 days to go!

Today we have some cards to share by Teneale Williams!

Supplies:
Darkroom Door Yuletide Vol 2 and Christmas Reindeer Stamp sets
Ink: Ranger Old Paper and Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip
Paper: Kaiser Dear Santa range
Cardstock: Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla
Other: 1” Circle Punch

Supplies:
Darkroom Door Yuletide Vol 1 and Vol 2 stamp sets
Ink: Ranger Old Paper and Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip
Paper: Kaiser Dear Santa range
Cardstock: Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla
Other: Stampin' Up! Bravo Burgundy Ribbon and Making Memories Antique Brad

Here's what the cards look like on the inside:

See the Holly lightly stamped with Old Paper Distress ink? The quote is from Yuletide Vol 2 stamp set.

Thanks for sharing with us Teneale - these cards are gorgeous!!! Love the colours! If you'd like to see more of Teneale's work, check out her blog here.

Update on the Christmas Creations Challenge: There's just over 24 hours to get your entries uploaded into the Darkroom Door Flickr Gallery to be in the draw to win a Darkroom Door goodie pack! All you need to do is create a Christmas project with any Darkroom Door product and upload your project into the Darkroom Door Flickr gallery before midnight Tuesday Aust Eastern Daylight Saving time. We'll announce a winner on Wednesday! Check out the Flickr pool here!

Countdown to Christmas - 5 days to go!

If you've ever bought one of our stamp sets, you'll know they come in a plastic blister pack. These blister packs are completely recyclable plastic, so they can be put into your recycling bin once you've finished with them... which is great! (I'm a big recycler, I don't like anything going into landfill unnecessarily) However they can also be re-used as a gift pack! Like this:

Supplies:
Darkroom Door Blister Packaging from rubber stamp sets
Darkroom Door Yuletide Vol 1 stamp set
Darkroom Door Yuletide Montage
Brilliance Moonlight White inkpad
Size 4 white tag

Instructions:

1. Trim red cardstock to 24cm x 15cm. Stamp the medium sized star from the Yuletide Vol 1 Stamp set along the top and around the edges of the cardstock with the Moonlight White inkpad. Stamp the small star in various spaces too.
2. Place red cardstock inside the blister pack. Punch a hole in the cardstock where the hanging hole is in the blister pack.
3. Place treats in the raised blister part. Close the blister pack, making sure the sides lock in place. (use a small amount of tape if you want to make it more secure for heavier items)
4. Trim large image from Yuletide Montage and mount onto red cardstock then onto a Size 4 white tag. Stamp Merry Christmas (Yuletide Vol 1 stamp set) onto white cardstock, mount onto red cardstock then onto the bottom of the tag with foam adhesive. (Alternatively: you could use words from the Yuletide Vol 1 Wordstrip)
5. Attach tag to the blister pack with red ribbon. 

For smaller treats, here's another idea:

Supplies:
Darkroom Door Christmas Reindeer Stamp set
Darkroom Door Yuletide Vol 1 Stamp set
Crimson & Jet Black ink
Red & White cardstock
Cellophane bag

For this one I simply stamped the small stars from the Christmas Reindeer stamp set all over a piece of white cardstock. Inked the edges with Crimson ink. Attached to a folded piece of red cardstock that was wide enough to cover the cellophane bag. Punched two holes (which also went through the top of the cellophane bag to keep it in place) and threaded red ribbon through and tied into a bow. Stamped Merry Christmas (Yuletide Vol 1 stamp set) onto white cardstock, mounted onto red cardstock, then attached to the bottom left side.

Very quick and easy to do!

Hope that's given you a great way to re-use the stamp packaging! Remember... once you're finished with it, put it in the recylcing! :)

Unlock the artist within!

Countdown to Christmas - 6 days to go!

I awoke this morning to all of the Christmas lights in the house twinkling away... my little elves (Ethan & Zoë) had woken up fairly early while it was still dark in the house and had turned on all the lights again to enjoy while they ate breakfast. I can only imagine how early they'll wake on Christmas morning! Yikes! I better get some good sleep before then!

Today I have some very special projects to share. When I saw these cards by our Creative Team member Godelieve, I instantly fell in love with them. I cannot praise Godelieve's work highly enough! Every time she puts stamp to paper, it just looks so elegant, like all the pieces just magically fit together perfectly. I know it's probably not like that when she's stamping, she probably just stamps and puts it together a she goes along, but the end result is always just so stunning. Check this out:

Supplies:
Darkroom Door Plaid Background stamp
Darkroom Door Yuletide Montage
Darkroom Door Christmas Reindeer Stamp set (Merry Christmas & star)

But wait there's more...

and one more...

Supplies:
Darkroom Door Plaid Background stamp
Darkroom Door Yuletide Montage
Darkroom Door Yuletide Vol 2 stamp set (Season's Greetings)

Aren't they just beautiful? Thanks so much for sharing these Godelieve.

And I'm loving seeing projects with our new Background Stamps! Gosh, I'm glad we released these!!! All of the projects I've seen with these stamps have been amazing! After Christmas we'll be sharing many more projects on the blog that use the Background Stamps, so stay tuned for that! 

Also... remember earlier in the month I mentioned that Godelieve was sharing her Advent Calendar each day on her blog? Here's what it looks like so far:

You really must check out each day, it is very inspiring! And mainly made from paddle-pop sticks! Oh and  Darkroom Door stamps and Montage sheets too! :) Start here.

Hope you're all having a wonderful festive season! I started wrapping gifts last night... it's so exciting!

Unlock the artist within!

Countdown to Christmas - 7 days to go!

Just a card for you today... probably a nice break after the videos we've had the past two days!!

Supplies:
Darkroom Door Yuletide Montage
Darkroom Door Yuletide Vol 2 stamp set (small star)
Darkroom Door Full Bloom Quartet Vol 2 paper
Fiskars border punch
Green, red, white flowers
Red brad
Green ribbons
Red cardstock

Instructions:

1. Trim Montage image from full sheet and mount onto red cardstock. Adhere to top right side of light green cardstock.
2. Wrap green ribbons around the bottom of light green cardstock.
3. Attach flowers to top left side.
4. Stamp small stars with Red ink.
5. I had some left over coloured scraps from a Full Bloom Quartet Vol 2 sheet of paper (the Roses image) so I punched a border with a Fiskars punch. Layered it underneath the top and bottom of the light green cardstock.
6. Adhere entire panel to folded red card.

Back again tomorrow!!

Unlock the artist within!

Countdown to Christmas - 8 days to go! Scrap It TV Christmas Special

Last Sunday the Scrap IT TV Christmas Special aired on the Aurora Channel and I had a segment showing how to decorate a gift bag and gift tag using the Yuletide Collection!

Here's the Yuletide Gift Bag segment:

Supplies used:
Darkroom Door Yuletide Vol 1 Stamp set
Darkroom Door Yuletide Montage
Darkroom Door Yuletide Vol 1 Wordstrip
White Size 4 Tag
Red Cardstock
Brilliance Moonlight White Inkpad
Brown gift bag

The music is pretty funny... and I look like I'm about to laugh in a few places which is true as there were a few people watching the taping and we were all having a few laughs in between the takes. Nevertheless... hope you enjoy!

Unlock the artist within!