Let's Make Garden Rocks with Darkroom Door Stamps!!

Hello Topflight Stamps Fans!! This week the team are playing with darkroom door Background Stamps. If you saw all the awesome Christmas in July 2 weeks ago we all used the same Snow Flake stamp as our background- so funny we had no idea!!
*Affiliate- some of these companies have given me product to use, play & experiment with. The ideas are my own but I tend to work with companies whose products I like so enjoy the inspiration.
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I have been working in my garden & have wanted to add some painted rocks for awhile & this seemed the perfect time to do it. I am so happy with how they turned out. One of the great things about this technique is you don't have to be able to draw to get a very cool painted rock.

Here is a sample of some Background Stamps that darkroom door has available. So much bang for your buck! You can use the whole stamp as I have done on my rocks, cut out individual images or use it as a background to create interest.

Let's Get Painting!  

First I picked out a rock & a brick that I was going to work on. I started by washing them & letting them dry. Next step was a layer of white gesso. While that was drying in the sun I prepped the background. Simply stamp on tissue paper with Archival ink. Using decoupage glue paint the rock and adhere the tissue, paint a layer of glue on top as well to seal it. 

Next up let's add some color! I used an alcohol ink based marker to color the flowers. Some of the flowers were simply one color, others had the darker color on the inside & the lighter color pulling to the outside. As my base is decoupage glue the marker has no problem grabbing on to the slick surface.

I also liked using the alcohol markers because I wanted something permanent. As these rocks will be outside in the elements another layer of decoupage will be necessary so I didn't want the colors to smudge. Yet another bonus of using alcohol markers, is the transparent color. The stamped image is still visible, letting the images sing. 

Add A Quote...

I love quotes and a rock is the perfect place for one. It may encourage the viewer to pause to read and really enjoy your creation. For my brick I decided to keep it simple with just the image & quote. The quotes were done on card stock the same way, in Archival, inked and glued.

I am moving my rock around my garden trying to decide where it should live. Kinda like it sitting with my hydrangeas!

 
Here is the last example of using the Snow Flake background stamp with embossing powder. You can see this post here or just keep scrolling it is the next post down. 
If you want more examples take a look and see all the different ways to play with these awesome stamps. Start here to take a look. Then go to older posts to see more! This is a great way to see how one stamp can look so different!  Remember to check back on the blog this week to see how my teammates play with these stamps!

If you want some snow flakes there is also a winter sale going on!! Time for some early Christmas shopping perhaps? That is it for today, I hope you get a chance to gather some rocks & get inky!!

Supplies:  

darkroom door stamps - Fun Flowers, Butterflies. Snow Flakes,  
Adventure Sentiment.
Prism alcohol Markers
Gesso
Super Matt Varnish for your decoupage glue.
Tissue paper, rocks &/or bricks.  

A Journal Inspired by Two Women

Hello Blogland, I have a journal for you today that is inspired by two of my favorite women. This month Eileen Hull's Inspiration team is all about flowers, so there are some of those as well. My Journal Book combines the die cutting talents of Eileen with the inky, funky style of Dyan Reaveley. I am lucky to be in an industry that has many amazing, talented women. These 2 strong, wonderful, women are forging careers in this crazy art world while having raised families. Let's be clear the raising of children continues even when they leave the nest! Both of these ladies have given me the gift of their time, & advice which has been invaluable! They are truly an inspiration. Plus as an added bonus they have some of my favorite products!!!

 

Journal using Eileen Hull dies & Dyan Reavely paints & stencils.

  

 I Love Journal Books!!!

This book is also a work in progress so this will be a 2 part blog post. I want to add some beading to the spine, as well as pockets, stamping and such to the inside of the book but will leave that for another time. I do have a simple tutorial for you on how this book was accomplished. 

Front cover of Traveler's Style Notebook

Let's Make a Book

I have been keeping a journal or Traveler's Notebook as the style is called, almost everyday since February. It is a combination of inky art journal fun, memory keeping with photos & journaling. I needed another journal cover to be a permanent house for my latest series of Dyalog books. Eileen's journal book is most conveniently the perfect size! I started by cutting my cover pieces out of mat board. A bit of a spritz of water and a background using Dylusions Paints. Then a bit of stencil work using more of the paint. I decided I wanted the front cover to be cool & the back warm colors. 

 

A bit of stencil work adds a pop of cool.

 Pink & Orange for the win.

Here is the back cover once the background was done, ready to add paint with a stencil. Before you ask, yes I painted my black dabber base Vibrant Turquoise. I used Dyan's stencils sticking with the flower theme. 

Flowers can be made from fabric, paper, felt, metal...

Flower Fun

Next up was to die cut & color flowers. Using canvas & crinoline, I cut using Eileen's Heart Petal die. I spritzed these with Dylusions sprays- so vibrant I love these colors! Crunch up the flowers & leave them to dry naturally. This is a technique many of my teammates have done so check out Eileen's Blog to see more fabulous flower construction and also Eileen has an entire series of videos on her Facebook page dedicated to making them using different materials.

For my 3rd and smallest flower I used the wipe up, baby wipe. I quite often keep these & then don't use them. This is a great way to recycle both the wipe & not waste the spray! I cut 6 of the smallest flowers for this one. 

Time to Spritz!

All of the flowers were assembled loosely with a brad to hold them. The final touch was to add some glitter & gold metallic which was easy to do with Marvy Uchida pens. 

I also wanted some funky leaves for my book & opted for the feather stamps from Dyan's stamp set- Flight of Fancy. One of my new favorite techniques is to randomly spritz on a piece of card stock, dry and stamp. You get this cool background for your stamped image.  In hind sight I would have used some of the turquoise as well, maybe for the tips of the "leaves". 

How about some assembly? I glued my book together using SuperTape & also added eyelets down the middle for extra strength. The inside edges of my book were distressed using the paint. The elastic was wound in a fashion to only show on the outside spine at the top & bottom. I want to add beads on the outside spine & find it is easier to do this separately sometimes.  

I added paper to the inside covers using paper torn from the Dyary Book. Handy & quick as these are already printed backgrounds.  This is the front inside cover- I am going to add a pocket. The edges of the paper were distressed with Color Blends Ink.

Here is the inside back cover. I may add something fun here too. 

The back cover is kinda different but I like it!! Way cool with the different paint combos. I may have to add a stamped image there or a butterfly die cut. The butterfly is from A Flair For Buttons. It is a pin & I attached it to the elastic as a reminder to use it somewhere, probably on the closure, I think it will go nicely.  

I love how these flowers turned out! I am not the best at the whole flower thing but I can't wait to see how they will look when I add beads. You can see the cool leaves/feathers that were stamped and cut out. I also added some doodles to help those flowers really pop! Thanks for joining me today. I hope you pop over to Eileen Hull Designs to check out the cool projects my teammates came up with & please join the fan club on Facebook! See you next time.

Supplies:

Eileen Hull Journal & Heart Petal dies by Sizzix
Mat Board by Sizzix
Color Blend Ink by Clearsnap
SuperTape by Therm*O*Web
Dyan Reaveley stamps by Stampers Anonymous
Dylusions Ink Spray, stencils & Dyalog Books by Ranger Ink
Deco Just Glitter & Deco Color Pens by Marvy Uchida
Butterfly Flair by A Flair For Buttons

Finding Inspiration to Art Journal

Hello Inky Friends, today I am writing about where to find inspiration for your art journal. As it is Thursday, you know it is my turn on Topflight Stamps! Sometimes the mood or time to be creative strikes, but inspiration to break out that blank page is no where to be found. The simple solution for me, is to get an idea from a challenge site. Even if you don't feel you can participate for whatever reason it helps to narrow the focus and is a good jump off point.

 

I decided to play in my My Favorite Book again this week, just art some stress away! I am loving how chunky this book it getting! I'll show you later in the post. 

I chose the Mix Media Monthly Challenge site to inspire my page. Their challenge #42 this month is Silhouette. I used the Seth Apter die Sunburst to create my silhouette image. 

I thought my journal page would look great with these Crafty Individuals stamp sets. I used this stamp called Floral Postcard.

 I wanted to make a secret journal spot so I also added this stamp Tall Wild Flowers. 

 

I used water color to color my stamped images. On the Tall Wild Flower panel I adhered notebook paper to the backside for my journal spot. 

I don't have a full tutorial this week but I will show you how I made this cute hidden journal spot. Really simple but it allowed me to make my page interactive. Once the water color was dry on the Floral postcard image it was adhered to my page.

Using a couple of strips of washi tape to create a flap was a simple way to add more interest & that secret spot. 

I added a cute resin bee as sort of a tab. You can check out how I made my bee here. 

 

I am loving how chunky this book it getting!!! Can't wait to get it finished and make a cool cover. Well that is it for this Thursday. I hope you had fun & get a chance to get inky!