Darkroom Door New Stamps & Inky Distress Backgrounds

Hello friends!  I'm absolutely delighted today to be sharing a couple of samples I made for the latest Darkroom Door stamp release!  This is a fabulous release and I know you will love the stamps as much as I do!  For my first card, I made a super inky background using Distress Oxides in Rusty Hinge, Tumbled Glass and Ground Espresso, drying between layers.  Then I stamped the fabulous new This Way Abstract Stamp over top.  It's easy to mask off the portion of the stamp you don't want to ink to create a shorter image, but honestly I cut my stamp in half!  Ha ha!  With deeply etched red rubber mounted stamps you can easily piece the stamp back together.  I wanted a portion cut for a standard card width and another portion for the standard card height for ease.  Then when I want the full stamp, I just puzzle piece them back together onto an acrylic block or stamp platform.  :)

For my focal element, I used my trusty Butterfly Eclectic Stamp, watercolored to match.  I layered it over a torn table of content from an old book and some bundled string.  I thought it looked like the butterfly was emerging from a crack in the background...?

I finished by stamping the new Enjoy Today Small Stamp onto an inky panel and cutting in a similar arrow shape.  

For my next card I created a two-toned inky background by dipping the top half in Antique Linen and the bottom half in Speckled Egg Distress Inks.  I then splattered both colors and some Walnut Stain onto the panel for a genuine speckled egg look.  I stamped the new Thin Sticks Abstract Stamp in Walnut Stain across the color intersection.  What a cool stamp this is!  

I stamped and fussy cut images from the Love Birds stamp set and layered them as shown.  For the sentiment, I curled the edges with a toothpick.  I just love the Thin Sticks stamp with this bird set!  I hope these cards have inspired you today and you'll head on over to DarkroomDoor.com for more inspiration from the talented Creative Team.  xx, Autumn