Meet the team - Chris Dark

Welcome to the second in our regular series turning the spotlight on some of the designers who contribute to Craft Stamper on a regular basis. This month, we're finding out a bit more about Chris Dark, a super-versatile stamper who seems equally at home with cute, grungy, artsy, altered... you get the picture!

Hi everyone, I'm Chris and I live and work in the south east of England near the lovely city of Brighton.

Art and craft has been a part of my life since childhood and I've tried many crafts over the years which I still enjoy going back to now and then. The magic of taking a rubber stamp, stamping with embossing ink and melting the embossing powder gave me the stamping bug when I saw a demonstration at a craft show in 2007. I've since enjoyed a lovely hobby which has led me to designing stamps for four companies, becoming part of the Swedish Magnolia stamp company design team and being published in their magazine, travelling to Sweden to demonstrate water colouring together with demonstrating and tutoring locally and at large craft shows around the country. 

When I was invited to be a designer for Craft Stamper by Katy in October 2012 it was a dream come true and I continue to enjoy creating for the magazine and being inspired each month by the glorious work of my team mates.

Q: Do you have a signature style or favourite technique?

A: I'm not sure that I have a signature style but I do tend to add a lot of detail to most of my creations whether it be in colouring of stamped character images and their backgrounds as in my card below or backgrounds for tags, cards or mixed media projects with pattern stamps. 

{this project is blogged here}

A favourite technique is to use stamps with embossing ink as seen in my cards below where I used the stamps and inks to make a resist for a distress ink and Perfect Pearls powder background. These cards remain favourites as they were highlighted on Tim Holtz's blog in one of his inspiration posts. 

 {this project is blogged here}

Q: Where do you look for inspiration before you start on a project?

A: I enjoy working with all styles of stamps and all the various ways of making an impression with them so I would say that stamps are probably my main source of inspiration. New inks, paints and mixed media supplies will also get me straight to my stamping table and the art journal spread below led me to using a variety of all of those items. 

{this project is blogged here}

 

Inspiration will also strike with the changing of the seasons and my most favourite seasonal stamping times are spring and Christmas.

Thanks for allowing me to share my stamping story with you today and I wish you a creative week!

...Thanks for joining us for a little peek "backstage" and thanks to Chris for sharing her projects and story with us in this DT spotlight. If you'd like to see more of Chris's lovely work, you'll find her blog {here}.