Happy Easter & Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 101 gallery closing

Happy Easter to everyone celebrating!  I got up early and traveled to my parents' home a bit south of me.  They wanted Chinese food from their favorite place but it was closed!  Luckily, the nearby grocery was open and we bought the traditional fare.  My dad was NOT happy; in fact, he pouted a bit - not a ham lover there - LOL.

Was at Archiver's again last night with the crafting girls - there were 6 of us busily talking, shopping and occasionally creating.  I managed to make 4 cards and am sharing three of them here.  The Tim Holtz's Creative Chemistry 101 class ended on Monday and the After Class Gallery closes tomorrow.  So I used some class techniques to create final cards to upload.  Getting a head start on my Mother's Day cards! 

Remember, you can still sign up here to take Creative Chemistry 101 - no longer interactive but still amazing with all the videos Tim shared!

Card one has a lot of Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint!  I had some Grungeboard from Tim's ScrapFest class so used some of the letters to create Queen Mum for my friend/vocal coach Mary who's a "Queen of Harmony" (Sweet Adelines International Quartet champion) from 1964.  After the Crackle Paint dried, I applied Weathered Wood and Broken China Distress Stains.  I put Wild Honey and Fired Brick Distress Stains on the crown.  The embossing folder is one of Tim's that I just bought after seeing him use it in class; the paper is his kraft Core'dinations.  Very fun.

I used another embossing folder from the same set on this next card.  Funny thing - there was still some purple from sanding the above card so there's some purple tint on my Tumbled Glass Distress Core'dination paper!  For this one I made a layered flower using paper from Lawn Fawn's Bright Side paper pad - so many fun patterns in that pad!  The center of the flower is the center popped out of a Grungeboard capital O!  Thought I'd make use of it - covered with Crackle Distress paint and inked with Wild Honey and Fired Brick Distress Stains.  The "leaves" are ribbon from May Arts - love this ribbon!!  The sentiment is from Hero Arts Celebrate Every Day clear set.

The final card uses a lot of Perfect Pearl mist that I made using reinkers, Perfect Pearls, and water.  Just sprayed it on watercolor paper and blended it a bit with some extra water.  Before I misted, however, I had stamped with the Hero Arts Fabulous Flourish that had a bit of left over acrylic paint from the tag I did for the class.  Tim was always reminding us not to waste the leftovers, so I just stamped it on some watercolor paper (yummy - from Hero Arts), not knowing when I'd use it.  It was perfect for this project which I'm entering into this month's Hero Arts contest.  It's one of the sketches turned a bit.  Once the mist dried, I overstamped with Hero Arts Newspaper Background inked with Victorian Velvet Distress ink and misted.  The shimmer is amazing in real life!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend! Thanks for stopping in!

Week 2 of Tim Holtz's Creative Chemistry 101

Another busy week cramming Tim Holtz's online class in with everything else I do.  I was at Archiver's for Scrap Mania last night with three friends - we had a great time and I was able to finish the rest of my homework from week 2.  Took my photos when the sun finally came out here this noon and now I'm ready to post.  Get ready for another long one - LOL.

Here are all the tags from week 2 - such a great bunch of techniques & colors all in one photo:

If you know me at all, you know I LOOOOVE purple.  So you will see lots of purple in my work :)  Here are the tags from Day 6 - Distress Markers:

Left to Right:  Watercolor with Markers, Blending with Markers, Stamping with Markers Tecniques



I have an entire set of the Tim Holtz Distress Markers on order - do you think they came in time for class?  No!  So I snagged a few singles at Archiver's.  My coloring was limited since I was making do with 4 colors - Wild Honey, Peeled Paint, Fired Brick, and Dusty Concord (of course).  I used a fun set of small wood mounted butterflies from Hero Arts - love these!

Day 7 was all about Embossing Basics.  I like embossing and have tried these techniques before but clearly haven't mastered them!  Here are the tags:

L to R: Nostalgic Batik, Rusted Enamel, Distress Powder Resist Techniques

I really had fun with this one, especially with all the purples.  Can you see my artsy effect on the left?  For this batik effect, you were to iron off the embossing powder after you used it for a resist inking effect.  Well, some newspaper burned into my flower and it wouldn't come off - looks kinda cool, don't you think?  On the middle tag I didn't brush off enough embossing powder to be able to grind in enough browns but I still like it.  And of course I love my Hero Arts Fabulous Flourish done in Dusty Concord Distress Embossing Powder!

Day 8 revolved around paints!  I got out my paint dabbers and had a blast.  Here are the tags:

L to R: Paint Dabber Resist, Crackle Paint Resist, Shattered Stains Techniques

On the left, we stamped on stickyback canvas - I just had ATC sized pieces so I cut one into a shape and did a sentiment with Snow Cap paint - fun!  I love the Crackle paint on the middle tag.  And I had a blast with some fun Grungeboard shapes we got from Tim Holtz during a class at ScrapFest 2010.  On the shapes I spread Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint and, once dry, inked them with Distress Stains.  Never thought I'd use that skull - LOL!  Amazing technique!!

Day 9 - are you tired yet?? - we used Perfect Pearls.  Here are my tags:

L to R - Perfect Distress Mist, Perfect Distress, Perfect Splatter Distress Techniques

Wow - was this amazing!  Like a lot of people, I've made my own mist with water and Perfect Pearls but I learned how to make mists using reinkers, water and Perfect Pearls.  Made one with Peeled Paint, Broken China, and Dusty Concord (of course - lol).  The one on the left just was made with spraying the mists, middle one I put the pearls onto the stamped image, the last one had little puddles of Perfect Pearls - that was the most fun!

Finally - Day 10 Dimensional Mediums and just one tag for that day:

Rock Candy Distress Stickles Technique

Washed the tag with Distress stains, dried and stamped, then spread Rock Candy Distress Stickles over the entire tag.  Very shimmery, pretty effect!  And that's it for the technique tags.  Now for a card using a technique from Week 2.  This one using the Perfect Splatter Distress technique:

Love the specks of gold on this one, but I didn't like it as much as the tag I did with this technique.  Thanks to Tim Holtz for an amazing couple of weeks - I learned a lot and enjoyed all his videos!  Thanks for stopping and hope you had a crafty weekend!

Week 1 of Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 101 completed!

Hi all - I'm having a great time with Tim Holtz's online class Creative Chemistry 101. No matter how many times I've taken his classes in person or seen him in action on his blog, this online class has been soooo helpful in solidifying my knowledge of his techniques. I can go back and review whenever I need it - often!! I amazed myself and actually did the homework - making a tag for each of the techniques - although I had to catch up this weekend to finish them all.  Get ready for a long post since I saved the whole week for today!

So here are Week 1's tags all together:

Quite a rainbow of colors!  I just love all the Ranger products we used and I had fun using stamps from Hero Arts, Penny Black, Inkadinkado, and Stampers Anonymous .

Day 1 was an introduction - no actual production on our parts.  Day 2 we worked with Distress Inks; here are the tags from that day:

Left to right: Blended Spritz & Flick, Brushless Watercolor Technique and Wrinkle-Free Distress Technique.  I won't go into a big explanation of all the techniques since it's class content.  I used Hero Arts Exotic Bloom stamp and their watercolor paper on my middle tag. 

And here's the card I created today using that same Brushless Watercolor technique.

I cut an oval of watercolor paper and stamped the Exotic Bloom with the corner of various Distress Inks, misted with water before stamping.  Overstamped with a misted Newspaper Background from Hero Arts, inked in Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.  The card base was stamped with the Leaf and Floral Background, a favorite Cling stamp by Hero Arts.  I had a wash of Picket Fence Distress Stain lingering on it which I over-inked with Forest Moss Distress Ink and misted before stamping on the textured card base.  The dots, inked with Wild Honey Distress Ink are from a Stamper's Anonymous set of fun texture stamps.

Day 3 brought on various Archival Inks, including Alcohol Inks which I still owned from years ago when they were first popular.  Here are my tags:

From left to right:  Alcohol Inks Agates, Stamping with Reflections, Archival Resist Technique.

The black stamping on the left tag got a bit blurry in spots - stamping on glossy paper can be a challenge!!  I really liked the stamping done on the embossing folder so it comes out behind the embossing and as a reverse image of the stamp.  I went ahead and cut a slit in my embossing folder as Tim instructed, so my tag could slide right into the folder.  Very fun.  All the stamps I used were from a couple of Stampers Anonymous sets I had around here.

Day 4 we used Distress Ink Re-inkers, both for watercoloring and for misting.  Here are my tags:

L to R: Watercoloring with Re-inkers, Layered Misting, Custom Stamp Pad Techniques.  I wasn't too thrilled with my watercoloring - I don't have a lot of Re-inkers so my options were limited.  I stamped the Hero Arts Fleurettes in Archival ink and watercolored with Worn Lipstick, Peeled Paint and Dusty Concord Re-inkers; the background was washed with Broken China.  Texture stamp for the "grass" is from Stampers Anonymous.  On the middle tag I made a background misting Scattered Straw and Peeled Paint Re-inkers, then I misted over a flower mask (from the home painting department) using Broken China Re-inker Mist.  Behind that tag you can see another one - I used the wet mask as a negative and stamped it on another tag - that made a runny image but kinda cool.   I did the tag on the right with the custom stamp pad I created - my first one!!  Here it is:

Even though I had seen Tim make a custom stamp pad on his blog, it really helped when he talked about the different materials of the various stamp pads.  Of course, I had the wrong kind at home - the foam!  Luckily I was at my LSS and they had the felt kind I needed.  As you can see, the colors turn into a blobby mess but it still stamps right!  Again - not a lot of Re-inkers in my arsenal but I thought my butterfly turned out nice.  It's a Penny Black stamp I bought it at the LSS when I got the felt.

Last but not least - Day 5 when we used Spray Inks and Stains.  Here are my tags:

L-R: Stained Kraft Resist, Stamping with Stains, Marbled Stains Techniques.  On the left, I used a piece of Tim Holtz idea-ology kraft resist paper - it's actually a Christmas paper pad but had this one non-Christmasy postcard paper in it.  I didn't bother stamping on it, just used various Distress Stains all over it.  The middle one was my fave.  First made a background with various Distress Stains but what really made it - the Picket Fence stamping!  I used the Hero Arts Leaf and Floral background and love how it tied the background together - so pretty!  Then I stamped the PB butterfly on it in Archival ink.  My marbled technique wasn't my best, oh well.  But I stamped a cool bird on it from the Gem Stone Birds Inkadinkado set (thanks again, Heather Maria!).

Whew - so that's it from week 1.  I have all my class materials organized in a notebook and my tags tied together with some recycled twine from an artisan cracker bag (I always save it - comes in handy!).  Now, to get ready for week 2, I'd better clean up my craft space!!!  Thanks for visiting and I hope you had as crafty a weekend as I did!