Tim Holtz Summer of Creative Chemistry 2016 Weeks 1 -3

Hello my creative friends!  I took Creative Chemistry 101 with Tim Holtz about four years ago and I’m getting a refresher this summer.  Here are the tags I created for the challenges.

Week One

Friends, you just have to take this class.  It covered so many things you need to know about Tim Holtz products – it was amazing!

  Day 1 –  Tim is a wonderful teacher; he discussed the characteristics and properties of the products; dye vs. pigment inks, translucent vs. opaque, solvent, oil, or water based vehicles and porous vs non-porous materials.

Day 2 – This day we learned techniques for blending, stamping, and layering with Distress Ink.  Also, the wonderful way they react to water.  It was fun going back and create these tags, but with some of the colors from the 2015 releases.

Challenge #1

Blended Spritz & Flick

Brushless Watercolor

Wrinkle-free Distress

I think I went a little crazy applying all the different colors and got the tag too wet; but it is wrinkle free!!

 Week Two

Day 4 – We learned techniques for coloring backgrounds using re-inkers and how to store our ink creations.

Day 5 – Tim showed us some wonderful techniques for creating background, stamping, and using stains for marbling effects.

Day 6 –  The techniques Tim shared with us for coloring and stamping with distress markers were awesome!!  He also discussed the features of the markers and why they are different to other markers, but I didn’t have time to make the tags.

Challenge #2

After going over days 4, 5 & 6, our challenge was to make tags using the techniques we learned.

Day 4

 Watercoloring with Reinkers

Layered Misting

Creating a Custom Pad

Day 5

Stained Kraft Resist

Stamping With Stains

Marbled Stains

We skipped a few days and went on to

Challenge #3

  This week’s challenge was to make tags using Perfect Pearls and Distress Inks or Stains.

Day 8 – We made some awesome distress crackle objects and paints and learned how they react.

Day 9 – All about Perfect pearls and Pearl mists we made ourselves.

Day 8

Paint Dabber Resist

 

Crackle Paint Resist

Shattered Stains Technique

 I also made a card for the Unity Stamps Masculine Challenge

Day 9

Perfect Distress Mist

 

Perfect Distress Technique

Perfect Splatter Distress

That is it for now, my friends, Thanks for sticking with me until now.

Have a wonderful week and don’t forget to make something awesome!!

Happy crafting,

Carmen

 

Life Book Weeks 39 – 41

Life Book Week – From Here to There

with Roben Marie

This week’s lesson with  Roben-Marie is all about finding connection with our wholeness again through the pages.  Roben-Marie talks about the therapeutic aspects of journalling and shows us how to create a beautiful journal page from ‘here to there’! 

Using watercolor paper I first made marks all over the page then started layering different media including stamps, stencils, pages from magazines,  sheet music, and old book pages.  I also made some of my own tools and applied them on the page.  It is not as bright as Roben-Marie’s but I like it!

These are the closeups of this page:

This is the bird cage stamp I used and the bird is a paper I punched out with a circle punch

Some of the marks we did were circles with a paper towel tube

I used them to stencil in some flowers

This is part of a magazine I used and left the image inside the circle also

This shows some of the book papers I used to make circles and attached them to the page where I thought needed to be covered

Lastly, we made tags and put them inside a pocket I made using my sewing machine so it wouldn’t obstruct the page.  By the way, Roben-Marie was making the tags along with each layer and I didn’t realize she would be using it for the journalling, but I went back and created three tags and will use them on other projects.  The stamp I used is from Unity Stamps.

Week 40 – was an interview with Chris Zydel she teaches intuitive painting and mark making and her class is sometime in November – looking forward to trying it out!

Week 41 – Kristin Vanvalkenburgh

I found this lesson by Kristin to be very moving. It was  a very therapeutic  exercise.  I got a little teary eyed when I was watching the first video because she shared some memories of when she was younger with us.  So this exercise was about writing a letter to your younger self and be accepting of the future.

I enjoyed working on this lesson too, because I allowed myself to be free and not think too much about the process.  One thing I did was use lighter colors and I really like the look.

This is the page I created using spray inks, acrylic paint, stencils, glitter and lots and lots of texture with gesso.

This is the heart I created with burlap using the circles stencil I made myself.  I attached a piece of card stock to the back of the heart and sewed around the edges with a straight and zig-zag stitches so the burlap would not unravel.  Since it’s a very personal message, I stapled it shut so no one else can read it but me!

Close up of all the texture I created using paper towel tubes, a comb and a plastic tool with a different edge on it.

I had never used glitter on top of spray inks before, but it looks like it adhered well.  I applied mod podge juste to be sure the glitter would not come off everywhere.

Finally, the left hand side showing more glitter and more texture.  This was so much fun, although, it did take me three days to complete.  I am keeping these techniques for future projects of my own for sure!

There you have it, friends, let me know what you think and have a fabulous week!

Hugs, Carmen

Winter Wonderland Wreaths

To get you in the mood for Winter, I created this burlap wreath using The Ice Princess Party Kit snowflakes.  I really like the snowflakes in this kit, so I’ve been using them to make different projects in different colors of cardstock.  For this wreath I used light blue and dark blue glitter cardstock.

I added the birds nest and the birds because my aunt likes birds so I’ll be giving this to her to hang in her window.

 

 This is the very first wreath I’ve ever done, so I decided to make another one, but instead of birds, I used the snowman from the Build a Snowman Kit and cut out the snowflakes in gold and silver glitter cardstock using the The Ice Princess Party Kit.

I used white and gold tulle for the scarf and the hat and used small glitter beads for the eyes and the buttons on the body.

Winter still hasn’t arrived in El Paso,Texas yet, but the weatherman says we’ll have some snow flurries on Sunday so I’m ready whenever it wants to get here.

 Happy creating!!

Inking Up My New Stamps

I spent the day yesterday inking my new stamps and was able to make two cards.

Joe – Fashionista Girl

I used Unity Stamps Fashionista Girl Joe.  I stamped the image twice, cut out the girl, colored it with watercolor markers, color spray, stencils, and neon acrylic paints. I masked off the word hottie to stamp on top.

Namasté

Another Fashionista Girl – Serenity.  I used some DCWV paper I had in my stash that matched the theme perfectly.  I painted a wooden flower to make it look like a Yoga symble.  I stamped the girl three times to paper piece it with different colors and textures.  The mat is a gauze paper, and the base is burlap paper.  I made some “faux enamel dots” to match the paper.  I learned this technique from Lindsay at The Frugal Crafter blog.