Creative Chemistry 101 --Day 10

Rock Candy Distress Stickles.

Today is the final lesson day for Creative Chemistry 101. Wow, time has sure flown by. What a fabulous 10 days and today we used Rock Candy Distress Stickles. I love that stuff. I can honestly say that I have used bottles of Rock Candy Distress Stickles.
I'll have one more post when my distress markers come in. See I have something to look forward to.

Creative Chemistry 101 -- Day 9

Perfect Distress Mist

Perfect Distress

Perfect Splatter Distress

Day 9 of Creative Chemistry 101 was fabulous. I only wish that the scanner would show just how shimmery the images are. Perfect Pearls is such a cool product. Who knew how many techniques you could use them with. Hmmm. I guess Tim knew.

Spring is in the Air

It's time for Blogger's Challenge again. This week the challenge is for the birds. I finally got a chance to use a fairly new La Blanche stamp which has been waiting to be used.

For the layout of the card I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch. The background are strips of design paper from my stash. I chose patterns to give a vintage spring feel. After all, birds and spring go together.  The image is painted with Creative Inspirations paints. I love the shimmer they give to the card. The sentiment is from Club Scrap.
I am entering this card into a few other challenges. The Ink on my Fingers Sunday Challenge is birds. Both Three Muses and Fashionable Stamping have spring as their challenge.
Best of all, this card will be in the mail tonight to wish my brother-in-law a happy birthday.

Vintage, Funky Style

There is a new challenge in town and it's all about vintage. It's called Frilly and Funkie and it's run by Linda Coughlin. The DT is divided into two types -- the frillies and the funkies. This week the challenge is your favorite vintage style. When it comes to vintage I can actually go either way, but I do tend toward the funkie style. My card is based on Tim Holtz's dabber resist technique (presented in Creative Chemistry 101). My stamp is from Stampers Anonymous and has been in my collection for years. The image was stamped on sticky back canvas. I really must use that more. I love the look.

Creative Chemistry -- Day 8

Dabber Resist Technique

Crackle Paint Resist Technique

Shattered Stains Technique

Here are the tags from Creative Chemistry 101 Day 8. These were all great techniques. I had a little problem with the Crackle Paint Resist. Some of the crackle chipped off, so my dress form looks a little moth eaten. Well, that is a form of distress, isn't it. The shattered stains looks just like colored glass, It's really neat.

Creative Chemistry 101 --Day 7

Nostalgic Batik Technique

Rusted Enamel Technique

Distress Powder  Resist Technique

You may be asking, "What happened to Day 6?" Well, Day 6 was the lesson on distress markers. Since mine haven't arrived, I decided to wait until they get here. I suppose I could have tried using other markers, but that wouldn't be the same. So, here are my Creative Chemistry 101 Day 7 tags.
Today is Day 8 in the class. I've got my tags started. For some of the techniques we needed drying time. I'm letting mine dry. I really had a fun-filled busy day!

Creative Chemistry 101 -- Day 5

Stained Kraft Resist

Stamping with Stains

Marbled Stains

Creative Chemistry 101 Day 5 Tags were a lot of fun. I really liked doing all of them. Mona Lisa got a little dark, but she looks better in real life.

Creative Chemistry 101 --Day 4

Watercoloring with Re-inkers

Layered Misting

Custom Stamp Pad

I spent several hours in my studio today trying to catch up with my Creative Chemistry 101 homework. I have  a few more tags to go, but I'm almost caught up. I had a blast catching up. Obviously I haven't mastered the techniques to the Tim level, but I'm learning a lot.

Moments

This card is for the weekly challenge at Cheery Lynn which is things with wings and the bi-weekly challenge at Classy Cards 'n Such which is embossing folders.
On my card I used the Dutch doily rectangular frame from Cheery Lynn. This is fast becoming my favorite frame in my collection. I use it a lot. My background is a stamp from Hero arts stamped with peeled paint distress ink and dry embossed with a matching Sizzix embossing folder. Isn't that a cool idea. The birds are die cut from a Tim Holtz die. I added pearls and bling from Want2Scrap. (The distress ink, bling, and Cheery Lynn dies can be purchased at Classy Cards 'n such.) I found the acrylic sticker sentiment in my stash while I was looking for something else. I thought it worked well on this card.

Nature Inspired

This is my card for the current Creative Belli CAS challenge. I am making it just under the wire this time. I don't know where the time goes. Briefly, my image is  Fred Mullett's parrot fish. The sentiment is from Stampscapes. the Technique is Simple Swipes from the current TJ newsletter. It may be CAS, but I like the results.

Creative Chemistry 101 -- Day 3

Alcohol Ink Agates

Archival Resist

Reflections Stamping

These are my tags from Day 3 of Creative Chemistry 101. This class is a lot of fun and is very informative. I love the way Tim has organized the class. He has provided a label for each tag technique, so it will be another great Tim resource for remembering the techniques and since I can go back and view the class videos anytime I want, if I forget a product property, I can always go back and review.

Creative Chemistry 101 -- Day 2

Blended Spritz & Flick

Brushless Watercolor

Wrinkle-Free Distress

I am participating in Tim Holtz's Creative Chemistry 101 class. I'm a little behind in my homework, but I will catch up. Since it is a chemistry and technique class, the tags are not a finished artwork, but show the technique learned. As I always do when I take a class, especially with Tim, I try to do what he does as closely as possible. Once I have attempted his version, I can go wild with my own creativity. I've started with day 2 on my blog since day 1 was an overview and there was no homework.
I am definitely glad I took this class. There is a lot of technique repeat in the class from Tim's blog as well as his books, but Tim is teaching from the chemistry viewpoint and I have learned a lot about the why's in addition to the how's.

Yee Haw Y'all

I thought I take a little change of pace and create something a little different from my norm. I combined the challenges at Simon Says Stamp and Show - a tag, at Kraft Journal - western flair, and at Take a Word - hats. This is the tag I came up with. All of the stamps are from Kitchen Sink Stamps Multi-Step Cowboy Boots and Multi-Step Cowboy Hat.
Color recipe: (All inks are Adirondack)
Boots -- 1 sandal, 2 caramel, 3 latte, 4 coffee, 5 espresso
Hat -- 1 sandal, 2 latte, 3 sepia, 4 caramel, 5 ginger
Sentiment -- jet archival black

Wearable Art

The current Stampotique Designers Challenge is wearable art. Here is my pin made from a domino. First, I used alcohol ink to color the domino. I then stamped hexagon using Adirondack sepia archival ink. The bee was stamped in jet black archival ink. The wings were highlighted with rock candy distress stickles. The sunflower and sentiment were then added and a pin back was attached to the back of the domino so it can be worn. I like the resulting color and dimension of the pin.

Love Just Gives

Those of you who know me know that I love to make backgrounds so this week's challenges at Simon Says Stamp and Show your hand made backgrounds and Our Daily Bread Designs Silk/Faux Silk seemed made for me. See here for technique directions. My background is faux silk  made with Tim Holtz District Market Composer tissue paper and stamped with the dahlia stamp from ODBD. The sentiment is also from ODBD. All of the die cuts are from Spellbinders.

Easter Joy

As Easter approaches, several of the challenge sites that I participate in have Easter as the theme.  I just received these gorgeous egg dies from Cheery Lynn, so of course, I wanted to use them on my card. I backed each of the fancy diecuts with a bright Easter egg color. The darling chocolate bunny was cut from a Tim Holtz die. The background is dry embossed white on white. Then I added some angelina fibers for the Easter grass. (It's somewhat amazing that I added the grass since I won't let the real Easter grass in my house because it gets all over everything and doesn't vacuum up very well.) The sentiment stamp has been in my collection for a long time and I don't remember the source.
This card is being entered in Blogger's Challenge, the Cheery Lynn challenge, the Sweet Stamps challenge, and I Brake for Challenges.

Canada Warbler

My card is based on the Mojo Monday challenge sketch. At City Crafters the challenge is copy cater. We were given this lovely image of a bird from The Graphics Fairy  to use on our creation. At Three Muses the theme is one. Here I have one bird, one sunflower.

Vintage Spring

Spring is in the air and spring is the theme of this week's Outlines Rubber Stamp challenge. I have had this stamp from Outlines so long that I had forgotten I had it. How great that I found it in time for this challenge. This forgotten stamp gives me a chance to also enter the Tuesday Throwdown challenge which is spring cleaning, or using something from our stash that has been unused for a long time.
At Fashionable Stamping it was a bingo challenge.

I chose to go down the third column. My stamp has plenty of flowers on it. I found some vintage buttons in my staff as embellishment including one that looks like the flower in the vase. I used vintage colors and edged each of the boxes in vintage photo to finish the effect.

Springpunk

The challenge this month at Artistic Outpost is springpunk. What is springpunk? Well, my interpretation is that you take some spring elements such as flowers and butterflies and mix them up with gears, and other steampunk elements. It was a fun challenge. The background paper is from Graphic45 Steampunk Debutante. I love the combination of roses and gears. The main focal image is from Artistic Outpost Happiness. The dirigible is from AO French Flight. The parachute is from AO Paris Exposition. I added Tim Holtz's On-the-Edge Steampunk gears along the bottom and embellished them with paper flowers set on metal gears. All of the layers are adhered to a Kraft base card. I wish the scan showed the rock candy crackle on the butterfly. It adds a fun touch.
I am also entering this card in the Kraft Journal challenge which is anything goes and the Sunday Challenge at Ink on my Fingers which is paper flowers.

Boyz Toyz

Boys will be Boyz is this week's them at The Octopode Factory Friday challenge. I just got this wonderful castle and I thought the rocking horsefly (Alice in Wonderland) would look great waiting in front for the Knight in shining armor to appear. The background is corrugated cardboard which has been painted. The sentiment letters were cut using a Quikkutz alphabet. The castle and horse were colored using watercolor pencils. Quikkutz and watercolor pencils are tools that I haven't used in ages. It was fun.

12 Tags of 2012 -- March

I'm in a tag making mood today, so I finally was able to work on the March tag for Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2012. Although the butterflies were a little ditsy to make, I love this tag. The mosaic butterflies are really pretty in real life. It was fun because I got to use a product for this technique that I just had to have several years ago and then never used until today. I had bought the antiquities cement embossing powder during a time everyone was saying how fantastic it was. Well, you know how that story goes. Anyway, I had the cement ep and was able to use it. The one thing I had to change was the background. I don't have the woodgrain stamp, so I used the woodgrain embossing folder with brushed corduroy and embossed the tag. Then I highlighted the wood with walnut stain. Now I can't wait for the April tag.

The Creative

This week the challenge at Grungy Monday is Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas 2009, Day 3, or alcohol ink plaid. This has been a favorite technique of mine since Tim introduced it in 2009. It is really easy to do and always seems to turn out cool. I kept the tag fairly simple this time. I wanted to emphasize the plaid and the sentiment. Since I planned to stamp over the plaid, I used mainly alcohol ink lights for the plaid except for eggplant. The sentiment and the birds were stamped on the panel, and then cut  slightly smaller than the base tag. The base tag was colored using dusty concord distress stain. It blended quite well with the eggplant in the plaid. I dyed my ribbon with dusty concord distress stain and hung the bird charm to finish the tag.

Where in the World

Sizzix is asking "Where in the World is Your Vagabond." Well, my picture isn't really creative, but my Vagabond is within arm's reach of my work table in my studio here in the beautiful city of Chicago, IL. I won't move it because I use my Vagabond everyday, several times a day. I love it.
This is a great promotion from Sizzix. Just for showing the Vagabond, Sizzix will send a set of the new stickers and a set of the gauge keys free. Thanks Sizzix.

Imagine, Imagine, Imagine

I had so much fun creating this birthday card. Bear with me as I explain how it fits several challenges. First, Bloggers Challenge this week is to make a birthday card. I used the map fold technique from Technique Junkies as the style of the card.

I used the sketch from the Mojo Monday challenge for the front of the card. (Turn the sketch one quarter turn to see my layout).
At Ink on My Fingers, Hels' Sunday challenge is to use mists. I used Perfect Pearl mists randomly sprayed on the inside of the card for color and shimmer.
At Inspiration Emporium the challenge is to go green. Green is John Lennon's color, don't you think?
Finally, the Stampsmith challenge is flip and fold -- to find interesting ways of incorporating folds in a project.
I love it when a series of challenges coordinate so well together.
Before I go, I want to wish  Lisa and Gerrie both a very happy birthday month!

How Much

This week the challenge at Cheery Lynn is to add a flourish. Cheery Lynn has so many gorgeous dies to choose from; it's sometimes hard to choose which ones to use. I combined the Cheery Lynn challenge with the ODBD Shining the Light challenge which was aqua or topaz plus ODBD scripture, quotes, or sentiments. The two challenges seemed made for each other.
My image and sentiment are from the Mother Theresa stamp  set. The flower was stamped as a watermark using Versamark ink and the sentiment was stamped with Jet Black archival ink over it.
All of the dies used are from Cheery Lynn. I used the Japanese lace and flourish frame to frame the card. I entwined one of the flourishes from that die with the tropical flourish. Over the flourish I attached three flowers made from the miniature rose die. I think the flourishes and flowers added an air of elegance.

It's time for Green Beer and Shamrocks

Once a year I get to bring out my shamrocks and green beer stamps. Happy St. Patrick's Day! I created this card for the Kraft Journal challenge -- Luck o' the Irish theme, for Critter Sketch -- Monochromatic Green, and for Take a Word -- green. All of the image stamps are from Kitchen Sink Stamps. The sentiment has been in my stash forever.Both the shamrocks and the green beer are multi-step stamping images.
Color recipes: All ink is Adirondack
Green beer -- 1 willow, 2 citrus, 3 lettuce, 4 pesto
Shamrocks --  1 citrus, 2 lettuce, 3 meadow

Delight

The current challenge at Classy Cards 'n Such is a sketch challenge. I started with a beautiful piece of designer paper from Prima and die cut it using a Spellbinders die. For the center I added a label die cut from wood paper and a rectangular die cut for the sentiment.The flourish die cut is from Cheery Lynn. The flower is also a Spellbinder die. In the corners I added a little bling. All of the dies and the bling are available at CCNS.
The current challenge at Cheery Lynn designs is to add a flourish. I used the fanciful flourish on my card. It adds the perfect touch, I think.

I really like how this card turned out, so I will also enter it into the Simon Says Stamp and Show anything goes challenge

Week 2 - Chapter 13 Challenge: The Best Butter!

Oops, I'm a day late. I guess I lost more than the hours sleep this weekend.

"The Hatter was the first to break the silence. `What day of the month is it?' he said, turning to Alice: he had taken his watch out of his pocket, and was looking at it uneasily, shaking it every now and then, and holding it to his ear.
Alice considered a little, and then said `The fourth.'
`Two days wrong!' sighed the Hatter. `I told you butter wouldn't suit the works!' he added looking angrily at the March Hare.
`It was the BEST butter,' the March Hare meekly replied.
`Yes, but some crumbs must have got in as well,' the Hatter grumbled: `you shouldn't have put it in with the bread-knife.'
The March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily: then he dipped it into his cup of tea, and looked at it again: but he could think of nothing better to say than his first remark, `It was the BEST butter, you know.'"
--Chapter 7; Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

For the month of March, how could we resist a challenge honoring the March Hare? We are challenging you to use "the best butter," as in butter yellow!

Our sponsor, Red Eowyn, is offering a one sheet of Alice in Wonderland stamps to the randomly selected winner of this month's challenge! The March Hare is the owner and illustrator's favorite Alice character, so of course we had to do her challenge in March. http://www.redeowyn.com/category.php?categoryID=1 has beautifully cleaned up the original Tenniel illustrations to make truly clear images that are a delight to stamp. The unmounted sheets include a variety of fun Alice sentiments, so be sure to check them out. In addition to Alice stamps, Red Eowyn also has wonderfully realistic animal stamps and some amazing dragons in the Fantasy category! Free U.S. shipping is included.
You have until Friday, March 23 to show us your best butter! Entries that feature Wonderland will be given two chances at the random drawing instead of one. Multiple entries are allowed but each must be on a separate post.

For my inspiration project this month, I started with a canvas and created a subtly plaid background in butter yellow. I used my Pan Pastels, one of my favorite mediums for doing large backgrounds. (I do spray with Workable Fixative to avoid any smearing.) I painted the path through Wonderland and then stamped my characters, colored them with Copics, and cut out the images to adhere on the piece.

At the beginning of the path, Alice is about to go through the Looking Glass. Throughout Wonderland there is so much activity. All of the stamps used except the tea party are from Red Eowyn. I am so enamored with the Teniel drawings and Red Eowyn has lots of images available. Here the Red Queen has a few words for the King.

The March hare has a message for Alice. The white rabbit is in such a hurry, he drops his gloves. The unicorn and lion are deep in conversation. These are such wonderful images and are so great to work with.