April or 4th Tag of 12

Ah, procrastination. Gotta love it. Here's my tag for Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2012 - April. I didn't have the die, so I used the elegant flourish and the bird from the caged bird die cut. Somewhere along the way I forgot to color his little wing, and when I went back to do it, I couldn't get the colors remotely close. Oops. No wing for my birdee. Oh well, the crown probably keeps him from flying!

Although I can't believe I'm actually going to say this out loud, because I'm sure it will put a giant jinx on things, I'm feeling pretty comfortable with blending inks after completing Creative Chemistry. Now, colors on ribbons, that's another thing. But I think yes, it's about the layers. I started with Scattered Straw, added some Wild Honey, and then finished up with Tea Dye Stain. I actually used a fair amount of Tea Dye Distress Ink on the tag too, and it was like finding a  new color...which I already owned. I added some music and a flower just cause I thought such a regal birdee would be singing in a garden. That, and I thought it was a bit empty on the bottom.

More Creative Chemistry

So much fun. I enter that a lot on my calendar and in my journal. Playing in the Fun Room is just sooo much Fun. I got to spend a lot of time up there this weekend, making tags for the April 21 and 30 class Stamp Cache, embossing some more metal ala Tammy Tutterow, painting and die cutting odds and ends and even making a birthday card. I went upstairs to play with my Distress Markers which arrived at the Stamp Cache on Tuesday and I still haven't done the home work. Oh well -- everything is waiting for me. I thought I might at least post the few days I do have completed.

Day 1 - Wrinkle Free Distress, Brushless Watercolor and Blended Spritz & Flick

I finally understand how to really blend distress inks. I feel like a genius (tee hee) or at the very least a chemist. Aside from that very, very important item, I learned how important my favorite color purple is to blending (a lovely moment) and how to get water droplets from the craft sheet and from my hand.

Day 3 - Alcohol Resist, Alcohol Inks Agates, Stamping with Reflections

I love stamping with reflections and can't wait to get a couple of more embossing folders that lend themselves to that technique. The writing or scrolls or anything without directon, really looks like it is behind the embossed area. I also like the way my alcohol inks agates turned out. Using the blending solution at the end as Tim suggested produced a great effect. I also didn't have any light or bright archival inks when I started Creative Chemistry...as we know lights aren't really my strong suit, so I tried with another kind of ink. Odd color combination to be sure.

Day 5 - Marbled Stains

The example on the left was one drag too many through the craft sheet, although I still like the effect. This is really a technique where LESS is MORE. The example on the right, I blended out the whole tag. When I was finished I kinda looked at it and thought, boy that looks like just a blended tag, nice but.... When in doubt read directions. Tim asked us to blend the edges....

Day 5 - Kraft Resist

I've done this with better success in the past. I think I like to blend the colors more than I did on these samples. The one on the left was my first attempt - it needed a stronger image. I tried a variety of inks on the example on the right...once again, Tim knows best. Archival Jet Black provides the best contrast.

My example of Stamping with Stains from Day 5 is in my previous post. Maybe I can get a few more done this week since I won't be working every night....really cuts down on time in the Fun Room!

Enjoy!



I Did It - It's Light!!

There are so many things I love about Tim's Creative Chemistry...

• Paper has no memory
• Dry (and we mean really dry) each layer
• Keep a blending tool for each family of colors
• Water based products and how they play with others
• The list goes on and on

But I knew right away that Stamping with Stains was right up my alley. One of my group of girlfriends has some how gotten on a color kick for prezzies. All the goodies in the gift bag are the same color, or at least color family. So when I saw the Lemon Drop kit, I knew it would be perfect for my friend, and went about collecting yellow goodies. This of course, means I have to make a yellow card. YIKES.

But I did it...well kind of. You do have to admit it's nice and light.

I have had Tammy Tutterow and Shelly Hickox right up there on my Link bar right up next to Tim for the last six months or so. I was crazy about all the cards they, and Joy Kennedy created for the Gallery of Creative Chemistry. So with a nod to them and Tammy's amazing embossing technique I made this card.

When I made my sample for the class, I didn't own the butterfly stamp set, but I feel in love with the background stamp....seriously. So many fonts, so large, so many possibilities....yummy. Turns out the butterflys are cool too.

And, it's way different than my "class" tag. I love having all the tags up on my table (well, the tags I've done, I still have about half of the samples to make). They are a great reference and idea library. Just want Tim intended. Thank you Uncle Tim.