CC102 catch-up Day 5

Here's my last tag from Day 5

 

And that's it for CC102!

 

I really enjoyed the week's crafting and learnt so many new techniques!  And had so much fun - roll on CC103!!

 

And here's just a couple of finished cards using more than one technique...

 

So it's onwards and upwards with my crafts - practising and creating - combining techniques, new cards & new ideas - I guess I'll start thinking about Christmas as well!

 

Back soon!

 

Kay

 

 

CC102 catch-up distress glitter 1

Finally I'm organised and got myself some distress glitter, so here goes!
So here's the last of Day 3's tags

CC102 - Day 5 - the last leg!

And finally, Day 5 - embossing effects ... 5 tags to share, just one left to do ...

 

 

 

It's been an amazing week's journey along with Tim, his guest designers, Mario, and the team behind him, and all the rest of the students (there's so much beautiful work in the gallery) - so much learnt, so much inspiration, (and so much to practice!!). 

 

Once again, thank you Tim & everyone for CC102!

 

P.S when is CC103?!

 

Back soon!

 

Kay

 



 

CC102 - Day 4

And onto Day 4, alcohol inks

And my tags - all techniques practiced! ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back in a mo' with Day 5!

 

Kay

CC102 - Day 3 (continued)

Hi again,

I had a massive 'catch up' yesterday & managed most of Tim's remaining techniques ... all except any with Distress Glitter - can't believe I hadn't got any!!!

So here's the rest of Day 3s tags (2 more posts to follow)!

So Day 3 was distressing differently:   techniques 1 & 2 need a lot more practice - but here's the tags anyway!

 And here's my last one from Day 3 (2 more to do!)

 

Back in a mo' with Days 4 & 5!

 

Kay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CC102 - Day 3

Help, I've fallen a bit behind at the moment, hope I catch up at the weekend!

So just one tag (out of 6 techniques!) to share so far ...

 

Great to learn how to colour black & white photos more successfully! I've tried other ways, but haven't had a lot of success!  The photos were a little 'ghost-like' originally anyway, being copies which were emailed to me by a distant cousin in the States (they're actually of my great great grandparents and one of their sons!).

 

I must admit I definitely 'embraced my imperfections' with William's photo - I went a bit too wild with the colouring & had to add more to blend the mistake in!!

 

I'll have to do some more using more modern photos!  I enjoyed the technique though!

 

Back soon!

 

Kay

CC102 day 2

And it's my tags from day 2 of Creative Chemistry 102 - yet more techniques to play with!  How lucky are those of us on Tim Holtz's latest online course? (Answer - VERY!)

So I've been playing with stencils ... amazing how we can use them in so many different ways! (p.s. my 'wish list' has got quite a bit longer now!)

This is the first tag ...

 

and here's the others ...

 

Back soon, with yet more tags!

Kay

Tim's new class CC102 Day 1

Loving Tim's new class - Creative Chemistry 102 (a follow-up to Creative Chemistry 101, which is still available here).  As the current class is a progression, you'll need to have booked on 101 before booking 102).

I'm learning so many new techniques, with Tim's new (& old) products ... and having great fun 'playing' with them!!!!

So here's my tags for Day 1 ...

Back soon with Day 2!

Kay

Autumn tag

My Autumn tag (one of the large tags)

 

I decided to create an autumn tag as it's feeling decidedly autumnal now, though we're yet to get the gorgeous autumnal colours on the leaves here!  This one's for our CC101 Facebook group challenge.  Looking forward to Tim's follow-up online class that starts the beginning of October - CC102 (only available if you've already taken 101).  (details here)

The group seems to have been quite inspired this month by Dyan Reaveley's technique, Patchwork background so here's my take on it (including lots of Tim's goodies).

It might be easy, but I'm not very good at 'taking a line for a walk' (see video) - I just got too many ultra small segments, so I ended up drawing a few curved lines on a large tag.  I still had over 60 sections! As I had decided not to doodle in the segments, I made a photocopy which I cut up to mask off the various sections.

In each section, I used paint as the background, & then over-stamped with distress in the same or matching colour.

Stamping the first colour



[Mustard Seed paint & ink / Rusty Hinge paint, Spiced Marmalade ink / Purple Twilight paint (Adirondack)  Seedless Preserves ink / Forest Moss paint, Shabby Shutters ink / Vintage Photo paint & ink / Frayed Burlap paint, Pumice Stone ink]

Most of the stamping detail isn't that obvious, unless you look very closely!  I die cut a mask sheet with Tattered Leaves, & masked the leaves, went round each leaf with black permanent marker (and the lines inside), then painted most of the rest of the tag in black (as Dyan's technique).  But I wasn't too happy about the result - the black was just too black & I tried to add other colours around it, but it just looked a mess!  So firstly, as the top left was looking decidedly wrong and empty, I cut the bottom off the tag & cut out both the (partial) leaves.

And here's where I love working with acrylic paint!  I re-masked the leaves and covered the whole 'mess' with the Purple Twilight paint which covered the black perfectly - so much better, and much more autumnal!

To make the leaves 'pop', I heat embossed them with a clear glitter.  And finally I used a couple of Tim's new stencils to add a few areas of 'bubbles' (vintage photo) & 'honeycomb' (rusty hinge) (as this was dabbed through with a blending tool (as Tim's technique for his September tag), it just adds subtle layers).

Detail of the 'patchwork' and some of the stencilling



With just a few finishing touches - tiny copper dots around the leaves (gel pen), three autumn quotes, and an edging of antiqued bronze stain & vintage photo ink.  And attached the 'spare' leaves at the top, and added stained & stencilled ribbon (as in Tim's September tag) - it was done!  

[the quotes I used were:
'the last smiles of the year upon the tawny leaves' - Jane Austen - Persuasion; 'AUTUMN is a second spring when every LEAF is a flower' - Albert Camus; 'Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness' - John Keats - Ode to Autumn']

Back soon!  (fingers crossed!)

Kay

1 image, 2 image transfer techniques (... if it doesn't succeed, try, try & try again!)

So, along with revisiting Tim's Holtz's Creative Chemistry 101 techniques, I'm also doing another online class with Claudine Hellmuth at Big Picture Classes - Technique Toolbox - 25 techniques in 5 weeks!

So because I'm learning & doing things for the first time, I though I'd share one of my not-so successful technique tags!  Crossed fingers, I've got an idea of how to redo this tag so I can hopefully post it in the class gallery! I'm glad I photo'd the tag while it was still wet & before it got past the point of no return - I'll take the photo down to the copy shop & get a laser copy, which will hopefully work better!

So, here's the tag before it got past the 'point of no return' ... just about!

 

 

I was rather taken by the photo, especially his blue eyeshadow around one eye, & his purple coat & bottle of drink!

The technique is a photo transfer into acrylic paint. 'Officially', and quite rightly(!), you should use a laser copy.  But I'd come across this photo in an old copy of Time Out magazine (for the record, from jul 9-15 2013 issue), which is printed on a type of newsprint, so probably not very good for this type of transfer!  He's apparently a young music festival organiser, (dressed as a pirate for the festival!).

I used classic teal paint with a bit of white (from a very old gloopy tube of acrylic paint!) added over the whole tag, & added some dryish sable brown at the edges while I was waiting for the paint to dry.  I also probably didn't wait long enough to make sure the print soaked into the paint before I started rubbing away the paper...  So I'd also already started rubbing when I decided it wasn't really working - so that's when I took the photo as I'd like to try again (the paper was still wet at the time I photo'd it) ...

So I thought I'd see how far I could go anyway...

OK, more rubbing, & drying & it looked like this - oops!! Reject!!!

So, I added a little gloss medium over the top, which helps to make the paper transparent, & here's my final photo of this time round (I had added a title by this time) ...

You can see the image marginally more, but there was way too much paper left, so totally not what I was aiming for!  So this tag will stay with my rejects!

Update

But, here's what happened when after I'd printed out the photo of the tag (top photo) & taken it down to the copy shop... This time I thought I'd try out a different technique, so I did a transfer onto stickyback canvas (which worked much better!) ...

 

 

At last something I could post onto our class gallery!  And I got some lovely comments, thank you all!  And, feeling 'brave', I'm now publishing this to my blog ... !!

 

 

P.S. note to self for the future - if you're going to be trying a new technique make sure you photograph or copy any originals, even if you then use the original - so at least in some form you can try again!!

Hi again!

Another long gap! I can't believe I've only blogged once this year! Don't know what I've been doing really! But luckily I'm starting to get inspired to create once more!

So, here again with renewed inspiration having met up (in real time & space) with friends from a Facebook group at Neil Burley's beautiful new studio in his garden in Leicester. (Neil's website here - he's taking bookings now perfectly4med.co.uk) Many Thanks Neil!

And hoping to enter some challenges this month! So hopefully I'll be posting more often from now on! And having now got an iPad mini (which I love!) I now don't have to be on the computer to blog (that is as long as I can figure out how to upload photos from the iPad!!!



Watch this space!

Front cover of notebook made at Neil's studio

Inside front cover - now to complete all the tags!

long time no blog!

Hi, I'm back - eventually!

I don't know where the time's gone - I was quite shocked to see that I hadn't posted anything since the middle of October last year!  Though I must admit I haven't done a lot of crafting either...

Since September, I've been working part-time, 2 days a week, which soon crept up to 4 days - leaving me not so much time for myself!  Don't get me wrong, I do really enjoy work and I'm very grateful I've got a job (I really didn't get on with not working at all) - but hoping eventually to find a "happy medium"!

I've managed the odd card for friends, and I did make quite a few Christmas cards -- with the dining room table (where I mainly craft) piled high, I over-spilled into the kitchen for a couple of weeks!

I eventually managed to clear the kitchen and the dining room table for a late Christmas dinner (I'm not that disorganised - we were away in Salzburg for Christmas itself (* see separate page) - we had a great time!) - and it's managed to stay clear!  But the time has flown by and its now February already!
 So, I've joined in the free My Creative Classroom class/challenge 'Use every stamp 2013'.  My personal challenge is to put things away (in the right place!) when I've finished with it, and organise my stamps, so I know what I've got, and where to find it, and hopefully use it!  We've got a whole year (or 11 months now!) to do this, so hopefully I'll at least have made some progress by next Christmas!!

Hopefully I'll be back here tomorrow or Monday when I've done some crafting!

Back soon (fingers crossed!)     Kay