Thank you notes

Well, I haven't gotten around to restarting my Creative Chemistry 102 and it might be a bit longer before I can submerse myself into Tim Holtz greatness again.   This past year has been really difficult watching my Dad's failing health linger and though we were grateful to be able to spend so much extra time with him than what the Drs had predicted, we prayed continually that he be taken into a better place rid of the pain and suffering, especially in the last few months.  I decided to take the Creative Chemistry classes not just because I'm in love with Tim Holtz and his creations, but because I needed to give myself permission to do something for myself.  Just after graduating 101, and starting the first lesson of 102, my Dad passed, finally moving on to be with my Mom.  And so, as my thank you to all those who were there for us as a family, to help and support us, and for me to honor my Dad, I have decided to hand make all my thank you cards, and I did so using some of the techniques that I learnt.  Immersing myself into this task has been therapeutic for me, allowing me to spend time with myself and remember my Dad, no interruptions, no one trying to FIX me, just me and my Dad.  Here are the cards, the fruit of my labor to honor and respect my Dad who was by far one of the most giving, strong and brave man I have had the blessing to be a part of.  I love you Dad! 

I think because of the size of these thank you notes, I will be making my own envelopes as well.  I've never handmade an envelope before so I'm currently looking thru my cricut cartridges for cuts to help save me having to hand cut 66 envelopes.  I'm holding out hope that one of my amazing CTMH cartridges will be the winner.  However, if I can find a suitable size envelope at Staples or somewhere then I'll take that route.  Not sure how secure, handmade envelopes would be thru the mail service. 

Thank you for stopping by.  I know this post isn't as upbeat as my usual posts but I needed to share my love for my Dad. 

Creative Chemistry 102 on hold

Hi everyone.  I just wanted to write a quick little note to say that my Creative Chemistry course is on hold for a bit.  I hope to get back into finishing the course starting next week.  My Dad had passed away this Thanksgiving weekend and so I am in the midst of planning his funeral and dealing with our families loss.  I do look forward to throwing myself into my crafting and using that as a way to release my emotions once I am able to.  So, please check back next week sometime and I hope to have had the time to get started again.  

Creative Chemistry 102: Part 1

I couldn't help myself and I started on Creative Chemistry 102 right after I graduated from 101.  I thought, huh, only 7 days vs the 2 weeks in the last one, but holy cow there is a lot in each days lessons.  So today, I managed the first 2 lessons in Day 1's itinerary.  I do believe I am done for the day.  Had a blast but I think I got to the point of my eyes going crossed and my back hurting.  Yup, had enough for today.  Not sure how far I will get tomorrow, since I have several errands and my Dad to visit tomorrow.  So, here is what I have accomplished in homework from Day 1 so far. 

Day 1:  Marbling with distress paints.

 

 

 

Day 1: Distress Paint, colored crackle.  

 

 

I love the fall look of the leaves.  I'm going to have to make more of these for some autumn tags!  Can't wait.  :)   Speaking of fall... or falling!  LOL  I'm ready to fall over.  Good night, sweet dreams and Zzzzzzz.....  See you on my next day of learning Tim's techniques.  :)  

Creative Chemistry 101: Part 6

Yehhhh, I finished Day 9 and 10.  Now just have to watch the last video and I'll be done Creative Chemistry 101 and time to move onto the excitement of Creative Chemistry 102.  This has been great.  So many new tools and techniques that I would probably not have even tried if it wasn't for these classes.   Here are my finished lesson tags. 

Day 9: Perfect Pearls and Perfect Pearl mists.

Day 10:  Dimensional Mediums.

 

 

This was done with Distress Stickles Clear Rock Candy and the picture doesn't do the crystals justice.  It's like have sugar sprinkled onto the tag.  Here are a few close ups that sort of show it a little bit depending where the light managed to reflect.

 



And after it was all done, I made a tag using several of the techniques I learnt thru this course.  So, I did a marbling technique with the stains.  Then I did a resist using acrylic dabber in snow cap and a stamp pattern.  After it dried, I went back and used the stains as a water color technique to color in the stamp in areas.  I finished with a archival black sentiment and a distress ink edging.  So glad to be able to layer and incorporate different techniques now that I probably wouldn't have done before.  :) 

And so ends this portion of Creative Chemistry 101.  I look forward to sharing my practice tags from the next course.   :)   Ciao! 

Creative Chemisty 101: Part 5

Day 8 done!  :)   Two more lessons to go and then I can get started on Creative Chemistry 102.   I got lots done today.  This is addicting.  I have had so much fun today working on these creative lessons and I've learnt so much today.  This is one of the best creative decisions I have ever made.  I relied so much on U-tube videos to learn but this by far surpasses all the U-tube videos I have watched.  Amazing.  I recommend Creative Chemistry completely.  I can't wait to put all I've learnt into action in my creations.  So here are my Day 8 pics:

Day 8: Paint primer and distress crackle. 

My day is done!  Time for bed, it's been a lot of learning today.  I think I'll be dreaming tags and techniques tonight!  LOL   Sweet dreams everyone.  :)

Creative Chemistry 101: Part 4

I'm on a roll!  And I'm loving it.  :)  Day 7 was learning techniques about embossing.  AND I love to emboss.  I have bought several colors of the Distress embossing powders over the past few months and I knew they were a flatter tone, no shine to them for a more distressed look but I didn't realize the difference really between them and the other types.  So learning about that was neat.  I also didn't know that you were supposed to rub the crystals off afterwards for a more distressed look!  Very neat.  I love the rough feeling of the Distress powders.  I can't wait to experiment with my other colors!  I'm now itching to buy more, though I can't find them anywhere in this city, I'll have to either order online or wait till I make a trip up north to the cabin and get them at my craft store up there.  I'm thinking it'll be an online order, or maybe a road trip to the big city of Calgary to do some shopping there, just to get away from here for a bit.  :) 

Day 7:  Embossing

I'm just thrilled with these, they actually look better in the pictures vs in front of me.  LOL  Usually it is the other way around.  Go figure.   Well, I suppose I should think about eating something for supper and see if my energy levels can go for another round for day 8.  I think I might pass for tonight, we'll see.  Would love to hear from anyone who is or has done these classes too and tell me about their favorite parts.  :) 

Creative Chemistry: Part 3

So far today, I've completed Day 6, the Distress markers.  I specifically went out to purchase a pack of the markers so I could honestly do this class and know the difference between the Distress markers vs my other brand of water based markers.  I have two different brands of water based markers.  The Marvy markers and Sugarloaf markers.  I prefer my Sugarloaf to Marvy but I wanted to know how different these Distress are.  Well, I found in some aspects when you start to blend with water markers the Distress did a better job blending and moving the ink around, but with dry coloring I found no real difference and when coloring on a stamp to transfer I preferred the detail of my Sugarloaf markers vs the Distress markers.  And when I misted them with water after to transfer the image for a water mark effect, I saw no difference between the two.  So, I guess if you want to do a lot of coloring with water markers for blending or blending on the craft sheet to color then the Distress would be worth the investment if you already have other markers.  And if you don't have any water based markers then they are a good investment to start off with the newest, latest and greatest marker on the market since they do blend better with water than the other brands that I have at least.   Though I can't say how they compare to markers that I have not yet tried like Stampin Up or CTMH.  For me personally, I'm glad that I bought a few to try just so I could say I tried them, but for the amount of coloring that I do actually do, I still prefer my alcohol based Copics for blending.  :)  

Here is a pic of my two different markers.  The top row is from the Distress markers and the bottom row is from my Sugarloaf markers.  

Oops, I just noticed that my Sugarloaf #1 and #2's are mixed up.  I tried to keep the color similar when I colored using the same technique.  So #1 should actually be #2 and vice versa.  My bad.  So there you have it.  Another class done and onto Day 7 now.  I really am trying to get 2 days done each day so I can get started on Creative Chemistry 102 and maybe if life is good to me I'll be able to catch up to the rest of the class.  :) 

The most important part of learning these techniques is to be able to best utilize all our products, since I know for at least myself I'm a junkie with so much, and to have FUN!  I'm so glad that I signed up for this!  :) 

Creative Chemistry 101: Part 2

It's been a busy day.  Had appointments this morning, then off to see my Dad and home to start laundry, which I have yet to finish and of course work on my next couple of days of Creative Chemistry 101.  So today I did get to do both Day 4 and 5.  However, I wasn't able to do one of the tags because I didn't have the foam I needed to custom make my stamp pad.  It'll have to go on my list of wants so I can try it.  :)   My other tag that I had to work around was the Kraft resist.  I didn't have any of Tim's resist papers so I took a tag and embossed with copper and also in white to mimic the resist on his papers.  Not nearly as nice as his but a good substitute for this learning project.  So here are my next two days of class...

Day 4: Coloring with re-inkers.

Day 5:  Distress stains. 

 

 

Well, that was fun!  So, on that note, I better go finish my laundry and get myself ready for bed.  Tomorrow, I get to work with Tim's distress markers which I have never used and embossing with distress inks and powders.  That will be fun.  I love embossing powders!  :)  Can't wait to see what his has in store for tomorrow's tags!  :)  Good night!  

Creative Chemistry 101

I decided this morning after getting another email sent to me from Tim Holtz's blog and reading about Creative Chemistry 102 how exciting it would be to do these classes.  Unfortunately, I hadn't taken Creative Chemistry 101 yet.  Soooooooo, what to do!?  Well, sign up for 101 of course!  And since my dining room table was still a mess from making Xmas cards yesterday, I took advantage of the mess and started my classes right away.  Well, I got right into it and completed Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3 today.  Tim offers such great learning techniques.  Many which I would never have even ventured to try had I not signed up for these online classes.  And for the first time I enjoyed the alcohol inks, which were my nemesis for a long time.  And working with Archival inks!  Who knew what you could do with these babies.  I have tons of the little cats eyes Color Box fluid chalks which I never really knew what to do with.  Walla...  I now have a use for them.  :)  Thank you Tim!!!  

Before I tidy up, let me post Day 2 and Day 3 tags.  Sorry for the lighting reflection in my Day 3 tags.  It's now super dark outside and my lighting glares off of the glossy paper. 

Day 2:  Working with distress inks.

 

 

Day 3:  Alcohol inks, Archival inks and embossing with Archival inks.

 



And so ends my day.   I feel accomplished today.  These classes not only are teaching me a whole lot of new techniques but it also allows me to escape away from my thoughts and the stresses of all that is going on in my life.  The unfortunate part of this creative journey with Tim is the dent in my pocket book!  LOL  I love all this stuff and I wanna get more!  Lots more...  I need to expand my craft room. 

Xmas cards

Can't believe I'm about to say this, but Christmas cards were on the agenda today.  Today has been a pretty productive day.  Decided I better get started on my Christmas cards.  During one of our club nights our project was this card and I thought I'd like to make more for giving away this year.  So I managed to get about a dozen of them done.  They took me all day, lots of small pieces to stamp, cut, glitter... I do believe, my next set of cards won't be quite so tedious.  :)   All the stamps and inks are CTMH products.  The glitter on the snowflakes are Glitter Ritz in stardust. 

 

 

Time to call it a night, the mess on my dining room table will have to stay until tomorrow.  :)  Thanks for visiting.  



Halloween

Hi everyone!  At my retreat last weekend, one of the surprise projects that the hostess had us do was to make a fall/Halloween scrapbook page using the paper she put into a package.  We all got the same package and were told to make a page and then we'd display them and vote on the favorite and the winner won a prize.  Well, sadly, I didn't win but I still liked my page.  There were some pretty amazing layouts.  It was interesting to see how everyone's creativity goes in different directions using the same materials.  We could embellish with our own stuff but we had to use the papers she provided.   Here is my page I did.  I finally got to taking a picture so I can post it.  :)

I hadn't done a layout in a very long time so it was a challenge for me to get something onto the page.  But once I got going... well, it turned out not to bad.   All the paper was from CTMH, last years paper collection I believe.  The fence, the tree and the crow are all CTMH felt stickers.  And the bats were taken from a Prima stem from their Halloween collection.  And the Autumn sticker, I can't remember where that came from.  
Since I'm in Halloween mode I made another tag for Tim's Holtz's October '13 tags, haven't had time yet to do the ribbon, but it's coming.  And this is my second one.

Thanks for coming to see me again.  Follow me if you wanna see what else I'll be up to!  :) 

 

 

Tim Holtz Oct '13 tag

Well, I'm not the biggest Halloween fan but this year I thought... heck with it, get into it!  I like Tim's Oct tag ( I like all Tim's tags) so this is my first real go at following his instructions and techniques to make this tag.  I didn't have a lot of the product needed so I improvised a fair amount.  The distress paints I used were antique linen, forest moss, seedless preserves and I couldn't find the ripe persimmons anywhere in town but I did find a reinker so I used the white distress paint and the reinker to make my own ripe persimmons paint.  I think I was rather clever.  :)   I don't have most of the die cuts so I searched thru my endless stash of stuff and found a circular chipboard piece and I used that as the border with the glitter.  Again, I do not have any of the distress glitter ( go figure, I have almost everything else ) but I did have some Martha glitters and some Doodlebug glitters so I used them instead.    The cat and the Happy Hauntings come from a Graphic 45 stamp set.  And the side scrolls on the right are a clear acetate image that I found along the way and decided it added a little bit of extra to the tag.  The top is a purple moon button with glitter.  And the crinkle ribbon was stained with ripe persimmons and mustard seed.  It's all about the glitter.   Here, is my tag.

Well, I better get cleaned up, it's my sons birthday tonight and I'm taking him out for supper.  I currently have orange fingers and I look like a glitter bomb went off on me.  LOL  Thanks for stopping in!