Creative Chemistry 103 - Day 5 and 6

~~~Dont't forget to enter my CANDY!~~~

Hi all, I'm back with more Creative Chemistry 103 tags, and all caught up with class now. I've had such a lot of fun, and will keep playing and experimenting with some of these new techniques over the next week or so, so watch this space!

My Yupo was very kindly delivered by Mr. Amazon while I was at work this morning, so I sat down with my alcohol inks today and get caught up with yesterday's homework.

Technique 1 - Alcohol ink stamped resist on Yupo

This one didn't go quite according to plan... The idea was to wipe away the ink to have a white-ish ghost image left behind, but try as I might, I could only get it to partially work. I strongly suspect that the problem was with the stamp. I used one of the LOTV background stamps, and though they are gorgeous, the stamps themselves are very sticky. So most of the ink stayed on the stamp, and the little left on the background dried before I could put my cloth to it.

I think this is one I will try again this next week or so, using a different stamp to see what difference it would make.

Technique 4 - Alcohol ink texture resist on Yupo

This was fun, though in retrospect I'd have used a different embossing folder. The reason I picked this was because it was the only one I have that isn't just a repetitive pattern! lol.

Technique 3 - Alcohol ink faded layers on Yupo

Quite a lot of fun once I finally got a background I was happy with. I think I used up half a bottle of each colour, and got rather lightheaded because of the fumes! lol.

Technique 4 - Alcohol ink painting on Yupo

After a couple of goes with this, and some truly disastrous results, I admit I gave up. I'm not exactly brilliant at water-colouring yet, and this is a few huge leaps ahead of that! One day I may revisit, but in the meantime, this one's not for me.

Technique 5 - Alcohol ink liquid landscapes on Yupo

Creating a landscape was loads of fun, even if I'm not so good at this freehand stuff, lol. The sun was easy, just a single drop onto my sky, and the mountains weren't bad either. I attempted a lake and river, which is where it went somewhat south. But still, loads of fun.

Technique 6 - Alcohol ink splattered floral

This was kinda fun too. made three of them, but the first was the best, I think. Also, the only Yupo Mr. Amazon was able to provide on such short notice was the translucent one, which means my double-sided tape is showing through on the very lightly coloured bits. Bears remembering for the future!

And that was day 5. I must admit, probably my least favourite. I don't think alcohol inks are "my medium", so to speak, I just like to use them to colour things. But that's ok... I have so many others to choose from!

And speaking of favourites. The day 6 homework was to create something using our favourite technique on something other than cardstock.

Naturally I immediately went running back to collage and Distress Crayons, and used a hard canvas board as my base. I love using canvas, as it adds an immediate texture to a project...

And this is what I made:

I may just have to find somewhere to hang this... :-)

That's it from me, now I must go help my daughter pack for her NCS trip!

Have a fantastical weekend everyone!

Sammy-x

Creative chemistry 103 - Day 4

Evening ladies and gents,

Running a little later with my CC103 offerings today, as I was at work all day and had a late start. Still, I managed all SIX of today's tags. The fact that this was the one I'd been waiting for definitely helped. anyone who has been around my blog since about March probably knows how much I love the new Distress Crayons, and I've been waiting impatiently for more tricks to using them!

I can tell you though, this keeping up with class every day is quite the marathon!


Technique 1 - Distress Crayon smudge

You know how sometimes you're making something and halfway through you think of something that would be so much cooler? That happened today with the first tag. After waiting an absolute age for my texture paste to dry, adding my medium and waiting again, I suddenly thought that a sunburst would be pretty awesome, so went back to square one and waited alllll over again. The end result was so worth all the waiting though!


Technique 2 - Gesso fresco

Yes, I've used this technique before, but it's so much fun, I didn't mind playing along again. I used pretty similar colours as the first tag, with an added hint of purple. Love how it came out.


Technique 3 - Textured resist

And back to grungy for this one! I'm especially happy with the water droplet effect this time.


Technique 4 - Watercolour resist

This was probably the most frustrating one of the day (I'm still pretty rubbish at water colouring), and I really didn't like how it looked until right at the end when it all just came together. I chose lots of coloured splotches because they made me think of sprinkles! (does anywhere outside of the UK do sprinkles on ice cream?)


Technique 5 - Blended background

Super quick and easy to do, but oh so much fun, and such a great result! Can see me using this a LOT for "need a card in a hurry" situations...


Technique 6 - Layered colouring

This was one that I thought right from the get-go was going to be a complete disaster... And you know what? I'm actually a little in awe of how brilliantly it turned out! It's a shame you can't see the crazing effect, because it really adds to the overall look, but either way, I'm very pleased. Not in the least because I managed to blend myself a halfway realistic looking skin colour!

And that's it. Phew! Working again tomorrow, so could be another late-ish one, but so far I'm pleased I've been able to keep up.

And now, to bedfordshire!

See you later folks, have a great one!

Sammy-x

Creative chemistry 103 - day 3

Hi all,

I'm three for three so far, but back to work tomorrow, so things may go a little south by then, lol.
Only three tags from me today, as I don't have any grit paste, and even though I have 7 different texture pastes, transparent isn't one of them!
there's not really any new techniques here today, but it was still so much fun playing along.

So here goes, Creative Chemistry day 3.

Technique one - Distress layered collage

Ok, so I've never made a secret of my love for collage, and I've also been quite vocal around the interwebs about how much I love the new collage mediums (especially the vintage!). So this tag was especially fun.


Technique two - Texture paste colouring

This was a lot of fun too. I went with browns and pinks for my colour palette, for a nice vintage look.


Technique three - Texture paste embossing

Why shabby blue Frantage? It was on my desk. And seeing as how my embossing box is in the back of my craft cupboard, I thought I'd be lazy and use what I had to hand.
I used browns, green and greys. Just a shame the pretty blue sparkle of the Frantage doesn't show in the photo.


Hope you're all having a Tiggeriffic day!

Sammy-x

Creative Chemistry 103 - Day 2

Hi all,

Back again with today's Creative Chemistry offerings.

I had so much fun with the techniques today, though the paint lift one frustrated me no end until I started using a damp cloth instead of a baby wipe. But that's what it's all about, no? Figuring out what does and doesn't work with the supplies that you have to hand.

I didn't turn them into finished tags today, but just kept them as backgrounds, as I had a super busy day and am out of time... I'll get 'round to playing with them when the week is over, I'm sure. One of them may even get re-incarnated as a birthday card for my little brother.

Technique one - Distress paint resist

This one is probably my favourite so far... The colours are a little more vibrant (and purple) in person, but I just can't seem to get a bright enough light to photograph by.


Technique 2 - Distress paint lifting

This one drove me up the wall, across the ceiling and back down the other side again. I tried many times, but it kept turning into a bubbly, sloppy mess. Turns out my baby wipes were far too wet, and once I decided to try a damp cloth, it worked so much better!


Technique three - Distress stain rub resist

Remnant rubs are soooo much fun! And after this technique, I feel a lot more confident in using them. This makes for a rather vibrant and striking tag, and I love it.


Technique four - Distress luminous mica

I used greys, blues, greens and browns here (I'm thinking of making a start on Christmas stuff,  so this seemed a good colour scheme!), and misted with brushed pewter mica spray, which of course does not show in the photo. Love the mottled texture though!

Technique five - Distress marker spritzed watercolour

Ok, this is just far too much fun to do! Unfortunately I only have 7 markers so far (and that includes black and white and two browns!), so I was a little limited as to the colour schemes I could choose, but I think it turned out rather lovely!


And that's day two. I'm doing well so far!

Hope you're all having a fantabulous day!

Sammy-x

Creative Chemistry 103 - Day 1

Hi all,

Back again? Don't I have anything better to do? well yes, as a matter of fact, I do. But seeing as how Creative Chemistry 103 just went live, those other things will simply have to wait. Good thing I cleaned the bathroom this morning, because nothing else is going to get done this week! lol.

So, day one.

I tried four of the five techniques. I skipped the first one, as I don't have any re-inkers, so can't play with my DIY pad yet...

It's been a fun evening with plenty of enjoyable techniques, and miserable failures, but that's how you learn, no?


Technique one - Distress Highlight stamping:

I LOVE this technique! The image looks raised and puffy, even though it's completely flat, and the colour integrity is amazing!


Technique two - Distress Off-set stamping:

I really enjoyed this one too. If you glance at it quickly though, it feels like your eyes are going funny, lol.


 Technique three - Distress washed watercolour

Time to play with a little more colour. This one is loads of fun, but would probably have worked better on a larger surface, so there could have been more colour along the sides.


Technique four - Distress micro glaze resist

This one went rather terribly wrong. I think it was probably a combination of picking the wrong colours and using Dylusions rather that Distress sprays (don't have any of those yet...), but I wasn't at all happy how it came out. Oh well, hopefully it'll turn out better next time :-)

Well, that was day 1. If all goes according to plan, I'll be back every day this week as I play along.

Must go collapse now,

Have an awesomesauce evening,

Sammy-x

Summer of Creative Chemistry - Week 7

And here's my last tag of the morning.

This week's challenge at Summer of Creative Chemistry was to use alcohol inks, and I opted for the "Faded Layers" technique. (mostly out of necessity, I admit, as I've not been able to get hold of any metallic mixatives yet!)

I did very much enjoy this technique though, and the result looks so very different from Distress products, which makes for a change, I guess, lol.

And as I used this lovely stamp from the Artistic Outpost "Gatsby" set, I'll take it to play along at Artistic Outpost too.

That's it from me this morning. Hope you all have a most fantabulous day!

Sammy-x

Summer of Creative Chemistry, week 3

Hi all,

It's already week three of the Summer of Creative Chemistry. Wow, where is the time going?

I took the opportunity to play with my Perfect Pearls, as I didn't have them the first time I did CC, so skipped that class. This is a great opportunity to play catch-up.

This is the tag I made using the Perfect Distress technique:

Sorry, it's all blues again, which I don't seem to be able to photograph, lol.

I adore this technique though, and the way the letters come out gilded. Here's a close-up to show the effect better:

How cool is that!?


And for those of you that like making tags, there's a brand new challenge blog going live today, where you can enter your tags every Thursday. It's called Go Tag Thursday, and I'm off to go play right now!

That's it from me for today, hope you're all well and not affected too badly by the weather right now!

Have an awesomesauce evening,

Sammy-x

Evening all,

Week 2 of the refresher of Creative Chemistry 101.




I chose to play with marbling Distress Stains to create a background. I ended up having to do this three times, as the inks were just soaking into the tag, rather than marbling on top. third time I lightly misted the tag with water first, which seemed to make a huge difference.

Again, I'm having issues getting the blue hues to photograph... I'm thinking I need a photography course (and a camera that isn't over a decade old! lol)

Kept it very simple, but plan to pop it on a card for hubby. Our anniversary is still a few months off, but there's nothing like being ahead!

Sweet dreams everyone, I won't be around tomorrow, as I have a full day at work, then we're off to see AC/DC. Woohoo!

Have a great one!

Sammy-x

Summer of creative chemistry - day 1

Hi, me again!

You may or may not have heard, but Tim Holtz is about to release a third instalment of creative chemistry classes, and in the run-up to that, those of us that have already completed creative chemistry 101 and 102, are encouraged to re-familiarise ourselves with the techniques before 103 goes live.
Today we're focussing on the first couple of distress ink techniques, and I decided to play with one of my favourite techniques to date, the blended spritz & flick.



The idea is to use 4 or more colours of ink. I used 7 on mine! Broken China, Mermaid Lagoon, Peacock feathers, Faded Jeans, Cracked Pistachio, Iced Spruce, and Ground Espresso.
Can you guess what kind of theme I'm going for? ;-)

This is the background:

And this is the tag fully decorated:

And finally, matted on a black card base to make a father's day card for my dad (who used to be in the navy, hence the sea theme):

The colours haven't photographed as well as I'd like, maybe I should have waited for daylight, lol.

Anyway, that's me. Can't wait to get stuck in with the rest!

Sweet dreams.

Sammy-x