Creative Chemistry 103 - Distress Collage Mediums & Textures

So this time it's catch-up on Day 3.  All done! (apart from the Grit-Paste, which I haven't yet bought.)

Firstly, here's the sample tags of the differences in the various collage mediums & texture pastes ...

Collage mediums

Texture pastes

And now the tags themselves ...

Layered collage

Texture paste colouring

Texture paste embossing

Texture paste resist

Creative Chemistry 103 - distress crayons

Blended Background

Layered Colouring

Watercolour Resist

Smudge technique

      

Gesso Fresco technique

A busy week of so many new & amazing techniques from Tim Holtz's new online class Creative Chemistry 103! (available here)
Great classes & so many hints & tips from Tim! I caught up yesterday with Distress Crayon techniques, a new product i hadn't used before!  Love the vibrant colours & the fascinating techniques, but have now ordered the neutrals set to enable a more 'grungy' look as well!

 

Creative Chemistry 101 revisited

Just a quick post (can't believe it's been so so long since I posted anything!) today.
Tim Holtz's Creative Chemistry 101 is up & running again this month (& 102 in July, then NEW! 103 in August) (why don't you join here at onlinecardclasses.com if you haven't already done so).  Same classes for a couple of months, but new forums & galleries, Tim answering new questions & now live chats as well!

So first week is looking at the first couple of lessons, so I've played along.  3 tags using distress inks (all last year's colours - twisted citron, mermaid lagoon, wilted violet, blueprint sketch and edged ground espresso, or hickory smoke).  And 3 techniques blended spritz & flick, brushless watercolour & wrinkle-free distress.  Butterfly stamps by Tim Holtz (Stampers Anonymous) & quote stamps by Finnabair (Prima).

Loved revisiting these techniques & looking forward very much to a summer of Creative Chemistry!

Back soon 

Kay

Mixed Media Academy Open Studio Challenge 1

I first discovered Finnabair & her work a couple of years back, love her work! And now she's just started a new Facebook group - Finnabair & Friends - Open Studio, so many talented crafters out there... just amazed by everyone's stunning offerings!  And we now have a challenge, for a background inspired by one of her creative team's examples (on her blog).  So I had a play on several tags, & decided in the end to go with my take on Rebecca's textured background,.

Using a 5" x 7" canvas, I added strips of papers, hessian rectangles, lace trim, finishing off with texture paste through 2 different stencils.

 Then I covered with a coat of white gesso.

Then for the colour ... What to do?  I wanted to get away from my current bright pastel turquoise/teal/green/purple palette, so I decided on a fairly dark & gold 'grungy' theme...

After several false starts... sprays (the red was too red), shimmering mica powders (again too red!), it looked a real mess!

So, I still liked the texture, & it's only a canvas (!), and as I'd decided to go dark, I covered the whole thing with a coat of black gesso ... that was better, & because I'd used the shimmering powders, it ended up looking quite metallic.

Eventually, I used gold paint on the lace and stencil stripes, and most of the small stencil dots & added a coppery paint to the remaining dots.  A few days ago, I found some micro beads I'd bought years ago... the black, gold & light brown were just the thing to add a little more colour texture - background done!

After trying out several brass/gold toned embellishments, which weren't quite working, I wondered whether it would work better 'landscape'... yes, everything went together quickly after this, and so I finished my canvas...

I enjoyed this, even despite the many re-colourings!

A couple of detailed photos...

 

Tim's tag April 2015

I can't believe it's been 5 months since I've blogged!  Where has the time gone?  I've still been crafting, but I have to admit I've somewhat got out of the habit of blogging.  So here goes with the first of Tim's 2015 tags that I've managed to complete before the end of the month!

Today Tim's new Fossilized Amber distress marker came, just in time to add to the butterfly (from Tim's new Watercolor stamp set)!  I've decided to buy initially just the marker for each new month, (love all the colours so far, too hard to choose a favourite!) and wait 'til the mini-pads come out in sets of four..., so I've already got the 4 new colours in marker form, so I used these to create the tag, just adding vintage photo on the edges & a spritz of Gathered Twigs, as this is the darkest marker colour I've got.

I love using watercolour cardstock, markers & water - love the effect!

I haven't (yet!) any of Tim's word dies or individual letters, so I used an old Sizzlet die 'Love' & die cut letters from Tim's Chip Block letters die onto a spare piece of similarly coloured watercolour paper to give the effect of the letters being cut into the kraft card.

Finally I lightly coloured a flower 'gem' with Lake Mist alcohol ink (just to take off a bit of the brightness) & coloured the ribbon with Crushed Pistachio & Fossilized Amber markers.
Hopefully I'll be back next month with May's tag (if not before!)

Back soon!     Kay

Tim's tag November '14

So I've got a little behind with Tim's tags the last couple of months, (& only just time to do this month's tag before the new one tomorrow!).
As it's now less than a month before Christmas (help!!) I though I'd go with a more wintery theme than Tim's autumn theme.  I haven't got any of his dies with texture fades, so I had to improvise!

I've recently bought Tim's prancing reindeer die, & I'd already cut it out from a piece of white corrugated cardboard.  I used the gothic stencil to lightly emboss the background tag, & added dots with an embossing ink pen to add the sticky embossing powder & gilding flakes.  Then a quick distressing on the cardboard.  I used die cut letters which I painted pewter (to match the spray) for 'believe' which I added to a stained piece of  lace.
I'm glad I had a little time to do this, hopefully I'll have time for the next one as well!
Back soon (fingers crossed!).    Kay

Tim's tag - September

So, for once, I'm early for Tim's monthly tag (September)!  For me, Tim's new technique for 'faded layers' is slightly easier than the one he showed us in Creative Chemistry 102 & the Compendium of Curiosities vol iii - a slightly different effect I think, as the stencilled shapes tend to remain white, rather than just faded colour (which I've found quite difficult if I've used lots of alcohol ink!).

Anyway, although I've got quite of few of Tim's stencils, I decided to use a Dyan Reaveley diamond stencil for the background (inked over with Aqua alcohol ink).  I added multiple stampings of one of Tim's stamps (from Nature's Moments - one of my 'go to' sets!) and decided on the 'frenzy' of butterflies flying over the tag.  I must have somehow known, I've been wanting the Butterfly Frenzy decorative strip since it was first launched; I finally ordered it 2 days ago, & it came the next day, 1st September, so as soon as it arrived, I was all set!  I just love all the tiny butterflies! And I love how they're so vibrant & shiny using various colours of alcohol inks!  (And I've still got plenty to use on another project!)  Finally, just added a few remnant rubs, & it was finished!

the finished tag

tiny butterflies - detail - I used a couple of different text stamps on them

more tiny butterflies!

 Back soon!     Kay