More Creative Chemistry!

With the exception of working for my father during his ceramic business days, I have never crafted this much in all of my life! Dawn and I crafted from Friday after she got off work until tonight (Sunday). We're almost finished with Creative Chemistry 103, only four tags left to do. We did 29 tags this past week! Go us.

The first thing Dawn did today was lay down some texture paste, so the tags would dry.

After emptying out all of the Distress Crayons, we went to work on those tags.

...and made these! My two are on the left, Dawn's on the right

I didn't take pictures of all of the tags we did because I was so busy I actually forgot. And I also realized I didn't have Dawn take one single picture of me crafting, poo. Next time.

We played around with crazing medium on a stamped tag. You can't rush the drying process because the crazing happens while it's drying, so we had to muster up some patience while it dried on its own. The wait was well worth it. It's so cool!

Here's a close-up of Dawn's crazing before she applied Distress Crayons.

 

This is my tag before applying Distress Crayons.

Here it is after I applied Distress Crayons

One last close-up of the crazing

As I said, we're almost finished with Creative Chemistry 103. Next we'll dive into 101 where we left off. This was such a fun weekend, I hope we can do it again soon.



Summer of Creative Chemistry 101, 102, and 103

Creative Chemistry 103, Day 6

Today's class was an overview of some of the variety of substrates available from his line, so he didn't have any tags for us to make. So Dawn and I took the opportunity to get caught up. We crafted all. day. long!

First and foremost, we made a humongous mess!

After gathering stencils from my bedroom and craft room, and throwing them on the floor so we could see them more easily, we decided it was time to put them in a bin. Honestly, I hadn't realized just how many we've accumulated over the last couple of years.

Okay, finally, here are the tags we created today. I can't remember all of the process names exactly, so my apologies for not labeling these as they should be labeled. I can tell you there was a lot of stencils, Distress Paint and Ink used, and a whole lot of spritzing going on. These are meant to be used as a reference so when we go to make a card, journal page or mixed media piece, we can look at the tags and remember, hey, we can do this or that to them, and have the confidence to go for it.

Mine is on the left, Dawn's on the right.
Paint lifting, which was pretty cool once we got the hang of it.

Mine is on the left, Dawn's on the right.
The one on the right is my favorite so far of all the tags she's made.

Both of these are mine.I kind of want to draw flower outlines on the one on the right.

Using Mica spray, this one is mine. You can't really see the wonderful shimmer
the mica spray gives it.

When we were finished crafting, Dawn printed out the tag/process labels and we sat on my bed, cut them out and adhered them to the backs of the tags we've been making the last few days. We finished just in time to tune into a live chat with Tim Holtz and company. It was very enjoyable, and we're looking forward to the next one.

Paint resist with ink, one of my favorite processes.Mine is on the left, Dawn's on the right. 

Using Micro Glaze, steampunk!
Mine is on the left, Dawn's on the right.

Stain rub resist using Tim Holtz rub-ons
along the outer edges. Both of these are mine.
I love how they turned out.

That's a lot of arting going on, right?!

Summer of Creative Chemistry 101, 102, and 103

Creative Chemistry 103, Day Five

Man, oh, man, what a loaded class this was! Dawn and I worked through all of the lessons this time, and we even made a few extras. She worked on decorating an envelope for a swap as well, so, two birds with one stone. We rock.

Alcohol Inks

These are all of the tags I made on Day 5

We discovered we don't much like working with alcohol inks, but that's okay, we still had fun. The funny thing about the alcohol inks is that, just when you think you hate what you're making, if you just wait a few minutes the whole thing changes and you like it more than before.

 
Dawn, working on her embossed tag

We still didn't love it, but we're glad we did it. Now we know we don't need to buy anymore of those types of supplies. I doubt we'll use up what we have. But that's just us. I encourage you to play with this product, you might love it.

It was one big sticky, stinky mess

The one with Big Ben was my absolute favorite, I think I might even do it again in the future. The embossed one, to the left of Big Ben in the group picture above, was also pretty easy and impressive.

My favorite process, alcohol ink with faded background stamp

All in all it was a fun-filled class made even more fun because I was able to craft with my daughter.

Summer of Creative Chemistry 101, 102, and 103

Creative Chemistry 103, Day Four

We're on to Day 4 of Tim Holtz's Creative Chemistry 103!

I only had time to do one of the processes today, so I chose a very simple one. Even though it was easy, I learned a lot about Distress Crayons.

Day 4: Blended Background


It isn't much to look at because it's meant to be a reference tag to show the blendability of Distress Crayons, not a work of art. But if you squint just so, you can see a field of lavender, a pond, a mountain and a lovely sunset.

Summer of Creative Chemistry 101, 102, and 103

Creative Chemistry 103, Day Three

This session from Tim Holtz's Summer of Creative Chemistry 101, 102 103 was packed so full of projects, we couldn't finish them all. Not that we've completed all of them anyway, but even if we tired we wouldn't have been able to do them all in one evening. I'm not complaining, mind you. In my opinion, this series is worth more than double what we paid for all we're learning.

Thank you, Tim Holtz and Online Card Classes for keeping this so affordable and within our reach!

Day Three: Collage Medium (a sort of tester tag to compare the three different medium pastes), Paste Resist, Paste Embossing



We had so. much. fun!

Creative Chemistry 103, Day Two

More brain overload with the fabulous lessons from Tim Holtz's Summer of Creative Chemistry 101, 102 and 103! I hope to post at least one of my favorite processes from each class this week.

Day Two: Paint Resist


I really enjoyed this one and love the results. I can see me using it on future projects.

Creative Chemistry 103, Day One

My daughter and I are signed up for Tim Holtz's Creative Chemistry 101, 102, and 103 classes. I made this post so that I can upload the image of my tag to the gallery over there, so my apologies if this is a bit clunky.

Day One: Micro Glaze Distress



My brain hurts from all of the creative awesomeness Tim taught us in this first lesson! Tomorrow is Day Two and my daughter and I are excited about diving in.

Playing and Catch-up Time

Who would have thought crepe paper could be so pretty?

One of the reasons I like mixed media is because of all the texture. I'm amazed crepe paper and a little paint fills that category quite abundantly. We also created texture in the latest Mixed Media Morsels exercises.

My daughter Valerie made two rain chains out of beach glass and wire! They're located at each end of my craft room. They got quite a workout the first night they were up. I love them so much.

Sneaking in a little Molly here. She's more playful and lovable as ever! She loves her squeaky toys, but the bows, not so much.

I've been admiring all of the Bible art journaling I've been seeing on-line and have been wanting to try it. I felt very intimidated by it, maybe because of the full-sized pages, I don't know. So when I spotted little New Testaments at the Dollar Store, I was excited about using one. I totally love what I did, although it's quite busy. I learned a lot and can't wait to do another page.

I am hoping that combining my love of God and arts and crafts, I can learn to hide the word in my heart easier than trying to just memorize what He has to say. And it's a lot of fun!

Journal52 2016 Is Coming Along

Prompts 4 and 5

This was fun but challenging. I dry embossed the paper to give it some depth and mimic the surface of the moon. Then came a coating of paints and embossing powder. I think the gold was a good choice. Dawn gave me moon stickers in different phases, so that's when I got the idea about life having phases.

For Week 5, we had a choice between monochromatic or psychedelic. When given the chance, I'll always go with color. Besides, I wanted to use my new watercolor gel crayons I purchased at Target in the worst way! I love them! Go immediately to Target if you can for a set of your own. They're only $3.99 and are right up there with the Gellatos watercolor sticks. They can be found in the school supply section.

I'm loving how my little twinchies look in the binder!

It's especially cool because you can see the journaling on the other side without having to take them out of the sleeves.

Bonus, this smaller size has taken a lot of pressure off me. Making a full two-page spread was daunting last year, so I usually only did one. But this year I'm feeling more joy when I do my pages. Go me.

YES!

Journal 52, Week 2: Yes or No

On 2"x2" cardstock, gesso, tissue paper, stamped with
Stamping Bella's Uptown Girl, Betty Loves Books, colored with colored pencils and inked

We have the choice of two prompts, and this week it was Yes or No. I chose YES...to more reading in 2016. I have So. Many. Books. Piles of books are waiting to take me away, and I am determined to shorten the stacks by reading and actually letting them go when I'm finished.

In my last post I included pictures of a Julie Doll tag I made for a swap. This is how I packaged her, with junk mail! Dawn received an offer for a credit card and when I saw the packaging I knew this lovely lady would fit right in it. I also included a few embellishments, so along with the doll, they showed through the windows. 

I spritzed some ink on the mailer and added some Washi tape around it. The paper doll was positioned to peek out of the actual mailer, which excited me to no end. I'm tickled with the way this turned out, and so was the person who received it.

I'm not sure how many of these trades I'll do in the future, but the two I've done sure were a lot of fun.



Disclosure – This post contains affiliate links, which means that at no cost to you, I may make a tiny commission if you decide to make a purchase. The products I link to are those that I believe in, regardless of any commission I may make from them. My goal is to help you easily find the tools, products, or other items that you will need to complete your project.

I Miss My Sister Constantly

I picked up this Stamping Bella stamp at the Sacramento scrapbooking expo earlier this month. It reminded me just how much I'm missing my sister Martha. So I worked it into one of the playing cards from the deck I've been playing with the last few months.

As usual, I started with a coat of white gesso, glued on pieces of torn brown paper (to represent clouds or haze) I saved from some packaging, gave it a coat of gel medium, colored it with Distress and Copic markers, then tried to make rays of sunshine from Stickles glitter glue. I wanted to write that I miss her, but while looking for words, "unconditional" spoke to me.

I had intended to color and save this piece for a greeting card, but my Copic decided to take a leak all over my work. Why does an $8 maker even do something like that?! (No, I do not refill my pens, it came this way.) So I cut out what I thought I could save and used it in my mixed media piece. I'm glad I did.

My sister loved me unconditionally. I miss her constantly.

Journal52

Pathways

I'm participating in a Facebook project called Journal52. A prompt is posted each week and we can interpret it any way we like. Some people do 2-page layouts, some 1-page pieces, but I chose to do almost postcard-sized layouts. It's less intimidating to me. So, although the size isn't consistent, I'm pleased with the way they look in my art journal.

Just Be

The three prompts I've done so far are Pathways, Just Be, and Conversation Starters. I journal the meaning and include the media used to create it as well. I plan to post everything later, but I just thought I'd put this here for now to give me an incentive to keep going.

Conversation Starters

Silhouettes is the next prompt I'm contemplating at the moment. It's getting started that's the booger. But once I get started, I almost can't leave it alone.

The Gift of Time

This year I gifted my daughters with things I made instead of bought, beginning with what turned out to be a very rich chocolate cake. I also detailed Valerie's car (their Aunt Phylliss did Dawn's!) Actually, I cheated, I only did the inside (with a little bit of help from their dad), I ran it through the carwash for the outside. Hey, California is in the middle of a water shortage, okay? :-}

Bookmarks have become something all of us seem to have aquired. Here are two more Dawn and Valerie can add to their collection.

The numbers bookmark is for Valerie, she loves numbers and text. I dry embossed cream-colored cardstock, heat embossed the lettering with gold embossing powder and finished it by inking it with my favorite walnut colored ink pad by Tim Holtz.

  Dawn makes the prettiest tassels, so I'll leave that touch up to her.

The galaxy-themed one is for Dawn, she loves the night sky. It's painted with all sorts of colors of sparkly ink pens on canvas and backed with black cardstock. The planet was cut from a piece of gold shimmered card stock that had veins of white running through it. It actually looks like a copper penny!

Then I wrapped them up in cardstock which reflects their fondess for (Dawn) cameras/taking photos, and (Val) numbers and letters. I even dug up a brad with her favorite #7 on it!

The flowers are handcut from a combination of patterned paper and tissue paper using a nifty technique I found on YouTube by Shannon Green. It's addicting!

Their main presents were paintings I created. Dawn's has a galaxy theme and Valerie's is more of a mixed media piece.

I used canvas paper and a variety of inks and paints. I had intended for it to be darker, more starry-like, but after walking away from it for a few days and coming back to it, it grew on me.

When I was finished, I ran some black glitter tape along each edge and framed it in a simple black frame. I titled it "Out There." She actually likes it turned with the corner planet at the upper-right, but for some unknown reason when I rotate this photo it won't upload here in the new rotation. *sigh*

As I said, Valerie's is more mixed media because after I finished the painting I wasn't very happy with it. So I added the girl with the suitcase, the tiny dog, flowers, tree and created a shiny sun to beam down on it all. I titled it "Oh May I Go A Wondering," because she likes The Happy Wonderer song. We sing it using her name instead of what the song says.

After wrapping the paintings I topped them off with the tags I made. Valerie has a fondness for western themed things (who am I kidding, fine cowboys are her eye candy!), so I went with that.

 

I used a Julie Nutting paper doll stamp and fussy-cut her outfit from cardstock. Her skirt and bodice also has a layer of Tim Holtz's shimmer paper, a gift from my daughters. Glossy accents was applied to her boots and hat just to give them that extra pop. Oh! And I drew her face free-hand! For someone who doesn't know the first thing about drawing, I'm getting the hang of giving Julie Nutting's doll faces a bit of personality.

The balloons are shaker stickers from Michael's. And I have so many of these beautiful paper flowers not being used, I couldn't resist adding a few here. I think the orange, yellow and green adds a pretty touch, and the gold leaves makes it that much more special.

Dawn's tag was reminiscent of our trip to London, England, last year. She gave me several Julie Nutting tag tablets and this is by far my favorite print; it has the feel of an English garden. Dawn also gave me the pretty girl stamp, which reminds me both of photo of Dawn holding a little green suitcase and Audrey Hepburn.

Seeing Big Ben is my favorite thing from our trip, and probably the most iconic, so, of course it had to be featured in the background. The taxi is because we relied on and appreciated having access to this form of transportation. They saved our aching feet, I'm not even exaggerating. And the tiny little airplane is symbolic of the bravery of my daughters on their first flight, a very, very long one.

So my gift to my daughters was essentially of my time, something I have plenty of when it comes to them. They have the patience of a saint for this forgetful, bumbling old woman, and I can't even begin to list the things they do for me on a daily basis. I'm so very proud of the women Dawn and Valerie have become. Happy 31st, girls, it's only just begun!