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.

The 100 Card Project

...and beyond!

I set a goal for myself to make at least 100 cards for the Chihuahua Pride Day in Monterey (story by The Monterey Herald Newspaper). I was excited to be a part of a day where funds were raised to help spay and neuter Chihuahuas, which are in over abundance at our local animal shelters. I sold my cards, Dawn sold bracelets she made and Valerie sold necklaces she crafted from sea glass and other things she found at local beaches. Here are a few of the cards I did:

If you'd like to see the entire collection, here's a link to my 100 Card Project on Flickr.

Not all of the cards were about this specific breed because I wanted to offer a variety. Although I only sold 6 cards (hey, the space was free! Also, I have sold a few more since then), we still had a fabulous day watching all of the adorable dogs and their owners fuss over them with so much love. It was a great success and I hope to be a part of it again next year.

A Meaningful Stamp

This stamp reminds me of my mother.

When I saw this stamp, "Never Stop Dancing," by Penny Black (link below), I immediately thought of my mother. It was on my Amazon wish list for at least a year. It’s now on my craft table. *eep!*

I colored the clothing to resemble my mom’s favorite outfit, a thick velvety sea green/blue jacket (with a black pattern I, sadly, can’t recall), and a black skirt. We buried her in it along with the bedroom slippers we couldn’t talk her out of.

When I finished coloring and cutting it, I wanted to display it but didn’t have any idea how. My daughter Dawn has been doing some mixed media, decoupaging pretty napkins on old book and magazine pages for possible journal pages. She made one I particularly liked and gave me a piece, the one you see here. It was just what I was looking for. (It's difficult to photograph because the silver is shiny, even without a flash.)

Let me back up a little. I spotted these sturdy little graduation box signs at the Dollar Tree and thought, hmm, I bet I could re-purpose them for my art. And so I did.

I peeled off what I could of the original sign (I tried painting over it with white gesso, but I wasn’t happy with it), and then decoupaged Dawn’s paper onto it. I blended Viridian and Aquamarine Archival Ink along the edges, and finished it up with Black Soot Distress Ink, all by Ranger.

I place pop-dots on the back of my lady to give her depth, centered her on the box and called it done.

I love it!

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.