Creative Chemistry Day 5

Day 5!  So tired...  will be very brief until the morning.  just want to get my pictures on the forum.  promise to add more soon...  don't know how Tim is doing it...  I'm exhausted and we're only half done...  can you believe we're half done already?  Kinda sad.

Left is Marbled Stains, Middle is Stained Kraft Resist, Right is Stamping with Stains.

j) Stained Kraft Resist, k) Marbled Stains, l) Stamping with Stains.

Creative Chemistry Day 4

Hello there!  Day 4 is finally here!  They had some technical difficulties, so the class wasn't available until around 10 am!  I was being manic about checking the page to see if it was loaded last night until I gave up and went to bed (thankfully!) and then this morning until I finally saw that beautiful "Day 4" logo.

Today we learned about caring for out stamp pads and Reinkers.  I bought 4 reinkers especially for this class, so I'm new to it all.  My oldest stamp pads are only a year old, so I didn't think I needed them yet...  But now I'm hooked and want more, more, more!

Here are all of my creations from this lesson:

Left is the Custom Stamp Pad, Middle is the Layered Misting, and Right is the Watercolor with Reinkers.

These 2 1/4 inch squares are for a display to put on my wall that I'm making of all the techniques.  g) Layered Misting, h) Custom Stamp Pad, i) Watercolor with Reinkers.

Once again, had some supply issues, which I was very nervous about, but I worked through it!  With the 4 limited colors, I wasn't sure how varied my looks would be, but you can see, each technique does something very different.  I also wasn't sure if they would work well together...  but I need not have worried...  like Tim says...  pretty much all his colors work together.

My biggest issue was that I don't have any Cut N Dry felt.  It's been on my wish list for months (since I saw another video where Tim made a custom stamp pad).  I found a hint on youtube from Stampin' Up demonstrators (don't do any Stampin' Up products, but sometimes I watch their videos to get ideas) to use baby wipes.  So I built up a little pile of about 8 to 12 layers of wipes (just folded and stacked) and followed the directions that Tim gave us.  It worked very well.  I'm sure the Cut N Dry felt would be much more precise, the ink spread out on the wipes a little more, and the felt pad would last much longer...  but as a way to do it cheaply and quickly, the wipes were wonderful!  I even saved them in little baggies and will try to use them another day and see how it goes.  Here's a picture (taken about 5 hours after I made them:

I didn't have nearly enough mini-misters, (only 3 and 2 are in use already) so I used travel sized squirt bottles from the dollar store.  They did the job, but man-oh-man, now I see why the mini-misters are so much better.  I used a mini-mister to measure out my water and pour it into the squirt bottle.  It only went about a 1/4 of an inch up the side of the bottle, but I wanted to keep the same measurements that Tim used.  Then I sprayed it on the tag...  and it covered almost everything else on my work station, too...  It was WAY more liquid than a mini-mister and less precise.  I used paper towels to build a little wall on all my subsequent squirts.

I loved the watercoloring with reinkers!  I've never been big on watercolor before, but it was a lot of fun and I loved the varied tones that I could get without much effort.  I bought the pallet and waterbrushes ahead of time and enjoyed working with them a lot.  [edit:  just realized that I was supposed to use watercolor paper and I just watercolored right on the manilla tag...  worked great anyway, but now I'll try some watercolor paper, too!  ooops]

Alright, well, that wraps things up for today!  See you tomorrow for Stains!

Creative Chemistry Display Beginnings

I decided that I need to have a way to display all the techniques that we're learning so that I'll have inspiration whenever I look up from my workspace.

In addition to the tags with the technique instructions listed on the back, I'm going to make a smaller version of each one in a 2.25 inch square and then I'll mount them all to a background.  I used a hole punch on labels and stamped the letters a through f (so far) on them and affixed them to the lower right corner.  Then I stamped the letters onto the back of the tags with the instructions.  That way, when I look at the display, I'll just have to look up which letter it is to get the instructions.  I also decided to use a butterfly theme on the squares so that the finished piece will look unified despite all the different techniques and colors.

a) Blended Spritz & Flick, b) Wrinkle-Free Distress, c) Brushless Watercolor, d) Archival Resist,         e) Alcohol Ink Agates, f) Reflections Stamping

If you are interested in learning any of these techniques (Plus a whole lot more!), it's not to late to sign up for Creative Chemistry 101 with Tim Holtz!  Go to www.onlinecardclasses.com/timholtz

I'd love to hear about how my classmates plan 

to display the things they are learning!

Alright, now back to my regularly scheduled posts...

Creative Chemistry Day 3

Creative Chemistry Day 3!  I stayed up late to learn the lesson and try out the techniques.  It's 2 am right now...  so I'll keep it brief.  Maybe I'll be back later to add some more!  Then again...  maybe I'll take a nap after work instead. :-P

On the left is the Alcohol Ink Agate Technique, the center is the Reflections Texture Fade Technique and the right is the Archival Resist Technique.

Had some supply issues that really prevented me from rocking this lesson the way I'd like to have.  I only had soft gloss paper instead of glossy cardstock for the two techniques that are on black backgrounds.  I also only have 2 colors of Archival ink...  black and green.  This was the first time I've ever tried Archival ink at all.  I've added more colors of Archival and Glossy cardstock to my wish list.  But despite all that...  I'm pretty pleased with how all 3 tags turned out and I know I'll use all these techniques again in the future.

Here are some individual shots:

I've tried this technique on soft gloss paper before and the effect is still pretty nice.  The alcohol inks still do all the blending effects that happen on glossy, but the finish is much more subtly shiny.

No idea what happened to the color in this photo!  It's the same green background as the others.  The colors are much more vibrant orange in real life.

See you for Day 4!

Creative Chemistry Days 1 & 2

Yesterday I started the Creative Chemistry 101 Class with Tim Holtz from www.onlinecardclasses.com.  This is a class that covers the science behind a lot of Ranger products, especially the Distress line, and gives techniques for how to use them.  You can still sign up at any time.  I'd definitely recommend it if you want to know more about a lot of the techniques that you may have seen Tim use in other blogs and videos.

On Day 1, we learned about terminology, inks and surfaces.  It was very helpful information for anybody who works with inks, even if they don't use Ranger products.

Today, Day 2, we began the first product, Distress Ink Pads, and learned some techniques to use them.

Here are my tags with the 3 techniques and an extra tag that has all of the techniques combined on it:

For the 3 Technique Tags: The left-most tag is the Blended Distress/Spritz & Flick, the center is Wrinkle-Free Distress, and the right tag is the Brushless Watercolor.  I wanted to make sure that I didn't do a lot more to the tags so that I can use them for inspiration in the future, since Tim has provided us with a PDF with instructions to glue on the back of the tag.

Here are some individual shots:

Had some trouble with the Wrinkle-Free Tags...  or maybe I did them right and just don't really love the technique.  I've tried this technique (where you push your tag into ink on your mat sprayed with water) before and had just as murky results.  Tim's always looks so great, though!

That's all for now!  I'll let you know tomorrow how Day 3 goes--it's about Archival Ink!

Sculpey Mockingjay Pin

The Hunger Games movie comes out in less than a week and I'm getting pretty excited.

There is only one other hobby that comes close to my obsession with crafts, and that's reading!  I was one of those crazy kids who got grounded from books for reading under the covers with a flashlight late into the night when I was supposed to be sleeping.

Despite countless recommendations from other bibliophiles, my husband and I both put off reading Hunger Games until this past month.  We wanted to wait until as close to the movie coming out as possible because we knew we'd be hooked.

So, in honor of the movie release next Friday, I created my own version of the Mockingjay pin out of sculpey clay that Katniss wears in the book.

Here are the supplies & tools that I used:

Gold Sculpey III Polymer Clay, Sculpey Clear Glaze, Fine Tip Permanent Markers

A sharp Exacto Knife, & Some Random sculpting tools that I have collected over the years.  You can use whatever you have around.  Toothpicks also work pretty well for details.

 Other things that you will need but aren't pictured are: a printer and paper, scissors, a laminator (optional), a baking sheet (that you use only for crafts), an oven, a pin finding, and glue (hot glue or Glossy Accents).

Here are step by step instructions so that you can make one, too!

To begin, I found a photo of the pin and printed it out on my color printer to make a stencil from .  I chose to laminate the image for stability, but that's completely optional.

Then I used scissors and my Exacto blade to carefully cut around the image to create a stencil.

Then I softened the gold clay and rolled it into a sheet, approximately 1/4 inch or less.  A pasta machine is very helpful with this step.  I did all my work directly on top of the metal sheet I use to bake my clay, that way I didn't have to pick it up after all the details were done and move it to a baking sheet.

Then I placed the stencil on top of the clay and pressed down gently to make sure it wouldn't move around.

Then I used the Exacto Blade to remove the inside cut outs first.

Here you can see that all of the inside parts have been carefully removed.

Then I cut around the outside of the pin, being careful not to push down on the stencil and distort the inside that's already cut out.

Next I peeled the stencil off the top of the clay to reveal the cutout of the pin.  If you're not much of a detail person, it would be fine to stop right here and bake your clay.  But if you want it to look even more like the pin from the book/movie, then keep going!

I took my Exacto knife and cut lines around the areas where the bird or arrow lay on top of the circle.

Then I cut away at the circle by putting my Exacto knife  parallel to my baking sheet until it was half as tall as the other parts of the pin, so that it looks like the bird and arrow are on top of the circle.

Then I used my fingers and all my other tools to add the details to the Mockingjay and the arrow using my stencil as a guide to what it was supposed to look like.  After I was satisfied with all the details, I put it into an oven to bake (follow the directions on your clay).

 After the clay came out of the oven, I used the permanent markers to add some shading and details (which is optional, I almost this is looked nicer before the markers).  Then I used Sculpey glaze over top of the pin to seal it and add the glossy look.  Then flip the pin over and use a hot glue gun or preferably Glossy Accents glue a pin finding to the back.

Here is the finished product!

Hope you enjoy this tutorial and give making your own Mockingjay pin a try.  And if you haven't read the Hunger Games yet, it's definitely worth a read!

12 Tags of 2012- Feb & March

Over on his blog, Tim Holtz has introduced a new adventure for crafters -- the 12 Tags of 2012.  In the past, he did the 12 Tags of Christmas and made one tag a day for 12 days in December.  I just found out about it last year and didn't participate fully because that time of year is sooo crazy.  This new idea is to create one tag a month and I'm super excited.  It means that I'll have enough time to really think through each of the tags and buy some new materials if I need them.

You can view Tim's Tag Here.

And here is my version:

 My tags are a different size than Tim uses (smaller) because I had a ton of them leftover from a different project and I couldn't justify buying different tags when I had a thousand (literally) at home.  For the February tag, I decided to use an arrow instead of a large Cupid.  But I incorporated Cupid in two other ways by using small Valentines from Tim's Seasonal Paper Stash.  I didn't have any honeycomb paper, and after 3 unsuccessful attempts to make my own, I just used a bunch of tissue paper hearts stacked on top of one another and then fluffed up for my heart.  I used some vintage lace that I found in my Great-Great Aunt May's old sewing box (fear not, there is still a ton of it left for other projects!) for the bottom and the trimmings.

You can view Tim's March Tag, Here.

 And here is my take on the March Tag:

 

I used the checkerboard embossing folder for my background because I don't have a wood-grain stamp (it's on my wish list) and the woodgrain embossing folder just didn't turn out right when I tried it.  I thought the checkers went with the tiles in my mosaic pieces.  I used a Martha Stewart Butterfly punch for the butterfly and Sizzlits for the shoe and frame.  The caption is stamped twice on a piece of leftover acetate with green and black Stayz-On ink.  The trimming is cut from a piece of fabric scraps.

Tim hasn't done a January Tag yet, since he only decided to start this project in February.  So in the meantime... Here is a tag that I created myself this January:

 I used a Tim Holtz embossing folder for the trees and a technique that I learned from his 12 tags of Christmas where you put ink onto the folder before embossing to create the background.  Then I used all different kinds of embossing powders and inks to build up a lot of color and texture.  The entire background area has a layer of clear UTEE mixed with fine blue glitter on it. It kinda looks like a thin layer of glass.  The green and brown on the trees was created with several different chalk inks.  The snow was created by using a Zig glue pen to draw the snow and then covering it with white embossing powder.  The trimming is green tulle that I dyed a few years and ago and try to use as much as possible now, since I know I'll NEVER get rid of it all, haha.  This tag doesn't have anything glued onto it or any sentiment because I wanted it to be relatively flat so that it can be used as a bookmark all during the winter months.  I made similar versions of this tag for my Christmas gifts this year.

Hmmm...  Might as well share another tag while I'm at it!

Here is a St. Patty's Day Tag that 

I made for my mother-in-law to use as a bookmark:

 I used my printer to put the Blessing right onto the tag.  I set it up in Microsoft Word and then printed it on regular copy paper.  Then I used masking tape and taped the tag down on the paper using a lamp to line up the words on the tag.  Then I ran the paper with the tag taped on it through my printer.  I used chalk inks and a stamp to create the border around the tag.  I bought a bunch of those shamrocks that are on the trimming from oriental trading company for a dollar a few months ago as part of a children's craft kit.  I stamped the word love onto the wooden shamrock with Stayz-On Ink.  For the back of the tag, I traced the outline of the tag onto green cardstock, then used an embossing folder to emboss it.  Then I used some black soot distress ink to bring out the pattern and go around the edges.  To finish, I glued the front and back together and used a hole punch to make the hole go through the back sheet.  Then I threaded more of that green tulle through the hole to trim the tag.

Well, there you have it!  4 fun tags!