Tim Day 6 and 7

Day 6 was all about Distress Markers. The first technique was coloring with them.I'm not a big colorer. I usually find if I need to color I can use water colors or watercolor pencils and probably will not use this technique. But, I did like stamping with them and I used to do that a long time ago with some other water-based markers. Though I think I liked the watercolor technique used last week a lot. Stamped image with Archival ink and then 1st applied to dry paper, then wet paper. The advantage to me of Distress Markers is the color palette.

The 2nd technique was applying the pens to a stamp and stamping. One nice thing is that once you color up your stamp with the pens, just give a huff of breath on them and that will give you enough moisture for a stamping. I stamped three images -each lighter, obviously-with the one application of marker.
I did the two flowers on Specialty stamping paper- I'm not sure how much I like this paper but I'll see with other techniques.  The foam blending pad does not move smoothly over the surface to me. I applied Distress ink with the blending tool after stamping the images I had colored with markers. You can also come back to the stamped image much later if you didn't get a chance to stamp it (phone rang), give it a big huff of breath and stamp away!

Day 7 was more interesting to me-Embossing Powders. I don't have any Distress Embossing powder but now that I know more about  it, I think I'd like some.  It has some larger crystals of another material that fall away leaving a distressed look if you rub after heat embossing. I think I will like that. Great, another thing to put on the wish list!

Nostalgic Batik is the 1st technique- I stamped the red image with Distress Ink Fired Brick. Dumped clear embossing powder over it, tapped it off and heat embossed. Next I applied different colors of Distress ink with blending tool. Then I stamped other images with Distress ink not Archival which would have left the image on the embossed part which I didn't want. I wanted a resist. I spritzed my hands with water and flicked it on the tag. I liked the result!

Rusted Enamel

I really like this technique, too. I covered all of the tag with Distress Ink- direct to paper from the ink pad- you want a lot of ink. Covered the tag with a lot of embossing powder, tapped it off and this time flicked the back of the tag instead of tapping only. * Unless doing this technique- you should tap the paper on it's side on the table only to leave plenty of powder on the inked piece. Something new I learned. But because for this  you want some extra removed, flick it and then you can remove a little more with your fingers, too. I removed a bit too much but understood from this practice tag. Heat emboss. The go over with brown shades in Distress Ink with they blending tool.  It does have a cool result I think.

All I had time for- the last technique calls for Distress EP because of that "fall away" it has for the result so couldn't' do that one.

I'm two days behind :(

Spring has sprung and it's Saturday!

It's Saturday, you know. So where else would I be on such a beautiful day but the farmers market?

Me and a whole lot of other people had the same idea.

Yes, you know it- another FABULOUS day in KY!

Isn't this the sweetest succulent plant?  I'm thinking of a mini succulent garden this summer living in an old pair of crocs with holes on my backyard fence.

 I couldn't' pass up a picture of this bright honey. I eat a teaspoon a day of local honey to help desensitize me to local allergens.

 We will get to the haul later but next stop since there was no stone cut oats at the market-no prepared food at all today-East End Cafe for breakfast of yogurt, fruit, granola, honey and scrambled egg.

I thought these decorated eggs in stemware were perfect for the season. They were everywhere in the restaurant. Cute!

When we arrived home, everything was just so lush I had to take a photo- this looks like my typical May photo and it is only the third week of March! Look how full the daylillies are! The dogwood in bloom and the azaleas.

 And- my roses have buds! Oh my! It is just crazy.

On to the haul- yummy!  Can you tell our chicken guy was back?  He said he would have breasts for about two more weeks and then none for a while- 3 packages, please! And a whole bird, too. 

 Stopped at a local candy store on the way home to scope out Easter possibilities and brought home this little sample of organic chocolate-delicious. They had cute bunnies, ducks, chicks and they all  had names! I'll have to take some photos next week so you can meet them.

 The lovely Russian kale which was soooo good last week. Two bunches today, please. This cooks down to nothing you know. Each bunch enough for one meal- we are big eaters here.

A close-up of my little succulent.

 Iris blooming across the street!

A sea of Claire's pansies at the market

J and I also went to a delightful wedding. This couple met in elementary school and reacquainted last year when each was dining with their mother at a local restaurant. Met, dated, got engaged and now married. He has two precious little boys, she's never been married. It was sweet, sweet, sweet.

She made the oh, so cute votive decorations which I will tell you took a little time for all 30+ of them.

Detail

The programs were the absolute cutest things with drawings the kids had done decorating them along with one paper flower.

Adorable

Adorable

Cute banner behind cupcake table (they were popular!)

Day 5 and why I skipped Day 4

I had some more free time today- okay, really I made time for a little more art. Hey, it's the weekend. The work I need to do can be done then, too. Day 4 has a lot of interesting information but, since I don't have re-inkers, cut and dry felt and some of the other things Tim Holtz was showing how to use, I moved on to today- Day 5-spray inks and stains. Again, since I don't have re-inkers and I didn't have Tim's craft resist paper, I made do with some things I did have on hand.
I did find some resist paper in the shape of a tag and I inked some words with Archival ink. I didn't want the ink on the edge of the resist as it does cover it so I only did the right side of the tag, but wish I had allowed for a little more of the word across the top part. Next time.
I put Broken China stain over the whole tag next and edge around the edge of tag with distress in applied with the foam pad. Next, I stamped the flower with brown Archival Ink and also used a background stamp over the resist part on the left side of the tag, cut out and glued onto kraft glassine paper. Pretty nice for making do.

The 2nd technique more my style though again I made do as I don't have re-inkers to make my own spray ink. But, I used some Tattered Angels sprays that I had on hand to create the background. I sprayed the tag, spritzed with water, dried, added Distress ink around the edges. Because I don't have Picket Fence distress ink stain, I diluted gesso with water and stamped the word background stamp, dried, stamped the daisy with Archival Ink- black.

The final tag is a marbling effect and again I made do with items on hand. I used the rest of the diluted gesso and surrounded it on the craft mat with dabs of Distress Ink stains in a variety of colors. Then I took my manilla tag and drug in through the different inks in a swirl pattern, dried a bit and misted with water, dabbed and dried, misted dried. It has a nice soft mottled marble effect. I think the Picket Fence ink would have had a different and preferable effect. I stamped the bird with Archival ink brown and didn't like it. Stamped again with black so it looks like a brown shadow (sort of) then stamped part of a background stamp around the edges.

Three more nice techniques. I think I would use the Picket Fence stain a lot so I'll put it on my wish list.

Day 3 of Tim Holtz class

I'm doing some catching up. I watched the videos thru day 5 (today) and had time to do tags for day 3.

Today's techniques.

The first (middle tag) was alcohol ink agate technique. I applied alcohol inks to felt pad and added silver pen. I applied the inked pad to GLOSSY card stock tag, twisting it a bit as I applied it. I added more ink dots to felt and some alcohol blending solution and went over it some more finally adding the blending solution to a small area of tag and wiped. I dried tag with heat tool but it dries very quickly to touch anyway.  I stamped the images with Archival Ink in black. The solvent alcohol inks do best with a solvent stamping ink on top. Alcohol hand sanitizer wipes away the alcohol inks from the craft sheet nicely- great tip, Tim!

The next technique is Archival Ink Resist. Tim demos with bright inks but I only have brown and black Archival Ink so I used those. Stamped and dried my images (note: bright images covered with a neutral brown and then stamped with a black image will look similar to this but with more dimension- I will definitely want a bright ink or two). So, I stamped the zigzag, the word Evidence with black and the hands with brown. When that was dry I applied Distress Ink directly to the paper (this is glossy also) and wiped with a rag. Dried. Then I stamped the skeleton with Archival Ink. 

The last technique uses texture fade embossing folders. I have some embossing folders but none of Tim's. He used one with a frame. I tried an all-over texture and this did not do well- you couldn't see the stamped image which I'll get to in a minute. But I found one with texture only around the edge and tried again with success. Anyway, the technique is to stamp on the inside of the folder (smooth side) with Archival Ink which stays wet long enough to do this technique. If you use a text stamp it will come out backwards unless you use one of Tim's stamp reflections which is backwards for you and will appear readable.

After stamping the inside of the folder I placed a tag in it and ran it through my cuttlebug. The folder will basically stamp the image as it embosses. It is kind of cool in that you can get and inked image into the embossed part of the paper. If you stamp onto embossed paper it will only hit the high points.

I like this okay- it isn't a technique I would use often.

So here you can see my materials for this technique the stamped images inside the folder

The finished product- I could tweak this a bit next time

Here where you can see the embossed areas a bit.

I can see where I would stamp it on the other side next time.

I used a foam pad to apply Distress Ink to the tag.

NOTE: use stamp cleaner to remove ink from your plastic embossing folder-You may not want to stamp the next thing you run through it.

More fun tomorrow! Next class day is Monday so I have a little time to play-now I've got to get some WORK done!

How about some art?

Watercolor-look stamping with Distress Ink

I decided to take Tim Holtz online class, Creative Chemistry 101. It's the first online class he has done and I really like his creativity.  If this is your kind of thing it is not too late to join you will always have access to class content even after the two week course is over! So you can learn at your convenience.
I'm being very organized so far and have put together a binder with printed out info from the last two days AND have actually made what he showed how to do. One thing I like is that for each day's techniques there is a little summary that you can print, cut out and adhere to the back of your sample. I'm using tags and putting them onto the center ring of a three ring binder in front the the instruction page.
A suggestion he had was to use double sided heat resistant tape to adhere a non-stick craft sheet to a board so that it doesn't roll up. Brilliant!  I had Mr. Jim out with the circular saw in no time cutting up a board I found in the garage and found my roll of Sookwang tape. My board is thicker than his but what I had on hand and it will come in super handy!
We did three techniques today with dye ink. I'll talk more about those later as it is past my bedtime but I was so excited to make some cards to take to prayer breakfast tomorrow with the watercolor stamping technique!
I'm a sucker for a watercolor look. This was easy as can be. Just put different color Distress ink on your rubber stamp image, and then mist the stamp with a fine mist and stamp on paper. Dry with heat tool and voila!

And Saturday it is!!

It is ANOTHER fantastic day in Louisville! Are you tired of hearing me say it? Really- everything is in bloom-tulip trees, pear trees, weeping cherry, forsythia- I expect the dogwoods in two weeks. Crazy! The daffodils are fading for pete's sake!

Our usual round- a packed coffee shop for iced coffee- hey, it's been 80+degrees, walk to the market which was filled with folks lined up for anything they had.

 Here's the haul from the market. The folks we get the stone cut oatmeal from have begun making wheat bread from flour they mill- couldn't pass that up!

No chicken for a while so a bit of ground bison for the week.

 Ah, fresh salad mix. Won't that be tasty tonight? Or any night?

 Russian kale for a sauté soon! Isn't it pretty? Love the sage leaves and purple stems.

The afore mentioned bread - I had a sample- it was delicious! And a basket of garlic chives to go in the salad.

And what would a beautiful Saturday post be without a picture of kids with bubbles and popsicles?

And for those who like adorning things and words. Here is something you might like- I took the picture so I would remember to make some and use my own double sided tape

I love Heidi Swapp's idea of file folders for memory events with photos, the above is from her collection. Easy to store in a file folder box and you just pull out one folder to share an event like a birthday. You can get a lot of photos in little books attached to the folder though holes and string on stapling. Add envelopes of journaling. Love this. I think I will paint or glue paper to file folders I have for this groovy idea.

 You can see a video here:

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I'm headed to buy and spread mulch.

Saturday

This is J and me heading to the market. Spring has sprung here and it has been fabulous.

 I'm so happy my neighbor has these in his/her yard. They make me happy every time I pass by.

There wasn't a lot we needed from the market. Two things we wanted weren't there: chicken breasts and brussel sprouts. :(

 We passed some Girl Scouts on the way to market and I snagged two boxes, which remain unopened at present.

If you can believe that!

 I think Jim is planning on grilling some bison steak soon!

We had grilled chicken last night after realizing the oven isn't working and the house had a lot of gas from the unlit oven. Boo.

 What's your favorite cookie?

I've become a big fan of stone cut oats. This has cranberry and almonds. Yum!

And an afternoon at the park with these precious ones.

It was a fabulous day.