The last ‘proper’ day of the Creative Chemistry 103, and we were taught several techniques with alcohol inks on Yupo. For those not in the know, alcohol inks are dyes with, well, alcohol as the solvent – makes for fast drying heady crafting! And Yupo is a smooth plastic sheet of polypropylene suitable for all media, but particularly suited to media that play nicer when on non-porous surfaces. Lots of splatting, buffing, stamping, painting and puffing went into these. Great fun!
I got sidetracked today… instead of getting on with my Creative Chemistry 103 Distress Crayon homework, I decided, like you do, to install a slow sand filter to deal with the Studio’s grey water. Admittedly, occasionally the grey water is more of a pinky purple, but you know what I mean. Up to now, I’ve had a caravan waste water carrier to catch artistic rinsings. Inevitably, I forget to empty it and an interesting smell announces that it is overflowing. I think a video popped up on my Facebook feed which sparked curiosity, then research, and then a quick trip to Wickes. £12 and couple of hours later, I have a passable way of dealing with my rinsings. They are filtered before draining into my irrigation reservoir, ready for watering the garden. A quick inoculation with ‘good’ pond bacteria followed, which should jump start the biofilm that apparently forms on the sand particles and keeps the nasty niffs down. No more hefting 40 litres of stinking sludge up the garden to the drain 🙂
Eventually I did get back into the Studio, and completed Day 4’s homework. More techniques with Distress Crayons which very artfully demonstrate why they are so, so different to other waxy water soluble crayons. And there’s more kits to come – three is not enough!
Ok, I’m still not caught up… but this is Day 3’s exercises for Creative Chemistry 103 (CC103) led by The Professor (Tim Holtz). This particular class was centred on getting texture using the various collage mediums and texture pastes recently introduced to the Distress product line. I don’t have most of these, so substituted various DecoArt products instead and I reckon they do just as good a job!
It’s the first time I have used Distress Crayons, and I have to say I am impressed. Slightly softer than a gelato, the crayon blends beautifully under fingers and into other colours, and the reactivity with water is superb. Glad my spending overruled my scepticism and they were there to use!
A long time ago, I took an excellent online course led by Tim Holtz – Creative Chemistry 101. It explored the different inks and media and their chemistry so crafters would understand what would work with what and why. Well, CC102 came along, and I wasn’t quite so engaged. But engaged enough to sign up for CC103 when it was advertised earlier this year. The week-long classes are now on Day 3… but here’s my Day 1 samples. A couple of old techniques using new kit, but combinations of media that I wouldn’t necessarily have been reaching for together prior to the class, but definitely will be now.
At the risk of being completely cheesy – here’s a great big thank you using my favourite technique from Creative Chemistry 102 taught by Professor Tim Holtz with his more than able assistant BTS Mario. Unfortunately I don’t have the time at the moment to do all the other technique tags given I’m taking my studio apart for repairs on Tuesday, but I had to fit this one in 🙂
The longer-term followers of this ‘ere blog will probably vaguely remember that I did Tim Holtz’s Creative Chemistry 101 online class last year. He’s only gone and started CC102 today – there’s thirty more techniques he’s sharing – and of course I had to sign up. So here’s Day 1: six things to do with Distress Paints. I’m not allowed to share the techniques, but you won’t need to look far elsewhere on my blog to see where I have used them with conventional acrylics. That is, all but the first – the marbling effect is unique to Distress Paints because of their make up.
I snuck a few minutes in the craft room this morning to tidy up, and managed to play with my new Summer Distress Inks from Ranger. They are really bright hues, reminiscent of Dyan Reaveley’s colour palette, but as with all the other distress ink seasonal ranges, they play nicely together. I combined them with Perfect Pearls from the Jewels kit and the perfect splatter technique I learnt in Creative Chemistry 101 to make this tag. The embossing is Metallic Gold Rich Super Fine from WOW! Embossing Powders.
One of the techniques taught in the Creative Chemistry 101 class with ‘Professor’ Holtz was a dabber resist – taking advantage of the fact that acrylic paint is waterproof when dry. Here’s a canvas I put together over the bank holiday weekend making use of the technique, and how I did it follow after.
I’ve just finished designing my fifth tag in my Twelve Tags for 2012 series. This one features a distress stain background using techniques I learnt on my recent Tim Holtz’s Creative Chemistry 101 course, as well as air dry clay Lily of the Valley flowers. I love it when a plan comes together – I couldn’t find a stamp that I liked enough, so this was Plan B and I am rather pleased with the outcome, even if I do say so myself! I’ll be demonstrating how to make it and an accompanying card at the Manic Stamper Craft Club on 21st April. Instructions on how to make the tag are now available here.
It’s a sad day – the last of the lessons at Creative Chemistry. Only the bloopers video to go tomorrow and a few more days on the forums and we say a fond farewell to the Professor. I have a feeling he’ll be back though! It’s been a cracking class and thoroughly enjoyable, although however it’s dressed up, just having a one tag finale was a bit of a damp squib! And the Rock Candy Distress Stickles doesn’t even show up very well on the scan 🙁
The notes on sealing and protecting your work were brilliant though. And if you’re going to be applying Distress Stickles across whole cards or tags, they’d better bring out a bigger pot!
