Creative Chemistry 101 – Day 6

Posted on 1st April 2012 by perfectly4med

At first I thought I’d have to skip Day 6 – Distress Markers – as I haven’t yet received my order I put in using my birthday funds. But then I remembered I had three pens from a workshop with the Professor himself back in February! Here’s two of the technique tags:

I used the coated card stock I usually use for ProMarkers in place of the speciality stamping paper, and though I can’t directly compare, from the description given during class, it seems to do the same thing. It’s the Ryman Bright White Coated Card 200gsm.

Creative Chemistry 101 – Day 7

Posted on 27th March 2012 by perfectly4med

There… I’ve just finished catching up with my CC101 homework and done the tags for today, Day 7 – embossing powders. The first tag uses clear embossing powder over multicolour distress ink stamped images as a faux batik effect – it resists the layers of distress over the top. Second tag shows my favourite technique – faux rusted enamel. And finally using distress embossing powder as a resist – I love the matte finish.

Creative Chemistry 101 – Day 5

Posted on 27th March 2012 by perfectly4med

I’m still catching up with my CC101 homework – today I’m publishing Day 5 on Day 7 🙂

Day 5 was all about playing with Distress Stains – the first tag showing their effects on kraft resist with distress inks over and stamped with jet black archival ink. The second builds up the colours on a wet tag with distress stains before drying off and overprinting with Picket Fence Distress Stain applied to a stamp and dried off quickly before overstamping with archival black. Finally is my attempt (the first one) at doing the distress stain marbling using the Picket Fence Distress Stain – it turned out ok, but I think I’ll have to try different colours and surfaces to get a more marbled effect.

Creative Chemistry 101 – Day 4

Posted on 26th March 2012 by perfectly4med

It was Creative Chemistry 101 Day 4 – but I was a bit busy, so I’ve caught up on Day 6, and that’s only because I don’t have my hands on any Distress Markers yet! So back to Day 4, and we were exploring Distress Reinkers, using them as watercolours, sprays and for inking up custom stamp pads. The autumn leaves work really well as watercolours and the reinkers blend wonderfully. The sprays didn’t work quite so well, and there’s a bit of Perfect Pearl in there from previous mixes which might not have helped. By the way, Heidi Swapp masks are not heat proof… And finally the custom ink pad was easy to make, but I found I had to work fast to get ink on before the previous colour had oozed its way across! I stamped the image and then pulled some of the colour from the lines to fill in the white areas. All of the tags have been distressed with trusty Vintage Photo DI round the edge.

WOW! with a bit of Creative Chemistry 101

Posted on 24th March 2012 by perfectly4med

I’m up early, all excited about my stint at Hobbycrafts at the NEC, Birmingham today and tomorrow on the WOW! Embossing Powders stand. They have just brought out some silicone moulds – come and see the jewellery pieces I’ve made (I’ll pop them on here next week when I have a moment). Also created last night using their new embossed resist card with inspiration from the Creative Chemistry 101 Day Five teaching on Distress Stains comes this little (8x20in) sampler for the show:

Creative Chemistry 101 – Day 3

Posted on 21st March 2012 by perfectly4med

It’s Creative Chemistry 101 Day Three and we’ve learnt about the properties of oil-based Archival Ink from Ranger. I only have black at the moment… which makes some of the homework a bit tricky. Tag one is the alcohol ink agate background with images stamped in Archival Ink, tag two is the Archival Resist on glossy paper (only I substituted Adirondack pigment inks, which of course are water based and not going to do the same), and tag three is the Reflections Stamping onto embossing folder – only I don’t have the Reflections stamps, but I practiced the principle! Not my best work as I’m rushing to get done in time to go set up at the NEC and got them done in 40 mins 🙂

Creative Chemistry 101 – Day 2

Posted on 20th March 2012 by perfectly4med

I’ve enrolled on another course – this one is online and is a 10-day delve into the world of Ranger inks and other products lead by none other than ‘Professor’ Tim Holtz. Creative Chemistry 101 Day One introduced us to the various types of ink and their properties. Day Two was exploring distress inks, and for me was a revision of blending and spritzing, watercolour stamping and wrinkle free distress. Here’s my homework tags:

Twelve Tags for 2012 – March & April

Posted on 8th March 2012 by perfectly4med

Hi all – my journey into 2012 in tags continues, with March and April ready to be taught at the Manic Stamper Craft Club on 17th March. I note that a certain Mr Tim Holtz has copied me copying him and is doing his own monthly tags too 😉 – check them out here. But before you do – here’s mine! Full instructions for March and April are posted over at The Manic Stamper blog.

An old magazine and a bit of Brasso?

Posted on 22nd February 2012 by perfectly4med

Recycling is all the rage these days – apparently making something you’re about to throw away into something useful and beautiful is now known as upcycling. Here’s how to upcycle a glossy magazine page into a pretty greetings card using Brasso, embossing powder and a bit of elbow grease.

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Twelve Tags of 2012 – January

Posted on 3rd January 2012 by perfectly4med

I’ve been inspired by Tim Holtz’s Twelve Tags of Christmas, and decided I’d give some creative thought towards my own ‘Twelve Tags for 2012’. This has the added bonus of giving me some projects for this year at The Manic Stamper Craft Club! The muse developed to a design, and the design has developed into a prototype and that then developed into my final version of the tag for January. Please let me know what you think 🙂

I’m chuffed with the snowdrops, since I didn’t have any inspiration other than a photo of a real one – and it all starts as a daisy! If you want to know how to do your own, the instructions are over at the Manic Stamper blog.