Easter Cards

Well, it's about that time. Easter is next weekend and so is my daughter's birthday.

I made a tag last week inspired by Tim Holtz but I needed a couple more (reasons to use those cute little bunnies again, lol) Anyway, I made cards for these last two to send out to family. I was able to cut some grass on my Cricut (have you heard about the big lawsuit going on between them and SCAL-Sure Cuts A Lot-looks like Provo Craft won that one-no more SCAL) I used two different colors of green so my grass had some dimension and I sprayed the base card with heirloom gold after I embossed it. Then I attached a easter snippet from Tim's lost & found seasonal paper pack to each one that I had roughed up the edges on and inked with vintage photo. Then I attached one of those little bunnies to some grungeboard cut separately with my Vagabond. I inked the edges of them as well and then I roughed of their edges with Tim's scratcher tool. Those bunnies look so soft and fuzzy you almost want to hug them, lol! I think they turned out super cute, what do you think?

I added a happy easter banner down below that I made on the computer and I also added the bows to the bunnies covered in copper glitter. That obviously happened after I took the photo, oops! On the inside I put a little sentiment (which I also forgot to take a shot of) that says

Bunnies are darling, so soft and so small, but I like the chocolate ones the best of all!

Too cute! Hope you like them and I hope you get all the chocolate bunnies you want, Hugs, ~Jody

Creative Chemistry 101-Day Ten

The last day of class, alas, all good things have to come to an end, oh darn! Maybe he will offer some more classes online, that would be cool, hugh!! Anyway, the last technique Tim shared was called Rock Candy Distress Stickles. I have never used stickles this way before. He had us spread it over the whole tag. It left a sparkly kind of sheen over the tag, he said kinda like glass fragments would look. I may try this over some easter eggs, that sounds pretty fun, hugh?

Rock Candy Distress Stickles Technique

There will be a follow-up class on Monday probably where he will show some of his favorites from the gallery. There are so many! Anyway, see ya Monday! Hugs, ~Jody

Creative Chemistry 101-Day Nine

Day 9 had some pretty cool techniques on it to. The Perfect Distress Mist technique I had kinda tried before. Some one had given me a set of PearlEx powders a few years back and I had mixed some with water and spritzed a couple of projects before. I have never added them to reinkers though so this was a good one to try. I played around with the powders and the reinker colors and this is what I got. You, of course, can't see the shimmer from the photo but it looks pretty cool, kind of Eastery colors, I thought! The second technique, Perfect Distress Technique was a really cool one. I especially liked the way the distress ink wicked out from underneath the powder. I over did the misting on mine (or wasn't fast enough with the heat gun) but the technique is still visible. I will definitely use this one again. Very Cool!!! The third one for day nine was a Perfect Splatter Distress technique. Mine didn't turn out as good as Tim's did but it will work for the demo. I like the white parts of Tim's so I will have to perfect my style on this one.

Perfect Distress Mist Technique Perfect Distress Technique Perfect Splatter Distress Technique

Creative Chemistry 101-Day Eight

Day 8 was one of my favorites too. The Paint Dabber Resist technique was one that I really liked and will try again. Mine didn't turn out very crisp on the first try but I think it was because I used two spray of water on top of my dabber instead of one. I thought the first one wasn't enough, but the second one was too much. It diluted my snow cap dabber too much. You can still see it but next time I will not spray it at all and see what I get, lol. Next up was the Crackle Paint Resist technique. This one looked really cool until I sopped up the rest of the ink on the back side and it made the front side even darker, oops! The technique is still visible but note to self, use a separate tag when sopping up! And the Shattered Stains technique turned out some pretty spectacular results. Since it's Easter time, I wanted to do something with the little bunnies. I think they turned out SO CUTE!!! Love the bunnies!!! I used the old tree stamp from a Christmas set and the sentiment is from a set of Verve stamps. I think it's my favorite one of all. See what you think!

Paint Dabber Resist Technique Shattered Stains Technique Crackle Paint Resist Technique

See, I told you I got excited about those bunnies, got'em out of order, lol!

Creative Chemistry 101-Day Seven

Now Day 7 I was really getting in to it. First up was a Batik (A method of dyeing a fabric by which the parts of the fabric not intended to be dyed are covered with removable wax) technique. We did this technique in grade school a few years ago, lol. I believe we used hankies. Anyway, the stamp I chose did not have alot of covered area and I forgot to iron it before I took the photo but I thought it turned out very pretty. Second technique was the Rusted Enamel technique. This one I had tried before (without instruction) on a the jalopy car die cut. I made a card for my dad's birthday a couple of years ago and black embossed it. I dropped it while I was heating it and some of the embossing powder came off, especially where I had touched it again. I thought, oh well, it will be fine. I just inked over it with vintage photo and VIOLA, it was the same technique he used here. Works Great!! Third technique was the Distress Powder Resist technique. This one was pretty cool too. I have to tell ya though, when I first got in to embossing I bought like 5 colors of this distress embossing powder and took them home to give it a go. I was so disappointed when it didn't get shiny that I put it on the shelf and never used it again. Figured I did something wrong and would try it again some day. Little did I know, it was supposed to be that way. I finally found that out a couple of years ago when Tim used it on one of his 12 Tags of Christmas tags. Silly me!!!! It really does add a vintage distress look to things.

Nostalgic Batik Technique Rusted Enamel Technique Distress Powder Resist Technique

Creative Chemistry 101-Day Six

Awww, Day 6, this is where I really hit a snag. I don't have very good markers and what I do have are very old. Like I said earlier, I'm not much in to coloring so I don't really use markers alot. Some of them are from CTMH and I don't have the reinkers for those and they are kinda dry. The others were bought at Michael's when I first started doing this about 7 years ago, if that tells ya anything. So................... needless to say, the whole 'marker' technique thing didn't work out well for me. I did the first one and was very dissatisfied with it so I didn't do the other two. I am playing with the idea of investing in some more markers just haven't decided which ones to go with yet. I did like the way he worked with the Distress Markers so that will play in to my decision. If and when that time comes, I will do the other two techniques so I have them in my collection.

Watercolor with Markers Technique Blending with Markers Technique Stamping with Markers Technique

See, my colors are not blended at all. The more I tried the worse it got. The green one at the bottom is where the paper started to get roughed up. That is when I gave up, lol!

Creative Chemistry 101-Day Five

Day 5 was getting in to more of the things I like. The kraft resist paper is so cool, really like that stuff. And the marbled stain technique turned out really well. I think I will be using that one alot.

Stained Kraft Resist Technique Stamping with Stains Technique Marble Stains Technique

I even went hunting a new stamp just for the marbled stain technique. I found the one with the eye and it spoke to me so...................there it is. I used the background stamp from a Christmas set and then put the eye right in the middle of it, kinda. It wasn't planned that way but it did turn out really well I thought. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!!! Thanks for looking!

Creative Chemistry 101-Day Four

On to Day 4............... I'm not the best with coloring and/or painting so this one was a bit challenging for me. I did ok inside the lines but when it comes to the blending, I don't really have the patience for it, I guess. I didn't have any stencils really but I found an old one of my daugthers that had somehow made it in to my craft room stash but it bleed underneath so the images are not very crisp (that's supposed to be a 'J', lol) . The custom stamp pad technique I had done with the last two 12 Tags of Christmas so that one worked out better for me.

Watercoloring with Re-inkers Technique Layered Misting Technique Custom Stamp Pad Technique

Love how Tim made little instruction card to go on the back of each tag. Those will come in really handy for reference. I am thinking of a cool way to store the tags so that they are at my fingertips when I want to use a particular technique, I can just pull out the one I want and the directions will be on the back, love that!!!

Creative Chemistry 101-Day Three

Day three was even more fun! I like using the alcohol inks and the embossing folders. It was a bit tricky stamping on the glossy paper, the stamp wants to slide. It started to just as I was lifting it off but it didn't make so you could see it, which I was thankful for, lol! I really like how the Alcohol Ink Agates technique turned out. And the umbrella man too, lol!

Alcohol Ink Agates Technique Archival Resist Technique Stamping w/Reflections Technique

Really enjoyed the class. Glad he numbered the pages. Makes it a whole lot easier to go back and make sure they are all in order. Pretty Cool lookin', don't ya think!

Creative Chemistry 101-Day Two

Well, I finally have time to post my creations from the Creative Chemistry class. It's hard to do all that and keep up when you have to work full time, lol!!! So........................ Without further delay, here is Day 2 (Day 1 was a training sort of day-Demos started on Day 2)

First up is the Blended Distress/Spritz & Flick Technique Second is the Brushless Watercolor Third is the Wrinkle-Free Distress

I had played around a few times with two of these techniques but never had any instruction on how they were actually done. Love the step by step directions Tim gives. He's a great teacher!