Creative Chemistry 101 Day 3

Creative Chemistry 101 Day 3 features one of my favorite technique-Alcohol Ink Agates. Why don't I think to use this one more often, it's so easy and always stunning. The only thing I don't like about this sample is that I don't like the clear stamps anywhere near as much as I like good old red rubber stamps. The Stampers Anonymous sets are pricy so I've tried getting the sets at Michael's and their competitors because I can get them on sale. But this class showed me that my favorites are still the original style of stamps. Uh oh.

Technique 2 is Archival Resist. As a Copic lover, I lean to Memento inks and don't have any Archival other than black and brown. Truthfully I don't have much more in the Memento so this was limited by the available colors. My favorite part is a small section in the upper right corner, hard to see, where I used Angel Pink Memento and it really showed the resist. Michael's has the Memento colors in sets so I'm putting the lighter colors on my wish list.

The final technique is one I'll definitely be using again because I combined stamping and embossing folders. I think I have a few of those, lol. Again, a great technique to show at Michael's since we sell TH embossing folders and distress inks.

Creative Chemistry 101 Day 2

Day 1 of Creative Chemistry was an introduction and so no samples of that day. Day 2 is Blended Distress/Spritz & Flick, Brushless Watercolor, and Wrinkle Free Distress techniques, all of which I've done before. It's nice to have a sample card with instructions because it's a great memory prompt when I'm searching for an idea to use on a card. This is particularly nice since I can use these products at Michael's when I do my Card Tricks class. Look for cards like this in the future.

Finished Scrapbook Pages

I've been on a mission to organize my photos and get some added to the many scrapbook pages I've created with no photos, both from Captured Moments Kit Club kits or page express pages or Michael's layouts. Thanks to Robin at CVS for helping scan tons of my old slides. It's been a trip down memory lane, no pun intended.

Shout out to Tara and Tiffany at Captured Moments that designed most of these pages. My own pages are noted.

The first page is a deconstructed page from Memory Lane that I redesigned with more color and patterned paper. Scrapbooking has changed so much since those original pages with lots of plain paper showing. My cute baby coloring eggs.

The second page was made with the items in a grab bag given to each participant at the December 2011 Captured Moments crop "attic treasures". Love the Kraft Resist paper from Tim Holtz. See Creative Chemistry 101. In any case, this sewing themed background and vintage look lent themselves to this vintage photo of my grandfather, who was a tailor, outside the shop he worked at. The other photo is my mom's family at their cousin Grace's wedding. My mom was an attendant in the wedding. Tiffany helped me design the original layout which was altered slightly when I added the photo.

Here are two page express layouts which I kicked up with matching embellishments and titles. Darcy was my first cat, when I was single. She was the best cat I ever had and lived to be almost 20.
Goldy was brought to our family by way of a bad date. This fellow's dog was going to a pound as part of the fallout from divorce. We agreed to take her until he found a place that let him have a dog. The fellow left, which turned out to be a great thing, and the dog stayed, another great thing. She was a so wonderful but I swear there is still dog hair in this house a few years after she died.
This is a Tiffany design with a favorite photo of the clan. This family shoot was a Christmas present for my parents and that was a great idea. The photos came out great and we're enjoying them years later.

More to follow. Lots of Creative Chemistry stuff to post first.

Creative Chemistry 101

Tim Holtz offered his first on line course called "Chemistry 101". This has been great because I can watch the videos whenever I want and I can refer to them as I try to make the samples. Some of my favorite projects over the years are these technique books which describe a technique and show the finished effect.

I have one with USArtquest products from Frankie Fioretti and one with Claudine Helmuth products taught by Melanie Phillips at Stampassion. This one will be hanging right next to them when I finish.

I already have lots of Tim Holtz products so many of the tags were made with supplies I already have. Of course all of Tim's tags, demos, postings, etc. make me want/need to get other things. In fact I'm convinced the purpose of the 12 tags of Christmas, now 12 tags of 2012, is to get me to buy more of his product. That said, I have most of my samples done and will be posting them here and on Tim's class gallery.

This has been fun and I had some seriously inky fingers.

April Card Class at Captured Moments

For the April card class at Captured Moments, I decided to use all Magenta stamps. Magenta is one of my favorite companies from long ago. I've taken classes with Natalie at Stampassion and always stop at their booth when I'm at an expo. I have my stamps organized by genre except for my favorite companies and my Magenta stamps are mostly together. I have a section of stamps for backgrounds and I use a lot of Magenta stamps for that purpose.

I've purchased Magenta papers in 8 1/2 x 11 and 12x2 sized and I'm accumulated lots of their stickers. Like most crafting hoarders I don't want to part with them because I probably can't get them again. My new philosophy is to use them and enjoy them. There's always something new coming along I'll want as well.

The first card uses a stamp I picked at Stampassion and I fashioned this card after a sample I saw there. The bottom is a pretty pink textured patterned paper by SEI that I picked up at the sale rack at Michael's. The paper ribbon is silver metallic Stampin' Up! paper punched with a Martha Stewarts punch. The layers are old Stampin' Up! mellow moss and lovely lilac papers (yes I'm using them up). The base card is a gold metallic Recollections card from Michael's. Stamped in black versafine ink and colored with Prismacolor pencils.

The second card features a stamp I picked up at the Springfield show last year. Because the one flower is the solid color of ink I always envisioned it with black and red. I used Memento ink because I planned to color with Copics. I used a bright orange/red and then a deep red and outlined with a cool gray. The main image is edges with silver photo corners then layered on black, silver metallic, and mounted to a deep red Recollections card.

The third time is all about blues. I love a monochromatic card. The base card is blue which is has blue Smooch spritzed. Two different Magenta papers are layered on black. The stamped image is one I bought at the Syracuse show last summer stamped with blue Mememto ink on a light blue paper, also layered on black. There's some blue and grey Copic coloring here, but minimally. I think the image is beautiful in a simple format. I used a bird sticker (black) that I also picked up at the Springfield show. This card is a version of a card I saw on Splitcoaststampers so props to this designer.

This is my favorite of the four. I loved this stamp when I saw it and bought it in Springfield. Then I realized it had French writing which I couldn't understand. When I went to the Syracuse show I asked Natalie's husband what the stamp said and he told me it was only bird chatter. So if I've sent an unpleasant message, forgive me. This is all one stamp which I stamped twice on cream paper with versafine sepia ink. I colored the frame on both copies, then cut out the frame of one and mounted it on the other. I finished coloring the whole image on the bottom layer then cut out the leaves with an craft knife. There is a Magenta paper behind the open images and then it's mounted on another Magenta paper. More layers and some bling in the flower centers.

The class is $12 for four cards. You can register for the class by calling Captured Moments at (518) 356-7985 or email them at http://www.capturedmomentsstore.com/about-us/contact/ . You can also email me at jetsfan88@aol.com.

March Sketched Out pages for Michael's

Here are two double page layouts for March's Sketched Out class. They feature two different SEI kits, both of which are so pretty. The first all about cats and since we just lost a cat, it seemed perfect. This will have photos of Lucky.

This kit is called Poppy and the papers are so rich the photos can't do it justice. They have a foil component that shimmers and they are just beautiful. I haven't picked which pictures I'll use but I'm reorganizing my pictures so anything's possible.

Sign up for class at Michael's in Latham. $25 for two hours and a both spread are completed. The only supplies you need are adhesives.

March card class at Captured Moments

I'm so excited to be getting ready for my first month's card class at Captured Moments this Saturday. I had so many cards I wanted to make that I decided to do four cards from one company. Of course I chose DeNami for my first month. I've got me some DeNami stamps to use!

So here they are:

This card uses pink and brown colors, a favorite combo of mine. It's a card I saw at the DeNami booth last August when they were here for hurricane week. Mimi is a DeNami diva and she's enjoying a box of chocolates. This uses two different spellbinders die sets, Copic markers, a pearl pen, and some buttons. There are lots of options for a chocolate phrase inside. I have a LOT of chocolate phrase stamps.

What I love as much as pink and brown? Blue and brown. This is a simple card colored with Copics, with some ribbon and a button added. This has a phrase for 'snips and snails and puppy dog tails' but it could say congratulations or welcome. Love the patterned paper.

Next up: purple and green. The photo doesn't show it well but there is gold smooch on the leaves. You can see the purple smooch outlined on the flower. I love these stamps from last year's summer release.

Last but not least, party time. I resisted this set a long time but when I got the 'let's do lunch' and 'girls night out' sets I knew I needed a drink (or three). Again, simple stamping and coloring with Copics and then topped with rock candy stickles.

The class is $12 for four cards and includes envelopes. If you can't make it to class you can get a kit of precut, prepunched, prestamped pieces to color and assemble yourself. To register, call Captured Moments at (518) 356-7985 or email me at jetsfan88@aol.com.