Creative Chemistry 101: Day 5

I'm skipping around a little here.....well, cause I can! Felt like playing with my stains yesterday and oh boy do I love these things! I had no idea the cool techs you could do with these.

Starting with the Stained Kraft Resist, really like the vibrant colors you get when you ink over the stains. As Tim says, it's all about the layering.

Used my favorite, the umbrella man stamp for the Stamping with Stains technique and I didn't get my picket fence dried quickly enough, though I really like the effect.

And this is my favorite of these three techniques, Marble Stains. I did 2 tags so I could do different color pallettes. Just love the marbled look you get with that Picket Fence stain.

Thanks again, Tim! Such great tutorials and info you're giving us!



CC 101 Day 2

After all that weather and Estrella War and Quilt Retreat, I had some time to check out Creative Chemistry 101 and create my first samples. Yeah! The knowledge to be had from this VERY affordable class is wonderful! And to have access to it forever? PRICELESS!

Here we are starting off with Blended Spritz and Flick technique. Love how this turns out. I've done it before, but the in depth tips and tricks really help get that perfect end result.

Brushless Watercolor: another of my favorite techniques and yet following all the little extra tips gives such a beautiful finished product. And I love the fact that Tim gave us a little sticker to print out and put on the back so we'd have that technique labeled for future use.

And the last one for today: Wrinkle-Free Distress. Who woulda known that trying to take a shortcut right in the middle is what sabotages the whole thing. Another one I've tried and like to do, but ooooooh do I love it now that I know how to do it right!

Thanks for a wonderful day Tim! I'm looking forward to day 3!

It is Spring, Right?

You'll notice that the last post I made was on March 11. Well, this is what happened on March 12. Now, we are 2 miles from the ocean and half an inch of snow is a once a year or so experience here. Imagine waking up at 1am when a tree glanced off the side of the house and then watching 8 inches of the white wet stuff accumulate over the next few hours. Talk about putting a damper on going fishing. Sheesh! And then, we got to do it all over again last Wednesday when another freak snowstorm dumped 10 inches in Eugene while we were driving to the train station. Really hoping all that stuff about March coming in like a lion and out like a lamb holds up. I'm ready for April!

Squirrel Girls Challenge: Layered Masking

After several fits and starts with this technique, I finally got something I liked. Of course, it would have helped if I'd brought all the supplies needed for this technique on vacation with me. But, alas I didn't and had to make do. Since I only brought distress inks, no Stazon and no glossy paper, I went with some sparkly white I had in the stash here. I decided that the black ink used for the script ended up just too busy, so went with a more subtle Milled Lavendrer for the more beachy looking cards.

 I like that faint background script much better and also came to the realization that I could make these cards using the 3 items of one color family required in the PSL challenge this week over at Club Scrap. Yeah, a twofor!

It is the start of spring break for me and we are spending it in Oregon. It has been pouring buckets here and we are expecting more of the same for the week, so pull on your galoshes and dust off the rain coat, it's gonna get wet!

Week 2 of the PSL

Well, we're deep into week 2 of the PSL over at Club Scrap and I've got the digi bug going this week. Doing some layouts of our hike up the Stuart Fork River last summer.  This one is of a beautiful mossy spring that is about 2 miles into the hike and a great place to stop for a drink and a snack. I used Written Word, Gratitude and Memoirs digi kits from Club Scrap.

 We were inundated with a butterfly hatch at our first campsite (about 5 miles in). This one uses Pure & Simple, Written Word, Papillon and the ribbon cluster was a prize in one of our earlier PSL events.

                                                                              I hiked in a sketch book and some watercolor pencils this time and had a great time capturing some of the wonderful images along the way. This one is of the rock in the middle of the river that Roger is sitting on in the layout below. The layout uses Lodge, Castaway and Fossils papers with a Castaway ribbon.

                                                                         Here is Roger, lounging on the rock and playing ball with Cinder. As you can see Gus, is nowhere to be seen as he is afraid of the water. I used Lodge papers and a Navajo ribbon frame cluster for this one and a quote from the Sonoma kit.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!!! Hope your day is full of love and kindness! This is an all Club Scrap card done for the first week of the PSL (Pro Scrappers League) a fun contest over at Club Scrap to use up your stash!

Squirrel Girls Challenge: Pencil Resist

Nancy Young's Squirrely Art blog hosts a group called the Squirrel Girls. She graciously invited me to join the group this month and so I've jumped in with my first Squirrely challenge post. This week's challenge is the Pencil Resist technique from the December 2012 issue of Technique Junkies. Really fun and such cool results.

the first three use the beautiful Lotus stamp from Club Scrap's Lotus Pond kit, with different color schemes. This one uses pink and green pencil with Chipped Sapphire, Tattered Rose and Broken China distress inks.

this one uses a little brighter green pencil and pink for the lotus, plus Dusty Concord, Broken china and Tattered Rose distress inks.

This one is my favorite so far with teal fuschia pencils and Broken China, Tattered Rose and Wild Honey distress inks.

And last, I tried one of my favorite stamps from one of my first kits from Club Scrap, Art Deco. Love the bright colors in this one and the Peeled Paint, Broken China and Victorian Velvet inks.

Thanks for inviting me to join the Squirrel Girls, Nancy, this was fun!!!!