Returning to Creative Tim Holtz Chemistry 101

I am very grateful to be in a position to enjoy my free time at home without fear for my family or finances at present. I know I am not alone in valuing all this time we have had recently to enjoy more time for creating. There has been a wealth of inspiration offered online including lots of Tim Holtz live demos. He has been encouraging us to go make not let the moment of inspiration pass but make and share whatever we do. Its great to be encouraged to play and not worry about the finished project. To enjoy the process, the journey. Today I had a lovely day revisiting Tim Holtz's online classes for Creative Chemistry 101. Not the whole course in a day! Just day two and three.

Day 2.                                                                    Day 3.

Many of the techniques are now very familiar to most stampers. I won’t of course share the steps but revisiting the videos confirmed my feeling that these courses are so worth the money. Even years later I found new information and remembered details I had forgotten. They are a great creative prompt.

I got out some of my old stamps. Where I was practiced with the technique I pushed the designs a little beyond a simple sample. I also wanted to try most of the techniques with regular distress ink and then compare with oxide ink. I was curious to see which techniques would work well with the oxide inks.

Day two was Blended Distress/Spritz & Flick, Wrinkle-Free Distress and Brushless Watercolour. The Oxide ink results are on the left. The first two techniques I have used often so no surprises with either ink. When I first did CC101 I did not enjoy the Brushless Watercolour. I played more this time and loved it. 

I think the oxide ink was less like watercolour as the pigment doesn’t move just the dye but it is great to have two samples to make more informed choices when I pick a medium. I still liked the result with oxide.

Day Three: Stamping with Reflections, Alcohol Ink Agates, Archival Resist 

I skipped this day first time round as I had few of the supplies. The Agates turned out quite dark but I ran out of time today try again but I have plenty of time to try again. Its great weather for using your Alcohol inks, warm enough to leave the window wide open! This is on glossy paper I may try again on Yupo too. I liked the results of the reflections stamping but again I have played with the reflection stamps and embossing folders before so it did not surprise me. My favourite one this time was the archival resist. 

I loved the results of this technique with the regular distress ink, (on the right)  I think I may play with this a lot more. 

Hope you are all free to enjoy your playtime. I am interested to hear which techniques you all prefer. Wishing all a safe and creative time at home. 

Paper poppies

I usually have a few things on the go at the same time. This week I have been prompted to be more playful after the timholtzdemo prompt I talked about in my last post. I have also some paper flowers on the go. I love working on these but the production is very repetitive so I tend to cut and build flowers over weeks. I get on with other things at the same time.

This poppy is nearly finished but I know it is always interesting to peek at peoples process. I share the desk with my laptop so I can refer to lots of images of real poppies while working. I had to shift the laptop from my other workspace as my fury friend is on that 'work' desk doing very little except absorbing the spring sunlight.

As it is Wednesday and an age since I checked in I am linking up with WOYWW  Even if the day is nearly over now! WOYWW is a longstanding online group who share their work-desks weekly. I think groups like this are very sustaining in times like this.