Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Not Necessarily For Christmas

Holy Cow! 2 posts in less than a week! What will the neighbors think! LOL

Ever since I came back from my first CHA (Crafts and Hobbies Association) show last summer, I have become a huge of Tim Holtz and all he does. (Meeting him had nothing to do with it, although it didn’t hurt.) I never used to like distressing my work or grunge.  After seeing all his samples and playing around with some of the techniques, I have become hooked. (I’m also a huge fan of Clearsnap products, but that’s a post for another time, we’re talking about Tim right now.) I waited with baited breath for Tim to do his eve popular “12 Tags of Christmas” to see what sort of glorious things he would create and I wasn’t let down. I had a new list of products I had to have for my Scrap ‘N Friends. (I could only do so much with what I have.) I was even so excited; I did a technique class of my own version on Tim’s tags in December. I think I ended up doing 14 samples when all was said and done and I actually gave most of them away on Christmas presents. It was just too much fun! The difference between Tim’s work and mine though, is that pretty much all of my work is in brighter colors, and I experimented with some different products too. Some was done with Close to My Heart (stamps and inks), some was Ranger Products, I used Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels, and Smooch from Clearsnap. That said, the only real constant through this phase has been Grungeboard. I absolutely love this stuff! You can heat emboss on it, dry emboss it, paint it, stamp on it, cut it out on a Cricut…I could go on and on. My Scrap ‘N Friends all joke that I’ve become addicted to chip board, and Grungboard is a sort of chip board, but it’s more flexible. (literally) Anywho, I’m attaching some of the favorite tags I created for your enjoyment. Keep in mind, you don’t have to save giving these ideas a whirl for just Christmas, just think of what gorgeous Valentines you could make, birthday cards or a note to brighten someone’s day!
TTFN, Stay Warm!
Jodi




Thursday, January 20, 2011

New Love

OMG, how lame am I? I know I keep saying this, but I'm going to do my best to post something here more often. Well, I have a new love... Copic markers! I've used many different kinds of markers in my artistic career, but even with the fact I just started using them, I adore them. They're alcohol based die markers, like Prisma colors etc., BUT they blend so nicely as well as having 334 colors (although I know I don't need that many colors). They're dual ended, one side is a chisel tip and the other a brush tip - both hold up well. You can airbrush with them and best of all the colors are computer mixed so, if I run out of ink 10 years from now, I'll still be able to get that same exact color. I don't have to throw it away - ever, so I guess you could say I'm going green using these things too. They're a little pricey, but as I said, you don't have to replace them. I have a few little things done, I don't have many color right now, (insert evil laugh here) but that will change I guarantee it. I'll post them shortly. I will also begin teaching Copic classes at Scrap 'N Friends in Brookville. Our first beginner's class is coming up this Wednesday, Jan. 26th at 6:00. If you can't make that one, there will be another one in February, the 15th I believe. The beginner classes will be monthly for a while. We will be having other Copic classes, where you'll learn other techniques, but you'll need to attend a beginner class first because you will be learning basic techniques for using the markers that we'll build on. The beginner's class costs $10 and includes a marker.
As if that's not enough, I'll be teaching a "chalk popping" technique class February 8th, 6:00 at Scrap 'N Friends as well. A picture of that will be posted ASAP too. It's a Valentine card, we'll be using inks, Perfect Pearls, Versamark and chalks.
Well, TTFN! Stay Warm!
Jodi