Embossing Basics

Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 101
Today's focus was on embossing, looking at the differences between embossing powders and embossing inks/mediums that are available, and of course, learning the chemistry behind embossing powders and how they work.  

The first technique Tim taught us was Nostalgic Batik Technique.  I used clear embossing powder over Fired Brick Distress Ink to emboss my roses, then used my ink blending tool and distress inks on the background and stamped images with distress ink over the top, before rubbing over the embossed rose with a soft cloth to help it resist the new ink.  

Tim's Rusted Enamel Technique is one I could never have discovered on my own.  I would never dream of this one, but it is a fun and effective technique, and Tim suggested using it on die cut embellishments or chipboard alphas.  

It's hard to believe that these tags started out as white cardstock (blue and orange) or a kraft tag (red).  The following photos show the texture a little better.  They now feel like sandpaper.

Tim described the texture as being like a pitted orange skin.  On the blue (Tumbled Glass Distress Ink) and red (Fired Brick Distress Ink) tags I moved the embossing powder around using my fingers, as Tim did.  

On my orange (Sweet Marmalade Distress Ink) tag, I wanted more control over the rusted effect and, as my stamped image had an Oriental feel, I thought about a Japanese sand garden, and used the edge of a tissue to move the clear embossing powder around on my tag before embossing.  The colour is a little blown out in the above photo, but you can see the dragged rust effect better on the combined photos at the top of this post.  

Our final technique for today was Distress Powder Resist.  I enjoyed taking notes on this one, as I had limited experience with Distress embossing powder and I didn't really know how to use it properly.  Tim explained that this resist technique works best with a light colour of Distress Powder, but I only own Pine Needles, so I had to use that.  

You can't really see that the Pine Needles Distress Powder resisted the Distress Ink, and in my forgetful messy creativity, I decided to Spritz and Flick my finished tag, forgetting that 

"Distress will never be permanent, it will always react with water" (Tim Holtz) 

and found that Distress Embossing Powder, even when heat set, is true Distress, and does react with water - leading to the green ink bleed around the top of the stamp. 

It's been another great day learning from Tim, and as I said in my first post, I've been deliberately obtuse about how to do these techniques, to encourage you to sign up to Creative Chemistry 101 and learn from the Master.  Enjoy!

Re-inkers & Maintenance

Day 4 of Creative Chemistry 101 with Tim Holtz. What a fabulous class! The value in this two-week course is unbelievable. Just US$35 to have Tim on-line, answering your questions in the forum and tailoring his videos each day to cover what the students are asking about. He's an easy-to-listen-to teacher, the downloadable class materials and content are fabulous and I'm learning something every day. I'm very grateful that Rachel brought the course to my attention.  It's not too late to join in.  Enrol now!

On Day 4 of class, Tim got some amazing results using Distress reinkers. 


Watercoloring with Re-inkers Technique
As my Distress reinkers are on order from the States, I had a play using my Vivid! Premium Dye Ink reinkers (any waterbased Dye ink will work for watercolouring). Tim also used watercolor paper, and as I didn't have any, I quickly learnt a good lesson: trying to watercolour inside the lines of your archival ink stamped image won't work on normal cardstock, the colours will bleed.

To compensate for the cardstock, I tried again, embossing the image with black embossing powder before starting to watercolour. I'm not happy with my background, but the cute gecko makes me smile.  (1385LI Cute Gecko available from your local Kaszazz Consultant - or me!)

Layered Misting Technique

I again used Vivid! Dye ink for this technique in place of Distress.  As I already had some Dye reinkers pre-mixed with water in my Mini Misters, I just used what I already had mixed up, and it wasn't until I sprayed them that I remembered that I had also mixed Ranger Perfect Pearls into them, so my tags have a pearl sheen to them.  

Tim's third technique on Day 4 was the Custom Stamp Pad technique. Unfortunately I don't have anything to show you for this one yet, as I need to purchase some Cut n' Dry Felt in order to make my stamp pad, but I can tell you that this technique blew me away. It's something I never would have imagined, and as I was watching Tim's video, I thought I knew what he was about to do to create the effect, but I had no idea. It was like a great movie where you don't anticipate the ending. The most amazing thing about it was that, after creating your custom stamp pad using a myriad of Distress colours, you can then stamp it 50 plus times, without reinking it. I can't wait to try it and show you my results here.  

Each day of this course has been terrific, but Day 4 is the stand-out for me so far.  

Have fun making a mess today.  I know I will.  

PS the messy creativity that you don't want to keep, makes a great toy for your baby:

Opportunity to meet Tim Holtz!

Oh. My. Goodness. I'm so excited! Just got an email from Kaszazz Head Office advising that ALL Kaszazz Consultants have a chance to win an invitation to attend a workshop with Tim Holtz when he's in Australia this year, and to win a seat at dinner with Tim. OMG. Kaszazz consultants will earn one ticket in the lottery for each lot of $390 in their Kaszazz orders in January to April 2012. There will be a minimum of 20 tickets up for grabs for the workshop and 3 tickets for dinner with the master himself. Fantastic!  


If you've been thinking about joining Kaszazz, and you love Tim Holtz, now is a great time to join, you only need to sell $390 worth of product in April to be in the running, and you can easily do that at your first make and take demonstration or workshop. In fact, you can easily spend that much yourself setting up your kit. Yippee!  

Alcohol Ink Techniques

Day 3 of Creative Chemistry 101 with Tim Holtz and the focus was on alcohol inks. I had fun with the Archival Resist Technique. The coloured archival ink (stamped on glossy paper) resists the distress ink backgrounds, then the black archival ink is stamped over the top. I don't own any solid background stamps like Tim used for his black foreground stamping, so I may need to invest in some.  

I wasn't able to play with Tim's Alcohol Ink Agates Technique, as I don't have any metallic mixative and blending solution in my stash, but he showed some beautiful work using it, so - another excuse for shopping! 

Tim's third technique was Stamping with Reflections. Without any reflections stamps, my effort didn't use the technique, but the below photo is my approximation of the results using what I have. I stamped the archival ink first (black images), embossed the tag in my Ezy-Press, then blended Tim Holtz Distress Inks over the top.  

All supplies used in this tag are available from Kaszazz. To purchase any of them, contact your local Kaszazz consultant, or me if you're in Melbourne's West!  You can also check out my Kaszazz page on Facebook. 

Supplies used to make the above tag, with their Kaszazz order codes:

Stamps

• 4484N Asian Botanicals
• 1778LD Lantern Large

Die Cutting/Embossing

• 124574 bellish! Ezy-Press Roller Die-Cutting and Embossing Machine
• 2905 Miss You Embossing Die

Alcohol Ink

• 72010 Ancient Page Inkpad, Coal Black

Tim Holtz Distress Inkpads

• TIM21445 Ranger Dusty Concord [purple]
• TIM21506 Ranger Spiced Marmalade [orange]
• TIM20226 Ranger Mustard Seed [yellow]
• TIM20233 Ranger Peeled Paint [green]
• TIM21490 Ranger Shabby Shutters [green]
• TIM27188 Ranger Tumbled Glass [blue]

Essentials

• 4208 Ranger Glossy Accents [on bird]
• IBT23616 Ranger Ink Blending Tool
• IBT23623 Ranger Ink Blending Tool - Replacement Foams
• 9757 Ranger Stamp Cleaning Pad [Rubit Scrubit]
• NCD00792 Ranger Cleansit All-Purpose Stamp Cleaner

Tim spent some time today talking about solvent stamp cleaners and why he doesn't use them.  His reasons are all logical, and he does clean his stamps (with misted water and a cotton cloth) but somehow I couldn't bring myself to leave my stamps looking like they had ink on them after I'd cleaned them.  I'll have to train my brain if I want to do it Tim's way. Scary!

Distress Ink Techniques

Here they are, the technique tags from Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 101, Day 2!  From left to right, the techniques used were: Blended Distress/Spritz and Flick Technique, Brushless Watercolor Technique and Wrinkle-Free Distress Technique.  

I'm really happy with the way they turned out and keen to make some cards using these techniques while I wait for the Day 3 content to arrive online.  It seems to come through at about 3pm here in Australia.  

Have fun making a mess today!

Creative Chemistry 101 - with Tim Holtz

Creative Chemistry 101 - with Tim Holtz

I signed up for this online course recently and it started yesterday.  Hundreds of artists, scrapbookers and fun creative people watching instructional videos by Tim Holtz each day for a fortnight and learning myriads of new techniques with Distress Inks, Archival Inks, Distress Markers, embossing inks and powders, Distress Crackle Paint, Perfect Pearls, Misters, Distress Stickles, Liquid Pearls ... In short, tons of creative, messy fun!

I'll be uploading tags that show off the techniques here over the coming days, but in deference to Tim and the course, won't be sharing his secrets.  If you're interested in how to achieve these effects, sign up for the course now, it's great value and heaps of fun, you can work at your own pace, and you have lifetime access to the course material, so what are you waiting for?  Sign up now!