Can't Wait

I signed up at Online Card Classes for a two week "class" with Tim Holtz! Creative Chemistry! Since I have discovered a new love for Distress Ink, I thought this would be very inspiring. Best of all, I'll always have access to the class even after it's over so I can be reminded of what was there! I am really pretty excited about it.

My budget for new supplies is practically non-existent right now. I have a lot of stuff so with this class, I'm hoping to get some new ideas for stuff I already own. I don't have EVERY color of Distress Ink but I've got enough of the variety that I like and that seem to blend well with each other.

Like this ATC I made. The logo at the top is for a little Zine I produce and I made this card as a little thank you gift to some contributors. The background is Distress Inks: Broken China and Peeled Paint. They blended so well for ground and sky! The butterfly is just a stamp I had lying around...I think from Inkadoo. The toadstool is a hand carved stamp of a little doodle I drew. I just colored them in to make a rainbow using Impress Pigment ink markers.  The whole card is on a watercolor paper. You can see the honeycomb type pores in it but I wanted it to stand up to the wet ink background. Overall, I really love the card and I'm going to make a few more without the logo on the top and maybe a second butterfly instead.

This ATC is done on acetate. I stained it with my GOTO WOW FACTOR: Ranger Alcohol Ink. A fellow letterboxer is having a gathering toward the end of April and I told her I'd make her some cards for a special group of people. The theme of the event is Beer Coasters! While the card isn't designed to be a coaster (though I had thought of going that route!), I did try to make it like a beer label for a fictitious beer that represents the recipients of the card. So I cut acetate into the standard ATC size then stained it with Alcohol Inks: Caramel and Ginger. I thought it made the background look like you were looking into a glass of beer! I hand-carved the shield outline and stamped it with Stazon Jet Black then embossed it with Ranger Black Sparkle embossing powder (another one of my favorites!). The printing on the label is done on a piece of white cardstock and glued to the back of the acetate. I debated as to whether to do it on the "back" or the "front" of the card and this way won out. I ended up putting something on the back that really makes it a two-sided card since the white cardstock is cut to fit inside the embossed image.

My only regret with this card is that I didn't add more texture to the cardstock around the text. There seems to be a lot of empty space there. There's room for improvement here and if I make another batch (with different text), I'll remedy what I don't like. I think I should have added a bit of bling along the shield edge as well, like nail heads or something where the circles in the shield are. Again, next batch will be more to my liking, I hope.

So, Ranger products and the Tim Holtz line of stuff leads me down a great creative path. I can't wait to learn some more!
Next post, maybe I'll have my other alcohol ink project done and will post a pic of that. It's a technique I've used before but I'm liking the way this is coming out! Next post...