Compendium of Curiosities 2, Challenge 15!

Technique 15: Enameled Metals

Tim Holtz: A Compendium of Curiosities, Vol. 2, page 56

Greetings from scorchingly hot Boise!

It's time to bust out that awesome Ranger Foil Tape and play with one of the most fun and unique techniques in the CC2: Enameled Metals! I had such a good time making this card, and realized in the process that I need to use the Foil Tape in my crafting a LOT more often. It's really cool stuff! I love the  aged, banged-up look you get with this technique. Open your Compendium 2 to page 56, and behold the wonder of it all!

To participate in CC2C #15, create your own work of art using the Enameled Metals technique on page 56 and link it to this blog using the InLinkz button at the bottom of this post. You're a rockstar as long as you honor these simple rules:

Follow the technique as it's written in A Compendium of Curiosities, Vol. 2 (adding your own special flair, of course!), and clearly state that the technique comes from Tim's book.  

Include a link to this post in your blog post (or photo description if you're linking from an online photo-sharing site).  

Out of respect to Tim, please don't post the technique instructions on your blog! Any entries that don't follow this rule will be unlinked.  

This challenge closes on Thursday, August 2 at 8 pm MTD. Please see the CC2C FAQ here for more information.

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The lovely Linda from The Funkie Junkie's Boutique has chosen the winner for CC2C 14, and it's posted on her blog now! Be sure to visit her and see if you're the lucky entrant. Thanks so much to Linda for sponsoring (and for taking time during her vacation to post the winner)!

Thanks so much to everyone who's participating. Have a fantastic week!

Hugs,

Linda

P.S. If you don't have them on hand, you'll want to get a bottle of Picket Fence Distress Stain, Perfect Pearls Mist, Clear UTEE (and a Melting Pot!), some of Tim's Core'dinations paper, and Ranger Ink Refresher to add to your stash for upcoming challenges (not necessarily in that order). I'll try to let you guys know in plenty of time when a challenge is coming up that requires a specific product beyond the standard Tim Holtz stash items.

Happy Birthday, Mario J. Rossi!

If it were up to me, July 26 would be an international holiday, because it's the birthday of one of the kindest, most generous and brilliant people ever to grace the planet. Mario Rossi ("MJ"), is that rare type of guy who works harder than just about anyone, yet always finds time to make everyone around him feel special and cared for.

As Tim Holtz's business manager/right-hand man, Mario makes an immeasurable contribution to the learning opportunities and products so many of us crafters love. He's always there behind the scenes, making sure everything runs smoothly and everyone is happy. And, to those of us lucky enough to call him our friend (and that's a big bunch of lucky people!), he brings a heart of pure, 24k gold.

Happy, happy, HAPPY birthday, dear Mario. Today, we're celebrating you, because the world became a far more awesome place the day you were born.

Tutorial: Funky Grungeboard and Word Band Bracelet

A couple of years ago I saw a tutorial for a really fabulous Grunge Board Bracelet on the Splitcoaststampers website, the design of an artist named Beate Johns. Her concept was just so cool, and I've used it several times to create wrist bands for myself and as gifts. When I decided to finally get around to using Tim's lovely Word Bands as the centerpiece of a bracelet, I referred back to that tutorial for inspiration, then took it in a different direction. My thanks to Splitcoaststampers and to Ms. Johns for the original concept!

I love the contrast between the earthy, tooled-leather-like look of the Grunge Board and the whimsical flash of bright ribbon! 

Begin by cutting a piece of Grunge Board about 1" wide, and long enough to wrap around your wrist with an extra 2" to overlap:

Round off the corners. I used my trusty Corner Chomper. It cuts through Grunge Board like buttah!

Choose two harmonious colors of Distress Stain and apply several layers to the Grunge until you achieve a depth of color you like. Use your Heat Tool to speed up drying time. 

Choose an abstract-pattern embossing folder. You're going to gently apply Adirondack Paint to the raised surface of one side of the folder. I found it easiest to use an Ink Blending Tool for this. Yes, you sacrifice a piece of foam, but the flat surface makes it a lot easier to keep the paint out of the recessed areas of the folder. Once the paint is applied, lightly mist the folder with water:

Run that baby through your Vagabond or other embossing machine. Most likely, your bracelet is longer than your embossing folder, so simply repeat the process above on the un-embossed portion of the Grungeboard, inserting only that section into the painted folder. 

Give the paint a few minutes to dry, then lightly sand the bracelet. This will help soften any overlap of the two embossings, and give a cool, weathered-leather look. 

We could quit here and have a pretty rad piece of jewelry. But... we won't!

I decided to use giant snaps to fasten my bracelet, and pulled out my seldom-used Dritz Heavy-Duty Snap Fastener Pliers. They worked... okay... but left me hoping Tim will eventually design his own version of this tool. 

If you don't want to use snaps, you could punch holes and create a lace-up closure, or use an Idea-ology Hitch Fastener, as shown in the original tutorial at Splitcoaststampers. 

Now, choose your favorite Idea-ology Word Band, and give it a paint job. Work the paint into the recessed letters, then wipe it away from the surface, leaving the words highlighted. You'll want to carefully bend your Word Band to more or less fit the curve of your wrist, but do be careful not to bend the attachment loops, as they might snap right off (says the voice of experience):

Place the curved Word Band in the center of the bracelet, and lightly mark a spot inside and outside of each attachement loop. Punch small holes at these spots. 

Here's what we've got so far:

Cut a piece of Idea-ology Trimmings ribbon about eight inches long, swipe it with Distress Ink, spritz it with water, wad it up and dry it with your heat tool. 

Cut the ribbon in half. Run one piece through the two holes on one side of the bracelet, from back to front, and tie it through the attachment loop in the Word Band. Repeat on the other side.

Trim the ribbon ends and give them a light coat of Glossy Accents to keep them from fraying.

 And there you have it! Funky and grungy and a great way to remember your favorite Tim-ism!

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Compendium of Curiosities 2, Challenge 14

Update! Simon Says Stamp has chosen the winner of CC2C 13!

Click here to see if it's you!

Technique 14: Guilded Kraft Glassine

A Compendium of Curiosities, Vol. 2, page 39

Sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique

Hooray, it's Friday! I hope you've all enjoyed a fantastically creative and happy week. CC2C #14 begins our exploration of one of the coolest paper products Tim's come up with yet: Kraft Glassine. If you've played with it before, you know how versatile it is; if not, you're in for a treat! This stuff is awesome for creating cool textured effects, and it takes alcohol inks beautifully! Open your Compendium 2 to page 39, and let's do this!

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It's the third Friday of the month, and that means our challenge is sponsored by the awesome Funkie Junkie Boutique, who is graciously offering a $25 gift certificate to the winner of this week's challenge! Thanks to Linda, the Funkie Junkie, for her generosity! The winner will receive their gift certificate around August 5, when the shop re-opens after a short vacation.

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To participate in CC2C #14, create your own work of art using the Guilded Kraft Glassine technique on page 39 and link it to this blog using the InLinkz button at the bottom of this post. You're golden as long as you honor these simple rules:

Follow the technique as it's written in A Compendium of Curiosities, Vol. 2 (adding your own special flair, of course!), and clearly state that the technique comes from Tim's book. 

Include a link to this post in your blog post (or photo description if you're linking from an online photo-sharing site). 

To be eligible to win the $25 shopping spree, you must include a link to The Funkie Junkie Boutique (http://www.zibbet.com/TheFunkieJunkie). 

Out of respect to Tim, please don't post the technique instructions on your blog! Any entries that don't follow this rule will be unlinked. 

This challenge closes on Thursday, July 26 at 8 pm MTD. Please see the CC2C FAQ here for more information.

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Simon Says Stamp will be announcing the winner of last week's challenge on their blog very soon, so be sure to watch for your name! I'll add the link here when it's posted.

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Have a beautiful weekend, everyone!

Hugs,
Linda


P.S. If you don't have them on hand, you'll want to get a bottle of Picket Fence Distress Stain, Perfect Pearls Mist, some Ranger Metal Foil Tape, some of Tim's Core'dinations paper, and Ranger Ink Refresher to add to your stash for upcoming challenges (not necessarily in that order). I'll try to let you guys know in plenty of time when a challenge is coming up that requires a specific product beyond the standard Tim Holtz stash items.

Totally Rad ROCKS!

The "before" photo. 

I'll begin this post with an admission that's probably screamingly obvious to everyone: I'm not a photographer. Not remotely. However, I very much hope to become one. I don't want to hire out for portraiture or (yikes!) be responsible for taking the official pictures of someone's wedding or anything like that. But, I do want to learn how to shoot good images, understand things like aperture and ISO and focal length and ultimately have the ability to use cool original photography in my multimedia work. So, I finally bought a real camera. I went seriously into debt for a real camera...and I'm still trying to figure out how to use it.

I'm not quite sure how I ended up at the Totally Rad website, but I swear I heard the angels sing when I landed there (it might've been Springsteen, though). If you're not familiar, Totally Rad creates amazingly cool and easy to use software that plugs right into Photoshop (Elements or CS) or Adobe Lightroom and instantly makes you a photo-editing rockstar. Their programs are a blast to use, but are impressively powerful and sophisticated. Given that my amateur photos need all the help they can get, I dove in. 

I started with RadLab, which integrates with Photoshop and offers a huge collection of cool filters-- everything from color and contrast adjustments to sharpening to hip vintage camera effects. Every filter is customizable, giving you like a jillion different ways to take your images from ordinary to, yes, Totally Rad. Here's a quick peak at a few of the 80+ filter options RadLab offers:

It took about a nanosecond for me to become a RadHead, and soon thereafter, I tuned in to Totally Rad's "Lightroom 4 Extravaganza" webcast ("Radcast," actually). I learned a lot and-- get this--  ended up winning a copy of Lightroom 4 and both of Totally Rad's Lightroom Presets packages. Woot!  (You can watch the replay of that webcast here). 

It was a very good day. 

Having never even looked at Lightroom before, I have a big learning curve ahead of me, but I've already started messing with the Totally Rad presets by experimenting, as usual, on one of the furballs. For this photo, I used a couple of RadLab filters in Photoshop, then opened the image in Lightroom and ran a few presets. I like how they really brought out the moody, disdainful attitude of Gray Kitty...

The "after" using Totally Rad Lightroom Presets: Sharpedo, Landscape Lite, Vignette Leonardo,

and RadLab: EZ Burn and Grittyizer

It took about 30 seconds to give moden-day Minneapolis a vintage look:

Downtown Minneapolis goes RadLab vintage: Super Fun Happy, Obvious Glasses, Clair-ify and Boring Sepia

How 'bout one more?

Raquel Before

Raquel gets Lomo-fied with RadLab EZ Burn, Rusty Cage and Obvious Glasses

So, not only do I have a camera to figure out, I've just barely scratched the surface of what Totally Rad's software can do. My summer is looking to be jam-packed with new things to learn, and really, isn't that about the best feeling ever? 

Now, here's where it gets awesome for YOU: Totally Rad is offering a sweet 15% discount to readers of my blog! Just follow this link and use the coupon code 1389Linda, anytime before the end of this year. If you do, please send me some photos to admire-- I'd love to see how you RAD-ify your images. 

Compendium of Curiosities 2, Challenge 13

Technique 13: Spritz and Flick Distress

Tim Holtz: A Compendium of Curiosities, Vol 2, page 42

Sponsored by Simon Says Stamp!

 

Happy Friday, blog friends!

 

Greetings, again, from the lovely city of St. Paul, where I'm enjoying my last morning of work-related classes before heading back to the City of Trees (i.e. blazingly hot Boise).

 

After the spectacular double challenge of the last two weeks, it felt like time to pull out a classic technique from the CC2. You can never EVER go wrong with a little Spritz and Flick Distress in your life, so get those misters out, turn to page 42, and let's have some fun!

It's the second Friday of the month, and that means my fabulous friends at Simon Says Stamp will be giving an awesome $25 gift certificate to one lucky, randomly-selected participant in this week's challenge!

Thanks to Heidi, Steph, Sarah, and all the cool folks at SSS!

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To participate in CC2C #13, create your own work of art using the Spritz and Flick Distress technique on page 42 and link it to this blog using the InLinkz button at the bottom of this post. You're golden as long as you honor these simple rules:

Follow the technique as it's written in A Compendium of Curiosities, Vol. 2 (adding your own special flair, of course!), and clearly state that the technique comes from Tim's book.

Include a link to this post in your blog post (or photo description if you're linking from an online photo-sharing site).

To be eligible to win the $25 shopping spree, you must include a link to Simon Says Stamp (www.simonsaysstamp.com)

Out of respect to Tim, please don't post the technique instructions on your blog! Any entries that don't follow this rule will be unlinked.

This challenge closes on Thursday, July 19 at 8 pm MTD. Please see the CC2C FAQ here for more information.

_____________________________

If you've been watching Tim's blog (and I bet you have!), you've seen the spectacular new products he's introducing, including some stunningly cool new stamps co-designed by Mario's son, Mario III. Talk about an unstoppable team! All the new releases are fabulous-- stamps, Sizzix goodies, Idea-ology... oh, my!

Have an awesome week, everyone!


Hugs,
Linda
P.S. If you don't have them on hand, you'll want to get a bottle of Picket Fence Distress Stain, some Ranger Metal Foil Tape, some of Tim's Core'dinations paper, Kraft Glassine and Ranger Ink Refresher to add to your stash for upcoming challenges (not necessarily in that order). I'll try to let you guys know in plenty of time when a challenge is coming up that requires a specific product beyond the standard Tim Holtz stash items.



 

And the Winners Are....

Greetings, wonderful blog friends! I'm in a dorm room in lovely Minneapolis right now, attending a conference for work and hoping the sketchy WIFI connection I have here will hold out long enough for me to get this post out! It's time to announce the winner of the Compendium of Curiosities 2 Configurations Challenge, and I truly wish I could send a prize to everyone who entered. Your Configurations projects are AMAZING!!! You guys are brilliant and so incredibly talented and visionary!


As it is, I'll let the Generator of Numerical Randomness do the work...

Congratulations to:

Now, it turns out that when I'm staying in a very uncomfortable dorm room, I lose my ability to read ( how's that for an excuse?). I announced the wrong name last night, so I'm going to be sending a prize to both Zoe (Craftimonki) and Anita Houton, two awesomely talented ladies! Congrats to you both!!! I'll get in touch this weekend for your shipping info.

 

Thanks so much to everyone who shared their awesome Configurations art!!! I'll see you shortly for Challenge #13.

 

Big hugs,

Linda

 

 

 

 

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