Enmarc Challenge 22

Enmarc is a local South African company that makes wonderful lazer cut "chippy" shapes  to be used on craft projects, cards or scrapbook layouts.  I have recently joined their Ning site where they have challenges and a wonderful Design Team who share inspirational projects and scrapbook layouts.

Here is my entry for Challenge 22 - Patricia's folded card.  She gives you the template with the measurements and you have to use at least one of their products on your card.

I thought I had tons of their stuff, but as it would so happen, I have used it all up on my scrapbook pages!  All I was left with (till my next shopping spree tomorrow) was a set of doilies...I decided to use the doily as a mask through which I applied some Worn Lipstick Distress Ink using my applicator tool onto a shape I had die cut from some old Making Memories paper.

For any South Africans looking at these papers, you might remember them as left overs from a SA Scrapbook Convention we had about 2 years ago...I am on a mission to use up all my left overs and stuff I have bought over the years to make cards.

I hope this fits the challenge as technically there is no product stuck onto the card, but I did use their product as a stencil...

Class at the Scrapbook Factory Shop

Today was the day for me to teach my monthly class at the Scrapbook Factory shop in Salt River Cape Town.  I had two of my "usual suspects" (Laura and Barbs) Tim addicts just like me and two of my friends and a mom and daughter team.  Not a bad turn out for a VERY long week-end cos we had yesterday off for Freedom Day, schools get Monday off for no reason at all and we all get Tuesday off for Workers day on 1 May...Most people have taken Monday leave if their company has not closed too and left for the hills!

Laura and Barbs

Not sure where Lisa's side kick Alison was when I was taking these photos...think she was up in the shop, I did mean to take one when she returned, but alas, my head was in the clouds again by then!

Michelle and Emma, my mom and daughter team.

It was quite an intensive class starting at 9 and finishing at 1pm with lots of paper tearing, sanding die cutting, embossing, inking and distressing.

Thanks for a fun morning everyone.

See you soon

Bella

CC2 - Challenge 2 and Simon Says Stamp a word... Celebrating 15 years

Well the folks over at Simon Says Stamp and Show have "Show your favorite WORD" as their challenge this week... Mine is LOVE

For Compendium of Curiosities book 2 Challenge 2 over at Linda's blog Studio L3, the page to go to is 58 for the  Faux Patina look using alcohol inks... Tim has put very clear instructions there for you.


I have decided to combine the two challenges and this is what I have made:

My dear Hubby and I have been married for 15 years on Thursday this week, so I have been decorating  a box to put his gift into and here is the step by step as I did it.  

Fist do a layer of cold glue on the box,  put the cogs on and glue them on top too.

Crunch up a piece of white tissue paper and open it then lay it over the wet glue on the box and push it down into the forms of the cogs.  The pic above is while the glue is wet, the paper is very transparent.  The one below is of it dry... 

This is a close up so you can seethe crinkles and the cogs.

When the glue was dry I covered the whole thing in silver paint dabber using a brush.

For Linda's challenge I then added a good dose of alcohol inks in blues and greens and clipped the edges of the cogs and box with Pool and Denim paint dabbers for good measure too.

I added the idea-ology to the top and the tags for the SSS and S challenge round the side, repeating the kraft paper in the key hole and the book plate from the tags so that they link visually.

Below is the card I have made to go with the box.

Hope you have enjoyed my step by step photo tutorial this week, I have not done one for a while...

Thanks for the visit.

Bella

Compendium of Curiosities pg 66

Over at Linda's blog - Studio L3 she is hosting a Compendium of Curiosities book 2 challenge every Friday, starting today!  I am so excited to be able to participate!

Here is my tag ala Tim and his book CC2 (for short) page 66 for instructions and voila, tis done!

I have been waiting in anticipation all day for this challenge as being in Sunny South Africa, we are ahead of the USA by quite a few hours, so her post only appears at 4pm our time...

The wonderful peeps over at Simon Says Stamp are sponsoring a prize for this challenge too...

Now that I have finished getting inky, I can go concentrate on making supper and other house hold activities that require me to pretend that I am a grown up... I would love to be the eternal Peter Pan and never grow up - play at my desk all day...but then I guess that going to work and doing chores this is what makes getting inky all the sweeter!

Thanks for the visit!

Bella

Whats on Your Workdesk Wednesday 148? Unfinished business

Hello fellow desk hoppers.  There is lots to see on my desk today.  I have a spare shelf from my paper rack on my desk (well it is kind of buried under lazer cuts that I have bought to use as masks) to protect my cutting mat from the heat tool because I keep causing bumps and have to put the whole thing in our lovely South African sun to flatten it out again and after the CC101 class (where I have discovered that I am as impatient as Tim) and having had to do this sun thing once too often, I have opted for a heat shield of sorts that I can put my non stick craft sheet on...

Then you will see a "Mac Gyvered" poster tube with a slit in it to fit the cup cake cases that I am sending a friend of mine.  I could not find anything that they would fit into that was not tooooo big or in this case, just too small.  I will have to tape up the gap and then tape on the caps so it is all secure again.  I have been procrastinating over this for 6 weeks and need to get it off my to do list!

Then you will see the pile of tags from the CC101 class with Tim.  That was an amazing experience and one I would do again if he ever decided to do CC102.

Then bang in the middle of my cubbies, I have stuck my WOYWW badge so kindly sent to me by our Hostess Julia from Stampin Ground.  I will wear it proudly on my pinny when I go do my demos and see if anyone recognizes it...

So now before I rush off to work, I am going to peruse a few desks over at Julias place...see you there.

Thanks for the visit

Bella

12 Tags of 2012 - APRIL

I have had a wonderfully creative week-end finishing off all my tag homework from Tim's on line Class  Creative Chemistry 101 yesterday and now having a go at Aprils tag.  To top it all (I had to pinch myself and make sure it was not an April fools joke) I am a 12tags of 2012 March tag winner and have just emailed Mario my addy for my prize! Faint! Guess who is going to be watching her post box with great interest in a week or two...

I did not have any of the dies, stamps, embossing folders or ideaology stuff that Tim used on this months tag for April, but hey it is the techniques and the journey that count here so I have done what I do best and that is to make do with what I have.

Some of you who know me well, will be amazed to hear that there are things which Tim has produced that I don't own, but unfortunately some of these things have not landed in South Africa yet and the rest I have not seen in the shops to get my inky mits on... so instead of the dry embossing with the stamping in the folder, I did clear embossing ink on Tim's Fab Flourishes stamp with clear embossing powder over a background and then over stamped that in writing with Black Soot Distress ink so that it would wipe off on the shiny embossed areas.  The bird is die cut from the birdcage die and the branch is from the holly die.  I had the crown in silver and doctored it to fit the ideaology book plate with alcohol inks.

This was such fun to do, that I did not notice it is WAY past my bedtime and on a "school" night too...

Thanks for the visit.

Bella

Tim Holtz's Creative Chemistry 101 Done and Dusted!

I have had the busiest but BEST ever 2 weeks of my life so far this year.  I have been participating in the CC101 online class with Tim Holtz and he has been so generous with his information, product knowledge and I can't begin to imagine how much time and effort he has put into it.  If you did not do it but still want to, you can register and participate at any time in the future.  Just click on the participant button on my side bar and you will be taken straight there.

The tags above are the culmination of all the "homework" we have been given to practice the knowledge and skills he has imparted from each days class.  I have participated in the last few years of 12 tags of Christmas and Grungy Mondays challenges as well as read and tried all the techniques in his Compendium of Curiosities book 1 but nothing has come close to learning directly from the "professor" one on one in my home studio!

Now I need to get my inky paws on his Compendium of Curiosities book 2 which I might just order on line from him directly where I can get an autographed copy...

and before you say it...I will...yes I am a Tim Holtz product junkie or addict, call me what you want in that line and you would be quite right!

There should be an AA group for people like me, but at least I know I am not alone...

"Hello, my name is Belinda Basson (aka Bella) and I am a Tim Holtz Product Addict!"

Thanks for the visit.

Bela

Whats on My Workdesk Wednesday 147 - Lots, but nothing really....

Hello there fellow desk hoppers!  I am loving how many of us WOYWWers are doing the Tim Holtz class CC101...I am up to date with watching the videos as of yesterday, busy downloading today's but am DAYS behind in my homework...its is called stretching out the fun!  Class finishes this week and I want something to look forward to next week and so am dilly dallying on getting on with it...sort of like I did at school. 20 years on and nothing has changed!  Well truth be told, I only got my grubby paws on those distress markers yesterday and that was for Mondays class.  By all accounts I am lucky to have these as some countries have not received theirs yet.  I know Ranger is full tilt ahead with packing and posting these little beauties.

I am busy with an order for specific cards for one of my students, so that is what you see on my desk today and the rest is just debris left over from doing the tags for Tim's class.

Now I am off to Julia's desk where she is still managing to host the world wide desk hop while not actually being at her desk...gotta love how us women can multitask!

Thanks for the visit

Bella

CC101 Day 4 & 5 of Tim Holtz Tags

Day 4

Day 5

Well if you are participating in the Creative Chemistry 101 then you will know what the abbreviation in my title stands for...I got behind on my homework on Thursday and Friday and had to do a little catching up this Sunday morning...not that you have to keep up with the days of the class or anything, it is designed to be done in your own time and you have a lifetimes access to the notes and videos, but I prefer to keep on top of the class schedule cos we have another 5 fun filled days with Tim ahead...

Oh how I have loved doing this course.  It is like having Tim on tap in my studio every day. I am assuming that Ranger U is something like this class only you get to go to the factory and really experience it hands on and not to forget the square pizza that is a legend at Ranger U.

Mario keeps up up to speed with the Behind The Scenes (BTS) photos on Twitter and Face Book, so the anticipation builds as the day goes on almost like the 12 Tags of Christmas used to be.

These are tags I did before with the water colour technique so did not re-do them!  A cheat I know!

The flower tag top right is the final one that I am happy with!  The number ones below I got a bit heavy handed with the sprays...but I like how the blotting on the right hand bottom tag turned out!

Tim Holtz CC101 Tags from Day 3

Here are today's 3 tags from Tims Creative Chemistry 101 course that I am doing.  it is such a blast and I am so lucky to have the time to be all caught up today.  Tomorrow and Friday are going to be interesting time wise, but then there is always the week-end to play catch up again.

Most of these techniques are not new to me as he has used them in his Compendium of Curiosities book 1 or done them for the 12 tags...it is the detail he goes into in the videos and the information about the products that is just so awesome.  He has put so much time and effort into these classes, it is like having a private lesson with him in your home studio.  

Till tomorrows tags...

Thanks for the visit

Bella