Sunday, April 22, 2012

All ThingsTim Question of the Week 4/22/2012


As you know I belong to a Yahoo Group called All Thing Tim. It's a on line list that gathers people from around the world to focus on Tim Holtz. From Tim's blog "Tim Holtz is the Creative Director for Ranger Industries, one of the leading manufacturers of innovative inks, paints, and embossing products" Because we all love Ranger products and Tim's ideas, All Things Tim is a great place to get together to share ideas and swap art using Tim's techniques. 

Recently one of the moderators, Stephen, (http://bearcrazyman.blogspot.com/) started asking weekly questions to keep the list moving. 

This weeks Question of the Week is:

What lead you to do what you do art-wise? Be it stamping, scrap booking,
painting, mix media, altering..

Lets us all know why you do what you do.

I thought my response would be a good item for my blog. So for those of you interested or who may have missed it on the ATT list -  here is my response:

I was never artsy/crafty and never really  had a passion for art other than appreciating the art of others. I can not draw a straight line with a ruler. When I do it doesn't  look straight to me. When I don't it looks straight but it's not.

I always gravitated to arty greeting cards which 20 years ago were hard to find. I walked into a local card shop that I frequented and saw a sign for a class on making your own cards. For some reason this sounded interesting so I signed up. From the moment I stamped my first image I was hooked. The class was just about stamping and embossing but it started the foundation of what I do today.


After thinking, "I'll save money making my own cards" I've spent more money making cards that I ever would have spent in the last 17 years. But I've spent more time relaxing, making other people happy with my creations and mostly making myself happier than I was when I was buying greeting cards.


I do more than make cards now. I've made wall hangings, Tim's Configurations Shadow Boxes, canvass work, clothing and more. I've learn so many techniques above and beyond embossing. I've learned how to use color in many mediums. I've gone so far away from needing a ruler to draw a straight line but I am better at using it when I need to.


I don't consider what I do crafting because it entails more than that. I consider my work art. Never in my life before 1995 would I have called myself at artist but now I can and do. Walking into that card shop all those years ago changed my life for the better. I do this because I love it. I can't imagine not being able to create because it's become an important part of my life and it has become apart of me. That's why I continue to make my art. Some days it's good art, some days it's bad art, but it's all art.


Did I mention all the great people I've met all because I put some ink to paper one day. This has been a great journey in the art world. I hope it continues the rest of m
y life.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Creative Chemistry 101 continues

Today I worked on two similar graduation cards and a birthday card using techniques from Creative Chemistry Day 2. I love smooshing distress ink onto card stock from the craft mat. I'm so glad Tim Holtz and Ranger came up with distress ink. It blends so well and gives a great watercolor effect in so many different ways.

I also like the fact that sometimes what seems like a mistake turns out nice. That happened on the Take Time birthday card. I stamped the diamonds on the card and thought oh gosh. Then I added some crystal lacquer and loved the result. I'll probably be using that "mistake" again. 






The bubble made from UTEE says - Life is a journey not a destination. 


































 Hope you enjoy taking a peek as the fun I had today.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Tim Time

Today I've been working on cards for the All Things Tim birthday card swap. I also am participating in the Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 101 Online Class, a little late but as they say...

I used the Day 2 technique on Judy Snell's card along with the carte postale embossing folder for texture. My first attempt for the Day 2 technique can be seen with the bird card I did on my Aunt Jackie's card. I also took some tips from Kate Palmer for lightening up some of the areas by removing some of the color. I thought the bird was too dark at first but am happier with the outcome.

Kate has a great video on YouTube for using Distress Ink coloring. Take a peek.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKNonLEYpPk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Looking forward to seeing the 3rd - 10th installments of the CC101 classes. Tim is so full of great information for we stamping enthusiasts. I love the distressed look and hope to improve my artful attempts from what I can learn from these videos. I'll post more of my work as I progress though the series.

Hope you enjoy what you see here.



 








One of these days I'll figure out how to line things up better. lol

Sunday, March 4, 2012

T!m-ing it up for the ATT Birthday Club Swap

I've been busy with a lot of things. Painting the living room. Working on gathering obituaries for the Spangler Cemetery book I'm working on for the Decatur Genealogical Society library. And working at my job. I've also be working on cards for the  ATT Birthday Club Swap on the All Things Tim Yahoo list. I've been enjoying making the cards and hope the recipients do too.

Here are the cards I've made so far this year for Jan, Feb and all but one March birthdays.








Missing one February card. Hope you enjoyed the card.  See you in the future.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is doing well after the holidays.  I am doing much better after my surgery.  I wondered if I'd ever get back to blogging.  Well, here I am.  My goal is to keep up with blogging at least once a month at the very least.  Maybe I'll have more to say than that, time will tell. Whatever I end up with in this space I hope you find something of interest. 


This past week I've been working on cards to send to people who were kind enough to RAK* me after my surgery from the All Things Tim list. Thank you Stacy, Colleen and  Martha.  I was so happy to receive their RAKs.  They all made my day. 


Below are cards I made based on Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas 2011.  I loved the snowman tag.  Here is the link to view it in case you have never seen this tag.
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-4.html

(I hope the link works when I post it. It's the first time I've included a link on my blog.)


I never know what to do with tags once they are made.  The people I send my art to I think prefer receiving a card, at least in my mind.  Who knows I could be wrong.  Anyhoo, I took Tim's idea for the snowman tag and tried to use the techniques on cards.  I changed them up as you can see.  I did leave the "celebrate today" as a tag and sent it to one of my RAKers. Though, I  can't remember who's getting that one.

I like to cool blue-gray colors of the cards and the wintery feel it gives.  We are not getting our usual snow falls here in Central Illinois so making these cards made it feel a little more like winter.  And I didn't have to shovel any snow. 




This is for my in-laws anniversary.



I hope you enjoyed my recent attempts at winter art.  I am looking forward to sharing more of my art and other things as they pop into my head.  I enjoyed blog hopping while I was unable to create any art of my own.  My work does not compare to some of the gorgeous creations out there but I hope you will enjoy my work and return from time to time and see what develops. 

Love, Peace, Joy and Art be yours in 2012.
Carol aka Uncle Carol


*RAK = Random Act of Kindness