Creative Chemistry 101 Day 3

Creative Chemistry 101 Day 3 - Archival Ink

Alcohol Ink Agate

Archival Resist

Stamping with Reflections

Creative Chemistry 101 Day 2

Tags for Day 2 of Tim Holtz's Creative Chemistry 101

Blended Distress/Spritz &

Flick

Brushless Watercolor

Wrinkle-Free Distress

Inexpensive Ranger and Sizzix Storage

Being highlighted for my Stickles and acrylic dabber storage over on the Ranger Blog, as well as Tim's recent video about his storage cases has inspired me to document how I use plastic storage to store a large amount of Ranger and Sizzix product in a relatively compact fashion. I'm pragmatic, and cheap, when it comes to my storage so I use various plastic fishing tackles and storage boxes. Here's what I've found to work best for various sizes of Ranger products.

First up are boxes from Plano Molding, usually known for their fishing tackle storage solutions, though they have a craft line as well. It's the same box just with different colour latches. I use the 37xx series, which are all 14"x9" with varying heights and internal configurations, so they are perfect for stacking.

The 3700 (not available in the craft line) is perfect for Ranger embossing powders. It will hold 26 per container, and is absolutely the right height.

The 3780 is 2.8" tall and will hold 30 Distress Crackle jars.

The 3730 is 3.25" tall. That is the perfect height for Alcohol Ink bottles, as well as Pigment and Archival (new 1/2 oz. style) reinkers. As you can see, it will hold all 50+ alcohol ink bottles with ease. The rest of the space is Pigment Ink re-inkers. The alchol inks are arranged by earthtone/light/bright shades. In total, it  will hold 70+ bottles.

I also use Really Useful Boxes for storage. In the US you can find these at Office Depot. One issue I have  with their line is that the sizes vary wildly and so they don't stack well at all between different sizes. Still, I have found some to be idea; for storing Ranger products.

The 2.1L size holds all 2oz spray bottles, including Adirondack Color Wash and Perfect Peals Mists. You can fit 14-15 bottles per box.

It is also idea for storing Distress Stains, and dabbers as well since those are both shorter than the sprayers. You can fit around 20 Distress Stains per box.

Once nice thing is that because the stain bottles don't come all the way up to the top, you can stack the boxes on top of each other without putting the top on each one. You can't do then when using them for 2oz. spray bottles

Lastly, the 6.5L size, will hold 18 Sizzix Bigz dies with the lid on, 20 without the lid.

A quick tag

A quick tag for Simon Says Stamp and Show A Tim Holtz Themed Tag! that came about after I did a test emboss with UTEE. Stamped flourish using white acrylic paint, then blended Dusty Concord, Stormy Sky, Broken China and Chipped Sapphire Distress Inks over to create a sort of night sky palette. Then I sprayed with Forever Blue and Biscotti Perfect Pearls Mists.

Fall Seasonal Distress Ink tags

Some sample tags done with the new Fall distress inks. The stamping was done in black Archival. The tag on the right I stamped the words in white acrylic, then blended in the ink, then wiped with a damp paper towel.

Steampunk Winged Dressform

Stamp and Show Some Steampunk, and I gave myself a bit of a monochrome challenge as well. Tag is cut with Sewing Room Bigz die, embossed folder from Cuttlebug. Inked in Distress Walnut Stain, then run through Distress Embossing Pad and Distress Embossing Powder in Walnut Stain added to hit the raised areas.

Wings cut from Heart Wings Bigz die from Grungeboard, coloured with Pumice Stone Distress Stain and Tea Dye Distress Stickles. Attached with Mini Attacher. Gears and spinner from Idea-ology line.

I struggled with whether to do something with the "head" or not and ened up leaving it as is. Putting a button or a word key in that place moved the focus to that pieces, and I wanted the piece to remain more abstract.

Alcohol Ink card and Distress Stain Butterflies

Back with a simple card made from Alcohol Inks on glossy cardstock, combined with some die cutting of a (wrinkle-free) Distress Stained background.

I really like the way the Alcohol Inks blended in the background. I worked with all colours from the Ranger Ink Lights collection. I think for this sort of technique, sticking to one "range"of colours (lights, brights, earthtones) is the way to go. Otherwise some of your tones will end up getting overshadowed by others.