Creative Chemistry 101: Day 3

Today's class included a lecture/demo of various inks and then three techniques:  Alcohol Ink Agates, Archival Resist and Stamping with Reflections.  One interesting tidbit was to "season" new rubber stamps much like a cast iron skillet:  use black archival ink, put on rubber stamp, let dry a minute and then wipe dry. Stamping with light "spun sugar" with this stamp worked despite the black "residue" from the seasoning ink!  Another tip: use hand sanitizer if you must use anything but water to clean clear stamps. It's obvious from Tim's demo and just experimenting that clear stamps don't work well with these techniques (see Eiffel Tower!)

I only had library green archival ink which worked for first tag but you really needed several light shades of archival inks and the archival black for the second. Tim did all stamping with black.  Interesting tip: clean stamps with hand sanitizer if you must use anything. He only uses water and a rag. First tag which is done on glossy paper definitely has "card" possibilities and I like the "resist" technique on the right hand tag but not the colors or the way the clear stamp worked.

Third tag he called a "stamping with reflections" technique demonstrated with his Reflections stamps.  I just used butterflies and one of his frame textured embossing folders.  Stamp the image on inside of emboss folder with archival ink (green again), put tag in and run through the Sizzix.  Then highlight the embossing with distress inks bringing color in.. Love this and will definitely play with it although I never understood why he said you had to cut the embossing folder to emboss the tag (not happenin').