A TIM HOLTZ TECHNIQUE

It's another Monday!  Time for a new Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge!  This week's theme is "A TIM HOLTZ TECHNIQUE".  Check out the Design Team's challenge pieces for the week on the Simon Says Stamp and Show blog!!  They are brilliant and will surely inspire you to get your Tim on!

For all of you who are Tim Holtz fans, this should be an easy challenge.  I mean, Tim Holtz is THE Master Of All Things Grunge, The Duke Of Distress and the Tremendously Talented Teacher of Technique!  In his Compendium of Curiosities book alone, he demonstrates over 30 techniques.  Combine those with his videos and his now famous annual 12 Tags of Christmas that are loaded with technique and you should have no problem choosing something.

There are lots of Tim techniques incorporated in this piece but I decided to use the "faux batik" technique to create the focal point of this 5" x 7" canvas.  I guess my three weeks in Asia have influenced me as this piece definitely has an Asian feel to it.  But, the Faux Batik technique is fascinating to me and perfect for this application.

I started out with a piece of thin white mulberry paper.  I stamped my design (the images in white) using Perfect Medium Clear Ink.  Then I sprinkled clear embossing powder over the ink and heat set it onto the mulberry paper.

I chose a combination of Lettuce, Stream, Sunset Orange, and Wild Plum Color Washes to spray onto the mulberry paper.  I lightly sprayed them with water to blend the colors even more and blotted off the excess.  Finally, I spritzed the entire colorized paper with Sunflower Sparkle Perfect Pearls Mist.

Then I placed the mulberry paper in between two pieces of newsprint and using my mini craft iron, I ironed over the surface of the stamped image until I melted all of the clear embossing powder onto the top portion of the newsprint thus removing it from the design.  

To finish out the mulberry piece, I stamped some black images on opposite corners.  I also stamped some tips of gold foliage from Tim Holtz' Spring Sprung stamp set.   Then I glued the completed piece of mulberry paper onto a piece of white Glossy Paper.  This really accentuates the clear embossed image.

Next, I colored a small white piece of watercolor paper using a Gold Paint Dabber and some water to create more of a wash effect rather than an opaque gold back ground.  Then I lightly added the color "Pool" to the gold background by dabbing the Pool Paint Dabber onto my Craft Mat and thinned it down with a little water.  I blotted the side of my right hand into the Pool color and randomly "stamped" the color onto the gold paper with the side of my hand.  It gave a very muted, random effect to the textured background.  Then I stamped "Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans" in black ink.  I added black around the edges and put the sentiment in place using black adhesive pop dots.  To pull in more black, I went around the edge of the mulberry paper design with Black Soot Distress Ink.

To ready the canvas for the mulberry paper design, I covered all of the edges with Sketchbook Tissue Tape that I had distressed using a combination of Pumice Stone and Walnut Stain Distress Stains.  Then I glued the mulberry design on to the center of the 5x7 canvas.   I thought it was finished.  But, when I hung it up, I didn't like the openness of the lower right hand corner, even though I'd stamped some gold flower images there.

So I decided to create this paper fan.  It is 2"x 6" scrap of paper that I had but the creamy color with the dark brown text design was perfect.  I scored it every 1/4" and added some Chestnut Roan distressing to the edges.  Then I attached the Chinese tokens to the fan using a multicolored piece of fiber.  The largest token is glued to the front of the fan and there are three smaller tokens that are tied into the fiber and freely dangling.  Now it's finished!  All it needed was a hanger.

I picked up several antique coins from an open market while we were in Beijing.  So, I used one of them as the hanger for this piece.  They already had a patina finish to them so I didn't have to do a thing but hot glue it to the back of the canvas.  Perfect!!


Now it's time to get YOUR Tim Technique on and create something for the Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge! Submit it to our blog and YOU could be the winner of:

 

That's right....$50.00 to spend in our WONDERFUL SIMON SAYS STAMP STORE!!  If you are chosen to be one of the Top 3 entries for the week, you will receive our coveted TOP 3 BLINKIE award to proudly display on your blog!  Good luck!!  I can't wait to see what you've designed!