Compendium of Curiosities 2, Challenge 19

Updated August 30: I've decided to keep this challenge open until 8:00pm (MDT) on Thursday, September 6,  and I've got a special prize from the big 'ol box of goodies Mario sent for one of the participants. Trust me, it's good! If you're already entered, you're welcome to submit another entry! If not, now's your chance! YAY!!!

Kraft Resist

Tim Holtz: A Compendium of Curiosities 2, page 41

Happy Friday, everyone, and welcome to the nineteenth installment of this journey through Tim Holtz's latest book, A Compendium of Curiosities, Vol. 2! If you follow Mr. H's blog (and I bet you do!), you already saw the super swell video he posted a few days ago, showing some very cool uses for his Kraft Resist paper. Well, whaddaya know, we haven't done that technique yet... so now's the time!

Here's the video from Tim's Blog:

He's so awesome.

Okay, so, to celebrate this cool video and all the rad Kraft Resist options we've seen, rock your own work of art using this technique (page 41) and link it to this blog using the InLinkz button at the bottom of this post. You're golden as long as you honor these simple rules:

• Follow the technique as it's written in A Compendium of Curiosities, Vol. 2 (adding your own special flair, of course!), and clearly state that the technique comes from Tim's book.
• Include a link to this post in your blog post (or photo description if you're linking from an online photo-sharing site).  
• Out of respect to Tim, please don't post the technique instructions on your blog. However, you're more than welcome to link to Tim's video this time around!
• This challenge closes on Thursday, August 30 September 6 at 8 pm MTD. Please see the CC2C FAQ here for more information.

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To restate from last week, this is prime time to flip through the pages of the CC2 and make a list of supplies you'll be needing as we work our way through the remaining challenges. Take note of things like a Melting Pot and clear UTEE, a Ranger Ink Palette, Metal Foil Tape, Idea-ology Facets or Fragments, Ranger Ink Refresher... and anything else you may need to stock up on. We still have 16 techniques to explore!

I hope you all have a magical week!

Hugs,
Linda

EXCITING UPDATE: Linda from The Funkie Junkie Boutique has chosen the winner for CC2C 18! Was it you?? Click here to find out. Thanks so much, Linda!!!
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Dirty Pictures...of Hummingbirds

(I used the Cherry Amour filter in Totally Rad's Dirty Pictures for this photo.)

I started off this summer with a couple of really specific goals in mind: To grow a flower garden that would attract hummingbirds (because I love them), and to finally, FINALLY start learning photography-- something I've wanted do to since I was a kid with a blue plastic Polaroid.

I've been working pretty diligently on both, and the garden is actually growing! The hummingbirds are macking on the flowers and getting comfortable enough to hang around when I'm sitting outside. The photography? Well, it's a blast, even though I'm painfully aware of my "rank amateur" status, and I figure I ought'a have it all pretty well dialed in by the time I'm ready for retirement... in like twenty-five years. But, I'm not going to let that stop me from taking photos of my tiny winged friends. 

Hummers' wings beat about 60 times per second, and they dart around like tiny, amped up helicopters, so getting a decent picture of one is really challenging--especially when you're still trying to figure out what all the menu items on your camera do! Over the weekend I managed to get a few pictures that weren't bad, but they needed a little something beyond the simple color correction and contrast adjustment I usually do. That's where Totally Rad's Dirty Pictures comes in. 

Dirty Pictures is an "instant grunge" application that runs as a script in Photoshop CS and allows you to easily add sweet texture and grit and color tweaks to your pictures. As you guys know, I love distressing my art, so this was a gotta-have-it purchase for me. 

The 21 texture overlays you get with Dirty Pictures appear as filters in Photoshop. You can compare them side by side, choose look you want, tweak the opacity and blending modes, and shazam, baby-- you've got your grunge on. 

Seeing as how my amateur pics need all the help they can get, I thought it would be fun to see what Dirty Pictures could do for them. I've gotta say, I'm impressed! I had a blast playing with these textures, and here are three quick image enhancements I made with them last night:

Hummingbird Tango

Obviously, I'm still trying to figure out the "exposure triangle," and my shutter speed way set too low here to get a nice, clear shot. I like the idea of this image, though, and figured some grunge could only help...

I chose the "Starla Fontaine" filter to create a more colorful, painterly image. I reduced the opacity of the filter just a bit but that's the only tweak I made. Pretty cool how the blur from my lagging shutter speed suddenly became an asset! I may crop it a little closer, but I'm really happy with the way Dirty Pictures transformed a not-awesome photo into a dreamy image I kind of love.

Gimme That Nectar!

This little calliope loves the butterfly bush we planted this year. She comes around a lot during the evening, having dinner, second dinner, early snacks, mid-evening snacks... (Did you know that hummers eat up to twelve times their body weight in nectar each day? And I thought I was a champion eater!) Anyway, other than the blurry little feet I'm pretty pleased with this photo the way it is, but I still wanted to see how Dirty Pictures would funk-ify it...

I used two Dirty Pictures filters on this one: Ginger Savannah and Foxy Laurinda. I think the grunge effect is so cool here. Because the filters are created in separate layers, it's easy to manipulate them, and even erase the effects entirely from areas that you don't want dirtied up. I did that over the hummer's eye so it would still look sharp.

Evening Silhouette

This little girl was taking a break the other evening when I snapped a photo of her perched in the neighbor's tree, backlit from the west. We're currently surrounded on all sides by forest and brush fires that have rendered our skies a morose shade of bluish brown, so I desaturated the picture into near black and white. It's okay... kind of drab though, and that blank sky totally dominates the image.

This just makes me happy. All it took was a quick overlay of the Lola Lovespell Dirty Pictures filter to give this photo some depth and add interest to that blank gray sky. Now it actually looks like a sunset-- with extra added texture. Out little hummer really pops out now! Still might benefit from some closer cropping, though...

Can you tell I'm infatuated? Dirty Pictures is giving me a whole new reason to love photography (and new ways to camouflage my missteps), and it's so much fun to experiment with. Totally Rad just keeps cranking out the cool apps! If you want to check 'em out yourself, you'll get a 15% discount on any of their products by using the code 1389LINDA at checkout.

Thanks for checking out my dirty pictures!

Hugs,
Linda

Compendium of Curiosities 2, Challenge 18

Update! Simon Says Stamp has posted the winner of the CC2C 17. Click here to see if it's you!

Whitewash Stamping

Tim Holtz: A Compendium of Curiosities, Vol. 2, page 47

Sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique

Just like that, it's the middle of August! How's everyone doing?? I love Fridays, that whole "light at the end of the work-week tunnel" thing, and most especially the chance to play with a new Tim Holtz technique from his fabulous latest book! 

This time, we're busting out the Picket Fence Distress Stain, one of my favorite products from Tim's ever-growing line of goodness. Have you used it before? I'm still learning all the cool tricks and experimenting with this versatile liquid wonder, and I'd love to hear your favorite tricks. 

Open up that CC2 to page 47 and let's whitewash something!

It's the third Friday of the month, and that means our challenge is sponsored by the awesome Funkie Junkie Boutique, who is graciously offering a $25 gift certificate to the winner of this week's challenge! Thanks to Linda, the Funkie Junkie, for her generosity!

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To participate in CC2C #18, rock your own work of art using the Whitewash Stamping technique on page 47 and link it to this blog using the InLinkz button at the bottom of this post. You're golden as long as you honor these simple rules:

Follow the technique as it's written in A Compendium of Curiosities, Vol. 2 (adding your own special flair, of course!), and clearly state that the technique comes from Tim's book.  

Include a link to this post in your blog post (or photo description if you're linking from an online photo-sharing site).  

To be eligible to win the $25 shopping spree, you must include a link to The Funkie Junkie Boutique (http://www.zibbet.com/TheFunkieJunkie).  

Out of respect to Tim, please don't post the technique instructions on your blog! Any entries that don't follow this rule will be unlinked.  

This challenge closes on Thursday, August 23 at 8 pm MTD. Please see the CC2C FAQ here for more information.

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We're officially halfway through the book you guys! Now's a good time to flip through the pages and start making a list of supplies you'll be needing as we work our way through the remaining challenges. Take note of things like a Melting Pot and clear UTEE, a Ranger Ink Palette, Metal Foil Tape, Idea-ology Facets or Fragments, Ranger Ink Refresher... and anything else you may need to stock up on. Lots of fun creativity still to come... thanks to Mr. H!

Have a beautiful week!

Hugs,
Linda
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Compendium of Curiosities 2 Challenge 17!

Creative Core'Dinations

Tim Holtz: A Compendium of Curiosities, Vol. 2, page 61

Sponsored by Simon Says Stamp!

Happy, happy Friday, and welcome to the CC2C #17! Wow-- we're almost halfway through the book already. I hope Tim's working on Volume 3! ;-)

Thanks so much for all the kind wishes for my mom's birthday last week. We had a great time celebrating and she so appreciated hearing all the beautiful words you guys posted.

This week, it's all about the paper. Time to grab a colorful stack of Tim's Core'dinations and get your grunge on! If you haven't played with this stuff before, you're really in for a treat-- it's super easy to create beautiful distressing in a matter of seconds! And the colors-- so gorgeous!

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The mighty Simon Says Stamp sponsors our second challenge every month (they rock!), and as always, they'll be giving a $25 gift certificate to one lucky, randomly chosen participant of the CC2C. SSS has pretty much EVERY Tim Holtz product, along with about a jillion other awesome crafty things, and shopping their online store is a treat you don't want to miss!

Thanks to Heidi, Steph, Sarah, and all the awesome folks at SSS for being so supportive of this challenge!

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To participate in CC2C #17, create your own work of art using the Creative Core'dinations technique on page 61 and link it to this blog using the InLinkz button at the bottom of this post. You're a rockstar as long as you honor these simple rules:

Follow the technique as it's written in A Compendium of Curiosities, Vol. 2 (adding your own special flair, of course!), and clearly state that the technique comes from Tim's book. 

Include a link to this post in your blog post (or photo description if you're linking from an online photo-sharing site). 

To be eligible to win the Simon Says Stamp shopping spree, include a link to their website, www.simonsaysstamp.com 

Out of respect to Tim, please don't post the technique instructions on your blog! Any entries that don't follow this rule will be unlinked. 

This challenge closes on Thursday, August 16 at 8 pm MTD. Please see the CC2C FAQ here for more information. 

Have a blast! 

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Okay, guys, have a spectacularly crafty week, and thank you so much for being part of the CC2 Challenge!

Hugs,

Linda

P.S. If you don't have them on hand, you'll want to get a bottle of Picket Fence Distress Stain, Perfect Pearls Mist, Clear UTEE (and a Melting Pot!), and Ranger Ink Refresher to add to your stash for upcoming challenges (not necessarily in that order). I'll try to let you guys know in plenty of time when a challenge is coming up that requires a specific product beyond the standard Tim Holtz stash items.

Compendium of Curiosities 2, Challenge 16!

Perfect Pearls Mist

Tim Holtz: A Compendium of Curiosities, Vol. 2, page 54

Super happy Friday, blog friends, and welcome to the 16th installment of this celebration of Tim Holtz and his sensational book, A Compendium of Curiosities, Vol. 2! You guys continue to inspire and amaze me with your imaginative and magnificent creations, and I so appreciate your participation. If you're new to the challenge, WELCOME! You'll never find a nicer and more talented bunch of people than the CC2C participants. 

There's another celebration happening in my house today, too: It's my awesome Mom's 80th birthday! My sample for this week's challenge is her birthday card. She's driving up today and we'll be spending the weekend doing "girl stuff" (i.e. shopping, eating, sampling wine, shopping...). My mom, Pat, is my best friend and my hero, and I'm so grateful that we get to spend her birthday together. Here she is, with her completed Configurations tray from last fall's Tim Holtz cruise:

I hope you all have some wonderful plans for this weekend, too!

To participate in CC2C #16, create your own work of art using the Perfect Pearls Mist technique on page 54 and link it to this blog using the InLinkz button at the bottom of this post. You're a rockstar as long as you honor these simple rules:

• Follow the technique as it's written in A Compendium of Curiosities, Vol. 2 (adding your own special flair, of course!), and clearly state that the technique comes from Tim's book.
• Include a link to this post in your blog post (or photo description if you're linking from an online photo-sharing site).
• Out of respect to Tim, please don't post the technique instructions on your blog! Any entries that don't follow this rule will be unlinked.
• This challenge closes on Thursday, August 9 at 8 pm MTD. Please see the CC2C FAQ here for more information.
• Have a blast!

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I wish you all a spectacular and creative week! Thanks so much for stopping by.

Hugs,
Linda