CCC#21 Perfect Distress

This week Linda of Studio L3 set us the challenge of Tim Holtz's Perfect Distress technique that can be found on page 38 of his Compendium of Curiosities book.  I love this technique, have had Perfect Pearls for a while now but not used them much, so this challenge was good in getting me to use something from my stash.  I love the look, gives a really soft, pearly sheen - it's a bit hard to see in the picture but I think lends a vintage look to the tag.  Used the swiss cheese punch Tim gave us on the cruise to give a different look to the rosette. Finished off with a ruffle of tissue tape - love that stuff!

Blog Hop. Celebrating 1 year of Shimelle's Bakers Dozen

Can't believe it's already been a year that I've been a member of Shimelle Laine's Baker's Dozen design team.  I love Shimelle's style whether it's traditional scrapping, digital or hybrid.  So her kits Streamlined 2009 template and Bazinga seemed ideal to use to document my first ever Tim Holtz Cruise.  It was such a wonderful time, so full of creativity and the most wonderful people. Can't wait until next year's cruise.

If you'd like to continue the hop please pop(hop!) over to the lovely SJ's blog at http://www.scrappyfairy.blogspot.com/

CCC#20 Compendium of Curiosities Challenge 20 - Industrial Grunge

This weeks technique set by Linda at StudioL3 is Industrial Grunge which can be found on page 54 of Tim Holtz's book.  Not sure that it really shows up well in this photo but the technique was done on the grungeboard key, does give it a weathered, rusted look.  Card is a late birthday card for my friend Sam.  Hope she likes it!

CCC#19 Compendium of Curiosities Challenge 19 - Extreme masking

Linda at L3Studio has set the Tim Holtz Challenge for this week as the Extreme Masking technique on page 61 of Tim's Compendium of Curiosities book.  I used a mask cut from the Scaredy Cat and Raven die and various colours of distress ink, then stamped the skeleton onto the masked raven.  Used some tissue tape at the bottom and a couple of paperclay skulls - took a mould from the skeleton I bought at Absolutely Everything while on the Tim Holtz cruise- AE is a fantastic shop, loved it so much!  I'll get back to blogging about the cruise soon.

Bon Voyage!

I'm slowly working through the photos I took on the cruise and have just sent off my first 2 rolls of film from my Diana F+ camera to be developed.  The Diana is a lomography camera sometimes known as a Toy camera as it's made of plastic and totally manual - no batteries.  Not sure how they'll turn out but that's all part of the fun of Lomo.  Theres a great Flickr http://www.flickr.com/groups/diana_plus/ which show the type of photos produced by the camera - love the vignetteing.

So on the 30th Sept the buses came to pick us up from the Hampton Inn to take us to the big boat!  I knew it would be big but just didn't realise how big it would be... so massive.  The weather wasn't so great that day, drizzly rain and overcast, and as we were heading for the bus to take us to the ship I caught a glimpse of a tv showing a weather report and New York was catching the end of a storm - explained why things got a bit bumpy later on - I didn't really know this was unusual as I'd never been on a cruiseship before - nearest thing was trips on the ferry to Isle of Man with my family when I was wee. (Don't think the Renfrew ferry to Yoker counts!(Scotland)). It took Carolyn and I a few days before we got the hang of finding our room without going the longest way round. 

 

We had our welcome party in the Maharaja lounge, received our id bags(best things ever), Cheryl swapped out our charms and we met Jim, Tim and the gang - didn't get great photos because Tim never stays still for long :)

Back to reality

Oh well, firmly back to reality now. First day back at work, the joys of traveling on the London underground.  At least I have next years Tim Holtz Cruise to look forward to - and my projects and photos provide great memories too.  I can fully recommend Tim's cruises organised by Scrapmap, everything is taken care of, Tim is an amazing teacher and his gang of helpers take care of all the workshop needs.  A fully stocked studio was available for us to work in at any time and it was so fantastic to meet so many creative people from all around the world who share your passion(obsession). 

This was my first ever visit to the USA and my first Tim Cruise.  Met my roomie Carolyn on the flight over to Newark which  was a good start.  Once we arrived at our hotel in New York we decided to wander around until our room was ready. 

Our hotel was in the garment district and the fabric and trimming shops were just amazing.  We had a look around Grand Central Station - what amazing place! Tried to make it to Empire States Building but we had to make our way back to the hotel to freshen up for our trip to the Tinsel Trading Co. and dinner at Tony Di Napoli's.

Tony Di Napoli's



Grand Central Station



St. John New Brunswick

Coastal Photography tour, 4th October. Great day, sunshine, waterfalls, beach, sand in my shoes - what more could you want?