be curious.

note: I was actually working on this post when I got an e-mail from Tim asking me to join his team. Instead of posting it then as intended I saved the draft and waited until I had one of my ‘just cuz I was curious’ projects to post along with it…

 Sometimes I like to just play. Try new things and create just because. Right after CHA I received this book.

I often refer to it for inspiration. The idea that it’s all about exploring and being creatively curious is so appealing to me. I’ve been through the book every week – often more than once. LOVE it. What I really love is the KIND of inspiration it offers. It doesn’t tell me what to make, it gives me techniques and ideas that jump start my brain into my OWN unique ideas and train of thought. It gets me going in my own direction, to work on stuff that is my style. All the photos and how-to is exceptional, and really easy to understand what I can do and helps me remember some things I already know (but forget!) too.

I highly recommend it if you’re into stamping, inking, and all the fun & funky stuff Tim does. Just looking at it gets me in the mood to make a creative mess. The book is available at a lot of scrapbook stores (on-line and locally) as well as on amazon.

I had some stuff I wanted to play with + I needed to experiment with the dies & embossing folders to work out in my mind how that all works. See, I like to be familiar with the how/what I’m doing so that when I want to create something ‘for real’ I’m not frustrated and slow moving.

I’m going to try and explain what I did here… I ran a clock paper through (from this stack) that also had different bits and pieces with the die that had the crown/wings/heart. I liked the idea that the wings had time (clocks) on them. I also ran a piece of paper through the vintage market alphabet dies and used those letters for “play”. It’s all mounted on a Disneyland key card holder that I was not going to use and that was destined for the recycle bin. Before I stuck anything down though, I ran that through the woodgrain embossing folder – um a SWEET deal if there ever was one too. Loved that.

I realize my how-to isn’t in order nor does it make very clear sense in all likelihood. Well, I promise next time I’ll take photos as I play. PROMISE! What else did I do? Well I inked up the embossed surface, sprinkled distress embossing powder and heated up. then, wanting MORE funk I painted parts with the distress crackle paint (sadly using the last bit I had!) but loving it with the wood texture.

(wings + crown cropped a bit int his photo) Let’s see… I also fell in love with stickles (except waiting for it to dry), smooshed my “play” letters into multi-medium, added embossing powder, and heated until it bubbled just because, added some tissue tape… yeah I just played.

It may end up as a bookmark, as part of a card, or nothing but an experiment forgotten. Who knows. It’s purpose was to be an outlet for me to try some creative things and get comfortable with a few things – mission accomplished.

This was a pure ‘curious’ experiment just for the pleasure of playing. I love this personal reminder I have to enjoy the process and try new things…

I encourage you to take a few minutes and play ASAP!

PS – if you haven’t yet – DO go over to www.timholtz.com and watch his videos. I learn new stuff all the time – just this week I found out about Rock Candy…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd8UAaVPrVw]