Traveling Class   Mireille Divjak

Scrap-a-Ganza, Part 3: Meeting Tim Holtz

One of the things I always dreamed of was meeting Tim Holtz. I admired his work for such a long time and nothing can be better then taking a class from “the master”. I searched his site for a long time but the only way I was going to be able to fulfill my dream was taking a plane to the USA. In short… that’s a “keep on dreaming”.

Can you believe how excited I was when I heard he was coming to Holland! The next big thing was “how”? When the program of his visit was final I heard he was demonstrating at a big retailers show, and in two shops… and… one class! It felt like scrappers in Holland talked about nothing else but Tim... felt like EVERYBODY wanted that class…so when I was voted in I called all my friends and couldn’t stop talking about it.

Scrapbookmate organized it and Heidi (the owner) is pretty great at getting “big names” to Holland. Not only for the Scrap-a-Ganza, but also for “little in between surprises” like this. I went together with the owner of my LSS pretty early in the morning. We were hurrying trying to get a great parking spot and arrived at the same time as Heidi and her van. Heidi and Carla were joking around trying to get that one parking space when Carla parked her car so close to Heidi, completely blocking her doors. She had two men in the car that weren’t able to get out like this.. and all three of us were laughing really loud.. until I realized who those two were sitting in the van with Heidi. It always surprises me how you can see someone’s picture a thousand times on the internet, on blogs and in magazines and then when you see them in real life you could pass them on the street without even noticing.

We walked around in the warehouse a while Tim got ready for his class. (Which wasn’t a punishment.. looking at those awesome goodies that arrived.) Then it was time to go upstairs and get ready. Tim gave a technique-based class explaining all kinds of techniques on different tags. I really really love technique-based classes. Specially when I own a lot of yummy goodies and could use a little explanation on what to do with them.

I really enjoyed listening to him talking about his impressions of Holland. It was his first time here and he just came back from Amsterdam center, talking about how different the houses are over here... so high and slim, something I don’t even notice anymore because I am so used to it. He talked about his flight and the trouble with his class materials. (Apparently they didn’t let him take the alcohol inks because they might be flammable in the plane.) Can’t even begin to think what it must be like if you prepare your classes in advance and they take half your stuff at the airport. We all got a tin box filled with cracklepaint, dabbers, Grungeboard, distress ink, minimisters, Stickles and inking tools. (Yeah!!! love that stuff!)

He also brought samples of his work and displayed it on the desks in front of the class. I took some pictures with his permission but unfortunately I cannot show it because they are going out for publication. You will have to believe me when I say the man is simply beyond brilliant. He altered the tin boxes that hold your distress ink or dabbers or… with alcohol ink, one with paint. He had an awesome altered storage case for stamps and a brilliant “suitcase”. My admiration grew and grew. We also got a private “mini CHA” when he showed us all the stuff that is coming out soon. Fell mega in love with the grungeboard minishapes! .. awesome!. And for the class.. I tried a lot of fun techniques.

The cover is a piece of grungeboard cut in shape of a tag .. simply putting some distress ink on it. The label got some sweet metallic alcohol inks. Sweet and simple.

The first tag got some beautiful distress inks and paint stamps, gave it some final bling with stickles.

On the second tag, we used crackle paint –which is pretty awesome stuff once you know how to use it. It comes with a little brush attached and you apply it directly on the tag without trying to get rid of excess paint. It doesn’t matter in which direction you paint , it’s just.. the thicker the layer the bigger the cracks.. when the paint is applied thin you get very small crackles and when it’s mega thin it doesn’t crack at all. A little inking.. a little stamping.. and taddaaaa .. another great tag.

On the third tag, we used the minimisters filled with distress ink refillers, water and perfect pearls. We used the grungboard as a mask.. sprayed the “pearly ink” and then inked and stamped some more..

The fourth tag was alcohol ink time!!! I really really think this is awesome stuff. The bad part is... I am always a little reluctant on trying because I don’t feel competent enough to handle the stuff. I guess this will change now. Got tons of do’s and don’ts.. what works.. and what doesn’t.

The final tag had stamping and alcohol inks on glass. Works different but also pretty sweet! Got myself a great tagbook with preprinted instructions on the back of the tag as a reminder (now how brilliant is that to give to your students??)

and of course my book wasn’t complete without the autograph of the master himself. if you are ever able to take a Tim Holtz class.. please do! It’s more then worth it.

If you aren’t so lucky you can always surf to his website for great inspiration. http://www.timholtz.com  Take a little peek at his blog . . . it’s awesome!

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