Organization Congratulations

 
Wow, we're blown away with the ingenuity of our fans and the creative ways y'all store and organize your favorite Ranger products! Thanks to all who posted their storage tips on our blog and especially to those who posted photos on our Facebook wall!  (If you haven't taken a look at those photos yet, be sure to do so: they show some truly clever and inspiring ways of organizing Ranger products.)

Congratulations to Kelly Karas, who will be receiving a Tim Holtz idea-ology Cargo Case and Trinket Case!

"I store my ink pads and loose stamps in old wooden cheese boxes that I added saw tooth picture hangars to the back of, and have mounted on the walls right next to my craft table. I store my inks, paints and misc brads and eyelet containers in old wooden typset trays. The great thing about the typeset trays is that you can gently break the wooden dividers out to alter the sizes of storage space. I usually can find the wooden boxes for about $2 each and the typeset trays for about $15 at antique shows. I have also converted any old wooden box with dividers into wall storage."

New Year's Organization

 
Happy New Year, everyone!!  So let's see a show of hands: how many of you have made New Year's Resolutions to finally organize your craft space?

Wow, that's a lot of you!

Never fear, Ranger is here to help.  We have a plethora of organizational products and tools that will help you to sort your crafting stash.

For example, we have the Inkssentials Craft Spinner (which can be stacked up to three tiers high) for keeping your Ink Blending Tools, Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabbers, Jenni Bowlin for Ranger Paint Dabbers, Adirondack Alcohol Inks, Stickles, re-inkers and more within easy reach:

We also have free, printable labels available for download from our website, so you can label the sides of your ink pads for easy retrieval:

We even have blank color charts that you can fill in with the colors of inks, paints, Stickles and more that are currently in your collection:

Our fans are pretty clever and innovative when it comes to organizing and storing their favorite Ranger products, too!  Check out some of these great ideas that we found online:

Christie Hund affixed a metal strip under her crafting cabinets and attached all of her Stickles bottles using magnets. Gravity keeps the Stickles ready to use at any time!

Ron Wilhelm has a different solution for upside-down Stickles storage: PVC couplings glued together in a honeycomb-like arrangement!

Ron uses PVC pipes to hold Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabbers, too!

So let us know, Ranger fans: in what clever ways do you store and organize your favorite Ranger goodies?  Let us know and on January 6th we will select a winner, who will receive:

...a Tim Holtz idea-ology Trinket Case AND...

...a Tim Holtz idea-ology Cargo Case!

Post pictures of your crafty solutions on our Facebook wall, too!  We'd love to see them, and you just might inspire a fellow Ranger fan to get organized in 2012.

Adirondack Snow Cap Mixative How-To

 

Head on over to Tim Holtz's blog for an awesome guide for using our new Adirondack Snow Cap Mixative!  Tim will show you how to use Snow Cap Mixative to achieve a patina effect on metal (perfect for jewelry pieces and metal embellishments) and how to use Snow Cap Mixative in conjunction with Adirondack Alcohol Inks to create pastel colors.

Video on RangerInk.com: Adirondack Fillable Pen

 
This month's featured video on RangerInk.com demonstrates a creative use of the Adirondack Fillable Pen.  Join Ranger Signature Designer/Creative Director Tim Holtz and Graphic Artist/Photographer Debbie Tlach as they teach you how to use the pen to achieve watercolor-like shading effects with the help of Adirondack Alcohol Blending Solution.

Watch the video and give this fabulous technique a whirl!  Let us know what you think, and feel free to post photos of your work on our Facebook page!

Video: Perfect Pearls Mists

In this brand new video, Creative Director and Signature Designer Tim Holtz de-mistifies any thoughts you might have about our NEW Perfect Pearls Mists!

Guess what...we've added the Perfect Pearls Mists Color Charts to our website. Print them out, spray the mists onto a 1-1/2" x 1-1/2" square of black cardstock and glue them to the chart for easy reference.

Take a look at all the dazzling Perfect Pearls Mists colors!  What's your favorite?

Ranger Spotlight: Watermark Resist Ink

 
Today we’ll be shining a spotlight on Ranger’s Inkssentials Watermark Resist Ink pad, a product that maybe doesn’t always get the attention it deserves, but is truly awesome nonetheless! We’ve recently received some inquiries regarding techniques for using Watermark Resist, so we thought this would be a fun opportunity to show off all the great things that can be done with this clever little ink pad!

In this video, Ranger’s Marketing Coordinator Patti Behan demonstrates how you can use Watermark Resist to create many different and interesting effects. It can be used as a resist ink on gloss paper, or use it to create a watermarked image on dark colored papers. Did you know that Watermark Resist is an excellent ink for embossing as well? You can even use Watermark Resist to make incredibly beautiful multi-colored backgrounds for all your card-making and scrapbooking needs!

Artist and Ranger Signature Designer Claudine Hellmuth has her own unique take on the possibilities available with the Watermark Resist pad, too! In this video from the CHA Winter 2009 show, Claudine demonstrates a great technique using Watermark Resist in conjunction with her Studio Sticky-Back Canvas and Studio Paints.

And in this video from CHA Summer 2009, Claudine takes her technique to the next level by fashioning a gorgeous necklace from the resist image! Too clever or what?

If you’re just dying to get your hands inky, Lisa Dixon has created two project tutorials featuring beautiful cards with sweet sentiments, both of which employ techniques using the Inkssentials Watermark Resist Pad!

“I Love You” card.

“For You” card.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this look at the Watermark Resist pad. It’s simply ir-resist-able, is it not? ;-) (Sorry, we just couldn’t resist…. Hee hee!)

Which Ranger product would you like to see featured in our next “Ranger Spotlight” post? Perhaps you’d like to know more about techniques that can be done with an Inky Roller, or with Perfect Pearls, or with Glossy Accents? Let us know in the comments!

Organization 101: Color Swatch Charts

 
We're back with more tips to help keep your craft space as neat and tidy as possible!  (Assuming you're into that sort of thing, ha!)

In addition to the convenient Ink Pad Label Sheets that we offer on rangerink.com, we also offer free Color Swatch Charts to download and print!  What is a Color Swatch Chart, you ask?

It's a convenient way to display your inks/paints/Stickles/etc for a quick color reference!  We all know that sometimes inks and paints can dry to a slightly different color than you'd expect by looking at them in the bottle, so having actual samples of your colors can be extremely helpful.  And they look so pretty to boot!

To view and print the PDFs you will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. When printing, be sure to set your printer settings to "Shrink to Printable Area" so the edges of the document aren't cut off:

 

Then just apply your colors within the grids and display 'em on a bulletin board or on your studio wall!

Color Swatch Charts are currently available for Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabbers, Distress Inks, Distress Stickles, the new Liquid Pearls collection, and Stickles.  We are making new ones often, so check back to see if your favorite product line is featured!

Do you organize your crafting products by color?  If so, what method do you use to keep them organized?

Organization 101: Ink Pad Label Sheets

 
Continuing our Organization 101 series... also known as "How to Make Room for Even More Ranger Goodies!!"

Did you know that we offer free Ink Pad Label Sheets on the rangerink.com website?  These sheets, available for Adirondack, Archival, Distress, and Jenni Bowlin for Ranger ink pads, are formatted to be printed on an Avery 5267 label sheet (or anything with a similar label size: 1¾" x ½", 80 labels per sheet).

All you have to do is download the PDF (you'll need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it) and print it directly onto a label sheet.  Then just stick the labels onto the sides of your ink pads for easy organization.  You'll be able to stack your ink pads or store them on a shelf and still be able to easily retrieve any color you want!

And, if you want to get really fancy-dancy you can always ink the labels themselves to have a color reference as well as the name of the ink on the side of the case. (EDIT: for dark colors you might want to just edge the label with the ink so the type is still legible.)

How do you keep your ink pad stash neat and tidy?  Share your favorite organization tip in the comments!

Organization 101: Inkssentials Craft Spinner

 
With all the fabulous new releases that will be available at CHA Summer (just a few short weeks away!), perhaps you are finding yourself a little bit stressed? "How can I possibly find room in my crafting space for even MORE amazing Ranger products?"

Never fear! We are here to help you organize your current stash of stuff to make room for all of the new goodies we'll be coming out with!

One way to organize your crafting products is to make use of vertical space. And to help you accomplish this, we strongly suggest using...

...the Inkssentials Craft Spinner!

With this handy-dandy organizer you can keep 8 of your Ink Blending Tools or Alcohol Ink Applicators close at hand, and nice and neat.  You can even use Adirondack Paint Dabbers to color-code the handles so that you always use your red Ink Blending Tool on a red ink pad, etc. Never have a contaminated ink pad again!

But did you know that you can stack multiple Craft Spinners to save even more space on your work surface??

Our customer service department frequently receives calls from customers who want to know: "Why is there an extra piece in my Craft Spinner box?"

Don't throw it away!  This piece is the key to stacking your Craft Spinners!

Check this out:

Unscrew the "Standard" topper on your Craft Spinner, and replace it with the extra rod:

Then take a second Craft Spinner and place it right on top!  (Don't forget to replace the topper!)

Voila!

But why stop there? Why not have THREE tiers of craft tools?

Ta-da! Yep, you can even use the Craft Spinner to hold your Adirondack Paint Dabbers. But that's not all: try using your Craft Spinner to organize your Stickles, re-inkers, Alcohol Inks and more. The sky's the limit!

Well, ok, there is one limit that you should consider: we recommend going no higher than 3 tiers of spinners for stability's sake. But this is pretty cool, right? Think of all the space you just saved on your work surface by building upward!

And as an added bonus, you can even use the leftover toppers as fun embellishments on your craft projects:

Do you have a favorite tip for organizing your Ranger products?  Do you use your Craft Spinner in an unusual way?  Let us know in the comments!