Ranger U 2011 Recap: Day 1

 

Here is Ranger's Education Room, all set for the incoming Ranger U Class of 2011!

And off we go! The first few techniques of Day 1 were all about Perfect Pearls Powders and Perfect Pearls Mists.

Here, the students are learning the Perfect Pearls Powders "lifting" technique. By stamping with Perfect Medium onto cardstock dusted with Perfect Pearls, you can "lift" the Perfect Pearls off of the cardstock to create a negative image!

Our students were given plain black embossed pieces of cardstock, and they colorized them by misting Perfect Pearls Powders with water on the Non-Stick Craft Sheet and dragging the cardstock through the pearly water drops. After drying with the Heat It Craft Tool, additional layers of color could be added, with a final spritz of Perfect Pearls Mists for a finishing touch.

This is an example of the Perfect Pearls Faux Suede technique, which was arguably the students' favorite technique of the day! By "massaging" an unexpected product, Inkssentials Ink Refresher, into black cardstock, the texture of the paper changes to a suede-like pliability, which can then be used almost like fabric to wrap on frames, book covers and more! Perfect Pearls were dusted on to highlight the wrinkles of the paper and make it look like leather before being dried with the Heat It Craft Tool.

After the Perfect Pearls techniques, it was time to learn all about embossing powders! The students absolutely loved our Holographic Embossing Powder, which actually changes color the longer it's heated! The powder first melts into a yellow-green glitter, then into a red-orange glitter, then into blue-violet, so it is possible to create a rainbow effect by heating different areas of your stamped image for longer times. (A vibrant turquoise state is also achievable but very difficult to reach, because if the powder is heated too long it will turn brown!)

After lunch, it was time for Melt Art! Several new Melt Art techniques made their Ranger U debut this year, including Wire Dipping with UTEE, a technique created by Debbie Tlach.

The students were given flowers made of wire, and by dipping them into UTEE melted in the Melting Pot, the petals could be filled in, creating a stained glass effect.

Classic UTEE techniques were also taught, such as Suze Weinberg's Amazing Agates technique.  By melting colored UTEE in the Melting Pot along with a pinch each of Black, White and Metallic UTEE, you can create the look of faux stones!  Students used this technique along with cookie cutters to create shapes of UTEE:

...and Amazing Agate embellishments were also created using Inkssentials Memory Frames and Memory Glass:

Stay tuned for some of our favorite techniques from Day 2 of Ranger U, including techniques for Claudine Hellmuth Studio and Tim Holtz Distress!

Project: Perfect Pearls Bunny Card

 

If you're looking for the perfect card to give to a loved one this Easter, we've got a great new project for you on RangerInk.com!  In this tutorial by Lisa M. Pace, you will learn how to use Perfect Pearls Pigment Powders and Perfect Pearls Mists to create a super cute card with a cheerful bunny.  So hop on over to our website and give it a whirl!

RangerInk.com Tip & Technique: Debbie's UTEE Sea Shells

 
A few weeks ago we did a recap of the CHA Winter 2011 Designer's Challenge entries, including this piece by Ranger's photographer and graphic/fine artist Debbie Tlach:

When we mentioned that those sea shells were actually created out of UTEE, many of you asked how it was done.  So, Debbie was kind enough to create a new entry for our Tips & Techniques page that explains how she made them!

So fun, right??  Debbie's technique can be used to re-create any small object that you'd like to mold for your projects.  Head over to our website for the step-by-step guide and give it a try!

Video: Dyan's Perfect Pearls Technique

 
On Day 4 of our CHA Designer's Challenge recap, we showed off Ranger Senior Educator Dyan Reaveley's beautiful piece, and we commented about how interesting her frame was:

Many of you asked how Dyan did it and if a tutorial would be in the cards.  Well, you're in luck!  On RangerInk.com we have a video from CHA Winter 2010 in which Dyan demonstrates this very technique using the Perfect Pearls Café kit.  Head on over and check it out!

Did you know that we have many wonderful video tutorials on our website?  Whether you're looking for creative inspiration or for new techniques using your favorite products, you're bound to find something interesting in our video archives!

Tim on QVC UK: Ranger Craft Designers Hour

 
Hi everyone!  It seems that a lot of you were able to catch Tim on QVC UK the other day, and a lot of you even made a purchase or two!  For those who weren't able to see the show live, or for those who would just like to experience it all over again, here are some screenshots from the Ranger Craft Designers presentation.

Let's join Tim Holtz and Dawn Bibby for demos and samples of all things Ranger!

First up: it's the Today's Special Value!  The Tim Holtz Inks, Stamps & Surfaces Technique Kit consisted of three bottles of Adirondack Alcohol Ink in primary colors, a bottle of gold Adirondack Metallic Mixatives, a bottle of Adirondack Alcohol Blending Solution, a sheet of mini Tim Holtz cling stamps, a Jet Black Archival Ink pad, an Alcohol Ink Applicator and Felt, a pack of Inkssentials Surfaces Shrink Plastic, and Gloss Paper cards with matching envelopes.  Not a bad deal at all!

Tim demonstrates the properties of Adirondack Alcohol Ink by dripping some of the colors along with Metallic Mixatives onto the Non-Stick Craft Sheet...

... and swiping Gloss Paper through it.

Voila!

Tim then applied some Alcohol Ink to Metal Foil Tape Sheets with the Alcohol Ink Applicator and Felt.

Tim used one of his rectangular Fragments to make a mini-acrylic block for his mini cling stamps and stamped the Archival Ink onto the newly colored Gloss Paper.

Dawn demonstrated our Shrink Plastic by coloring it with a little bit of Alcohol Ink and heating it with the Heat It Craft Tool.  The color intensified and the shape of the plastic shrunk down...

...which Dawn pressed under a Fragment for a few seconds to help smooth it out...

...resulting in a cool little embellishment!  The color of the Alcohol Ink really intensified during the shrinking process, so Tim noted that you might want to do a test run if you color the plastic before shrinking it to make sure the intense color works for you.  If not, you can color the plastic after shrinking.

You can even stamp onto the Shrink Plastic before shrinking to create the cutest widdle iddy-biddy embellishments!

Tim's mini cling stamps were exclusive to this collection and not available anywhere else!  Wow!

Next up: Distress Stickles!

Tim explained that Distress Stickles are made of a chunky mica instead of a fine, blingy glitter, which allows Distress Stickles (a) to have a subtle nostalgic shimmer similar to crushed glass, and (b) to be heat-set for faster drying times.  Here, Tim points out the wider nozzle of the Distress Stickles bottle to accommodate the chunkier glitter.

Tim also demonstrated that the best technique for using Distress Stickles is to squeeze out a little bit and then spread it throughout the area using the tip of the bottle, rather than piping it out in a thick line.

Tim then presented two of his red rubber stamp collections.  The Going Somewhere kit was comprised of tickets, slogans and other imagery Tim collected throughout his travels.  The Eclectic Palette stamps were large collaged images allowing the stamper to easily create interesting backgrounds for ATCs, cards and tags.

A sample of a background from the Eclectic Palette stamps.

Update: the Distress Stickles are now in limited quantities!

Next up were the Inkssentials Cut n' Dry Foam and Felt, as well as the Cut n' Dry Pen Nibs.

Tim demonstrates how the Cut n' Dry Nibs can be used to add ink to stamped images.

Dawn shows how easily Cut n' Dry can be cut to make custom stamp pads!

The Perfect Pearls Cafe kit was next in the line up.

Tim shows off how Perfect Pearls can be used with stamped images...

...or used to color Grungeboard or chipboard letters!

Then came Claudine Hellmuth's Creative Layers stamps.  These coordinating stamp sets are available in both foam...

...and clear sets!

Tim uses Claudine's Studio Paints to stamp an image using one of the foam stamps from the Dwelling collection...

...then stamps over the dried image with the coordinating clear stamp, making sure to keep the clear stamp slightly off-register for a whimsical effect.

Ta da!  So cute!!

And speaking of Claudine's Studio Paints, QVC was offering a set of five of them, too!

Tim demonstrates how creamy and intensely colored Claudine's paints are, and how perfect they are for painting onto....

...Sticky-Back Canvas!  QVC was offering a pack of 10 sheets along with a bottle of Matte Multi-Medium.

Tim shows how Sticky-Back Canvas can be painted on, run through an inkjet printer....

...or even twisted up into flowers!

QVC also offered a Claudine Hellmuth Essentials kit which was comprised of the Craft Bucket, a pack of Studio Craft Sticks, a color mixing chart for Studio Paints, and....

...a pack of Claudine's wonderful paint brushes!

Hooray!  The Distress Stickles set has now sold out!

But never fear, we still have Ice Stickles available! Dawn shows how the Ice Stickles comes in a larger bottle than the standard Stickles due to the large, chunky glitter inside.

...Oh.  Now Ice Stickles have sold out too!  Apparently the UK just loves Stickles!

That was a great hour for Tim and for Ranger on QVC UK!  Thanks to Tim, Dawn, the QVC staff, and to all of you for watching and ordering some wonderful craft products!

CHA Designer's Challenge Spotlight: Day 5

 
Here we go: time for our final installment of Ranger's Perfect Pearls Designer's Challenge from CHA Winter 2011!

We're loving this seaside-themed piece by Ranger Graphic/Fine Artist and Photographer Debbie Tlach!  Debbie actually created those life-like seashells from UTEE and Perfect Pearls powders!  We love that Debbie extended her amazing painterly technique onto the frame as well.

Ranger Senior Educator Wendy Vecchi incorporated her Studio 490 Stamps and Art Parts with Perfect Pearls to create this nostalgic piece.  Read all about it on her blog!

Dina Wakley used Perfect Pens over Claudine Hellmuth Sticky-Back Canvas and then dusted the ink with Perfect Pearls powders to achieve the multicolored journaling technique shown here.  (Dina blogged about her Designer's Challenge project, so be sure to check out her blog for even more detail shots!)

Suze Weinberg dusted Perfect Pearls over UTEE and Beeswax to create the gilded effects shown in this piece, embellished with beads and baubles of all kinds.

Wow, what an incredible week of fabulous inspiration!  It's so amazing to us that we could give these 20 designers the same materials, and yet each piece is wildly different from the next.  Thank you so much to all of the artists who participated.

Was there one Designer's Challenge entry that you found particularly inspiring?  Did any of them give you some brand-new ideas to try out that you never thought of before?  Let us know in the comments!  And be sure to visit each artist's blog as well; we're sure they'd appreciate a note of how much you enjoyed their work!

CHA Designer's Challenge Spotlight: Day 4

 
It's that time again! Let's take a gander at four more entries from Ranger's Perfect Pearls Designer's Challenge from CHA Winter 2011!

Ranger Creative Director and Signature Artist Tim Holtz used his new Configurations tray to create compartments within his frame.  Each little compartment holds its own collection of trinkets and treasures, many from the Idea-ology line, misted with Perfect Pearls.

Here's another great combination of Perfect Pearls and Claudine Hellmuth Studio Sticky-Back Canvas, courtesy of designer Sharon Laakkonen!  Check out that amazing Sticky-Back Canvas bloom!  We just love the pearlized flowers and the way the grass pops off the surface.

Ranger Senior Educator Dyan Reaveley created this amazing piece by painting, misting, and stenciling with Perfect Pearls.  She used some of her super-cute Dylusions stamps, too!  And how about the technique Dyan used on the frame itself?  So cool!

Margie Romney-Aslett's piece has us all a-flutter!  She achieved a beautiful, soft effect by using Perfect Pearls Mists as an accent.  We're really digging the dimensional paper pennants at the top of the frame, too!

Big thanks to all four of today's featured designers!  Be sure to check out their blogs (tell 'em Ranger sent ya!), and check back here tomorrow when we present our final four Perfect Pearls Designer's Challenge entries.

CHA Designer's Challenge Spotlight: Day 3

 
Time to take a peek at four more entries in Ranger's Perfect Pearls Designer's Challenge from the CHA Winter 2011 show!

Cheryl Darrow's piece is an example of how necessity truly is the mother of invention (and of creativity)!  Cheryl's frame was, unfortunately, damaged in shipment when she received it.  Or, perhaps we should say "fortunately," because she recreated her frame using metal instead, and the end result was absolutely incredible!  We love the basketweave-like texture and the rough edges.

Donna Downey's cheerful poppies were made from Claudine Hellmuth Studio Sticky-Back Canvas and sprayed with Perfect Pearls Mists.  How amazing is that wire butterfly, too?

And speaking of butterflies:

We may still be buried under several storms' worth of snow here in New Jersey, but thanks to Cari Fennell's piece, it feels like spring has sprung!  Her incredible butterfly was created using Sticky-Back Canvas and misted with Perfect Pearls.

Ranger Signature Designer Claudine Hellmuth's piece is truly out of this world!  Her four-legged astronauts have space helmets made from Inkssentials Memory Capsules, and the starfield in the background was created with Perfect Pearls Mists.

Thanks to all of the designers for participating in our Challenge!  We've got four more on the way tomorrow...!

CHA Designer's Challenge Spotlight: Day 2

 
Rolling right along!  Today we are shining the spotlight on Ranger's Perfect Pearls Designer's Challenge entries from four more artists.

Ranger's Marketing Coordinator Patti Behan created these beautiful roses out of Claudine Hellmuth Studio Sticky-Back Canvas, and dusted them with Perfect Pearls.  (Patti has a great video on her blog showing how she made the roses, so be sure to check that out!)  Meanwhile, that awesome vase was created by adhering Metal Foil Tape onto chipboard, embossing the pattern into it, and then painting it with Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabbers.  How clever!

Ranger signature designer Jenni Bowlin lends her mercantile flair to this piece, cleanly designed and simply accented with Perfect Pearls.  We love the vintage feel!

Linda Cain was inspired by row houses when creating this intricate piece.  She wrote a great blog post explaining how she created these whimsical houses out of Grungeboard, Memory Frames and, of course, Perfect Pearls.  (Linda has lots of great close-up detail photos in her post, too!)

Paula Cheney thought outside the box... or should we say inside the box?... and transformed her frame into a shadow box!  Those little embellishments are actually set down inside the frame.  Clever or what?

Thanks to all of these talented artists for participating in our CHA Designer's Challenge!  Stay tuned: tomorrow we have four more artists to showcase!

CHA Designer's Challenge Spotlight: Day 1

 
What happens when you gather some of the most talented and well-known designers in the craft world and ask them to go crazy with Perfect Pearls? 

You get the Ranger CHA Winter 2011 Designer's Challenge! 

When we blogged about our CHA booth set up, many of you commented that you loved the look of  the antique doors displaying all of the Designer's Challenge entries, and you requested some close-up shots.  That sounds like a fabulous idea to us, and so, every day this week we will be sharing several of the entries at a time!

Each designer was given the following guidelines:
• Perfect Pearls and Perfect Pearls Mists had to be used in the majority of the project.
• Ranger supplied a 12 x 12" unfinished wooden frame with a piece of black foam core as the background; the finished piece had to remain within the boundaries of the frame.
• The artists were free to add additional texture, layers, elements, colors, imagery and whatever else they wanted to explore.

So let's see what they came up with!  In honor of Valentine's Day, our first four Designer's Challenge entries have a romantic theme:

This heartfelt piece by Jennifer McGuire shimmers and shines: each tiny heart was dusted with Perfect Pearls!  We just love this almost mosaic-like technique.

It doesn't get much more romantic than this lovely floral piece by Lisa Pace.  The flowers are so intricate and beautiful, and we love the patchwork treatment in the background!

"Live, Love, Laugh:" words to live by, courtesy of Richele Christensen.  Richele misted and painted each of the flowers with Perfect Pearls, and she even used Perfect Pearls to gild the frame!

In this piece by Tammy Tutterow, Perfect Pearls were applied to the metal words, and the flowers were also painted with them.  Tammy sprayed Perfect Pearls in the background as well.  And how about that incredible frame, wrapped with pages from old books?  We love it!

Check back tomorrow when we shine the spotlight on our next four Designer's Challenge entries!  If you like what you see here, be sure to visit each artist's blog and show them some love, too!