NEW!! Inkssentials Products

 
We've got a bunch of great new additions to our Inkssentials line of products that we are very excited to announce:

From top-left and going clockwise we have:

• The Inkssentials Craft Nib Holder.  We've renamed our Cut 'n' Dry Nibs "Craft Nibs," and we've designed this fabulous holder to make writing, coloring and doodling with them as easy as using a pen or paintbrush!  Ergonomic and sleek, the Craft Nib Holder comes with 2 Craft Nibs, and you can purchase replacement packs containing 10 Craft Nibs each.  Use Craft Nibs to custom color with paints, chalks, dye inks, pigment inks, watermark resist inks and embossing inks.  They are absolutely perfect for photo tinting techniques when used with Distress Inks, too!
• Inkssentials Clear Fabric Medium.  Use Clear Fabric Medium to create custom fabric paints!  Mix it with Archival Ink, Adirondack Pigment Inks, Adirondack Alcohol Inks or even Perfect Pearls Pigment Powders.  Create sparkly fabric paint by mixing in glitter or embossing powder, too!
• Inkssentials Collage Glue Stick.  This convenient, fast-drying adhesive bonds paper surfaces permanently and is ideal for paper collage, photos, ephemera and more.  Perfect for bringing along to crops and classes!
• Inkssentials Surfaces Specialty Stamping Paper.  This unique matte coated paper is perfect for crisp stamping and coloring. Available in both 8.5" x 11" sheets and ATC sizes, Specialty Stamping Paper is the ideal surface to ink, paint, emboss and embellish!

For more information about these great new Inkssentials products, read the press releases for the Inkssentials Craft Nib Holder, Specialty Stamping Paper, Clear Fabric Medium and Collage Glue Stick.

NEW!! Dylusions Ink Sprays, Stencils and Stamps

 
Rolling right along with Ranger's new products, lauching in just a few days at CHA Winter 2012!

A few months ago we announced that we have teamed up with Dyan Reaveley, who is now our latest signature designer!  At CHA Winter 2012 we will be debuting the first entries into her new Dylusions line: Ink Sprays, Stencils and Stamps.

Dylusions Ink Spray dyes are high quality, acid-free, non toxic concentrated colorants for porous surfaces.  It comes in 12 fabulous, vibrant colors:

Use the Dylusions Ink Sprays to colorize paper, Sticky Back Canvas, wood, polymer clay and more. It's the perfect colorant to create backgrounds for cards, scrapbook and journal pages, and to use in mixed media art projects.

And best of all, you can use Dylusions Ink Sprays in conjunction with:

Dylusions Stencils!  Ranger, Dyan, and The Crafter's Workshop have teamed up to bring you these high-quality stencils in both 5" x 8" and 9" x 12" sizes.  There are six different, artistic designs ranging from numbers and letters to intricate borders and patterns.

Ranger has also teamed up with Stampers Anonymous for new stamps in the Dylusions product line! All new Dylusions stamps and existing stamps are now part of the Ranger Dylusions brand.

To read more about the new Dylusions line, please check out the official press release!

NEW!! Tim Holtz Distress Markers, and Melt Art Texture Treads!!

Here we go!!  This week we will be announcing all the fabulous products that Ranger will be offering at CHA Winter 2012!  Are you so excited?!  We are too!

And what a way to kick things off:

Yes!!  Everything you love about Distress is now at your fingertips, thanks to the new Tim Holtz Distress Markers!  These fabulous markers are dual-tipped with a fine detail tip as well as a brush tip, and they come in all 36 Distress colors PLUS White Picket Fence!  They are the perfect choice for doodling, journaling, coloring, stamping, shading and more.  You will be able to purchase these open-stock to grow your collection over time, or as a canister set containing all 37 colors.  Amazing or what?!  Be sure to check out the official press release to learn more about the new Distress Markers.

And if THAT wasn't exciting enough:

We are proud to announce a new addition to the Melt Art line: Texture Treads!  The Texture Treads were specially designed to be used with UTEE and feature a unique mirror-image design so you can achieve a variety of looks and textures just from one Tread.  Pour UTEE directly onto the Texture Tread, or stamp the Texture Tread into UTEE poured onto a Non-Stick Craft Sheet.  You can use Texture Treads with polymer clay, too.  Heck, you could even ink them up and use them just like rubber stamps!  The designs are really beautiful and versatile, and we are sure you'll love them.  The official press release has more information about all six designs.

Check back tomorrow for more exciting product announcements!

Vintaj partners with Ranger to bring you Patinas and Glaze!

 
We've got some pretty exciting news:

Ranger has partnered with Vintaj Natural Brass Company to bring you Vintaj Patinas: opaque inks specially formulated to adhere to metal!  This is very exciting news for all you jewelry designers out there!  This means that you can color Vintaj findings and filigrees (and other metals, too) to your heart's content, creating beautiful patina effects for all of your jewelry and craft projects.

The Patinas come in 15 lovely hues, split into 5 kits of 3 colors each:

Also new from Ranger and Vintaj is Vintaj Glaze, which is the perfect sealing coat for your metal pieces.  Glaze will help to prevent metals from oxidation and it can also be mixed with the Patinas and used as an extender.  It is fast-drying, durable and permanent with a satin finish.

For more information, check out the Ranger booth #1338 and the Vintaj booth #835 at CHA Winter 2012.  Be sure to check out the official press release, too!

Announcing our newest Signature Designer!

Big news!  We are SO excited to announce that mixed-media artist Dyan Reaveley is Ranger's newest Signature Designer!!

If you aren't familiar with her eclectic style, be sure to visit Dyan's blog and be inspired by her vibrant color palettes, playful text, and whimsical imagery.  She will be lending her unique style to the development of a new Ranger craft product line called Dylusions. 

Dyan is already an integral part of Ranger's Designer Team and has been crafting and demoing with our products for years.  She owns and operates a teaching and design studio in Harrogate, England called Art From The Heart, and she says that her mission "is to introduce everyone to the fabulous therapy that is art journaling and creating mixed-media art. Art is not the finished result; it is the actual act of creating that emerges when you let yourself play. It is the journey it takes from the soul."

Please take a moment to welcome Dyan to the Ranger family of Signature Designers, and be on the lookout for additional updates regarding the exciting, new Dylusions product line!  You can also read more about Ranger teaming up with Dyan in the official press release.

Announcing the Winter Seasonal Series of Distress Ink!!

We were amazed at the overwhelming response to the Fall Seasonal Distress Inks, so we've stepped up production to meet the anticipated demand of the gorgeous Winter Distress Ink palette.  And, here they are at last: introducing the three colors of the Winter 2011 Distress Ink Seasonal Series!

This limited edition collection of Distress Inks are a wintery mix of colors just right for the holiday season: Evergreen Bough (a beautiful green with a hint of blue), Festive Berries (a true Christmas red) and Iced Spruce (an incredible greyish blue).



For a closer look at these gorgeous winter hues, check out Tim's video!

These sets are now available, so check your local arts & crafts and scrapbooking stores now!!  Remember, the Winter Seasonal Distress Inks are only being produced in a limited quantity, so when they're gone, they're gone.  Be sure to scoop yours up while you still can!  For more info check out the press release.

We'd like to give away three sets to our blog readers, so for your chance to win, just tell us: How do you Distress during the winter season?  For example, maybe you use Distress Inks for making Christmas cards, or perhaps you decorate ornaments with Distress Crackle Paint and Distress Stickles?  Let us know!!

(11/2 EDIT:  If you are having trouble viewing the video, please click here to view on YouTube.)

Check out Claudine in Somerset Holidays & Celebrations!

 
Check out the latest issue of Somerset Holidays & Celebrations for an article written by Ranger's own Claudine Hellmuth.  Claudine will teach you how to make a beautiful bouquet of handcrafted posies, perfect decor for any special occasion!

Somerset Holidays & Celebrations is on newsstands now!

A Message from Tim Holtz

 
hey bloggers, after the exciting launch last week of the new seasonal distress series, i have to say once again how overwhelmed and grateful i am for it all.  i can't even begin to thank everyone so much for sharing in the excitement and creative chaos this launch stirred up.  so i wanted to share a little background of how the idea of the seasonal distress series came to be.  as you know, i truly love my distress line with ranger.  after being on the market for over 7 years, i continue to use these inks as if they are the latest and greatest.  i'm happy with the palette of 36 colors of distress, but of course there are times when i want a certain color especially around certain seasons.  which got me thinking…i've said it many times, trust your crazy ideas...

so i pitched my idea to ranger, to create a batch of unique seasonal colors for distress inks.  i loved the idea of creating a palette of 3 new colors perfect for the season.  we would create a batch of these colors once a year to release to the market.  these colors would only be available for the season and not be made again until the following year.  being a U.S. manufacturer, adding new products of any capacity has its challenges, but adding more to the already popular distress line had even more.  numbers we're crunched, reports ran, production materials ordered, distributors notified, and schedules made, if we were going to launch this we were going to be ready - at least that was our intention…

to say we were all blown away at the response from all of you would be an understatement.  based off any previous new distress ink launch we produced more than predicted sales.  in fact we manufactured what should have been weeks worth of inventory, but instead it sold out within 6 hours, completely unexpected.  don't get me wrong, i knew it was going to create a bit of a frenzy being limited and all, but 6 hours?  of course once we all realized what was going on, it was too late to do anything about it immediately, but that didn't stop us from trying to figure out a solution.  one of the many benefits of ranger being a U.S. manufacturer is the ability to react quickly, so we began to try to secure more materials, create more dyes, allowing us to make another batch of these seasonal fall distress inks. although it was not part of the initial plan, we want to do our part to meet the demand set by all of you.  so i'm happy to say that ranger is making one more production run of the fall seasonal distress inks to ship out in the next few weeks. i truly appreciate the support from all of you, and wanted to do my best to make sure more people had the chance to get a set of these colors if they wanted.  simply amazing!…

now to answer some of the many frequently asked questions:
- are there going to be reinkers for these colors?  the short answer is no, but the reason is simply because these unique seasonal colors are made in a small batch to create the specific colors i want.  so i had to choose and i would rather have more distress pads available than half the amount if we made reinkers.
- will i be able to get these seasonal colors again?  yes, my idea was to have these colors around for the season.  so next fall, these same colors will be created again and made available for the season (kind of like seasonal fruit i suppose).
- are you making other distress products in these seasonal colors?  i only wanted to create these seasonal colors in distress ink pads.
- since they are part of a "seasonal series" does that mean there are going to be other colors for winter?  yes, i've created a set of seasonal colors for winter as well, and they will be released on november 1st!

well hopefully this has explained a little more about the seasonal series of distress inks.   i can't express my sincere thanks enough to all of you for sharing your creative energy with this launch.  it's been a fun way to bring new colors to the distress palette and i appreciate all of your amazing support and excitement.  guess this idea wasn't so crazy after all - who knew?…t!m

Exciting Product News!

Ranger and Tim Holtz are thrilled to announce . . . drumroll, please . . . a limited edition collection of Fall Seasonal Distress Ink!!  

They come in a stacked set of three rich harvest colors, perfect for your Fall, Halloween and Thanksgiving craft projects:   Seedless Preserves, Gathered Twigs, and Ripe Persimmon.


For a closer look at these gorgeous autumn hues, check out Tim's video.

These sets are shipping now.  Remember, the Fall Seasonal Distress Inks are only being produced in a limited quantity, so when they're gone, they're gone.  Get to your local craft store soon to get yours.  For more info check out the press release.

We think these inks are so cool for this time of year, so we're running a contest to give you a chance to get them.  We'd like to thank 3 lucky winners for their participation on our blog!   Let us know what your favorite regular line Distress Inks colors are and how you use them during the Fall. Winners announced 9/21.  Good luck!

Save the Date for Ranger's 2011 Warehouse Sale!

We are pleased to announce that our 2011 Warehouse Sale will be held on Saturday, October 1st from 9am to 3pm!

For this one day only, a wide selection of discontinued and slightly imperfect arts & crafts and scrapbooking supplies will be available to the public!  And what a deal: many of the items will be priced 50% to 75% off WHOLESALE pricing!!

What kinds of items can you expect to find?  How about stamp pads, glitter glues, embossing powders, embellishments.... and much more!

Just drop by the Ranger headquarters at 15 Park Road in Tinton Falls, NJ 07724.  We're directly across from Applebee's Restaurant off of Hope Road. 

And don't forget to bring checks and/or cash... sorry, but credit cards will not be accepted.

If you're a storeowner, please ask us about bulk discounts!  For more info contact justin@rangerink.com.

See you at the sale!!