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!!

New Products On Their Way!

 
Great news!  Many of the new product releases announced at CHA Summer 2011 are making their way to your local craft store, including Tim Holtz Adirondack Snow Cap Mixative, Tim Holtz Distress Stains (including the new, opaque white Picket Fence Distress Stain), Inkssentials Black and Kraft Surfaces (ATCs and Tags), and Perfect Pearls Mists!

To get your creative juices flowing, here are some of the sample boards we brought to CHA, which feature these products:

Perfect Pearls Mists:

Adirondack Snow Cap Mixative:

The captions read, from left to right:
• "Combine with Alcohol Inks on Ink Applicator Tool to create softer, pastel color effects."
• "Mix with Alcohol Inks on Non-Stick Craft Sheet to create an opaque wash."
• "Drop onto metal with various colors of Alcohol Inks and heat to create a faux patina. Colors used: Stream, Juniper, Lettuce."

24 new Distress Stain colors, in addition to the 12 previously released:

Opaque white Picket Fence Distress Stain:

The captions read, from left to right:
• "Picket Fence."
•"Use to marbleize with other Distress colors."
•"Use to create a pastel wash over Distress."
•"Use to layer over papers for a shabby effect."

 Inkssentials Surfaces Black and Kraft ATCs and Tags:

We know it's so hard to choose, but which ONE of these new products are you MOST excited to add to your stash, and why??

Somerset Studio Magazine Feature: Perfect Pearls

 
Check out the July/August 2011 issue of Somerset Studio magazine...

...for an awesome feature on Ranger's Perfect Pearls and, specifically, our Perfect Pearls Designers' Challenge from CHA Winter 2011!

The article is full of gorgeous, detailed photos of eight of the projects created for the Designers' Challenge, along with blurbs that explain how each of the designers used Perfect Pearls in their work.  Featured artists include Tim Holtz, Claudine Hellmuth, Jenni Bowlin, Wendy Vecchi and more!  Be sure to pick up a copy and get inspired!

NEW!! Melt Art

 
Last but certainly not least in our previews of our CHA Summer 2011 product debuts:

We've completely updated and refined the Melt Art product line!  Melt Art now has an edgy, bold new look to appeal to a wide variety of crafters.  By melting Melt Art UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) or BeesWax in the Ranger Melting Pot, you can create three-dimensional stamped projects, unique jewelry, home decor pieces, mixed media artwork and so much more!

The line consists of:

• The Ranger Melting Pot.  So incredibly versatile, it can melt UTEE, embossing powders, BeesWax, soap, hot glue, and other meltable mediums.  It can even bake polymer clay!  A non-stick spatula is now included with the Melting Pot as well.

• UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel).  Once these large particle embossing enamels are melted in the Melting Pot, you can dip Shrink Plastic, chipboard, wire, glass and more into it to create amazing embellishments!  UTEE comes in Clear (1 lb, 8 oz, and 4 oz jars, by volume) and 3 oz jars of White, Black, Platinum, Bronze and Gold (meant to be melted into a Clear base to colorize it).  You can also pour melted UTEE directly onto your Non-Stick Craft Sheet to stamp into, or pour it into....

• Mold-N-Pour!  By kneading together equal amounts of each of these two putties and then pressing pretty much any object you desire into it, you will create a custom, permanent, flexible, re-usable mold of said object!  The possibilities are truly endless with Mold-N-Pour, and each package contains enough putty to make several different molds.

• Melting Pot Project Pan.  The Project Pan perfectly fits into your Melting Pot and allows for low-temperature melting of things like....

• Melt Art BeesWax!  Available in both Clear and Natural, these beeswax pellets can be melted down and then brushed onto mixed media artwork.  You can also color them with...

• Melt Art Heat It Inks!  These heat-safe inks are used to color BeesWax as well as Clear and White UTEE.  These are brand-new to the Melt Art line and are available in two sets: Brilliant Gems (Garnet, Citrine, and Sapphire; a basic primary kit) and Organic Gems (Jade, Coral and Turquoise).  Use these colors to create amazing jewelry: when used in a White UTEE base they will make opaque faux gemstones and when used in a Clear UTEE base the faux gems will be translucent!

So what do you think??  Are you excited to start Melting, Dipping and Pouring with Ranger Melt Art?

To learn more about the Melt Art redesign and the brand-new Heat It Inks, check out the offical press release or visit Ranger at CHA Summer 2011, booth # 731.

NEW!! Claudine Hellmuth Studio Products

 
We're happy to introduce some exciting new products in the Claudine Hellmuth Studio line that will be making their debut at CHA Summer 2011!

First up:

The same creamy, artist-quality Studio Acrylic Paints that you know and love are now available in convenient mini-kits of 5 colors each!  These would be fabulous to bring along to classes and crops, or to accent images that you've created with Claudine's Creative Layers Stamps, or just to sample colors that you may not have tried before.  There are three beautiful color combos to choose from.  Pictured above is the "Urban" kit which includes .5 oz bottles of Smidge of Blue, Classic Teal, Painterly Pink, Yellow Pastel and Traditional Tan.

Also available:

The "Contemporary" kit includes Purple Palette, Sky Blue, Altered Orange, Dash of Red and Charcoal Black.

And last but not least, the "Metropolitan" kit includes Dab of Yellow, Modern Red, Landscape Green, Sable Brown and Blank Canvas.

Also new to the Studio line:

Black Gesso!  Now you can prime your papers, canvas, chipboard, fabric, wood and more with black opaque coverage while giving a little "tooth" to your surfaces so that they will accept paints and other mediums more easily.  It even remains flexible on fabric!  Available in a 4 fl. oz jar, and also in...

...the new Claudine Hellmuth Studio Mini Art Mediums kit!  Just like the Mini Acrylic Paint sets, the Mini Art Mediums are convenient and transportable, and they easily add versatility to your craft and painting projects.  The kit includes .5 oz bottles of Gesso, Black Gesso, Extra Time Slow-Dry Medium, Gloss Multi-Medium and Matte Multi-Medium!

For more information about the new products in the Claudine Hellmuth Studio line, check out the official press release or visit Ranger at CHA Summer, booth #731.