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!

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!