Grungy Monday 09!

Featuring Special Guest Star Designers

Jennie, the Artistic Stamper

Kaz Hall

Happy almost-June, blog friends! I hope you're enjoying a wonderful 3-day weekend, or if, like me, you're working today, that you'll find a way to treat yourself (I recommend chocolate, but that's just me...). 

Your watercolor stamped art last week was fantastic, and I had a great time visiting your blogs. I know I say this every week, but you guys are SO talented it blows my mind! I learn so much from you every week, and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to admire your work. 

This week, we're heading back to December, 2007, for an easy and probably very familiar technique from the very first 12 Tags series: 

Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas, 2007, Day 10

You've probably seen this technique referred to as "Shabby Chic," and that really is the perfect description of the effect it offers. It's fab for greeting cards and ATCs, but as this week's designers demonstrate here, it's awesome for three-dimensional pieces and wall art, too! 

Jennie

The Artistic Stamper blog

Kaz

The Little Shabby Shed blog

A round of applause for Kaz and Jennie, yes? They ROCKED this technique!

Here's my own piece. I went tropical. Imagine listening to Jimmy Buffet and sipping a pina colada while viewing this. Yep, I'm really, REALLY sick of cold, gray weather.

Please click here for a list of the products I used. 

Ready to get your shabby chicness on? Cool, because I can't wait to see this week's submissions! When you've completed your piece, use the InLinkz button at the end of this post to add your image to the collection. You'll need to have a blog or an online, public photo album in order to participate. 

Please remember, you must credit Tim Holtz for the technique and include a link to his website in your blog post or photo comments section. Submissions that don't meet this requirement will be removed. 

Don't forget to add your photo to the Grungy Monday album at All Things Tim! List Mom Gloria and the awesome artists there are waiting to see your masterpiece. If you're not part of this fabulously supportive and talented group of artists, run over there and join up!

I hope you all have a wonderful, creative week! 

---------------

Drunken Stampers Conjure Up Some Magic!

Well, our Spike is now MRS. Spike, and apparently there's quite a story behind the Las Vegas wedding of our Drunken Stampers co-founder! While she and Jeffrey honeymoon, Peg recovers from the lingering effects of her whirlwind trip to Sin City, and Tash suffers from with sympathy hangover, Tracy and I are holding down the lounge and hoping you'll join us for our "Magic" themed challenge this week!

I think I might have de-vigin-ified a Virgin Mary stamp for this challenge (I have no idea where I got that stamp...). Now she's a crystal-ball-reading gypsy under the full moon. I think she can seriously rock the scarlet and magenta robes, and the blue eyeliner, well, it's a fortune teller kind of thing.

I used a Kitchen Sink Stamps triple-step moon for this, first stamping and masking the gypsy, then stamping the moon in progressively deeper colors of gold Adirondack Dye Ink (Lemonade, Sunshine Yellow and Butterscotch) and then masking that before I went completely nuts with paint and embossing powder. There's all kinds of stuff going on with the background: Adirondack Pitch Black paint, Lumiere paints, Liquid Pearls, a few shades of Stickles... and Golden Glass Bead Gel. That's some cool stuff...have you ever used it? It's gel medium with tiny, clear glass beads mixed into it. For the weird, super textured effect here, I globbed it on, let it dry about halfway, sprinkled it with several colors of Adirondack embossing powder and some metallic silver embossing powder, then heat gunned it until it boiled and bubbled and the powders melted into it. I don't even want to think about the toxic fumes I created.

The crystal ball is an Idea-ology Fragment tinted with Alcohol Inks, with a little transparency face behind it. (Her future looks bright, in case you were wondering... ).

Enough about me. You've got to check out the gorgeous Magic Wand that Tracy created for this challenge! And, once you're sufficiently inspired, come join us! We're looking forward to seeing your magical art, which you can link up at Drunken Stampers anytime before midnight next Friday.

Abracadabra, y'all!

Grungy Monday 08!

Featuring Special Guest Star Designers:

Sue West 

Ellen Vargo

Wow, you guys ROCKED the Color Block art last week! Wasn't that a fun technique? I'm having a blast seeing the variety of beautiful pieces you guys created-- so many brilliant ideas and so much talent! This week, we're back to Tim's blog for a classic that I think you'll love, but first...

***Important Message from Your Hostess!***

I'd like to mention something I think you'll all want to be aware of. In the past week, I've been shown two unique instances of someone in the online art community laying claim to Tim's work as if it were their own. In the first case, an alert blog friend (thanks, Connie!) sent me a link to an online e-Zine where tutorials were all but lifted directly out of A Compendium of Curiosities, but Tim's name was never even mentioned. The second case was a link Mario sent me, where-- incredibly-- a retailer has apparently scanned or photographed Tim's Idea-ology Word Keys and is selling the resulting image as a downloadable file (including warnings about not using it for your own commercial-use products). There's no mention that those keys are Tim's signature products. Amazing, isn't it? 

As artists, we share ideas, we learn from each other and we discover things together. That's a big part of what makes the process so much fun! But, we're also mindful of the fact that when another artist, be it a peer or a teacher, creates a new product or a technique, it's absolutely essential to give them proper credit. We do this to avoid any copyright issues, certainly, but also because it's simply the right thing to do. I know that the legalities surrounding intellectual property are murky, at best, and have no idea how instances such as those I've cited above would be viewed in that arena, but I do know it's disrespectful and often financially damaging to the actual creator when someone lays claim to their work. 

Please be assured, I'm not talking about being inspired by something you see and using that inspiration to create something new and wonderful of your own. That's what we do, and it's awesome! Nor am I talking about the fact that sometimes, two or more people simply come up with the same (or very similar ideas). That's bound to happen in the creative community. I'm talking specifically about people who copy someone's work outright and don't give credit, or worse, take the credit for themselves. 

I've been so impressed with the participants in the Tim-inspired challenges I host-- you guys are great about giving Tim the credit he deserves. Occasionally, though, someone simply forgets to do so. I get that. I forget stuff all the time! But, as hostess of this challenge, it's my responsibility to make sure that the credit, the link back to Tim, is present in every submission. In good conscience, I have to remove any submission that doesn't include that link. I'll always contact the person first, though, and I doubt I'll ever encounter someone who doesn't immediately correct the omission. 

Okay, that's my Public Service Announcement for the week. How 'bout we engage in some artiness?!

This week brings one of my all-time favorite techniques from Mr. Holtz, and that's saying a lot because I've never seen a Tim Technique I didn't like! It's a fun, totally clever way of creating a watercolor image using stamps and Adirondack Dye Ink. Let's hop into our handy Technique Time Machine and visit a blog post from a few years back...

Tim's September, 2008 Technique Challenge

Our Special Guest Star Designers took this challenge to the stratosphere! Check out these amazing works of art from two very talented ladies:

Sue West

Pink Ink

Ellen Vargo

Ten Thirty-Six Arts and Crafts

Ellen put some great "code" in her piece!

I've had such a hard time not posting this next photo until now! Ellen actually gave me the gorgeous piece she created for this challenge when I met her after Ranger U! It's now hanging in a place of honor in my studio, a reminder of a wonderful friend and inspiring artist!

 Yes, that's the one of only Hels Sheridan in the background!

Here's my own GM08 piece:

Please click here for my product list.

I hope we've inspired you to try your hand at this beautiful technique! I think you'll really enjoy the process, but do heed Tim's advice that "practice makes perfect" on this one. It might take a couple tries to get a feel for it, but fear not! You will, and you'll have a masterpiece in no time!

When you've completed your work, use the InLinkz button at the end of this post to add your image here. You'll need to have a blog or an online, public photo album to participate. And, of course, please include a link to Tim's website in your blog post or photo comments section, as we discussed above.

After you link your art here, don't forget to add it to the Grungy Monday photo album at the All Things Tim group at Yahoo! Fabulous Gloria, who owns and moderates the list, has generously given us a place to share our GM pieces there, and the lovely folks on the list will make you feel right at home. Be sure to wish Gloria a happy, slightly belated, birthday, too (it was the Saturday)!

 Okay, friends, go forth and grunge! I hope you all have a fabulous week!
------------------

E-Team Special Misson: World of Color with Stampavie!

Happy Friday, blog friends! The eclectic Paperie E-Team is launching a new challenge series today, called It's Better with Color. And, truly, it is! We're excited to partner up with the designers from Stampavie to show you a variety of ways to add color to some of their great images. Are there prizes to be won? You know it, baby!

I chose Stampavie's "Simon" image for my slightly grungy skater boy card, and colored him with Prismacolor pencils. More and more, I find that I choose pencils over markers for coloring my art, primarily because they're more forgiving. Blending is still a challenge for me, no matter which medium I choose, and the fact that pencil can be erased and redone (over and over and over) makes me love it a whole lot! Plus, thanks to a helpful tip from my friend Cheryl over at Rocky Mountain Memories, I learned to blend out pencil marks using Gamsol (odorless mineral spirits) on a simple paper stump, and that helps polish up my amateur coloring skills.

The background paper here is from Tim Holtz's Retro Grunge Paper Stash, and the "Ollie" letters are cut using his Chip Block die (an "ollie" is a particular type of skateboarding jump). The lyrics from John Gorka's beautiful song, "Furniture," were ink jet printed on regular ol' copy paper. They were "aged" with Antique Linen Distress Ink, as was the newsprint base.

 Okay, let's talk about those prizes!

On Monday, May 23, Daisy from eclectic Paperie will randomly choose FIVE winners from among the comments left at the E-Team and Stampavie Design Team blogs between now and Sunday. Each winner will receive a Stampavie stamp plus some cool eclectic Paperie goodies! The winners will be announced at the eP blog.

The eclectic Paperie E-Team is:

Daisy Sparks, our Fearless Leader

Broni Holcombe

Latrice Murphy

Linda Duke 

Linda Ledbetter (That's me!)

Micki Harper

Sherry Cheever

Starla Nelson

The Stampavie Design Team is:

Kittie

Michelle

Diane

Janna

Asa

Jay Jay

Leann

Monique

Tracy

Here's more good news: All the Stampavie images currently in stock at eclectic Paperie are currently 10% off, and pre-orders for the newest releases will also receive this discount!

Be sure to hop around and check out all the great art and awesome coloring tips from the design team members, and leave them some comment love. I think you'll love the variety of styles you'll see!

Have a great day and a fabulous weekend, everyone! Thanks for stopping by. :)

Gingersnaps Get Scenic!

Over at the Gingersnap Creations blog, we're continuing our month-long partnership with the awesome folks from Technique Junkies! "Scene Stamping," this week's challenge theme, is the perfect vehicle for exploring some of their fab ideas.

I used the "Glitter Stripes" tutorial from the April/May 2009 issue of Technique Junkies for the background of this card. The foreground image is a combo of two stamps-- a mountain range of unknown origin, and the Stampscapes "Cloud with Crescent Moon." I did a little masking to work the imagery together, and colored it all with chalks.

This new Gingersnaps Creations challenge is open through June 12, and we'd love to see you make a scene! Check out my design teammates' brilliant ideas, then share your own. You just might end up being a Ginger Gem!

Grungy Monday 07!

With Special Guest Star Designers:

Jude Armstrong

Wendy Southin

Happy Monday, everyone! You guys created such gorgeous art for last week's challenge, and I'm having so much fun visiting your blogs and admiring your work. You just keep getting better and better!

Before we dive in this week,  I have to ask: Did you see Tim's blog post about District Market, the spectacular new products he debuted at the National Stationary Show in NYC this weekend? He's taking his designs to a whole new place, and it's a place we're all going to love! Check it out if you haven't already-- it's awesome to see Tim revolutionize yet another industry!

For Grungy Monday 07, we're taking a trip to the Ranger Ink website, where you'll find a quick video of Tim demonstrating his Distress Ink Color Blocking Technique! This is such a fun and easy way to create a funky, mod/grunge look, and you can use it for so many projects. Follow this link, and get those mental gears turning:

Tim Holtz Distress Ink Color Blocking

I'm excited to introduce you to this week's Special Guest Star Designers, both of whom absolutely ROCKED this challenge! Check out their amazing work:

Jude Armstrong 

of the Crafts International blog

Wendy Southin

of the Dragonfly Dreams blog

These designers both deserve a trophy for their gorgeous art, don't you think?!

Here's my own attempt at the Color Blocking Technique:

(Click here for the list of products I used.)

I hope you're inspired and ready to do some Color Blocking yourself! When you've created your masterpiece, upload it here using the InLinkz button at the end of this post. You'll need to have your own blog or an online, public photo albume to participate. 

Please be sure to include a link to Tim's website in your post (www.timholtz.typepad.com), and I'd appreciate it if you'd link back to Studio L3, too. 

Be sure to add your art to the Grungy Monday photo album at the All Things Tim group at Yahoo, too! Lovely List Mom, Gloria, has created this awesome way to share your work with the entire list of talented, supportive Tim fans, and you'll love the community there!

Okay, friends, go forth and grunge! I'm looking forward to seeing your Color Block art. Oh, and watch for my Twitter posts this week (under the username LindaLedbetter). I'll be giving away a prize or two from the Big Box of Wonderment that Mario and Tim sent me!

Have a great week!

Thanks to Jude and Wendy for sharing their talent as Guest Designers!

-------------------------------

Drunken Stampers Get All Numerical

You might suspect that because we're Drunken Stampers, we try to avoid anything having to do with numbers (i.e. math, bathroom scales, paying of bills...) but that's not the case. Not always. Okay, most of the time. But, not this week. In fact, we're facing our digit fears head-on with this week's challenge: "By the Numbers."

Basically, you just need to make something-- anything!-- that includes a numeral or two. Algebra skills not required (good thing, too-- I'm still trying to master 7th Grade algebra).

I used one of my favorite Stampotique images-- "Smile"-- stamped it onto scrap paper, scanned it, then fitted the text around it in Photoshop (the font is called "Chiller" and I love it oh, so much!). I printed this onto plain white cardstock and colored the happy little guy with Prismacolor pencils. The background is colored chalk swirled on with cotton. I blended both the pencil and the chalks with Odorless Mineral Spirits (a tip my friend Cheryl from Rocky Mountain Memories and Paper Arts Studio taught me. What a cool trick-- all the pencil streaks vanish!). The background is just rose-toned faux burlap paper.

Okay, your number's up. (Figuratively speaking, of course.) Link up your numeral-festooned masterpiece anytime before midnight next Friday night at the Drunken Stampers Virtual Cantina!

Cheers!

Gingersnaps and Technique Junkies Get Inter-Twined!

Welcome, Blog Friends! It's been a rough couple of days, while the good folks at Blogger worked to get their system back in operation, and I hope everyone's missing posts have been restored and that things will be back to normal right away.

I love a great partnership, and over at Gingersnap Creations, we're delighted to be working with the awesome ladies at Technique Junkies this month!

When I discovered the Technique Junkie Newsletter a year or so ago, I immediately bought every back issue, and it was one of the best purchases I ever made! The editor, Pat Huntoon, has assembled an incredible design team, and with every new issue I marvel at how many great ideas those clever crafters are able to come up with. I delved back into that stack of crafting goodness to find some inspiration for this challenge, and settled on the Watered Watercolor Pencil Technique from the December 2003/January 2004 issue. It's a great combo with this week's Gingersnap Creations Spicy Supply Challenge theme: Twine!

My Gingersnap Creations teammates created such gorgeous art for this challenge, and I hope you'll check it out and then join in! The only requirement is to use twine (of any type!) in your art, and you have until June 5th to submit it. Be sure to hop over the the Technique Junkie site, too, if you're not already a subscriber, and see the (extremely reasonable) subscription options!

Have an awesome weekend!
Linda
----------------------------
I used the cowboy stamp from Tim Holtz's new Wild West set. I cut out the image and mounted it on a piece of crinkled Kraft Glassine that I'd brushed with Perfect Pearls (in the Perfect Bronze color). The red panel is lightly sanded Core'dinations from the Ranger Adirondack collection, and that's mounted onto Grungeboard that was inked with Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain Distress Ink. I installed eyelets in the corners and ran hemp twine through them, and used that same twine for the cowboy's lasso rope. 

Grungy Monday 06!

With Special Guest Star Designer

Gabrielle Price!

Hello, Grungy Monday friends! I've missed you guys! Ranger U was an amazing, life-changing experience, and now that I'm back in the more mundane world, I'm going to dedicate this week to visiting your blogs and seeing your GM work for these past couple challenges. I had all the best intentions of keeping up in the days before and during my trip, but... well, you know how THAT goes! I can't wait to see your art!!!

This week, we're revisiting the technique from holidays past:

12 Tags of Christmas, 2007, Day 8

Remember, be inspired by the technique and use it to create something uniquely your own, like our Special Guest Star Designer, Gabrielle, did!

Gabrielle Price

of the Crafty Thoughts blog

Our second Guest Star Designer for this week had to postpone due to family-related reasons. Fortunately, Gabrielle's piece is gorgeous enough for two!

Here's my own effort:

Please click here for a list of the products I used. 

Between Tim's piece, Gabrielle's and mine, you can already see that there are all kinds of ways to use this cool background technique!, so... what are you waiting for?! ;-)

 After you complete your masterpiece, please upload it here using the InLinkz button at the end of this post. You'll need to have your own blog or an online, public photo album like Photobucket or Flickr to participate.

Please be sure to include a link to Tim's website in your blog port or photo description (that's www.timholtz.typepad.com). I'd be grateful if you'd link back to StudioL3, too.

Remember to add your art to the Grungy Monday photo album at the All Things Tim group at Yahoo, where the sweet and brilliant List Mom, Gloria, has created this fabulous way to share your art with everyone there! All Things Tim is a wonderful, supportive group of craft artists who will welcome you with open arms and a ton of inspiration. If you're not a member yet, join up! It's free and all kinds of fun!

Okay, my inky friends, it's your turn! I'm so looking forward to getting caught up on my blog visits and correspondence, and I wish you a completely wonderful week!

-----------------

Happy Mom's Day, Mom!

Have I mentioned how wonderful my mom is? Patricia Ledbetter ("Pat" to her friends, "Best Mom in the Universe" to me), is the most beautiful woman in the world, inside and out.

Mom grew up in Arkansas, the youngest of four daughters to Kate and Albert. While I obviously don't have first-hand knowledge of her as a child, I expect that she was as smart, warm and gracious then as she's been throughout my life. That's something I've always admired about my mom, actually: Her ability to make conversation with anyone. She's genuinely interested in what other peoples' lives are like,  and makes everyone around her feel at ease.

Mom married my dad, John Ledbetter, on May 4, 1957, and they lived in Little Rock for several years before I was born. In 1966, they packed up everything and moved to a tiny town in southwestern Idaho. I truly don't know how Mom kept her sanity, there in that unfamiliar place, a good 1800 miles away from her family...with a clumsy two-year-old destroying the house at every opportunity (that would be me). She managed, though. In fact, she flourished. And, whenever things got bad, she'd rearrange the furniture. I never, ever saw her give up on anything or let life get her down.

When I was old enough to be trusted with sharp objects, Mom began working at the school in our little town, and throughout her years there was a much-loved assistant in the office. She was, and still is, an active member in the community, volunteering at the library and at her church, entertaining often, still the congenial paragon of Southern Hospitality she's always been.

Mom and Dad celebrated their 54th anniversary just last week, and I'm happy to say, they're both healthy and vibrant and always busy with their hobbies and friends. Mom still rearranges furniture (much to Dad's chagrin) and still inspires me every single day to be a better, kinder, more optimistic person.

So, today I am celebrating my mom, and my own incredible good fortune to have been born to a woman I so deeply love and admire. She is my dearest friend, and I cherish every moment I get to spend with her, even if they are too few and too far between.

Mom will be joining me on the Scrapmap Caribbean Cruise with Tim Holtz later this year, and as much as I'm anticipating the classes and the community and the tropical sunshine, what I'm looking forward to most of all is the opportunity to spend this time with my awesome mother. It's been years since we've had a "Girls' Vacation" together, and we're going to make the most of it! In other words... Look out, cruisers: The Ledbetter Ladies are coming! (And one of us is still a clumsy kid...)

To everyone out there who's a mom, I hope you're having a wonderful day. I don't have kids myself, but I know without a doubt that your job is the toughest in the world. One day each year is not enough-- not nearly enough-- to honor you and thank you. A lifetime is not nearly enough for me to honor and thank the woman who raised me, put up with me, befriended me and loved me unconditionally, no matter how dunderheaded I was acting. 

Mom, you're the best. I love you. 

Drunken Stampers Deal the Cards

Over at the Drunken Stampers Challenge Blog and Casino, we're hosting a Playing Cards challenge this week, and if you listen closely you can almost hear Sinatra singing "Luck Be a Lady Tonight." 

Actually, you can totally hear him! 

I used Tim Holtz's new Poker Face embossing folders for the Queen of Hearts, and colored her with Barn Door Distress Ink and an Ink Blending Tool. The numbers are from Tim's Urban Chic, embossed with white embossing powder. I have no idea where our hopeful young man came from, I'm sorry to say. It's one of those unmounted stamps that's been sitting in my box of stash for a decade or so, from back before I realized I should record the name and manufacturer somewhere! Hopeful Young Man is colored with Prismacolor pencils. 

My Drunken Stamper loungemates did a spectacular job on this challenge-- seriously cool stuff that you NEED to see! We want you to play along, too. Create a work of art that somehow incorporates playing cards (or create a work of art ON a playing card!) and link it up anytime between now and next Friday night. I bet you're going to ace this one!

E-Team Special Mission: Studio 490 by Wendy Vecchi!

Happy Friday, everyone! Today, the eclectic Paperie E-Team is celebrating papercrafting and multimedia goddess, Wendy Vecchi! One of the most-beloved educators and innovators in this awesome industry, Wendy has written four books, produced numerous cool stamp sets and created a line of innovative Art Parts that's an absolute blast to play with!

I used Wendy's Art Parts "Residences" set for this little village. I coated the houses with Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso and used an old credit card as a palette knife to create a faux stucco look. Once that dried, I painted them with a mixture of half Altered Orange and half Traditional Tan Studio Paint. 

The roofs were painted with Distress Crackle in Peeled Paint, then colored over with Distress Stain in Weathered Wood. The little scalloped pieces at the top and bottom are Art Parts from the Sample Pack tinted with Vintage Photo Distress Stain and sprinkled with Terra Cotta Adirondack Embossing Powder. The tiny doors were decorated with Adirondack Embossing Powder in Lettuce. The text inside the windows was stamped from the new Studio 490 Celestial Art set. 

The background is regular chipboard painted with Weathered Wood Distress Crackle, then tinted over with Vintage Photo Distress Stain. The flower is made from Wendy's Clearly For Art Modeling Film, backed with papers from Tim Holtz's Retro Grunge Paper Stash. The face is a little pewter bead that's been floating around in my "parts box" for a couple years!

My E-Team sisters outdid themselves yet again, making some of the most magnificent art I've seen yet! Please hop around and visit them... and be sure to leave a comment at each blog. Daisy, from eclectic Paperie, is giving away a new Studio 490 stamp set, some Art Parts and other fun surprises, to TWO randomly selected winners from among those who comment at each blog. She's also giving away a $25 gift voucher for one lucky person who leaves a comment at the eclectic Paperie blog! We're accepting entries through this Sunday, so take a moment to say "hello" and you just might score some sweet Wendy goodies!

The E-Team is:

Daisy Sparks, of eclectic Paperie 

Broni Holcombe

Latrice Murphy

Linda Ledbetter (That's me!)

Micki Harper

Sherry Cheever

Starla Nelson

Thanks so much for visiting! I hope you enjoy our new projects, and feel inspired to create something yourself with the fab Studio 490 products!

Ranger U, Day Three: I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together...

So, the final day of Ranger U came way too quickly, and brought with it that bittersweet, "Hooray, it's Christmas morning... but geez, tomorrow is just a plain old day again..." feeling. The only way to overcome this, of course, is to ring EVERY SINGLE DROP of wonderful out of the experience, and I think it's safe to say that we all did that. 

Tim "warned" us right at the outset that Day Three would be epic, and he wasn't kidding. "Epic" in the best possible sense, of course. All told, we learned 29 techniques that day. Yes, TWENTY-NINE! It was awesome. We focused almost entirely on the Adirondack line, and by the end of class, I was head-over-heels for these beautiful products.

Adirondack Alcohol Ink Monoprinting with Metallic Mixative. Scribble a little Metallic Mixative onto your nonstick craft sheet, scribble on some Alcohol Ink and Blending Solution. Place glossy cardstock facedown in the ink and twist. Repeat until you love it, and stamp over the background with Jet Black Archival ink. A beautiful and easy technique!

I learned so much my head actually grew in diameter. No, really. For instance...

Did you know that Adirondack Liquid Pearls are permanent and washable on fabric? Can you imagine the gorgeous wearable art you could make with them? You're imagining it right now, aren't you?

Did you know that cunningly hidden beneath the label of every Adirondack Ink Pad, there's a little chart that lists coordinating colors? I didn't. Just peel up the top layer of the label to reveal the wisdom beneath! The most popular 12 Earthtone colors in the line each have a coordinating Light and Bright, and those colors look amazing when used together. 

(Simon Says) Sarah Nelson, Hels Sheridan and Cheryl Grigsby, contemplating Adirondack Inks

Have you ever played with Adirondack Pigment Pens? They're unlike any other marker I've seen. When the ink is wet, it blends beautifully. When it's dry, it's permanent, even on nonporous surfaces like glass and transparencies. The colors are rich and beautiful and yummy.

One of my new favorite, gotta-have-every-single-color products is Adirondack Embossing Powder. It's cool stuff, guys. Think of it as the craft-supply equivalent of an M&M. The center core is pure white, and it's coated with beautiful pigment. The white core means that the colors stay vibrant, even when you melt the powder onto dark cardstock. Also, because of this unique property, you can sprinkle a bunch of different colors into wet ink, melt it, and each individual crystal will maintain its color integrity instead of them all just running together and turning muddy:

(Hels, darlin', don't sniff the Archival Ink. No good can come of that...)

We played with Color Wash and Paint Dabbers and White Opaque Pigment Pens, and all in all, had a completely magical day of creativity. I don't think any of us wanted it to end. But, with a stack of over 80 technique samples to take home and work with, we had plenty to keep us inspired back in the mundane, non-Ranger U world. And so, here we are:

The Ranger U Class of 2011!

And, here's another photo I'll always treasure:

The icing on the Ranger U cake was the magnificent box full of products given to every graduate. It blew our minds! I'm not showing this to brag, but to let you know how incredibly generous the Ranger Ink company is:

My product-stuffed suitcase was one pound under the limit for checked luggage. Whew!

So, I'm now a Certified Ranger Educator, and am humbled and honored to use the title. Between the incredible classes, the lifelong friends I made and the indescribable magic of the weekend, I came away a different person. An inkier, happier person.

What am I going to do with all that education? Well, I have some ideas. Stay tuned...

I want to offer a huge thanks to all the wonderful people at Ranger Ink, Tim Holtz, Mario Rossi, Claudine Hellmuth, and all the amazing students... especially the Airplane Girls!... for one of the absolute best experiences of my life!

I'll be back with one more post later to wrap up the story of Ranger U. Meanwhile, here are a few more photos...

Cheryl and Candy C... two of our Airplane Girls!

 Michelle V and Candy R

The incredibly talented Laura Denison, in awe of the Ranger Ink warehouse. 

 I was so lucky to hang out with the inimitable Suze Weinberg and delightful Sheila Weinstock of Ranger Ink!

Candy Colwell rocks the Perfect Pearls! 

So does Cheryl Grigsby! 

And Yvonne Blair!