I Challenge Thee - Chunky Canvas

Hello!

I'm soooo happy to share my latest "I Challenge Thee" session with Hels.  We found some time to Skype on Friday and came up with another recipe! We realized our last recipe challenge was *three* months ago! Yikes! Time does fly and life surely is busy, but we're back!

Here's our recipe:

* Chunky Canvas (I used 6x6)
* Distress paints
* Tissue paper stamping/collage
* Stencils
* Embossing paste
* Tim Holtz' Alpha Parts
* Tim Holtz' Idea-ology of choice
* 75 minute time limit (we didn't quite make it.... but we tried...)

And here's my finished canvas...

I started by blending distress paint onto the canvas using Cut 'N' Dry foam.  I started with a layer of blues and greens with some white for blending.  Once that layer was dry, I added a little bit of orange, blending it in with the blues and greens.  If I had tried to add the orange before the first layer was dry it would have gone brown, and I wanted it to really be orange.

The second layer of distress paint was barn door red and white drippage down the length of the canvas, allowing the drips to run off the ends and down the sides at top and bottom.  I spritzed the drips with water to let them bleed.  Love this look!

Then I stamped my hand-carved swircle (swirly circle) stamp onto tissue paper using Aquamarine  archival ink.  Cut them out and adhered to the canvas with Ranger's glue 'n' seal (matte).  I love this as a collage medium because it dries quickly with a smooth, matte finish, and I can use a heat gun to speed it up even more.

Next up I added some more stamping directly to the canvas, using my striped square stamps in an alternating pattern, and some bubble wrap with orange distress paint.  I outlined all the additional stamping with white/black pens.

The final layer was to add some texture using the reverse chicken wire stencil and Studio 490 black embossing paste.  I highlighted the texture with some Inka Gold.

I added some measuring tape across the front of the canvas and a curio knob to the top with multi-medium, and finally, spelled out "CReATe" using Tim's alpha parts.

Hope you enjoyed our recipe challenge... be sure to check out Hels' awesome project on her blog... click HERE.

Have a great weekend!

~ ellen.

Distress Paint Play

Hello!

Ever since I got back from Ranger U I've been dying to get some studio time and play with my new distress paints!  I found some time and went for it!  First up, a page in my art journal... just straight-up joyful distress paint drippage and a celebration of time to be creative.

I squeezed out a puddle of all these distress paints across the top of the page and then sprayed with water... let the drippage commence!

 I used a Sharpie paint pen to spell out "creative release" across the top of the page, and outlined with a white gelly roll pen.

And then I used my Dylusions journaling/stamping block to trace the curvy lines down the rest of the page, and journaled all about how great it felt to get messy and creative after months of packing and planning.

Then I started playing with the paints to create some tag backgrounds.  This first group of tags is straight distress paint on the craft sheet, spritzed with water, and tag swiped through.

Then I wondered if I could combine distress paints with Dylusions ink sprays... oh, yeah... it works!

funky fuschia and white distress paint

funky fuschia, lemon zest and white distress paint

2nd swipe through

3rd swipe through

And then... I wondered if the Dylusions white linen spray would "set" over the distress paints.  It's semi-opaque, so I thought it might work... and it did!

I went a little further with one of the tags, doing some stamping with my hand-carved stamps, Dylusions stamps, and some brayering - all with distress paint.

I had a blast playing with the distress paints and can't wait to do more! Hope you have a chance to get painty soon!

~ ellen.

Ranger U - Day 3

Good morning!

Sorry it's taken me a couple days to get back to this - getting back to "real" life has certainly kept me busy!

Day 3 was ALL about distress products! So we had ALL day with Tim.  We started with distress inks, then distress stains, distress embossing powders, distress paints and distress markers.  Here's just a small sample of some tags we made.  Sorry it's blurry... crappy cell phone pic.  (Must get new cell phone... I'm due for an upgrade, and the camera feature alone *needs* an upgrade.)

When we got to the distress embossing powders, Tim was telling us that the best thing about the disress embossing INK is that it smells like cinnamon!  So, of course, everybody picked up their ink pads, opened them up and smelled them!  Yep! Cinnamon! Who knew?  Here's a pic Marjie took of me and Jim... sniff, sniff!

Now I must confess, I was *most* excited about working with the distress paints because I held off on buying them *just in case* I got in to Ranger U.  So this was my first time working with them... I can honestly tell you... they live up to all the hype!  They are completely different than the paint dabber paints!  The applicators really do work - paint flows out easily, blends beautifully, reacts with water, and is permanent when dry. Everything that you've been hearing is absolutely true!  We were lucky enough to be given several of the colors and I can't wait to play with them! If you're holding out on buying them... just give up and get them already... you'll love them!

This pic is actually from Day 2... Jim Hankins wore a white shirt and had everyone sign and do art on it as a souvenir... brilliant! Here's Marjie doing some stenciling...

And here's the finished product... gorgeous right?  That's Tim Holtz' handprint in the middle - how awesome!

Here's the silly class shot.  Love the faces some people made... it pretty much sums up how you feel at the end of Ranger U - a little slap-happy! The experience is totally amazing, but completely exhausting! 80 techniques in 3 days.  (not complaining!)

After we wrapped up, a group of us went over to Applebee's for dinner and drinks... here's a couple shots from dinner...

Jim and Marjie... so cute...

Annette Green (FL) and Karen McInnes (Australia)

Karen from Australia brought boxes of Tim Tams for everyone, and they were delish, but she also brought Caramello Koala Bears... OMG... to DIE for... yumm-o!! Thanks Karen! 

Well, folks, that's a wrap! I can't tell you enough how wonderful the experience was.  It lived up to all my expectations, and the people at Ranger were ALL so friendly, generous, helpful, dedicated, and you just get the feeling that everyone you met was truly happy to be working there.  What a gift! And most of them have been working there for MANY, MANY years.  And still happy.  A rare and beautiful thing to see - hats off to everyone at Ranger and a big thanks for a wonderful weekend!  I'll never forget it!

Best to everyone... sad to say that my artful posts will be few and far between.  I'm now going to be living in the land of packing.  Our settlement for our new house is the first week of June... so I've got one month to pack up my life! Yikes!

Til next time...

~ ellen.

PS - I will try to take some better pix of the technique tags from Ranger U.  It's really hard to take pix while you're there - you're just too darn busy trying to keep up! :)  

Ranger U - Day 2

Hello!

I'm back to share some more of my Ranger U experience.  I've actually made it home safe and (somewhat) sound.  Here's a recap from Day 2...

We started the morning with Claudine Hellmuth and her Studio line.

We got to work with her studio paints, mediums, gessos, and stencils.  We worked through several technique tags, doing transfers using gesso, multi-medium, paint, and even sticky back canvas.  We also did some collage, straight stenciling, resists, color blending and more!  Here's a shot of me and Claudine.  I hate having my picture taken at the best of times, but standing next to the tiny and gorgeous Claudine?  Well... anyway...

Then it was time for Ranger's famous Square Pizza Day!  I must admit I had my doubts... I mean how special could it be... pizza is pizza right?  OMG... I was wrong to doubt!  It was *DELISH* ! My fav was the buffalo chicken pizza... but the sausage and peppers was to die for, too!

After lunch we got more "Tim time" to learn about the Adirondack line, which included dye inks, paint dabbers and alcohol inks.  The pace was starting to pick up because I didn't manage to get any pix of this session.

And after that, we finished the day with the awesome Dyan Reaveley!  As you know I've been lucky enough to take several classes with Dyan, and honored to be part of her Design Team.  That said... any time with Dyan is FABulous, and she didn't disappoint.

We learned about her ink sprays and how they are formulated, how they are different from Color Wash, and then did a bunch of technique tags, building up the layers with each successive tag.  I thought this was great because it gave us a chance to repeat techniques multiple times, building on a layer each time.  Good teaching.

Time for a story... as you've gathered, I was lucky (so I thought, LOL) to be seated next to Jim (the Gentleman Crafter) Hankins. Jim and I met at CHA and when we discovered we were both going to Ranger U, I was happy to know someone and have a friend going in.  On day 1, we were sitting dutifully learning and listening when I felt a light *misting* of water hit me... mmmm hmmmmmm gonna be interesting... so I spritzed back... this turned into a regular occurrence... but it's water, so no harm, no foul.  HOWEVER.... during our time with Dyan, I felt a full-on spray on my arm... didn't think anything of it... but when I looked down... nope, wasn't water at all... can you imagine what a full-on spray of FUNKY FUSCHIA ink spray looks like!?  I was a cross between brusied/beaten and a burn victim!  Can't believe we didn't take pix...  It's all faded away now, but for half of Ranger U I was sporting some serious color!  LOL!

Here's our group inky hands shot after Dyan's lessons....

Anyway... we ended our day with Dyan, learned how she draws the fabric patterns in her new couture stamps - tricky, but once you get the idea it goes pretty quickly!

Another long day of learning!  A big group of us went out for Chinese food and then went back to the hotel to crash and rest-up for Day 3!  Stay tuned... I'll be back tomorrow with more... but now it's back to reality... heading back to the day job today.  I'm sure there will be a mountain of paperwork and loads of emails to catch up on.  But I wouldn't have spent those 3 days anywhere else!

Thanks for stopping by!

~ ellen.

Ranger U - Day 1

Hi everybody!

I made it! I'm here at Ranger U!  I've got a little time before heading over for Day 2 so I wanted to do a quick post to capture my experiences so far while they're still fresh.  It's a completely overwhelming experience (in a *good* way!) so I'm sure by the end of the day today I will have forgotten some of the detail...

I got here on Thursday, no problems, and met up with Jim (the Gentleman Crafter) Hankins' friend Zandra.  We went to "collect" Jim from the airport, and then we headed over to Scrappers Cove in Milltown, NJ!  Awesome store with lots of our favorite goodies, and of course we *had* to support the local economy, right?  Here's me and Jim... he's such a sweetie!

Then we drove back over to the Ranger area and met up with Marjie Kemper and Annette Green for dinner at Applebee's.  It's so awesome to finally *meet* the people you see in blogland in person.  Both Marjie and Annette are so, so nice. I'm happy to be sharing the Ranger U experience with them!  Here we are at dinner... (from L to R: Zandra, Jim, me, Marjie and Annette).

After dinner we all headed back to our hotel rooms to get plenty of rest for Day 1.  Was so cool to come into the classroom and find all of our curriculum binders all laid out for us.

The first thing we did was take a 45 minute tour of Ranger's warehouse and factory!  OMG... I am a *huge* fan of shows like "How It's Made" so I was in heaven! To see a line of stickles, going from a huge blue vat and being pumped into a machine where all the little bottles are lined up like soldiers, getting "Holly" stickles pumped in, applicator tip applied, lid screwed on, and sent on down the line into another huge bin for packing and shipping.  COOL!!!  And we all got to take a little bottle right off the production line!  :)  Mario took a few pix in the warehouse portion of the tour...

Then it was back to the classroom to get started!  We started out working with perfect pearls.  We dusted, painted, spritzed and sprayed lots of different samples, learning about all the ways they can be used either dry or wet.

Then it was on to embossing... learning about ultra fine, regular and Ultra Thick embossing powders and how each type will give a different result, depending on what you're working on.

Then we got to play with the girls from Vintaj and their brass pieces combined with Ranger's patinas.  LOVE.  We worked at a very fast pace and I had to finish some of my pieces back in the hotel room.  Trying to work fast with tiny little jump rings was not a good combo for me... kept dropping my teeny tiny jump rings on the floor - oops!  I'll take pix of the finished pieces when I get home - phone pix just aren't doing them any justice at all, but they are gorgeous.  We did faux enamel pieces using the melt pot, learned about some of Vintaj's other tools and reliefing blocks.

Had a lovely lunch of deli sandwiches and ate outside at the picnic tables.

And the afternoon was all about melt art!  Molds, cookie cutters, stamping, texture treads and more!   Again, there wasn't time to take pix during the class so I'll have to update you on the details when I get home.  But here's a shot of our foursome with our agate UTEE hearts... hard to see the detail but trust me... they rock!

And, finally, we ended Day 1 with the Ranger BBQ.  Burgers, GOOD NJ hotdogs, salads, cookies, beer and wine (yay!).  A great time was had by all and it was nice to be able to visit with some other students and learn about their part in this awesome industry.  We've got people from Korea, France, Spain, Holland, Australia, New Zealand, and of course the US.  I love the international component.

Will *try* to take more pix today - promise!  Better get moving - meeting up with Jim, Marjie and Annette for coffee and breakfast in 10 mins! Yikes!

More to come - stay tuned!

~ ellen.

Ranger U... Here I Come!

Good morning!

Just a quick post to say... the day has arrived!  This morning I leave to drive north to New Jersey to Ranger U!!!  So excited for what I'm sure will be a totally amazing weekend!  Thanks to *everyone* for all your enthusiastic support and excitement on my behalf.  This blog world is such a powerful thing... I've made some of my best friends ever.  :)

Here's a couple more journal pages to tide you over til next time.... enjoy!

Have a great weekend!  "See" you soon!  I'll try to post pix from Ranger U on Facebook... keep an eye out...

~ ellen.

Dylusions Journal Pages

Hello!

My weekend away at Stamp Camp was wonderful, and much needed... I did manage to do some pages in my Dylusions Journal so wanted to share some of them with you...

This first page was just an expression of my night at the theatre with Mom. The background is layers of paint scraped on with an old gift card.   All the bold writing was done with a sharpie paint pen, and the smaller journaling was done with my Fudeball pen.  I collaged some elements from the Playbill onto the page as well.  What a great memory...

This next page just makes me laugh a little.  Sometimes you just want to cut through the negotiations on how to get something done and just say this... out loud... haha...  Once again, background is done by scraping layers of paint onto the page with an old gift card.  Lots of collage elements added, and the border was done with a big Montana paint marker and a white gel pen.

The last page made me giggle, but this one actually made me a little sad.  There's something about this person (is it a man or a woman?) that just spoke to me.  I gave him (her?) a cactus hat with a bird on top, and used my Poetry Prompts to create the journaling, and I promise, I didn't cheat!  I picked 5 pieces from the bag and this is what came out!

This last page was done in my ledger journal.  The background was done with a base of paint, painted on with a baby wipe, then added a layer of stenciling using both paint and Wendy Vecchi's embossing paste (for the chicken wire stencil).  Then I painted the flower using Golden fluid acrylics, outlining and refining the flower with the Fudeball pen and a white gel pen.  Journaling was done with black sharpie paint pen and white gel pen.  Clearly I still had some songs from "Les Miz" running through my head (and I still do!).

Hope you enjoyed the pages.  I have a few more to share, but you'll have to wait.... more to come.

Have an awesome day!

~ ellen.

Update on our House Adventures

Hello!

Wanted to pop in and give you all an update on our adventures.  It has been crazy busy around here! Since early February, we have been preparing our house to put it on the market.  Lots of pre-packing, de-cluttering, trips to storage unit, trips to the dump, cleaning, organizing and home improvement projects going on.  Well, on March 30th we put our house on the market!

Just three short days later (really, only two since Easter Sunday was a holiday), we got an offer!  With a few adjustments and a counter offer, the contract was accepted and signed by Friday! Phew! Six days from market to contract!  All our work paid off!

THEN.... that same Friday night, we went to look at a house that had just come on the market.  It's in the area of town that I grew up in, it's close to my mom and my sisters, 15 minutes from work, and seemed to have all the elements we needed, and we knew it would go quickly.

We LOVED it, and submitted our offer the next morning.  By Sunday afternoon, our offer was accepted!  So, in the span of 8 days, we put our house on the market, sold it, and bought another one! WOW!

Many of you have probably seen this on my Facebook page, but just in case... I'll share it here.  This is a picture of my new studio!  Can you stand it?  (I can't believe it!)  Windows, skylights, natural light, and it's just beyond my wildest dreams.  I would've been completely happy with a finished, or even unfinished, basement, but this?  OMG!

This week has been consumed with scheduling inspections, gathering paperwork for the bank, and generally running on adrenaline to get everything turned around quickly, all while trying to keep things under control at my "pay the bills" job.

These are all GOOD issues to have.  Busy, busy, busy, but in the end we will have a new house, in a new location, which will fit our lives so perfectly!

Tomorrow I'll head to work for the day... after work I'm going to my Mom's and we're heading downtown to see "Les Miserables" at the theatre.  This will be the fourth time we've seen Les Mis - it's our all-time favorite show.  Then, I'll take Mom home and drive to my twice-a-year "Stamp Camp"!  I'm so excited to get there because I'll actually have time to CREATE!  And I'll get to see all my lovely art friends.

Then it's back to work next week... and the week after that?  OMG... it's time to head north to New Jersey for Ranger U!

It's been a wildly busy year so far, but so exciting to be working towards so many dreams and seeing them come true!  Sorry I haven't had much to share artistically, but hopefully my weekend away will change that.  Hope everyone is enjoying Spring.

~ ellen.