THE RANGER U EXPERIENCE - DAY TWO

Day Two of Ranger U...I made these Ranger U shirts for Hels, Linda and I to wear on our first day.  But my luggage was lost and I didn't receive it until late the first night of Ranger U.  So, we decided to wear them the next morning.

Here are Hels, myself and Linda wearing our Ranger U shirts.  Tim was sweet enough to jump in the picture with us!  The shirts were fun to wear and now we have one more memento from this incredible experience.  It is amazing the bonds you develop so quickly with your Ranger U peers.  These girls are like my sisters.

Day two of Ranger U began like a breath of Spring.  Claudine Hellmuth was pretty in pink as she began our morning session working with her line of Studio line of paints, mediums, gesso, brushes, Sticky Back Canvas and her new Creative Layers Foam and Clear Stamps.  She is adorable!  She has been painting since she was 14 and has always had a fascination with paint.  Lucky for all of us....her paints are awesome!

We did 10 techniques using her amazing Studio Products.  I was one of those people Claudine talked about who thought an acrylic paint is an acrylic paint is an acrylic paint.  After using her product, I now realize that there is a HUGE difference between her product and the other lines I've used in the past.  Her paints are so smooth.  They have a real creamy consistency.  They glide on and the colors are really fun!  I LOVE Claudine's Matte Multi Medium.  It is so versatile!  I use it as a sealer, a glue and for transferring.  Speaking of transferring, we played around with a couple of different transfer techniques using Gesso, one using Matte Multi Medium and one using the sticky side of Sticky Back Canvas and a piece of patterned scrapbook paper burnished together.  

Very fun techniques and they worked every time!  We did some resist techniques using Matte Multi Medium and a Watermark Resist pad. We stamped with her new foam stamps and paint followed by her clear stamps and Archival black ink.  Her new stamps are so signature Claudine!  They are retro-"ish" fun that intentionally don't line up perfectly when you put them together.  It's like you flunked kindergarten coloring...close but not quite in the lines.  Really fun stamps!!!  After our session, we had a little allotted to work on techniques or make a mini project.

Claudine had a display of her work set up when we entered our second day of Ranger U. Isn't it lovely?  Her stuff is so fun!  Check out her faux batik bag.  It was awesome!  She has flowers made out of Sticky Back Canvas and notice all of the things she's made using her Creative Layers Foam and Clear Stamps.  Her style is very unique and recognizable!  I love it!

TECHNIQUE TIME...FAUX BATIK!!!

1.  Brush a thin layer of Matte Multi Medium onto a craft sheet.

2.  Stamp a foam stamp (works better than regular stamps) into the Matte Multi Medium and stamp it onto Sticky Back Canvas.  Create your pattern however you want to.  I used one of Claudine's new Creative Layers foam stamps and imprinted a house design reverse of each other.

3.  Dry the Matte Multi Medium with a heat tool or let it air dry.

4.  Use a small craft stick and put a little bit of Studio Paint on the craft sheet.  Spray water from a Mister a couple of times on the paint. 

5.  Use a paint brush to mix the water and paint together, making a thinner paint mixture.

6.  Spread the paint mixture on top of the Sticky Back Canvas; including over the Matte Multi Medium images.  

7.  Blot the paint with a paper towel to remove the excess.  The Matte Multi Medium will resist the paint and reveal the stamped image.

Isn't that cool?  Indulge me on this...it's not every day that you get to have your picture taken with someone as pretty or as talented as Claudine Hellmuth!

How about a BONUS TECHNIQUE??? (yay!)

GESSO TRANSFER!!!

 1.  Paint your tag with any color of Studio Paint you choose and either dry it with a heat tool or let it air dry.

2.  Spread some Gesso on to the tag using a paint brush.  Don't make it thick but put enough on for good coverage where you are going to do your transfer.  Feather out the edges.

3.  Press your photocopy face down into the wet Gesso and lightly burnish it with your fingers to make sure there is good contact between the Gesso and the photocopy.  (An inkjet photo copy works best.  Just print on regular paper.)

4.  Allow the photocopy to air dry.  Usually around 30 to 45 minutes, depending on how much Gesso you use.

5.  When dry, spray the photocopy paper completely with water from a Mister.  Completely saturate the paper so that it will be easier to peel.

6.  Begin gently rubbing off the paper to get the image below to appear.  Keep lightly wetting and rubbing if you need to so that you can remove all of the paper.  Keep rubbing until all of the white paper is gone.  Some of the transfer may flake off or pull up; so don't freak out if that happens.  It is supposed to.  Notice the bottom of my transfer - part of the ground pulled away.

7.  Once you have removed all of the paper, take a little Gloss Multi Medium on your finger and lightly rub it all over the transferred image.  That will get rid of any little remaining fuzzies from the white paper.

**  WARNING!!!  This is a fun technique but you may not want to attempt this technique using faces or something that you would mind if part of the image lifted during the transfer process.  I like the imperfection because I think it adds interest and character to a piece...but you may not.

The afternoon session was very DISTRESSING!  But, not in a bad way!  

It was ALL ABOUT DISTRESS!  

 Tim took over and we were immersed in Distress:  Embossing Powders, Crackle Paint, Distress Inks and Stickles.  We covered so much about the products and learned 19 techniques in that afternoon!  I was in heaven!!!  Again, I thought I knew a lot about Distress Inks.  But, Tim put a whole new spin on some things.  So now, it's like my Distress Inks are, in many ways, BRAND NEW to me! 

Here are all the techniques we learned.  These are just techniques, not projects but I think the tags are really cool looking!  Don't you LOVE the Distress Ink colors?

TECHNIQUE TIME....DISTRESS INK PHOTO TINTING!!!

You are going to LOVE this technique!

1.  Print a black and white photo on glossy inkjet or laser photo paper.

2.  Tone the background area of the photo by using either Antique Linen or Old Paper Distress Inks.  Only those two colors will work.  Antique Linen gives more of a sepia tone. Old Paper gives more of a greenish cast.  You tone the background by using a piece of Cut 'N Dry foam or a blending tool with one of those two colors on it.  Gently tap the foam pad on the photo and add the color.  Don't swipe it across the picture.  Just tap it add the color.

3.  To tint the photo, decide what object you want to tint.  Just pick one or two objects to tint; not the whole picture.  Swipe a Cut N' Dry nib across the color of Distress Ink you choose to use.  On this photo, I used Antique Linen to tone my background and Barn Door to tint the little girl's dress and bow.)  After you'd swiped the nib across the pad, gently use a small circular motion to add the color to the photo.  It's that simple!

4.  You may want to stamp some text (or other images) for added interest.  If you do, be sure it is Archival ink.  In this case, I used black Archival to add a portion of text to the picture.

I love this technique because it gives so much character to pictures.  I almost feel like I'm bringing the subjects to life as I'm coloring them.  Try this technique and see if you don't agree.

And so ends Day Two of Ranger U.  Several of the girls piled into two cars and we took a mini trip (about 20 minutes) over to the Jersey Shore.  It was getting dark so we didn't spend any time at the ocean but we did see it.  We found a neat little retail area with nice outdoor shopping and restaurants.  We pushed some tables together at Stewart's and enjoyed hot dogs, hamburgers, french fries, Stewart's Orange and Cream and Root Beer.  Right next door was a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.  Of course, NONE of us stopped in there!  R-r-r-r-i-g-h-t!!

Day Three ... Our Last Day of Ranger U ... Tomorrow.