Thanksgiving Leftovers...better than ever!

Happy Sunday! I'm sure most of the leftovers are gone and it's slim pickin's in the fridge and the reality of the impending Monday is a bummer, so enjoy these fun bits of info and eye candy!The four soldered pieces above have been my latest bit of fun. I've been so wanting to play with these Red Lead Paperworks stamps and I finally had some time to do so. Love the vintage looks and adore the little sayings. I'm word crazy as it is, and to have little words stamps to add to the backgrounds (words are already on them!) and these cute kids...can't go wrong! For the kids I made Tim's Distress Ink(tm) Wrinkle Free Technique, but with a Mini Mister spray of water and Perfect Pearls(tm) to create the pearly sheen. I then cut them out and did a mix n' match of their outfits; since it's on watercolor paper, they seem to have even more dimension. I added the little bit of white opaque pen to "bandanna" them a little bit. I created Distress Crackle Paint(tm) Bandanna Backgrounds. The crackly background makes a wonderful contrast to the pearly color of the Distress inks. All I need to do is add some charms to the bottom (maybe some Swarovski crystals!) and chain on the top, and they're ready to go. These are likely headed to the Red Lead sisters, but I know I'll be making more. If anyone's interested in them, let me know.

Yesterday I spent a day with my buddy Jen Starr and took her Ranger Layout Extravaganza Class. It's quite the class. We made some suggestions and a few tweaks. It was fun to take a class for a change! Now it's my job to pick the pictures to go with the pages and put 'em together.

This picture just makes me smile from ear to ear. Thanksgiving was so wonderful because we were all together-my parents, both my sisters...so all of the kids were together. So they suffer through my begging them for me to take a picture. This was on the first go-even the dog looked forward. How's that for luck!?!?

I also wanted to tell you about my friend Aleida Taddei-Thomas. She's a graduate of Ranger University, both Perfect Pearls and Ink/Embossing. She's extremely talented. She became as obsessed with my Bandanna Technique...she even created Bandanna Stamps from real Bandanna designs! Check out Aleida's Blog to see what wonderful things she creates-she also travels to teach. Here's the Bandanna Plaque I created...she's seen it and it's on its way to Aleida in Texas. Here's some closeups of the letters:

Before I get to the Beady Links, if you've not seen the Bandanna Plaque I made as a surprise for Wendy Vecchi, here it is:

It's not a surprise that it's been done in the only colors that Wendy uses: Vintage Photo and Faded Jeans (only teasing, Wendy!). I also picked up the key from somewhere...I liked its swirly looks and thought it would be neat to allude to it being the "key" to creativity...which Miss Wendy, as well as Jen, Aleida and the Red Lead Sisters Chris and Sharon have-all locked up! Check 'em out! And speaking of checking things out, enjoy the following Bead links from these talented artists. Enjoy the day!

• About.com Jewelry Making Give a double whammy of beads this holiday. Tammy has discovered a group that has great beaded jewelry to give and get that also gives to needy young women.
  Art Bead Scene Only a few days left to enter the Art Bead Scene challenge with the Coffee Haus theme! Get your caffeine on and get moving on a coffee related design using art beads!
• Bead Arts Cyndi is ga-ga over the pictures and information she found recently on Kanzashi, Japanese hair ornaments.
• Jewelry & Beading Two of Cyndi's pieces are in the latest issue of Jewelry Crafts.
• Naughty Secretary Club Grab a left over turkey sandwich and tune into the DIY Network Holiday Special this weekend with oodles of different craft projects. One with Jennifer Perkins making a chunky charm bracelet and necklace using decoupage.
• Pearlesq. Check out Robin's closeup photos of Distress Crackle Paint along with tips and techniques to get the best "crackin'" results!
• Savvy Crafter Last week Candie found herself in a maze of seed beads in Kathmandu. See pictures of her visit to the Indra Chowk bead market…
• Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! It's not too early to start stashing away those hand-made teachers' gifts for the Holidays! You will be glad you did later when the rush is on! Jean shows what she decided to make the teachers (shhh! It's a secret!) this year!
• The Impatient Blogger If you're feeling the holiday stress, take a moment to enjoy a delicious little gem of a movie that'll spark your creativity and make you smile. A kinda movie review from your pal Margot!

Don't Frame Me In!

Hey, all! I've been going crazy at work...Excel sheets, numbers, addition, subtraction....yikes! Because math is not my forte, I always stress over it....so let's look at more frames from the recent Ink/EP Ranger U. I'm so glad every one's still letting me know what's going on. Inquiring minds want to know what all of the Ranger U grads are up to! If you are interested in having someone come teach at your local store, or if you want to find out if one of your local stores has certified teachers there, check it out here!

Here's Claudine Hellmuth's aquatastic frame! She worked with all different techniques on the tiles using the various types of Coordinating Adirondack(r) Colors...she used lots of Aqua/Pool/Stream, as well as some Juniper in there...and then she UTEE'd her little heart out. Here she is double gunning it with two Heatit(tm) Craft Tools! She created a "kitty" silhouette in the middle of the frame with Adirondack(r) Embossing Powder in Stream...it's so great how you can create all different effects with the same colors! The cute Maya Road crown tops it off and gives anyone who looks into the mirror the King Kitty treatment!

Here's one from the very talented (and bratty) Wendy Vecchi! I'm very proud of her not going to her usual color palette of choice, Vintage Photo and Faded Jeans...Wendy, do you have any other color Distress Ink? (hehehe) She did some great effects with Tim's Shabby Chic on chipboard and Distress Crackle Painted the Maya Road Scroll Corners. A neat little trick I showed her was with the little polka dot stamp. To "soften" the defined look of a texture or background stamp, after inking it, stamp off just the outside edges of the stamp on scrap paper. When you stamp it multiple times as a background, it won't look so "block-ey". This is a great technique I learned from the immensely talented Kevin Nakagawa of Stampscapes fame. If you can ever take a class from him, please do. There are so many neat little tips that I learned from him years ago that I still use all the time in all of my stamping projects.

Well, last, but not least for this post, here's Lynne Forsythe's beautiful frame. Lynne's from NH way, manager of the store Generations of Memories...so much fun and quite the spunky one! Lynne's got some wonderful vintage ribbons and lace, which she included in this frame, creating a wonderful collage of Grungeboard, chipboard and ephemera. You can't beat that...plus the flowers! Good job, Lynne!

I'm all ready for my class this Saturday. I love to pull out my beads and make bead mixes...once I get going, then I feel obligated to make them in other colors...just in case....! I hope these ladies will be ready for me...remember, you don't get inky, but man, those beads look tiny after you've been working with rubber! ;-)

Beady Hugs, Robin

Creativity Overload!?

Happy Weekend! I can't believe that Ranger U is almost over already, and it just started! Every time another Ranger U comes around I feel like I'm getting ready for a wedding. Prep, prep, prep-it's over! A wonderful group, too! We've got attendees from: United Kingdom (3), Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Canada (2) as well as New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, Florida, Illinois, Texas and California! And all for the love of Ranger! I always get so pumped with all of the excitement and energy in the room. And the creativity! OMG!

I also wanted to share the talent of one of the attendees, Wendy Vecchi. If you haven't heard of her, watch out. I think you will know who she is, soon!!! The wonderful alphabet exemplar is from Rachel Greig and, of course, Maya Road chipboard, oh, and no surprise...Distress Ink!

Well, I'm absolutely exhausted, so I'm going to crash. I just wanted to share the "creative love"!

Inkingly,

Robin