Ranger U

Well, I think I have finally got this blog thing figured out, so here goes!!!!!

I just got back from an amazing and very eventful trip to New Jersey where I was one of the lucky 24 who attended Ranger U. I travelled with Leandra from PaperArtsy to Tinton Falls for three full days with Suze, Claudine Hellmuth and of course Tim to learn a whole host of great techniques.

The fun began on Thursday evening when Leandra and I walked into the restaurant across the street from Ranger and two girls yelled over to us "are you Ranger girls?" How the heck did they know, did we have a big fat 'R' for Ranger stamped on our foreheads? No, they just happened to see us leave Rangers office having dropped something off ready for the next day, so they weren't super sleuths that we thought. They kindly invited us to join them and we had a great meal accompanied by a whopping great big jug of pommegranite marguerita!!!! What a great start to this mini adventure.

Day 1. We all eagerly entered the classroom, not really knowing who you would sit next to, but I was really fortunate and sat next to a very talented young lady by the name of Lisa Kettell, she was so funny...can you believe this girls makes her own glitter!!!!.....just amazing! Leandra and Lori also sat on my table, what a great bunch of girls, we all got on so well and laughed so much.

First up, Suze. I've known Suze for many years, she did a fabulous demo at the shop a few years back and she still never ceases to amaze me....what she can't do with UTEE is nobody's business.

She didn't disappoint...we revisited a couple of previous techniques but also dabbled with a ton of new stuff. So, we made nine little samples and they all got mounted ito a great big frame and it looks fab....even if I say so myself. We made moulds, agates, memory frames, we did image transfers, we used Perfect Pearls, stamps , we played with beeswax too, how did this all fit into four hours.....I have no idea but it was a lot of fun.

Next Up...Claudine....what a lovely lady. I had already had a bit of a dabble with Claudine's new

paints and sticky back canvas but I was really ready to learn more about these great new products. Again, we did lots of samples, these were all on tags using the gesso, matt medium and of course the paints. Once we had all the techniques under our belts, we were given a cute little plastic folder to decorate. Can you believe those paints stuck to the plastic folder!!!! I did mix them with a bit of the gel medium but was amazed by the coverage that I got from this stuff. Alas, we ran out of time to finish the whole thing as Ranger had very kindly arranged a BBQ that evening for us. We had a great time chatting to some of our new friends but Leandra and I were so keen to finish our projects that we stayed up until 1.30am to do just that. Of course we did pack a little stash of stuff just in case we had a minute or two for a little play.

Day 2 & 3

Over the next two days, we made the most amazing reference book, compiled of over 50 tags all with a different technique. We covered Perfect Pearls, embossing and the complete Adirondack line...that means alcohol inks, colorwash, paint dabbers, ink pads, pigment pens and Dimensional Pearls. In addition to all this stuff, there was of course the Distress line of products. What a great way to spend three days. At the end of our three days we all graduated from the Ranger University and were presented with our certificates, what the Ranger guys didn't know, was that we had all made paper hats out of newspaper and stamped them with the Ranger logo. It was so funny to see their faces when we all stood up at the same time to don the Ranger boat hats!!!

This was one of the funniest things......Leandra wearing gloves with her blingy rings over the top as the rings didn't fit underneath!!!!!!

During our visit we spent some wonderful evenings with our new friends, here are a few of my favourite snaps!!

One final thing to share with you....some of the girls arrived with a life size, actually it was larger than life size, cardboard cut out of Tim. They had even pierced his ear and used book rings for his earrings...how funny. Here's Leandra, sneaking a kiss!!!

Well, after this epic of a first post, will I ever post again......of course I will!