Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Whatever your hands find to do....

do it with all your might! That's from King Solomon in the Old Testament and yes....I can find a reason to spend my time making art! Now why didn't they focus on that in Sunday School when I was a child?

I forgot to mention yesterday that everything was inked and colored with Ranger products. I'm busy this week redesigning my studio, so am sharing my entries for the Ranger Design Team. I had just finished the Ink and Embossing Ranger University when the call came out for the Design Team. Having had so much fun at their weekend University (yes, just do it! It's worth every single penny!) I decided to put together some of the things I learned there with some of my own ideas and this was my "layout". You will see.....even a "layout" doesn't have to be flat!

The front is a collage of all my female ancestors. My niece is in the lower right hand corner and just above her are the 4 Moore girls. There are pictures going back 6 generations....including a few of my grandmother's sisters.



I used all white paper for this project, all inked with Ranger products. I titled it "Time to Play" because I believe my ancestor's hard work is what affords me more time to play today. This is a glass slide with a collage between the glass. Too thick to wrap in standard tape so I dipped all 4 sides into colored UTEE. I also used colorwash to give the white silk ribbon this look.



Another square glass piece where I inked the background paper, cut out the photo, then on top of the glass added a charm, used UTEE to seal it all, then stamped into the UTEE.



I know you can't read the text that is over the background paper, behind the photo, but it's the story of my childhood. The little key is embedded under the glass. The B&W photo is colored with distress inks using cut n dry foam nibs....something I just totally love! I even embedded jump rings into the UTEE.



There's a photo inside this little glass bottle, sealed on the top and bottom with silver UTEE. The brass wings were inked with alcohol ink.



And yes...the layout opens up into a 3D "store. I literally took every product from Ranger's online store, downsized it, printed it on photo paper, cut it out, and glued it to wood (dollhouse) shelves to recreate my own Ranger store here. The floor is canvas paper which is inked with distress inks. Now who says a layout has to be flat?



A closer view of my "store" Each tiny photo was inked all around the edges just so the white photo paper didn't show. Yeah...a lot of work.....but so worth it in the end....I made the design team!!!



I used only 3 colors of inks: Butterscotch, Stream and Wild plum. Ranger's glossy photo paper for the walls. I did some resist stamping with the big words, then brayered ink and water over the top and wiped it off with paper towels to get the background look.



Spellbinders has a file folder die which I used to cut these little folders that each contain little squares of samples of different papers that I created using Ranger products. Even the brads were inked up!



A Paula Best stamp over white glossy paper that has been inked using alcohol inks and paper towels. You would think it's a painted background....but it's just ink!



Amazing what you can do with white paper and some ink!

Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might! That King Solomon...pretty smart guy!

2 comments:

Gerrie Johnnic said...

OMG....tu for posting all this, it will take me days to study it all. Wow...

Carolyn said...

Jen, you are so amazing! Unable to be active in your Yahoo group, I take time to read your blog because you are an inspiration...not just the art in you but your daily living. You do make me stop and think and you definitely brighten my day. CONGRATULATIONS...you deserve a seat on the Ranger Design Team.

Carolyn