The Ranger U Experience

Hello crafters!  I hope everyone enjoyed their Mother's Day yesterday; I know I did!  Today I'm going to share my experience at Ranger U with you all!  Oh my!  It was such an exciting, action-packed weekend it's hard to imagine even where to begin?  I still had that pesky water that didn't want to drain from my ear so I was on massive decongestants on a regular loop so I didn't have a raging earache and migraine the whole time.  Nothing was going to get in the way of me having a good time!  I stayed in a hotel that was directly next door to Ranger which was super convenient.  Every morning it was a quick, two minute walk in glorious weather to our classroom where we were greeted by hot coffee, drinks and donuts! The fabulous Tim Holtz started us out each morning before getting us started on our daily creative journey.  I can't stress to you all how amazing it is to have a class taught by Tim.  Not only are we learning amazing techniques, but Tim's personality and enthusiasm for Ranger products is so engaging.  He gives every ounce of himself in his classes and he's excited to do it so it just ends up being contagious for everyone around him.


Each day we were learning with Tim and we also had some fun classes with Claudine Hellmuth, Dyan Reaveley and Mackie Mullane.  Day one was extra special because we got to wear some super sexy goggles and tour the Ranger Factory aka The Wonka Factory.  Unfortunately there was ZERO photography allowed inside the factory because Ranger has some pretty spiffy machines hiding back there.  It is absolutely amazing to hear and see every step that a distress stain, paint bottle and ink pad goes through, start to finish.  Many things are done by hand because it's just what's best for the product.  So don't get frustrated if your distress ink pad is a little wibbly wobbly when you get it out of its packaging.  Just contact Ranger and they'll send you a new one.

When we got back to the classroom everyone was so excited to start creating.  Tim warned us to pace ourselves because at the end of the last day our brains would be jelly.  We all kind of laughed at him in disbelief, but he was serious!  It's a good thing I took some notes throughout the class because now that I've been home it's hard to remember some details.  Everything we learned was a technique tag other than when we learned melt art and vintaj jewelry.  We came home with SEVENTY tags, not including melt art or jewelry.  SEVENTY.  Each day was divided into sessions and each session was geared towards a certain product in the Ranger family.  We focused on Perfect Pearls, Claudine Hellmuth's studio line, Vintaj Jewelry, Melt Art, Adirondack paints, archival inks and alcohol inks, Dyan Reaveley Dylusions and that was just the first two days!  The final day, the one I was looking forward to most, was all about the Distress!  Distress paints, stains, stickles, embossing powders, markers and of course, ink!  My head was swimming!  The final day after we bitter sweetly finished our last tag, we all received our diplomas and took a large class photo.


 
You could tell everyone was tired but no one really wanted to say goodbye.  Some of us went out for dinner and drinks afterwards but it was really sad to say goodbye to some of the new people I met.  I can honestly say this was a very special and talented group of people.  Sometimes at trade shows you're faced with, well, some cranky attitudes.  Not so at Ranger U.  Each person was so excited and pumped to be there that there was always a smile coming from every direction.  I really enjoyed meeting Meredith from Beadalon, the ridiculously talented Susan Weckesser,  Jim the Gentleman Crafter and Kathie Shepard of the Occasional Artist here in Glendale, Arizona.  (Where I will soon be teaching! WooHoo!)  But again, everyone was so kind!  Can you believe ten out of the twenty four students at Ranger U were from outside the United States?  We had everyone from Canada to Korea; such a fun mix of accents in that class room, let me tell you!

And last, but certainly not least, a HUGE thank you to the team at Ranger. From my experience, Ranger U runs like a very well oiled machine and it is because of all of the time and effort from the people at Ranger.  The factory workers were kind and patient with us as we walked around and most likely got in their way.  Patti and Jackie were right there if we wanted to try making an extra tag or needed a single thing and always with a smile.   I also got sit with them at lunch one day and they both are so sweet and FUNNY!  Charlene did an amazing job at all of the behind the scenes work taking photos, videos and tweeting.  Have you checked out this Ranger blog post she did?  After we were all done with class on the first day she went to the Home Depot afterwards and created an amazing aerial rig for her camera!  SO COOL!  (You can see my hands using the Heat It tool on a pink tag!)   A BIG shout-out to the AMAZING Mario.  Oh Mario, what would I do without him?  If you follow my twitter, you know Mario always makes me feel better at trade shows and it was no different with Ranger U!  He's the kindest person you could ever meet and just has this calming, zen effect.  I think Jesus sent him just for me sometimes!  But alas, Mario wasn't just sent for me...  While our heads were filled with creative goodness, Mario filled our bellies with delicious yumminess!  He made sure we were all well-fed, hydrated and snackified.  And oh my... Square pizza day is something you'll ocasionally hear people talk about in accordance with Ranger U, but I had no idea how good it was.  DELICIOUS.  I'd go back just for the pizza.  (Joking, I'd go back for ANY reason!)  A big thanks to Mackie, Claudine and Dyan for teaching us!  I've never really played with vintaj so it was nice to learn a bit more about it.  Claudine is always just a sweetheart and we learned a TON of amazing image transfer techniques.  Dyan Reavely is so inspiring and makes you feel relaxed about your creating.  I truly enjoyed hearing her personal story and how she came to be a designer for Ranger.  And of course there's Tim.  As I said in the beginning, Tim's willingness to share his creative passion and ideas is refreshing and delightful.  You can truly tell he loves the products he uses so much by the way he explains how he originally thought of them, the process behind it and then the delivery of what comes out of that amazing brain of his.  If you ever have the opportunity, take a class with him. Seriously. SWERIOUSLY. ("Sweriously," {swee-ree-uss-lee} is my way of saying super-serious. Say it out loud and you'll be hooked. Sweriously.)  Sign up early and fast, because in my experience, classes fill up like lightning.  Why?  Because Tim IS a big deal.  Trust me.  You won't regret it.

All in all, it was an amazing experience; One I will never forget and would highly recommend to any other crafter out there.  I will be showing some of the techniques we learned throughout the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned!  The first one I'll be sharing was probably one of my favorite tags we made using Perfect Pearls.  Until then, here are some more photos to show of our weekend!  Enjoy!

Inky Fingers After Dylusions

Jim, The Gentleman Crafter Getting Inked

Kim's Nail Art - WOWZERS!

Distress Marker Tag

Perfect Pearls

Coloring with Distress Markers

 

Square Pizza and Painty Fingers

Claudine Hellmuth Studio Mediums

Tim Teaching

Tim Holtz & Dyan Reaveley

Vintaj Tools & Set-up

Brayer Distress Technique

Claudine Hellmuth Teaching

Coronarita's after class!

Tim, Claudine & Dyan

Coloring with Dylusions Technique

Ranger U - Class of 2013

 

"Fashionably Fast" by May Flaum

 Do you sit and stew over a scrapbook page?  Does it sit on your desk for days, maybe even weeks?  You can't find the right patterned paper?  Maybe your embellishments just aren't working out?  Or you just HAVE to run to the scrapbook store to get that one thing that would make it right?  Ugh.  I've been there.  I've done that.  So when the fabulous May Flaum asked if I wanted to do a review of her book I was SUPER excited!  Let me tell you... this book is packed with invaluable knowledge for the beginner to the seasoned scrapbooker.  Check out my full review over at Craft Test Dummies!

I was fortunate enough to run into May on twitter a few years ago.  I had always been a big fan of her work over the years so I was super surprised when I even got a follow back from her.  Once we started chatting about our favorite, "Sex and the City," episodes and I instantly knew she was just as kind and hilarious as she was talented and creative.

I wanted to do one more layout in addition to the two I made for craft test dummies and decided to combine and re-use some of the tips May gave in her book.  Mostly, I scraplifted myself; I copied my Dalek layout and used it for a corresponding TARDIS layout from our trip to the Renaissance Festival.



I used Dylusions spray inks in London Blue to get that true TARDIS color and then some Ranger stickles in True Blue for the dotty border around the photos.  Everything else is Color Magic by Heidi Swapp!

Enjoy crafters! Please go check out May's book, "Fashionable Fast," with Big Picture Classes!  You won't be disappointed!

New York City: Prequel to Ranger U

Greetings Bloggers!!!  I am back from Ranger U and still trying to get my game face back on!  It was a busy week packed with so many techniques and even more fun and amazing people!  The first leg of my trip as I mentioned before was spent in the Brooklyn with my good Craft Test Dummies buddy, Haley from The Zen of Making.  I had texted Haley a quick and fairly simple list of all the sights I wanted to hit during my short time there.  I admit most of things involved food; Bagels and cream cheese, pizza and black and white cookies.  I arrived Wednesday in the late afternoon and as I got off the subway at Penn Station I promptly fell UP the stairs of the subway station.  Given, I was carrying a pretty heavy suitcase and I made it all the way to the last step before I biffed it on the top landing.  Oh well...

Haley met me at the station and we went back to her super cute apartment in Brooklyn.  We then promptly went out for pizza and a pitcher of Blue Moon in the city which was absolutely amazing and yummy.  We walked around Time Square and I got my middle-of-the-city fix and was able to see all of the rush and bustle of the city that I had missed so much.  At that point I was pretty tired and we went back to her place for a full night of sleep.  In the morning we stopped for scrumptious bagels and cream cheese then walked around Canal Street and some other fun little shops.  I was able to pick up some fun trinkets for my kiddo's before going on my way up to New Jersey to prepare for Ranger U!

Tomorrow I will be doing a little bloggy-blog about the FABULOUS May Flaum's eBook "Fashionably Fast."  And don't you all worry... there will be MUCH more Ranger U goodness coming your way VERY soon!!!

It's Happening!

My whole entire house should be under quarantine.  Last week both of the girls had pink eye and one of them had an ear infection.  Over the weekend the husband and I both had pink eye as well.  Sunday something awful hit me and I was in bed all day as well as Monday.  Tuesday my ear started throbbing to the point where I was a small ball curled up under the covers of my bed.  Thankfully yesterday I got some antibiotics and am feeling a ton better today.  My ear still seems it's filled with fluid but it's no longer throbbing, so that's positive. 

On  a happier note, I leave for Ranger U next week!!!  WooHoooooo!  I'm headed to NYC for a day and will be staying with my Craft Test Dummies pal, Haley aka The Zen of Making.  I'm going to crash with her for a night, take a quick look around the city of some of my favorite sites from the past and then head up to New Jersey for Ranger U that starts Friday.   

I can't be more excited to stopping in NYC for the day.  My father grew up in the Bronx and then went to college Upstate, so every year growing up we would always go to the city for the Fourth of July and then Upstate to see family members.  NYC is the most magical place to me.  It's hard to explain if you haven't been there.  There really is a buzz and special energy about it.  I was very fortunate to have parents that spoiled me wrotten and let me go to countless Brodway shows and found my love for Theater there.  The first thing I would do when I got off the plane was buy a copy of, "Time Out: New York," and when I got home after our trip I would direct and choreograph full musicals and write all of my notes and blocking in the pages of, "Time Out."  I was a TOTAL theater nerd, let's not get that twisted.  I used to tell my parents when I grew up I was going to be world famous choir teacher.

  I also discovered my love for make-up and Sephora stores; there were three large Sephora stores in the city and my parents would let me hit up each and every one of them.  Shu Uemura foundation and eyelash curlers, Cargo double-sided lipglosses, Philosophy real horse hair brushes and Jean Paul Gaultier perfume... ahhhh, the good old days.  Now I'm resigned splurging on Bare Minerals and use regular old Cover Girl mascara.    

My Father and I were supposed to go back to NYC together about four years ago when he passed away unexpectedly.  No one in my family has wanted to go back with me fearing it would be too emotional for them.  Matt, the husband, doesn't want to go because he hates large crowds likening them to cattle.  Going b myself is probably not the best idea.  That's why I'm so EXTRA excited to have the opportunity to go to Ranger U and make a stop in the city for the day.  Not to mention having a good friend like Haley that can make sure I don't get lost. 

Well, that's about it for now crafters!  I'm going to try to update the blog a couple more times before I leave, but will be on silent while I'm at Ranger U.  Make sure to subscribe to my twitter feed though, @SaraJaneCrafts,  because I will be updating from the road over there and sharing some photos from Ranger U!

The Bloggess Book Signing

When I joined twitter a few years ago someone had RT'd (retweeted) the Bloggess aka Jenny Lawson aka Queen Awesome Pants, into my timeline.  I visited her blog and was instantly drawn to Jenny's sailor mouth, insane humor and honesty. I could go on for paragraph's explaining just how awesome Jenny is, but I suggest you just go visit her blog and check her out.

I was fortunate to kind of chit-chat with Jenny on twitter.  She RT'd some of my tweets, and one actually also got RT'd by Jery Ryan aka Borg, "7 of 9," from, "Star Trek."  How awesome is that?  And it was about a bug that could deafen you with its penis.  Even better.  Then there was the unidentifiable taxidermied head she found that we agreed was Mr. Tumnus.

So being a super-amazing blogger it only came natural that Jenny write a super-awesome book.  As soon as, "Let's Pretend This Never Happened," was released, I had to read it.  Lucky for me it was around the time I had to go to CHA and fly by myself.  I have horrible anxiety and being an admitted complete and utter ditz and airhead, travelling by myself and going into unknown situations pretty much turns me into a total basket case. Jenny's book made my flights seem to pass in minutes.  I desperately tried to do the silent laugh to avoid having people look at me, but I think my muffled sounds ended up coming out like fart noises.  Whatever.  I have to say one of my favorite chapter's in the book was towards the beginning when Jenny thought she was being given a psychic magical squirrel by her father.  She had big plans for that squirrel... Hollywood plans.  Then it turned out that her father had stuck his hand up the squirrel's ass like a puppet.

One of my favorite lines from the book is, "... You should accept who you are, flaws and all, because if you try to be someone you aren't then eventually some turkey is going to shit all over your well-crafted facade, so you might as well save yourself the effort and enjoy your zombie books."

If you don't want to read her book by now, you must be clinically insane.  Or totally normal.  Because normal people probably only read things like Readers Digest and the fine-print on prescription bottles. At any rate, you can imagine how excited I was to meet Jenny in person when she was coming to town for a book signing.  Since I had the eBook and I'm saving every last penny I can for NY and Ranger U later this month, I wanted to have Jenny sign something... fun.  One night while rummaging around in the garage I found some old church books that had belonged to Matt's step-sister.  One was titled, "I am a Child of God," and the other, "Prayer."  I thought they were perfect.  I tweeted a photo of them to Jenny and she said that we were going to Hell.  I told her they're Mormon books and Mormon's don't believe in Hell, so I think we would be good.    

I got to the Barnes and Noble about twenty minutes early and it was packed.  I didn't mind there were no chairs so I grabbed an end-cap and patiently waited.  Jenny came in and read a chapter from the book which was about the time she overdosed on chocolate laxatives and her possible rapist cat was pushing love notes and band-aids under the bathroom door... or something like that.

Then came the usual question and answer time and Jenny continued to crack everyone up while giving some pretty darn good advice.  Then it was time to stand in line to get our books and things signed.  I stood and went over all of the things I planned on saying and questions I wanted to ask.  I talked to other people in line about Doctor Who and how the only thing I liked about Amy Pond was the way she said, "Rory." I finally got up to meet Jenny and it was complete and utter verbal diarrhea out of my mouth.  Kind of like the first time I did a video of Tim Holtz at CHA and I made up some word calling him, "Abfanomenable," (absolutely fabulous phenomenal) or something like that.  Good times.  Jenny wanted to read through the, "I am a Child of God," book but I was acting like a five year old pageant girl that just got a yard long pixie stick and couldn't focus.  I should have just GIVEN her the stupid book and had her sign something else I had in my bag.  Like a DSLR lens... how many people have a camera lens signed by the Bloggess?  Ummm... No one. Luckily she opened it and looked at it because I totally forgot I drew a picture of a dalek Beyonce on my iPad once for her after I saw her Doctor Who trading cards and decided she needed an archenemy and a dalek Beyonce was the only logical choice.

After some more verbal diarrhea and me rambling and probably not making any sense whatsoever and snapped a couple photos I said goodbye to Jenny. I stepped outside of the Barnes and Noble and thought, "What the HELL did I just say?"  I resisted the urge to walk back inside to try and convince her I'm not a total space-case, but well... I am.  And I didn't want to come off stalker and crazyish, because that would TOTALLY be a great impression to give Jenny.

When I woke-up in the morning Jenny hadn't blocked or unfollowed me on the twitter.  So I guess I wasn't that bad.  I had a great time and seriously urge all of you to go grab a copy of, "Let's Pretend This Never Happened," and check out Jenny's blog.  It's great.  Seriously.

A special thank you to Copernicus (the stuffed monkey) who held a copy of the book in front of my cleavage.

         

My Love for Basic Grey & Knee Highs Collection

Oh, Basic Grey, how I love you... I can recite my favorite paper lines of yours like William Shakespeare sonnets... from Lily Kate and Romani to Origins and Picadilly; Eva and Offbeat or Lime Rickey and Scarlet's Letter...  I have adored Basic Grey since I walked into my first local scrapbook store.  At that time I was just starting to get into 12x12 scrapbooking and was pretty much only using DCWV stacks (*shudder*).  I remember purchasing Lily Kate and Romani papers for the first time and falling in love with the extremely versatile and gorgeous patterns.  The paper was thick and double-sided and I found myself buying doubles of everything.  I loved their their Wholy Cow rub-ons; talk about premium quality transfers.  And they had that signature font that everyone could instantly recognize and everyone loved.  And over the years they released fabulous tools like the rub-on tool, magnetic mat and chipboard file set.  I had to of course, have them all and ever since then it's just gotten better.


Needless to say, Basic Grey has always been a mainstay in my craft collecting and purchasing.  I look at their collections as being reliable in design and versatility.  I can honestly say I have more Basic Grey paper combined then any other company and even all of my other patterned paper combined.  Proof?  Here's my patterned paper shelves:

Basic Grey has three whole shelves dedicated to itself.  From loose paper and opened collection packs, to the embellishment sticker sheets and then the unopened collection packs I have.  Oh, and it doesn't stop there.  I have a *minor* chipboard hoarding issue:

Basic Grey has two of its own tubs on this shelf from strictly chipboard alpha sheets to chipboard sticker embellishments. When Basic Grey released their Chocolate lines I went a bit crazy.  Fabulous fonts in white, velvety chocolate brown and black.  And don't get me started on the chipboard albums.  I'm actually ashamed to say how many I have of those that have gone unfinished.  What can I say, though?  I absolutely love Basic Grey.  I know I will use them eventually.  Have I used this word before.... VERSATILE?  Yes, gonna use that one again to describe Basic Grey.

I've also hoarded their brads and buttons which again, I keep completely seperately from my other stash because even if I don't purchase one lines' specific color pallette, chances are I already have buttons from another line that will coordinate.  LOVE LOVE LOVE.

Ever since I started reporting for Craft Test Dummies and attending CHA's I've stopped past the Basic Grey booth to, "ooh," and, "ahh," at the new eye candy.  The last CHA in Anaheim this past January I named their new chipboard albums one of my top five products of the show!  Seriously love these things!  Go check them out!  I also had the absolute pleasure of meeting Shara from the Basic Grey team.  Shara was such a happy ray of sunshine to meet and so enthusiastic about the company. Some people can sometimes be *ahem* a tad cranky on the CHA floor; but SO not so with Shara.  She showed me all of the new products and patiently answered all of my questions.  I told her how much I was a fan of Basic Grey and she was kind enough to give me some product to play with! So, today over at Craft Test Dummies I am doing a product spotlight of their Knee Highs collection.  This is my personal favorite of the new releases.  It's bright and happy colors, rainbows, stripes and chevrons make my little scrappy heart so happy.  I urge you to go take a look and definitely check out all of the other amazing products at Basic Grey.  I will be doing spotlight's on all of the other releases from Basic Grey this season, so make sure to stay tuned to the blog and Craft Test Dummies!      

Winner of Distress Inks

Hello all!  Today's winner from the Fall Seasonal Distress Inks giveaway is...  

SHARI! 

Shari was the first commenter and said:

Wow, Congratulations, that is so exciting. I can't wait to see all the tricks you learn at Ranger U! Thanks for the great giveaway, I would love these inks. Shari (cricutrookie)

 

Thanks for commenting Shari!  Please email me at PlainSaraJane@gmail.com your address and I will get these out to you!

Please come back tomorrow and visit the blog!  I'm doing a product spotlight on Basic Grey at Craft Test Dummies and will be doing a little co-post here tomorrow!  Basic Grey is one of my most favorite paper companies and I'm excited to have done a spotlight for it at Craft Test Dummies!