TastyLinks Saturday with Bonus Ranger U Images!

Making art requires the willingness to get your hands dirty!

Inks brushed across tags with foam applicator creepy girl stamp and flourish accents in archival.

Alcohol ink pens on transparencies. One is glued with Glossy Accents and the other with white paint. I sprinkled alcohol ink blending solution to make the splots.
Various colored embossing powders hand sprinked for a tie dye effect. I love this stamp!
I want to do this one on a big piece of furniture. It's a resist with paint dabbers and masks. I love the silver over these hot colors.
Layers of inks with a mask...nice colors here!
Some of my tags!
Alcohol inks with stamped archival in black.
Adirondack pens on frosted and embossed class...so fun!

I got my camera back! Above are some shots of what I learned at Ranger U! I'm still processing things! Tim and Claudine did tags, Suze had us make a little shadow box frame which is super cute but I don't have a handy pic of Suze or Claudine's samples so I'll pop them up later. We could do the technique with the colors we wanted and use stamps we liked...(I brought stamps from home so I could use materials I use regularly...again I will point out that my tags are not super cute because I was going 'off book' and experimenting with every technique we learned. It was so much fun!

And without further ado..it's time for my weekly Linky Love Shower! Grab your slickers and your wellies and get ready to splash in some crafty puddles!

Yippee!

Here's your weekly sampling of TastyLinks: All the good blogs wrapped up in one!

About Family Crafts Check out photos of home-made Father's Day cards and submit your own photos to this gallery.

Aileen's Musings Aileen offers you another printable freebie...a word sheet for you to download and use in your art . . .

Alexa Westerfield a.k.a. Swelldesigner Alexa shares several craft projects that she has every intention of eventually making.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world Craftside has the latest episode of Look, Learn & Create featuring William F. Powell showing us some great methods of mixing paint colors, and there is an explanation of the different types of clay, how to plan a business, draw an outline for an illuminated letter, and finally how-to's for beading and embellishing filigree jewelry from Karen and Ann Mitchell.

Crafty Princess Diaries Have you heard of the book Weekend Sewing? Tammy offers some tips for making copies of the patterns in this new book by Heather Ross.

CraftyPod Sister Diane's latest podcast is all about how to write a great craft blog.

Cross Stitch at About.com An unsettling project has Connie in a contemplative mood. What do you think of this project?

Mixed Media Artist Let's do the twist! Cyndi demonstrates a fun way to paint fabrics with a surprise ending.

Naughty Secretary Club Jen gets crafty with wallpaper! A review, how-to project and contest to win a copy of Wallpaper Projects.

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery Modern Sweater Surgery Toilet Paper Cozy Inspired by the new book- Felt Furnishings by Anne Kyyro Quinn

The Artful Crafter Eileen helps a reader who needs to start her Christmas crafting early with instructions for a beaded glow-in-the-dark star ornament.

The Impatient Crafter Ranger has a three day intensive university and Madge has the 411 after spending a weekend getting fully certified! Inky and crafty goodness was enjoyed by all!

Ranger U

I spent the past three days at Ranger University. I'm now officially a fully certified Ranger Instructor. It was three information packed days of techniques and products taught by crafty rock stars Tim Holtz, Suze Weinberg and Claudine Hellmuth. We learned, we played, we explored, we questioned...and in true Madge fashion I made a ton of glorious messes. We made manilla tags as we went along of many of the techniques for reference later. A lot of folks made pretty tags, embellishing each one perfectly into a miniature work of art...but every technique made me wonder...what if I did this...or that...or added this? Therefore I have a bunch of pretty ugly tags...but a brain full of great ideas. Since I don't have to hang my tags up a store, it's okay! I took a ton of pictures...which I'd love to share...but I left my camera there. Oops. I promise to share later...scout's honor!

Ranger U is a three day 9-6 intensive overview of the Ranger product line. You leave with product and with ideas and fully certified. You learn synergistic techniques that integrate a variety of products you can apply to your specific disciplines. It's an amazing experience! You can go here to read more and to apply.

I was completely exhausted at the end of every day. It was so much information to process and I literally collapsed in my hotel room after dinner at around 9 each night. I'm still exhausted today, but there are a lot of ideas percolating in my brain. I wish they sold everything in gallon sizes, because I'd like to distress my furniture and my walls! I want to crackle and ink my supply drawers, emboss and paint my new TV stand...color wash my curtains...I'd distress the whole house if I could! I'm sad my new book isn't mixed media focused, because I've got some great ideas for making beads and jewelry. The bonus for you is that I'll be sharing them here and in my videos. I find it hard to concentrate on stringing beads these days when there are crafty potions to be brewed and new mixed media techniques to discover.

Thank you so much to all of the wonderful folks at Ranger for inviting me back. Thanks to Tim, Suze and Claudine for the creative inspiration. Big thanks to Patti and Mario for all of your hard work supporting the classes. Thanks to Robin Beam for introducing me to the wonders of Ranger products. It's kinda like Willy Wonka with crafty products instead of candy...which is like all the best stuff wrapped up in one glorious three day weekend!

Until tomorrow...craft on with your bad selves!

xoxo,
Madge