Many Thanks for 2012!

Hello everyone! I don´t have many written words to share with you today but I do have a video. I made it this morning to say thank you to everyone who has supported my stamp designs in 2012. It´s been a pleasure to correspond with you online and to see your beautiful creations!!! From the bottom of my heart thank you :)

Blog candy winners!

Hello everyone! I hope your week is going well so far :) Last week was my first company spotlight and I am so thankful to the Paper Crafter´s Library for featuring Designs by Ryn. I was admittedly a little shy at first to publish my story so openly but am very happy that I did! Your comments both on the Paper Crafter's Library and my blog touched me deeply. Thank you for taking the time to send such encouraging wishes my way. I was speechless!

Today I would like to announce the winners of last week's blog candy. On the Paper Crafter's Library the winner of Water Droplets, Circle Cluster Set and Celtic Star 2 is Pat Taylor! From my blog post I would like to congratulate Lucy on winning Ornament Faerie, Celtic Dove Set and Heart of Light! I hope you both enjoy creating with these stamps :)

Today I am headed to São Paulo by bus. 16 hours of travel time but that feels like nothing after the 72 hour bus trip that I took across Canada last month before leaving to Brazil. Last weekend I met some wonderful distant relatives from Brasilia and went to the family country house. It was like a jungle of tropical plants! I went walking through the garden with one of my family members and we both picked a plant to paint. I was fascinated by a leaf of bright greens and pinks. I'm not sure of the name... I'm very inspired by all the different leaves here. Thinking maybe new stamp designs? We'll have to see ;) For now, I have a watercolour painting to share with you. It was a first attempt as I haven't painted from life in years! Hope you enjoy it.

Paper Crafter's Library Spotlight

A big THANK YOU to Andrea for offering me a company spotlight on The Paper Crafter's Library. Thanks and a warm welcome to everyone who is visiting my blog for the first time as a result :)

As you probably read in the Paper Crafter's Library I am offering some blog candy! There will be a draw on both their blog and my own for a set of three stamps. Simply write a comment on each post to be entered into both raffles.

This candy will include: Ornament Faerie, Celtic Dove Set and Celtic Heart. On the Paper Crafter's Library I will be offering Water Droplets, Circle Cluster Set and Celtic Star 2 through their site.

Here's a picture of this blog candy! Thanks for your comments! Much appreciated :)

I've also got a couple of cards to show you. I had a lot of fun with paint and layering the stamps. When it was obvious that the page wouldn't work as a whole I cut it up and formatted it into two cards. I used watercolours and Memento inks for the Sea Bubbles Set stamp. Free flowing fun.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Don't forget to pop over to The Paper Crafter's Library. I will have an updated biography up there beginning at 8:00AM tomorrow (Friday) as well as three more stamps up for grabs.
Ryn

Stamps on the Sidewalk

It's Sunday night and I'm sitting down with a tea. Seemed like a good quiet moment to try my hand at blogging again. It's something in between keeping a Facebook page for the stamps and a personal journal. Both are now pretty much habits for me. I find this a little confusing as it seems to be smack in the middle of both outlets. I'm interested in so many things - what do I "talk" about? How much do I share of myself? lol, I'm sure I'm over thinking it and one day I'll look back at this and smile at how shy and inexperienced I was ;)

My current idea is that I plan to write about anything to do with art. What inspires me visually, what creation I am dabbling with and of course anything stamp related.

So, that brings me to this blog post... It's been a beautiful Fall here in Southern Ontario this year. A gorgeous symphony of colour was in full force during the last couple of weeks and now the cold rain is helping the leaves to the ground.

I went for a walk one morning after the rain and found a surprise on the sidewalk. The colour had soaked out of the fallen leaves and had stained the fresh concrete beneath them. I couldn't help thinking that this was mother nature's version of stamping! I took WAY longer than expected to get to where I was going because I had my camera out and my nose to the ground the whole way!

Here are some of the pictures I took. I think the layering effect is just gorgeous! Along with the texture in the sidewalk and the muted colours they really remind me of mixed media paintings...

I moved this oak leaf aside to show the stain left beneath it

I couldn't believe how defined the edges of some of the leaves were! Some even had veining...

These cones are from an Alder Tree. I guess this effect isn't limited to leaves. These cones had more than enough pigment.

The horizontal texture in this photo was made by car tires. Even more layering!

Love the depth that was naturally created by some leaves staying put longer than others before they were brushed away by pedestrians or the wind.



My experiment at home...

 

After my walk I was inspired to see if I could create the same effect at home on watercolour paper. I used no extra ink - just some wet brown leaves that I had picked up on my walk. I soaked a piece of 140 pound water colour paper with a wet paper towel and did the same to the leaf. I then closed the book and put a heavy weight on top to keep the leaf pressed flat. This is the result! I moved the leaf so that it's imprint could be seen at the top.

I think next time I might soak the paper and secure it to a board while wet. This will minimize the paper warping from some areas being wetter than others.

That's it for now :) Hope you are enjoying the changing of the seasons as I am.
Ryn

Christmas Cards in August

Hello everyone,

This passed weekend I finally got around to playing with some of my new faerie stamps! I put business on hold and my step mother came over for a "create date". I so needed a day of laughing and creating!

I decided to use Ornament Faerie to create a Christmas card and started with embossing her in black on some iridescent white paper that I have - unfortunately, I don't remember what kind of paper it is. I'll keep my eye open because Tombow markers blend beautifully on it and the iridescence shines through whatever colour you apply! I added colour to the edges and blended in with water. I then added Glossy accents to the holly wings to add some texture.

  

From there I chose papers that I felt matched well and outlined the borders with Stickles, glitter glue. I also added some Christmas ribbon that I had behind the image to break up the rectangle frames a bit. A technique that Shirley Deatcher does really well!

  

I used a pair of my Fiskars scissors to cut the bottom edge off the front of the card leaving it a bit shorter than the back cover. I then added a band of gold to the inside so that when the card is closed it shines behind the cut edge. When the card is open it adds a little bit of interest to the inside of the card. I saw my step mother do this - she is a very artistic person who has taught me much along the way - and loved the look of it. I think it ties the front of the card in with the inside to create a unified piece. 

There you have it! She ended up way more traditional looking than I had first thought but I like the end result :)

It was funny timing... Shirley wrote me that night as well to show me a piece that she had made with Ornament Faerie. I guess we were both creating at the same time! I'm posting a photo of her creation. She blogged about it earlier today as well. Shirley's Blog

Thanks for stopping by for a look at what I'm up to :)
Ryn 
All of my stamp designs are available here:

www.designsbyryn.com

A sneak preview of my new Faerie Stamps!

Hello everyone,

I guess this is my very first blog post! To be honest, I've been a little bit afraid to commit to blogging on a regular basis. There are always so many things to do with running this business that I keep finding excuses not to take the plunge. The release of a new set of stamp designs seems to be a good place to start. Deep breath... Here I go!

I've seen so many blogs - many of them maintained by my customers - that are beautiful and very polished looking! If any of you have advice for me along the way I would love to hear what you have to say :)

I hope you enjoy this sneak peak! These stamps should be available on my website Designs by Ryn in a bit more than a week from now.

 I'm quite pleased with the texture in Dragonfly Faerie's wings. To me, it looks as if the light is catching them and they are shining.

 Harp Faerie uses the same technique in the wings as Dragonfly Faerie. It worked too well to only use once! I also added little tufts on the wings and a feather - Why not? Faeries don't live within our world's set of rules. I can't wait to make something with this for my musician friends.

 Dancing Faeries was inspired by traditional dance forms in which individuals link arms and celebrate together. I had lots of fun giving them different hair styles. As they are Autumn faeries I made their wings of leaves.

 In Ornament Faerie I was originally going to have her holding a garland of holly leaves and berries to match the wings. No matter what I did I couldn't get the scale to look right so I went through some old sketches and found this ornament that I had planned to use another year. Voila! It worked! She's on her way to decorate a Christmas tree.

 Hugging Faerie just makes me smile and feel warm :) I think this stamp will go wonderfully with some of my snowflake designs from previous years. I imagine them sitting in the snow maybe with a sentiment like, "Sending hugs your way".

 Acorn Faerie is a set of 3 individual stamps. The idea behind this was to have the acorn and oak leaf separate from the main stamp so that they could be used as embellishments. This faerie has just finished removing the top of the acorn to be used as a beret like hat and is giving the nut to her little chipmunk friend.

Dancing Faerie Set is also a set of 3 individual stamps. They are detached copies of the  faeries in the stamp Dancing Faeries. This is for those of you that want the flexibility of placing the faeries where you would like them to be. They go together in different configurations or can stand alone in a scene.

I hope you like the new designs! I look forward to hearing what you think :)
Bye for now,
Ryn