Welcome!

Welcome to the Designs by Ryn blog! The monthly Customer Creation Challenge can be found above in the navigation menu as well as links to my Shop, Facebook Page and Pinterest. Along the right you will find my Design Team. I hope you enjoy your visit and leave with some inspiration.

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Twinkling Pinwheels (Hibiscus)

A Swap with ColourArte

A few weeks ago I received a personal message from a woman named Leslie on my Facebook Page asking where she could find my Water Droplet stamps. It was a few messages later that I realized that she was the owner of a company called ColourArte. To be honest, I didn't know much about their products. Only that I had seen the catchy name of one of their products online, "Twinkling H2Os".

I thought it was great that she'd contacted me in such a down to earth way and that she didn't flaunt who she was. We got talking and decided to do a product trade. Why not?! I'd never played with Twinkling H2Os and she wanted to try out my stamps. I couldn't wait to combine them with my designs. Especially the Hummingbirds, Moon Wings and Hibiscus stamps...

It's been a great experience so far! My Design Team and I received a generous amount of paints to experiment with. If you've never played with Twinkling H2Os they are basically watercolour paints with sparkle! Each colour arrived in a little lip gloss container. I've tried watercolour paints in tubes before but just couldn't find my groove with them. These are cakes. They come dry. Simply add water and the the pigment loosens up and becomes paint.

Some Unexpected Advice...

My boyfriend took a look at the paints and gave me a valuable piece of advice from his experience painting little figurines for table top gaming... He always painted metallics over a black base to accent the effect. Normal paints over a white base to brighten the colour.

To test his theory out I used black card stock as a base and embossed my Hibiscus stamp in black and gold. The embossed design created little walls which ended up holding the colour beautifully! I wanted to make sure that I got a thick layer of paint down so that the colour would show on the black base. The spaces between the linework acted like little troughs that held a lot of paint.

My father snatched this one before I could finish it as a card. Lol. He said it was done.
It's always hard to capture "sparkle" in photographs. Hope this close up shows the effect. I didn't mix colours for this experiment.

I used so many of their little paints in this that I'm not going to list all of them. So far all of the colours that I've used have shone beautifully! Here's a link to them. I want more... They're kind of addictive in those little lip gloss containers. The magpie in me wants to collect all of them. Lol. My boyfriend stopped me for now ;)

Well that's it for me for now. Thanks for stopping by!

Ryn

Wednesday, July 08, 2015

Give Away Winner!!!

Hey everyone,

50 comments on my last blogpost for the Hibiscus stencil Give Away! That's amazing! Thanks everyone :D

I randomly drew a winner this morning. A big congratulations to... Clavell!!!

"Your designs are amazing!...I love them all and can't wait to see what you design next!!!"

Clavell, please contact me by email with your shipping address and I'll get your stencil in the mail. designsbyryn@gmail.com

The winner for the Paper Crafter's Library Give Away has yet to be announced. I'll let you know as soon as they notify me.

Bye for now!

Ryn

 

Monday, July 06, 2015

Mustard, burgundy and peach...

Hey everyone,

Just a quick one from me today. This card evolved into an interesting combination of colours. I can't say I've ever used mustard, burgundy and peach together before. I like it though! Funny what comes out when you're just going with the flow.

In the background I used my Hibiscus stencil. You can see it poking out here and there but it's mostly just texture back there.

The flowers in the front are my Sideways Hibiscus stamp (unmounted: Hibiscus). I stamped with Versafine ink and painted with acrylics.

The bird is Flying Hummingbird 2. I stamped on a separate sheet, coloured with markers and cut it out to add to the card. Side note: I'm making an unmounted Hummingbird sheet. Coming soon!!!

So much went into this I couldn't possibly explain it all. Still have video making in my mind. Just busy busy with everything else. Will try to get to making tutorials when I can.

Give Away

There's still a Give Away happening on my blog and the Paper Crafter's Library. I'm giving away a Hibiscus unmounted sheet of stamps and my Hibiscus stencil... The draws close this Tuesday night...
If you'd like to participate here are the links:
That's it for now! Thanks for popping by :)
Ryn

Wednesday, July 01, 2015

Spotlight, Give Away, July News... Happy Canada Day!!!

Hello Everyone! HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!

Lots to mention today including a Spotlight over at the Paper Crafter's Library, 2 Give Aways, the June Customer Creation Challenge Winner and July Sales... Here goes!

Paper Crafter's Library Spotlight

 

The wonderful people over at the Paper Crafter's Library have put together a lovely Spotlight for me. So thankful and proud to be up there!

If you haven't come across them online yet I highly suggest visiting. Lots of beautiful projects, new companies, video tutorials and inspiration of all kinds.

Here's a link: http://blog.papercrafterslibrary.com

A Photo Tutorial

To celebrate today's spotlight I wanted to do something special. I sat down at my art table and ended up with two cards and a photo tutorial. Outside it was a sunny summer day which definitely influenced the theme. I combined my Hibiscus and Raindrop stamps and this is the result... Summer rain...

The full photo tutorial and material list for these cards is on the Paper Crafter's Library blog HERE.

 

Give Away 

 

I'm also offering a Give Away both on the Paper Crafter's Library blog and on mine. Please feel free to participate in both! I am offering my Hibiscus unmounted stamp sheet on their blog (see below). Please visit them to qualify for this prize. Details on their blog HERE.
On my blog I am giving away the matching Hibiscus stencil below. To qualify, simply leave me a comment on this post. Please let me know if you found me through the Paper Crafter's Library. I'll randomly draw a winner and announce in a week's time (Wednesday).

 

June Challenge Winner 

 

Thanks to everyone for submitting their projects this month! Loved seeing every one of them as they came in. The July challenge is up on my blog now so please keep the projects coming :) If you are new to the challenge, it is always located in the top navigation bar. HERE is a link to July's challenge.

The winner for the June chalenge is... Elvira Kasirer!

A BIG congratulations!!! Please contact me by email to receive your free cling-mounted stamp or stencil: desginsbyryn@gmail.com

Here are Elvira's makes...



 

Sales for July 

 

Last but not least, here are the stamps that I've discounted for the month of July. I went with a "curly" theme.

Fiddlehead Set - $6.49

Spiral Branch Set - $6.49

Begonia - $4.49
Thanks for popping by! Wishing you a great month of July!!!
Bye for now,
Ryn

July Customer Creaton Challenge