Mermaids and Sea Scenes

My jaw dropped today when Miranda sent me the link to her latest blog post. She used a selection of my Sea Themed stamps to create some stunning underwater scenes. They are a great combination of focal stamps and background textural stamps.

Love how Miranda highlighted certain segments of Sea Bubbles Set below. Seaweed Set also looks great layered along the bottom in different colors to create a sense of depth.

Love the silver embossing with Seahorse Set as well as the clear bubble accents.

 A very appropriate quote to go with Sea Bubbles, Spiral Shell and Seaweed Set. 

 

This is a stunning use of Dreaming Mermaid. I love what Miranda wrote in her post about the mermaid in the bubble. The subtle eye shadow and blush is cute too.

 

Miranda's first use of Raindrop Set.

The card below is by Wendy. She tells me that she had the idea of combining Rising Bubbles with Left Corner Mermaid since she first saw the new designs. I can see why. They look great the way she put them together! In this card she also used School of Fish Set and Kelp. More details on Wendy's blog HERE

Below are three tags that Eileen sent in today. The middle tag is her first use of Rising Bubbles from my new collection. The bubbles work really well highlighted with white on the top and bottom. The more the white stands out the more 3D the bubbles look. Love Eileen's color work as always. Whether it's fish or flowers the vibrancy she creates always makes me feel good.

Well that's it for now. I look forward to showing you some more examples using the new Water Effects stamps. Bye for now :)

New Water Droplet Stamps!

Hello everyone,

I am very happy to announce the release of a new set of stamps! After getting such a lovely response for my Water Droplet design I decided that I would get to work creating more water texture stamps. It was quite the challenge as I first needed to study quite a bit to get the effect to look 3D. You definitely challenge me as an artist. I like that - it pushes me to become better by stretching what I am comfortable with attempting :)

Here are some of my initial sketches. I began with graphite to get the feel for light passing through water... Then I moved to using pen. To create a good impression when stamped the image needs to be made up of tiny black dots. I'm sure there is a way to do this on the computer but I still hand stipple each image using a point 005 Micron pen...

Yes, the process does drive me a little crazy after a while ;)

A couple of weeks studying You Tube videos and making many many mistakes condensed into a set of six new images that I could feel proud to release. There were several others as well that didn't make the cut. Perhaps next batch - they needed a little more refining. Below are the new stamps!

Falling Droplet Set

Water Droplets 2

 Trickling Water Set

Trickling Water 

 Raindrops

It's always exciting to have a first play with the new stamps when they arrive. Here are my first projects using the new Water Textures. Hope they give you some ideas :) All of the new stamps are available in the Textures section of my website HERE.

Thanks for stopping by!
Ryn

Design Team Inspiration

Hello everyone! I hope you've had a good week and are enjoying your weekend :) It's a cold one here in London, Ontario. I'm looking forward to the weather heating up just enough for the sap to run. There's a great place to go around here for fresh maple syrup, pancakes and sausages. Mmmm...

I have felt very lucky this passed week with many projects coming in from Design Team members Eileen Godwin, Karin van den Broek and Wendy McCarthy. I thought I would post them together here for you to take a look at.

Eileen Godwin

This first three creations are by Eileen Godwin. In this card she stamped African Daisy. Here's her blog post for this project.

I am loving the gentle fade from white to color in this one and the different inks Eileen used on Kelp! Her blog post is here with more details on her process.

Lastly, this piece by Eileen uses Sea Bubbles Set. I like how she used this stamp on the butterflies as well. Beautiful touch. Eileen's blog post for this card is here.

 A close up of the detailing on the butterflies.

  

Karin van den Broek

I'm loving the colors Karin has used in this piece. Selini looks like it's camouflaged with the beautiful background. You can visit Karin's blog post here.

 

Wendy McCarthy

In the tag below Wendy used Water Droplets from my collection. This one reminds me of Fall. Wendy's blog post can be found here with more details.

The card below uses a combination of Butterfly Fish, Leafy Branch and Sea Bubbles Set. Wendy's blog post for this piece.

Below is a beautiful card using Spiral Shell. Wendy's blog post can be viewed here.

That's it for today! Thank you for stopping by :)
Ryn

Leafy Sea Dragon by Shirley

Hello everyone,

I am especially a fan of this card by Design Team member Shirley Deatcher. She has used Seaweed Set around the border (makes a great frame), Sea Bubbles (stamped faintly in the background and highlighted with gel pen) and Leafy Sea Dragon as the focal point. I just love how she tied in the colour of the Leafy Sea Dragon with the background while still making it different enough to pop!

Shirley goes into more detail about how she created this beautiful piece in her blog post. You can check it out here.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Ryn

Stamps on the Way

Hello everyone! I hope you are having a good week so far :)

I am going to be very busy these next couple of weeks. A large shipment of stamps should be arriving in the next few days and I will be cutting and processing all of the new stock. There will be new inventory for the sold out stamps as well as a set of brand new 3D water effect stamps based on my best seller Water Droplets. It´s always a moment of suspense and excitement to make the first proofs of new designs. Each time I haven´t been disappointed by the level of detail that my manufacturers capture in the rubber. I can´t wait!

I also want to show you Wendy McCarthy´s first official post as a part of the Designs by Ryn design team.

She´s used a combination of my designs in this one. On the frame School of Fish Set and Sea Bubbles and in the centre Sprial Shell. I love how she has made the centre simple and elegant while the frame is more like a painting. It´s a neat reverse to what I usually see. This creation is also on Wendy´s Blog Post.

Thanks for stopping by :)
Ryn

Welcoming Wendy McCarthy!

I would like to officially welcome Wendy McCarthy to the Designs by Ryn design team! I am SO thrilled to have her join Shirley, Miranda and Eileen! I feel so lucky to be surrounded by such kind and talented ladies!

You may already be familiar with Wendy's work if you follow the Designs by Ryn Facebook page as she has already contributed multiple projects. I so enjoy her different compositions, colour choices and positive energy. Can't wait to see and share what she comes up with going forward :)

Here is a piece that she posted recently using African Daisy and Water Droplets. 

Wendy has recently started blogging as well and already has quite a few projects posted. You can visit her Here if you would like to check out her work and/or wish her congratulations :)

Thanks for stopping by! 

Ryn

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