Hey Bloggers!
Last weekend I was fortunate enough to take four classes from Ranger Industries' signature designer, Dyan Reaveley. Dyan hails from the U.K. and travels internationally demonstrating Ranger's products.
Fueled by Diet Dr. Pepper and anything WITHOUT chili powder in it, Ms. Reaveley taught five inspiring and innovative classes during her stay here in Kansas City.
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Dyan and ReNae enjoy a moment between classes.
Dyan says "My mission is to introduce everyone to the fabulous therapy that is art journaling and creating mixed-media art. Art is not the finished result; it is the actual act of creating that emerges when you let yourself play. It is the journey it takes from the soul.
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Dyan's Dylusions Stamps are very popular right now and you may have seen them in stores or have used them in some of your art projects.
They are fun and funny and quirky. All stamps coordinate with each other so you can use one girl's head and other girl's body, and add accessories such as hats, glasses, birds, ants and spiders! Pictured below is one of 30 stamp sets designed by Dyan Reavely. They are simply amazing and so much fun to use!
All hand-drawn by Dyan herself, these Dylusions stamps are particularly useful in art journaling and similar projects. Below is a sample of one of her journal pages.
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| Journal page |
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Class sample
Love the eyelashes! |
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The inks can be used for backgrounds,
or you can put the ink in a water brush and paint an image as shown here! |
Stamper's Ink in Shawnee, Kansas (one of only 3 stops in the U.S.) and store owner Tanya Kostynuk played hostess to Dyan for five days! Tanya channeled her best Dyan when she appeared at one of the classes with a Victory Bun and scarf in her hair! Sisters in another life?
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| Lucy & Ethyl |
I was very impressed with Dyan's teaching style and warm demeanor. I believe she may be one of the finest arts & crafts educators out there!
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| Dyan Reaveley |
Remarkable was the degree of knowledge she had on many of Ranger's products that we use everyday.
She taught us about a plethora of Ranger products, not just her own line, which I found commendable. I learned new ways to use these products and had a ball doing it! We learned new techniques using Paint Dabbers, Dylusions sprays and stamps, and other Ranger products, and created art journals, acrylic canvases, and tags using these techniques.
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| The class was all smiles and ready to learn! |
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| Journal and Tag project (note ghosting technique) |
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| Watercolor paper journal using Dylusions inks and stamps |
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We had so much fun making the Art Journal!
(ReNae & Ann-Marie after class) |
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A class member's old book altered with Dyan's inks and stamps.
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| My large canvas project (using paint dabbers and stencils, pop cans, and sprays) |
In the canvas class I was impressed with everyone's finished products, as even though we all did basically the same thing, we all ended up with very different paintings!
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| Each person selected TWO colors for their canvas |
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Connie Riley stencils her canvas with gesso
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| Gorgeous outcome! And she doesn't ever use blue and red! |
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| Stunning outcome! |
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| This was so BRIGHT in person! |
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| Connie Riley and Dyan Reaveley enjoy a moment after class! |
These classes were simply amazing! I would encourage you to pick some of Dyan's products up if you haven't already, and try out some of the techniques you can find by visiting Dyan on YouTube or Ranger's website.
To see more images of Dyan's work and her quirky wonderful world, check out her BLOG here!
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| My new painting looks great in my craft room! |
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| It fits right in! |
Happy Creating!
ReNae
p.s. Thank you Connie Riley for contributing some of these photos!
9 comments:
fabulous post, Renee and so wonderful to meet you xx
Brill post and you have to meet her to know how special she is. Xxxxxxxxxx she's AWESOME in every way . Lou xx
Thanks Lou! I had to google "Brill" and found out it was British slang for Brilliant!
Cool!
Yes I agree, to have met Dyan was to know how special she indeed is!
I loved every minute of the four 4-hour classes I took!
Oh Dyan, you are the best teacher and I thoroughly enjoyed your classes!
I hope you are able to come back soon!
Looks like you all had an amazing time. Dyan is certainly THE BEST!!!! She has a personality that touches the heart of everyone, and I am lucky to have known her since her early days of teaching. Now that she is teaching all over the world, many more people can enjoy seeing her and learn some of her amazing techniques in class....... You made a fab job of the canvas by the way! Love it! x
Thank you Sue! I really appreciate your kind words!
Hi Renae. Your canvas looks absolutely GREAT in your craft room! You did such a good job! I agree with you that Dyan is one of the best artists we've had at Stamper's Ink. She was fabulous and I learned so very, very much from her and had an absolutely fabulous time doing it. It was fun being in class with you and Terri for the "Anatomy of A Page" class and I think we had a wonderful time together in the large canvas class!
Indeed we did Connie! The weekend spent with Dyan was one of the nicest I can remember! Her style of teaching was something to which I responded well! I enjoyed every minute of it!
I was sure I had left a comment on this post,but perhaps not, but anyway after reading this I placed a order straight away for inks and masks,now all I need is a class with Dyan.
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