My piece for 2015 Ranger Designer Challenge…

I’ve got a confession. I’ve always wanted to do the Ranger Designer challenge. I see the amazing things people make and I always thought it’d be cool to be asked. They display these pieces (all focused on a single product/line) at their trade show booth and it is always a favorite of mine to see.

Well… last November I got the call. I then stared at a blank canvas for something silly like 2 weeks unable to bring myself to make anything even though I had a vision almost immediately of what to do.

The focus was on Dina Wakley Media products, and I got to thinking about using just a few… and ended up using every single one except red. I sketched on this canvas. I added paper layers. metal. alllll kinds of things and initially very little color.

If you follow me on instagram (@may_flaum) you get all kinds of sneaky peeks into my happenings here.

What intimidated (and made me determined to work on my lack of skills) me was that I really wanted to doodle. Sketching with gesso helped me formulate my plan. The use of layers worked well for me. Once I got my petals down and my many things glued down it was just time to color and play.

I played. Then I painted and painted more.

I even painted + cut out “color” from cardstock. Yeah, my own handwriting. Then more texture. More colors. More play.

I was so very happy with this finished piece and I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at the absolutely wild canvas I made. Thank you to Dina Wakley and the Ranger Ink crew for inviting me to take part. It truly was an honor and my pleasure to spend so many hours crafting this.