April's Review	Chris' Review	Penny's Review	Tammy's Review	Pomaika`i's Review

Review by April

Ranger is well known for producing a variety of quality inks and other innovative craft products and they never fail to amaze me! I get excited every time I hear we might get the chance to review one of their fabulous new products and this time I was completely blown away. Claudine Hellmuth, a nationally recognized collage artist, has teamed up with Ranger to create an entire line of craft products sure to get your creative juices flowing. Ranger sent ScrapFriends a sample of goodies from the Claudine Hellmuth Studio and I couldn't wait to play with everything!

For this review I received the following from the Claudine Hellmuth Studio:

• * One package of five 12"x12" Sticky-back canvas sheets
• * One package of seven Claudine Hellmuth Studio Artist Brushes
• * One 4oz jar of Gesso
• * One 4 oz jar of Multi-medium Matte Gel
• * Six 2 oz jars of Semi-gloss acrylic paint in: Charcoal Black, Classic Teal, Blank Canvas, Painterly Pink, Modern Red, and Landscape Green

The 12"x12" Sticky-back canvas sheets are the perfect size for scrapbooks and have self-adhesive backing. You can color them with inks, paints, dyes, markers, crayons, pens, and really just about anything. The sheets are easy to cut with scissors or die cut, and can be adhered to paper, metal, wood, plastic, glass, chipboard, etc. They are acid free, can be primed with gesso, work great with a heat tool, and the glue on the back stays sticky even after using wet media. The Studio Artist Brushes can be used with acrylic, oil, or watercolor paints, and they come in assorted styles and sizes. There are four round and three flat brushes in the set of seven, and all of them have durable and resilient bristles. The Multi-medium gel is offered in matte and glossy finishes, and has a variety of purposes like gluing, image transfers, sealing art, creating glazes and extending Claudine Hellmuth Studio Paints or other paints. It is acid free and archival, and it dries clear and does not yellow. You can use Claudine's gesso to prime any surface for painting, it is acid free and archival, and it has a chalk like finish. It's easy to create different background textures with this gesso and a lot of fun to work with. Claudine's Studio has an entire line of 15 different highly pigmented semi-gloss acrylic paints. Each paint is acid free, archival, and is available in 2 oz jars. The studio paints can be used as is, mixed with water to create watercolor effects, or even mixed with Multi-Medium to create colorful glazes.

For my first project, I used a round piece of cardboard that I retrieved from one of my daughter's toy packages, and ripped small section away so you could see the corrugation underneath. I covered the top surface of the cardboard with 2 coats of gesso; one to prime the area, and the second to add texture. Then I used the #4 artist brush to paint the inside of the corrugations with Claudine's landscape green acrylic paint. After the paint dried, I squeezed a small amount of glue into the painted corrugations and then sprinkled on some glitter. I printed my largest photo directly on a sticky-back canvas sheet and then used a glitter pen to outline different features in the picture. I adhered the larger jewels by pressing them down into dabs of wet glitter glue and then letting them dry. To complete the project, I used a glittered transparency, lace, ribbons, flowers, chipboard, stickers, and lots of glitter glue!

Title: Flower Fairy Glow
Products used:
Sticky-back canvas (Ranger: Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Gesso (Ranger: Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Semi-gloss Acrylic Paint (Ranger: Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Paint Brushes (Ranger: Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Glitter Glue (Ranger: Stickles)
Patterned Paper (Prima: Product Packaging)
Glitter (Art Glitter Institute)
Flowers (Prima)
Glitter Transparency (Prima)
Lace (Fancy Pants)
Jewels (Prima: Build a Bauble)
Stickers (Making Memories)
Round Cardboard (Toy Packaging)
Ribbons (Personal Stash)
Glitter Pen (Sakura)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

I started my second project by painting a thick coat of black gesso onto a sheet of sticky-back canvas. I used an old gift card to create different textures in the gesso. I peeled off the back of the sticky-back sheet and stuck it onto a sheet of patterned paper. I used a distressing tool to rough up the edges a little and then placed a strip I had trimmed off the canvas towards the bottom of the page. I painted the back of some paintable transparencies using Claudine's blank canvas acrylic paint, and then I embellished the front of them with rub ons and glitter glue. I only had white flowers, so I used some charcoal black paint to paint the flowers so they would match the page. Since the die cut crown strip had black felt on the front and was sticky on back, I flipped it over, peeled off the protective backing and sprinkled red glitter all over the sticky part. Even after painting the canvas sheet with gesso, it was still easy to write on so I added white doodle dots with a pen around my photos.

Title: Holiday Royalty
Sticky-back canvas (Ranger: Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Gesso (Bob Ross: Black)
Semi-gloss Acrylic Paint (Ranger: Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Paint Brushes (Ranger: Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Glitter Glue (Ranger: Stickles)
Patterned Paper (Prima: Paintables)
Flowers (Prima)
Paintable Transparency (Prima)
Rub Ons (Scenic Route, Heidi Swapp & Jenni Bowlin)
Stickers (Making Memories, & Heidi Swapp)
Felt Bird (Maya Road)
Chipboard (Fancy Pants)
Die Cut Art Strip (Prima)
Glitter (Wal-mart)
Jeweled Brads (Karen Foster)
Glitter Pen (Sakura)
Opaque Pen (Uniball Sanford)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

There are so many uses for the multi-medium matte gel and I really enjoyed using it! On this project, I used it to adhere patterned paper to a big sheet of cardboard by brushing on a thin coat underneath the paper and then on top of the paper. After this dried, I had a very sturdy background to work with. Next, I cut out a photo of my friend Angie and I and then adhered it to a sheet of watercolor paper by brushing on a thin coat under the photo and then on top of the photo. This made the photo very durable and I was able to place pop dots underneath it and attached it to the page like a 3-D embellishment. To create the shadow box, I painted a tin box top with a layer of gesso and cut out the plastic film it had on the inside. Then I mixed Claudine's classic teal and landscape green paints together to create pretty teal and I painted over the gesso. After drying, I used sand paper to scratch off certain areas to distress it. I adhered the finished frame to the page and then embellished the layout with buttons, stickers, rub ons, and lots of bling!

Title: Lucky to Have U
Gesso (Ranger: Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Semi-gloss Acrylic Paint (Ranger: Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Paint Brushes (Ranger: Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Multi-Medium Gel (Ranger: Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Tin Frame (Prima Product Packaging Lid)
Die Cut Bingo Card (Jenni Bowlin)
Stickers (Sassafrass Lass, & American Crafts)
Patterned Paper (Prima)
Rub ons (Basic Grey, Fancy Pants, & Scenic Route)
Rhinestones (Heidi Swapp)
Jeweled Brad (Karen Foster)
Buttons (Autumn Leaves)
Pen (American Crafts)
Cardboard (Personal Stash)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

For my last project, I painted several white flowers with the charcoal black and painterly pink acrylic paints and they dried beautifully. The paints were not to thick or thin, they were perfect and it only took one coat to completely cover the flowers. I also used the painterly pink to paint in some of the flowers on the back of a paintable transparency sheet.

Title: My Girl
Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics)
Semi-gloss Acrylic Paint (Ranger: Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Paint Brushes (Ranger: Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Glitter Glue (Ranger: Stickles)
Flowers (Prima)
Paintable Transparency (Prima)
Rhinestone Swirls (Prima: Say it in Crystals)
Other Rhinestones (7gypsies, & Wal-Mart)
Patterned Paper (Prima)
Stickers (Making Memories)
Chipboard "G" (Prima)
Transparent Ribbon (Maya Road)
Pens (Uniball, & American Crafts)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

I absolutely loved every single one of these products! The semi-gloss acrylic paints were easy to use right out of the jar and provided smooth and even coverage on everything I tried them on. The multi-medium matte gel acted as an all purpose glue, created beautiful glazes, and made image transferring really easy. Claudine's gesso was the perfect primer for a variety of surfaces and I loved how easy it made it to add unique textures to all my projects. I was very impressed with the artist brushes! There were seven different sizes to choose from so no matter what the project was or how much detail needed to be added - I had the perfect size for the job. The brushes were easy to hold and did not leave any pesky hairs behind. Last but not least, the sticky-back canvas was way cool and I will be using this product from here on out. The sticky-back canvas sheets make it easy for anyone to create with canvas material and you can alter it in so many ways. It was easy to cut, color, and even print photos on, and I especially love being able to just peel of the back and stick it on! The new Claudine Hellmuth Studio products by Ranger were extremely impressive and I would definitely recommend everyone give them a try!

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Review by Chris

Ranger has added a new line of products to its inventory, the Claudine Hellmuth Signature Artist line. Included in this line-up of products are acrylic paints, sticky-back canvas sheets, artist brushes, multi-medium and gesso. Well-known for her creative and clever Poppet design line and her books and instructional DVD’s, Claudine has now ventured into the product market, developing products that compliment her creative works.

I had the chance to review the entire Studio line of products and WOW! Am I impressed!! I’ll start first with the semi-gloss acrylic paints and artist quality brushes made with soft synthetic bristles. The paints are available in 15 highly pigmented artist quality colors. I received a quartet of pastel colors: painterly pink, purple palette, yellow pastel and landscape green, along with charcoal black and blank canvas (white). These paints come in 2 ounce plastic jars. The first thing I noticed when I opened them was how creamy the paint looks in the jar, the intensity of the color, and the absence of a strong aroma of “paint.” There was very little separation of the paint and a couple of quick stirs was all that was needed to assure me the paint was ready to go. This paint is creamy out of the jar, as well. It goes on smoothly, blends well with other colors and can be watered down to create a thin glaze of color. The brush set is divine. Although I tend to lean more toward “real” bristle brushes, these synthetic brushes are so fine that they leave absolutely no brush marks. The set includes 7 different shaped brushes and really are all one would need for just about any painting project. They will certainly be the first brushes I reach for anytime I plan to do some painting. Although there are just 15 colors in the current set of paints, these colors can be blended to create additional colors. With just the four colors I received I was able to create the six additional colors you can see on the paint chart below, using the two original paints in a 1/1 proportion. Varying the amounts of each of the initial paints would, or course, yield different shades of the blended color and adding in white or black would provide further color variety..

I used the yellow pastel and purple palette paints to create the background for these greeting cards. My painted background paper ranged from yellow to purple with blending in the center. I then stamped images in black and used a white pen to create a “bandanna” effect and cut the large sheet into four smaller pieces to use as card backgrounds.

Thinking of You cards
Products used: Paints (Claudine Hellmuth, Studio semi-gloss acrylic paint, yellow pastel, purple palette)
Matte Medium (Claudine Hellmuth Studio, Multi-Medium, matte)
Watercolor paper (Canson)
Brushes (Claudine Hellmuth, Studio Artist brushes)
Stamps (StampArt by Aleida, Studio G)
Pen (Ranger Inkessentials Opaque White pen)
Ink (Tsukineko, VersaMagic; Stewart Superior, Memories black; Ranger Adirondack pigment ink, Pitch Black)
Die cuts (Spellbinders, Nestabilities, Labels One)
Embossing folder (Cuttlebug)
Adhesive (Ad Tech Permanent Bond Tape Runner, 3-D Design Blocks)

The sticky-back canvas is perfect for painting. Inspired by a project on Claudine’s blog, I created a bird ornament for my little desk-top tree. The Studio multi-medium gel has many purposes, including gluing, image transfer, sealing art, creating glazes and extending paints. It can also be used as a resist. And it has a most pleasing aroma, not painty or chemical based at all, but rather a perfumed scent that you’d imagine in a skin lotion or bath gel. To create this bird, I first stamped images using foam stamps and the multi-medium gel onto the sticky-back canvas. Once the medium dried, I applied the landscape green Studio semi-gloss acrylic paint using the largest flat brush in the pack. The gel medium resists the paint, leaving a subtle pattern on the canvas. I cut out the bird and a reverse image of the bird and stuck the sticky-back canvas pieces together with a little pillow stuffing in the center. The multi-medium also works great as an adhesive and I used it in several places around the edge of the bird. I created a similar painted design using the painterly pink paint and cut the heart shape from that. The canvas has enough body that the bird holds its shape nicely. Although I did not add string to mine, I could envision many of these birds hanging from a mobile.

Canvas Bird
Products used: Self-adhesive canvas (Claudine Hellmuth, Studio sticky-back canvas)
Paint (Claudine Hellmuth, Studio semi-gloss acrylic paint, landscape green, painterly pink)
Foam stamps (Plaid)
Brushes (Claudine Hellmuth, Studio Artist brushes)
Multi-medium, matte (Claudine Hellmuth Studio line)
Rhinestone (KandCo.)

I was intrigued by a project on Tim Holtz’s blog to print a photo on the canvas. I scanned an older photo of my brother with Santa Claus and turned it to sepia. After printing it on the sticky back canvas using my ink jet printer, I colored Santa’s suit with Fired Brick distress ink. This canvas tears well, giving a nice distressed look to the edges of the printed photo. The canvas works well in an ink jet printer, with no running or bleeding of the ink. I used the multi-medium gel to apply old sheet music to a piece of cardstock and then used masking tape to peel away sections of the sheet music. Once the gel medium was completely dry, I inked the background with walnut distress ink. I finished off the collage with come stamping and other elements, then added some elements on top of the acrylic frame for depth and dimension.

Believe collage
Products used: Self-adhesive Canvas (Claudine Hellmuth, Studio, Sticky back canvas)
Chipboard clock (Heidi Swapp)
Ink (Ranger, Distress Walnut Stain, fired brick; Adirondack pigment, pitch black)
Gel medium (Claudine Hellmuth, Studio Multi Medium, Matte)
Artist brush (Claudine Hellmuth, Studio Artist Brushes)
Rhinestone (MAMBI)
Epoxy Sticker (Reminisce)
Paint (Golden, Iridescent copper (fine) acrylic)
Stamp (Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous)
Adhesive (Ad Tech, Permanent Bond Tape Runner; Glue Dots )

The new Claudine Hellmuth Studio line of products has added an outstanding new line to Ranger’s already outstanding line-up of products. The artist quality evident in all of these products will be much-appreciated by the crafter and the professional artist alike. Kudos to Claudine Hellmuth and Ranger for bringing us such wonderful products!!

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Review by Penny

If you are looking to feed your inner artist, read on!

Claudine Hellmuth is a well known mixed media artist who has teamed up with Ranger Products to produce the Claudine Hellmuth Studio line of products, including a collection of 15 highly pigmented, artist quality acrylic paints that come in clear 2 oz. jars with a black screw on lid. The semi-gloss paints are nice and creamy and, because they are highly pigmented, they can be mixed together for endless color possibilities. Each jar retails for $5.95.

There is also a 4 oz. jar of Multi-Medium in both gloss and matte finishes that you can use for gluing, image transfers, sealing, creating glazes or extending the Studio acrylic paints. The Multi-Medium appears white in the jar but dries clear and retails for $6.95.

Gesso is a must-have for mixed media arts. Gesso provides a base coat with slight texture that is ideal for priming surfaces like canvas, wood, metal, plastic, fabric and more prior to painting. A 4 oz. jar is available for $6.95.

The Studio paints, gesso and multi-medium are beautiful just to look at, but open the jar and you will see by their texture and consistency that they are very high artist quality products. One of my favorite features is that they come in a wide-mouth jar that you can easily dip your paintbrush into to pick up color as you go. You can work without a paint palette as long as you are not mixing colors. And, because the paints are highly pigmented they can be mixed together without developing a "muddy" color.

The Studio Brushes are exceptional. Packaged in a set of 7 artistic quality brushes with synthetic bristles, they have a luxurious feel and excellent resiliency. They can be used with acrylic, watercolor or oil paints. There are four round and three flat brushes in the set -- all of the sizes you will need for $7.95.

Lastly, Claudine has created a Sticky-Back Canvas product available in both 8 1/2" x 11" and 12" x 12" sizes. The canvas sheets can be decorated with paints, inks, and dyes. Since the canvas sheets are self-adhesive you can cut out pieces to put on cards, scrapbook pages or traditional canvas pieces. It is an ideal tool for die cutting systems! Sold in packs of five sheets, the 8 1/2" x 11" size is $10.95 while the 12" x 12" costs $12.95.

I used Traditional Tan Studio paint on grungeboard for my first project. The semi-gloss paint adds a lovely finish for my star shape.

Title: Snowy Morning
Products Used: Paint in Traditional Tan, Paintbrushes (Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Patterned Paper, Chipboard (Sassafras Lass)
Photo Corners (Heidi Swapp)
Felt Alpha (American Crafts)
Grungeboard, Distress Ink (Tim Holtz)
Ribbons (The Scarlet Lime Kit Club)
Adhesive (Ad Tech Glue Runner)
Other: magazine advertisement

I used a screen as a mask to create my second project. Once the mask was in place I used Charcoal Black Studio paint to outline the shape.

Title: Snowflake Bling
Products Used: Paint-Charcoal Black, Paintbrushes (Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Patterned Paper (BasicGrey)
Tattered Angels (Glimmer Screens)
Bling (My Minds Eye, Other)
Adhesive (Ranger Glossy Accents)
Other: ribbon

I used a mixture of Modern Red and Blank Canvas Studio paint on my third project to outline the smaller piece of patterned paper and a folded border piece.

Title: Sugar & Spice
Products Used: Paint in Modern Red and Blank Canvas, Paintbrushes (Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Patterned Paper (Scenic Route)
Stickers (Prima)
Felt Alpha (American Crafts)
Button (American Crafts)
Buttons, Beads (The Scarlet Lime Kit Club)
Adhesive (Ad Tech Glue Runner)

I used a thrift store find for my final project. This shelf was originally painted a dingy white color. I used Purple Palette and Modern Red Studio paint then added a strip of patterned paper along the front edge to spice it up.

Title: Altered Shelf
Products Used: Paint in Purple Palette and Modern Red, Paintbrushes (Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Patterned Paper (Tinkering Ink)
Adhesive (Ranger Glossy Accents)
Other: shelf from thrift store

Now it's your turn to give these products a try, have fun and just play! You will not be disappointed.

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Review by Tammy

My husband was raised in a carpenter’s home and his father would always say that “a craftsman is only as good as his tools”.

The same holds true in the art world. When you walk the isles of an art supply store you see rows and rows of paint, canvas, and brushes, all claiming they are the “best tools”. But are they really the “best” tool?

When I received the new Claudine Hellmuth Studio products for this review I was very eager to test the quality.

The Claudine Hellmuth Studio Artist Brush set came packaged with 7 assorted brushes. The 4 round brushes range in size from No.2 – No. 9 and the 3 flat brushes are 3/8”, 1/2” & 3/4” giving the artist a very versatile set of brushes to work with. For the most part, all artist brushes have a wooden handle and bristles that are natural or synthetic fiber. The Claudine Hellmuth Studio Artist Brushes are made with soft synthetic bristles that maintained their shape well after many uses and cleanings. One bad habit that I have is leaving my brushes sit in water for extended periods of time. This can cause the glue to break down that holds the metal barrel to the wooden handle resulting in the need to repair the brush. Since I had these beautiful new brushes, I told myself I would not do this, but old habits are hard to break. Not only did I leave the brushes sitting in water for an extended period of time (i.e. 24 hours), but I did this many different times while working on my projects. Each time I just knew for sure that the brushes would be ruined but each time I took them out of the water, they looked just like new!

Another problem that I run into with brushes is that they leave little “hairs” behind. Usually my project is complete and then I notice it – a hair – and it has dried into the paint. Taking it out will mean leaving an impression behind and leaving it, well, it will always be noticeable. This is so frustrating! I am more than pleased to say that not once did any of the bristles from the Claudine Hellmuth Studio Artist Brushes get left behind on any of my projects!

Brushes are useless unless you have something to use them with. The Claudine Hellmuth Studio Acrylic Paint line is the perfect partner for the wonderful brushes. They are highly pigmented which means that when you dilute the acrylic paint you will not dilute the intensity of the color. The Studio Acrylic Paints are also acid-free, non-toxic, and archival quality so you know that your artwork will last for generations to come. Of the 15 colors in the Claudine Hellmuth Studio Acrylic line, I received Sky Blue, Classic Teal, Modern Red, Traditional Tan, Charcoal Black, and Blank Canvas. All 15 colors come in a 2 oz jar and can easily be mixed to create an endless palette of color. You can also find a Color Mixing chart Here on the Ranger website.

Gesso is a product that is very versatile, yet many crafters are unaware of its many uses. The Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso (4 oz. jar) is an artist quality primer for many surfaces such as canvas, wood, metal plastic, chipboard, paper, and fabric. By applying the Gesso first, you are giving your paint something to grab a hold of. The Gesso is thicker in consistency than most acrylic paints yet it remains flexible even on fabric. You can easily apply texture to the Gesso by stamping, writing, or drawing into the wet surface before it dries. The Gesso will dry to a chalky white finish.

The Claudine Hellmuth Multi-Medium is a gel medium that can be used for gluing, image transfers, sealing art, extending paint, and creating glazes. The Multi-Medium comes in either Matte or Gloss and is packaged in a 4 oz. jar. I was given the Matte to work with for this review and it is the perfect product to use as a glue, especially for bulky items. You can also mix the Matte Multi-Medium with a Gloss acrylic to create a Matte acrylic without losing quality or just mix it with your Matte Acrylics to make them go further. This Multi-Medium is just that, it has many different uses. You can also create image transfers using laser printed images; use it as a sealer for your finished work; or, create a beautiful glaze by mixing your acrylic paint with 2 parts of the Multi-Medium.

Sticky-Back Canvas is a brand new product to me. Up until now, I have only been familiar with canvas that is either on a roll or already stretched. The Claudine Hellmuth Studio Sticky-Back Canvas comes in two different sizes, 8.5 x 11 inch or 12 x 12 inch with 5 sheets in each package and a non-toxic self-adhesive backing. This product is acid-free and super easy to use making this a very unique item for use in your scrapbooks or altered arts projects. You can create embellishments, real canvas backgrounds, and one of a kind elements by decorating the canvas with inks, dyes, markers, paints or anything you desire. The Sticky-Back Canvas can be cut with scissors or die cut into shapes. I did find that when I used my guillotine paper cutter it was best to cut the canvas with the backing side up.

I recently had the pleasure of taking an online class with Claudine Hellmuth but at the time I did not have any of her products. Shortly after this I found out I would be reviewing her new Studio line so I decided to use some of the techniques she taught in that class on my first project. I covered 4 different 2 x 2 inch pieces of cardboard with the Studio Sticky-Back Canvas before beginning a few of the techniques that were outlined in Claudine’s class.

• 1) I painted the canvas with Sky Blue and adhered buttons to the dried canvas using Multi-Medium on the back of the buttons.
• 2) Using an image from Claudine’s online class, I traced the flowers onto a piece of watercolor paper. I then diluted Sky Blue, Classic Teal, and Landscape Green with water to create a watercolor consistency. I used the Studio Round Brushes to paint in the image. Once dry, I adhered the image to the canvas using Multi-Medium.
• 3) Using the Studio Gesso, I painted a thick coating onto the Sticky-Back canvas. While the Gesso was still wet, I used a toothpick to draw in my images, then I set it aside to dry. Once it was dry I used a diluted mixture of water and Landscape Green to paint my textured background.
• 4) The green silk flowers were not the right color for this layout so I painted over them with Landscape Green and stamped a word image using Classic Teal.
• 5) I first stamped an image onto cardstock using VersaMark then embossed it with clear embossing powder. I then painted the cardstock, covering the embossed image, with Sky Blue and wiped away the excess leaving this beautiful tone on tone image.
• 6) The clear acrylic flowers have etched areas on them that grabbed the Yellow Pastel acrylic paint.

Once all of my painted embellishments were dry I added a touch of Stickles and some rhinestones to add a bit of shimmer. I adhered my embellishments using the Claudine Hellmuth Studio Multi-Medium.

Title: Sweet & Sour
Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics)
Patterned Paper (My Minds Eye)
Acrylic Paint (Claudine Hellmuth)
Sticky-Back Canvas (Claudine Hellmuth)
Paint Brushes (Claudine Hellmuth)
Gesso (Claudine Hellmuth)
Multi Medium (Claudine Hellmuth)
Stamps (Tinkering Ink, Inksenssials & Inque Boutique)
Acrylic Flowers (Go West)
Silk Flowers (Paper Studio)
Ink (Whispers & VersaMark)
Embossing Powder (Stampendous)
Stickles (Ranger)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

Since I am not an accomplished artist, I figured the next best thing to painting a portrait on the Sticky-Back canvas would be to print photographs onto it. Once I had my photographs printed onto the canvas, I then used Traditional Tan, Modern Red, and Blank Canvas Studio Acrylic paint to create a distressed edge on the canvas photographs. I also used a small amount of Multi-Medium onto the background of the main photograph to give it more of a distressed look and a feeling of an actual painting.

 

Once all of my pieces were dry, I removed the backing from the canvas and placed it on my layout.

Title: Happy Birthday To Me!
Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics)
Patterned Cardstock (Basic Grey)
Paint (Claudine Hellmuth)
Multi Medium (Claudine Helluth)
Sticky Back Canvas (Claudine Hellmuth)
Letter Stickers (Basic Grey)
Black pen (Micron)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

One of my favorite techniques from the online class I took with Claudine Hellmuth was creating a textured background using masking tape. I had done this years ago but I was so glad that she has revived this easy to do technique. Once my chipboard was covered with the masking tape I painted my covers with a slightly diluted mixture of water and Classic Teal. Using my finger I added a little more undiluted Classic Teal around the edges on the outside and inside covers. Once my background was dry I used a stencil and Blank Canvas acrylic to make the flowers on the cover. As a final touch, I used Charcoal Black lightly around the entire edge of the covers to add contrast.

Title: Goals Book
Products used: Patterned Paper (My Minds Eye)
Paint (Claudine Hellmuth)
Stencil (Tessler Stamps/Stencils)
Bind-it All (Zutter Innovative )
Foam Letters (Misc)
Cardboard
Masking Tape
Index Cards

The Claudine Hellmuth Studio line of artist products are easy to work with and made me feel like a real artist. You will never want to revert back to rummaging through the children’s toy box looking for paints and paint brushes once you get the “right tools” in your hands!

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Review by Pomaika`i

Claudine Hellmuth is a well known and highly respected Collage Artist and teacher best know for her original Poppets®. She has written two books about her collage techniques and has produced three instructional DVD workshops. Claudine Hellmuth has teamed up with Ranger Ink, a powerhouse manufacturer of scrapbook and mixed media products to introduce her own Artist Signature line of Studio Art products.

I have dabbled in acrylic paint and gesso, but never really had much direction until earlier this month when I was fortunate enough to review Claudine Hellmuth's Collage Textures and Techniques DVD by Creative Catalyst Productions. With those instructions under my belt, I was eager to create some projects for this review of Claudine Hellmuth Studio products.

For this review I received six- 2 ounce jars of Claudine Hellmuth Studio line semi-gloss paint, a four ounce jar of Studio Multi-Medium Matte Gel, a four ounce jar of Studio Gesso, a set of Studio Artist Brushes, and a package of Claudine Hellmuth Sticky-Back Canvas. Because of the wealth of products I am reviewing, I will include my impressions as summarize the features of each product.

Claudine Hellmuth Studio paint is highly pigmented artist quality semi-gloss acrylic paints. There are 15 colors available in two ounce jars. The set I received included Blank Canvas (white), Charcoal Black, Dab of Yellow, Purple Palette, Landscape Green, and Sky Blue. These paints are acid free, non-toxic, and archival. When I first opened the jars, the colors looked so creamy, just like a candy store display. The paint thins easily with water resulting in a consistent texture, no lumps or watery portions. I also found that the paints mixed well with each other. The colors blend beautifully. Though the colors I received were a pastel palette and not what I am usually drawn to, I loved using them, and the way they looked on my projects. I think that the set of colors chosen went well with each other.

Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso is white with a very thin texture. The product information states that it is acid free, non-toxic, archival, and has a chalk-like finish. It comes in a four ounce jar. Studio Gesso is meant to be a base coat with a slight texture for priming canvas, wood, metal, plastic, chipboard, paper and fabric prior to painting. It can be used with Claudine Hellmuth Studio paints or other paints. I used my Studio Gesso on canvas, tin, wood and paper, and found it to stick well on each surface. The gesso was fairly thin, so I needed to put at least two coats on the wood and tin surfaces. It spread very easily on canvas, and proved to be a good primer on all surfaces.

Claudine Hellmuth Studio Multi-Medium (four ounce jar) comes in both Matte and Gloss finishes. It is an art quality gel medium that is acid free, non-toxic, archival, non-yellowing, clear drying medium. It can be used for gluing, image transfers, sealing art pieces, creating glazes and extending paints. I was interested to learn that it seals and waterproofs your artwork. One of my favorite things about Multi-Medium is that it smells so good! Honestly, it has a fragrance all it's own. I used Studio Multi-Medium on all but one of my review projects. I found that it spread very easily, dried quickly and left a nice finish on painted and collaged surfaces alike. I used it as glue on some of my projects and have come to the conclusion that I like Studio Multi-Medium much better than the decoupage medium I have been using. One of the techniques that I used, Petroleum Jelly Resist (Textures and Techniques Workshop DVD), required that I wash the petroleum jelly off of my project with soap and water. I was able to do this because Studio Multi-Medium really did waterproof my project!

Claudine Hellmuth Studio Artist Brushes come in a package of seven various sizes (#2 round, #4 round, #6 round, #9 round, 3/8 flat, 1/2 flat, 3/4 flat). If you are not an artist, these sizes vary from tall and skinny for detail work, to wide and flat about 3/4 of an inch across. I found this set to be a more than adequate variety of sizes and styles for my project needs. The brush bristles are synthetic and are said to be artist quality, durable and resilient, and can be used with acrylic watercolor and oil paints. I was very pleased with them. They were easy to wash, and the bristles felt the same to me after using acrylic paint, Multi-Medium Matte, and gesso with no residual stiffness. I did not lose any bristles. I've been struggling with a mix-n-match lot of brushes for a while now. With these Studio Artist Brushes, I feel like I'm in artist heaven for a change.

Claudine Hellmuth Studio Sticky-Back Canvas comes in 12x12 or 8.5x11 inch sheets. I received a package of five 12x12 sheets. The canvas is thin, very pliable (able to bend in all directions) with an adhesive backing. Studio Sticky-Back Canvas is acid free with non-toxic adhesive. It is thin enough to cut with a regular scissors and is supposed to be cuttable with most manual die cut equipment. I really enjoyed working with this product. I'll talk a little more about it with my first project.

My first project was to create an altered album cover. I used a chipboard album and cut sticky-back canvas to size, and primed it with gesso. A tip for you* I learned that canvas curls and shrinks (a little) when you prime it with gesso. I originally cut the covers to the exact size I needed, and they ended up being difficult to adhere to my covers because they were all curled up and a little smaller than when I started. No harm done, next time I will adhere the canvas first because the adhesive, which I feel is very strong, will keep the canvas in place during gesso and painting. Once I adhered the canvas to my covers, I primed the exposed edges of chipboard with gesso (to hide them), then painted with a coat of Sky Blue. Using Studio Multi-Medium, I collaged an old piece of music onto the painted canvas. I used Claudine Hellmuth's Peeling Paper Technique in which you lift some of the print off of your surface with masking tape. I sealed everything with another coat of Multi-Medium, then followed up with a coat of Purple Palette over Claudine Hellmuth's Petroleum Jelly Resist Technique (coating the areas I wanted to stay blue with petroleum jelly before painting with Purple Palette). Note: I covered the outside covers with Sticky-Back Canvas (photo one and two), but just used gesso on raw chipboard for the inside covers (photo three).

Lastly, for the front cover, I did a Multi-Medium Gel transfer using a toner copy of some angels. I am not very good at transferring yet, so I had to do some parts of the angels twice, but since I was going for the antique, weathered look I think everything turned out fine. The Multi-Medium Gel Transfer Technique is just using a thick coat of gel before you place the copy down onto the covers. You let it dry, then use water and your finger to gently rub off the paper leaving the image. The three techniques I used can be found in detail on Claudine Hellmuth's Collage Textures and Techniques DVD.

I filled my album with 6 x 6 paintable pages. I used Claudine Hellmuth Studio Paint to fill in my cover page design. I used the paint thinned with a lot of water for an almost transparent look. After the paint dried, I used a glitter pen to highlight the yellow spots like the angel wings and flowers. My angel's skin was done with a watercolor crayon. I am looking forward to painting the rest of my pages.

Title: Angels Album
Products used: Techniques Inspired by Collage Textures and Techniques DVD(Creative Catalyst Productions)
Gesso (Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Acrylic Paint (Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Gel-Medium (Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Patterned Paper (Prima)
Glitter Pen (Sakura Gelly Roll)
Glitter (PK Glitz, Hero Arts)
Other (Ribbon, Old Music Sheet, Ribbon, Misc letters)
Album (American Crafts)

My second project was to create a chipboard accent for a layout. I realized after I was finished that I should have primed the chipboard surface with gesso. That way I wouldn't have had to paint three coats. Live and learn. I used the Petroleum Jelly technique to create the blue "wash" on the tree. I sealed the tree with Studio Multi-Medium, then colored over the star and pot with a glitter pen. The red ornaments were colored separately with a glitter pen, and they are not sealed.

My layout was inspired by a Scrapfriends Ad Inspiration. I used the colors from our Christmas card, and recreated the beach scene from our card. The white you see is is flocking, my nod to snow. I stamped the snowflake images using screens which are reverse stencils.

Title: Our Card
Products used:Cardstock (Prism)
Acrylic Paint (Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Gel-Medium (Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Chipboard (Basic Grey)
Stickers (Doodle Bug)
Glimmer Mist (Tattered Angels)
Glimmer Screens (Tattered Angels)
Liquid Appliqué (Marvy Uchida)
Pen (Sakura; Micron, Gelly Roll. American Crafts; Galaxy Marker, Ultimate Glitter Gel Pen)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

I created a little wall hanging for my Mom for my third project. Using some pre-made calendar blanks, I painted them using Studio Paints, adhered my photos and then stamped with foam stamps also using the paints. As a final touch I used a sharpie pen to write little messages to my Mom. This was a fun and easy project and I think the colors make it look really cheerful.

Title: Happiness Wall Hanging
Products used: Acrylic Paint (Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Stamps (Becky Higgins)
Pen (Sharpie)
Calendar Blanks (Creative Imaginations)
Ribbon (Offray)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

My last project is a little Christmas tag. I used cardstock for the base, primed my surface with gesso, then painted the tag with Landscape Green. I used Multi-Medium Matte to adhere Santa (from an old children's book) and my text (from an old book) to my tag. I used the Peeling Paper Technique to distress the text. I sealed everything with Studio Multi-Medium, then used a Petroleum Jelly Resist before I painted a thin coat of Sky Blue. For finishing touches I added star chipboard with gold and white glitter, and other embellishments. I used a clear pebble, and adhered an ornament from the same children's book that Santa came from, under it to create an embellishment.

Title: Santa Tag
Products used:Cardstock (Prism)
Techniques Inspired by Collage Textures and Techniques DVD(Creative Catalyst Productions)
Gesso (Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Acrylic Paint (Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Gel-Medium (Claudine Hellmuth Studio)
Chipboard (Basic Grey)
Glitter (PK Glitz)
Flowers (Prima)
Rip Strip (Tinkering Ink)
Brads (SEI)
Other (Snap, Ribbon, Metal Dog Tag, Clear pebble)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

I hope you can see by my projects that I thoroughly enjoyed using Claudine Hellmuth Studio Products. I love the quality of the Studio Paints, Gesso and most of all Multi-Medium. I have so many ideas for Claudine Hellmuth Sticky-Back canvas, and I am thrilled to finally own some easy to care-for, high quality brushes in a variety of sizes!

Whether you are a budding artist or an expert, I think you'll find that that quality and value of these items is superior to many items out there. As a beginner, I like the small jars of paint, however (hint, hint) I would love to see larger jars of Multi-Medium since I know I will go through tons of this for altered work. If I had to pick a favorite out of all of these wonderful products, it would have to be the Multi-Medium for glueing and sealing items. For altered work I think that I would prefer a heavier gesso, but for paper and canvas work, this gesso coats well with a few layers.

If you are looking for a set of brushes that you will use for a long time, Claudine Hellmuth Studio Artists Brushes are the way to go. I honestly haven't had brushes as good as these, even animal hair brushes. And lastly, you have to get some Claudine Hellmuth Studio Sticky-Back Canvas, you'll love it! I can't wait to play with it some more! Won't you join me?

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