Fancy Sunbonnet Beach

~ sproatmeyer ~ 6 Comments

I’ve been asked to be a challenge guest at Bastel-Traum Challenges today and they have a fun color challenge up for the week!  The colors you’ll see below but are mainly green, yellow and purple.  I’ve chosen to use Fancy Sunbonnet Beach and go with a summer theme to my card…

I will have to admit that sometimes when creating for a color challenge, I tend to forget some of the colors and this one is no exception.  So instead of purple, I had used teal when I colored!  Oops!  But with the help of Photoshop I was able to correct the main image to showcase for the challenge and all is well.  Where did I get the blue?  No idea but I need to start writing these colors down instead of working from memory.  LOL

The image I used is Fancy Sunbonnet Beach rubber stamp from Little Miss Muffet Stamps and was drawn by Bugaboo.  I love how she’s carrying her beach bucket and ready for a day of fun!

Lucky for me, the rest of the colors I used were matching. The card was put together with odds and ends from my stash and I tried to keep with a nautical/beach feel to it.  Overall, I’m happy with how it turned out and will be pleased to share this with a friend.  😀  Thank you Bastel-Traum for having me as a guest!!

Forest Friends Sabina

~ sproatmeyer ~ 6 Comments

I’ve counted up the days and it’s been nearly three weeks since I’ve actually been able to color and complete an image.  It’s sad, I know, but I hope to change that this week and get back into the craft room for some play time!  But lucky for you, I have several projects saved up that haven’t been posted yet… they were just waiting for some time when I could write!

This card uses Forest Friends Sabina and some other accessory stamps from the Forest Friends line from Little Miss Muffet Stamps to create this scene.  The colors I pulled from the papers and then used a simple design for the layout so that most of the colors would be focused on the image.  With Sabina the skunk being black and white, the bright colors look vibrant, which I like.  😀

This was colored on Crygon Shimmering White paper so the white specks you see in the black are actually sparkles!  You can find this image and all the other Forest Friend images in the LMMS Store… which I’m still working at making improvements.  You may not see them, but I aim for at least one a day!  Like an apple!  LOL

Polka Dot Pals Lydie by Zoe

~ sproatmeyer ~ 9 Comments

I have a special project that I’m posting today which was colored and created by Zoe!  She was in cahoots with Faye about this so when it arrived in the mail, I was completely, and pleasantly surprised!  This image is Polka Dot Pals Lydie from Little Miss Muffet Stamps and if you don’t recognize it, that’s ok, because I didn’t at first either!  LOL  It’s true… these Polka Dot Pal images are perfect for adding facial features which makes it possible for each one to look unique.  Check out how incredible Zoe did with this one…

I love all the details Zoe was able to include and her coloring no-lines technique is always spectacular!  Not only did she have fun adding a face, but I adore how she added details to the hair too.  Check out these close-ups…

I don’t know about you but coloring like this actually inspires me to sneak into my craft room to steel a few hours of my day!  Hopefully you’ve been inspired as much as I have and thank you Zoe (and Faye) for sending me a snail-mail smile.  😀

Notti Little Mushrooms

~ sproatmeyer ~ 7 Comments

Today I’ve posted something on the Make it Crafty Store Blog which you can see HERE.  I have some naughty little mushrooms on my project … er, I mean, I’d like to show you something using Notti AND Little Mushrooms!  I’ve merged together these two fun images to create this scene.  I wanted to color this one using the same technique as the last project; which was to color without blending and using three colors, light, medium, and dark (plus a white gel pen).

This is in attempt to duplicate the coloring style I see in the Fayes and Gnomes images in the Make it Crafty store.  This being my second attempt, I like how much easier it was to color as there was less concentration on the technique.  That allowed me to pay more attention to the shape of the color I was laying down. And as you can see I pretty much used the same colors too.  

There were two things I did different this time around… I added more dots, which I don’t think I worked out very well, then I did the grass a little different, following in Jennifer Dove’s footsteps, which I liked so much better.  😀  Except for the two larger mushrooms, I liked how this one turned out much better.  Plus the colors were fun to play with! This is a technique that can also be done with non-alcohol markers too!

The Paper Project – Experiment XI

~ sproatmeyer ~ Leave a comment

It seems that there are an increasing number of alcohol marker choices on the market which gives us crafters a great selection when coloring.  This makes me wondered if all alcohol markers are created equal, however, that question will have to be answered another time and another experiment!  But another question to ask, which is easier for me to answer, is how to the papers handle a different type of marker?

Experiment XI – Marvy Le Plume Alcohol Markers

The purpose of this experiment was to use the same paper swatches that I tested the Copic markers on, except this time, use the Marvy Le Plume Alcohol Markers.  I wasn’t concerned with the differences in the markers, so my focus was on how well the different paper could handle intense blending techniques.  My secondary purpose was to determine which papers I would recommend for this brand of marker, which means most samples were colored three or four times for maximum blending testing.

For this test I used the hat accessory stamp in Taylor from Little Miss Muffet Stamps.

These are the main Le Plume colors used:
P782, P785, P786, P797, PV78 and AG877.

The papers are identified in the Introduction and here are the results:

(Click on the picture for a zoomed look.)

And the results?  It was interesting to discover there were a few papers I would have recommended for Copic markers but they didn’t stand up to the Marvy Le Plume markers very well.  For example, papers  G,  I,  P and Q scored high on the other tests but with this test showed bleeding; and T also did well on previous tests but on this one the colors wouldn’t blend.  Below is a close up of those swatches along with J, one that did well:

As you’ve probably already guessed from the example above, J is one of the papers I would recommend.  I was looking for a paper that I could build up many layers of colors and blend easily from one color to the next, going from a dark gray to a light pink, using six different markers.  It was also important that the paper would accept a lot of ink without bleeding.

Based on this test alone, I would recommend H, J, L, M, and U as being the best papers to color on with the Marvy Le Plume markers.  As secondary choices, if you had them on hand or if they were readily available, would be O, V and Z.  (Z is the unlabeled paper swatch, Bazzil Basics Ultra Smooth.)

Forest Friends Trevor

~ sproatmeyer ~ 4 Comments

It’s another Super Saturday event at Little Miss Muffet Stamps where we feature the freebie for the day plus the discounted spotlighted rubber stamp for the week!  You’ll have to visit the LMMS Store Blog to spot inspiration using the freebie as I’ve created a projecting us the spotlighted image instead.  😀  And what is the spotlighted image??

The image I used is Forest Friends Trevor Tortise from Little Miss Muffet Stamps and his friend the dragonfly.  I also used the bow-tie Forest Friends Foster Fawn and thought it was a great match to go along with his hat! from I went with a simple layout and double matted the center image and also did some stitching around the blue decorative paper. 

You can find this image and the free in the LMMS Store and you’ll want to make sure to visit the LMMS Store Blog for inspiration from the design team – they’ve done an amazing job!!