Party Banner

November 11, 2012 ~ sproatmeyer ~ 12 Comments

Wow, I must say I am exhausted! Why you might ask? I just finished up with a 50 hour school project that came to a completion this evening and I can’t express how happy I am that it’s over! It was so bad as far a stress was concerned but it sure will be nice to have those hours freed up. LOL Just in time for the holidays too … and I have a couple days before I head out of town for a well deserved break. But don’t worry, I hope to have some specials planned out while I’m away!

This is a project I made over at my Mom’s house the other day and it was fun to spend a little time with her. I wanted something quick so I decided to use the Hatter Hats and Hatter Hat Stands to make a card. Then decided it would be perfect to use the new Party Banner from Little Miss Muffet Stamps too and that’s how it all came together. So simple and I love how it turned out.

The top most banner was added with foam dimensions as well as the hat on the left side. Then the Hatter Hat Stand was stamped directly on the decorative paper. Simple and fast – a perfect combination! LOL

Thanks so much for everyone’s comments regarding my daughter’s eyes – very helpful! Turns out I’ve been getting Hazel and Amber colors mixed up all along and I didn’t even know it. 😀 So yes, looks like her eyes ARE hazel and like most of you said they change depending on the day and lighting … as you can see. I’ll have to try writing down “Gorgeous” the next time I’m asked but at least now I have an appropriate backup. LOL

Angelica in Flight and Praying

November 10, 2012 ~ sproatmeyer ~ 5 Comments

This is a back-dated post for the Make it Crafty Store Blog and a few fun tips to share. As the Holiday season is fast approaching I wanted to share a few images I had colored (ahem… last year) but thought this was a great time to get them posted. For these two angel images, I had wanted various methods for using white … or in other words… leaving spaces uncolored. Now that’s always a hard concept for me since I tend to get heavy handed with my coloring and go wild all over the page! You might be laughing but it’s true!

This first image s Angelica in Flight. On her wings, I knew I wanted them white with a lot of shadowing so they’re actually actually much darker than you might expect white to be. However, I had wondered if I kept the highlights void and left them white, then would it still turn out? However, the true test is… what do you think? I liked how it turned out and will certainly try it again. 😀 On the second angle’s wings you’ll see I left even more white.

The other technique I tried on this image was to use white as the highlight in her hair. As usual I became over zealous with my coloring and almost forgot to leave any white!! But if you look close there are a couple spots so that still count, right? LOL With hair is should be much easier to use the flicking/feathering technique and just remember to keep the strokes short.

This angel is called Angelica Praying and is available in the Christmas Angels Collection. On her dress I wanted to give it a gold look so knew I would have to use white as the lightest spots. This would be even harder for me because unlike the hair, I’ll try to get blending as seamless as possible and often end up darkening my highlights the second or third time smoothing out the colors. This little section below shows the best area and you can clearly see the white areas.

Thanks for sticking with me and I hope this gives you some ideas on how white from the paper can be useful in many different techniques. It’s something I’m still working on myself so we’ll be learning and improving together. 😀

Make it Crafty – Christmas Angel Collection (Angelica Praying and Angelica in Flight)

Colored with Copic Markers on Printer Paper

NEWS Freebie – Christmas Tree

November 9, 2012 ~ sproatmeyer ~ 45 Comments

Did anyone know that Halloween was over? My how time flies past so quickly – I thought it should be about time that I switched the freebie from our Jack-o-Lantern to something a little more festive for the holidays. Ok, so your job… if I have this Christmas Tree still up after Christmas then you need to give me shove or something to wake me up! LOL

This freebie is a simple Christmas Tree which was designed to go along with The Van Family characters. They’re so cute together and I hope you’ll be able to make some cards with the combinations for us to see. But I’m sure the tree would look great with other stamps too. 😀 Remember, this freebie can also be used in any Little Miss Muffet Challenge and qualifies as an “Anything Goes” entry!! Let’s see what you can do with it. 😀

Here’s the regular details and how to participate in this blog candy. As a huge thank you to my Followers, I’m going to regularly post freebies, blog candies and give-aways right here on this blog!! I don’t know exactly when the next NEWS will be posted so your time limit will be variable and between posts. For example, on this offer here, you will have until I randomly post the next offer. So what do you have to do to take advantage of these offers?? All you have to do is …

Note: This offer has expired.

You can click HERE to see the most recent News.

~~1. Be a Follower of this blog~~

~~2. Leave a comment below~~
~~3. Email me with “Christmas Tree Freebie” in the subject line~~

If you would like to post the NEWS Badge on your sidebar then that is optional, however, it is a great tool to be notified of the next freebie. Sounds impossible? Na, it’s simple and similar to the way I do the Little Miss Muffet NEWS Badge which has worked great! (P.S. There’s freebie opportunities over there too so be sure to add that badge while you’re at it.) Here is the code and details on this badge…

NOTE: This is important … make sure you use the code above when grabbing the blinkie as it’s the only way it will be will update automatically. Once it’s on your blog, the blinkie will change when I post another offer and you’ll get to see the latest news right from your sidebar! It’s a great way to get alerted whenever there is another freebie, blog candy or giveaway posted!! 😀

For freebies, I’ll email out the image in a couple days and it will be in a PNG format. For blog candies and give-aways, winners will be randomly selected and announced in the next NEWS post. Then you can send me your mailing address and I’ll ship out your goodies as soon as possible.

I think that about sums it up and thank you for stopping by! *Hugs
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The Van Family

November 8, 2012 ~ sproatmeyer ~ 20 Comments

It’s an exciting day over at Little Miss Muffet Stamps today as we celebrate the newest release!! This time it’s all about family and Thankgsiving with some fun new styled images a my favorite Operation TREEHOUSE kiddos! There are some great combos and specials too so you don’t want to miss out – head on over today and see what’s available!

For my project I used the new “The Van Family” and created a representation of my family. With Dad, Mom, three Sisters and complete with our little pooch. Each of these images are separate so there are many ways you can use them. You can get them individually or the whole set at a great introductory price!! I’ve also used the Party Banner from Little Miss Muffet Stamps and embellished it with faux stitches and Baker’s Twine.

Speaking of family… here’s a puzzle for you. This is a close up picture of my youngest daughter and we were trying to figure out what color her eyes are. It’s easy to say they’re multicolored of blue, green and brown or maybe simplify it to gray. However, if she was going to write a color on her driver’s license, then what color does she put down??

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you’ve enjoyed my project for the week. It was fun to get into the craft room today and get something colored up!! Make sure you head on over to the LMMS Challenge Blog too and see all the awesome creations from the DT. Cheers!

Roamer & Scout

November 4, 2012 ~ sproatmeyer ~ 6 Comments

I’m here, I promise! LOL At least I have a few projects that are made that I can show because no matter how hard I try I haven’t been able to get in my craft room to color. 😦 Hopefully this next month will go by quickly and I can enjoy a more relaxed schedule during the holiday. Most people are waiting for the holidays to be over – isn’t that odd? he he he

So this project uses Roamer from Little Miss Muffet Stamps and in the background I also used the new Party Banner also from Little Miss Muffet Stamps. 😀 Did you see the butterfly? Recognize it? Yeah, I found another one at the craft store and swiped it up before anyone else could even peek at it. LOL So of course, I had to use it right away.

My daughter, on the other hand, is still crafting away and I just wanted to show off one of her latest projects. On this one she used Scout from Little Miss Muffet Stamps and the flower was a gift from Arabella. 😀

So has anyone watched the latest Disney Pixar movie, Brave? I just saw it this weekend and though they had fun giving the horse and bear expressions. I love watching cartoons, I must admit, so it was fun. 😀 I’ve also started watching Switched at Birth. It’s a little more dramatic than I prefer but an interesting story. Well, I think I about jabbered enough. Hope you are having a great weekend!!

Sweet Devilina

October 24, 2012 ~ sproatmeyer ~ 4 Comments

Welcome!! It’s my day to post at the Make it Crafty Store Blog! I can’t believe how fast the rest of this year is speeding by and it feels like it should be past Christmas already. Yikes… I haven’t even had time to truly enjoy Halloween yet. So for this post I thought I’d share a little spooky inspiration using SweetDevilina . I won’t even mention how long ago I colored this one (nope, my lips are sealed!) but I wanted to attempt coloring this image in red to give her a more demonic devil look.

Who knows, maybe this will be Hellboy’s new girlfriend!! he he he. I wish I had the colors of reds I used but it was probably a combination of R20s with a bit if R40s or R50s to help. It turned out much brighter butHellboy would be pleased. 😀 Since her skin was so red, I chose greens and browns to tone them down a little and hopefully give her a more earthly tone rather than a Valentines theme. The black was a goodneutral to help as well and I used two different tones for her hair and her boots.

Although I’m not sure if I like her in a light skin tone or this darker red. Either way, she was a fun image to color and I didn’t mind coloring her twice… maybe a third time next year! I hope to get this one made into a card soon so you’ll have to hold me to it!! A couple nudges here and there would be good. LOL Hope you like her!