Tag: … Art Journals

Steampunk Rio

~ sproatmeyer ~ 14 Comments

Here’s some fun news! I’ve been spotlighted at Simply Betty Stamps today and I made this project for that very special reason. Head on over and check out the post then don’t forget to leave some love for Betty. ;D

For my project I used Steampunk Rio from Simply Betty Stamps and paired her with the Clockworks House from Make it Crafty. I chose to go with an easy brown and blue combination and started off picking paper from my scrap stash. Because the Clockworks House looks like it’s small enough for a fairy… I added chipboard wings to Rio.

I was on the look out of the meshy metal stuff at the scrapbook store (later I found out it was called Punchinella Sequin Waste Ribbon) but instead I was only able to find some burlap ribbon. However, it worked out nicely on this page too. ;D I finished up the page with more chippies and button brads.

There is a revolutionary new technique that was used on this page and I’m sure everyone is going to want to try it… at least everyone under the age of two! LOL My daughter calls it art but I called it “Agg, what did you do!!” She scribbled on the background image with E53 and over the character image with a pencil!! I was able to salvage Rio but the background just had to stay as is – luckily the color wasn’t too dark. ;D

I’ve been spotlighted at Simply Betty Stamps!

Precious & Aidan

~ sproatmeyer ~ 20 Comments

Today at Make it Colourful we have a fantastically fun challenge for you!! We want you to color a sunset with clouds!! Now, it’s really not that hard and there is plenty of inspiration provided from the Design Team … so you should give it a go! And um… in case you’re ready to throw something the shoe… is this when I mention it was my idea?

For my project I used the Big Steampunk Treehouse from Make it Crafty to set the mood. Then complemented it with two images from Tiddly Inks… Precious and Aidan to come up with my scene.

When I colored Precious… I coudn’t help but to use Annika‘s hair color combination for red. ;D It’s been one of my favorites lately! I gave Aidan a pinstriped suit to help brighten up all that black. I would have liked to have a fine-tipped white gel pen but the idea has come across. Then to compliment each other, I gave Precious white stripped elements to match.

The sunset was an interesting experience… and one that I had to use lots of photo inspiration from Google. I narrowed one down and started at the bottom with the yellows the gradually worked my way up to the blues. Between the two I added some purple for the transition. Once that part was done I went back in with a deep purple color and added the clouds. At that point it looked a little flat so I added some white acrylic paint to the clouds then went back in and colored in some oranges and yellows.

I honestly didn’t know if it was going to turn out and even amazed myself. I really liked how it turned out and hopefully will be brave enough to try it again! 😀 The colors I used are: BV23, BV25, BV29, V20, V25, V06, B000, B60, B63, B91, B93, B95, Y32, YR02, YR07, YR09, YR21, YR30 plus the white acrylic paint. Hope you like it and hope you’ll come play along with us this week!

School Turtle

~ sproatmeyer ~ 20 Comments

It’s another release week for Little Miss Muffet Stamps and this time we have three stamps to feature today! For my project I used School Turtle and kept with the school theme – after all, school started in my neighborhood this week so that’s what is on everyone’s mind around here. 😀 I even found a few scraps of school decorative paper left over and came up with this journal page.


I loved the way Jane colored her last image with the wood floors and I wanted to give that a go. So on this image I used a black Copic pen to lightly draw in the boards. Then I colored it with E41-E44 and a little E31 and E33. It didn’t turn out exactly like I wanted it (a.k.a. just like Jane’s!) but it still turned out ok.


Of course I was looking for another reason to include a book with my drawings but lovely bouquet of pencils was directly inspired by the movie “You’ve Got Mail.” And finally the the turtle is for “luck” – I was always told to take a turtle with me while on a road trip for good luck and sometimes we all need some luck at school. 😀


Hope you like this tidbit of inspiration and don’t forget to head on over to the Little Miss Muffet Challenge blog for more! We’re previewing School Turtle, Summer Monkey and another Suger ‘n Spice Doll… Paprika! Thanks for stopping by! 😀

I’d like to enter this into the following challenges:

For Fun Challenges – Back to school
Papercraft Star Challenge #59 – Back to school
Going Grey with Scrap-Creations Challenge #23 – Back to school
The Crazy Challenge #81 – Back to school
Party Time Tuesday Challenge #30 – Back to school

Update: I was the Quasar winner at Papercraft Star for this challenge!

I was select a top pick at Scrap-Creations for this challenge!

Igor Miller

~ sproatmeyer ~ 7 Comments

Anyone up for some Halloween projects yet? Our local craft stores already have a heavy supply of Halloween and Christmas decorations up so I might as well add a few pages to my journal. ;D This one is for the Simply Betty Challenges “Anything Halloween” theme.


I used the new Igor Miller stamp from Simply Betty Stamps and Eerie Scene from Make it Crafty to create this scene. And for those of you keeping track… this is my LAST “Green Skin” experiment from the Make it Crafty team – maybe I went a little too overboard on the green?! LOL (You can read about my green face coloring HERE.)


This project uses a lot of the Halloween items I won from Betty’s 12 Days of Halloween challenge from last year, specifically the Igor stamp and bat metal dies. Thanks Betty! My final project for that challenges was the Cauldron Box and the papers I used on this project were left over scraps from that project. Yeah… I kept them!


The moon was a fun experiment that I wasn’t sure if I could pull off or not. The image is just an empty circle and to create the texture of the surface I started with C3 and gradually worked up to C00. Then as some final touches I went in with a white gel pen and added a few splotches and defined the craters a little more. I love how it turned out and I’m glad I persevered.


Some of the things I buy end up being a challenge to use and there are two of them on this one! The Jack-o-lanterns are the one element and the Alice in Wonderland Halloween paper was the other (the playing cards). Both I thought would be easy and used up quickly… and both were purchased last year!! But a new year and new ideas, I suppose. ;D

Rupunzel Playing

~ sproatmeyer ~ 10 Comments

I’ve had this page on the docket for a while and finally finished it this week. ;D The image is “Rupunzel Playing” from A Day for Daisies and she was so fun to color – just look at all that hair! My kids have been enamored with the movie Tangled so I’ve been getting my weekly dose on a daily basis. LOL So that’s one of the reasons I went with brown hair.

I created this for the “It’s a TWINE Thing” challenge at A Day for Daisies and used Baker’s twine in three different areas. First is a general wrap around the base then two areas I have used eyelets and threaded the twine in a crossing stitch.

I went to add a lot of texture to her hair but ended up getting a blending effect. I think next time I’ll work on the lightest colors and build up to the darkest. However, I was able to create creases in her nightgown without too many problems so I’d still call it a success.

The rest of the page was decorated with gems, dragonflies, brads and chippies. The sentiment stamp is a Kid’s Quote from Inkadinkado which are always fun to use. ;D

Zoe All Excited

~ sproatmeyer ~ 20 Comments

Our challenge for this week at Make it Colourful is “Coloring Grounds” and for my image I created and colored a sidewalk with grass. In other words, adding a ground to an image that does have one. There is some fabulous inspiration at the challenge blog that you don’t want to miss too! ;D

On my journal page I used Zoe All Excited from Make it Crafty and thought it would be fun to have her skipping down the sidewalk! I embellished the page with bits and pieces including gems, metal bits and brads, and leaf chippies from Butterfly Leaves.

Here’s a close up of the image with the sidewalk. First I drew the lines of the sidewalk with a fine tipped marker then colored it like a normal image. I added grass on the one side then a few strands in the cracks of the sidewalk… because I always have a few strands in mine. ;D

The grass was created by flicking the brush tip of the marker from the sidewalk as the starting point up and away into the air. I used four different shades of colors and varied the length of the stroke to give it a more random look. Hope this gives you some ideas and don’t forget to check out the Make it Colourful challenge for more ideas!