Coloring with My Besties - Sisters

Sharing this beautiful image colored by Brandy using her Copic markers.  So incredibly beautiful, don't you think?  The hair on these girls is just fantastic, realistic and admirable.  The image is a digi stamp from My Besties.  My girlfriend, Brandy, is on fire this week!

Cards Made From My Besties Digital Stamps

I'm popping in today to share the finished cards Brandy made using the images colored in her self-challenge.  The finish is simple - these cards ended up being going-away messages for two of her little second cousins who moved away recently.  The little girls holding a letter seemed so fitting!!

The swirls were stampes and embossed to create background for the focal point images which were cut using frame dies.  A little SSS butterfly die cut with a body made of a gem set just the right accent to keep the focus on the colored image.

You gotta know I love this little green card (my favorite color).  She's just so charming, don't you think?  The yellow butterfly, the blue hat with such depth... perfectamundo.

We will both wish you all happy crafting.  Challenge yourself, make something happy, send it out to the world.  These are the reasons we craft and I can't wait to see what you make!

A Color Challenge Using Spectrum Noir Colored Pencils

I get the distinct pleasure of sharing with you a color challenge that Brandy set herself!  In this case, she used digital images from Sheri Baldy's My Besties collection.  Digital images are fun because of the immediate gratification - purchase and print. Just be sure to print using a toner printer to prevent bleeding during the coloring process.  In this case, Brandy loaded the images into a file on a thumb drive and took it to Fed Ex/Kinkos who copied multiple pages (in multiple sizes created by Brandy in the file) onto a white cardstock they had available.  



















Each image was colored with a different set of watercolor pencils.  The challenge was to make the coloring work with the limited color pallette.  A Derwent blender pencil was used on each hat and the pink girl's hair in order to blend the color a bit.  Otherwise, all blending was accomplished using the colored pencil only.

This pink lady is Brandy's least favorite.  The colored pencil set was extremely pink heavy which left little contrast in the image.  Isn't it fantastic, despite being limited?

A black marker was used to define the hair of the African American girl in green.

All in all, this was a successful color challenge.  Brandy is going to make a couple of these gals into cards.  Once I get the photos and edit them, I'll be sure and share the finished result with all of you.



















How can you challenge yourself?  What tools, techniques or inspiration urges you to stretch your creativity.  I know Brandy inspires me, I hope the same for all of you.

I'm going to enter the Blue girl in Simon Says Stamp's Leap into the Unknown challenge.  I think Brandy's self challenge is definitely a leap into the unknown.  If you give it a try, join the fun.