Sep 27 2008
Libby’s Challenge and a Product to Share
Today I was happy to have a chance to play in Libby’s From Courtney’s Closet challenge again. This is a fun challenge because we use one of sweet Courtney’s outfits as our inspiration piece. Courtney is Libby’s precious baby girl. You can see the details and this week’s adorable Courtney photo here. Aside from the general fun and cuteness of the inspiration piece, I focused on the red gingham of Courtney’s dress.
If I have red gingham paper, I can’t find it so I used my Kitchen Sink Stamps Plaid Plus set instead. It combined perfectly with this old Great Impressions image which I’d already colored and set aside. The heart stamp is one of the special little thank you stamps that are always included in KSS orders. I have three of these single stamps now, all different. A very nice touch from KSS, I think.
The product I want to share with you is what I used to color the main image on my card:
These Prismacolor markers are not new but they’re new to me. Perhaps you know how I love to color but I’ve not made the Copic plunge yet. Curious, but not converted. They’re pretty darn expensive and I wasn’t sure whether I’d like them or not, since there are so many other ways to color an image. I heard about the Prismacolor markers and decided to investigate. I found them here. I purchased a set of 24 markers for $39.99. The color group I selected is Landscape which consists of earthy colors, good for my purposes. At the same time I selected a few of the cool grays and a colorless blender. A good start.
My assessment at this point is that you can’t beat the price and I love coloring with them! There’s a broad tip and a fine tip on each marker. The broad tip can be angled to create a rather fine line. They’re used in exactly the same manner as Copics. They are, however, not refillable. Since I don’t have Copics I can’t draw much more of a comparison but I can highly recommend them for anyone who would like to break the alcohol marker barrier but was put off by the price. Once you try alcohol markers, whether Prismacolor or Copics, you’ll understand what all the fuss is about. I love them!
They won’t replace my other coloring mediums. There are certain looks you can achieve with watercoloring and chalks that aren’t possible with alcohol markers. I need more practice and there are a few things I’d like to try and I’ll let you know how that turns out.
So…just in case you didn’t know about the Prismacolor markers I wanted to be sure and share this information with you. I hope you find it useful. Take care, now, and have a wonderful day!
I haven’t seen these markers in ages. We used them at my graphic design firm, but since computers have made everything possible, all that stuff is gone. We had hundreds of colors of these markers in lots of sizes. They really do color smoothly, but they dry up quickly. I’ll bet that’s a result of the alcohol! We also used Rapidograph pens—refillable barrel pens with hollow metal nibs at the tip in every width. The ink came out smoothly, without skipping, and it was the blackest of blacks. They were also extremely expensive and a real pain to keep clean. If any ink dried in the barrel, it would clot your pen.
Sorry I’m rambling, but I kept hearing about Leslie Miller, and since that’s my name, I wanted to peek at your crafty blog. Nice work.
What a wonderfully whimsical and beautiful card. Oh Leslie, I can’t believe you haven’t tried Copics yet. I have to FORCE myself to use my other coloring tools, now that I have a few of them. They are quite an investment, dollar-wise, though. Frankly, I think if you (meaning YOU, girl) used even Crayola crayons you would be able to make anything look wonderful! :0) Someone else just talked about using Prism pens and I was wondering about them. But since I’m already headed in the Copic direction, I guess that’s the way I’ll keep going. I’ll never have the entire set of 300 though - yikes, now THAT would be an investment.
Leslie this card made me smile the minute I saw it! I love the bright red gingham. How cool you made it with stamps! Your coloring of the flower is just gorgeous!!
I love the fresh look of your card. the cuttlebugged background just sets it off so nicely
This is so bright and cheery… a perfect antidote to the cloudy and rainy weather today.
Love~love this card! Nice to see cards other then Halloween and Christmas on this bright and sunny day! Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE seeing those cards, too, but this is so refreshing. Great job on the markers, but I have to agree with the above post, we could give you finger paints and you could make it look awesome!!!
Nice card for the challenge…so creative..isn’t Courtney the sweetest???
Leslie, this is just adorable! Michelle Zindorf uses the Prisma alcohol pens, she has quite an extensive collection. I haven’t jumped on the band wagon with alcohol inks, I like my Tombow markers and colored pencils too much!
Beautiful card, it’s so perky and I love it. Thanks for the info on the markers!
Hey Leslie ~ I am so glad that you gave us the the rundown on Prismacolor Markers…I have been curious about them for awhile now. Love the card…especially the plaid background
Yay!!! So cute - I’m so glad you got to play and have fun with this! And it’s also very interesting about the Prismas. I already mortgaged my house to buy my Copics
so I won’t need to get these, but I’m so excited you have some alcohol markers now - can’t wait to see what else you do with them!!!
I’m with you Leslie (Running with Scissors, Leslie) in that I’m quite intrigued by Copics but not convinced and certainly not converted. Thank you for the testimonial on the Prismacolor product and of course for the link as to where to find them. Your main image is colored to perfection. I love the way you’ve managed to seamlessly fade each color to create a 3-D effect of light. While my income is not a disposable one, you’ve given me hope with the Prismacolor option. Thank you for the education. Rest assured your blog is far beyond just “nice”. It’s a welcome place, cozy and beautiful, incredibly informative, and a joy to visit. I look forward to visiting you on a daily basis and sometimes several times a day too.
Oh your card is beautiful,lovely colors,so nice and bright! Will cheer up someone’s heart that’s for sure!
Leslie I have both the Prismacolor markers and the Copic markers. I love both. Love your card, so so pretty.
What a cute card! Also, thank you for sharing about the Prismacolor Markers. I had heard the same thing from another blogger. I have a few Copics and like them, but they are expensive. However, they are refillable, so I guess you have to figure out at what end you want to spend you money. However, I’ve heard good things about the Prismacolor markers, and I have their pencils and love them. TFS
Adorable card and an adorable image! Thanks for the review on the Primacolour Markers.
Oh Leslie, this is the most beautiful, fresh and happy card! Your coloring with those Prismas is simply gorgeous! I recently bought some of the Copics, and frankly I haven’t had the time to *learn* to use them. IMHO there IS quite a learning curve going from Tombows to alcohol inks.
Keep those fabulous cards coming…I look forward to each and every one of them!
This card is wonderful and fun. Your coloring is awesome. The ladybug holding up that great big flower makes me smile. TFS.
Debbie/Phx AZ
I love plaid. Haven’t tried these markers yet. I also would like to try the Copics. This is a neat card. Makes me feel like smiling.
I love your bright and cheery card!
Leslie,
I couldn’t swallow the price of the copics either, so I have an extensive collection of the prismacolor markers from Dick Blick myself. I love them. I have used copics at my Stampin Up demonstrator’s house and I gotta say, I still don’t see the reason to pay $6 for a marker versus $2. The refills for the copics are only available online and cost almost as much as the original marker! The copics do provide you with a little more guidance with their color numbering system which the prismas lack. I also love the fine tip on the prismacolor.
Cindy
Cute, cute card Leslie. I have and love the Prismacolor markers. I, too, find the Copics a bit expensive. That said, I do have several of the lightest colors in Copics that don’t seem to be duplicated in the Prismas.
Thank you, Leslie, for the information on the Prismacolor Markers. I didn’t realize they were alcohol markers. I too could not justify spending big bucks on yet another coloring medium even though I love to color. If I have time to read only one blog each day, here is where I come because I always learn something new or enjoy the beauty of your art work.
Such a cute stamp and great coloring of it, like how you put a scallop on the embossed piece!
Thank you for the review of the Prismacolors pens - I admire your work and consider you a “professional”. So I was pleased to see that these worked well for you. I only started making cards last year and wasn’t sure of my coloring ability and didn’t want to spend the money on Copics. I bought he prismacolors from DickBlick as well. Sign up for their email newsletter and you ocassionally get free shipping and other types of sale notices which can make the Prismacolors an even more reasonable option. Michael’s carries a limited color selection - but with their 40% coupons, it’s also worth it to pick up one or two extra pens and not worry about shipping and handling. I look forward to seeing more cards colored! Thanks for the excellent tutorials and beautiful work! Read your blog regularly!
Fabulous card Leslie! You captured Courtney’s dress perfectly! So fun and cheery!!!!
Thanks for sharing the info on the Prisma Markers! 
LOVE that plaid!
Leslie,
Another awesome post! You’re so great and I love the way you write! I did exactly what you did - tried the Prisma markers first. I like mine and I think looking at the list of markers that comes in the Landscaping set, I have most of those colors. I also supplemented mine with a few Copics for some areas I thought I was lacking in - mainly light colors like someone else mentioned above. For those who live near a Hobby Lobby - these Prisma markers frequently go on sale and you can get many of the same colors - they just don’t have the sets (at least at mine they don’t). Michael’s carries them too but in my town they don’t have as many. I have a friend in graphic design who said you need to make sure you store them flat, not upright and they will not dry out as quickly. Three colors I like having that you may not have gotten with your set are Cold Stone, Brick White and Eggshell. These three colors are great for outlining and shading IMO. I purchased all three at Hobby Lobby but I think Michael’s has these too.
Thanks for sharing!
This is a fun card!
Thanks for the info on the Prisma markers. I had one Copic marker I bought to see if I wanted to venture into the marker world and could not get a handle on making anything look good. Had some Marvy Le Plume markers that I was using for inking up stamps; tried those for coloring and ~eesh~ was not impressed. It’s not the markers…it’s the operator. So I invested in a set of Prismacolor pencils, figured I couldn’t mess up an image too much with those. May venture back into the marker world at some point.
Leslie, this is gorgeous. I am fighting getting the Copics. I have a life time supply of Twinks. LOLOL Love your card.
Great card!!
Sweet card, Leslie…and I love my Prismacolor markers…the Copics just aren’t in my budget and I think I can get nearly the same results with these as they were the best on the market before the Copic rage.
Your card is so sweet, and perfect for Libby’s challenge!! Your coloring looks amazing, Leslie…and I can’t believe you’re just learning how to use them!! Adorable card!!
I saw Courtney’s cute dress and loved it, but never got the chance to play — one of these days!!! I think that is just the cutest challenge EVER!!! LOVE your card — you certainly did capture the feel of that outfit!!! And MOST interesting to hear about your new markers — you use them well!!! TFS!!!
Such an adorable card! I love gingham and that image is adorable!
This is adorable, Leslie! I love the red plaid, and that’s such a cute image!
Beautiful card — LOVE the red, plaid stamp — so fabulous!
Sweet card Leslie…welcome to the challenge LOL! I’m running behind so it looks like I got a reprieve this week… I love Libby’s challenge too!
Very fun! And that stamped heart makes a such a nice sized accessory.
This is such a FUN happy card! Watch out world - Leslie is using alcohol markers!!!! Your coloring is awesome no matter what medium you use, but I’m guessing you might get addicted to those markers pretty quickly. I think I’m up to about 60 Copics after getting a dozen for Christmas last year to *try out*….thinking they were too expensive and I wouldn’t use them much. LOL!!! We might need to fly somewhere to attend one of Marianne’s Copic classes!!!
Great card and thanks for the info on the Prisma markers…I just might have to give them a try too!
Adorable card! Love the patterned paper you created! Love your coloring! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience about markers!
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