1 Pen, 2 Layers

Good Morning! Copics are obviously a pretty large investment, given the fact that they retail for 5.99 and it is suggested that one purchases three varients of shades for each 'color'. This is due to the fact that the gorgeous look one recieves is mostly from the layering of color, rather than the blending technique. I have found that three varients of color is not always necessary. Certain colors, such as RV 14 Begonia Pink, layer particularly well with themselves making it unnecessary to purchase the three variennt shades (which would be RV12,14,16)!

Step One: Choose Image. I think this girl is so adorable for anything from a good report card to a shoot for the stars greeting!

Step Two: Start with the first layers. For stick drawings, such as this darling girl or bellas, I tend to outline the 'stick limbs'. I think it gives her more dimension!

Step Three: Use R20 to make circluar blush on her checks (it makes it look a little more cartoonish but I think in a cute way). Lightly color R14 over her dress, put more pressure around the edges of her dress.

Step Three: Wait 20 seconds. Put your second layer (or third or fourth!) of RV14 on the corners and outline of her dress. Your image should show the layers like above.

Finish your image! Since she is such a playful image I kinda went with that theme for my coloring. Notice how the coloring is not perfect, the star's shading is not totally even. Its always fun to adapt your style of color for a certain image, if its childish, a gorgeous flower, or a birthday cake, your colors and style should reflect that!

Georgia Pacific Paper

Someone emailed me earlier asking what kind of paper I use with Copics. I am in love with Georgia Pacific! Who knew the same people who make paper towels and their dispensers would make such a yummy paper. The markers seem to glide, blend and play with ease on this inexpensive (I believe 5.49 for 150 sheets) 110 pound paper goodness!

What type of Ink is best with Copics?

A panicked stamper is what many a novice copic colorer has turned into when they first dabble with the markers. The reason? Smeared Ink! You see, copic markers are alchohol based and many types of ink are sensitive to them. Therefore my overwhelming suggestion is to invest in an Adirondack Dye Ink Pad! Many people have found success with Brilliance inks and also Stazon for their copic adventures, however I personally like 'blackness' (more technical jargon haha) of this particular pad.

I'm Gonna Be a Gator!

This is a quick and old layout. I really like the simplicity of the Orange, Blue and White. This is such an easy page with a Quickutzed title. I actually made this page the day I got on December 4, 2005 as memorialized in the corner of the page. That's one of the best things about Scrapbooking, the memories it explains and keeps.

Ingridents: Paper and Stickers by Sports Solutions, Die cuts: Quickutz, Studio

How to Clean a Copic Mistake

Step One: Make a Mistake! Check. Done. See aforeposted (I know its not a word).

Step Two: Lightly use your Colorless Blender 0 to tap and swoosh towards you (technical jargon lol), by gently rubbing the tip of your copic sketch with the paper and lifting away from the paper. Repeat. Many times. Oh and as an aside, I seem to be getting better with the camera and this picture shows alot of the detail in the coloring, especially the Mouse's blush.

Step Three: Watch the color fade. Tap and Swoosh. Move on to the next part of your coloring. Return to your mistake. Tap and Swoosh.

Step Four (optional): If your mistake was like mine, dark and rather larger, you may want to turn your paper over and repeat the tapping and swooshing.

Step Five: Smile at your almost completely faded mistake!

Some extra tips: Remember, you are using a blender and it likes to disperse color. Be careful not to touch any of your colored image with the blender, as it will drain the color and give it a tye-dyed effect (fun technique, when intentional, maybe tomorrow's tutorial HINT HINT!).
Do not give up! I have found that 95% of my mistakes will come out, after much tapping and swooshing.

ElyBlair

Just a Quick Post

Firstly, I am overwhelmed by the response to my blog! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! As a new blogger, I am obviously working on setting up the structure of the website. I want to link to all types of stamping blogs, the ones all of us love and treasure daily AND the ones we all would love and treasure daily....if we knew about them. SO...email me (or comment) a link to your blog. If and WHEN I love it....I will link it here :) ETA: I have added those who have commented so far, and I will continue to add links. If you like my blog, I would also appreciate if you could link to it, though it is not necessary and I will still link to you :)

Happy Birthday House Mouse

Above is the card we are about to color!

Sorry about the poor quality of this image, I am getting the hang of the camera. One of my favorite things about HM (House Mouse) stamps is the fact that the shadow is already shaded. We will use our darker copic for where the black is heaviest, giving us an easy way to learn how shading works.

I began by using EOO and R20 for the mice. I just hinted at their checks with the R20 while steadily making their limbs E00 with just a tinch of R20 for shading. Below you will see my formula for these mice.

My all time favorite yellow combo is Y13 and Y15. I think it is a great 'pop' color. Again I used the Y13 over the whole image, then I 'shadowed' with Y15.

Frosting is always fun, and in this particular stamp the key to making a boy or a girl card. Betcha never though frosting could set a mood! I used B14, then B05 and made my darker shadows with BG09. Next I used my colorless blender to smooth out the color from the BG09 (you can see the realization of this below).

This candle is quick and I used R27 and R29. If you look closely you can see that I made a mistake coloring the side of it and went out of the lines (I actually did this while trying to balance the clipboard, marker and my camera. Typical!) Tomorrow, I am going to show you a quick way of fixing this common mistake.

Next, I went back and shaded the wrapper a little more with Y17. Extra layers of the same color can really add umph without costing big $$.


You can see my mistake starting to fade with my trick (TBAT to be explained tomorrow). You can also see the first layer of C1 on the mice.
I have about 4 or 5 color combos that I like to do with these mice. Above is my favorite combo and also the one that I used on this card.

And of course the finished card.

Ingredients: Tempting Turquoise SU! paper and ink, Rose Red paper and ink SU!, House Mouse Stamps, SU! stamps, EK Sucess Stamps.

Thanks for reading! I am new to this so all criticism and comments are appreciated :) I promise to improve the quality of pics next time!