Merry Christmas!

Ho Ho Ho!

Ho Ho Ho!!!  Tis the season of Red and Green and my favourite reds are the R30's!  For my Santa (which is from the Flourishes Joy is in the Air stamp set),  I've used R32, R35 and R37 and a touch of R39.  I find these are easy to blend and give beautiful vibrant results - just perfect for the festive season!  I've turned this into a quick tag to adorn a homemade box that I used for a Secret Santa gift at my work Christmas party.  :)

O Christmas Tree

Hello Everyone and welcome to another Copic Oz Tutorial!  The festive season is well and truly here and I thought now would be the perfect time to talk about colouring Christmas Trees!! 

I'm using Flourishes' Trimmed With Love stamp set and when you look at this tree, imagine it's a Cone Shape - this will also help with your light source placement.  Cone shapes will have a highlight line in a specific part (depending on where the light source is) and will be shaded on the sides.

Some Christmas trees will look more like the above picture, in this case, it's still a cone shape (or actually several cones on top of each other), but also consider the shadows under the branches.  When looking at the Flourishes Christmas Tree, remember to shade under the ribbon/tinsel as that will also be shaded.

I like to begin by flicking out the 'glow' from the star in YR30 and also some blue glow around the tree in B0000.  It's easier to do it before the pine tree colouring rather than later.

Next, lay down a base colour of G20 all over your tree.

Add some G21 to the sides of the tree.

Darken the sides with G24 and start shading under the ribbon/tinsel.

Deepen the shadows on the sides and add darker shadows under the ribbon/tinsel using G28.  Add some flicks of G28 on the outer branches for contrast.

Colour the rest of your tree in your favourite Christmas colours!!  (I've used R32, 35, 37, B60, B63, R81, R83, R85, Y11, Y17, Y21, Y35, B32, B34.)

Don't forget to add some Christmas sparkle and shine by using a White Molotow Pen for strong white highlights and Gold and Clear Atyou Spica for fun sparkle!

Create your card!!  Hope you've enjoyed today's tutorial and wishing you all a very happy Christmas!!

Seasons Greetings and Happy Colouring!
Kathy

Colouring Reds

Hi Everyone,

Today I wanted to share a few hints with you about colouring RED with your Copic Markers.

Because red is such a highly intense colour, people often have problems colouring with it.  

More often then not, people over saturate the area, resulting in the 'bleeding out' below.

The first, and probably biggest hint I can give you is to make sure you are working on the right paper.  X-Press It Blending Card makes colouring with reds a whole lot easier!

I have stamped La La Land Craft Image:  Christmas Elf Marci onto my paper.

The reds I have chosen to use are R32,35 and 37....

 

 I always apply my lightest colour first.  Another hint ...be extra light handed.

Next I flick in my R35. 

 Notice I have started away from the edge of the image.  

This will help to not over ink the edges.

 Very lightly apply R37 from the edges in ....

Finally, go back to your R32 to blend all the reds together.

 

And there you have the perfect candy cane coloured in red!

Happy Colouring

Mandi-Lee

xxx

 

A Little Birdie Told Me....

Summer is here and I've been addicted to yellows of late.  Pop over to my blog to see which "Y's" have been used here along with some pretty complimentary blues!  Find out more HERE!

Colouring Metal

Hello Everyone and welcome to another Copic Oz Tutorial.  Today I'm showing you how I colour a metal bucket using the sweet tulip image from Flourishes' April Showers stamp set.

Colouring Metal is best achieved with the Cool Grey range of Copics because although they are grey, they also have a blue base giving it a cool, metallic feel.  To give the feeling of a rounded bucket, decide where your light source is and give your bucket a highlight (or two!) and shadowed sides.

Begin by laying down a base of C1.....

Flick in some C3 from each side, leaving a highlight area in the middle.

Flick in some C5, but not as far as the C3.

Blend with the next lightest colour, leaving the middle untouched.  To really deepen the shadows, add some C7 to the edges.

Continue to blend colours and darken edges with the above colours until you are happy with the finished look!

Finish colouring your image and make your card!!

Hope you've enjoyed today's tutorial and happy colouring!!
Kathy  :)

Copic Certifcation 2013

We are SOOO excited to announce the following Copic Certification dates for 2013.

Melbourne
Standard Papercraft- Sunday March 3, 2013
Intermediate Papercraft- Monday March 4, 2013

Sydney
Standard Papercraft- Saturday March 16, 2013
Intermediate Papercraft- Sunday March 17, 2013

Brisbane
Standard Papercraft- Monday June 10, 2013
Intermediate Papercraft- Tuesday June 11, 2013

Register your interest now by heading over to the Copic Website. Please note that priority will be given to Copic Stockists and their employees. However, any extra places will be opened up to public so be sure to register.

Copics are a Die Cut Delight

The next time you have scraps of X-Press It Blending Card put them to good use by matching them up with your Die Cuts, in this case I have matched a flower to background papers by taking perfect white blending card and colouring different layers of the flower to match the background paper.  The outer petals in 100 Black and the inner petals in R12 Light Tea Rose.

Imagine the variety of blossoms you can build by colouring your Blending Card... colour matched embellishments every time!

Colour Co-ordinate Your Embellishments

I am sure we have all felt a little frustration from time to time over not having the exact matching embellishment for your work… “just the wrong shade” is too often disappointing!!  The Copic colour palette is impressive and your saviour for these situations… flowers, charms, ribbon, pearls and rhinestones are all accepting of a little make-over!

In today’s project I have focused on bringing out the pink tones in the background paper.  I originally selected the Heritage Script 3 and Floral papers from my FabScraps stash because of the little pieces of kraft poking through on the papers.  There was a strong sense of purple in the two papers I used, so to balance that I brought a good splash of pink to the lovely Magnolias by Flourishes, choosing my markers to align with the pinks in the far background.

I masked and added an additional flower and foliage to the main image so that it would sit in the corner and extend on two sides of the focal square element.  This allowed me to build square layers from the inside out, very simply with paper and kraft card.  It is easy to bring contrast and co-ordination to your layering card by applying the Copic colours used in your main image.  In this project, I used three different shades of pink, with the lightest shade on the top layer (RV21), middle on the middle layer (RV32), working back to the darkest shade (RV34).  Because you are layering the FabScraps paper on top of each kraft layer, you only need to use the thickness of the marker around each edge.  The layers are secured with X-Press It Double Sided Tape and once assembled you wouldn’t know that it is just the edges that hold colour.

FabScraps Embellishments are really versatile, and even more so when you use the colours from your main image to bring a touch more life and a good dash of co-ordination to your elements.  For this project I selected a couple of wooden buttons, white pearls in different sizes, a clear rhinestone, and a brass butterfly charm.  It’s great to have products from the same manufacturer that you can customise to suit your papers and coloured image… I added RV32 and RV34 to the pearls and rhinestone, using one coat on some and many coats on others, the more coats the more dense the colour will look.  With the metal butterfly I wanted to keep the brass undertone and applied one coat of R34 to provide a sheen of pink to this element.  The smaller of the wooden buttons was coloured first with RV32 and then I applied RV34 to the centre to provide depth.  The larger of the wooden buttons featured a bright red flower, I stripped the colour from this flower by first using a Colourless Blender and then adding colour back in with RV34.  All little touches of colour that help to both co-ordinate and add variety to your FabScraps Embellishments.

Here are the Copic Markers I used in my project today:

• Image Flowers: 0, R000, RV21, RV32, RV34, RV69, BV29, E27
• Image Leaves: 0, G46, YG63, YG67, E27
• Image Stems:  YG93, YG95, E27
• Image Shading:  B0000, BG000
• Embellishments:  0, RV21, RV32, RV34
• Cardstock:  RV21, RV32, RV34

I hope you enjoyed this little parade of colour, and can see the many possibilities that Copic can help you achieve when co-ordination is next a must!

THINK PINK WINNER!!!

Oh My Goodness!!!  The response to our Think Pink Challenge was absolutely AMAZING!!!!  There were 125 incredible entries, all skill levels, styles, themes and designs.....truly a wonderful array of eye candy and all in glorious PINK!!!!  We have been blown away by the support shown and thanks to all of you amazing crafty ladies, we are thrilled to announce that we have raised $1250 for the McGrath Foundation!!!!  By making a pink card, each one of you have helped make a difference in the life of someone affected with Breast Cancer!  THANK YOU!

So I'm sure you're all waiting for the winner!!!  We are happy to announce that the winner of the fabulous prize pack is........NUMBER 86 TEREESA C!!!!

Congratulations!!!!  You've won a prize pack containing - Flourishes Think Pink Stamp Set, an Acrylic Block and a Pack of X-press It Blending Card!  Please send an email to Sascha with the Subject: THINK PINK Winner. We will post your goodies off to you ASAP!

Once again, a HUGE thank you to everyone who entered the Think Pink Challenge, each card resulted in a $10 donation to the McGrath Foundation thanks to X-press Graph-x!

Halloween Blog Hop Winners

Congratulations to the winners of our blog hop!! If you see your name below, please send an email to sascha@xpressgraphx.com.au with the Subject: Blog Hop and "Your Postal Address". We will post your goodies off to you ASAP. 

o   Copic Oz Blog Winner- EmbossingQueen 
o   Edna’s Blog Winner- Datsu
o   Mandi’S Blog Winner-Alethea
o   FabScraps Oz Blog Winner- DebiJ
o   Marelle’s Blog Winner- Fiona Powell
o   Tarrah’s Blog Winner- Kerri
o   X-Press It Blog Winner- Alshandra 
o   Kathy’s Blog Winner- Gab 
o   Sharmaine’s Blog Winner- Rachel Marks

Here is another look at the Prize Pack that will be going out to Embossing Queen from the Copic Oz Blog... and there are 8 additional happy winners from each of the blogs on the Hop!!

Halloween Hop!

Welcome to our Halloween Hop sponsored by Copic, FabScraps, La-La Land Crafts and X-Press It. Today we are teaming up to share some Halloween fun. Whether you love scrapbooking or stamping, colouring or card making there should be something to inspire your creativity. Of course there is also awesome blog candy to be won! Simply leave a comment on each of the 9 blogs throughout the hop and you have the chance to win a fantastic trick or treat pack of blog candy on EACH of the 9 blogs! This is the very first stop on today's hop and we're sure you are going to love all the inspiration waiting for you! 

For today's hop I've used Lil Devil Marci and had such fun colouring her with Copics!!  Colours used today are......
Skin - E000, E01, E11, E70
Hair - E50, E51, E53, E55
Dress, Socks, Hairband, Trident - R30, R32, R35, R37, R39
Sleeves and Boots - N1, N3, N5, N7

Be sure to visit the rest of the designers participating in this blog hop, click on the next name on the list below. Also don't forget to leave a comment to win some blog candy. This blog hop finishes at 12:01am AEST on October 29, 2012. Enjoy the hop and happy Halloween!

o   Copic Oz (you are here)
o   Edna
o   Mandi
o   FabScraps Oz
o   Marelle
o   Tarrah
o   X-Press It
o   Kathy
o   Sharmaine 

Don't forget to comment on each blog for your chance to win and enjoy the hop! 

X-Press It Foam Tape

I recently did a post on Creating a Copic Skin and Hair Colour Wheel.  

In the centre of the wheel I had attached this cute Marci which I had coloured with my Copics.

I love to 'build up' my images, allowing them to really POP off the page.  

The best way to do this is with X-PRESS IT FOAM TAPE!!!

Have you tried it yet???

Happy Creating....

Mandi-Lee

Copic Hair and Skin Colour Wheel

 Today I want to show you a colour wheel with a difference.  

This is a Copic Hair and Skin Colour Wheel.

I have created this colour wheel and printed it onto X-Press It Blending Card

Then I coloured half of the wheel in skin colour combinations that I like, and the other half in hair colour combinations.

Next, using a piece of black cardstock, I create another wheel, only this time I cut out two corresponding windows.

Using a brad/split pin, I attach the black window wheel on top of the Copic coloured wheel. 

Make sure that the wheels can turn.

Now you can spin the wheel and find your favourite hair and skin colour combination.

I then coloured Marci using colour combinations from this wheel.

I apply some X-Press It Foam Tape and attach Marci to the center of the wheel.

By having two windows you can see how the hair and skin combination works together.

 This wheel holds either 6 hair and 6 skin combinations, alternatively you could use it just for 12 skin colour combinations, and create another wheel for your favourite hair colours.

I hope you've enjoyed this post.

Happy Creating ....

Mandi-Lee

xxx

Colourful Snapshot

Spring is here and I've been playing with my Copics!!  Want to see what colours have been inspiring me today?  You can see the finished project on My Blog!!  :)

Winter Challenge Winner!

Congratulations to the winner of the Winter Challenge...

JENNIFER D!

Please send an email with your postal detail so we can send out your prize!

It's time to......THINK PINK!

Hello Everyone!!  October is the month of Breast Cancer Awareness and this year, we at Copic Oz are doing our small part to help support and find a cure for this terrible disease.  I'm sure most of us have been affected by Breast Cancer in some way, either personally or have seen a friend or family member fight it, so be a little creative and help us to raise funds for the McGrath Foundation this month by joining us in the......PINK CHALLENGE!!!!  For EVERY card entered below, $5 will go to the McGrath Foundation who do such amazing work supporting those affected by Breast Cancer, generously donated by X-Press Graph-X!

THE CHALLENGE:  Make a PINK PROJECT (card, scrapbook page, 3D off the page) using your COPICS, link it to the InLinkz below on this post and link this post on your blog (if you have one)!  You can use ANY stamps or products you like, as long as you use your Copics somewhere in the process and you can enter as many times as you like!!  :)

WHEN: The Challenge is open from October 3rd (AU EST) through to 6pm Monday October 29th (AU EST)!  The Winner will be announced on Tuesday October 30th!

WHO CAN PLAY:  EVERYONE, including International!!!

PRIZE: YES!!!  There is an awesome prize for the winner!  Not only does your entry result in $5 being donated to the McGrath Foundation, the winner will also receive a prize pack of the Flourishes Think Pink Stamp Set, an Acrylic Block and a Pack of X-press It Blending Card!

Today I've used my Copics for a few different things!  The most obvious is to colour the pink ribbon on the T-shirt - for this I've used RV00, RV52 and RV55!  (The t-shirt itself is coloured with G40, G43 and G46.)  I've also coloured the edges of the ribbon, which began as completely white but now has a pretty RV52 edge!  The last thing I did was colour the rhinestones with RV66 so that they too would be pink!  These had to be done with a darker colour since bling is a non-absorbent material.  And of course to add a little dimension for the t-shirt and the sentiment, I've used X-press It High Tack Foam Tape.  *LOVE* this stuff, over many years I've tried a variety of foam tapes and nothing sticks like this High Tack Foam Tape!!  :)

The stamps I've used today are from the Flourishes Think Pink set, a fun and funky Breast Cancer Awareness set that could be yours simply by linking your project to the InLinkz below!!!

Don't forget to visit our fundraising page for the McGrath Foundation. There are Copic Stockists around Australia holding events to raise money for this amazing charity.

I hope I've inspired you to join us this month and help us to raise funds for Breast Cancer!!  Thank You So Much and Happy Colouring!!
Kathy  :)