Copic Various Inks

Goodmorning Copic fans, today we are looking at Copic Various Inks.  Various Ink refills are part of what make the Copic system truly amazing. All 358 marker colors have a matching bottle of ink. Each bottle will fill a dry marker up to 15 times, depending on the style of marker. Each bottle of ink has a built in dropper tip for simple application. The airtight inner seal prevents the alcohol ink from drying out for many years.  Now while it's true their intended purpose is to refill your markers (Kathy discussed this in the last post),  they are an amazing art supply all by themselves, incredibly versatile and perfect for creating alcohol ink based art projects.  Today we are looking at using Copic Various inks in 2 different ways, allowing you to incorporate more inky fun into your cards, pages, canvas or scrapbooking layouts.

Materials

• Copic Various Inks: V15, BV04, RV19, V06, R35, RV32, Y38, YR04 & YG01
• Copic Colorless Blender
• Copic Multi Liner in 0.3 & 0.5
• X-Press It Mixed Media Journal
• Kirarina Wink Pens - Precious Set 
• Chromacryl Gesso
• Paint Palette, brush & mister

Instructions

Step 1

Begin by preparing a page in your X-Press It Mixed Media Journal with gesso.  If you would like a white background paint the page with white gesso, if you would like a coloured background, then add a few drops of Various Ink to your gesso to create a tint.  Wait for the gesso to dry before moving to step 2.  Painting the page with gesso seals the paper and will allow the Various ink to move around more.  This example uses YG01 and Y38 to tint the gesso.

Step 2

Add one drop of Various Ink onto your background, because the paper has been sealed, the ink will spread and wick forming a circular shape.  This example uses R35 as the first colour.  For larger circles add a second or even a third drop of ink.  One drop goes quite a long way.

Step 3

To create some variation add a single drop of Various Ink - Colorless Blender to the center of each circle.  This will create a paler area in the middle.

Step 4

To create a more interesting looking circle add a single drop of a different colour to the center.  This example uses Y38.  You may notice that a single drop of any colour travels almost the same distance over the gesso!

Step 5

To create smaller circles, add 3 drops of colour and 2 drops of Colorless blender to a plastic surface, mix together and apply using an old paint brush.  Adding a smaller amount of liquid/ink results in a smaller circle!  You can use the brush to create smaller flowers, flower centers or add little drops of colour to the background.

Repeat Steps 2-5 using a variety of Copic Various Ink colours, until you have almost covered your background.  This example uses: V15, BV04, RV19, V06, R35, RV32, Y38 & YR04

Step 6

Add a little Various Ink - Colorless Blender to a small mister and lightly spray the Colorless Blender from a distance of about 15cm over your circles - this will create random spots and create pattern and interest.

Step 7

Use black Copic Multi Liners 0.3 & 0.5 to add a doodled designs and embellish your circles.  I made my circles look like flowers by adding lines to resemble petals.

Step 8

Use Kirarina Wink pens from the Precious Metals set to add touches of pearl and metal to your design - once dry you can draw over the ink with your Copic Multi Liners for extra detail.  I love how these look over the Copic Various Inks - it really brings the page to life.

This is some of the ink pattern and doodling up close - the Various Inks give the most amazing concentrated colour to your projects.

and the finished project looks like this, a little wild and chaotic, but so much fun to create.

So grab your Various Inks and use them on your next project - they're not just great for refilling your markers, but are fabulous all on their own.

Back with more next month,

KatePin It

Mail Art Made Easy with Copics

Hello gorgeous Copic Oz fans, today I'm going to show you how to create a beautiful piece of mail art that's almost too pretty to send!  This is a great way to create custom envelopes and really impress your postie, plus it's a simple way to reuse some of your own art to make something new.  If you don't want to make your own, there are an amazing array of beautiful stencils and masks on the market these days and this technique is versatile enough to look amazing with most of them.

You Will Need:

• Copic markers:  Y06, BV11, B02, BG05 & RV06
• Copic Various Ink: Colorless Blender
• Copic Multi Liners: 0.3 & 0.5
• AtYou Spica: Turquoise, Clear and Pink
• Fab Scraps Stencil: Stars
• X-Press It: Blending Card and Mask It film
• Mini Mister bottle filled with Colorless Blender
• Black acrylic paint or gesso

Instructions

You can watch this being created on our YouTube channel or follow the instructions below.

Step 1: Gather some bright colour Copic markers, your favourite paper and Mask It film.
Fold card to create envelope.

Step 2: Cut a speech bubble shape out of Mask It film and adhere to envelope.

Step 3: Using an Airbrush add BV11

Step 4: Add Y06

Step 5: Then add B02

Step 6: Add RV06

Step 7: Finally add BG05 to cover any remaining white areas.

Step 8: Lay star stencil over envelope and spritz with Colorless Blender, allow to dry.

Step 9: Draw design onto Mask It film (if drawing your own design make sure to

REVERSE it so your design turns out the correct way), cut out and apply to envelope.

Paint over envelope with black gesso or acrylic paint.

Step 10: Allow paint to dry for approximately 2 minutes and then carefully remove mask.

You will notice there are a few areas that need a little smoothing or filling in.

Step 11:  Use Copic Multi Liners and Spica pens to fill in gaps, decorate and address envelope.

Once all the edges are smoothed and a little extra colour added, your unique mail art envelope is complete and will look something like this.

I'd love to see if you create any mail art with your Copic markers, please share your art on the Copic Australia Facebook page.

Back with more soon,
Kate

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Copic Mixed Media Journal Page

Today I will be using a few supplies from my X-Press It and Copic hoard to create a bright and happy journal page, using my 'word' for the new year!  

You will need:

• Copic Markers: N9, N7, N5, N3, RV06, RV09, RV69 & Blender '0'
• Copic Airbrush System
• Copic Opaque White Paint
• AtYou Spica Pens: Turquoise & Lavender
• Molotow Paint Marker: Signal White EF, Shock Blue, Currant & Skin Pastel
• X-Press It Mask It 
• FabScraps Stencil - DS003
• Bruynzeel Aquarel Pencils (watercolour pencils)
• Assorted Stamps

Here's how I made it.

Gather a bold stencil, I used a pretty flower stencil from FabScraps, some favourite Copic Multi Liners for outlining and X-Press It Blending card or Blending Journal.  Using pale grey, print the word Bloom onto your page or card (for more lettering tips have a look here) using a printer.

Trace over the outline of the word with Black 0.5 Copic Multi Liner.

Place the stencil/mask at the top right corner of the page, using scrap paper to protect the rest of the area.  Use an airbrush to add RV06 all over the stencilled image.

 Swap to a darker colour, RV09 and add colour the the outside three rows of petals.

For the final colour select something even darker, I used RV69 and add colour to the outside row of petals only.

Repeat these steps, until the entire page is covered with stencilled flowers.

Use the Molotow white paint marker and Copic Opaque white to colour the printed word.
Outline letters using N9, N7, N5, N3, the greys will create a subtle outline.

At this stage you will have something a bit like this, you could leave it there,
but I had to add a little extra.

Using Memento Tuxedo Black stamp a few images onto the page (roughly mask the word with Mask It before stamping).  Use Bruynzeel Aquarel pencils to add a hint of green to the stamped leaves and black to create a shadow around the figure.  Blend with a waterbrush and let  dry.

 For a little extra pop use a Molotow paint markers to colour the skin, and also as a wash (mixed with water on a palette) to add a hint of colour to the wings.
For some sparkle add a touch of Spica - or a LOT.

Finish by adding a hint of white to the wings and leaves for contrast.

The end result looks like this - I love how the original stencil pattern recedes or pops forward depending on the placement against the stamp!

So grab those Copics and your favourite stamps and stencils and have a play!

Wishing you all a wonderful 2015 - Happy New Year!

Kate

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Easy Typography for your Copic Projects

Today I'm going to let you in on a little secret - my lettering isn't always what I'd like it to be, so I CHEAT.  So in an effort to help all those other typographically challenged people out there, I'm going to share my secret formula for creating beautiful lettering on your cards, journals or scrapbook pages.

Two reliable ways to create beautiful typography:

1. Use Word (or similar program) to create desired lettering, choose a outline only font, print this in very light grey using a laser printer.  You can trace straight over this printed word with Copics and if you are neat, no one will ever know you didn't write this yourself!
   NB: test your printer ink to make sure it is Copic safe before trying this, all laser printers are Copic Safe, only some ink jet printers have Copic safe ink.  For information on how to test your ink read this post.
2. You learned this second method in Elementary/Primary School.  Print the word onto paper, flip the paper over and scribble on the back very heavily in soft lead pencil (eg: 2B), turn the paper back over place it over your project and then trace over the word - this transfers the carbon/graphite from the pencil creating a copy onto your card or page.
   NB: Only one thing you need to know here, tracing over pencil with Copic makes the pencil permanent - you can't rub it out later!  So this works best if outlining with black or dark coloured Copics that will hide the pencil lines.

I used the pencil trace method for the lettering on this project, as I knew I would be using black, which would hide the pencil lines.

For today's project, I will be printing directly onto my X-Press It Blending card and tracing over the printed text.

What I Used:

• Copic Multi Liners: 0.3 Black, Turquoise, Pink, BS Cool Gray (Brush Tip)
• Copic Marker: RV09, BG32 & BG49
• AtYou Spica: Turquoise & Pink
• XPress It Blending Card
• Font - Victorian LET

Begin by tracing over your printed outline with a black Copic Multi Liner - I used 0.3

Using your favourite coloured Copic Multi Liners add a little doodling, I started with Turquoise.

Then add a little pink, leaving quite a bit of white space.

Swap to some of those yummy sparkly Spica pens and add a little more doodling.

Finish by adding simple dots to fill the remaining white space - don't make all of your marks doodles, keep some marks simple so your design doesn't look too busy.

To make your design pop off the page,  edge your letters using a cool grey - I used the Copic Brush Tip Multi Liner for this as it has a wondeful precision tip.

To complete my card I needed some ribbon, sadly I didn't have a colour to match the Turquoise, so Copics to the rescue!  I coloured some white ric-rac with my Copic Marker BG32.

I had the same problem with the glitter on my tree, so once again I used my Copic Markers in RV09 & BG49 to recolour the glitter elements on my embellishment.

When you put it all together the finished Christmas card looks like this.

I hope this post has given you a few ideas about how you could incorporate Copics into your Christmas cards and create beautiful lettering on your Copic projects!

Back with more next year and wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Kate

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