Copic Coloured Feathers

Hi Copic fans - today I thought I'd try something fun and funky - colouring feathers with my Copic Markers!  As it turns out the most difficult thing about this was finding the white feathers - as for the colouring the feathers, it was so much easier than I thought it would be and rather a lot of fun.

Gather beautiful supplies, I used:

• Copic Markers: RV17, V09, B16, V17, BG13, BG57 & BG75
• Kirarina Wink Pens: Candy Set
• Molotow One4All Paint Pen EF 2mm nib
• X-Press It Double Sided Tape
• FabScraps Starburst Sprays: Tea Pot Purple & Time Travel Teal
• White Feathers
• X-Press It Blending Card A4
• Ink Pads: Archival Royal Purple, Aquamarine and Delicata - Golden Glitz

Begin by cutting some of the X-Press It Double Sided Tape to size and trim the ends to fit the feathers, stick a piece of tape onto the back of each feather.  This provides a little extra strength and stops the feather splitting as you work on it.

Using a variety of Copic Marker Colours, carefully colour each feather - I varied my feather colours but used the same process on each.

Begin by adding BG13 - use the Copic Marker to create a chevron pattern.  Try to work in the direction of the feather - it's much easier!

Add some V09.

Use BG57 to begin smoothing out the colours by adding this colour between and over some of the previous colouring.

Finish colouring with BG75 - you can leave some white space if you like.

Once the feathers are coloured to your satisfaction, it's time to add some metallic glitz with the fabulous Kirarina Wink pens and Molotow paint markers - I added dots, stripes and even coloured some of the tips on my feathers.

To create a background for the feathers, stamp some text on the bottom of your white cardstock - I used purple and aqua inks with a little Delicata Golden Glitz over the top. 

Add a few splashes or drips of Starburst sprays and dry with a heat gun/embossing tool.

Remove the backing from double sided adhesive tape on your feathers and press carefully and firmly onto your card front.  Your finished card should look a little something like this.

I can think of all sorts of uses for these Copic coloured feathers now that I've finished this - I think I might make myself a pair of earrings next!

Back soon with more,
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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Layering Copic Colours to Create a Beautiful Night Sky Effect

I'm back this week with another idea with many uses - layering your Copic colours, for a beautiful though abstract result.  I often hear Copic beginners expressing their frustration with learning to blend, well while you are mastering blending why not play with layering.  Layering colours is much easier, gives interesting and unexpected results and can be used on many projects.  I have used this to create a journal page, but you could easily use this as an amazing way to colour clothing on a stamped image, create a beautiful name tag, a stunning background or anything else you can think of!

For this page I have used:

• X-Press It Blending Journal
• Copic Markers: Colorless Blender '0', N0, N1, N3, BG11, B13,  B69, B79, RV06, RV09, BG94, B97 & B99
• Molotow Extra Fine Paint Marker

 To create this page:

Start by stamping, printing or writing onto the lower right of your page.

Using very pale Neutral Grey (or Cool Grey) colours roughly draw the outline of a hole onto your page.  This will be used as a guide for the final step so don't spend too much time on this.

Next add BG11 and BG13 and blend slightly - just enough so the colours look smooth.

Add B69 and then darken using B79.

Where the B69 borders the BG11 or BG13, pounce the BG11 over the darker colour - this will make the darker blues go a little mottled and cloudy and add some of the aqua into the blue.

Add a hint of RV06 and darken with RV09.

Where the Cerise borders the blue, layer RV09 over the blue, while these colours will not blend, a little of the Fuchsia will be introduced into the blue.  In doing this, you are introducing a hint of one colour into another - your finished result will be much nicer.

Then use BG49 to add a little more depth - I have used it to create something of a pattern.

Darken the image by layering B97 and B99, both over and around the existing colours.  I've also used these to outline my 'hole' in the paper.

Continue to add more layers (using the method of pouncing one colour over another where 2 dissimilar colours meet) and fill in any pale spots with the colours you have already used.  I have tried to create patterns that look vaguely cloudlike (you could refer to photos of the night sky for ideas if you like).

To finish I have used B79 and B99 to add fine lines and outlines to some of the patterns.

Flick paint from the tip of a Molotow Paint marker over your coloured image and carefully draw some starbursts.  Leave to dry.

See how the white paint really makes the colours 'pop'.

To finish the page scrunch up some paper, tear a hole to match what you have drawn  (this is a tiny bit fiddly) and roll back the edges of the paper around the hole.  To make sure this stays exactly as is, glue down the rolled paper pieces.

Between the starkness of the white page and the depth of colour, this really leaps out at you.  This is a really simple way to use colours that don't naturally go together, just remember to keep layering until you are happy with the result and pounce one colour over another so that there are no harsh edges.

Hoping you all have a wonderfully creative week,
KatePin It

Copic Junk Journal Page

Hoping you all had a wonderful Christmas and that Santa brought you something Copic related!  Today I'm using my Copics to create and alter a Junk Journal page!  People often ask me how I deal with the bleed through from the front of the page I'm working on - onto the back of the page, when I create in my Copic Art Journal.  Well  this is one of the ways I make use of all the pages including the grubby back - just add a little collage!

To create your own Junk Journal page - you will need to gather some collage supplies - I collected some photos, the front of a Christmas card, wrapping paper, the recipe for the dessert I made and a photocopy of one of our favourite Christmas songs!

To begin, I cut the recipe and the song score to the same size as my journal pages, then I stuck a piece of the wrapping paper onto the left and right sides to create a border.  I picked one of the colours on the Christmas card and found a matching Copic Marker (V99), then using the method for Copic Stamping I stamped Snowflakes from Flourishes 'Handmade Snowflakes Set' over my background papers.

To make the background paper match the wrapping paper, I used my airbrush to add colour - I used E81 & E84 to colour the pages.

The next challenge was the photos which all had very different colours, particularly in the backgrounds.  So knowing that these were printed with Copic safe ink (these were done on a laser printer - though some ink jet printers also have Copic safe ink), I used T0, T1, T3, T5 and T7 to colour the backgrounds of each photo.  This not only made the images coordinate a little better, but it also added a little frame to the images and made the central figures stand out more.

You can see in the photo below the Copic on the left and the original background on the right, even on the first coat the grey is making the image look more interesting.

Once all the backgrounds are coloured, use fancy washi tape to stick the photos onto your pages (trim off any overhanging bits).

At this point I decided I wanted to add some journaling, but there was nowhere to write!  So I used my Molotow Marker (white 4mm) to add some journaling circles.  I applied the paint using a water marker so that some of the background peeked through.

Hmm - my pages still don't quite match - I need to find a way to bring a little of the colour from the trumpeting angel image onto the right side page.  Now I know this isn't the traditional colour for holly, but honestly it's the only Christmas image I know how to draw!  So I've used a Copic Multi Liner 0.3 to draw some holly leaves and berries onto some X-Press It Blending Card.

To colour the berries I've started by colouring the whole thing with V91.

I've added V93 - leaving the lightest spot uncoloured and a tiny strip on the bottom of the berry to look like reflected light.

Next I've added the darkest colour V99, being very careful to leave the reflected light strip uncoloured.  This darker colour is what gives the shape to the image.

I've blended the darker colour out a little with V95 - and have then added 2 more layers of each colour - being careful the whole time to leave the light spots alone, only at the very end have I gone and added another layer of V91 to blend the colours a little more.

I've added some white Molotow Paint Marker the to lightest part of the berry to add shine and have moved on to colouring the leaves.

For the leaves I've started with a base coat of  Y13.  Now these are going to be golden leaves, but it's not my usual gold colour combo as I wanted these to match the gold of the angel - which was more of an 'old' gold colour.

Then I've added Y28 - using light feathery strokes.

I've layered YR24 over the top to add contrast.

And finally Y15 on the edges to lightly blend between the Y13 and the YR24 - though I'm making sure to leave this highly textured and not actually blend the colours.    I've added 2 more layers of each colour, trying to leave the Y13 as 'bright' spots.  To finish I've added a little Gold AtYou Spica pen to the leaves.

The finished gold leaves match the angel and are very eyecatching.

Add a little journaling and doodling and the page is finished.

Products Used:

• Copic Markers
  Background of Page: E81 & E84
  Background of Photos: T0, T1, T3, T5 & T7
  Gold Leaves - Y13, Y15, Y28 & YR24
  Berries - V91, V93, V95 & V99 and T1, T3, T5 & T7 for shadow
• AtYou Spica Pens - Clear and Gold
• Molotow Paint Markers - White (EF), White 4mm & Black (EF)

We would love to see what you have created over the Christmas holidays, so make sure to share on the Facebook page!

Back soon with more,

Kate

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