Welcome to the First Challenge!

Hello Everyone!! Welcome to the very first CopicOz Challenge!! If you love your Copic Markers as much as we do, then this is the challenge for you!! :) From now on there will be a CopicOz Challenge posted on the LAST WEDNESDAY of the month - giving all of you busy people plenty of time to play along with us!

What's the Challenge?: Create a project (card, layout, off the page) using your Copic Markers to colour FLOWERS! Doesn't matter what flowers, no size limit, no specific colours. There are so many floral colours - let your creative side run wild!!!

Is there a Prize?: YES!! X-press Graph-x are donating a wonderful prize of a pack of 10 Sheets of X-press It Blending Card and a 24 Copic Wallet!! (Have you heard - the USA are importing this paper and is being released at CHA this week!!!! You can read about it on Marianne Walker's Blog!)

Who can play?: This challenge is open to EVERYONE, including international!

How do you enter?: Use the inlinkz below to connect to your blog or online gallery and upload it prior to 6pm Monday 23rd August, Australian EST (4am USA EST)!!!

I've made a card using the Gerber Daisies stamp set by Flourishes and coloured it with Copics - RV10, RV21, RV13, E50, E53, E11, E33, YG11, YG63, YG67. I hope you are inspired to play along and we can't wait to see what you make!!

Hugs
Kathy :)

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Backgrounds with Copic Marker Refill's.

Hi Everyone, today I would like to show you how to make your own background paper using Copic Markers Ink Refills.

Have you ever been ready to make a card only to find the Patterened paper is not the colours you want to use. Well , lets make our own. What you will need is .....

• 
  
  Paper or Plastic Plate or Lid
• 
  
  2 Wet Ones- any type, folded into half
• 
  
  Solid Stamp
• 
  
  Glossy Card
• 
  
  Paper Towel- for any spills
• 
  
  Copic Ink Refills.

Ok.... Lets get started....

Drop some Ink randomly onto the Wet ones . This is going to be your own custom Stamp Pad

Taking your solid Stamp, press into the Custom Stamp Pad and stamp onto the Glossy card stock.Each time you stamp you will need to re-ink your stamp from your custom stamp pad. The colours are Fabulous and soooo pretty.

Now we dont want to just throw out the Wet ones when we are finished , so lets fold the wet one up a little more and taking another Piece of glossy card lets swipe the wet one over, first one way and then turning the gloss card around lets swipe back the other way. We now have a plaid backgound piece to use on our card......... no wastage here!!!!

Here is my finished card.I used the Plaid backgound piece to back the floral background piece, a bit of lace, cardstock and paper and a Quote that I stamped onto vellum and we have finished.

The Colours I used for the custom backgound are-: B02, BV00 and RV04. The Magnolia Bird was coloured withRV02, B60 and C3

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Stamping, Cheers Debra,xxx

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Using The Colourless Blender

People are often blown away when they realise that you don't need to use the Colourless Blender to blend! You can blend perfectly well without the Colourless Blender.

So what can we use the Colourless Blender for? Well, last week Kathy showed us how to use the colourless blending solution out of the bottle. Today I'm going to focus on using the Blender Marker (below) to demonstrate three great techniques!


Technique 1: Fix Mistakes
How often do you get to the end of your beautifully blended image only to realise that you have gone out the lines??? Well stress no more! You can use your colourless blender to "push" the colour back into the picture. Because the Colourless Blender removes ink it will remove the residue ink from beyond the line.

Technique 2: Lighten colours
By colouring over an area with the Colourless Blender you are essentially removing some of that ink, resulting in a lightened area. In the example below I have used my 0 to lighten areas of the hair. This technique works really well to achieve a worn or vintage look in your coloured image.

Technique 3: Add lines or dots
Because the colourless blender removes ink, when you apply the point of the brush nib to a coloured area and hold it there for a second or two, the ink will start to lift leaving dots in its place. In the example below I have used this technique to create dots in the girl's dress!

Here is the above image in a simple but sweet card!


These are just 3 (of many) techniques to try with your Colourless Blender! Have a go and see what brilliant effects you can create using your 0!!!

Happy Colouring .... Mandi xxx

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Adding Texture Using Blender Refill And Fabric

Hello Everyone!!!  Today we are going to look at how to create texture on your image using blender solution and different types of fabric.  We know that the blender solution moves colour out of the way, so when you add some Blender Various Ink (refill) to a piece of cloth, such as wool, denim, an old washer, hessian etc... and press the damp cloth to your coloured project, the image will take on the texture of whatever fabric you are using!  This is a wonderful way to give denim jeans, woolen top or even to give fur that textured look.

I grabbed a few cloths from around the house, the blue is an old knitted scarf I made years ago, the yellow is a chux, the top white is some Aida Cloth (the type used for Cross Stitch), next is an old face washer and finally some paper towel with a fun texture on it.

Next I coloured 5 rectangles in B26 and gathered my Blender Various Ink and the face washer.

Apply the blender solution directly from the bottle to the cloth.  You don't need to make it wet, just damp.

Then apply the damp cloth directly to the coloured part of your image - or in this case, my already dry B26 rectangle.

This is the result from the face washer!  Cool huh!?  :)  Of course I couldn't stop there, so below are the samples from my other fabrics!

This is from the paper towel - remember that swirl pattern, this is the result!  I didn't scrunch up the paper and try that, but you might want to have a go and see how that goes!!

I think this is my favourite - it's the Aida Cloth, how cool is this pattern!!!  I think it would be great for baskets or even walls!!!

This is from the scarf, but I think it was too wet and I would like to try a smaller knit.

This is from the chux, once again, probably a bit too wet but you get the idea!  Now I have all these samples, I'm going to put them into my sample book!

I've written underneath what fabric was used on each sample.

Next I stamped this fabulous Ipodabella from Stamping Bella and coloured her jeans with B32, B34 and B37.

A tip to keep in mind is that if you only want part of your image to have this texture look, to colour and apply the blender dampened rag before colouring the rest of your image.  The blender solution will have no effect on an uncoloured piece of blending card and once it's dried, you can colour the rest of your image as you normally would.

 So what fabric should you use for jeans??  Why denim of course!  This is from an old pair of jeans!!  :)  Apply the blender solution as shown above to the jeans of your image.

Here is the result from the denim dampened with blender.

Finally colour the rest of your image and now you have an image all ready for your next project!!

So what sorts of fabric do you think would make great textures??  Try this technique and add a comment below with a link to your blog so we can see all your wonderful creations!!!

I hope you've enjoyed today's tutorial!
Hugs
KathyPin It

Colouring Light Skin

This week I would like to share with you my Colour Combinations for Colouring Light Skin.

Last week Mandi showed you how to colour Dark Skin and using the same principals of colouring, here are a few of my favourite skin tone shades.There is so many different colour combinations  that you can use , so it really comes down to a matter of choice and likes.

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My tip for the week is to make yourself a Colour Swatch Book and add in all your favourite colour combinations, This will be a handy resource for you to refer back to.

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So lets start colouring.......

                  Step 1. - Take your first lightest colour of the combination of colours you have chosen, in this case I'm using E00 and colour in the whole face area.

                Step 2. - Now taking your medium colour marker E02, come in from the sides of the face where you think the shadows and darker areas would be and feather in towards the middle of the face.

                   Step 3. -   I now like to add my colour to the cheeks by touching my E00 marker to my R20 marker.

     Step 4. - Then taking my lightest marker E00 again, I then blend all the colours. 


I have includes a few samples of  coloured faces showing the different skin tones I like to use. I hope this has helped you , so have fun and remember to experiment and if you find some fabulous colour combinations I would love to see them,

Take care, Debra xxxx

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Colouring Dark Skin

So many people ask me in my classes "How do I colour dark skin?" .... followed by "And what is a good colour combination for a darker skin tone?"

Well, the short answer is that I find I colour dark skin the same way that I colour light skin tones!

That is:
Step 1: I like to always start colouring with the lightest colour in my colour combination
Step 2: I then add my next darkest colour to my first
Step 3: I go back to my lightest shade to blend the colours ... and so on.

Where it becomes a little more tricky is what is a great colour combination to use for darker skin.

Here are a few samples that I have coloured using a variety of colour combos...all of which I think work pretty well!

*All colour combos are noted on the side of the CC Design Image.

Here is a really cute little boy that I found and thought that darker skin would suit him perfectly!
For his skin I used E25 + E27 + E29 ... which is my personal favourite combination!

I hope that helps to answer your dark skin tone questions.
You can also check out I Like Markers. Marianne has a really great post on different skin tones!

Happy Colouring .... Mandi xxx

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Feathering Technique

Welcome to another tutorial here on the CopicOz Blog!  Today we are looking at the Feathering technique, what it is, why you would want to use it and how to do it!!  Some say this is the trickiest technique that you can do with Copics, but personally this is one of my favourites!

The reason that you would use this technique is if you want to have two colours from different colour families that have to merge into each other.  Imagine the colours of an iris or a pansy - blending the colours from a deep purple into a bright yellow!  This effect is also wonderful for getting the variegating look for fairy wings or dresses. Trying to do this with the blending on paper technique would result in a bit of a mess.  You don't have to only use this technique with different colour families, you can also use it for example to have a deep green blend into a light green for the same wonderful effect!!

Today I'm using this sweet CC Designs Image with Copics Y21 and YG11.  These are two easy colours to use for this technique and if you are struggling with colours while feathering, try picking two lighter colours that end in the same number - in this case they both end in a 1.

To get the best result with your feathering is to use the SIDE of your brush, not the tip and to give a sideways flicking motion like the top image above.  The second one is the way you would normally do a tick (like you were marking an exam) --- this is NOT the way to feather.  Also notice that the flick gets lighter at the end as you lift the marker off the paper.

I've started by using the YG11 Marker and flicking up from the bottom of the dress.  Notice how far I have flicked up!  You will get a much better result if you feather about 2/3rds of the way into the image you wish to colour.  The biggest problem people have with this technique is that they stop in the middle - your colours won't blend properly if they stop in the middle!  Also notice that you are not seeing solid streaky lines because I have not used the tip of the brush!

Next do the same flicking motion using the Y21 marker in the opposite direction and notice that once again I am flicking approximately 2/3rds of the way through the dress.  Keep doing this in both the green and yellow until you get the look you want!

So now we've done two different colours, lets try using two colours from the same colour family.  I've added YG63 to my Rosalie's socks using the same feathering motion that I used on her dress.

Once again I've added the YG11, this time to the top of the socks, creating the feathered look using two quite different greens.  Just remember to feather 2/3rds of the way on the image you're colouring and to use the side of your brush, lifting at the end of the flicking motion and this will help you create a smooth feathering blend.  Have a try yourself and leave a comment with a link to your blog so we can see the creations you make using the Feathering Technique!!!!

Hugs
Kathy  :)

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