Copic Technique Journal #5 - Textures!

Hello Everyone and welcome to the last tutorial in our series on creating your very own Copic Technique Journal.  Today I'm talking about TEXTURE!  You can achieve texture in different ways, by either dotting or scribbling on colour or by adding your colourless blender as a pen or using the blender solution.  All of these ways create fun and interesting effects to your creative projects!!

Once again, the team at X-Press Graph-X have created another FREE template for you to use and insert into your Copic Journal in both Landscape and Portrait orientation!  Why not download the template and have a go at creating your very own journal and then link to the inlinkz below for a chance to win your very own X-press It Copic Journal!

Here is the PORTRAIT Template
Here is the LANDSCAPE Template

And before we get onto this tutorial, the winner from Kate's Colourless Blender Tutorial was Alshandra, congrats A.... please email Sascha to claim your free journal.

 I've used the Texture Template in the landscape orientation and used it to create a variety of effects.  Create Pebbles by laying down a base of C3, dot on YR24 and YG95 and then dot on some Colourless Blender.  The next one is Scales, lay down a base of YG93 and dot on YG95, YG97 and Colourless Blender.  To create a woodgrain effect, I've laid down a base of E31 and used the tips of E33, E35 and E37 to create a stripey, wood like effect.  You can also create a fuzzy effect by dotting and scribbling on colour.  I've laid down a base of E11 and then dotted and scribbled on E13 and E15.

For a different look, you can use your blender solution and a variety of different materials to create texture.  For the first one, I've coloured the circle, dampened a piece of Aida Cloth with Colourless Blender and pressed it to the circle. For the other circles, I've used Denim, a Washcloth and a piece of Hessian (also known as Burlap in some parts of the world).

You can then stamp directly into your X-press It Copic Journal (since all the pages are the X-press It Blending Card which is perfect for colouring), and colour examples of your techniques!  Above I've created Pebbles under the bucket, a Fluffy Chicken (the dotted on fur technique) and a Wooden Fence.

On another page, I've given a little girl a textured dress (Aida Cloth), a Chic Girl some textured Denim jeans and some Fuzzy Bunnies using the Blender Solution and Washcloth technique.  As you can see, there is a wonderful world of textures to explore!

You can read more about textures in these tutorials...
Adding Texture Using The Colourless Blender Refill and Fabric
Bubbles and Pebbles
Adding Texture With Colourless Blender

Hope you've enjoyed and been inspired to create some texture of your own!  Why not download the FREE template, show us your page and use the inlinkz below to have the chance to win your own X-Press It Journal!


Happy Colouring... and we will see you all in two weeks time to announce our winner, and start the next phase of our Copic journey!

Kathy  :)

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Copic Technique Journal #4 Colourless Blender Swatches

Welcome to the fourth Copic Technique Journal Tutorial here on the Copic Oz Blog, I hope the ideas and templates we have been posting have been of help in creating your own Technique Journal.  So far we have covered colour combinations, skin and hair with FREE Templates for each post. With each idea we are encouraging you to “have a go” for yourself by offering a  FREE X-Press It Blending Journal to one of our readers who shows us how they are using our templates and ideas in their own Technique Journal.  To enter all you need to do is link your photos via the InLinkz widget at the end of each blog post.  

Last time we encouraged you all to show us how your journalled Hair Techniques, and the lucky winner of the Blending Journal is Joanne Herbert, congratulations Jo... please email your postal address to Sascha and she will get your Blending Journal out to you!

This week we are looking at the Copic Colourless Blender, and again we are providing you with FREE Copic Colourless Blender Swatch Templates.  These print on an A4 Sheet of X-Press It Blending Card, so you can cut it in half and they will fit nicely into your Journal or into a ring binder or plastic sleeve if you prefer.  Print these directly onto X-Press It Blending Card, and get started:

Copic Colourless Blender Swatch Template—Portrait

Copic Colourless Blender Swatch Template—Landscape

What is the Copic Colourless Blender?

The Colorless Blender is a Copic marker filled with pure solvent and no color.  It has a Super Brush tip on one end and a chisel tip on the other.  This is one of the most misunderstood of all the Copic products because it's called a 'Colourless Blender' marker and you don't really use it to blend colours - well not for the most part!  This marker is most often used for lightening, creating special effects and fixing small mistakes, as the solvent can 'push' and bleach other colours of Copic ink.  

The Copic Colourless Blender has so many different ways that it can be used, that I had a difficult time deciding what to show you all!  Next time Kathy will be talking about adding Texture to your images (so I'll avoid talking about texture overly much) and there have previously been some wonderful posts on Copic Oz on using your Colourless Blender (I've linked them below so they are easy for you to find), make sure you have a look as they are fabulous.

• Kathy details the Fade to White Technique    
• Sascha shows you how to add texture to Marci's Hat    
• Kate shows you how to use the Copic Blender to create 2 different backgrounds   
• Kathy shows you how to use the Blender to create a bleached effect on Gloss  
• Kathy demonstrates texture with the Colourless Blender

Today I will be looking at Copic Colourless Blender techniques, I won't be covering these in detail, rather just showing you how I used my Colourless Blender Template to record each idea in my Technique Journal.  I've added little typed snippets of instructions (I'd normally hand write these in my own journal - but I thought you may like to be able to read them) - just very brief notes to jog my memory if needed.
These are the different ideas I have included on my first page of Colourless Blender Swatches:

Fixing Mistakes

Adding Spots

Creating a Brick Pattern

Creating Bubbles

Fading Colours

Fading to White

Bleaching Raised Areas

Creating Pastels

Creating Texture

Stamping with Colourless Blender

and lucky last one of my favourite ways to use the Copic Colourless Blender.....

Watercolour Effects 1

Watercolour Effects 2
A - Adding just enough Blending Fluid to moisten card

B - Adding so much Blending Fluid that it forms a visible pool on the card

Watercolour Effects 3
My personal favourite

Stamps used in the Colourless Blender swatches are Flourishes Magnolia & Passion Flower sets and La-La Land Crafts Heart Balloon Marci.  

I hope you've enjoyed this post on some of the uses for Copic Colourless Blender, I think this is one MAGIC little marker!   And now it's your turn to show us how YOU record your ideas for using the Colourless Blender in your Technique Journal, feel free to use the provided template, or your own ideas!  BUT whatever you do remember to link up using the InLinkz widget below, because we will award a FREE Blending Journal to the most impressive entry - but you can only win if you enter! We will announce the lucky winner in two weeks, at the start of our next Copic Tutorial, Goodluck!!

Link your entries up here:



Sparkly Hugs,

Kate

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Copic Technique Journal--Hair Combinations

Welcome to the Third Copic Technique Journal Tutorial here on the Copic Oz Blog, I hope these features have got you thinking about building your own Technique Journal.  Along the way we have provided you with ideas for colour combinations, and skin combinations; and a series of FREE Templates for you to either place in your X-Press It Blending Journal (filled with X-Press It Blending Card) or for you to build your own journal.

With each technique we are also encouraging you to “have a go” and let us know how you have made your Technique Journal come to life.  We provide an InLinkz facility at the end of each blog post, and choose a winner from each technique to receive a FREE X-Press It Blending Journal.  The winner from the Skin Combinations tutorial is Alshandra, congratulations… please email Sascha with your postal address to claim you prize.

This time we are focussing on hair and adding our favourite combinations to our Technique Journal.  I have samples of dark hair, and you will be able to see Kathy’s Light Hair and Kate’s Fantasy Hair samples in the InLinkz Tool below… once again we are providing you with FREE Copic Blending Templates.  Simply print these onto X-Press It Blending Card, and get started:

Hair Combinations Copic Blending Template—Portrait

Hair Combinations Copic Blending Template—Landscape

These print on a whole A4 Sheet of X-Press It Blending Card, simply cut in half and they fit nicely into your Journal.

Hair is always a huge challenge for me, particularly trying to modernise hair on the images I colour.  I have always had hair that is just one colour, as in a solid colour, but today so many people have mixed hair colours, this is what I worked on in my sample page today. 

I have also built my hair samples so that I can reference the order in which my colours are applied, as I regularly forget the order in which you apply the colours, changes the outcome.  I always do a bit of extra blending (and streaking) at the end, but these examples will head me in the right direction when I need it.

Line 1—Standard Brown Tones

Line 2—Brown Tones with a Dark Blonde Under-Glow

Line 3—Brown Tones with Red Highlights

I like to keep “Stamped Examples” close to each of my Technique/Colour Combination Pages, given I chose to use three of the little ladies on the template to show the series of colour application, I opted to stamp my images on separate pieces of Blending Card, and tab them ready for inserting behind the journal page.  This is easily achieved by securing the Hair Combinations Template to the Journal using X-Press It Double Sided Tape, in channels, as shown below.

This creates a perfect cavity to hold the sample, which slides in and out with ease.  A little trick if you plan on storing more than one sample in each slot is to double up the layers of Double Sided Tape, the more layers of tape you use, the more examples you can fit in…. or use foam tape if you intend on storing a thick stash… I plan to put the colour combo that will follow (back onto) this one, on the next page, straight onto the back of this tabbed beauty, keeping the amount of loose items to a minimum.

I used three different Marci Girls stamps from La La Land, one for each of my colour combinations:

Sugar n Spice Marci for Standard Brown Tones

Winter Marci for Brown Tones with Blonde Under-Glow

Marci Ballerina for Brown Tones with Red Highlights

And for some further inspiration here are some links to some previously highlighted hair colour techniques/combinations:
Copic Hair and Skin Wheel
All About Hair Challenge
Have a Good Hair Day

Colouring Hair with Texture

So now it is over to you, similarly to last time, we are calling upon participants to show us how they sample hair colours in their Technique Journal, feel free to use the provided template, or your approach to hair colour combos!  Most importantly, link up using the InLinkz tool below, we will award a FREE Blending Journal to the most impressive entry, and announce the lucky winner in two weeks, at the start of our next Copic Tutorial, Goodluck!!

And for those of you in Brisbane and the surrounds, we are counting down the sleeps until the Scrapbook Expo on June 10, 11 and 12.  Come visit us at the X-Press Graph-X Stand and touch base with all things Copic.

In the mean time I hope you are inspired to get busy building your Copic Technique Journal!!

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Copic Technique Journal #2 Skin Swatches

Hi everyone, I hope you are all working on colouring those swatches for your colour journals - I know that's what I spent my weekend doing!  Today I'm going to show you the second idea for your Copic Colour Journal - it's one we all use and lots of people have trouble getting something they are happy with - yes it's Skin Colours!

But first we have a prize to give away from our Copic Technique Journal #1 Colour Swatches competition, congratulations to Alashandra who did a fantastic job of showcasing Colour Swatches in her Technique Journal, we really loved how she used one image to nest a series of different leaf and petal colour options!  Well done Alashandra, please email Sascha with your postal address and she will get your prize out to you!!

And now onto this week's tutorial.... I find that keeping a record of skin colour combinations is vital to my colouring, both those I have discovered for myself and those used by other Copic artists that I've seen online or at certification classes.  Armed with this array of choices that I know work, it makes it much easier to choose skin colours to match hair or clothing.

Once again we are providing you with a fabulous and free Copic Blending Template, designed especially for Copic Oz and perfect for trying out those skin colour combos! 
You have two options depending on which way you like to work (landscape or portrait) both templates can be cut in half so they can be glued into your Copic Blending Journal, or you can use the full A4 size and pop the pages into an A4 ring binder.

Click here for the portrait template
Click here for the landscape template 

To get you started I've completed a page of beginner friendly Copic skin colour combinations - all of which are simple combos for guaranteed results!  The only tricky one in the bunch is the very last combo - which takes a little more work to blend than the others.  I've tried to stick to the same cheek colour R20 for most of these, so you can see how different it looks against each of the colours.  R20 is one of my 'go to' colours for cheeks as it gives beautiful results against most skin combos.

Pale Skin Colour Combos

Now I have to admit to also creating a few 'play' pages, this first page is perfect for people who do not have access to a Copic safe printer.  I've made this template page by cutting a circle from some scrap paper, tracing the circle onto a page in my Copic Colour Journal 3 times, then placing the template over the drawn circle and using this as a mask.  I stamped my La-La Land Crafts stamp (New Years Marci) into the circle using Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  I then cut out some pieces from the Copic Colour swatch template and used these to record my colour combos.  You might like to record hair and clothing combos on the same page.

Your other option is to go a bit fancy, now I wouldn't do this for every page (as it took a while) but it might be fun to have a few like this scattered through your Colour Journal to make it look that bit more special.  On this page I've used the same skin colour for each image, but have played with different shadow colours, hair and clothing.  I am always surprised by how different the same colours can look when paired with different combinations.  To create this page I die cut a circle in pink paper, then die cut the fancy frame behind, stamped Autumn Marci on some scraps of X-Press It Blending card and cut these to fit into the circle - instant gorgeousness!

I hope you've enjoyed this peek at some of my favourite skin colour combos and that you will enjoy using our new skin colour combo template!

So now it is time for the competition details.... similarly to last time, we are calling upon participants to  show us how they sample skin swatches in their Copic Technique Journal, feel free to use the FREE Skin Swatches Templates, links above!!!  Show us how you journal skin tone options and link up your blog post via the InLinkz below.  A FREE Journal will be awarded to the most impressive post... check back here in two weeks time to see who won and be inspired by the next feature in our Copic Technique Journal series.

And for some further inspiration here is a look back at some of the Copic Oz Tutorials of past that focused on skin tone:
Copic Hair and Skin Colour Wheel
Dark Skin Tutorial
Colouring Dark Skin


Back soon with more,
Kate

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Blog Hop Winners

Hi there, its Sascha from Copic HQ again. Thank you all for participating in our blog hop!

Yesterday I went into the Royal Children's Hospital and made Mother's Day cards with a great group of kids. They made some beautiful cards and really enjoyed using the Copic Markers. Some of the kids were really shy, but ended up chatting away whilst making several cards for their Mums, aunties and grandmas!

They wrote beautiful messages inside the cards too. One little boy wrote, " I love you lots and I love you even more than you think." He was so excited that he didn't want to wait until Sunday and gave his Mum the card on the spot... It nearly brought her to tears.

So, please help us support Koala Kids! We want your cards for the kids and don't forget that we will donate $5 to Koala Kids for every card entered! For all the details and to download an entry form head to our website.

And now for the bit you have all been waiting for, here are the blog hop winners!

Copic Oz- Julie T
Kathy's Blog- Loulou
Edna's Blog- Adriana Morales
Kate's Blog- Ashandra
Facebook-  June Johnston


Please send us an email with your postal details so we can send your prize packs to you. Pin It

Blog Hop!!!!

Hi All, It’s Sascha from Copic HQ. Welcome to Copic OZ! I am super excited to be starting off a very special blog hop!

In 2013 X-Graph-X Supplies (the company behind Copic and X-Press It in Australia) is supporting Koala Kids – a great organization which supports kids with Cancer and their families.

WE WANT YOUR CARDS!!!

To support Koala Kids, we will donate $5 for every card entered into the Copic Card Challenge! To enter, simply create a Get Well themed card. There are over $750 worth of prizes to be won! For more information, check out our website. 

To get the ball rolling, our design team members have each made a special card. Join our blog hop for your chance to win some BLOG CANDY! (A Copic Prize Pack which includes Copic Markers, a NEW X-Press It Blending Journal and a Bundle of Bonus Fabscraps Goodies)

This card is pretty special! Not just because I made it, but because next week I will be heading into the Royal Children’s Hospital Kookaburra and day oncology wards to make Mother’s Day Cards, just like this one, with some very special kids.  

To participate in the hop simply leave a comment on my blog or on any of the other participating blogs and the Copic Australia Facebook page. (Thats 5 chances to win!) The next stop is Kathy’s Blog! The hop finishes at Midnight (AEST) on Monday, May 6, 2013. Sorry, Australian and New Zealand residents only.

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Copic Technique Journal - Colour Swatches

Hello Everyone and welcome back to another Copic Oz Tutorial!  This week marks the beginning of a series of posts designed to inspire you to create your very own Copic Technique Journal!!  Due to overwhelming demand, X-press Graph-x has now released the X-press It Blending Journal!!!  This fabulous book is full of the X-press It Blending Card which we all know is *perfect* for using with Copics and bound with a black cover (perfect for decorating with your own personal flair!).

To get the ball rolling on this series, I'm introducing the new Copic Blending Template, designed especially for Copic Oz and its free to download! You have two options depending on which way you like to work (landscape or portrait when cut in half) You can use it in the full A4 size to pop into a full sized ring binder, or, you can cut it in half (A5) and insert it into your Technique Journal!  

Click here for the portrait template
Click here for the landscape template 

Print out several for each of your colour families to use as your very own personal colour guide or even put several colours on the template for your favourite combinations that work well together.  Sometimes you've made a project and you just love the way the colours work together, but months down the track you've forgotten exactly which ones they were (now was that the G20's or the G40's???).  By putting this combination in your swatch book, you will forever have this resource on hand!

I've begun to organise my colour swatches with the RV family - using a the wide variety from RV0000 right through to RV99.  Begin by colouring the box with your favourite combinations and then write the colour names right next to it.  This makes an awesome resource for you to look back on when creating your next masterpiece!!
 

On the next page I've stamped the flower image from Flourishes' Lenten Rose stamp set several times down the side of the page and cut the template into separate blocks to provide a colour guide from each flower.

 On another page, I've stamped a couple of images, coloured them with a variety of Copics and then cut parts of the template to make a multi colour reference guide next to it.

Sooooooo........are you loving the new Blending Template????  HOW WOULD YOU LIKE THE CHANCE TO WIN????  Simply download the free template(Click here for the portrait template, Click here for the landscape template) and show us what you create with it and add your blog link to the Inlinkz below!!  A FREE Journal will be awarded to the most impressive post....check back on May 15th to see who's won and be inspired by the next amazing tutorial in the series by our incredibly talented Kate!!



Thanks so much for visiting today and Happy Colouring!!
Kathy  :)

PS... You might want to come back here on Friday, May 3! A little birdy has told me that something special will be happening! :)Pin It