Bark and Chipboard

Hello Everyone and welcome to another Copic Oz tutorial!  Today I'm playing with Chipboard and Sticky Barc!  Sticky Barc is a new product which are self adhesive sheets of ultra then wood - made of REAL wood!  You can stamp, ink, colour, varnish and anything you would normally do with paper, you can do to these wood sheets as well!  Oh, you can even put them through your inkjet printer!!  How Cool!!  :)

As you can see, there is a removable backing sheet on the back of your sticky barc sheet.

Did I mention you can die cut it??  This piece has been cut using the La La Land Crafts Heart Fence Die.

 

I really like the look of the fence cut with this wood, however, I've decided to give it a bit of a golden effect by colouring with Y21 which is a lovely buttery yellow!

 

How about Chipboard?  

You can colour chipboard in exactly the same way, by simply colouring direct from your marker, or even airbrushing!!  Remember the chipboard is darker and very absorbent, so lighter colours don't show as well.  I've used RV55 which is a mid-toned pink.

 

 Of course, you can leave your chipboard like this and it looks great, or you can apply some X-press It Clear Gel glue for a glossy effect!  (Make sure you have a scratch mat underneath!!)

Even out the glue with your finger so that all parts of your chipboard are covered evenly!

 Use your Sticky Barc and Chipboard to create a sweet hanging piece of art - I thought this would be cute in my daughter's room!  :)

 

Hope you've enjoyed today's tutorial!  Why not play around with some new surfaces and see what fabulous projects you can create??!!

Happy Colouring!
Kathy

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Art Journal #1 Creating Backgrounds

Hello and welcome to the first in our series of posts all about creating in your Copic Art Journal!  I have received quite a few questions since posting my first Copic coloured Art Journal Page, lots of people saying they didn't have the time to doodle and colour, others saying an all Copic page would use too much ink!  Well I'm here to tell you that colouring the whole page with markers isn't the only way to use Copics in your journal.  To give you all a little head start, today I'll show you 5 simple techniques that you can use to create Copic backgrounds in your journal and then I will be creating a page using these techniques to show you how it could look.  I am working in my fabulous X-Press It Copic Blending Journal as it is created with Copic blending card and perfect for Copics and journaling!

Technique 1: Spritzing with Copic Ink 

You can do this in one of 2 ways, add Copic Various ink to a mini mister and spritz (the colours will be quite strong and you will use a fair bit of ink) or what I've done here, pick a strong colour (eg Black 100) and add 3 drops to a mini mister bottle followed by 3mL of Copic Colorless Blending ink (if you look on the side of the Various reinkers it is marked in mL to make it easy).  If you push the pump nozzle quickly you get a fine even mist, if you push slowly you get a splattered look, you can see both below.

Technique 2: Stencilling  with Copic Ink 

Use the same ink and blender mixture as from Technique 1 and use this to mist through stencils - don't spray too close to the stencil or liquid can seep underneath and make sure you are working in a well ventilated room.

Technique 3: Copic Various Ink drips

This is one we usually try not to do, but today you are going to tilt your card and add drips of Copic Various ink straight from the bottle, the resulting colours are quite strong, so use this sparingly.

Technique 4: Copic Various Ink drops

Something else we usually avoid, drip Copic Various ink onto a non-stick surface, add a drop of Colorless Blender  to each drop and plop your project right onto the spots face down, you will create uneven blobs of colour.

Technique 5: Stamping with Found Objects

Grab any non-porous object (plastic, glass or china etc) use the chisel tip of your Copic marker to colour the surface, spritz your card with Colorless Blender and then firmly press the inked part of your object onto the wet card.  More blender = wetter card = more wicking of the ink, where as less blender = crisper image.  You can try this with jars, lids, leggo, toys etc.

and these are the techniques I just showed you, being used to create my Art Journal page ...

 Mask edges of page with low tack tape, spray page with your favourite sparkly spray, let dry then then spritz page with Copic ink (Black 100 + Colorless Blender) - see you can combine sparkles and Copics!

Use same Copic ink in mister bottle to add some stenciled words or patterns.

Add drips of Various ink (BG15) directly to the page and add drops of ink as described previously (I used BG49 and BG15).

Use jar and plastic lid to add stamped impressions, I coated objects with E29.

Use old Copic Multi Liner Brush marker size M to stencil on some words, the stencils are hard on the marker nibs so don't use your best brush marker for this.

Use 4B pencil to add shadows to lettering.

Stamp Flourishes images from Magnolias and Hydrangea sets, using Mememto ink in Bamboo Leaves & Rich Cocoa and colour with pencils.

Remove masking tape - there will be gorgeous little runs and specks of colour.

and you have created something like this, if you look you can see all of those techniques used on this one page..

I hope you have a great time trying these techniques for yourself, remember art is supposed to be fun so dive in and give Copic Art Journaling a go!

Kate

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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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