Copic Color Combinations, To Ciao or not To Ciao

Happy Thursday!  Sorry I have been so quiet.  I have all these great cards to show you and have had zero time during "daylight" hours to photograph them.  Even with a lightbox I feel my photos come out horrible if I take them at night.   

In lieu of a project, I thought I would share with you some Copic charts I made.  The topic today is "To Ciao or Not to Ciao"!

The chart above is inspired by the Copic Club that Lime Tart offers which contains a combo of Ciao and Sketch markers.  They are a really great online store in Australia that sells the cutest monthly scrapbooking kits and their selection of Washi tape is awesome.  They do Marker Mondays on their blog and have really great resource material for Copics.  If I was down under I would have joined their Copic Club just to get the binder of handouts.  It is so well put together!

"To Ciao or Not To Ciao"

I have said numerous times before that I am an advocate of mixing Ciao and Sketch markers in your collection.

Reasons To Ciao-  I like Ciao markers a little bit better because they are easier to hold (just like a pen) and they are lighter in your hand and easier to maneuver.   If you are not OCD I think it works to your advantage to mix and match and get the most for your money.  Copic Ciao markers hold less ink and cost less money so it makes sense from a budget approach if you want a bigger collection, to fill your Sketch collection with Ciao markers.  

Reasons Not to Ciao- Only 180 colors available.  Some people prefer a neat looking collection, all their markers in the same kind of holder with a uniform look. Some people don't like them because they are round and can roll off the table.  They don't fit into the Airbrush grip directly.  (I use mine in the ABS grip with a piece of double stick foam to hold them in, works just fine.)  

I recommend investing in Sketch markers for lighter colors that you will be using more often to blend and to get your darker colors or ones that you will use less frequently as Ciao markers. 

Suzanne on Splitcoast Stampers was looking to purchase Copic markers, but for budget reasons, she wants to get all or mostly Ciao markers.  She sent me a list of colors that she was thinking about purchasing and I tried out the combos for her to see how well they blend.  While some of the combos work really well together, there were some that I found a bit challenging. 

Below is a picture of how those color combinations turned out:

BV000 BV13 BV17 while you can make this work, a smoother transition would be:

BV02 BV13 BV17.

V01 V05 V09 works but blends better if you add V06 to it.

R20 R24 R29 works also but blends better if you use R22 R24 R29.

YR000 YR31 YR68.  I was not fond of this combo.  I would suggest YR61 and YR68 together instead.

G20 G14 G28 would be nice if you were coloring an apple but if choosing Ciaos from the G family I would suggest something different like G00 G02 G05 or G82 G85 G95.

B000 B93 B97 was a mess for me.  I would suggest investing in a B91 Sketch marker since it is a light color and you will use more ink overtime. B91 B93 B97 would be a much smoother blend and is perfect for coloring denim. 

To summarize-  I Ciao all the time!  You should to if you want to!

Blank chart for you:

Get Well Wishes

I am feeling crummy today so I stayed home from work.  On the bright side, I did have time to make an actual card.  Plus I figured out how to use my new HP Envy All In One Printer/Scanner to scan my card instead of my iPhone camera.  Here is my get well card.  It is dedicated to the artist of this great digi called Under The Weather Xandra.  Mayzy Green has an awesome Etsy shop called Mayzy Art and she wasn't feeling well last week.  I hope she is feeling better now.  You can check out all her wonderful digis in her Etsy store here.  

A note on this great printer- the ink does run when coloring digs with Copics.  I printed in fast draft quality so that there was less ink on the paper.  I didn't have too much of an issue with smearing after printing this way.  

Supplies-

Stamps- Mayzy Art Stamps, Teeny Tiny Sentiments by Stampin' Up

Paper- Bazzill Smooth Cardstock, My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline Fiddlesticks

Ink- Memento Dessert Sand

Accessories- Recollections embellishment and foam adhesive

Copics- EOOOO EOOO E21 V20 V22 V28 E40 E41 T0 E34 E47 E57 BG10 BG57 RV52 RV55 RV00

New site COPIC COLOR and how to test your paper

Today I have a cool website and a comparison of two cardstocks for Copic coloring to share with you. The image above on the left is colored with Boise HD Color Copy Cover and the image on the right is colored on Copic X-Press It Blending Card.

I don't get to surf the web as much as I would like to anymore so I am not sure if this is new news for any of you.... but I just found a great site called Copiccolor.com-The online community for copic fans and collectors. This is an off shoot of Too International's Copicmarker.com site and it is fabulous! Why do I think that you ask...well it is mobile optimized. This means it behaves much like Facebook...you can even login to the site via your facebook profile. So if you have an iPhone you can walk with your copic marker collection info in a neat and easy to view way. No more carrying paper lists or your whole copic journal when you go to the store. it is great because you can select which copic marker colors you have and even what type...original, sketch, ciao, wide, refill...etc.... That is one major problem I always have...remembering which copic refill colors I have versus which ones I need/ want... This tool allows you to have a mobile/online version of which ones you want versus which ones you have. NO MORE ACCIDENTAL DUPE PURCHASES or forgetting to pick something up while you are out.

Another great feature of this site is the communities... there is a really great one just for PAPERCRAFTERS....you can see all the latest creations from all your favorite papercrafters...and they list what copic colors they used on their project. You can even follow them just like you would on Facebook or Twitter...so no more visiting every individual blog out there just to get some inspiration...just log in to CopicColor and visit the Papercrafters page to see some gorgeous coloring! Loving this!

I am sure there is more to love on there too but I only just discovered the site yesterday after "Like"ing the Copic Markers page on Facebook.

Copic Tip: How to select the right cardstock for your copics...

This is a very subjective topic. Everyone has their favorite cardstock to use with their markers. My favorite is X-Press It Blending Card. I find that that is the easiest cardstock for me to use as far as ease and quickness of blending. Well most of you know that X-Press It cardstock is expensive because it is imported from down under... I have gone through most of what stock I have very quickly and was trying to decide if it was in my budget to re-order when I came across a post on Splitcoast Stampers regarding what the best cardstock for copics is. Someone said they got a sample of Hammermill Color Copy Cover from Staples and they liked that better than Neenah Cardstock. I used to use PTI, then Neenah, then CC Designs as far as my favorite cardstocks to use so this post intrigued me. I googled the Hammermill and saw it was sold by one of my clients at work...TigerDirect.com. My favorite client that I deal with on a daily basis at work is this fabulous lady that works at Tiger's sister company. Well a lightbulb went off in my head...I wonder if she gets an employee discount. Well I decided to ask her and she told me she can order from their catalog at cost. So when we searched for the Hammermill they had it but not 8.5X 11 size. She found something similar called Boise HD Color Copy Cover. This one had the same brightness (98) same weight (80lb). I decided for $9.50 a for a ream of 250 sheets I might as well try it out. After shipping it came to under $15. That is approx. $.06 a sheet. I received the ream 3 days after placing the order.

HOW TO TEST PAPER WITH COPIC MARKERS

1. Draw a circle using a Copic Multiliner Pen.

2. Use a light color marker (R20) to color about half the circle right up to the line and let dry for 10 minutes.

3. Check to see if the ink bleeds or feathers past the edge or your circle.

4. Check to see if the ink looks even and well blended and the color looks bright not faded and too speckled with white. Your overall goal should be a smooth blended image with no streaking.

5. Turn the cardstock over and check to see if the ink saturates the back and looks even.

6. Check to see if you are able to correct mistakes using your O colorless blender marker.

If your cardstock passes these tests...it is ok to use with your copic markers.

Here I compared the Boise HD Color Copy Cover to Copic X-Press It Blending Card.

Price: Boise- $.06 per sheet ($15 for 250 sheets) vs. X-Press It $.46 per sheet ($57.99 for 125 sheets) WINNER- BOISE

Weight: Boise- 80 lb vs. X-Press It- 92 lb WINNER- X-PRESS IT

Smoothness: same ultrasmooth finish

Brightness: Boise- 98 vs. X-press It- unsure of the number but it is slightly less bright than the Boise WINNER- BOISE

Saturation: same

Ink Clarity: Boise- small amount of speckling vs. X-Press It- tint amount of speckling WINNER- XPRESS IT

Above- B91 B95 B97 blended on Boise

Above- B91, B95, B97 blended on X-Press It

Feathering- Boise- small amount of ink spread..or feathering vs. X-Press IT- minuscule amount of spread. Ink tends to pool on the surface of this cardstock giving you more time to work with it before drying WINNER- X-PRESS IT

Coloring Method- Boise- layering light to dark circular motion blending works best; X-Press It- dark to light flicking method works best WINNER- X-PRESS IT

COLORLESS BLENDER- Boise- takes work but can still use 0 to push ink and correct mistakes but it is hard to completely move dark colors; X-Press It- easy to correct mistakes WINNER - X-PRESS IT

OVERALL RESULT: Best Cardstock to me is still X-Press It, but if you are looking for a similar cardstock and would like a more budget friendly option, I recommend trying Boise HD Color Copy Cover. It works with copics and if you are just starting out, it is very cost effective to practice on and still have beautiful results.

Stamp used for image- The Greeting Farm Miss Anya Hats Off, Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, Copics: Skin- E23, E25, E27, E29 Hair- E23, E25, E27, E29, E49 Denim- B91, B95, B97 Clothes- RV00, RV63, RV66, V91, V93, V95, Boots- E31, E33, E34, E35, E37

Happy New Baby!

My pastor recently became a grandpa for the first time so I made this card for him. While I was coloring the super cute image (by TAC) it occured to me that I don't color correctly with my copics. What I mean is, according to Marianne Walker and Suzanne Dean, you are supposed to color with the flat side of the brush tip of the marker, not directly with the tip. (COPIC TIP) I never really thought about it until now...but I have not been doing that. Apparently you can actually ruin the marker tip and eventually bend or damage the nib if you color directly with the pointed tip all the time. So I tried to color with the flat side of the nib as best I could with out going outside the lines, I mean obviously you need to use the tip to get inside the really small spots. This is definitely something I will have to keep practicing with and will change my coloring technique dramatically.

I really like this sentiment from The Angel Company. I think it fit perfectly for this card.

Ingredients-

Stamps- The Angel Company, Stampin' Up!

Paper- Bluebell cardstock from the Paper Source, American Crafts Glitter Cardstock, Prism/Bazzil Simply Smooth, DCWV Nana's Nursery Baby Boy

Ink- Memento Tuxedo Black, Memento Bahama Blue dew drop ink, Antique Linen Ditress Ink, Copics: B000 B00 B02 B04 E33 E35 E37 Y17 Y21 Y32 Y35

Accessories- Sandylion Essentials Baby Boy Special Delivery and ATD Flutter Puffy Msg Happy stickers, Standard Circles Spellbinders Nestabilities

Brand new My Create Ink - Copic Color Lab

Ok ladies, we have a fabulous new tool available to us - the My Create Ink Copic Color Lab. Some of you may remember the old SU Color Combo tool site...and it is something like that but for Copics. George Edmonds has worked very hard to create the site but it will require some input from us Copic enthusiasts. So go on over to the Copic Color Lab and enter your favorite Copic Color Combinations into the database and vote for the combos that are on there. Using this tool, you can select a copic marker color that you would like suggestions for what colors go well with it and you can hit search and get lots of suggestions of what other colors to use with it. I think this is a great online alternative to using a copic journal to keep track of favorite color combos because if you have internet access, you can access it where ever you may be.

I have already put in a bunch of the color combos I use... like the ones from Flourishes, Just Rite Stampers, Colleen Schaan, Paper Trey Ink, The Angel Company, Copic Munkie, Color Me Copic, and some of my own personal experiments. Still need to do some of the earth tone combos...

The site is a brand new work in progress so there will be additional functionality and tweaks coming soon.

Answers to last weeks questions from WOYWW

This post is for all of the lovely comments last week regarding my desk and the Copic Airbrush System.

My Desk-

My desk is made out of 4 Jetmax cubes (the ones they sell at Michael's) and the long desk plank addition. It is not actually screwed together the way it should be with the braces, I merely have the plank resting on top of 2 cubes stacked on each side. There was not enough room for me to have the desk top actually be the full length of the plank. It works great and I have no issues with the stability of the desk. So for any of you out there in need of a workspace...it is something you could try.

Copic Airbrush System-

The greatest thing about Copic markers is that you can refill them! Which means you only invest in markers one time and then you can replace the nibs and refill the ink if the marker runs dry!

I don't do a whole lot of airbrushing so I have not had any of my markers run dry from that. The tip may get slightly dry and then you just need to uncap both ends of the marker and leave it sitting for a little bit so that more ink will flow out of the sponge inside and remoisten the tip. If your marker tips are visably blotchy...it is time to refill.

Most of the airbrushing I do is over a small space and only takes a few seconds so I don't use very much ink at all.

If you continuously airbrush with the same marker over and over you would need to refill the marker much sooner and you may wish to have Copic Various Refill Ink in that color on hand.

I have seen a lot of ladies airbrushing their backgrounds with E31 YR21 and B000 so those may be colors you would want to keep in stock if you are going to be airbrushing...

Colors I have refilled over the past 9 months-

E0000 E000 E00 E21 E25 E31 E33 E35 E50 Y21 Y23 G20 BG10 BG11 BG72 RV00 RV10 R20 R81 V000 B000 B91

(I will need to refill my Y000 and V01 and BG0000 soon!)

These are the colors that I use the most and when I was getting started with Copics I was using a very absorbent cardstock which I believed sucked a lot of my markers dry. I have since learned to color with a much lighter hand and have not needed to do a second refill on any color yet.

Copic Tip-

In the states, Copic Various Ink refills cost upwards of $5.62 online -$7.49 retail which is not a bad price considering one bottle can get you about 10-12 refills for a Sketch marker, about 15 for Ciao. But, instead of buying refills you may want to just visit a local scrapbooking store to have your marker refilled. I think this cost me approx. $2 at Scrappers Cove in NJ. If you don't have a local store, I know My Favorite Things offers a refill station where you mail in your marker and they send it back to you refilled $1.50 for Ciao and $2.25 for Sketch.

Musical Birthday...and copic tip

Happy Wednesday! The week is halfway over, yay! I am so mad, I missed Glee last night. I hope I can watch it on the Internet...the 15 minutes that I caught at the end were awesome.

In keeping with the musical theme, here is a card I was asked to make for a friend of a coworker for her 90th birthday. I decided to go for something a bit conservative. No characters and no copics...I know shocking right?

But I do have a copic tip for you. If you haven't been on Sharon Harnist's blog lately there is a post about Copic 6 marker sketch sets now being sold at Hobby Lobby. I really like the color choices in those kits Pale Pastels (YR31 YR12 BV01 BV0000 BG15 BG11 and Perfect Primaries Y19 Y13 R46 R43 B04 B00). I like that these sets give you two each of 3 shades that you can blend with..nice little kit if you are just starting out and are too timid to order your markers online .

Also on Sharon's Copic Info page she has a link to a great chart from Just Rite Stampers. They have jumped on the PTI and Flourishes bandwagon and are selling Copic Collor Collections in quads and trios. Here is the link to the chart on Sharon's blog- Just Rite Stampers -Copic Color Collections . It has some really good color combinations on it and you can print it out for your reference.

Oh and here is a picture of the inside of my card. I haven't decorated the inside of a card in quite some time. I like how it turned out. Maybe I will do it more often...nah I know I won't. lol!


Recipe: SU! Sentiment, PTI Vintage Cream cardstock, SU! Chocolate Chip, River Rock, and Kraft Cardstock, Basic Grey Capella paper and doilies, Prima Say It In Pearls and flowers, Tim Holtz Tissue Tape.

Kim's Grass Coloring Tutorial

Happy Friday! Have you seen the great tutorial today on Color Me Copic on how to color grass with Copic markers? If you haven't go check it out. You can also check it out on Kim's blog.. Paperbabe. Isn't her card above a beauty! What are you still doing here... go check it out!

Copic Color Combo suggestions for Cloetzu

Here are some Color combination suggestions for Cloetzu on Splitcoast.

It is so much easier to order colors online if you can see what they look like together first. If anyone would like any other suggestions please let me know and I will post some more combos on my blog. I was lucky enough to pick up a few more markers at Expo on Friday...along with a whole bunch of other goodies. I will be posting up some projects with them shorly.

Custom Color Copic Marker Tutorial

Ok- I finally did it. I finally imported the pictures for the Custom Color Copic Marker tutorial to my computer. Took me ages, I know. I am the worst. It takes so much work to manipulate photos on my netbook....but I did it.

I picked E21 and E25 to make my custom copic marker for two reasons. A- the jump in color from E21 to E25 is a bit drastic and it would be easier for me to blend if I made an E23 custom color marker. B- I already had and E21 and E25 Various Ink refill on hand.

Below is the picture tutorial of how I did it. Enjoy!

Supplies you will need to make a Custom Color Copic Marker:

Paper Towels (the ink can stain so you want to protect your work surface)

An Empty Various Ink Bottle

An Empty Copic Marker

A Copic Booster Needle

Two Various Ink Refills - Here I am using E21 and E25 to make custom color E23

(I purchased my Various Ink refills, nibs, boosters, and empty bottle and marker from creativeplaystamps.com- I had my supplies in just 3 days- Laura rocks!)

Open all your bottles- the empty Various Ink bottle and your E21 and E25 various ink bottles.

Below is what the empty various ink bottle should look like once you have screwed off the top and the tip.

Use the tickmarks on the side of the empty bottle as a guide to fill your empty various ink bottle with equal parts of E21 and E25 various ink. I used about a quarter bottle of each as I still want to have left over ink in each color to refill my E21 and E25 markers.

Here is what your various ink bottle should look like once you have filled it with an equal part of E21 and E25. (Put the cap back on and gently shake to mix the colors together.)

Screw the booster needle onto the bottle and insert that into the broad tip end of your empty marker (make sure you take the broad marker tip out carefully before doing so) and fill the marker with about 2 cc's of ink. DO NOT OVERFILL... if you add too much ink to the marker, you will make a runny mess of your marker and will need to let it sit out until the excess ink evaporates so you don't get pools of ink on your cardstock when you color.

Put the broad marker tip back in the maker.

Here is what your custom marker will look like right after you fill it. Let it sit for a bit which both caps off so that it will preasurize and the ink will distribute evenly to both tips.

Here is what the custom marker looks like after it pressurizes...

Here are my completed custom color marker and refill. I colored a patch on some scratch paper and just glued it to the caps with 2 way zig glue.

Here is what the colors look like individually-

I have used this color trio to color the wood in the picture below. E21- E23custom- E25. I really like how much more easier this blend is than trying to shade with just the E21 and the E25.
Recipe: Nuthatch digi from The Stamping Boutique, PTI Stampers Select White Vintage Cream and Aqua Mist cardstock, PTI Everyday Blessings patterned paper, Nestabilities Labels One, Kaisercraft Pearls, Prima roses, Copics: YR24 E21 E23custom E25 BG11 BG23 BG15 BG49 B41 B45 B37 G20 G24 G82 C5 C7

Happy Easter to Ewe!

I am so excited to share this cute little Easter card with you. It is my very first card as a guest designer for MyScrapChick.com. Kristi, the amazing owner and illustrator has expanded her store full of paper piecing patterns and cut files to include digi stamps. Not only are her files high quality, she includes two files per image -one plain line art and one with shadows. I selected the Lamb image with shadows for this project and I just love how it turned out. The shading on the image blended perfectly with my copics and I was able to deepen the shadows with very little coloring. If you would like to get your hands on some Freebie digis from MyScrapChick, become a facebook fan. Kristi has posted some free digi's on their facebook fan page here. She will add more when they get to 200 fans.

COPIC TIP:
White is never really white and black is never really black. To add depth and dimension to my Lamb, I used Warm Gray copics. For his white fur I used- W00, W1, W3 and for his black hooves, I used W9, W7, W5, W3.

DIGI TIP:
I have been playing around with my inkjet printer settings and have found my perfect combo for printing my digis- For my Epson RX595, I select Best Photo mode and Premium Matte Presentation Paper settings while printing on PTI Stampers Select White Cardstock and then my digis don't smear with I color over the lines with extensive amounts of colorless blender. Let your images dry thoroughly or heat set before coloring and you should have little to no smearing.

Recipe: Lamb digi by MyScrapChick, Lovebirds gate freebie digi by Pollycraft, Basic Grey Kioshi designer paper, PTI Aqua Mist- Stampers Select White Cardstock, SU! Lovely Lavender cardstock, May Arts satin ribbon, Prismacolor Pencils in Marine Green and Olive Green, Odorless Mineral Spirits, Prima Say It In Pearls Lavender Swirl, Janome Sew Mini, Bow Easy, Labels One Nestabilities, Clear Button, Copic ABS system and V15 copic marker( to airbrush button), Copic markers used: ciaos-W1, W3, W5, W7, E43, RV10