PaperFections

Copic Color Chart

Hopefully, I've successfully attached a Microsoft Excel (ETA: Word document) file below of the blank Copic Color Chart I use (shown in the post below) -- thanks to Marianne at Copic! This blank chart is for you to color in with the markers you have, so you can easily reference it. If you have any problems downloading the chart, just leave a comment on this post and I'll try getting it to you in another way! Edited to add: I've had some good questions from readers, so I thought I'd share this additional information. You probably want to print the chart on either Georgia Pacific (from WalMart) white, Papertrey Ink's white, or Neenah Classic Crest white . . . basically any cardstock that has been found to work well with the Copics and that you would normally use with your Copic artwork, so you get the truest representation of the colors. Usually, the printer ink won't smear with the Copics. The chart you saw in the photo below was one I got from the U.S. Copic distributor at my Certification class (more on that below) and was printed on 11" x 14" plain copy paper. If you have the larger... Read more →

WSC41-Tea Time & More Copic Coloring Tips & Storage

You know the Friday drill . . . Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge! Here's the sketch for this week. I decided I was in the mood for shabby & distress, and looking through my Lockhart stamps I found this new Itty Bitty Teapot that I thought would work well as a background stamp for the Teabag. So here's how it all came together: I knew I wanted to work with browns on the teabag, so I chose this Memory Box Inspire printed paper that has a brown pattern in it. Next, I stamped the teapot all over a manila tag (5-1/4" x 2-5/8") with Ranger's Adirondack Espresso dye ink. I knew I wanted to color the teapots with green to match the paper, so I got out my Copic color chart and matched up the greens. (Edited: this blank color chart is now available to be downloaded from this post). I also wanted to share with you how I store my Copic markers. It was driving me crazy trying to keep them in numeric order in the clear boxes they come in (they were forever getting all mixed up!), so I tried this solution and am really liking it: This is... Read more →

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop-Ribbon Bouquet

What a fun idea to visit some new/different blogs of those participating in Papertrey Ink's new monthly Blog Hop challenge! You can read all about it here. Since I love a challenge and an idea immediately came to mind (love when that happens!), I decided to participate. Welcome to any of you PTI fans who may not have visited here before. You can find my entire PTI photo gallery/album over on the right sidebar of my blog (scroll down a little). A list of all the participating bloggers in this month's challenge can be found at 8pm EST in the PTI Blog Hop Forum, so check there for some more links to this month's projects (if that link doesn't work for you, you must be a registered user and logged in). This month's challenge was to use ribbon as a focal point, rather than an accessory, so here's my Ribbon Bouquet card: I started by cutting a piece of Papertrey's Stamper's Select White Cardstock to 4-1/8" x 5-1/8" (finished card is standard A2-sized: 4.25" x 5.50"), putting adhesive on the edges and wrapping 8 strips of PTI's new Perfect Match 5/8" wide grosgrain ribbon (Berry Sorbet, Spring Moss, Sweet Blush... Read more →

Tutu Cowgirl

This is another one of my Spellbinders monthly gallery projects from last month, a 12x12 scrapbook page. You can click on that gallery link above and now see that most of the designers' artwork has been added. There may still be a few missing links and projects but still, a lot of new artwork to gaze upon! My youngest daughter LOVES to dress up, and concocted this wild outfit one day. She started out first with JUST cowboy boots & hat and nothing else except underwear . . . I saved you all from that photo, LOL! So then she decided to put some clothes on and I guess the ballet tutu was the first thing she put her hands on. Stickhorse in hand, she was proud to show me her new outfit! Products used -- Spellbinders S4-080: Ballerina, L3-01: Indulgence Upper Alphabet, L2-09: Julius Alphabet & Numbers, NEST-02: Nestabilities, Classic Squares (& Scallops set), NEST-03: Nestabilities, Classic Rectangles, S4-125: Nestabilities-Classic Scalloped Circle, Small. Scrappin’ Sports & More printed papers: #444-Live, Love, Dance & #446-Pretty Paisleys, Prismatics Cardstock #Y005-D Frosted Yellow, Fancy Pants Designs Sweet Pea Ribbon Collection-Yellow Rick Rack, Beacon Adhesives Fabri-Tac. K & Co. Hopscotch Girl Flat Papers:... Read more →

Happy Easter!

I hope you all have had a wonderful day with family this Easter Sunday . . . I know we did! Just wanted to share my favorite photo from today -- my bunnies peeking through the door, waiting to hunt for Easter Eggs: Sometimes they can be so sweet! I also had time to design a new blog banner and make a few other changes -- please tell me if you see anything askew or not working properly! Read more →

CPS56 - Hummingbird Glory

My sweet friend and fabulous artist for Cornish Heritage Farms, Asela Hokins, sent me her latest release of wonderful stamps and I wanted to use just about my favorite image from her Bird Sampler set, the hummingbird. I used CPS56 for my layout and choose Memory Box's new Aerial papers to work with. Here are the results: The CPS layout was actually portrait but I had to turn it landscape to fit in this beautiful scene! The bird is stamped in Adirondack Pitch Black on Curious Iridescent Cryogen White shimmer cardstock (my fav!) and colored with Copic markers. First, I airbrushed the background with Copic B00-Frost Blue while the image was still in my Spellbinders Nestabilities Petite Scalloped Oval die -- that will leave you with the white around the edges that looks like a mat. Then I colored the hummingbird, using these Copic markers: The blending technique I used on the whole scene is this . . . I start with my darker shade, in this case, B24-Sky and lay down the darker blue where I want the darkest shading: Then I came back with the lighter blue, B21-Baby Blue to blend the two colors together: Easy Blending 101!... Read more →

WSC40 - Birthday Greetings & Ink Comparison with Copic Markers

Spring is here (so says the calendar!) and so is Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge again. Here's this week's sketch we worked with: While I was making my cards, I decided to do go with a pastel-ish theme that reminded me of Spring and decided to make two cards simply because I couldn't make up my mind which direction I wanted to go in, LOL! So now I'll have a few birthday cards in reserve, ready to go (always a bright side, right?!). Here they are: They both use Karen Lockhart's Packages -- what I really like about these is that by coloring them in different color schemes, you can have either birthday presents, wedding presents, baby presents, or Christmas presents -- whatever your heart's desire! Both cards use BasicGrey's Two Scoops cardstock and Papertrey Ink's Stamper's Select White Card Sets as bases. The Presents were stamped onto Curious Iridescent Cryogen White shimmer cardstock and cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Circles. I wanted to try an experiment because I had heard Ranger's Adirondack dye inks worked well with Copic markers, not bleeding. So the the first card uses Adirondak Espresso (dark chocolate brown) ink: (Both inks were heat set very quickly... Read more →

Easter Shadowbox Card

This is another one of my first gallery projects for Spellbinders -- a shadowbox card I created, using these basic instructions. Measures 6" x 6". You can see in the top view of the photo below, how this card is constructed. Products used -- Spellbinders S4-113: Nestabilities Scalloped Ovals Small, S3-146: Butterflies 2, L2-03: Whimsy Alphabet; S4-121: Doodle Parts, W-005: Tan Embossing Mat. Fancy Pants Designs paper-Key Lime Pie Collection: Charming #844, Prismatics cardstock: Intense Pink, Sakura Quickie Glue Pen. Ranger Adirondack Inks–Stonewashed & Watermelon, Papertrey Ink Holiday Wishes stamp set, Pebbles, Inc. I-kan-dee Pearlescent Chalk Set–Jewel Tones, Making Memories Bright pink flower brads, sewing machine & white thread. Top view: Bottom butterfly and scalloped oval was created with the Out-Of-The-Box technique I detailed for you HERE. Butterflies & Doodle swirl were chalked with shimmer chalks. That's one thing I love about Spellbinders dies -- the stenciling option, which gives so much more dimension to your die cuts! I hope you all have a wonderful Easter holiday this weekend! end Read more →

Easter Egg Carousel

Today I have the rest of that Copic Airbrushed Easter Egg project I previewed for you last week. It was one of my first gallery projects for the Spellbinders website. (<== Hopefully by the time you click on that link all the new gallery projects will be up). You can check back there every month to see all the new projects the designers have created. I found this great egg holder and white wooden eggs at Hobby Lobby: The eggs were all airbrushed with Copic markers: Egg details -- This egg was airbrushed in the same way the eggs were in that first link up above, buy using Sparkraft detail scrapbooking stickers as masks. Here's an additional egg I didn't show you in the preview sneak peek. This is the back side: On the front side, I used a mask I created from Eclipse Tape and the Spellbinders Butterflies 2 die: After cutting the mask, I applied it and airbrushed different sections of color with Copic markers. After removing the mask, I colored in the white space the mask left with a yellow Copic marker and accented the butterfly with Krylon gold leafing pen . . . so much fun!... Read more →

Inchie Challenge

An Inchie challenge was issued amongst some of my blogging friends -- to see what we could come up with using Karen Lockhart's adorable new Spring Release stamps, Dottie Bunny and Organic Carrots. I wanted to try using shrink plastic to see if I could create an Inchie and here's what I discovered. On the far right below is the Organic Carrot stamp and on the far left it is stamped and colored onto white shrink plastic: Typically, in the past I've used StazOn ink with shrink plastic, but I knew I wanted to try coloring these images with Copic markers and knew the StazOn ink would smear. So I used Palette Noir ink. Now for impatient people like me, it was tough having to let the ink dry over night! But since it still wasn't dry around 1am when I was doing this project, I decided to just call it a night and try again the next morning! So the actual drying time might be a little less than over night. Then I colored the images with Copic markers, still being a little careful not to touch very much of my stamped image. I'm pretty bad at math when... Read more →

Inchie ABC's - C

C is for Color and Copics! Copic markers are fabulous to add color to your Inchies. They are permanent ink that won't bleed or smudge -- a good thing to have on your Inchies since they are so darn cute and people will be picking them up to oogle all the time! Project details -- Lockhart Co Gardening Angel stamp, Karen Foster Snap Stamps (retired), Curious Iridescent Cryogen White shimmer cardstock, Copic markers & Spica glitter pens, black matboard Inchie square. Another wonderful thing is the brush tip on the Copic Sketch markers -- you can color the tiniest of spots by using a very light touch with that thin tip: C is for Clay, Cupcake! You can also use dimensinal clay product like Premo Sculpey polymer clay to make your Inchies. This type of clay hardens in the oven, so it's pretty quick -- no waiting over night or a few days for it to dry. I used a pearl color, so it has a shimmery cast to it (which is appearing a little more gray in the photo than it is actually). I just used the Lockhart Best Cupcake stamp shown on the left, stamped with Palette Noir... Read more →

WSC39 - Spring Dotted Butterfly

Time for Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge again. Here's this week's sketch: And short & sweet this morning -- my sample: Products: Lockhart Polka Dot Butterfly stamped in Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate pigment ink on Curious Iridescent Cryogen White cardstock, colored with Copic markers, cut and matted with Spellbinders Classic & Scalloped Rectangle Nestabilities. Clear Dew Drops (colored with same Copic B23 I used on the butterfly), Memory Box Aerial & Inspire printed papers -- all except white cardstock available at EllenHutson.com. Tonic Edge Distresser, Pop-Up Glue Dots, Stampin' Up blue narrow organdy ribbon, sewing machine & white thread. And that closeup you all really seem to like. I chose Copic markers to match the colors in this lovely, springy paper: Be sure to check out my stampin' friends' blogs for their take on this sketch: Beate, Cambria Turnbow, Charmaine Ikach, Jenn Balcer, Laurie Schmidlin, Lori Craig and MaryJo Albright -- they'll be awesome, I'm sure! Join us on the fun this weekend and try out this sketch. I'll have some more Inchie ABCs for you tomorrow! Read more →

Copic Easter Eggs

How about a little Easter egg fun? I saw this post over on Ellen's blog where she airbrushed Easter eggs with Copic markers and it reminded me that I hadn't posted some I made the end of last month! Our stamping minds were thinking alike! So here are a few I made, but you'll have to wait a until next week to see them all and the great egg holder I found and decorated -- they are a part of a project I can't share just yet! So basically what I did was apply scrapbooking line stickers on wooden eggs that were already painted white (from Hobby Lobby - 8 for about $4.99) and then airbrushed over the entire egg (in this case, blue). In some instances, I masked any other places I didn't want the current color I was airbrushing to color -- like the center stripe here. Then I went back and added accents with Copic's green Spica glitter pen -- it worked perfectly to add a little sparkle! Pretty simple, basic & fun! Same concept above, but I decided to leave the metallic stickers on this egg because I liked the gold trim with these bright yellow... Read more →

Inchie ABC's - B

B is for Binder . . . in which to store your Inchie collection: This special binder measures about 10.50" across by 11.50" tall, so it's easily covered by by a 12" sheet of patterned paper (mine is the Antique Cream collection by Creative Imaginations & Prismatics Black). It's made of recycled corrugated cardboard and the unique thing about it is that the inside spine with three rings can be taken out and the cover laid flat to decorate! This also makes it easy to switch out your covers, too, if you'd like -- seasonally for example. The inside holds vinyl pocket pages, with room to store 30 Inchies on each page. Each holder is 1.50" square: B is for Bling! If you add bling to your greeting cards or scrapbook pages, then certainly don't forget about your Inchies! Here are a few examples from the Inchies on my binder cover (all the letters are stickers that were included with the Creative Imaginations paper pack I used): Above, I've added crystal gem stickers to the four corners of the "I" and two points of the "H". Stitched ribbon edges the letter "C". Below, Ranger Liquid Pearls gives Dimension to the... Read more →

EllenHutson.com Newsletter?

Have you received your first E-newsletter from EllenHutson.com? If not, you'll want to go to the bottom of THIS page to join her mailing list! The newsletter has a great tutorial in it on soldiering your own book mark, which you can also apply to jewelry making. It's been about 10 years since I've held a soldiering iron Ellen's tutorial was quite informative -- I can't wait to try making something! The newsletter also has a coupon code in it for a 17-hour sale next Monday, March 17th in honor of St. Patty's Day . . . woo-hoo! Ellen also has her next letter of the Inchie ABC's up, so you'll want to go check that out! You'll read there about a giveaway that will start at 8pm PST (10pm CST) TONIGHT, when the link to all the new great products she'll have for Inchies in the store goes live. Ellen wanted to ensure that it would be fair to all her newsletter readers and customers that you would all receive the same chance at receiving the Inchies that she and Karen Lockhart have created to give away with your purchases (see details in newsletter). Remember the links will all... Read more →