Copic leaves

Here’s a fall-inspired card I made for one of my Copic classes a while back.  We used the blender pen and an acrylic block to blend the colors.  This technique gets a bit tricky, and seemed to be the least favorite

All images, notecard – A Muse Artstamps

Penny Candy

Here’s a quick card for today….

I love the retro feel of this Unity stamp, but I’m not sure about the end result.  I’ll have to play around a bit more.  I think it’s because I’m not used to working with such big stamps

I used a combination of Copics and Spica glitter pens to color this.  My favorite trick is using the Copic color Cool Shadow (BG10) to highlight white images or create shadows.  For this card I outlined the inside of each jar with this color, which is the palest turqouise.  I then added it to the bottom of the shelves, using the colorless blender to blend over it and fade the color into the white background – giving it almost a watercolor feel.

I love doing creating shadows or grounding an image using this technique- that way it doesn’t feel like your image is just floating in space.

You can also do this with browns and greens, but you need to be a bit careful and test it out before you commit.  The blender pen removes color rather than blending it, and you can end up with a color that’s NOT what you wanted.  I once tried this with an olive green, and the blender turned it into teal green- ick!

Image – Unity Stamps

Notecard, sentiment, ribbon- A Muse

Copic Class

On Friday March 27th I’ll be teaching another Copic marker class at The Paper Tree.  Here’s one of the cards we’ll be making using the A Muse cupcake set- yum   We’ll be learning more about Copics and practicing some shading techniques to help you get the most out of your markers.   I hope to see you there!

I forgot to mention that the card I posted the other day using the carrot car was inspired by a beautiful stair step card of Julie’s.

More Copics…

Whew! Things have been a little crazy lately with getting set in my new space and getting ready for my trip to Seattle.  I’ll be back later this week hopefully with some pictures of the mini-album I’m working on.  In the mean time, here’s another card from my Copic class.  This one uses a different technique of putting darker colors on a palette and then pulling them off with a lighter color for this watercolored effect.

Let me know what you think!

Hope you all went out to vote today! Jen

Copic owls

Another card from my recent Copic technique class… My 3rd floor space is finally finished, so I’ve been crazy busy just trying to move my daughter’s toys (and my crafty toys) into our new shared playroom/craft space.  It’s alot more work than I expected, but I’m finally starting to dig myself out of the mess.  I wanted to get my daughter’s toys all put away first, so that she could have a fun place to play while I tried to unpack all of the craft disaster that has been covering the floor of my shared office with my husband for the last year or two- ugh!  Can’t wait to start creating in my new pretty space- I love it!  Once everything is a little more organized, I’ll take some pics to share.  I was going to wait until everything was perfectly organized and put away, but that will just never happen- LOL!

Enjoy!

Copics and more Copics!

Friday night is my Copic Technique class at The Paper Tree.  I had so much fun last time I did this class, and so I decided to host another one – using A Muse images, of course.

Here’s another sneak of a card we’ll be doing at the class.  I kept the card very simple because the focus is all on using Copics for blending and shading.  Most of my other images are fall related, but this elephant is just too cute to not use for this class!

 

If you’d like to sign up, you can call Michelle at 603 624-8800.

Hope to see you there!

Copic Shading

Here is the final card from my Copic Technique class this last weekend.  For this one, we used a more subtle form of shading by using an acrylic block as a palette and lighter colored Copics to pick up some darker colors to shade with.

Images- American Art Stamp

Copic Birds

Whew! We had lots of fun at last night’s Copic Technique class, but I’m exhausted!  I got home around 10 o’clock only to find that Michael Phelps was set to swim again, so of course I had to watch.  I think I’m exhausted more from staying up late night all week to watch the Olympics – I need to get some sleep! 

This is another card we made in the class using a palette blending technique with the blender pen and acrylic blocks.  Pick one color of marker, and color on an acrylic block, about 1-2 inch square.  Then using a brush end on your colorless blender, pick up the ink on the acrylic block (it’s okay if it dries), and use your blender pen to paint the color on – fading it into white.  You get a more dramatic effect if the color you’re using is medium to dark.  You get almost a watercolor effect with this technique.

This isn’t my favorite look, but works for getting a certain look.  Something to try out and see – everyone likes different things!

Thanks to everyone who came to the class- I had alot of fun!

Vespa!

I made this card for one of my online friends- Michelle.  She just loves Vespa girl, and after her trip to Europe this summer, this image just totally makes me think of her.  I had to of course put my spin on it with my favorite colors.

Topiary

I love this Memory Box topiary.  I needed something masculine and not so cutesy for my Grandfather’s 84th birthday, and this was just the thing. 

I love using my Copic markers to do some great shading with this image.  I added some warm grey shadows at the bottom for an even more real effect.  Love this with the new A Muse vintage brown notecards. 

Because I didn’t have the right range of green markers to blend with (some were too bright), I used a Warm Grey #2 to tone down the brighter ones.  This is one of the tips we’ll be demonstrating in my advanced Copic technique class this Friday at The Paper Tree.  Hope to see some of you there!