Author: stampcatwg

Hi There and Happy Saturday to everyone! We are immersed in March Madness at our house since Cal is in the dance this year and we won our first round game! Woot woot! BUT….we have to play Duke tomorrow – the #1 seed in our bracket. I have a glimmer of hope – because this is the time when anything can happen! Right? Okay, enough basketball talk.

Over the past few weeks I have had several people ask me "What's the dealio with the Copics?" I thought I would take some time today to give a brief run down on Copic Markers. First of all – I love my markers and would save them in case of fire or earthquake. I'm attached. For life. Using Copics has improved the quality of my work by leaps and bounds. I have been a stamper for 16 years and had always used colored pencils or watercolor pencils up until I discovered Copics. Now they are my weapon of choice.

This is my personal stash – so far –

Copic Markers are alcohol based art markers from Japan. The Manga Comic Book and Anime artists use them for their incredible images. Do a google image search for Manga and you can see some of the amazing work they do! With markers! More and more local art stores and stamp stores are starting to carry them. They average about $5.50 each. They come in three different shapes with different tips. I prefer the oval sketch markers which have a brush tip on one end and a highlighter type tip on the other end.

Copic Markers come in 350 colors. Yes, I said 350. (gasp). That is the best part! This makes it possible to blend 5-6 different shades of the same color together to get those real-looking results. The markers are labeled with a color name but also with color numbers to allow you to select the same color family for blending.

I have a color chart that I use to help match patterned paper for my card projects. It's easier than trying to guess with my eye. I copied my chart onto the kind of paper I color with the most so that I know ahead of time what I will get. I then can hold the patterned paper up to the chart and see exactly what shade matches.

When I color something, I use a minimum of three shades of the same color. A light, medium and dark shade. Copics also have a colorless blender pen which acts like an eraser of sorts in case you need to lift color off or if you make a mistake. It takes a lot of practice but I believe the results and the enjoyment are worth it!

If you happen to live in Northern California and are interested – I am teaching Copic Marker classes at my home the weekend of May 1st and 2nd. Email me and let me know if you would like an informational flyer and I'll get one to you.

So, I had to make a card today and I thought this cute hedgie image from Penny Black would be a good one to use to illustrate coloring tips.

I used warm grey, cool grey, browns, and tans to make the hedgie 'fur' on top. Their faces and tummies are with a very very light red and some pink for their cheeks. The ladybugs are actually colored with two shades of red and a pink. The grass was not in the picture/stamp but I thought they needed to be grounded. I used three shades of green and drew it in. This is much easier than it sounds – really.

Yeah, I bought the Martha Stewart Ladybug edger punch…..you know I did…. After the ladybugs were colored, I went back with a clear gel pen to make them shiny. Then, I went back over the dots with a black gel pen to make them pop!

And this is how BTC (aka Buddy The Cat) spends his Saturday in the craft room. He has his own bed with a heating pad and a fleece from Old Navy. But he's not spoiled. Nah.

I hope I have answered some of your questions today. If you have more, feel free to email me. Have a great weekend everyone!

In follow up to my post from yesterday…Here is another card I made over the weekend in my crazy quest to enter all these challenges! This one is from Taylored Expressions. Check it out! Enter a card too! This one was good because it is a forum to use lots of different patterned papers…gotta love that! I used a new color combo for me and I love the layout. I may make another one of these…

Here is my card:

Sweet little Penny Black hedgie in a pot! Colored with my Copic markers of course! A bit of glitter on the bee wings to make it sparkle.  The flowers are a new Martha Stewart punch…are you sensing a trend? Hahaha. My Martha Stewart punch addiction is a whole blog post by itself!

If you notice, I put a little glitter glue on top of the brads too!

See how the center of the pot looks faded? You do that by coloring in your entire image and then going back with the blender pen and taking away some of the ink. I used 5-6 colors of brown for the pot and two shades of green for the grass.

Mixing patterns is okay as long as the scale is similar and the colors all go together. As you can see, there are four patterned papers and a patterned ribbon in this card.

Here in the old craft room today it was a crafting, stamping freny! I made cards for FIVE card challenges! I will post two tonight (the other one is in the post below this one) and the rest during the week. I had a great time pushing myself to come up with very specific cards to meet the criteria. The one posted here is for Cards Magazine Blog. This is a great  magazine – so I hope they like this one! The theme is simple – make any card with birds…

I have about a gazillion bird stamps – my favorite – so the only hard part was picking what to use. I decided to go my Memory Box stamps and use soft spring colors. I used my new Martha Stewart Birds on a Wire punch too. OMG. Love it!

Here is the card:

The Inside:

Close up:

This is not related to stamping, but I had to share anyway! I was at my friend Stephanie's paper/stamp store (Paper Garden) Friday night and when I walked outside, this is what I saw!!! It had rained all day and this was the sunset after the clearing storm. AMAZING, don't ya think?  I've never seen a parking lot look so pretty.

I found this cool website called Get Sketchy that has card challenges based on design layouts. The way this works is that the blog gives you a layout, or sketch, and you make it your own. I decided to give this one a go! Here is the sketch:

And here is my take on it:

Thanks for stopping by to see my cards today!  

I'm throwing my hat in the ring for another Tuesday Trigger Card contest over at Moxie Fab World. One of my favorite colors is green so I knew I had to make a card. I immediately remembered I had this old stamp of a toile scene. It took me a while to dig it out of the stamp cupboards…but I found it! I used my nestabilities to make the pretty ovals and I used a cuttlebug folder to impress the white part of the card base. Add a little bling and voila!

The trigger image is so pretty – here it is:

Here is my take on it:

 
Okay, so I have to tell you that I cut out that white oval and then got the scene in there on the first try!! Can you believe it? I don't think I could have planned it better. I might have to use that stamp to make some other stuff. I'm thinking it would look nice in a pretty brick red color. 

On a side note – here is a pretty picture I snapped in the parking lot of the gas station today at lunch! Gotta keep your camera with you at all times! Happy Friday everyone and have a great weekend.

Here is a little shout out to my sweet pal S.A. who is working on finishing up her Master's Degree in the next couple of months. Good luck! I miss you!

I got these beautiful Prima flowers at Michael's a while back. I love the muted colors – they are not super bright or pastel – the perfect in between. I made a shabby chic birthday card and a cheery hello card using them. Hope you like them too!

The shabby chic birthday card - made with pretty pink and rose tones. The stamp is from a Stampin' Up set and the border is a Martha Stewart punch. I colored the image with my Copic markers.

 
Here is the cheery hello card. Stamp set is from Stampin' Up and I used Marvy Markers to color directly on the stamp before stamping it onto the paper. 

My lovely photography assistant, NOT helping, by putting his boo-tay directly on top of what I'm trying to take a picture of! He says he is much more gorgeous and photogenic. What do you think?

Okay, so my OBsession with the cute tiny checked paper continues… I made a nice, sweet card using it in red this time. Lovely basket of strawberries image is from Magenta. The saying is from Amuse – another fan favorite! New patterned paper from Cosmo Cricket (I think). I used my Copic markers, of course in three or four shades of brown and gold for the basket and four shades of red and pink for the berries. I had one leftover bee so he could buzz on into the picture.

  
Thanks for stopping by for a looky loo today!

I found a nice challenge on the Embellish Magazine blog – to make a card with some pretty Spring colors - Pink, Peach, Moss Green and Yellow. Here is the idea image:

I really like these colors anyway, so this wasn't a hard card to make. I pulled out some pretty Basic Grey patterned paper, and my trusty Martha Stewart Punches! Bazzill cardstock…Here is my card!

Here is the inside:

I punched out the butterflies and then folded them in half. I used a glue pen to glue just the center of the butterfly onto the paper. Then I folded their wings up to make them pop!

 
 Until next time…

Hi everyone! I made some cheery, happy cards for this day. Feels like Spring outside. My hydrangeas are going crazy – there is even one tiny flower already! Love it. After the rain on Friday the air is crisp and clear.

I am in LOVE with this tiny checked paper! It just seems to go with everything and is a nice patterned neutral – if that makes sense. That checked paper is the common element for these three cards. I also tried to keep it simple and sweet.

The first card is made with some cute trees that I colored with my Copics. Each tree has three shades of green ink. One is with the Green color family and the other with the Yellow Green color family. I kind of like the contrast and visual interest that gives. The tiny birdies are colored with two shades of blue and then coated with two coats of diamond glaze to make them pop off the trees.

 
 
The second card is made with this beautiful new stamp I got last week from Stampendous. It reminds me of a California winery with the poppies in the foreground. I also made this my first easel card. I have been admiring others and finally made one! You should try it! Super easy. Directions are on Splitcoast Stampers.

The third card is made with some Martha Stewart bee/hive stickers I got at Michael's a long time ago. I added glitter glue (diamond stickles) to the wings to jazz them up a bit. I always like black and yellow together for cards. Very striking. Another easel card. Maybe I'm hooked…

Thanks for buzzzzzzzing by my blog today! 

I LOVE this new line of paper, stickers and rub-ons from American Crafts…It's called Abode. Hot, fun, bright colors and adorable images of books, vases, cups, etc. I used it to make a housewarming card for a friend who just moved into a new apartment. I had fun playing with these colors, because they are not the norm for me. I am addicted to my nestabilities now that I finally figured out the best way to use them with my Cuttlebug. Hope you likey!

Inside:

  
The finished card is 6×6 square. I wanted to make it a big card to use more of the images from the paper in the background. Toodles…

Spent the day on Saturday with my dear friend Caroline at the Rubber Stamp Show in Vallejo. It was a small show, as those things go, but very fun nonetheless. Ran into a lot of stamping friends there and found a few bargains.

Here is the loot along with the projects I made yesterday:

In the upper left corner is a GIANT clear block to go with the gorgeous new background images from Impression Obsession. Love this! On the upper right are two new Judikins sweet Geisha girls. Lower left is a new funky stamp from Unity. Lower right is a Kodomo stamp from Hanko and a necklace I made using the stamp. So pretty! Also bought the five petal flower punch I've been trying to find for a while.

Here is the Geisha card…colored with Copics and cut out…layered with Nestabilities…some sparkly shimmer in their hair to make it shiny:

Here is the necklace that I made using the bird/branch stamp. I used my crop-o-dile to punch a hole and set a large eyelet for the chain. Stamped with Memento Ink and colored with Copics. Sponge the edges with Distress Inks. The edges are super tape with brown metallic foil folded over! Add some bling… and voila!

I hope your week is off to a great start! Enjoy the day!  

Happy Valentine's Day! Hope you are spending the day in the company of people who love you – spouses, friends, family… Also a good day to watch the Olympics. I have lots of Valentine's stuff to share and I'm sending some blog love your way. Hope you eat too much chocolate today!

First off…My Furry Valentine…Mr. Buddy looking quite debonair on the craft room counter:

Some cupcake treats I brought to work on Friday:

 
I made the little doo dads for the tops from the Stampin' Up "Love Bandit" set and some other VD stamps I had around. Scallop circles, and voila! Cupcake toppers!

A cool Vintag-ey Valentine I found at one of my favorite stores. I thought it was so pretty and old fashioned:

And Finally, the last of my Valentine Cards for this year:

2010 is Year of the Tiger! Gung Hay Fat Choy friends! This year the date for Chinese New Year happens to fall on Valentine's Day so I'm posting a day early. The date is set by the moon. Read more about the history here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year.

 
Now, I like a celebration of any kind, and since I have many Chinese friends, I always make cards for this special occasion. I absolutely love the vivid red set against black and gold. Gorgeous. This year my creation is made with the popular joy-fold card concept. I hope you enjoy looking at this post.

This is the full card when it is closed:

And partially open:

and further opened:

 
Stamps from Kodomo and Papers:

Copic ink colors:

Close ups of the coloring process:

This chart helps me when I am making/coloring more than one of the same image. I can check the colors until I get exactly what I want.

Using the darkest color sparingly only for the center of his back and brow:

 Four shades of green…oh how I love green…