Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Happy Australia Day!


Hi there- its Sascha from Copic HQ! There are a lot of sweet tooth's working in our office (I'm one of them!!) and when I saw some yellow and green Liquorice in my local supermarket I felt instantly inspired! I decided to make an Australia Day themed lolly bag, made using my favourite Australian Themed La-La Land Craft's Stamp- Koala Marci.


I coloured my image in with shades of yellow and green  that matched the liquorice. I used a few different techniques to add a bit of life to it. I used my Colourless Blender to add some texture to Marci's koala hat. I just dripped some of my Copic Colourless Blender onto a piece of textured towel, then lightly pressed it onto the areas I wanted to lighten. Click here for a great tutorial on doing this technique. I also used the feather blending technique to colour Marci's tutu. To learn more about this technique, click here! To create they green and gold string to match my image, I simply coloured some plain string in with coordinating colours.


I used the following Copic Colours:
Hair- E00, Y21, Y00
Skin- YR000, YR00
Koala Hat- C1, C3, C5
T-shirt- C1, C3, C5
Tutu- YG11, YG07,Y21, Y02
Ugg Boots- E31, E33, Y21
String- YG07, Y06

Happy Australia Day from everyone at Copic Oz!!Pin It

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Copic Oz News



We are very excited to announce the appointment of our new Copic DT member, Kate Palmer. Kate is a certified Copic Designer and self confessed Copic addict. Kate is also a very talented and extremely creative and passionate crafter who has been crafting since 1997. She loves anything that sparkles and sharing her art work through her blog. Kate has also taught at various crafting institutions over the years and is looking forward to sharing her tutorials, ideas and Copic knowledge through monthly posts on copicoz.blogspot.com.


We wish Kate a warm welcome to the team and can’t wait to see her Copic creations…coming soon in Feb 2013!

The much loved and super talented Mandi Lee will remain as a guest designer on Copicoz (so stay tuned for her occasional posts) and of course she will continue as our South Eastern Copic Regional Instructor teaching Copic Certifications throughout the year & demonstrating and teaching at the Melbourne & Brisbane Papercraft Expos. She is indeed a super mum, as she will be doing all this whilst embarking on a full time teaching role. We wish her all the best in her new challenge and we are sure that all the kids in her class are super lucky to have a Copic Regional Instructor as their teacher. Good Luck Mandi!Pin It

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

The Colourless Blender!

Hello Everyone!!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas (and maybe even received a little Copic goodness from Santa!) and are looking forward to a colourful 2013!!  Today I've got a tutorial about the Colourless Blender!!!  The magic '0' marker has so many applications that I can't possibly show them all in one tutorial, but I hope you enjoy a couple of ideas (and a couple of extra non-Copic ones too!!).

Today I'm using a stamp set called Garden Picks by Flourishes and I thought I'd use those tiny blossoms as a basis for my Fade To White technique.  I'm sure many of you are familiar with the Tip to Tip or Palette technique where you add a dark colour to a light coloured marker and it changes from one colour to the other.  Well this is a take on that idea.
I've scribbled a little BV02 onto some acetate and then used my Colourless Blender to pick the colour up - you'll see the BV02 on the end.
Apply to your image.  The colour will be darker where you start and fade to white as the Colourless Blender doesn't have any colour.  This is perfect for when you are colouring flowers like frangipanis that yellow or pink in the centres and white on the edges.
I've dotted the BV02 in the centres and you can see how the petals are lighter at the ends.  You can make the colours as light or dark as you like and continue to apply until you are happy with the finished result.

IMPORTANT - make sure you scribble off any excess colour on your blender!!  If you don't, the colour will seep down into the reservoir and then your Blender will no longer be colourless! 
The Colourless Blender is also fabulous when you want to lighten your base colour, or you are colouring a large area but want to make sure you don't get any streaking!  In this case, I've 'coloured or primed' the water area of the jar with the Colourless Blender.
I've then flicked in some B000 from each side of the jar.
I've then coloured over the middle of the jar again with the Colourless Blender, which will lighten the middle, push the blue more to the edges giving the effect of translucent water!
A little extra tip for you!  I wanted to close in the jar top around the flowers (this set has 3 mix and match flowers for the jar), so I've used the 0.1 Black Multiliner and drawn in the edge - no-one would ever know!!  ;-)
Now, this would probably be the most used applications for the Colourless Blender!  Fixing Mistakes!!  As you can see I've gone outside the lines with my Y21 marker, which doesn't look so great.
Take your Colourless Blender and place it BEHIND the colour you want to correct.  This is because you are using the Blender to MOVE the colour, not erase it.  I'm a country girl, so I think of it like herding cattle inside a gate, the blender is the cattle dog and you use it to push the colour inside the line!  :)  You can use either the brush end or the chisel end, it's your preference.
Hey presto - the colour is back inside the petal!!  Now a word of warning - this doesn't work with reds or very dark colours!  Those are stubborn and are more likely to move into the area that you've dampened with your blender instead of the other direction making quite a mess!
Another great tip for when you are doing water - use the X-press It Clear Gel Glue to go over your finished work!  (Don't ever colour onto the glue, this is the last step.)  The Clear Gel Glue will give your water dimension and shimmer......just don't forget to let it dry really well!!  You can also use your blender to create pebbles under your jar - you can find that tutorial HERE.
Finish creating your card!!

Copic Colours used today......
Hyacinths - BV02, Blender, N1 (shadow areas)
Small Blossom - R000, R12, R14
Zinnia - RV000, RV32, RV34, E51, E53, E55
Yellow Flower - Y21, Y35, Y38, YR16, YR18, E55
White Blossom - E51
'Glow' - BG0000
Pebbles - N1, Y21, G82
Stems - G40, G43, G46, G82, G85

Thanks for popping by and I hope you've enjoyed today's tutorial!!  Why not have a go at some of these techniques and tips and leave a link in the comments below!  We'd love to see what you create!!

Happy Colouring!
Kathy

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Monday, January 7, 2013

Do you look good in a Crown?

Happy New Year to all Copic Fans, we hope you had a marker filled Festive Season and have some colour filled days ahead in 2013!!

We are looking for one said colour-er to be crowned the Queen of Copic and win a share of over $400 in prizes... all the details on how to enter can be found on the Competitions page at www.copicmarker.com.au!!

We are really looking forward to seeing your cards, layouts or OTP projects, all you need do is use your favourite Copic colours and send your projects and Entry Form in by February 25, 2013.

We hope you will join us, and it may just be you that is wearing the crown after the winner is announced at the Melbourne Scrapbook and Papercraft Expo.

Good Luck and Happy Colouring!!



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