Coloring With Copics, Attempt #1

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. My Pure Luxury cardstock and Tuxedo Black Memento ink from Gina K Designs arrived on Saturday, so I finally got to test out my new Copic markers. And I am in LOVE! If you're teetering on the edge of making the plunge to invest in these pricey markers, let me just tell you, they are worth every penny! I love the way the colors blend and shade, and working with them just quieted my spirit and brought me back to the pure joy I experienced when I got my first 64 pack of Crayola crayons. Even though I'm no where near that many colors yet, and it will be a while before I am, you can do quite a lot with just a few. So here's my first try with Copics. I still have to work on my shadowing, but not too bad for a beginner, eh?

And because I always like to know what colors others used in their Copic projects, I'm sharing mine with you. I used BG13 (Mint Green), BG11 (Cool Shadow), C3 (Cool Gray No. 3), and 0 (the colorless blender pen). I also used R27 (Cadmium Red) for the lines on the measuring cup, but I forgot to include it when I took the picture.
What I would recommend to you if you are interested in purchasing a few, is to pick your favorite color family, and then choose two or three markers that vary 2 to 3 digits from each other. Then choose one or two more in a color family that compliments the first. Consider what you'll likely be practicing on. If you'll be coloring flowers, then you'll want your second color family to be greens. If you're coloring people, you'll want to invest in some nice skin tones. And definitely pick up the colorless blender. It removes color, so you'll be able to lighten and shade with it, not to mention erase any little mistakes.

Okay, so other than Copic coloring, I also picked up these alphabet stickers from K&Company. Aren't they cute? Just $3.50 at Walmart for six double-sided sheets! I love all those polkadots and patterns. I'm excited to see what ideas I come up with for using them. Lots of options there.

And last but not least, remember how I was lamenting about bobbin ribbon storage? Well, I stumbled across this handy little tool at Office Max today. According to the tag, it's called a spindle. I have no idea what it's used for (maybe postage stamps? It's a little tall for that though.) but it only cost $1.99, and was exactly what I was looking for without knowing what I was looking for! Lol. To keep the open ribbon from unwinding, I just stuck a mini glue dot on the loose end and attached it to the spool. Hopefully I don't have a problem getting it back off!

And that's all I've got for today. I hope you enjoyed it! Tune in tomorrow for another card. Our friend Annchen in Germany has a birthday coming up and I have something special in mind for her. See you then!