Purr-fect Copic Coloring Tutorial

The name Purr-fect is the name of the stamp from Flowersoft.  We will be using some of the newer Copic Markers in some different techniques to my site.  One of the things that we will be covering in this tutorial is the blending techniques when you don't have colors that closely similar.

This is the finished card front.

Stamp the little girl with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink on two pieces of Express It paper.


The Memento Inks will hold up to the alcohol of the Copic Markers. I'm told other dye base inks work, but I haven't found one that does yet. If you know of one, please share with me?

Using your favorite skin colors, do the face, arms and legs.  I used E000 and E00 for the sample.  I have to be extra careful that you get all the flesh areas.  I have a bad habit of missing one small spot.

Using E89 Pecan and YR27 Tuscan orange, two of the newer colors, color the cat.  Start with the YR27 and color the whole cat.  Use the E89 and color the strips, then use the YR27 to blend the hard lines out of the stripes; it is fur after all. 

Using the V22, color all areas of the dress, and socks leaving the underskirt white.  Then color the ribbon (including the one in her hair), stripes, buttons and sleeve trim and shoes with BV34.  Do the kittens ribbon and the girl’s shoes with BV34 too.  Finish the sole of the shoe with E89.  You may choose to accent your ribbons with clear Stardust pen, this gives it a nearly satin look, and is really attractive.

NEW TECHNIQUE

The darker colors will build up colors each time you go over an area.  We are giving the areas plenty of time to dry in between applications, so the buildup will be dark enough to serve as a shadow.  You will color any areas around the waist, sleeves and skirt with the V22 that already have crease lines in them.  This will shade those areas.  You will also shade areas or the dress around the ribbon belt where it would naturally shade the dress, and any low spots in the skirt.  You may blend the harsh lines in the skirt areas, but it isn't necessary.  

Using the Y23, color all of the hair.  Using E55, shade the areas that are naturally shaded in the picture.  

Blend the shadowed area, by flicking the Y23 into the dark shaded areas.  Don't do this a lot. Just blend enough to soften any hard lines.

I enhanced the images of the hair and ground a lot to show you where the color differences are.  This was before I blended the colors.

Using one more of the new colors G43 Pistachio, color the grass.  Using BV34 and V22 color the flowers in the grass.  Now is a good time to take a break and shop or go to the restroom.  Now use the G43 to shade the areas around the girl and kitten.  

Use the finished picture as the example for the background.

Background Colors are V01 Heath, B000 Pale Porcelain Blue, BG000 Pale Aqua, N1 Natural Gray No. 1.  This is a combo that I use a lot.  I did add one of the new colors to this BG90.  This is light enough, and in evidence in the actual artwork we have created.  Using a long flicking motion, starting at the edge of the image, flick color away from the picture in one fluid motion all the way to the edge of the card stock.  It won’t matter if you get into the dress at all, but be extra careful around her hair and the Kitten, as you will drag that dark color into the background and that is undesirable. I don't take the background any further than the grass area. Remember the colors are darker when wet, and will lighten as they dry.  

I used Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress Pad on the entire image to give it an antique look.  When I put it on the card I distressed it even more on the edges.

I used this image in a birthday card for my niece.  She loved the card, and I loved doing it.  I hope you enjoy the tutorial.  The photos weren't my best yet, but I'm getting much better.  I did this one a while back for a class at my local scrapbook store.

Hugz, Peace and Blessings.

Namaste,

Lynne

Fall Boxed Card Set

I would normally worked to remove the glare from this picture, however, I wanted to assure that you realized that this is semi-gloss presentation paper.  I got this at Staples and just love it for this type of card.  This was the freebie from Silhouette for Octover, but works great for the Thanksgiving Holiday as well.  This is a box of six (6) identical cards, in a matching box.  These are great for hostess gifts, and can be done in any variation.  I've made mixed greeting cards,  and boxes of holiday cards.

It is simpler to make a whole box of cards in the same style.  I have made some what I call owner's choice cards.  I make six cards that will be good for multiple occassion.  Like flowers that work for birthday, sympathy and get well cards.  Sometimes they work for Mother's Day.  I also will make a box of masculine type cards, and make sure they are generic enough to work for multiple occassions.  Everyone can use more masculine cards. 

I then will create greetings and inside sayings for all occassions that suit the card art.  I use the Silhoutte Cameo to print and cut them.  I add double sided tape and/or pop dots to the word art cut-outs, and give instructions on how to place them on the cards.  They are really a hit, as you never can guess just what cards you may need during the year.  This way, you have just what you need.

The box instructions came from GinaK and can be found HERE.  The cardstock is GinaK heavy base weight cardstock, and I forgot the color name.  Her cardstock is so nice, and a good price.  I love to use it for cards, and boxes, as they fold without looking nasty, as cheap cardstock can sometimes.  It also has a nice heft to it which screams premium without the premium price.  She also has a layering weight that is great for stamping and layering similar to how I did the oval Greeting Card embellishment.

All the cards in this example are exactly the same.  I left the inside plain, so the giver may write their own note, and wishes on the inside.

I hope you enjoy.

Cricut Ornament Card

   
I needed to feel like it was justified for me to have one Cricut let alone two, so here is a project I worked on all weekend.  I finally decided I like the Cricut Classroom.  It took a very long time for me to think it deserved a second chance though.  The beauty of this project is that you could cut all the pieces at one time, and then build the cards while you watched TV.  The longest part of this process was picking the coordinating papers.  The design and stuff were all in the magazine.  I just love these.  I did several different types for variety, but for a gift one design is enough.  The assembly goes really quickly.

I used the instructions out of the Northridge, Cricut Magazine. 

I used the Winter Frolic Cartridge, Ornament 1 and the Cricut Classroom.  I did these all proportional, based on placing the pieces over each other to see how they fit.  I used the Shadow, copied it, and Flipped one 180° degrees.  I lined the up with the ornament tops aligned to form a card, and welded them together.  Make sure that you have the whole piece selected before you fill the page.  I found that about four would go on one page if you flipped one welded assembly 80° on its side.

I added as many layers as I needed for the whole project. 

I used the Ornament 1 just a bit smaller than the shadow, and filled a pages with it.  This is the layer on which I used the shiny paper.  Leave the hook on this one.

Next I made another Ornament 1 just a little smaller than the previous Ornament 1.  I cut the hook off of one of the ornaments to prevent an overlap.  Now I wish I had kept the metallic hook though so that is why I say cut this off here.

I used the Happy Holiday Greeting from Winter Frolic along with the shadow, which I did in white, for the first card and just the Greeting for the second one. I like having the white behind that as it makes it pop.  I used distress ink in Tea Stain from Tim Holtz.  I used this on some of the ornament pieces, but didn't see much difference so stopped doing that.  It really depends on what colors and designs you use whether you want to bother with this step or not.

I cut them all in different matching cardstock & paper patterns, but made the middle a shiny piece. 

I used the Language of Friendship, Stampin' Up stampset to make the bird and branches, and used the matching punch to cut is out.  I used scraps of the paper from which the ornaments were cut for the stamping and punch, which made minimal waste on this project.

 I used prima flowers and gems to finish the decoration.

 

These would make a cute gift if placed in a decorative box..There are plenty of tutorials on this all over the web.  I really like to SplitCoast Stampers sight for that.

 

I hope you enjoy.

 

Namaste