CHA was a blast!! Unfortunately, I did not have access to a computer while I was away. So I have lots to catch you up on. My apologies for not blogging this weekend, but I was desperately trying to catch up on some much needed sleep. I don't recommend flying home on the red eye!!!
Working at the Copic booth demonstrating with Debbie Olson, Trudee Sauer and Michelle White was amazing...all that coloring talent in 20 feet of space. I personally enjoyed meeting everyone!! Especially Marianne who is a coloring guru- her Manga Drawings are truly amazing. I wish I had taken a few photos of her work to share with you.
But as you may have read in Debbie's blog...we did have a few small issues at the beginning of the show. The educational part of the trade show started on Saturday and the trade show itself started on Sunday, but our tradeshow booth and all our supplies didn't arrive until Monday. Luckily, I had carried my Copic Markers with me to the show (as I just couldn't leave home without with my favorite tools). Luckily I wasn't the only person who felt compelled to travel with their copic markers- so after a few phone calls we were able to assemble a nice array of copic products to demonstrate with.
I learned tons of coloring and shading tips from Marianne and I think you will instantly see the difference in my latest projects. I can't wait to share her tips with you over the next few days! Here is a close-up of the Northwood Rubberstamps Birdhouse Trio that I colored for my Phone Post-it Note Holder:
Tip 1: Coloring the basic image- color your image using a circular stroke. Turn over your paper and if the color has not bleed evenly through to the backside of the paper, then you have not applied enough color. Using this technique will eliminate any streaking within the image.
Tip 2: Shading -As you are collecting your Copic Sketch Markers you will find that until your collection is large enogh often your marker selection may contain colors that are more than 3 values apart. To create a medium value place the darker marker in your secondary hand and place the lighter colored marker in your primary hand. Next stroke the side of the brush end of the lighter marker over the brush tip of your darker marker. This will load the darker marker onto your lighter colored marker and will create a medium tone. Don't panic- adding color to your lighter colored marker will not ruin your marker. Choose the area you wish to color and color the entire area with the lightest color. Next side,,, load your lightest color marker as instructed above and shade the image. As the color works out of your marker it will return to its original color. If you get a sharp edge of color, simply use the lighter colored marker and feather the sharp edge and it will lighten. Next add a tiny shaded line with the darker marker and use the lighter colored marker to feather the color into the medium value.
Tip 3: Lightening an area- If you color in an area and decide the color is too dark, use the colorless blender in a circular motion over the top of what you have colored and the colorless blender will remove some of the color and lighten the image.
Tip 4: My favorite tip of all !! - Have you ever colored an image and accidently colored outside the stamped image just slightly !! Well Marianne showed me the most amazing trick. Simply take your colorless blender sketch tip and place it beyond the mistake and begin coloring toward the color which extends beyond the stamped image. Color with the colorless blender right to the stamped line and the Copic color will recede back behind the stamped line. Wish I had known that trick a couple of months ago, since I am almost ready for bifocal contacts and late at night the lines seem to move as I am coloring. It literally works like an eraser. Thanks Marianne!! That tip is worth its weight in gold!! You can do this trick even weeks after you have colored an image...so I will be revisiting my rejected image stash for a little repair work!!
My earlier post with my black and white desk pad post it note holder was rather brief as I was literally packing my suitcase to leave for California and a couple of people asked me to post more detailed directions. So here goes.
To create this phone post-it note stand purchase a 5 x 7 or 4 x 6 acrylic frame. ( I prefer the larger size).
Place the frame on its side, with the highest part of the slope at the back. Next I stamped the Northwood Rubber Stamp Treehouse trio in Adriondack Pitch Black. Here is a list of the colors of sketch markers I used to color in the image:
(I will be back tomorrow morning to list all the color combinations of Copic I used). Note that I purposely colored darker centers for my tiny flowers in order to give them more depth in the design.
I then diecut the image with my largest scalloped rectangle nestability and I dry embossed the die by running it back through the wizard. To balance the blue in the design I mated the image with a narrow blue mat. Cut a 5 x 7 mat from the pink swirl paper , then adhere pink and white polka dot ribbon to the mat , adhere the stamped image to the pink paper. Note that you will need to be careful how much layering you do on your design, as you will need to slip the design in between the 2 pieces of plexiglass. On my first design (the black and White design) my ribbon was braided and had to be placed on top of the acrylic frame. On this design I was able to place the ribbon on the paper and inside the frame. Be careful as you insert the design into the frame, it is very easy to catch an edge and ruin your image.
