PipsyCraft: Copics

Showing posts with label Copics. Show all posts

Good afternoon everyone! I was sitting at my desk this morning and you know what I realized? There is a big holiday THIS WEEK and I don't have a single Valentine's Day card made...not one. I have four days to crank out a bunch of cards so I thought I'd ask if you all are ready for Heart day? Did you make your own cards or did you find some cute ones that you couldn't pass up? I'd love to see them either way!

So my first card is one that was a long time in waiting. I bought the Our Story and Magical Dragons stamp sets from My Favorite Things about a year ago and they've been glaring me in the face since that day. I finally picked them up and set to work. I've had a card in mind since I bought them, but for some reason I just kept putting it off...I wasn't sure why until I finished coloring and realized I didn't have any of the dies! I didn't let that stop me, I'd already come too far to stop there.

So after stamping everything and testing out my fussy cutting skills, I needed to set up the card. I knew I wanted to make her look like she's imagining what she's reading, but I had no plan of attack after that. I grabbed my Puffy Cloud edge dies from Lawn Fawn after I cut a standard A2 card front (5.25" by 4") from some scrap white cardstock and cut the clouds at an angle. I also cut some scrap pink paper to go behind the clouds and look like wallpaper. I made sure it wouldn't go up too far so I could cut out the circles.

After the cloud was how I wanted it, I had to figure out my sentiment. I loved this one too much and it was going to be a challenge, but I took it on! I had to ink (almost) every work separately to get it lined up right and it took me a few tries, but I got it right in the end! Woohoo!

The next step was the little peephole to see the dragon. I had a random circle die that I have no idea where it came from, but it worked perfectly. I'd guess it was about 1 3/4" or a little smaller. I used my pencil once that was cut to draw a light circle on the white cardstock under the clouds so I knew where to stamp my dragon. I then stamped the little knight in shining armor on the part of the circle I had cut out.

Once that was finished and I colored the rest of the goodies, I set to work on putting the card together. Lots of foam dimensionals were used and I love it! Even though it took me many hours to finish, I have no regrets and I can finally say that I have one Valentine's day card made! Now to make the rest.

I always like to look around the challenge blogs for inspiration from the challenge itself or from the beautiful creations people make. Today I found a challenge that actually works well for this card! Over at Cut It Up, the challenge was a Love themed card with three layers and one that used a die cut. It's a really creative challenge and one that puts your creative juices to the test so I definitely recommend heading over there to check it out!

Off I go again to (hopefully) finish up those Valentine's day cards. Wish me luck! I hope you all have an absolutely amazing day and I'm sending you all warm hugs as the temperature drops. I don't know about you, but it's been snowing nonstop here in Michigan (at least 7 inches just yesterday and it continues today) and as lovely as it looks, I know some of you have to travel for work or family. Even if it's not snowing, stay safe and hopefully I'll see you around here later :)

Hello all and Happy Friday!! (TGIF, right?)
I know, I know, Christmas is over and we're all trying to put this cold weather behind us, but I just got some new stamps from Whimsy Stamps AND THEY ARE PRECIOUS!! You guys know that when you get a new stamp, you just have to use it...no matter what. So I did! I had a little time between classes and I popped out a card with the Xmas Hamster and I just adore this little fellow.

Isn't he adorable? I stamped him on a 5 1/4in by 4in piece of heavy cardstock (later attached to an A2 card front made of the same heavy cardstock). Then, I colored him in with my Copics and used my Wink of Stella to add a little sparkle to the ornament, the little bubbles, and his tiny nose. I also added some Glossy Accents to the little bubbles to give them a more dimensional look.

The ornament string didn't extend to the top of the card like I wanted it to so I grabbed a black fine tip marker and drew the rest of it up...no it isn't straight, but I won't fuss over that. If you want to recreate this card or do something similar, a ruler would probably be the best option if you want it straight or anything with a straight edge if you don't have a ruler handy.

The sentiment is from a the Pamela Loves Poinsettia stamp set by Stamping Bella in their Tiny Townies collection. I just inked up the top of the stamp for the front and used the rest of it for the sentiment on the inside. And Voila! It is complete!

No, I can't send him out quite yet, but hey, I'm ready for when the time comes! I guess I'm getting ahead on my Christmas card collection! Ha! It won't sneak up on me this time.

What are you guys working on this week?

I will be submitting this little guy into the following challenges which you all should go check out and maybe even participate in:

Morgans Art World Blog -- Anything Goes

Brown Sugar Challenge Blog -- Also Anything Goes

Art By Miran Challenge Blog -- You guessed it, Anything Goes

Love you all!

Mattie

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**Please note that all affiliate links are here for your convenience and are of no extra charge to you. I have purchased all the products used for this creation and am not being sponsored.

Hello everyone and happy Tuesday!! I hope everyone is enjoying the New Year so far! Anyone got any crafty resolutions?

One of mine is to get better at my Copic coloring and to get as many colors as I can without going entirely broke! Coloring is therapeutic and calming whether it be with Copics or crayons, but I've recently fallen in love with Copics and I've seen so many beautiful crafts done with them. I'm excited to see what is to come with the rest of this year and even how my blog will develop! I'm new to the blogging scene and don't know what all it entails, but I suppose we will have to see!

Anyway, enough ranting and onto the card! (Apologies in advance since the lights I use at my apartment on campus like to wash out everything!)

This card did take me out of my comfort zone a little since it's just a one layer card and I used so many sequins, but I like how it turned out! I, as usual, started off with some heavy white cardstock cut at 5 1/4 by 4 and stamped on the flowers (a retired stamp from Stampin' Up! called Blended Bloom). I then colored those in with my Copics, of course! (R20, R24, and YG63 for the petals; Y15, E47, and E34 for the centers with a little clear Wink of Stella for sparkle). While I'm coloring, I always start with my lightest color and work up to the darkest before going back down to my lightest...I feel it gives me the best blending of the different shades.

I then grabbed my Mini Misti (I linked to Amazon's listing, though there are a bunch of places selling them), and lined up the sentiment how I liked it (from Mama Elephant's Birthday Wishes stamp set) and inked it up with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink. It came out great so I didn't have to stamp twice! It's the little things that can make a day great, haha!

After that, I spent about twenty minutes trying to get the sequins just right. I just used some shiny clear ones from a previous project and glued them down with some Tombow Mono Multi Glue.

Then I put it onto an A2 card base before stamping the sentiment on the inside. Voila! Ready to go!

I'll be submitting this card to the following lovely challenges (go check them out!!):

Jo's Scrap Shack (Anything Goes)

Catch the Bug Blog (Anything Goes)

Stamp Ink Paper (Black and White with a Pop of Color)

Colour Crazy Challenge (Always Anything Goes)

Mod Squad Challenge (BLING!!!!)

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Pipsy

(Mattie)

I'm back on campus and have one day of classes behind me. Yay! I have a few classes I'm excited for, but I can't say that math and chemistry are any of those. I'm just awful in both subjects and would much rather spend the time at my desk with my stamps and crafting supplies. Speaking of which, I couldn't resist using the time after class to create a little something for a close friend of mine who has a birthday coming up soon.

I started off with an A2 size card base and card front cut at 5 1/4 by 4 in some heavy weight cardstock (I used Whisper White from Stampin Up, though any cardstock would work). Then I stamped out a couple images of this adorable little bear from the Beary Special Birthday stamp set from My Favorite Things just in case I messed up the coloring on one of them (or if not, I would have an extra for another project)!

I colored the little guy with Copics (E34, E25, and E30 for the bear and R20 for his little nose; E30, R20, W1, and W2 for the cake). And since I don't have the dies, I fussy cut him out and colored the edges black with a marker (I suggest testing any black marker you want to use on a scrap piece of the same cardstock to make sure it doesn't bleed into your images...I've had that happen a few times and it is just awful to see the cute image with a black shmeer across the front)!

For the balloons (I used the Stampin Up Balloon Bouquet punch), I used So Saffron Cardstock from Stampin' Up and darkened the edges to add a little dimension with a dauber and some So Saffron Ink. I also used my white gel pen to add a light glare to help make it look less flat. The strings to the balloons were the trickiest part...I wanted to use black sewing thread so I didn't have to draw lines all over the front, but that would have probably been much easier in the end! But of course, I was stubborn and didn't want to stop once I started. I tied the string to the balloon first and taped the small end to the back of the balloon and then left a good sized tail (maybe about 4 inches or so). Once they were all done, I added some foam tape to the back and positioned them how I liked and taped the tails down with a piece of foam tape too which is where I placed the little teddy bear.

The cake sentiment was part of the same stamp set as the bear and it just worked too perfectly with the image and the amount of space I had left so I had to use it! After I stamped that onto the card front, it needed a little something extra so I popped on a few sequins and extra punched out stars I had lying around.

For the inside of the card, which I don't have pictured, I cut another 5 1/4 by 4 piece of the cardstock and stamped a sentiment on it... "Happy Bear-thday" to be exact. I 100% believe that this is going to be my new favorite stamp set for a while...it is just too darn cute!

I am also going to submit this little guy to the Scrapbook Stamp Society Blog for their current challenge which you all should go check out! Even if you're not interested in the challenge, they have some awesome inspiration that could help if you have a bad case of crafters-block!

What are you guys working on this week? Any fun projects?

Love you all!

Pipsy

(Mattie)

With a relative of mine welcoming a new little one to the world soon, I figured I should see what I could do to make a card for them to say hello to the little guy or girl (we don't know yet, they wanted it to be a surprise)! I have a set from Mama Elephant called New Family with just the most adorable little animals in it. I decided to go with a fox and a baby along with a couple of the sentiments too.

All of the stamps I used came from the same set including the sentiment on the inside which I don't have pictured here. I used my wonderful Copics to color them in (YR16, YR68,C-0, C-2, and BG53 for the foxes and G43, YG63, and YG67 for the grass).

It's a standard A2 with the front panel cut at 5 1/4 by 4 and I used Whisper White Cardstock from Stampin' Up, though any paper that can handle Copics works too! I can't recommend the heavy Bazzill paper for it however since I've noticed my Copics tend to bleed on it. I still love it for card making and stamping since it is absolutely perfect for sturdy cards, but try another one for Copics if you can! It really is just a clean and simple card...nothing too crazy today!

I will be submitting this card to a few challenges...all of which you all should go do by the way! It's fun to challenge yourself and be inspired by other crafters. You have nothing to lose! Here are the Blogs I'll be submitting this one:

1. Crafty Calendar Challenge Blog---> Something New Challenge

2. Sweet Stampin' Challenge Blog---> Something New Challenge

3. My Time to Craft Challenge Blog---> Something New Challenge

I know I've been doing a lot of challenges lately, but I enjoy challenging myself instead of always doing my own thing. Of course, I love that too, but why not see what my limits are as a crafter and find some people and ideas that inspire me for later projects? I recommend trying a challenge at least once to see how fun it is!

What are you guys up to this weekend?

Love you all!

Pipsy

(Mattie)

Hello everyone and happy Friday! We made it to the weekend, woohoo! For me, the excitement is short lived since tomorrow is the dreaded day of returning to campus to start classes for spring semester. No, it isn't the worst, but I will miss having free time to work on crafting and spending time with the family (and cats of course). For today, I cranked out a few cards and thought I'd share this little lady with you all!

She reminds me so much of Tinkerbell, but alas, my Copic selection doesn't allow me to color blonde hair quite yet. Slowly but surely, my collection will grow...I hope! Anyway, this little fairy is a digital stamp I purchased from Prettygrafikdesign on Etsy and I used the ScannCut2 from Brother to cut her out (highly recommend that machine by the way since it cuts out pretty much all images without needing dies...is that awesome or what?). I colored her in with Copics (G29, G646, YG63, and G43 for her dress; E15, E13, and E18 for her hair; R20, E00, E50, and BV000 for her skin; C0 and C2 for her wings with a little clear Wink of Stella to add some sparkle).

I cut a piece of Whisper White heavy white cardstock from Stampin Up to 4.5in by 3in, and stamped on the leaves on the bottom (Falling Flowers by Stampin' Up). I stamped the flower from the same set on a different piece of cardstock and fussy cut it...not to add dimension, but because I messed up on my first attempt at this card after spilling my tea all over it. Somehow the flower survived so I didn't let it go to waste! So, you can cut it out or stamp it right on the card front. Whatever you want to do! Anyway, I colored the flower in with R20 and R24 and did the Tip-to-Tip (touching the tip of the lightest marker to the darker one and coloring) technique to blend them since I didn't have a color in between the two.

I wasn't quite sure what to do for the background or if I just wanted to leave it blank, but I decided to sponge some Soft Sky ink from Stampin Up (though any light blue ink would work just as well) to make a sort of ombre look...it doesn't show up too well in the picture sadly, but in person it is much more noticeable.

I gave the fairy and the whole card front a little dimension by bumping them up with some foam tape, popped on a few leftover sequins, and voila! It is completed! Sorta anyway, I cut out another piece of cardstock at 5 1/4 by 4 for the inside and stamped a birthday wishes sentiment. Then it was all finished!

Just another lovely A2 card that I think turned out pretty well...and I learned to keep the tea away from the work zone!!

P.S I made this card for the Color Crazy Challenge over at the Color Crazy Challenge blog which you should all go check out as well as the Wednesday Challenge going on over at Simon Says Stamps' blog.

Love you all!

Pipsy

(Mattie)

I haven't had my Copics for too long and I don't consider myself an expert by any means...not even close! As with anything, I have been learning the ins and outs of them as I go and play with them. So far, the best tutor I've found has been Kelly Latevola on Youtube (definitely check out her channel if you are curious). I actually used something she taught me to color my card today!

Before I get into any of that however, I will mention that I created this card for My Favorite Things' sketch challenge which I will link to here--> Right Here!!

This challenge has this sketch as a guide which I love! It has so many possibilities!

It took me a while to figure out exactly how I wanted to approach the sketch, but the Delicate Pretty Poppies set from My Favorite Things immediately caught my eye. I'll link to it below for anyone who is curious about it.

I used a handful of Copics to get these beautiful poppies just how I wanted them (R29, R27, R17, R05, and G85 for the petals; E59, E89, and E47 for the centers; YG67, G29, and YG63 for the stems). The black paper was just from some random scraps I had left over from an old project and I stamped my images on Whisper White thick cardstock from Stampin' Up with my Memento Tuxedo Black Ink (I recommend this ink for Copics and water coloring since it's waterproof and doesn't smudge easily). I also used white embossing powder from Stampin' Up, though any white embossing powder would work!

I talked about learning a few things about my Copics above and I thought I could share what I learned with you guys! While I was coloring the flower petals, I was getting a bit frustrated that the darkest red I had just wouldn't make the shadows quite as dark as I wanted and my poor paper started to get a little saturated! Well, Kelly Latevola said in one of her videos that she faced the same problem and used a complimentary color to shade and it was honestly a life (and paper) saver! The complimentary color for red is green so that is how I shaded the flowers where I wanted the darkest shading. Not going to lie, I was pretty excited about the result so I looked up the other colors that compliment each other to reference later. Blues and oranges compliment each other and yellow and purple compliment each other.

So, this was a new experience for me and I hope you guys find the information helpful if you didn't already know it! Have you guys found or tried anything new?

Love you all!

Pipsy

(Mattie)

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*These are affiliate links and are of no extra cost to you, but are here for your convenience. I have purchased these products myself and I am not sponsored to share them. Thank you!

Hello everyone and happy Wednesday! Hold on a few more days and the work week will be done and a nice relaxing weekend will be upon us. I don't know about you guys, but where I'm at, we have been getting snow all day...they said we'll get 6-10 inches! I already miss those warm spring and summer days and winter has only just begun so I see many long mornings of shoveling in my near future! Oh well, what can you do, right?

Anyway, onto the card for today! Was I the only one who was unaware of the existence of digital stamps? I discovered them today while poking around on Youtube (catching up with some of my favorite fellow crafters) and I love them! Tara Sell over at Curl E. Cue's used them in a video and I knew that I just had to try them. Gerda Steiner was who Tara Sell led me too and she has some absolutely adorable ones which is where I found the cutie I used on this card, though I am sure there are plenty of other places with digital stamps up for sale...all of which I want to see!

This kitty, who I will link to below for you to check out if you'd like, is such a sweet thing! I printed him out on some 110 lb. cardstock from Staples, cut him out, lined him with my black Sharpie Pen, and then colored him in with my Copics (YR21, Y23, and YR23 for the body with Y24 for the stripes; R24, R27, and R29 were used to color in the heart along with Wink of Stella to jazz it up a bit; R20 was used to give him a little blush and to color in those little ears and toes).

The sequins are from a bunch of various packs I recently purchased from Simon Says Stamp and there are these tiny little shiny hearts from Pretty Pink Posh which I adore. Perfect for Valentine's day! You could always punch out a bunch of tiny hearts instead which would look just as cute.

The sentiment is from the I Knead You stamp set from My Favorite Things which I will link to down below for your convenience if you are interested in taking a look at it. I wasn't sure if I wanted it behind the acetate or inside the card, but I settled for this which adds a little something more to the front.

It's my first shaker and I must admit, it isn't too shabby!

I will be submitting this little cutie to the Send A Smile 4 Kids Challenge Blog which is an awesome blog dedicated to sending cards to children in hospitals in need of a smile. They hold challenges to raise awareness of who they are and don't require you to send your cards in, but would appreciate it if you can. Head on over and check out their blog and challenge!

What is everyone else working on this week? Any fun card or craft projects?

Love you all!

Pipsy

(Mattie)

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* All affiliate links are of no extra charge to you, but are here for your convenience! Thank you!

** NOTE: I Knead You stamp set by My Favorite Things and the heart sequins from Pretty Pink Posh are both currently out of stock on both Simon Says Stamp and the affiliate websites. Check back another time or sign up at Simon Says to be notified when either of them come back in stock!