OCC Copic for Card Makers Day 5: People

Don't look at the faces.  The coloring isn't all that bad but I felt the need to create a face on one and "improve" on another.  Both are total fails. LOL  This assignment is more about the whole body, not just the hair and skin.  I feel like I did decently on the clothing but the faces?  Ha!

The first character is Lilli Girl from Unity Stamps.  She is adorable in spite of my coloring.  She does not have a face so I attempted to create one.  Bad, I know.  I need to stamp her a dozen times and practice a decent expression.  She looks a little ticked off about something.

Next is Pure Innocence: Little Gardener from MFT.  At least she does have a face, however I tried to make more of a happy mouth and managed to touch some black from her hair and smushed it onto her face.  Oh my goodness!  Better leave her alone next time.

Thanks for looking.

OCC Copics for Card Makers Day 5

Today's lesson was about skin and hair coloring.  Another challenge!  I tried the hair in the two different ways described in our lesson.  I prefer the first way I did it.  I was able to highlight better that way.  Skin colors need some work.  These poor girls look like they need a shave, LOL.

I am enjoying this class more and more each day and I'm having fun experimenting with my colors.

Thanks for looking.

OCC Copic For Card Makers Day 4

Oh you are asking what happened to days 2 and 3?  Beats me.  I got a bit lost in those two lessons and just moved on to today's.  I'll go back at some point.  Meanwhile I enjoyed today's lesson on light source and shadows.  My attempts are not exciting but I "get" what I am supposed to do.   One thing I did learn is that I did not like using the white gel pen for the centers.  Another method was to use the colorless blender and I think that turned out great and I really like how it looks.  The gel pen looks nice when someone talented uses it.  That would not be me, LOL.

Anyway here are two of the flower sets for today's lesson.  I'll work on this more.    I think I chose too dark of a trio for the blue flowers.  The shading is a bit lost.  The orange however were good colors but they really blended so well that it's nearly all one color.  Finding the perfect group of colors seems to be a huge key in the blending game and learning what works best.  It seems a bit of trial and error...not an exact science of color blending.  Also the Copic friendly card stock I used makes a huge difference as well.  The stock I used here seemed to bleed very easily.

 Looking forward to tomorrow's assignment.

Tea Cup Thank You Cards

Loving coffee like I do, I collect many coffee related crafting items: stamps, dies, embossing folders and so on.  So when I came across this die of "coffee cups" I knew I could have a lot of fun with them.  How amusing that the first time I use them they would be "tea cups".   Again, I am a died-in-the-wool coffee drinker or latte drinker to be specific.  Therefore it was funny that last Saturday while attending the annual West Coast Scrap N Chat's ScrampCamp we had a formal tea party.  I don't like tea,  but I was game and actually enjoyed the peach and ginger tea I chose.

Our hostess for this tea, Liney and sister Lucy put on a jaw-dropping afternoon tea that would be the envy of any tea shop.  Set up in Liney's home were beautiful tables dressed in lovely linens and china.  A beautiful collection of teacups graced a large table and 4 gorgeous teapots containing different teas were arranged on a high counter.  Tea time food was everywhere and kept coming out of the oven.  It was truly amazing.

So to make a long story short (sort of) I knew this teacup/coffee cup die would be ideal die for cards to send to the three Westies who organized this fun filled weekend.

In a nutshell, the first die cut was done on very heavy kraft card stock...or maybe light chip board...hard to say.  This would be the base for the cups.  Next I chose 5 different patterned papers from an AC 6x6 pad.  I cut the die 5 times on the different patterned papers.  Then I snipped the patterned cups apart and arranged them onto the Kraft base.  I love the tipsy look of these playful cups and I think the 3 recipients will enjoy them also.

Thanks for looking.  

Dreamweaver Die "Vertical Teacups"

OCC Copics for Card Makers Day One

Day one had us getting familiar with two color and three color blending.  I definitely prefer three color blending.  The two color versions are pretty bad.  I did a comparative of 2 vs. 3 colors, using the same colors side-by-side.  Though the trios are not great, they are better than the twosies.

Today's class was a wealth of coloring info with 40 minutes of instructional video!   I am done for the night I think.  I need to rest up for tomorrow's class.

Thanks for looking...

FWF: Happy Fall

I just proved this afternoon that Unity Stamps are awesome.  I realized that I hadn't prepared anything this week to submit for FWF.  So scramble time!  A few days ago I played around with my KNK and did a shadow cut of "Happy Fall" from September's KOTM.  So I made my card around that little saying.  I already had a bunch of them stamped on the shadow cut so all I needed was to create a background.  Here is another stream of consciousness card that came together quickly...hence the awesomeness of Unity.  The card base is a luxurious semi-gloss cream card stock from Club Scrap.  I've been hoarding it for years.  It's so lovely to stamp on.  I used the oak leaf and dragonfly from September KOTM and the leaf cluster from August KOTM.  The dragonfly is kind of odd in it's coloring but it was my starting point.  The rest just followed in my attempt to make it fallish.

Thanks for looking.

Copic Storage

There is a lot of discussion on the OCC Copics for Card Makers forum on how to store Copics.  This grid that I found at Crafter's Companion holds the markers horizontally and has been ideal for me.  I have these stored directly above my craft desk so I can look up and pull the colors I want with ease.  It's easy to read the numbers and select the colors I wish to use.  I also have my Distress Markers stored alongside them plus some other often used marking pens like my white gel pens and a few PITT Pens for journaling.

Link to the Ultimate Pen Storage System:

http://www.crafterscompanion.com/Marker-Storage_c_185.html

Unity FWF: Owls and Copics

I am taking the OCC Copics for Card Makers class.  So it made sense for me to multi-task and create a card that satisfies both areas.  I am head-over-heals for the just arrived Unity September KOTM,
"(happy, thankful, blessed)" set.

I stamped the owl from that set, scanned it, printed it and used the Klic N Kut to cut out the printed image.  Yes...I am on a roll with my KNK.  I printed the owls on Copic friendly card stock and with the ink jet ink, I don't have to be concerned with the black outlines bleeding.  Awesome!  I set about using a color chart I created thanks to the OCC card class and used some of the color combos (see flipflop color chart below) to use as a color study with the owls.  See...a twofer!

The card base is a medium weight chip board.  I stamped the leaf border from the KOTM for the background and filled in just a few of the leaves.  I may have over done that one...oh well.  I am enjoying learning my way around Copic markers and employing my KNK in the process.  Love it when I can combine different methods and tools.

Thanks for looking and your comments are very welcome...

OCC Copic Markers For Card Makers

I have been playing around with Copic Markers since last November when I decided I liked them and wanted to use them in my card making.  There are tons of videos out there to learn from.  I've caught on to a few of the techniques.  But when I saw that Online Card Classes was offering a class dedicated to Copics and card makers, I jumped at the opportunity to be a student since I've enjoyed so many of their other card classes.

The classes don't begin until the 22nd of this month but there is much to prepare for and the teachers are preparing us well with handouts to color, videos to watch, a forum to chat with fellow students and great shopping info on what to choose and where.  I am itching to get started.  Meanwhile I have dutifully colored my pre class assignments shown below.


First is the color chart that not only shows what you have (ahem:) but gives you a quick look at coloring trios for blending.

Second is the "Teachers' Favorites"...I colored in their favorites if I had the same markers.  A few of the heart combos are trios I made up myself.

And finally this Flip-Flop was mainly for testing our printer's ink, Copic card stock and how they reacted to the markers.  My HP Photosmart's ink works great with the proper card stock and the Copics.  No bleeding of the black ink...I just need to get a LOT better at staying in the lines, LOL.

Once class begins I will be posting more of my assignments here.

Unity FWF Friday

Panda Bear Hello

I have a Maxx Air Klic N Kut and it is awesome.  It will cut out anything.  Now that I am collecting Unity stamps I can also turn any of those stamps into a die cut.  No more fussy cutting.  This card was made in a snap.  The "hello" is a die cut made 4 times then stacked and glued to make my own chip board embellishment.

I love ALL forms of die cutting.

Thanks so much for your comments and just looking:)