For the Newlyweds

Hi everyone, Kelli here!  This weeks challenge is to airbrush a background, or if you don't have an airbrush system just do something fancy or different with it.  Head on over to this post to play along!

For my card I used the Chanson D'amour stamp by Stampavie.  I stamped it using Memento Tuxedo Black ink on the Curious paper, which has some sparkle and was perfect for this project.  I didn't do much actual Copic coloring besides the heart, the letters and a little bit of blue around the birds.  Before I did anything I stamped the image with StazOn Ink (do NOT use for Copic coloring) on the X-Press It, Mask It Film and cut out the heart so that I wouldn't get any of the airbrushing on it.  This film is amazing by the way, I would definitely consider checking it out!  For the background I airbrushed it using a few different colors.  First I started with Copics BG15, then added a little bit of RV29 and filled in any of the open areas with BG13.  It really is super easy and especially fun, because there's no rules to where you airbrush.  You can just have a blast doing it however you want!  Forgot to add that I colored the heart with RV23, RV25 and RV29, and the letters were done with RV25.

I stamped the image a second time, outlined the birds with a little bit of B0000 so the white wouldn't be completely naked.  The very light blue helps to add shadows to the white without being too harsh.  After that, I cut them out and popped them up on some foam adhesive for some added dimension.  It also made it easier so I didn't have to mask the birds when I was airbrushing.

Thanks for stopping by!  :)

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Crafthouse Press - Fabulous Lingerie

Dana here and wow, what an amazing stamp I have to show you today!! It is from Crafthouse Press and is called Fabulous Lingerie:

Is that not gorgeous?? All girly and feminine, you just know it had to have some pink and bling : ) I always want to jump to the "good" parts but you can't achieve good coloring without first good paper and Memento Ink.  I stamped the lingerie in Tuxedo Black and the sentiment from Amy R in Rich Cocoa Brown.  My designer papers are from Wild Rose Studio Girly Polka Dot paper pack.
Our challenge this week is airbrushing and I airbrushed the background of my nestie shape. Since my stamp is all paper pieced I didn't have to do any masking.  Here's a close up:

You can see how I created my background using my airbrush and colorless blender by viewing Jan's post here.
After stamping my lingerie pieces on my patterned paper I added some shading. I used R85, R83 and R81. I cut those out and them Mod Podged some actual lace over the top of it. Those layers ended up being glue to plain white card stock for a little more stability.  Once that was dry and transparent I did a little bit of relininig of the image with my copic multiliner. 
I hope you will check out all the new products at icopic and also join in the challenge this week : )

Hugs~

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Tuesday Tips and Tricks: 3D Card Kits

Hello everyone! Samantha here with another Tuesday Tips and Tricks. Have you seen the Gorjuss 3D Die-Cut Box Card Kits??

Well, that is what we are going to talk about today, and they are soooo neat!! I received this Card kit and created this amazing 3d card in like 5 minutes! I just love how quick and easy it was to put this card together.

And here is the back, where you can add your own message. I chose to stamp a sentiment from the SP and Company Mini Card Creations I stamp set.

And the best thing is, when you are ready to mail your card off to someone special, the card folds flat inside the envelopes that come with the kit!!

  
Isn't that a neat card?! It was just so simple and stunning.  The kit comes with 5 different cards plus instructions and envelopes so there is plenty to work with.

SP and Company Stamps

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iCopic Weekly Challenge #36

Hey everyone!! Samantha here! Welcome to the iCopic Weekly Challenge #36

The challenge: Airbrushing or fancy background
Use your Copic airbrushing system! Experiment and see what you can create with it. If you don't own an airbrush system, then create a fancy background as an alternative.

Link up to your creations in the linky widget below. Entries are due Sunday July 3rd at noon PST. A winner will be chosen at random from all of the participants and the winner will be given this week's lovely prize.

And for this challenge, I have created two technique videos about airbrushing. I think EVERY.SINGLE one of us Copic lovers need an airbrush system, whether it is the smallest of ABS systems or you go the big air compressor route (I LOVE my air compressor!!).

In this video, I show you airbrushing with a masking technique:


In this video, I show you how I airbrush without a masking technique:


And here is a close-up of the image I created in the second video.  Copic colors used: BG53 (for the airbrushing), E00, E23, E29, E99, Y38, BG02, BG05, BG07, RV21, RV23, RV25, and RV29. The image is the Tutti Cuti

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WINNER iCopic Weekly Challenge #35

Hey everyone!! Samantha here to announce this week's lucky winner!

Remember to play along with the iCopic weekly challenge each week for great prizes!!

And the winner of Challenge #35 is. . . 7. Lea Kimmel 



Lea colored in her image on Cream cardstock.

Lea, please email us at info@icopic.com so that we can get your prize mailed out.

That's all we've got for you today, folks! Check back tomorrow and see our new challenge. It is going to be a super fun one.

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Saturday Spotlight

Hello everyone!!  Are you ready to see this week's Saturday Spotlight?

Saturday Spotlight is a special spotlight of some of our lovely customers' projects!! Every other Saturday you will see some awesome projects that have been posted on our Facebook Page.

Want a chance to be spotlighted right here on our blog? All you need to do is upload some Copic creations to the iCopic Facebook Page and you might be picked!

I am going to do my very best to narrow my choices down to THREE each time we have a spotlight.


And here are the top three:

Rene Bowen

Cheryl Gorka

Kris Palakiko

Now please head to our Facebook Page and upload your Copic creations today! You never now when your creation will be spotlighted here.

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You Glow Girl ~

Hiya there, iCopic friends!  It's Friday again, which means it's time for me {Alyssa} to show you some of the new goodies I got to play with for the month!  I got this fabulous chandelier stamp from the Penny Johnson Vintage line by Stampavie and an amazing new product from Tsukineko called Fireworks.  This product is so new that it hasn't even been added to the store yet, but I linked you over to the main Tsukineko page, so you can get it when it does. 

This little baby is colored with some golden yellows {Y21, Y26 and Y28} on vintage cream cardstock.  Our challenge this week at iCopic is to color on anything other than white cardstock.  Coloring these beautiful yellows on this cream allowed a richer color I think.  Plus, the opal Ranger Liquid Pearls that I added stand out so much better! 

The new Tsukineko product, Fireworks, is a lovely colorful, shimmery spray that coordinate with Memento colors.  I received Desert Sand which is very golden...perfect for that candle light glow!  I didn't want to spray my whole image however, so I sprayed it onto my craft mat and applied it to the image with an aqua painter.

 If you click on this picture, you can really see all the shimmery goodness!  The sentiment circle was sprayed all over so you can get an idea of how these wonderful sprays work! 

That's it for me!  Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!  :o) lyss

COPICS {R24, R29, Y000, Y11, Y21, Y26, Y28}

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Laughter is healthy!

Hi everyone, Kelli here!  Today I have a bright, cheery card for you!  This weeks challenge is to color on paper other than white.  It can be kraft (what I did), patterned, or whatever else you can think of...it's up to you!  Please feel free to visit this post and play along!  :)

I used the awesome Blissful Botanicals stamp set by Lawn Fawn.  Their images are adorable, check them out!  I stamped the branches on kraft card stack using Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored them with Copics G21, G24 and G28.  I did the same with the flower and used RV23, RV25 and RV29.  Oh and you see the background on the base of my card in the first picture?  That was done using a really neat, long vine image from the Blissful Botanicals set as well!  I punched out my stamped sentiment and then airbrushed it using mostly Y35 and a tiny bit of BG13.  I love airbrushing, it's so much fun!  I finished it off with some Divine Baker's Twine with a button.  As you can tell I was going for color everywhere today!
Thanks for stopping by, have a great rest of the week!

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Waiting Tilda

Dana here and I cannot wait to show you what I've been playing with this week! Sometimes I like to share a technique or a new product but today I've got to say I was totally intrigued by this weeks challenge!  Color on something other than smooth, white cardstock... hhhmmm....  I knew I wanted to try something totally different than something I've already done with my copics.  I've colored in the past on glossy cardstock, vellum, patterned paper (for paper piecing) but for todays card I stamped on vintage paper! Take a look:

I love the way she turned out! And it was so totally unplanned for hope and loved to be right in the middle of her face!! Seriously! The paper I stamped on is an old vintage book of my grandpa's that is a western.
This image is called Waiting Tilda and here's a close up of her:

Please note: if you try this yourself, please do not hold myself or icopic accountable for any damage done to your nibs. I knew I may ruin mine from the old ink. Luckily for me I just picked up a little staining that was easily scribbled off.  My curiosity at wanting to try something new far outweighed possibly having to replace a nib or two : )
Too me Tilda looks like she's praying so the sentiment from Lovely Labels by SP & Company worked perfectly and here's a close up of that:

I hope you get a chance to play along in our challenge this week! I can't wait to see what you come up with!
Hugs~

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Tuesday Tips and Tricks: Anything but White Paper

Hey folks! Samantha here with a fun little lesson for you. Today is all about coloring on patterned paper with your Copics!

Copics are great for coloring over patterned papers because they are semi-opaque which means that they don't cover up another surface completely and the color beneath shows through (when I think of opaque, I think of acrylic paint, super thick and it will cover anything up completely).

This semi-opaque quality comes in handy when you are mixing colors, for example, coloring balloons or something translucent.

But it also comes in handy if you want to color on your patterned paper. Dana has shown a beautiful example of adding dimension to your paper piecing projects, click here for that tutorial.

I also shared a video tutorial on adding dimension to a paper piecing, click here for that tutorial.

And today, I added some Copic coloring to stamped images that I stamped directly onto some patterned paper.

I created cute little pinwheels at the bottom of my scrapbook layout using the new Lawn Fawn stamp set called Cruising Through Life. This is a silly photo of my sweet husband.

With the lightest pinwheels (colored in with Copics B00 and B01) you can see the patterned paper behind them. With the darker pinwheel (colored in with Copics B37 and B39) you can't hardly see anything behind it. The darker your color is, the less you will be able to see behind it.

For the center of all the pinwheels I used Copic YR09, and for the sticks, I used E97

So pull out some patterned paper and experiment to see what you can come up with. I am sure you can come up with something really great!

SP and Company Stamps

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iCopic Weekly Challenge #35

Hi everyone!! Welcome to the iCopic Weekly Challenge #35. This challenge is going to be very interesting, and I can't wait to see what kind of results you come up with.

The challenge: Anything but White
Do your coloring on anything but white paper. Get creative: think kraft paper, patterned paper, vanilla colored paper, anything!!


See what kind of colors and creations you can come up with!  Entries are due by Sunday June 26th at noon PST. Add a direct link to your creation in the linky widget below.

For her project this week, Rachel colored the raccoon and log on kraft cardstock.

Enter your creation below:

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Winner iCopic Weekly Challenge #34

Hey everyone! Tonight, we have a lovely winner to announce!! 

The winner of the Brown Challenge, iCopic Weekly Challenge #34 is. . .  16. Roxy Rolla 

 Congrats Roxy!!! Please email us at info@icopic.com so we can get your prize out to you!

And everyone, make sure to check back tomorrow morning for yet another lovely iCopic challenge!! Have a lovely evening!

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Vintage-esque Card

Hi folks! Samantha here with a new vintage inspired card. My project today features a brand new vintage Bird Cage stamp from Stampavie. Seriously folks, go check out the new products in the iCopic store. They will blow you away! Some awesome stuff has been added over the past week or two.

I love this little birdcage image!!

 For the background, I masked off the birdcage and then airbrushed the background using E55. Then (before I took the mask layer off of the birdcage) I stamped the little flourishes to make the background pattern.

These are the rest of the Copic colors I used:

• For the cage: E40, E42, E43
• For the bird inside the cage: Y15, Y17
• For the bird outside the cage & the perch: E39

I wanted the cage to look antique white, and the E40's work so great for antique white. 

The sentiment is from the SP and Company Lovely Labels stamp set.

That is all I've got about this card, but I have a bonus card for you.  I made this one with new Lawn Fawn stamps and posted it to my blog yesterday:

For complete details, click here.

SP and Company Stamps

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A Note of Thanks ~

Hiya friends!  Alyssa here with a special little note of thanks!  When my son was born, my grandpa set up a college fund for him.  I opened up a statement of said fund yesterday and realized that he'd been adding to it this year without saying anything.  I figured I'd better make him a special thank you note and quick!  lol

Picking through my stamps, I found the perfect little guy - Musical Ethan from Your Next Stamp.  He's darling and super easy to color.  I knew I didn't have much time, so I picked out my paper and layout (from some inspiration photos that I keep for just this purpose!).  The papers helped me to choose how I would color up his little outfit. 

The paper is My Minds Eye Lime Twist Out of the Blue.  It works out so well because my son tries to dress just like his daddy all the time, so it's camo and army green pants for him!  I used a ruler and paper piercer to add holes around the edge every quarter inch and a 0.8mm Copic multiliner to add faux stitching - that little extra touch adds so much!  The sentiment is stamped in Versafine Onyx Black (the absolute best ink for sentiments and beautiful black coverage) and embossed with clear embossing powder to really stand out against the busy background.  Now I just have to get it in the mail...

Ha Ha!  Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you all have a super fantastic weekend!  :o) lyss

Copics {BG15, BG23, BG49, C1, C7, C9, E000, E00, E02, R02, R20, YG93, YG95, YG97, Y21, Y26, Y32, 100 Black}

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Cheeky Beach - With Love

Hi everyone, Kelli here!  This weeks challenge is to use browns when coloring, so I thought I would play along.  You still have time to join in on the fun as well!  Just check out this post for more details!

For this card I used the Cheeky Beach stamp by The Greeting Farm.  I love their images, they are adorable!
If you only have a few brown Copics, don't worry, because I do too!  I was able to color this whole image with only 6 colors!  All the browns are: E29, E37, E35 and E31.  For the skin I used YR00 and E00.  I first stamped the image with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink on the beautifully shimmery Curious paper.  The Memento ink is a must have for coloring with Copics!  The Curious paper is SO pretty and is very nice to blend with.  It has a really pretty shimmer to it which definitely adds something to any project!

I added some Crystal Effects to the beach ball so it would look more realistic and add some dimension to the card.  It also helped separate it from the brown of her hair and bathing suit.  I've had a few people ask me how I'm able to cut the image out so evenly.  What I do is I lightly sketch around the image with a pencil first so that I know exactly where I want to cut.  Then I use my Cutterbee scissors to cut it out.  After that, just erase any leftover pencil marks, and voila!  If I tried to cut it out without the pencil lines first, it would definitely be a disaster, haha!

For the flower in her hair, I took some flat-backed pearls and colored them with a brown Copic so they would match the whole brown theme.  That's another great thing about Copics.  Since they are alcohol based, you can color almost anything with them!

This flower embellishment was actually to cover up a stamping booboo, but I think I actually like it there!  I used some of the awesome Divine Baker's Twine and made a bow to put behind the flowers.

Thanks for looking!!!  :)

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Happy Fathers Day!

When I saw this image from Wild Rose Studios Milton line called Gone Fishing I knew it would be my hubby's Fathers Day card from either myself or one of the kids.

It is absolutely perfect for my fisherman husband!! So first things first, he was stamped with Memento Ink onto Copic X-Press It paper. That link is going to take you to the papers page so you can check out the awesome new paper icopic is carrying from Cryogen. It looks amazing and I can't wait to give it a try! Did you also notice those amazing Brads from Wild Rose Studios? I used the ones from the Milton set.
 Here's a close up of my hubby {grin}

I wanted to use Kraft cardstock for the basis of his card but it needed a little oomph.  So if you can take all the pics here's some quick shots of  how I created the background papers using my airbrush system. Please note, that is only the trigger and mechanisms to attach to an air compressor. You need to purchase an air compressor here or if using one you may already have you need to make sure it can be adjusted to not exceed 80 psi. 45 - 50 is what I've found to be the optimum setting.

First I taped down the Kraft (yes, it's Kraft.. the glare from my Ott lite is making it look cream) onto my gridded mat. The grid mat isn't totally necessary but I like to have nice straight lines and this helps me.

It also gives you that perfectly clean border around the edge. Next I taped down a stencil I had, the flimsy ones used for stenciling your walls.

Next I airbrushed in 2 different shades of green. I think that gives it much more depth.

I used painters tape because it isn't near as tacky as regular masking tape and it pulls up off your paper easier. Pulling at an angle away from your paper helps to eliminate any tearing, but sometimes it still happens. No worries, here's how you can fix that. See the close up of where that exact thing happened to me:

Can you see the rough patch where it started to tear? It was a lot more obvious in real life (irl.. in case you've ever seen that abbreviation and wondered what the heck it meant). No worries. Use your bone folder to smooth the paper back down:

Viola!! Crisis averted ; )
If you don't own the Copic Airbrush System you could always try the Grip and Air can first to see how you like it. Check out what Marianne Walker had to say about using just the canned air in the product review. I agree 100%.
I hope you all have a great week! Come back every day this week to see all the wonderful creations from the rest of the team!

Hugs~

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