I have yet to mail a single Christmas card this year, but I have been making plenty! Here’s the latest one, colored with Copics.

Today I also made a fun die cut tag – this was inspired by Jennifer McGuire and the 12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist 2017 Challenge.

Have a lovely weekend!

Recently I’ve been exploring some new supplies for coloring. I bought a bunch of Copic markers (see my previous post), and recently over Black Friday I also purchased the full set of Prismacolor pencils (150 colors). I had not planned on getting colored pencils, but the deal was too good to pass. I am so glad I bought them!!

I fell in love with Copics as soon as I tried them – the blending is really easy, and the color looks so smooth! Since I love my Copics so much, I wasn’t expecting to be blown away by the colored pencils, but still wanted to give them a try.

So last night I embarked in a side by side comparison of these two different coloring media. I used them to color the same stamp (by Mama Elephant) in the same color scheme. I started with Copics.

I had some initial trouble of the color bleeding outside the line (I think the issue is that I am still learning, and my markers are very juicy. I was using Copic-friendly paper – Neenah solar white,- so I believe it was user error, rather than a paper issue). Anyway, other than some initial issues the coloring went well. I had some trouble staying inside the lines (I am a bit impatient), but nothing major. Here is a closer look:

 

The coverage and smoothness of Copic markers just blows me away!

Then I proceeded to color the same image using Prismacolor pencils. I was surprised by how easily this worked too!

I found it much easier to stay inside the lines, but some of the smaller bits were harder to reach than with the marker. I found the blending to work very well here too.

For some reason, I was expecting it would take me much longer to color with pencils than with marker, but that was not the case. (I didn’t time myself because I am still learning so it wouldn’t be a true comparison, but I’d say it took me about the same time with both)

I found that the image colored with pencils has more vivid colors, but some marks due to the nature of pencils; the copic colored image is much smoother.

I am so excited to have these tools available! I haven’t tried using colored pencils on kraft cardstock, but I’ll be experimenting with that soon!

I had fun making a couple of cards using this adorable otter stamp set from Ellen Hutson.

The first one is for the Pin-sights challenge at Ellen Hutson – I was inspired by the blue, purple and browns in the color scheme:

I blended salty ocean and wilted violet distress oxide inks for the background, stamped the otters with Memento Tuxedo Black dye ink, and colored them with Copic Ciao markers.

And the second card is for the Anniversary challenge at Ellen Hutson:

I’m having so much fun experimenting with my markers!

 

Happy Thanksgiving to all my US friends! I love how this card turned out – colored with Copic Ciao markers. And while I’m at it, I’ll also share a birthday card I made with the cute critters I shared in the previous post.

 

For the background, I used the forest scene stencil by Hero Arts and some Dylusion ink sprays.

Almost one month to go to Christmas! I am proud of myself because today I finally finished and order the photo calendars I make for our families every year for Christmas. I really dragged it on this year, so now I just need to hope they get here in time. 🙂